Mike Bickle emphasizes the urgency of living faithfully in light of the end times, drawing from three parables in Matthew 24 and 25. He highlights the need for spiritual readiness, wisdom, and community as believers navigate the challenges of their time. Bickle explains that Jesus' return may be sooner, longer, or harder than expected, urging believers to prioritize their relationship with God over mere ministry effectiveness. The sermon calls for a vibrant heart and a commitment to watch and pray together, fostering a community that seeks divine wisdom and strength amidst societal chaos. Ultimately, Bickle encourages believers to be faithful and wise servants, ready for the Lord's return.

The 14 session course, Knowing the Biblical Signs of the Times. I'm calling this, How Then Shall We Live? And some of you know that was a famous, that's a title from a famous book by Francis Schaeffer. He wrote it in 1976 and he was describing the decline of the Western culture and how the corruption and decay and where it was going. He was saying this 40 years ago. And his big question was, well, how do we live in the light of such pressure and such negativity because we're servants of the King? And so I'm just borrowing that phrase. Well Jesus gave us three parables and we know that in Matthew chapter 24 and 25, it's his most elaborate teaching on the end times in the Bible. But it's important to know that Matthew 24 and 25 is one message. It's one conversation. So you don't want to separate those chapters. You want to keep them together and in doing so, you'll get a fuller message. You'll get a more complete idea because you get the whole conversation. And then to really complete it, add Luke 21 to it because Luke 21 is the same conversation here in Matthew 24 and 25. We're in here, Jesus lays out the crisis and the glory related to his second coming. Both the crisis and the glory. And then he tells us how to respond. But he gives us three parables. We're going to look at each parable briefly. Now Jesus, his overriding point that he made, particularly in the book of Revelation is that I'm coming quickly. So for 2000 years, nobody's been sure what exactly that meant. But he said, when I come, you have to be ready. And he meant ready spiritually, that we would have a responsive heart. We wouldn't be sluggish. We wouldn't be weighed down, but we'd be responsive. We'd be ready. And our heart responds. But not only that, we would have a inspired understanding. We would understand what's going on so we wouldn't be captured by the counterfeit of the enemy that will be very attractive. So Jesus wanted us to have inspired understanding. He wanted us to have a vibrant heart, not sluggish, not weighed down. And he wanted us to be connected together in community because it's only as we pursue him and being ready, it's only as we do it together that we reach the greatest heights of effectiveness and even measure of the spirit. Let's look at paragraph B. Let's look at the first parable. Well, I'll just kind of say all three parables real brief to tell you, so you know where we're going. The first parable, Jesus said, my delay. My delay is shorter than you expect. And the second parable, my delay is longer than you expect. Then the third parable, my delay is harder than you expect. And he gives an answer of how to respond so that we end up with inspired understanding that spiritual readiness, a vibrant heart that's not sluggish, and we have a dynamic connectedness in the community of God, wherever he's placed us. Paragraph B, let's look at the first parable. Jesus is saying my delay is shorter than you might think. Now again, everybody has different responses. He was giving a broad teaching because I may come sooner in an hour you don't think. Now in the early century, this didn't have the same application it has today. A lot of believers now across the world are going, well, you know, he's coming hundreds of years from now. And he says, oh, don't just assume it's way off in the distance. I might come sooner than you think. And this has a particular application in this hour of history. What Jesus does in this parable is he lays out two types of leaders in the body of Christ. These are leaders that will be functioning in the body of Christ. Both types of leaders will have a profession that they've given their life to Christ. So they'll have a Christian testimony. They'll be functioning in the body of Christ. But they're very different responses. One group of leaders, they are faithful and wise. The other group of leaders, Jesus said, though they function in the church, they profess to know me. They're actually evil. Their motives are really wrong. They're using my name and my kingdom and my people for their own advantage. But in a more than a, you know, just a little bit of carnality, they're intentional about it. They're abusing my authority and my people. Let's read it real quick here. In the first parable, Matthew 24, verse 45, he says, Who then is the faithful and wise servant? Now, I want you to capture those two or really take notice of those two terms, faithful and wise, because we're on the first parable. The second parable develops wise. The third parable develops faithful. So Jesus is going to take faithful and wise and develop it more in a moment, but he sets out what he's after. This is