Simple Faith

Guest (Male): Welcome to Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry coming to you from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. It's the weekend edition today, and Pastor Bill is going to discuss once again some of the events going on around the world, how they relate to Bible prophecy, and how Christians should react to what's going on.

Obviously, the events that are going on in Iran right now are at the top of the headlines. Should we be concerned about world war breaking out? How should we react as Christians to what's going on in the Middle East? Pastor Bill is going to urge us to go to God's Word and go to the Lord Himself in prayer. Let's join Pastor Bill now for this weekend edition of Simple Faith.

Bill Henry: Hello and welcome to Simple Faith Radio, the weekend edition Friday, Saturday, Sunday, as we look a little bit at the things happening in the world and try to put it in the light of scriptures. There are so many things as going through the different news stories. What do we talk about this week?

Do we talk about how in Riverside, California, the California sheriff who seized ballots there has been ordered by the California Supreme Court to halt an election fraud investigation? Do we look at that? Do we look at how the Pope came out and denounced a delusion of omnipotence fueling the US-Israeli war in Iran?

It has nothing to do with Iran walking away from the nuclear talks, which was kind of the straw that broke the camel's proverbial back, which is why we went to war because they kept backing off and they kept moving forward with their nuclear weapons. Should we talk about Page Rogers, a 19-year-old Boyce College student and barista at a coffee company there in Louisville, Kentucky, who basically was on break and somebody asked her about her faith?

What she believed in and kind of what they were talking about these things? When she said she was a Christian and that she was going to wait until she was married to have sex and didn't believe in this and that and was a biblical woman of God, the employees went back to work and complained about her. They fired her. Do we talk about that?

Do we talk about the recent thing that President Trump retweeted? I guess it was AI had done some kind of weird thing with him looking almost like Jesus in this picture healing some guy. Then he came out and said, "No, I didn't make it. It was AI. I retweeted it. I was thinking about the American Red Cross and how that helps so many people because there's a nurse in it and different things," but he took it down anyway.

Do we talk about how the Pope also came out and said, "Communion between Christians and Muslims takes shape under the mantle of Our Lady of Africa"? The stories go on and on and on, but if you're like me at all, I'm so tired of all the negative stuff that's happening. Sadly, this is what's going to happen when you look at the signs of the times.

I firmly believe that we are living in the last days. I know some people scoff at that, even many Christians today. Again, even them doing that, Peter said that was going to happen. We have to look not to the hyper place either, but let's look in the light of the scriptures. Know that as we look and we see that Israel became a nation May 14th, 1948, as we see all these other signs happening, but specifically the great falling away of the church that Jesus warned about, that Paul talks about and then actually describes in 2nd Timothy Chapters 3 and 4. We see this happening before our eyes. It's incredible and sad and wicked.

My heart for today for our program just is some words of encouragement to uplift you. To be honest, where do you go? Where do I find encouragement today? How do I find light? How do I find? Well, we are so blessed because we can go to the Word of God. That's where we go. We go to Jesus. We go to God the Father. We go to God the Holy Spirit, all through His Word as He describes Himself to us, as He describes the world to us, as He describes ourselves to us and who we now are in Christ.

As He tells us what has been, what is, and what shall be, that's who He is. He is that God. He is the great I Am that He always is, always was, and always shall be. What a blessing to know that we're actually in Him. That's one of the things we're going to be talking about this Sunday in our Bible study as we just started teaching verse by verse on Sunday mornings through the book of 1st Thessalonians.

We did an introduction this last Sunday, but I love how it basically talks about how the church there in Thessalonica and it says, "In God the Father and in Jesus Christ our Lord." I love that it says in. It doesn't say and in; it says in Christ Jesus our Lord. I love how it says that because we are in Christ. A lot of times we know that Christ is living in us. He indwells us, that indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

He has sealed us and we're so blessed that He empowers us for the work that He has foreordained for us, as well as we read there in Ephesians Chapter 2 verses 8, 9, and 10. His grace empowers us, it saves us, it keeps us, empowers us. I just love that to think that not only is He in us, but we are in Him.

