Mike Bickle emphasizes the necessity for believers to be spiritually strengthened in order to stand firm without compromise during the end times, as outlined in Luke 21:34-36. He highlights the importance of praying for inner strength, as this divine might will enable believers to resist the snares of sin, fear, and despair that will increase in the last days. Bickle urges the church to take heed of their spiritual condition and to remain vigilant through prayer, ensuring they are prepared to face the challenges ahead without falling into compromise. He reassures that while the snare is inevitable, believers can escape the resulting compromise by seeking God's strength. Ultimately, the call is to cultivate a deep connection with God through prayer to stand victorious when the Lord returns.

Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus for your word. Lord, we ask you to stir our spirit, stir our heart by your word. Even tonight, we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Tonight, I want to share a passage, Jesus' exhortation in Luke chapter 21, particularly applicable to the end-time church. Of course, it has application for 2,000 years, but he was speaking to the generation that he would return. But before we get into that exhortation, I want to just take a moment and do a review of what I shared last Sunday. And last Sunday, I spoke from Ephesians chapter three, verse 16. You have it there at the PowerPoint at the bottom. It's the prayer. It's one of the most important prayers that you can pray for others or for yourself. And here's what the prayer is, that God would strengthen you with divine might in the inner man, on the inside. That God would release divine might. The might is supernatural. And that supernatural might from the spirit would make you strong, your mind, your emotions and your will. Paragraph A, as I said last week, that the, one of the foundational principles of the kingdom, we all know it well, but it just needs to be said by way of a reminder. God will give more strength to your inner man if you ask. It's just that simple. That your strength on the inside, your experience of strength can increase or decrease, just like physical strength can increase or decrease. In three months from now, some of you will be stronger spiritually and others will be weaker spiritually. Now that's not a prophecy, I'm just saying just in the body of Christ in a general sense. Because strength or experience of strength is what I'm talking about, can be increased, but also it can be decreased. And people can remember, I remember a year or two ago sometimes they say, when I was really on fire for the Lord. Now when the Holy Spirit releases strength on our emotions, on our heart, He strengthens us. He releases it in small measures. Don't despise those small measures. It's just day in and day out. And often you cannot measure or discern, you cannot discern, you cannot detect the Spirit working and strengthening you. That doesn't mean He's not doing it. I compare it to vitamins. You know, you take vitamins, the right vitamins for years, it will strengthen you physically. But there's never a day where this is the day the vitamin really helped me today. But it's over a period of time, but it actually is helping you that day. But I mean, I've taken vitamins for years and I can't imagine, I can't ever remember one day where this was the day it took. And it's the same way in your spirit, man. If you will ask, and many people never ask for the Spirit to give them might on the inside. And the Holy Spirit's waiting. He says, I'll give you more, I'll give you more, but I'm waiting for you to ask me. Well last week, paragraph B, I gave a message for those of you who are just here for the first time, where I, I identified 10 prayers. I used the acronym fellowship as in fellowship with God. And the 10 letters in the word fellowship and like F for the fear of the Lord. And I went right down through the list, E for endurance, etc. And you can see the website if you would like that prayer list with a few Bible verses, a little explanation for each. Because if you will take these 10 prayers, and you can make it 12 or eight, you can categorize them different ways. I just use the acronym just to kind of make it easier to, to remember if you don't have the list in front of you. But if you will pray for strength in your inner man, you will receive more. And that's what Jesus is talking about here in Luke 21. He's, he's calling the saints throughout church history, of course, but particularly he's talking to one generation, in particular. And he's telling them if you would ask for strength in your inner man, you would get it and you would be able to stand before the greatest challenges that any generation in history will ever face. There's one generation in history that will face the greatest revival, but they will also face the greatest negative challenges and obstacles of any generation in all of history. And Jesus cared so much about them having victory, this generation, that 2,000 years ahead of time he talked to them prophetically. He said if you cry out always, regularly, often for strength, you will stand in victory in the most difficult hour in human history. So really what Jesus is talking about is praying the prayer. Lord, really strengthen the inner man. That's Ephesians 3.16. And again I break it down in 10 prayers. You could organize it different ways if you wanted. But it's just a practical tool I want to urge you, not just to get the, the prayer list from the website, but to actually do it. Take 10, 15, 20 minutes a day. And if you start, if you do that for 10 or 15 minutes a day, you'll grow to need an hour. It'll take you an hour to get through the list. And then if you go through it slow, it'll take you longer than an hour. But it will grow on you, this idea of praying for your inner man. A lot of people pray for outward things, ministry and breakthrough and all kinds of things, but they don't pray for their own inner man to be strengthened. Okay, let's move on now to the actual exhortation Jesus gave to the end time church. And he's