Citing and Reconciling Apparent Injustices: Jesus Warns That Heinous Acts Are Not Any More Deserved by the Victims Than by Anyone of Us. Numerous Other Examples of Peculiar Passages That Exemplify the Mind of God Reading a Person's Heart and Patiently Directing Events for Jonah, James, Abraham, Joseph, etc. For Helene's Present Disaster, Let's Not Assign Blame; Rather, Let Us Pray
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00:00I'll speak to you for the scripture for just a minute.
00:02And if you have your Bibles, I'd like you to turn with me.
00:05If you would tonight, the book of Luke chapter 13.
00:19Luke chapter number 13 and verse one.
00:23There were present at that season,
00:25some that told him of the Galileans,
00:28whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
00:32And Jesus answering said to them,
00:33suppose ye that these Galileans
00:35were sinners above all the Galileans,
00:38because they suffered such things?
00:40I tell you nay, but except ye repent,
00:45ye shall likewise perish.
00:50Or these 18 upon whom the tower of Siloam fell
00:53and slew them, think ye that they were sinners
00:56above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
00:58I tell you nay, but except ye repent,
01:01ye shall all likewise perish.
01:03Father, bless your word now, your holy name, amen.
01:07You can be seated.
01:09The way I'm gonna approach the Bible tonight
01:10will be a little different.
01:12I'm gonna pull out segments of scripture.
01:14Folks, I believe the Bible.
01:17I know you hear this all the time,
01:18but I'm a Bible believer.
01:20I'm a Bible believer before I'm a Baptist
01:22or a Methodist or a Presbyterian or any of that.
01:25I'm a Bible believer.
01:27And when I come to portions of the Bible
01:28that don't necessarily fit with Orthodox theology
01:33as it relates to some denomination,
01:36the denomination can go.
01:38I'm gonna stick with the book.
01:40I believe the Bible.
01:42But leaving the Bible,
01:43there's gonna be portions of the scripture
01:45that don't necessarily make a lot of sense at times.
01:48Could be that it'll never make sense for me in this life.
01:52Could be that God intends to tell me later
01:54when I'm ready for it.
01:56He may teach me.
01:57The Lord told his disciples.
01:58He said, there are many more things I'd like to say unto you
02:00but you're not ready for it yet.
02:02And so we understand that from scripture.
02:05We do get arrogant.
02:06That's our human nature.
02:09And so we have to watch out for that.
02:12Now, the Lord told him in the book of Luke chapter 13,
02:14he said, these are bad things that happen to people.
02:17And he said, don't think for a minute
02:18that it didn't happen to you because you were good.
02:21See, this is the point here.
02:23See, this is the point.
02:26No, no, it could happen to you too, he said.
02:29So except you repent, you can likewise perish.
02:34Good, bad things do happen to good people.
02:37Now, I don't know about you,
02:39but folks, I cannot get what happened to these,
02:42our folks up here in Western North Carolina, East Tennessee,
02:46the areas around here.
02:47I can't get it off my mind.
02:48The more I see, the more it humbles me, if nothing else.
02:53But God's been good to me.
02:55He's been good to me.
02:57I haven't watched one of my children get washed away.
03:01I haven't watched my parents or grandparents
03:03or one of my, or my wife or my husband or whatever
03:07get washed away, my family members, my loved ones.
03:10I haven't watched that.
03:10I haven't seen that.
03:12I haven't seen dead bodies lying
03:14on the side of the hills next to the lakes.
03:18I talked to Greg Lentz today and he told me,
03:21he said, bodies are in trees.
03:23And he said, the bodies are lying on the sides
03:25of the creeks and rivers and they can't get to them.
03:30And there's no telling what is in the back parts
03:32of these hills.
03:33We're talking about hills in Western North Carolina
03:36and East Tennessee, identical terrain, practically.
03:40And there's a lot of areas that are not easy to get to.
03:45And probably tonight, there's some people in there
03:47that are hurt and they haven't had medical attention yet.
03:51There's some people in there that are hungry
03:52and they have no power, so it's darkness for them.
03:55No food.
03:57And children, they were asking today for food
04:00for the children, baby formula and so forth.
04:04And you know, little children don't know anything
04:06about this.
04:07All they know is that they're hungry.
04:10It's very important that we understand
04:11how we approach something like this, how we deal with it.
04:15I talked to Greg Lentz.
04:17I trust him.
04:18He's a good man.
04:20And he has a ministry in North Carolina.
04:21He lives in Asheville.
04:23And he has a warehouse over there.
04:26And he said, by the grace of God, it was spared.
04:29His warehouse was spared, and so he's able to,
04:32you know, he's put up things that he uses.
