Mike Bickle emphasizes the importance of staying spiritually alert and connected to God during the perilous times described in Luke 21:36. He warns that while the world faces unprecedented physical and spiritual dangers, believers must not succumb to fear or distractions but instead watch and pray to be strengthened and stand in victory. Bickle highlights the need for believers to be aware of the signs of the times and to maintain their relationship with Jesus to navigate the challenges ahead. He reassures that even in weakness, God's grace is sufficient for believers to overcome the trials of the end times.

Turn to Luke chapter 21, Luke chapter 21. This is a, uh, very sober message that Jesus gave his disciples. He spoke as a bold prophet, but he also spoke tenderly as a pastor. And I just want you to open your heart because this is a waiting message from the words of Jesus. I believe it's about this hour of history that we're living in now. He describes one generation. Jesus does the very glorious, but very dangerous generation. Let me pray father. I ask you in the name of Jesus father of glory, that you would release living understanding of the words of your beloved son. Lord, that you would Mark our hearts with the sobriety of what he said with the faith and confidence of what he said. Lord, as weak human beings, I asked you to help us help me to hear, even as I speak the word, let me hear your heart. Let us hear and receive from you. Holy spirit, Jesus name. Amen. Well, Jesus described the most glorious and the most dangerous generation in all of human history. Now that sounds like a paradox and I guess it is. It's very dangerous physically. He talked about the nations coming under a distress beyond any time of history. And the nations are headed to a time of distress behind, beyond any time of history, it's dangerous physically, but that wasn't his main point. Jesus was highlighting how dangerous it would be spiritually and his primary burden here was to his people. As you get familiar with Luke 21, you'll understand that he's saying the spiritual danger is more intense than the physical danger. He's talking to the heart of his people. He said, if you lose contact with me, if you lose connection with me, because you're overwhelmed with fear and confusion by the external danger, you will have a far worse internal danger that you will experience. You'll drift away from me. You'll be caught in the confusion of the nations. You'll be overcome with fear, weighed down with lust. He said, you must stay connected. Understand, I am the God of history. I'm the Lord of history. I am orchestrating a plan for history. I'm the author and the perfecter of the plan. Yes, it has great negative in it. The enemy will rage, man will sin, but the Lord will overrule it all to bring his church to the greatest place of victory and power of any time of history, even far beyond what happened in the book of Acts. So spiritually, it's the most glorious hour of human history. Physically, it will be the most challenging, distressful, distressing and dangerous hour of human history. Well, let's read the passage. I'm reading from my notes where I edited it down. So I'll be skipping some of the passage. You can read it entirely in your own Bible. We're going to read through this a couple of times because I want you familiar with it. I don't want you to leave tonight and say, yeah, Luke 21. Yeah, something about the end times. I think I want you familiar with the phraseology, the terminology tonight. It's pretty straightforward. It's pretty simple. It's easy to grasp. It's weighty, but it's not complicated. Let's read through it. Verse 25, he begins with a strong prophetic declaration. There will be on the earth distress, distress of nations, men's heart. They will fail them from fear. Verse 28, when these things begin to happen, look up, lift up your heads. Your redemption, your salvation is coming very, very close. Your breakthrough. Verse 32, this generation will by no means pass away and tell all of the things take place that I prophesied. Verse 34, here's the exhortation to his people. This is a tender exhortation. Take heed to yourself, pay attention to your hearts in this generation. Lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, the cares of life, and that day come upon you unexpectedly. Verse 35, for it will come like a snare, a trap on all the people who dwell upon the whole earth. Verse 36, his second exhortation. This is a tender beseeching of his heart. Watch, pray always that you would be counted worthy. Most translations, the best translations, say that you would be strengthened to escape all of these things. That you would stand in victory before the Son of Man. Well, that was a kind of a brief reading. Now I'm going to read through it again, make a couple more comments. Then in the notes, I elaborate a little bit more. Now you'll notice in this exhortation, there's two responses. I'm going to read through it again, and I want you to notice, there's the people who are overcome with fear. Millions and millions of people will be overcome in fear as the distress of the nations increases. But the problem is, many believers will be among those overcome with fear. And the Lord's heart is, I don't want my people surprised. I don't want you losing perspective. I'm leading this whole plan. I'm the king. I'm your bridegroom king. You are my beloved bride. I am with you. Don't be afraid, I am leading the nations. But a lot of his own people, they'll look out at the distress, and they won't look up to their king. And the distress will overwhelm them with fear. Their hearts will be weighed down, and they'll want an escape. And he warned them, don't let your hearts get weighed down where you're going to want to escape and find relief and comfort through immorality and drunkenness and fretting and anxiety and bitterness. He goes, beware, don't do that, but rather talk to me, connect