Be Aware & Beware

Some may say you took that too far, and I'm saying no, I just quoted Hosea chapter four, verse 12. Like ancient Israel, we have played the harlot against the living God, and the result of playing the harlot is shame. Proverbs 14:34, wisdom says: “Righteousness exalts a nation.” What exalts a nation? Righteousness. But sin is a reproach to any people. Sin is a shame. Now we've crossed the line of shame, and now we're a people who are unashamed of our shame. I can spend all day talking about the different ways we are unashamed of our shame. But I guess the message lends itself to more appropriate points. And for every Christian, regardless of what happens tomorrow, yes, pay attention.

A solar eclipse of this magnitude, coupled with a solar eclipse from 2017, are rare occasions. God is always speaking, Psalm 19. He speaks the language of the sun, moon, and stars, and He speaks it to all the world. Is America marked for judgment? Yes. Can the church rise up and delay and like Jonah--preach what God has called us to preach, and He relents on His timeline? Yes. Do we know what God is ultimately up to? No. So what is the charge? We are called to be aware, and we are called to beware; those two go in tandem. Be aware! And I'll do my due diligence from week to week to make sure that we are aware of what's happening, that I'm making the Bible front and center, not conspiracy theory, biblical reality.

We're also called to beware. We must be aware of the signs of our times while at the same time we must beware not to waste time following the wrong signs. What do we do? We become faithful to the Word of God so we can become watchful in a world. Paul would say, "Concerning the times and the seasons," same words, "concerning the appointments of God, brethren", or 'church.' "You have no need that I should write to you." Those are self-explanatory. God's calendar is set to seven feasts. For you, yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. Now watch this, Jesus said, “No one can know the exact day or hour, only the Father.” So we don't set days.

But like an alarm clock from time to time, God will give us signs and signals. And the church pushes snooze. And instead of being children of light, we're more synonymous with children of the darkness. Because you know what it says next, “For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape." Verse four, "But you, church, are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief." Wait, what? Every Christian is not going to be overtaken like a thief in the night. You are all sons of light, sons of the day. We are not of the night, nor of darkness. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." And He gave that same commissioning to his disciples, "You are the light of the world."

And let's go back to the illustration in the sky. We know what constitutes a lunar eclipse at this point. It's when the Earth gets in the way of the sun and the moon, and the moon doesn't produce its own light. The moon is a reflective light, so therefore the sun has its light bounce off the moon. And what I'm seeing is the church for too long is like the moon supposed to produce and reflect God's light, is now interfaced with the world and we're worldly, and we're eclipsed, and our lives are eclipsed. And maybe, if anything, tomorrow when you're seeing the actual sun become eclipsed by the moon, maybe it should cause us to go, 'You know what? I'm not where I'm supposed to be. The son's light has not shined on me because I've not positioned my life to reflect his light.'

This is why Peter ended his epistle by saying this: “You therefore beloved, since you know this beforehand.” Know what beforehand? Read chapter three of 2 Peter on your own time. What do you know beforehand? You know God's timetable. You know God's calendar, and the world mocks it. Christians have been talking about the second coming through the ages. “Ha ha, He he, this is fables and it's all fake.”

And Peter's like, okay, that's what you're saying. You're saying nothing's changed in the history of man. Have you forgotten about the flood? By the way, God is not slack concerning his promise. He's going to return as some count slackness, but he's long-suffering. Don't misunderstand. His patience is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Peter, Paul, John, Revelation, they're all warning us. Since you know this beforehand, what do we do? Beware. Here it is, here's the closing statements: “Beware. Lest you also fall from your own steadfastness being led away with the error of the wicked, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him, be the glory both now and forever. Amen.”

So, yes, tomorrow is the Great American Eclipse, part two. We see it from the Scripture's lens as not just a total eclipse of the sun. So when we recognize as a people, we have totally eclipsed the Son. Like Jonah sent to a pagan people:Regardless if we believe they deserve salvaging and saving or not, it is God himself who determines who he saves.

Nineveh should remind us of Jonah. Jonah preached his message. Nineveh should remind us of judgment, and judgment begins in the House of God. And finally, Nineveh should remind us of Jesus. You remember I said that? What was it that Jesus said? “A sinful, evil, adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and none will be given to it except the sign of Jonah,” which is what? Just as Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish, so the Son of Man will spend three days and three nights in the belly of the earth. What was Jesus saying? He said the greatest sign of all time is that He would conquer death and defeat sin once and for all. And He rose from the grave. He sits at the right hand of the Father and He's coming again on the clouds.

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