 This morning, so grateful that our worship team and our whole team gave me a little bit of extra time today for the message that I am gonna be sharing with you this week and next weekend, that I had not planned on teaching. I had planned on doing some other things, but in light of what took place last Saturday, last Saturday, October the 7th, when Israel was brutally and horrendously attacked by the Hamas terrorists. And I was on my way traveling to Omaha, Nebraska to minister there. And I felt very strongly at that time that things were going to intensify and that it would be necessary for me to bring a message, not just because it's something current, but because it is not only current, but it's biblical. And it's very significant that we know the days in which we are living in. And so this last week, we ultimately, we had a trip planned to lead about 50 people from radiant to Israel, leaving I think in about eight days from now. And so obviously that trip has been canceled. Not only was that trip canceled, but I taught this week in staff meeting on what's taking place in Israel. And we took a short little clip of that and we posted that on social media and Facebook and on Instagram. And as of this morning on Instagram, we've had over a million views on that. And then on Facebook, well over a million as well. And what that tells me is that there are a lot of questions related to what's taking place, is it biblical and how should we respond? So I've entitled the message I'm gonna share of the next couple of weeks, Israel, Iran and the Rising Storm. And I'm going to begin this morning by answering six questions that a lot of people are asking related to Israel, Iran and the Rising Storm. And I'm gonna be reading off of my notes. I have my computer up here just so I can make sure that I see it, say it correctly, because I wanna be very succinct. I typically almost 99% of the time when I preach, I begin by teaching and reading a text and then exegeting or teaching and breaking down that text because the word is centerpiece. But this morning's gonna be a little bit different because I'm gonna build my message off of answering these six questions. And my hope is to help all of us, whether you're viewing online, whether you're one of our locations, we are part of Radiant or the larger body of Christ to give clarity and to give understanding and also some direction, not only about this situation, but how we respond to the season and into the era that we find ourselves today. So I'm gonna answer six questions this morning about Israel, Iran, and the Rising Storm of things that are taking place. So the first question that I wanna answer is this. What has brought this war about? This is a question that I've been asked several different times. What has brought this war about? Well, in general, what we have seen over the last 10 to 15 years is an increase in unprovoked attacks against Israel by the terrorist group known as Hamas. Those people, those individuals, this Islamic jihadist group, really there are three groups that you need to be aware of that are connected to the nations that are surrounding Israel in the physical realities of the nation of Israel. And those three terrorist groups, there's more, but these three are the main ones, is Hamas, who's been front and center on the news. Another one in the north is a group called Hezbollah and a third, which is a minor group. It's not minor, but it's not as dominant in the news, which is Islamic jihad. So these three Islamic groups are groups that have embedded themselves within nations and communities surrounding the nation of Israel. What we've seen is an uptick over the last decade or so of unprovoked terrorist attacks because make no mistake about that's what they are. Missiles being launched, kidnappings taking place. Well, this has just continued to increase. And specifically in the most recent days, the group Hamas that has taken over the Gaza Strip, which was part of the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian people, a territory on the Mediterranean Sea that borders with Egypt. In every attempt to talk peace, to negotiate in good faith, Hamas has refused to come to the table in good faith with Israel. And in fact, they're unapologetically, and this is important for you to know, they're unapologetically founded and committed for one purpose and for one purpose only. And that is for the destruction of the state of Israel and the death of every Jew on the face of the earth. Now, a lot of people ask the question, okay, well, why can't there be peace there between the Palestinians and Israelis? There are a lot of reasons. One main reason is that especially in Gaza, the political structures have now been taken over by a terrorist organization. It would be much like any nation, whether that be Syria or any other place, that has ceded their governmental authority to like ISIS or to al-Qaeda. Hamas is in that same category. In their charter, Hamas, that was an organization that began in the 80s, right at the front end of their preamble of their charter is the declaration that we exist to see the destruction of the nation of Israel and the Jewish people from the land. You cannot negotiate with someone whose whole organization's mission statement is your death and your destruction. Even this week, one of the Hamas commanders when was talking about what was taking place currently in the area of Israel, specifically the southern Negev, and the attack that took place that killed so many Israelis, somewhere between 12 and 1300 Israelis that were killed in this attack and many, many more that have been injured and kidnapped. The Hamas commander said this, this is not just about land. The entire planet will be under our law. There will be no more Jews or Christian traders. So for those who are on the West looking at this and saying, let's make nice with Hamas, understand, you want to negotiate and make nice with an organization that wants to repeat the Holocaust. They are not looking for a two-state solution. They are looking for a final solution. They