Full Service | Sunday May 30, 2021

[Music] good morning eighty creek those of y'all in the foyer come on in it is such a joy and a blessing to be back in the building this weekend praise the lord for that psalms 101 says to lift up a joyful noise into the lord so that that's what we're gonna do before we get into the word please stand join me in [Music] singing all because of your love maker of the universe [Music] oh because of [Music] my sins are washed away now all of my life i freely give because of your love because holy you king to set the captives free all because of your love for me [Music] oh [Music] my sins are washed away [Music] i live [Music] you did it for love it's your [Music] jesus you haven't known you did it for me you did it for love it's your victory jesus you are you enough it for me you did it for love it's your victory [Music] jesus you did it for me it's your victory jesus [Music] [Music] because [Music] we bless you creator provider [Music] redeemer oh jesus we bless you it's by the greens of grace and the hope of glory all almighty god father of all mercy we give you thanks for all your goodness we give you things we pray we praise [Music] we praise [Music] and [Music] [Music] for all your goodness [Music] oh [Music] the [Music] forever [Music] forever [Music] and it's for all your goodness [Music] [Music] we give you [Music] [Music] [Music] we lift our voice and pray you pray [Music] all blessings [Music] is what was lost is foreign [Music] oh lord we humbly worship and bow down the king of heaven with us now so you are faithful to thee [Music] what was lost is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] jesus christ [Music] [Music] broken gave our weary hearts a home [Music] what was lost is now restored we give you praise forevermore [Music] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] is this you are a good [Applause] [Music] you are a good [Music] and i is be afraid i won't be afraid my god is here [Music] he will make a way he will make a way he will make a way my god is this you are a [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh you gave me your eyes you gave me that i need to know is [Music] to this is all that i have to do is god you are a good lord it's true how thankful we are for your goodness lord it's your goodness that leads men to repentance lord your scriptures declare you're so gracious and merciful you've been kind to us lord and for that reason we all want to wholeheartedly follow after you our desire is to be following your word and not just hearing your word but being doers of your word it's your goodness lord that drives us to want to be more like you it's your goodness lord that gives us the hope of heaven and your kindness that gives us the way the truth and the life through your son jesus christ lord how thankful we are and i pray that you'd just cause us to draw nearer to you today that this church service would lord be a chance for us just to draw near to you where you then draw near to us so bless this time speak to us by your holy spirit we pray in jesus name amen amen and why don't you have a seat and get situated and we'll get into the scriptures here thanks you guys nice work good stuff well uh now that you're all comfy uh i wanted to uh put some people on the spot here for a moment um you know there's a lot of things we do you know that we take for granted that we just have freedom to do in the country where we live and i'm so thankful on this memorial day weekend you know we remember the fallen and those who've given their lives for our freedoms and that is something i'm super thankful for but for me it's also about those who have uh been willing to lay their lives down um you know the bible talks about the person there's no greater love than somebody willing to lay down their life for someone else that's what jesus did for us and i'm thankful for that um and and i really do believe we live in a day where a lot of people just could care less they don't realize the price that has been paid to uh let us enjoy the things we have and so i want to put some people on the spot if you are military of some kind or former military or if you're a law enforcement person i would like you guys to be embarrassed right now and stand up please all of you guys i know i know you got to do it though yeah thank you so much that's so good yep [Applause] amen thanks you guys growls um you know these men and women you can never really pay back what they've offered and some people say well you shouldn't include law enforcement it's a military thing well uh i was just talking to a guy yesterday who did three tours in uh uh one in afghanistan and some in iraq and and now he's a police officer and he said no it's more dangerous here in portland definitely so i i kind of put that and law enforcement has become very unappreciated interesting both the soldier the uh the the um the military person and the law enforcement officer are ministers of god the bible says romans 13 talks about the one who wields the sword on behalf of governmental institution uh the bible says that's a minister of god and if you're you know doing sinful stuff be afraid that's what it says but if you're abiding by the laws of the land then you don't have to be afraid uh and uh that's kind of an interesting mention check out romans 13. uh don't go with this current movement uh i think we have to be careful um it's one of the institutions god god actually condones and acknowledges the need in humanity for that kind of a power well thank you for that we we appreciate you guys and gals who've served in any of those capacities for sure um speaking of the world we live in in portland we have a prophecy update this friday night 7 p.m gonna talk about um what in the world's going on and i love doing that it's a chance for us to get into the word um the book of ezekiel that we're currently studying is very prophetic in nature and even today's lesson will kind of tie in excuse me with bible prophecy stuff so why don't you grab your bible turn with me to ezekiel chapter 20 for today's study ezekiel chapter 20. we'll look at these chapters in depth uh of course on uh wednesday night but um but i want you guys to take a look at a few verses here in ezekiel 20 and the thing is there's something about this that's going to be familiar to many of you if you've been around athy creek but there's also a notion that's in here that many people have missed even even some of our more bible prophecy buffs out there you might have missed something that i think we need to make sure we know as part of god's plan that people have overlooked and ezekiel 20 is one of the main mentions of something that might be a little different than what you know now let's talk about that just for a second what we're going to talk about here in ezekiel 20 is the regathering of israel after god scatters them over the world the scattering and the regathering of israel and a lot of the end of ezekiel from this point on in ezekiel we're going to be talking a lot about this because ezekiel has much to say now i'll tell you what's exciting about this in the bible there's prophecies that had to do with the first coming of christ there's prophecies that have to do with the second coming of christ and so a lot of the prophecies of the bible have already been fulfilled many of them if not most of them there were 300 specific prophecies about the first coming of jesus when he was born in bethlehem babe there and mary and joseph the whole scene that was all prophesied literally in the bible and there's over 300 direct prophecies about christ's first coming now i have a question for you if we take those bible prophecies about his first coming literally how should we take the prophecies about jesus's second coming in the bible i think we should take them