In this sermon, the preacher criticizes TV channels that focus on serving the Lord for personal gain and comfort. He emphasizes the need for sacrificial living and making a difference in the world. The preacher highlights the corruption and filth in society, which people have come to accept as normal. He urges the church to see the plan of God for their lives and to have their eyes opened to the truth. The sermon references 2 Corinthians 4 and emphasizes the importance of living clearly for Christ and spreading the light of the gospel.

And it's been in my heart, growing in my heart throughout the week. And then when I was listening to the way God is speaking through the gifts this morning, I thought, hmm, I think we're doing all right. I'd like to talk to us about spiritual blindness, or preventing it, being aware of it. In these days in which we are living, I am very persuaded that we are living in the final closes, the final hours, the chapters, the final chapters of the history of the Church. I am pretty persuaded that Jesus Christ will be coming back fairly soon. I'm also persuaded that the devil is alive. Maybe not much longer, but he's alive right now. And I think there's a lot of Christians who live as though the devil isn't alive, and that he doesn't have any plans. Unfortunately, he does. And he has some very vicious and sadistic plans. Spiritual blindness, it's an amazing thing, because when we don't see spiritual things, we are completely absorbed with natural things. And the easiest thing for the devil to do is to get man so consumed with natural things that he loses sight and cannot see what's happening in the realm of the spirit, the real things that are happening, the real events that are taking place, the storms that are beginning, the clouds that are beginning to gather over our planet as we prepare for the last great spiritual battle. That's going to change everything. When Noah was building the ark, he obviously had a whole crew of people helping him. I would think a hundred or more. And cutting trees, curing the wood, helping him plane the planks. He didn't do it by himself. He had a crew of men. And all the time, he's telling them why he's doing it. He's warning them about an event to come. And not one of them joined him on that ark. Not one of those people that helped him. No one in the community. The Bible says that this man of righteousness that grieved him as he preached, as he built the ark, as he shared about the events to come, nobody in his community could see what Noah saw. They only saw the natural. It had never rained. They only ever saw the natural. And they, in fact, despised the spiritual. Until the day came, the fullness of times came, and the Bible says that God put Noah in the ark and God closed the door. And then the rain came. And that little ark floated off into the future, that little ark of refuge and safety, the church. Amen? That's what we are. That's why God's preparing us. That's what we are on the earth today, that little ark of refuge and safety, despised by the world because we see something that they don't see. We are preparing our lives for something they don't understand. We're beginning to feel knocked together and cobbled together for the events that are about to happen because of what God has prepared our hearts for. There's a very interesting story in the rebuilding of the temple in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah. People are released under Ezra from captivity, and they come back to Jerusalem, and the first thing Ezra does is get them to build an altar and restore the sacrifice to bring repentance back, to bring back a place where they will bring their hearts before God once again in true repentance. Shortly after that, they lay the foundation of the temple. And if you read Ezra, the old people wept because they could remember the significance of the temple that was lost, but they could see the new one, and they were so excited. And then persecution came. And the tribes living around started to persecute them and to resist, and so the work stopped. And the people got distracted, and they started to build their own houses. And then Haggai came. Ezra was still there. Haggai came. And the book of Haggai is dedicated to Haggai speaking, to God speaking to the Jewish people and saying, Why do you build yourselves paneled houses when my house lies in ruins? Why? Because spiritual things are more important to God than natural things. The natural things follow. But very often the people of God are distracted, and it's easy. These people had come home. They had come back from Babylon. They were excited to rebuild their houses. They were trying to get their farms going. They were trying to reestablish themselves. And yet God knew, unless the things of the Spirit are in place, the things of the natural are not going to work properly. So Haggai comes along, and he challenges them. And he speaks to them, and their hearts are reinvigorated. And what do they do? They get together. They see again in the Spirit. They see the plan of God in the Spirit. They see the purpose of God in the Spirit. And what do they do? They build the temple. But the walls of Jerusalem