calling them to pray for strength in their inner man. Roman numeral two. Well let's just give just a general feel for the context. And I just edited part of the verses here just to get right to it. In Luke chapter 21 verse 25, Jesus said, there will be on earth the distress of nations. I mean what a sentence. I mean a phrase, the distress of nations. I mean who wants to live in the generation that Jesus calls the distress of nations? Well I believe you live in that generation. I believe there's people in this room that will actually witness the coming of the Lord in their lifetime. Therefore they will experience the revival and the distress of nations. Verse 26, Jesus went on to talk about how intense this distress is going to be. Men's hearts will fail because of fear. Fear will be one of the number one challenges in that time frame and we are in the beginning of that time frame and fear is increasing all over the nations. Now fear is increasing in the church and outside the church. The church has millions of unbelieving believers. They love Jesus but they are as entrenched in fear as unbelievers are. Because they don't have a, a lively connection with Him to where the fear issue is being, uh, touched by the power of the Holy Spirit on the inside. He goes on in verse 31. He says, when you see these things and he gives a whole list of them that I'm, I'm skipping here. When you see these things happen, know that the kingdom of God is near, which means the millennial kingdom, the second coming, the time where Jesus is on the earth physically and all the nations come under His leadership. That's what He means by the, I mean the kingdom is now but there's a sense of which the kingdom of God is in its full sense the millennial kingdom when Jesus literally rules on the earth for a thousand years and every nation comes under His full leadership. Now He goes on in verse 34 and He gives the exhortation to that generation that will see the coming of the Lord. I mean this is a, I mean imagine Jesus giving a tailor-made exhortation to one generation. That's what He's doing here. How, how dear is this? How precious is this exhortation? Let's read it and then we're going to break it down some of the phrases. He gives two exhortations. He says in verse 34, take heed to yourself. That's exhortation one. And then in verse 36 He said, He tells them to pray always. So take heed to yourself and pray always. So just keep that in mind as I read this passage. It says in verse 34, exhortation one, take heed to yourself. He says why? Because if you don't pay attention to yourself, your hearts will be weighed down your heart will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the cares of this life. And the net result is the day of the Lord, the second coming and the events related to it will come upon these people, even believers, unexpectedly. Because their hearts are weighed down and they don't have an alert spirit and they don't know what's happening even in the generation they're living in. It's the generation of the Lord's return they don't even know it because their hearts are weighed down because they didn't pay attention to how they lived, how they were living. And we're talking about believers as well. He's talking to His people here, people that would read the Bible, believers. He goes on. He says, let me give you the bigger context. Verse 35. Why is it that this is so important? Verse 35 is a bit ominous, a bit, you know, I mean it's a little bit overwhelming almost to, well it is actually, except for by the Spirit of God. He says, for it will come, it meaning the day of the Lord, the end time events associated with Jesus' coming, it will come as a snare upon everyone on the face of the whole earth. The day of the Lord events, the day of the Lord events will be a snare, a challenge. Put the word challenge in there for now. It will challenge believers and unbelievers. Now it will challenge everybody differently, but it will be a challenge even for the red hot believer. It's a challenge they can overcome. It's a challenge they're meant to overcome, but it's a challenge that some believers will not overcome. So he says this very strong statement. It, the day of the Lord and the events surrounding it will come to the earth and it will be a snare on the entire planet. Every single human being will be challenged in a unique way, in a personal way by the events in that generation. There's not one of us in this room that will skip or escape that challenge. Now many of us will escape compromising in the face of the challenge. We will escape falling and stumbling, but the challenge will come to everyone. Now Jesus, verse 36, he moves on to the second exhortation. The first one is take heed to yourself. Pay attention to what you do. We'll come back to that in a few minutes. Now he's given the second exhortation of verse 36. Watch and pray always. Now the reason you watch and pray is that you would be counted worthy to escape all the things that will come to pass and stand. The idea is stand in victory when the Lord appears. You would be in a place of victory when the Lord comes. You wouldn't be in a place of compromise. You would not be in a place of stumbling, but you would be standing instead of stumbling when the Lord appears. And of course, that's the goal. That's what everybody wants. So let's read verse 36 again. He goes, watch and pray. It's one exhortation, two different sides to it. Two sides to the coin, but it's one general exhortation. And here's what you're praying. Now the new King James uses the word, the phrase, you would be counted worthy. Now many translations translate this Greek word, you would be strengthened. Because the idea of being worthy is being able or capable or strengthened. That's the, that's what the Greek word means. Strengthened, able, capable, worthy. It's that, that's the feel of what Jesus is saying. So think of this phrase and how many Bible translations say it. Pray that you would be counted worthy or that you would be supernaturally strengthened. Really this is the call to pray for Ephesians 3.16. That you would have might on the