literally part of what i'm going to do again today again we've talked about this before but there's a whole eschatology that is the study of end times and the end of the world as it relates to the bible um there's a whole thought out there that says ah you can't take anything literally in the bible when you read the book of revelation no don't take anything literally ezekiel jeremiah none of these things are literal to be taken and there's a huge group of christians that kind of have that view it's the amillennialists and the preterists now let's let's remind you this is an in-house debate good christian people i think have different views on this whole thing but i do believe this is an important thing for us to talk about and discuss pastor brett why don't you talk about all the different views of end times you should be talking about pre-trib post-trib a millennial saw millennial whatever you know a sawmill ah mill whatever well the reason i don't share all those views is because i don't agree with them i think that they're misguided i can understand and i have studied them at length uh the various views pre-wrath pre-millennial um post-millennial there's all these different views about things that have happened and and largely the church today in in the world is a little apathetic about the whole thing who cares whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen god knows what he's gonna do i'm just supposed to love jesus and live this life and then call it good that's what i do um the problem with that little uh crazy little world view that you hold it's totally wrong god says watch be sober vigilant be not ignorant concerning my people israel the bible says like over and over if you read your bible it says you're not supposed to have that passive and whatever it's all going to work like that's just not a godly christian mindset the the people that say oh it's all figurative and much of that stuff's already happened and so whatever um it's a cavalier attitude about something god says be very careful with another reason why i'm so into bible prophecy is because one-fourth of this book is bible prophecy if you throw that out and say yeah i'd run into bible prophecy then you're basically ripping out one fourth of your bible said yeah whatever we're not into that we're going to talk about the other stuff that we like is that a good christian behavior to throw out a fourth of the bible um and that's why going verse by verse chapter by chapter you're you're sort of forced to cover things that may not be talked about you'll never hear a catholic church priests or do a message or a teaching on ezekiel 20. because in their mind it's all figurative and it's already happened or it doesn't matter to you and me as as christians or whatever and and the problem is it's sad because they're they're saying we don't take those things literally when really these amazing prophecies of ezekiel are happening right now in our time these are exciting times to be a christian see that's what's different you know the book of revelation is mostly about things that are going to happen in the future most of it you know basically chapters 6 through 19 or 6 to the very end of revelations all about the future even in our time period a lot of the old testament you know there are scriptures about things that would happen in the first coming of christ but one thing that i love about the book of ezekiel is he deals with prophecies that many of them are happening as we speak right now and that's what makes ezekiel really relevant and exciting and important one of the biggest things ezekiel spends time talking about is the regathering of the jews in the land of israel arguably the most important essential ingredient to fulfilling bible prophecy in the last days now i got to give my own millennialist friends a break and here's why i can see why people became all millennialists back 500 years ago i really can um when you look at the bible and you see all these specific prophecies about the nation israel and god's people in jerusalem in israel if you lived 500 years ago where did the jews live well definitely not in jerusalem and not in israel they didn't exist as a nation they were scattered all over the world and and so what happened was is the theologians like martin luther by the way martin luther uh really had a hatred for the jews he was about as anti-semitic as it gets now martin luther did a lot of good things too thank the lord for the reformation and some of that other stuff i'm thankful for that but he was really really wrong he wrote a whole book about the jews and you'll be shocked if you read it it's horrifying how much he hated the jews and thought they were worthy pretty much to be killed why did he have that world view it was replacement theology we've talked about this where in those days they thought well all these prophecies about jerusalem and about israel well they can't be literal they must be more figurative about the church because god's done with the jews they crucified jesus on the cross they said and so god's done with the jew he's forsaken the jew and now it's the church that we celebrate the church that that is going to be blessed and all that stuff and so what do you do what do you do with that well as it turns out um may 14th and this is what we talked about a few weeks ago remember in ezekiel 4 the prophecy of the 70 times curse and we saw how the lord said i'm going to restore you but it's going to be remember ezekiel laying on a side we talked about all this stuff how jerusalem would be restored but it would be a specific time period we showed how the bible even foretold may 14th 1948 when when israel would become a nation again all the amillennialists people said take the bible figuratively and all the stories about the second coming of christ figuratively we should have changed our notes right then because suddenly we have a literal nation again and the literal people and the bible literally coming to pass but there's so many people saying no no no uh it's just a coincidence it's a coincidence that the jews went back to their land but that's not god's people anymore it's the church oh but there's so many specific prophecies coming to pass i i'm saddened to see so many apathetic people saying yeah whatever about israel and a lot of the church that's why the catholics and the pope always say yeah israel they need to give their land back to the palestinians and there's really kind of this um pro-two-state solution in a lot of the church of the presbyterians and the catholics it's because they have that world view that god's done with the jew and bible prophecy is not to be taken literally and it probably shouldn't even be talked about largely in the church because they don't want to talk about it when you go through the bible you kind of have to say okay well what is ezekiel saying then now before we get into this one of the arguments that they'll say this is the kind of a new piece that i haven't covered with you thus far on the regathering of israel the argument is brett the bible says the jews will gather one day in the kingdom when christ rules from jerusalem and the the jews will be regathered in that time but they're going to have faith in christ and they're going to be saved and believed but that's not now the re-gathering we're seeing right now is a very ungodly gathering the jews they don't really believe in god and they're not gathering because they love god in israel so this is not a modern fulfillment of of prophecy uh as it relates to the jews that's what their argument is because the jews are largely unsaved and i'll give them that but aren't there christian jews there's jews for jesus there's a very small tiny tiny percentage of jews that actually believe in jesus the messiah but they're the most of them aren't in