The End of Days Is Already Here 1 - Francis Chan

it's a amazing opportunity to be with you guys I've been teaching your youth you know over a couple years at the Life conference for the last I don't know 10 12 years or so loved it and now I've got the honor of speaking to you I don't know if it's a demotion if it's a you know it's just but but when I I heard about the leadership here I just I love speaking to pastors I love speaking to leaders because I I feel like I've felt so many things that maybe you're currently feeling or have felt and and especially right now I just feel this new urgency that that that that we need to be strong we need to be united there's there's so many crazy things going in the world and we need this we need the leaders to just be immovable to be stable and we live in a time where I see so many leaders just fearful we're afraid we're scared of making mistakes and there's just so much pressure on us so I've looked forward to this time and I have been praying for you I've been praying for your strength and for your courage and I just want to ask you on a scale of one to ten if you saw that category strength and courage what would you rate yourself right now I'm just going on I'm strong I'm secure the Lord I know who I am right now and I'm actually really courageous like I'm I'm ready to try something I'm ready to step out in faith I mean where are you on that scale I mean I'm only and only I'm 47 and I just think about life and I go gosh I don't know that life here in this country and when as a you know compared you know when talking about Christianity I don't know that it's ever been so bleak and yet I can honestly say I don't know that I've ever been is confident in my faith I look at where we're headed I'm going gosh this doesn't look good and yet I go yet III don't fear anything I'm so confident about the future in the future of the church and I and I yeah I hope that's the way you feel - I mean I just sense the strengthening in the church and and kind of a blowing away of the chaff and go okay what's gonna be left here and we're gonna get serious about this so I'm very excited about the future of the church and I'm excited that we we serve a risen Savior and that he's returning to judge the world and that we will be waiting for him anticipating him worshipping Him until he returns and I know that many of you are gonna be those who are faithful and standing with him and so I look forward to it there's a passage um that that's been on my heart the last couple of months it's second Timothy 3 in talking about this world that we live in right now but it's an interesting passage because he starts off Paul tells Timothy understand this that in the last days there will come times of difficulty that phrase times of difficulty literally means terrible times terrible times are coming in the last days and then he says as in verse 2 for people will be lovers of self lovers of money proud arrogant abusive disobedient to their parents ungrateful unholy heartless unappeasable slanderous without self-control brutal not loving good treacherous reckless swollen with conceit lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of god having the appearance of godliness but denying its power avoid such people for among them are the those who creep in the households and capture weak women burdened with sins and led astray by various passions always learning and never able to arrive any knowledge of the truth so Paul explains to Timothy he goes in the last days it's gonna get really bad it's gonna get terrible and he goes through this listen he explains why it's gonna be so bad but the thing you need to know about this list is he's not talking about the world he's not talking about atheists here he's talking about the church he says why it's gonna be so horrible is in the church you're gonna have these people who have the appearance of godliness but they deny its power you have these people that had direct they they keep learning they keep learning but they never come to a knowledge of the truth and he says I want you to avoid such people I mean Paul makes it clear in the Curt to the Corinthians because I'm not talking about the people in the world he goes if you're gonna disassociate with them you just have to leave the world I'm talking about the ones who call themselves brothers and sisters and here he's warned he goes be careful in the church is gonna come a time where he says people he starts off by saying people will be lovers of self that the crazy thing about this list is many of these things we read and nowadays we just kind of shrug our shoulders at it they don't seem like terrible sins even in the church like would be really like disobedient to parents big deal I mean isn't it more that we are shocked when a child actually obeys his parents and that's crept into the church there's an expectation in the child care it's it's there and we just gotta go what can we do it's just where we live there's this idea of lovers of self I was reading one commentary that said you know that phrase lovers of self is first because that's kind of the sewage pipe through it through which all the other garbage flows through this is your lover of self you love yourself that's why it is it was lovers of self lovers of money why do you love money because you love yourself you want money you know it proud why are you proud because you love yourself why are you arrogant because you love yourself why are you abusive because you don't think about what you do to other people you're thinking about yourself this idea of self-love which is so normal so normal in the world today I remember being in junior high or high school and I mean that Whitney Houston song came out the greatest love of all is learning to love yourself it's the greatest love of all that's love when you can learn to love yourself and yet Paul says be careful in the end times it's gonna get crazy cuz people are gonna love themselves and even the church you hear this creeping more people - well Jesus says love your neighbor as yourself and so let's focus on loving ourselves more so we can love our neighbors because I don't love myself enough and the truth is is you don't man know you're crazy about yourself every time we get together you want to talk about yourself let's talk about me and how I can love me and how you can love me it's just this idea goes you guys understand in the and and it's become so normal to us I mean I was reading this thing about these the sociologists are saying that outward culture this generation is by far by a long shot the most narcissistic culture to ever exist I mean we think it's normal and acceptable for every single person in our country to create a page talking about themselves wanting everyone to look at themselves everyone thinking I have the opinion that's going to change we think that's normal it's you understand that then you gotta be kidding me everyone is gonna think that their voice should be heard and everyone is gonna build this shrine to themselves so that everyone else can see and make themselves look as good as possible it's normal and positive is gonna get terrible because it's gonna be in the church people gonna be lovers of self not lovers of God they're gonna love themselves be arrogant proud they'll love money abusive disobedient to their parents ungrateful which is the mark of a spirit-filled person as he just thanks God for everything in Christ Jesus but they're gonna become ungrateful unholy they're not gonna care about holiness let me just say something about that okay when I grew up we talked a lot about purity and holiness and lately there's been a new thing happening which I there's part of it that I love and I feel like I'm part of the one that instigated some of this where I would look at the church like oh man they're starving people out in the world there's people with not known no clean drinking water there's there's girls that are in little children little boys who are being sold into slavery as sex slaves we got to get somewhere get water then we gotta get food to them we got a rescue of all these places and and I'm just trying to awake in a church and I saw this younger generation that had this faith and said I'll jump on a plane right now I'll jump on a plane right now I'll risk my life to rescue these kids I'll risk my life I'll give everything I have and I love it I go man as a great great passion I see this fire and I see this faith but that same generation I also see that they've walked away from holiness and we're willing to go when take steps of faith but are we willing to keep our bodies pure and our minds pure are we still concerned about being morally in the eyes of God give me heartless unappeasable slanderous without self-control brutal not loving good treacherous reckless swollen with conceit lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God again how many times are we seeing it now even in the church where we're trying to draw people into the church through pleasure come on if you if you follow God he'll make you rich forget everyone healthy you'll have your family back don't you want Gaia and and it's all about you and it's all about pleasure and and they're like okay let me try that if that's gonna restore my marriage if that's gonna make my kids love me if that's gonna take away my sickness if that's gonna help me get a job if that's gonna make me rich and you've got this gospel bring preached out there saying if you follow Jesus you will get this rather than no if you follow Jesus you'll get Jesus and that's that that's enough that's enough he'll be your Shepherd and you you won't even want it'll be like your cup is overflowing and it but a says no in the end times they're gonna be lovers of pleasure not lovers of self and so I've been praying going god I I don't want to be like that the end is near kind of guy but I look at the world and I look at where we're at and I look at the church and I go gosh now is the time for us to be strong and go okay that's fine that's gonna happen but not me that's what I love when you know when Paul would tell Timothy things and say the world's gonna get this way but as for you but as for you man of God not you not you okay this is what's gonna happen in the future but you here's what I want from you and that's what I was praying for in this in this room I'm going God I just want them to be strong I want them to be strong you know the world's getting crazy who knows what's gonna happen next you just see it happening the writing's on the wall every every month seems like just something new that goes against this book and it's like I don't know if this can be stuffed and so I'm praying for you while I was flying here today I'm on the airplane you know I'm I'm on you know not on my knees that would have been little it's just too tight with the aisles and I'm I'm just you know on my face like this kind of prank come on you know help me you know and I you know I take a break and I would look and you know you got the TV screens going on and and I'm praying and every time I pick up that that show The Deadliest Catch was on you know that that's about people who go to the Bering Sea and try to catch crab and and and die and uh so I'm I'm praying and I'm looking you know at the the TV row as well you know praying some more looking up watching okay how many did they catch and and but it there was this picture I'm not trying to exegete Deadliest Catch but it there was just this thought of man our job sometimes we as believers will look at the world and all the stuff that's going on and we try to change that and I just don't know if that's what I see in here it seems like there is some there are some things that are inevitable of where a world is going to go and our job is not to calm the sea but to to make sure our boat is intact you know and make sure it keeps heading in the right direction and make sure that crew is strong and courageous and we just keep going and keep steady in the course because we're not gonna be able to affect the whole world in that sense but we're responsible for the church we're responsible for our boat and I could just kept looking at these these boats being taught turned and tossed by the ocean it's like man it wasn't their job to try to calm the Seas they can't do that but the boat they had control over that the crew they had control over that and it was just this picture in my mind as I was reading second Timothy going man that's what he's saying here is okay this is going to happen but you the church what are you gonna do amidst that are you gonna stay the course you're gonna keep these people encouraged and focused and go no we're heading somewhere I know right now feels like we're going backwards the storms coming right at us and we're turning left right everything as people are getting thrown over but let's let's just keep this thing going because it's gonna happen we're head we gotta keep going in this direction see this is about the church I think a lot of times we need to pay less attention to the world and more attention to the church that's what Paul was saying right in 1st Corinthians 5 it's like I'm not asking you to judge the outsiders but I am asking you to judge the church to judge those who are inside that's what we're called to do and in the first place we have to look at is is us right we got to start with ourselves are you personally deeply in love with Jesus right now are you secure strong courageous God I I love you I see where this world is going I'm not going with it okay I'll go against the flow cuz I love you are you still in love with your people during this council we're talking about being this family