Mike Bickle emphasizes the importance of understanding Jesus' leadership in the context of love, especially in light of significant cultural shifts such as the legalization of same-sex marriage. He expresses grief over the defiance of God's authority and the institutionalization of sin, while also conveying hope that love ultimately prevails. Bickle calls for the church to respond with empathy and tenderness, recognizing the pain of those in the LGBTQ+ community, and urges believers to uphold biblical truth with a spirit of love. He highlights the need for spiritual preparation in the face of societal changes and encourages unity and righteousness within the body of Christ.

...and significant decisions in America's history, June 26th, when the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage and mandated it across all 50 states. Now I want to address this very multifaceted subject, and I can only give a snapshot of some of the perspective I think that the body of Christ needs, that we need to be strengthened so we can cooperate with what the Lord's doing. The subject is far bigger than one message or one address, but I want to highlight some of the broad stroke ideas that I think that we can agree with before the Lord. I'm titling this, Love Wins, Being a People Who Delight in Jesus' Leadership. Now, I rejoiced to see many across our nation prophesied, Love Wins! They had the wrong application, but it was the right prophecy. Jesus said, if the people are silent, the rocks will cry out. Really, the truth is, the banner in the spirit, so to speak, is Love Wins. That's the great theme of the kingdom of God, and of who Jesus is as King, and of His leadership. Now, we will interpret this our best through the lens of Jesus' leadership, the Biblical view of Jesus' leadership, and what I mean by that is that we're engaging with a real man, a real person. It's so much more than a religious argument, or a political debate, or an issue of constitution, and those are important things, but we're talking about the most loving, beautiful man in His character, His wisdom, and His power, and His leadership over the nations of the earth. And not only submitting to His leadership, because He's boss, He is the boss, by the way, but there's a bigger story. He's delightful, He's winsome. We delight in His leadership when we understand Him best. It's more than just at a distance, we submit, but we say, we delight in who you are. Paragraph A, I am like many of you, and many across America, is that I was very grieved, I mean terribly grieved, that the highest court in our nation defied the authority of God's Word. And they did not give rights to marriage, equal rights to marriage, they redefined marriage that only God has authority and wisdom to define. And again, the God who defines, His name is Jesus, He's fully God, fully man. He is the perfection of love, all of His commands flow from love, and all of His commands, when understood properly, produce love. And the one who is love is the one who has defined marriage, and He is the steward of love and truth in the created order. And I'm not only grieved that the highest court in our nation boldly defied His authority, but I'm also terrified, because this one who is love is so zealous for love, He won't be silent, because His judgments, when understood, it's God removing everything that hinders love. The judgments of God are not a temper tantrum, they're not a momentary fit of rage where God acts outside of His character, but His judgments are consistent expression of His zeal for love. They remove the things that hinder love. And He's so zealous in His love that I'm terrified that our nation has raised its fist in defiance and challenged His zeal of love. Not just His authority, but His zeal. But I'm not just grieved and terrified, the very opposite emotion, I'm filled with hope. I have more confidence than at any time I've ever had in my relationship with the Lord. My confidence in what He's unfolding at this hour in history. That what the enemy meant for evil, He has the power and the desire to turn it around for good. Now what's important in this hour is that we see what the Word of God says about the coming crisis, but we also see what the Word of God says about God's glory in the crisis, the manifest glory that's in the crisis. The One that's leading the nations, again is leading the nations into love. Love wins, and love does win. He is leading our nation and the nations of the earth into something greater than we've ever experienced before. Beloved, I have good news, we're on the right side of history. There's a great debate on what side of history we're on, but I assure you, we're on the right side of history. And it's important that we understand how God sees this, so that we're spiritually prepared. And what I mean by spiritually prepared, I talk about preparing for the end times, and what I mean by that, I don't mean storing up guns and water and food in a cave. I'm not talking about preparing physically. Some folks have insight about that, that's not something I'm real focused on, but I'm talking about preparing spiritually. What I mean by preparing spiritually is that we understand what the Word says so that we don't respond in fear. We don't respond in confusion. We know there's a plan, and there's a powerful leader who's leading it into love. And his plan cannot be thwarted or stopped. And the enemy wants to cause us to be overwhelmed with fear, confusion, deception, offense. He wants us