And we will continue. We are just a week or two away from finishing the book of Daniel Lot of Christians are familiar with the first six chapters, but not as familiar with the last six chapters. That's because the first six chapters are stories. Now, is a couple of visions thrown in there and some prophecy, but people like the stories. But we get into chapter seven and the stories become future stories, future to Daniel's time.

Sometimes a little more difficult to decipher than the narratives in the first six chapters. And so people don't spend quite as much time there. But what Daniel has to say in the latter half of the book pertains a lot more to us today than what he says in the first half of the book. And in Daniel 11, Daniel has some more to say. I've entitled the lesson here, One More History Lesson.

And so we got one more history lesson to get through the book of Daniel this evening. So if you're not a history buff, bear with me. Okay? Because this leads particularly to the conclusion next week which is not history to us. So, Daniel was recording the book of Daniel around 500 and the events which he recorded by the mouth of the heavenly messenger here in Daniel 11 took place over the next about three hundred years.

So, what we're going to look at this evening are events that took place in the world around the area of Israel over the next three hundred or so years. Matter of fact, the events which he foretold are some of the most detailed historical accounts of ancient history, yet they're not history. Not to Daniel, they're what? They're prophecy. But yet they're history to us because they happened just as Daniel recorded, just as the messenger from God foretold.

So detailed in fact that on the only explanation which set which skeptics can come up with is that it was written after the events took place. Because it's so true to the other historical accounts that we have, it matches up just so that those who don't believe that there is a God who can foretell the future simply must believe, because they don't have any other choice, that Daniel wrote this after the events happened. Because there's no way Daniel wrote this without knowing what happened or as Daniel states, what would happen because who told him? Because God did. It isn't a stretch for us to believe that it's prophecy because we believe in a God who knows yesterday and knows tomorrow.

We believe in a God who is sovereign over this world and therefore knows exactly what's going to happen in the future because he will see to it that it does. But for many who don't believe that, some even who call themselves Christians, they are forced to try to make excuses for why this so clearly is accurate because indeed it is prophecy. And so we're gonna take some time to look at that tonight. A little reviewed or a little review. Daniel was earnestly praying to the Lord and waiting with a heavy heart for an answer.

That's the beginning of chapter 10. This would have been only a couple years following the Jews return to Judah by order of Cyrus and Daniel had heard that things were not going so great back home. So, Daniel lived from the time that he was taken captive in around June until nearly a hundred years later, at least around seventy years later, when Cyrus took the throne and sent Ezra and Zerubbabel and Joshua back with a delegation of Jews to begin to rebuild the city of Jerusalem as Jeremiah foretold. And this is a couple years after that happened. So Daniel was taken captive by the Babylonians.

He served in the court of Babylon until Babylon fell to Persia, and Cyrus the great ruled a few years later and then sent Israel home, and Daniel is now serving under the reign of Cyrus. The messenger sent to Daniel was hindered by demonic forces from reaching him promptly until he received help from Michael. We learned that in chapter 10. But finally, he was able to come and to bring the message that we are reading about in Daniel chapter 11. The messenger then to real revealed to Daniel what at first was not good news.

What we're going to look at tonight is not particularly good news for the most part. Israel would be a land in turmoil for many years to come. Even though this prophecy did not reveal exactly how long that would be, the events foretold in chapter 11 fall within the four hundred and eighty three years or sixty nine of the seventy weeks prophecy of Daniel nine leading up to the coming of Jesus Christ. So, these events we're reading about are within that seventy weeks prophecy, the first sixty nine weeks of which begin with Nehemiah going back to rebuild the walls and Jesus presenting himself on what we call Palm Sunday. These events all take place within that in that time frame that we're gonna look at tonight.

God is not required to tell us more than he thinks we need to know. Praise the Lord. He has revealed as much as he has for us and for them. As we look back, this is history to us, but to Israel, this was future to them. They could see if they believed what the Bible said was to come.

It wasn't as pretty a picture as they had imagined. They thought when they went back at the end of the Babylonian captivity that that everything was gonna be great and and the Messiah was gonna come and and it was all gonna be wonderful. Isaiah foretold such a time, so did Jeremiah, so did Ezekiel. However, that time was not the time was not now. Yes, they went back.