are still in ruins. A few years later, along comes who? Mr. Nehemiah. And he walks around, and he sees that the people have no protection. The city is in ruins. But the people can't see it. And he starts to talk to them, and he inspires them. And if you read the book of Nehemiah, you find that the most unlikely people were involved. The people above us are the perfumers. And I read there, and it gives the guys' names, and they were perfumers. You know, I don't think a man that works with perfume has tough, rugged hands. You know? You don't get that impression that he's at the gym very often. And here it says, these guys, they were building the wall in front of their house. Everybody gave their lives for what lay in front of them to do. And in 52 days, the walls were completed. Now, here's the significance. If you look at the chronological sequence of these books, Malachi is the last prophet. Malachi was there just after that. When the walls of Jerusalem were completed, the Old Testament stopped. That is the end of the Old Testament. Although in your book, in your Old Testament, there are many books after Nehemiah, in dating, in chronological order, Nehemiah is the end of it. When God built the walls of Jerusalem for the next 400 years, there was no prophet. God knew. He had to put the temple in order and put the walls around to protect his people because there's going to be a gap. But the next thing that comes is Christ. We can't see sometimes why God is preparing us today for what lies in the future. We've got to understand why the emphasis is on the walls today, not understanding that our grandchildren, in their case, their grandchildren, needed the protection of those walls. That city had to stand for 400 years until Jesus came. The things of the spirit are more important to our lives than the natural things around about us. And yet the church, in many cases, has lost sight of the things of the spirit. And I think, I personally think that we are living in very dark and very dangerous days. I believe, personally it's my conviction, that the church has gone to sleep worldwide. And I don't think we understand the seriousness of the events that are knocking on our doorstep or the place of the church in the communities in which we live. And I really feel that with all that God is saying to us and the grace of God and the gospel that he's given to us, it's not for ourselves. The work that we talk about, the work of the cross, we talk about the giving our lives, I think so often, we've heard it so often, that we almost, we're too comfortable with it. We lose the significance of why God has challenged our lives the way he's challenged our lives. And I really believe that we've got to wake up a little bit. I think we've got to come to the place, not only as a church here in Selborne Park, but the Christian church all over the place. We've got to come to the place where we allow the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to see spiritual things. I'm going to come with me to a few scriptures. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 1. And really today I want to just talk to you, just to talk my heart, what I see, what I feel. In verse 15 of chapter 1, Paul is writing to the church and he says, Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. Paul had been in Ephesus for three years. He knew this church. But sometime later, they come to him and they speak to him, the men representing the church come, Epaphroditus comes and these guys, and they say to him, the church is well and the people are serving the Lord. And he says, I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus. I'm glad to hear that after I've been with you for three years, now I've been gone for maybe two years, whatever it is, I'm glad to hear that as a people you are standing well in the Lord. He's excited about it. He's complimenting them. Then he says the most amazing thing. And he says, And I do not cease to give thanks to you, making mention of you in my prayers. He says, And this is my prayer, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. This is to a church that's already serving the Lord. And that the eyes of your understanding may be opened and that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. In other words, you may be open to see the purpose of the church on the earth. That your eyes may be open to see why you're in the church. That your eyes may be open to see why God's called you. That your eyes may be open to see why the church and the role of the church in a community and why you are there. And the inheritance that God has given to you as Christians in the middle of the community. Who you really are. And then he goes on, as you look, read through Ephesians. Ephesians is a book that talks about the church. It talks about the church being the body of Christ. It speaks about him being the head and we being the body. It speaks about the fivefold ministry. Ephesians is a book that speaks about all the joints, the ligaments of the body being knit together so that we may come together and that we may be the extension of Christ in our community. He says this is a revelation. This is not a membership. You