with me. Watch and pray. You can be strengthened. You can stand and not fall. The weakest among us can stand. The Lord says, I will be with you. I will help you. I will be near to you, but you've got to ask me, you've got to talk to me. I won't force you into the relational dialogue. I won't force you into the connection, but I beckon you to do your part. And I stand with open arms to touch you and to strengthen you. And you can stand. You don't have to fall, because the scripture makes clear. Very negative, but Jesus was very straightforward about it, as was Paul the apostle. There will be a great falling away from the faith of millions of believers. Now, the Bible doesn't say millions, but I believe it will be millions. But the good news, I believe a billion will come in to the great harvest coming to the kingdom. I believe a billion, hundreds of millions will be coming in, and some, many number will be leaving and exiting. It's going to be a great shift of what happens in the kingdom, and it's all based on how people respond to Jesus' leadership as the crisis in the nations intensifies. Some people will be overcome by the fear, and they will self-medicate, meaning they will go into immorality, drunkenness, any kind of pleasure to find relief from the pressure. And the Lord says, that's the dangerous answer. Come to me. Talk to me as a believer. He's talking to believers here. He goes, I want to help you. I will be near you. Don't look for relief in ways that are outside of the will of God, and many believers are doing that today. But the good news, that can turn around in our lives tonight. Now I say a billion, that's just an arbitrary number. I don't know the number coming in, but the Bible makes clear there's a great harvest at the end of the age of all the nations. And I believe, I mean a billion plus, I mean millions and millions will come into the kingdom in the hour of distress. The church will be purified. Compromise will be driven out of the church. But many believers will say, no, no, I'm not interested in this. I'm not interested in following you in this context, and they will leave the faith. The Bible's clear about that. Now that's negative, but it's reality. Now it's my opinion, it's not a prophecy, it's an opinion, but it's based on biblical observation of what Jesus said would happen in that generation. It's my opinion, we're in the early days of that generation right now. I believe that Luke 21 is talking about events that some of you in this room will see in your lifetime in the fullness of them. I think it's very possible, I might be wrong. It may be your children, maybe it's their children, I don't know. Nobody knows the day or the hour. It could go longer, it could stretch out a little bit, or it could speed up. But either way it goes, it's not too early to start paying attention to these kind of passages from the lips of Jesus. He described a generation, and again, I believe, I don't know that I will see the fullness of it in my day. I'm 60 years old, I might, I might not. But I know one thing, I'm pouring out all of my life's strength and energy to prepare a generation in understanding, to prepare the generation after them in understanding so they're not surprised by the escalation of negative crisis and they're participating with the Lord in the great harvest and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the end times. Jesus talks about a generation here, again we're going to read this in a minute. And he talks about there's one generation. These things will begin in that generation and they will come to fullness within the time frame of that one generation. Beloved, there's one generation in history in which these things begin, these things escalate, these things come to completion, all within one generation. And Jesus told the church on the early days of that generation, he goes, when you see it beginning at the beginning of the generation, he goes, when you see it begin, he goes, pay attention, don't write it off because they're going to increase the distressing events, the escalating sin, the demonic darkness is going to increase and increase and increase. It's not going to go away, it's going to get more intense, every decade will be more intense than the decade before in darkness, sin, violence and disturbance. He said there's a generation that sees the beginning, the escalation or increase and the completion all within one lifetime. Well the glorious news is there's the outpouring of the Spirit in full measure at the same time. You know, people ask me, I mentioned it the first night, is it going to get better or is it going to get worse? And the answer is both. The darkness will become darker, the light will become lighter. The power of God in the church of believers that are saying yes will increase and increase. And beloved be sure of this, there's only one kind of person on the earth, weak and broken, we're all weak and broken. There are no super saint category over there where they're born and they just waltz right through it. We're all weak and broken people. Elijah was a man weak like us. Here's my point, victory is attainable to people like us. It's not just way out there to that group back in history, people like us can overcome if we talk to him, if we pay attention, if we do what he says, grace will be sufficient. For where sin abounds, grace abounds much more. Where darkness increases, light increases much more even in the same time frame. I'm encouraged. It's the greatest hour of history to be alive if you love the leadership of Jesus. But if you're a business as usual Christian, kind of going through the motions, Jesus is kind of an appendix to your, you know, an appendix to your life agenda like, oh yeah, I want to be saved so I skip hell, you check that box, it's going to be rough. But for the people that say, I want him, I'm weak but I want him, and I believe in the sufficiency of his grace, beloved