Light on the Hill

Guest (Male): Time is short and we're in the last days. Pastor James encourages us run the race faithfully until the end.

James Kaddis: My prayer for us in these last days is that we would recognize first and foremost that we are in the last days. Guys, I'm telling you, I'm promising you, we right now are witnessing the beginning of the end. I can tell you that with great confidence: we are witnessing the beginning of the end.

But before we get to the actual end, there's a lot of work to do. Now if the end is a few years away, if the end is a few months away, if the end is 10 years away, 20 years away, for us, we must view it as we have a limited amount of time on this earth.

Let's make the most of all that God has put in front of us. No more mediocrity, you guys. Get out there, do what God has called you to do and do it faithfully, and watch what God will do.

Guest (Male): Christ can come at any moment, and we see evidence of that all around us. Jesus tells us so much about the time we're approaching in Mark chapter 13, and today we're going to talk about the beginning of the end. Here's Pastor James Kaddis starting us off at verse five.

James Kaddis: Jesus, verse five, answering them—by the way, I want to point this out: remember, they want to know the signs, they want to know when things are going to happen, they want all that stuff. And Jesus is basically going to explain to them the condition that they could expect as they approach the coming day. Notice he's not going to give them signs. Notice he's not giving them the dog and pony show in the sense that, "Once you see this, it's going to happen on this day." He's just going to explain to them how it's going to be like as we get closer to the time, as we get closer to the day.

Look what he says, verse five: "And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you." Okay, that means right off the bat that there are going to be people around us seeking to walk in deception. You think for one second that's not what we're seeing right now? Look at the people rising in popularity. Look at the people that even our young kids are looking up to as a hero, but they don't really get it. They don't understand why, because deception comes with a premium in these days.

It's amazing how bad deception seems to be prevailing. He says, "For many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many." And we're seeing it right now. Look, we've been seeing it all over throughout the years, but more so now than any other time. How many people are claiming to be the Messiah? How many people are putting themselves to be in the place of God? And they don't deserve that prominent role.

Jesus said it's going to happen. He said in these last days we're going to see that happening, and it's going to be more and more and again and again. And folks, I'm telling you right now, there is so much deception out there. The lies continue to grow and they grow in ways nobody ever thought possible. The days are getting darker and the way that people are lying now is just unbelievable.

It used to be that when somebody needed to make some kind of a statement in the face of the world, they went out of their way to check every single detail to make sure everything is absolutely right. Now they just don't care. Now they're making the most insane statements in the world and they're not even being held accountable for statements that are clearly lies. Things that clearly are not true. It's happening more and more and more. And as a matter of fact, I'll tell you this: people are becoming more and more popular, it seems, when they lie deeper and deeper.

People are embracing it. People are receiving it. Look at the fastest growing religion in the world. The fastest growing religion in the world—and by the way, let me just make myself clear: Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, not to be conflated with the biggest religion. The biggest religion is Christianity by long shot. But it is the fastest growing religion in the world. Why? Because they are outbirthing our existing birth rates.

Do you understand that? The birth rate here in the United States of America because of abortion is dropping. It's getting worse and worse, especially amongst black families. Amongst black families, I think I just saw a low of 1.7. You have to have 2.3 percent in order to keep a race alive basically. And here in the United States of America, it's getting lower as well. Amongst Muslims, it's a massive number. It's a huge number. They're procreating like crazy.

And that's how it's growing quickly because the families are growing. But think about it: fastest growing religion in the world. And at the crux of their holy document—at the crux of the document that they respect, which by the way isn't really truly even legitimate—but let's just assume that it is. Historically and all that other stuff, let's say the manuscripts are legitimate, nothing's been tampered with. Let's just assume it's perfect as they say it is.

Their Quran, without dispute, gives us many lines like the one I'm about to share with you. In the Quran, it means that Allah is the chief of deceivers. Imagine. Imagine having a god who calls himself to be the chief of deceivers. You want to put your faith and trust in that god? Anybody want to put their faith and trust in Allah? Think about that for a moment. Think about the consequence of that statement in and of itself.

And then go back and think about how Jesus says many people will claim to be the Messiah. Many people will claim to be the one who is going to bring salvation. I think a lot of people read passages like this and they conflate the word "Christ" with "Jesus," and in reality that's not what's being communicated here. What's being communicated here is that many are going to come and they're going to claim to be the savior. Now some people will say, "I am Jesus," but that's getting—people are a lot more sophisticated than that nowadays.

And they're taking the place of God by saying they have all the solutions. It's wicked, but that's what we're seeing right now. So many are going to come, they're going to be saying, "I am Christ," and they're going to deceive many. But look at this: "And when you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, be you not troubled, for such things must needs be, but the end shall not be yet." You know, I do think it's so interesting to me how so many people say, "Well, there's an increase in wars and rumors of wars, that must mean that Christ could come at any moment."

