The one thing we all need to remember when we look around at the world today is to not be discouraged. That is God's plan for your life. We need to remember when we look at John in the Book of Revelation, he is no longer on earth, but has been transported to heaven, so he is looking down at what is going to happen to the earth one day. Remember John is not there. The church is not there. We need to make a decision, where will our eyes be? On heaven or on earth? In any situation, we face. Are our eyes focused on heaven or the earth? Do we look at them the right way, because when we consider that, it dramatically changes how we view what we are going through, with heavenly perspective or with worldly ones!
Are you swallowed up with fear at what is going on in your life? Maybe it's finances, a health care issue, marriage or family issues, and you find yourself so stressed out by how you are going to get through all of this, but if you focus on those things, they will consume you. However if you focus on God, it changes the entire perspective on everything. As we look at these things in the Book of Revelation in Chapter 6, you have a choice, to be a member of Jesus Christ by your faith in Him alone, and view these events from heaven. When you look at the things we are going to be studying today, what you are stressed about right now, will be nothing compared to what is coming.
In North Africa right now, they are facing a political and religious famine, with Islam imposing its rule on much of North Africa. One of the fall outs from this is famine. We know that people are being starved to death and those are political issues. They are controlled by those groups in power in those parts of the world. This famine that is coming, is coming to a Godless, faithless, Christ-rejecting world. You want to ensure that you are NOT part of what is coming. You need to trust in Jesus Christ of the Bible. Read your Bible. Start in John's Gospel in Chapter 1, learn about who Jesus is and put your faith in Him. He is mighty to save.
Our children are being raised in the public schools not to question their teachers. Go ahead and give them the answers they want, so you don't fail in school or college. If this is the answer they want, how did we come about, and the answer they are looking for is evolution, go ahead and give them that. When you get your grade and you are out of that class, you can go up to them and show them your grades. You can tell them you only believed about 7% of what they taught, God is real and some day you are going to meet Him one day. The only reason I got an "A" was because I gave you the answers you wanted. But I wanted to tell you before I leave here that I disagree with all of this. It's humanism.
People are blind like those college professors and they are on a course that they don't even know is ending. But you do and the Bible says its going to end. This man that comes forth in this system he brings will bring a horrible red horse symbolizing death that will come and he is given a great sword. A world that has lost its values is a world that is anarchic and has missed the blessings of God. When we are mindless of God, we begin to miss His blessings. God promises that if we seek Him we will find Him. "Take me on!" God says "and you will find Me!" God says, "I'll make sure you find Me!" When you find God, you find meaning and purpose in life and blessings. The Bible says as long as we are walking with God, He'll shower His blessings upon us. God blesses obedience as long as it is not in violation of the Bible, God will bless you! Yet if we live in a world without God, we are going to miss His blessings.
God told Abraham, in Genesis 12:3 ~ "I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
You don't have to agree with all that Israel does nor do I expect you too. They have done a lot of stupid stuff. But don't ever turn your back on Israel. It is a spiritual issue. God says don't do it. God says the moment a nation turns its back on my people, that nation will come under a curse. Take a look back in history to see what has happened to the nations that have cut Israel out of existence. Hints: You won't sign up to go there on vacation! If you do go there, you have to take antibiotics because their standard of living is pathetic. God has blessed America. He established the United States to put forth the Word of God, around the world as a platform, to show what a nation would look like when God was consulted, and to be a big brother or sister, to put a protective umbrella over the nation of Israel in its infancy as it gave birth to a new people on May 14, 1948, at the admonishment of our President at that time. As long as we are desiring to bless God's people, America will be blessed.
When this nation elects a President that goes against support of Israel, you can start marking your calendar. This nation will begin to diminish and I believe it will have to. When the advent of the Antichrist, the strength in the Euro, and the rise of the Ancient Roman Empire, we're the greatest nation on the planet, the most powerful nation ever in the history of mankind, the most affluent people in mass that the world has ever known, than why is this country not mentioned at all in the Bible? Iraq is mentioned. Iran is mentioned. Saudi Arabia is mentioned. Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Ethiopia, Russia, where is America? It's not there. Why? Why it's vacant is yet to be seen. It's such a Christian nation. Why is the greatest nation so absent in the Bible? We miss out on the blessings of God, which brings a hopelessness when we don't consult the Lord. The Bible says a famine will break out.
Revelation 6:5 ~ "When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying "A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!"
What is all that about? First things first. A denarius was a day's wage from sunup to sundown. An entire days pay for a quart of wheat? That means that food will be scarce. Does it say that there will be no food? That is how amazing the Bible is. It says you have to buy food and it will take a day's wage. It didn't say there was no food. This is how brilliant God's Word is!
Jesus Christ said in Matthew 24:7 ~ "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines."