inside. He said, pray always. You'd be counted worthy or, let me say it the other translation, pray always. You would have strength on the inside. Why? That you would escape. Not the, the snare. The snare is coming to everyone. You would escape the, the compromise. You would escape stumbling before the challenge of that generation. Because the whole generation, all the people will be challenged by the end time events. Now it's not just going to be a challenge that's negative. In the end time will also be the greatest revival in history as well. They're going together but Jesus is focusing in on the negative and he's telling the church 2,000 years. He goes, church 2,000 years later, are you listening to me? I have a word for you. Pray always. That you would be counted worthy or that you would find strength to escape the compromise that goes along with this challenge, this snare. And you would stand instead of stumble. You would be in victory instead of compromise when I come back to meet, in the air to meet and to rapture my people to meet them face to face. Okay. Let's look at paragraph A. Now we're looking at the, we're going to focus in on verse 35, the snare. A snare is coming. Now a snare is coming to the whole earth. By the way, that snare is already beginning right now. The snare in its fullness is the final three and a half years before Jesus returns. But that snare doesn't only occur then, it's building even now. And if I was guessing, I don't know by revelation, but I'm guessing we're two or three decades out. Maybe more, maybe less. By all the signs that are happening in the Bible, that are, all the biblical signs that are prophesied in the Bible, that are happening in the nations so fast. Today, we just now, we heard the report. Jesus said, when the gospel of the kingdom is preached in every nation and every tribe everywhere, I'll come back. And within 10 years, the gospel, a witness of the gospel will be in every single people group within 10 years. That's what the top mission organizations are saying. I mean, the main ones within 10 years, there's no doubt this will happen for the first time in 2,000 years. Beloved, that is a sign of the time in itself. That's amazing reality. If it's true that we're in that hour and the gospel will be preached in every nation, the snare is coming as well in that time frame. Now a snare is a trap. It's the same word snare or trap. Some, some Bibles translations say snare, some say trap. Now a trap or a snare was a very common thing in the ancient world because that's how many people obtain their food. They would go hunting. And in the old days, they didn't bring a shotgun when they went hunting, they didn't have a shotgun. They didn't have sophisticated weapons for hunting. So the most practical and common way of hunting to get food was a trap. So, or a snare, they would put a trap in a, in a hidden way. And then the, the animal would step into the trap. It's obvious. And then they would be captured. Now there is a trap. There is a snare, same word that must be discerned. We must see it and overcome it. And Jesus requires even his people to face it. Even his people will face the trap. They will see it and overcome it. Now, some believers would like, we'd like to just skip the whole challenge. You know, let the unbelievers face that trap and let us skip it, but that's not going to happen. We will face it. We will see it and we will triumph over it, but it will happen on an individual basis. And some believers, actually many believers, I don't think most, but it will be hundreds of millions will be caught in the snare and they will compromise. And I believe if there will be that many who will deny the Lord, the great falling away will happen in the hour of the snare. I believe there'll be hundreds of millions. There's about a billion believers on the earth. And I believe there's going to be another billion in the great harvest, the great revival. So though the church will increase dramatically, there will be, my guess is potentially tens of millions, but I think it's more. I think it's a couple hundred million will actually deny the faith in the face of the snare. They won't see the snare and they won't triumph over it. They will be caught by it and they will denounce the Lord in the intensity of the hour. Now the snare is inevitable. It's coming. We can't pray the snare away. The snare is coming. However, your response to it can, is still in the balance. What you will do in the face of the snare as an individual is up to you. And Jesus, that's what he's talking about. He's saying the snare is coming. You can't pray the snare away, but you can pray that you escape the compromise related to the snare. But he tells them in verse 36, pray always. He's really saying Ephesians 3.16, pray that a spirit of might would touch your inner man. Beloved, this is a prayer that you do not want to neglect or minimize. You really, really want this prayer to be a priority in your daily life. Because weak and broken people like you and me, just folk, just normal people, just everyday people can receive these, this inspiration of the spirit, this influence of the spirit of their inner man. It's just small measures of it, little by little, but it really will make the difference. Because it's not going to be enough in the face of the snare to just grit our teeth and I'm going to obey, I'm going to obey, I'm going to obey. We're going to need supernatural help and inspiration touching our inner man. We're going to need supernatural help to make it, but the Holy Spirit said, I'll give it to you. And Jesus said, if you ask for it, even you will get it, but you have to ask for it. Number one, number eight. Now the nature of the snare, the nature of a snare is it's hidden. There's, you don't put neon lights on a snare. You don't put a trap out in the woods to catch the animal in the ancient world and put lights on it. It's not advertised. Matter of fact, the snare is opposite. It lures the prey into it. It lures them into the trap. So it gives them a false sense of security. So the animal walks right in to take the bait. They're lured into