don't join the church. You become part of it. Do you understand that? And we can sit in church. We can hear the message. But we can be not part of the church in the spirit. And there's a big difference. And he's writing to these spiritual people. He's writing to these guys who've left paganism. He's writing to these guys who've come out of darkness. He's writing to these guys that have attested to the community. And if I was Paul, I would not write that to them. I'd write and say, I'm so glad to see you doing so well. You know, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, keep on serving the Lord. I mean, fantastic stuff. He looks at them and says, guys, I'm so happy for where you are. But I want to warn you. This is my prayer. That you will not lose sight of why you got saved. And you will not lose sight of the purpose of the church. And you will not lose sight that each one of you has a spiritual role and a significant role to play that God has called you to play in order for the church to function. And that's not coming on Sunday. There is a wisdom. Come with me to 2 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians. I'm just thinking where it is. 2 Corinthians, chapter 3. I'm going the wrong way. 2 Corinthians, chapter 3. And you'll see why I'm talking like this in a moment. In chapter 3, Paul is speaking about the veil that is taken away in the temple so that the people of Israel, Jewish people, could see when Christ came. Right? Verse 15. In fact, let's go back to verse 12. Therefore, since we have such a hope, we use great boldness of speech, unlike Moses who put a veil over his face so the children of Israel could not look steadfastly at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. For until this day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament because the veil is taken away in Christ. Now, it's interesting that the Jews read the Old Testament every week in synagogue and they never see Christ. Because they can't see. Amen? A little while ago, a couple of years ago, I had a Jewish friend in town, and I said to him, and he read Hebrew. I said, OK, I'll make a deal with you. I will come, and we will only discuss the Old Testament. And I will ask the questions, and you read the Hebrew Bible, and you explain to me from the Hebrew Bible the scriptures that I ask you. So he said, absolutely. I said, fine, gotcha. So we had two Tuesdays. First Tuesday we started, second Tuesday. And all I did was I went and I turned to the Messianic scriptures in the Old Testament. It's full of them. Hundreds and hundreds, plenty of scriptures that speak about Messiah coming. I know them, and I pulled them out one by one. And I'd read them and say to him, here it says in Isaiah, can you read it to me in the Hebrew, and can you explain it to me? So he would read it, and I'd say, all right, but doesn't it say this? Doesn't it mean that? And we would discuss it. The next one, we would discuss it. The second week I went back, and we'd been about 35 minutes talking, and I was reading a verse, I look up, and he's got off his chair, and he's kneeling on the floor. I said, what are you doing? He said, I want to receive Jesus as my Savior. He said, because it's clear when I read the Hebrew who the Messiah is. We never opened the New Testament once. Amen? Christ is revealed in the Old Testament, but there's a veil that covers their eyes so that when they read it, they don't see all the prophecies written by all the prophets that spoke about the Messiah and how he would come and live and die and rise again. The Jews knew them, and yet when he physically came, and he stood in their midst, and he did what the Bible said, and he died the way the Bible said, they could not see it. It's incredible. We can't judge them. Beware. We think if I was a Jew, and Jesus was standing there, and he was walking on the water and doing the miracles, and I knew the Old Testament, I'd be like, wow, Messiah, here we go, fantastic stuff, I'm in queue, let's go, Jesus. They killed the guy. Why? Spiritual blindness. I'll tell you what blindness does. Blindness makes, when truth comes, you resist it. It's uncanny. But when truth comes, truth threatens someone who's spiritually blind. You see it as an offense. In fact, I will come back to the Scripture in Corinthians anyway. Come with me to Matthew, look at this. I think it's Matthew chapter 15. Let's try Matthew chapter 15. If not, we'll try a few others. I found this one. Look here. Okay? Now, Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees here. And he says a few things, and he says how they changed the commandments of God because of their traditions. And they had created traditions in Jewish culture that were outside of the law of the Old Testament. And in verse 7, he says to the Pharisees, Jesus had a way of being very diplomatic when he spoke to them, very careful. He chose his words very well. So in verse 7, he says to them, Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying, These people draw near to me with their mouths, and they honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Then when he had called them all at you to himself, he said to them, Hear and