it's the greatest hour in human history to be alive. Let's read it again. Verse 25, Luke 21, he starts off with a strong prophetic declaration. This declaration was meant to alert us. We are supposed to be alerted but many believers are not alerted by this. They look at it and go, oh well, and they go on about their business and Jesus said, could have said, I am God. I'm the one that was acting in Genesis 1. I said something very strong. Pay attention to what I just said. Many believers, that just moves right on past and they move on as though it's not true. Well, I said that I believe we're in the beginning, the early days of that generation. In the Bible, by the way, and I have this on the notes and you'll find it there later and on the extended notes, I spend a bit more time explaining this. A generation in the Bible, the first definition in Genesis 15 where God defined a generation 100 years. Some people say a generation is 40 years. It might be but there are 100 year generations from God's definition. So we might be in the beginning of that time frame or we might be a farther along than we think. I don't know. Nobody knows the day or the hour. But we can see the biblical signs of the times, meaning what the Bible says will be happening. It's called the signs of the times. Jesus outlined a number of the signs of that generation. I've studied them. I mean, not that I'm an expert on them, but I pay attention because I love him and I trust him. The apostles, they outlined a number of the signs of the times. The Old Testament prophets outlined the signs of that generation. Jesus, the apostles, and the prophets all spoke about that one generation. My point is this, there's more in the Bible on that, on the description of that generation than most believers are aware of. But the Lord as a tender pastor, Jesus, he's saying, I told you, I beckoned you, I laid it out, I gave you insider information sufficient to awaken you so that you would not be surprised, so that as the intensity increases of distress, your understanding would grow. You would understand, you would reconnect and realign and recalibrate your heart. As the intensity increases, your interaction with me increases, your understanding increases, the grace of God in your life increases, and as things get worse and worse, you get stronger and stronger, and you grow in more and more understanding. That's the message of Luke 21. But a lot of believers, they go, I don't know what Jesus said about that generation. I'm going to be teaching a class, February, March, April, I'm going to have it live online, Friday nights, called Signs of the Times, for 12 Friday nights, I'm going to take what Jesus said, the apostles said, and the prophets of the Old Testament, it's quite straightforward, and lay them out systematically, because I don't want the people that I'm connected to and I pour into to be surprised, I want them to grow in understanding as the distress increases and intensifies, because if your understanding doesn't grow, and your connection doesn't grow, while the negative grows, but you're disconnected from the Lord, but the increase of distress happens, Jesus says, if it surprises you, He knows the human frame. You can only process a small amount of distress, you can only process it in a bright way, a small amount at a time. He goes, if you ignore what's happening, but it keeps intensifying, and it hits you all at once, you're going to be overcome with fear. He goes, you don't want it to surprise you unexpectedly, you really, really don't. You want to interpret it little by little as it unfolds, one decade, the next decade it gets more intense, the next decade it gets more intense, but you're realigning with the Lord each season, you're going, Lord, I'm growing in understanding, I'm growing in strength, I'm growing in courage, I get it, I get it, I'm processing it little by little, He's saying that's the safe way to respond. Now there's many in the body of Christ, I want to say this tenderly, because Jesus wants the whole church to love the whole church, and I want to be a man that loves the whole church, every part and facet of the body of Christ, but there's a number of voices out there, sincere, I mean they love Jesus, they love the Bible, but they're promoting a real wrong idea, it's dangerous, it's a serious error, not a casual error, the things are just going to get better, don't worry about it, that is a disastrous error, believers that buy into that, ten years from now it will be far worse than it is now, ten years later, far worse, believers are going, wait, wait, wait, I thought there was going to be, you know, a reprieve and everything would be back to normal. Many of them, they'll start questioning, is the Word of God even real? Is Jesus really a God of love? And though I know a lot of guys out there that want to be positive, they're wanting people to feel good today, but I would rather you buy into reality, be prepared today, yes, the greatest revival in history is coming, yes, but beloved, the greatest distress and increase of darkness is also coming right now, and they're both escalating at the same time. I don't want to be, as one preacher said, a wide-eyed optimist, or a muddy-eyed pessimist, I want to be a wide-eyed realist, I want to be real about what's happening. I'm not looking to make people feel good at a meeting, like, glory to God, it's going to be happy, I'm going to be rich and famous and happy and everything will go well. I go, I don't know that it's going to come down that way. Let's read it again. Verse 25, there will be distress of nations. He meant to alert us. This is not a distress like all the other nations. This isn't like, you know, there's five years of difficulty, then we go back to normal. We are never going back to how it was in the 1980s and 1990s. The world is going to get darker and darker and more hostile against the gospel. If you know that, I love what Francis