Light on the Hill

Guest (Male): Pastor James Kaddis has us think about why America isn't mentioned in end times Bible prophecy.

James Kaddis: Any pastor who studies Bible prophecy and lives in America should be scared to death about what will happen to America. Because the Bible tells us that America is inconsequential in Bible prophecy. How do we know that? Because the Bible doesn't mention America. And if the Bible doesn't mention America, I can promise you America will not be a superpower in the time that all of these things happen. And my hope and my prayer is that the reason why that's the case is because there'll be such a radical spiritual awakening that America becomes inconsequential by virtue of the fact that it's vacated because of the rapture.

And that's the prayer. But we can't get there unless we all walk in humility. Unless we go to the Lord and we say we have sinned.

Guest (Female): I have found that peace only comes from you. I have found that joy only comes from you. Cuz all I need is you.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Light on the Hill, a ministry of Calvary Chapel Signal Hill. Today we'll continue our verse-by-verse study in the book of Daniel with Pastor James Kaddis in chapter nine. He'll share some prayer pointers today and explain the prayer life God wants us to have. Together we'll examine one of the most powerful prayers in the Bible from Daniel, starting with verse three. Let's observe how to communicate with God in the last days.

James Kaddis: This is in verse three. He says, and I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said, oh Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him and to them that keep his commandments. By the way, when we talk about the great and dreadful God, dreadful is not a picture of he's dreadful in the in the negative way. It's speaking about his omniscience. It's speaking about his powerful, the fact that he is so powerful and so great and it's even an overwhelming greatness.

And I think that the thing that we have to stop and think about here is that he recognizes, and I can't emphasize it enough. I think it's really really important. He recognizes the fact that the destruction of his nation was a direct result of his disobedience, at least not his disobedience, but the disobedience of his people. Even though the disobedience of his people he associates with his own disobedience. He's a man that not only goes to the Lord and seeks the Lord and prays, he's a man that goes to the Lord and seeks the Lord and prays with humility in his heart.

He prays with an understanding that it is what they did that brought themselves to that place. I don't know. Maybe it's not anything that I should be talking about publicly, but I guess I'm going to talk about it publicly for just a second. I'm a little concerned about some of the spiritual advisors that are sitting right now with Donald Trump or the people that are calling themselves the spiritual leaders that surround him. I I agree with my dear friend Jack Hibbs where Jack is calling for godly men who actually are loyal to the Lord first, then loyal to the president, to actually be advising the president and putting him in a healthy place because so many of the people that are so-called spiritual leaders that are around the president right now have no godly wisdom.

As a matter of fact, in many ways some of those people are just absolutely creepy people and they're wrong. And look, I I have gone through this problem before where I see people who are major political leaders and the the people that they regard as their pastors are people that are not not great people, people that are not walking right. And it's funny because I've been to many of these political events. One that I can think of recently going to where I'm sitting at a table and I'm at the in what they would call the VIP section as I'm sitting at the table.

I'm sitting at the table with many many pastors. There are I'm sitting at one of three VIP tables. We're all sitting up in the front and it's all pastors and spiritual leaders. And the only two pastors that are sitting at the table that are not drunk out of their brains is me and Greg Denim and of course our wives and even my children are up front sitting there. I'm not happy about my children having to see all that nonsense, but it is interesting to to consider what was going on at the time and coming to the realization that the pastors at that table, with the exception of Greg Denim, are just like the rest of the world.

They're drinking their their wine. They're allowing themselves to become inebriated. They're getting believe it or not, forgive me for using this terminology, but they're getting stupid while they're out and about walking around meandering like a bunch of fools. And some of them even Calvary Chapel pastors. And you see them they're they're sitting there and they're getting drunk and the reality of it is the only thing that they're really concerned about is their own standing, their own comfort, their own whatever you might want to call it, their own notoriety. By the way, let me just give you a piece of advice if you're a pastor and you're looking to find notoriety.

