Simple Faith

Guest (Male): Hello and welcome to Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, coming to you from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we bring you Pastor Bill's weekly prophecy update. He'll be taking a look at current events and he's going to share how they relate to end times prophecy we read in the Bible. Obviously, there's a lot going on in the world, so let's get right to it. Here's Pastor Bill.

Bill Henry: Well hello again and welcome to Simple Faith Radio, the weekend edition, running Friday, Saturday, Sunday. What a blessing to be with you. Thanks for tuning in today. We try to take a moment out of our study during the week just to address a lot of the things that are happening in the world today. We just had the State of the Union where we saw none of the Democrats stand up and say, "Yeah, the government's main job is to protect its citizens."

We're divided. What did Jesus say? He said, "A nation divided against itself cannot stand." And we see this continuing to grow. We see deception through AI in different things continuing just to grow. We see wars and rumors of wars. Right now we're waiting to find out what's going to happen with Iran as President Trump has given them the deadline. There's only a few days left to that deadline.

And there's just so many different things. Lawlessness is abounding and being celebrated by so many that it's kind of mind-boggling, to be honest with you, even though God said these things would happen. I'll be honest, when I look at different eschatological views, different views of the end times, I used to just agree to disagree. But when you look around us and you see everything falling into place when you take the Bible literally with end times and not spiritually, you see things literally happening before our eyes.

Lawlessness is increasing. We said the rise of AI, which is perfect for what the Antichrist is going to need to implement what we read in Revelation 13 and other places throughout the word of God to seek to make the whole world worship him and be able to keep track of who is and who isn't. Technology has such beautiful things but also many dangerous things.

And so, even as we look at all these things, the Epstein files, all these different things come out. Bill Gates just came out the other day and admitted to having affairs and apologized, yet none of the pedophilia that we know took place at the island, on his plane, Epstein's plane. We don't know if Bill Gates took part in any of that. But again, there's so much wickedness being revealed.

I don't know about you, but that's one of the things I actually pray for: "Lord, reveal these things and help us to pray and stand against these things and to be on our knees in prayer to the Lord using our great weapon of prayer and fasting, by the way." What another great spiritual weapon the Lord has given to us and encourager and strengthener by His Holy Spirit and His word, obviously, the sword of the spirit.

And yet today, I think one of the main things on my heart today is we're seeing this hopelessness at the same time that it seems to be gripping more and more hearts. We've read about record numbers of people killing themselves, especially here in Western societies or first-world countries. Even Japan has a huge rate of suicide. Even within our military, our men and women are coming home, record numbers killing themselves.

Just one of the Carradines just this last week killed himself, and then the daughter of somebody famous just killed themselves just this last week within a day of Carradine or the same day. And so many just taking their lives, young, old, middle-aged, and hopelessness set in. When you hope in the things of the world, you're just going to find hopelessness.

The sad part is when we make a profession in Christ and we're born again, when we believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins upon the cross and we believe that He rose from the dead on the third day, we believe in Him then to be the Lord and Savior of our lives, the Bible says we're then born again of the Spirit of God. We become new creations.

And we have to be so careful that we become also at the same time men and women of the word of God and mature in our faith, and not just be those who are drinking the milk and need to just hear about our salvation over and over again, as the writer in Hebrews talks about. We need to be those who are growing in our faith, growing in our strength because this hopelessness is going to hit us as well.

Maybe you're not a Christian hearing this program. It's no accident that you tuned in. Maybe you're a Christian hearing this program. It's no accident that you tuned in. And maybe you've been contemplating suicide. Those temptations come in, especially in this world and, honestly, especially the more that we watch social media, the more that we watch the news, the more that we listen to any of the radio stuff.

And even sometimes we can get depressed by prophecy programs when we're trying to talk about things happening in the world. Because when you look at Bible prophecy, there's only one really good thing in prophecy as far as the signs of the return of Christ, and that is Israel becoming a nation again. That happened in May 14th, 1948, and it's also continuing to happen today as they're coming back from all over the world.

Israelites, Jews coming back from all over the world still, weekly and monthly. But that's the good sign. The rest of the signs, I'm sorry to say, except for the rapture of the church, which is also I think probably the second largest sign after Israel, these are all bad signs. There's earthquakes and storms and lawlessness and false prophets and misinformation and illnesses, and just on and on.

These things will be growing exponentially like birth pangs, Jesus said, and then Paul reaffirmed. So again, if you keep your eyes on all these things—that's why we always try to take this program and not just focus on those things. We mention them, and I think the thing in the Middle East is something to really keep our eyes on right now.

But mainly what we're to keep our eyes on is Jesus. These things are going to happen. And whether these are the last of the last days, which I believe they are—Israel becoming a nation is the main sign. Number two, we see the church falling away like never before, going off into all these unbiblical, extra-biblical, ungodly things and bringing them into the church.

