Six flagged items. Anti-Muslim eschatology inverts Jesus's pattern with religious outsiders (Luke 9:55; Luke 10:33). Matthew 25 — Jesus's own answer to the sermon's own question — is not referenced once.
Identifiable Biases / Harmful Rhetoric
Severe anti-Muslim eschatology
A 5-minute structured argument identifying Islam as the religion of the Antichrist, preached to ~53,000 weekly attendees. Plus three Christian nationalism markers (national identity, political opponents as spiritual enemies, persecution jeremiad).
Factual Claims & Evidence Check
Poor evidence hygiene
Of 4 fact-checked claims, 0 are fully supported. One is contested under the pastor's implied methodology, one is partially supported but overstated, one is misleading (conflates affiliation with tolerance), and one is unsupported (political voting warning with no specified referent). No claim was delivered with a cited source.
Whole-Bible Engagement
Selective; minority readings favored
On the sermon's most significant themes — enemies, political engagement, national identity, persecution, end-times sign-reading — the pastor consistently draws from minority biblical voices while omitting the dominant canonical counter-witness. Jesus's Gospel position and the wider Bible converge *against* the pastor's framing on all five themes analyzed.
Summary
Howerton frames history as three ages (Judaism → Time of the Gentiles → Return of Christ), argues the first age ended with the 70 AD destruction of the Temple, and spends the back half of the sermon walking through four "signs" from Matthew 24 — culminating in a 5-minute argument identifying Islam, and specifically the Mahdi of Islamic eschatology, as the biblical Antichrist. The sermon closes with an altar-style call to enroll in Lakepointe's 10-week "Rooted" discipleship program.
Timeline
Each marker = a flagged finding. Click to jump to the finding; hover for the title. Color indicates severity.
00:00:0000:57:00
Findings (7)
severeAxis 1(entire sermon)Headline
Matthew 25 is absent from a sermon about Jesus's return
Why flagged: The sermon is explicitly about ‘when will Jesus return and what will he do then.’ Jesus's own answer to that question — at length, in his own voice — is Matthew 25. The criterion he names is concrete care for the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, and imprisoned. A sermon that addresses the stated topic for 57 minutes without engaging this passage has omitted Jesus's central answer to its own question.
Pastor
[absent] — In a 57-minute sermon titled ‘When Will Jesus Return? 4 Predictions About the End Times,’ Matthew 25:31–46 — Jesus's own most extended description of what he will do when he returns — is never referenced.
Jesus
Matt 25:31–46
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats… Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’… ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Islam identified as the religion of the Antichrist
Why flagged: Every recorded interaction Jesus has with a contemporary religious-outsider group in the Gospels runs in the opposite direction of this move. The most direct parallel — the disciples proposing to target an outgroup (Samaritans) for eschatological judgment — ends with Jesus rebuking them by name. Identifying a specific living religion (~1.8B people) as the religion of the Antichrist, with the confidence of exegesis, is the theological inverse of what Jesus modeled and taught. Secondary factual issue: the Quran does contain the phrase darb al-riqab (‘strike necks,’ Sūra 8:12, 47:4), but characterizing an entire 1,400-year tradition by a single militarily-contextual phrase would be indefensible if made of Christianity using e.g. Luke 19:27 or the imprecatory Psalms.
Pastor
The final boss is not going to be in the end, it's not going to be secularism. It will… be another religion that in that religion, they will kill Christians… There is only one world religion whose religion specifically prescribes beheading as the way to quote kill infidels. The Quran specifically calls it striking necks… The Islamic Mahdi is the biblical Antichrist.
Luke 9:52–55 (when the disciples proposed identifying a religious outgroup for divine judgment)
And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him… And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’ But he turned and rebuked them.
Luke 10:33–37 (the Good Samaritan)
But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion… ‘Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You go, and do likewise.’
John 4:7–9 (engaging a religious outsider)
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’… (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
Matt 5:44–45
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Matt 7:1–2
Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
Severity weighting
Reach: ~53,000 weekly in-person attendees across six campuses; top-charting podcast on Apple & Spotify; YouTube distribution
Specificity: Not hedged as speculation — ‘The Islamic Mahdi is the biblical Antichrist’ asserted directly
Provenance: Draws on Joel Richardson's The Islamic Antichrist (2009), a contested position even within conservative evangelical eschatology
Speaker's own signal: ‘If you think I'm nuts, test me against scripture’ — explicit acknowledgment the claim is contested, made with confidence anyway
American birth framed as providential spiritual inheritance
Why flagged: Jesus systematically decoupled God's favor from national birth — repeatedly commending non-Israelite faith specifically to shame any assumption of national spiritual inheritance. Framing American birth as an ‘undeserved grace from heaven’ and a ‘spiritual inheritance’ is precisely the assumption Jesus's teaching dismantles.
Pastor
You need to bless God and thank him every day that you were born in the United States of America. You need to bless God for that because… you have been the recipient of an undeserved grace from heaven handed down to you. That's a spiritual inheritance hard-earned that people in other countries are not experiencing and have not experienced for centuries.
Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah… and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.
Matt 8:10–12
Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.
John 4:21–23
The hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father… the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
Why flagged: When directly presented with opportunities to align his followers with a political program — even a sympathetic one — Jesus deflected, withdrew, or explicitly disclaimed it. Directing congregational voting behavior is a move Jesus specifically refused.
Pastor
You be careful how you vote. Some of you are voting for things for movements that when they get in power, they consistently when they get in power criminalize aspects of faithful Christianity.
Why flagged: Jesus predicts persecution too — this isn't the disagreement. The disagreement is what persecution authorizes. Jesus's response in the red letters: rejoice, love, pray for, forgive. Howerton's response: direct political action against those framed as the source of it. The predicted condition is the same; the imperative is the opposite.
Pastor
Tolerance for Christianity is decreasing… there have been more martyrs for the Christian faith in the last one century in the world than in every previous century of church history combined… You be careful how you vote. Some of you are voting for things for movements that when they get in power, they consistently… criminalize aspects of faithful Christianity.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.
Matt 5:44
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Luke 23:34 (from the cross)
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
Tension: crowd celebration after acknowledging the tension
Why flagged: Howerton names the tension explicitly — credit to him — but the sermon's pastoral rhetoric is structured around numerical celebration. Jesus, presented with the same choice (hard saying vs. keeping the crowd), consistently chose the hard saying and watched the crowd thin. Tension, not contradiction, but directional.
Pastor
53,000 people into our campuses last week… 22,772 people cross a line of faith… Jesus did not say go into all the world and make big crowds. He said go into all the world and make disciples. [then continues celebrating the numbers]
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
John 6:60–66
When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’… After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
Luke 14:25–27
Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother… and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.’
Why flagged: The joke uses victims of terrorism (and the category “terrorist”) as a punchline. Jesus's red-letter speech ethics are exacting — careless words are judged; contemptuous speech is penalized; enemies (and therefore their victims) are to be loved and prayed for.
Pastor
Do you guys know how you can tell the difference between a redhead and a terrorist? You can negotiate with a terrorist… It's a joke. That's a joke.
I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.
Matt 5:22
Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
Matt 5:44
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Whole-Bible Engagement (5)
For each major framing in the sermon, the pastor's claim is placed side-by-side with what Jesus said in the Gospels and what the wider Bible says (OT + NT non-Gospel). Surfaces cherry-picking, omitted counter-voices, and places where the canon itself contains tension the pastor did not acknowledge.
Ezekiel 38 as modern Russia/Iran invasion of Israel
Topic: How God's people should relate to foreign peoples and religions
Why flagged: The dominant canonical witness on how God relates to foreign religious outsiders runs opposite to the framing the pastor chose. A single apocalyptic passage, read through a 20th-century dispensationalist lens, is selected to speak for the whole Bible. The counter-voices (Jonah entire; Ezek 33:11 from the same prophet; Isa 19; Jesus's own rebuke of disciples wanting fire from heaven on a religious outgroup) are not engaged.
Canonical analysis
Jesus and the wider biblical witness converge on a single point: God's posture toward foreign religious outsiders is mercy, reconciliation, and surprise inclusion — not eschatological destruction. Jesus's own scriptural grounding is striking: in Luke 4 he opens his public ministry by citing *two OT stories of God's favor falling on foreigners* (the Sidonian widow, Naaman the Syrian). In Matt 12:39–41 he holds up the foreign enemy city of Nineveh as morally superior to his own generation — invoking Jonah directly. His summary of the second great commandment is Lev 19:18, which sits in a chapter that also commands loving the foreigner (Lev 19:33–34). Paired with the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan woman, his rebuke of disciples who wanted to destroy a religious outgroup, Jonah's entire argument, Ezekiel's own prior chapter denying pleasure in the wicked's death, and Isaiah 19's startling blessing of Egypt and Assyria, the canonical picture is clear. Howerton draws on none of this, selecting instead the single most militant apocalyptic passage (Ezek 38) layered with a dispensationalist geographic identification (Hal Lindsey, 1970) that Ezekiel scholars (Block, Zimmerli) reject. The ‘Rosh = Russia’ link is phonetic, not textual. The nations listed weren't Islamic until 1,200 years after the text. This is cherry-picking on a significant scale — selecting one minority apocalyptic voice while ignoring the dominant witness including Jesus's own deliberate OT citations.