Chan shared today. We gird our mind for this, and we're not offended when it comes out that way. Verse 26, he said, do you think, he says, I want you to know, the distress of the nations is dangerous. But verse 26, there's something more dangerous than the external distress. It's the internal defilement and confusion, because if you fail with fear, you will lose connect with me. Beloved, fear is dangerous because it will make people respond to Jesus' leadership in a really inappropriate way. When even sincere believers are overcome with fear, I don't mean a moment of fear or a short season of their uncertain, but I mean they're overcome with fear. They won't respond. They will be unresponsive to the Lord. And Jesus is saying, that's not good. I am your only hope. I am the King of the nations. Verse 28, when these things begin, there's a generation in which these things begin. Now they've been happening in part all through history, but he means in an accelerated way, in a way that's recognizable globally and accelerating. There's a beginning of that generation. He says, when you see it happen, don't fail with fear. Look up. Don't only look out at the nations. Yes, we got to look out and see. We got to be aware of what's happening, but look up. Many believers will only look out and they'll go, oh no, oh no. They told me it was only going to get better. What's happening? Maybe Jesus isn't really involved. Maybe the word isn't true. Maybe he's not a God of love. Oh my God, how could this happen? He goes, no, no, no. Don't just look out. Look up. He goes, lift up your heads. Be encouraged. You're in the most glorious time frame of human history. The gospel will go to the nations. The power of God will be ministered through the church. The church will walk in victory and purity like no time in history for people like us, weak people. He goes, your redemption draws near. Verse 32, this generation, the generation in which it began, which it increased and which it came to completion, that generation will not pass away. He goes, but, verse 34, tenderly, I don't think he's, he's rebuking anybody. It's not the tone of a harsh command. I believe as a shepherd, he's going, oh, please listen to me, my beloved. Pay attention to what's happening in your heart because the danger on the inside is more serious than the danger on the outside. Because if you stay connected to me and the darkness out there increases, you're going to be, you can walk in greatness in my sight and in victory. Take heed. Let your hearts be weighed down. If you get weighed down, you'll get unresponsive. And he says three words, three categories in which the hearts are weighed down. And again, on my extended notes on the internet and on the app, I developed these a bit more and I'm not going to take time with that tonight. Carousing, drunkenness, and the cares of life. And he said, and the day, he's talking about the day of his return, but not only that, because in the Bible, the day of his return and the trends leading up to that day are connected in the Bible, many places, the day and the events leading to the day is one grand reality. He says, you don't want the trends and the events leading to the day and the day itself to surprise you. You don't want to be uninformed. You don't want to be taken off guard. You don't want to suddenly figure out that you've not been processing what's happening according to truth and your hearts are overwhelmed with fear and you're weighed down with lust, trying to escape the pain and the pressure through abuse of alcohol or, or immorality or other things, trying to get free of the pain. The Lord says that's not the way out. That's a disaster for your life spiritually and the consequences are very seriously serious eternally. Verse 35, for the day will come like a snare, like a trap. Some people say, well, my part of the earth, I believe in God, it's not coming. Well, you can't in the name of Jesus rebuke the word of Jesus. Jesus said it's coming on the whole earth. Now, having said that, there are parts of the earth of which darkness will be far greater measure and some parts of the earth where the light will be a far greater measure. And I believe that part of that is in the hands of the people of God responding in prayer in obedience to the Lord. I believe there's parts of the earth where the saints are moving into God's heart, crying out in intercession, responding in faith and obedience and the glory of God will be greater in that part of the earth, that region. I don't know the boundaries of that. It's for me in my house and I don't just mean my physical house, I mean my spiritual family. We're believing God for an increase of glory even in an hour where darkness will pervade across the earth. He said, verse 36, watch and pray that you would be counted worthy. Again, there's a hundred English translations of the Bible, a hundred. The King James uses the phrase, pray that you'll be counted worthy. I think that's a wrong idea. Almost all the other English translations translate it, pray that you would be strengthened. The idea is that your hearts would be strengthened. Like the verse we looked at in Daniel, in that day, the people that know their God will be strong and do exploits, Daniel 11, 32. He said they'll be strengthened. They will escape all of these things. And what he means by escape, they won't fall weighed down by the trap of sin and lust and fear. They won't yield to sin and lust and fear. They will escape the trap that the enemy is laying in the nations. They will stand. They won't fall, they will stand. They will walk in victory. Weak people like us can stand. The grace of God is sufficient. They won't be weighed down. They'll stand bold, confident while the darkness is increasing. Now some people interpret verse 36, that if they watch and pray, they'll escape, meaning they'll be raptured. So they'll stand before God in heaven. I don't believe that's