September 12, 2021 | Joel Rosenberg | The Future of Israel and the Arab World | Sunday Sermon

[Music] it's truly an honor to be with you and especially at a weekend that we've are trying to process still all that we've been through as a nation as a world i was singing god bless america and and yet i'm a dual us israeli citizen seven years ago my wife and i and our four sons moved from the washington dc area where we'd live for 24 years and we settled in israel we live in jerusalem two of our four sons have served in the israeli military and it's been a challenge we live in the epicenter of the world we live in a place that people want to annihilate us want to destroy us but remember sorry to say this but remember that israel in the in the theology and the eschatology and the ideology of our enemies radical islamism not all of islam but this subset of radical islamists israel is only the little satan in their view they want to wipe us out there's no question about it but they're coming for the united states israel is considered the great satan and so israel's the is israel's at the tip of the spear now it may seem a little odd to you why would you want to be a citizen of both of these countries you're like i have a target on your front and you've got a target on your back isn't one enough probably but this was the will of god and you know we have a son named jonah we don't want you name your kid jonah you better not go the other direction when god tells you go do something open your bibles if you would to luke chapter 12 luke chapter 12. i'm getting choked up already luke chapter 12 we're going to look at verses 54 through 56 as we process the horror that we went through 20 years ago and many of the horrors that we've been through since and we look ahead at the hope of christ the hope of the church and is there any hope for the middle east and the united states as we think about israel iran and the future of the arab world luke chapter 12 beginning in verse 54. and jesus was saying to the crowd when you see a cloud rising in the west immediately you say a shower is coming and so it turns out and when you see a south wind blowing you say hey it'll be a hot day and it turns out that way you hypocrites jesus says you know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky but why do you not analyze this present time how many of us are guilty of spending more time watching the weather channel than studying the scriptures especially when a monster storm is coming like you know we we process you know the weather jesus saying yeah okay good but are you analyzing the moment that you're living in where were you on 9 11 where were you i remember where i was i was living with my wife and boys in washington dc in a town house 15 minutes away from washington dulles airport at that moment as i was working on finishing my first book i'd ever written my first novel flight 77 was being hijacked turned around flown over our house and into the pentagon i didn't have tv or radio on that morning i was finishing a book on a deadline my first my first book was called the last jihad i began writing it in january of 2001. the first pages of the last jihad puts the reader inside the cockpit of a jet plane hijacked by radical islamist terrorists it's flying a kamikaze attack mission into an american city and that fictional opener leads my fictional american president to declare war not only on radical islamist terror cells throughout the middle east but he decides to remove saddam hussein from power in iraq that was the story i was finishing on september 11 2001. i people of you know u.s news and world report ended up calling me a modern nostradamus people have called me a prophet a psychic it's not true if i was being prophetic the book would have been out already okay i mean just to be honest i was not trying to predict this is going to happen but based on everything that i'd learned and studied including a brief but important time in my life where i was working for then former prime minister of israel benjamin netanyahu everything i had learned everything i saw from scripture and from the geopolitical realities and the economic realities of the middle east told me that if we did not stop the forces of radical islamism in the middle east they were coming here now the problem is most people don't want to study about islamic history or radical islamist terrorism or you know even israeli history and these you know people like you know i'd rather watch netflix i get it so i decided rather than writing my first book as a non-fiction book book it would be a novel people want to be entertained more than they want to be educated okay we can be upset with that or we can use entertainment to try to accomplish what we what we need which is to help people understand something they may not understand on their own and that's what i was trying to do with that thriller and laced the gospel throughout the novel now over the last 20 years uh i've continued to try to help people uh leaders and lay people understand the times analyze where we are and understand what has got what is our response biblically to the moment that we're in when you write your first novel you just hope that your mother can find it at a bookstore within a hundred miles of her house okay now the first novel became a number one bestseller it spent 11 weeks on the new york times bestseller list and i was invited on 160 radio and television shows in in a two-month window people asking how could you have known of