offended at God, he wants us offended at one another. But when we understand what's happening, then we trust his leadership. We love well. We have confidence to respond in love when we have confidence that there's leadership and we're going somewhere better than we've ever been. I'm talking about the human condition, the human family. Paragraph B, the question, why is this such a serious moment, June 26, that will go down in infamy, when the Supreme Court mandated the legalizing of gay marriage. Now it's much more than an issue about marriage, much, much more. It's much more than an issue of equality. That's not, that's a diversion, that approach to it. And the reason I'm saying that, I'm not trying to put people down by that, is that we missed the storyline, and we might as believers just say, well, equality, why do we care if they get married? I mean, what's the big deal? And in one sense, that completely makes sense. But when you understand the gravity of what's going on, it's far more than a decision about marriage. That's what it's presented as, but it's the legal institutionalizing of sin in our society. It was John Piper, I read his blog, it was so good, I recommend John Piper, he's one of my favorite Bible teachers. He wrote a blog on this, and he said, we weep over our sins. As believers, that we sin far too often was his idea, but when we sin, if we're responding in the right way to the Lord, we confess it, we're sorrowful over it, we repent of it. We don't celebrate our sin, but what happened in this historic, tragic decision is the institutionalizing of sin. And he went on to say, homosexuality is not a new thing, and even the celebration of it is not a new thing, but the legal institutionalizing and the normalizing of it throughout our culture, that is a new thing, and that will have tragic results in our nation. Not only is it institutionalized, and it will go right through the legal system of our nation and be embedded in our culture in a far stronger way. It's so much more than about equality of marriage. And if that's all that you see in it, take a step back and say, Lord, let me get the bigger drama that's going on. Another thing that will come with this institutionalizing of marriage, of same-sex marriage, into the legal code, is the systematic presentation of the homosexual lifestyle to children 7, 8, 9 years old throughout the public school system. They will learn about all different types of sexual encounters and experiences and potentialities, not high school, junior high, but now the dialogue is such where they are wanting to establish this in the elementary schools and teaching the entire scope of transgender options and homosexual experiences. They want to present this to 7, 8, 9, and 10 years old systematically through our school system. This is going to normalize sexual immorality and saturate our culture with it beyond anything that we are experiencing right now. And we are experiencing a lot of sexual perversion in our culture, but it is going to explode after this decision. Then another issue is the infringing upon religious freedom. Not just of believers, it will be targeted by those that stand true to the Word of God, but it will reach beyond that. And the implications of that targeting of assault and the infringing upon the rights, the religious rights of believers, it will have economic, social, all kinds of implications on universities, institutions, federal loans, visas, grants, all kinds of implications will be tied into that one issue right there. There will be a whole new series of hate crimes that are under the banner of discriminating against people that if you will not sign your approval, you will not give hearty approval to the homosexual lifestyle and agenda that you will be called a bigot and there will be discrimination. This is a huge shift in our culture. This is not a small thing that's about, why do we care if a few people get married? Leave them alone. Beloved, it's a far bigger issue than that. Paragraph C. So what does this mean for America? We are at a time of transition. What I just described, society will be different by the normalizing of immorality, the infringing on religious freedom, the saturation of our culture and immorality starting with the systematic presentation of it to school children in the media. We are in a critical turning point for the whole planet right now. I mean this one decision, not that it stands alone, but it is catalytic. America the most influential nation, not only in the world, in history, just by the economics and the media and just all that's going on has signaled to the nations of the earth the stand of our nation and it will be catalytic and it will embolden many nations and people groups around the earth to follow suit. Not that they needed our example, but they will be emboldened and the darkness will escalate at a far faster pace after June 26, 2015. Well it's more than a turning point for the nations in our nation, I believe it's also a turning point for the church. I mean I see this next series, I mean this next season of crisis and beloved that season has started and it's going to escalate right now. A season of crisis in our nation, but taking a step back in the big picture, the crisis that's unfolding in the years ahead is not going to be as intense or severe as the crisis that is yet coming prophesied in the scripture called the great tribulation. Well Jesus is the one that referred to it as the tribulation that was great, there's none other