understand. It's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles a man. Then his disciples came and said to him, Do you not know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? And Jesus said, Yes, I'm going back to apologize. I'm very sorry. And he answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind, leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into the ditch. Ha! That's not how you build a church. Amen? They were offended. He turned around and said, Guys, I want to help you. Your commandments, your traditions stink in the eyes of God. They've got nothing to do with God. You need to get right and go back to the law, go back to what you were raised in, go back to what the prophets said. You need to come back to a pure gospel. And they were offended. These were the spiritual leaders. And he said, Listen, I can't help them. If you follow a blind man, you'll both go in the ditch. So how can two blind people follow each other? He says, That's what blindness does. It causes an offense. Truth becomes blocked. They become resistant to when the Holy Spirit challenges a heart. That's what blindness does to the church. It does it to our lives. When the Holy Spirit knocks on our doors and challenges us about our state in any area whatsoever, watch your reaction. If you become offended with the gospel, beware that you are not blind. Beware that you're not holding on to tradition. Beware that you're not defending your pride. Beware that you're not holding your flesh in some way. Beware that you're not resisting God because He wants to break your heart. He wants to break through the wall of your flesh. He wants to bring you to freedom. Beware that a veil hasn't covered your heart as it covered the Jews' hearts. Now back to 2 Corinthians. Because we don't see. Verse 15 of chapter 3. Even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. He found 2 Corinthians. Now I can hear the pages turning. All right. It's in the New Testament, guys. Let's go there. Now, nevertheless, listen to this. When one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now he's talking about our flesh. He's talking about the heart being circumcised. He's talking about God doing something. He compares it to the Old Testament, to the temple. He says the veil was torn in two. They had access to the holy place. He said there's a veil that covers our heart. It needs to be taken away. Now the Lord is a spirit. And where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We all, with an unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into that same image from glory to glory just as by the spirit of the Lord. How has God got to transform us? Through the power of the Holy Spirit working in our hearts. How does the Holy Spirit work in our hearts? Through the altar. He brings us to repentance again and again and again. How do I come to that place? Day by day, what stands in front of me? The cross. I deny myself. It's only in self-denial. It's only in the place of surrender. It's only in the place where I'm willing to let my life go for the purposes of Christ that I begin to see things in the spirit. As long as we choose to hold our lives, we stay on the other side of the cross, we will stay partially blind in areas of our lives. True? Amen. Now look at chapter 4. Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. We have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, for handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. He says, we live clearly for Christ. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. Verse 6. For it is God who has commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Paul is very clear. He says the God of this world is able to blind the eyes of them who do not believe. Do you think that can apply to Christians too? Of course it can. If Satan can blind the eyes of sinners, do you think he can blind the eyes of Christians? Are you sure? Of course he can. And how does he do it? The quickest way to become blind is through sin. Yes? The quickest way for us to lose our spiritual sight is to start to get involved and practice iniquity and then justify it. Because the moment I get involved in doing things that are wrong, the Holy Spirit speaks to me and I have to resist the Holy Spirit. I have to harden my heart and it says in Timothy that I start to sear my conscience. And when I sear my conscience, what do I do? I make shipwreck of my faith. Faith is the means by which I serve the Lord. Faith is my spiritual eyes. Faith is the means by which I am able to stay in touch with Christ and give my life for these things. When I make shipwreck of my faith, I will turn somewhere else to be led. I will be led by my flesh. It's very easy. Once Christians start to play little games with sin and the enemy comes along and he starts to offer us tempting little morsels and we nibble at them thinking like Samson that we can play with it and be strong enough to endure it. Once I do that, I have to start to put away this life of self-denial, this life of separation and I have to start to sear my conscience. I have to go against the work of God and now I have to start to give myself more and more and more