Pastor
If you go later homework, read Ezekiel 38… It describes a group of nations aligning against Israel to attack Israel… Here are the nations that Ezekiel 38 describes… Russia, Turkey, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Turkey, and Turkey… every single one of those nations except one is an Islamic nation. The only one that's not is Russia. And guess what? The fastest growing religion in Russia? Islam.
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good.
Luke 9:52–55 (disciples propose destroying a religious-outsider village)
‘Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’ But he turned and rebuked them.
Luke 10:33–37 (Good Samaritan)
But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion… ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You go, and do likewise.’
John 4:7–10 (Samaritan woman)
Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’… (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
Matt 12:39–41 (Jesus holds up a foreign enemy city as morally superior to his own generation)
An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah… The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
Luke 4:25–27 (Jesus's first recorded sermon — citing 1 Kings 17 and 2 Kings 5 to emphasize God's mercy to foreigners)
There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah… and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.
Lev 19:18 — cited by Jesus in Matt 22:39, Mark 12:31, Luke 10:27 as the second great commandment
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Wider Bible (OT & NT non-Gospel)
Jonah 3:10–4:11 (the entire book is about this question)
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry… ‘Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left?’
Ezek 33:11 (spoken by the same prophet as Ezek 38)
As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.
Isa 19:24–25 (on Egypt and Assyria — Israel's paradigmatic foreign enemies)
In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, ‘Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.’
Lev 19:33–34 (in the same chapter as the neighbor-love command Jesus cited)
When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Why flagged: Both testaments contain extensive counter-voices to the framing the pastor adopted. Jesus specifically preached against it in his first recorded sermon in Luke. The wider canon (Amos, Jonah, Ruth, Gal, Eph, Rev) converges against any modern national application.
Canonical analysis
The Hebrew Bible does contain national-chosenness language (Deut 7:6). But the prophetic voice *within* the OT directly qualifies it: Amos tells Israel that God's bringing-them-out-of-Egypt is not unique to them. Jonah and Ruth are canonical arguments against tribal exclusivism. And the NT *unilaterally* dismantles national-spiritual hierarchy — Galatians, Ephesians, Revelation 7. Jesus amplifies the minority OT voice: his synagogue sermon in Luke 4 deliberately cites Elijah-to-Sidonians and Elisha-to-Naaman — that's the sermon that got him chased out of town and nearly thrown off a cliff. Pure chosen-nation logic applied to any modern state does not have significant support in either testament. Howerton asserts it as obvious.
Pastor
You need to bless God and thank him every day that you were born in the United States of America… you have been the recipient of an undeserved grace from heaven handed down to you. That's a spiritual inheritance hard-earned that people in other countries are not experiencing and have not experienced for centuries.
Luke 4:24–27 (Jesus's first recorded sermon — directly citing 1 Kings 17 and 2 Kings 5)
Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown… there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah… and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.
Matt 8:10–12 (after the Roman centurion's faith — echoing Isa 25:6, 49:12)
Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith… many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.
Matt 12:41 (on Nineveh — a foreign enemy city)
The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
John 4:21–23 (to the Samaritan woman)
The hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father… the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
Isa 56:6–7 — cited by Jesus in Matt 21:13, Mark 11:17 when cleansing the Temple
For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
Wider Bible (OT & NT non-Gospel)
Amos 9:7 (the prophet to Israel)
Are you not like the Cushites to me, O people of Israel? declares the Lord. Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir?
Jonah (entire book)
[Yahweh sends an Israelite prophet to Nineveh — Israel's enemy empire — and demonstrates equal moral concern for them.]
Ruth (entire book)
[A Moabite — a category excluded from the assembly of Israel in Deut 23 — becomes the great-grandmother of David and enters the genealogy of Jesus.]
Gal 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Rev 7:9
A great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne.
Eph 2:14
He himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.
Persecution as end-times sign and political grievance
Topic: How persecution should be interpreted and responded to
Why flagged: The canonical response to persecution — joy, forgiveness, love of enemies, endurance — is replaced in the sermon by political-grievance framing for which no biblical citation is offered. This is a prescription, not a description.
Canonical analysis
Jesus, Peter, Paul, and Hebrews converge with unusual clarity: persecution is (1) *expected* (not a special end-times marker — 2 Tim 3:12 makes it normative for all godly living), (2) an occasion for *rejoicing* (not for grievance), (3) to be met with *love and forgiveness* (not political counter-action). Revelation adds endurance. The Hebrews 11 roll-call specifically describes persecution across every era of biblical history — not as an end-times sign but as a baseline feature of faithful life. Howerton's framing — persecution is a sign of the end, a political problem, requiring watchful voting behavior — has no significant support in the canonical witness on persecution. The biblical pattern is inward (joy, forgiveness, endurance), not outward (political grievance).
Pastor
Tolerance for Christianity is decreasing… You need to be aware of what you're doing. Jesus predicted these things would happen. Watch out what kind of preaching and podcast you're listening to. [Framing persecution as a political problem requiring voting-level response.]
Matt 5:10–12 (Jesus connects persecution to the OT prophetic tradition)
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matt 5:44
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Luke 23:34 (from the cross)
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
Prov 25:21–22 — cited by Paul in Rom 12:20, reflecting the wisdom tradition Jesus inherits
If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head.
Wider Bible (OT & NT non-Gospel)
1 Pet 4:12–13 (Peter, to persecuted Christians)
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings.
2 Tim 3:12 (Paul)
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Heb 11:36–38 (faithful across every era — grounding NT persecution theology in OT precedent)
Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated — of whom the world was not worthy.
Rom 12:19–21 (Paul, quoting Prov 25:21–22)
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God… ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink'… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Political engagement — one canonical voice presented as the canon's voice
Topic: How Christians should relate to governing authorities
Why flagged: The Bible contains at least four distinct postures toward governing authorities. The pastor presents one of them as authoritative while citing none of the actual canonical voices. Jesus's own posture (Mark 12; John 6; John 18) is markedly apolitical — withdrawn from both the Zealot and the royal option.
Canonical analysis
The biblical canon contains *four* distinguishable postures toward political power: Jesus's withdrawal (won't be made king; kingdom not of this world); Paul's and Peter's submission (authorities are God-appointed); apostolic civil disobedience when commanded to stop preaching (Acts 5:29); and Revelation's prophetic adversarial denunciation of empire as Babylon. This is genuine canonical disagreement, not a single biblical view. A pastor claiming to preach ‘the Bible' on political engagement faces a real hermeneutical task — and should, minimally, acknowledge that the question is contested within scripture itself. Howerton presents a single posture (political grievance against specific ‘movements') as if it were the biblical position. Most tellingly, he cites none of the canonical voices — not Romans 13, not Jesus's apolitical withdrawal, not Acts 5, not Revelation. The warning is pastoral assertion clothed in biblical authority.
Pastor
You be careful how you vote. Some of you are voting for things for movements that when they get in power, they consistently when they get in power criminalize aspects of faithful Christianity.
Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.
John 6:15
Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
John 18:36
My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting.
Wider Bible (OT & NT non-Gospel)
Rom 13:1–2 (Paul)
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed.
1 Pet 2:13–17 (Peter)
Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him…
Acts 5:29 (apostles, when commanded not to preach)
We must obey God rather than men.
Rev 17:5–6; 18:2 (John's vision of Rome)
On her forehead was written a name of mystery: ‘Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations’… ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!’
moderateAxis 4(throughout)
End-times sign-reading as a sermon genre
Topic: Whether Christians should read current events as end-times signs
Why flagged: The sermon's central rhetorical device — reading current events as specific end-times signs — sits against Jesus's explicit teaching (including a teaching in the passage being preached, Matt 24:36) and against the broader NT framing of the day as unknowable and thief-like. The pastor's closing line, ‘you know what time it is,' inverts Acts 1:7.
Canonical analysis
Jesus is notably resistant to sign-seeking. He flatly refuses a sign to the Pharisees (‘an evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign'). In the Olivet Discourse *itself* — the text Howerton is preaching from — he says no one, including himself in his earthly ministry, knows the day or hour (Matt 24:36). At the ascension he tells the disciples it's not for them to know. Paul adds that the day comes like a thief (meaning: unpredictable, not signposted). Deut 29:29 puts the hidden things firmly in God's column. A sermon structured around reading five specific current-events signs as an eschatological countdown sits directly against this strand of biblical teaching — including against Matt 24:36 which is *in the passage being preached*.
Pastor
Jesus made very four very specific predictions… I'll give you four other signs… Sign number one… Sign number two… Sign number three… Sign number four… The hour is late. The hour is late and it's time for you to be prepared for what comes next.
Jesus (Gospels)
Matt 16:1–4
The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered them… ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.'
Matt 24:36 (from the same discourse Howerton is preaching)
But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.
Matt 24:37–39 — Jesus's one OT analogy for his coming (Gen 6–9, Noah). Notably about UNEXPECTEDNESS, not signposts.