What a great thing to remember if you've been born again of the Spirit of God. If you've repented of your sins, turned away from them, turned to Jesus Christ, believing in Him that He died for your sins upon the cross and that He paid the wages, the wages of our sin is death, and He paid our wages there on the cross. Then He rose again from the dead on the third day.

If you believe that and then you believe in Him to be the Lord and the Savior of your life, you are then saved by the grace of God just through faith. You just believe that and God saves us. We're so blessed because when we're saved, you're born again, not just away and out of your sin and now I'm no longer going to hell but going now to heaven.

God doesn't stop there. He says, "No, I'm not done with that. Also, you've now been born again into My family. I've adopted you. I've adopted you, you're born again now into My body. You are now part of My body with gifts to use at church, to build one another up, to love and to stir each other up to love and a good works. You're also born again into being My bride. We are now the bride of Christ. We are now born again into His church."

What a blessing. Eye has not seen nor ear heard the wondrous and awesome things, but He's told us so many of them already through His Word. Again, where do we come for comfort in these days? Where do we come for light and warmth in the darkness? We come to Jesus and we come to Him through His Word by His Holy Spirit.

As we open up the Word of God, it's like opening up who just turned on that floodlight. Look at the light here, feel the warmth. I just love how God's Word does that. I'm just right now because again, where do we find comfort with all this crazy news, with everything still happening in Iran? Peace talks. No peace talks. We're closing the strait. We're not closing the strait. All these things.

In Jesus, He is peace. I love what He says in John Chapter 14 verse 1, "Let not your hearts be troubled." Is your heart troubled today, beloved in Christ? Don't get me wrong. I don't belittle if you're going through trials. I don't belittle if you're going through rugged times. Maybe you've lost a loved one. Maybe you got a bad diagnosis from the doctor.

Perhaps you lost a job or you're looking for a job. Perhaps you're going through a divorce. Perhaps you've been really hurt by someone. Perhaps you've been abused and you've come out of that or trying to come out of that. All these different things. If you are in Christ, you are now a new creation. Don't believe the enemy. Don't believe the world. Don't even believe your own mind or heart.

Believe Jesus. Believe all His Word that we are no longer that person. We are now a new creation in Christ Jesus. How awesome it is to simply step away from our own thoughts, our own beliefs, and into the belief of the Word of God and then by the power of His Spirit. Because it doesn't just tell us, "This is My Word, and I'm going to tell you all about Me and all about you. I'm going to tell you about the life I want you to live and you're going to be able to live in Me as you've been born again of My Spirit."

So here's the list of rules of do's and don'ts. That's how a lot of people look at the Bible. That's how a lot of people look at Christianity. No. We have now been born again of the Spirit of God. He now indwells us. He is in us and we are in Him. We are completely in Him. In other words, nothing now can separate us from the love of Christ.

He will never leave us. He will never forsake us. So first we know we're never alone, even if you feel alone, even if you've been hurt, even if you've been abandoned. Don't believe the lies of the enemy. You are not alone. Lean into Jesus. "Let not your heart be troubled," Jesus says. Notice it's interesting because it's us that let our hearts be troubled.

Let's be honest. You might be having the worst day in the world. You might be having the best day in the world. Praise God. But we all have those troubling times. We all have those things as we look around the world. How can you not be troubled? Wherever you fall down on the political spectrum, people are troubled. But again, we're not to let our hearts be troubled.

So many Christians are in an uproar. Can you believe what Trump did? Can you believe he's saying he's Jesus? No, he's not saying that. He's an intelligent man. He can say these things. Don't get so caught up in the things that the world gets caught up in. Let's get caught up more and more in Jesus Christ.

I know Trump says he's a Christian in some form or fashion and I pray he is. It doesn't seem to be too much fruit there, but who knows? I don't know him personally. I don't see what's going on. He doesn't have great spiritual advice as he has Paula White, which is a total false teacher speaking these lies and false truths over him as she did on Easter, saying basically that he's just like Jesus. There's only one Jesus.

I don't look to him as a Messiah. I don't look to him as this great savior, and we shouldn't. But I do thank the Lord for him because he's far better than Kamala Harris would have been. He's far better than President Biden ever was. He does things that whether he wants to be used by God, he is being used.