israel it's very unpopular to be a christian jew in israel and it's a tough gig i have friends that are christian jews in jerusalem and they're like yeah i'm like i only know like three other people in all the city like it's a very tiny population but brett at least the hot citics or the orthodox jews that are practicing jews again very small population and it's even arguable like the hot cities have such a strange theology anyway it's hard to really call them what we would call you know biblical thinking believers in god uh if you know the hacitic way but it's still a very tiny tiny percent most of the population in israel today is is agnostic or atheist for sure irreligious and so the argument is brett you guys are talking about israel being regathered and and they're going to worship god and all of israel is going to be saved but they're not even saved they don't even believe in god that's true but they're missing this piece that ezekiel gives us and i want to show you let's take a look at it it's ezekiel 20 and we'll start with verse 23. we'll look at this whole chapter on wednesday night but verse 23 of ezekiel says this i lifted up mine hand unto them also in the wilderness that i would scatter them among the heathen and disperse them through the countries now the context of this verse i know i'm leaving the context out but we'll cover this on wednesday i don't skip any of this stuff but if you read the rest of the bible and the rest of ezekiel over and over god says i will scatter my people over all the earth and that's why it's called the diasporas the dispersing of the jews around the world now that would happen on a microcosm here with ezekiel and the jews and they'd be scattered with the babylonians and all that that'd be kind of the the first mention of this but ezekiel's gaze goes past the local application and he looks at the jews being scattered all over the world and it's more of a prophetic thing how the jews would be scattered the diaspora that's what verse 23 talks about but then the lord says in verse 33 let's fast forward here in the chapter verse 33 the lord says as i live saith the lord god surely with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm and with fury poured out will i rule over you and i will bring you out from the people and will gather you out of the countries wherein you are scattered with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm and with fury poured out and i will bring you into the wilderness of the people and there will i plead with you face to face like as i pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of egypt so i will plead with you saith the lord god and i will cause you to pass under the rod and i will bring you into the bond of the covenant this is where ezekiel's talking about the re-gathering of israel but did you notice it's not this warm fuzzy gathering you know the problem is a lot of us think oh the gathering of israel is so wonderful and it is the jews are returning to the land and they are but but at the same time they're largely atheistic or agnostic and not believing in god should we be excited about that the answer is yes does it have to do with bible prophecy yes don't dismiss this that's the problem people say because there are unbelieving jews gathering it's not anything to do with bible prophecy today but here ezekiel says i am going with an outstretched arm do you realize that's a phrase that we don't recognize but it's an idiom of the jews to say with an outstretched arm that's that's in wrath that's not a warm fuzzy thing it's like you know when you're a parent with an outstretched arm paddles you're behind paddles you're behind well did you see what god says there in verse 37 i will cause you to pass under the rod and i will bring to you the bond of the covenant god made a covenant a promise to the jews the abrahamic covenant where he made an everlasting covenant with the jews by the way the people that say that god is done with the jews they're making god a liar by saying god broke his covenant with the jews and he doesn't care about the jews anymore and that would make me nervous to have that theology and i'll tell you why because if god says i'm bailing on the jews because of their behavior what keeps them from bailing on me because of my behavior am i better than the jews the answer is no god is faithful and he keeps his covenants and this is where god says i'm gonna with a mighty hand an outstretched arm bring the jews back to israel and i'm gonna put them under the rod of correction kind of like the paddle the board of correction applied to the seed of learning that's what the lord is gonna do and so there's a notion here that ezekiel touches on that might be a little different because we have this warm fuzzy god's gathering his people because he loves them yes he does and they're gonna worship god they will but there's gonna be a large season some even have divided this into two separate gatherings that god gathers his people first for the purpose of the rod of correction then he's going to gather his people again after that spanking the tribulation period and he's going to gather them again because they're going to repent and see and they're going to be gathered around the throne in jerusalem some people say it's actually two gatherings one might say well it's a season of the lord gathering the people in their rebellion but they're eventually going to come around and see and he's going to regather them finally in faith where they'll believe in god this is the this is what ezekiel's talking about how god with an outstretched arm and wrath and fury he's gathering the jews back to jerusalem back to israel now this gets interesting because without the existence of israel in jerusalem our bible prophecy structure breaks down altogether and that's why they were not believing literally today the puzzle pieces are fitting together profoundly the re-gathering of israel in their land the land of israel is one of the most prophesied events in all the bible it's talked about as much as just about anything really let me give you some of my favorite uh scriptures and they answer this question why is the regathering of israel so important to you and me as gentiles in portland oregon what do we care well there's a lot of things that the bible says about this and let's let's take a look at some of these many scriptures that were given and you could just jot these down if you wish and you can look them up later if you want but i'll just go quickly through them ezekiel 39 verses 27-29 this is one of those and this includes the millennial kingdom and the regathering even now both the good and the bad he says when i have brought them again from the people and gather them out of their enemies lands and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations then shall they know that i am the lord their god which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen but i have gathered them unto their own land and have left none of them anymore there neither will i hide my face any more from them for i have poured out my spirit upon the house of israel saith the lord god this is you know ezekiel 39 we're going to see some imagery that's really incredible how israel was dead uh the valley of dry bones all these bones just laying out in the desert and suddenly clinkidy clink the knee bone was connected to the thigh bone have you have you guys seen this in the bible these bones come together and pretty soon you got these skeletons but there's no life in the skeletons they're just skeletons laying there and then ezekiel sees flesh start to come on the bones and life breathed into them where are we at in this prophecy of the dry bones we are seeing the bones clinkidy clink coming together in unbelief there's no life in israel there's no there's not a