I want to open with the scripture that I shared for the
last couple weeks, actually from Genesis chapter 1.
So God created man in his own image and the image of God, he
created him male and female, he created them.
Thank God, bless them. God said to them, be fruitful,
multiply, fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion or
the fish of the sea over the birds of the air and over every
living thing that moves on the earth.
It's so important for us to understand that from the
beginning of time, God has had an eternal purpose for planet
earth. God has had an eternal purpose
for mankind. And a couple of weeks ago, I
shared the scripture that says we were chosen by God even
before the foundation of the world.
And to me, that's just an incredible concept that we
couldn't possibly get our mind around totally because we always
think in terms of what already exists to think that.
Well, in Genesis chapter 1, God set out to create the heavens
and the earth, but then the Bible tells us that before the
foundation, all these things is when He put us in the plan.
So every Christian should have this realization that we belong
to God, that He has chosen us. The Bible says that even when we
were in our mother's womb, He fashioned and formed us, and
even our days were fashioned for us to make us into the person
that He has called us to be. That's awesome, but we also have
to understand that mankind as a whole was created in the image
and likeness of God because God had created us for a very
specific purpose. And that is just like I have up
here, that we could be in partnership with Him.
So God has this great creation, the crowning glory of his
creation as he creates mankind. He says be fruitful, multiply,
fill up the earth and take dominion of it.
And so God has created us and said, you're my partners in a
work that I'm going to perform on the earth.
And then when you get into chapter 2, we understand as well
that God also wants to have a relationship with us.
So that's a partnership with the relationship, first of all, as
the sons of God, as we partner with him, but also as Genesis
chapter 2 says, as the bride of Christ, he wants us to have a
personal relationship with him as well.
And so there's different ways of looking at it as the sons of God
is the right of Christ. But basically God has children
for such an awesome thing to be in relationship and partnership
with him. Can you say men to that now when
God created us in Genesis chapter 2 it says this and the
Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground breathed in his
nostrils to the breath of life and man became a living being.
King James Version says a living soul, which is what most of us
are familiar with, but it's important for us to recognize
that God created US body, soul and spirit.
And in our understanding God class that we teach our children
now, it gives us very important illustration.
And that is God has created us as triune beings in his image
and also in his likeness body, which makes us conscious of the
world, our spirit that makes us conscious of God and our soul or
that living person we are, that makes us conscious of self.
So we live in this three-dimensional world where
we're self-conscious for sure, but then we relate to a natural
world and also we're supposed to be in contact with the spiritual
world as we walk in the fullness of all things that God has for
us as a living being. God has a plan of purpose for
us, but it requires us to be mature and to allow God to teach
us what exactly that means. How do we relate to our world?
How do we relate not just to the God part, if you would, but to
all the different parts? Because God has a plan, and
through His Word and through His Spirit, He gives us an
opportunity to walk in the fullness of all of His plan.
Having said that, I believe it's also important for us to
recognize this concept I shared last week in detail says do not
love the world or the things that are in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in
him. For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life is not of the Father, but is of the world.
The world is passing away in the lust of it, but he who does the
will of God abides forever. And again in the Garden of Eden,
when God first created mankind, the Bible tells us that he put
us in that garden, said you can enjoy all the fruits of the
trees of the garden, You can even eat of the tree of life
which was in the midst of the garden.
As long as you eat of that tree, you're going to stay alive, but
of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat that
tree because on the day you eat thereof, you will surely die.
Again, reviewing the story, the Bible says that Eid one day is
standing next to the tree and the enemy says to her, now don't
listen to God, listen to me. Basically you got to understand
something. God just wants you to be in
control and he wants you to submit to him.
You need to use that tree so you can be just like God and you can
know the difference between good and evil.
And so the Bible says that when she looked at the tree of
knowledge of good and evil, she saw that it was good for food.