As we see Christianity being able to thrive again, as we see Israel being blessed and all the things that the Bible talks about. But again, so many things to be troubled about. I'm not even talking about our own lives, just within the world. Is it war or peace, famine and hunger? Food prices going through the roof, gas prices going up every day. Jesus says to you today, "Let not your heart be troubled."

You see the church falling away. Let not your heart be troubled. Again, this is something that we let our hearts do. Some of us will say, "I can't control it. I can't control my thoughts." That's not true if you're in Christ. If you're not in Christ, that is true. But if you're in Jesus, the Bible says we can take our thoughts captive. How do we do that?

We do that by the power of God. We believe His Word. We believe, "Well, God says I can take my thoughts captive. I don't think I can, but I can." We believe that and we act in faith. How does faith come? I want more faith. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. Be more and more a man of the Word of God. Reading your Bible every single day.

If you don't read your Bible right now, do this: start in three different places if I can encourage you. Number one, start in the book of John, the Gospel of John, and sit down. Give yourself 10 minutes. 10 minutes a day. Just start there. Open up with a prayer and just ask the Lord to soften your heart. "Lord, speak to me through Your Word."

Then open up to the Gospel of John and read just one chapter. John Chapter 1. Then mark that for tomorrow. You can go to Chapter 2 tomorrow. Then go back to Genesis Chapter 1, read Genesis Chapter 1, then stop. Mark there. Then go to Psalm 1 and read just read Psalm 1. Read those three chapters. Then tomorrow, go read Chapter 2 in each of those places, then Chapter 3, Chapter 4 each day, opening in prayer, closing in prayer.

Let the Lord expand that. Start to believe what you read and start to act upon what you read. That's being a Christian and walking in loving obedience that we don't have to do this; we get to do this. By the way, that's again how your hearts are going to be troubled more and more because we're seeing the Word of God in action. We see that God is on the throne.

We see that no matter what happens in our lives, it's not a coincidence. It's not an accident. God never says "Oops" in the whole Bible, ever. What a blessing for us. Let not your heart be troubled. Don't let it be troubled. He goes on to say, "Believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions."

So believe in God, believe also in Me. Jesus Christ is God. I love that. In My Father's house, He said, are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? Even as Jesus was heading to the cross, and this was right before He was heading to the cross, He's talking to His disciples and said, "Look, I'm going to prepare a place for you."

Verse 3 goes on and says, "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and I will take you to Myself that where I am, you may be also." I love this. Here's the promise of this to me, I believe is speaking about the Rapture of the church. This isn't the second coming because again, even in the word second coming, what is it? Jesus is coming to the earth. He's coming to rule and to reign upon the earth.

But here it says, "that where I am, you may be also. I will come again and take you to Myself." So again, I think as we read in 1st Corinthians, as we read in 1st Thessalonians, we see that this is the Rapture of the church, the taking away, the taking up of the church to Him as He meets us in the clouds. I will come and take you to Myself that where I am, you may be also.

Notice Jesus, I find it interesting that He tells, "Don't let your hearts be troubled," but then He goes on to say why basically. Because in My Father's house there are many rooms. If it were not so, I wouldn't tell you that there was. I just love that God's Word is so packed with this stuff and that God's Word tells us, "Look, Jesus says, 'Look, look to My second coming. Look to the Rapture of the church. I am going to come and I'm going to take you where I am so that where I am, you may be also.'"

He doesn't say, "Look, I'm going to come and take you and then bring you right back to earth." No, He says, "I'm going to take you to come and be where I am that you may be also." Jesus goes on to say, He said this, "And you know the way where I'm going." Now a lot of people today say, "What do you mean? How do I get to heaven? How do I make it there? What's the way? What are you talking about?"

Because I love how Thomas goes on to say to Him in verse 5 of Chapter 14 of the Gospel of John, Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way?" A lot of people make fun of Thomas. I'm glad Thomas was there and the Lord had him there for a reason, by the way. He's got the nickname Doubting Thomas. Let's be real: Doubting Thomas represents almost all of us, if not all of us.