like it in history. That crisis is yet further down the road. Now it's my opinion, it's not a prophecy, it's an opinion that we are nearing that time frame in history. It may be some decades out, it may be further than that, I don't know. Maybe sooner, but I believe that what's happening in this immediate new crisis, that God in His graciousness is actually giving the body of Christ a chance to work our spiritual muscles in a new way, preparing for yet a far more severe crisis down the road that might affect our children, grandchildren or thereafter, who knows for sure the timing of it. So I take a step back and I can imagine the Lord saying, when it's all said and done, you will actually see the value of this next season of intensity because it will be a preparation for a season that would yet follow after that. It will cause the body of Christ to become clarified in what we believe. There's so much biblical illiteracy in the church right now. A lot of the confusion and the debates that are going on in the body of Christ is because there's so much biblical illiteracy. So many believers are fiery, but they don't have a foundation in the Bible. I believe this issue is going to change that. I believe the body of Christ is going to begin to systematically train the people, the connected leadership teams all over the world in a very more deliberate, clear way to respond in a biblical way. I believe there will be a far greater intentionality of unity across denominations and streams and ministries in the body of Christ. This is good. This is preparing us. There will be a new resolve to live in righteousness in our personal lives and to get rid of sexual impurity in its many forms that it's entrenched deeply in the body of Christ. Beloved, I've said over the years, I've been far more troubled by heterosexual immorality in the church than homosexual immorality in the church. And we have very little authority to address homosexual immorality while we've been so slack and so silent on heterosexual immorality in the church. I mean throughout the ranks. And the Lord is saying, I'm going to help you. I'm going to help you get intentional about unity, intentional about purity, intentional about your marriage is strong, intentional about training your children to respond to these things, intentional about understanding these things in the word of God. So I see the Lord's grace even in the midst of this crisis that's unfolding. And I'm encouraged because the Lord's up to something big. Paragraph D, Paul the Apostle said, 1 Corinthians 13 verse 8, he goes, love never fails. I mean, that's a powerful statement now. It's true. Paul wasn't just trying to be real positive one time, said, Hey, you know, love never fails. Not really. He was making a very, very important spiritual statement. It's true that from God's point of view, every decision that you make for love, when you're ridiculed, when you're in a conflict, when you're suffering loss of an economic situation because you've stood for truth and you're, somebody has responded to you in a demeaning belligerent way, or they're trying to hurt you. You respond in love. The Lord says, I won't forget it ever. Even if you give someone a cup of cold water, in the name of the Lord, I will remember that forever. Every detail of love, every movement of your heart for love, I will remember. And the point being that though there will be much hostility against the faithful and the church, and the faithful are, by the way, are millions and millions worldwide, hundreds of millions, but every response of love that you return fits into a, the plan of God in your life. And it fits into the greater master plan of what he's doing in the nations. And so no matter what pushback or how we might lose in the court of man in a debate or demeaning situation where we respond in kindness and tenderness, beloved, I have good news for you. It doesn't fail. It wins. The Lord says it's contributing to my bigger purposes in your life and in the nations. Says here in verse seven, that love bears all things, that hopes for all things. Here's what it means, hopes for things. It means a lot of things, but I'm going to just add a thought or two. That even in the midst of the darkness and the crisis, instead of a cynical, give up and give in, who cares, hope, believe, I mean, love hopes. And it hopes all things. That we believe for a breakthrough against all odds. That we have a different perspective than those that have no hope in the Lord. We say, Lord, who knows, you might suddenly reverse this situation in a dramatic way or this relational situation in our nation. We never know what sudden reversal might take place when we're responding to the One who is love and engaging in His leadership. So we have, instead of giving in to cynicism and an angry spirit, we have this element of hope. It says here it endures all things. Instead of responding in an angry tone, instead of responding in bitterness when we're insulted or degraded or, I mean, it's Christian against Christian right now on the social media. I mean, and it's painful to the Lord's heart to watch His own people arguing and defaming and seeing who can embarrass who at the largest sphere and the Lord saying, no, no, love wins. Every decision for love will fit into the master plan. No, endure the insult and respond in tenderness, respond in humility. Don't let bitterness or cynicism or revenge, don't win an argument, but engage with a man whose leadership is love itself. Now the only