Yes, they rebuilt Jerusalem, but no, the kingdom was not restored. When will the kingdom be restored? Well, it will be restored when Jesus the king returns. And all those prophecies in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel will be fulfilled, them yet being future to us. So, Daniel 11 verses one through four.

So, let's read those. Also, I in the first year of Darius the Mead, I even stood to confirm and to strengthen him. Is this is the messenger speaking And now will I show thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia. The four shall be far richer than they all.

And by his strength, through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia or Greece. And a mighty king shall stand up that shall rule with great dominion and do according to his will. And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and he shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven and not to his posterity nor according to his dominion which he ruled for his kingdom shall be plucked up even for others beside those. So, we're going to start there with the first four verses. A lot of history right there in the first four verses.

So, following the reign of Cyrus, there would be three Persian kings that would rule. Cambyses, another guy who they're not sure what his name is because they're not sure whether he was Cambyses' son or whether he was a a fraud, and then following him, Darius the Great. These three kings would follow Cyrus. After Darius the Great would come a fourth king. The fourth king is the greatest of the Persian kings.

He ruled over the largest territory. He was the richest and most powerful of all the Persian kings, and we know him as Xerxes. This fourth king, being greater in power and riches and dominion than those before him, would overreach attacking the Greeks and losing. So Xerxes wanting to expand his territory further got into off and on battle with the Greeks. He would win, they would win, he would win, they would win.

Eventually, he would get tired. He would lose at a battle at a place called Salamis in April, and he would cease his expansion of the Persian Empire. This is also the Xerxes who took Esther to be his wife in the book of Esther. This is that, that king who took Esther to wife. And he would be the last of the really strong kings of Persia and it was that was the climax and then it was kind of downhill from there.

Leading us to verse three. Verse three again, and a mighty king shall stand, shall rule with great dominion, do according to his will. When he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken and he shall be divided to the four winds of heaven. This great king is the next great king on the horizon and that is the king of Greece. Okay?

And that is Alexander the Great. He is the goat with the singular horn in Daniel chapter eight that stomps upon the ram with the two horns that is representative of the Persian Empire. He will make quick and thorough conquest of Persia ruling and even more expansive kingdom than Persia from Europe to India. So here's a picture of the Empire of Alexander the Great from parts of Europe all the way over to the right side to the border of India. And he conquered this in just a few years.

Finally, he got tired and his men got tired and said, we're we're done. We're not gonna go any further. And so, they stopped at the border of India. It wasn't long after that that Alexander the Great died and his kingdom was divided into four parts. Not to his posterity as we're told here in the verse.

It says, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven and not to his posterity. So, in other words, not to his children, his kingdom was divided among his four top generals. One being Seleucus the first, the other one being Ptolemy. These are the two most significant of the four and you can see their territories up here on the screen. So, over down on the bottom corner, you have Egypt.

Egypt is where the Ptolemies ruled for a long time. The Ptolemies ruled, dynasty ruled from 03/2005 to thirty BC. The last of the Ptolemy rulers would be anybody know? Cleopatra. Cleopatra in thirty BC.

When Cleopatra died, she was the last of the line of the Ptolemies to rule Egypt. The king of the North, the Seleucids dynasty ruled Syria and parts East until sixty five BC. For nearly the next three hundred years, these two kings, the king of the North and the king of the South, and as we read through Daniel 11, it's not going to give their names. What it's going to tell us is the king of the North and the king of the South and the king of the North and the king of the South. So, in the South, you have the Ptolemies.

Okay? Everybody say that. The Ptolemies. That actually starts with a p. The p is silent.

Okay? Ptolemies. In the North, you have the Seleucids. Okay? And most of their kings, actually, their name is Antiochus.

And so, in the North, you have Antiochus the first and the second and the third and the fourth and so on. Most of their rulers are named Antiochus. Now, on this map right here, what is in the middle between Egypt and Syria? What's that little strip of land along the coast between Syria to the North and Egypt to the South? That's the land of Israel.