We see AI being set up as another huge fulfillment of signs and again so many other things happening. So I do believe. But let's just say there is another 40 or 50 years, more or less. We don't know. No man knows the day or the hour. Jesus has given us signs to look for; God throughout His word has given us things to look for.

But my point is this: we need to always keep our eyes heavenward towards Jesus, our redemption, because our redemption draweth nigh. When you see these things begin to take place, Jesus said, look up, for your redemption draweth nigh. Now looking up doesn't mean we ignore what we're doing here. We don't quit our jobs and stop taking care of our family or stop cleaning the house or going to work or going to school.

No, we look up and we remember that we're just here. We're passers-through here. We're on a bus, if you will. When I was younger, I lived in Australia for six months, and me and some friends of mine took a bus across Australia all the way in one trip. It was two or three days. It's a blur. But as we're taking this bus and these stops in the middle of the Outback, one stop looked like it was the same stop over and over again.

But nobody there on the bus sat in their seat, put up drapes, installed plumbing, and started painting the seat in front of them to make it their home, because they knew that they were on the way to a destination. And we need to remember that this is not our home, that we are strangers, the Bible says. We are aliens once we are in Christ.

The loves of the world should become stranger to us and more alien to us, and the things that amuse the world should not amuse us anymore. It should become almost like a foreign language. Our minds aren't set anymore because we continue to look upward. We continue to remember that Jesus is coming for us to take us where He will be.

And either that's going to happen—the rapture—where Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you, and where you are, I will come and take you to be where I am." So that's the rapture of the church. And then there'll be the second coming of Christ roughly seven years after the rapture. There'll be the tribulation in between that time, the 70th week of Daniel, where God will pour out His wrath on a world that has rejected Him.

He will also be pouring out His wrath upon the people, especially the Jewish people who have rejected Him. But they will also come to that place of embracing Him, and they will look upon Him whom they have pierced as an only son, and they will weep and mourn and lament. It's a beautiful picture still to come. And then Christ will return and He'll rule and reign here upon the earth for a thousand years.

But here's the beautiful thing: even if the rapture isn't for another 40 years, 50 years, 100 years, 200 years, or it's maybe 20 days away, 20 minutes away—we don't know, but again we see the signs that are happening now before our eyes. I firmly believe that. But at the same time, we should have that peace that no matter what happens, we know whose we are and where we're going.

We're not so caught up in the things of this world so that when things happen, we go to that place of hopelessness. Maybe you're in that place of hopelessness where you're so saddened. Maybe things have happened directly in your life. People have hurt you. You had bad news from the doctor. You lost your job. Your husband or wife committed adultery or other sins.

Maybe you're caught up in different sins. First of all, if you're caught up in sins, know that Jesus Christ sets you free. That's one of the most blessed things that happens. Not only are our sins forgiven when we come to Christ when we repent, we turn away from our sin and turn to Jesus Christ. Not only are our sins forgiven but we're also set free from our sin.

The slave master, the Bible says, of our sin. And what a crummy and terrible, wicked slave master that was. Don't let the world tell you, "Oh, well you're forever an alcoholic. I've been clean for six years, three days, and two hours." Praise God first of all you've been delivered from that, but here's the thing: if you're a Christian, you're no longer an alcoholic.

You're no longer a drug addict. You're no longer an adulterer. You're no longer a homosexual. You're no longer a transgender. You're no longer a liar. You're no longer a thief or murderer, whatever, because we've been made new in Jesus Christ. And as we are made new in Jesus Christ, His Holy Spirit now comes and He lives within us, and He empowers us to have victory over our sins.

But again, in the last days all these things will happen. What I was trying to get to in that last part: come to Christ. If you're caught up in sin, turn away from your sin, turn to Jesus Christ and come to believe in Him as your Lord and Savior, not just religiosity. Turn to Him. Mourn over your sin, weep over them, and come and receive forgiveness at the cross of Christ, but also find freedom from your sins.

Find freedom to now serve Jesus and not ourselves, not our sin, not the world. But it's interesting because in the Amplified version in 2 Timothy 3:1, when Paul was writing about the last days, he said this: "But understand this, that in the last days will come perilous times of great stress and trouble, hard to deal with and hard to bear."

So the times he's saying, "Look, in the last days," and so again I do believe we're living in the last days. And if it is so, these are perilous times, Paul says, of great stress and trouble. Sound familiar anybody? That's today. And it goes on to say hard to deal with and hard to bear. And so my heart was: you know what, look, Paul the apostle, I don't know if you know this, but he was tempted unto suicide.

He basically came to that place—I don't know if I want to be that strong—but he basically came to that place because this is what I would call suicide, is a complete lack of hope. And you come to that place where you despair of life. And this is what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:8. He said, "For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened."

