Churches in Plantation

“Do you believe that? I don't mean just theologically. I mean emotionally. Do you truly believe God loves you the way he loves Jesus? Because if you don't believe it, you know what happens? Your spirituality becomes performance. You start living with this orphan spirit where you're trying to achieve something that God has already settled in Christ Jesus.”

“So this battle between Satan and God, this continues through the ages until Christ returns and defeats Satan and the antichrist for good. And therefore, we want to make sure this just isn't a history lesson today. As God's people, what must we do? We must prepare ourselves for opposition and conflict. The message of Daniel chapter eight today, the message for the people of Israel back down, the message for us today is simply this, get ready. Get ready for opposition and conflict because you have an enemy in this world”

“Put them right in between the fleas. It's a new translation. Alright? But do something to them. Sanctify by your truth. Let truth find such opportunity in their lives that it will build an immune system within them that when they enter into the world, they will not be affected by the world, but they will affect their world.”

“Christianity, folks, is not an evacuation plan. It's a sending program. Sent, not escaping. Sent. We are not just rescued from the world, we are sent to this world. And so as Jesus is praying, listen to what he prays in his prayer in John 17 and we go to verse 15 to 18. Listen to how he prays.”

“They are not of this world even as I am not of it. No. I have to just stop here and say, you know, I grew up in the church. This was one of my favorite scriptures. I am not of this world. How many of you are glad that you're not of this world? Right? That's a good thing. You're not of this world. But here's the thing you need to hear. You that are not of this world, you are sent to the world.”

“Satan is the true power behind all who oppose God and God's people. It would also make sense of the apocalyptic language which depicts spiritual forces taking place behind the scenes. And then Gabriel also says, he will be destroyed but not by human power. History records that Antiochus died suddenly and painfully of what appeared to be natural causes. But according to Gabriel there was nothing natural about it.”

“Remember, what does apocalyptic imagery do? It draws back the curtain and allows us to see things from heaven's perspective, from God's perspective. And so the imagery in verse 10 really gives us a glimpse of the spiritual forces at work. It's similar to what we find in Revelation. Especially the dragon in Revelation 12 who did what? Swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. Who's the dragon in Revelation? Satan.”

“God warns us about persecution ahead of time, so we will be ready for it. Imagine if we didn't know any of this was coming. You know, the battle between Satan and God is ongoing. We are a part of that battle. Satan cannot attack God directly. So what does he do? He attacks us. He attacks God's people instead. And therefore, we need to be ready for persecution. We need to be prepared to stand strong.”

“"We remain ready by investing in what's eternal around us think about what's eternal friends you're eternal you're gonna live forever make sure that you're right with jesus christ the people around you are gonna live forever invest in their lives the bible that you hold this word is eternal give yourself to reading and understanding it that's one way that we make ourselves ready by investing in what's eternal and then we also live faithful in our present moment as we've discussed before but we also live with a sense of urgency for our own personal holiness and our evangelism most of all we make ourselves ready for the second coming of jesus by receiving everything he is and everything he did for us in his first coming as i told before just a few days after jesus spoke these words to his disciples on the mount of olives he went to the cross he offered himself as a sacrifice for sin for everybody who would trust him he said put upon me all their guilt all their shame i'll bear it in myself that's what jesus did in his first coming and then after dying that sacrificial death on the cross he rose again from the dead to give resurrection life newness of life to all those who would repent and believe upon him friends receiving jesus in everything he was everything he taught and everything he did at his first coming that's how you remain ready for his second coming"”

“"Friends be ready live your life in readiness for the return of jesus christ that's number one but then jesus also told a parable about two servants one of them was faithful and one of them was evil and the application is clear be a faithful servant unto the lord that's how you're ready for his return friends be faithful be faithful in your family be faithful in your neighborhood be faithful in your community be faithful at your church do whatever god has put in front of you being faithful to the end you see as christians we live with this strange dichotomy on the one hand we live with the readiness that jesus christ could return today thank the lord for that but on the other hand we live in utter faithfulness to god so that if he would not return for another 200 years we would be faithful right with what he's given us in the moment and faithful to the very end we don't live lives of foolishness saying oh who cares about the future jesus is coming back no that's not being faithful we live wisely and faithfully in the moment friends that's how jesus wants us to live"”