The Coming Worldwide Economic Meltdown
Sermon Transcript
0:00:14.0
Well, the most devastating stock market crash in U.S. history happened on October 29th, 1929. And it was a time when the Dow Jones industrial average lost 23% of its value in a single day. A month later, the investment value was down 100 billion dollars. That was a lot of money in the U.S. economy back in 1929. Historians refer to it as Black Tuesday. It began a 10-year plunge into economic decline that historians refer to as the Great Depression. And most of us were not living at that time. I see maybe a few that maybe you were born around that time. But most were not living. We read about it in text books, the Great Depression. We might have had grandparents that were born around that time. My grandparents on my mother’s side, my grandfather in particular, he great up during the Depression. He later became an accountant. Those two reasons by themselves turned him into a very cautious man when it came to money and finances. I learned some of my caution from him. He lived in a very austere kind of way. And the lessons he learned growing up in that time perhaps produced that financial caution in him. That was Black Tuesday. I remember though Black Monday. October 19th, 1987. Now, most of us are old enough to remember this. I was two years out of college. And with a financial planning degree in my hand from Purdue University, I thought I was gonna be a stockbroker. And I had just passed the series 7 exam when Black Monday hit. The Dow lost 508 points in a single day. It closed that day at 1728 some odd points. It was another 22.61 odd percentage drop in the value of the stock market. And in one of my best timed career moments when I thought I was gonna be stockbroker, Black Monday hit. And God obviously had other plans for my life. But that kind of becomes self-evident with the bulls trample over you and the bears tear you to pieces on Black Monday. Fast-forward a little bit later, the year 2000. At that time in our history we were getting to know a place called Silicon Valley and companies like Microsoft and Cisco and Amazon and EBay and this dot come thing was taking place. And a bubble was begging to form in the financial markets. And it eventually burst around the year 2000. And who would have known that just years later something called the sub-prime mortgage financial crisis would be upon us in years 2007 through 2009, introducing what historians now refer to as the Great Recession. Of course, the federal government says that Great Recession ended in June of 2009, but many Americans today are still struggling financially. A record number of Americans are out of work, feeling like the recession even…well, feeling a little bit depressed about their personal finances. And you just look back at the history of the U.S. economy, even the world economy, there is one financial crisis after another. It happens about every 10 or 11 years. But they seem to be happening more frequently. There are people today saying we’re approaching another bubble in an aspect of our economy that is a little out of whack. And another financial crisis could be upon us.
0:04:22.5
You say, “Well, what does all this have to do, Pastor, with Bible prophecy?” Before I get to that, what does it all have to do with our lives personally? I want to suggest to you that too often our personal peace is tied to our financial success and our financial stability and the stability of the economies of the world. And when our personal peace is tied to that, it suggests to us that we lack just that much faith in God, who has promised to supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now, I’m the first one, as a guy with a little bit a financial background, to be all over the financial thing and to be a little bit nervous about all the economies and all of that. But there is a point at which I even have to step back and say, do I trust God to take care of all of my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus? Or am I gonna get totally beside myself with the ups and down of the economies and the ups and downs of bank accounts and investment accounts and all of that? When our personal peace is disturbed by this and fear takes over, well, fear eclipses our faith, does it not? But what does all this have to do with Bible prophecy? What does it all have to do with the book of Revelation? Well, I want to suggest to you that there is a coming worldwide economic crash, meltdown, crisis, whatever you want to call it, like the world has never seen. It’ll make 1929, 1987, 2000, even 2008 look like just a little blip on the stock market radar.
