Praise

Dudley Hall & Mike Hayes: God With Us | Praise

February 23, 2026 | 56:30

Matt and Laurie host God With Us.

#Eschatology #Theology #Bible #Prophecy #Purpose #PromisesofGod #EndTimes #LastDays #Messiah #Resurrection #Atonement #Victory #MattCrouch #LaurieCrouch #MikeHayes

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Praise | Dudley Hall & Mike Hayes: God With Us | Praise | February 23, 2026

(beeping sound)
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- [presenter] coming up tonight on "praise."
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- every single generation,
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There were those who thought,
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Well, they read matthew 24,
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And looked around,
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Wars and rumors of wars, check.
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People being reprobate, check.
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You know, all plagues, diseases, check.
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But what it required of me
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Was this painful letting go
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Of the assumption that i was living
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In the most consequential generation ever.
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That's a tough pill to swallow.
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- throughout scripture,
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We see that god wants to build for generations,
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And yet when we buy into a defeatist end-time view,
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And we think the world is going to end any minute,
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Next tuesday,
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Then we don't build anything that lasts,
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And we don't invest in the future.
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Previous generations of christians
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Took hundreds of years to build a cathedral.
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One that they would never worship in.
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Only future generations would,
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Because they believed that the gospel
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Would still be advancing
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In future generations.
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If we could get that vision,
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We don't know when christ will return.
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But in the meantime,
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If we can advance the kingdom
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Until it fills the whole earth,
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Then we will build something for our children,
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Our grandchildren,
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And for their children after them,
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A lasting work.
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(calm music)
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(logo whooshing)
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- both of you need to help me with something,
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Help explain to our audience
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That sometimes,
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We think about the study of the end,
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Or what theologians call "eschatology,"
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As complex, scary,
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This void that i would, you know,
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Prefer to not think about.
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And it largely is a subject
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That at best, is misunderstood,
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Oftentimes, avoided deliberately.
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And when we think about, you know,
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God and his entire story of victory
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And victorious eschatology,
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We really need to help
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The audience understand the big picture, okay?
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Dudley, you're the oldest,
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So i'm gonna start with you.
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- i wish you wouldn't keep mentioning that.
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(matt laughing)
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- it's just the senior thing, you know?
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Mike and i voted,
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And you're, you know,
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You're gonna start. - good.
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- help us understand
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Why this subject matter matters.
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- well, the bible is a story.
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It is a story of god's purpose in creation.
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It all is a fulfillment of a promise
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That he made to adam and eve and the serpent.
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And he said, one of eve's seed
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Is going to crush the head of the serpent,
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And the serpent will bruise the heel.
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Well, all the rest of the story
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Is an outplaying of that.
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And finally, we jump way ahead in the story.
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There comes another adam into the garden,
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And that adam enjoys god,
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God the father,
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As much as he enjoys himself.
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And then he takes our place.
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And through death, burial, resurrection, ascension,
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Makes it possible for us
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To get back reconciled to god,
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So that we can enjoy god
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The way he created us, to enjoy god.
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And a part of that is,
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Just like with adam and eve,
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He gave 'em partnership in managing the earth.
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And so salvation is not just about getting saved
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And going to heaven,
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It's about being restored to true humanity,
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And being restored to the original purpose
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That god created us anyway.
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So he reconciles us to himself
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And then empowers us,
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Gives us authority,
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And we go into the world.
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And we're not just now managing the world
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With a hoe and a plow,
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We're managing the world
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With the gospel and with love.
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So those were our deals,
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So the whole purpose of the story,
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And the reason eschatology is important,
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What's the end of the story?
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What's the climax?
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Who's the hero?
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Well, of course, it's jesus.
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What's our role?
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Well, we are his,
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And he is working through us to finish the mission.
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So to me, that's a big story.
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- yeah, mike, give me the big story,
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Then i'm gonna follow up
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With a couple more things here.
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- well, thank you, matt.
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And one of the reasons that eschatology is important,
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I know that's a big word,
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And it's easier sometimes just to ignore it.
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There are people,
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Studied people that want to just ignore it,
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Because it's, if you take away though,
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I'm gonna simplify this.
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If you take away the interpretation of scripture,
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And the beast, and the dragons,
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One of the things that makes it challenging is,
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It is a choice.
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We have choices of eschatology.
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And the reason it's important,
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Is because what you believe about the future
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And final outcome
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Totally dictates how you live now.
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So if i could join with dudley,
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And what he taught about the story of god,
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When he sat adam and eve in the garden,
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They had an assignment.
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And this is what god said to them.
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Be fruitful, multiply, take dominion,
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And subdue the earth.
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Now, god never changed that assignment
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When they broke covenant and fell,
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Guess what happened?
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All the way up at the ark,
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When noah came out of the ark after the flood,
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God said, "noah, be fruitful, multiply,
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Take dominion, subdue the earth."
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So there were enemies
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That they were gonna have to overcome,
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There was order that they had to bring,
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'cause to me,
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The greatest sign of god's presence
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Is order out of chaos.
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The enemy always brings chaos and confusion,
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And god always brings order.
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So our eschatology forces a choice.
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We're gonna talk about that some today.
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But i have chosen a victorious eschatology.
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Some people choose a defeatist eschatology.
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"it didn't work,
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The plan failed, we lose,
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God's gonna take some of us to heaven,
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All the rest of it gets destroyed."
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But that's not the end of the book.
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The end of the book is,
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John says, "i saw a new heaven
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And a new earth."
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All of it's gonna be restored.
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The greatest statement
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God ever makes in the scripture,
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Is, "behold, i make all things new."
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That's my eschatology.
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(tense music)
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(police siren blaring)
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(people shouting indistinctly)
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- [narrator] the dispensational view of the end times
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Believes that the world is getting worse,
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With death, destruction,
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And a great tribulation to come
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Before the return of the lord.
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Many people have been attracted
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To that view of impending doom.
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- [reporter] the strongest storm on record
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To ever hit-
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- there is, for a certain type of person,
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And i was that certain type of person,
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A sort of a giddy,
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Kind of fleshly excitement
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About all of the hell breaking loose on earth.
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(people shouting indistinctly)
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(gunfire banging)
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It's sort of a national enquirer,
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Tabloidy kind of a thing.
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The bible prophecy dispensational search
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For who's the antichrist?
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Who's the beast of revelation?
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What is the mark of beast gonna be?
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All of that kind of stuff
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Scratched some itches in me.
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- high-powered winds, a cat one,
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This will be 10 inches of rain,
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A seven-foot surge.
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- [reporter] unique weapon with near unlimited range.
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- [reporter] tens of millions of americans will go hungry.
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- [reporter] 100-car pile up in fort worth.
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- if the rise of evil,
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And the rise of decadence and deprivation,
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And potential increase of earthquakes and famine,
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The four horsemen of the apocalypse
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Riding around doing their thing,
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If those things were signs of jesus' return,
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And i wanted jesus to return to fix everything,
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All the bad guys would get their comeuppance,
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If i'm looking forward to that,
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Then why would i not be excited a little bit?
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- on the inside- - were killed,
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And many injured in what- - it created a conflict in me
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That wasn't righteous. - police officer surrounded-
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- i don't think we've thought it through.
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Like, let's get out of here and let the world burn up.
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That doesn't sound very honoring to the lord
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Who created the world,
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And then jesus who paid for its restoration.
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And that doesn't sound like what i signed up for.
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- if we are sowing seeds into our life,
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Different beliefs and doctrines,
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But they're not producing peace and joy
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And hope and stuff like that,
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But they're producing anxiety and a sense of urgency
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And the need to make something happen, you know,
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In human effort,
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Then maybe the seeds we are planting are not good.
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You know the old saying,
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If you don't like the harvest you've got,
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Check up on the seeds you're planting.
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That counts theologically too.
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Are you closer to god?
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Is the peace of christ filling your heart?
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Is the joy of the lord your strength?
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Or are you all uptight with anxiety
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And the need to convince everybody of your opinion?
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(tense music)
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- so what we're really debating here
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Is most dispensationalist teachers will say yes, mike,
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But only after man has completely failed
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And we screwed everything up.
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And a power arose called the antichrist.
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It subdued the earth,
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And then we were rescued or taken away in a rapture.
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Then jesus brings that victory.
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So ultimately there is victory
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In a dispensationalist mindset.
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It's whether or not the creation that god instructed
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To do it is gonna do it,
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Or he's gonna bypass us and have to do it himself.
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Isn't that what we're kind of arguing? let's start with you.
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- well, yeah, there is that view of, in the future.
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So we don't know how it looks now,
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So we'll just put it into the category of the future
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Where you can speculate.
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But the story of the bible is that the first coming of jesus
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Was the greatest event in history.
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- yeah. - and it's,
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Nothing's gonna happen in the future
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That's greater than that.
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The second coming, the last coming of christ,
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Will be a culmination of that.
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But the fact that jesus came as a man,
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He lived a perfect life, obedient israelite.
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He fulfilled covenant.
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He made a sacrifice that satisfied the justice of god.
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He was raised from the dead, defeating death,
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Ascended to the right hand of the father,
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Fulfilling the promise of david's son, always ruling,
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Sending the holy spirit to indwell.
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That is the greatest event in history.
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And if that doesn't give us victory now,
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There's no victory to be had. - got it.
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- and so sometimes we are putting more emphasis
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On a supposed rapture being more important
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In the story than the cross,
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The resurrection, the ascension,
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And giving of the holy spirit.
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And so what we're choosing to say is the big story
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Is the story of christ exalted,
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And that the antichrist is not that big a deal.
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- you said off camera, mike, somebody said to you
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That if you take away the rapture and the this and that,
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We got nothing.
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- yeah. - respond to that or kind of
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Give us that storyline. - well, that's,
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And to join dudley and what he just shared,
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There is no event, past, present, or future,
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That will ever be greater than the first coming
00:12:23.488 --> 00:12:26.491
Of the son of god who died for our sins,
00:12:27.358 --> 00:12:30.528
And then the third day was raised from the dead,
00:12:30.528 --> 00:12:34.299
And released the holy spirit for us to be empowered
00:12:34.299 --> 00:12:38.169
To share the kingdom with the world.
00:12:38.169 --> 00:12:40.605
So that means his return and the general resurrection
00:12:40.605 --> 00:12:45.243
And the judgment and the beginning
00:12:45.243 --> 00:12:46.811
Of a renewed heaven and earth is the finish of that story.