Notoriety doesn't start with getting in a drunken stupor, okay? Notoriety doesn't start with consuming alcohol because when you take alcohol it makes you stupid like sin, right? You drink alcohol, you get numb, you're not sober, and and you get ugly. But those guys lost their sobriety a lot longer before literally lost their sobriety a lot longer before than the time that they actually drank alcohol, okay? Those guys are not sober at all. And the thing that I that I I'm I'm fearful of right now in watching some of the spiritual leaders that surround the president is I have to ask myself how many of them are theologically sound, how many of them actually understand and know what the truth is.

And as the president means well and is seeking to do things that will of course help Christians, and yes, dare I even say glorify God, he needs to have people around him that are going to tell him the truth instead of trying to climb a ladder. And even if he has people that are wanting to tell him the truth instead of climbing a ladder, he needs to make sure that what they call the truth actually is the truth instead of, you know, I just want to be careful how I say this, right? a female pastor who's a who's a heretic.

And that's just I like let's just call it for what it is, a false teacher that's saying things that are completely unbiblical, not scripturally sound. And I mean, look, you already have a scriptural problem when you are an XX and your pastor. It just doesn't work that way, okay? God says, you know, and I know we're in a world where everyone likes to transition and assume different roles and different people or whatever, but the reality of it is you cannot be a woman and be a pastor in the church. And the Bible makes that clear and I know there are some people that will have a very significant problem with me saying that, but don't have the problem with me saying it, read the Bible.

If you read the Bible, you know exactly what the Bible says and it is not scriptural. It's forbidden. And you know, listen, I have said it before. There's even some Calvary Chapel people that don't seem to understand that principle. But the reality of it is it's true. Just because somebody says it is true doesn't mean that it isn't true. And I and again, I'm very worried because I don't think that the way that I see people giving themselves to God in conversation regarding matters of our nation is anything that I see as being biblical or scriptural.

As a matter of fact, now that God has given us a reprieve, now that God has allowed our nation to see something from a more exceptional or positive light, now that we've watched the mighty hand of God deliver our nation by giving us something that we never thought that we'd be able to have. How is it that so many of the spiritual leaders are praying in a way where they're almost for lack of a better term gloating and not necessarily looking at their responsibility to walk in humility, knowing full well that this nation was given to us, given back to us in a grateful manner.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm all about gloating that we are having victory over wickedness and I have no problem bragging about many of the good changes that are happening in our country right now. But when I talk about the idea of going before the Lord, there is no position that God deserves other than our position of humility. And if you don't go to the Lord with a certain humility saying, Lord, thank you for giving us our nation back, but Lord, we're the ones that messed it up in the first place, should be the prayer that we should be praying.

And that's what Daniel is doing right now. Daniel is acknowledging that. He's saying, look, his his instinctual go-to here is prayer. That's what he's saying. And notice what he does. He glorifies God for who he is. He points out the fact that God is is powerful. He says that God is the one who keeps the covenant. God is the one who is merciful to them that love him and God is the one who will extend his mercy to those that keep his commandments. He's telling the truth about the God that he's worshiping. Look what he says next.

It's very important. He says, we have sinned and we have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments. Notice what he says. He says we. He doesn't see they. He doesn't say they. He says we. Why does he say we? Because he is associating himself with the nation that he's always loved. And he says, we made this error. We made this mistake. We deviated from your word. We did what we should not have done. We chose to sin against you. And you have to keep this in mind because when you look at what's happened to to our nation, you can argue that the Democrats did it and sure they did.

We know that. They take responsibility for the nonsense that they've done. They don't really take responsibility. They just keep doubling down on the destruction that they're doing. But if you really think about it, it was sinful man. It was the church who chose to walk away from its responsibility to seek God and glorify God that gave this nation to those devils. And that's the thing that we have to remember. That's what we have to understand. We gave this nation to these evil people. We chose to give this nation to these evil people because we didn't walk in humility.