it and the snare, we're going to look at it in a minute, has several different expressions. The snare, it will lure people into it. And then the second part of the nature of a snare, first it's hidden. Secondly, the nature of a snare is to hold the prey captive. And many people will get captured in the snare and they will get, they will be held captive to the lust, the sin, the fear, the offense. They will be held captive to it on the inside. It will become a fixation in their life. It will become a bondage, a stronghold, a point of addiction that they can't get free of except they cry out in the grace of God. Now it's much wiser and much easier to do preventive maintenance. If we pray now and avoid bondages now, it's far easier to get free, to avoid a bondage than to struggle through to get free from it. A lot of folks are real casual, like in the realm of drunkenness or immorality. I'm talking about believers. And they get in bondage in a deep way. And then they have to go through far more difficult troubles to get out of bondage because the bondage will get worse and worse. The bondage never takes hold of a person and stops. The bondage always increases and becomes more and more miserable. It's far easier to stay out of the bondage to put the work in and the effort to stay out of it than to put the work and effort to get out of it. Staying out of it is much easier than getting out of it after you're entrapped. It's still possible. It's still worth it. But beloved, this is the hour to put the effort in. Stay out of it is much easier than getting out of it after you've been ensnared. Very difficult to escape, possible, but it is far more difficult. Okay, paragraph B. Now the reason we need to pay attention to this snare because we, I mean special attention because it has a unique application in one generation of history. This snare is not just troubles for 2,000 years in human history. There has been trouble for 2,000 years. But this snare is unique to one generation. The reality of it, the challenge will reach a level never seen in history before. That's why Jesus highlights it. He's saying you don't really understand. There is no generation that will have the intensity of a snare in the way that one generation will. Paragraph C. That snare is increasing right now. Meaning the snare doesn't just start the final three and a half years when it reaches its fullness. The snare is working for a couple decades ahead of time building in intensity. And we'll, I'll define that in a minute, give some practical explanation to that. Paragraph D. The snare has diverse expressions. There's, now I list four of them here in paragraph D. These four are not comprehensive. I didn't set out to put every snare I could think of, but this to give you a feel for what this snare looks like. That we are already facing it right now. It's not we're going to face it. We're already facing it in its early stages. But it's going to get far more intense. And it will surpass any other generation in history. This snare will. Number one snare is that in the final generation, sin or lust will reach levels never known in history before. Never known in history. I went and I could give, you know, highlight 10 different sins or whatever number you want to do. There's plenty of categories of sins to look at. They're all going to increase. But let me just point out one just to give you an example. Immorality. It is no guesswork. Doesn't take special insight. Particularly those that are a little bit older. Because you look back over 20, 30, 40 years. I'm 53. I've been in a walk with the Lord for 35 years. So I've been paying attention to this for 35 years. And where immorality is in 2009 is significantly higher than it was 20 years ago. It's not even close. Where immorality is in the nations and where immorality is in the church. It is increasing so rapidly right now. And in 10 and 20 years it will be a snare for the human race that is unimaginable. The intensity of the snare of immorality. For instance, I'm thinking of two different examples of the increase of this snare of immorality. The internet pornography. 10 years ago nobody was talking about internet pornography. The internet was just kind of getting going whenever. I don't even know when it, you know, officially was recognized as a public reality in the nations. But 10 years ago, you never heard a person stuck on internet pornography. You heard about that one guy here and there who was involved in pornography in a deep way. That one guy. That one preacher. Like, wow, let's pray for him. But the other one. There were several. But today in 10 short years, millions of believers are addicted to pornography within 10 years. This was unheard of 10 years ago. This magnet, I mean, this level and where the internet is going in 10 more years, the accessibility and the technology improvement. I can't imagine where it's going to be globally in 10 years and in 20 years, it's just unthinkable. It's unthinkable. Then the second thing is not just the internet pornography. This whole issue of the same-sex marriage that is a global reality. Now there's many problems with the same-sex marriage, but the one that I am focused on, there's several I can identify, but I want to focus on one. When same-sex marriage gets legalized like it is in various nations, it will get into the elementary curriculum by law. When same-sex marriage is legalized in a more wholesale way, you know, a little bit here, there it's breaking out, but when it's legalized in a nation and a wholesale way, like it is in various states, it's going to be in a lot more nations. We're going to resist it in our nation. It will get in the school books for the seven-year-olds to be exposed to it in graphic ways. Millions, millions worldwide of six, seven and eight-year-olds will be exposed to this. And then the internet will be far more sophisticated in the next 10 or 20 years. So they will see it in the classroom, run into the internet. And I can't imagine what billions of people are going to be like 20 years from now. That is a snare that's unique in history. That's one snare. Second