course i didn't know my attack city was denver of course that's where my parents lived they didn't take it personally fortunately but i it wasn't new york or washington my the the terrorists in my book didn't capture a commercial or hijack a commercial uh airliner it was a a business jet a gulfstream four there were differences uh but the but the plot was was chillingly you know close to reality and then the idea that it was going to lead to a war with iraq when the book came out it was still six months away uh from a war in iraq to remove saddam the whole nation the whole world was debating is that a good idea is that a bad idea but those 160 radio and tv and other types of interviews opened a door for me a whole new life for me which was to speak about what is it that we face who is our enemy um what is radical islamism and how do we as americans respond how do we build relationships alliances with israel and our arab allies who face these threats even ahead of us more muslims have died in these wars than jews or christians we're in it together and i also try to help people understand how should the church respond and i one of the things i've i've pointed out um as as i as i think about this this command of jesus to analyze these times right is that most people don't have the time to do it and so one of the questions is how can i be a trusted resource for the church here in the united states and in israel and around the world how can i be a trust resource how can i train and equip and mobilize and partner with others who can be trusted resources right the body of christ has many different roles and many different functions and we all can't be you know daily or weekly expositors and and and gospel preachers like jack that's a that's a role praise god there are many uh uh like him in fact i keep seeing that everybody here seems to have their first name jack or mike i'm not sure if that's everybody on staff but the ones that i've met um it's nice to you guys to invite me when it's my name isn't either jack or mike but anyway so how do we train and equip there are people who whose job are behind the scenes there's job people who's who's whose calling is in front of the scenes people to give people to serve and so my calling in part is to train and equip and mobilize and help people in four areas i because the thing about 911 what was so terrifying was yes how is it possible these people did this to us how is it even possible how did we miss it but also on a day like september 12th the question was is there going to be a september 12th the 13th and the 14th and the 15th meaning are are the attacks going to keep coming and um there was a sense of helplessness there was a sense of shock anger but also what i what i kept experiencing with so many people was a sense of helplessness like what are we supposed to do give me an action plan and many thank god they they heard the call and they they signed up to serve in the military and we want to thank every man and woman who has served to protect us we haven't had an attack successful attack in 20 years on american soil praise god not certainly nothing like 9 11. and then many have served in so many other ways but praise god also others said i'm going to be a first responder you know fire police medical but also a first responder for christ like when when the when the when a building is burning when a nation is burning who's going into that nation to take the gospel and to try to save lives and save souls praise god for the the missions movement that has come out of 9 11 as we have processed our anger against islam and the arab world and said it's not them there's a spirit there's a there's a there's a demonic force that's trying to hijack people in that faith they're wrong i mean they don't understand who christ is but that's one issue but then there's people within that who are trying to use that religion use violence to extend their political and religious views how do we go reach them with the transformative message of the gospel right the apostle paul didn't start off as the apostle paul he started off as saul who is what a religious terrorist was he not an extremist who believed that his mission was to go arrest torture and execute people who love jesus that was saul's job dad is a religious terrorist and god is in the business of transforming people like this i have traveled all over the world all over the muslim world from morocco in the west to afghanistan in the east and i'm telling you i'm here today not just because of jack's invitation but because i didn't die at the hands of people who used to be terrorists and christ had transformed them i've interviewed them i've talked to them i've listened to their stories and i'm telling you christ is on the move yes satan is on the move in the middle east but so is christ and so is his spirit and our question is to try to analyze what's going on the good the bad and the ugly and i encourage people to to do that to to not be seen as a hypocrite not be seen by christ as somebody who yeah you're all interested in your own life what's the weather going to be like where you're going to go tomorrow how's your your business your family that's all important but christ is saying you have to understand more look up see the world the way god sees it and i encourage people to do that through three lenses geopolitics yes and by that i don't mean partisan politics i'm saying geopolitics what's going on in the world what's happening what does it mean what does it