The word here implies, not because God is faithful, it's not because God doesn't bring rain, or summer or winter and all that. He is faithful to do it. It's political and religious famines. Food is diverted. Manipulated. Played with. Interesting to note that is says, "do not harm the oil and the wine." This is a reference to those who are affluent and influential at that time, by both New and Old Testament scholars. They won't have a starvation problem. They are pulling the strings. But the bulk of the world will have to work all day, just to get a loaf of bread. Why? It is politically and religiously motivated. If you look back historically at famines in the world, there are very few that were environmentally related, did you know that? There have been some but nothing like what has come about due to politically and religiously controlled groups.
Look at North Africa, specifically Ethiopia, if you were to fly over the region and look down you would say, "What is the problem? " It's all green and beautiful down there, what is the problem? Why can't they grow food? You know why they can't grow food? It's a religious and political problem. The people who are not Muslims in Ethiopia, can't get the food, can't get the seed, and all the world food programs that try to get in there, everything gets confiscated and carted away. It's a political religious war! That is what is happening in the Sudan and other parts of North Africa. Political and religious control has brought about great famines. People can't have access to their crops, or their seed, or to water because those groups that are in control. Now that is not a popular thing to say. But that is exactly the truth. Jesus prophesied it before it ever hit this world.
We see a world that is missing the blessings of God and it doesn't have to be that way. A world without God is sentenced to death. There is hope in the midst of this whole thing. You don't have to be here to experience this whole thing. You have to make a decision. Is this what you want? What kind of person would sign up for this kind of mess? No one. There is only one option. To believe in the gospel. To believe that we are new creations in those who put their faith in Jesus Christ. That is your choice today. To inherit the hell that begins in Revelation Chapter 6, or to choose to inherit and accept heaven by the loving and given hand of God. Don't ever attack God for sending people to hell.
The world is sentenced to death. Man was not made to die. This was not the world God intended. Everything in this world, the heart, an amazing electronic pump, gets itself going, runs all by itself until God says to stop. Isn't that amazing. You know that death scientifically is a mystery? People might argue and say, "Well I know how that person died, it's because his kidneys failed." Why did his kidneys fail? We have come to swallow death like it's nothing but it petrifies us to death. The point of the matter is we were never intended to die, but we live in a fallen world and die we must, because we are all S.I.N. positive, says the book of Romans. Sin came into the world and by sin brought death. Jesus Christ came into the world to die on the cross, (1) to remove sin from all mankind, past, present and future sin, Jesus died for all of us. Yet only those who come to Christ and receive that offering that He paid for on the cross will benefit from His work. The choice is yours. Will you say "Yes!" to Jesus?
If you inherit this world that is coming, you have no one to blame but yourself. No one. Stop making excuses. Jesus wants you to have life! This is a world sentenced to death and He wants YOU out of here. In the Book of Revelation, there is a lot of hope. It just depends on whose side of the fence you are on. It's my prayer that you choose life today! What if our great God required your soul at this moment? You might say, well I'm an atheist, I don't believe in God. You know God can get you to believe in Him in just a minute. He can cause your heart for just a brief moment to have a tight sensation in your chest or perhaps you've been on a plane in a violent storm and you have that "man-moment," where you rationalize that you know how much stress a plane can take before something serious happens, you've seen Modern Marvels right? You say, this plane is no where near that stress on those wings. There not going to snap off! Those wings aren't even bending that much. I've seen them do that in a laboratory but they are no where close to that! Then it starts getting worse. The plane starts falling. Your drink flies up and you start thinking, "Um, Lord? Are you and I okay? Is there anything that needs to be cleared up?" Then the plane starts moving around, bouncing up and down, and then there is "Lord, take care of my family. " It just starts escalating.
You might be sitting here right now, saying you are an atheist. Billy Graham as he was nearing the end of his life has said, "No more than ever I am convinced there are no atheists, because when it comes to push and shove, someone will cry out to God or gods of some sort. Some might cry out to Budweiser. He is not there. Some might cry out to your horoscope. Not there. Only the Lord God is the only one who can save you!
"I am THE Way, THE Truth and THE Life," Jesus said, "and no man comes to the Father but through Me!" ~ John 14:6
As a pilot, there is a certain level of turbulence they are comfortable with and there is also a time, where they will begin to think about their own life, even if you're the greatest pilot in the world. What if God requires your soul in that moment. All pilots know where that level of concern is in regards to turbulence. When you hear that level of fear in a pilot's voice, you begin praying. Why would you choose to inherit this mess that is coming? It's strictly your own choice when it comes to your own future. You are the only one to blame. If you wind up in hell, you won't be blaming God. God went to the cross so you would have a choice! Decide today where you will wind up!
Revelation 6:3-8 ~ "When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" Then another horse came out, a fiery read one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword. When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying "A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!" When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth. "
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