Broken expectations and hope in Christ

This morning, together, I would like you to turn again to that area. Let me give you a couple of comments on it, and then we want to read from Hebrews chapter 2. So if you have your Bibles, would you stand with us, please? And if you don’t have your Bibles, stand with us too. We’re going to read first from Psalm 8 and then from the book of Hebrews chapter 2.

O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth, who has set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants, you have ordained strength because of your enemies, that you may silence the enemy and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars, which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit him?

For you have made him a little lower than the angels. Probably the text there correctly is, “You have made him lower than Elohim. You have made him lower than God.” It is not a scriptural truth that angels are somehow between man and God. The reverse is true. Angels are the servants of the sons of God. So probably that translation is better, and many of your translations will refer you to a note on that.

You have made mankind a little lower than Elohim, and you have crowned him with glory and honor. And you have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet: sheep and oxen, the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth. And then from Hebrews chapter 2, beginning to read with verse 5, “For he,” referring to the Father, God.

Now, that verse itself gives you the clear understanding that it’s not angels that are lower than, that man is made just lower than angels, but he is made just lower than God because God has subjected the world to Him, to mankind. The one testifies in a certain place, saying, and here again is the quote that we just read from Psalm 8, “What is man that you’re mindful of him, the son of man that you take care of him, you’ve made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of your hands, and put all things in subjection under his feet.”

Now that much is a quote by the writer of the Hebrews of Psalm 8. Continuing verse 9, “For in that he put all things in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things under Him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He by the grace of God would taste death for everyone, for it was befitting for Him, from whom all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering.”

May God add His blessing to the Word. As you are seated, please. Again, turn back to the Psalm 8 passage.

Let me give you a word about that Hebrews 2 commentary. It is a commentary on Psalm 8 in the New Testament, but let me tell you that it is so often misunderstood because many people set that Hebrews 2 passage as though the writer to the Hebrews is saying is the candidate for the fulfillment of Psalm 8, that he is the man being spoken of, of whom all things will be put under his feet.

But it clearly is not that from the context, for if you read on, he’s talking about us, about our position, and then emphasizes the fact we don’t see this yet. We do not see mankind with all things in subjection to mankind, as God has made it, but we do see Jesus, the man who has gone before us. And, of course, then the writer, to make sure you understand the point, says, “we see Him who, quote, was made a little lower than the angels.”

In other words, we see Him who, in His perfect humanity, identified with us. Now, the point of this, of course, is very obvious. The point of both Psalms and of Hebrews 2 is that mankind, you and I, this world, the human beings that we are a part of, have a broken expectation in them because there has been a great and phenomenal promise given to them.

Mankind has been created to have all things in subjection to it, to be in charge, but it is not yet true. And so, men live. Mankind lives with a broken expectation. And I realize that for many people, particularly in the evangelical context, it is really difficult to understand the truth of this. We are willing to see Christ in this understanding, but we are not willing to see, for example, David.

Before Christ, David is legitimately walking out under the stars and he’s saying, “It’s amazing to me that all of this creation and the many galaxies that are involved, it’s amazing to me that God has put man in a position of having dominion over the earth.” And it is that whole thing in David’s own life, between the promises of God and the fulfillment that is at stake in this issue.

And of course, most of us understand the sinfulness and the pridefulness of mankind. Mankind can sink to unbelievable depths of inhumanity, violence, and bestiality. We sometimes see things on television or in actual life, like the abuse of children, and we just wash our hands and say, “Man can be so despicable!”

And this is such a horrendously terrible thing that man can be involved in. And yet, like the prodigal son, he wanders away from the Father and gets involved in the worst kinds of things, spending all of the kinds of investment that the Father has made in him, wasting everything, and he ends up in a pigpen with swine. He wants to eat what the swine are eating, the carob pods that the swine eat.

And he reaches down to begin eating that, and he realizes he’s not a pig, he’s not a swine, he’s a man, he’s human. And something testifies in his heart about what he is to be and what he’s linked with. And he says, “I will arise and go. Even the slaves in my father’s building and house and provision are better taken care of than this.”

“I will arise and go.” And that parable, of course, tells us a great deal about what that evidence, that reaching out of man’s experience is when man comes to a point of recognition in reference to these truths. My own life, and I think in your life, it’s hard for us to read Genesis 1 sometimes and understand that’s where man begins.