And "burdened" here is *bareo* in the Greek. And basically it means to be weighted down, burdened, loaded, weighed down, heavy. And so for we were so burdened beyond our strength. And maybe that's you right now. And he goes on to say that we despaired of life itself. I remember reading this years ago and I freaked out. I'm like, "Wow, Paul the apostle."

Because I don't think that there's a person alive, Christian, non-Christian, that isn't tempted at times with despairing of life itself. With, "Hey, that tree as you're driving down the road looks pretty good. Look at that, just drive off the road." And those are obviously from the enemy, obviously demonic whisperings into our ear, if you will. But remember that Paul was despaired of life itself. Indeed we felt, he goes on to say, we had received the sentence of death.

And so again, maybe that's you today. Maybe you're even a Christian and you're thinking, "Why am I feeling this way?" It's interesting when you read about many of the old saints—the old dead saints, but alive in Christ. But just the saints that finished well throughout the two millennia, 2,000 years in Christ. You often read about how they had what they called—it was so common they called it the dark midnight of the soul.

And I think that's what Paul was experiencing, what we might call that. And so he despaired of life itself. He was so burdened beyond his own strength. And indeed he felt like they had received a death sentence. And it's interesting because he says "we." So we experienced in Asia, we were so utterly burdened. So those with him felt the same way.

And today, when we're in this time of the last days and perilous times as Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3, and trouble, hard to deal with and hard to bear, remember that Paul dealt with this whole thing. So what do we do to get out of this funk? How did Paul get out of this away from feeling so burdened beyond his strength, despairing of life?

He came to a realization. Because he goes on to say this here in 2 Corinthians chapter one—if you forget any other reference, remember 2 Corinthians chapter one, and this is verses 8 through 10. But here's the thing: we despaired of life, indeed we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But how did he overcome it?

Through Christ. He goes on to say this: "But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again." So I love this. So here's Paul, burdened beyond strength. If this is you today, burdened beyond strength, you're looking at everything happening in the world, crazy stuff maybe in your life, and even as a Christian you're feeling overwhelmed.

Beloved in Christ, here's the key: God allows these things in our lives to make us not rely upon ourselves but upon God who raises the dead. Remember, why is Paul talking about God who raises the dead? Because that is the power of the resurrection available to you and I today. I love in Philippians chapter two where Paul says basically in chapters two and three that he seeks to attain the power of the resurrection and also the suffering of Christ.

Look, guys and gals, there is power available to you and I through God who raises the dead. And we're not to rely upon ourselves because we can't make it. We are always going to feel burdened beyond our own strength. We're always going to fear despair of life because we don't have that strength. Our strength comes from Jesus Christ. Our strength comes from the cross of Jesus Christ, and we need to remember this.

Paul would later write in this same book in 2 Corinthians in chapter 12. He said in verse seven, "And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.'"

Therefore, Paul goes on to say, "Most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in my infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong." Oh, may the Lord Jesus strengthen us in these days. And remember this, guys and gals: don't lean upon your own strength; lean upon the strength of the Lord.

I love in Ephesians chapter six, it talks about putting on the full armor of God. Remember it's God's armor that we may stand. Because in Christ we are strong. We are weak in ourselves. I love how Paul says that at 2 Corinthians 12:10 at the end: "For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Remember, guys and gals as we're closing, the Lord allows these things in our lives for a purpose. Turn to Him. Come. I love what He says in Revelation to one of the churches. He says, "Look, return to your first love, do the things you did at the beginning. Come back to Christ." Do not neglect the salvation that was once for all delivered to us.

Guys and gals, we are saved in Jesus Christ. We have the power of the Holy Spirit of God. We have His word to enlighten us and to direct us, and as the sword of the spirit, we have Him. No matter what happens, even if though He slay me, I will trust in the Lord because nothing can separate us from the love of God. Remember that in these days. Remember that, beloved in Christ. Cling to it, rest in it, and come back to that place of your first love. May the Lord bless you and keep you, make His face shine upon you. And like we like to say, we'll see you here, there, or in the air. God bless you.

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you Pastor Bill's weekend prophecy update. It's our sincere hope and prayer that you've been blessed by the words you heard from Pastor Bill today. If you'd like to hear today's message again, go to oneplace.com and search for Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry.

We also have a large number of Pastor Bill's Sunday and Wednesday messages archived at simplefaith.org. That's our website. Just go there and click the media tab and you'll find a huge archive of Pastor Bill's past messages. And if you'd like to contact us, just click the contact tab at our website again at simplefaith.org. And there's a tab at the top of the homepage where you can also send in a prayer request.

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We also have a great time of studying God's word on Wednesday night at 7:00. For more information and directions, go to simplefaith.org. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks for joining us today. Be sure to join us next time here on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, brought to you by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington.