Pastor Rick McGough 8/6/23

The speaker shares about his connection with the church and how he believed a younger pastor with vision could bring change. He talks about a conference he organized that faced challenges due to a snowstorm, but ended up being successful. He then shares about another conference where there were last-minute issues, but everything worked out in the end. He emphasizes the faithfulness of God and how we need to rely on Him in these times. The speaker also mentions his upcoming messages on end times and the importance of recognizing God's faithfulness. Alright. Amen. It's a blessing to be here with you. I always look forward to...for some reason I have a special connection with this church. I wonder why. Actually, I have a connection with this church before Stephen and Caitlin came here. I was the presbyter over this area for eight years, just before they came. And the church was going through a lot of problems back then. And so I got called out here quite a bit and had meetings behind the scenes and stuff. And there was talk at that time about even closing down the church and just things weren't going well. And I remember telling people, because this is what I just sensed in my spirit, I would come out here and I would see the location of the church and there's a school right across the street and it's right on the main drag. And I saw the buildings and even though this building was closed at the time. But something in my spirit, I remember telling people, you know, I just think if they could get a younger pastor with a lot of vision, I think this church could really do something. And I told people that and honestly I never thought of Stephen then because he was on staff with us and we didn't want to lose him in Moline. But then I stepped down as presbyter in the fall of 2015 and stepped away from pastoring in January of 2016. And in March of 2016, Stephen called and said, Dad, I wanted to let you know we're going to be going to Kewaunee to become the new pastor there. And I thought, aha, there's a younger guy with a lot of vision and the Lord is doing great things. And so, amen. A couple of things here, as Stephen mentioned, my latest book, Israel, Globalism and the Second Coming of Christ is available there. It goes into great depth on the subject matters you're going to be talking about all month. And my book before that, Rapture First, Rapture Later and Why It Matters, also covers end times issues. This is more like a study of biblical eschatology. This is more looking at what's going on in the world and how it fits with what the Bible says about the end times. Before I get into this message, I wanted to just say, you sang what is my current favorite song today, Same God, and his singing about God's faithfulness. Oh God, oh God, I need you. I love the directness of it. We just need God, don't we? And we're leaning upon his faithfulness. And I just experienced that again this weekend. And so there's a now version of this, but I'm going to start about eight years ago. Eight years ago, we did a truth conference in Peoria, Illinois. And I was just transitioning out of pastoring and kind of knowing my whole future was about traveling and speaking and apologetic issues. And it became clear to me as we approached this conference that these conferences were part of my future as well. And we had 800 people registered 10 days out before the conference. I had to call the radio stations in Peoria and say, stop advertising. We can't fit any more people in that church. I mean, 800 was, I mean, finding every inch you could put a chair. I mean, that was going to squeeze them in there. And we had committed to thousands and thousands of dollars to bring Josh McDowell and many other apologetic speakers from around the nation to this conference. So we had a lot invested in it. And on the beginning of that week, they started announcing, hey, there's a snowstorm coming. It was in November, before Thanksgiving, the beginning of November. But there's a snowstorm coming. I thought, ah, yeah, they'll change that by the middle of the week. That ain't going to happen in the of November. By the middle of the week, they were saying, this snowstorm we were talking about may be even worse than we thought. I thought, ah, they're going to change that. You know how the weather is. They always make a big deal out of stuff, and then they start backing away from it. By Friday, it started snowing, and they said, it's even going to be worse than we thought it was going to be. And the worst snowstorm to ever hit Illinois prior to Thanksgiving hit Friday night, or Friday afternoon started, went all through the night into Saturday morning. It was like blizzard-like conditions, snow and ice, the type that you just don't even get out of your house unless you have to. And by Friday night, I'm thinking, God, I don't understand this. My whole future is kind of wrapped up, and we've got thousands of dollars committed, and there was no pre-registration cost. It was free. So, the 800 people that had signed up, and then we shut down the registration. Hundreds more would have signed up, but we didn't let them because we were packed. Now, they have no financial reason to come to this conference, and they're going to have to drive through blizzard-like conditions. I said, God, I don't understand it. And we've got thousands of dollars on the line, but we've moved on. And by Friday night, I prayed through it. I felt a peace from God. It's in God's hands. It's His conference, not mine. We showed up Saturday morning in the middle of that snowstorm to that church, and 550 people came and pretty much comfortably