time here in paragraph D that love does win, it's when it's in agreement with the One who is love incarnate. That's the only time love actually wins and it wins every time. Now not just in agreement conceptually where we agree with His commands and His statements of truth, but we agree with Him in the spirit in which we carry our heart in the midst of it. I know a lot of folks that will agree with truth and the commands of God, but they won't agree with His heart in the tone and the spirit in which they carry that truth. And beloved, it only makes sense that as we're preaching the gospel and we're bringing the message of Jesus to our nation in this hour, the body of Christ, we're contending for love, but we can't succeed in contending for love unless we have a spirit of love in the methodology and the way that we carry our hearts. The tone that has exploded in the body of Christ, I think, makes the Father's heart very, very sad. Now I want to encourage you, back away from that. If you see someone doing that and if you want to rebuke somebody because you're fighting for their greatness, because you're fighting for their breakthrough, get with them in person. Do it in a relational context, not a public platform where you can show your theological wit, but make it relational. Get with them and say, I care so much. This is about your heart. This is about your greatness. This is about your destiny. This is about me looking good on social media. Beloved, I have good news. Love wins. That other way does not win. Love wins, and that's the prophetic declaration. Now he is the only one who is qualified to define love. He's the steward of love in the nations. God the Father has put the leadership of the nations and the stewardship of love under his care. Now there's a counterfeit opposing love. It's called humanistic love, and it's in dynamic opposition to his definition of love on many points. There are some points where they overlap, but I want to say this and you know it, humanistic approaches to love, though they use the word love and liberty and justice, if it's not love on his terms, it will never bring the human experience into love. It will not work. It will not succeed. Paragraph E. Now why this, why is this situation so unique? This marriage law. I've had believers ask me, I mean, why not let them do what they want to do, and they do what they do, and we do what we do, and just everybody be happy. Well, marriage, paragraph E here, is the only social institution in history that God ordained before the fall of man, before sin entered the human experience. There's only one social institution that before Adam and Eve sinned, God said, this social institution I am establishing. And that is the marriage relationship is the context of protection of many things, but protection for bringing forth new human beings into the world. It's the only social institution that's ordained by God. It's the only one that procreates. Beloved, think about this. Eternal human beings, not temporary, eternal, are born out of this union. God says, I determine the boundary lines of that one, because the fruit of it are eternal beings. They live forever. And if they make wrong choices, they live forever in the lake of fire. It really matters. Nobody can move these boundary lines, because I know the reality and the importance of the eternal dimension of what's being created in the bonds of marriage, and these children, and their decisions are so vitally important. And I want to protect that decision making process, and the norm in society is a family with a husband and a wife, a father and a mother. And that was God's norm that He set up. This is not just an equality of human beings, everybody does what they want to do, and everything turns out right. And again, I appreciate some dimensions of equality and some of the arguments in some of their limited ways. I understand that, but there's a bigger storyline going on. There's a bigger storyline that's going on. Paragraph F. Now this is a very important point that sometimes we overlook and we miss it. It's how we respond to the deepest cravings in our body, and the deepest cravings in our emotions, our heart. We have, all of us have a several, a couple deep cravings, not a long list, but a few. And here's the problem. The deep cravings of our heart cause us to interpret the Word of God and the perfect leadership of Jesus. It makes us vulnerable to interpret it in a way that's different because this intense longing is so powerful in us. Let me explain a little bit more what I mean. I believe that, and because this is critical to the dynamics of what was taking place right now, and our response to it. I believe that one of the most painful human experiences, emotional experiences, very few things equal this. I can think of one or two. The idea of longing, deeply longing for romantic love, and having it not be fulfilled even a little bit. I believe intrinsic in every human heart is the longing for romantic love. At least experience it a little bit for some of their life. And the idea of never experiencing that is a terrible, painful feeling that hundreds of millions of people face all over the world. Many different situations they face that craving of their heart. And I mean that in the right sense. This deep longing. And this longing is so great that it is like they will take the word of God and say, well Lord I got to switch this out for that because I got to get this longing satisfied. And I have tremendous sympathy and a