but I've made many mistakes in ministry by assuming assuming that couples doing fine I mean I haven't there been so many times where you have dinner with a couple and you you know you do you know you have a good time whatever and then you find out like a week later two weeks later that they're ready to leave each other and you're like what I just assumed everything was fine they seemed fine and then and you you just want to kick yourself like I should have seen this I should have seen this I should have seen this I just assumed they were fine because they're on staff I assumed they were fine he's an elder I mean I assumed he was fine he went to Bible College I assumed this I assume that and so it's very easy for me to walk in this room and go man I'm just gonna assume they all love their people and they love being shepherds they love the people they lead and that would be such a foolish assumption man having spent most of my life in ministry there were many seasons where I can't say that I loved the people I ministered to that's why John was asking me he goes how do you prepare before you speak and I said I've got a series of seven questions that I asked myself but the second question I asked is do I really love these people because there are many times when I walked on a stage and I didn't love the people I was just getting the message across but I didn't look in their eyes and think okay if I really loved her if I really loved him what would I say what would I really say that's gonna matter a hundred years from now that's gonna matter when he stands before God man what can I say God I I care about him I care about these people I don't want them to just keep doing this and this and going through the routine and then standing before you if their hearts were gone and they were just speaking with their lips and just you know working a job and taking a salary and just you know going on with tradition rather than man igniting their hearts again and and and not forsaking their first love it's it's like okay God help me help me to love them and even right now as I'm looking at your mom god help me to really care to really believe I'm doing something up here and trying to use whatever spiritual gift I have to bless you so that maybe a hundred years from now when you look me in the eyes you can say and I remember what you said that day it had an impact on me it got me thinking do I still believe that God that I first believed in when I was young because I remember being young I remember walking out of Sunday School and believing in the story of David and Goliath and walking around go know I can do anything and do anything I remember as a young young minister just you know walking around maybe knocking on doors just believing that God was gonna do something true and then slowly board meetings happen you know and budgets happened and everything else and it's like Lord is there anything I can do to get them back to you alone with you where no one else is around this is you in this book and you're going okay god that's what it says in the last days okay even if it's you and me even if none go with me I'm gonna follow you because I love you Jesus like when's the last time you had a moment like that where's this you adoring God and saying Lord I'm gonna obey this and then to stand in front of your people having met with him and then coming to the presence of it because you're a lover of God not a lover of pleasure not just a lover of ministry not a lover of success not a lover of when the room is full of people not a lover of when the budget is is met and exceeds you know not a lover of a good offering that week but just a lover of God where it's like I adore him and I'll say whatever I need to say because he tells Timothy look in the last days a time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they'll accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myth as for you always be sober minded and doers suffering do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry where he goes Timothy there's going to be a time when no one puts up with this but you as for you let them go they're going to go and and and they're gonna just find a teacher to tell them what they want to hear why because they're a lover of pleasure if they want to get divorced they'll find someone with a PhD to tell them it's okay to divorce they won't have sex outside of marriage you'll find someone with a PhD to explain them oh no no this is okay if they want to be greedy and spend all the money on themselves and neglect this mission to reach the unreached around the world they'll find someone with a PhD to explain them why it's okay for us to just sit and bask in all of his blessings we'll just find someone to tell us whatever we want to hear you want to abort your child you want to marry someone of the same sex oh I'll find you a teacher Christian PhD they'll tell you it's fine you want to stop believing in hell I'll find you someone the PhD to tell you that you want to just believe that there's no punishment that God's a God of love and only love and there's no wrath there's no judgment to come it's plenty of books about that what what do you want to believe what's your pleasure what would you like I'll find you a teacher to give you that but Paul tells Timothy don't you be one of those guys you know what this book says you preach it you lay it out there now is the time to stay the course now this time is to stay strong because the times coming people in me lovers themselves lovers of pleasure now lovers of God do you love your staff right now I had times when I really loved my staff I mean really like every one of them where I thought I would take a bullet for everyone on staff right now and there have been other times I'd like to put a bullet I know I know kidding but you know there are those times but again well first of all we gotta go okay sometimes we go to all my churches this way the world is this way but first we look at ourselves we look at the leadership and go okay what are we modeling here am i a man or woman who just gets on his or her face and adores God gets alone with this word gets convicted and says no I will preach this I will lay it out because again we're living in a time where I'm seeing some of these younger believers they're excited or doing crazy things or living by faith I love that but what they're unwilling to do is preach truth

Channel: BRMinistries

Views: 324,287

Rating: 4.8592105 out of 5

Keywords: End of times, end of days, end times 2017, end of days 2017, end days, end days 2017, francis chan, francis chan the end, the end is near 2017, the end time sins, part 1, francis chan part 1, end of all, revelation, evil, storms, wars, rumors of wars, fear, panic

Id: TWc9fq0y2UQ

Length: 25min 9sec (1509 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 17 2017