0:06:02.5
And the Bible prophesies this. It predicts it in Revelation 18. Let’s go back to chapter 18 and beginning in verse 1 where John says, “After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory.” This must be an amazing, amazing angel, a powerful angel. He has great authority, great power. And his brightness covers the earth. And John says he has a mighty voice. And here is what he says. “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!” Now, let’s back up a little bit a remind ourselves of where we’ve been in our study of the book of Revelation. We’ve been focused on a seven-year period of time known as the Tribulation. Future in Bible prophecy and, as I understand, a period of time that follows the next event on God’s prophetic calendar called the rapture of the Church. And during that seven-year period of time there are three figures in the book of Revelation that sort of come to power and control planet earth: one being the dragon, that is the devil; and then his CEO, his chief leader, the Antichrist; and then a third figure known as the false prophet. And during this seven-year period of time the Antichrist, empowered, influenced, possessed by the devil himself, in partnership with the false prophet, takes control of the world politically, religiously, and economically. And many Bible scholars believe that there are three cities that we need to keep our eye on in the future. Three cities around which the Antichrist bases his operations. His bases his political operations in Rome. We’ve talked about the revived Roman Empire. Remember that 10-headed beast and all of that that we unpacked the imagery and we went back to Daniel and all the ancient empires of the world. Many scholars believe that Rome will come into play and the Antichrist will base some of his operations there. With the help of the false prophet Jerusalem comes into play. Remember, the Antichrist is a master at mixing politics and religion. The false prophet, who is also an economic figure, develops a one world religion and an amalgamated spirituality in the first 3 ½ years of the Tribulation. But at the midpoint of the Tribulation, the Antichrist seizes control of that. He destroys the false prophet and the one world religion. He moves into the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem and sets up a deified image of himself, which the devil has always wanted, and demands worldwide worship. So you’ve got Rome for politics. You’ve got Jerusalem for religious matters.
0:09:03.1
And then in the book of Revelation you hear the name Babylon over and over and over again. And many scholars believe that ancient Babylon will rise up from the ashes to become the financial capital of the world. Now, there’s an interpretive decision we have to make here when we read about Babylon and the end of the age. Is it talking about Babylon symbolically, dating all the way back to the Tower of Babel, to the ancient and evil Babylonian Empire and all that that means symbolically? Or is it also talking about a literal city that rises up at the end of the age? And I think the answer to it is yes. It’s kind of a both/and. There’s one way of looking at Revelation 17 and 18 and the mention of Babylon. Revelation 17 really focuses on a religious aspect of Babylon rooted in Jerusalem and around the false prophet. And Babylon there is kind of symbolic of the religious evil of Babylon. But in Revelation 18 we shift to the economic side. And there are plenty of references and phrases in chapter 18 that suggest there’s an actual city here to which merchants go and the world goes. And so it’s given many scholars some understanding that these three cities, even Babylon, literally come to some level of prominence at the end of the age, and the Antichrist rules the world from these three places.
0:10:28.8
Some of you who are adept in Bible prophecy and you’ve been listening over the weeks, you may say, “Well, Pastor, what about the ancient prophecy of Isaiah 13 who prophesied about the destruction of Babylon? Hasn’t Babylon been destroyed?” Well, my former pastor and Bible prophecy expert David Jeremiah clarifies this when he writes, “Since some teach that the prophecies concerning Babylon’s destruction have already been fulfilled, it is important to separate the fall of Babylon in history with the destruction of Babylon in the future.” He says, “Persia did not destroy Babylon in 539 B.C., as some have taught. When Cyrus captured Babylon, he did it by subterfuge, not by military destruction.” You can read about that in Daniel 5. He says, “On the evening of Belshazzar’s garish banquet, suddenly the hand of God appeared, writing on the wall. The message read, ‘God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. Your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.’ That prophecy came true on that very night as the Medo-Persian army took over the city.” He goes to say, “The conquerors did not destroy the city. They made it the secondary capital of the Persian Empire. When the Greeks conquered the Persians in 331 B.C., Alexander the Great made Babylon his capital and died there. So never has Babylon ever been desolate as Isaiah prophesied it would be in chapter 13 of his prophecy.” He goes on to say, “In fact, Babylon exists today in central Iraq as a province and an area of 5,603 square kilometers containing eight cities with a combined population of 1.6 million people.” He says, “As we can see in the centuries since the ancient empires, Babylon has faded into obscurity, but not into oblivion. It has degenerated from a great city to its present status as an Iraqi province. But if we take the Bible seriously we must understand that Babylon must rise to power again in order to receive the judgment that Isaiah, Jeremiah, and John the apostle have prophesied.” Certainly not too long ago, Saddam Hussein, when he was reigning in Iraq, saw himself as the reincarnation of King Nebuchadnezzar. And Hussein began to rebuild the city of Babylon. One of my professors in seminary, Dr. Charles Dyer, wrote a book many, many years ago called The Rise of Babylon. And he put Saddam Hussein’s picture on the front. Sold like 300,000 copies back then because that was in the news. Well, obviously Hussein’s ambitions and his life came to an end thanks to the United States military. But here is what I say. Keep your eye on Babylon. Keep your eye on that ancient city, because it appears in Revelation 18 that it becomes the financial capital of the Antichrist’s empire where he seizes control, not only of the world politically and religiously, but also financially. And God is going to destroy Babylon. He’s going to fulfill the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah and completely, completely destroy Babylon. That’s part of the reason why it needs to rise again. Because it’s fallen as empire, but it was never completely destroyed where it was uninhabitable. That’s what Isaiah says in his prophecy. Well, people are inhabiting it today, so we have to look to a future rise of this ancient city of Babylon.
0:14:16.6
Let’s talk about the rise of Babylon before Jesus returns and why God will destroy this economic Babylon at the end of the age. Let’s work our way through chapter 18. There are five or six reason why God will destroy her. First of all, because Babylon will be a home for demons. Look again in verses 1 and 2. Verse 2. “And he called out with a mighty voice, ‘Fallen, fallen in Babylon the great!’” Listen to this. “‘She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.’” From the beginning of time all the way back to the Tower of Babel when Nimrod, one of the first despots and dictators, tried to control the world and build this tower in defiance against God to much later, the rising up of the evil Babylonian Empire, satanic presence and demonology have always been a part of that civilization. In fact, if you google back to the time of Daniel and the Babylonian captivity, the 70 years of captivity that the Israelites were under, King Nebuchadnezzar, a wicked, evil, arrogant, prideful despot…his closest advisors were astrologers and soothsayers and magicians because demonism and satanic influence has always been a part of Babylon. And it’s one of the reasons God will destroy her at the end of the age.
0:15:50.5
A second reason is because Babylon will be a haven for every kind of seduction. Read on in verse 3. “‘For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.’” This echoes one of the prophecies found in Jeremiah 51:7 where Jeremiah describes Babylon as a “golden cup in the Lord’s hands, making all of the earth drunken; and the nations drank of her wine; therefore the nations went mad.” Babylon has always been a place where pleasures and sensualities and seductions that might be illegal in other places of the world are legal in Babylon. And that will be the case at the end of the age, that every perversion, every immorality, every pleasure that might be illegal in one part of the world will be legal in Babylon. And so every pervert in the world, all the kings, all the people in the world who want to have unfettered and uncontrolled indulgences will go to Babylon and drink the wine of their sexual immorality there. God will destroy Babylon for that reason.
0:17:07.8
There’s a third reason He destroys Babylon, and that is because Babylon will heap up sins as high as heaven. Let’s read on in verse 4. “Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.’” That phrase “heaped up” also translated “reached”. It’s a Greek word that has the picture of cemented bricks on top of one another. It is an obvious allusion to the Tower of Babel. The evil of Babylon started with Nimrod and a migration of people to the plains of Shinar where, in defiance against God, they built a tower brick by brick, heaping up their sins and their defiance brick by brick toward…as high as the heavens. And God saw the potential evil of that, of a dictator bringing together the world in one language so he can control the world. And He scattered the people by confusing their languages. But ever since then, make no mistake about it, the history of the world is dictator after dictator and despot after despot trying to bring the world back together as one to control the world. And beware the language of politicians today who talk about globalism and borderless nations. God’s plan has always been for the nations. For distinct nations and distinct people groups with distinct languages. (0:19:00.0) But today the world is moving back toward Babel. And at the end of the age, she will come together and, from God’s perspective, heap up sins as high as the heavens, the scripture says.