For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Matt 24:15 — Jesus cites Daniel by name but without attempting a geographic or political identification
So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand)…
Acts 1:7 (Jesus, immediately before the ascension)
It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
Wider Bible (OT & NT non-Gospel)
2 Pet 3:8–9
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you…
1 Thess 5:2
For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
Deut 29:29
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever.
Factual Claims & Evidence Check (4)
Empirical claims the pastor made during the sermon, with a verdict on whether independent evidence supports them. Verdict scale: Supported · Partially supported · Contested · Misleading · Unsupported · False. “Evidence the pastor cited” records whether any source was named in the sermon itself.
“There have been more martyrs for the Christian faith in the last one century in the world than in every previous cent…”
Pastor's claim (full)
There have been more martyrs for the Christian faith in the last one century in the world than in every previous century of church history combined.
Evidence the pastor cited
None. Delivered as an authoritative statistic with no source attribution.
What the evidence shows
This claim has a real academic source — David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson at the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) published estimates that ~45 million Christians were martyred in the 20th century, vs. ~25 million in all previous centuries combined (~70M total over 2,000 years). So the claim is not fabricated. However, it is methodologically contested: Barrett's definition of "martyr" is notably broad — it includes anyone who died as a Christian in a situation of religious persecution, regardless of whether their faith was the specific proximate cause of death. The 20th-century figure is dominated by a small number of mass events (Armenian genocide, Stalinist purges, Nazi persecution, Rwandan genocide), many of which include victims killed for ethnic or political reasons where Christian identity was incidental. Narrower definitions (used by, e.g., the Vatican's historical commission or Open Doors International) produce much smaller numbers and do not support the "more than all previous centuries combined" framing. Todd Johnson himself has revised earlier Barrett estimates downward in subsequent publications — the current IBMR annual estimate is closer to 100,000 martyrs/year globally, not the 160,000 Barrett once projected. The claim is defensible under Barrett's maximalist methodology and indefensible under most others, and the pastor presents it without the caveat that it depends entirely on how "martyr" is defined.
“Tolerance for Christianity is decreasing (in the US / Western world).”
Pastor's claim (full)
Tolerance for Christianity is decreasing (in the US / Western world).
Evidence the pastor cited
None. No survey, dataset, or specific policy is cited. The claim is followed by two anecdotes (a Canadian pastor, a Seattle pastor) but not evidence for a general trend.
What the evidence shows
Howerton conflates two distinct phenomena: declining Christian affiliation and declining tolerance. These are not the same. Christian affiliation in the US did decline from ~78% (2007) to ~62% (2024) per Pew's Religious Landscape Study — but Pew's 2025 data shows that decline has stabilized, and since 2019 the Christian share has hovered between 60%–64% with no further drop. More directly to the pastor's claim: Pew's October 2025 survey found 59% of U.S. adults now express a *positive* view of religion's influence on American life, and the share of Americans saying religion is *gaining* (not losing) influence has been rising in recent years. Pew's earlier Feeling Thermometer research consistently showed Christians rated more warmly than Muslims, Mormons, atheists, and Hindus by the US public. Globally, Pew's Government Restrictions Index has shown rising religious restrictions — but these affect Muslims at least as much as Christians, and disaggregating by country is essential (contexts like Nigeria, China, North Korea show genuine anti-Christian persecution; the US and most of Western Europe do not). The pastor's framing — that tolerance for Christianity is decreasing in the contexts his American congregation lives in — is not supported by the most recent US data and conflates losing cultural dominance with being persecuted.
“There's a pastor in Canada who risks prison for preaching clearly from the Bible, because of legislation passed in Ca…”
Pastor's claim (full)
There's a pastor in Canada who risks prison for preaching clearly from the Bible, because of legislation passed in Canada "in the last two months."
Evidence the pastor cited
An unnamed anecdote: "Dude in Canada, I'm not going to say his name for legal reasons. We planted their church that has preached on this stage." No case citation, legislation number, or court proceeding referenced.
What the evidence shows
The underlying legislation is real: Canada's Bill C-4 (an Act to amend the Criminal Code on conversion therapy) received Royal Assent in December 2021 and took effect January 8, 2022. It criminalizes providing "conversion therapy" — defined as a practice, treatment, or service designed to change a person's sexual orientation to heterosexual or gender identity to cisgender — with penalties up to 5 years' imprisonment for providers. Canadian evangelical groups (Liberty Coalition Canada, ~4,000 pastors via John MacArthur's network) have publicly objected that the law could criminalize sermons on biblical sexual ethics. Three important caveats the pastor omits: (1) **Timing is wrong.** The sermon was preached April 2026; Bill C-4 took effect January 2022, not "in the last two months." Either the pastor is mistaken about timing or is referring to a different law not identified in public discourse. (2) **No Canadian pastor has been prosecuted for a sermon** under Bill C-4 as of 2025. The claim that a pastor "risks prison" is forward-looking concern, not ongoing fact. (3) **Legal experts are divided** on whether Bill C-4's language actually reaches general biblical teaching; the statute's text targets practices/treatments/services "designed to change" orientation, which most legal analyses read as practice-based and not capturing sermons that describe biblical sexual ethics. Evangelical advocacy groups predict broader application; civil liberties analyses and the Canadian Department of Justice's own interpretive materials are narrower. The pastor's claim combines a real statute with inaccurate timing and asserts certainty about an application that is contested.
“Some of you are voting for movements that, when they get in power, consistently criminalize aspects of faithful Chris…”
Pastor's claim (full)
Some of you are voting for movements that, when they get in power, consistently criminalize aspects of faithful Christianity.
Evidence the pastor cited
None. No movement, party, policy, or jurisdiction is specified. The claim is framed as a generalized political warning.
What the evidence shows
This is a political claim delivered with the authority of the pulpit and without specification. Because no specific "movement" or policy is named, the claim is effectively unfalsifiable — but that in itself is a methodological problem: it asks the congregation to act on an assertion that cannot be checked. If the implied referent is US progressive/Democratic political movements, the specific evidentiary case is weak: no federal US law criminalizes faithful Christianity; the First Amendment's Free Exercise clause has been consistently upheld by the Supreme Court in recent decades, often in favor of religious exercise claims (e.g., *Masterpiece Cakeshop*, 2018; *Fulton v. Philadelphia*, 2021; *Kennedy v. Bremerton*, 2022; *303 Creative*, 2023). If the implied referent is Canadian Bill C-4, see fc-3. There are legitimate debates about the intersection of anti-discrimination law, LGBTQ protections, and religious liberty — but "consistently criminalize" overstates the empirical record in every major Western jurisdiction.
Olivet Discourse exposition (Luke 21, Matt 24) is textually grounded and historically framed (70 AD siege under Titus).
Great Commission explanation is linguistically accurate — ta ethne = “all nations / all peoples” (Matt 28:19).
Multiple direct Jesus quotations are rendered faithfully: “my words will never pass away” (Matt 24:35), “do not be afraid / let not your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1, 27), “you do not know the hour” (Matt 24:44).
Counter-signals
Explicit crowd-metric self-critique: “Jesus did not say go into all the world and make big crowds. He said go into all the world and make disciples.”
Multi-ethnic congregational affirmation
No named-party political endorsement
No flag or civil-religion imagery
Repeated call to test the preacher against scripture
$8M/year in missions giving
Christian Nationalism marker rubric (Whitehead/Perry, Du Mez, Alberta)
Marker
Status
Notes
A. Conflation of national & Christian identity
Present
See Finding 1.3
B. Militaristic / warrior framing
Low
‘Team Jesus / team world… walked across the battlefield’ [00:45:30]; warrior-king rendering of returning Christ [00:53:00] — biblical (Rev 19) but rendered in the masculinised register Du Mez documents.
Anti-Jewish framing: Not present — Jewish-specific content (Temple destruction, Jerusalem siege) is historical exposition without supersessionist triumphalism.
Full transcript
Highlighted paragraphs contain flagged content (color = severity). Click any timestamp to jump to that moment on YouTube.
[00:00:00]Hey guys, thanks for checking out this Bible teaching. Um, every week we release a podcast that corresponds to the sermon. It's like a little bit of a deeper dive where we hit some things that didn't make it into the sermon, some theological concepts. We talk about things that are going on in our culture and how to think about them from a biblical perspective. We call that podcast Live Free. An episode releases every Monday that corresponds to the sermon. If you would like to check out Live Free, just go to the Lakeoint YouTube channel and look for the podcast tab there. We'll see you at Live Free. Now enjoy this Bible teaching.
[00:00:30]>> I didn't realize how much I wasn't in tune with my spiritual needs. Didn't grow up with faith. Never talked about religion or God. >> My dad was an atheist. He grew up Muslim. However, walked away early on in his life. So I felt like it was pretty important just for our family unit to to follow something versus nothing. We ended up meeting somebody. He told us to take a look at Lake Point. We checked it out. One message, Pastor Josh had us all
[00:01:00]close our eyes and ask, "If you are here to commit yourself to Jesus, raise your hand." That day, I felt the urge to put my hand up. And next thing we knew, we were like, "We're committing to this church. We love it." >> Started going to Rooted. What stood out for me was that opportunity to talk about the Bible, to understand the word, and to really develop a relationship with Jesus. After reading week one, I went, "This is what I've been looking for." And as each week progressed, my faith grew. I realized it's my relationship with God. It's my
[00:01:30]connection with him. That was the turning point for me. I started Rooted. What I ultimately ended up finding was a community. You need some people to be around you to help push you forward in in faith. >> Our relationship is the healthiest it's ever been. And I think that's because we do have such a healthy relationship with God that helps us have a deeper connection, too. >> I feel like a better father, you know, at home. feel like a better leader because it is just this sense of freedom that allows me to really live my life. My name is Matt.