at all what he's talking about in this verse. He's not talking about escaping the trouble. He's talking about escaping the trap and being weighed down and falling in fear. He's not talking about standing in heaven after you're raptured. He's talking about standing in victory in this hour of history. Well, the main part of this passage is that he's telling his people to prioritize, prioritize, growing in the grace of God. That's the real essence. And again, Jesus is focusing on the negative in Luke 21 mostly. Other passages focus on the positive. We looked at Daniel 11 and 12 the other day. Most of it is positive. Some passages emphasize positive. Jesus here emphasized the negative. Why? He's saying, I want you alerted. I want you taking this seriously. I don't want you dismissing and saying, well, it's not a big deal. If things will be fine. He goes, no, this is serious. And if you process it little by little, your understanding grows, your experience of the strength and grace grows. The distress is growing. You're lining up and recalibrating your heart with God. You're reconnecting. He goes, you're going to be fine. But if you ignore all this and suddenly it is increased, you're going to be disillusioned. You're going to be confused. You're going to wonder if my truth is even, the Bible is even the truth. You're going to question whether I'm really a God of love. He goes, you don't need to do that. Line up with me little by little as the years unfold and it will make more sense as it unfolds. I'm watching an increase in the nations. Let's look at this phrase, the distress of nations. Let's look at that phrase in verse 25, 2015, this last 12 months. There have been seismic shifts in the earth, socially and spiritually, politically, military, all of these ways. I don't mean little shifts, seismic shifts in the last 12 months. Events have happened that will prove to be catalytic in a negative way to a rapid escalation of darkness on the planet. Now if you're not paying attention, if you don't have much spiritual discernment, you might look at the events and go, hey, didn't seem like that big a deal. Ten years from now, we'll look back at 2015 as a year of seismic shifts towards negative in the earth. Now there's many expressions of the distress that's going to happen in the decades ahead, but let me highlight very briefly two or three or four of the major events of 2015 that we will look back in 10 years and see they were catalytic. I mean they were events that created massive changes over the next 10 years for darkness, but they don't look that big now if you're not paying attention. Number one, and this is only like four or five of a number. I'm not giving a whole category. I'm going to cover a lot more of this in the Signs of the Times course in February, March, and April this year. I want to encourage you to get the notes and track along with us. Crisis, crisis event number one that I want to highlight, the Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage. That will go down as a day of infamy, one of the most disastrous, dangerous, destructive decisions in America's history. That one decision, it looks like at the surface, why do we care about what somebody does in the privacy of their bedrooms? That's not what I'm concerned with, what someone does in the privacy of their bedroom. That's not at all what I'm focused on. This decision, June 26, you need to learn that date. It will be one of the most significant dates in America's history for negative. Immorality was institutionalized in America. What do I mean by that? Because of that one decision, our entire culture and our legal system will demand by laws from that day forward that the gay agenda is systematically presented in all the elementary schools across the nation year by year. That's unbelievable, the negative consequences of that in 10 or 20 years. Millions of seven and eight year old boys and girls being presented with ideas that are normalized to them that will cause emotional and sexual chaos to explode in our nation in the next 10, 20 years. I have a heart for people that are struggling in the issue of identity and gay agenda and all this. I have tremendous compassion and love for people that are gay, tremendous love. I'm not talking about them. I'm not going to brace them and love them. I want them a part of what I'm doing. I want to know them and understand and talk with them. I want to show them the love of God and the way out of the confusion and where the disorientation in their life is. That's one subject. But now because of this one law, the gay agenda will be systematically presented to all the elementary kids in the years to come in many, many different ways that I think some of you cannot imagine where this is going. For instance, I'll mention a 12 minute video. You can look it up later. It's called Trans Norway. And in this video, they are exposing the destruction of the gay agenda in the public school systems by law. They're showing that many public schools, Norway now in France and in Germany, it's growing rapidly. It's not everywhere, but it's growing quickly and it will come to America. They take the six, seven, eight year old boys and girls. They have dolls with the genitals exposed and they mix and match them in every combination possible. Then they explained all the options to six and seven, eight year olds with toys. Then when they're 12, they're doing this right now. They interview them. Little 12 year old boy, 12 year old girl. It's a formal interview. When did you choose to be heterosexual? The boy goes, choose to be. I don't know what you mean. When did you choose to have that orientation? And the guy's going, I don't know. I don't understand. Well, that was your choice. Did you choose it because of pressure? Are you open to being homosexual? Is it fear or is it something you just don't desire? And it's this whole litany of questions. They're bringing the entire school