Particularly in our church and in our theology, we want to start at Genesis 3. Man is sinful, man is fallen, man is depraved, man is perverted in his nature. And most evangelical teaching starts at Genesis 3, but God doesn’t. God starts at Genesis 1, where He creates man in His own image. And not only does He make, and by the way, the word there is mankind, not generic, not genetic man, but it is mankind, personhood, humanity.

God creates mankind, male and female, and He creates them in His image, His likeness. And then He breathes His own nature into them, and man receives a borrowed part of God’s nature. And in that act, God has made this being. In Genesis 1, of course, He turns right around to that man that’s been made and says, “I’ve given you dominion.”

“You take dominion over the fish and the fowl and over every plant. I want you to have dominion over everything.” And, of course, that word, that word of being fruitful and multiplying and subjecting everything to yourself, then becomes a mockery to some of us, even Christians who pass through the stage of acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, but it becomes a mockery to think of this mankind that’s made in this kind of image, and then to see where he is.

To see his lack of faithfulness, to see his stupidity, his bestiality, his perversion of God’s purposes, and to somehow embrace both. And because we don’t like to embrace paradoxes, we eliminate one of the two. And of course, generally, we eliminate the whole understanding of this. This thing which is in man, this borrowed nature of God, that however perverted and abused man becomes, that is what is in him, witnessing to that creative part of God’s purpose in his life.

Last week, we looked at Psalm 3 and talked about that kind of bridge in between, that kind of moment in our lives when there has been a promise, but there’s no fulfillment, when we understand something that’s supposed to be, but it isn’t. Something that we know is God’s intention, but it hasn’t yet come to pass.

Well, Psalm 8 really just amplifies that. It is a great messianic psalm, but David’s in this psalm, and Israel’s in this psalm, and we’re in this psalm. And that’s why Paul says, “Hope and understand this.” Paul, the apostle writing to the Romans, says, “You are saved in hope.”

Actually, the verb tense is there. “You were saved.” Our salvation, our justification isn’t questionable. But you were saved, he says, in the arena of hope. And then he goes on to say, “If you had that for which you hoped, it wouldn’t be hope. No, it’s something that you reach for. It’s that kind of longingness, that incompletion.”

And by the way, the context of Romans 8, therefore, is groaning. Man is groaning within himself to be clothed upon, to have the redemption, which is the adoption, or the adoption, which is the redemption of his body. And the Holy Spirit is groaning. And by the way, Paul says all of creation is groaning because of that incompleteness, that which is meant to be that isn’t yet.

That which is promised, that which is God’s intention, that which God has said and it will be, but it isn’t yet. And that’s, of course, where this whole understanding of this kind of rumor that was in the hog pen with the prodigal son, the kind of rumor that says, you don’t belong here, that’s not who you are.

And that rumor that causes us to get up and to go on with something more meaningful in reference to our purposes. And I understand that this is heresy to a lot of Christians because many Christians have this kind of ultra-Calvinistic perspective of total depravity. We like those words.

In fact, you know, it’s interesting. Most Christians like to be preached at in a way in which the preacher kind of takes about three layers of skin off at a time. You know, people will come to me when they hear that kind of sermon and say, “That’s real preaching. Bless God, that’s real preaching.” You know, when you’ve been skinned and the salt’s been rubbed in the wound.

And words like original sin and total depravity and all of this, yeah, that kind of gets us going. We understand that. But when the Bible argues, not for Christians, but for mankind in general, that there is an image or likeness of God in them, that they share a broken expectation, whatever they have been involved in or are presently involved in.

That there’s an understanding within that man is meant to be something else, and there is a desire and a hunger in their life to really know the truth regardless of how they manifest or express rebellion in reference to that now. So, it’s an involvement with, as I said to you in the bulletin, and I took a title for today, I said, getting to know man by the original drawings.

Not the Genesis 3 drawings, but the Genesis 1 drawings. Zachariah calls out in the 12th chapter of his book, the burden of the Lord, who stretched forth the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth, and formed the Spirit within man. The Spirit, the breath of God, or Ecclesiastes, which says the dust will return to the earth as it was, but the Spirit returns to God who gave it.

Or, again, that Genesis chapter which says, God breathed into mankind the breath of life, and he became a living soul. However fallen man is, he has that basic understanding buried in him. Fanny Crosby expressed it in a hymn. And I, you know, Fanny Crosby was that blind hymn writer that was so, um, able to effectively understand the purposes of God.