sense of the pain that hundreds of millions of people think. Now there is the single person who has never been married and they long for marriage and many will get married. But some the years unfold and they go, this pain is more than anybody understands. Nobody talks about it. I'm in great pain. That's legitimate. That's real. Another person, they love somebody but it's not reciprocated. The person doesn't love them back and they're just in anguish. I mean very few things equal it. There's the other person, they're deeply in love with somebody who's already married. I mean that's not a joke. I mean millions of them. It's real. It's painful. There's others, they're in deeply in love with somebody of their own sex. And I can think of ten other examples. I gave you about four or five examples. There's about ten more that I could list. There's many diverse expressions of that. Here's my point. When talking to some in the gay community, some believers wanting to be faithful to truth, and I love that part, and we must be faithful to truth because truth isn't a static religion argument. It's the engagement with a man who is love, who only knows the way to love. So we've got to remember, truth isn't just a religious concept, it's a person. And so when engaging with some in the gay community, the well-meaning believer tells them, they present the options, and the gay person goes, so, okay, my options are go to hell forever, or be saved and live with no love for 50 more years. That's it. And the faithful believers, yes. And the guy goes, that's it? I can't, and they said, I can't see through to the other side of this. That's it? And then, not all believers do this, but some, they point out the wicked witch of the east finger, you said her! You better watch it! And the guy's going, okay, hell? No. 50 more years with no love, ugh, ugh, ugh, and then, you wicked sinner, ugh! That's it. Beloved, that is horrifying. The need for empathy, the need for tenderness, the need for a pastoral sensitivity in addressing the liberating message of the gospel that really brings him to love, but remember, heterosexual and homosexual believers can't see through the other side of that leadership. It doesn't make sense. I mean, they know it technically, but it doesn't feel right. The heterosexuals stuck in pornography, or they're stuck in immorality, with, you know, member of the opposite sex, the homosexuals, the other situation, but they're stuck. And the church leader says, get with it, or else, they think, can anybody help me? Can anybody listen to me? Can anybody even be aware how I'm hurting right now? I'm a real human being and I'm hurting, is there another way? And the answer is yes. The leadership of Jesus is adequate, but we gotta partner and take hold of one another in a relational context and walk together in tenderness and not just give disconnected, railing statements. Now, many don't do that. Many don't do that, but that's the stereotype, but too many do do that as well. And then they'll get a demeaning comment back and then the believer will, to another believer, they'll go back and forth and the whole thing goes downhill and it's very, very terrible. I disagree 100% with the homosexual lifestyle because the leadership of Jesus says that love is experienced under His leadership and on His terms. And I believe that, heterosexual, homosexual, but I affirm the homosexual's desire to belong and to be loved. I mean, we've gotta answer that while we answer the other. And I don't mean that we come up with some new option, but we need to, as a spiritual family and as the body of Christ far beyond us, we need to, in a very intentional way, posture our heart where we can go forward listening and hearing and learning how, learning about the pain and the plight and how to better equip ourselves to partner together and help people through this. And I believe that we owe, I mean us here at FCF, IHOP, and the body of Christ, I believe we owe the LGBT community an apology. And the apology that we owe them is the angry tone, not of all believers, but of too many believers, the minimizing of their pain and their plight, the not prioritizing the need to hear and learn, and not having pastoral sensitivity to the issues where we're in this thing together. Someone said, well, are homosexuals welcome in this spiritual family? I said, yes. I said, homosexuals are totally welcome. They're valuable human beings. I said, heterosexuals addicted to pornography are welcome, liars are welcome, cheaters are welcome, gluttons are welcome, yes, everybody's welcome, for sure, however, we are mandated, not in every conversation, not in every ministry, not in every dialogue, relational interaction, but we're mandated in every one of these situations, in all of our own situations and struggles, to call people out of areas of their life that are in disagreement with the Lord's leadership that are in sin. Now, sin's an unpopular word, but it's a biblical word. To break their agreement with sin, believer, heterosexual, homosexual, pornography, whatever it is, we want to break it. And the guy says, well, I'm trying. I said, you know what, you're repenting, and you've postured your heart in that direction, we are going to partner together. Everybody is welcome. Absolutely, because, again, though I don't agree with the lifestyle, the homosexual lifestyle, or the heterosexual immoral lifestyle, I do agree with both groups, their desire to belong and to be loved and to experience love. I get