system through systematically. That will be in America before long, minus a miracle intervention of God. I'm not talking up again what people do in the privacy of their homes. I'm talking about a bylaw systematic presentation through the school systems with the internet explosion, the portification of our culture, where we are in the portification of our culture. This decade is much more severe than 10 years ago. Beloved, it will be much more severe in 10 or 20 years. Well, it's not just the Supreme Court decision mandates the systematic presentation of it through all the textbooks. There's 25 examples of other implications I'm not going to go into. I'm just letting you know this is a massive decision that will affect your children in a very, very dramatic way. Also, the laws are being added, multiplied quickly, that if you stand for God's Word, what it says about marriage and sexuality and truth, it will be a hate crime with severe penalties. And those laws, they're just whispering right now. They're just slipping out of the gate 10 years from now without a major intervention. It will be, they will criminalize believing and telling your five-year-old that Jesus is the only way to heaven and there is a real hell and there really are biblical values. Parents will actually lose their children taken by state agencies for abusing their children by teaching them those doctrines. That's where this is going. This wasn't a whisper back in June 26. That was a dramatic shout that's going to shift America in a way that, beloved, the times are changing dramatically. That's one way I could go on and on on that subject. Number two, crisis. Again, you could go five hours on this. I'll go 30 seconds. The economic crisis. That is such a big subject. Beloved, we are in a place in the nations of 2015 very different from the crisis of 2008. There is no more bailout plan. Nations are going bankrupt like Greece are on the verge of it. Half of the states in America are on the verge of bankruptcy, but they're not legally letting them do it. What that's going to do, did you know that 50 percent, 300 million, well it's 320, over 300 million Americans, 50 percent of all of Americans are on 50 percent, it's more, on government entitlements. They get government money every month. 50 percent of Americans. When the economic rubber band breaks, the entitlements are going to be withheld. When those entitlements are withheld, there will be chaos in the cities of America. There's 20 implications of that. I don't want to go into that. We're in a sexual darkness escalation, an economic crisis escalation. Entitlements will be withheld and the chaos that will come in the streets and riots in many different ways related to that. Again, I'm just giving a snapshot. I'm not giving a responsible, thorough presentation, but give you an idea. Number three, the nuclear, the Iran nuclear deal. Incredible the implications of negative of that. That deal that was established last summer will create a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Terrorist groups, not just ISIS, they will end up with nuclear weapons, with a terrorist agenda. They will force Israel into a preemptive strike mode to save the nation of Israel and then Israel will be presented in the nations as the aggressor of a world war. The enemy is fueling anti-Semitism in the nations. And beloved, the people of God that understand the Bible, they're standing with God's purposes for the nation of Israel. I know some of you say, I don't get that, but in the next days, months, years, pay attention to this subject. It's a vast subject. It's not a peripheral subject. Anti-Semitism is exploding in the nations in a remarkable way and the nuclear arms deal is going to cause that thing to go straight up in escalation. Well, I could go on and on. Look at paragraph F. I'm not going to cover all this. It's got a couple more minutes. Jesus said in verse 35, this thing will come like a snare on all the nations. Now, the function of a snare or a trap, you can use any words you want, snare or trap. In the ancient world, they didn't go to the grocery store and buy five pounds of hamburger and go home and cook it. They didn't have guns. They had to capture their animals by snares or traps. So this is a very common illustration everybody understood. Now there's two functions, well more than that, but I'm going to highlight two, of a trap. Number one function, a trap is hidden. The animal walks the path and they don't know it's there. That's what the nature of a trap is. It's hidden. The second function of a trap is that when it grabs the animal, it holds them and they can't get free. I mean they're pulling and pulling. They can't get out if the trap gets them. This is a very intense analogy that Jesus used. He said the traps are being laid all over the nations by the enemy. The horse as the stress, the economic pressures, the terrorism, the entitlements that being taken. This entitlement thing is happening in many nations, not just America. The sexual confusion and chaos loosed on the nation with tremendous darkness increasing related to it is going to create a whole generation across nations, not just the Western culture, everywhere, of people filled with fear, hooked on immorality, without money, fear of terrorism, war breaking out. They're doing this and they're not easy to get along with. Jesus said this trap will get them and it will hold them and they can shake free but they can't get free on their own strength. He said that's, He's talking to the church. He says, and you think because you've received my forgiveness for your sins to go to heaven for free that you can't be vulnerable to these traps? He's talking not to the lost, He's talking to the church. Paragraph G, from verse 34, Jesus highlighted three emotional snares that are common. These will be three of the most common emotional traps in the nations. Each one of these three categories has