snare, and I'll be briefer on the other ones. I just want to give you a feeling for the snare, the despair that people feel in difficulty, just difficult circumstances, just the financial crisis in the nations. And by the way, the financial crisis in the nations is going to get far worse than it is now. I don't mean that we won't solve this one. We might solve this one, this round, and we might not. I'm talking about globally. I don't know, but I know for sure if we solve it this round, the next round is coming. There will be global financial crisis. There'll be crisis of difficulty in terrorism and violence and in lawlessness in the streets and in ethnic clashes increasing globally. I don't mean just America. I mean globally. It's already happening, but it's going to increase. Life is going to become more difficult. Jesus called it the distress of nations. Distress. So there's a one kind of guy that says, you know, the internet thing isn't, doesn't pull on me. But when they face mounting difficulty, they just quit. They say, it's too hard. I just want to quit. I don't want to press in anymore. Now I've talked to people for years of, you know, pastoring 30 years and I hear it regularly. I want to quit. Like, okay, what are your options? You can serve the devil or you serve God. There's not a third option. There's not a stay away from the devil and keep God happy and be in neutral zone. There is no such thing as a third option, the neutral zone. And I ask him, I go, okay, you're going to quit. I appreciate that you're in pain. What are you going to join? Well, nothing. Okay. But you're going to join something. You're going to join personal comfort. That's the movement you're joining. Where's God and where's the devil? Because they're both going to be involved in it one way or the other in various ways. Meaning there is no option to quit. There is nothing to join. When you quit, you can't go into a neutral zone and call ceasefire with the devil. If you quit, all you do is lay down your weapons and you get mowed down by the devil. You can't quit and have a safety zone. There's no such thing. Well, quitting is not a rational emotion. It's a emotional thing. Many people, I think the whole human race struggles with quitting. I think everyone in this room struggles with it at various times. It's a common urge in the human spirit. It's too hard. I'm just going to draw back, try to find as much comfort as I can and not press into God and take my chances that the devil won't get me. The devil may not get you with the disease and kill you, but I guarantee your soul will end up in bondage in various ways. The only way that we can keep from losing ground is to take new ground. If you don't take new ground in the spirit, you will lose the ground you have. If you don't go forward, you will go backwards. There is no neutral timeout zone in the spirit realm. Well, some, the snare will be the despair of wanting just to quit and they can't quit life. What they'll do is they'll just quit pressing into God in their despair. They'll give up their intention. It's just too hard. That's a snare and that snare is on many people right now and it's on many believers and they have to stare at that, that challenge. They got to look at it and they've got to resist that snare, that part of the snare. A third, this very difficult one, number three, the fear of man, overcoming the fear of man in standing for righteousness. Now standing for righteousness is going to be far more difficult. It's far more difficult today than 20 years ago, far more difficult as a preacher because with the globalization and all the nations kind of in the last years working together and it's all on media and everybody knows what all the nations are doing. I'm talking about the, the main policies and it's moving towards globalization very strong, very rapidly and the policy and the culture, which are two different things, of globalization is toleration. The policy, meaning the laws, they will, they will require toleration. But it's more than just laws. It will be the culture. If you are not tolerant, you will be rejected, ridiculed and called a fanatic and out of touch and you'll be called a hate monger. You'll be called a unloving person. So it's not just that laws will forbid standing for righteousness. The culture, the social environment, the ostracism, being ostracized, ostracized for standing for righteousness will increase more and more. Matter of fact, it is so different even now than 10 or 20 years ago. If you stand for righteousness right now, much of the church, even today, much of the church, if you stand for righteousness, they will call it fanaticism, legalism, extremism. And there's this false doctrine of grace that's pervasive. I mean, it's filling the land. This false doctrine of grace, which gives, emboldens us to be comfortable in our compromise. It's not what the grace of God is meant to do. More and more old and young alike becoming casual with immorality, casual with their drunkenness, casual with their lack of compromise. I mean, with their lack of zeal and their passivity and claiming the grace of God and celebrating it. And it's a total deception. It's a significant deception. It's in the charismatic church from one end to the other. It's in the evangelicals. It's in the mainline churches. It's in the Catholic church. It's everywhere. So taking a stand for red hot Christianity already in 2009, you will be ostracized in the body of Christ in 10 and 20 years. It will be far more intense. The ridicule and the mocking that will come even from believers against you. If you stand for truth, they will say, man, get with it. Aren't you a man of the times there's a new acceptance. There's a new toleration. There's a new broad thinking. And Jesus says, no stand for my truth. This will be a snare that many people believers in the face of that snare, they will compromise. Maybe the despair thing will not touch them. Maybe the immorality or the escalating sin, but this issue of their reputation and being ostracized even by their Christian family, that will be the snare they have to face. Others, I'll