She saw that it was pleasant to the eyes and also a tree
desirable to make one wise, which as you note in the book or
Scripture I've just read that describes what the Bible also
calls the world. And then the day that they part
talk of that, the Bible says that they died spiritually and
that they were cut off from God and his purpose isn't the things
that God had for them. Now that's a picture that God
wants all of us to create because we live in the world or
the earth if you would. But whenever the Bible talks
about the world, it's not saying that everything in the natural
is bad or we can't enjoy life. Jesus said I didn't just come to
make you live, I've come to give you the abundant life.
But when he talks about the world, he's talking about that
which is in contrast to the way God wants us to live.
We're motivated simply by the pride of life, motivated by the
things we see and we want, we want, we want, or motivated by
our desires without any thought as to, well, how does this
affect other people? How does this affect my
relationship with God? And so God wants us to
understand that we're in the world.
And that's what Jesus said as he's praying for the disciples.
You're in the world. But Father, don't let them be of
the world. And sometimes people carry this
wrong because we think everything of the natural is
bad. And there's been history in the
Christian Church when people became ascetics or lived in
monasteries and didn't eat and engage in the good things of
life that God has for us because they didn't understand this
concept of how there's a duality to our world.
Not just there's a natural, but there's a system that's outside
the plans and purposes of God. And we need to be very careful
of this. And also the Bible talks about
the flesh, and again, we have a human body that really is flesh.
And whenever it uses that word, it's not talking about our
physical body alone. It's talking about a motivation
of the body that's bad. And so again, your person in the
natural is not a bad thing. Christianity is not about
denying yourself and denying who you are and denying yourself the
good things of life. It's an understanding that,
well, we have to walk with limitations, and in those
limitations we begin to understand how it is that we can
find that abundant life that God has for each and every one of
us. Now in the book of Colossians it
says this God has delivered us from the power of darkness and
has conveyed us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom
we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin.
So of course we have our natural life and we have our spiritual
life. We have the natural world, and
then we have the world. That's talking about a
temptation to go the opposite way if you would, but one time
in our life we were dead in our trespasses and sins, but when we
turn to the Lord, he makes us alive is the way it's described
in Ephesians chapter 2. But this Scripture says it in a
better sense. We have to realize we were
literally conveyed from the world, if you would, to the
Kingdom of God. That's why when Jesus came, he
said repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand because since
the ministry of Jesus Christ, we have this opportunity as we
respond to the gospel to can be conveyed or translated, if you
would from the world to the Kingdom of God.
How do you know God wants His Kingdom to be a reality for each
and every one of us? A man that's so important for us
to understand, and I'm covering a lot of material right here, a
lot of information if you would. But I always like to point out
that typically when I am speaking, there's an
instructional part to set the pace for the preaching part.
The preaching part is something that should inspire us to
understand how we're supposed to relate to this world or how
we're supposed to relate in our natural life.
And these are very important concepts for us to understand as
Christians. We've been delivered from 1
realm and we should understand. We've been transferred to
another realm and that's something that we have to learn
how to live in and something that requires some maturity and
some instruction. That's why we need to study the
Bible. That's why we need Bible classes
and instruction because there's a whole lot to this story, if
you would, that's very important for us to understand.
So then we're not just baby Christians, as the Bible will
call it simple in our understanding.
But we can become wise. We can become aware of who we
are. We can become aware of our world
and we can learn how to be an overcomer in this life.
God has such a good plan. I love him and I love His plan.
Now I want to take you to a story here in the book of
Daniel, chapter 4, which was actually a whole sermon I had a
few weeks ago on a Wednesday. And I want to read these
scriptures and I'll explain it to you, the time setting and
what's actually being said. But I'll be referencing this
where there's a time when a man by the name of Nebuchadnezzar,
who is the king of a country called Babylon, had a dream.
No one could tell him the interpretation of that dream but
Daniel. That's why it's from the book of
Daniel. And he had the ability to
discern, live in the spiritual realm if you would.
And also in that interpret dreams, it says that God had
spoken to Daniel to tell Nebuchadnezzar that in his dream
he found out that people are going to drive him from men,
that his dwelling will be with the beasts of the field, and
they will make him eat grass like oxen.
They shall wet you with the dew of heaven. 7 times shall
Passover you till you know that the most high rules in the
Kingdom of men, and it gives to whomever he chooses, and as much
as they gave the command to leave the stump the roots of the
tree, your Kingdom shall be assured to you.
