24 Apr Last Days | Part 1 “The Last Days of the Last Days”

Announcements:

New ministry – conversation style Small Group called Alpha that Mehdi and April will be leading.  It is for seekers, those on the fence about faith, or disenfranchised from faith.  It is to reach lost people.  Join the conversation today @ waterschurch.org/alpha

SILET AUCTION FUNDRAISER TO BENEFT AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY – PLEASE SUPPORT OUR TEAM: WATERS FOR LIFE AND COME OUT ON MAY FIRST, SEE REGISTRATION BELOW!

MAY 1 – Sunday from 2:00p- 5:00p at Towne Tavern in North Attleboro – Silent Auction and Raffles – $15 for early registration and $20 at the door!  Your ticket price includes hot and cold Hors d’oeuvres.  It will be a fund afternoon and all proceeds go to Waters for Life Relay for Life Team. Click below for early bird registration and share with friends!  Stop in for a bit or stay for the entire time!

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Compassion Journey Experience & Compassion Weekend!

National Day of Prayer 🙏, Noon on Thursday, May 5th. Join us at the Pole!   

The 2022 Theme stands as a call to glorify and express our thankfulness to God: “Exalt the Lord Who Has Established Us” inspired from scripture in Colossians 2:6-7 NASB “Therefore as you have received Christ, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.” The National Day of Prayer is an annual observance held on the first Thursday of May, inviting people to pray for the Nation. It has great significance for us as it enables us to recall and to teach the way in which our founding fathers sought the wisdom of God when faced with critical decisions. It stands as a call for us to humbly come before God, seeking His guidance for our leaders and His grace upon us as a people. Visit Waterschurch.org/events to find the meeting place for each Waters Location.

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Key Verse: Mark 13 

Some of us may have grown up hearing about Jesus coming back.  However, the Church has forgotten this.  This is because we freak out about the same stuff non-Christians freak out about.  We do everything we can to stay safe.

Ice-Breaker:

Q.  What did you hear or learn about the Last Days growing up?

If this life is all we have,  then we should stay as safe as possible.  There is a definite fear to be had if we don’t know who holds the world in His hands.  We have an unprecedented prosperity in American.  Somewhere in the 1990’s, pastors and preachers were no longer too concerned with the Second Coming of Jesus.  The attention turned to this life, getting ahead in this life.  Preachers of the Gospel preached on how to have an amazing life here. Now, we have a Church that is scared and holding onto this life.  Insanity is flooding our society.  We are being lied to, given mis-information, and there is confusion.  This world is on a collision course with catastrophe.  It is not supposed to get better, it is supposed to get worse. 

The Bible does not teach us about the END to SCARE us to but to PREPARE us.

Jesus wants us confident, safe and totally not caught off guard.

Q. What may scare you about the End, what excites you about the End?

Read Mark 13:28-30

Jesus sums up some of the world events that will take place right before His return.  

What to EXPECT before JESUS COMES BACK:

1. Before Jesus comes back, expect Great DECEPTION and FALSE Christianity. 

Mark 13:5–6 (ESV)

How we get deceived is by someone deceiving us.  Jesus told us to expect more and more lying from our world leaders and news outlets.  A lot of people will try to lead us off the path of trusting Jesus and the Word of God.  All of human history revolves around the Bible.

Q. What may be an example of a false teaching or great deception that has been presented to you and how did you refute it?

2. Before Jesus comes back, expect INTERNATIONAL and INTERRACIAL conflict.

Mark 13:7–8 (ESV)

Nation will rise against nation.  The word rumor in Greek means news.  When you hear of wars and news of wars we are not to be alarmed.  We should not let it get into our spirit. Jesus gives us peace.  The world nation means ethnicity.  Ethnicity against ethnicity is happening now.  We can be totally socially justice correct and still go to hell.  What does it profit a man if he is just in this life and bound for hell in the next life?  Jesus makes us righteous.

3. Before Jesus comes back, expect Physical SIGNS in the Earth and Cosmos.

Mark 13:8b ESV There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines.  These are the beginning of birth pains.

The climate is changing but this is pointing to what Jesus says will happen.  The heavens and earth will burn up on the last day. What we are seeing is what Jesus said would happen 2000 years ago.

Q. How do you approach those that are fearful of climate change, earthquakes, and other calamities etc? 

4. Before Jesus comes back, expect International HATRED and WITNESS for Christ. 

Mark 13:9–10 (ESV)

Every nation is going to hate Christians.  If we work with people who don’t like us, then we are doing something right.  The most persecuted people on the planet are Christians in almost every other country. Christians in other countries are murdered, imprisoned unjustly, are given no rights and no freedoms. 

Q. How have you felt persecution and hatred from others and how do you handle it?

5. Before Jesus comes back, DEATH and MISERY.

Luke 21:26 (ESV)

Covid attacks the lungs.  It is the fear virus as people literally stopped breathing and died.  Jesus said this is what we should be looking for.

Question: Are we in the LAST DAYS of the last days?

Answer: LOOK TO ISRAEL.

Mark 13:28 (ESV)

1. Israel is God’s LAST DAYS SIGN.

Mark 11:12–14 (ESV)

The fig tree is withered when they came back.   He saw a nation that had all the leaves and no fruit. He allows God to do to Israel what he did to that fig tree. He cursed the fig tree because that was a symbol of Israel.  They had all religious stuff and no spiritual life.

Fig trees have 2 seasons, spring and fall.  That was their fall season. Israel was cursed and God replace the sacrifices of the Old Testament with Jesus. For 1900 years Israel was not a nation, until 1948.  The land was promised to God’s people and He never revoked that promise.  The fig tree has a second season and is coming back with ripe fruit.

Q. The fig tree had leaves but not fruit; what is one area of your life that looks good, but isn’t producing what God wants?

Mark 13:28

2. Israel is God’s PROPHETIC NATION.

FACT: Israel was restored to the land as a nation TWICE in history. 

Every nation that hates the Jews pretty much gets destroyed.

Isaiah 11:9b (ESV) 

Most of the earth knows about the Lord.  Everywhere the Church is, is true knowledge of the Lord.

Isaiah 11:10 (ESV)

The root of Jesse is Jesus.  He rose from the dead and sat down at the right hand of the Father.  He is resting and ruling in a glorious place.  The Lord  will extend his hand a second time and recover the remnant. Israel is a miracle nation.

Isaiah 66:7–8 (ESV)

He is talking about the land. On May 14,1948 the UN signed off on the nation of Israel being a nation.  

Jeremiah 16:14–15 (ESV)

This is all according to plan.  America is blessed because we blessed God’s people.

Mark 13:29–30 (ESV)

The generation that sees Israel’s second season come back, that generation will not pass away before the last days begin.

Q. What concrete action can you take to become more actively involved in telling others about Christ?

3. Israel is God’s INVITATION AGENT. 

Jesus is Jewish.  The Jewish people gave us the greatest Person that ever lived.  It is the longest lasting nation following the same God.

Revelation 3:19–20 (ESV)

Challenge: Continually Pray for Israel.