that. And we as a people, we want to engage in that in a far more specific and intentional way. Roman numeral two, now I'm going to just, I've already said most of this stuff here in Roman numeral two, but what I want to put is here, I have eight different dynamics. I have eight different dynamics. Probably there could be ten or fifteen. What I'm wanting to show you here is that this whole issue is far more than an equality marriage issue. There's a far bigger storyline with many components all wrapped up into one or two, I mean it's one big banner statement, but there's many components that are on God's heart that are working into this situation we are in right now in our nation. And the reason I'm wanting you to see the multifaceted components is so that you don't yield to the temptation to pick one or two of these and then you apply the one or two wrong if you separate them from the other ten or twelve components. So we see, you know, we want our constitution and our rights, that's good, but that's one part of the larger story of what's happening. And we want purity, that's good, but that's another part, there's a number of things going on all at one time, and because we're human beings, we have a tendency to lock into one or two and forget the other eight or ten or fifteen, whatever this list could be, this is just a little snapshot. I've already said most of these, so I'll be quite brief on these, but Jesus' leadership. We're committed to a real person who has real zeal for love. We're not committed to winning a religious argument, but engaging with this man, that's the central issue. And when people lose sight of that, they want to argue believer against believer and they get mean spirited and they try to one-upsmanship on each other, no, no, it's about a man, there's a man we're engaging with, he's indescribably lovely, and he's proven, his leadership is proven. When he had everything, he gave it away for love, for our sakes, he's proven, his love has been proven in history. B, there's the institutionalizing of sin, I mean this is a crisis, it's destroying lives and families and society itself, that's another issue different, I mean all of these overlap. There's the coming crisis at the end of the age, and I believe we are approaching that time frame, obviously more and more as the years unfold, but again as I've said over the years, I believe we're in the early days of that generation, and I could be wrong, it's not a prophecy, but I think there's people alive on the earth that will actually see, maybe it's the two year olds, I don't know, maybe it's their children, maybe it's you, I don't know, but there's a crisis God in his graciousness is preparing his church for, that he knows that will produce love. Paragraph D, God is strategically training leadership, and again this is more than a trial run, what we're doing now the next couple years in this crisis in our nation, it's real, it's a real issue, but it will prove to be valuable in focusing us on intentionally becoming unified, to seeing the value of other ministries, to systematically training our people in more practical and skillful ways in the word of God, to many, and be insistent on righteousness, many things God's raising leaders up for yet another hour, yet while they are very very important even in this hour. Paragraph E, there's the end of the age great falling away, this is a theme of end time prophecy, this is the greatest spiritual crisis in human history, is that the end of the age and the years before the Lord returns, Jesus said it, Paul the Apostle said it, the others said it as well, there are going to be people who once claimed allegiance to the Lord, a large number of people that lose their spiritual vitality, they succumb to fear, deception, the seduction of the culture, the confusion of the issues, and they end up actually breaking their allegiance to Jesus and losing their spiritual vitality, they actually step away from Him, and I think that we're in the early days of that escalation right now, when people began to take a step away from what the word of God says about marriage, the next step is, well the word of God is not as relevant as the archaic word was back in the ancient days, then the authority of the word of God is challenged, it's only a year or two later to the deity of Jesus is challenged, and soon after that, His one way of salvation, and then they're just backing away from the Lord. It's a very slippery slope, I've watched this for forty years, they start inching their way forward, I'm talking about believers that had a vibrant relationship with the Lord, there's an issue, they get cross-wise with the Lord on and disagree with Him, then they begin to minimize the authority of the word, then they start moving to the person of Jesus Himself, and the thing just moves, it takes often about five or ten years, but it's a very quick, slippery slope, and I believe that many are being sucked by the air currents in this hour right now into that direction, and I believe that this thing is going to escalate in the decades to come, if we have that much time, or longer if we have more time, it is a serious crisis, it's the most, it's the greatest spiritual crisis in history in the people of God, and it's coming in the future, and I believe the early winds of that are already, like, sucking people into the vortex of that storm right now. I mean, people that claim allegiance to Jesus for years. Paragraph F, there's the issue that we just talked about, the