The Wedding and the War

Part 2: Keep it positive but keep it accurate

Pastor Troy Brewer, OpenDoor Church, Burleson, TX

Sunday, March 14, 2019

The dual nature of “The Wedding and the War”

1. The great and terrible day of the Lord

2. The “catching away” and the great return of the King

  • The thief in the night (nobody sees Him)
  • The heavens are peeled back. Jesus enters into the atmosphere with a mighty shout and a trumpet blast. Every eye sees Him.

The reason for the dual nature of the end times: choice.

  • Judgment and reward

The end times world

  • WHEN WE TALK ABOUT THE END TIMES AND THE CONDITION OF THE WORLD RIGHT BEFORE JESUS COMES BACK, WE SEE SO MUCH IS WRITTEN ABOUT A BIG, TERRIBLE MESS.
  • Daniel’s vision of the end times: “A PERFECT STORM”
    • Daniel 7:2-3 – Daniel spoke, saying, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea.”
      • Like a hurricane … a perfect storm from everything global, the four beasts from the north, south, east and the west.
  • There is a progressive intensity in everything you can imagine that will continue to progress until Jesus Himself comes back to put a stop to it. Birth pains.

BIRTH PAINS AND ACCELERATION

  • The principles of accelerated time frames belongs to you. Wisdom and the counsel of God is for you to understand –  that the 50s are not returning to America. The new normal is increased major malfunctions.
  • There is also a new level of anointing, a new level of intense outpouring of God’s grace and manifest Glory that answers this present darkness with the goodness of God.

THE PRINCIPLE OF ABOUNDING GRACE

“Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound.”

  • Abounding: growing in abundant supply
  • In a quick Google search, I found at least eight verses in the new testament that clearly state this principle – seven are from Paul and one from James – Romans 5:15, 5:17, 5:20 and so on.
  • You have a grace for the hell you have to fight in the day you are living in and in the day to come.
  • You can focus on the hell that is coming or you can focus on the glorious hope of Jesus being the ultimate answer.
  • You don’t need the Bible to tell you sickness, natural disasters, racial and social unrest is increasing and global unrest is producing unanswerable trouble and conflict. You can watch the news.
  • Within a very short amount of time, in a span of a few months, the abortion movement in the United States has gone from early term abortion to late term abortion to “you can still murder the child during labor” all the way to “even after the child is born we can still terminate the pregnancy” – meaning murder a fully-born baby if they can talk the mama into it and call it reproductive health.
    • Isaiah 5:20  – Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness…

NO AVOIDING THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE DAY OF THE LORD

  • Can only choose which side you’re on.
  • You can avoid it in the Bible if you want to, but you can’t avoid it in the day we live in!
  • So, if you saying, “I’m not really into the whole end times thing –  You are already in it!
  • The bad in this world is increasing and it’s not going to stop.
  • The evil in this world is increasing and it’s not going to stop.
  • You don’t just talk about the trouble in the earth. You talk about the great end time revival and the return of King of Jesus.
  • You don’t just talk about the end time revival and the power of the Holy Spirit. You also talk about the reality of all hell breaking loose.
  • Matthew 24:13 – But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

WHEN TALKING ABOUT END TIMES

  • KEEP IT POSITIVE BUT ALSO KEEP IT ACCURATE!
  • Matthew 24:12 – And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.
  • “KEEP IT POSITIVE BUT KEEP IT ACCURATE” is exactly how we should be living in every single part of our life. 
  • Know the truth of what the word of God says about the great and the terrible day of the Lord – about the wedding and the war, and the return of Jesus.

DO NOT BE DECEIVED

  • The narrative matters. You need to know what the biblical narrative says.
  • The greatest threat of the end times is not all the hell that is happening in the world. The greatest threat in the end times is deception!
  • Matthew 24:4 – When will these things happen and what will be the sign of the coming of the end of the age? Jesus answered see to it that no man deceives you. 
  • 2 Thessalonians 2:3 – Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition…
  • Mark 13:22 – …for false christs and false prophets will arise to do signs and wonders to lead astray if possible the elect…

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

1) Learn who Jesus is. Read the red letters. Be fascinated with the character and the person of Jesus and who He is to you.

2)  Learn your identity in Christ. Learn who you are to Him.

3)  Put on the mind of christ

  • Colossians 3:2 – …set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. 
  • 1 Corinthians 2:16 – for who has known the mind of the Lord that He may instruct them but we have the mind of Christ

4)  Put on the helmet salvation from Ephesians 6:17.

5)   Learn the biblical narrative of the end times.