filled that church. Some of them drove from Wisconsin to Peoria. It's like mind-boggling. We paid every bill. There was a buzz there. People were excited, and it was a great conference. And I just had to stand back and say, God, you are amazing. Yesterday we had another conference. It was a new conference we've started called Unshakable Faith Conference. We had a speaker from Florida, a speaker from San Diego, California coming, and I was going to speak and a couple other local people. And we had two food trucks coming. Friday morning, I got a call. One of the food trucks, the taco truck, the guy said, my mom is in bad health. I'm in Mexico. Well, I'm on my way driving back, but I'm not going to be able to be there. I'm so sorry. It's Friday afternoon. I get a text from the speaker in San Diego, California, saying, my flight has got canceled. I'm not going to be able to be there tomorrow. I don't know what to say, but I'm so sorry. The speaker from Pensacola, Florida, on his way up, his car broke down. He texted me and said, my car's broke down. He said, I think I've got it fixed, but I'm going to be late, and I've got a sinus infection. My wife and I are both struggling with our sinuses. Man, we are, pray for us, we're like sick. My sinus has started acting up Friday, and I'm popping all kinds of echinacea and vitamin C and trying to ward this off. God, what is going on here? Well, on Friday, the taco guy called me back like two hours later and said, I've got another taco truck that's going to come. We were able to, the speaker from San Diego, two of his breakout sessions, we had videos of him speaking at other places, we were able to put them in, and his main session happened to be one I do all the time on the evidence of the Bible, so I was able to fill in for him. 250 people showed up yesterday, comfortably filling the sanctuary there at New Life, and there was a buzz throughout the day. Even at the end of the day, almost the whole crowd stayed all day long, and we had a wonderful conference. Eric said he woke up Saturday morning and said, man, I feel way better than I did when I went to bed last night. God showed up again. And I want to just say this to you, we don't experience the faithfulness of God like we kind of think, well, that was back then. People really experienced that. But you know why we don't experience it a lot? Because we don't have much need. Everything's covered. We've got all of our car insurance, our house insurance, our life insurance, our health insurance, our 401K. We've got everything kind of covered, and so we don't need to experience the breakthrough faithfulness of God. But when we do, He's there today, just like He was a long time ago. And these messages this month are going to be about the end times, and we're already... I know you're sensing it, too. If you study it, you're sensing it a lot, that we need the faithfulness of God, because the world is a mess, and it's moving in the wrong direction. And the Bible prophesied a lot of this stuff is going to happen in the end times. But you know what is true? God is faithful. He is the same God that He was back then. He's the same God today. And so as you go through these messages this month, and that was just on my heart as we were singing that, that I just yesterday again experienced it. God, You came through. Why was I worried at all? I know You're faithful. You've proven it to me. So I got saved when I was seven. So I'm about almost 60 years into this thing called Christianity, and I've experienced He is faithful. He'll never leave us nor forsake us. And so it really fits with everything, the subject matter of this whole month. OK, are you ready to buckle up and move into this? We're going to go fast, so I encourage you don't try to take notes. If you want to take notes, just listen afterward. I've got it on my website, localchurchapologetics.org, and you can listen to this message again and take notes and slow it down, because you're going to get frustrated if you try to take notes today. All right, because we're going to go really fast, OK? Israel, God's time place. In this message, we're going to be looking at the fact that the Bible is God's word, that prophecies of the Bible from 2,500 years ago are all coming to pass today about Israel. God's redemptive plans are sure. If they were sure for Israel, they're sure for you and I as well. God is powerful and faithful. That's what I talked to you about. We're going to see that through this message. And Jesus is coming. Say this with me. Jesus is coming again. Amen. Israel is God's time piece that reminds us that we're in the last days when we look at what's happened in Israel. Israel is God's chosen people, Isaiah 43, but now thus says the Lord, Your Creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel, do not fear for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. And then he says in Deuteronomy 14, 2, For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. God has some powerful things to say about the people of Israel. It goes back a lot to a covenant relationship established between God and Abraham. God had given him a covenant child, a child of promise, Isaac, born when Abraham was a hundred. And then we don't know exactly how old Isaac was, but we know that God said to Abraham one day, I want you to sacrifice him to me. Can you imagine what that was like? He said, take him to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him. There is a burnt offering on a mountain. I will show you. So he says, I'm going to tell you now the region, the region of Moriah, the hills around Jerusalem. And when you get there, I'll