[00:02:00]>> My name is Michelle >> and this is how Jesus changed our lives. >> Come on, man. Let's give it up. Come on, man. Amen. Praise God. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right, man. Hey, this is going to be awesome. I just uh you just need to know uh you're in for one. Here we go. You guys got your Bibles? Um turn over to Luke chapter 21 and then put your finger in Matthew chapter 24. Luke 21, Matthew 24. Real quick, um before we get into the text today, um we would be insane not to celebrate um what happened last
[00:02:30]week um at Easter at Lake Point. So, real quick, let me uh let me tell you what happened last week. It's going to be great. Uh first of all, we last week we crammed um in one weekend 53,000 people into our campuses last week at Lake Point. That was awesome. That's great. You know, golf, golf, golf. That's great. But here here's the deal. Here's why. Honestly, I that's not the big deal to me because um Jesus, we're going to read this verse today. Jesus did not say go into all the world and make big crowds. He said go into all the world and make disciples. And at the end of the day, I just I want to say this→ Tension: crowd celebration after acknowledging the tension
[00:03:00]over and over and over again when Christ returns. By the way, that's what we're talking about today. It will not matter if you attended a Lakeoint service in person. That's not going to matter one bit. What will matter is did you cross a line of faith and begin to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. So, the number that matters to me from last week, this is insane. Number that matters to me from last week is this. In one week, we had 22,772 people cross a line of faith and indicate a first time decision to follow Christ. Come on, man. Let's celebrate→ Tension: crowd celebration after acknowledging the tension
[00:03:30]it. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. That's right. And uh if you're one of those people, you just need to know you this is the first week of the rest of your life. It's going to get on you. You just put a miracle in motion and God's not just going to change your life. He'll change your legacy and your lineage because of something you did in 2026 to bend your knee to the lordship of Jesus. It's going to be awesome. Okay. Now, here's what we're going to do today. We are in week whatever of a series called investigating Jesus where we are preaching through the Gospel of
[00:04:00]Luke. And here here's what this is. This entire series is a dude named Luke that was a medical doctor that got radically saved and then he started following around primarily the Apostle Paul. And then he had a one more. This this guy Luke, he had a one more um named Theophilus. He writes the book of Luke and the book of Acts as two. It's a it's one story, two-part compendium. So it's like it's like Avengers Infinity War and Endgame. And for real, that's not even a joke. People laugh every time I do that. I don't mean it as a joke. For real. And so Luke and Acts are that it's Luke
[00:04:30]writing to his one more that doesn't know Jesus yet. And what he says in the beginning of Luke, Luke chapter 1, is he says, "I have carefully investigated all these things concerning Jesus." So, here's all this book is, man, this is why I love it. Is Luke answering all the questions that his unsaved buddy had about Jesus to help his buddy know Jesus. So, what we're doing during this series is we're doing that. We're just answering all the questions. So, the question we're answering today, heads up, is when will Jesus return and what
[00:05:00]will he do then? Now, I need I need to give you disclaimer on this sermon. You need to know for real, for real, this sermon is going to be different than any sermon I've ever preached uh at Lake Point. I will read I probably spent more hours studying for this sermon than maybe any sermon I've ever preached. I will read more verses than I think any sermon I've ever preached before. And here's why. Here's why I'm doing that. I will read as much Bible as I actually
[00:05:30]preach this week. Here's why I'm doing that. Because the book of Hosea says, "My people perish for lack of knowledge." And what you need is not some guy's opinion. You don't need That's not what you need. What you need is to go, man, what does the word of God say about this stuff? So, heads up, it's going to be a little different. It's going to be a little heavier. It's going to be a little richer. It's going to be a little thicker. This is not a sermon I would preach at most churches, but Lake Point Church is not most churches. Okay, so let's get in. Let's get in. Okay, now
[00:06:00]let me let me set it up like this. I'm fighting off something from last week. Just roll with me. Um, when I am preaching every week, there is a clock right in front of me. You're going to be able to see it for about two seconds. That is a countdown timer. It's a big countdown timer. And so even when I'm looking at you in my peripheral vision, every second what I'm seeing is second by second my time counting down. And it begins at one number and counts down. And when that clock gets to zero, it
[00:06:30]flips from white and it turns red. And every second that I'm preaching, every single second, I'm seeing that and it's reminding me that my time is limited. And so what that means is that I don't have time to get distracted. I can't get off task because I have a thing that I have to accomplish. And that my time is limited. It's not limitless time. And what it means is that every second that I'm teaching, I'm not allowed to take it
[00:07:00]for granted because this moment matters because eventually my moments are done. And when that clock counts down to zero and flips to red, then a transition is going to take place and we will transition out of this room and we'll transition into another room. Luke 21 and Matthew 24, their corresponding passages. I'll get to this in a second. And what Jesus Christ does is he is explaining to his disciples before he goes to the cross that all of human
[00:07:30]history is on a countdown timer. that all of human history is in fact divided into three epochs, eras, or some theologians will say eons, that you are in the end of the second age, and that eventually there is a countdown timer that will flip. And what this means is that this age will come to an end. And it means that you are not allowed that we are not allowed as disciples of Jesus Christ to take any
[00:08:00]moments for granted. We can't get distracted. Our time is not limitless. It is limited. And at the end of this age, a transition will take place. Whether you believe it or not, whether you accept it or not, whether you think it or not, it will take place exactly as Jesus Christ tells us it will take place. And our job is to be ready for that transition. Now, what I'm going to do here in the next few minutes is we're just going to walk right through Luke 21 and Matthew 24. And what you're going to
[00:08:30]see is that you are in the middle of the second age in human history and you are on a countdown timer. Okay, so we're going to get right at it. We're going to read a whole lot of Bible and let's just Here we go. Okay, so here we go. Age number one, Jesus said that age number one that has already come to an end, but it's important you understand it. Age number one, it was the age of Judaism. Let me begin by reading this. This is uh Luke 21 starting in verse 5. It says
[00:09:00]some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, "As for what you see here, the time will come, this is really, really important. Listen close. When not one stone, now as I read this, you're going to notice Jesus is going to make very four very specific predictions. Important that you know this. He made these predictions in 33 AD." So he predicts the time will come when not one stone will be left on another. Every one of them will be thrown down. Verse seven, teacher, they
[00:09:30]ask, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they're about to take place? Here's prediction number two. When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the city get out. Let those who are in the country not enter the city. For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. How dreadful it will be. How dreadful it will be in those days
[00:10:00]for pregnant women and nursing mothers. There will be great distress in the land and wrath is the word Jesus uses against this people. They will fall by the sword and they will be taken prisoners to all the nations. Now let me teach for a second. So in 33 AD, note this very importantly. Jesus makes four specific predictions. Number one, Jerusalem will be surrounded and left desolate. He said this in 33 AD. Number two, he didn't just say the temple would be torn down. He said not one stone would be left upon
[00:10:30]another another. Number three, he said that judgment, he actually specifically used the word wrath. Wrath would fall on the Jewish people in the city of Jerusalem. And then number four, he predicted in 33 AD that the Jewish people would be scattered among the nations. Now, let me explain what happened in the next few years. When Jesus would have said this, all of his disciples would have been like, "Bro, ain't no way." Because they were standing on the Mount of Olives. I I actually should show you a picture. They were standing on the Mount of Olives looking at the Temple Mount. As they're
[00:11:00]looking at the Temple Mount, this is, by the way, this is called the Olive Discourse because Jesus is standing on the Mount of Olives, his favorite place to pray. And he's he gives the longest answer to any question he ever gives in his entire ministry about when he'll come again. That's what he's doing right here. Okay. So as he's standing on the temple on on Mount of Olives looking at the temple they would have been looking at this massive temp bigger than anything you can imagine. It was like one of the the great wonders of the world. This massive temple built by
[00:11:30]Herod. It took it was massive 1,000 ft by a,000 square ft. Stones made out of stones larger than school buses. Some of them upwards of 100 tons. I've got pictures next to some of these things. Massive construction project, eighth wonder of the world. It It took years and years, decades and decades to build this thing. Think Great Pyramids of Egypt. Think I30 bridge over Ray Hubard.