are looking to repeat what Hitler did in the annihilation of every Jew off the face of the earth and when they're done with the Jews, they're coming for Christians. Now understand when I say this, I'm not talking about every Arab, every Palestinian. I'm not talking about people who are Muslims living in the Middle East who long for peace, long for desire, are very sincere in their faith. This is a, we don't even know what percentage of Muslims per se in the Middle East or even in the Gaza or in the surrounding areas are extremists or jihadists. We don't know what that percentage is, but even if it's a small percentage, you cannot negotiate with those individuals when they have control of the political apparatus. You see what is being manifested when you ask the question, what has brought this about? Is it's not just recent, it's not just what's taking place over the last few years or even the last decades. What is taking place is part of something that is a greater ancient hatred that we'll talk about here in a moment that has actually manifested itself in amplified, accelerated in what the Bible refers to as the last days, which I believe wholeheartedly we are living in, which leads to the second question is if this is over Israel being in the land, what is Israel's right to the land and their pursuit of peace? Why, okay, why is Israel in the land to begin with and do they have the right to be there? Because maybe you've seen a lot of people saying, hey, these are occupying forces and we need to get the Jews out of the land. If we just got Israel out of the land, the destruction of Israel, returned it back to the Palestinians, then we would have peace. Does Israel have a right to the land? Well, number one, this has broken up into three things. There's the reality that is their historical right to the land, number two, their political right to the land and number three, their spiritual right to the land. Historically, there is no legitimate argument that can be made against Israel being in the land at least for the last 3,500 years. Those who say, well, Israel has not been in the land, they came back as interlopers, taking over as an occupying force that is a false narrative. Israel and Jews have always lived in the land, dating back 3,500 years. Long before there was ever an Arabian group of people, long before Palestinians were ever a thing. And I'll talk about that term Palestinian here in a moment. Archaeology confirms this. History, both biblical and secular history records this. Islamic history records this. All ancestry is confirmed that this is indeed the ancient ancestral homeland of King David, Solomon, and yes, even Jesus. Jews have always lived in the land and let me make a statement, they will always live in the land. So what about the political realities? Because we obviously know there's a lot of nuance and this is complicated because we're talking about real people, right? We're talking about Jews who are living in the land since 1948, but we're also talking that there are Palestinian people of Arab descent, Israelis as well that have lived in a land for a long time as well. And obviously there have been a lot of complex discussions over the years about how do we resolve this issue? Politically the dream of Israel becoming a homeland for the Jewish people after 2,000 years was not birth after World War II as has commonly been argued. The dream of the dispersed Jews throughout the entire world became a dream in Jewish leaders' hearts during the 19th century. It became known as something called Zionism. European Jews looking at the scriptures, looking at their Bibles, knowing the promises that God made, unconditional covenant that he made with Abraham and his descendants, Isaac and Jacob who became Israel began to long to return back to the land. Palestine at that time or the land that had been referred to as Palestine was never a sovereign political entity or nation. So those who say, well, the Jews came back in the land and took it away from the Palestinians. Palestine has never been a sovereign state. It has always been a region or an area that found itself under the auspices and the control of empires. All the way back to Rome in the first century and then we see the control of the Ottoman Islamic empire that began around the sixth and seventh century and then ultimately under British control in the late 19th and early 20th century. The British empire, which we all knew controlled a lot of the world at that time was ready to give the territory to the Jewish people as their ancestral homeland before the Holocaust ever took place in Europe. The Balfour Declaration in 1917 by Britain set things into motion for a potential two state solution right from the beginning with the land so that everybody, both Jew and Arab were able to coexist together in the land and yet also recognize that the land had ancestral significance as a homeland for the Jewish people. And Britain, who had come under control of it after the defeat of the Ottoman empire was prepared to do that. And every step along the way, the Arab people who were in the land rejected the idea that Jews should be able to return en masse. Now, there were always living in the land Jewish people, Jewish colonies, but they were oftentimes found themselves in the minority when the conversation about allowing Jews to immigrate back into the land of their ancestry, of their covenant promises, whenever that was brought up, the Arabs in the land rejected the idea of a Jewish homeland or a solution. In 1937, Arabs rejected the Peel's Commission goal to establish a two state solution. This is before the end of World War II. The Arabs were presented it and they rejected it. Now, keep in mind, they did not control the state, they were just living in it. In 1947, the Arabs again rejected the UN partition plan to create a two state solution. In 1948, after Israel, by consensus of the United Nations was recognized as an independent state. And by the way, the United States of America under President Truman were the first state and the first president to