After you come to know that heaven rules.
I put over this scripture heaven, God's throne room,
because in the Old Testament there's a scripture that
actually says that the heavens are his throne and the earth is
his footstool. And so we live here on planet
earth. But when we think about heaven,
it's not just a place you're going to go when you die.
That word in the Bible speaks about the place of God's throne
room. It speaks about God's divine
authority. And so when the prophecy came
forth and said heaven rules, that's simply saying that God
who sits on the throne of heaven rules in the affairs of me.
Can I hear an Amen on that? Now keep in mind, as I said,
Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon.
It was the greatest power of that time in their world, which
was the Middle East, what we call the Fertile Crescent.
We think of all history as starting from there, and that
was the world, if you would, in those days.
He was the world power. He was the highest, in the
highest position that anybody could be in.
And the Bible tells us that Daniel was a captive in Babylon.
He had been taken from Israel. He'd been taken from the holy
city, and he was there in captivity.
Now, in that place of captivity, he did not allow his
circumstances or situations to stop him from being available to
God. Now, keep in mind, Daniel was a
man who lived in Jerusalem. He was a part of the ruling
class of the city, if you would. So the city was destroyed, the
temple was destroyed. And according to most of what
you read in the scriptures, when they carried the people like Kim
captive and they gave him jobs in the palace, typically they
were made eunuchs. How many?
You know, he went through a whole lot of pain, lot of loss,
a lot of disappointment, but he still decided that he was going
to serve the Lord and he was going to be available to God.
Can you imagine? He was taken from a place in the
city of Jerusalem, and that was important to him, but it wasn't
as important as Babylon. It wasn't important as working
in the palace of the king. He was put in a position that he
could have never dreamed he would come to, and he had a
choice. Are you going to let all the
tribulation, all the things you're going through hold you
back or you just going to keep your focus on what God has for
you to do? Or are you going to become all
encumbered by your pain and disappointment and just kind of
drop out of life? Well, he chose God.
So when Nebuchadnezzar had this dream and named interpretation,
he was available to give it to him.
And basic of interpretation was this, though you're a great
king, you're going to go through a period of time where you're
not going to be in control of your life at all.
As a matter of fact, you'll actually live like a beast in
the field. And the Bible says that his
fingernails grew really long, his hair.
He was just a mess, totally unconscious of the natural life,
if you would. And he was in that place for six
months. But God said after that time of
six months, I'm going to make you come back and you're going
to be the king again. Now, that was such an extreme
situation and story, but it would have also been strange and
hard to comprehend if you were Nebuchadnezzar.
Because in those days, if you were the king, there was always
somebody there wanting to take your place.
And even in history, it was very common for family members, even
sons or parents, whatever, if it came to it, they would kill you.
They get you out of the way because everybody wanted to be
the king and they were willing to pay whatever price there was.
So how could somebody be totally out of control of their life for
six months and then come back? Well, it can only be one way.
And if that was, if God made it possible.
So though Nebuchadnezzar was not a believer, his mind was shaken.
His experience of life made him realize, wow, heaven rules and
the Most high God, which is Daniel's God, obviously rules in
the affairs of men. Because this could never have
happened unless it had happened this way.
And then he said something very important, and that is that God
who sits on the throne actually rules in the affairs of men.
That was a mind boggling thought for Nebuchadnezzar.
It certainly would have been for Daniel prophesying it for all
that he had went through. But it set the stage for the New
Testament when Jesus would come in and do a whole new thing.
All that was to bring you to this place of the Scripture we
read in Romans chapter 13, where the apostle Paul under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit says, let every soul be subject
to govern authorities. For there is no authority except
from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the earns of
God. Those who resist will bring
judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a charity.
Good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of
the authority? Well, do what is good and you
will have praise from the same. Now I want you to take note of
that part that says let every soul be subject to govern
authorities, for there is what? No authority except from God,
and all authorities are appointed by God.