04:34He said his camp was essentially wiped out.
04:37And he said to me that, he said,
04:40if you have anybody in the church that would like to work,
04:43they'd like to help, he said, I've got plenty to do.
04:45We can put them to work.
04:47And you know, young man, young woman,
04:50if you have the time, that would be a good thing.
04:52Of course, you have to be savvy about what you do.
04:54You gotta figure out how you're gonna get there.
04:55And you gotta figure out, you gotta communicate.
04:58You gotta know what's going on.
04:59Where am I?
05:00How am I gonna get to such and such a place?
05:02What do I need?
05:03And so forth, all these things.
05:05You need to know that.
05:06But our church has helped them.
05:09And I'm glad that we were able to.
05:12These are the kind of things that we're supposed to do.
05:15If you see these people, they're in need.
05:17They're in great need.
05:19And I hope nobody tries to make political gain from it.
05:23I hope no one tries to use them, you know,
05:27as chess pieces on a chessboard.
05:30I just hope that everybody that deals with them
05:33deals with them with a heart that cares for them.
05:37Democrat or Republican, independent,
05:38whatever, making a difference,
05:39that you wanna help these people because they need help.
05:44And so what I'm gonna show you tonight from scripture
05:47is some things that I just want you to see
05:49that the Bible says things sometimes that,
05:53you know, that just,
05:56you just have to take it for what it says.
05:58For example, 1 Peter 5, it says,
05:59"'The same afflictions are accomplished
06:02"'in your brethren that are in the world.'"
06:04Now, why would he say accomplished?
06:07Well, he says accomplished because Satan's
06:08the god of this world.
06:10He has the authority and power over this world.
06:12He offered the kingdom of this world
06:13to the Lord, Jesus Christ.
06:16So he has power.
06:19You can't blame the devil, on the other hand,
06:21for everything that happens.
06:24We have a tendency to make everything simple.
06:28The Bible's not a simple book, folks.
06:30The Bible is a complex book.
06:32This is why I say I'm a Bible believer.
06:34There are portions of the scripture
06:36that just aren't easy to understand.
06:40This is what the apostle Peter said.
06:42He said, some scriptures are hard to be understood.
06:45In the book of Acts, chapter number 12, in verse one,
06:47about that time, Herod the king stretched forth his hands
06:50to vex certain of the church, he killed James,
06:52the brother of John, with a sword.
06:55This is an apostle.
06:58This is one of the 12.
07:00Peter, James, and John, you remember them?
07:04He killed him.
07:05This is Caesar.
07:07Remember this.
07:08Always remember Caesar.
07:10Remember that.
07:11Remember that.
07:13Remember that Caesar, and here he is.
07:20He killed him.
07:21I'm sure a lot of them said, now why?
07:23How did he end up like this?
07:25I mean, he loved the Lord Jesus.
07:27He was one of the 12.
07:29And yet here he is being slaughtered with a sword
07:33at the hands of the government.
07:35It happens.
07:36In the book of James, chapter number one, verse two,
07:40it says, the trying of your faith worketh patience.
07:45Did you know that God never gets in a hurry?
07:47You ever notice that?
07:50He doesn't.
07:50He doesn't get in a hurry.
07:52He doesn't.
07:53A person, apparently, who gets in a hurry
07:55is somebody who didn't consider all the consequences,
07:58make all the choices, and is afraid that he left
08:00something out, and so he's gonna have to use haste
08:04to get it done.
08:06That's not the Lord God.
08:08He doesn't get in a hurry.
08:10And he doesn't want us to get in a hurry.
08:13I know people will come along and they'll say,
08:15well, all these people are dying and going to hell.
08:17Well, God knows all about that.
08:19And I also know the power of the gospel.
08:21And I know that my meaning well,
08:23and my whatever I might attach to that
08:26is not gonna make a difference
08:28more than what the word of God would make.
08:30I'm responsible to get his word out.
08:33You're begotten by the word, you see,
08:35not by emotion and not by well-meaning.
08:38First Peter says, he says,
08:41rejoice in as much as your partakers of Christ suffering,
08:44that when his glory shall be revealed,
08:46you may be glad with exceeding joy.
08:49We are called upon at times to suffer.
08:51Now, in the early church, they suffered martyrdom.
08:53We know that message, a whole message could be preached
08:57about the martyrdom of my brothers and my sisters.
09:00Every time I look at that Colosseum in Rome
09:02and what's left of it, I love old things.
09:06I do.
09:08I don't like it when they start tearing down
09:10historical places to build a bunch of apartments
09:12or whatever.
09:13I love old things because that takes you back in time.