compassion for the pain of, again, people in sexual, brokenness in situations, heterosexual, homosexual, that we need to share with them in a relational context, and contend for their greatness, not win an argument, not rail at them, and again, I want to apologize to the gay community, and even to the heterosexual community that's been stuck in sexual sin, that we've not, we've minimized your pain, and we've not been sensitive to the plight you're on, and we need to do a better job, we need to learn to do this better, if we're going to effectively disciple people. Paragraph G, the next issue, really big one, we could spend an hour on this one, I just hate mentioning it in ten seconds, the contending for our democracy. Now, we don't need a democracy for the kingdom to prosper, because the book of Acts, they did well, and they were not under democracy. The body of Christ throughout 2,000 years has mostly been a counter-culture people against a government that was against them, almost throughout history, in many, many situations. But, God gave this nation, and other nations as well, but in a very special way, the gift of democracy, and that's a big story, it's not a small thing. And the many people sacrifice many things, and many miracles, and the move of God, and I mean God's activity, and our religious freedom is not something, oh whatever, we're just going to trust God against, no, I want you to contend for that. I want you to be an active believe in the society with civil responsibility. I want my people acting as witnesses in society, not just in relationship one to another. You know, they say there's 60 million believers in America, out of 320 million, there's 320 million people, so say 300 million, 300 plus million, 60 million are believers. 30 million of 60 registered to vote. Only half of the believers registered to vote. Only 30 million out of 60. Only 15 of the 30 million actually went to the polls and voted. And do you know what, the last two elections were, were decided by the smallest measure. The smallest measure of, if believers would have been involved in the polls more, things could have been radically different. But many believers, they just look at the gift of democracy, and they go, well, you know, what happened, what happened. If the body of Christ was mobilized, the last two elections, we would have different Supreme Court justices, and this decision would have been very different on June 26th. The body of Christ is sleeping. It's not that they have a theological difference and opposition against being involved, they're just too busy with their own life. They go, I don't care, the Lord says, do you understand the gift I gave you in a democracy? Then paragraph H, there's the growing in love, responding in love. Our response is, because we can't win the cause of love without responding in the spirit of love. Let's turn to page 2. We're going to do page 2 just ever so fast. I'm going to give just a thought or two and leave it to you to read on your own. Paragraph A, look at the second verse, 1 Timothy 4. The Spirit expressly says, in the last days, in the latter times. For the Spirit to say something expressly, Paul's saying, the Spirit is emphasizing this in a special way. Here it is. The Spirit's saying, I want you to know I'm emphasizing this. There will be a departure from the faith. People are going to give heed to deceiving spirits, doctors and demons, and one of the manifestations, this is 2,000 years ago, he prophesied, they would forbid marriage. This is so startling and shocking, 2,000 years ago, Paul said, in the latter times, there's going to be a falling away, and one of the signals of it is you will find governments forbidding marriage. Beloved, we are on the cusp of that happening right now. This is alerting anybody paying attention that we're in a time frame where things are escalating according to these lines. This is a unique signal of the end times, and the forbidding of marriage is an escalator of the darkness of the end times as well. Paul prophesied this 2,000 years ago. Look at paragraph B. Here's, I just want to point out one point in here. It's the word many. Here in Daniel 11 and 12. Daniel, it's one vision. It's about the end time generation, the generation the Lord returns. And the message is God is going to have many, not a few, who respond to righteousness. Look at this. And the people who understand, faithful believers, they will instruct many. Now I believe this many is going to be millions and millions, and I believe it will be through the internet. Beloved, you may be 80 years old, sitting at home, making a blog that goes viral, that's seen by 10 million people, and you don't even know it the day before. Look what it says. It's going on in the vision, chapter 12, verse 1. It's the same vision. It says there will be a time of trouble, such as never was. Jesus quoted this verse. It's the great tribulation. That's what He called it. Look, many, those who are wise, they shall turn many to righteousness. Here's the good news. Many are going to turn to righteousness. Many. Many in the body of Christ are going to break their unity with compromise and live in a vibrant righteousness. And many unbelievers are going to come all the way through to righteousness in their lifestyle. Many. Look what it says in verse 10. Many will be purified. Many. Not a little ragged remnant on the side of glory. Beloved, millions are going to say yes to the leadership of Jesus. You're on the right side of history. John