00:12:46.811 --> 00:12:52.116
That's why this is so important, matt.
00:12:52.951 --> 00:12:54.352
And what a friend said to me was, mike,
00:12:54.352 --> 00:12:56.321
If there's no rapture, if there's no tribulation,
00:12:56.321 --> 00:12:58.623
Antichrist, and rapture, we got nothing.
00:12:58.623 --> 00:13:01.359
And i said, what are you talking about?
00:13:02.193 --> 00:13:04.229
The resurrection of jesus is the greatest event
00:13:04.229 --> 00:13:07.365
That ever happened to date.
00:13:07.365 --> 00:13:09.901
And then the general resurrection
00:13:09.901 --> 00:13:13.004
And the culmination of his kingdom plan is the only thing
00:13:13.004 --> 00:13:17.075
That could ever match that,
00:13:17.075 --> 00:13:18.276
'cause that's the rest of the story.
00:13:18.276 --> 00:13:20.178
So here's the big picture question, matt.
00:13:20.178 --> 00:13:22.914
When did the kingdom of god come?
00:13:22.914 --> 00:13:24.816
Or are we still waiting for it to come?
00:13:24.816 --> 00:13:27.418
- [matt] right.
00:13:27.418 --> 00:13:28.553
- i believe the kingdom of god came
00:13:28.553 --> 00:13:30.555
In the person of jesus when he arrived the first time.
00:13:30.555 --> 00:13:33.825
He is the stone cut without hands that smoked the image
00:13:33.825 --> 00:13:38.596
Of world empires that daniel saw in a vision.
00:13:38.596 --> 00:13:42.066
And that's when his kingdom began in the earth.
00:13:42.066 --> 00:13:46.070
And isaiah said, i love this part,
00:13:46.070 --> 00:13:49.307
That it is an ever increasing kingdom of the increase
00:13:49.307 --> 00:13:54.579
Of his government and peace,
00:13:55.179 --> 00:13:56.281
There will be no end.
00:13:56.281 --> 00:13:57.949
That means that every day the kingdom is a little bigger,
00:13:57.949 --> 00:14:01.819
A little better, and the world system
00:14:01.819 --> 00:14:05.223
And the enemy is a little smaller and a
00:14:05.223 --> 00:14:07.492
Little more distant
00:14:07.492 --> 00:14:08.993
Because it's an ever increasing kingdom
00:14:08.993 --> 00:14:11.729
That we're a part of. (air whooshing)
00:14:11.729 --> 00:14:15.733
- when the present creation,
00:14:16.334 --> 00:14:18.403
Which is groaning and travail,
00:14:18.403 --> 00:14:19.737
Will be set free from its slavery to decay,
00:14:19.737 --> 00:14:22.473
To obtain the glory which comes,
00:14:22.473 --> 00:14:24.609
The freedom which comes when god's children are glorified.
00:14:24.609 --> 00:14:27.278
In other words, these are images from 1 corinthians,
00:14:27.278 --> 00:14:30.014
From romans, from revelation,
00:14:30.014 --> 00:14:31.582
Which all together say god's new creation
00:14:31.582 --> 00:14:35.653
Is going to happen.
00:14:35.653 --> 00:14:37.655
I don't think that'll be the end of time
00:14:37.655 --> 00:14:39.190
In that i think the new creation will be full
00:14:39.190 --> 00:14:41.092
Of extraordinary things to do.
00:14:41.092 --> 00:14:43.361
Otherwise, why would we be told that we are going
00:14:43.361 --> 00:14:45.430
To be the royal priesthood in that new creation?
00:14:45.430 --> 00:14:48.199
We will have stuff to do
00:14:48.199 --> 00:14:49.701
And we are being prepared at the moment
00:14:49.701 --> 00:14:51.336
To take up those roles.
00:14:51.336 --> 00:14:52.937
- jesus is waiting at the right hand of the father
00:14:52.937 --> 00:14:56.140
While we put all of his enemies under our foot
00:14:56.140 --> 00:14:59.811
So that he can be welcomed back to a reunited heaven
00:14:59.811 --> 00:15:03.948
And earth as king of kings and lord of lords.
00:15:03.948 --> 00:15:06.718
That's our assignment.
00:15:06.718 --> 00:15:08.419
Not just to take people to heaven,
00:15:08.419 --> 00:15:10.555
But to prepare the earth for jesus to return.
00:15:10.555 --> 00:15:13.491
- the way we extend his rule is through service
00:15:13.491 --> 00:15:16.995
And love and dying to ourselves.
00:15:16.995 --> 00:15:19.163
What kind of kingdom is that?
00:15:19.163 --> 00:15:20.865
Well, it's an upside-down kingdom.
00:15:20.865 --> 00:15:22.900
And throughout history,
00:15:22.900 --> 00:15:24.235
There have been those who embraced the fact
00:15:24.235 --> 00:15:26.738
That the rule of of jesus needed to be extended
00:15:26.738 --> 00:15:29.374
Through us in the world,
00:15:29.374 --> 00:15:30.875
But they believed that was gonna happen from the top down.
00:15:30.875 --> 00:15:34.012
They believed that that jesus's rule is established on earth
00:15:34.012 --> 00:15:38.149
By getting control of all the levers of power
00:15:38.149 --> 00:15:41.953
At the top of governments and the top of corporations.
00:15:41.953 --> 00:15:44.856
And if we can just get the right guys from our team
00:15:44.856 --> 00:15:48.059
At the top of all these organizational chart pyramids,
00:15:48.059 --> 00:15:51.863
Then we will have won.
00:15:51.863 --> 00:15:53.664
And that's not the way of the kingdom.
00:15:53.664 --> 00:15:56.067
The way of the kingdom is societal
00:15:56.067 --> 00:15:58.002
And cultural transformation that comes from the bottom up
00:15:58.002 --> 00:16:00.838
Through the blood of jesus christ.
00:16:00.838 --> 00:16:02.707
And he took on the form of a servant.
00:16:02.707 --> 00:16:04.575
And we emulate him by taking on the form of a servant.
00:16:04.575 --> 00:16:07.445
And so we serve our neighbors and we serve our brothers
00:16:07.445 --> 00:16:09.747
And we love, we lay down our lives.
00:16:09.747 --> 00:16:12.717
And when a critical mass of people
00:16:12.717 --> 00:16:14.452
Begin living that way in a society, in a culture,
00:16:14.452 --> 00:16:17.055
The systems begin to change.
00:16:17.055 --> 00:16:19.223
And transformation, societal transformation,
00:16:19.223 --> 00:16:21.626
Cultural transformation begins to happen from the bottom up.
00:16:21.626 --> 00:16:25.129
- that's kingdom of god.
00:16:25.129 --> 00:16:26.864
It's not about hang in there
00:16:26.864 --> 00:16:29.267
And one day i'll take you away
00:16:29.267 --> 00:16:30.401
From the world to somewhere else.
00:16:30.401 --> 00:16:31.936
Because the word heaven is a reverent way
00:16:31.936 --> 00:16:35.907
Of speaking about god himself
00:16:35.907 --> 00:16:38.476
Rather than saying god to talk about heaven.
00:16:38.476 --> 00:16:40.812
It's like in the book of daniel.
00:16:40.812 --> 00:16:42.413
And that you, nebuchadnezzar, may know that heaven rules.
00:16:42.413 --> 00:16:46.284
Heaven is not the place to escape from earth.
00:16:46.284 --> 00:16:49.454
Heaven is, as i've often said, heaven is the ceo's office.
00:16:49.454 --> 00:16:52.857
It's the place from which earth is run.
00:16:52.857 --> 00:16:55.426
And one day heaven and earth will come together.
00:16:55.426 --> 00:16:59.030
That's revelation, that's ephesians 1,
00:16:59.030 --> 00:17:01.432
Et cetera, et cetera.
00:17:01.432 --> 00:17:03.534
So the idea of the kingdom of heaven
00:17:03.534 --> 00:17:05.670
Or kingdom of god is about the the strange way
00:17:05.670 --> 00:17:09.607
In which god's sovereign saving rule
00:17:09.607 --> 00:17:14.312
Is going to become instantiated on earth as in heaven.
00:17:14.312 --> 00:17:17.882
- the world is better now than it was in jesus' day by far.
00:17:17.882 --> 00:17:21.752
Because the kingdom came.
00:17:21.752 --> 00:17:23.588
35% of the babies in jesus' day were aborted.
00:17:23.588 --> 00:17:27.225
The value for life was so much less than now.
00:17:27.225 --> 00:17:32.497
The sense of justice and righteousness.
00:17:33.331 --> 00:17:34.632
There were just marauding armies
00:17:34.632 --> 00:17:36.701
And countries with no borders everywhere.
00:17:36.701 --> 00:17:39.904
Jesus never lived in a country
00:17:40.538 --> 00:17:42.807
Where they had any autonomy or freedom.
00:17:42.807 --> 00:17:45.376
They were a slave state of rome, basically.
00:17:45.376 --> 00:17:49.347
That's all he knew.
00:17:49.347 --> 00:17:50.681
So because he came,
00:17:50.681 --> 00:17:53.184
The world is better, and it's getting better every day.
00:17:54.318 --> 00:17:57.421
Think about this.
00:17:57.421 --> 00:17:58.689
Before jesus came, there were no women's rights,
00:17:58.689 --> 00:18:02.493
Men could legally beat their wives,
00:18:02.493 --> 00:18:05.363
They could put them away for divorcement
00:18:05.363 --> 00:18:07.165
For any reason and get another one.
00:18:07.165 --> 00:18:09.567
40% of the world's population were slaves.
00:18:09.567 --> 00:18:12.703
Most people didn't live out of their thirties.
00:18:12.703 --> 00:18:15.106
There was no cure for any sickness.
00:18:15.106 --> 00:18:17.542
We didn't know what a germ was.
00:18:17.542 --> 00:18:19.544
We didn't know what organized,
00:18:19.544 --> 00:18:21.379
Written music with orchestration was.
00:18:21.379 --> 00:18:24.415
The earth is filled with music and schools and universities
00:18:24.415 --> 00:18:28.519
And hospitals because the kingdom came.