show you the specific spot. We don't, I can't prove this to you, but I'm pretty sure I know this specific spot that he showed him when he got there. Because after this, this whole event, which you know, as he raises the knife, the angel of God stops him and says, and there's a ram in the thicket that he sacrifices in his place. And he says, now I know you were willing to give your son. And God made a promise to him there on that spot that he made a covenant relationship with him. And there was a promise made that God would provide there. And Abraham says this of that Abraham called the name of that place. The Lord will provide as it is said to this day in the Mount of the Lord, it will be provided. I'm convinced that when he got to the region of Moriah and God shows it's that hill right over there, that's the one. And Isaac took the wood upon him. The son took the wood upon him and walked up that hill to be sacrificed. And it was a picture of the son of God who would take the wood of the cross and walk up that same hill and that same very place. And God would sacrifice his son for the sins of the world because he found a man willing to give his son to God on that same spot. Hundreds of years earlier, God made a covenant relationship with us. And it was through Abraham and his offspring that God was going to impact the entire world and give everything he had for each of us. In your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. And Galatians says to your seed, that is to Christ, that God had said in that moment, it's through your seed, Abraham, Jesus, the son of God will come through the line of the Jews and he will be sacrificed for the sins of the world and all the nations will be blessed because of it. In addition to that, we see this fulfilled in Revelation at the end of the Bible. When speaking of Jesus in heaven now in a heavenly vision, it says, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David has overcome so as to open the book and its seal. So the Messiah is from the tribe of Judah. He's the root of David. It's through the Jews that God would provide salvation for the world. He also said something else about the Jewish people. This promise is made to Abraham, I will make you into a great nation and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. And then he says in chapter 22, and through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed. And then he says it to Isaac, his son, later in chapter 26, and through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed. And then to his son, Jacob, who is also called Israel, in chapter 28, he says all peoples on earth will be blessed through you and through your offspring. Now, part of the fulfillment of that is through the person of Jesus, as we've already seen. But it appears that there's also an indication that through the Jewish people, the world will be blessed beyond just giving us Jesus, which is the greatest blessing. But when you look at these prophecies and you look at the world today, it's interesting. There's something called the Nobel Prize. You've heard of that, right? As of...well, the motto for the Nobel Prize is for the greatest benefit to mankind. So these are people who blessed the nations. As of 2017, Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 892 individuals, of whom 201 of them, or 22.5% of them, were Jews. Although the total Jewish population comprises less than 0.2% of the world's population, this means the percentage of Jewish Nobel laureates is at least 112.5 times, or 11,250% above average. They blessed the nations. As a matter of fact, this little country that's only 70 years old is one of the leading countries in all the world to bring medical breakthroughs, scientific breakthroughs, agricultural breakthroughs, technological breakthroughs, and security and defense breakthroughs that are used all around the world, come from Israel. Here's just a few examples. They're number one in the world in expenditures for human research and development in medicine. Number one per capita in the world for medical device patents. They are establishing 60 to 70 health care companies each year. They developed things like this. Flash drives were developed originally in 2000 in Israel. Cell phones, the technology was originally developed in Israel. Drip irrigation systems, now used in 110 nations around the world, was developed in Israel. And desalinization, they take salt water from the Mediterranean Sea, and within 90 minutes it comes out your faucet as fresh water, drinkable fresh water through this technology that they've developed that is now being transferred to other nations around the world. Israel is blessing the nations, just as God said He would. And He said, I will bless those who bless you, I will curse, and the one who curses you, I will curse. We need to be people that bless Israel. I met somebody yesterday who indicated to me they didn't think very much at all about Israel. I spoke on a subject that touched on this, and they indicated they didn't agree at all that Jews going back to Israel was a good thing. They bought into that whole line that many people in America buy in, that Israel is the big bully of the Middle East, and Israel has no right to be there. But the Bible warned us, if you bless Israel, I'll bless you. But if you curse Israel, you bring a curse upon yourself. And there's a neat study that's been done of key moments when America tried to force Israel to give up land. Things like Hurricane Katrina came at specific moments, I mean within days of every time we tried to make Israel force them to give up land. Israel, God's time piece. So let's look at