0:19:17.8
Number four, Babylon will be destroyed because Babylon will be haughty or prideful in God’s eyes. Look at verses 7 and 8. “‘As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning, since in her heart she says, “I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see.”’” This is arrogant language. This is language reminiscent of King Nebuchadnezzar in the Old Testament. This is worth turning to Daniel 4. Hold your place in Revelation 18 and go with me to Daniel 4. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was one of the most (0:20:00.0) arrogant despots and dictators to ever come upon planet earth. And in Daniel 4 he steps out onto his palace overlooking the empire of Babylon and he says these words. “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” There’s not more arrogant, prideful language than that. “Look what I’ve done with my own might and with my own power.” Verse 31, “While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, ‘O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the fields.’” Just as Nebuchadnezzar was speaking the prideful language, God tore the empire from him, turned him into a madman who lived with beasts and animals. It’s because the Bible tells us in Proverbs 16:18 that pride goes before a fall. And Babylon will emerge again as a prideful, haughty city that says, “I’m a queen. I’m a diva, and nobody touches me,” is the attitude in Babylon. And this is one of the reasons God destroys this city at the end of the age.
0:21:35.3
Number five, Babylon will be a headquarters—listen to this—a headquarters for human trafficking and slavery. We’ll get to this in a little bit more detail in a moment, but there are three groupings of people in Revelation 18 who wail and moan the loss and the destruction of Babylon. It’s the kings of the earth, the merchants, the commercial leaders, and then the shipbuilders. As Babylon comes crashing down they're all wailing and moaning. And in verse 11 it says “The merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, 12cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood.” This is a description of a booming, prosperous, luxurious economy that is based in this financial capital of Babylon and spreads out across the world. But the merchants of the earth come to this city to do business. It goes on to say, “Cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.” And the end of the age and when Babylon rises, life will become so cheap that human souls are bought and sold, trafficked in the commercial economy. Oh, I know we’ve tried as hard as we can to rid the world of slavery, but you’ve got to remember just how evil of a cesspool Babylon is, all the way back to days of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel.
0:23:21.8
I have a friend in Dallas and a former elder of a church that I served, and he now serves as the president executive director of a nonprofit organization that deals with human trafficking. I don’t know…you’ve probably heard about all of this happening, not just around the world, but right under our own noses. Human souls being bought and sold and trafficked from around the world and even here in our own country for purposes of sexual prostitution. You ain’t’ seen nothing yet. Babylon will become the headquarters for it. And what may be illegal in some parts of the world will be legal in a place like Babylon. And every pervert around the world who wants to make money off human trafficking will make their way to Babylon and sell human souls. God hates this kind of evil and He will destroy this place for that reason.
0:24:24.6
And then sixth and finally, Babylon will be held responsible for the blood of prophets and saints. Look in verse 24. “And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on earth.” I’ve said throughout this series as we’ve come across Babylon that from Babylon, from that ancient civilization, came every false religion, came every perverted evil. It’s the cesspool from which it all comes. And God even holds this ancient civilization responsible and its expression at the end of the age responsible for the blood of prophets and of saints. You remember in Revelation 6 where we saw the martyred souls of the Tribulation under the throne of God saying, “When will You vindicate our blood? When will you vindicate our blood?” And He says, “Not yet, not yet.” Well, this is the “yet” time. He will finally vindicate the blood of the prophets and saints by destroying evil Babylon, this economic, religious, and even political thing that the Antichrist has control of. And when He does, it will be the most devastating crash the world has ever seen. It’ll make 1929, 1987, 2000, 2008, and whatever is teetering on the edge of our jittery economy right now, it’ll make all of that look like day in the park, just a little blip on the financial radar. Because this is the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah that talked about the total and complete destruction of Babylon such that there will never be an inhabitant of the place again.