00:18:28.519 --> 00:18:40.665
- [narrator] for those seeking clarity
00:18:41.465 --> 00:18:42.934
And understanding about the last days,
00:18:42.934 --> 00:18:45.670
Dudley hall has written "at last:
00:18:45.670 --> 00:18:47.939
Surprising hope in the end times."
00:18:47.939 --> 00:18:50.274
This book reminds us that jesus is the hero of a narrative
00:18:50.274 --> 00:18:53.778
Stretching from the garden of eden until today.
00:18:53.778 --> 00:18:56.814
There's no need to live in fear
00:18:56.814 --> 00:18:58.683
If we keep our focus on the promises revealed
00:18:58.683 --> 00:19:01.219
In the scriptures and the hope of what is to come.
00:19:01.219 --> 00:19:04.088
Call 800-461-0097 or visit tbn.org/atlast
00:19:04.088 --> 00:19:09.594
To get your copy today.
00:19:10.094 --> 00:19:11.662
(gentle music)
00:19:11.662 --> 00:19:13.331
- what changed things for me, matt,
00:19:13.331 --> 00:19:14.932
And i've been on both sides of this issue.
00:19:14.932 --> 00:19:17.501
I was raised with a dispensational view.
00:19:17.501 --> 00:19:20.171
I didn't even know as a boy that's what it was called.
00:19:20.171 --> 00:19:22.773
I watched preachers unroll the charts
00:19:22.773 --> 00:19:25.209
And tack them on the wall behind the baptistry
00:19:25.209 --> 00:19:27.878
And teach from the beginning to the end
00:19:27.878 --> 00:19:30.081
What it was gonna look like.
00:19:30.081 --> 00:19:31.816
My take on it was, even as a young man,
00:19:31.816 --> 00:19:35.019
Is like there's something wrong with this
00:19:35.019 --> 00:19:37.221
Because it looks like we could lose.
00:19:37.221 --> 00:19:41.158
God's plan was to build this glorious planet
00:19:41.158 --> 00:19:44.295
For all of us,
00:19:44.295 --> 00:19:45.463
But it's been taken away,
00:19:45.463 --> 00:19:46.931
So we're gonna go to heaven
00:19:46.931 --> 00:19:49.000
And it's gonna be destroyed.
00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:51.402
What changed for me, matt, is the olivet discourse.
00:19:51.402 --> 00:19:55.172
You know, the first sermon of jesus,
00:19:55.172 --> 00:19:57.675
The sermon on the mount,
00:19:57.675 --> 00:19:59.277
Introduced the powerful thought,
00:19:59.277 --> 00:20:01.212
And that's what my recent book is about, "real happy,"
00:20:01.212 --> 00:20:04.348
The powerful thought that god is really happy
00:20:04.348 --> 00:20:08.052
About us and with us
00:20:08.052 --> 00:20:09.754
And wants to have that kind of relationship with us.
00:20:09.754 --> 00:20:12.857
Before i understood that,
00:20:12.857 --> 00:20:14.392
I wouldn't put happy and god even in the same sentence.
00:20:14.392 --> 00:20:17.662
But now i understand that he is a god
00:20:17.662 --> 00:20:20.798
That wants us filled with joy.
00:20:20.798 --> 00:20:23.067
Our greatest advertisement,
00:20:23.067 --> 00:20:24.702
And i would just say this, matt, i love the church.
00:20:24.702 --> 00:20:27.371
I'd give my life for the church.
00:20:27.371 --> 00:20:28.939
The church is god's project in the earth.
00:20:28.939 --> 00:20:31.542
I think we've done a really good job with some things,
00:20:31.542 --> 00:20:33.978
With salvation.
00:20:33.978 --> 00:20:35.513
I think we've done pretty good with grace and repentance.
00:20:35.513 --> 00:20:38.015
I don't think we've done nearly good enough
00:20:38.015 --> 00:20:40.384
With presenting the message of a life
00:20:40.384 --> 00:20:43.554
Filled with joy to the earth
00:20:43.554 --> 00:20:46.023
As we go forth out into the planet.
00:20:46.023 --> 00:20:48.426
We ought to be the happiest people in the world.
00:20:48.426 --> 00:20:51.028
I think we could do better with that.
00:20:51.028 --> 00:20:53.064
What changed my life and my mind was the olivet discourse,
00:20:53.064 --> 00:20:57.568
Which was then jesus' last sermon before he gave his life.
00:20:57.568 --> 00:21:02.139
And when i came to understand
00:21:02.773 --> 00:21:05.509
That his sermon was not to me originally, it was to them,
00:21:06.677 --> 00:21:10.881
The disciples in front of him asked the question,
00:21:10.881 --> 00:21:14.452
When is the temple gonna be destroyed,
00:21:14.452 --> 00:21:16.687
When will the kingdom come,
00:21:16.687 --> 00:21:18.422
When will you return.
00:21:18.422 --> 00:21:19.957
And he starts to lay that out.
00:21:19.957 --> 00:21:23.060
And in that chapter 24, i believe it's 23 times
00:21:23.060 --> 00:21:26.831
He uses the word you,
00:21:26.831 --> 00:21:28.699
When you go, when you see, when you flee.
00:21:28.699 --> 00:21:32.269
Don't come down from the housetop
00:21:32.269 --> 00:21:33.938
And even gather your clothes.
00:21:33.938 --> 00:21:35.439
Go immediately because of the rapidness of the attack
00:21:35.439 --> 00:21:40.277
Against jerusalem.
00:21:40.277 --> 00:21:41.579
You're not supposed to be a part of that.
00:21:41.579 --> 00:21:44.148
When i understood that that chapter is in the past
00:21:44.148 --> 00:21:48.419
And not waiting to be fulfilled in the future,
00:21:48.419 --> 00:21:52.156
Then everything started to fall in place.
00:21:53.023 --> 00:21:55.259
Matt, i don't think eschatology
00:21:55.259 --> 00:21:57.495
Is supposed to be confusing and difficult.
00:21:57.495 --> 00:22:01.198
It's supposed to be easy to understand.
00:22:01.198 --> 00:22:03.834
But when you,
00:22:03.834 --> 00:22:05.336
Here's an analogy i'll finish with on this point.
00:22:05.336 --> 00:22:08.339
If you like to do jigsaw puzzles,
00:22:08.339 --> 00:22:11.175
You gather around the family,
00:22:11.175 --> 00:22:12.810
And you buy one that's got 5,000 pieces,
00:22:12.810 --> 00:22:15.980
And you dump it in the middle of the table,
00:22:15.980 --> 00:22:18.482
And then you set the box aside.
00:22:18.482 --> 00:22:20.451
Nobody gathered around there that's gonna have a fun time
00:22:20.451 --> 00:22:24.221
Has any idea what that picture looks like.
00:22:24.221 --> 00:22:28.092
So what do you do?
00:22:28.526 --> 00:22:29.527
You start setting the borders,
00:22:29.527 --> 00:22:31.328
You get the corners,
00:22:31.328 --> 00:22:32.863
You start adding pieces.
00:22:32.863 --> 00:22:34.932
Here's where i am, matt.
00:22:34.932 --> 00:22:36.634
I don't claim to have every minute detail
00:22:36.634 --> 00:22:40.704
Of the end figured out,
00:22:40.704 --> 00:22:43.040
But i am confident that i've got enough of the picture
00:22:44.141 --> 00:22:46.644
Put together from jesus' teaching,
00:22:46.644 --> 00:22:49.113
From daniel, and from john.
00:22:49.113 --> 00:22:51.115
I know what this puzzle looks like now.
00:22:51.115 --> 00:22:53.651
There may be a few pieces laying around the edge
00:22:53.651 --> 00:22:56.287
That still need to be put in their place to finish it up,
00:22:56.287 --> 00:23:00.090
But i got the picture now,
00:23:00.090 --> 00:23:01.826
And i'm confident in that.
00:23:02.393 --> 00:23:04.128
- you know, matthew 24 talks about the great tribulation,
00:23:04.128 --> 00:23:07.898
And, of course, that's a big deal.
00:23:07.898 --> 00:23:10.301
For many, you know,
00:23:10.301 --> 00:23:11.702
They're looking more forward to the great tribulation
00:23:11.702 --> 00:23:14.171
Than we did to the coming of christ.
00:23:14.171 --> 00:23:16.207
But not long ago, i was doing a session
00:23:16.207 --> 00:23:19.743
With a bunch of people on the end times,
00:23:19.743 --> 00:23:22.313
And when i finished, i said, "questions?"
00:23:22.313 --> 00:23:25.149
So one person said, "so, okay,
00:23:25.149 --> 00:23:27.785
Are we gonna be raptured out
00:23:27.785 --> 00:23:29.153
In the middle of the tribulation,
00:23:29.153 --> 00:23:30.721
Before the tribulation, or after tribulation?"
00:23:30.721 --> 00:23:33.324
And i was like, "were you in the same room with me?"
00:23:34.391 --> 00:23:37.361
(matt and mike laughing)
00:23:37.361 --> 00:23:38.762
And so my response was,
00:23:38.762 --> 00:23:41.298
"well, yeah, i got a question for you.
00:23:41.298 --> 00:23:43.534
In the story of cinderella, whose bed did she sleep in?
00:23:44.668 --> 00:23:48.372
The daddy bear's bed or the mama bear's bed
00:23:48.372 --> 00:23:52.076
Or the baby bear's bed?"
00:23:52.076 --> 00:23:54.245
And they looked at me like, "isn't that goldilocks?"
00:23:54.245 --> 00:23:58.782
That's my point.
00:23:59.149 --> 00:24:00.317
You're asking questions about a story
00:24:00.317 --> 00:24:02.987
I don't even believe in.
00:24:02.987 --> 00:24:05.656
The tribulation is described in matthew 24,
00:24:06.524 --> 00:24:10.094
The great tribulation of when the romans laid siege
00:24:10.094 --> 00:24:12.897
To the city,
00:24:12.897 --> 00:24:14.298
And they turned on each other and they were killed.
00:24:14.298 --> 00:24:19.703
It was horrible.
00:24:20.070 --> 00:24:20.905
If you read
00:24:20.905 --> 00:24:22.273
The stories of "the wars of the jews" by josephus,
00:24:22.273 --> 00:24:27.545
It's unbelievable.
00:24:27.978 --> 00:24:29.780
So we've taken that tribulation
00:24:29.780 --> 00:24:32.616
And put it off to a future and said jesus was talking to us
00:24:32.616 --> 00:24:35.452
And we're gonna do that.