give the fourth one and we can give several other categories, but this is enough to give you the feel, is offense towards God. People are offended. I'm talking about believers. They're offended at what God does, his judgments, and they're offended at what God doesn't do when he doesn't break in and help them in the way they think he should. I talk to Christians regularly who are, I'm giving up on God. Why? Well, because he's not helping me. Beloved, if, if things are a problem with you, the Lord, don't give up on God. Put the, don't put him on trial. Focus on your responsiveness and figure out where that is deficient, not where God's character is deficient. Well anyway, many believers that will be the issue. They'll get angry at God. I've served you all these years and this is how you're ignoring me. This is how you're treating me. This is what you're doing or this is what you're not doing to help me. This is going to be a snare across the whole earth because more and more the gospel is being presented as things go good in your life in this age if you say yes to Jesus. And the things will go better in your life in this age if you say yes to Jesus. That's not the gospel. Now there are times things go better in your life in circumstances. Under the favor of God. But there's many, many, many men and women of God under the favor of God where they end up. Paul the apostle was a pretty anointed guy in the favor of God. He ended up in prison. How did that happen? I mean he's got, has God's favor, heavenly visitations. He ends up in prison actually three or four times over the course of his ministry. Okay, top of page two. Let's read verse 36. Now we're going to focus in on one of the exhortations. Jesus said in Luke 21 verse 36, watch therefore and pray always. And here's what he says. Pray that you would be counted worthy or you could say pray that you would be prepared or you would be strengthened. Because again many translations put the word strengthened instead of the word worthy. Because the word is pray that you would be able, you'd be capable, you'd be worthy, you'd be strengthened. That's, just to repeat that again, that's the idea of the request that Jesus is urging them to pray. He said pray always that you would, I'm going to use the word strengthened now, that you would be strengthened to escape all of these things and to stand. In other words that you would stand instead of stumble. That's the idea. That you would have victory instead of compromise. Now we're praying for strength to escape. We're not going to escape the snare, the challenge. We can, we can't escape the challenge. The challenge will be for all nations and all people. But we can escape compromising before it. Yielding to the challenge in a negative way. That's what we're praying for, strength. That when the challenge comes, whether it's escalating sin and lust, whether it's the fear of man, whether it's just the distress of difficulty in life and just the urge to quit, whatever the issue is, we will have strength to see through that trap. We will see it for what it is. We will have discernment to see it like God sees it. We'll see through that trap. And then we will have strength to respond right. That's what Jesus meant. He goes, pray that you would escape. You would see the trap for what it is. Instead of offended God, you trust God. Instead of yielding to the fear of man, you take a bold stand and you bear, you endure persecution. You see the trap through God's eyes. You have discernment, but not just that. You have strength. You have Holy Spirit inspiration on your heart to follow through, to follow through and to obey the Lord in victory. Now it says in Ephesians 6, verse 13, take up the whole armor of God and if you do it, you will be able. There's that phrase again, able. You would be capable. You would be strengthened to stand in the evil day, to withstand in the evil day. Now the evil day, the evil day, now notice it's not a evil day. It's the evil day. The evil day is a reference, not just to an hour of intense attack on a believer at any time in history. You could apply that in a secondary way. You know a guy a thousand years ago could go through an intense time and say, boy I've entered the evil day. In an individual sense, it's okay to apply the verse in that way, but it means more than that. The evil day is, is depicting the final three and a half years before the Lord returns when the Antichrist is in power and sin is abounding. And in a secondary way, the evil day is any time where the intensity of the warfare increases. But that's a secondary application of that phrase. Paul said take up the whole armor. The point is you would be able. That's the point, that you would be able. You would have strength. That in the presence of the snare or the evil day, put either phrase you want in, you would be able to stand, meaning not stumble. Roman, I mean Revelation 617. Now this is in the midst of the tribulation. The wrath of God is breaking and here's the question of the hour when the wrath of God is breaking out in the nations. This is the sixth seal. The question, the number one question in the earth is this, who can stand? And Jesus can say when John saw that, John remember 60 years ago, right before I went to the cross, I gave you the answer of who can stand. If you take heed to yourself and you watch and pray always, you will have strength to escape the compromise that the snare brings. The number one issue of the day and there's actually about five verses in the, in the Bible that ask the question, who can stand or who can endure? It's the same question. Who can make it without stumbling is the question. That will be one of the primary questions in the nations. Who can make it without compromising or giving in? And the answer is Luke 21 verse 36. The people who pray always and watch and they ask for strength to stand. Those are the ones that will not compromise in the intensity of the evil day. Paragraph B. Now standing means not yielding, not falling away. But standing is more than just not falling away. I want more than just to get through it without backsliding. I