And she wrote a book called “Rescue the Perishing,” and in the middle of that is an appeal to believers. And she said this, down in the human heart, not talking about Christians now, down in the human heart, she says, down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter, feelings lie buried, which grace can restore.

And then she put these words, “Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness. Feelings or strings that were broken will vibrate once more.” And then the chorus, “Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. Down in every human heart, crushed, yes, crushed, broken by the tempter, but those feelings lie buried, which grace will restore and touched by a loving heart, awakened by kindness cords that were broken will vibrate once more.” No wonder Job exclaimed, “But there’s a spirit in man and the breath of the Almighty have given him understanding.” You see, most Christians, most evangelical Christians raised in this kind of culture that you and I are in, they love souls.

We will give millions of dollars to quote save souls. How many of you have ever seen a soul? What does it look like? Oh, we love to save souls, but the same evangelical people will walk by persons, persons, and despise them. I’ve had the experience of walking with Christian brothers who I know are committed to reaching the world with the gospel.

But you can walk down a city street with them and sense in them a sense of spite, despair, and disdain for people, particularly if some expression of their life is opposed to their own conviction. I understand the impact of sin, lady. I’m not speaking about that. I know the power of evil, but I also choose to know the value of a human soul, and that however dirty it is, like the pearl before the swine, I tend to understand.

Whatever the mud is, that’s a human spirit created by God, and buried in that life is an expectation that God meant them for glory, not for the gutter. That God birthed them with purpose and destiny and that they’re to be in charge, not under the rulership of anyone. And I choose to know that. I choose to speak to that.

That there’s a restlessness in all the spirits of mankind. And I choose to look beyond the activity level of an individual and understand that principle. But, sir, it’s not only important for you in reference to the mission of understanding the world. How can you be effective in understanding the world when you do not or will not, in your own understanding of people, understand how God has made them with that understanding in your life?

But secondly, for yourself. For yourself. We do not yet see. That is an important recognition that’s involved, but God has made it to be so. I want us to look in Psalm 8 now for about two words this morning, and we’ll continue this next Sunday as I’ve already taken two Sundays. I mentioned we will take two Sundays on this psalm.

And the first word, it doesn’t appear in Psalm 8, but the concept you’ll see immediately is recognition. David walks out, it’s obviously at night, there’s no mention of the sun in this psalm anyway. He walks out at night, he’s probably just won an enormous victory of some sort, and he walks out under that vast kind of canopy of the world, and he sees the stars and the moon, and even though he had a finite level of knowledge compared to what we now know, we now know how long it would take to even begin to project the end of this galaxy.

We understand the speed of light, and we understand a little bit about how long is involved and how many millions, billions of stars and planets there are the size of this one and larger. No wonder, with that knowledge, we ought to be even more than David walking out under the sun, under the stars and saying, “God, this is who you are. This is what you’ve done. How could you possibly care about man?” That’s the kind of context. In fact, the first verses in which he speaks about babes and sucklings glorifying the Lord. You’ve ordained praise, he says, in the mouth of babes and sucklings. That is probably, even though Jesus used that to rebuke the Pharisees, the context of that probably is the exact point.

David is saying, “How could you use me? For what purpose would you use me? Why use an infant, a babbler, someone who doesn’t even know how to bring intelligent speech forth? Yet you use an infant,” he says. And, of course, his real point there is that you use mankind. Oh, Lord, our Lord.

Actually two words, Jehovah is the first word there. The Jews didn’t even pronounce that word, Yahweh. “Oh, Yahweh. Our ruler or our governor,” that’s how he begins. So he’s saying, “Oh, Jehovah, you who are in charge of everything! How excellent!” And there the word is talking about omnipotence, the power of God, the excellent power of God.

But notice, the power linked to his character. “How excellent is your name!” I recognize this, David is saying. This ability to perceive. This ability for perception is so very important, and in these first verses, you have the perception of God’s character, you have the perception of the work of God, you have the perception of the destiny of God, that God has ordained in His own specific purpose these things to be true.

And then you have the whole hope that ultimately in all of creation, in all of the world, this kind of understanding will come forth. This psalm is quoted a dozen times probably in the New Testament, not only the famous Hebrews 2 passage and Jesus’ use of the passage about ordaining praise in infants, but it’s used over and over in the book of Revelation.