00:24:35.452 --> 00:24:37.721
You got to cut and paste interpretation to do that.
00:24:37.721 --> 00:24:42.026
And then you come up with all these wild things,
00:24:43.027 --> 00:24:44.895
And you do the same thing with the pre-tribulation rapture
00:24:44.895 --> 00:24:49.567
Is like, you know, are you pre, post.
00:24:49.567 --> 00:24:54.905
You're talking about a whole different story.
00:24:55.839 --> 00:24:57.274
I'm talking about the story that the bible tells.
00:24:57.274 --> 00:25:00.477
And i think it's really interesting
00:25:00.477 --> 00:25:01.979
That after jesus' resurrection,
00:25:01.979 --> 00:25:04.582
The first thing he does with his disciples
00:25:04.582 --> 00:25:07.518
Is give them a class in hermeneutics,
00:25:07.518 --> 00:25:11.422
Hermeneutics being how to interpret the bible.
00:25:11.422 --> 00:25:14.992
So there's some guys walking down the road to emmaus,
00:25:14.992 --> 00:25:18.329
Jesus appears to them incognito.
00:25:18.329 --> 00:25:20.898
They don't know it's him.
00:25:20.898 --> 00:25:22.333
They tell him all the terrible things
00:25:22.333 --> 00:25:23.801
That have happened this weekend, the past weekend.
00:25:23.801 --> 00:25:26.804
He starts in genesis
00:25:27.271 --> 00:25:28.606
And works all the way through the scriptures
00:25:28.606 --> 00:25:30.307
And shows them it's all about him.
00:25:30.307 --> 00:25:32.309
So if jesus has the last word in my life,
00:25:33.210 --> 00:25:36.513
And i want him to, i've given him the right to,
00:25:36.513 --> 00:25:39.783
I need to know how jesus interprets scripture.
00:25:40.718 --> 00:25:43.520
Well, he interpreted scripture
00:25:43.520 --> 00:25:44.855
As all the scripture was about him.
00:25:44.855 --> 00:25:47.124
Not about israel,
00:25:47.124 --> 00:25:48.492
Not about a tribulation,
00:25:48.492 --> 00:25:50.060
Not about a pre-tribulation, post-tribulation rapture,
00:25:50.060 --> 00:25:53.497
Not about two or three different kind of judgments.
00:25:53.497 --> 00:25:56.567
He said it's about him.
00:25:56.567 --> 00:25:58.335
And so i don't have an option,
00:25:58.335 --> 00:26:01.438
If he's the last word in my life,
00:26:01.438 --> 00:26:03.641
Than to read scripture always looking that jesus
00:26:03.641 --> 00:26:08.012
Is the center of it.
00:26:08.012 --> 00:26:09.046
What is it saying about him?
00:26:09.046 --> 00:26:11.749
And if i don't meet jesus in that scripture,
00:26:11.749 --> 00:26:15.386
I haven't gotten what the scripture was written for.
00:26:16.453 --> 00:26:18.822
I need to go back,
00:26:18.822 --> 00:26:20.391
Because reading the written word
00:26:20.391 --> 00:26:23.160
Should introduce me to the living word,
00:26:23.160 --> 00:26:25.629
And the living word changes my life.
00:26:25.629 --> 00:26:27.931
- are you declaring, mike, that the olivet discourse,
00:26:28.999 --> 00:26:32.436
Which is largely, i think, matthew,
00:26:32.436 --> 00:26:34.805
Some of 23 and most of 24,
00:26:34.805 --> 00:26:38.475
Jesus' last sermon,
00:26:38.942 --> 00:26:40.911
That basically that's in the rearview mirror.
00:26:40.911 --> 00:26:44.715
Is that what you're talking about?
00:26:44.715 --> 00:26:46.183
Because i was raised- - yes.
00:26:46.183 --> 00:26:48.018
- in a dispensational kind of "late great planet earth,"
00:26:48.018 --> 00:26:52.056
That most of what was being talked about there
00:26:52.056 --> 00:26:55.225
Is now 2,000, 3,000 years in the future or something.
00:26:55.225 --> 00:27:00.564
So we're talking about a dramatic change
00:27:01.432 --> 00:27:05.035
In interpretation of what jesus' last sermon was about.
00:27:05.035 --> 00:27:08.972
Is that what you're saying? - yes.
00:27:08.972 --> 00:27:10.240
Jesus said in that sermon in matthew 24,
00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:13.777
"this generation, i'm looking at you now,
00:27:13.777 --> 00:27:17.381
Will not pass away till everything i'm telling you here
00:27:17.381 --> 00:27:20.317
Is fulfilled."
00:27:20.317 --> 00:27:21.752
It was all fulfilled by 70 ad.
00:27:21.752 --> 00:27:24.621
From 30 to 70 ad
00:27:24.621 --> 00:27:27.324
Is the most eventful generation that has ever lived.
00:27:27.324 --> 00:27:32.596
From jesus' death, burial, resurrection,
00:27:33.464 --> 00:27:34.832
The birth of the church,
00:27:34.832 --> 00:27:36.233
The expansion of, the destruction of jerusalem,
00:27:36.233 --> 00:27:39.002
There's never been a sacrifice lamb or a high priest serve
00:27:39.002 --> 00:27:43.807
Or a temple built that they could function in since 70 ad.
00:27:43.807 --> 00:27:49.113
The first place great tribulation
00:27:49.847 --> 00:27:52.282
Was ever spoken of that we hear about now for the future
00:27:53.417 --> 00:27:56.120
Was jesus in matthew 24.
00:27:56.120 --> 00:27:58.422
And he said, "in these days that i'm describing to you,
00:27:58.422 --> 00:28:01.925
There will be great tribulations
00:28:01.925 --> 00:28:04.061
Such as the world has never seen or will ever see again."
00:28:04.061 --> 00:28:09.299
(dramatic music)
00:28:09.666 --> 00:28:14.338
- think about history.
00:28:14.838 --> 00:28:15.839
Did this happen?
00:28:15.839 --> 00:28:17.708
Jesus said these words in 30 ad.
00:28:17.708 --> 00:28:20.377
We had 40 years, a generation.
00:28:20.377 --> 00:28:23.380
That brings us to 70 ad.
00:28:23.380 --> 00:28:25.649
Well, actually, there is a dramatic event that happened.
00:28:26.784 --> 00:28:30.287
Many christians.
00:28:30.287 --> 00:28:31.321
- [harold] they've never heard about it before,
00:28:32.256 --> 00:28:33.390
But it is the event (dramatic music)
00:28:33.390 --> 00:28:35.359
When the roman government sent soldiers
00:28:35.359 --> 00:28:38.729
To destroy the city of jerusalem.
00:28:38.729 --> 00:28:46.069
20,000 roman soldiers
00:28:46.570 --> 00:28:48.972
Surrounded the hilltops around jerusalem.
00:28:48.972 --> 00:28:53.544
They starved the people,
00:28:54.044 --> 00:28:56.446
Didn't let anybody in or out.
00:28:56.446 --> 00:29:00.217
And then after people were starving,
00:29:01.018 --> 00:29:03.487
They descended upon jerusalem
00:29:03.487 --> 00:29:06.490
And murdered more than a million jews there.
00:29:06.490 --> 00:29:11.495
Then they lit the temple on fire.
00:29:12.229 --> 00:29:15.065
The fire got so hot, it melted the gold in the dome.
00:29:15.065 --> 00:29:19.736
And that's how the fulfillment of what jesus said exactly,
00:29:20.904 --> 00:29:24.541
You see that temple?
00:29:24.541 --> 00:29:25.943
Not one stone will be left upon another.
00:29:25.943 --> 00:29:28.612
Just as jesus said it would happen within a generation,
00:29:28.612 --> 00:29:31.849
It happened, exactly.
00:29:31.849 --> 00:29:34.751
And to this day, there's not one stone there of the temple.
00:29:34.751 --> 00:29:39.289
(dramatic music)
00:29:39.289 --> 00:29:40.591
- [martin] and reading historical writings
00:29:40.591 --> 00:29:42.426
Like the historian josephus,
00:29:42.426 --> 00:29:44.728
Who was an eyewitness to the destruction of jerusalem
00:29:44.728 --> 00:29:48.298
And comparing them line by line,
00:29:48.298 --> 00:29:51.835
Seeing the amazing accuracy of jesus' prophecy,
00:29:51.835 --> 00:29:56.340
How it was fulfilled in every specific within a generation,
00:29:56.340 --> 00:30:01.745
That was like the turning point in my life.
00:30:02.613 --> 00:30:04.848
It strengthened my faith in the prophetic scriptures.
00:30:04.848 --> 00:30:08.919
It didn't weaken them, it strengthened them.
00:30:08.919 --> 00:30:11.488
Jesus predicted something within a generation,
00:30:11.488 --> 00:30:14.558
And it happened exactly the way he said it would.
00:30:14.558 --> 00:30:22.132
- i want to be really careful with this
00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:24.801
Because this could be controversial
00:30:24.801 --> 00:30:26.703
And i'll take this on me.
00:30:26.703 --> 00:30:29.673
I feel this really strongly though, matt.
00:30:29.673 --> 00:30:32.976
When you understand that, for instance,
00:30:32.976 --> 00:30:35.946
There are people now that love the lord as much as i do,
00:30:37.080 --> 00:30:40.717
That are really working to and raising money
00:30:40.717 --> 00:30:43.387
To help the jews build another temple in jerusalem
00:30:43.387 --> 00:30:47.024
On the temple mount.
00:30:47.024 --> 00:30:48.525
We'll get it worked out politically.
00:30:48.525 --> 00:30:50.060
We have to have a temple there
00:30:50.060 --> 00:30:51.995
Because our prophecy, our eschatology is such that
00:30:51.995 --> 00:30:55.599
We have to have the beast, the antichrist go into a temple
00:30:55.599 --> 00:31:00.137
And commit the abomination of desolation
00:31:00.137 --> 00:31:03.807
And then turn on the jews
00:31:03.807 --> 00:31:05.642
And then kill a third and all of that.
00:31:05.642 --> 00:31:07.678
Well, you can take a deep breath
00:31:07.678 --> 00:31:09.379
And relax about all that happening,
00:31:09.379 --> 00:31:11.815
Because there'll never be another temple built
00:31:11.815 --> 00:31:14.551
In order to fulfill scripture.