The land of Israel is right in between these two very strong kings, and they fight over it for the next three hundred years. And they trample through it with armies trying to fight the other one for nearly three hundred years. The one attacks the other, the other and it's back and forth and back and forth, and most time, armies are traipsing through the holy land, the promised land, Israel, to get to fight the other one. And so that this is what happens to Israel for the next nearly three hundred years as these two kings to the North and the South fight each other with them caught in the middle of this of this feud. Though that's sadly what they have to look forward to.

Look, if you have see in verse five, and the king of the South, that's the Ptolemies, shall be strong. And one of his princes, and he shall be strong above him and have dominion. His dominion shall be a great dominion. And in the end of years, they shall join themselves together. So after some years, they shall join themselves together.

That is the king of the South and the king of the North. For the king's daughter of the South shall come to the king of the North to make an agreement. So the king of the South's daughter will be given in marriage to the king of the North. That is what that verse is telling us. They attempted to make an alliance in February.

So about fifty years into this feud, they decide to quit battling for a little bit. And the daughter of the king of the South, her name is Bernice, we aren't given her name here, but we know from history her name was Bernice, married the king of the North. His name is Antiochus the second. However, the attempt failed miserably when the divorced wife of Antiochus so Antiochus already had a wife. So to take Bernice to wife, he divorced his first wife.

Her name was Laodice. It failed when the divorced wife, Laodice, killed her ex, being Antiochus, and Bernice and Bernice's son, leaving Laodice's son to rule in his place. And that whole alliance just fell apart. It didn't work. And so we're told about that here in verse six.

For the king's daughter of the South shall come to King of the North to make agreement, but she shall not retain the power of the arm neither shall shall he stand nor his arm, but she shall be given up and they that brought her and he that begat her and he that strengthened for her in these times. But out of her, a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his estate and shall come with an army and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the North and shall deal against them and prevail. And shall also carry captives into Egypt, their gods with their princes, with their precious vessels of silver and of gold, and he shall continue more years than the king of the North. So, the king of the South shall come into his kingdom and shall return into his own land. That's through verse nine.

So, the king of the South after that whole alliance blew up in their face, the king of the South, this would be Ptolemy the third, would attack the king of the North, winning decisively and taking spoil but not dominion over the North leaving their dynasty intact. So, the king of the South after this alliance blew up and didn't work out with the marrying thing, he decided the next king, this would be Bernice's brother actually, would attack the king of the North, the Antiochus, and would succeed, but he wouldn't claim the land. He just took a bunch of people. He took a bunch of their goods, and he took them down to Egypt and leaving the dynasty intact in the North. Eventually, the king of the North, Antiochus the third, would come in battle against the king of the South, Ptolemy the fourth, and when only be to be defeated shortly thereafter by the king of the South at Raphia in February.

So, as we continue reading, verse 10, but his son shall be stirred up and shall assemble a multitude of great forces and one shall certainly come and overflow and pass through. Then shall he return and be stirred up even to his fortress. The king of the South shall be moved with choler, anger, and shall come forth and fight with him. That is the king of the North and he shall set forth a great multitude but the multitude shall be given into his hand. And when he has taken away the multitude, his heart shall be lifted up and shall cast down many 10 thousands but he shall not be strengthened by it.

For the king of the North shall return and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former and shall certainly come after certain years with a great army and much riches. In those times, there shall many stand up against the king of the South also, robbers of the peep of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision but shall fall. So the king of the North shall come and cast upon a up a mount, a siege mount, and take the most fenced cities, and the arms of the South shall not withstand neither his chosen people, neither thou shall there be any be any strength to withstand. But he that cometh against him shall do according to his own will, none shall stand before him, and he shall stand in the glorious land. What's the glorious land you think?

That would be Israel, which by his hand shall be consumed. In two zero three BC, the king of the North, Antiochus, now we're to Antiochus the third. He's also called Antiochus the great. So remember, king of the North, Antiochus king of the South, Ptolemy. Okay?

So get those get those. So the king of the North in February will come against the king of the South and battle against Egypt and win a decisive battle against the boy king of the South who is now Ptolemy the fifth. The people of Israel will be taken over, therefore, by Antiochus the third. Okay? So at this point in time, Antiochus, the Seleucid Empire, has power over Israel and to a certain extent over Egypt, over the Ptolemy dynasty there.