We didn't value God's word the way we should have valued it. Instead we were showing up to political parties and getting drunk. We were we were not paying attention to the tool of prayer that God has given us. We weren't studying Bible prophecy. We weren't paying attention to what the Bible said would happen in the last days. Any pastor Any pastor who studies Bible prophecy and lives in America should be scared to death about what will happen to America. Because the Bible tells us that America is inconsequential in Bible prophecy. How do we know that?

Because the Bible doesn't mention America. And if the Bible doesn't mention America, I can promise you America will not be a superpower in the time that all of these things happen. And my hope and my prayer is that the reason why that's the case is because there'll be such a radical spiritual awakening that America becomes inconsequential by virtue of the fact that it is vacated because of the rapture. And that's the prayer. But we can't get there unless we all walk in humility. Unless we go to the Lord and we say we have sinned. It's amazing.

Like I I think about this a lot and and and you know what? I'm I'm sort of overwhelmed by the thought. But I 'm shocked. Not that I'm defending RFK because um for as solid as RFK is in some areas, he's he's just his mind is gone in other areas, right? Like I do not agree with how he views um lots of different things. Although he appears to be moving a lot more into a conservative direction a lot faster. I think he is going to be a good uh well he is now, but he's you know, he's from the very beginning I think he was a good choice uh to to um mind uh HHS and to make sure that all of that goes as it should.

Uh but isn't it hilarious how they're saying that he 's not qualified and that um he is not going to do a good job. He's not going to be able to discern through the many issues that need to be discerned. And I think that I think that the thing that I think is just absolutely hilarious is the fact that you have a huge problem trusting a guy that most that knows more about history than you'll ever know, who has ties to things that you will never be familiar with, who has more institutional knowledge about the things that are happening than anybody else and who spent his whole life suing drug companies.

You think that guy won't do well in the position of HHS, yet you have no problem in trusting organizations like this to somebody who's so confused about themselves medically that they don't even know if they're a boy or a girl. I think we got a big problem with that. I remember when uh you remember when Bruce was saying that he was going to run for the state of California. He wants to be governor in the state of California and there were even some conservative people saying, hey, that's a great option. You know, maybe maybe we'll select Bruce.

And I go, wait, hold on. How is that a great option? How is that a great option? How is somebody going to have enough clarity of mind to rule through the affairs of the state of California when they don't have enough clarity of mind to know that they were born a man? I mean, tell me, does that make any kind of sense? I mean, it's mental illness. And it's sad when when when people think about this. The point is this. The point is we are living in a world today, especially here in this country where there is a lack of humility.

There is a lack of awareness of what God's word says or at least a lack of willingness to acknowledge what God 's word says. And even the prayers that are being prayed, they have no humility in them. Nobody is taking responsibility. There's not a lot of people that are saying, God, thank you for the grace and mercy that you've showed us with the election of this president, but Lord, we got ourselves in trouble. We are the ones that chose to do the evil that we did. We didn't acknowledge you. We didn't obey you. Look what he says in verse six.

This is an important one. And this is so heavy. It's so true. Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants, the prophets which spoke in thy name to our kings, our princess, our fathers, and to all people of the land. Now think about that. He's saying, we didn't hearkened. We didn't listen to the voice of the people that were warning us. We didn't listen to the people that you gave a word of prophecy to. We completely ignored them. And that's the reason why we got judged because we didn't listen to the things that were being said.

I think it's hilarious by the way how so many of us that have dedicated our lives to Bible prophecy and are warning people concerning the geopolitics of the day about these things. How many of us are viewed as cuckoo? How many of us are viewed as fringe? How many of us are viewed as just insane and out of control? It's hilarious how much of that goes on. But the funny thing is we've been warning people that stuff like this would be happening for a long time. And when it did happen, they didn't want to acknowledge that they were even warned about it.

They don't want to acknowledge the fact that these things uh were told to them that they would happen and as a result they completely ruined it all. Daniel's just acknowledging the obvious, right? Daniel is saying, we haven't even hearkened to thy servants. We didn't listen. Verse seven. Oh Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces as at this day to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to all Israel that are near and that are far off throughout all the countries, whether thou hast driven them because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee, saying, Lord, we're confused.