mean to me what does it mean to my family what does it mean to my congregation what is happening and what does it mean in the world of geopolitics also economics right we have to understand what's happening in our economy in the global economy in the middle east economy what's driving these forces some are geopolitical dynamics some are economic dynamics but to just look at the world through those lenses is to be someone who is not seeing in three dimensions right i i'm concerned about world leaders political leaders uh even church leaders who are only looking at the world through geopolitical and economic lenses they're important don't get me wrong but you cannot see in three dimensions you cannot see the totality of what's happening and what it means unless you're looking through the third lens also the lens of the bible the lens of scripture because then you know it's like you're at the at the eye doctor and like click click click click click click how does that look ah yeah better but but what we need over that is another lens a biblical lens because it's the bible that teaches us about the concept of evil about the presence of evil it's the bible who teaches us what evil is and how to deal with it how to identify it how to confront it how to overcome it right we're where are we learning that in any other place much of western society doesn't even believe that there's that there's evil anymore oh these aren't enemies they're just people who are misunderstood no jesus says love your enemies jesus allows us to say there are people who hate us there are people who are evil there are people who are our enemies that's not we're not wrong to think of somebody as an enemy but then he tells us to love them he says to love our neighbors and love our enemies come on lord that covers everybody yes exactly how do we do that well we only do it in the power of the holy spirit but you can't love an enemy you can barely love your neighbor tough enough to love your own family at times or yourself without the power of the holy spirit so we have to look at the world through these three lenses and as we do that i encourage people to look through this feeling of helplessness i i encourage people to respond in four different ways and i'm going to focus of course my remarks this morning as we look at how to analyze these present times specifically on the middle east meaning israel and the arab slash muslim world okay you know these are things are true what i'm about to say with regards to china and north korea and and other places in the world certainly but given that my neck of the woods or neck of the desert maybe more precisely uh is jerusalem israel and the arab muslim world that's where i'm going to focus on this morning and of course we're focusing on um that this weekend because you know on 9 10 few people in america cared much about what was going on in the middle east i'm not saying that as a criticism it's just you know it just seemed like well there's a lot of trouble over there we get it but that's not it has nothing to do with us it turns out it does right now the first lines of this new book enemies and allies in the preface i say it's long been said about las vegas what happens in vegas stays in vegas but nobody says that about the middle east right you can try to look away you can say i i'm exhausted i don't want to deal with anything related to the middle east anymore you can say it whether you're the president united states or a senator or congressman or oral a person or somebody in the ministry you can say i i'm i'm exhausted by it enough already but the middle east has a way of pulling you back to demanding that you focus on it right i don't i'm not i don't usually quote the godfather in a you know from the pulpit but i will say the worst one of those was the third one uh in which michael corleone corleone the the the terrible evil dictator says he he's claiming that he's trying to get away from the the mafia but he says the more i try to get out the more they pull me back in that's what happens with the middle east you can look away but there are there's something about what i call the epicenter there's something about that part of the world that's forcing our attention on it so rather than feel helpless here are four ways four strategies that i i would encourage you to to process for yourself learn pray give and go okay learn pray give and go now in the learning area that's a lot of what i do right i'm i'm one of the few people that were born and raised in the united states as a jewish person that didn't get the financial gene okay i'm not your stock broker or your accountant your hedge fund manager didn't didn't happen for me nor am i your doctor or your lawyer or your chiropractor i don't run a movie company okay i kind of got gypped in my view but i've worked my way through it uh you know i didn't get the classic jewish skill set so um so what you know so most usually i say i i got the gift of making things up for a living right that's what a novelist is i tell my friends you could my journalist friends you can write fake news it's fine there's nothing unethical about writing fake news but there's a job for it it's called being a novelist okay so you have to own that now in my case i do i i wear multiple hats i do make things up for a living that's the novels uh but i also write non-fiction books like this one and i also uh i am a journalist actually we run two news sites that we just started september 1st of last year all israel news