And so now they have the upper hand. So you see this is going back and forth and Israel is caught is caught in the middle. Now, in verse 17, verse 17, he, that would be the king of the North, shall set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom and upright ones with him, thus shall he do. And he shall give him the daughter of women corrupting her, but she shall not stand on his side neither before him. Okay?

Antiochus the third or Antiochus the great, having got the upper hand on the Ptolemies in Egypt, is going to give his daughter in marriage to Ptolemy the fifth, the king of the South, again, to strengthen his power over the dynasty, the Ptolemy dynasty. So Antiochus is trying to take over thoroughly by diplomacy by inserting his daughter. Her name also happens to be Cleopatra. Okay? So not the same Cleopatra, another Cleopatra.

However, when Cleopatra, his daughter, marries the king of the South, she switches sides. She decides to side with her new husband against who? Against her father, Antiochus the third, in the North, and this causes Antiochus the third some trouble because his daughter, which was supposed to help him, sides with the king of the South, and now things aren't better, things are actually worse for him. Going to verse 18, after this, shall he turn his face unto the isles. So now Antiochus the third or Antiochus the great is going to leave off attacking Egypt, and he is going to set his sights on Europe.

Okay? So he begins to send his armies into Europe. And what is the growing power at this time in Europe about February? Well, the growing power in Europe is Rome. And so now he is beginning to fight Rome and the proxies of Rome to to the East.

It says in verse 18, but a prince for his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him deceased without his own reproach, he shall cause it to turn upon him. Then, he shall turn his face toward the fort of his own land but he shall stumble and fall and not be found. Then, shall stand up in his estate. Okay, we'll get to verse 20 in a second. So, Antiochus will set his sights to the East, to the Isles, towards Roman territory.

History tells us that he he sided with Hannibal of Carthage against Rome, and eventually, they both lost in their battle to take to take Rome. And Antiochus eventually had to retreat from his attacks on Rome and died briefly thereafter. His son did not last very long on the throne. In verse 20, it it speaks of him then shall stand up in his estate of a razor of taxes and the glory of the kingdoms, but within a few days, he shall be destroyed neither in anger nor in battle. His son did not last long.

He died of other causes besides dying in battle. He paid a lot of tribute to Rome. His father having lost the battle previous to him. But in verse 21, Antiochus the fourth comes on the scene. Antiochus the fourth, we've learned about before back in Daniel chapter eight.

He is the little horn that comes out of the Greek empire which becomes great, particularly in his power over that little strip of land on the coast, and that is Israel. He is called Antiochus the fourth Epiphanes. He is described here as a a vile person in the land of of Israel. In verse 21, and in his estate shall stand up a vile person to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom, but he shall come in peaceably and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. Actually, Antiochus the fourth was not the rightful heir his brother was, but he undermined his brother and by deceit and diplomacy became the next king of the Seleucid Empire to the north.

And with the arms of a flood, shall they be overthrown from before him and shall be broken, yea, also the prince of the covenant. And after the after the league made with him, he shall work deceitfully for he shall come up and shall become strong with a small people. He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province. He shall do that which his fathers have not done nor his father's fathers. He shall scatter among them the prey and spoil and riches.

Yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strongholds even for a time. And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the South with a great army. And the king of the South shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army, but he shall not stand for they shall forecast devices against him. Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy him and his army shall overthrow overflow and many shall fall down slain. And both these kings' hearts shall be to do mischief and they shall speak lies at one table, but it shall not prosper for yet the end shall be at the time appointed.

So Antiochus the fourth eventually will attack and plunder Egypt. He will do it start out to do it with diplomacy and, he will fool the king in the South to thinking that he wants to be his what? His friend. But he doesn't wanna be his friend. He wants to take control and via his exploits, he will plunder Egypt.

After his exploits in Egypt, Antiochus will turn his attention to, guess who? He will turn his attention to Israel. This this thorn in his side. Israel is a thorn in the side of Babylon, of Assyria, of Persia. They probably got along with Persia, the best of any of them.

But all of these other kingdoms are pagan. They have many gods they worship. That Israel only what? Only one God. And that doesn't set well.

With the kings of these these pagan kingdoms. And it doesn't set well at all with Antiochus the fourth. Verse 28. Then how shall he return into his land with great riches and his heart shall be against the holy covenant, that is the holy people of Israel, and he shall do exploits and return to his own land. At the time appointed, he shall return and come toward the South, but it shall not be as the former or as the latter.