Now, I don't know about you, but that's a hard one to quite grasp
and take hold of. In our country, we have a
democratic form of election where whenever that comes the
proper time, we go and vote for elected officials and whoever
gets to the majority is going to be the winner of that election.
So how do you go through that process?
And then when it's all over, say, well, God appointed them.
Well, it would be very difficult to say, especially if the one
you wanted to win lost. I've often said how I started my
interest in politics as a kid at age 10 in 1964.
And I think my politics at that time was more motivated by my
dad than anybody else. I heard what he had to say
because at 10 years old, I literally was reading the
newspaper at that age, which was strange, but my comprehension
certainly would have relied upon the information from my father.
But in 1966, I kept all of the Newsweek magazines on the news.
I watched everything thing and I with that year I was 12 years
old. I was up all night watching
election returns. Because back in those days, if
you wanted to know who was going to win in California, you had to
wait till the next morning because they were three hours
behind us. And I wanted to know if Ronald
Reagan was going to win the president or the governorship of
California at the time. So I was up all night and I
follow politics quite well. 1968 even became involved in the
campaign. I went around the neighborhood,
neighborhoods for Nixon. Everybody in our neighborhood in
those days, not everybody, most of them were from the South.
So most people from the South were Democrats at that time.
And also the many of them were in the UAW union.
So that meant they had a special anointing to be a Democrat.
But I was a Republican. And so I was going door to door
with neighborhood for Nixon, handing out brochures.
And I was very sure that, wow, the person I wanted to win this
election had to win in 1968. That was a pretty rough
election. Literally, there were three
people running for president. We had a third party candidate
by the name of George Wallace, and he was a person who was
against civil rights. And it was such a strange time
because not long before that, the head of the civil rights
movement had been assassinated. One of the candidates, her
president, had been assassinated.
In recent history, there was what they called the Peace
March, and policemen actually shot college students.
It was a horrible time, and a lot was going on.
And so there was all the more this thought in your mind, man,
we got to have the right leader. And of course, at that age, I
was like, my person has to win. And if they didn't win, man, I'd
be all depressed, be sure the world was going to fall apart.
The person I voted for or was for at that time, because I
actually couldn't vote till 1972.
But anyway, that's the way I was looking at things.
I was very emotionally involved in it.
It was also about that time I began to experience what was
called the Jesus People movement.
And during the Jesus People movement, people were talking
about how bad the world was. And what they were telling me is
surely Jesus is going to come. But before it comes, there's
going to be an Antichrist. So I was looking for who's going
to win politics, and I was also looking for the Antichrist.
I mean, it was hard to think about all these things.
Of course, I knew the Antichrist was going to be a Democrat, but
whatever, I was 14, what can I say?
Anyway, so that's the way I looked at elections and
everything that was going on. And so to read a scripture that
says in the end, who wins? God picks them.
Can't figure that one out. If I was President Trump's
president, and I'm just talking about news that most of you know
about, he feels that the election was stolen from him in
2020. If I was his pastor and he
called me and said the election was stolen, I would say, oh,
well, God points presidents. I probably wouldn't have went
over real well, but it would be something that I would have to
say because that's what the Bible says.
Now, that's not to make us passive so that we say, what
difference does it make? God rules in heaven.
No, this scripture tells us that God always overseas things and
in the end he makes final choices because sometimes He has
a bigger plan than we do. So in the process of that
operating in the natural world, we all have a right to vote.
We should exercise that. We should all think about the
issues and decide those issues from the facts of the time.
And also God's word should engage our thinking somewhat.
But whatever happens as though we are involved in these things,
we shouldn't read something about God being how powerful.
I'll have it take the fight out because we're still involved in
this world, but it should always take the sting out.
Anybody know what I'm talking about?
Because whether it's an election or whether it's something that
happens in your life, we have to come to the end and say, you
know what? I don't know how anything good
can come out of this. And sometimes you look at life
that way, sometimes it defies your understanding and how it
could turn out. But we have to believe that all
things work together for good to those who love God and are
called upon His purpose. Amen.
Tark, Some of you are still trying to figure out what said,
how that could all work together.