to a road of darkness. I start to become blind. Can the devil blind Christians? Yes, he can. Absolutely. Immorality. Immorality is one of his favorites because it's now in the world on every magazine, every movie as a normal lifestyle. It's no longer called immorality, is it? It's called normality. Come on. Everybody, every movie you can watch, every article you read, if a guy dates a girl and he goes out for supper, it's going to end up in bed somewhere. It's normal. It's how the world is. And so what happens in the church? A guy gets unfaithful and has a relationship with a woman outside of marriage. What's he going to do about it? He's going to bury it. He's going to pretend it didn't happen. He's going to want her to go away. He's going to hide it. He's going to justify it. He's going to do whatever he can. One, he likes it. Okay, peels his flesh. And two, he's got a problem because God's speaking to him and now he feels terrible and doesn't want to do this so he starts to play games with it. The moment that he touches that thing called immorality, he goes blind. He will stop serving the Lord. And until he comes to the point of the altar, he comes back to the place of true repentance. He comes back to the place where he seeks forgiveness and cleansing through the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. Only then will his sight come back. Do not think that we can play with immorality or we can play with theft or we can play with lies or we can play with deception and we can still see because we can't. It closes our eyes. We go to church, we hear the word, it doesn't penetrate. We sing songs, they are insignificant. We are a Christian on the outside but somewhere we've lost the pulse of the Spirit on the inside and we're now being led by the world, their values, their opinions and we become resistant to what God is saying. We become blind. And because we are blind, we can't see the church, we can't find our place in the church, we can't engage in the church in the Spirit. We actually are beginning to fall off the boat. If I wrote the story of Noah, I would have had one of the guys fall off. Amen? One of the worldly guys would have snuck on board and a wave would have washed him off because that will make good preaching later in this time and day and age. Do you understand? Mm-hmm. Do you believe Christians are going to deny their faith in the days to come? They are. Now, if you want to put a church to sleep and you're the devil, what would you do? What would you do? Make them comfortable. Yes? Wouldn't you? Offer them money. Come on. Make them comfortable. The more... And that's the whole thing. You read through the stories, these churches in Revelation. Half of them were comfortable. And so, if we are moving into the last days and the enemy knows that he's going to have to fight for his life, what's he going to do to the church? Put it to sleep. Mm-hmm. Fast asleep. And so, how do you anesthetize a church? By giving them cash. Come on. Because when they have cash, what do they do? They love money. And they love material things and they become comfortable. And so, the church starts to seek after natural things and takes its eye off spiritual things and neither will they pay a price. A comfortable Christian will never pay a price for something spiritual because his doctrine teaches him that God wants him comfortable. Do I make sense? So, how many of you, how many channels on your TV station are comfort, comfort he, my people? Come on. Every single 90% of those TV channels are telling you what? God is giving you, serve the Lord and get money. Serve the Lord for comfort. Serve the Lord for blessing. Serve the Lord for something. Every time the guy says, it's a plan of God that you prosper. It's a plan of God that you have a job. It's a plan of God that you have a ministry. It's a plan of God that you have a career. Everything is about what God can do for you. And so, the church today is anesthetized to any form of sacrificial living. It's anesthetized to any form of let's get up and make a difference. It's all hearing, I want. I'm a spoiled little child. There's plenty of Christians, but where are they in the spirit? Faster sleep. Not only are they fast asleep, they are dangerously asleep. Because when the time comes, they will not hear the sound of the trumpet. They will not be ready to bear arms. They've lost the purpose of the church. They've lost the significance of the church. They will not be prepared to deny the world and stand up for Christ. They would rather deny their faith and keep their comfort. So, the prosperity gospel comes straight out of the pit of hell. And don't ever think it doesn't. It has anesthetized the church. It has caused splits. It has caused divisions. And it has raised a generation of people in this world who have lived for materialism and have very little passion for Christ. Number one. That is entrenched. That prosperity gospel is entrenched in every charismatic Pentecostal church almost in the world. Do you understand? There are pockets of people who are resisting it. But basically, it's the modern theology of today. And if someone stands up and challenges it, he's called a