what he wants from us, to be faithful and wise. Those are the two primary things that he's after. Faithfulness in our heart response, faithfulness in our diligence, but wise. We know what the Spirit's saying. We know what the Word of God says. We're not just faithful, but we understand what the Word of the Spirit's saying. We have wisdom and we have a divine connectedness, I mean, a connectedness to God's heart. We are prioritizing our relationship with Jesus and we're valuing his leadership and what his Word and his Spirit says. Verse 45, let's read it. He goes, Who is the faithful and wise servant, which again, it's a leader because they're ministering to people in the body of Christ. And you're a leader in the body of Christ if you're leading five people, it doesn't mean you're leading 5,000. I believe that most of you in this room have a teaching ministry, even though the numbers may not be large for some of you, but you still have a teaching ministry. You're still to feed other believers, particularly younger ones. Verse 46, Jesus said, Blessed is that servant. Blessed is that believer who's diligent, they're faithful about feeding other people and they're doing it with a spirit of wisdom. They're doing it according to what my Word says and they're doing it in the way that I want them to. They're faithful and wise. Then in verse 48, he goes, But then there's the evil servant. The evil servant says, You know, the Lord's not coming for a long time. His delay is, he's delaying and he abuses his authority. He treats the other members of the body of Christ harshly. He beats them and he eats and gets drunk with the drunkards. He's loose in his life and he's abusive in the way that he carries his authority. In verse 50 and 51, Jesus said, You better watch out because I may come sooner than you think and there'll be consequences to those kind of leaders. Let's look at paragraph C. Let's look at the second parable. Now this, he's taking a very different approach. In this parable, the delay may be longer and may stretch out for a few generations. He's telling them, Well, we find out now it's 2,000 years plus. Now in this second parable, he also develops what it means to be wise. Not comprehensively, but he develops the most important issue related to him calling a leader wise. It's not the only issue, but it's the main one. If you get this issue right as a leader, and again, you may be a leader over five, you may be a leader over 50 or maybe 5,000, who knows? You get this issue right, God calls you wise. You get this issue wrong, though you're sincere and though you're functioning in the body, God calls you foolish. You're still saved, but he calls you foolish. And the issue of which he anchored his definition of wisdom is the man or woman, the leader, because he's focusing on leaders in all three parables, though it's not exclusive to leaders. It's people who are over other people, people ministering to other people. The number one issue, do they prioritize cultivating intimacy with God? But more than just intimacy with God, but intimacy with God as the bridegroom God, as the God that has deep delight and desire for his people. Have they prioritized growing in understanding of that? And have they prioritized connecting and interacting with him as the bridegroom? Interacting with his heart, but also as the bridegroom king, understanding his ways as well. That flows out of the encounter. Let's read a little bit of the parable. Tonight, the goal isn't to look at the parables exhaustively, but just to give you the main idea. Because we're talking about how to respond to the signs of the times. How do we respond? Because the signs of the times are to create urgency. The signs of the times in themselves are not the majority of the message. I mean, there's a little bit of messaging in the signs of the times. The signs of the times create urgency so that the 150 chapters in the Bible, of which the end times is the primary subject, that we have urgency to understand those 150 chapters, of which most of the body of Christ is pretty illiterate of those 150 chapters. Because they don't have urgency that it's important. And the signs of the times create urgency to press into God and to understand what's happening according to the word of God in that hour of history. Well, here he says of the servants of the Lord, some are wise and some are foolish. Now, they're all sincere. None of them are evil. He's not talking evil and good. He's talking to sincere ones, foolish and wise. You can be sincere and still be foolish. You can miss the primary point of how God defines wisdom. That is taking time to cultivate intimacy with Jesus as the bridegroom king. Look at verse 1. Then the kingdom of God will be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Read that verse again. Then. When is then? He's talking about the Matthew 24 generation. There's one generation in history where the Holy Spirit emphasizes Jesus the Messiah as the bridegroom king. Not only as a king but as a bridegroom king. The Holy Spirit's never emphasized that truth universally to the whole body of Christ. But there's one generation that he will do that. Verse 1. Then, in the Matthew 24 generation, the kingdom will be comparable to ten virgins. Now, all these are ministries because they have lamps. They're bringing the light