And let me tell you, is there a lot of confusion in our world today? Absolutely. There's a lot of confusion. If you don't believe me, go look at that girl who calls herself a uh a bishop who spoke at the president's thing. By the way, it's interesting. I don't remember the the the the number. I think my sister was the one that told me, but it was something like eight is it 80 million? Yeah, or 53 million. This bishop received $53 million to put in her pocket. Put in her pocket. Over what issue? Helping people that are in the country illegally.

Helping to hide illegal immigrants. So now when she goes up and says, oh, Mr. President, we pray that you would show the love of God. I can't even imitate her sick voice. But isn't it funny? It's funny. Actually it's disgusting because we know that her pockets were being lined to say all that wickedness. We know that her pockets were lined to do that. And we all know uh by the way that she's been a very angry lesbian for a very long time and has been very very upset with the president and has been a long uh critic over that.

Just very very angry over the leadership of our president. It's very very sad. But again, he look at what Daniel is saying. He's saying that we've been in the same position. We've been confused. It's something that he says. He says, Lord, righteousness belongs to you. Confusion belongs to us. It's it's it's wild. Verse eight. Oh Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face to our kings, to our princess, to our fathers because we have sinned against you. In other words, Lord, we're confused from the top to the bottom. We're confused in all areas of society. Why?

Because we've sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him. So we've sinned against thee. Verse nine. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him. It's funny. God says, you've given us mercy. You've given us forgiveness even though we have rebelled against you. You didn't have to give us this reprieve, God, but you did. Verse 10. Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in his in his laws which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

We didn't pay attention to the prophetic words. We didn't pay attention to what the what the Lord told us. We didn't we weren't heeding the warnings that were going on. We just completely ignored them. So we brought it upon ourselves. This is very very important. Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law even by departing that they might not obey thy voice. Therefore the curse is poured upon us and the uh oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God because we have sinned against him. What oath is he talking about? The oath that he's talking about is Deuteronomy 28.

If you go back and you read Deuteronomy 28, keep in mind I love this because it shows us that Daniel is a man of God's word and we'll talk about that in just a second. But the oath that he's talking about is yes in Deuteronomy 28. And when you read Deuteronomy 28, the first 15 verses, what does he say? He says if you'll obey the Lord your God and you will follow his commandments, you'll follow his statutes, then blessed shall you be in the country and blessed shall you be in the city and blessed will be everything you put your hands to and blessed blessed blessed blessed blessed blessed blessed blessed blessed blessed blessed blessed blessed blessed blessed blessed blessed blessed blessed for the next 15 verses.

But then at the verse after that, what does he say? He says if you will not obey the command of the Lord your God to listen to what he says to follow his statutes, he says, cursed shall you be in the country and cursed shall you be in the city and cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed cursed I'm going a lot longer. I'm trying to actually sound a little crazy because it's way longer. As a matter of fact, the amount of curses that he gives is literally at the bare minimum four times in length, four times longer.

Literally you get 60 plus verses that go into cursing you when you choose to disobey the voice of the true and living God. It's pretty heavy. And God said that you followed the oath. You did what you told us you would do, God. We didn't keep it. You kept what you said you were going to do. We didn't keep to our end. I think that's heavy. Look at what he goes on to say. I love this. And he hath confirmed his words which he spoke against us and against our judges that judged us by bringing upon us a great evil for under the whole heaven hath not been done as have been done upon Jerusalem.

In other words, it's never gotten worse than the culmination of what happened in Jerusalem on 586. That's what he's talking about. He says we're the ones that brought that into us as it is written in the law of Moses. All this evil is come upon us, yet made we not our prayer before the Lord God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth. And it's heavy that he's talking about this. By the way, this is um uh very interesting when you talk about, you know, this prophecy and what this all means, but you have to keep in mind um it is uh really really interesting to know and to understand what this all applies.