lot of faith among the jews right now but god is bringing the bones together we're going to see this uh coming up here in uh future chapters uh and it's part of this gathering of the jews from death to life um amos the prophet amos uh jumps on the same notion in amos chapter 9 verses 14 and 15. he says and i will bring again the captivity of my people israel and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them and i will plant them under their land and they shall no more be pulled up out of their lamb which i have given them saith the lord thy god this is amazing because this prophecy of amos has come to pass you can check this box are the jews sipping wine in their own land right now from their vineyards yes this is one of the other fulfillments of bible prophecy that's come to pass the bible talks about how israel would become a barren wasteland and it did under the ottoman turk reign you know centuries and centuries ago they taxed everyone who had trees on their property they would tax you according to how many trees you had so what did all the people of the land do cut all the trees down now in doing this over centuries uh it changed the climate of the land and israel was no longer the land flowing with milk and honey read mark twain's writings from just over a hundred years ago when he visited israel for over a year he you know rode around to israel uh for a year and he said it's the most barren place on the planet and you couldn't find a plant for miles it was desolate forsaken dust bowl desert that's what he that's what he describes since then the jews have brought israel back to life the regathering of jews and and the science they use in horticulture and watering systems and desalinization it's incredible what the jews have done when i bring groups to israel that's one of the things i like to show them this is a fulfillment of bible prophecy there's banana groves and mango trees and and all kinds of fruit and vegetables one of the top producers of fruits and vegetables for all of europe is israel this little tiny new jersey-sized state uh this nation that's the size of new jersey from the dry barren desert of middle east comes all this fruit that's a promise of the lord saying i will cause your land to be fruitful again and there they are today in their land drinking their wine and eating their fruit and vegetables but notice in this amos passage he says no more will they be pulled up out of that land for it says the land is that which i have given them this should end the discussion for all of you that are christians bible believers you should not agree with wolf blitzer anderson cooper and all these people that say you know the jews don't have a right to be there they're occupiers of that land that's a narrative that's just not true the jews are the only nation that can say on three levels they deserve to be there one they were given the land by the by the world the league of nations after world war ii six million jews killed in the holocaust the nations felt guilty our president the last vote in the league of nations was the deciding vote to say israel gets that land i mean how many nations have been given to the world the world has said yeah okay can have the land secondly the zionist movement starting in the 1700s the jews started moving to the land and purchasing land from the bedwins and the the desert dwellers that were there for small prices but they they purchased it a lot of it and then thirdly the land was also given to them by god god says i have given you this land and it is yours how many nations in the world can say any of those things can we as americans say we purchased the land well i bought my property from yeah but who did he like what indian did he eventually take it from you know the american indians uh we took the land uh we conquered the land that's what we did did we do that did god give us the land maybe maybe not we don't know but the bible says god gave israel the land and the world so so isn't it funny the one group of people on the planet that have a right to live on that land three three strikes man the world gave it they paid for it god gave it to them that's the one people group the world saying you guys can't have that land you guys are occupiers it's an amazing uh irony really but it also fits the biblical narrative of what's going to happen in the last days the world's going to hate the jews we'll talk about that in a second but it's their land and they're eating the fruit and all that just like amos the prophet said jeremiah chapter 30 verses two and three says thus speak of the lord god of israel saying write thee all the words that i have spoken unto thee in a book for lo the days come saith the lord that i will bring again the captivity of my people israel and judah saith lord and i will cause them to return to the land that i gave to their fathers and they shall possess it jeremiah 31 i love this one because you and i are fulfilling this prophecy as we speak right here right now hear the word of the lord o you nations and declare it in the isles or in the nations afar off and say he that scattereth israel will gather them and keep him as a shepherd doth as flock did you know we're fulfilling this right now because we're nations far off declaring that the jews were scattered by god but they're being regathered by god we're fulfilling this prophecy right now little old me i'm fulfilling this prophecy what a privilege you can too if you tell people about this um i love that well not only that um that little phrase you know that's what you and i get to do we get to declare it far off and say that god scattered israel but he's gathering him back that's a fulfillment of the bible also jeremiah 33 7 it says and i will cause the captivity of judah and the captive of israel to return and will build them as at the first this is all promises i'm just giving you like this is only scratching the surface of how much the bible has to say finally ezekiel 37 verses 21 and 22 says and say unto them thus saith the lord god behold i will take the children of israel from among the heathen whether they be gone and i will gather them on every side and bring them into their own land and it will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of israel by the way the mountains of israel is an idiom in the bible talking about the west bank specifically that's the one of the more contested areas of israel is the west bank and the bible calls the west bank the mountains of israel that's something you should know about so it begs the question is israel a fulfillment a modern day fulfillment of bible prophecy and i would argue the answer is yes even though they're gathering in unbelief not believing in the lord see the reason we we have to be careful about this one is some of you might falsely think well brett thinks the jews can do no wrong because they're god's chosen people i'm not saying that i'm saying they're not even believers in god mostly i can't defend everything the jews have done or i can't even say they're being perfect or anything like that i do believe god's hands on them whether they know it or not i do believe god has a massive plan and a love for those people and i also believe that the bible's clear that they're going to be little rascals until they know jesus i use that term little rascals like you and i are sinners little rascals if you would um so israel is fulfilling bible prophecy uh today the regathering of the jews that's what we're seeing now one thing i love about the united states of america is historically and traditionally we have been one of the few faithful supporters of israel and the zionist movement even from our early founders they were saying we support israel and i love that about our nation one thing you need to know it's only in recent years the united states