I count six, some scholars say four times that this psalm is quoted, all of them in reference to this whole thing, God’s power, God’s ultimate placing of His vision and His desire and His plan. But all of these have to do with the fact that you can perceive this. You can know this. You can recognize this.

And, of course, that recognition also involves, as we saw last week, it recognizes an acceptance of incompletion. I think one of the tragic things for so many believers, so many revival movements, and so many groups of Christians who have a false expectation for themselves, for example, there have been whole movements and whole experiences based on the fact that you can receive an experience and you’ll never sin again.

What a false expectation to give someone! What an awful bondage to create in someone’s life that somehow in this fallen body and in this system they’re going to live without sin in their life. It’s not only a false expectation; it calls for a kind of legalistic definition that leaves people in a fractured state of the life of Christ.

But how true that is in other areas as well. You know, a part of this recognition is not only God, but it’s recognition of God’s dealing with man and the incompletion of that experience. I don’t think it’s insignificant that this very psalm begins by saying, or at least the superscription over the psalm says, it’s to be upon the instruments of Gath.

The instruments of Gath, if you have the old King James. Both instances are referring to that area of one of the key enemies of Israel that constantly brought problems to them, the Philistines. And there’s probably more significance than just that fact, the instrument of Gath, because Gath means wine press.

Again, the same kind of understanding we talked about last week, Gethsemane. The same understanding of that embracing of incompletion. Romans 8, which all of you know to be such a marvelous place of power and faith for believers, we call it the Mount Everest of the Bible. It starts with “There’s no condemnation to them in Christ Jesus” and ends with “There can be no separation between the believer and Christ.” Wonderful chapter, but what’s in the middle of it? What do you get between no condemnation and no separation? You get hope. You get an arena of hope. You are saved in hope. And what is that hope? It’s in completion, Paul says, groaning, wanting to be clothed upon with the redemption of this body that causes the stumbling and the problems.

Wanting to get that over with, groaning for it. And the Holy Spirit is groaning for it, and is groaning for it. But it is where God places us. We are in this moment, in that very place. And that’s why when the writer to the Hebrews takes this passage, and oh lady, if you don’t understand this, you missed the whole point of the writer to the Hebrews.

His whole point is Jesus had to be made like his brothers in every way. Jesus had to be tempted in every way, as we are tempted, he says. Jesus had to be made like his brethren in every way. And in the midst of that discussion, he says, “And one of the ways he had to be like his brethren was he had to embrace this dichotomy, this dichotomy of man made in the image of God, recognizing God, seeing God, understanding His greatness, and then being overwhelmed that God would choose to work in him, and seeing the incompletion.”

And the writer says, to the Hebrews says, “Oh, we don’t yet see this. There’s no dominion. Man isn’t in charge of anything. He can’t even tie his shoes properly. Man isn’t in dominion over his own life. What do you mean he’s in charge of the world? What do you mean he has dominion over… No, we don’t yet see it, but we do see Jesus.”

And the word the writer to the Hebrews constantly uses about Jesus, He’s the author and finisher of our faith. That’s a really poor translation, but I understand. We love it, and it keeps it, and translation after translation continues to give it. Author. Author to us means someone who writes a book. But the word in Greek is the archegos, the one who went before.

In other words, Jesus victoriously broke through the barrier, and He became the one who is the prototype of every believer. The redemption of the body, the completion of the vision, the finishing of what God has started. The bringing of harmony to where there has been dissension and confusion. So recognition.

This psalm is about recognition. Oh, oh Yahweh, ruler, governor, you are omnipotent in power. All of this has come to pass. Why are you mindful of man? How is it that you would visit man? Obviously, the second thing that the psalmist deals with here is another word that has equal importance. It’s, again, not in the passage, but the word, the obvious understanding is, and that’s revelation.

We have the power to recognize, but secondly, in this gigantic step of faith of understanding this passage, we understand that God reveals. God reveals Himself. When I consider the heavens and the work of your fingers, the moon and stars which you’ve ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him? What is the Son of Man that you would visit Him?

I don’t want to delay our time this morning, but would you take one more step with me and turn to Romans 1, please? And I want you to see with me in Romans 1 such an intense and important understanding. We’ll begin with verse 17. Romans chapter 1, therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness because that which may be known of God is manifested in them, for God hath showed it to them.

Now, look at verse 20, please. Very important. The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen. They are understood by the things which are made, even as eternal power in Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, and so forth.