00:31:14.551 --> 00:31:16.453
The abomination of desolation
00:31:16.453 --> 00:31:18.155
Was when the romans sacked jerusalem, came into the temple,
00:31:18.155 --> 00:31:23.093
Stole all the gold, sacrificed a pig
00:31:23.093 --> 00:31:26.964
In its door as an insult,
00:31:26.964 --> 00:31:29.466
Raised the ensign of their sign
00:31:29.466 --> 00:31:32.536
That said caesar is god
00:31:32.536 --> 00:31:34.938
And declared caesar to be god,
00:31:34.938 --> 00:31:37.007
That is daniel's prophecy of the abomination of desolation.
00:31:37.007 --> 00:31:40.777
We don't have to build another temple to get that to happen.
00:31:40.777 --> 00:31:44.314
That's already taken place.
00:31:44.314 --> 00:31:46.383
- let's just use one little moment
00:31:46.383 --> 00:31:49.152
That everybody's heard of, the great tribulation,
00:31:49.152 --> 00:31:52.489
And whether or not christians
00:31:52.489 --> 00:31:54.725
Are going to be raptured out before it,
00:31:54.725 --> 00:31:59.096
During the middle or at the end of it,
00:31:59.096 --> 00:32:00.864
And when the millennium reign comes, okay?
00:32:00.864 --> 00:32:03.100
A lot of people know roughly those things
00:32:03.100 --> 00:32:07.004
And a lot of that imagery
00:32:07.004 --> 00:32:08.572
And a lot of that comes out of jesus' last sermon
00:32:08.572 --> 00:32:12.909
In the book of matthew, chapter 23 and 24.
00:32:12.909 --> 00:32:16.780
So that's really his last discussion with the disciples.
00:32:17.914 --> 00:32:21.985
They don't largely even know
00:32:21.985 --> 00:32:23.620
He's leaving or going somewhere yet,
00:32:23.620 --> 00:32:25.856
They certainly don't quite understand his death
00:32:25.856 --> 00:32:28.492
And then resurrection yet.
00:32:28.492 --> 00:32:30.694
But let's just pick one little thing
00:32:30.694 --> 00:32:33.230
Because i feel like, mike, i heard you off camera say,
00:32:33.230 --> 00:32:36.833
Matthew 24 was the first domino to fall.
00:32:36.833 --> 00:32:39.169
What do you mean by that?
00:32:39.169 --> 00:32:40.971
- well, if you accept the fact
00:32:40.971 --> 00:32:44.074
That jesus was speaking to his disciples
00:32:44.074 --> 00:32:46.910
In a direct answer to their question,
00:32:46.910 --> 00:32:49.246
Think of this, matt, in less than a week,
00:32:49.246 --> 00:32:51.314
He's gonna leave them alone on their own
00:32:51.314 --> 00:32:56.186
And entrust to them the birth of the church
00:32:56.186 --> 00:32:59.589
And the spread of the gospel.
00:32:59.589 --> 00:33:01.391
This is a man's last important words to them.
00:33:01.391 --> 00:33:04.995
How do we rip it away from them and say,
00:33:04.995 --> 00:33:07.030
No, no, it wasn't for them,
00:33:07.030 --> 00:33:08.365
Jesus was prophesying to us 2000 years later.
00:33:08.365 --> 00:33:11.835
When he said them and you 23 times,
00:33:11.835 --> 00:33:17.174
You would think from the hal lindsey books
00:33:18.075 --> 00:33:19.876
And all of that, and bless him,
00:33:19.876 --> 00:33:22.946
You would think great tribulation must be talked about
00:33:22.946 --> 00:33:26.116
In every book of the new testament,
00:33:26.116 --> 00:33:28.251
And in fact, it's hardly mentioned.
00:33:28.251 --> 00:33:30.487
Jesus uses the term in the olivet discourse,
00:33:30.487 --> 00:33:34.257
And john mentions it once in revelation,
00:33:34.257 --> 00:33:37.727
The great tribulation is not talked about
00:33:37.727 --> 00:33:40.497
Everywhere in the new testament.
00:33:40.497 --> 00:33:42.365
And when jesus talked about it, he was talking about,
00:33:42.365 --> 00:33:45.502
And you mentioned josephus earlier,
00:33:45.502 --> 00:33:47.804
If people would read the works of flavius josephus
00:33:47.804 --> 00:33:50.740
And like irenaeus and some of those early historians,
00:33:50.740 --> 00:33:54.744
Jesus was right, the great tribulation
00:33:55.579 --> 00:33:58.982
That was poured out on jerusalem in 70 ad,
00:33:58.982 --> 00:34:03.620
The horrors of that could never be equaled.
00:34:03.620 --> 00:34:07.357
Now, somebody asked me if jesus said that,
00:34:07.357 --> 00:34:09.793
And that was the greatest, what about six million jews?
00:34:09.793 --> 00:34:13.330
There were only about a million and a half
00:34:13.330 --> 00:34:14.865
Or two million that died in 70 ad.
00:34:14.865 --> 00:34:17.267
What about six million jews died in the holocaust?
00:34:17.267 --> 00:34:19.903
And jesus said that 70 ad, if it means that,
00:34:19.903 --> 00:34:23.306
Was the greatest of great tribulation.
00:34:23.306 --> 00:34:26.243
And i said, well, the difference is,
00:34:26.243 --> 00:34:27.744
It's not a numerical body count, but think about
00:34:27.744 --> 00:34:31.047
What the jewish people lost in 70 ad,
00:34:31.047 --> 00:34:33.850
That they didn't lose in the holocaust.
00:34:33.850 --> 00:34:36.086
They lost their temple, they lost their priesthood,
00:34:36.086 --> 00:34:39.389
They lost their sacrifice system,
00:34:39.389 --> 00:34:41.491
They lost their city, they lost their culture,
00:34:41.491 --> 00:34:44.561
They were separating the spread to the earth.
00:34:44.561 --> 00:34:47.197
As horrible as the holocaust was,
00:34:47.931 --> 00:34:51.368
That all wasn't lost in the holocaust,
00:34:51.368 --> 00:34:53.904
It was lost in 70 ad.
00:34:53.904 --> 00:34:55.839
That was the worst days that the jews have ever endured.
00:34:55.839 --> 00:35:01.545
- dudley, are you declaring that matthew 24's
00:35:02.512 --> 00:35:07.017
In the rear view mirror?
00:35:07.017 --> 00:35:08.685
- yes. - all of it?
00:35:08.685 --> 00:35:11.154
- well, i don't know.
00:35:11.154 --> 00:35:12.822
There's a question about the last part,
00:35:12.822 --> 00:35:14.758
When he talks about the different stories of the talents
00:35:14.758 --> 00:35:19.029
And all of that kind of stuff.
00:35:19.029 --> 00:35:21.565
I think it is, but that's possible
00:35:22.332 --> 00:35:25.902
That he might have been answering the
00:35:25.902 --> 00:35:27.804
Second question of,
00:35:27.804 --> 00:35:29.839
When is your coming, when the first question was,
00:35:29.839 --> 00:35:31.775
When is these things gonna happen?
00:35:31.775 --> 00:35:33.843
The reason i think it probably is,
00:35:33.843 --> 00:35:37.447
I don't want to die on that hill though,
00:35:37.447 --> 00:35:39.015
Is that if you read the mark account and the luke account,
00:35:39.015 --> 00:35:43.186
They don't have the second question in there.
00:35:44.154 --> 00:35:47.357
And i just try to put myself in the disciple's place.
00:35:48.391 --> 00:35:51.895
I've just said to jesus, look at that temple.
00:35:51.895 --> 00:35:54.531
Isn't it fine?
00:35:54.531 --> 00:35:57.033
We've got the greatest thing in the world.
00:35:57.934 --> 00:36:01.438
And then jesus says, it won't be long
00:36:01.438 --> 00:36:05.775
Before there's not one stone left.
00:36:05.775 --> 00:36:08.745
It'd take your breath away.
00:36:09.346 --> 00:36:10.947
I don't think they were asking,
00:36:10.947 --> 00:36:12.515
Give me a calendar of when it's going to happen.
00:36:12.515 --> 00:36:14.784
They want to know, when is that going to happen?
00:36:14.784 --> 00:36:17.721
When is this devastating thing going to happen
00:36:17.721 --> 00:36:20.824
That we're going to lose everything?
00:36:20.824 --> 00:36:23.326
When is that going to happen?
00:36:23.326 --> 00:36:25.395
So for that reason,
00:36:25.395 --> 00:36:26.630
I think it's all talking about that event,
00:36:26.630 --> 00:36:29.766
Even all the way through.
00:36:30.333 --> 00:36:32.035
- i must mention, matt, that i believe,
00:36:32.035 --> 00:36:34.871
I agree with dudley that it was fulfilled,
00:36:34.871 --> 00:36:37.741
One of the biggest things for people that they bring up
00:36:37.741 --> 00:36:40.477
In jesus answering that question, because they did ask,
00:36:40.477 --> 00:36:43.179
And what's the sign of your coming or appearing?
00:36:43.179 --> 00:36:47.484
And how is that fulfilled?
00:36:47.484 --> 00:36:50.487
It's interesting to note that jesus said,
00:36:50.487 --> 00:36:52.989
You will see the sign of the son of man
00:36:52.989 --> 00:36:56.426
Coming on the clouds.
00:36:56.426 --> 00:36:59.296
Everywhere in the old testament,
00:36:59.929 --> 00:37:01.698
And i believe there's six specific references,
00:37:01.698 --> 00:37:04.367
There could be more, coming on the clouds
00:37:04.367 --> 00:37:07.737
Is a way to say that god has come in judgment.
00:37:07.737 --> 00:37:13.710
He uses that term against when he came against egypt,
00:37:14.811 --> 00:37:18.415
That term is used when he defeated the enemies of david,
00:37:18.415 --> 00:37:21.885
That term is used with the babylonians.
00:37:21.885 --> 00:37:25.155
Coming on the clouds is a sign of god
00:37:25.155 --> 00:37:28.124
Coming to judge something.
00:37:28.124 --> 00:37:30.460
So jesus, and he said...