have a bigger vision than just to not backslide. And so do you. I want the fullness of what God has for my life in this age and the fullness of what He has for me in the age to come. I want the full reward. I want the full assignment in the age to come that He has called me to have. But that assignment, actually the age to come, is linked to my responses in this age, even as a believer. Not my forgiveness, but my assignment in the age to come. I want the fullness of it. Now this is a biblical concept that you don't hear so much about. So some of you this is a new idea like, huh, I thought when you got over there it was all on automatic pilot. Yes, your forgiveness is automatic pilot. Your resurrected body, guaranteed. Your citizenship to the city, guaranteed. But the measure of reward and glory is in the balance to how you live in this age. Not everybody will have the same experience of glory in the age to come. And what we will receive as rewards and even the measure of glory is dynamically linked to our responses at this age. And Jesus is not just talking about not avoiding falling away. He's actually talking about being able to stand before Him in the fullness, the full responsiveness to receive the full reward. That is on Jesus's mind, I have no doubt, when He gives this exhortation. Paul talked about a believer suffering loss. He's talking about a believer now at the judgment seat of Christ. First Corinthians 3 15. He says if anyone's work is burned up, they're talking about standing before Jesus. They're saved. They're in heaven. All of that is settled. And they're standing before the Lord and their works, their, their responsiveness to the Lord at this age is being presented to the Lord in His eyes of fire. Look at it. And He burns it all up and those people suffer loss, but they themselves are saved. They're still born again. They still live in the city, but they suffered loss. I don't want to suffer loss. I don't want to backslide and I don't, but more than that, I don't want to suffer loss. I want to stand not just the assurance of salvation when the Lord appears. I want the assurance of my full reward, the assurance of the full will of God for my life. The Lord says okay, you can have it. But you have to know you're going to face an obstacle in history called the snare. You have to face it and respond to me in the light of it. Oh Lord, I'm a weak man. Okay, that's not a problem. All my people are weak. That's easy. But if you will ask me, I will strengthen you. If you don't ask me, I'll still strengthen you some. But I'll strengthen you much more if you ask me. But if you will ask me, you will escape yielding to the snare. You will escape stumbling before the snare. Let's go to Roman numeral four. Jesus' twofold exhortation. He says in paragraph eight, take heed to yourself. Luke 21 verse 34. This is the first exhortation. He goes, take heed to yourself. Lest your hearts be weighed down. And he gives three different categories, carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life. And he says, and if your heart gets weighed down, what will happen is the day of the Lord, the day or the end time events will come upon you unexpectedly. The Lord himself will appear and you will be unaware of what's happening because you're weighed down. Your spirit is dull. Your spirit is defiled. As a believer, he's talking to people who have enough relationship with him. They're actually reading Luke 21 and believing it. He's talking to believers here. Now, the thing that Jesus does first, which is it's obvious if you think about it, but some folks have never connected the dots, but it's this. What you do with your body affects what happens in your heart. He said, take heed to yourself. He goes, understand there's a dynamic connection. What you do with your body determines the condition of your spirit. If you are involved in immorality and drunkenness with your body, your spirit will be defiled and it will be weak. If you take heed to this, your spirit won't be weighed down. It will be vibrant, alive, alert, and powerful. Now, we all know that what we do with our body affects our spirit. That's why this increasing doctrine of the grace of God that basically says to believers, go out and do what you want to do. Don't be legal, legalistic. Claim the grace of God. They're just, it's thrusting you right into a lifestyle of a weighed down spirit that's weak, that won't be able to stand before the great snare. I don't care. You can get a million people to vote on that doctrine, but it doesn't change the fact you will end up with a weighed down spirit that is spiritually insensitive, that's spiritually dull. You won't feel the presence of God. You won't have hunger for the word. You won't operate in the anointing of God in prayer. And the Lord says, why? I had all of those things for you. You didn't pay attention to what you did with your body. He said, take heed to what you do. Now the first word, he looks, he looked at three categories. The first one is carousing and the new King James. Now the many translations use the word dissipation. Now that's a word we don't use so much, but it means to dissipate your strength or to lose your strength. And what the word means, I researched this out in many, many different scholars and they're all in agreement with the general idea. The carousing or dissipation, it's the idea of being intemperate or overindulgent with pleasure. So some, so the translators of the new King James put carousing, partying too much. That's not exact. It's more than partying too much. It's an approach to life where we're intemperate or we're indulgent. We're not restrained. We're just wanting to be stimulated. Some people, they want to be stimulated. It's just, they're just fixated on always being stimulated by media and entertainment. Others, it's what they put in their body. It's what they do or they drink or they take. They want to be stimulated in a way that's out of the will of God. And some of the stimulation is legitimate. I mean, it's legitimate to eat food. It's totally legitimate, but to overindulge in it will weigh your spirit