09:16It establishes you where you are.
09:19And the Colosseum, though it was a place of murder,
09:23sacrifice, death, dying, blood and sorrow,
09:27it also takes you back to the time 2000 years ago of Rome.
09:33And the witness that came out of that Colosseum
09:36converted many, many, many, many people.
09:40Yes, it did.
09:41That's where the true faith of Christ was put to the test
09:44and it shined.
09:46Yes, it did.
09:47The testimony of some of those martyrs is amazing
09:50at what they said before they died for our Lord Jesus Christ
09:53so keep that in mind.
09:55In the book of Jonah, it gives you the thinking
09:58of a, let's just say a pagan.
10:02The book of Jonah chapter number one
10:04and verse number five, for example,
10:07the mariners were afraid and cried every man to his God
10:09and cast forth the wares that were in the ship to the sea
10:12to tighten, to lighten it of them.
10:14They were scared to death
10:15because there was a tempest in the sea
10:17and plain words, a hurricane or a water spout,
10:20a tornado in the sea.
10:22But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship.
10:25He lay and was fast asleep.
10:28So the ship master came to him and said unto him,
10:31what meanest thou, O sleeper?
10:35Yeah, you remember in the New Testament
10:37and the book of, out there on the Sea of Galilee
10:40when the storm arose?
10:43Who was asleep in the hold of the ship?
10:46That's right.
10:47What meanest thou, O sleeper?
10:48Rise and call upon thy God.
10:51If so be that God will think upon us that we perish not.
10:56And they said, every one to his fellow,
10:58come and let us cast lots
11:00that we may know for whose cause
11:03this evil is come upon us.
11:05So what it means is that
11:06even though a man never darkens a church door,
11:08he does have a sense of justice about him.
11:12He has a sense of accountability.
11:14Yes, he does.
11:15He does.
11:15I remember when my grandmother and grandfather used to say,
11:18I heard it many times from them, he's no count.
11:22Anybody's ever heard that?
11:24I didn't say no account, no count.
11:27But what that meant was no account.
11:29And what that means is they won't give an account
11:32of their life and who they are.
11:35See, they answer to no one.
11:36That's the bottom line.
11:38And so they call them no count.
11:40You know something, folks, I do believe, honestly,
11:42the people 7,500 years ago had a better take
11:44on human nature than they do today.
11:46How many believe that?
11:48I really do.
11:48I really do.
11:49I mean, back then,
11:54they called a bum a bum.
11:57Say, what's a bum?
11:58Well, you've heard them called
11:59a lot of different things today.
12:01But anyway,
12:03if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not,
12:07come, let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause
12:10this evil has come upon us.
12:12So they cast lots and the lot fell upon Jonah.
12:14Now, here we go.
12:16These people don't have a Bible.
12:17They don't know the Lord.
12:19Yet they have the sense in their conscience
12:21that they're following the only light they've got.
12:24You see, the sense of justice, the sense of right.
12:26They're saying to themselves,
12:28there's got to be some reason for this storm coming up.
12:31So they have to have reason.
12:33And so it comes to Jonah because the Bible says,
12:36he had told them why he was taking this trip,
12:39verse number 10.
12:42Sometimes it pays to keep your mouth shut.
12:46It's got Jonah in trouble.
12:47Here they come after him.
12:49And they didn't know Jonah's God,
12:51but they didn't want to make Jonah's God mad.
12:54You see, these are pagans.
12:57They didn't know the true and living God,
12:59but they were doing the best they could with what they had.
13:02Now, how many of you remember what God called Jonah to do?
13:04What was God's message to Jonah?
13:06Where was God gonna send him?
13:08That's right.
13:09Where?
13:10Nineveh.
13:11All right, now, Nineveh was one of those big cities
13:13in the Old Testament,
13:15but it was also the capital of a country.
13:19You know what it was?
13:21That's right.
13:23Then you know who these people were as it related to Israel?
13:26They're the enemy.
13:28The enemy.
13:30So God said, I want you to go to Nineveh,
13:33the capital of your enemy,
13:35and I want you to go over there
13:35and I want you to preach to them.
13:38And Jonah no doubt said, now, look here.
13:41I mean, you must be putting me to the test.
13:44Why in the world would you want me to go to my enemy
13:47and preach to them?
13:48But you see, it's like Nebuchadnezzar in the Old Testament
13:50when God put him in the field for seven years
13:53and he ate straw and grass like an ox
13:57until he learned that Jehovah of the Jew
14:02was a sovereign God that raised up one king
14:05and put another one down.
14:07And he had learned that.
14:10God had his reason for that.
14:12And he has his reason for this.