of the message of Jesus to other people. They have lamps that are bright. They have lamps that are burning. They have functioning ministries. They're all born again believers. They're virgins in God's sight. Isn't that the most glorious thing? That God looks at every person and by the gift of righteousness, by the free gift of what Jesus accomplished for us on his death on the cross, he gives us his righteousness and looks at us as a pure chaste virgin in his sight. No matter what our history is. So they're all born again believers. They all have shining lamps. They're bringing light to other people. But look at the end of verse 1. All ten of them are encountering the bridegroom. They go out to meet him. Meaning, the bridegroom is a part of their understanding of their relationship to God. They are encountering him. They're meeting him as the bridegroom of God. So they're starting off well. Born again. Shining lamps. Encountering the bridegroom. Verse 2. He goes, but as time goes by and they all get busy, five of them continue to function in wisdom. But five of them became foolish over time. Now verse 3. He defines what foolish is. Again, they have lamps. They have shining ministries. Verse 3. Here's the definition of foolish. They took their lamps, their ministries. Your lamp is your ministry. It's how you bring light to others. But they didn't take oil. Now oil in this parable, in many places in the Bible, speaks of the Holy Spirit's ministry to our heart. They took their ministries, their lamps. They were busy on the road for Jesus. But they did not prioritize oil in their life. Their ministry growing was their first priority. Connecting with Jesus, the bridegroom God, was a priority that was down the list. Now they started off well by encountering and meeting the bridegroom. But as time went on, they lost focus. Now I've never met a believer that just on purpose decides to lose focus. We lose focus because the months turn to years and the years turn to decades and we're laboring. We're laboring and we get caught up in the labor. We get caught up in the increase of our ministry, the effectiveness of how many people we're connecting with. And the Lord says, but you're not connecting to me like you used to. You took your lamp, but you didn't take oil. Your lamp's first, your oil second. Reverse it. Flip it around. Make getting oil first and making your lamp second. So he calls them foolish. Not evil. Not insincere. Foolish. Verse 4. He goes, let me tell you what the wise did. They took oil first. So Jesus is defining, remember the first parable is the faithful and wise leader. He said, let me tell you the premier issue of how I define wisdom. You prioritize oil over ministry. The most natural thing is for us to be far more focused on networking. Networking is good actually. Far more focused on the size of our impact. Impact is good. But there's something more important than networking and impact, or impact growing, that we're connecting with the king. In verse 4, the wise, they took their oil. That's the first priority on their heart. Then later down in the parable, the foolish ones, because they're still in ministry, but they're burning out. And they're losing some of that, they're losing that freshness, that vibrancy, that authority of God that they had that was in the things they said. The foolish said to the wise, hey, give us some of your oil. Our ministries are dwindling. Our lamps are going out. Our ministries are getting flat. Give us some of your oil. Now paragraph 1. Some leaders, they start off shining lamps, encountering the bridegroom, but over their time, the rigor, it happens all the time. I've lost my focus on oil a number of times in 40 years of ministry. But by the grace of God, the Holy Spirit reminds me, and I go, oh, I did it again, and I realign my heart. I probably do it two or three times a year. It's not like every day or every week. I'm talking about something a little more clear, I mean, a little more overt than just a general everyday recommitting my life. You want to do that. But once or twice, three times, I mean, it's no real actual number, but the Lord will whisper in my heart and says, you're more focused on ministry than my heart. Make ministry important, but make it number two, not number one. And make it ministry to your family first, and then to others second. Well, they work with good motives, but with a wrong spirit. I don't mean an evil spirit, but a wrong spirit. In Luke chapter 10, when Mary and Martha were coming before the Lord, we know the story, Mary of Bethany was at the feet of Jesus, and Martha, the sister, was disturbed and said, Jesus, tell my little sister to get with it, get to work. He looked at Martha and rebuked her. Now, he wasn't rebuking her because she was working in the kitchen. Some people say, get out of the kitchen, get in the prayer room. No, that's not what it's saying. Beloved, you need people who serve in the kitchen. You need people in every facet of the kingdom. The point isn't that Martha was in the kitchen. The point is that she was serving with the wrong spirit. She was serving disconnected from the king. We can serve in every manner of ministry, but with the right spirit, we serve connected to the king. Let's turn to the top of page two, paragraph nine. Paragraph nine. The foolish recognize their mistake