But you know, the Bible also says that no weapon that's
formed against you can prosper, and every tongue that rises
against you, you will condemn. For this is the heritage of the
Saints. You see, I might be down, but
I'm never out because Jesus is on my side, Amen.
Or I should say, I'm with him. But the important thing to
understand is there comes a point where we walk into a realm
that we don't understand and can't relate to.
And there are times when we just have to, just like when we come
to church as worshippers, we have to say, you know what?
I don't understand what's going on, but I'm sure God sits on the
throne of heaven and he knows what I perhaps don't know.
And again, if I was a president's pastor and then he
came back and won, I would say, hey, don't you understand?
God wanted you to be president for two terms, but He just
wanted you to take a few years off.
In the meantime, however, you want to look at things from a
natural perspective. The truth of the matter is we
always have to come to the point in time where we say, wow, God
does rule, and that should give us a confidence because he is
the God of gods, the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.
He is the God who knows all things.
And one thing we should all know is there are divine
appointments. But guess what?
We've all been appointed by God to be His.
Amen. So there is a divine purpose in
human government. The Bible says that it came from
God. No, it isn't like God came down
from heaven, said hey, I want you guys to have a government.
The truth is he put that within our human nature.
That's a part of our natural inclinations.
Going back to the earliest part of human history, you'll see
there was a gathering together people, because they found out,
well, there's power when more than one gets together to get
something done. And there always has to be a
structure that's called government.
And so God says, well, I use human government for your good
because it's necessary to have laws, it's necessary to have law
enforcement, it's necessary for people to realize it.
Well, you can't just do what you want to do.
And so God endorses the concept of human government and he uses
the concept of human government. But then again, he also
exercises his choice when he gets involved, make things work
together for his eternal purpose.
And what we have to know is that works for our purpose.
Now, if I just read that one scripture might say, well, I
know that's in the Bible, but what about this or what about
that? Well, we're going to do some of
the what abouts today as we talk about this, going back into the
Old Testament to the book of Jeremiah.
And it says here, behold, I will make you a tear to yourself and
to all your friends. Now this is a prophecy Jeremiah
as a prophet is making to the children of Israel.
And they shall fall by the sword of their enemies.
In your eyes shall see it. I will give all Judah into the
hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to
Babylon and slay them with the sword, where I will deliver all
the wealth of the city, All this produce and all this precious
things, All the treasures of the kings of Judah, I will give into
the hand of their enemies, who will plunder them, seize them,
and do what with them? Carry them to Babylon.
So the story I told you about Daniel being in Babylon, it was
prophesied ahead of time by the prophecies.
Now there is a scripture where another prophet says you're
going to be sent to Babylon, but there you're going to be
delivered. Well, how could that work?
How could God use captivity? How could God use war?
How could God use all these things that totally are against
us? Well, because God is God all the
time. The name Babylon is from the
word that we take from the Tower of Babel.
It speaks about confusion, disorientation.
It means you're in a situation that seems disorienting.
Seems like how does this all work out and it seems like it's
all against you. But as a believer in and God,
you say, but even if I'm sent to Babylon, I still have to know
God is God at all times. And that's when the prophet
said, I'm going to give you into the hands of Babylon.
He was a true prophet of God. And he was telling them ahead of
time. And that wouldn't have been a
popular prophecy. And most people didn't like what
he had to say. As a matter of fact, Jeremiah
ended up in jail at one point. He certainly had a lot of
enemies at many different points.
Well, God was speaking to him and He wanted the people to know
time of difficulty would come. It actually was going to be in
the fulfillment of the Word because Moses had said, if you
don't do what God tells you to do, I'm going to send an army
from outside the country, who's going to shake things up until
you begin to realize who you are.
And so that was a part of this process that's going to happen,
and God was going to do it. But again, if you lived in
Jerusalem, if you lived in the Holy City, if you were a Jew,
knowing that you were God's people, it'd be hard for you to
believe that God would do that, not necessarily to you, but to
the holy City. The temple was God's.
How would God ever allow that to happen?