By the way, Moses was uh clearly uh one of the most famous, if not the most popular or famous leader of the nation of Israel, but Moses was also a prophet. And not only was Moses a prophet, Moses was one of the Psalmists. He wrote one of the Psalms in the book of Psalms. So all of this begins to make sense when you put it together. Moses warned everybody. He did that. Very very important to understand what's being said here. And when those words were given and when God made that made that warning in Deuteronomy, when he said this is what to expect in Deuteronomy 28, we should have listened, but they didn't.

They did they chose not to pay attention. They they didn't give it any any regard for it. Verse 14. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth, for we obeyed not his voice. Did you notice he's calling God righteous? He's saying that God is perfect in the in the in the judgment that he executed and he said that the problem was with the fact that we didn't obey him and it has nothing to do with the fact that God didn't work.

He says, we chose not to let God's word work because we disobeyed him. We did not obey his voice. Verse 15. And now, oh Lord our God that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and hast gotten the uh renown as at this day, we have sinned. We have done wickedly. In other words, he says, look, you're the God that delivered our people out of Egypt after the evil and wickedness that we did. You're the God that did that for us. But you know what, Lord? We brought it upon ourselves.

You can deliver us and you will deliver us, but Lord, it wasn't because of our evil doing. It was because of your mercy and your grace.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today for Light on the Hill. We're in the middle of a study in the book of Daniel. Pastor James Kaddis will be right back. If you joined us late or you just want to hear this again or even share this with someone you know, visit lightonthehillradio.com or oneplace.com. You'll also find us on most podcast platforms. Light on the Hill is listener supported. Simply put, it's the generosity of our listeners that really helps us remain on stations like this one across the country. You can give through the website at lightonthehillradio.com or through our Light on the Hill app.

As this study in Daniel continues, you may have a question or two about the end times. Perhaps you're in need of prayer or have a comment you'd like to share with Pastor James. There's a place to contact us at our website lightonthehillradio.com. Let's return to our study in Daniel chapter nine where we left off at verse 16.

James Kaddis: Verse 16. Oh Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and all thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. It's really funny. He knows that they did evil and he knows that they do not deserve to have Jerusalem restored. And it's funny. Um he also knows that God said he would restore Jerusalem, which is why he's praying for the restoration of Jerusalem. Did you know that?

Folks, there's something pretty powerful to learn here and that is if you are going to pray, you should pray in a way that you are motivated by God's heart in the things that you pray for, that you should know what God wants and you should pray for those things. And as you are rewarded what God's heart as when you when you are witnessing what God wants, it is so fulfilling because you're watching God do the very work that he promised he would do. And that is uh spectacular. That's something that's very very special. It's something that um we should all be noting and should be keeping in mind.

It's very very heavy. So look when he goes on to say verse 17. Now therefore, oh our God, hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplication and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate for the Lord's sake. In other words, he's saying, Lord, please shine the light on the temple. Help us to go back to the temple and rebuild it and restore it, Lord. You deserve it. It's your temple. That's in essence what he's basically saying. He's saying verse 18. Oh my God, incline thy ear and hear upon or or and hear open thine eyes and behold our desolations and the city which is called by thy name.

For we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies. In other words, Lord, we're not praying so that um you could do something because we're righteous people. We're praying and asking you to do something because we know that you have promised us great mercies, that it's because of your mercy and not because of our accomplishments. Verse 19. Oh Lord, hear. Oh Lord, forgive. Oh Lord, hearken and do. Defer not for thine own sake. Oh my God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name. In other words, Lord, please act on the very things that we're asking you to do.

We're expecting you to act on this. We're expecting you to make a change. And folks, by reading these first 19 verses, there is so many important things that we can learn from this. And I think it's really critical that we take some time to focus on it.

Guest (Male): Next time on Light on the Hill, we'll bring you the 70 weeks of Daniel. Get ready for one of the most mind-blowing Bible prophecies in the Old Testament. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.

Guest (Female): I have found that peace only comes from you. I have found that joy only comes from you. Cuz all I need is you.