in neglecting oil. The foolish said, I read it, but I'll look at it again. Give us your oil for our ministry, our lamp. It's going out. Verse nine. This is one of the most important verses. The Lord has used this verse in my heart many times. The wise said, no, lest there should not be enough for us and you. But rather, go to those who sell and buy oil for yourself. Now, it looks like a harsh answer, but that's not the spirit of which Jesus is addressing this. They were complaining, which is right. They were concerned their lamps were going out. Their ministries were dwindling. The spiritual vitality of the spirit's oil wasn't in their ministry like it was in the early days. But here's the value of verse nine. When they said, no, here it is. I got it written in paragraph nine. The wise understood their limitation because the hook, the enemy will use on you. I call it the Messiah complex. You're the only one that can meet all the needs and you can't bear. You can't bear the pressure of disappointing people. So you say yes to everything. Because you think you're the answer or more commonly, you can't bear the pressure of them looking at you going, oh, I thought you were, I thought you were this and that. You obviously aren't. Jesus was telling through this parable, know your limitations. You can't be everywhere doing everything. You'll end up with no oil. Then you'll end up not helpful at all to the people. You'll end up in the condition of those other ones. So what they were saying is we can't transfer our spiritual history in Jesus and our spiritual preparation. We can't transfer it to you. You have to do it yourself in the God-ordained way, the God-ordained process. You have to engage yourself, invest yourself, and get oil in the way the Bible says. What I mean by this has been a very important thing, a verse in my life, and I trust in many people's lives, the necessity of saying no, very important. If you can't say no and prioritize time connected with the Lord, your lamps will go out, your oil will be gone, and you won't be effective to anybody. You might be popular, but you won't be spiritually effective. You've got to know your limitations. Every one of us have a history in God. Maybe it's a short history in God if you're a new believer. Maybe it's a long and deep history in God. You have a secret life in God, a secret history in God that only God knows about you. You can't give that history to someone else. I can't give my oil to somebody else, my life in God to somebody. I can pray, and the Lord can inspire them and touch them, but I can't give my preparation to somebody by saying words or praying for them. You can pray, and God's grace will touch them, but there's one place oil comes from, your own personal interaction with God over time. And Jesus says, wise leaders prioritize this. Foolish leaders, good motives, but foolish, they don't know their limitations. They think they're the answer to everyone's problems, or they can't bear the pressure of disappointing people, so they say yes, and Jesus said, you're foolish. I love you. I know you love me, but you're foolish. You'll burn out, and you'll have very little to give that has spiritual vitality in it in a short amount of time. Paragraph 10, Jesus exhorts us to buy oil. Well, he did it twice. First, in Matthew 25, in the parable, he told the parable, go buy oil. This is Jesus talking. Then some years later in the book of Revelation, he says it again, buy gold. He says, buy oil in Matthew 25, buy gold in Revelation 3. Now, he doesn't mean earn it. That's not what he means by buy it. It doesn't mean go earn it. It means invest yourself in your relationship with God, even in a way that's costly. It costs you time. You lose certain opportunities when you draw back in your schedule and you invest that time in the Lord. You do lose opportunities. When I look back over 40 years of ministry, there's many places I could not go and many situations I could not be at, many gatherings I could not be a part of because I didn't have the time to do it all, and I prioritized gold and oil. Not always. Again, I've been corrected by the Lord many times, and the Lord says, get back to that. He says, invest yourself in a costly way. It will cost you because people will get upset at you, and you really will miss out some opportunities. It's costly. You're not earning anything, but you're positioning yourself to get oil. Paragraph D, parable number three. The delay is harder than expected. Well, the first parable, he says, the kind of leader God wants is faithful and wise. The second parable, he elaborates on wise. The third parable, he elaborates on faithful. But just like he surprised us the way he defined what wisdom is, wisdom means prioritizing and countering the Lord and growing into intimacy. Nobody would have guessed that that's what wisdom, the primary issue of wisdom is in God's kingdom. Now he surprises us again. He defines what faithful is. Faithful is not the size of your impact. It's the size of your heart response. Because sometimes we'll look at a ministry, and if they're impacting a large number, we think, man, they're so amazing. They've been so faithful. The size of our impact, God sovereignly determines it. You don't get rewarded by the size of your impact. You get rewarded by the size of your heart response. You