Israel and the return of Jesus Christ. There are prophecies in the Bible that indicated in the latter days what we should look for of a key indicator that we were moving toward the end times is the return of the Jews to Israel. And this is just amazing, too, of just confirming the Bible as God's Word, because think about it. Twenty-five hundred years ago, many of the prophets wrote in the Bible prophecies that God would not only scatter all the Jewish people to the nations of the world, which happened in the first century A.D. But that's not the profound part, because that could happen. You could prophesy that and say, well, someday these people are going to be scattered and you might have a fairly good chance that that might happen sometime in history. But more importantly, they prophesied, but God's going to bring them back. That's never happened to any people group in the history of the world, except in fulfillment of Bible prophecies. And he indicated it would happen in the latter days. He said things like this, for I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land. Then it will happen on that day the Lord will again recover the second time with his hand the remnant of his people and assemble the banished ones of Israel and will gather to the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. I will bring my people Israel back from exile. They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine. They will make gardens and eat their fruit. Ezekiel 38 indicates this would happen in the latter days. So if we were talking about these prophecies 125 years ago, we'd be scratching our head as Christians and saying, I don't get it God. Why did you say those kind of things in your Word? Because it doesn't look like that's possible. Because the Ottoman Empire, a Muslim empire, had ruled over ancient Israel for 400 years and over Jerusalem. And they certainly didn't want Jewish people moving there. It didn't look like there was any way this could possibly happen. But, here's Ezekiel 38, in the latter years these things would happen. But then in the late 1800s, this guy named Theodor Herzl, a Jewish guy, began to get a dream. It ended up being called Zionism. He began to dream, what if we went back and tried to establish a homeland again in ancient Israel, rather than just be scattered around the world. They had a Zionist conference in Europe in the late 1800s, in the 1890s. And a few people caught the vision to the point, through all the hardships and troubles, they actually moved to Israel. Not many, but a few Jews did. And something kind of had the seeds of a new beginning of something happening. Not much happened, though, until World War I. In World War I, the British armies overtook, overpowered the Ottoman Empire and took over ancient Israel and Jerusalem. This is a picture of General Allenby, out of respect for the holiness of the city. He would not ride into the city. He walked into the city December 11, 1917. And in that same year, in November of that year, the British government, in the process of all of this, makes this statement, the Balfour Declaration, His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object. Whoa, now we've got something going. Britain, which was one of the major powers of the world at that time, just takes over that land and that ancient city. And they're saying, we're going to help make this happen. We are committed to helping make a homeland for the Jewish people. And Jewish people started thinking, hey, maybe this could happen. After World War I, the League of Nations got together on July 24, 1922. Fifty-one nations agreed to this mandate. And if you'll notice, not only did they say, as we see today, that part of ancient Israel would belong to the Jews, they gave it all to them. And they gave all of this to the Arab people that lived in that region, a much bigger area. But all of ancient Israel was given officially by the nations of the world to Israel. In 1922, lots of Jews started coming back. Fast forward to World War II, the Holocaust took place. Six million Jews were slaughtered. But that also was a signal to Jewish people around the world, you're really not safe. You could turn on you pretty quick. And they began to feel like, maybe we're better off. We need to be a part of this going back and trying to reestablish a country and a nation. Also after World War II, the newly formed United Nations passed Resolution 181. Now, they took part of the land back away from them. But they did acknowledge part of the land. They said again, officially, we've given this to the Jewish people as a Jewish state. November 1947, and then the miracle of modern day history takes place on May 14, 1948. Isaiah 66, 8 said, Can a land be born in a day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once as soon as Zion prevailed? She also brought forth her sons and said, In a day this nation will be formed. The British mandate of the British soldiers who were there to keep like a peace keeping force, they had scheduled to end it at midnight on May 14, 1948. So that afternoon, in anticipation of that, the Jewish leaders got together and proclaimed the State of Israel a new nation. And within 11 minutes of that proclamation, the American president at that time sent a memo acknowledging Israel as a new nation of the world and congratulating them. And other nation, national leaders around the world did the same. In a day, a nation was born. Just like the Bible said. We fast forward to the late 1980s. Some of you are old enough, you can remember this and help me with this. President Reagan said in front of the whole world, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall. And he did. I remember watching with others around the world in fascination at people over there like a big party. They were celebrating. They had pickaxes and they had sledgehammers and they were knocking down hunks of concrete and knocking down that wall that had existed for so long. And this iron curtain that allowed nobody to go in and out without special permission that kept people that lived there from moving anywhere else in the world was suddenly taken away. What the world didn't know when they were watching all of this was what was really going on was the God of heaven who had prophesied in His Word 2,500 years ago that these Jews would go back to Israel. God was fulfilling His Word because in the next five years or so, hundreds of thousands of Jews who were stuck behind the iron curtain now moved to Israel and became a part of the new nation that was being established. It's continued even since then. Think about this. There were Ethiopian Jews, thousands of them wanted to go back and make Israel their home, but they had no way of getting there. So in an emergency situation, the Israeli military came up with Operation Solomon. They took 747 jets and they stripped them of all the seats so that they could jam as many people in there as they possibly could. You can look it up in the Guinness Book of World Records that as part of Operation Solomon, one flight had 1,088 people on it. They jammed them in there. Babies were born on the flight. They were so desperate to get to Israel, and in 36 hours, 14,325 Ethiopian Jews were transported back to Israel to make it their home. God is fulfilling His Word in our lifetime. We're watching a miracle that's taking place and it's continuing to happen. In 2021, this article said see, 2021 sees 30% global surge in Aliyah. That means to ascend, the people coming from other nations back into Israel. It's still happening every year. As a matter of fact, this is the summary of everything I just shared with you. In 1920, 5.4% of all the Jews in the world lived in Israel. A hundred years later, 47% of all the Jews in the world now live in Israel. Look at that. You have watched a miracle. It's taking place and continuing every year, and it's an indicator that we're in the last days, the latter years, and Jesus is coming soon. God had given them this land, He said to Abraham, for an everlasting possession. I take obsession...I can't think of the word now. This is where you get it from. I'm in objection to those who, and that's still not the right word, but those who say that land doesn't belong to Israel. God gave it to them, and then the nations of the world acknowledged that in 1921 and gave it to them, and it belongs to the Jewish people. God said in His Word, in the prophecies, not only are the people coming back, but the land's going to blossom. I'll multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field. The desolate land will be cultivated. Instead of being a desolation, they will say, this desolate land has become like a Garden of Eden, and the waste, desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited. What a prophecy. Well, in 1867, Mark Twain went to that part of the world and he wrote in his book, Innocence Abroad, this description of ancient Israel. He said, it is a hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land, a silent, mournful expanse. But since then, more than 400 million trees have been planted. Rains have returned to the region. World-class irrigation systems have been put in place. It's now a fruit-exporting nation, and it's a leader in technology with Tel Aviv being the second leading place in the entire world for technology behind the Silicon Valley. It's blossomed. How does the Bible say these things 2,500 years in advance? It's because it's the Word of God who knows the end from the beginning. They're also now...the land is blossoming in this way. They've learned to recycle 80% of their waste water. The second-place nation in this category is Spain at 10%. It's why Israel is the only nation in the world where the desert is shrinking. They've also now learned to process salt water into drinking water. I have a friend who lives in Israel and does documentary movies, and he was working on the documentary probably 15 years ago. They had a big problem with water in Israel because that little Galilean Sea where it was not very big and the population was growing, they don't have a water problem anymore because technology fixed it. They can take salt water and have it coming out of your faucet in 90 minutes. They do this process. They've also discovered now, just in recent years, enormous amounts of natural gas deposits right off the coast. Tamar oil field or gas field contains 9.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The Leviathan, 17 to 20 trillion cubic feet. They have went overnight, almost overnight, from being an energy-dependent country to now they're exporting energy to other nations of the world. It's amazing what's happening, awe and fulfillment of God's Word. Then he said something about the city of Jerusalem in particular regarding the last days. Behold, I'm going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around. It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples and all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it. That's going to happen in the last days. It hasn't happened yet that all the nations of the earth will be gathered against Jerusalem. But think about the world today. Is there any question what the most contentious real estate in the world is? There is no question if you research this at all. It's