0:26:30.0
And there are three words that describe this total collapse. Number one, it will be sudden. If you read on—and I don’t have the time to read all of it—but if you read the balance of chapter 18, four times you come across a phrase “in a single day”, “in a single hour”, “in a single hour”, “in a single hour”. Remember, the kings of the earth, the merchants and commercial leader of the earth, and even the shipbuilders, wail and moan at the loss. Here is one example in verse 9. “For this reason her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her.” It will be such a sudden collapse of the economy. And that’s really not hard to understand because at some level we’ve experienced that. How quickly we’re just kind of cruising along in this world, and then “boom”, the stock market has lost 25% of its value. Oh, there might have been some financial prognosticators who warned against it. But the bulls and the bears are always, you know, kind of jiving back and forth. But when it happens it seems so sudden, doesn’t it? And that value you have in your stock portfolio and the value in the financial industries around the world just overnight, it’s gone. This collapse will happen suddenly.
0:27:55.0
It will happen in a shocking manner. Again, every one of the three groupings of the kings, the merchants, the sea masters, the shipmasters, they wail and moan. For instance, verse 10, “They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say, ‘Alas! Alas! You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.’” Or verse 15, “The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud, ‘Alas, alas, for the great city that was clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls! For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.’” Three times I’ve circled in chapter 18 “Alas, alas”. It’s an archaic term we don’t use very much today. But it means sorrow. It means grieving. It would be like us saying, “I can’t believe this just happened.”
0:29:00.7
It happens suddenly. It happens shockingly. And it happens sweepingly. It is a global crash and meltdown. Let’s pick it up in verse 21. “Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, ‘So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more; and the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will be heard in you no more, and a craftsman of any craft will be found in you no more, and the sound of the mill will be heard in you no more, and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more, and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more.’” Six times it says “no more”. In other words, this is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy that when Babylon is destroyed, it will be destroyed so quickly that there will never be another inhabitant of that city or that part of the world.
0:30:04.3
So what do we do with a message like this? What’s the take away for us? I can think of a couple things. I’m reminded of some words that the writer of Hebrews wrote it his audience in the book of Hebrews 10 toward the end of that chapter. And he commends them for…well, let me get the exact words here because this is so good. He commends them for “joyfully accepting the plundering of your possessions because you know you have a better possession and a more sure one.” You know, with the financial background, the little bit that I have, I’m the first one that gets kind of up in arms when, you know, the economies of the world and those who want to tinker with it affect my personal bank accounts and the security of my family financially. I get a little torqued around the corners when I think of an overreaching government that runs up debts as high as the heavens and then wants to reach in to potentially your 401k account and my 401k account to pay off those debts. If not the first, I’d be the first second one to join a revolution on something like that. And then I have to take another step or two back and realize if the world plunders my possessions, if some overreaching government plunders my possessions as it did in the 1st century and with the early church, I have to remember where my ultimate inheritance is. It’s not in this earth. And that’s why I started with our personal peace. If our personal peace is too tied to our financial stability and our financial security, maybe we’ve drifted away from faith in God just that much, right? Oh, there is coming a day when the insecurity of our finances is so great and perhaps we experience what the early church experienced, the plundering of possessions. How would you react to something like that? And then I’m reminded of what Jesus says in Matthew 6. “Lay up for yourself treasures in heaven.” He says don’t lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, “where moth and rust corrupt and where thieves break in and steal.” He says, “No, lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt and where thieves,” even identity thieves, I like to say, “will break in and steal.” Yeah, there are two portfolios you need in life: your earthly portfolio, but you need an eternal portfolio as well. Because that’s where your ultimate