may impact a small number of people, but you said yes, diligence with all your heart, and the Lord says, that's what I'm after. He looks, verse 21, now again he develops the faithful servant. He says, I'll say, well done. Good and faithful servant. Now this is the verse that is lied about more than any other verse in the Bible. What I mean by this, every Christian funeral I go to, the preacher says, they said to the guy, finally, well done, good and faithful servant. I said, that verse is used more times in less than an accurate way. He's like, well, you don't really know, but you know what I mean. I look at that, I don't think that's going to be said very often. I think it's going to be said to millions, for sure. But there's hundreds of millions, billions of believers over history, several billion, with a great harvest at the end. This isn't just a given. This isn't just something that everybody hears because they have a funeral. Well done, good and faithful. You were faithful. Here's the surprising definition. Over few things. You didn't lose your way. You didn't lose your zeal because the sphere you had was small. Because a lot of people I've seen over the years, they'll be excited and diligent if the sphere is big. But when the sphere of impact is small, they're bored and disengaged. And the Lord's telling them right here, he says, no, faithful over small. That's what I look for. Of course, 99.9999999% of the whole human race, or let's say the body of Christ, our impact individually is small. There's only a few Billy Grahams and Reinhardt Bonkys in history who themselves in a primary way touch millions. Most of us, our impact individually is very small. Collectively, it's big. Individually, it's small. But the Lord says, there's no problem with that. You can be faithful. You can hear well done. Just do the will of God. But I know more people that are offended at the smallness of their impact so they can't engage with God with a vibrant heart. It's the smallness that makes them disconnect. Because they were taught in their early Christian life, big is the only thing that's good. Now, collectively, our impact is big. But individually, I'll say it again, 99.9999999%, it's very small. We touch our twos and threes. We touch our tens and twenties. We do it over decades. And again, collectively, it's big. And every now and then, there might be a big moment. But the Lord looks at the diligence in the midst of the small because His eyes are on it. And here's what He says. This is amazing. I'll make you ruler over many things in the resurrection. Jesus said, I so value faithfulness in small that I will insist that that person is part of my government in the age to come. I am so zealous and I so value faithfulness in small, that woman, that man will be part of my government. They will be ruler over many things in the age to come. He values small. Well, He values faithful. But He values faithful in small. Jesus is not impressed by bigness. I like to use this analogy that's said it many times over the years, that when Billy Graham stands before the Lord, Jesus isn't gonna say, Father, Father, I think that's Billy Graham. Oh, that's amazing. Jesus created all stars, billions and billions, billions and billions. He's not impressed by a stadium full of people. He only, Billy Graham built a stadium and Reinhard Bonnke more than a stadium, whatever that number, only because God gave it to him. They're gonna be measured the same way you and I are gonna be measured their life by the faithfulness of their heart responses. You lock into that, you can have joy in a vibrant heart along the journey. You lose sight of that, you'll be constantly striving to get a bigger sphere, but I mean, it's okay to try to get a bigger sphere, but when you're striving, you're in anguish and you're in pain and you're mad at everybody that won't give you one. The Lord says, man, you're losing your whole history with me because of this or you're losing those years where you could be developing it. Verse 24, the guy with one talent, he said, well, the Lord says, come here, the guy with the small assignment and the guy complained. He goes, well, Jesus, I know you're a hard man. I know you're not very fair. Like, wow, you reap where you haven't sown. And verse 25, I was really afraid. I was afraid you were gonna be mad at me, so I went ahead and he gave all these answers. I thought you were a bad leader, a hard leader by giving me such a little amount and I was afraid of you. That it wasn't gonna be, what I did wasn't gonna be worth anything. Wasn't worth anything anyway, I was afraid. And Jesus shocked this guy. Verse 26, he goes, no, your problem really isn't that you think I'm hard and you're afraid. The problem is you're wicked and you're lazy. He shifted the whole conversation, but Jesus is talking to leaders of course throughout history, but he's talking to the Matthew 24 generation. Paragraph E, the challenge in this parable is that they had wrong evaluation. They thought big and prominent is what was important only. They did not know that faithful, even behind the scenes that nobody would ever know, but the Lord, that is what God evaluates as faithfulness. So paragraph F, Jesus described his servants as being tempted with wickedness and laziness. He said, you're hard, you're not treating me right, Jesus. By