Light on the Hill

Guest (Male): Pastor James warns the believer in Christ that when you're putting God first and living to please him, prepare for an attack.

James Kaddis: The closer you become to the Lord, the more aware you become of the fact that he is the only solution and you will put him at the forefront. Here's a thing that everybody has to understand. If you're going to do that, if you're going to seek him, if you're going to put him first, get ready to be attacked because the attacks will come. They will come fast and they will come furious.

Guest (Male): In the last several years, things have gone from bad to worse in this world. As we turn to Mark chapter 13 today on Light on the Hill, we discover Jesus actually told us this would happen in the last days. It should be no surprise. Pastor James Kaddis will focus on verses 5 through 13 for what could be called the beginning of the end.

James Kaddis: Mark chapter 13, we're going to start in verse 5. It is interesting because we spent already a lot of time talking about the consequence of the statement that Jesus made when he said that the temple was basically going to be destroyed. It is so interesting because as these predictions are being made by Christ, it would seem as though the only thing that the apostles are preoccupied with is when it's going to happen and signs that they're going to be fulfilled.

I think that tends to be our natural inclination. Our natural inclination is always looking for the sign. Maybe it's looking for the dating and the timing. By the way, this is very true for the online world in which we live that is very prominently based on sensationalism. There are a lot of things that really do lean into the very nature and character that we see exhibited by the apostles in this current moment.

I've talked about this on multiple occasions. It's mind-blowing to me how a person can make a video that contains some of the most sound Bible teaching that you can find, and you might have a few thousand people that will watch it throughout the course of its life. Yet, if you make a video that somehow sensationalizes some aspect of that passage that you're teaching through, then you'll have millions that will watch it.

I can go to you right now and I can say, listen, I'm going to bring to you a presentation from the Scriptures as to what you can expect concerning what the Bible says about the rapture. I can tell you all the mechanics of it. I can tell you what the differences are between the rapture and the second coming, like we're going to be talking about over the next few weeks. I can talk to you about what to expect, what not to expect. I can tell you what the Bible says about this. I can get into the biblically sound mechanics of all that relates to it. We can talk about Jewish feasts and we can get into all kinds of things.

Yet, if I go to you and I convert that into a conversation where I make unbiblical assertions, I actually say things that do not come together scripturally speaking, it's hilarious how many more people will actually flock towards the video. I'll give you an example of this. I could make a video that says, "This is what the Bible really says about the rapture," and you might have a lot of people that will watch just because they're curious. But if I say, "This is the day that the rapture is going to take place," I'll have 10 million people watch that video.

Why? It's a human nature thing. We like setting dates. We want to see the signs. we want to see the wonders. We want to see the sensationalism. It's terribly tragic to consider what that really means with respect to the way God wired us. I remember this. This was such a funny time when this had happened and it still makes me laugh thinking about it because I was reminded of it the other day. I watched this briefing on video and it had been years since I've seen it.

I have a friend who lives on the East Coast and he is a phenomenal videographer. The guy takes great videos. He's got great camera equipment and what he actually specializes in is he videotapes guys flying radio-controlled helicopters. I'm not talking about a little mall helicopter that's floating around. We're talking about helicopters that are as big as most of you. If they collide with anything, they'll destroy what they collide with. You're talking about very unsafe if you're not managing it correctly.

Interestingly enough, we get together in a briefing. We're all together, a bunch of those of us that fly helicopters, and we're talking about safety protocol because anytime you get together with a big group of guys, you have to go over those things. These are the areas where you fly. These are the areas where you don't fly. These are the rules. These are the altitudes you need to keep. These are the things you need to be mindful of. We go through all of these rules.

Then my friend asks me, he says, "Hey, can I talk to everybody?" I said, "Yeah, sure. Talk to everybody. Whatever you want to say." He himself is a pilot. He says, "Look, I'm looking to make really good video footage. So here's some of the rules that I want you to keep by if you want to be videotaped and you want that videotaping to be sensational." He says, "Okay, do this, do this, do this. But one more note, please. If you're willing to, at least make me know that you're going to, I want to know if you're going to crash. Because when I make a really good video, I'll have thousands of people watch it. But if I make a video of one of you crashing, I might have millions of people watching it."

He's being very funny, but it's actually true. People want to watch the freak show. They want to watch the crash. They want to watch the wreck. They don't want to see two pictures here: safe landing, come click over here, you can watch a guy do what he's supposed to do. Or you can say: reckless pilot crashes plane. What are you going to click on first? You're going to click on reckless pilot crashes plane no matter how sadistic it might seem.

It's because we're wired that way. As human beings, the fleshly side of us wants to be razzle-dazzled. We like the sensationalism. But here's the one thing we don't get and this is very important for us to understand. We think we're going to be gratified by the big dog and pony show. We think that we're actually going to be somewhat entertained a little bit more by all the sensationalism.