So Antiochus will turn his attention to Israel to attempt to Hellenize them. That means to make their culture Greek. In the northern part of Israel, there's what's called the Decapolis. Those are 10 Greek cities. We visited two or three of those when I was in Israel.

One of them in the Old Testament was called Bethshan. It was later renamed Scythopolis by the Greeks. There was another city we visited called Susita. Both of those are on the coast of the Sea Of Galilee. Those are Hellenized Greek cities.

There were 10 of them in all that made up this area in Northern Israel. And the Greeks, Antiochus the fourth in particular, wanted to make Israel Greek in culture, which means they had to give up their what? They had to give up their one God and accept the gods of of Greece. And he was determined to make that happen. Promoting the worship of Zeus and forbidding certain Jewish religious practices and observances and observances.

In verse 30 though, as I just read, in verse 29 and then verse 30, he again turns his attention to the South. And in verse 30, as he attempts to go back into Egypt, it says, let me read verse 29. At the time of point, he shall return and come toward the South, but it shall not be as the former or as the latter for the ships of Chittim shall come against him. Therefore, he shall be grieved and return and have indignation against the holy covenant, so shall he do. He shall even return and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.

So we'll stop there, for just a moment. So what's going to happen, is that he is going to once again try to attack Egypt to the South, but now Egypt has, has a new ally, and the new ally is Rome. And so when he goes to attack the South, he faces these ships. These are part allies of Rome, and he's turned back. And he's angered because he wanted that and he didn't get it, and so now he turns and and turns that anger on who?

He turns that anger on the people of Israel. Back now in verse 30, he turns his indignation against the holy covenant. He shall even return and have intelligence. In other words, he will find people among the Jews who will side with him. And he will infiltrate and he will begin to put pressure, greater and greater and greater and greater pressure on the Jews that are not willing to compromise.

There are always some that are willing to compromise. When persecution comes to The United States, if it should come, if the Lord should tarry, there will be many Christians or at least so called Christians that will be willing to what? They'll be willing to compromise for the sake of their life, for the sake of their family, for the sake of their their finances, they will compromise. But there will be those who won't. We should be those who won't.

There were Jews who would and there were Jews who would not. He first turned many of the Jews against their own people. He found those compromisers and he used them. Verse 31, an arm shall stand on his part, in other words, power, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries, but the people that know their God shall be strong and do exploits.

So there'll be their compromisers, but there will be those who know, who believe in the Lord and they won't what? They won't back down. But but they will they will be in the minority. And all the power is going to be in the hands of Antiochus and those who side with him. So much that he will stop the sacrifices in the temple.

He will pollute the sanctuary. He will stop the sacrifices and defile the temple by sacrificing a sow or a pig on the altar and spreading its blood inside the temple. He then, history tells us, erected a statue of Zeus inside the temple to be worshiped. And this lasted for nearly seven years. Now, if you remember our study from Daniel eight, this isn't the first time this is mentioned.

We learn about this guy in Daniel chapter eight. And in verse 14, it says this. Well, in verse 13, it says this, and then I heard one saint speaking to another saint and said unto that certain saint which spake, how long shall be the vision vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot. In other words, how long is this gonna last that the statue of Zeus is gonna be in there and Israel won't be able to do their daily sacrifices? Verse 14, and he said unto me, unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

That is over six years, between six and seven years that the sanctuary, the temple, will be overrun by Antiochus and those on his side. There will be no sacrifices, and the abomination of desolation of Antiochus, the statue of Zeus, will be there in its place. Verse 32. Now this is around, this begins in January, about January now that Antiochus begins this fight against Israel and the stoppage of their sacrifices, the persecution of their people. But finally, beginning in January, this group that's mentioned here back in Daniel 11 in verse 32 will revolt and begin to stand up to him.

Verse 32 again, and such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries, but the people that know their God shall be strong and do exploits. And they that understand among the people shall instruct many. In other words, there will be some that will stand for the truth and they will go out and they will begin to teach others at great risk to their own life and limb. Verse 33, yet yet shall they fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil many days. Many will lose their lives taking a stand against Antiochus the fourth, standing for the Lord and standing for the truth.