[00:12:00]Yeah. Decades and decades to build. This is what they were doing. Okay? And so this is what they're looking at. Now, the temple was beloved by all of the Jewish people. And here's why. Now, I'm going to can tie all these dots together here in a second. We're going to get get into it. The temple was beloved by all those Jewish people. It was the center of their religion. It was the center of their national identity. It was the place where they it was the intersection point between uh heaven and earth, between a holy God and sinful man. It
[00:12:30]was the place where you would go where the whole priestly system was set up so that you as a sinful person could go to the priest. Listen real close. You could go to the priest and they would serve listen as mediators between sinful people and a holy God. The priestly system was a medi a mediatory system and then that's where all the sacrifices were offered for the forgiveness of sins. The blood of bulls, goats, rams, lambs, all these things. So the temple was the center of everything. Okay. Now
[00:13:00]let's go a layer deeper. 37 years after Jesus said says this in the year 70 AD a dude named Titus who is a Roman military leader he comes and listen he sieges the city of Jerusalem both the Jewish historian Josephus and the Roman historian Tacazistus both record this he sieges the city of Jerusalem that's a military tactic where they go hey man actually we're not going to bust in and kill all of you what we're going to do first is surround the city cut off the
[00:13:30]supply lines and starve you and dehydrate you. So Titus comes, sieges the city, so people begin to starve and people begin to dehydrate. Now remember what Jesus said. Jesus said Jerusalem would be what? It would be surrounded. And then he said, "How dreadful for pregnant women and nursing mothers." Why did he say that? Because as they began to get dehydrated, they can't, you know, nourish their bodies. They can't feed their babies. History records this is exactly what happened. Now further he
[00:14:00]keeps going. Eventually, they get in and they sack the city. Now, interestingly, if you've been around Lake Point for 3 or 4 months, 30 seconds to review, but this is important today. Eventually, when they go into the city, Titus commands all of his soldiers, "Don't touch the temple." Because he knew it was a big deal and it was like filled with gold and stones and all this stuff. He was like, "Don't touch the temple." History tells us one rogue soldier grabs a torch and throws it through the window
[00:14:30]of the temple and as he does it the temple catches on fire. Now remember the temple is full of stones and gold. So as he does this temple catches on fire. One historian tells us that the gold in the temple it begins to melt and begins to cascade down the stones inside the temple and gets in the cracks in between these massive stones in the temple. Historians record at that point the soldiers lose their self-control, get inside the temple, and they begin to
[00:15:00]watch this. They begin to pry apart stone by stone every single stone that made this thousand ft by,000 ft temple, cast them over off the temple wall so that they can ransack all the gold and Jews jewels from the temple. And to this day, if you ever go with me to Jerusalem and you stand on the temple mount with me, if you look over the western side of the temple wall, I took this picture,
[00:15:30]you will see this right here. And guess what happened? Not one stone stands upon another. Listen to me. Not one word that Jesus Christ predicts will fall to the ground. Not one word. Heaven and earth will pass away. My words will never pass away. Exactly what Jesus said would happen did happen. Now what Jesus is saying in this passage, stay with me, is he's saying that there was the end of
[00:16:00]the era of Judaism. So at that point, the old system of Judaism, the temple system, the sacrificial system, the priestly mediatory system, Jesus goes, now that's done. Now for you theologians, stay with me. Let's go a layer deeper. If you go home and read the book of Hebrews, Hebrews says that everything that came before was, listen, it was a type and a shadow of him who was to come. So we could literally spend
[00:16:30]hundreds of hours going through everything in the temple and how everything pointed forward to Jesus Christ, the lamb of God, who had come to take away the sins of the world. We could do that. I'm just going to do a little microcosm, okay? It's going to be awesome. So remember, type in a shadow pointing forward to him who was to come. Okay? So remember what did the temple do? It was the inter listen real close. It was the intersection between heaven and earth between a holy God and sinful man. Number one. Number two it was a place where you would go to find a mediator that could mediate between you
[00:17:00]sinful you and holy God. And number three it's a place where you could go to make sacrifices. The sacrifice of an innocent lamb for the forgiveness of your sin. Okay. Now listen. Check check check check this out. At the center of the temple is it was this one room. It was called the holy of holies. Nobody could go in there except one dude on one day. I'm going to explain it. Inside the holy of holies with the ark of the covenant, that's where the present what's what theologians call the manifest presence of God dwelt in highest density between between the wings of these little golden cherubam on
[00:17:30]top of the ark. All right, check this out. Now, what separated that from everything else was a um was a woven curtain as thick as a man's hand that separated the presence of God from the people of God. Only one dude on one day could ever go in there on the day of atonement. The great high priest would come and what he would do, check this out. All this is going to blow your mind here in a second. Just get get all the dots together. He would take two goats. He would take one goat on the day of atonement. And they would confess all
[00:18:00]the sins of the people of Israel on the head of one of the goats. It was called the scapegoat. And they would, as it were, place all the sins on the head of this substitutionary sacrificial animal. And then they would just release it out into the east or the west into the wilderness. And it would walk away. And it was God visually representing that as far as the east is from the west, so has he separated our transgressions from us. Then check this out. Let's go a layer deeper. They would take the other one. It was called the Aazel. It's a whole
[00:18:30]thing. And they would slay the other one. They would take the blood of the innocent slain animal and they would sprinkle everything. One of the things they would sprinkle as they walk in and that high priest, he would sprinkle the ark of the covenant. Now, check this out. What was inside the ark of the covenant? One of the things was the the the broken copy of the ten commandments that Moses broke on Mount Si. When the people broke the commandments, he broke those commandments. They put those inside of the ark of the covenant. So,
[00:19:00]check this out. What's happening is the high priest, check this out, who's mediating between sinful man and holy God is covering the ark of the covenant with the blood of a slain animal. So that when God looked down from heaven, he didn't see broken commandments. He saw people covered by blood. Years later, Jesus Christ would come and John the Baptist would look at him and he would say, "Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world." And he would come and he would be slain.
[00:19:30]And the New Testament says that in a sense, you and me have been sprinkled by the blood of the lamb. So that when God looks down on us, he doesn't see our broken commandments. He sees the blood of the slain lamb. And we're innocent in his sight. Now listen, man. So check this out. So when Hebrews says everything was a type and a shadow of him who was to come, that's why, again, this is here's what this sermon is. It's like one massive in-home Bible study. Okay? So that that's a little different. That's why when Jesus hangs on the cross
[00:20:00]and he pushes up on his nail-pierced hands and feet and he cries out, "It is finished." Do you remember what happened? The curtain was torn from top to bottom in the temple. And that was signaling now this era of Judaism, this temple system is done. You don't need a temple anymore because Jesus Christ is the intersection between God and man. You don't need a mediator anymore because the Bible says now there is one mediator between God and man, the God man, Jesus Christ, who lives every day
[00:20:30]to intercede for you by his blood. And you don't need a sacrifice anymore because he is the sacrifice to end all sacrifices, the lamb of God that took away your sins. That's the best news we've ever heard. Okay, so this right here, this signaled the end of the system of Judaism. The era of Judaism is done. It's vain religion. You don't need it. I don't need it. Nobody needs it. There's nothing there. Okay, that's number one. Now, check this out. Jesus says, "What come next?" Comes next. This is where we are right now. This is the in the mall. You are here sign.
[00:21:00]Something comes. It's called Jesus calls the time of the Gentiles. Check this out. Actually, I'm going to show you on the screen because I I want to show you something. So, this is what he says. Next verse. Jerusalem is going to be trampled on by the Gentiles until and he calls it the times of the Gentiles. Now, I don't usually do this, but I'm going to show you the Greek word because there's one Greek word that gets translated in multiple ways in English, and it actually becomes confusing when you're talking about this concept. So, when he says time of the Gentiles, the Greek word is ethnon. That's the Greek word from which we get the English word ethnicity or ethnicities. Now, that's
[00:21:30]going to be really important. So, the time of the ethnon, the time of the ethnicities or the ethn ethnicities. Now, what does this mean? What's that mean? Now, Bible study, let me show you. Here's how we figure this out. Let me show you another place where the same Greek word is used, but you don't know it because the the translators use a different English word. So, let's connect a dot. Now, I'm going to take you to a very, very familiar verse. This is Matthew 28:19. Christians now call this the great commission. Now, here
[00:22:00]here's Matthew 28:19. You didn't know this, but in Matthew 28:19, Jesus is talking about this age that we are in, the age of the Gentiles. Watch what he says. He says, "All authority in heaven on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples." Now, in English, we translate it all nations. Which is fine. But the Greek word is the same word that Jesus uses in Luke 21 that gets translated Gentiles. Check this out. All nations. In Greek, it's tthnne. Same word. Tthne. Same word.