has taken a more unfriendly approach to the jews in israel do you know that i hope you understand in your lifetime in mind we've seen a big change uh do you want to know who if you ask the jew i'm not being political here by the way people say bro you shouldn't talk politics listen i can say whatever i want i just want to make that clear like right now uh that's that's important but but the point is i don't want to be political that's not my desire but i want to be biblical and tell you stuff that's true and and the bible care like people say you shouldn't talk about this because you're being political no the bible says i will bless the nation the curse blesses israel and i'll curse the nation that curses israel and do you understand if you go to jerusalem today if you say hey what do you think of obama administration and the way they treated israel they might spit on you in the street they hated the obama administration why because obama said things like we need to get israel borders back to 1967. and if if you know the politics of what that says most people don't know 67 borders great whatever that was it would be death to jews you have to understand that the the old borders of 67 would be back to where israel the jewish area is like nine miles wide and um there would there'd be no way to defend their nation just geographically like it's an amazing thing that our president said that so i remember joey and i we were walking down the street there by the damascus gate in jerusalem and this this college kid came walking up and he had a newspaper with a picture of obama because obama was doing at that time the iran nuclear deal which the jews knew that that was a paved road for the iranians to have a nuclear missile and the iranians were saying we want to blow israel off the map so this student walks up to me and shows me the newspaper and joey and he says you know obama and he throws the paper on the ground spits on it and stomps on it and then he says america and then he walks off we're like wow and so what do we do with that well what about trump well when trump came in he's called the most friendly president toward his will love him or hate him not making an argument for or against the person donald trump i'm just going to say if you go to jerusalem and ask him what do you think about trump they'll say oh he's like cyrus duss cyrus was historically a guy who delivered israel and and all this stuff but but they've named streets after donald trump in jerusalem there's a train that they built and they call it the trump train like it's so funny now the reason that's funny is because you know a lot of americans like trump you know we don't like him or whatever but the jews are thankful because he did two major things he said no other president in our history was willing to do this to say you know what jerusalem is in fact the capital city of israel no other american acknowledged that formally until trump all the other presidents said they would do that clinton bush bush uh obama all said they would declare jerusalem in the capital but none of them did it because they were worried about the the arab you know uprising that would happen afterward trump just did it and there was no uprising and the jews are eternally thankful for america finally in the in the international community saying jerusalem is the capital city of israel another thing trump did is he acknowledged the goal on heights as israeli which is another thing the world says no no it's occupied territory and and so so the jews the friendliest administration was the former trump administration the most hostile administration some would argue from the beginning of our nation was the obama and then now the biden which is just a carryover do you understand christians bible readers prophecy buffs that missiles stopped flying from gaza during the trump administration but as soon as biden gets back in what happens 4 000 missiles in 11 days fly from hamas into israel tel aviv and jerusalem and there's a reason for that it's because the united states is not standing behind israel with this current they they have a sort of a uh fake notion of supporting israel but here's all these rockets flying and and abiding down now israel you guys be nice to those hamas people down there what would we do if we had 4 000 missiles flying into washington dc would we be nice no we would defend our country at least i would hope we would do that the reason that's important is what we see with the nations and israel and the anti-semitism and the hatred for the jews that we're seeing around the world today we traditionally as the united states have been supporters of israel all the way back to our founding fathers i came across this uh when i was reading about um you know john adams and he was said something i think is just amazing that because it's easier to say this today if you know the history of israel but he said it a couple hundred years ago he said i will insist that the hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation if i were an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate i should still believe that fate had ordained the jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing nations if i were an atheist of the other sect who believe or pretend to believe that all is ordered by chance i should believe that chance had ordered the jews to preserve and propagate to all mankind the doctrine of a supreme intelligent wise almighty sovereign of the universe which i believe to be the great essential principle of all morality and and consequently of all civilization this is like this is like our early founding fathers of our nation saying the jews are god's people sovereignly put there to be a testimony of god's reality count von zinsendorf who von zinzendorf this guy from the 1700s he was a brilliant thinker and a person who believed in god and some atheists grilled him and said give us a defense tell us why you believe god exists and von zinsendorf wisely he said i will give you two words the jews and it's really a great argument if you know what happened to the jews over history and even back in the 1700s when count von zensendorf said that it was harder to see but today it's so obvious god has had his hand on the jewish people whether they were faithful or not that's his covenant that he's going to wake them up to after the tribulation period a covenant that's everlasting a promise that he has for the jews but john adams was one who recognized this now what's interesting uh is we have stood by the uh nation israel traditionally as americans because we're a bible believing or we at least once were a bible-believing nation we were a godly nation broke my heart when obama said we are no longer a christian nation and i think man that's a bummer that he said that because it's probably true he's probably right we've become kind of a wacko nation largely but john adams you know showed and i could go into all the history of the united states but we have a godly heritage that i love so much but this is where it gets interesting do you ever wonder why the jews or the if the jews wonder why the united states support us now you can say because we're on the correct side of things well why isn't anybody else in the world supporting israel why does europe largely hate the jews why are the united states kind of the last one standing with the jews there's actually a reason that i think you need to know and that's because we're historically a bible-thinking christian nation and because we believe the bible and we believe god's plan for the jews we have stood by israel when other nations didn't the european nations long ago the europe's europeans sides mostly with the arabs largely because europe's becoming very arab uh and they're not bible-believing people they haven't been for a long long