14:14And sometimes the reason's not apparent,
14:17but there was a reason for it.
14:19And so they did what they were told to do
14:22and God spared them.
14:24In the book of Acts, you heard this story a thousand times
14:30in verse one, Acts 28.
14:32And when they were escaped,
14:33they knew that the island was called Melita.
14:35This is Malta.
14:36I've been to Malta when I was in the military
14:40on the Mediterranean, we went to Malta.
14:42There was a British aircraft carrier there at the time.
14:45I'll never forget this.
14:48We were at Malta and Malta,
14:51I think it's a British protectorate
14:53or it's connected with the,
14:57what do they call it?
14:58The nations, the, I forget now what it is.
15:01It's called, it came out of the old British empire.
15:06But anyway, all they wanted to do was fight.
15:10They wanted to fight us Yankees.
15:13So I'll never forget that.
15:16How many of you, you don't think that means anything?
15:20That means a lot because I remember it because of that.
15:23Because at night, the people of Malta to this day
15:27get out in the streets and you cannot move your car
15:30around that island.
15:31They're walking through the streets.
15:34It was an entirely different culture than this one.
15:37Everybody, every place is not America, folks.
15:41When you're in the military,
15:42you learn to see a lot of places
15:44that are nothing like this place.
15:46When I got off that aircraft in Okinawa,
15:48I knew I was in a foreign country.
15:50I did, buddy.
15:51It was foreign in every sense of the word.
15:55And you learn a lot of things.
15:56That prepares you to know how to judge things
16:00of your own culture and to watch how they change over time.
16:05There's so many things that have happened in my culture,
16:07my country, let's put it that way, my country,
16:10that astounds me for it to have happened the way it did.
16:15For it to have happened the way it did.
16:18But these people, called Malita,
16:21they were a barbarous people.
16:23They showed us no little kindness.
16:25In other words, this is a way of saying
16:26they were very kind to us,
16:27even though they were barbarians.
16:30For they kindled a fire, received us everyone
16:32because of the present rain and because of the cold.
16:35And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks
16:38and laid them on the fire,
16:40there came a viper out of the heat
16:42and fastened on his hand.
16:45And when the barbarians saw that,
16:46the venomous beast hang on his hand,
16:48they said among themselves,
16:49no doubt this man is a murderer.
16:52See, they jumped to conclusions.
16:56Whom though he hath escaped the sea,
16:58yet vengeance suffereth not to live.
17:01So here we go.
17:02See how quickly decisions are made in ignorance.
17:06This is what happens if you don't know the Lord,
17:07if you don't have a Bible.
17:09This is what's wrong in America.
17:11You go into the polling booths
17:12and you go every four years through the cycles
17:14and the culture and all of that.
17:16And the reason you see America going this way
17:18is because they don't have this.
17:20Right here, folks, this book.
17:23This makes all the difference in the world.
17:26And so the scripture says, no doubt he's a murderer,
17:29but the scripture says he shook off the beast
17:31into the fire and felt no harm.
17:34How be it?
17:35They looked when he should have swollen
17:37or fallen down dead suddenly,
17:40but after they had looked a great while,
17:41they sat there, no doubt, and stared at him
17:45and saw no harm come to him.
17:47They changed their minds and said that he was a God.
17:50See how quickly, see how quickly they change?
17:53Well, this is the culture in America tonight, folks.
17:56This is a pagan culture.
17:58It'll change in a heartbeat.
18:00Don't be surprised.
18:03Then if you don't see some profound changes
18:05take place in the next few days,
18:06you are living in different times.
18:09And I believe that it is accelerating.
18:12Yes, I do.
18:14Yes, I do.
18:15So they thought he was a God.
18:18Genesis chapter number 20,
18:19now I want you to look at this.
18:21Chapter number 20 and verse three.
18:23But God came to Abimelech,
18:25father of gods, what that means, Abimelech,
18:28in a dream by night said to him,
18:29behold, thou art but a dead man.
18:32For the woman which thou hast taken,
18:33for she is a man's wife,
18:36he had taken her into his harem.
18:40Her who?
18:40Sarah, the wife of Abraham.
18:44Now look how God deals with him and Abimelech
18:47as compared to how he deals with Egypt.
18:51When Joseph was there, look at this.
18:54But Abimelech had not come near her and he said,
18:58Lord, wilt thou also slay a righteous nation?
19:03Why did he say that?
19:05What event had taken place right before this?
19:08Why would he say that to God?
19:10Will you slay a righteous nation?
19:13That's it, somebody said it.
19:14Sodom and Gomorrah.
19:17That became the news, folks, quickly.