Well, that's why they didn't want to believe what was being
said. Now in this prophecy and
speaking from the book of Jeremiah, it says, therefore do
not listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you,
saying, You shall not serve the king of you shall not serve the
king of Babylon. But they prophecy a lie to you,
for I have not sent them, says the Lord.
Yet they prophecy a lie in my name that I may drive you out
and then you may perish, you and the prophets who prophesied to
you. And so they were not only saying
Babylon's not going to come in and destroy this country.
And they were also saying as this process began to happen,
now, whatever you don't do, don't serve the king of Babylon,
Fight against him till the better end because we're going
to defeat him. Well, they didn't.
And that's why Daniel didn't listen to the false prophets.
He listened to people like Jeremiah because when he got
sent to Babylon, though, it didn't make any sense, though it
cost him a lot. He's like, you know, you know
what, I'm just going to trust that I'm where God wants me to
be. And I'm going to still do the
best of what I can do for God because I know that my job is to
be his partner, to be faithful to him.
And I'm just going to see what God is able to do.
And the Lord did amazing things for Daniel and for his
companions. But also Jeremiah said, now be
careful. There's going to be a lot of
people prophesying the wrong thing.
Now, when it speaks about false prophets in the Bible, it
doesn't necessarily mean they didn't have a gift of prophecy.
What it means is because they didn't know that they were
facing a lot of temptation along the way, that they had to be
careful and make sure that they weren't going in the wrong
direction. We in the body of Christ today,
as a charismatic church, we believe in prophecy.
We believe in prophets and we're living in a time when if you
watch social media, there's a whole lot of things happening.
There's a lot of people were finding out, well, they weren't
really prophets. They were faking other people
that weren't doing what they're supposed to do.
And you can throw up your hands and say, how could this happen?
Well, it happened in Jeremiah's day.
Most of the prophets back then were more concerned about what
the king thought of them or how popular they were or how many
books they sold or how many appointments they got to speak
here and there, whatever they prophesied to people what they
wanted to hear. And you have to understand
something. We don't always hear what we
want to hear when we're listening to God.
And if as a pastor, I only preach to you the things you
wanted to hear, I wouldn't be a very good pastor because
sometimes we have to hear a word this against us.
Sometimes we got to reminded, be reminded, hey, we're not in
control, we're not God, but we are the children of the most
high God. So we should be at all times
keeping our focus on him. Maybe So what the prophet
Jeremiah said to them, and that's why we have the book of
Jeremiah, because they found out he wasn't true.
Robert, he said, don't listen to the false prophets.
You see, the problem isn't whether there's false prophets.
The problem is will God's people discern the word of the Lord?
Will we allow ourselves to be mature enough to listen and say,
well, that doesn't go along with the Bible?
Wow, that sounds good. But I don't think that's what
God's saying. How many know God wants us to be
people of discernment. He wants to be a people with
understanding. And so as we walk in these
things, we can begin to recognize how that indeed God
can do something else like, and I believe it's so important to
learn these things because I believe that God saying to the
body of Christ, we're moving in a time of fast change.
The world is changing so fast. They said since COVID, there's
been such a change in the world that just that has had an
impact. And today is a day when there's
been a time change that there might be people in the second
service who thought they were coming to the first service.
And we, we won't tell anybody, but there's all kinds of
evidence that since COVID, it threw up everybody's sense of
time. And they're talking about COVID
time because they said because of the shutdown, because of
things happened, a lot of people have lost their sense of time.
And so some people are saying time's going very fast.
Used to be just the old folks said that.
Now everybody says that what's going on?
Well, something has happened. Things are changing.
And guess what? AI is going to change things all
the more, and in a natural sense, you might not be able to
keep up, but if you keep yourself focused on God, you'll
be able to keep up. Amen.
Matter of fact, if you focus on the Lord, you'll be the head and
not the tail. You'll be above only, and you
won't be beneath. Hallelujah.
And so we got to hear these kinds of sermons because we got
to be ready for the change and know that God wants us to run
the race terrace. The world might be changing
fast, but I'm believing God's going to get to be energy I've
never had before because I'm going to trust in the living God
For behold, I will raise and cause to come against Babylon.
Wait a minute, what's going on here?