time much of europe had an interesting dinner a couple years ago i'll show a picture i got to have dinner with yair netanyahu this is benjamin netanyahu the prime minister of israel's son and this was fun to be able to talk with him but he was on a tour around the country trying to you know bolster american support for israel but the funny thing about you here i love this guy um smart guy but he's a secular jew he's not a religion person and he thinks that the argument for the united states sticking with israel is um that they're the only friend we have in the middle east that was his argument and that the economy is good and and technology is good and and having a friend in israel is going to be helpful he was trying to make this argument but i was able to say you know what though do you do you understand why we americans actually really do stand with you it's not because of the economy or having a friend in the middle east as much as those are true and nice things that's not why we stand with israel the reason the united states has traditionally stood by israel is because we believe the bible it's that evangelical christian bunch in america that has been as loud as can be saying we need to support israel and see he he doesn't really understand that he's like that doesn't register how could a religious group in america and why would you guys even care about israel for religious reasons and i was able to share with them even that night hey listen your hebrew bible says i will bless the nations that bless israel and i will curse the nations that curse israel and the reason the united states has been blessed is because we've stood by you from the very beginnings of our country i was able to explain to him the bible says pray for the peace of jerusalem for they shall prosper that love thee people that love israelis and love jerusalem the bible says they're going to prosper but if you go against jerusalem and go against israel you're going to falter and you're going to fail i hope one day that yahir comes to know jesus and it's very likely he will if we are living in the last days because remember when the fullness of the gentiles come in all of israel will be saved so i'm praying for him but largely this this issue of of israel and its flourishing and the regathering of the jews all of this stuff fulfilling bible prophecy um the the thing that's kind of important for you to understand is this unbelieving jew that we're seeing like been like benjamin netanyahu's son an unbeliever why would we be behind something like that because we see god's plan unfolding even though it's the unbelieving jew that's gathering right now we know there's coming a time now dr arnold fruchtenbaum maybe some of you've heard of him he's a great scholar hebrew scholar [Music] but he said something and he kind of nailed down what ezekiel 20 our text is telling us about all the stuff we're talking about and he's a he's a fairly cerebral guy so forgive me but i want to read just one of his clarifications and his papers on this just a part of it he says the re-establishment of the jewish state in 1948 has not only thrown a wrench in on millennial thinking remember the people who don't believe literal uh bible translation or liberal literal bible prophecy they say it's all figurative he says israel becoming a nation again has put a wrench in that omaleno thinking but it also has put a in much of pre-millennial thinking amazingly some pre-millennialists have concluded that the present state of israel has nothing to do with the fulfillment of bible prophecy for some reason the present state somehow does not fit their scheme of things and so the present state becomes merely an accident of history that's what much of the church believes oh the jews are backing us what a coincidence that's what they're saying but he says on what grounds is the present state of israel so dismissed the issue that bothers so many premillennialists is the fact that not only have the jews returned in unbelief with regard to the person of jesus but the majority of the ones who have returned are not even orthodox jews in fact the majority are atheists or agnostics certainly then israel does not fit with all those biblical passages dealing with the return of israel for it is a regenerated or saved nation that the bible speaks of and the present state of israel hardly fits that picture so on these grounds the present state is dismissed as not being a fulfillment of bible prophecy however the real problem is the failure to see that the prophecy spoke of two international returns of jews first there was to be a regathering in unbelief in preparation for judgment namely the judgment of the tribulation keep that in mind that the jews are being regathered for the tribulation yep this was to be followed by a second worldwide regathering in faith in preparation for blessings namely the blessings of the messianic age when christ comes his second coming once it is recognized that the bible speaks of these two such regatherings it's easy to see how the present state of israel fits completely into modern bible prophecy dr honor fructum kind of spells out what is so important for us and this is the part i want you to see is even though israel's unbelieving it's all part of god's plan to gather his people and here's what our text says let's go back and just think through this for a second our text ezekiel 20 um says that god with a mighty arm and an outstretched hand is going to bring them and put them under the rod of correction this this rod spoken of in verse 37. what's god going to do is he going to kind of spank the jews with his rod yes that's what's going to happen the jews have been rebellious for these thousands of years and while we love israel we know god has a plan for israel largely the jews have been rebellious against god and god's going to do a little thing called the tribulation period the tribulation has got two main components of why it even is going to happen if you know your bible the bible speaks of a seven year period called the tribulation period here's the way i believe it's going to shake out the church is going to be raptured that's the next thing on the list of things to do we're going to be taken up out of here why well because you and i are not going to be here when god number one pours out his wrath on a christ-rejecting sinful world because we're the bride of christ does god pour out his wrath on the bride as well no now he takes the righteous out before he pours out his wrath read your old testament every time god pours out his wrath he pulls the righteous out noah was pulled out before the flood lot and his family pulled out before the sodom and gomorrah destroyed and uh and that's what the lord's going to do with you and i he's going to pull us out the bride of christ the church because we're jesus followers um and so the tribulation period is to pour out god's wrath on a christ-rejecting sinful world the second component of the tribulation is to wake up the jews to wake up the nation uh pour out of wrath on the world but to wake up the jews the tribulation period is largely largely that rod of correction god's going to use to wake up jewish people what a what an important part of that that you need to understand now the reason i'm i'm glad that we're not part of that and we can be comforted in this i just remind you of first thessalonians 5 verses 9 through 11 where it says god has not appointed us the christians to wrath but to obtain salvation by our lord jesus christ who died for us that whether we wake or sleep or alive or dead we should live together with him wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another even also as you do we are not appointed unto wrath but to obtain salvation through jesus that's that's such good news i hope you're a christian