the city of Jerusalem. And the world's watching continually. It's getting more all the time. In May of 2018, the United States moved our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, acknowledging it as the capital of Israel. And the whole world, some were applauding and cheering and a few other nations followed suit and others were really mad over this. This is the Palestinian flag that flies in front of the United Nations building since 2015 in New York. And the Palestinians have been pushing the United States to acknowledge their statehood and they've said, when we get statehood, Jerusalem will be our capital. And the Jewish leaders have said that's not going to happen. And the whole world's watching and looking on and condemning Israel over and over and over again. They get condemned more than any other nation by the United Nations. It's because of things like this. Here's another indicator. In 2012, May of 2012, during the Arab Spring, there's a revolution taking place in Egypt. They're about to elect a new president, Mohammed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood. And they have a big political rally in Cairo that night. A massive crowd shows up outside and the main speaker was Safwat Hegazi, an Islamic cleric. And in his speech that night, he made this statement. We see how the dream of the Islamic caliphate that's like a world empire is being realized. Our capital shall not be Cairo or Mecca or Medina. It shall be Jerusalem. Yes, Jerusalem is our goal. We shall pray in Jerusalem or we shall die as martyrs on its threshold. And then he led that massive crowd in a chant and they chanted over and over again, millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem. Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the focus of the world. And the day will come that this will lead to the nations of the world, the armies gathering around Jerusalem. This contention is not going away. And the Bible told us about it 2,500 years ago. Preparations for the building of the new temple in Jerusalem are very much underway. And the Bible indicates in different places that there will be a temple because the Antichrist will set himself up as God in the temple in the last days. So there's a temple institute museum where they've already prepared over 60 vessels for use in the new temple, prepared specifically according to biblical instruction, ready to be used. It's already done. There's also talk that they've got all the stones cut and in storage. I don't know for sure if that's true or not. It's harder to get information on that. But there is reports that all the stones to build the temple are already done, ready cut and in place, just being reserved. They could do it really quickly. But in Numbers 19, there's this formula for cleansing in the temple that included the ashes of a pure red heifer. And it's been almost 2,000 years since they found a pure red heifer. But now in Israel for the first time, there's a group of young red heifers. They're just waiting for the proper time. They believe they've identified some pure red heifers, but they have to stay that way for two years, I think. It looks like for the first time in 2,000 years, red heifers are now available that would fit the bill for this. And then they've identified the Y chromosome of Aaron. So they can identify men around the world who are descendants of Aaron, who are eligible for the priesthood. And this has so moved some men from different parts of the world that they have moved to Israel to train for the priesthood because they realize they're a descendant of Aaron and God is stirring their heart to become priests in the new temple. All of that's happening today. And the Bible says Israel is the indicator. I catch this. I'm going to go real quickly over this, but this kind of summarizes all of this. Jesus said He's talking about His coming again. And He says, So you too, when you see all these things, recognize He is near right at the door. He says, Behold, the fig tree, when its leaves come forth, you know that summer is near. And many believe that this parable that He told, that the fig tree represented the nation of Israel, and I've done some background study, I believe that there's valid reason to believe that. So May 14, 1948, the fig tree blossomed. And we've seen it happen. And so He's saying, When you see this happening, you know the end is near. But in Luke's version, He said something interesting. Behold, He told them a parable. Behold, the fig tree and all the trees, as soon as they put forth their leaves, you see that it is, see it and know for yourself that summer is now near. So you yourself also, when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near. I wondered a few years ago, I thought, Well, why did He say all the trees, not just the fig tree? If the fig tree is Israel, I would think that all the trees would be all the nations of the world. And so I did a little study and I thought, Well, did anything happen right around 1948 among all the nations that would be significant toward the end times? And even what would that look like? It would be, it would be something to do with the development of a new world order, a global government, because that's a prophecy of Scripture of the end times. And so I thought, Did anything happen right around 1948 of all the nations moving the seeds being planted to move toward a global government? Amazing what happened. The United Nations was formed October 24, 1945. The European Union, a major player toward globalism, began as the European Movement on October 25, 1948. The World Council of Churches Promoting a World Religion was founded