recognize Israel as a state in 1948. When that took place, the surrounding Arab nations decided to wage war and to destroy this new nation. And in the process, they actually lost more land than the original partition plan would have given to them. Now, many people say, well, how in the world isn't it terrible that the Palestinians are put in these refugee camps? Yes, these refugee camps were never Israel's plan and Israel's not responsible for creating them. The surrounding 22 Arab nations around Israel were the ones along with the UN that came up with the refugee camp idea. And here's what they told the Palestinians, the Palestinian Arabs living in Israel in 1948 as well as in 1967. They said, get out of the land, go to the outer regions of it because we're gonna come in with our military force and we're gonna wipe every Jew off the face of the earth. And we don't want you to get hurt in the process. So move into Gaza, move into the West Bank, move into Jordan, move into Egypt. And as soon as we've, and up into Lebanon and as soon as we've wiped them out and defeated the Israelis into Jewish state, you can come back in and repossess the land. But when they came in like a flood against this new burgeoning state, Israel didn't just hold them off, Israel won the battle and those that had left were not allowed to come back in and they were stuck. But yet those 22 surrounding Arab nations would not give them residency or citizenship. They kept them in refugee camps because they became convenient shields and tools to use on the political landscape of the international community. In 1967, Israel wins a miraculous battle against its Arab aggressors, conquering Gaza, the West Bank and Sinai. Israel's response, after they won this battle where every nation came against them during the Six Day War, here's how their response was when they won. Did they gloat? No, in good faith they said, we're gonna give you back Temple Mount and we're not gonna allow Jews to go onto Temple Mount and to pray. What were they doing saying? We're willing to negotiate. What did the Palestinians respond? They came up with the three, no policy, no peace, no negotiations and no recognitions of the state of Israel. In 1979, Israel voluntarily gives back to Sinai as a show of good faith to Egypt. What did they gain out of it? Nothing other than a piece of gold with Egypt. 1993, Israel recognizes the sovereignty of the Palestinian Authority over the West Bank and Gaza in the Oslo Accords. Palestinians give nothing. 2000, Israel offers Yasser Arafat official statehood for the Palestinian state in Gaza and 94% of the West Bank and East Jerusalem as its capital. Palestine rejected the plan, starts the second Inafada of war against Israel. In 2005, Israel pulls out of Gaza, surrenders it to the Palestinian Authority. You know what the Palestinians did? They elected Hamas, a terrorist organization as their government and it turns Gaza into a terrorist state. In 2008, Israel offers Mahmoud Abbas, everything from the plan offered in 2000 and the Palestinians reject it. In 2010 through 2021, Hamas has launched thousands of rockets, initiated hundreds of terrorist attacks, built tunnels to kidnap and murder and has taken the billions of dollars that the international community has given for humanitarian aid that was meant for humanitarian purposes for the Palestinian people and instead used it to buy armaments and to use their citizens as a shield against Israel. Literally Hamas has put all of their missile factories, their headquarters, their training camps and their intelligence apparatus in apartment complexes where citizens live because they know that if Israel ever has to respond to them there's going to be casualties of citizens that will warrant and garner international sympathy and put pressure on Israel to back down. And then Saturday, October the 7th, Sabbath day, a high day, the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Hamas terrorists entering by air, by sea and through the gates attacked in the early hours the nation of Israel and murdered 1200 innocent civilians as well as soldiers kidnapped 150 of them. They beheaded children, raped women, burned villages, launched 6,000 plus missiles. There were over 4,000 that have been seriously injured and even kidnapped Holocaust survivors. Take them captives into Gaza. This is where things stand. And currently the whole world has its eyes fixed on the nation of Israel. How will they respond? That's the political landscape. Well, the question begs us to answer is, well, does Israel, beyond the historical and the political reality, do they have a spiritual right to dwell in the land? As Bible-believing Christians, we should all affirm that God himself was the one who established an everlasting, which means unchanging covenant with Abraham, his son Isaac and his son Jacob who became Israel and to their descendants forever and ever. Genesis 15 verse 18 says, on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham saying, to your offspring I give this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates. In Genesis 17 verse seven through eight, God says, and I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you and I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession and I will be their God. Now this is reiterated, this covenant is reiterated over 100 times in the Old Testament. When God makes a covenant with Moses at Sinai, it's a conditional covenant, which means I will do this if you will respond to me this way. It's a conditional covenant. God says to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy chapter four he says to Moses, he says, if you possess the land, you dwell in the land and you do right, then I'll be with you. But if you worship other idols, if you forget the Lord your God, then I'll remove you out of the land until the time that you turn back to me. Those are conditional covenants, why? Because there was a covenant between two individuals. But when God established his covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, it was a unilateral