But in reality, the only thing the sensationalism will do is leave you hungry for more. The more you get, the less satisfied you'll become. The more you get, the less interested you will become in the thing that actually matters and, unfortunately, it can become detrimental to the way you even think, to your mind and your heart. Here's the thing that's even more interesting to consider. When you purposefully, when you seek to pursue the very things that may not necessarily be so sensationalistic but carry tremendous value, it literally changes everything about you.

I say all of this because the section we are about to read is not the type of thing that evangelists talk about when they tell people about Christ. I hear lots of great evangelists share messages concerning the gospel, and they always say things like, "God will give you peace. God will give you strength. God will help you through the darkest time of your life. God will be there." Those things are absolutely true. There's no misrepresentation in any of that.

You choose to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and you will not be ashamed. You choose to say, "Lord Jesus, I ask that you come into my life and I put my faith and trust in you that my salvation will remain intact because of what your Son did," then undoubtedly your life will get better in the sense that God will continue to step down on your behalf, intervene, become your strength, become your shield. He'll watch over you. He'll help you to navigate through the most difficult of times.

But here's the one thing most people don't say and that's this. The very moment you choose to put your faith and trust in Christ, you have an adversary that will do everything that he can to destroy what you're choosing to do. You don't hear things like that. You don't see those things on Hallmark cards: "Put your faith and trust in Jesus and watch the real fire burn." You're not going to see that. "Put your trust in the Lord and you're going to see what a real tornado looks like. You're going to find out what a real storm looks like."

Here's the truth. The truth is the more you allow yourself to be given to the things of God, the greater glimpse you will gain into how much your enemy hates you. We watch somebody like Charlie Kirk, who completely allowed himself to be given to the Lord wholly. In doing so, he became more aware of the things in his life that were broken, just like anybody who says, "I'm going to give my life to the Lord." It was those things that drove him to continue to walk in righteousness like very few people get to do or choose to do. The enemy hated it.

I don't know if you guys noticed this, but I think it's worthwhile mentioning because this is how it works in virtually any of these contexts. You may have noticed if you go and you look at a progression of all of the debates that Charlie would engage himself in, start looking at the debates that existed five years ago and start just examining the content of what was communicated. You'll hear points on why secular humanistic philosophy is broken. You might hear arguments as to why critical theory is broken and critical race theory and how broken that is. You might even hear a whole series of statements being made regarding the Constitution and the history of our nation.

You might hear all kinds of things like that, but the closer and closer he got to the Lord, the more effective he became. He spent a lot more time talking about, "This is what you must do to receive eternal life." You heard that. You would see it and I know why. I know why because I think what Charlie began to see, like anybody else who loves God who's seeking to minister to people and change their lives, is that you cannot change a life if it is void of Christ. You just can't.

It's literally impossible. We're learning this right now as we're talking about this false peace that so many people are beginning to believe in. You know the most dangerous part about the peace talks that are going on right now? Perhaps the most consequential portion of everything that's going on with the peace talks. The peace talks are happening and there are peace motions that are taking place, but they are void of repentance.

Do you get it? You've got these massive ecumenical movements that are coming together filled with a bunch of people who walk in complete opposition to the God of heaven and they think somehow they're going to find a permanent peace. It's not going to happen. Don't get me wrong. I am beyond grateful for the incredible President of the United States that we have. I think he's an amazing man and I'm grateful for the fact that God has used him in a tremendous way.

I never thought in a million years I would see that man sitting in South Korea, literally in front of the whole world with the dictator of North Korea and having a press conference where the dictator of North Korea speaks up and says, "I'm optimistic that we're going to make a deal together." He's never spoken to the media! Think about that. God has been using our president in a remarkable way and it's amazing.

But here's the thing we've got to understand. Here's the thing we need to be aware of and here's the thing we need to constantly remind ourselves of. We'll never find peace until we pursue it with the inspiration of the Prince of Peace. He's never going to bring that permanent peace. No politician will ever bring that permanent peace. I thank God for the fact that he has done a great job. I thank God for the fact that President Trump has brought a lot of peace to this world. But it will never be made permanent until Christ comes back. That's the only way it's going to take place.

I bring all this stuff up because, again, it goes back to everything that I've been talking about. It goes back to the realization that I continually bring to the table: the closer you become to the Lord, the more aware you become of the fact that he is the only solution and you will put him at the forefront. Here's a thing that everybody has to understand. If you're going to do that, if you're going to seek him, if you're going to put him first, get ready to be attacked because the attacks will come. They will come fast and they will come furious.