[00:22:30]Baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the what? the very end of the >> what age? The age of the Gentiles that we are in right now. Now, what's Jesus doing here? Now, actually, stay camera shot. Stay right here. What's Jesus doing here? Okay. Well, check this out. Jesus says in this age, I'm going to jump. He says, "All authority." 5'8 white guy. That's what I got to do. He is. He says, "All authority." All
[00:23:00]authority. Now, why does he say all authority? Because now what Jesus is saying is he's going, "Hey guys, now I don't just have authority in one nation among one people." He's going, "Now that I've gone to the cross, the father in heaven because of my suffering has elevated me to his right hand. And now I have all authority over every nation everywhere. They've been given to me." So he's saying now I don't got authority just in Jerusalem or Israel. He's going I have authority in Jerusalem, Judea, Egypt. I have authority in the Sudan. I
[00:23:30]have authority over China. I have authority over Iran. I have authority over Pakistan. I have authority over Argentina. I have authority over Mexico. I have authority over the United States. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to him over all nations. Ta ethne all peoples. By the way, if you've been around here for a minute, what we say is that Lakeoint Church is a movement for all people. That verse is where we got that. A movement for all people. Now, what's happening during
[00:24:00]this second age that you're in, the time of the Gentiles? Check this out from Galatians 3. It says, "Now in this age, there is neither Jew nor Gentile. There is neither slave nor free, nor are there male or female. For you are all, and I want you to say this word out loud, you are all >> one in Christ Jesus." Now, notice it says you are all one. It did not say you are all the same. It said this is important. You are all
[00:24:30]one. It didn't say you're all the same. Now I I So what he's doing is he's reconciling people from every tribe, tongue, nation, language and he's making people who are different into one. Okay? Now I I want to give an analogy of what this is and then I want to move on and talk about the third age and what's going to happen next. So here's my analogy if you've been around um for a minute. So here's a picture of my family. This is my family. I know it's it's a good picture. I had to, by the way, I had to change which picture I used after last service because one of
[00:25:00]my children who will remain nameless told me they didn't like that picture. Okay, so let me just So, so this is this is the approved picture. Okay, now if you've been around Lake Point for a minute, if you're brand new here, just looking at my family, you can probably figure out we're not all the same. This is this is we're an adopted family. We've adopted three kids. Now, if you look at my family, just notice something. And it's not awkward for me at all. If it's awkward for you, I don't care. personal for me in my family. Elelliana's a little lighter than Felicity. Hudson's a little lighter than
[00:25:30]Elelliana. I'm a little lighter than Hudson. And and poor Jan's a redhead. She barely shows up if it's sunny outside in pictures. Okay, so I just want to get that out there. By the way, I love getting this in. Do you guys know how you can tell the diff what's the difference between a redhead and a terrorist? You can negotiate with a terrorist. Okay, let's keep going. It's a joke. That's a joke. Jan's the best ever. She's the best ever. That's not one. Now, here's my point. Go go go go back to the picture. So check this out. We're not all the same, but I'm going to tell you something about the We call→ Joke trivializing terrorism
[00:26:00]ourselves the Howard team. We're not all the same. Can I tell you something about us? We're all one. Not all the same, but we're all one. Okay. Why? Now watch this. Watch. How has that happened? Through a covenant that we've entered into with one another. Through a marriage covenant and through three adoption covenants, people who were different became one. Got to tell you something about Lake Point's like one of the best things. This church is one of the best representations of the time of the Gentiles. Hey, if you just look→ Joke trivializing terrorism
[00:26:30]across all our campuses, Lake Family, we're not all the same. We are all one. We are all one. Okay? You look around, man. You look around this church and we got blue collar folks and we got white collar folks. You know, we got black folks who know how to have church. They're fun. They talk back to me when I'm preaching. They're my favorite people to preach to. We got Hispanic folks who know how to eat in Jesus name. Come on, man. I'm coming to your house. I'll come over to your house after you come find me afterwards. We got y'all folks. We got a bunch of young families are reaching. That's fine. Y'all are great. We got senior saints, by the way.
[00:27:00]Let me just I I hear you. I hear you. Let me just I just seriously I want to say this. Hey, senior saints, we need you. It's for real. I just real deep in my spirit. We're reaching tons of these young families. Hey, senior saints, we need you. Because all these young families are reaching, they they've never been a part of church. They haven't followed Jesus. They're brand new to Team Jesus. They're going to need some spiritual parents with some tread on their tires following Jesus for a minute. They need people like you to get up in their life and be spiritual parents. We need you. And I know, listen, I know what some of you are saying is like, "Ah, I'm not perfect.
[00:27:30]I'm not perfect." Listen, you don't got to be perfect. You just got to be one step better than us. That's all we need. Okay? So, listen, we need you. We need you. And here's what I also know. There's a whole bunch of you who like you're brand new. Last week was your first week. You're looking around at all these shiny little families and you're going, "Ah, I could never fit in here. I got too many issues." Let me help you understand something. Here's all we are at this church. We are one big dysfunctional family that's been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. You're going to fit right in. You're going to fit right in, man. Welcome. Welcome to team Jesus.
[00:28:00]In fact, let me just remind us of this. There is only, you know, you got the black, you black, white, Hispanic, all the things. Listen, there's only one color that matters is red. the red blood of Jesus Christ that has ransomed people from every tribe, tongue, nation, and language and made us a kingdom of priests unto God. Okay? Now, so that's the time of the Gentiles. Now, here's the question. What that we're answering right now, what is going to signal the end of the age that you are in, the time
[00:28:30]of the Gentiles. Jesus answers that question in Matthew 24:14. Check this out. He says, "In this gospel," this is one thing. I'm going to give you four other signs here in a second, but this is one thing. He says, "In this gospel of the kingdom is going to be preached in the whole world as a testimony." And here's that same Greek word again as a testimony to all nations, all ethnos. And then the end will come. The Now it says the end will come. The end of what? The end of the second age, the
[00:29:00]time of the Gentiles. So at the end, so once this happens, when the gospel gets to every tribe, tongue, nation, and language, that will be one of the signs, this age is over. Christ will return, he's going to crack the skies, and all kinds of awesome stuff's going to happen that I talk about here in a second. Now, if you're asking like, "Well, man, if he's going to come back and wipe away every tear from every eye, and I get to see my loved ones again, I get to be with Jesus forever." If you're like me, sometimes I'm like, "Why is he so slow? What's he waiting on?" 1 Peter 3 says
[00:29:30]this. It says, "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some count slowness, but listen, watch. But he is patient, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to a knowledge of the truth." So, if you're asking what's he waiting for, can I be honest with you? If you don't know Jesus yet, he's waiting for you. If you got a if you got if you got a prodigal son or a prodical daughter, he's waiting for your prodigal son. your
[00:30:00]prodigal daughter. He's waiting for people in Russia and China and the Sudan and Sri Lanka. He's waiting for them because he didn't want anybody to perish. He wants to bring as many with him into into glory as he can. Let me let me just put this in perspective and let's get to age three. I read this little study um from this Christian missionary organization recently. Every single day in Africa, the gospel is exploding in Africa. Every single day in Africa, 16,173
[00:30:30]people cross the line of faith and bend their knee to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Every day. Every day. And after every day. One day. Now break that down. That means every single day Jesus waits, he gets to bring 16,173 more people home with him. Watch this. Every hour Jesus waits, if you do the math, he gets to bring 673 more people just from the continent of Africa home
[00:31:00]with him. Every minute Jesus waits, he gets to bring 28 more people from Africa home with him. What's he doing? He's not slow. He's patient. He wants everybody. He wants to bring all of us. So check this out. What's happening is God has given us one more day so that one more person would have one more chance to bend their knee and come to Jesus Christ. That's what he's doing. Okay. Now, Lake, I just want to remind us let me just remind you cuz man, some of you new here, you kind of don't know like
[00:31:30]our our vibe. Let me just remind you what I just said. That's why we aggressively plant a hundred churches and counting in the hardest to reach least Christian cities in North America. That's why we aggressively start campuses. That's why we have 23 and counting international partners in nations all over the globe taking the gospel to every tribe, tongue, nation, and language. Let me speak very frankly with you. That's why we give upwards of $8 million a year away out of our doors to missions. Why do we do that very
[00:32:00]frankly? Check this out. Why do we give away millions of dollars every year to the spread of the gospel around the globe when can I be really honest with you? We're bursting at the seams here and we seem to need it here. Why? Because the gospel must go out to t all people everywhere and Jesus Christ has purchased those people by his blood on the cross. It's our job to go get them. Okay. So this that's what happens during the second age, the age of the Gentiles. Now number three, let me do this quick.
[00:32:30]Third age, what will come at the end of this age is something that the third age um is the return of Jesus Christ uh the judgment of the living and the dead and he will return to make all things new. Let me let me read it. Okay. Is what he says. I think I'm on Matthew 24 now. Am I in Matthew? No, I'm still in Luke 21. At that time, they will see the son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things, now I'm going to tell you what these things are. I don't want you to be scared. I do want you to be prepared. When these things
[00:33:00]begin to take place, I'm going to say this how I memorized it as a little kid in Sunday school in the KJV. Stand up and lift up your head because your redemption draweth nigh. Now, some of you I I know this maybe last week was your first week ever at Lake Point and we're talking about the end of the world and you're honestly you're like, "Bro, y'all are you're crazy." Like, honestly, you're like, "You're crazy. I wish I had time to do this. I don't have time to do it." I I actually tried to get it in the sermon. I had to cut it. I just one I would
[00:33:30]point out to you literally every worldview, philosophy, and religion that has ever existed in the history of the world has a view of how the world and history will end. And they're all weird. I'm serious. I'm serious. Even naturalism and atheism, it's weird. The whole universe collapses in on itself and becomes a singularity. That's weird. So, one, I'm just going to point out everyone everywhere has a view of the end in some way, and they're all weird. Okay? But number two, if you're saying I'm crazy, can I just gently press back and say I think you're crazy because
[00:34:00]because here, check check this out. Jesus made, we read them today. Jesus made five very specific predictions in AD.33 before any of these things took place. Let me remind you what he predicted. In AD.33, Jesus predicted Jerusalem would be surrounded and laid siege, that judgment would fall on the people of Jerusalem, that not one stone of the temple would be left on top of another, that the Jewish people would be scattered among the nations, and that people from Remember before I say this last one, when Jesus made the prediction that people from every nation would be
[00:34:30]following Christ, there was not a single disciple of his that was outside of Jerusalem or Judea. And in AD33, he predicted that people from every nation would follow Christ. And five for five, all five of those predictions took exactly place. Listen to me. Not one word the Lord Jesus speaks will ever fall to the floor. Not one word. When he speaks life, you believe it. When he speaks salvation, you can trust that. And listen, when he speaks judgment, you
[00:35:00]better believe it. Every single word that he speaks will take place. Listen, if what Jesus said would happen did happen, then listen. What he says will happen is going to happen. >> Okay? Now, let me just here's what I'm going to do. I'm gonna finish the sermon doing this. I'm going to rapidfire read through. I'm just going to give you a heads up. I'm going to do something at the end of this section that even if you thought some of the things I said so far were weird, you're going to think something I do at the end here in about 3 minutes is is two degrees more weird.