00:37:30.460 --> 00:37:33.063
He didn't say you'd see jesus come,
00:37:33.063 --> 00:37:34.864
He said you'll see the sign
00:37:34.864 --> 00:37:37.067
That jesus is now in the heavens ruling that you crucified,
00:37:37.067 --> 00:37:41.538
And one of the writers even said,
00:37:41.538 --> 00:37:43.573
You will look on him that you pierced, you'll know it's him.
00:37:43.573 --> 00:37:48.345
And the system of judaism that rejected him, not all jews,
00:37:48.345 --> 00:37:53.683
The stinking corrupt christ denying system of religion
00:37:54.784 --> 00:38:01.925
That was selling sacrifices that he turned over the tables,
00:38:03.093 --> 00:38:06.262
That's what was judged.
00:38:06.262 --> 00:38:07.664
And it was jesus who brought that judgment.
00:38:07.664 --> 00:38:10.033
(dramatic music)
00:38:10.033 --> 00:38:15.205
- when we've had, okay, there are gonna be wars
00:38:16.139 --> 00:38:18.575
And rumors of wars, there are gonna be famines,
00:38:18.575 --> 00:38:20.343
There are gonna be terrible times,
00:38:20.343 --> 00:38:21.911
There'll be days of distress, there'll be false messiahs,
00:38:21.911 --> 00:38:24.414
There'll be people saying, follow me, blah, blah, blah,
00:38:24.414 --> 00:38:27.183
Don't do it, and then the...
00:38:27.183 --> 00:38:29.853
- "son of man will be coming on the clouds."
00:38:30.787 --> 00:38:32.155
Now, i grew up not knowing what that really meant,
00:38:32.155 --> 00:38:35.358
But assuming that it meant that jesus will be coming
00:38:35.358 --> 00:38:39.295
On the clouds from heaven to earth.
00:38:39.295 --> 00:38:42.999
I then at some point,
00:38:42.999 --> 00:38:45.402
Probably in my early thirties, read the book of daniel.
00:38:45.402 --> 00:38:49.706
I'd read daniel many times, i've never really seen it.
00:38:49.706 --> 00:38:52.642
And daniel chapter seven,
00:38:52.642 --> 00:38:54.711
What's the direction of travel of the son of man?
00:38:55.678 --> 00:38:58.281
"the son of man is coming on the clouds to be seated
00:38:58.281 --> 00:39:01.818
Beside the ancient of days."
00:39:01.818 --> 00:39:04.387
In other words, he's coming up not down.
00:39:04.387 --> 00:39:06.656
So i read daniel 7
00:39:06.656 --> 00:39:09.225
And its reinterpretation in matthew 24,
00:39:09.225 --> 00:39:12.762
In the scene before caiaphas in mark 14,
00:39:12.762 --> 00:39:17.600
When jesus says to caiaphas,
00:39:17.600 --> 00:39:19.002
"you will see the son of man coming on the clouds."
00:39:19.002 --> 00:39:21.004
He doesn't mean caiaphas will look out the window
00:39:21.004 --> 00:39:22.906
And see him, jesus, returning,
00:39:22.906 --> 00:39:24.808
He means you're gonna see me vindicated.
00:39:24.808 --> 00:39:27.377
You will see the events which demonstrate quite clearly
00:39:27.377 --> 00:39:30.847
That i have been enthroned at the right hand of the father.
00:39:30.847 --> 00:39:34.551
Hence the main theme of mark 13, matthew 24,
00:39:34.551 --> 00:39:38.855
And luke 19 is the destruction of jerusalem
00:39:38.855 --> 00:39:43.193
As the sign that jesus who has announced its judgment,
00:39:43.193 --> 00:39:47.730
God's judgment on it, is vindicated by god,
00:39:47.730 --> 00:39:51.868
Is enthroned at the right hand of the ancient of days.
00:39:51.868 --> 00:39:55.338
(dramatic music)
00:39:55.705 --> 00:39:59.876
- some parts of the body of christ
00:40:00.610 --> 00:40:04.280
Interpret jesus' last sermon in the book of matthew
00:40:04.280 --> 00:40:09.519
As largely being thrown into the future,
00:40:10.386 --> 00:40:13.156
And those that are looking at it
00:40:13.156 --> 00:40:15.792
As completely fulfilled in 70 ad,
00:40:15.792 --> 00:40:19.295
Is that what this argument really is all about, dudley?
00:40:19.295 --> 00:40:23.299
- our friend, hal lindsey, said
00:40:23.299 --> 00:40:24.801
In "late great planet earth,"
00:40:24.801 --> 00:40:26.336
That the generation there does not mean the generation
00:40:26.336 --> 00:40:30.974
That was there that jesus was looking at.
00:40:30.974 --> 00:40:33.409
It means the generation that is on earth
00:40:33.409 --> 00:40:35.912
When these signs take place.
00:40:35.912 --> 00:40:38.147
And so he is saying that generation can mean that.
00:40:39.148 --> 00:40:42.652
Now if you go back to matthew 23, he uses generation
00:40:42.652 --> 00:40:47.156
To talk about the people that are on the earth now.
00:40:47.156 --> 00:40:50.460
So for it to mean that
00:40:50.460 --> 00:40:52.228
Means that you've gotta reach somewhere else
00:40:52.228 --> 00:40:54.697
Other than scripture and say it means that.
00:40:54.697 --> 00:40:58.234
But i think it's really interesting.
00:40:58.234 --> 00:40:59.736
And then when after pentecost
00:40:59.736 --> 00:41:02.505
And the church is going really good,
00:41:03.306 --> 00:41:05.174
But they choose some deacons, some guys to serve.
00:41:05.174 --> 00:41:09.979
One of 'em was steven.
00:41:09.979 --> 00:41:12.081
And when they asked steven his whole view of things,
00:41:12.081 --> 00:41:16.252
He was doing pretty good telling the story there.
00:41:17.186 --> 00:41:19.122
Then he got to the place where he said,
00:41:19.122 --> 00:41:21.691
"you know the temple that you're accusing me of desecrating,
00:41:21.691 --> 00:41:27.030
Or when i said jesus said that he would destroy it,
00:41:28.097 --> 00:41:29.666
And y'all are saying that's blasphemy and you're upset,
00:41:29.666 --> 00:41:33.736
That temple, lemme tell you about it," he said.
00:41:33.736 --> 00:41:36.472
"the glory left that temple a long time ago.
00:41:36.472 --> 00:41:38.975
And you've been worshiping the temple.
00:41:39.776 --> 00:41:43.780
You say worship in the temple,
00:41:43.780 --> 00:41:45.081
But no, you've made the temple the big issue."
00:41:45.081 --> 00:41:48.718
And he said, "the fact is all those years
00:41:48.718 --> 00:41:52.055
When people bringing sacrifices because god wasn't there,
00:41:52.055 --> 00:41:56.225
You were making sacrifices to other gods.
00:41:56.225 --> 00:41:58.928
And so what you've been doing is idolatry."
00:41:59.829 --> 00:42:02.632
And that's when the scripture says,
00:42:02.632 --> 00:42:04.167
"they gnashed their teeth and said, you're a dead man."
00:42:04.167 --> 00:42:07.437
And so they stone him.
00:42:07.437 --> 00:42:09.105
So it was a hinge pin then, it is now.
00:42:09.105 --> 00:42:13.343
It's like, okay, it is a story about jesus
00:42:13.343 --> 00:42:18.281
And what he did in his first coming
00:42:18.281 --> 00:42:21.017
And then the ramifications of that until his coming,
00:42:21.017 --> 00:42:24.921
Are we still gonna mix a little bit of the old covenant
00:42:25.989 --> 00:42:30.426
With the new covenant?
00:42:30.426 --> 00:42:31.794
And are we going to try to not offend anybody here?
00:42:31.794 --> 00:42:37.066
Or are we going have two peoples of god?
00:42:37.934 --> 00:42:41.504
Are we gonna have the earthly people of god being israel,
00:42:41.504 --> 00:42:45.141
The heavenly people being the church and raptured out?
00:42:45.141 --> 00:42:48.177
- the rapture mentality has gone with a whole narrative.
00:42:49.312 --> 00:42:52.615
You mentioned before 1948, the return of some jews,
00:42:52.615 --> 00:42:56.185
At least to the ancient jewish homeland.
00:42:56.185 --> 00:42:59.188
The way these have been put together
00:42:59.989 --> 00:43:01.924
With the rapture mentality has meant
00:43:01.924 --> 00:43:04.327
That people have been living out of a whole narrative
00:43:04.327 --> 00:43:07.330
Which is superimposed onto the bible,
00:43:07.330 --> 00:43:10.033
Which is not the story that the bible is telling
00:43:10.033 --> 00:43:12.669
And which has thrown political aspirations and priorities
00:43:12.669 --> 00:43:18.775
Into chaos and confusion
00:43:19.275 --> 00:43:21.244
Compared with what we ought to be doing,
00:43:21.244 --> 00:43:23.012
Which is seeking god's justice and peace in the whole world,
00:43:23.012 --> 00:43:26.549
For the whole world by whatever means.
00:43:26.549 --> 00:43:29.318
And so it's very difficult for people
00:43:29.318 --> 00:43:30.853
In the rest of the world to understand
00:43:30.853 --> 00:43:32.755
Where americans are coming from.
00:43:32.755 --> 00:43:34.390
And that's not surprising because the narrative
00:43:34.390 --> 00:43:37.760
That so many americans have got in their heads
00:43:37.760 --> 00:43:39.595
From "late great planet earth" or wherever
00:43:39.595 --> 00:43:42.265
Is simply not in the bible.
00:43:42.265 --> 00:43:45.935
- in fact, charles ryrie from south
00:43:46.703 --> 00:43:49.439
From dallas theological seminary said
00:43:49.439 --> 00:43:52.041
"the big issue on dispensationalism,
00:43:52.041 --> 00:43:54.377
Boil it all down, is the difference in believing
00:43:54.377 --> 00:43:59.716
That there are two peoples of god and one people.
00:44:00.717 --> 00:44:02.785
Is israel god's earthly people
00:44:02.785 --> 00:44:05.354
That he'll come back and work in after the rapture,
00:44:05.354 --> 00:44:10.093
Or is it about the church?
00:44:10.093 --> 00:44:12.795
So i don't think you can,
00:44:12.795 --> 00:44:17.300
I can't find a way in the scripture to see two people
00:44:17.300 --> 00:44:21.003
Because it seems to me that that is taking
00:44:21.003 --> 00:44:23.940
The intended glory of the son who fulfilled everything,
00:44:23.940 --> 00:44:29.245
Is taking that glory and sharing it with a nation.