whether you're a jew or gentile i hope that you believe that jesus died on the cross for your sins because that wrath that we deserve was placed upon jesus and anyone who will confess and believe that jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave they won't be appointed to this wrath jesus took the wrath that would be you know meant for for for us so all that to say matthew then talks about after the tribulation period the jews are going to go through a time of brutal ref it's going to be brutal but at the end of that time there's the battle of armageddon the world's going to hate the jews and there's going to be a battle against the jews but it says at the end of the tribulation matthew 24 31 it says and he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the sky to the other this is where at the end of the tribulation that final gathering of jews but this time it'll be in total belief and by the way the tribulation period is one of the more well-defined periods in all the world's history prophetically we know how this is all going to go down we know that there's a coming world leader and he's going to set himself up to be worshiped he's going to make a peace treaty with the jews like this is spelled out in the bible what the tribulation is going to look like but at the end of that time period the jews are going to see they've been duped by this coming world leader and they'll realize that jesus is in fact the messiah and all of israel will be saved so what we're seeing is the whole stage for the tribulation for god to gather his people and put them under the rod of his correction in the tribulation that's stuff that's happening right now you and i are seeing that come into place but not only the gathering of the jews but also the hatred for the jews has any of anybody in this room watch the news this week and wonder why does the world hate the jews so much i mean anti-semitism that's what the news is talking about right now um it's it's an amazing thing that uh we're seeing around the world the hatred for the jews what about that how does that play into the the picture of the the the jews being regathered but the world hating and it's not just you know those people the united states is one of the worst places on the planet for jews the bbc the british came out with this article i think it was yesterday um who's behind the recent rise in u.s anti-semitic attacks and this bbc news article goes on and and basically explains um what's going on in the world and it's it's really quite profound um in fact um it says this violence and harassment targeting american jews have broke out coast to coast in the united states amid the 11 days of fighting between israelis and palestinians you know the rockets that i was talking about flying from hamas right now but during that there's been violence all over our country incidents included outdoor diners in los angeles who were physically attacked by a group of carry uh people carrying palestinian flags does anybody know who that group was that carries palestinian flags and is uh violent against jews antifa who knew it antifa suddenly pro palestine or pro-palestinian and anti-semitic they hate the jews um it's not a shock if you've been following antifa black lives matter came out just this last week in support of uh palestinians and and against the jews the big shocker there but there's a real hatred for the jews incidents of violence have happened in new york city homes home new york by the way is home to the largest population of jews other than israel the nazi imagery has been posted on synagogues everywhere from new york to alaska even this past week pro-palestinian protests and anti-jewish vandalism have happened in synagogues all over the country which are quickly stepping up security due to the attacks we've also seen them documented in illinois and in florida all over this country in the last few weeks we see anti-semitism and hatred for the jews on the rise we see the mainstream media having this narrative that um you know big brutal bully israel is fighting these poor little tiny arab countries um i heard wolf blitzer a few years back say you know it's like david versus goliath these jews coming against these poor little he got his idiom backwards uh david was the jew goliath was the palestinian he was a philistine that's where the word palestine like wolf doesn't know his history hello plus the israelis are a tiny tiny nation in the midst of a giant arab group of nations like it's such an unfair thing and yet the narrative of the world is to hate the jews and we're seeing that ramp up well bro fortunately we don't see that in portland check this out um there was an article that came out of breitbart uh on the 27th just a few days ago terrifying filmmaker gets portland college students to donate to sham hamas fund to kill jews now this filmmaker uh actually this is laughable if it wasn't so terrifying this this guy's a full-on jew his name is horowitz and he he goes down to portland state just a few days ago and he acts like he wants to kill jews and the jews need to die and so i brought this video because i want to show you this is this is the way our college students here in portland are so easily convinced and as jews are being beaten on the streets across america i have to ask how anti-semitic is the world crowd watch this video and find out we're raising money for american friends for hamas so i work for american friends for hamas i work for american friends for hamas okay we're not your father's terrorist organization we've kind of evolved beyond that it's still kind of what we do but we've kind of rebuilt and rebranded ourselves and uh you know you know hamas is where it's at we're raising money to do what you know we do as hamas we want to fund operations against israel and you know the type of attacks we're talking about are cafes and schools and you know soft targets type operations we're talking about against you know soft targets schools and cafes and that kind of thing make them feel it hospitals and destroy cafes you know shopping malls and schools and places of worship this is the kind of stuff we're talking about civilian populations and uh that's the only way you can fight back really the suicide bomber's all we've got and that's kind of like because it's the poor man's f-15 and fun operations against israel that's the kind of thing we're doing okay hey thanks for your time man yeah of course appreciate it good luck thank you you know we we're looking to wipe israel off the map yeah we want you know we we're looking to destroy israel we don't want just gaza we want to have all of israel oh i i've actually been learning about last in this last school year about everything that's going on over there so i like the sound of what you're doing it sounds like the great thing to do totally against the israeli genocide awesome we just want to get rid of israel stay off drugs but would love you check out our website good luck thank you do you feel like donating to help the cause to fight back and that'd be great for sure definitely maybe consider making a donation sure great probably like 15 bucks 15 bucks no that that'd be great i don't know maybe like 10 20 bucks 15 to 20. five or ten dollars maybe like ten dollars five dollars ten bucks ten dollars five or ten bucks ten bucks let's say 27 since that seems to be my bernie donation this is all about peace and love we got to fight back against the oppressors see you brother yeah i mean it's important to kind of fight back and not let not take it lying down if you know what i mean peace peace and love yeah thank you peace of love yeah peace and love see you man yeah thanks bro yeah appreciate it hamas thank you i thank you thank you peace and love pete you believe peace is important right of course but we got to get