Well, no. Christ could come at any moment, but we substantiate that a different way biblically. But what Jesus is saying is you're going to hear of wars and rumors of wars throughout. Just because you hear of wars and rumors of wars doesn't mean we're at the end yet. As a matter of fact, what Jesus is saying is those things must come to pass in order for us to get to the end. People tell me all the time, "Well James, one of the signs in the Bible that Christ could be of the second coming of Christ that we're getting close is we're going to see wars and rumors of wars."

No, Jesus actually says wars and rumors of wars are part of what you should expect leading up to that time. The first real sign that Jesus gives us is one we're going to go over next week, where he talks about the abomination that causes desolation. He's quoting Daniel chapter nine, verse 27. That will be the generation that will see the second coming of Christ, is the one who sees the Antichrist step into the temple and demand to be worshipped. We don't have a temple yet.

So you cannot definitively claim that it's going to be this generation because we don't have the one sign that God gave us to look for to be able to understand what that generation will be. We'll get into that next week. But look at what he goes on to say. He says, "For nation shall rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles, and these"—notice this—"are the beginning, the beginnings of sorrows."

I think we can safely say that we're there. I think we can safely say that we are literally in these last days. They're in front of us. Verse nine, look what he says: "But take heed to yourselves." I really want to spend a lot of time telling you, begging you, to take the next set of words that I'm going to read to you seriously. Be self-aware in light of what God's word tells you. Be looking inward with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Understand the fact that in these days, more than ever, we need to be taking heed to ourselves. We need to be very careful about listening to the liars that want to communicate something. Take heed to yourselves. "For they shall deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues you shall be beaten. And you shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake for a testimony against them." You know, this is so interesting. There are a few subtleties that I want people to pay attention to that I think are really important.

Did you notice that Jesus says that in the synagogues themselves you will be beaten? By the way, this is not a condemnation towards Jews. This is not a condemnation towards Jewish places for practicing worship. This is a picture that the Lord is drawing of the fact that the greatest persecution we will experience in these last days are going to be the persecutions that come from supposedly religious people. It's happening more and more and more and more.

It would seem as though the churches have become the centers of what real hate looks like. Breeding places for people that have a leftist mind. A mind that breeds destruction. Hates the family, hates our country, hates God in the name of God, in the name of religion. We're seeing it happen right now. It's happening right in front of us. So he says, "Be careful. You're going to be suffering lots of persecutions."

Verse 10: "And the gospel must first be published among all the nations." In other words, the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, must go out to the whole world. I think that's why there's a lot of people who say we got to preach the gospel to every single person that we possibly can because it will rush the coming of Christ. Now there might be some truth to that, maybe. But the reality of it is only the Father knows when that's going to happen.

Our goal isn't to do something because we believe we're going to get a result. Our goal is to do something because God told us to do it, right? We don't place a contingency upon the reaction. You know, I think about this a lot and I think it's kind of an interesting thing to sort of ponder. But so many people look at the rock star that was Charlie, right? And if you've ever been to any of these campus events, I was at the last two out of three that he did.

As a matter of fact, the last two that he did, I know for fact I was at the last one that he did right before he went to Utah. It's amazing how much of a rock star he was. The crowds wanted to get him to sign their shirts, and they're running after him. But you know what they don't see? They don't see the hundreds and thousands of hours that he spent setting up tables in the middle of campus quads talking to maybe five people if they would talk to him.

People pouring their sodas and coffees all over him, kicking the table over. He did that day in and day out, day in and day out, day in and day out, again and again and again and again. I think it's interesting because what I admired so much about that mindset was he never placed a contingency upon the reaction of people. He never said, "Well, if I can't get a thousand people showing up, I won't be there." No, didn't work that way.

He didn't do it because he wanted recognition. He didn't do it because he wanted people to show up. He did it because God told him to go do it. I think that should be the thing that drives us all. We should be the people that do what we do because God told us to do it. We shouldn't be concerned about the reactions of people. We shouldn't place contingencies upon any type of results. We should do it because God told us to. Why?

Because in walking according to the call of God, only then will we see the result of God. Again, as I said on Sunday, this isn't Burger King, okay? You really can't get it your way at Burger King anymore. I'm still grieving for years over the Whopper. Anyway, sad, you can't get it your way anymore. So he says, "The gospel must first be published among all the nations." Look what he says in verse 11: "But when they shall lead you and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what you shall speak, neither do you premeditate, but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak you, for it is not you that speak but the Holy Ghost."

Boy, is that so powerful. Guys, I want you to highlight this verse in your Bible. I want you to put this verse close to your heart, but I want to throw something your way. I want you to not use this verse as an excuse to be mediocre. I don't want you to use this verse as an excuse to not study. I don't want you to use this verse as a reason for why you should not allow yourself to be prepared.