This passage is so vital because the writer is saying in this passage that all of creation, not some of it, not this small group of people who have the gospel, not this small group of people who call themselves Christians, but all creation has the manifest witness of God. They know two things.

They know His power, and they know His holiness. Psalm 19, by the way, which is a parallel to Psalm 8, has a creation hymn. It is in Psalm 19 that the writer declares the creation declares. The Hebrew word says it continues to speak forth the glory of God. There’s not a tongue, there’s not a tribe, there’s not a place in the world where you can’t erect a wall, you can’t build a means of keeping, there’s no radar system to keep out that revelation. All tribes, all people, whether or not they’ve ever heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, they have a revelation. And it is a revelation of the glory of this God.

That doesn’t save people, and that doesn’t get us off the hook for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to every tribe. That specific revelation of God’s fulfillment in Jesus. But what it does say is no people in any place in this creation are not aware by the very manifest presence. You remember when Paul went to Athens? Here’s a whole mountain full of gods, the god of this, the god of that, the god of beauty, the god of this and that.

And then they had a statue which was unto the unknown god. And when Paul walked among them, he said, “I want to tell you about the real God. The God who’s before qualities like beauty or intelligence or warring. I want to tell you about the real God, the God of creation.” Because you see, all mankind has this.

Abraham, the Bible tells us Abraham’s father was a maker of idols. Abraham didn’t know anything about the God of law and the God of revelation, other than he walked out under this starry cloud, and he saw the starry sky and he saw this manifest. Just must have been a night just like David had. And Abraham saw this, and he walked in in disgust and started, at least the tradition tells us, he started pulling the idols off the shelf of his father’s shop.

Saying, “These are not God. There is a God who made this.” And God took him, as Romans 1 says, God will take you from faith to faith. And I’ll tell you, I’m this simple, sir. And if this upsets you, I’m sorry. I believe any man in the darkest regions of Africa who’s never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, if he will respond to that initial revelation, God will lead him from that step, from faith to faith, to faith, to faith, to faith, until he gets the specific revelation. I believe that. I believe God’s duty-bound to do that. Now, that doesn’t let me off the hook, and it doesn’t mean I’m not going to go and preach and teach and train up workers to reach the lost in every nation of the world.

But it means this. I believe in a God whose voice is heard in every country, in every tribe, in every place. It’s only a general revelation. It’s a revelation of His power. But if they’ll act upon that, God’s going to take them the next step. And we have so many stories in the tradition of Christian literature of people who did exactly that.

Little Sammy Morris, born in the darkest corner of Africa, who had never had a revelation of Christ, did exactly what Abraham did. Walked out under the stars, had a personal revelation of a God who had made all of this, and God began leading him by the Holy Spirit until when he finally met a white man for the first time and heard the “Gospel” for the first time, he already knew more about the Holy Spirit than they did.

Do you need to understand something? God’s in charge of this, not the Assemblies of God, not some missions organization. God’s in charge of this task. And it’s far bigger than your little concepts. It’s far bigger than the little rolled-out plans of “let’s get the gospel to every home” or “let’s do this” or “let’s do that.”

It’s a much bigger thing, and the best we can do is to cooperate with a scheme that’s 10,000 times bigger than our minds could even imagine. God reveals Himself, and of course, you’re part of that revelation. And it’s so important that we take that step as well. It has been revealed from the beginning of creation.

It’s a revelation of His power and His holiness, but man has to move beyond that. And, of course, the second part of what David saw that night in this psalm was that God not only made man and revealed Himself to man, but also visited man. And here’s where you and I need to understand this holy, powerful God who forms galaxies.

I like David’s words. He flicks off the galaxies from his fingers. I love that phrase. He makes the moon, the stars, and all this stuff with his fingers and flicks it out into the galaxies. That God, David says, will you please explain to me why he not only cares for mankind but also visits him.

It’s interesting because in the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, which was the first combined section of the Hebrew Scriptures, it was translated into Greek before any Hebrew, Hebraic bringing together of the Scriptures was made. And in the Septuagint, this word “visits” is the word “episkopos,” from which we get “episcopal” or “bishop.”

But do you know what the word means? It means “overseas.” So it’s not just a word that means God sees us or God sees who we are. No, God visits us. He takes superintendence of our lives. That’s the strange thing. I wish every believer would wake up to understand that you’re not just standing by that guy in line incidentally.

