Sunday, July 19, 2015
Start Time: 5:05 AM
End Time: 5:50 AM
Title:
Our Journey In The Darkest of Times.
Scriptures:
Matthew 24:3 - 22
God’s
Message/Promise/Commands:
For the past
month, God has shown me what’s happening in the world, not literally, but every
day, He would let me see how the world is changing day after day. I had seen a lot of news locally and even
internationally about the evil that mankind is capable of. And though the impact is not huge to some of
the news, there are others that made a tremendous change not only to 1 certain
group or person but to the whole world.
Because of my work, I got expose to these bad news daily. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t wake up in
the morning, sat on my computer and go to FB or youtube to search for these bad
news. I don’t come looking for them but
it seems God has opened my eyes to them and find ways for me to come across them
while I’m at work. A month ago, I heard
of a woman in a gang raped, how her life was gruesomely taken from her, like
these men didn’t see her of any value. A
few weeks ago, I heard of this group of teenagers celebrating for the
legalization of same sex marriage, who were partying on the streets and got
burned alive. The next week, I saw an
expose of an underground party help locally in the Philippines exclusively for
young people, some very young (10 years old), where photos of the party shows young
women wearing nothing but their brassier and very short shorts dancing on top
of young men. The photos were sexual by
nature and you will see as young as a 10-year old boy in that group. Another is a body of a 4-year-old found in a
plastic bag dead for what the police thinks, her death was caused by accidental
poisoning but no one has come forward to claim her even to this day. And there are many more sad and horrifying
stories like these each day. God has
been showing me what’s happening in the world, which is actually an answered
prayer but the story is for another time, and there’s one thing that I realized
out from all these horrible news I came across with for months now. It’s the reality that today, what’s WRONG is
not becoming RIGHT! Humanity has somehow
twisted the truth and managed to turn sin into something good. Last night, I watched the video of Caitlyn
Jenner’s speech and even before it ended, I cried. I cried not because I was moved by her words,
although her words were very powerful and touching, but I cried because I was
hurt. I was in pain. The truth is, if I don’t know the Bible or if
I don’t know God’s truth, and I listened to her talk, I will definitely say,
she’s right! I will believe and side
with her. But thank God, He revealed the
truth to me. Caitlyn Jenner was once
Bruce Jenner, he was an Olympic champion, a role model during his time; a
respected athlete; a family man with 5 kids or more (I’m not sure); had 3 wives
– all divorce now; but all the time he was winning gold medals, raising his
children and nurturing his relationship with the women in his life, he was
struggling with his identity. And after
so long of hiding, he has now come out and decided to become a transgender. Her coming out was a huge moment for all gays
and transgender in the world. In fact,
Caitlyn has become the face of transgender in the world. Her speech was about acceptance – about accepting
people for who they really are. She
spoke of the transgender as the victims; how teens transgender are bullied,
stab to death, murdered and even killed their own lives because people are not
able to accept them for who they are.
She portrayed them as the victims of this world and for those who will
stand in their faith and say what they are doing is wrong, they become the
bullies. After that video, I cried
because as I listen to her words, I realized that she was not talking to us, us
who are standing in our faith and the truth in Jesus; her words literally
directed to God. It is as if she’s
telling God…”This is who I am God, take it or leave it!” She spoke these words
to the God who created him as a man for a purpose. She literally defies God’s purpose for
her. So I cried and thought, she didn’t know
what she was doing. She didn’t realize
what she’s saying.
Anyway, the
truth is the world is turning into evil and soon, this world is not going to be
so nice to live in anymore, especially for those who will carry the Name of
Jesus, as spoken by Jesus Himself in Matthew 24. Jesus warned us and spoke these words so we
would know what we are getting into in the last days. So I went back to the Bible and looked into
the stories of the people who were in the darkest times of their lives
too. And I found:
Noah – God
decided to wipe out humanity except him and his family because of the evil
nature of men
Abraham
during Sodom and Gomorrah – God decided to destroy the city because of the evil
nature
Jonah – God was
planning to destroy the city of Nineveh because of their evil ways if they did
not repent
Jesus – The worst
times of all where the innocent were slaughtered and killed before the people;
the right made wrong; the sin became right…
There are
others but I want to focus on these 4 men because like them, their times have
become evil. I found 3 common things
from these great and amazing men:
1) Communication
with God – all 4 communicated with God; God is not the only one speaking, but
they also talk to God; so there’s a two-way communication
In
this dark times, it is crucial that we have our communication with God open and
ready at all times; that’s why it is important that we pray (we talking to God)
and read the Bible (God talking to us) in this dark times of our lives. As we enter into the worse of life, it is key
that we continue to pray and read our Bible.
2) Intercession
– each men intercede for another and let me elaborate on that.
I searched
Google and found that Intercession means two things:
a)
the
action of saying a prayer on behalf of another person.
b) the
action of intervening on behalf of another.
synonyms:
mediation, intermediation, arbitration, conciliation, negotiation;
intervention, involvement; pleading, petition, entreaty, agency; diplomacy
I want us to
focus on the 2nd meaning – intervening
Noah -
Noah's righteousness intervened in the death of his sons. The Bible says only Noah was righteous at
that time so even his children were wicked yet they were spared because God has
chosen Noah and his family because of Noah's righteousness
Abraham - He
negotiated with God for lot
Jonah - he
was reluctant and disobeyed God but in the end, he obeyed and became involved
in the salvation of Nineveh
Jesus -
well, let's look at the meaning of arbitration...
arbitration
- the use of an arbitrator to settle a dispute.
Jesus is the
arbitrator to settle a dispute/problem.
We are to die for our sins but He paid the price for us; he was our
arbitrator and bought us for a price to settle the biggest dispute for humans
(dying for their sins)
So all four
men, one way or another, intercede for someone.
In the darkest of times, we need to intercede with one another and for
the world. Whether we pray for another, or
preach God through the message of our lives or literally preaching His words to
others, or negotiate to God for someone else’s life, or get ourselves involve
with someone’s life…we need to intercede for one another in this dark times.
3) Mission
– All 4 men had a mission and whatever their mission was…it was all for the
purpose of one thing…SALVATION!
Noah – built
the ark for what? To save him, and his
family and the animals
Abraham – To
be a great nation and Lot was his family (Lot’s descendants were the Moabites
and the ammonites); so the result, lot was saved
Jonah –
prophesied to the people of Nineveh…the result, the whole city was saved!
Jesus – Died
for us…the result the world’s salvation
We, too have
a mission as we pass through the dark times of our lives, Jesus left us with
the Great Commission to go and make disciples, baptizing them in the Name of Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey the Word of the
Lord. This is our mission and ultimately
the result is still SALVATION!