and all arab news i would commend them to you uh actually uh we're going to announce this week that pastor jack graham is going to be joining the advisory board of all israel news why because we are trying to help people understand in real time as things happen day by day hour by hour what is happening what why is it important and and how are we supposed to pray about it and respond to it how can our learning lead to our praying right and that's what all israel news and all arab news does our lead story this morning is the transcript of the telephone call that todd beamer made from flight 93 the evangelical christian the wheaton college graduate the oracle software salesman father husband who was on a flight that was being hijacked and called in to the fbi and the call center and explain moment by moment exactly what was happening it's a sobering call it's a chilling call but it's also an inspiring call because you hear him explain what is happening and you hear him in real time making the calculation with his team that his friends i mean he didn't know these people but everybody's calling home and they're hearing that these planes are going into buildings they're not there's not the classic hijack situation where you land in cuba and someone negotiates for you they realized they were dying there was no way out of that situation and they were heading to washington to kill many more people and you and you watch in that transcript this man this evangelical christian realized that the best thing he could do since he knew where he was going was to rally the people on the plane to storm the cockpit and try to get it back and prevent this plane from hitting washington dc and he you're going to see him ask if he could pray the lord's prayer with the fbi agent and the gte satellite phone operator and then when they're done he says to the the team are you guys ready let's roll it's very powerful it's very powerful i encourage you to to make that part of your learning process and you can even sign up for free emails to have the the headlines emailed directly to you this book this book uh enemies and allies listen i wish i could tell you the story but of course that's why i wrote wrote the book but let me just give you one story because what what's different about this book is it doesn't just explain in the first section the threats that we face 20 years after 9 11. i do that i also talk about the opportunities what's going on with all these peace deals four arab nations have made peace with israel just last year how is that possible what does that mean how significant is that how did that even happen this is the only book that tells you there's not a single book out there that tells you an update on where the threats are and how we got to these abraham accords peace deals and i do it by sitting in the oval office with the president sitting with the secretary of state the vice president our cia uh directors uh israeli military intelligence officials the prime minister of israel defense minister of israel all exclusive interviews as well as with many of the arab leaders that are making the decisions right now on the future of the middle east the presidents of egypt the crown prince of saudi arabia the crown prince of the united arab emirates the leaders of bahrain uh the king of jordan there's not a single book out there we'll take you i'll take you into those palaces and you'll love them or hate them you'll get to hear these leaders that are fighting radical islamism our best allies you'll hear them in their own voices making the case and we ask them tough questions and then we talk about the future where is this all going including a chapter on prophecy what a what do what do what do christians believe about the future of the middle east it doesn't go well until jesus comes back that's the short version okay but a lot of prophecies uh that don't bode well for israel or for iran or for the muslim arab world until christ comes back to make it right and and he's not coming to dallas sorry uh this may be an epicenter now but eventually he's coming to my hometown to jerusalem so what does it mean i'll give you one example of how these things happened i i wrote a novel series a few years ago um about the isis terror group trying they're capturing chemical weapons in syria and then they want to go attack america israel and the kingdom of jordan throughout these three books and in the first book they they hit jordan and isis is trying to assassinate the king and blow up his palace and take over the kingdom of jordan now what happened is the king read the book one of his advisors never heard of me but he picked up a copy in heathrow was shocked and brought it to the king and said your majesty you have to read this he said why he says because you're in it he said what are you talking about it looks like a novel i know but you're actually a named character in the book what well the king actually took two days and read the whole book and rather than banning me from the kingdom forever mind you which he very well may have done he invited my wife and me to come for five days to get to know him and his inner circle and i and i described this in enemies and allies so fascinating we our first meeting with him was having lunch in the palace and it was just the advisor the king lynn and myself no security no other people just us and he said joel i was thinking where would be fun to meet you for the first time and i thought well you did blow up my palace maybe i should