You weren’t placed beside that person in a restaurant incidentally. You didn’t just happen to get delayed at the airport with those people incidentally. This God, who makes all of this, visits this humanity. He takes superintendence. That’s the word. He takes charge. He takes oversight of their lives. It was Jesus who gave us the word about God, and it bothered the religious people.

You can imagine it when this Jesus began calling this holy, almighty God, whose name they wouldn’t even pronounce, when Jesus began calling Him Father. And of course, the frame of reference of that was far deeper than just the unique and unrepeatable experience that Jesus had with the Father. But it was His way of teaching us, because when we said to Him, “Would you teach us to pray?” He said, “You begin praying by saying what?”

“Our Father.” So the whole principle of this psalm is both recognition and revelation. Revelation not only about who man is, but a revelation of a God who designs and makes all of this but who cares enough to come down and superintend an individual set of circumstances because he cares for humanity. I guess until you can walk in that dilemma, in that paradox.

See, some of us are so raised in this kind of religious thing that we take all of this for granted. “Of course, Jesus loves me. I’ve been singing it since I was a child. Jesus loves me, this I know.” In fact, God’s really pretty fortunate to have me on the team. It’s really a neat thing that I make a decision for Jesus.

And we have all this language behind us.

And some of you will probably never be able to face this kind of thing. You probably wouldn’t even, it wouldn’t even be in your mind to walk out with David under the stars in this kind of circumstance and to be hit in the face with the paradox of a God who chooses to use us in the midst of all of this.

And be overwhelmed, absolutely floored with the fact that God would care to relate to us in that kind of intimacy. This kind of a God who says, “I want to dwell with you. I want to inhabit you. I want to superintend your life. I want to be involved in you.” And that paradox, you know, if you don’t grasp the paradox, then the truth isn’t really important, is it?

It’s only in the paradox that the truth is blown into our hearts and into our minds. And it’s out of that then that we begin to walk, both with a sense of confidence but with a sense of understanding of the brokenness, the incompletion. We walk with it because we understand what God is at work, both in our lives and in the world.

Let’s bow our heads in prayer, please.

Father, we bow our heads and our hearts in this moment, absolutely overwhelmed by Your majesty and power. You are a God of omnipotence who could form, shape, or do anything the way You choose to do it. And yet, You have taken this involvement with mankind as a direction, as a way. We don’t understand that.

It’s staggering. Lord, help us this morning, even to be honest in the midst of that, as David was, to say, “Why would You speak through babes and infants? Why would You choose to visit a man, a man made in such a minute, totally irrelevant place, when You compare it to this creation?” But God, You do. That’s the point.

You do. And You are involved. And You do care. And You are visiting us. And we ask for two things, Lord, this morning. First of all, speak to us about people. Speak to us about our attitudes. Speak to us about how easily we’re sidetracked into seeing men and women involved with lifestyle and issues that constantly seem to turn us off from the real point of truth.

And then, Lord, we need that word spoken about us personally this morning, every one of us. That You’ve placed us in authority and chosen to work with us and to work through us. And even in the midst of our incompletion, You wish to glorify Yourself in this regard. Father, we wish to receive that now. In Jesus’ name, would You stand with me please at your seats?

With our heads bowed just in this moment, but standing as we are, I wonder if there are some of you this morning who would say, in acknowledgment of God’s truth in your life, that you’ve lost the sense of the value of human beings, and you’ve begun to put people into categories to such a degree that you fail to speak and see and understand. But the God of this whole creation has chosen to work through this vessel, this broken vessel. God needs to do a work in your life this morning in reference to humanity. Would you just raise your hand anywhere in this building? That’s something you identify with, yeah, God bless you, God bless you.

Evangelism isn’t trying to add people to our church. Evangelism isn’t trying even to save souls. Evangelism is to redeem people, to bring people into God’s purpose in their life. Secondly, how many of you this morning need again, like David, to understand that even though it’s a miracle and even though it doesn’t make sense, God chooses to work through you and you need to receive that this morning.

You need to understand hope. That which isn’t fulfilled, it isn’t complete, and yet God has made a choice, and you need that word for your own life. Would you lift your hand? That’s where you are this morning, all over, God bless you. God is speaking that word to you, to embrace and understand God’s mindfulness of you, God’s care, God’s choice to bring you into a place in which you’re in charge.

That’s His will for you. Would you take the hand of the person beside you? Don’t bother to go across the aisle. Just in each section of the pews, so that we can end this with just a moment, and establish it before the Lord prayerfully. Father, we enter into this final moment of prayer in this service to ask You to fulfill the word of truth in our lives.