00:44:30.246 --> 00:44:33.716
And i don't think god's done that.
00:44:33.716 --> 00:44:35.785
(upbeat music)
00:44:35.785 --> 00:44:39.989
- the jewish hope of the first century.
00:44:40.823 --> 00:44:42.959
You have this hope for god to come back in person
00:44:42.959 --> 00:44:45.962
And you have the hope for the whole earth to be filled
00:44:45.962 --> 00:44:48.698
With the glory of god as the waters cover the sea.
00:44:48.698 --> 00:44:51.400
Now, if somebody at the end of the first century was to say,
00:44:51.400 --> 00:44:54.904
Wouldn't it be nice if those things had happened yet?
00:44:54.904 --> 00:44:58.107
Most judean, most jews would say,
00:44:58.107 --> 00:45:00.576
"well, yes, we're still waiting, we're praying.
00:45:00.576 --> 00:45:02.845
The romans are still beating us up.
00:45:02.845 --> 00:45:04.680
We're having a bad time."
00:45:04.680 --> 00:45:05.982
The christians would say, "it's happened."
00:45:05.982 --> 00:45:09.418
How do you know it's happened?
00:45:09.418 --> 00:45:10.653
Well, jesus, well, what happened to jesus?
00:45:10.653 --> 00:45:12.789
Well, he was crucified.
00:45:12.789 --> 00:45:14.190
Well, the fact of a jewish leader being crucified
00:45:14.190 --> 00:45:17.627
Doesn't mean that the hope has been fulfilled.
00:45:17.627 --> 00:45:20.029
It means that it hasn't been fulfilled.
00:45:20.029 --> 00:45:21.697
That's what happens all the time to revolutionaries
00:45:21.697 --> 00:45:24.267
Who think that they're god's anointed
00:45:24.267 --> 00:45:25.701
And discover too late that they aren't after all.
00:45:25.701 --> 00:45:28.171
So what happened then?
00:45:28.171 --> 00:45:29.338
Well, god raised him from the dead.
00:45:29.338 --> 00:45:32.475
Oh, my goodness.
00:45:32.475 --> 00:45:33.876
That means that the thing which we are thinking,
00:45:33.876 --> 00:45:37.280
We judeans in the first century,
00:45:37.280 --> 00:45:39.115
The thing which we had expected that god would do
00:45:39.115 --> 00:45:41.951
For all israel at the end,
00:45:41.951 --> 00:45:45.087
God has done for one man in the middle of history.
00:45:45.087 --> 00:45:49.091
That means that the great hope,
00:45:49.091 --> 00:45:51.260
You know the pharisees in jesus' day
00:45:51.260 --> 00:45:52.962
And they were the majority teachers,
00:45:52.962 --> 00:45:54.931
They believed that resurrection would happen,
00:45:54.931 --> 00:45:57.500
But it would happen to all the faithful at the end.
00:45:57.500 --> 00:46:00.002
And it's happened to one person in the middle of history?
00:46:00.002 --> 00:46:02.972
This is the thing which you can see in paul's thought
00:46:02.972 --> 00:46:06.442
Already is driving forward the whole project
00:46:06.442 --> 00:46:10.246
That what god was going to do at the end,
00:46:10.246 --> 00:46:12.281
He has done in the middle of history,
00:46:12.281 --> 00:46:13.883
Therefore new creation has been launched
00:46:13.883 --> 00:46:16.619
And we get to be part of it.
00:46:16.619 --> 00:46:18.354
That's how it works.
00:46:18.354 --> 00:46:19.889
- and in that new covenant, we would be the temple
00:46:19.889 --> 00:46:22.959
Of the holy spirit and the holy spirit would dwell in us.
00:46:22.959 --> 00:46:25.995
So part of that means the eradication of a stone temple.
00:46:25.995 --> 00:46:30.600
In the new covenant,
00:46:31.067 --> 00:46:32.335
Jesus would be the full and final sacrifice,
00:46:32.335 --> 00:46:34.937
So that involves the eradication of the old sacrifices.
00:46:34.937 --> 00:46:39.108
In the new covenant,
00:46:39.575 --> 00:46:40.843
Jesus is the high priest and we are priests.
00:46:40.843 --> 00:46:44.513
So that necessitates that the old priesthood is eradicated.
00:46:44.513 --> 00:46:49.218
- now, the covenantal view means
00:46:49.218 --> 00:46:51.420
That when jesus died on the cross,
00:46:51.420 --> 00:46:53.923
He was mediating a new covenant.
00:46:53.923 --> 00:46:56.325
This covenant was prophesied through isaiah,
00:46:56.325 --> 00:46:59.729
Ezekiel, and jeremiah,
00:46:59.729 --> 00:47:01.597
And in this covenant he says,
00:47:01.597 --> 00:47:02.798
"god will remember our sins no more.
00:47:02.798 --> 00:47:05.034
He'll give us a new heart.
00:47:05.034 --> 00:47:06.502
He'll give us a new spirit,
00:47:06.502 --> 00:47:08.104
And he'll give us his holy spirit
00:47:08.104 --> 00:47:09.405
To cause us to walk in his way."
00:47:09.405 --> 00:47:11.741
Those four promises were the new covenant
00:47:11.741 --> 00:47:14.844
That was mediated through jesus.
00:47:14.844 --> 00:47:17.113
God is putting every enemy of jesus under his feet.
00:47:17.113 --> 00:47:22.084
And that actually the book of revelations
00:47:22.985 --> 00:47:25.321
Is about a kingdom takeover so that jesus can reign.
00:47:25.321 --> 00:47:31.093
- overall.
00:47:31.394 --> 00:47:32.895
- but the millennial reign is talking about the victory
00:47:32.895 --> 00:47:34.430
That christ won on the cross through his death,
00:47:34.430 --> 00:47:37.300
Resurrection, ascension, the whole deal.
00:47:37.300 --> 00:47:40.002
I believe that the millennium started
00:47:40.002 --> 00:47:43.005
With jesus sending the holy spirit into the believers,
00:47:43.005 --> 00:47:46.742
And that we are now living in that time
00:47:46.742 --> 00:47:48.978
When the gospel is moving through the earth,
00:47:48.978 --> 00:47:52.415
Light is moving through the earth.
00:47:52.415 --> 00:47:54.517
- and one of the most important issues
00:47:55.318 --> 00:47:58.054
Is what about the jewish people?
00:47:58.054 --> 00:48:00.323
We need to understand that when jesus died on the cross,
00:48:01.457 --> 00:48:05.294
It was a turning point in history.
00:48:05.294 --> 00:48:07.830
His death established a new covenant.
00:48:07.830 --> 00:48:11.300
And the new covenant that was established
00:48:11.300 --> 00:48:13.936
Had been prophesied throughout the old testament.
00:48:13.936 --> 00:48:16.739
Well, not only was it the establishment of a new covenant,
00:48:16.739 --> 00:48:20.409
But it was the ending of an old covenant.
00:48:20.409 --> 00:48:24.180
But it's important we know which old covenant,
00:48:24.180 --> 00:48:27.216
Because in the old testament, there's a covenant with noah,
00:48:27.216 --> 00:48:30.686
There's a covenant with abraham, covenant with moses,
00:48:30.686 --> 00:48:34.423
Covenant with david.
00:48:34.423 --> 00:48:35.591
Well, hebrews chapter 8 tells us.
00:48:35.591 --> 00:48:39.128
It describes the jewish religious system
00:48:39.128 --> 00:48:41.797
That came through moses.
00:48:41.797 --> 00:48:43.532
- with the covenant to moses, he's saying,
00:48:43.532 --> 00:48:46.035
If you'll obey this covenant,
00:48:46.035 --> 00:48:48.270
And i'll make you the head, not the tail,
00:48:48.270 --> 00:48:50.740
And give you all the blessings that's in the heart of god,
00:48:50.740 --> 00:48:54.677
That's in heaven, i'll give you the blessings.
00:48:54.677 --> 00:48:56.946
If you don't, you'll experience curses.
00:48:56.946 --> 00:48:59.315
So israel was god's chosen human instrument at that time
00:48:59.315 --> 00:49:05.521
To bless the world.
00:49:05.988 --> 00:49:08.057
Well, they tried.
00:49:08.057 --> 00:49:10.292
They tried living up to the law and they couldn't.
00:49:10.292 --> 00:49:14.263
But eventually an israelite came that could.
00:49:15.197 --> 00:49:18.701
- anyone in the first century seeing this prophetic movement
00:49:18.701 --> 00:49:22.204
Talking about the kingdom of god,
00:49:22.204 --> 00:49:23.506
And then the leader choosing 12 people,
00:49:23.506 --> 00:49:26.409
They know precisely what's going on.
00:49:26.409 --> 00:49:27.943
This is about the restoration or renewal of israel.
00:49:27.943 --> 00:49:30.446
Of course it is, it can only mean that.
00:49:30.446 --> 00:49:33.482
But this is a way of saying,
00:49:33.482 --> 00:49:35.117
Actually the church began when god called abraham
00:49:35.117 --> 00:49:37.720
In genesis 12 and said, "in you and in your seed,
00:49:37.720 --> 00:49:40.423
All the families of the earth should be,"
00:49:40.423 --> 00:49:41.757
All the families of the earth.
00:49:41.757 --> 00:49:43.159
In other words, the purpose of israel always was
00:49:43.159 --> 00:49:45.861
To be the blessing for the nations.
00:49:45.861 --> 00:49:47.963
That didn't happen, didn't happen
00:49:47.963 --> 00:49:50.466
Because abraham and his family were also in adam.
00:49:50.466 --> 00:49:54.170
That's the irony and the tragedy
00:49:54.170 --> 00:49:56.639
Of so much of the old testament.
00:49:56.639 --> 00:49:58.240
The people who are bearing the promise
00:49:58.240 --> 00:50:00.109
Are also the carriers of the problem.
00:50:00.109 --> 00:50:02.378
And therefore, jesus launching of the kingdom of god
00:50:03.446 --> 00:50:06.682
And choosing these 12 is a way of saying
00:50:06.682 --> 00:50:09.452
This is god getting the project back on track.