Well, Jeremiah prophesied about the time when the Babylon would
come. He would prophecy about the time
when people had to accept the reality.
Now he's prophesying against Babylon.
He says, For behold, I will raise and cause to come against
Babylon and assemble the great nations from the North Country,
and they shall array themselves against her.
From there she shall be captured.
Their errors should be like those of an expert warrior.
None shall return in vain, and Chaldea shall be a plunder, and
all who plunder her shall be satisfied, says the Lord.
Because you were glad, because you rejoiced when you destroyed
of MyHeritage, because you have grown fat like a heifer,
threshing grain, and you bellow like bulls.
Translation of all that God says, Well, Babylon, you might
have been the sword that I used against Israel, and you thought
you were somebody special, but I'm going to tear you down and
show you you only did that because I allowed you to do it,
says the Lord. So the prophecy eventually comes
to the enemies of God and says divine justice says that might
have been something to let you do for a while, but it's not
going to be something you're going to do forever, says the
Lord. And this was so important to
understand because you read other prophecies.
God actually spoke ahead of time and spoke about a king by the
name of Cyrus who would be the head of the medial Persian
Empire that would come in and destroy Babylon.
And God would use them, him, Cyrus, to send the children of
Israel back to rebuild the city, rebuild the temple.
Man, what a God we serve, but God says to the children of
Israel through the prophet, you're MyHeritage.
That literally means you're my inheritance.
In other words, and all the things that God is doing in the
earth, His people are his inheritance.
And the natural people love to get an inheritance, talk about
their inheritance. God is an inheritance too.
His inheritance is what he's invested in, his people.
I want to use the an illustration now about a person
that if you watch the news, you'll know about, because this
person's a Christian. I want to share how a testimony
can work in such an amazing way, describing the very principles
that I'm talking about here. In 2016, Marco Rubio was running
for president. One of the people is running
against, of course, was Donald Trump.
They were in a debate and he said all kinds of bad things
about Marco Rubio, calling him names and all kinds of things.
I'm not sharing this to just Trump.
I'm sharing with you so you can understand what kind of position
he was in because, well, shortly after that debate, his campaign
began to fall apart and he kind of went into obscurity with
center in Florida. So that's not real obscure, but
he just kind of faded from the national scene.
President Trump certainly defeat him in the election, became
president, etcetera. Now Marco Rubio was a person who
was from a family that had escaped Cuba during the time
when the communists came and took over the country.
He was part of a diaspora. If you would, a group of people
from Cuba who flew, got away from communism, went to Miami
and that that area had to re establish their lives.
He would have grown up from hearing from his parents and
everybody in his community. Our lands were stolen, our
houses were stolen, our country was lost.
And I remember when I was in Cuba, one of the pastors took us
to a point in the capital city of Havana where they literally
killed all the people that were against Castro.
If you were rich, they killed you because you were an enemy of
communism. If you were in a position of
government, they killed you because you could be opposition.
And literally thousands and thousands of people were killed.
Thousands had to leave the country.
It was a horrible time. And he would have been somebody
raised with that kind of a heritage hearing about those
things. So when President Trump became
president the second time, he asked Marco Rubio to be his
Secretary of State. Now, Marco Rubio actually, as a
Christian, that's why I followed him.
And truthfully, in that debate in 2016, I was on his side, man.
I knew he was raising the Catholic Church, but there came
a time when he heard about the Gospel.
So he started going to a Bible believing church.
And he was a man of God. He loved his family.
He loved his nation. There are a lot of good
attributes that I knew he had, but he wasn't God's choice for
that election anyway. But when he was asked to be
Secretary of State, I don't know if he had to go.
Wow. He called me all those names and
I'm going to be a part of his cabinet.
Whatever. So he became the Secretary of
State and not long into the presidency, the president's
national security advisor left his position.
And Trump did something very, very unusual.
He made Marco Rubio Secretary of State and national affairs
advisor, if you would. He was given a position, 2
positions actually that were not very common at all in American
history, but he was given this very special place.