covenant. It was a covenant that God says, I am establishing with this regardless of what you do. And he called it an everlasting covenant and an everlasting possession. What does that mean? Well, last time I looked up in a dictionary, it means never ending, unchanging, unconditional. And so when people say, well, that's the old covenant, the new covenant has replaced the old covenant. No, the new covenant has replaced the old Mosaic covenant that was temporary, but it does not replace the Abrahamic covenant. God's promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are as sure today and will be forever as they were on the day that he cut them. And if God forgets Israel and the covenant that he made with them, he said, let me forget my own name and the strength of my own hand. God, unlike every human being on this planet is a covenant keeping God and he is faithful even when we are faithless. So question number three, what about the Palestinian people? Because obviously we're talking about human beings that Jesus died on the cross and loves deeply. What about the Palestinian people? We're not talking about Hamas at this moment. We're not talking about those terrorists who are demonically inspired with the spirit of Haman. We're talking about individuals who many of the Palestinians are Christians. There's a small minority among the Palestinian Arabs that are Christians that Jesus loves and they love Jesus. There are many in the Palestinian community that love Israel and pray for Israel. And there are many in the Palestinian community that hate Israel and hate Christians and are very, very passionate in their beliefs. And you know, here's the beautiful thing about Jesus is even those that hate him, he loves. What about them? Well, number one, we should have incredible compassion for them, they are caught in the crossfire. This is something that we need to be aware of that as we pray, we're praying not just for the Jewish state. Somebody said, well, you just love Israel just because they're Israel, but they don't love Christianity. I don't love Israel because I think that everything that they do politically or nationally is right. I love them and I pray for them and I stand with them because of the everlasting covenant and the prophetic promises that God has attached to the people of Israel. And I also have deep compassion for the mom, the mother and the child and the father and the individual who has found themselves in the crossfires of this ancient hatred. There are many Palestinians. There are Christians as well as Muslims living in Gaza and the West Bank that want just to live their lives in peace. There are many also that have unfortunately been indoctrinated by demonic lies and narratives and been manipulated. Many of their children have been trained under Hamas and Hezbollah and Iranian propaganda because Iran is the power and the money behind what is taking place in Hamas. Hamas is nothing but a proxy for the Shia Muslim regime of Iran and in their elementary schools, you think we have issues in our schools, the schools in Palestine, the schools in the West Bank and in Gaza are indoctrinating their children that Jews are apes that they are subhuman, they sound familiar, who else did that in the 20th century and that their highest call as Muslims to be faithful to Allah is to prepare their hearts to be Mujahideen and Jihadists and martyrs for the sake of destroying the Israeli regime and the occupying force. So they're training these children up and you can see interviews where these children are like, I wanna grow up and I wanna be a martyr, I wanna kill Jews, I wanna slaughter them. And unfortunately, many people in the Palestinian community have been indoctrinated and manipulated by this, much like we've seen in Afghanistan and in other places. Unless we think it's just an Islamic thing, we can look in our own backyard and Western civilization and see how educators have manipulated and indoctrinated an entire generation here in our own backyard. These are complex issues and I want to advise and I want to counsel every single one of us. Number one, recognize that the enemy that we are fighting is a spiritual enemy. There are political realities and war unfortunately is a part of the current present age that we are living in. Romans chapter 13 says that political powers and governmental authorities have been granted by God in this present age the power of the sword to deal with evil doers. And unfortunately what we've seen and what we are going to see intensify over the next several days and weeks is gonna be hard to watch, it's gonna be difficult, it's going to seem inhumane on both sides. There's gonna be a lot of bloodshed unfortunately and I want you to know that Jesus weeps over this reality. Jesus weeps over this. God's heart breaks. His desire is that no one should perish but that everyone should come to salvation through his son. But unfortunately we live in this fallen world where there are spiritual realities but there are also political necessities. And for a vast majority of the Palestinian people they have become prisoners. You might have heard this phrase. It's an open air prison. You're absolutely right. It is an open air prison but it is not Israel that has imprisoned them. It is the Islamic terrorists Hamas who are proxy terror organizations sponsored by the demonically inspired Iranians who as a political entity in an Islamic nation have declared that they will wipe Israel off the face of the map. You think the Bible has eschatology where there are beliefs about what the end of the world will look like? Iran who is a Shia Islamic nation under the Mullahs has their own eschatology and Iran is so motivated to destroy the Jews because they believe as soon as World War III is initiated the 12th Imam who has been in hiding for 1200 years is going to emerge. Jesus will return as a prophet of Islam kill all the Jews and established a global caliphate of Islam all over the globe. And you might say to yourself, that sounds crazy. It's crazy because it's demonic but it's a reality that we