It will be a a horrible time for the Jews. Now when they shall fall, they shall be holding up, holding with a little help, but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. In other words, some because of those who take a stand will stand with them, but others again will compromise in order for their life and their health. Some of them understanding shall fall to try them and to purge and to make them white even to the time of the end because it is yet for a time appointed. So beginning in January, a small group of Jews led by Mattathias and his five sons called the Maccabees, which means that wasn't actually their last name, it means the hammer, would revolt and little by little gain victories against Antiochus until January, the temple was retaken.

And as Daniel prophesied in Daniel eight, six plus years later, the temple was retaken, the worship is restored, but at the great cost of many lives. And the Jews still celebrate this. It's called the feast of dedication or what's another name for it? Hanukkah. So if you've heard of Hanukkah, that is the celebration of the retaking of the temple and of the sacrifices starting again and events that surrounded that time period.

This man Antiochus is parallel in many respects to the antichrist who to whom we will turn our attention once again next week. So we looked at Antiochus the fourth and all those that preceded him and the Ptolemies, and that's all history to us. But God is drawing parallels between Antiochus and the Antichrist. In verse 36 of this passage next week, we hit the Antichrist. And the Antichrist is Christ prophesied, is going to do the very same thing that Antiochus did.

And that is three and a half years into the tribulation, he is going to defile the temple. He is going to set up his own image in the temple to be worshiped. And in Matthew 24, Jesus said, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, head for the hills. Because what is to come is a terrible bloody time for Israel as the antichrist is going to pour everything he has on his attack on Israel before Christ comes and destroys him and destroys his kingdom and and hits the feet of the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream and it all turns to what? It all turns to dust.

And the kingdoms of the Gentiles ends, and the kingdom of Christ begins on earth. But it's going to get bad just like it got bad here. It's going to get bad then. Just as Antiochus did this in his time before the birth of Christ, the antichrist is going to do the same just before the return of Christ. These things are parallel.

As God foretold these events and they happened just as he said, What is to come that is revealed here in Matthew and Revelation is also going to happen just as it is foretold in God's word. We can be sure of this. Why is this passage so important? God forewarned the Jews of what was coming. He did not leave them without knowledge as to what was coming.

And briefly after this time, within a hundred and some years, who came the first time? Jesus, the Messiah. And what did Israel do? They rejected Him and they hung Him on a cross. And even after he rose from the dead, they still rejected him and his kingdom.

And we have the gap between the sixty ninth week and the seventieth week in which we live today. God forewarned the Jews of what was coming. He demonstrated his knowledge, foreknowledge of future events because he is a God who knows and controls even the what? Even the future. These events, as I said, prefigure events yet to come with the antichrist who will do the same.

And the people of our day need to be what? They need to be forewarned as the people of Daniel's day. We all need to be ready for when all this starts to happen. And I do believe if we are ready today that God's going to take us home and we're going to watch this from where? We're going to watch this from heaven.

But those who aren't ready, they're going to go through it. And some of them are going to hear and they're going to believe. And a remnant of Israel is going to receive Jesus when he returns and his kingdom will be established. If God fulfilled his words in the past, it only makes sense for us to believe he will do the same again. We need to be what?

We need to be. We need to be ready. Ready for persecution because it will come. And some of it may come before Christ comes back. We need to be the ones that know.

We need to be the ones that understand. We need to be the ones who stand for the Lord if it should come and not be the ones that compromise. Let's pray. Dear God, thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you, Lord, for the reminder here that you do hold the future in your hands, that you are sovereign, that you are God who is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent who is eternal, who is above time and sees even what is coming tomorrow before it comes.

Lord, you've told us in your word what is yet to come in our future. We thank you, Lord, that that involves something called the rapture for all those who trust Christ as savior. We thank you, Lord, that that involves a kingdom where we will rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years. That involves a place called the New Jerusalem where we will live with you forever. But Lord, we do pray for those who aren't ready.

And we pray, Lord, that you would open their eyes and that you would help us to be the one who might plant a seed, who might take a stand for what is right and not compromise that others might learn the savior before it is too late. Lord, help us to grab a hold and embrace the day in which we live and redeem the time that is short to be your lighthouse in this day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.