And to give us, Lord, a clear and fulfilled understanding both of Your use of us in spite of our miserableness. We are infants, we are sucklings, we are the least. But You have made a choice, You have ordained Your praise and purpose in this way. And secondly, Lord, that You would enlarge our hearts toward our neighbors and the people we see in this world, and You would fulfill Your purpose in their lives.

Lord, I thank You that by Your grace You will complete that and give us a sense of the wonder that David felt, embracing Your majesty and embracing Your purpose. I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. God bless you. You’re dismissed. Amen.

While watching a safari in Africa, uh, we were leisurely strolling towards a, uh, rope bridge that was over a great canyon when suddenly a lion sprung out of the forest and began pursuing them. And of course, they took off running with all the might they had to try to get to that rope bridge before the lion did, thinking the lion probably wouldn’t pursue them across the bridge.

And as they were running, it became obvious that they weren’t going to make it. So, one turned to the other and said, “If you have any prayers, you better start praying them now.” And, uh, this man was in such a panic-stricken state, all he could think of was to say, “Dear Lord, for what we are about to receive, we thank you.”

When I think about where we are today in prophecy and what’s going on in our world, I wonder if Christians have that kind of attitude. Because indeed, what is happening in our world is most interesting. Have you heard? I only heard it once, and then it wasn’t spoken again, but it was on a very good commentator, a very good news commentator whom I take a great deal of respect for, and who said there will be 250,000 American troops in Saudi Arabia by the time the buildup that is now going on is completed.

250,000 troops. Even though we’re getting a little bit ahead with help from some of the Arab countries, you notice that what they have had to say about our presence there is less than exciting. If my dad were alive today, I know what he’d be doing. He’d be sitting with his nose glued to the television set.

If you would have told anyone in this nation 20 years ago that a spot of desert area that was just basically inhabited by Bedouins would be the focus of world attention and everybody would know that area, and we’d be studying military maps of that area, people would say you were foolish. There was no way that could happen.

And of course, today, the major military maps that are being studied are of a land that the Bible calls Mesopotamia. You’ve seen that word in the Old Testament. In fact, the Tigris-Euphrates River, which is now a military discussion, is where civilization began. The Garden of Eden was probably right there.

And you see, Iraq is the twelfth nation to be built upon a foundation that was laid there. Iraq is now in the same foundation as a land built according to Genesis 11 by a man named Nimrod. And Nimrod built that place in order, he said, to make a name for himself and to rebel against God, to build a tower unto heaven.

You remember the result: God confused the languages and the place was called what from then on? Babel, or Babylon. Babylon becomes the biblical statement of everything that has to do with Antichrist, anti-God. In fact, when this whole thing is over, according to Revelation, the final cataclysmic judgment of God will be upon Babylon.

So you see, Iraq, and dear friend Saddam Hussein, is building upon a foundation of Antichrist feelings. In fact, all occult religion, including the New Age, is built on the foundation of Shinar and the cults of Babylon, the cult of Tammuz, Nimrod’s supposedly supernaturally conceived son, born to his wife, Semiramis.

That’s the theme of all occult religions, and the cross that you see so many people wearing, even in our culture today, is really the symbol of Tammuz. The background of all religion that is Antichrist. Well, that’s pretty important. When you’re watching the facts that are before you, please keep that one in mind.

That’s Babylon. Iraq is Babylon. And remember that Saddam Hussein thinks he’s in the direct line of descent from Nebuchadnezzar. He’s going to rebuild the Babylonian Empire, and he has said that he, like Nebuchadnezzar, will tear down Jerusalem block by block. That’s his commitment. But, of course, what’s happened this week is interesting, but that doesn’t break my heart so much.

I know what’s going to happen, and so do you if you read the Bible. Ezekiel 38 and 39 are very clear. Russia will head an alliance of Arab and African nations to destroy Israel, and they will come against Israel in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39. If you carefully take your newspapers and absent the nations who refused to sign the United Arab Agreement, if you take the nations who refused, you will find their names in Ezekiel 38 and 39. They are the nations that will support Russia in its attack against Israel. All of those things are for you to understand. But they don’t break my heart as much as what… is subtle.

Are you really a listener? Do you really understand the times in which you live? I ask you that because the really subtle thing that has happened in the last two weeks, which is far more obvious than anything else, is that you have seen in these two weeks that America will do anything to protect its economy.