19:20That spread like wildfire.
19:23God rained fire and brimstone down upon Sodom and Gomorrah.
19:27Note how he said this.
19:29Wilt thou also slay a righteous nation?
19:33What's he saying?
19:34He's saying we know that Sodom and Gomorrah was unrighteous.
19:38They're filthy.
19:40That's what he's saying.
19:41But we're not.
19:43We're not Sodom, we're not Sodomites.
19:45We're different.
19:47And here's what the Lord said to him now.
19:49It's very revealing.
19:52And so would you slay a righteous nation?
19:55Said he, nodding to me, she's my sister.
19:57He's telling the truth.
19:58And she, even she herself said, he's my brother.
20:01And that's the truth.
20:03You and I both know that we're talking about
20:05half sister and half brother here,
20:06if you'd studied a little Bible.
20:08He is my brother, in the integrity of my heart
20:11and innocency of my hands have I done this.
20:14That's the truth, he did.
20:15And God said unto him in a dream,
20:17yea, I know that thou didst this
20:20in the integrity of thy heart.
20:23Now here we go.
20:24We've got a pagan nation, no Bible,
20:27nothing like that exists.
20:28We're looking at 1900 BC.
20:31Yet here we have Abimelech, who is saying,
20:34Lord, I've served you and I haven't broken your law.
20:38Far as I know, I haven't broken them.
20:39If I have, show me what's going wrong here.
20:43And he said, I know that you did it
20:45in the integrity of your heart,
20:46for I also withheld thee from sinning against me.
20:51Now that's quite a statement.
20:53Now look at this.
20:54Therefore, suffered I thee not to touch her.
20:58In plain words, he says, I will,
21:00God says, I know your motive.
21:02I know you wanted to do the right thing by her
21:05and by Abraham.
21:06And so therefore, no traps were allowed
21:08to be laid in your path,
21:10nothing to snare you, nothing to mess you up, see?
21:14Because when you choose the wrong path,
21:16there'll be many traps laid in your path.
21:19Oh yeah, many things to mess you up, big time.
21:23Look what he says to them.
21:24Now therefore, restore the man his wife,
21:27for he's a prophet.
21:29And he shall pray for thee,
21:31and thou shalt live.
21:34And if thou restore her not,
21:36know that thou shalt surely die,
21:38thou and all that are thine.
21:40So what do you think Abimelech did?
21:44You better believe it.
21:45No, you better,
21:47the fact is, when you go and continue to read the Bible,
21:49he excoriated Abraham for the way he treated him,
21:53for what he'd said to him.
21:54Yeah, he did, didn't hold any words back.
21:57He told him.
21:58But you see, here's the message.
22:00The message is, Abimelech, you're not the chosen people,
22:03you don't have the oracles of God,
22:04but you are following in the integrity of your heart
22:07what you know, and therefore I allow you to do that,
22:10and I'll keep you safe in the way you live your life.
22:13That's what he's saying to them.
22:15And that's a wonderful thing, don't you think?
22:18This is why we have Melchizedek,
22:22the priest of the Most High God.
22:23Melchizedek is his name.
22:26The priest of the Most High God.
22:27He comes to Abraham, 1900 BC, all right?
22:31He's the priest of Salem, Shalem, in the Old Testament.
22:35Moriah, who was it, somebody the other night
22:37was talking to Brother McDonald.
22:39He gave you a good message on Moriah.
22:41He's talking about that and the threshing floor of Arunah,
22:43the Jebusite, and all that.
22:45He said, yes, he said, yes, this happened,
22:49but I protected you, and I kept you.
22:52Now, you remember the Lord's prayer?
22:53Lead us not into temptation,
22:55but deliver us from evil.
22:57For thine is the kingdom and the power
22:58and the glory forever, amen.
23:00You realize in the integrity of your heart
23:02when you decide that you're gonna do the right thing
23:04with the Lord God, he'll protect you
23:06from an awful lot of garbage?
23:08He will, he will.
23:10But there are many snares laid for that one
23:12that chooses to rebel and turn from the Lord, amen.
23:15That's just the way it is.
23:17So, he said, and God said, restore him,
23:21but I like what God said about Abraham.
23:22He called him a prophet.
23:24He said, he'll pray for thee, and thou shalt live.
23:27Who was it in the Old Testament at a,
23:29he's a contemporary now, he's a contemporary of Abraham,
23:33that prayed for his counselors, his,
23:38somebody said it, Job, Job.
23:42And the Bible says when Job prayed for his counselors,
23:45or whatever you wanna call them,
23:47God turned the captivity of Job.
23:51Here's why.
23:52When he prayed for them,
23:55he was elevated to a higher level.