bring you here and let you see the grandeur i said well it is lovely your majesty yes i i hope you saw that i didn't want it to happen i'm writing about worst case scenarios you go no no i see it and uh he said you know i saw that you made me a character but my staff and my my advisors you you fictionalized them i said yes he said but i can see who's who so i bought a lot of copies of your book joel and i i give them to my staff i say here you die on page 47 you might want to read that [Applause] tremendous sense of humor i he had actually read the second in the series i i said majesty i brought some copies of the first in the series just so you have the back story i said can i show you the first page sure i said your majesty the book starts with the first line is i had never met a king before that's how the book starts he goes and he laughed he pulled out a pen and goes well you have now and he handed it back that five day period that that those meetings opened up a door he asked me would you bring a delegation of evangelical christian leaders to to get i like to get to know them i want them they love israel that's wonderful but i want them to understand our side our perspective and the fight we're in against the radical islamists that this is not all muslims in fact muslims are standing up and we're fighting against this but we need to be partners and would you bring a delegation i said i'd be honored and that led to delegations to egypt as well uh two to egypt two to saudi arabia one to the united arab emirates we've got one coming in bahrain next year this is crazy what is a jewish evangelical american israeli with two sons serving the israeli army what am i doing sitting with the saudi crown prince by the way i asked them i said yeah i'm guessing you don't use the term evangelical christian here much she goes no that's probably true i said well um we've got a pastor on our delegation could he just explain what what we believe who we are of course god is opening amazing doors and i tell these stories in the book so that i hope is a resource for you to learn right in real time where we are right now and hear from president trump uh hear from vice president pence and mike pompeo and others that's the learning praying you'll see in the book and i and i hope you're seeing the more you learn the more you understand how to pray for our leaders and for the church in the middle east i spent a lot of time talking with uh christian leaders on the ground national leaders in these countries and you'll see those conversations and we asked them how can we pray for you so i hope that's a resource for you and i would also ask you to be praying for president biden okay and his team we we we may you wherever you are on your political spectrum i can guess but i'm not going to we need to pray for him just like we prayed for president trump we need him to change course in some areas and we certainly want him and his family and his team to know christ learning praying giving okay i run a ministry my wife and i founded 15 years ago called the joshua fund i'm not going to get into that right now but i just want to say practically speaking we want to help strengthen the church in the middle east right they're embattled uh they don't have the the prayer support the encouragement the training sometimes or the financial support they need so the joshua fund over 15 years has invested more than 80 million dollars to strengthen our brothers and sisters to be lighthouses in israel in the palestinian territories and in lebanon syria jordan iraq and egypt it's some of the most exciting parts of my life if i could just ditch the writing i would just do this joshua fund because i love strengthening and encouraging and praying for and funding ministries in the middle east so that they can do the work of christ on the ground in the languages of the heart languages of people there learning praying giving but also going now you'd say well you know i don't really want to go over there listen jack is going to be leading the next trip to israel from prestonwood next year yes covet has thrown a few monkey wrenches in their plans it's going to be rescheduled for next year but i would encourage you if you've never done it come come with him or go i know learn pray give go but i'm from jerusalem so i say come come and see it step into the story it's one thing to stand with israel from a distance prayer political support encouragement financial support for the church yes that's good but better than standing with israel is standing in israel let the scriptures come alive and you get a better sense of understanding what are the challenges of being at the tip of the spear see the land where jesus was where he died and rose again and where he's coming back to look the challenge that we face is the need to analyze these present times understand the moment that we're in but also to say lord what is my response when i see you face to face what what will be your expectation of me and will you say of me well done my good and faithful servant you were faithful in a few things right he's not asking you to do everything in the world but but is this but is having an understanding of the middle east of israel and our neighbors and our enemies and being a part of advancing the kingdom of christ there is that part of what god is putting on your heart i want to hear well done my good and faithful servant i know you do you are faithful in a few things i will put you in charge of many things enter into the