have a nuclear power in the Middle East that has that ideology and that theology that has just recently had $6 billion released to them and over the last three years has had sanctions against their oil removed so that has equated to $60 billion that they are using to fund terrorism because their theology demands it. You see, they've become prisoners of an Islamic terrorist state just like Hezbollah under the influence of Iran. You might wonder where the name Hamas comes from. It's interesting. It's actually an acronym that stands for Islamic resistance, something along that type of organization but it's also a word that has meaning in both Hebrew and in Arabic. Both Hebrew and Arabic come from a root language of Aramaic and so therefore a lot of Hebrew words and Arabic words have similar sounds and meanings. In Arabic, which most of the Palestinians are, the word Hamas means zeal, courage. But make no mistake about it, the founders of Hamas also knew that the word Hamas had a dual meaning because it means something in Hebrew as well. In Hebrew, the word Hamas means violence. So every time a Hamas leader stands up and says the word Hamas to his own people, they hear zeal and courage but to their enemies that they have their heart set on destroying every Jew in every Israeli hears violence. In Genesis chapter six, when Noah was alive on the planet and God was about to judge the earth, it's interesting. In Genesis chapter six, verse 11, it says that God looked at the earth and the earth was filled with violence. How many know that scripture? It says the earth was filled with violence. In the Hebrew language, it means the earth was filled with Hamas. It's interesting that Jesus in Matthew 24 says that as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days leading up to the coming of the Son of man. That there's gonna be an increase of violence. Hamas, I want to propose to you, is actually a demonic spirit of violence that is aimed and centered at the Jewish people. It was then to wipe out the righteous seed that would bring the redeemer into the earth under the days of Noah the righteous. And in our day, to wipe out the Jewish people so that the promises that were made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and David would never be fulfilled in the earth, which leads me to question number four. Does what's taking place today have biblical relevance? The answer is yes. It has biblical relevance because what we're seeing front and center on the world stage today is nothing short of what the Bible refers to as an ancient hatred. In the story of Esther, many of you may remember this story as you've read through your Bibles, Esther was a Jewish young woman living in Persia. And by the way, how many know that Persia in your Bible is the modern nation of Iran? Esther finds herself living in the nation and in the empire of Persia. Her uncle Mordecai has an encounter with a man named Haman. Haman the Bible says in Esther 3, verse 10, 311. It says, so the king appointed a man named Haman, who when he saw Mordecai at the city gates, Mordecai would not bow down to him and so his heart filled with violence towards Mordecai the Jew. So he goes to the king, the Persian king, and he tells them that there's a group of people living in your land that are not good for your land, that if we could get rid of them, we would have peace throughout the entire empire. And they're nothing but a plague on our nation. He's talking about the Jewish people. So the Persian king gives him, it says in chapter three, verse 10, 311. So the king took his signet ring from his hand, gave it to Haman, the Agagite, the son of Hamadatha, the enemy of the Jews. And he told him, do whatever you gotta do to kill all the Jews out of our kingdom. This is the original Holocaust. And it's interesting that Haman, who finds himself in modern day Iran under its emperor, was described as an Agagite. Well, let me tell you who an Agagite is. An Agagite is a descendant of the ancient people, the Amalekites, under Amalek, who are the descendants of Esau, who live in or dwelt in the southern regions of Israel, in the wilderness, in the Negev, exactly where the attacks took place. On October the 7th, the Amalekites were the descendants of Esau who hated the children of Israel and were the first people to come out against Israel and to declare a war on the Israelites as they are making their way into the Promised Land. Something rose up demonically in the heart of the descendants of Amalek. And we don't know at what point that they hated the Jewish people and they're covenant with God. And we're going to do everything that they could to keep the Jewish people from possessing the land that God had promised to them. And now a few decades later, one of the descendants, a man named Haman, comes into contact with a Jew who refuses to bow the knee to a pagan king or a pagan authority and that violence, that demonic violence filled his heart again and he went about doing everything he could to destroy the Jewish people out of the entire kingdom. That spirit is still very much alive. That spirit is what manifests itself under Adolf Hitler. And you might say, well, he wasn't an Amalekite, he wasn't even a Muslim. He was a German-European, short little guy with a little stash. But do you know who one of his close friends was? One of his close friends, I can't even pronounce his name, but he was the Mufti, the spiritual leader of Jerusalem. And he met with him on several different occasions to discuss their joint hatred for the Jewish people. And the Mufti of Jerusalem said to Adolf Hitler at the height of the final solution in Germany, once you've wiped all the Jews off of the European map, come here and do it here. That same spirit was at work during World War II. That same spirit is what was initiated in the wars of 1948, 1967, 1973, and it is that same spirit that inspired the creation of Islamic jihad, Hamas, Hezbollah, and is at work today. Haman was the first attempt at a Holocaust, and this ancient hatred is the illogical, demonic, inspired hatred of the