23:58He was given authority to be able to reach
24:01into the presence of God.
24:03This is what happens when you let God take your life
24:07and do what he wants to do with it.
24:08And he did, and so he prayed for him,
24:11and Abimelech went back to his business,
24:14and he was all right.
24:16Now, the final one we have is this one.
24:19And this is in the book of Genesis chapter 45,
24:22and verse seven.
24:24And if you study the life of Joseph,
24:26if you don't come away from it fully impressed
24:29with the character of this man,
24:31I don't know what it takes.
24:33Folks, there was only one Joseph in that Old Testament.
24:36And, you know, people have done a lot of research
24:39into it and study.
24:40Obviously, I think all of you would say
24:42that Joseph is a type of Christ.
24:44And some of us said, they've pointed out
24:46in over 100 different places,
24:49and ways, Joseph is a type of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24:52And he is.
24:53Not only is he a type of Christ,
24:55the progression of his life,
24:58and the way these things worked out,
25:00opens up the New Testament and our Lord Jesus.
25:03Remember now, Joseph is so much a type of Christ
25:06that the Jews, and I believe Gentiles,
25:11who believe that the Messiah, all right, the Mashiach,
25:14that comes back will be the son of David.
25:17How many of you believe that tonight?
25:19That's what it says in Matthew chapter one.
25:20The son of David, all right, that's the Messiah.
25:23But they don't get the first and the second coming right.
25:27The Jew has a problem with that.
25:29The Jew has a problem, they think when he came,
25:32if Christ had been the true Messiah 2,000 years ago,
25:35he should have broken the Gentile yoke,
25:39and driven the oppressor from the land,
25:41and elevated Israel to the rightful place.
25:45So, some of these sages, these Jewish sages,
25:49take this and they say, you know something,
25:52Joseph is a suffering, but he's also a Messiah figure,
25:56because he's the one who caused Israel to be able to live.
26:01If it wasn't for him, Israel would have died,
26:03let them go back into the land.
26:04So he is the Mashiach ben Yosef,
26:08and David was the king,
26:10and God made all these promises to David
26:12about the sure mercies of David,
26:13that he'll never fail of one of your seed,
26:15to sit on the throne of Israel, and all that.
26:17And so, David ben Mashiach,
26:21or David, the son of the Messiah, and he is.
26:25Now, that's the way they deal with the suffering Messiah,
26:29and the reigning Messiah.
26:31How do we deal with it?
26:32We deal with it simply.
26:34He came the first time to suffer, bleed, and die.
26:39He fulfilled the Joseph side, 2,000 years ago.
26:43But when he comes the second time,
26:44it won't be to suffer, bleed, and die.
26:47He'll come as a man of war,
26:50and that'll fulfill the David side.
26:52Both of them fulfilled in one man.
26:55You don't have to have two Messiahs.
26:57One Messiah, the Lord Jesus fulfills
26:59all the prophecies of the Messiah.
27:02Look what it says, though.
27:04Genesis 45, verse seven.
27:07God sent me before you,
27:09to preserve you a posterity in the earth.
27:13And to save your lives by great deliverance.
27:17Can you find me the place in the book of Genesis
27:19where you find that written, where God said that to him?
27:26Well, you won't.
27:27And that's not a trick question.
27:29It is that God communicated it to him.
27:33And no doubt, Joseph probably, maybe,
27:35asked the Lord, you know, Lord,
27:36I've done exactly what you wanted me to do.
27:40I am what you want me to be.
27:43And yet, look where I am.
27:46Joseph could only see the future
27:48as the one who makes the future revealed it to him.
27:52And he showed him the future.
27:54And this is what he tells them here.
27:56He said, God sent me before you
27:58to preserve you a posterity in the earth,
28:01and to save your lives by great deliverance.
28:04Now watch this, verse eight.
28:06So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God.
28:11See that?
28:13Who crucified our Lord Jesus Christ?
28:16I preached a message on that years ago.
28:19Who crucified him?
28:20And I brought in all the different parts
28:23involved in the crucifixion of the Son of God.
28:26Well, the Romans nailed him on the tree,
28:28but the Jews are the ones who turned him over to the Romans.
28:33But plainly, the Father gave his only begotten Son.
28:37And his work on the cross could not have been accomplished
28:40without the Holy Ghost.
28:43That's the power.
28:45So we have involved in the crucifixion of Christ
28:48far more than simply, you know,
28:50to try to gloss it over and say,
28:51well, he just simply died for sinners.
28:53Certainly he did,
28:54but there's a whole lot more going on than that.
28:56Now look what goes on here.
28:58It was not you that sent me hither, but God.