down. It's legitimate to have rest and recreation, but to overindulge in it, it will weigh your spirit down. That's what carousing is. And carousing, again, if you read 10 Bibles, uh, translations, many of them will say dissipation. Others will use other words like sensual living or overdoing it in pleasure. It just means being overly stimulated, whether it's media or what you drank, what you eat, what you do. It's the whole realm of pleasure, just low morals and low standards in the way you live. Now, a subcategory of carousing is drunkenness, but Jesus took that subcategory, made it its own category. He goes, I'm going to take part of carousing and I'm going to shine a light on it. Drunkenness is a major problem in the earth today. It is a growing problem equal only to the growth of pornography in the church. Drunkenness and pornography is exploding in the church. And Jesus prophesied this 2000 years ago by highlighting drunkenness as a major issue that is telling you his opinion of it. He says, if you get caught up in this, well, everybody who goes there has the logic. I wasn't really drunk. You can't talk the Holy Spirit into anything. The Holy Spirit does not believe you could talk your friends into it, but the Holy Spirit doesn't buy it. Jesus said, your spirit will be weighed down. If you go there, it will be dull. You won't have hunger. The word, you won't connect to the word. You won't feel his presence in prayer and it will get worse and worse instead of stronger and stronger. He goes, go the other way, go the other way. And then the third area was just the anxieties of life. Paragraph B, he said, now, if you, if your heart gets weighed down, you lose your ability to perceive clearly. You will lose insight. And the day of the Lord events, not just the Lord appearing in the sky, but all that's related to it, you won't be aware of it. It won't make sense to you. You think, well, that's just crazy fanaticism. Even in the generation when it's clearly mounting up, it just won't connect with that person because their spirit is weighed down because of the way they live, even though they love Jesus. Let's go to paragraph C. We'll end with this. The second exhortation, he said, watch and pray always. Watch and pray always. Now, when I first read this some years ago, this watch and pray always, because every time Jesus talks about the end times, every time, and there might be an exception, I'm not thinking of, but just by a, a familiarity with these passages, I, I, again, I might be missing one. I'm just saying this off, off, off the top of my head. But I think it's true that every single time Jesus talks about the end times as a subject, I don't mean just a, a, a brief reference, but he says, pray and watch one or the other. Now, over the years I've read that and it really sticks out. Because of, of the calamity of the snare, you would think, well Jesus, you're really smart and you're really a good pastor. What should I do? Watch and pray. Yeah, okay, that's cool. No, but what should I really do? Watch and pray. Oh, okay Lord, I have that. But what, come on, practically what should I do? I hear it all the time for years. What should we really do? Well, you know, in the number of times Jesus talked about the end times, that's what he said. He didn't say, store up guns. He didn't say, store food. He didn't say, find your escape route ahead of time if trouble comes. He said, watch and pray. That, I remember years ago when I first connected with this, I went, what is this about? Then I tried it. Not tried, I'm not talking about doing it. I tried to do it as well, but I preached it. And the congregation said, yeah, be practical. I go, hey, I'm only quoting him. I mean, he's the best pastor. That's what he said. Well, that's Jesus. Like what? So I tried preaching it and I was surprised how the vast majority of the people said, yeah, that's pie in the sky stuff. I need something real. Jesus said, you get connected to me. When the snare comes, you will have insight and you will have courage and strength sufficient to escape stumbling. If you don't get connected to me, you can stockpile your guns, your food and have your escape route all planned out and you can, will not be able to stand without falling. The most practical thing Jesus could tell us, build a history of connectedness. If you watch and you pray, you watch and pray, you will build connectedness to me. You will be alert and the urgency will grow in you and strength will grow in you and you will be ready to stand. Now the best thing actually that you can do for another person is for you to watch and pray. Because what that other person needs, that person you love, they don't just need you. They need you with courage and discernment. Because if they have good old you, filled with fear, backslidden with no discernment, you're going to be a problem to them, not an answer. So some folks go, now I want to do something practical. I want to, I want to be there for them. Well you backslidden, dull, filled with the fear of man with no insight, God bless you, but you're going to be a problem, not a solution. You're going to be convincing them what they shouldn't be doing instead of telling them what the Spirit's saying. If you really love them, just put yourself aside for a minute. I mean you do this for yourself, but put that aside. If you really want to walk out love for people, get a burning heart and get a heart of discernment and you will have the compass in the storm. You will have the map. You will have the compass in the storm. You will have clarity that multitudes will need. Not just the clarity, they will need your strength and your resolve. This is not just the most practical thing for you from Jesus. This is the most practical way for you to love other people, is to build a bonfire in your spirit. So when somebody tells you, give me something practical, that prayer thing, whatever, study, prayer. I want something practical. I tell you, Noah's wife was really glad Noah had that boat ready. Noah, I thought it was a little odd, but you know what? Praise God you stayed with the boat. Amen. Let's stand.