the assignment you gave, you're not opening the doors that I thought you should open. And I was afraid that my ministry was just worthless anyway. Why should I work to touch three people? That's not worth my time and energy. I don't even wanna do it. I'm afraid I'm just wasting my time. And the Lord says, no, actually you're wicked and you're lazy. That's a pretty strong readjusting or redirecting the conversation. But this is real. Jesus is really gonna have this conversation with people. And again, he's talking to all of history, but he's talking particularly to the Matthew 24 generation that he comes. Because paragraph F, there's a dramatic increase in this generation. And this increase affects old and young. I hear some people talk about the media explosion is something young people struggle with. Well, let me tell you, old people struggle with it too. And they get captured in all the entertainment. They get captured and incited to all kinds of lusts and they get captured in all kinds of lifestyles. They see images all day long and it fashions and forms their heart in a negative way. And they end up walking out some of these things, even as believers. Lust and laziness begin to dominate their life. I have written here the quality and the quantity of entertainment from pornography to all these things. And I don't mean everything listed or the video games, all this, that. All those are evil. Everything is evil. But the incredible preoccupation with entertainment and playing and the voyeurism of all the immorality has caused a spirit of lust and wickedness. We'll call it wickedness because that's what Jesus called it. And laziness to take root in believers in this hour like no other time in history. I believe that one of the besetting sins, not the only sin of this generation, is laziness. And it's preoccupied with entertainment and therefore procrastination. Well, I'm gonna seek the Lord. I'm gonna minister to people. I'm gonna reach out. I'm gonna disciple. I'm gonna get that relationship right tomorrow. It's like, well, today was busy and I lost today. It's procrastination, but it's rooted in laziness and lust. And I'm talking about a generation. I'm talking about old and young. This is tempting 7 billion people. This is in particular to the body of Christ. And Jesus said, I know something about that timeframe that you don't know about. And lust and laziness will be real giants that you'll have to face. And that delay might be a little bit longer. And if you get offended and you're not engaged in my work, in my kingdom, in the battle, you're gonna get captured on the backside of this. If you're not engaged, you're gonna get engaged in something else. And so Jesus lays that out for them. I mean, that's a, each one of these parables is like, wow. I mean, they're eyeopening. These three parables, they're very brief, but boy, are they filled with significant exhortations from God's heart. Top of page three. Let's look at Roman numeral two. Watch and pray. Now we touched this a little bit, a couple of weeks ago for about seven or eight minutes. Jesus, I'm just gonna bring it and take it a little different place. Paragraph A. It is so interesting to me and more than interesting, it was puzzling to me that the most practical counsel Jesus gave in the Matthew 24 generation, we're talking about the most violent, sinful, chaotic, dangerous generation in human history. I mean, demon activity, lust at level, chaos and conflict and hatred and betrayal and violence and danger. He said, watch and pray. Like, really? That's it. Watch and pray. You're the smartest man that's ever walked the earth. You're the best shepherd that's ever touched the human race. And in the most dangerous generation history, the most violent and volatile and confusing with deception, that's your counsel? I have it written here in paragraph A. It's his main exhortation. God's people are exhorted 20 times in the New Testament to watch or to watch and pray. Often watch and pray goes together. They're actually distinct, though they overlap. Ten times, nine of them by Jesus, one by Paul. It's by the mouth of Jesus. Do you know there's very few things Jesus said in the Gospels, nine times it's been repeated. Because the way the Scripture's laid out, when God says something two or three times, like Jesus in the Gospels, that's gold. I mean, that's big. If it's one time, it's big. Two or three, that's intense. Four or five, that's getting up there. Nine times. Very few things have been emphasized by his mouth in the Scripture nine times. Tells us of the highest importance. Paragraph B. I would have thought, I said this last time, that when Jesus said prepare, spiritually, he's talking about spiritually, I would have thought, he didn't mention anything about storing up food or water or batteries. He didn't talk about establishing, you know, shortwave radio communication. I think those kind of things are, in the physical sense, could be helpful. He doesn't tell anybody to store up guns. He's not making comment on storing up food and water and that stuff. He's not even commenting on it. The point is, he doesn't even mention it. I mean, the Lord has different people preparing in different ways, and that's not my point right now, to comment on all the 25 different approaches. My point is that he says watch and pray, because