Jewish people. And I wanna make this statement to you so that you understand this very, very clearly. This ancient hatred will continue until the day of Jesus' return. It's not going anywhere. People who are like, hey, let's just make peace there. I just ran through all the attempts of peace. Here's what I will tell you that if tomorrow, if tomorrow Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Palestinian people laid down their arms and came to the table, there would be peace. But if tomorrow the Israelis and all the Jewish people laid down their arms, there would not be one Jew left on the face of the earth. This is what we're dealing with. It's not rational, it's demonic, it's satanic, and it's ultimately going somewhere. And Matthew 24, verses 36 and 37, Jesus talks about the end of the age, a period of time just before His return. And He gives signs to His disciples who asks Him, how will we know when you're coming back? What will be the indicators, the signs, so that when we see them we know to look because you're soon to return? And in verse 36 and 37, Jesus says, but concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of man. Wars, rumors of wars, kingdom rising up against kingdom. Jesus said, when you begin to see these things, and what does He call them? He calls them birth pangs. He says, as in the days of Noah, this spirit of Hamas is going to increase. And you know what is most shocking about it? It's that the leader of Hamas, after they did this atrocity, you would think something this terrible, no matter who it was done on, whether it was in America on 9-11, how many know that when our towers were attacked, the rest of the world rallied around us, flew the American flag, supported us. Our allies came to us and said, whatever you gotta do, do. But if you look at just the statistical proportions, if what happened in Israel on October the 7th were in America and you did a per capita equation, it would be the equivalent of not just 3000 people dying on 9-11, it would be the equivalent of 40,000 people dying on 9-11. But instead, this spirit of Hamas doubled down and called for a global day of protest against Israel and Islamic rage. And so instead of support railing around Israel, some did, but in major cities of the world, we saw pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas demonstrations in the streets, even of Western cities. They've got pictures they'll put up here. These are pictures that took place of the protests. And if you really read the signs, I mean, they are so anti-Semitic. Even in our own state of Michigan, which has the largest concentration of Middle Eastern people of dissent, this is Dearborn, Michigan, where there were massive protests against Israel within days of Israelis being slaughtered, babies' heads being cut off, women being raped, elderly being massacred. Instead of people showing empathy or sympathy towards them, they began to wave the flag of the very people who have set their hearts on Israel's destruction. And if you think to yourself, well, when Jesus said that towards the end of the age, it's gonna be like Noah, the spirit of Hamas, the spirit of violence and hatred and war that is gonna be centered on the Jewish people, that could never happen in our day. Wake up, smell the coffee, it's happening. This is not just about what's happening in Israel. This is not just what's happening in Gaza. What you and I are seeing is a rising global storm, a rising global reality that is manifest itself in anti-Israel sentiment, but is actually anti-Jesus and anti-God and is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy spoken of about the end of the age. It's even taken place in the church. One of the reasons why this message is so important here at Radiant in our city and hopefully even broader is because this spirit of anti-Israel, this anti-Jewish sentiment has crept into the church over the last 2000 years through what has been known as replacement theology. Replacement theology taught in all of our major seminaries, embraced by most major denominations that led to much of the persecution of the Jews throughout the Middle Ages and during the Reformation is a dominant theology. And basically what replacement theology says is that the church made up of primarily Gentiles has now replaced Israel in God's purposes and plans. And because the Jews killed Jesus, God has written them off. They are under a curse and there are no more covenant promises set for national Israel. They've just been cut off. And now all of the spiritual promises that God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are no longer focused on the nation of Israel. They're now focused on Gentile Christians. Now we could say a lot about that. We could say obviously the Jews and Israel live in the land today in unbelief. There is only one method of salvation. There's only one name given under heaven by which men might be saved. It's the name of Jesus. There's no other way to be saved. We're not saying that Israel has a distinct covenant that they're saved without going through Jesus, but we're just saying that even though they dwell in the land today in unbelief, there is coming a global event in which the eyes and the veil and the hardness of heart that has been in part is gonna be pulled back at the end of this current age and the Jews in their darkest moments are going to ultimately believe in Yeshua, their Messiah and he is going to return to defend them and to fulfill all the promises that God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Where's this going to happen? Well, Zechariah 12 says in chapter 12, verse two through three. This is an ancient prophecy. He says, behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. We're living in that day, guys. Why is it that the whole world is focused on a 14 acre parcel of land called Temple Mount? This is where the dispute. Why is it that the entire world, the United Nations, governments of man, the United States empire, I mean, we've got our aircraft carriers and military ships and our political leaders showing