possession is, right? That’s where your inheritance is. He goes on to say where your treasure, that’s where your heart is. All right? Jesus can take a financial temperature of your heart, and it reflects on your spiritual temperature. You can’t divorce the financial you and the spiritual you. Where your treasure is, that’s where your heart is. And then he goes on to say these words in verse 24. “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” He says, “You cannot serve God and money.” He didn’t say it’s be difficult. He says you can’t do it. Either money is gonna sit on the throne of your life and you’re gonna get all torqued every time something out of your control causes your financial portfolio to go down. I understand that. Or God’s gonna sit on the throne and you’re gonna understand that my personal peace is not tied to fluctuations in world economies and that my God has promised to supply all of my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
0:34:11.5
During the Tribulation period when the Church is raptured out but there are people who come it faith in Christ, you talk about tough economic times. Because when the Antichrist seizes control of the world and the world economy, people will not be able to buy and sell without the mark of the beast. The pressure that puts on Jesus people will be enormous. And they have to have their personal peace aligned to heaven. So lay not up for yourselves treasures on this earth. Don’t become so invested in the things of this world that you forget where your real inheritance is. Lay up for yourself treasures in heaven. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth, the New Testament tells us. You say, “Pastor, how do we do that financially?” I’ve given you this little financial plan before. It’s real simple. Give to God first, pay yourself second, live off the rest. You can’t say God is first in your life when He’s last in your budget. You do understand that, don’t you? But when your personal financial security is first in your budget, you can’t be walking by faith. Every time I get paid, Cathryn and I get paid and we write a check to give to God, it’s an acknowledgement of and a reminder to us He is first financially in our life. And we want to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven where nobody can plunder those possessions. Where the dividend reinvestment plan is better than any corporation has. Where neither identify thieves or anybody can go in and steal and take away. Where the interest on investment is beyond our wildest dreams. You see, you have a heavenly 401k account and I have a heavenly 401k account. And when we give to God first, we’re saying, you know, all this stuff in the future is not going to disturb my personal peace because my ultimate investment is an eternal investment. There are a lot of Christians I know that’ll get to heaven one day and their 401k account is empty because they laid up all their treasures in earth, which one day is gonna collapse. And the value is gonna go down to nothing. Or perhaps somebody will plunder those possessions before the collapse ever takes place. It happened in the 1st century to early Christians. It might happen to us in these times. So the best thing to do, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Yeah, you need an earthly portfolio and an eternal one. But as we keep our eyes on the soon return of Jesus Christ, don’t you want to send ahead what you can’t take with you? You do understand that, right? You can’t take it with you. It might be plundered. It might go down in a crash. But the safest investment, Jesus said, the safest investment you can make is to send it ahead. And by doing so, acknowledging, “God is first in my life. He’s first in my finances. And I’m not gonna let all this talk about a coming worldwide economic crash…I mean, if I’m a believer in Jesus Christ, I won’t even be here.” The Church is raptured out of here. But leading up to this time, expect financial jittery times. Okay? Expect a rollercoaster ride as we get closer and closer to the end of the age. But if you want to sleep well at night and have personal peace, set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Trust in a God who has promised to supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. And that’s how we walk by faith. Right, friends? Let’s pray together.
0:38:19.8
God, thank You so much for Your Word. And thank You for the opportunity just to communicate it here in this place. These are challenging times for us to live in this 21st century as we see the signs of the end of the age rapidly moving toward all that You have so graciously told us about the future to prepare our hearts, to ready us for the second coming of Jesus Christ and to purify the body of Christ. Father, I pray that every one of us in this room would take the truth that we have learned and say, “Here are some things that I’m gonna change.” Help us to be the kinds of people who set our affections on things above and not on things on this earth. And I pray this in Jesus’s name and for His sake, amen.
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