They will come hard and they will come in a way that you never expected it. If you choose to say, "Lord, I put my faith and trust in you. I choose to glorify you. I walk away from my sin. I repent from my sin," you will be opposed. It's that simple. Here's the problem. As we get closer to the last days, the fight will intensify. As we get closer and closer to the return of Christ, as we get closer and closer not only to the rapture but as we get closer and closer to the second coming, we are going to see opposition come in ways that we've never seen it come before in human history.

Folks, I'm telling you this right now. We are seeing so much of that. We are watching things happening right now that we have never seen happen before. We're watching things take place that we never thought humanly possible. Jesus goes before his disciples as he's talking about the last days, as he's talking about the end times, and he warns them that this attack is going to get worse.

I had the honor and privilege over the years of speaking to men that actually served during World War II. Among some of those men that I've spoken to, I've been able to speak to airmen, people who flew airplanes during World War II. Perhaps one of the most incredible conversations I've ever had with anybody who was a pilot was a man who flew for an elite unit called the Tuskegee Airmen. I got to talk to him at the Torrance airport. It was amazing being able to sit down with him and hear his perspective on the things that they were facing and listening to him about some of the things that were going on in the country.

He was telling me about how it was somebody from his unit that actually flew the President's wife at one point. So many interesting stories that he told me concerning what was going on in the war. Then I got to speak to another man who actually, his son is a pastor in Kansas who was one of my Bible college students, and I got to speak to him and he was a bomber pilot during World War II. As a matter of fact, he was one of the guys that flew some of the last missions into Berlin with the escort of the Tuskegee Airmen.

These two guys may or may not have known each other, I don't know, but they did fly in the same air with one another doing the same thing. You know the one thing that both of them told me that was strikingly accurate even though they told it to me independent of one another? In other words, their accounts matched almost perfectly. They said this. They said, "Most of us knew when we were flying into Berlin near that last time period, most of us knew that we were going to die going into Berlin."

That was our thought. As a matter of fact, the guy who was the bomber pilot, he told me there were many pilots in his unit that actually refused to fly into Berlin unless they were escorted by one of the Tuskegee Airmen because the Red Tails never lost an escort. They're known for that. Mind you, many of them got shot down. Many of them lost their lives for our country, but not a single mission ever flown by them did they lose a bomb escort. They never did.

These guys were relatively confident that they'd have better odds, but they all thought that they were flying missions where they were not going to see their families again. They were not going to see their children. This is the thing that they both told me and it's such a striking similarity between their accounts. They said this. They said it was different from any other period during the war. They'd never experienced anything like it. They said during that last six months or so, any mission that they would fly, they would feel an intensity that you could not believe.

They said the most feared moments that they had is when they would fly over Germany, understanding and knowing just how hard these fighter pilots flew, just how difficult they were. It was incredibly miraculous that these two guys lived because they said as they got closer to the end, the intensity increased in ways that were unbelievable. One of the bomber pilots was telling me, "We would fly through so much flak, we couldn't even believe that we were actually going to come home. It was crazy. It was almost like somebody was hitting our planes with a hammer just the whole time."

They said that they were able to somehow, some way, successfully be able to navigate through, flying their missions, doing the things that they were doing. What's even more interesting is to draw the strike parallel between what they were describing to me and what I know to be happening right now in these last days. You see, here's the thing that happens. When your enemy knows that the victor is coming in, when the enemy knows that the person fighting them is getting near the end and they're about to lose, you know what they do? They throw everything they have.

They do everything they can to stop you. They do whatever is necessary to put an end to what it is you're doing. I believe that is where we are right now in these last days. I believe that's exactly where we are. I mean think about this, you guys. Look, I don't mean to be tough. I don't mean to be harsh. I don't mean to sound derogatory. I'm not trying to be disrespectful to anyone. I'm not trying to even call anybody out.

But what Charlie did on a regular basis on these college campuses was extraordinarily hard to do. You had to be filled with the Spirit to not lose your mind with these crazy people that he was talking to on a regular basis. If you don't believe me, go watch what Tucker Carlson just did on campus. I'm not blaming him. I'm not saying I could do any better than him. I'm not trying to put the man down.

But he got asked a few questions by these college students and not only did he lose his mind and lose his patience, he started cursing at some of them. Now here's my thought process. If somebody behaves or responds vitriolically to the questions of these students, you would think that the students would want to respond with anger and maybe even violently. But when you would have a young man who is 31 years old get up there and tell everybody in the crowd, "Stop booing this person. God loves them just like he loves us," and would sit down and reason with them and beg them to experience the goodness of God that he's experienced, which one do you think would be more likely to receive a violent response?

Which one do you think would be more subject to a violent reaction? I would think, just me personally, I would think I would be the guy that would be more subject to something like this. Because unlike Charlie, I'm not Mr. Tactic. You ask me a question, you're going to get it.