[00:35:30]And it's going to freak it's a little freak out a little bit. Just stay with me, okay? Just stay with me. What I'm going to do is rapid fire just walk through what the signs Jesus said would happen right before his return and then we're done. Okay, so here we go. Matthew 24. Now here's what I'm doing. Matthew 24, Luke 21 and Matthew 24 are Siamese passages. So, in the same way that I preached a I preached this sermon in the service before this, and then I preached this same sermon, but there's some
[00:36:00]things that made it into this sermon that didn't make it into the previous and vice versa. Same sermon, different tellings. Luke 21 and Matthew 24, they're Siamese passages. Same sermon, different tellings. So, there's a few different things there. So, that's why I'm doing Matthew 24. Here's what he says. As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. Tell us, they said, this will happen. What will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? What age? The time of the Gentiles. Here we go. Jesus. Verse four. Jesus answered. Here
[00:36:30]we go. Sign number one. Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming I am the Messiah and will what? And will deceive many. Sign number one is a rise in global deception. Jesus says that as it get closer gets closer to his return, there will be more and more spiritual leaders in the world that are, I'm just going to say it, that are demonically empowered to deceive people away from Jesus Christ towards their quote unquote path or plan
[00:37:00]of salvation. And Jesus predicts that some of them will say that they are following his way. Behold, I am the Messiah. Behold, I point to the Messiah. So, can I say this to you? Some of them will use I'm gonna use that later. Some of them will use this book to deceive you. Can I remind you of something? Just because somebody's got a verse doesn't mean they're right. Listen, Satan can quote Bible verses too. He knows it better than you. This is why, Listen to me. I'm pleading with you. I'm pleading with I prayed this for
[00:37:30]you. I This is why you got to read this book. You got to read this book. I'm in Revelation in my personal Bible reading right now. What what Jesus says at the beginning of the book of Revelation to John Ana Alipatmas is he says, "Blessed are those who read this book. Read." How do you avoid being deceived as this time comes closer? You read this book. Some people, they listen to tons of podcasts. Who cares? Read. Some people listen to
[00:38:00]tons of sermons. That's great. Awesome. Read. You got to every time somebody said don't listen don't don't trust me on everything. You got to read behind me and go is what he said in that book. And if it's in the book, accept it. You got to accept it. If it's not in the book, discard it. You got to read this book and me measure everything against the word of God. Listen, watch out. I'm talking to you digital disciples online especially. You got to watch out who you listen to. There are people who will
[00:38:30]hold this book in their hands and they will twist it and they will tell you things that your itchy ears want to hear and they will be lying to you, deceiving you. And Jesus says that will rise the closer it gets to him. You got to read this book. Watch out who you listen to. Watch out who you watch. If you're online, you're not a part of like watch out what church you're a part of. There are churches that use this book to deceive people. And they are not churches. In the words of Revelation 2 and 3, there's synagogues of Satan leading people away from Jesus Christ,
[00:39:00]deceiving him, and they will lead you away. Take inventory of your circle. Do this is why it matters. Who are you running? Who's your squad? Do you have people who when you listen, I'm like you, man. My heart in the words of the psalm is prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. When you got that spot in your life, do you got a circle around you who can pick you up and bring you back so that you don't depart and you are not deceived? That's number one. Sign number one, global
[00:39:30]deception. Number two, Jesus says, "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these things are the beginnings of, and he uses this word that's used both here and in 2 Thessalonians and in Romans chapter 8. He says, "All these are the beginning of the birth pain." Sign number two, there will be an increase in global chaos. Now, I know what people say. People see that and they're like, "Man, Josh, but
[00:40:00]there's always wars and rumors of wars. There's never been a time in history where there wasn't wars and rumors of wars." You're right. But remember, he said that he used the analogy of birth pangs. Now, if you saw that picture of my family earlier, you probably figured out me and Jana have never done a full-term pregnancy ever. We never done that yet. But we did stay at a Holiday in Express one time, so I've heard some things. So, here's the deal. If you've ever done the the pregnancy thing, you know this. There's no birth pains when you conceive. There's no birth pains in.
[00:40:30]There's no birth pains in the first month. There's no birth pains in month three, month six. There's no birth pains in month eight. But watch watch. When you get closer to the ninth month, when the pregnancy comes full term, there comes a moment where those Braxen hicks start. And now all of a sudden, watch how it works. Why did Jesus use this analogy? There's spasms happening inside the body because something is trying to come forth. It's not destruction. It's birth. Something's trying to come forth.
[00:41:00]And when those start, those contractions start, they start far apart. At first they're 15 minutes apart and then 10 and then five and then three and then it's boom boom boom boom. Jesus is saying that the closer you get to the end wars and rumors of wars global chaos that's always taking place it'll just be boom boom boom boom rapid fire over and over what's happening cre Romans 8 creation groans in eager expectation of the
[00:41:30]revealing of the sons of God. Creation is groaning like a pregnant woman's body trying to bring forth something that was foretold from of old. So the closer we get to this time increase in global chaos. Okay. Uh I lost my spot. Here we go. Let's keep going. Verse 9. Next one. Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death and you will be hated. Listen. Listen to me. Listen. You will be hated by all
[00:42:00]nations because of me. One of the great fears of my preaching ministry labeling family is I have not done a good enough job of preparing you to be hated by all nations for the name of Jesus Christ. This says you will be hated by all nations because of me. Sign number three, an increase in global persecution. Now listen, some of us are like, "Oh man, that's we're clearly not towards the end because that's not a big deal." Can I can I say something to you?