And the reason this is important too, because as I've been
sharing since January 4th, there's a whole lot of things
going on in the world and you can have all kinds of opinions
about it. But all know I've been praying
for Cuba because we have a church in Havana, Cuba, and I
believe in further freedom. Amen.
Give the Lord a praise on that.
And there are people that just love the Lord, but they would
love to be a free people, too. But anyway, this past week, as
President Trump was talking about something else, he said,
yeah. And this week I'm sending Marco
Rubio to Cuba because he's negotiating the transfer of that
country. They're leaving communism, and
he's going to be the one that's going to go through the whole
process with them. Now, I wasn't just excited about
that because I've been praying for Cuba, but I thought, what an
amazing story of a person who's a Christian.
I'm sure when he was running for president, he thought God was
going to help him. I'm sure when he was running for
president, he thought, man, if I was president, look what I can
do for the world and for my family and for Cuba, whatever.
But now he's Secretary of State and he's going to Cuba to be the
Moses to tell the people it's time to let my people go.
Hallelujah, But I was thinking about this.
I I I saw social media to this other guy said, hey, Marco Rio,
who gets his dream job and I was thinking, yeah, that must be a
dream. Can you imagine flying to Cuba
if you or him knowing you're going there to negotiate the
transfer of the leadership of the country, how do you know
he'd have to pinch yourself and go, Oh my gosh, I got is this
real? Could this be happening, having
been raised and hearing all these stories, to know that God
would choose me and put me in a place where I'm going to go and
be the deliverer for the people church.
I believe that God wants to do something for all of us.
That's a dream where we have to pinch ourselves.
I've shared my stories about how I was healed, the muscular
dystrophy, and I can't even begin to tell you what a
surreal, surreal thing that is. To have all kinds of pain and
see your body going downhill and losing your strength and then
all of a sudden have God changed that?
It really is. It's almost like you look at and
say, how did that even happen? I had to pitch myself and say,
this is real. When I had seizures and God
delivered me. It's the same thing.
And when I look back and hear all the stories about how God
spoke to me, and you say you hear the stories, Yeah, because
I keep telling them over and over again.
I hear them for myself because I have seen in my life God do
things that were supernatural. And when he does, and I'm like,
this is like a dream. And the Bible says when the Lord
brought back the captive ones of Zion, they'll be like those who
dreamed in church. I believe with all my heart that
God is preparing us as a people because I keep hearing the
scripture. I'm going to do that which is
exceedingly, abundantly above all that you can ask or think.
Hallelujah. I believe what the Bible says.
I have not seen nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the
heart of man the things that God has prepared for those that love
him. So I can say it this way.
I'm looking for another pitch and at my age there's a lot more
to pinch. I don't know what it is about
getting old. Your skin keeps growing long
past your body anyway. No wonder these people with
money going get the skin cut off because it just keeps growing.
Or they puff themselves up to fill it out.
Whatever. God has positioned me to pinch
myself. I believe he's pinching.
He's going to be causing all of us to get to that point because
God wants to cause the people today to rise up and say, I'm
going to believe that God's going to do something that's so
big and above myself. I might have went through a
situation I can't understand. I might have been in a situation
that seemed like all the world was against me and nobody
understood me. It does not matter because my
God sits on the throne of glory. Hallelujah.
And He's going to do something so awesome as we put our trust
in Him. Can we all bow our heads and
close our eyes for just a moment because we need to stop and say
I might not understand it, I might not know how it's working,
but my best days are yet to come.
I'm going to find out who I really AM.
I'm going to see a path that God has laid out before me.
How awesome is God's plan for us?
And really the Bible says is past finding out.
Because if you look at naturally, man, this, this stuff
don't all make sense at all. Can't always put it together,
but I can trust in Him. Father, I pray for Mount Zion
today because you are saying it's time to arise into a whole
new dimension of faith. It's time to rise above your
ashes and your disappointment. It's time to rise and shine, for
your light has come and the glory of the Lord is going to be
seen upon you. This is Pastor Lauren Coverbius
from Mount Zion Church. We thank you for joining us
today and invite you to connect with our church family by
visiting mountzion.org and following us on social media.
God bless you.