up to a nation in the Middle East, the size of New Jersey and yet all eyes are focused on there. He says, I'm about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples. Do you know that? Listen, there are 22 Arab nations, one Jewish nation. Well, why don't they give the land back to the Palestinians? Why don't the 22 Arab nations invite those Arab descendants citizenship into come into their land? They've closed their borders. How come Israel won't allow the people in Gaza to get out? Israel's not stopping them. Hamas has blockaded them so that they will be used as a human shield. The surrounding peoples are almost all primarily Islamic and they are drunk on the issue and the controversy of Jerusalem. And then it says in the siege of Jerusalem at the end of the age will also be against Judah on that day, listen to this, on that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves and all nations of the earth will gather against it. Next week I'm gonna talk more about what the future holds globally for the church and for Israel and what are the signs that we are seeing in our day indicating the soon return of Jesus. It has so much to do with Zechariah 12. You read Zechariah 12 and you read Zechariah 14 and you see where this thing is going. Thousands of years ago God prophesied that Israel would be taken out of the land and they would come back into the land at the end of days and that there would be controversy surrounding the state of Israel by all the surrounding nations and it would lead up to the return of Jesus. Where is it going? It's going to Jeremiah 31 time period that is referred to as Jacob's trouble or Jacob's distress. God has a controversy with the nation of Israel. He does and the controversy is their unbelief and God is ultimately going to win the day and awaken the hearts of the Jewish people to ultimately see them. Romans chapter 11 talks about all Israel will be saved. How's that going to happen? God's going to ultimately deal with his elect people in a way at the end of days called Jacob's distress. It says in verse 23 and 24 of Jeremiah 31, behold the storm of the Lord. Wrath has gone forth a whirling tempest. It will burst upon the heads of the wicked. The fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intentions of his mind. In the latter days you will understand us. Church it's important that we understand the biblical prophetic timeline, the prophecies and the days in which we're living in because God says he's going to execute and he will fulfill the intentions of his heart. And even though they didn't understand it in the days that Jeremiah wrote this, he said you will understand in the latter times. Can I just promise you and tell you today, you and I are believers living in the latter times. And it's important that we know because if we don't know, ignorance will blind us and we will become deluded with the subtle satanic spirit of this age that wants us to be influenced by the spirit of Haman. What's coming down the pike, Matthew 24, Jesus referred to what you and I are seeing in our day as the increase and the acceleration of birth pangs. Matthew 24, verse six, he said you're gonna hear wars and rumors of wars. But then he says this, see that you are not alarmed. Pastor Lee, I'm freaking out when I'm seeing what's going on in the news. I don't like thinking about Bible prophecy because when I think about it, I realize that maybe life isn't gonna go on for a thousand years the way that it is, that maybe there are some things happening globally where this thing is coming to a climax. Jesus said that's absolutely true. He equates it to a woman who's giving birth and contractions are getting stronger, closer together. And as you begin to see these birth pangs, wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, anti-Semitism on the rise, Israel back in the land, surrounding nations being drunk on the subject of Jerusalem, attacks increasing. The gospel penetrating the nations of the earth, the church coming into an awareness of our role to provoke and to pray for the nation of Israel at the end of the age to see their eyes opened up to receive Jesus. Yes, we're at the end of the age. Yes, Jesus is coming. But he says, see that you are not alarmed because all of these are the beginning of the birth pangs. How many know that birth pangs are painful but they give birth to something beautiful. And the beauty that is coming is the return of our Lord. What a glorious day when every eye will see him. What a glorious day when Jesus returns and he pierces the eastern sky. And his glory fills the horizons. And every eye will see him. And those of us who are alive shall be caught up to meet him, be transformed and changed. His enemies become his footstool and he establishes his kingdom on the earth and the throne of David. And he restores the kingdom to Israel and nations begin to flood and the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth like the waters cover the seas. This is why we should not be alarmed. Question number six, this is the final one. How should we respond? Number one, pray for Israel. Don't just be an observer, pray. You are an intercessor. Isaiah 62, God says, I've set my watchman on the wall and they will not give rest until I have made Israel and Jerusalem a praise in all the earth. God's calling the church to pray. Pray for them. Psalm 122, pray for Jerusalem. Number two, pray for the Middle East. Pray for the people of the Middle East who are center stage on this drama being played out. Pray for the weak. Pray for the weary. Pray for the lost. Pray for the dispersed. Pray for the Palestinians. Listen, if God can awaken the heart of Paul on the road to Damascus, He can awaken the heart of Hamas commanders and soldiers in a moment of revelation and turn their hearts to serve the living God. Number three, become biblically informed. It's not enough to say, oh, I don't know any of that Bible stuff. I'm just trying to make sure that I can get through life and be happy and I love Jesus. Listen, you're not living in a time of peace. You are living