heretic. So much. Don't say that. You're going to rock our boat and disturb our comfort. Here's the danger. God is building an ark. He's building a spiritual church. And He has to build a church. And hear me very clearly. We need to have our eyes wide open and understand why we need to be ready to give our lives and be part of the church He's building because of the days that are coming upon us and they're coming fast. The other great deception in the world today is humanism based on evolution. Evolution is not a science. It is the gospel of an atheist. But evolution by itself, those taught in all the schools, has many tentacles like an octopus. It has affected the whole thinking of the modern Western world because that's their gospel. And it's hidden behind the idea of human rights. So under evolution and the teaching of humanism, there's no such thing as righteousness and right and wrong because you might offend someone's rights. Yes? So therefore, all this gay marriage and this gay movement is a human right. It's right to live in iniquity. That's what they're saying. It doesn't matter because under humanism God doesn't exist. And if God doesn't exist, there's no right and there's no wrong. So if you live in debauchery, as long as you're not affecting somebody else, it's your right. Now so far we have lived a protected world in a protected environment here in Zimbabwe. Because right now, at this point in time, if I was preaching in the UK, I'll be going to jail. Right now. There'd be a police officer walking in the back door saying, you have just offended the gay community. Off you go. The fact that they're offending God doesn't matter. I mustn't offend them. I mustn't tell them that they might go to hell. They will go to hell. There's no might about it. Do you understand me? But the humanism affects the way the church sees things. It creeps into the church. And so the values of the world slowly creep into the church until we are afraid to confront issues because we might rock the boat. Church is not about debate. Sin is not about debate. Holiness with God. You know, I hear this story all the time. God is a God of love and therefore He wouldn't judge somebody. Beware. He might just do that. Okay? Take the word might out. He will just do that. Amen? As much as God is a God of love, what does the Bible say about Christ? He has a sceptre of righteousness. He hates lawlessness. If you haven't understood the holiness of God and you understand the terror of the presence of God, you are blind. A blind man thinks that he can play games with a holy God. You cannot. It's His grace that we are spared His wrath. You understand that? It's His mercy that we are spared the consequence of our sins. That's love. His love has redeemed us. His love has brought us to a place of righteousness and holiness. Don't twist it round the other way. Don't think that we can take the Almighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and we can challenge His authority and live in iniquity. But a blind church will. And so sin is rampant in the Christian church. Why? Because we've adopted humanism as part of our thinking. We are blind. Those are those two. Now there's a third one that troubles me. And it's troubling me more and more. And for this one, there's three quarters of the world I can't say what I'm going to say right now. And that is Islam. Okay? Hear me very, very carefully. The greatest danger to the church, the greatest danger, is not the prosperity gospel and it's not humanism. It's Islam. Islam has the fastest growing religion in the world. Islam is going to grow and it's prophesied. It's written in the Old Testament. It's written through all the prophets. And it's clear. Islam is going to grow to the point where it's going to, will probably kill one third of the people alive on this planet. Islam has a very simple policy. If you do not convert, they will chop your head off. Simple. If you don't bow your knee to Allah, shlack. Okay? In a few years time, France, England, Norway, Spain, Sweden, could well become Islamic nations. Already, the Muslims dominate a percentage of the population. The birth rates, just normally, in those countries are so low that they are breeding themselves out of existence and the Muslims already have a huge foothold in those countries. They rejected the gospel and they're embracing Islam in the idea of moderate Muslims have a right in our country. Watch your news. If you see riots, watch who's causing the riots. Mainly, Muslims. Watch the Middle East. Gaddafi's gone. Everyone says, yippee. Who's going to replace him? A Muslim government that very shortly will become radical Muslim government. Who's replacing the guy in Egypt? A moderate government or a... See, the moderate Muslims took charge in Egypt. Do you watch the news? Or don't you? Are you watching and thinking, that's Egypt. What's on for the football? Dang. Stop watching football. I don't care what happens in football. When these riots are taking place in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood said, we are not going to get involved. You guys carry on. Two weeks ago, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt had a rally and they stood in Cairo, 50,000 of them, and they said, Egypt is going to become a radical Muslim country. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Iran, Syria, Yemen, sweep down into... What happened in Turkey the other day? They had democratic elections, didn't they? Who won the democratic elections? The ADF or ADPs. The Muslims. Radical Muslims. Turkey has been a friend of NATO and a friend of Israel until recently. It's going to change. It's already changed. Turkey is already negotiating new peace treaties and pacts with radical Muslim countries. Now, go and read Ezekiel chapter 38 and read Ezekiel chapter 39 and read it very carefully because what it speaks of is there. When it speaks of Gog and Magog, Meshach and Jubal, it's Turkey. It's not Russia. It's not Germany. It's Turkey. The alliance of Ezekiel 38 is just about to be fulfilled. And what's going to happen? Listen to me carefully. You're going to see radical Islamic governments come in and replace these dictators. And the cry of all Muslims is a united Islamic front. It's called a government. It's like a... All the Muslims unite under one governing body. It's called a caliphate. And the head of that is called a caliph. He's like their pope. In 1924, the Ottoman Empire was destroyed and the last caliph stopped operating. And Islam has been without a head for a hundred years nearly. In a very, very short space of time, you're going to see something amazing happen. You're going to see an Islamic front formed. All these countries are going to get together and say, we all want peace. We must start fighting each other. And so a caliphate is going to be formed. And it can come out will be a caliph. The day that happens, go and fetch yourself an AK-47. You're going to need it. The day that happens, the Islamic community will start to... has the official mechanism spiritually to declare jihad on the Western world like never before. Islam is gaining power. They want to convert Africa into Islamic continent. Their goal was by the year 2000. Don't be surprised if you do not see Islam knocking on the doors. What would you do if in the next five years this country became an Islamic nation? You say it won't happen. It could happen in Malawi in the next six weeks if you... Do you understand? It's already affecting Kenya. It's already affecting Tanzania. Half of the South African government is connected with Islam. You don't get moderate Muslims. They're moderate only today. They're not moderate in the sense of permanent. They're moderate only in the sense of we're nice to you today but tomorrow as we gain power we have no choice. You either convert or we kill you. It's just like that. I'm still moderate. And so when Islam rises and what's going to happen? Watch the world markets and watch the crash of the European economies and watch the sudden acceleration of power of Islam. Why? Because Satan has one goal. The destruction first of all of Israel and secondly of Christianity. And an army is going to be formed and it is going to march. I'm not going to go into any more than that but I'm telling you to watch Islam. And the danger is this. The church is too weak to resist it. In America right now they're having services all over the states where their pastors are putting Korans next to Bibles behind the pews. And they've got let's embrace Muslim as our sister religion. I can give you a list. Someone sent me a list the other day of hundreds and hundreds of churches that are embracing Islam as a sister faith. Rather put a scorpion or a snake in your bed but don't do that because tomorrow it's going to come to a point where the Muslims will rise up and say Allah is God. What do you say about it? And most Christians when the American economy crashes and the western economy goes bang and all those Christians living there are going to turn around and say but God told me I could live in prosperity I could live in comfort I could live in ease and nothing ever bad would happen to me where's God? Yes? So they will all get upset and turn around and say Ah! Allah! Watch out! As long as a Muslim comes with a sword and says where is your Jesus now and they say we don't know but we don't want to fight Allah you're going to see hundreds of Christians get converted or die. If you don't understand you read in Revelation just before the opening of the fifth seal what does he say? You stay here until the number of your brethren who have to be sealed who have to be beheaded until the time there's only one faith that beheads people and that is Muslims. There's a martyrdom coming there's a persecution coming upon the face of this earth that's going to kill many many Christians. They're going to lose their heads. Folks, do not be deceived by this let's get fat and sleepy prosperity gospel. Do not be deceived by this thing of human rights that challenges the very essence of righteousness and think that the wisdom of the world is greater than the wisdom of God. Do not be deceived that Islam is a quiet, friendly little rottweiler with rabies that we can tame. You can't. Amen? There's only one thing the time has come for us Christians to understand the work of the cross. Understand what it means