the Apostle picked up on this, and John in Revelation 7, he said, a great multitude. All the nations, every tribe, every tongue. Multitudes are saying yes. So don't look at this hour and say, well, a lot of young people, they don't really do the Bible, and they go with Facebook instead of Jesus, though they, you know, they're on their church worship team. They don't really do this stuff. I got good news for you. God has His young people here and in the nations that love righteousness. And they are going to be messengers of righteousness, and they're not this kind of, I just do whatever's on Facebook, and I don't really do the Bible. Maybe there are young people like that, but I got a prophecy from the Word of God. Many of this generation are going to come all the way through in faithfulness and in righteousness. I mean in purity and love to the end. I ask the greatest hour of history to be alive yet. Well, I'm going to read one more verse, paragraph C, the back of page 2. I just want to ask you how you read this verse. That's the only reason I'm reading it. We all know the verse, 1 Corinthians 6. Do you not know the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom? Don't be deceived, neither fornicators. I want us to know the Bible's clear about this, but here's the point. We all know this verse. Well, it's all over the media. Here's my question. Do you read this verse with a vindictive tone, or do you read this verse with tears? One Christian reads it this way. Do you not know the unrighteous, they will not inherit the kingdom. Don't be deceived. Those adulterers and sodomites, they'll never enter the kingdom. I know Christians that talk that way. There's another type of Christian that says, do you not know? Ah, the relationship with Jesus, their inheritance in the kingdom. Oh, Lord, this is so intense. They will not, oh, be a part of the family. Do you not know? That's how a faithful believer should read that verse. Coming up, worship team, but look at verse 11. He says, but you're washed. There's the way. God says, I'll cleanse you. I'll give you a new beginning. I'll set you free. I'll declare you clean. Father, we say yes to your word. We say yes to your leadership. We say yes to upholding the kingdom. Operating in love. We want to do this thing your way. I want to call people to worship teams coming. I want you to just, if you just close your eyes so you're not distracted around, just you and the Lord think, how can we contend for love, the gospel going forward, without doing it in the spirit of love? And if you are on the internet or interfacing with anybody with an angry tone, I'm asking you right now to call out to the Lord and say, Lord, that's me. And to get a hold of that person on Facebook and undo that angry tone. And say the truth, but say it in a tenderness. I'm asking you right now to repent. And talk to the Lord and say, yeah, Lord, love wins. Yeah, yeah. That means I got to undo that. Oh my goodness. Yeah, love wins. It's worth it. Others of you, how can we contend for purity in the homosexual community when the heterosexual community is filled with immorality? All kinds of things. The Lord says, I'll forgive you. I'll cleanse you. But I want you to break your unity. I want you to be genuine about this and tender in the process. And Lord, we say yes to that. And others are totally disengaged. And this whole drama, Lord says, I want you involved in it. I want you involved in your community. I want you involved in being a faithful witness. I want you to be a clear spokesman for what's in my heart. So Lord, we're saying to you yes to that as well. I want to invite you to stand. I want to invite any of you that want to come forward for prayer, for anything. These things I said, you could talk to the Lord about in your chair. You could come forward. But if you would like prayer for anything, or you're saying, I need to repent on one of those three or four issues you mentioned, and I'm going to be different. Yeah, I'm going to be a faithful witness. I'm going to be tender. And I'm going to undo that angry tone. And I'm going to have empathy in the process. And I'm going to apologize to some of the people I've talked down to. I'm going to invite you to come forward. Do you want prayer for any of that or for healing in your body or anything? Lord, I want to be bold, but I want to be tender. Lord, I want to be tender, but I want to be bold. Lord, I want to be tender and bold, but I want to be clear. I want to be schooled in the message. Lord, we love your leadership. Lord, in this great hour of history, we say, use me, Lord, here I am. Use me. Have mercy, Lord, speak to me face to face as your friend. I want to stand in your fire wherever you are. You find me faithful to you, Lord. Just let me be found. I invite others of you, anyone in the room that wants to, about a hundred of you, come on up and pray for folks. Whether you're visiting or you're local, you're welcome to come pray for folks. We love Jesus. Lord, I want to be loyal to you. Just let me be found, God. Lord, I want to be loyal to you. Just let me be found. I want to be loyal to you. With a heart after you. Lord, I want to say yes with a heart after you. And may your eyes find me smiling, loyal to you. Lord, I say Lord, release your presence right now, I ask, all over this room, release your glory. Just let me be found, with a heart after you. Your eyes find this heart, loyalty, with a heart after you. Your eyes find this heart, loyalty with a heart after you.