00:50:09.452 --> 00:50:12.388
(soft music)
00:50:12.388 --> 00:50:16.258
- and here's the question, matt, do we really believe?
00:50:17.359 --> 00:50:20.896
'cause this great tribulation
00:50:20.896 --> 00:50:22.465
That's supposed to be in the future, who is that against?
00:50:22.465 --> 00:50:25.401
Do we really believe that god in heaven
00:50:25.401 --> 00:50:29.004
Is going to let a group of people on a hill with a temple
00:50:29.004 --> 00:50:33.442
And a sacrifice system and millions of dollars in the bank
00:50:33.442 --> 00:50:37.513
And as corrupt as could be,
00:50:37.513 --> 00:50:39.014
And the presence of god had departed 400 years
00:50:39.014 --> 00:50:41.984
Before jesus even came, hadn't been a presence of god
00:50:41.984 --> 00:50:45.354
In that temple for centuries,
00:50:45.354 --> 00:50:47.423
Do we believe that the god in heaven who is just
00:50:47.423 --> 00:50:51.160
Is going to let them murder his only son?
00:50:51.160 --> 00:50:55.564
It wasn't the populace of israel.
00:50:56.332 --> 00:50:58.434
They loved jesus.
00:50:58.434 --> 00:51:00.102
They shouted, "hosanna," but those who murdered him,
00:51:00.102 --> 00:51:03.639
Are they really gonna get by
00:51:03.639 --> 00:51:04.940
With the murder of the son of god
00:51:04.940 --> 00:51:06.942
And there be no judgment on them,
00:51:06.942 --> 00:51:09.145
And they'd just go on like nothing happened?
00:51:10.079 --> 00:51:12.314
No, they were judged.
00:51:12.815 --> 00:51:15.084
God used the roman empire
00:51:15.084 --> 00:51:16.886
The same way he used the assyrian army
00:51:16.886 --> 00:51:19.688
And others in history
00:51:19.688 --> 00:51:20.990
To judge that people that murdered jesus.
00:51:20.990 --> 00:51:24.360
And that is over.
00:51:24.360 --> 00:51:25.728
The wrath of god has been extinguished.
00:51:25.728 --> 00:51:28.964
God is not looking to pour out wrath on us now.
00:51:28.964 --> 00:51:31.667
- absolutely. - god is looking
00:51:31.667 --> 00:51:33.469
To pour out blessing on us now.
00:51:33.469 --> 00:51:35.404
And to me, that's the big picture.
00:51:35.404 --> 00:51:37.773
My message is not a coming wrath.
00:51:37.773 --> 00:51:40.442
My message is an unbelievably loving god
00:51:40.442 --> 00:51:44.747
That wants to pour out his grace
00:51:44.747 --> 00:51:47.183
And his mercy and his peace.
00:51:47.183 --> 00:51:49.418
I'm not looking for judgment and tribulation.
00:51:49.418 --> 00:51:52.421
I'm looking for grace, blessing, peace, and joy,
00:51:52.421 --> 00:51:56.025
And that's what we are supposed to be spreading
00:51:56.025 --> 00:51:58.761
As citizens of the kingdom of god,
00:51:58.761 --> 00:52:01.197
Until we make a way for him to be welcomed back
00:52:01.197 --> 00:52:05.568
And we welcome him as king of all kings.
00:52:05.568 --> 00:52:11.507
- final comments?
00:52:11.907 --> 00:52:13.209
- i was just thinking about several statements i'd heard,
00:52:14.376 --> 00:52:16.478
Like people always asking,
00:52:16.478 --> 00:52:18.614
"do you believe they're gonna rebuild the temple
00:52:18.614 --> 00:52:20.316
In jerusalem?"
00:52:20.316 --> 00:52:21.584
And i like what sam storm said,
00:52:21.584 --> 00:52:23.352
He said, "i don't know, maybe, but god won't attend it."
00:52:23.352 --> 00:52:27.156
I mean the the god who, his final temple is us.
00:52:28.157 --> 00:52:32.995
You know, first of all, it was the body of christ,
00:52:34.029 --> 00:52:35.998
Christ himself, the incarnate christ, but then it's us.
00:52:35.998 --> 00:52:39.501
So we don't need to worry about rebuilding the temple.
00:52:39.501 --> 00:52:42.871
It doesn't matter.
00:52:42.871 --> 00:52:44.940
You can build whatever you want to over there,
00:52:44.940 --> 00:52:47.243
And you know, (indistinct) red heifer.
00:52:47.243 --> 00:52:49.111
It doesn't matter because god is not going
00:52:49.111 --> 00:52:52.248
To accept the blood of a red heifer
00:52:52.248 --> 00:52:54.483
When he has accepted the blood of his son.
00:52:54.483 --> 00:52:57.119
Sacrifices are done and the tribulation is finished,
00:52:58.187 --> 00:53:03.459
And the blood of christ has bought back
00:53:04.293 --> 00:53:09.898
Everything sin tainted.
00:53:10.432 --> 00:53:12.601
That doesn't just mean people, that means the whole world.
00:53:12.601 --> 00:53:16.071
God loves the whole world.
00:53:16.071 --> 00:53:17.273
That's why he's gonna restore it.
00:53:17.273 --> 00:53:19.108
So we have the great privilege in this day in our age
00:53:19.108 --> 00:53:23.479
To go and claim the ground that the blood has paid for.
00:53:23.479 --> 00:53:28.817
As far as the curse is found, the psalm says,
00:53:29.752 --> 00:53:31.754
That's how far his blood has gone.
00:53:31.754 --> 00:53:34.323
So there's no reason to want to get out of here.
00:53:34.323 --> 00:53:36.558
It's like, oh, please come get me out of here.
00:53:36.558 --> 00:53:38.894
No, leave me here.
00:53:38.894 --> 00:53:40.796
I wrote a book several years ago called
00:53:40.796 --> 00:53:42.331
"glad to be left behind."
00:53:42.331 --> 00:53:44.366
I'm glad to be here.
00:53:44.366 --> 00:53:46.435
I'm glad because, you know, first of all,
00:53:46.435 --> 00:53:50.039
Those stories jesus tells the people that got left behind
00:53:50.039 --> 00:53:54.810
Were the good ones,
00:53:54.810 --> 00:53:56.111
The bad ones the ones that got taken out.
00:53:56.111 --> 00:53:57.780
So i'm glad to be here
00:53:57.780 --> 00:53:59.715
And i'm glad to be a part of living out the victory
00:53:59.715 --> 00:54:03.218
That we have in the finished work of christ.
00:54:03.218 --> 00:54:06.055
And i don't want to get tied up in fear
00:54:06.055 --> 00:54:10.025
And all of the stuff that comes with that complicated,
00:54:10.025 --> 00:54:13.462
That whole complicated system.
00:54:13.462 --> 00:54:17.700
- we're facing the greatest season of our lives.
00:54:18.701 --> 00:54:21.570
It's time to build.
00:54:21.570 --> 00:54:22.805
It's time to establish.
00:54:22.805 --> 00:54:24.206
It's time to believe.
00:54:24.206 --> 00:54:25.674
It's time to bring the kingdom of god that is at hand
00:54:25.674 --> 00:54:28.644
To light.
00:54:28.644 --> 00:54:30.245
- the whole world ought to be filled with joy and happiness.
00:54:30.245 --> 00:54:34.116
That's what the scripture's really about.
00:54:34.116 --> 00:54:36.151
For instance, the sermon on the mount
00:54:36.151 --> 00:54:38.287
And the olivet discourse are the bookend sermons of jesus.
00:54:38.287 --> 00:54:41.724
The mistranslation through the years
00:54:41.724 --> 00:54:44.293
Has put the wrong twist on it.
00:54:44.293 --> 00:54:46.261
The first beatitude actually says,
00:54:46.261 --> 00:54:48.330
"happy are the empty, for they will be filled with joy."
00:54:48.330 --> 00:54:53.535
The translation ends up saying,
00:54:54.203 --> 00:54:56.138
"blessed are the poor in spirit
00:54:56.138 --> 00:54:58.640
For theirs is the kingdom of god,"
00:54:58.640 --> 00:55:00.743
Which caused denominations to create vows of poverty
00:55:00.743 --> 00:55:04.513
For everyone in the ministry,
00:55:04.513 --> 00:55:05.881
Because jesus said you'd be blessed if you're poor.
00:55:05.881 --> 00:55:09.351
That's not what that said at all.
00:55:09.351 --> 00:55:11.019
It said, you'll be really happy
00:55:11.019 --> 00:55:12.955
If you'll make room for me to fill you with real joy.
00:55:12.955 --> 00:55:17.025
And when i started this research,
00:55:17.025 --> 00:55:19.528
I wouldn't have put happiness and god in the same sentence.
00:55:19.528 --> 00:55:23.165
But i found out he is ultimate joy and happiness
00:55:24.166 --> 00:55:27.436
And wants that for his kids.
00:55:27.436 --> 00:55:29.271
- we hope for something we don't have, right?
00:55:29.271 --> 00:55:35.644
But we have all this,
00:55:36.145 --> 00:55:38.981
So we don't have to hope for it anymore.
00:55:39.848 --> 00:55:43.919
That's why we're told to contend for the faith
00:55:44.853 --> 00:55:47.423
That was once for all delivered to the saints.
00:55:47.423 --> 00:55:51.560
We have it.
00:55:51.560 --> 00:55:53.195
We don't have to sit here and hope for it.
00:55:53.195 --> 00:55:55.264
We have it.
00:55:55.264 --> 00:55:56.098
We can operate in it.
00:55:56.098 --> 00:55:57.132
We are responsible for it.
00:55:57.132 --> 00:55:59.168
We can enjoy it.
00:55:59.168 --> 00:56:00.936
This is all part of the faith that jesus came to change
00:56:02.070 --> 00:56:05.974
From that old covenant system into this new covenant system.
00:56:05.974 --> 00:56:09.812
Isn't that much better than sitting around
00:56:09.812 --> 00:56:11.280
Hoping for something that one of these days,
00:56:11.280 --> 00:56:14.383
One of these days, one of these days?
00:56:14.383 --> 00:56:16.685
No, no we have it.
00:56:16.685 --> 00:56:18.787
(upbeat music)
00:56:18.787 --> 00:56:18.787

Dudley Hall & Mike Hayes: God With Us | Praise

February 23, 2026 | 56:30

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