many subcategories. Jesus is not being comprehensive, giving every breakdown. He said, I'll give you the three main categories and they all have many, many subcategories under them and I have a little more detail on the website without spending time on it tonight. He said these three will weigh down hearts of believers. I want to say it again, He's not talking right now primarily to the lost, although the lost can hear this and go, wow, this is helpful. He's talking to His people. He's talking to the church, being weighed down, overcome with fear. Category number one, the King James uses the word carousing. Again, I don't think that's the best word. Most all translations, English translations, use the word dissipation. And the idea, it's an idiom for lustful physical pleasure. Lustful physical pleasure is the idea. But the overarching idea, it's lustful pleasures that dissipate or diminish. Dissipate and diminish, you can use it interchangeably. They diminish our strength. They steal our spiritual strength. The reason he points to this, the number one expression of this carousing or dissipation, not the only one, but the number one is immorality. And the sexual darkness through the internet, the new legislation, the next 10, 20 years, technology is going to increase beyond anything we can imagine in the next 10 or 20 years. Immorality will be at a level in the school systems, in the media, in the open market everywhere in 10 or 20 years with demonic activity at a whole nother level than we are anticipating right now. Beloved, this will be the easiest hour of history to get free of pornography right now in this hour. Playing around with pornography, and then you go into your dating relationship and both of them are dabbling with pornography or more, and then all that happens in that Christian relationship, it's disaster. But I tell you this, there's grace, there's forgiveness, there's mercy, there's a way out. But it will never be easier to get free than it is now because the pornification of our culture is going to be far more intense. And what Jesus is really marking here, pointing out, the people will be overwhelmed with fear, economic chaos, terrorism, immorality everywhere, confusion, many other types of distress. I'm only mentioning a few. Weather patterns, social breakdowns. They'll just be like, where's this going? Where's this going? History is like a train off the tracks. And the Lord goes, no, no, I'm the Lord of history. I know what I'm doing. You're the only people of the earth, the born-again church, that is in relationship to the king of history. He goes, I'm your king. I'm your beloved God. You're not lost. I'm with you. Talk to me. Look up. Don't just look out. But many will go to immorality to find relief from the pressure and the confusion, and they will get deeper in darkness by that way of escape from pressure. Jesus said, it's not innocent. It will destroy you. You will be with me in the end is where this is going. He's telling many people, take this deadly seriously. Number two, drunkenness. The abuse of alcohol in a way beyond measure. I mean that's exploding in the church right now, but it's going to be far more intense when the pressure intensifies. The cares of life. Again, I got more of this on the website. I'm just going to be brief. The cares of life. This is probably the most common snare of all. Being overcome with the idea of being mistreated. The cares of life. I didn't get the position I should have. I didn't get the honor. I didn't get the attention. I didn't get the privileges. They didn't treat me right. I don't have the place that I should have. That whole mindset is exploding. And of course, social media is making it far more intensified. Francis Chan identified this so clear this morning. People not giving me what I deserve, the easily offended, the strife, the bitterness, the tension in relationships. What it makes people do is say, I'd just rather quit. Instead of all the exasperation of these hurt relationships. I'm not hurt. I'm not honored. I'm not treated right. I'm just quitting. And many people are quitting based on that. Beloved, it's one of the three snares. How many people I've talked to? I'm not interested in the church. That's how the church treats people. Well, that's how everyone's treating people. They quit because they're exasperated, because they didn't get treated with the honor. They have so much care about that in an inordinate way. That is the most common. That is the most subtle, meaning you people do that with dignity thinking it's okay. They think it's me and mine and my rights. What do you mean? Of course it's okay. And they'll walk themselves right out of the grace of God with all the arguments of why they're right and why they're so mistreated. Jesus said, deny yourself. Get your identity from me. Trust me to break in and settle the issues. Pick up the heart of the servant. Take up your cross. Everything opposite of the cultural conversation of how people process how they get what they want. Top of page two, he gives two exhortations. Verse 34, take heed. Take heed. Pay attention to your heart. Exhortation, Jesus is not rebuking. I see him bending over tenderly. Please, please listen. I won't do that for you. You have to initiate this. When my grace moves you, you have to respond. I won't do this part for you. You have to say, Lord, I want my heart under your leadership and sign up over and over again. That's taking heed. He says there's dark seeds, seeds of lust, seeds of fear, seeds of I'm so mistreated, I'm a victim. If those seeds are not addressed, they won't disappear on their own. That's what he's telling them. They won't just go away. Those seeds will grow and you will be consumed by fear and lust and selfishness. He goes, please understand this thing will crush you if you let those seeds of darkness grow in you. Paragraph C, the second exhortation, the second exhortation, watch and pray. Now