[00:43:30]We planted their church that has preached on this stage who because of legislation that was passed in Canada in the last two months, there are parts of the Bible that if he preaches clearly, he risks prison. Okay, there I got a pastor buddy in Seattle whose family was put on FBI watch, whatever that little witness protection thing because he's a clear Bible teacher and there is an increase in hostility to clear Bible teaching. Dude's family's under threat of death.→ Persecution jeremiad paired with voting warning
[00:44:00]Listen, I'm going to say something and listen, I know it ticks people off when I say stuff like this. I don't care. I love you. Listen, be care be careful what you watch. Be careful what you read. You be careful how you vote. Some of you are voting for things for movements that when they get in power, they consistently when they get in power criminalize aspects of faithful Christianity. You need to be aware of what you're doing. Jesus predicted these things would happen. Watch out what kind of preaching and podcast you're listening to. Is it milk that just does→ Political voting guidance from the pulpit; Persecution jeremiad paired with voting warning; Political engagement — one canonical voice presented as the canon's voice
[00:44:30]this thing that's like, "Oh, you're awesome and you need to feel awesome and realize all your dreams." Is it milk or is it meat that prepares you to be content in the Lord Jesus Christ if you are hated by everybody else? because you have the only approval that matters, the approval of heaven. You need to know this. Are you ready for this? Okay. Verse 10, last one. At that time, many will, now listen, this is where I'm going to do something a little freaky. And if you think this is weird, just hey man, just write me off and come back next week. It'll be a lot more fun. Okay, so verse 10. At that time, many,→ Political voting guidance from the pulpit; Political engagement — one canonical voice presented as the canon's voice
[00:45:00]listen close, will turn away from the faith. So watch this. He says they're going to turn people who said they were on team Jesus are going to, you know what? I'm not on team Jesus anymore. Team Jesus is dumb. They're going to turn away from the faith. They're going to join another faith. I'm coming back to that. They will betray and hate each other. Many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. So, watch. I'm going to start connecting dots. When we get close to the end, people who are on, it's called apostasy. There's a
[00:45:30]difference between a lost person and an apostate person. A lost person is like, "Dude, I've never been on team Jesus." An apostate person is somebody who once said they were on team Jesus. Then they took off the team Jesus jersey. They walked across the battlefield. They put on the team world jersey and now they spend all their time shooting at team Jesus. That's an apostate person. Second Thessalonians talks about the same thing. It talks about all throughout the scriptures. It says the closer we get to the end, there's going to be a bunch of people who once said they were on team Jesus that pull that jersey off and put
[00:46:00]on a different jersey. False prophets will appear and deceive many people. false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform, watch this, great signs and wonders. Just because somebody uh does a miracle does not mean they are from the Messiah. There are two spirits. There's the Holy Spirit and there's unholy spirits. Just because somebody does a miracle, they that doesn't mean they're empowered by the Holy Spirit. They might be empowered by unholy spirits. The Bible calls demons. And Jesus says in the end there will be religious leaders who you watch with
[00:46:30]your eyes perform miracles and they are not empowered by the Holy Spirit. They are empowered by unholy spirits. The Bible calls demons to deceive if possible even the elect. See, I have told you ahead of time. Sign number four. This is where I'm I'm a get a little weird. Global there will be a global apostasy caused by persecution and false religion. Jesus, you just read it. People are going to turn away from the Christian faith to another faith. That other faith will be led by a false pro prophet that is demonically empowered to
[00:47:00]perform miracles. Now, what I say right here, I don't mean to scare you. I do mean to be honest with you. Let me just really quick and listen. If you think I'm an idiot, that's fine. Just come back next week. Test everything I say against the word of God. It is really I'll be honest. It's really hard for me if I'm trying to connect dots. It's hard for me not to at least wonder if some of these things correspond with the rise of global Islam. I just need to talk about this real quick. And if you think I'm nuts, just test what I say against the word in the next 30 seconds. So check this out. In John 16, Jesus says, "At
[00:47:30]the end," watch. At the end, he says, "A time is coming when they will kill you and think they are offering service to God." That's what Jesus said. Now, what we've been doing in the American church for the last 30 years is we've been focusing on secular progressivism. Hey man, atheism, big problem. secularism problem. But watch this. According to Jesus, the final boss like Bowser, I don't know where that came from. The final boss is not going to be in the→ Islam identified as the religion of the Antichrist
[00:48:00]end, it's not going to be secularism. It will Jesus said it. It will be another religion that in that religion, they will kill Christians. And when they kill Christians, they will think they're doing something holy and pleasing God. Let's go a layer deeper. If you fast forward to Revelation chapter 20, John is given a prophetic vision of the throne. Watch what he sees. I'm going to have you say a word out loud. He sees in the end the souls of those who had been what? Who had been?→ Islam identified as the religion of the Antichrist
[00:48:30]>> Because they refused to worship the beast. I'll just simply point this out. There is only one world religion whose religion specifically prescribes beheading as the way to quote kill infidels. there is only one religion. The Quran specifically calls it striking necks. That's the language it uses. So I will simply point that out to you. That's interesting. Now let me go one layer deeper and this is where I'm I'm will freak out a little bit more. So if you start studying what's uh is Islamic→ Islam identified as the religion of the Antichrist
[00:49:00]esquetology. Esquetology is a big theological word. Escaton is the Greek word that means last or end. Means study of. So when I say esquetology it means study of the end. If you study Islamic esquetology, their view of the end times, here's what they believe will happen. They believe that there will be a messianic prophetic figure that they call the Madi. The Madi will come and he's a messianic leader that will usher in the Islamic end times events that will result in the→ Islam identified as the religion of the Antichrist
[00:49:30]entire world becoming a one world Islamic nation state. Now, what I'm going to do right here is I'm going to just read to you the things that they believe the Madi will do. And if you are a Bibleaware Christian, as I read these, every little red light is going to start flashing in your head and you're going to see why. This is what they believe about him. He will emerge as a charismatic messianic world leader during global crisis chaos. He will take control of the world and destroy everyone who resists him. He will invade→ Islam identified as the religion of the Antichrist
[00:50:00]many nations. He will rule and reign for seven years. He will broker a seven-year peace treaty with the Jews. He will conquer Israel and massacre the Jews. He will establish an Islamic one world government headquartered in Jerusalem. He will establish Islam as the only acceptable worldwide religion. He watch this. He will come on a white horse with supernatural powers doing signs and wonders. This is what they believe. He will be assisted by a powerful prophet.→ Islam identified as the religion of the Antichrist
[00:50:30]Now, if that sounds familiar, it's because it is a precise description of the biblical Antichrist. The Islamic Mahi is the biblical antichrist. We know the rider on the white horse in Revelation 6 is the Antichrist. They use that verse to describe their mi. Now, I'm going to go one layer deeper and then I'm going to shut her down. Okay? If you go later homework, and you read Ezekiel 38,→ Islam identified as the religion of the Antichrist; Ezekiel 38 as modern Russia/Iran invasion of Israel
[00:51:00]almost every theologian believes Ezekiel 38 is a an escat an end times prophecy about what will happen right before Jesus returns. It describes, don't give me keys yet. Just stay with me. Don't don't do it yet. It describes a group of nations aligning against Israel to attack Israel. And then the moment they do that, Jesus going to crack the skies and and do something awesome. I'll talk about it in a second. Now, here's the nations that Ezekiel 38 describes in→ Islam identified as the religion of the Antichrist; Ezekiel 38 as modern Russia/Iran invasion of Israel
[00:51:30]their in that times language. Gog, Mog, Meshk, Tubal, Persia, Kush, Putmer, and something called Beth, Torgam. But those were the names of the nation in the era when Ezekiel wrote. What are the names of those nations, those geographic regions today? What are the nations that correspond? Well, here here's who they are. Russia, Turkey, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Turkey, and Turkey.→ Islam identified as the religion of the Antichrist
[00:52:00]Can I point something out to you? Even though that was written 1,200 years before the birth of Islam, every single one of those nations except one is an Islamic nation. The only one that's not is Russia. And guess what? The fastest growing religion is in Russia? Islam. I'm just saying. Now listen, when that happens, and listen, you may→ Islam identified as the religion of the Antichrist
[00:52:30]see that with your very eyes. When that happens, in the words of Jesus, do not be afraid. And let not your hearts be troubled because greater is he that is in you than anyone that is in the world. And listen, listen, listen, man. In that moment, what's going to happen is all those nations come to attack. And in that moment, Jesus Christ will crack the skies. He will descend. White horse, fire in his
[00:53:00]eyes, sword out of his mouth, tattoo on his thigh, King of Kings, Lord of Lords. And the Bible says he will come down. He will defeat all of the enemies of God. And he will, watch this. He's going to take his bride home. He's going to bring us home. And he will wipe away every tear from every eye. Neither shall there be death, nor pain, nor crying anymore. For the former things have passed away, and behold, the new things have come. That's going to happen to you. You're going to be there when that happens, man. So, what do you got to do? Okay, here's here's where we're done. Here's what you got to do. My my little I'm in
[00:53:30]way in the red. Don't leave. I hate hate when y'all do that. Okay. So, you also must, you say it out loud, you must >> be ready. Hey y'all, let's be ready. Let's be ready because the son of man will come at a what? at a hour. You don't expect him. All right. So, what I got right here, I don't have a watch, but I got a I got a little clock on my iPhone and uh it says 6:48. I don't care. Don't leave. Okay. Says 648. 648. Now, I can tell you
[00:54:00]what time it is. I can't tell you anything about how this thing works. I I don't know. I don't know how all the little microns and chips and processors and gears and I don't know how that works. I don't know any of it. But I can tell you what time it is. I don't know how all the details work. going to tell you how what time it is. Now, if you start studying all this end time stuff in the Bible, you can study Ezekiel 38, Ezekiel 39, 2 Thessalonians. You can go to the book of Revelation, Matthew 24, Luke 21. You can do all the stuff. Let me tell you, man, there's more details
[00:54:30]and you're going to be able to get your I I got halfway into studying this week. I was like, this is in I want to call Mike, bro, you come in and do it. You come and do it. I don't want to do this. Listen, I can't tell you how all the details fit together, but you know what? The only thing that matters is you know what time it is. Only thing that matters. You know what time it is. Can I tell you something? The hour is late. The hour is late and it's time for you to be prepared for
[00:55:00]what comes next. Now listen. Here's how we're going to close this service. We're not going to sing anything after this. You saw us celebrate all these people going through Rooted. Well, root it is is a 10-week disciplehip experience. Guess what it does? It prepares you to walk as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. 10-week disciplehip experience teaches you how to get in the word of God, study and understand the word of God, how to pray, how to share your faith, how to activate your spiritual gifts, how to get free, all this stuff.
[00:55:30]So, here's what I'm asking you to do. If you have never been through rooted, I'm asking you like with a pastoral forcefulness, I'm asking you to go through to sign up to do this 10 week not till Jesus returns. Well, maybe, who knows? Uh just 10 week disciplehip experience every single member of our church. You need to do it at least one time. Every single one. So, you can do that in a couple ways. You can scan this little Q grab this dude right now. You can scan that
[00:56:00]little QR code and you can register right there. You can text the word, it's going to be on the screen right here. You can text the word rooted to 20411 and register. Service is over. We we can keep your kids for a couple more minutes. I'm asking you if you have not been through Rooted to sign up for Rooted 10E disciplehip experience tonight before you leave to prepare yourself to walk faithfully with Jesus Christ as a disciple. That's your homework. I'm done preaching. Have fun. Peace.