Look at what he says here. I'm going to say it again. Let me just read the whole verse: "But when they shall lead you and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what you shall speak, neither do you premeditate, but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak you, for it is not you that speak but the Holy Ghost." I learned this a long time ago. God showed me this from a very young age and that was this: if I am going to learn how to rely on the Holy Spirit to give me what I need without premeditating on what I'm going to say, that's going to require me to build into my life a practice of discipline.

A practice of constantly educating myself, reading, taking in the word, knowing the word, developing an awareness of the word in a way that I never thought possible. Develop an insatiable appetite for the word of God. Why? Because the Holy Spirit cannot bring to your remembrance something that you've never introduced to yourself in the first place. If you will allow yourself to become acclimated to the word of God as a person who chooses to dedicate a life to studying it, you won't have to worry because the Holy Spirit will speak through you.

And the equipping that you have will come from God honoring the effort that you made to be prepared. I shared this with my staff a few months ago. Amazing volunteers. We get together and we're planning all the events for next year. We do that typically about four months before the start of the new year. And I tell them this with a very heartfelt mind—how about we say that? I said this. I said, "The culture of mediocrity in this church is dead. I want to kill it. I want it to be gone. I don't ever want it to show its ugly face again."

You know the only way we do that, and the only way we do it effectively? We put our whole heart into everything that God has entrusted us with. We walk with the mindset of preparation, recognizing the fact that God gave us something very special and we're to be good stewards of it. I know I can speak for myself and I can say that by the grace of God—not that I ever want to elevate myself in any way, that's not what I'm doing—but by the grace of God, I have received from my Savior a mind that is capable of processing information very differently than the average person around me.

It's a gift that God's given me and I'm grateful for it. I'm grateful for the fact that I can process things differently. But I also know this: I also know that if I'm going to use it the way God intended for me to use it, then I need to be given to the disciplines necessary to feed it. I need to give myself to the practice and to the discipline of making myself aware of all that God has for me in order to accomplish his purposes.

Mediocirty is the mindset that says, "Well, the Lord will cover it. We don't have to worry about anything. It's all good. We'll just deal with it when it comes." No, it's not all good. God is not going to honor you saying, "Let's just wing it," when in reality you never took the time to prepare for what he intended for you to prepare for. You're spitting in his face and you're basically saying, "I don't care about the gift you've given me. I'm just going to drive it into the ground." No, we take what God has given us and we use it to the fullest.

Verse 12: "Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son, and the children shall rise up against their parents and shall cause them to be put to death. And you"—notice this, verse 13—"shall be hated of all men for my name's sake, but he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved." You know, I think about this a lot. And I don't know why, I've just been thinking about him a lot. I've been thinking about Charlie a lot because we were close. He was a friend. He was my little brother.

If there's one person that in my mind should not be hated by anybody, it'd be him. As I mentioned before, he had a very sweet heart. I don't remember when he told me this, but he told me one of the things that he tries to do every day is figure out some way he could help somebody. Minister to them, share the gospel, whatever it is. I don't wake up with that mindset sometimes. I don't wake up with that thought process. I would love for God to help my heart be softer.

Now I can tell you who does: my wife does. She wakes up every single day with that mindset: "How can I help somebody? How can I love on somebody? How can I care for somebody?" She thinks that way. But I just think in my mind, what is the only viable explanation for why a life could be cut so short, especially one that represents that kind of extraordinary fire? It's really simple. We have an enemy. He hates us. He hates you.

He hates you. You guys get it? He hates you. He cannot stand you. He wants to see you destroyed. He wants to rob you of your dignity. He wants to completely take away from you anything that even remotely resembles life. And the very moment you decide to say, "Lord, I'm putting my faith and trust in you," you go to the top of his list for every attempt he can possibly make to bring destruction into fruition. Jesus asked us to be mindful of that.

Jesus told us to think that through. Jesus warned us that in these last days we would see all of these things happen. But what else did he promise us? He said those that endure to the end, the same shall be saved. How do you endure to the end? How does that even work? How does somebody endure until the end? Well, it's really simple. You put your faith and your trust in Christ and you don't waver.

You don't allow yourself to be moved. You say, "Lord, I'm going to trust you," and then you let the cards fall where they may. My prayer for us in these last days is that we would recognize first and foremost that we are in the last days. Guys, I'm telling you, I'm promising you, we right now are witnessing the beginning of the end. I can tell you that with great confidence: we are witnessing the beginning of the end.

But before we get to the actual end, there's a lot of work to do. Now if the end is a few years away, if the end is a few months away, if the end is 10 years away, 20 years away, for us, we must view it as we have a limited amount of time on this earth. Let's make the most of all that God has put in front of us. No more mediocrity, you guys. Get out there, do what God has called you to do and do it faithfully, and watch what God will do. Watch what he is capable of. Watch what he will do.