I remember reading this like 40 years ago, going, he said the nations are in distress and all he said is watch and pray. Come on, Jesus, you're the smartest man that ever walked the earth. You're the most tender shepherd. Surely you have more to say than that. I was a little blown away, negative. I went, I know I'm not very smart and you're real smart, but surely you ought to have a couple verses on store up water or something. I don't know, but watch and pray. He goes, yeah, watch and pray. Like really? Paragraph one. And again, I got a much, much more of this on the website that I'm not going to go into now, but if this is alerting you, I want to encourage you to read the larger teaching on it on the website and develop your understanding of this passage. That's really what I'm pressing is that you would take Luke 21 in a very serious way and say, I'm going to know this passage. He says, watch. What's he mean by watch? He means watch, literally watch like you watch a football game. Watch what is happening in society that correlates with what Jesus prophesied. He goes, when you watch, you see it. What happens when you see it? You start talking about it. You know, you get a sports fan or you get a meet, you know, in the music industry fan. You get, if you watch the game, you talk about the game. You watch it and you're really engaged. You talk to people, you bond to people around it. What Jesus is saying, watch. And as you see what he prophesied correlate with what's happening in society, and there's many, many examples of it, that's the subject, the signs of the times. He goes, there's something powerful will happen. As you see what he prophesied correlates, you go, oh my goodness. We're in that hour of history. Oh my goodness. The king is unfolding his plan. Oh my goodness. And you start talking and then your friends start talking. You start bonding with people around what is happening in Jesus's leadership and his plan. I have found in our own spiritual community here, as I watch and others watch and we talk, there becomes a common bond of urgency and intensity to go after God because you talk about what you watch. And it grows in our heart. Then he says, paragraph two, pray. Watch appeals to our mind where our understanding is growing of what's happening. Pray appeals to our strength and our intimacy with God. But not only do we grow in intimacy with God during the process, through prayer we release the power of God, which is part of the solution to the darkness. He goes, whatever you do, don't draw away from talking to me. Your heart will be strong and you'll release the power of God into your situation. Beloved, this is the worst hour of history to be prayerless. This is the worst hour of history to be bored in your prayer life. I'm going to have the worship team come on up. I'll finish this last moment or two as they're coming up or preparing. Now I find some Christians watch. They're very aware of what the Bible said about that generation and they're watching it and they're getting excited and they're getting urgent and they're bonding to people. They go, oh my. But they don't pray. They watch but don't pray. I know other groups. They pray but they don't have any idea about what the Bible says prophetically about that generation. They go, I just pray. This Lord will take care of it. And the Lord says, I told you to watch. I told you to pay attention to the things I prophesied. Lord, I pray. I don't want to watch. He says, I want you to do both. Beloved, I want to be with a community of believers that are watching and praying because here's why. Because then there's 100, 200, 300, 500. I don't care what the number is, but it's people. They're watching. So they watch the distress increase. Their urgency increases. Their understanding increases. So they're not overcome with fear. They go, wow. This is, this is the greatest hour in history for the church. And they're talking. They're bonding. They're in community. They're in prayer. So they're experiencing the power of God. They're releasing the power of God. Beloved, groups like that and they're all over the world. They're all over Asia and Africa. God is raising up these groups that watch and pray as they fulfill the great commission and the commands of the gospel. But then when the crisis increases, instead of isolating in a cave, they're in a place of peace. They're in a place of unity with each other. They're in a place of confidence and in the place of confidence and unity and community and peace, the Holy Spirit can give you insight for the local disaster that hits your area. It's like Jesus is saying, I don't have to outline all the local disasters. If you're with a group of people, you're in peace, you're in community, you're watching, you don't have fear driving you. You'll be able to hear God's solution together. Jesus, the great pastor, absolutely knew what He was talking about when He said, watch and pray. He wasn't dumbing it down in a simplistic way. He said, this will be the most essential thing you can do as a New Testament community of believers. I'll end with this. I don't want to be part of the confusion of that hour of history. I want to be with people that are part of the solution. I don't want to be a people overwhelmed with fear and confusion and offense. I thought you were a God of love. How dare you let this get to this place, God in the nations? Many believers will be contributing to the confusion in the decades ahead. I don't know, I'm freaked out, has somebody helped me? I mean, I appreciate all that, but I want to be with people that can be part of the solution. I want to come and help people. I want to raise up young people that know how to stay connected to the Lord, connected to each other. They know the biblical narrative. They know what's happening. They're not retreating in fear. They're moving forward boldly in faith and in the power of God together. Amen. Let's stand.