August 23, 1948. The World Trade Organization began January 1, 1948. The World Federalist Movement, or Institute for Global Policy, began August 1947. The first computer program, the software program, first time was used, started on June 21, 1948, and the computer age began. Now, earthquakes didn't start in 1948, but the organization that tracks them and gives us understanding of where they're happening was founded in 1948. Abortion laws, protecting abortion, began with the Eugenics Protection Law in Japan in 1948. Cable television first became available in the United States in 1948. The Big Bang Theory, promoting evolution rather than creation, was published in April of 1948. Release time for religious education was for the first time declared unconstitutional in March of 1948. The World Health Organization, anybody ever heard of that? Was founded April 7, 1948. The World Court, or International Court of Justice, began June 26, 1945. And the World Bank began operations in June of 1946. It's like a switch was turned between 1945 and 1948. The fig tree blossom and all the trees began this movement for what we see developing very rapidly now of the movement toward a global system, the New World Order that fit with what God said in Daniel 2, in the days of those kings, this new global alliance, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. Jesus will come again in those days. Israel, the fig tree has blossomed. All the trees begin to put forth their leaves of moving toward this global system, and we know the second coming of Jesus is soon. This movement toward globalism, the Great Reset that became public in 2020, promoted by the World Economic Forum and the United Nations, using the global pandemic as a tool to bring globalism in. They've said so themselves. The head of the United Nations said global or COVID-19 is a human tragedy, but it's also created a generational opportunity, an opportunity to build back a more equal and sustainable world based on a new social contract and a new global deal. The head of the World Economic Forum said the pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world. And he wrote a book on it called COVID-19, The Great Reset. We are in the midst of a rapid movement toward a global system. Israel is at the heart of all of this. Right at the time, God has been using them as a timepiece to show us that the end is near and all the nations are following suit. We are nearing the time that Jesus Christ is coming soon. And I want to close by just saying this. I haven't talked about it. I have a whole another message where I talk more in detail about what this whole global thing means. And they're calling for things like sustainable development, which they say in their writings your middle-class lifestyle is unsustainable. Owning your own home, owning your own car, having appliances and air conditioners, those kind of things, they say that's unsustainable. I just found new information in the last few days, articles that say we need to get the carbon emission per person around the world down to about 2 to 2.5, whatever it is, tons per year per person. We've got to get it in that range. And they say Americans on average are producing 17.6 tons of carbon per year. So they want to alter our lifestyles to go from 17.6 tons to 2 tons by 2030. And they predict that people will own nothing by 2030. There are scary stuff involved, but I want you to know this. We started here. It felt like the Holy Spirit spoke to me during your worship time this morning, our worship time this morning, to talk about the faithfulness of God. He is the same God. When you read that Old Testament and you read all the miracles that God did, He's the same God today. And if it gets tough before Jesus comes, we're fine, because He will never leave us nor forsake us. And when we need a miracle, He'll be there. Father, I thank You in the name of Jesus for the power of Your Word that gives...we can interpret and understand the world today based on what Your Word says. Okay, that's why that's happening. That's where that's heading, because You prophesied these things over 2,000 years ago. Help us to be a people who cling to You during these times and continue to trust You. And in excitement of the second coming of Jesus, are anticipating that return of our Savior to establish a kingdom of peace and righteousness. And until that day, let us be faithful to cling to Your heart of wanting the lost to be saved, continuing to reach out to people with the message of the hope of Jesus Christ. I thank You for it. In Jesus' name, amen. With your heads bowed and eyes closed, is there anybody here who says, Pastor Rick, I don't know Jesus as my Savior. Man, I can see I need to get right with God because we're moving toward the end real rapidly. If that's you, would you just slip up your hand? Today's my day. I'm going to open up my heart to Jesus and invite Him into my life. Amen, amen, amen. I see a number of hands. Thank you. Yes. Would you just pray this prayer with me? Everybody pray it, but especially those of you that raised your hand. But let's all pray it together. It won't hurt to confirm these things. And some of you that raised your hand, it may be a kind of a reestablishing of your faith anyway. So pray this with me. Dear Heavenly Father, I come to You in Jesus' name. I acknowledge that I have sinned and I need forgiveness. I believe Jesus died for me on the cross and paid the price for my sin. And He rose again from the dead. Forgive me, Jesus, of all my sin. Give me the gift of eternal life. I confess with my mouth, You are Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.