29:02And he hath made me a father to Pharaoh
29:04and the Lord of all his house.
29:08Good night.
29:09And a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
29:11You could have done that, but God.
29:14From a dungeon to this.
29:16He was in a dungeon.
29:17You remember the butler and the baker?
29:20From a dungeon, he was brought to this place, elevated.
29:25Literally, he said, he's made me a Lord
29:28over all the house and a father to Pharaoh.
29:31And I don't have far to push that on the Father's side.
29:34I'm not so sure that you take that in a religious context,
29:37but you might.
29:39In plain words, Pharaoh looked to me
29:41for his spiritual authority.
29:44He could be saying in this.
29:45But anyway, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
29:49Was he?
29:49Absolutely he was.
29:51Absolutely.
29:52Essentially the only difference between Joseph and Pharaoh,
29:55Joseph didn't sit on the throne with the crown,
29:59but he wielded the power.
30:02That's what he's saying.
30:04Haste ye and go up to my father and say unto him,
30:08thus saith thy son Joseph,
30:10God hath made me Lord of all Egypt.
30:13Come down unto me, tarry not.
30:19Now, there's a lot of snakes on YouTube.
30:24There are snakes on there.
30:25And I'm saying it like that because I want them to hear it.
30:30I won't be mean for a little while on that.
30:32These snakes are trying to accuse the people
30:35that live over there of what happened to them.
30:39If they'd had any sense, they'd have been out of there.
30:42They'd have been gone.
30:43Now, a lot of this rests on the simple fact,
30:45how much did the meteorologists know
30:47and how much did they say
30:50and how much warning came from them?
30:51I haven't done enough research into it to know.
30:54For example, if the meteorologist said,
30:57well, you're gonna get four or five inches.
30:59The creeks are gonna rise.
31:00There's maybe a little local flooding here and there.
31:03It's no big deal.
31:04This could happen, this could happen,
31:05this, that, this, that, this, that.
31:07Then if that's all the meteorologist had to say,
31:10they completely, totally missed it.
31:15Yes, they did.
31:16Now, it does say this tonight,
31:19if you'll think through with me.
31:20It does say this,
31:22that a good meteorologist is a good man to have around
31:26because he might save your life.
31:30He or she might be able to see what's coming.
31:33And if they are truly expert in their field,
31:36they might be able to say to you,
31:38well, you know, it could be four or five inches,
31:40but there's some elements up here.
31:42There's some stuff going on.
31:43This thing could stall out
31:46and you're liable to get feet of rain.
31:51Now, if that warning had been sent out,
31:53then don't you think that you'd pay attention to that?
31:57All right.
31:59Well, I'm speaking hypothetically because I don't know.
32:01I'm ignorant.
32:02There may be somebody out there that does know.
32:04It's a touchy thing
32:06because I'm not up here tonight to condemn the meteorologist.
32:09The meteorologist serves a good purpose,
32:11no question about that.
32:13And absolutely.
32:14So you have to keep that in mind.
32:19But to blame those people that live up there,
32:23to blame them,
32:24and to say that they should have had better sense
32:27and to blame them for the loss of their children
32:29and their families and their husbands and their wives
32:32and their mothers and fathers and grandparents
32:35is the lowest form.
32:37Yes, it is.
32:38That's as low as it gets.
32:40Now, I wanted that to go out.
32:43That's right.
32:44That's as low as it gets.
32:47What we should be doing
32:49is not tonight trying to figure out who's to blame.
32:53What we should be doing is praying.
32:56We'll leave the blame to the Almighty.
32:58He's the only one who can search the hearts.
33:01God's the only one that knows everything.
33:03I don't.
33:04And truth is, I don't wanna know.
33:06I just wanna do this.
33:07I wanna pray.
33:08And I can't get them off my mind.
33:09I pray in the morning.
33:10I pray in the evening.
33:11I pray all day long.
33:12I pray and I pray and I pray.
33:14And more news comes out
33:16and how people watch their own family members swept away
33:19as they're carried down these rivers.
33:22I mean, what's more horrible than that?
33:27You can't imagine.
33:28Now, when I look at that thing,
33:30I say to myself, you know something?
33:32This is all horrible.
33:35And a lot of people like to look for a silver lining.
33:37I understand that.
33:38I understand life.
33:39But it's horrible.
33:41But on the other hand,
33:43Joseph said to them, you've meant it for evil,
33:46but God meant it for good.
33:48He can take something like this
33:50that's happened in North Carolina,
33:52East Tennessee in the area.
33:53He can take that and he can glorify himself with it.
33:58And he might be able to start something
33:59that could be started norther way.