joy of your master let's pray father we thank you for that over the last 20 years has been a lot of healing and a lot of people have come to faith in jesus christ people who were rattled by 9 11. we're grateful for those who who you've opened their eyes to to receive christ and know the peace of christ when on 9 11 they were just living in fear and terror and horror and anger we all were in many ways you give us peace that passes all understanding and yet there are many more who need to know you and here in this country praise god there are churches like prestonwood to to be lighthouses in dark places but lord help us show us how can we be part of strengthening our brothers and sisters in christ in israel and throughout the arab and muslim world or we know the prophecies are coming for of great judgment and trauma particularly in the middle east those are the places you lay out the prophecies most clearly but lord what can we do between now and then those who've never heard how are they going to believe if they've never heard how are they going to hear unless someone tells them the gospel how will they tell unless they've been sent and trained and encouraged and funded lord show us how to learn pray give and go show us teach us lord and the power of your spirit to love our enemies and our allies and be found faithful in you in the name of our great king who's coming soon we hope really soon the name of jesus christ we pray amen god bless you stand together [Applause] thank you joel [Applause] and i'm going to ask that you bow with me in prayer every head bowed and every i close always at the close of our services we invite people to follow jesus today you came on the arm of a friend who shared his faith or her faith with you and you know you need jesus in your life with so much trouble and turmoil trials in the world how could a person possibly live i know i can't without jesus do you have christ in your heart do you have a future and a hope a lot of talk about the future today do you have a future is your future with christ do you know that he's coming for you that you're going to spend eternity in heaven jesus died on the cross he rose again and if you will confess with your mouth the lord jesus and believe in your heart that god has raised him from the dead you will be saved to be saved means to be forgiven of all your sins that christ will live in your life and that you have a future and a hope in heaven with him yes jesus is coming is he coming for you today i'm going to ask you to come forward and publicly profess your faith as jesus commanded and called everyone to do who's following him he said confess me before men and i will confess you before the father in heaven so this is an invitation it's the invitation of christ in our church to put your faith and trust in him upstairs we have ministers in the balcony on the lower level right here online you can text in 747 888 text in jesus we're standing by with our online pastor to encourage you to help you to send you materials so that you may know christ i just spoke with a woman earlier today at our north campus service who during coven was watching online she accepted jesus as her savior online and now she's being baptized as a testimony of her faith in christ some of you online in the region are way beyond you're trusting in christ today and those in the room i'm going to ask you to come today others need baptism you've never been baptized god's way according to the new testament by immersion as a believer in christ make that commitment today come and be baptized and let the world know that you are a follower of jesus why wouldn't you want the world to know that you love jesus and want to follow him baptism is that step of obedience and faith that that places you front and center to the glory of god and the grace of god in your life others want to join this church you believe in christ you've been baptized as a believer you want to join this church now and be a part of this mission this ministry to take jesus the message of the gospel the good news to in a bad news world the message of wholeness and peace in a world that is so filled with brokenness you want to be a part of prestonwood you can do that today you don't have to join up a class you don't have to sign anything just come forward today and say i believe god is leading me to be a member of this church and we will receive you as we receive members thank you lord for this time of decision bless the lives of all who have heard this message of truth today and especially now lord may your spirit convict and convince and bring people to yourself and to your church in jesus name amen thank you for joining us for worship at prestonwood as you heard earlier if you made a decision for christ please text jesus to 7478 we would love to connect with you and give you these great resources to help you grow in your faith one is a new believer's bible with helpful notes to help you study god's word the other is a book by pastor jack graham on the next steps to take as you pursue this new life in christ as we close i'd like to thank you for your faithful giving to support prestonwood and the work god is doing through our ministries if you would like to give text word give to 7478 or visit prestonwood.org give it's been a joy worshiping with you and we look forward to seeing you again soon

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Id: 72jDGriWOts

Length: 38min 2sec (2282 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 14 2021