to give my life. Understand what it means to know Christ in the Spirit. Understand what it means to become spiritual. Understand what it means to be full of the Holy Spirit. Understand what it means to be unashamed of my testimony of Jesus Christ. Understand that God has given us a time period and a window of opportunity to stand for righteousness and affect our community and that we must live for Christ and for His gains and His purposes above all else. God, and I mean it nicely, is not concerned about your job. He's not concerned about your degree. He's not concerned about anything natural. Yes, He is. You understand me. Of course, He wants you to have a job. And of course, He wants you to be locked after. But for God the most important thing is you are called to serve Christ with 110% of your life and then work. If it's not the reason you live, you're in the wrong place. If it's not the reason we breathe, we're in the wrong place. And you know why? Because we are blind. We don't see. Oh, that God would open our eyes like Isaiah. The day, the year that King Isaiah died, he said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. And what happened to him? He trembled until he thought he was going to die. We need a revelation of the majesty of Christ. We need a revelation of the glory of Christ. We need a revelation of the urgency of the days in which we're living. We need to understand righteousness and sin. We need to stop playing games with sin. We need to realize it's not our place to play with sin. We are called to serve Christ with every fiber of our being. We must rise to the occasion. See the church. See the plan of God for the church. See the plan of God for our lives. It is the reason we live. It's the reason He saved us. It is my prayer that God opens my eyes to see me. I'm afraid that I'm still too blind. And it's my prayer that God opens every one of your eyes. Because in the days that lie ahead, I mean it like this. Only those who see will march to the beat of the same drum. Those who don't won't march. You look at us like you are crazy. You're radical. You're overboard. Amen to all those. And it's just that you won't see. You stand by the wayside thinking, why are they doing all that? Strange. Because a blind man can't see the people on the road while they're going down the road. The moment God opens your eyes, you're like, wait! I'm coming! I'm coming! Amen? You see spiritual things, folks, are out there. If only we could see in the realm of the heavenlies. If only we could see how many demons have been left out of hell. If only we could see the outpouring of filth that's come upon the face of the earth to corrupt and pollute every human being. So much so that our societies live in filth and think it's normal. Folks spoke to me the other day. They're going to the UK. Peter, standing in a cafeteria. There's a little guy there. And he wants something from the counter. His mom says no. So he starts swearing at her in four letter words. You blankity, blankity, blankity woman! And the mother turns around and says, you blankity, blankity, blankity kid! And they have this great big blankity fight and they walk out and Peter goes, wow! And the shopkeeper says, what? He never heard it. Because they all like that. What point in time do we raise our children to speak with such language and think it's normal? You look at me here because we don't do that. Do you understand? Child speaks to his parents like that. They're going to get beaten. Mother raises her hand in the shop. She goes to prison. I mean, can you understand what's going on? Iniquity is being poured out until people are so blind they can't see the difference. They live like pigs in sin and they cannot understand it. There's been an outpouring of demons from the pit of hell that's moving across the face of this earth to turn men's hearts against God. Rather, Jesus Christ. And like using the word God. Could be anybody. Do you understand me? We've got to realize that we're moving into the greatest battle the church has ever seen. That you're part of a church. I'm talking about God's church, not Selborne Park Church. A place of refuge and safety. But that is not automatic. It only comes on the other side of the cross. It only comes on the other side of a surrendered life. It only comes as we are willing to let the Holy Spirit work in our hearts and remove the scales from our eyes. And we need to come to a point, each one of us, where we say, Lord, open my eyes that I may see. You watch the news today, you're going to see your Bible being fulfilled in front of your eyes. We can't all help you. There needs to come into our hearts not an urgency because we are talking to you about it from the pulpit, but an urgency because it's born in your heart by the Holy Spirit. An urgency that pulls us together. An urgency that gives us not only a unity but an energy so that we unite like a body standing up in the Spirit. And we take our place in every single way possible for one reason. We will live for Christ and His Kingdom. It's the reason that we breathe because we see. This message was brought to you by Sovereign Park Christian Church. We hope you have been blessed.