34:02We pray for revival.
34:03We have meetings about revival.
34:05We talk about revival.
34:06We bring in preachers and we bring in singers
34:08and all of that.
34:09That's all fine.
34:10But preachers don't bring revivals.
34:13And singers don't bring revivals.
34:15We don't bring them.
34:16I can't take a revival.
34:17I preached a lot of revivals down through the years,
34:19been everywhere.
34:20But I don't do it anymore
34:21because I've just wore out.
34:22But the bottom line is,
34:24you, the revival comes from God
34:27and can only come from God.
34:29He's the only one.
34:30A lot of people, if you do any reading,
34:33you'll find out there's a lot of Christian brothers
34:35and sisters up in those hills.
34:37They lived in Asheville, born and bred in Asheville.
34:41And they say, what happened to Asheville is horrible.
34:44So what do you mean?
34:45Witchcraft moved into Asheville.
34:48Liberalism moved into Asheville.
34:51The streets of Asheville, North Carolina
34:53were turned into an Eastern San Francisco.
34:58And the people wept
35:00because Asheville at one time was a beautiful place.
35:03It's a beautiful city.
35:04I mean, right up there in the mountains,
35:06Asheville was beautiful.
35:09And this is liberalism.
35:11This is the vision they have for this whole nation.
35:15Liberalism will destroy your home.
35:19Of course, I had a fancy thought.
35:21And you can blame me for it if you want to,
35:23but I thought, wouldn't it have been horrible
35:26if some flood came through there and washed all of them,
35:30carried them all off down the river,
35:33and liberalism went with the river?
35:36You know, I'm not gonna get up here
35:37and pray for God killing anybody.
35:39I'm not gonna do that at all.
35:40But it would be nice to see some cleansing take place,
35:43wouldn't it?
35:45See, here's what comes out of something like that.
35:48When you go through something like these dear people,
35:51God bless their soul, are going through,
35:55it changes your perspective on life.
35:58Yes, it does.
36:00So wisdom would say this tonight.
36:03Bide your time and see what God may do
36:06up there in those mountains and with those people.
36:09Because there's no question in my mind,
36:11there's a lot of good people up in there.
36:13They love the Lord.
36:15Yes, they do.
36:16They're your brothers and your sisters.
36:18And they love the Lord and they despise
36:21what's happened to their communities
36:23and where they live up in there.
36:25So pray for them.
36:26That's what I'm gonna do.
36:27I'm gonna pray for them.
36:28I don't like it.
36:29I don't like to see people die.
36:31I don't like it a bit.
36:33I can't change it, but I can do this.
36:37You meant it for evil, but God means it for good.
36:42God can take something like that and turn good out of it.
36:46And that's what we should be doing tonight
36:47is praying for that, for him to glorify himself.
36:51Wouldn't that be wonderful?
36:53Wouldn't it be something?
36:54Wouldn't it be something if a revival broke out
36:56in that area in North Carolina or down here in Tennessee?
37:01A revival that just literally stood up, buddy,
37:04and I mean began to spread out into these churches
37:08and people really got a hold of the power of God.
37:11And you'd see thousands of people saved
37:14and a movement could start.
37:16Something could happen from that
37:18would change this whole nation.
37:21How many of you'd like to see America changed?
37:25I know you're going to the ballot box
37:26and hope you get changed there,
37:27but truth of the matter is the ballot box
37:29isn't gonna do so much changing.
37:32We need some change.
37:34Wouldn't it be something for it to come out of that?
37:37Well, you know, that's what I see.
37:40And we told Brother Lentz we wanted to help him.
37:43We sent him some money to help him.
37:46And I know tonight you folks will be fully for that,
37:50to support him and what he's trying to do.
37:52He's a good man.
37:54And pray that the Almighty will use that
37:57for the glory of God.
37:58Father, thank you for what I've said,
38:00little time I've had.
38:02I pray that I projected my heart tonight,
38:03how I really feel.
38:05I don't want to kill anybody.
38:06I don't want to see anybody dead.
38:07I don't want to stir up a bunch of junk.
38:09I don't want to hurt anybody.
38:11But Lord of all things, I want to see you glorified.
38:14Yes, I do.
38:16I want to see you glorified.
38:18And anytime and anywhere that you can start a revival,
38:21you will, you will.
38:24I don't know what you've got planned.
38:25I don't know what you're gonna do.
38:27But I pray you give me enough sense.
38:28I pray you give me wisdom to be able to see it if it happens
38:32and pray for it and support it.
38:34In your holy, righteous name I pray, amen.
38:38All right, folks, I'm done tonight.
38:40Angie Walden is up at...