peace you first got to destroy some stuff you know see ya man [Music] in order to get peace and love you got to destroy things and that's what they believe and these kids were giving him his money he wants to support the idea of blowing up cafes and and malls and schools and hospitals because that's the only way they can fight and these why why would colleges either a these are the dumbest people on the planet or b they've been brainwashed by the college professors and universities which in which they attended and i want to tell you mom and dad when you send junior off to college these schools it's not an education it's an indoctrination and it's it's brainwashing and it's wacko but that's why so many of these weird you know partlanders and antiphon all these people have this world view that's so misguided and we've just gone and sat and watched this for decades now where our school systems teachers from elementary school all the way through college there's this brainwashing going on about a world view that is very much opposed to what god says we're supposed to do and how we're supposed to think at the same time this is actually just a fulfillment of bible prophecy that the world will hate the jews and they'll want to destroy the jews so here's these kids giving 10 15 bucks to this guy wants to blow up jews and cafes and and schools like that's that's to me that's pretty crazy uh welcome to portland so you say brett this is a little depressing but what does it mean for you and me actually there's some really good things three quick things and we're going to be done number one time is short what this means is you and i are seeing things that the bible says would happen in the last days the regathering of the jews and the the hating of the jews even anti-semitism as bad as that is that's part of the deal that's the situation that has to be existing in the world for the end times to really unfold and we're seeing that unfold so the rapture of the church could be soon you and i are supposed to think about that and know that first thessalonians 5 after chapter 4 mentions the rapture of the church then it says but of the times and the seasons brethren you have no need that i write unto you for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the lord so comes as a thief in the night you and i are not taken as a thief in the night because we know the times and the seasons and everything that i'm talking about today is pointing us to the fact that the rapture of the church could be soon time is short time to time to think about the lord's return in his rapture which brings us to the second what do we do about all this we need to be busy busy about the gospel busy sharing the good news with the lost world don't forget ever forget matthew 28 jesus gave you and me and us the great commission go ye and therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son of the holy ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever i have commanded you and lo i am with you always even to the end of the world that's what we're doing here at ac we're trying to preach the the gospel the good news to the whole world whoever will hear and uh you know one thing i love about ac creek is our reach we're trying to reach further than we ever have and it's something we never really tried to do at first but by the grace of god the gospel message is reaching places we would have never imagined people that are gathering and watching because there's not a lot of churches these days that'll just say here's what the bible says so we have people you know checking out these teachings online all over the world uh and it's because we're saying here's what the bible says here's the gospel let's look to jesus you and i should be busy these are not times to be lazy so things are crazy we got ufos flying around we got pandemics we've got you know nancy pelosi things are crazy but but what we do is instead of whining about everything we should be preaching the gospel and being salt and light and that brings me to my final admonition of what we do with all this be of good cheer the lord knows exactly what's going on he's got a plan that's unfolding and you and i instead of freaking out are going i can't believe people hate the jews as much as we should be against anti-semitism understand god knows what's going on he's not going no no people are being hated oh no israel nations hate israel oh no no that's not that's not what we do we don't freak out we trust that the lord knows and it's not just for the world but for you personally what does the bible say the prophet jeremiah said in 2911 jeremiah says for i know the thoughts that i think toward you saith the lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end some of your newer translation says to give you a future and a hope future and a hope man that's that's what we have to look forward to so be of good cheer let not your heart be troubled believe in god believe also in jesus that's what the bible says and we can put our trust in him man i know if you're a christian you and i have nothing to fear and the best day of our lives is when the rapture of the church happens that could be soon if you're not a christian it's time to accept the lord and believe repent of your sins it doesn't mean you're perfect it means you're perfectly forgiven to just give your life to the lord and say lord i believe i'm a sinner acknowledge your sin before god and say lord would you forgive me for my sins and to believe that when jesus came and died on the cross for the sins of the world that he that you're accepting that for yourself jesus died for the sins of the whole world the question is have you accepted that gift because that's what the lord requires of you simply to accept it um how easy is that uh and if you've never done that this is a day to be saved don't wait any longer the days are short and you don't want to be on the side of god's wrath you want to be on the side of god's mercy and his forgiveness and his love let's pray together and lord we're thankful that your word gives us everything we need to know what your plan and what your purpose is for the world forgive us lord as the greater church that has blown off whole bible chapters and books because we don't think they're relevant for today meanwhile lord your word just rings true time and time again explaining exactly what we're seeing that lord your people israel and jerusalem is that epicenter of all things bible prophecy lord we see that so i pray in light of that that we'd not be a sleepy church that but instead watching sober waiting preaching the good news of the gospel busy about the work of the kingdom lord that's what we pray and father i pray that you'd just cause this word just to sink into our hearts lord that we might be bold in our faith so bless your church we thank you in jesus name amen amen let's stand together listen if you're not a christian and you'd like to accept christ right now there's going to be some pastors that'll come right up here in the front row and they'd love to hang out with you right after i dismiss come on up and be prayed for and accept christ if you're online and you're saying man i wish i was a christian you can be except christ just confess with your mouth what jesus did for you on the cross if you want we can help you call the church text us email us connect with us we'd love to help you out with that but the rest of you man keep your eyes open watch for the coming of the lord this is not a day to mess around it's a day to be sober vigilant watching for jesus in jesus name you're dismissed god bless you

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 10,315

Rating: 4.869091 out of 5

Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

Id: VLayHqirMb4

Length: 78min 32sec (4712 seconds)

Published: Sun May 30 2021