in a time that the prophets saw but did not understand. But now they are leaning over the banisters of heaven and looking at this generation and this church and saying, you've got so much at your disposal, understand the times you are living in. If you don't already, we have resources. I did an eight part study on signs of the times in the return of Jesus. By books, read your Bible. It's time to shut Netflix off and open the Bible. It's time to awaken our hearts to the time and the reality we're living in. And number four, prepare your hearts for the rising storm because this isn't calming down. This is ramping up. Jesus is coming. Say, well, when? Well, the Bible says we don't know the day and we don't know the hour, but we know the season. I used chat GPT the other day for one of the first times. And I asked it a question along the lines of what are the statistical odds that Israel as a nation would be defeated and dispersed in 2,000 years later returned to the land? The odds are astronomical. I can't tell you how many zeros were after the decimal. And I asked it another question. What are the statistical odds of Old Testament prophecies predicting X, Y and Z coming into reality? And the odds are exponential, almost impossible. Church, the Bible prophesied the days we're living in 2,000 years ago. And if it was faithful to fulfill those promises, it will be faithful to indicate that you and I are living in a day when we should not be asleep. We should not be indifferent. We need to grasp the urgency of the hour. And if you are not right with God, today is the day to get your heart right with God because when the storm clouds rise and intensify, there's no going back. I want you to stand with me all across all of our locations, wherever you're at today. And I want you to bow your heads with me in this place. There's a very sober spirit in this message because it's the heart of the bride that says, Maranatha, Lord Jesus, come. You're the only peace giver. You're the only solution. You're the only savior. And Lord, today we pray for all those who are in arms away and we pray, let your promises be fulfilled today. Son of David, fulfill your promises. Come, rule and reign. But Lord, awaken our hearts. Today is not a day to play games. Today is not a day to procrastinate. Today is a day to realize that the way we thought the future is going has suddenly before our eyes been altered. And if you are far from Christ, if you've never made Jesus Christ your Lord and savior, it's time to do that before he returns. And if you are a Christian, but you've been nominal, you've been apathetic, you've been playing games, you've got sin in your life that you have been toying with, it's time to repent and to return. And if you're listening to me today in any of our rooms and online, and you know you need to get right with God today is the day of salvation. And I'm gonna give you an opportunity right now here in this moment. If you're listening to me and you know, you're faced with the sobriety of the hour. It's like, I want to be ready when Jesus comes. I want my eyes to be open. I want to be free from my sin and my guilt and shame. I want to zoom in and be ready for the return of the Lord. Jesus, save me from my sin and destruction. Save me from the storm to come. Forgive me, restore me all over the room. If you say, I need to get my life right with God today. I'm not playing games anymore. Today, Jesus, save me. I'm getting right with God today. I'm returning. I want you to just raise your hand all over the room. Say, pray for me and we're gonna pray together. The Bible says if we believe in our heart on the Lord Jesus and we confess Him with our mouth, we will be saved. Today, you've gotta take a step. And if that's you, you know you're not right with God, but today you're saying that's me. Raise your hand all over the room and we're gonna pray together. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. All of our locations, just raise your hand. I see hands all over the room. You can put your hands down right now. I want one more thing. If you're here and you say, I'm a believer, I love Jesus. I'm committing my heart to pray for the nation of Israel and even for the people of the Middle East that they would, number one, be safe, but then they would see Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. And I'm going to be an Isaiah 62 watchman on the wall. I want you to just commit your hand. Just raise it all over the room. For those who raised your hand to receive Christ, I want everyone in this room to pray this prayer out loud with me. Say, Jesus, Son of David, Son of God, I believe in you that you died on the cross for the sins of the world and you rose again on the third day. Come into my heart, save me from my sins. There's no other way, only you. And I repent and I turn away from anything that would compete with your Lordship. From this day forward, I'm a Christian, I'm a child of God and I'm a watchman. Lord, open my eyes to see your truth in your word and to help me walk in the spirit, in the days I live in, in Jesus' name. Amen. And amen, amen. I'm going to invite our prayer team to make their way up to the front. Next week, I'm going to continue on part two of this. I've got about 18 hours where the teaching I want to put into one hour. But here's the thing, it's available, it's in your Bibles, it's in the Word. It's time for us to zoom in. But today, if you just receive Christ, your next step is to tell somebody, and we want to invite you. After we dismiss to come forward to one of our prayer partners and just tell them, today I got my heart right with God. We want to talk to you about your next steps in following Jesus and make sure that you've got everything you need. Number two, you might be here today and you just need prayer for something. Maybe this circumstance, this season, it's weighing heavy on you. We believe in the power of prayer and that's why we need one another. So whatever you need, come and receive prayer. And everybody, you're dismissed. We'll see you next weekend. God bless you.