We all like to ask questions. I love to ask questions. I tell people at our church, "Ask questions." I tell our parents at our church, "Do not tell your kids not to ask questions." A lot of parents will say that, "Don't ask questions, just believe." I've heard pastors say that, "Don't ask questions, just believe." Jesus was always being asked questions and I love to him. Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

Isn't it awesome to know that Jesus is the way? "Lord, I don't know the way. It's hard right now. Where do I go? Who do I listen to? There are so many false stories, AI is tripping out on everything." Come back to Jesus. Tune out, turn off all the things. Turn off your phone, turn off your television, turn off the radio, and just come and spend time at the feet of Jesus. He is the way. He is the truth.

He is the life. In a world full of different ways, Buddha said he had the way. In Islam, we saw Muhammad said that he is the way basically, or that he knows the way. You can go to Krishna, you can go to Joseph Smith, or you could go etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. There are so many false teachers throughout the last two millennia that said they basically either are the way or they know the way, a better way. No, Jesus said, "I am the way."

Today we're being told there are so many different ways to live. No, Jesus in Jesus, I am the way. Then how about the truth? He is the truth. So many today saying there is no truth. It's all relative. I love when people say that. "There is no truth." That's an absolute statement. Oh really? Absolutely there is no truth? Because they're contradicting themselves within their own statement.

Yet they don't even know this. These are those sadly who are being educated at our universities and our colleges and sadly being taught ways that aren't of God. Be careful, by the way. Little side note before you, that's what our world tells us, "Bring your kids up, send them to school, have them go to college, have them go to university." Be very careful with that because most of the regular schools, grade schools, high schools, and especially your colleges and universities are nothing more than indoctrination centers anymore.

It's really sad to say that. I don't say that lightly. But my point is this: Jesus is the way, but He's also the truth and guess what? He's the life. To live, I love He goes on to talk about the life that He offers here in the Gospel of John and it's a life that's more abundant. "I give life and it's more abundant." The life that Jesus gives is full of hope, full of peace, full of love, full of joy, full of just abiding mercy and grace.

It's also full of holiness as we walk after Him. We will be walking in His way according to His truths found in the Word of God. Not according to our own. There are many who profess Christ even today who still walk in their own truths. They think, "Well, I don't need to read the Bible. I don't need to read what the truth is there because I just know. I've been a Christian for many, many years and I know the best. Or hey, I'm a brand new Christian, I got it all dialed in. I don't need to read the Word either."

No. We need to read the Word of God because it is the Word of God. It shows us clearly the way. It shows us clearly what the truth is and also those things bring us the life of Jesus Christ in our lives. It's an abundant life. When we seek to live our lives in loving obedience to the Lord Jesus to bring Him glory, we do so through His Word.

We read His Word and say, "Lord, what pleases You?" And say, "Oh, these things please You, so I'm going to make sure I'm doing those things. Lord, what things don't please You? Oh man, those don't please You, I don't want to do them anymore." That's a real Christian. It's not, "Oh bummer, I can't do that anymore. Oh man, I have to go to church, what are you talking about?"

No, it's all right, man. I can't wait to go to church and be with my brothers and sisters. Oh man, I'm so glad I'm freed from the sin of drunkenness or getting high or fornication or homosexuality. I'm so glad I'm freed from those sins, Lord. As we're closing today, I know the time goes quick but just look to the Word of God. Don't look anywhere else but look to God.

Let not your heart be troubled. How do we do that? Go to Jesus. Go to Him through His Word. Go to Him through prayer. Go to Him through fasting. Go to Him through serving and loving at your church, wherever you're at. Go to Him by bringing the Gospel, the good news to the people all around the world and start turning things off around us and turning more and more on to Jesus Christ, those things that are edifying and building up in Christ according to His Word.

The Lord bless you. The Lord keep you. Make His face shine upon you. May He be gracious unto you. I just pray that as you continue to walk this week that He would fill you afresh with His Holy Spirit. Lord bless you, as we like to say. We'll see you here, there, or in the air. Goodbye.

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill's series in Revelation. 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 share today's message with someone, it's available at our website to either watch or listen, and you can actually download an audio MP3.

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