he knows something about these two activities, that if we engage in these two in a diligent way, we will have answers for the crisis in the local situation. We'll have divine, we'll have connection with God, and we'll have answers in that day. And Jesus says, you connect to me, you do these two things, I will tell you, in communities of believers that are watching and praying, they prioritize this, you will be in a context, I will give you wisdom and resource in that hour, if you've been watching and praying before that hour. Now it makes more sense to me. Because I'd like a little bit more information about South Kansas City and what's going to happen. I'd like a little bit more information in the next few decades. The Lord says, you watch and pray, you'll know what to do, and you're part of the world as things intensify. You don't watch and pray, you'll be at the mercy of fear, you'll be at the mercy of counsel, of really bold people, but they're giving you counsel, but it's not inspired by the Spirit. But if you don't, if you've got a fearful heart, or you've got a weighed down heart, or you've got a sluggish heart, or you're in isolation and you're not in the committed covenant community of believers that are prioritizing this, you're going to be vulnerable to all kinds of bad counsel that's given by bold people in the media. And the Lord will say, no, I said it in the word opposite of that. Well, he's real bold and he said it real strong and I don't know, it seemed right to me. What do you mean it seemed right? It's bad counsel. I want to be with believers, not just one or two. God's raising up, by the way, millions of these communities around the world. I don't know if it's millions, but thousands and thousands and thousands, I don't know the number of course, but many, many, where whole communities of believers, I mean local churches, one or 200, one or 2,000, 10,000, I don't care what the number is, where they're prioritizing, watching and praying because together, that's where the synergism, the multiplied strength and the multiplied wisdom where communities prioritize watching and praying together. That's not all they do, but that's a part of their spiritual mandate and a part of their priority as a spiritual community. I have paragraph C here. Some believers pray, but they don't watch. Then I got the other one. Now some people watch, but they don't pray. They watch. Watch means actually watch what the Bible says. It's going to happen in an hour and then watch what unfolds in society. You watch it and the Holy Spirit gives inspiration because you're watching it with faith and attentiveness. Together with believers doing that, wisdom comes out of what the Bible says. Wisdom increases and we see what's happening in the society. We put them together. The wisdom grows. That's watching. Praying is connecting with God's heart. Intimacy with God. Praying is releasing His power. He says, you watch. Grow in wisdom and understanding. You pray. Position yourself to grow in strength at the heart level so you have a vibrant heart. You're not captured in fear and lost bitterness and you release the power of God that's called intercession that's shifting situations in the hour of crisis. You watch and pray you'll have the resource and the wisdom and the connectedness with other people to make right decisions. Well, in paragraph D, Matthew 21, it's the same setting as Matthew, I mean Luke 21, it's the same setting as Matthew 24. Matthew doesn't mention this part of the conversation but Luke throws it in by the Holy Spirit's inspiration. Luke 21 says, back in Matthew 24, Jesus also said this. We took a whole session on Luke 21 a few weeks ago. Verse 35, again, this is in the same teaching of the Matthew 24 and 25 because Luke 21 is a part of that teaching. Just a different, more information added beyond what Matthew captured by the Holy Spirit's inspiration. Luke 21, for it will come like a snare on the whole earth. I mean the increasing distress, the increasing sin, the increasing darkness, it will come like a snare on the earth. Watch and pray. And the point is, you would have strength. Watch and pray. It says counter worthy but every other Bible translation besides King James says, almost everyone says, watch and pray to have strength. I feel confident that's the right translation. Watch and pray. Get strength from your heart. Watch and pray together. Be a praying community. Release the power of God into the crisis. And if you do that, you'll escape. Some people think that's the rapture. He's not talking about the rapture. He's not saying you'll escape the conflict. You'll escape the challenge. He's saying you'll escape being caught by the snare. You'll escape being captured by lust and fear. Fear won't overcome you. Lust won't dominate you. You'll stand in victory in that hour if you are a person who watches and prays. But it's not enough to watch and pray. I want to be a part of community that watches and pray. And I believe that the Lord is raising up such communities again all over the earth that are beginning to prioritize not just outreach and some other things which are very, very important, but they're actually prioritizing watching, paying attention to what the Bible says would happen in that hour in that generation. And they're watching things emerge. And that watching creates urgency. And that urgency creates... Because whatever you watch, you talk about. We read the Bible. We watch it over. We see it in society emerging, the trends, the Bible prophesies. We end up talking about it because we're stirred. Then that talking about it bonds people together with a common urgency. Then they pray with far more urgency. Then they prioritize connecting with the Lord. They prioritize praying and releasing the power of God in their society, I mean in their city, their local area. And in that context, God says, I'll give you wisdom. I'll give you breakthroughs of the heart. I'll give you breakthroughs of resource. I'll give you breakthroughs in many areas. But this is my answer is the great shepherd. Top of page four. Well, I've said it all, but I'm just gonna look the last four or five pages. Page four, five, and six. I mean, I just said it in the last five minutes and I've got it written out here. Paragraph B, I'll just take the next two, three minutes on this. That whatever we watch as anointed observers, we watch it in the Bible. What the Bible says will happen in that generation. And again, I believe we're in the early days of that generation. And remember, a generation in the Bible can be a hundred years. Doesn't have to be. It might be a lot shorter. It might be longer. I feel confident we're in the early days of that. Again, that's not a prophecy, but I believe it's time to be watching what the Bible says. It's not just a class. I wanna encourage you to, these little phrases in the Bible are more than just Bible data. These are breathed by the Holy Spirit, recorded in the eternal word of God. They're to equip a generation. These little phrases that we've covered over this class, you know, little trends. Well, they're big trends, but they're just a phrase here and there. You go, okay, you know, knowledge is gonna increase and so is communication. So what? The Lord says, no, no. I sent a mighty angel to say that. That's a huge, significant reality. You wanna not let it escape your notice and move on. Let that increase. We looked at that in Daniel chapter 12, verse 4. Let that unfold in front of you. You're watching it unfold in front of you in the nations. Let that create urgency. You're in the only time of history that it's escalated at this level, all of these issues. I just wanna urge you, don't let this information just be little Bible data. It's to create urgency. Then now we're watching. Then we're talking together. Well, we talk to one another and it bonds us with a common urgency because we get what's going on. We get the biblical narrative. Then we talk to God with greater urgency. We talk to God. We talk to one another. Then we're in position for the wisdom and the resource of God to touch our heart and to flow through us and touch cities. Top of page 5. Well, what do we pray for? We pray for God's strength to be manifest in our heart because we don't wanna be captured, weighed down by fear and lust and bitterness. Bitterness will get people. We look at Luke 21. Those are the three big issues. Fear, lust, and bitterness. Those are the three that Jesus highlighted in Matthew chapter 21. He says, don't get caught by those three. Verse 34. They're gonna increase tremendously. They'll weigh your heart down. You won't be responsive to me. You'll read the Bible. It'll just be information on a page. You won't be moved by what the scripture says. You won't have a spirit of prayer. You won't be encouraged when the word of God is spoken. Your heart will be weighed down and heavy. Lay those things aside. Watch. See what the Bible says. See what's happening. Talk to God and society. Talk to God. Talk to one another. So let the fire grow in your midst. Well, we didn't do much on page 5. Turn to page 6. Well, worship team, come on up. When we watch and pray, you make godly decisions. You make right decisions. Communities of believers that watch and pray, again, they're not shut down with lust. They're not overcome with fear. They're not taking bad counsel from whatever bold voice is on the media. They know the word of God. They know what the Spirit's saying. And together, I mean, it emerges little by little. But they're in a place of safety. Wherever you go, I'm thinking now of the IHOPU students, whatever city you end up in, make sure you're a part of a community of believers that is prioritizing watching and praying. That's not all they do, but that's part of their priority. Because if we're weighed down and we're captured and our hearts are unresponsive, beloved, we're going to be a part of the problem, not part of the solution. We're going to be like fretting in fear and confusing everyone around us with our fear and our anxiety and our frantic counsel and ideas. I don't want to be a person bringing that to other people. I want to be a part of the solution, not part of the confusion. The Lord says, well, be in a community that watches and prays. It's for me and my house. It's for me and my house. We're going to be a people that watch and pray. As for me and my Bible school, we're going to be a people that watch and pray. We're going to prioritize it with all the different ministry expressions in the marketplace and all kinds of different ministry expressions, but with a spirit of watching and praying. Amen. Let's stand before the Lord.