We will not be without oil. Now take one step with me from that point. Why, when Russia and these nations come against Israel, does the Bible say there is no Gentile nation standing with Israel? How is it possible that the United States, who has all these treaties with Israel, will not honor them in the moment that these nations come against Israel?

Answer: Oil, we will break every covenant to keep our lifestyle. We will stand with whoever we have to stand with. And my dear friend, if you have been watching at all these days, you have seen the Achilles’ heel of American society. We will have oil at whatever cost, in terms of people or whatever. And I’m not making any reflection upon Mr. Bush at this point. I’m simply saying to you, don’t you see the bottom line? Why we will not stand with Israel? When the chips are down, when the rubber hits the road, when the final conflict begins, we’re going to be absent. One of our elders brought a word to us in the elders’ meeting, and it was decided we needed to share that with you.

And I’m going to ask Chris to come real quickly and just, uh, in a few sentences, share and synopsize these words the Lord gave to him because I think they’re significant for us in this moment of time. I think this is very important for us. In 1 Chronicles chapter 12, the scripture says something interesting about the men of Issachar. They were men who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do. And I’ve been praying, my prayer from my heart, and the prayer from my heart for the church is that we would become men and women who have an understanding of the times, that we would understand what the church ought to do.

And, uh, I believe that, especially, I really appreciate Pastor Howard’s encouragement toward our being globally aware of what’s going on in the world around us. And, uh, I want to read to you quickly the words that came to me that morning. There will be some dark days coming upon this world and upon this nation. Days of upheaval and confusion. The nations will rage, and the kingdoms will totter, and peoples will plot in vain. And these are but the beginning of birth pangs. This will be a time of purification and fruitful ministry for the church. A great harvest of souls will come in as the nations are shaken. The Lord of the harvest will equip the saints for the work of the ministry and send them out into his harvest where the laborers are few. The call to the church is to be awake and be sober, and since we are of the day, we are to be sober and put on the breastplate of faith and the helmet of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we awake or sleep, we might live with him. And I just wanted to encourage you with that scripture out of 1 Thessalonians. It says we are not of the darkness, we’re not of the night, but we’re of the day. So that day will not surprise us like a thief. The dark days of turmoil and upheaval ahead will simply set the stage for a short period of false peace and one-world government from which will arise the man of sin who, in the midst of a great rebellion, will create a fool’s paradise, a strong delusion to make the world believe what is false. And by pretended signs and wonders and great power, if the days were not shortened, even the elect would be deceived. And, uh, the man of lawlessness will make war on the saints for a short time until the return of the Lord with his holy angels. And I just wanted to share that with you guys. Amen. Just a second, Chris.

You, you, uh, you shared with us something else that I think is the bottom line to this. That we’re to be watchful and that the Lord would also speak a word of peace and fearlessness to the people. Would you just summarize that in a couple of sentences? I felt that, uh… We had a, we had a, uh, a phrase that we used to use when we were sailing. It was called keeping a weather eye open. And you’re always looking to the direction where the weather is coming from. And when you’re out there and you’re vulnerable out at sea, wherever the weather’s coming from, anything that’s going to impact you is going to come from that direction. So when you’re sailing, you’re always keeping an eye cocked out for the weather to see anything that might be coming your direction on the horizon.

And I really feel there’s a call to the church to keep our weather eye open and watch what’s brewing on the horizon because there are storm clouds gathering. And I really appreciate Pastor Howard’s emphasis. Also, this will be a time of purification and real fruitful ministry for the church. And I believe that we’re going to see, as the issues in the world are polarized and the nations are shaken, and people’s securities are shaken, it’s going to be a marvelous time of ministry and an in-gathering of people that are ready to receive the Lord. And I think there’s a key role for the church in that. Praise God. Brother Mylon, we will have to… To move this, uh, table, please, and, uh, being done that, we, we, in this particular period of time, need to be awakened by the sense, not just only the sense of the destiny the Scriptures have involved, but the sense of what we are to do.

I’m convinced that the people of God, the real people of God, the real church of Jesus Christ, even in the greatest persecution, moves through it with such victory that they only look back and see that it was persecution. I believe this is the most exciting moment we have ahead. But you are living in a fool’s paradise if you don’t understand how climactic these events are and what direction they point to.

And that’s, uh, that’s the real key. We’re going to be off…