Josh Howerton - Israel, Hamas and the End Times (01/12/2026)

TOPICS: Israel, HAMAS, End times, Bible Prophecy

Summary:

Drawing from Genesis through Ezekiel and connecting to current events in Israel, the preacher frames the Hamas attack as part of a 4,000-year spiritual war over God’s unbreakable covenant promises to Abraham—land, lineage, and Lord—that Satan has relentlessly opposed. The core message is that biblical prophecy is unfolding reliably, just as past promises were fulfilled in Christ’s first coming and Israel’s rebirth, pointing toward Jesus' imminent return to win the final battle. Ultimately, amid escalating global signs, God patiently delays Christ’s return not out of slowness but out of mercy, desiring more people to repent and receive eternal life before the end comes.

Welcome and Introduction
Good morning, LakePointe family! Man, it’s really good to be with you guys. And, if you’re new with us, I just want to go ahead and say welcome. My name’s Josh, and I’m the senior pastor of our church. We are incredibly honored for you to be here today. I do want to say this before we start anything today: today is going to be a bit of a different message, and you’ll see what I’m talking about here in a second.

Let me explain a little bit of why I’m doing what I’m doing today. My job as a preacher is to address both text and context. My job is to have one foot in the unchanging text of God’s word and the other foot in the ever-changing context of the world. Each week, I stand up here and act as a bridge between text and context to say, «I’m taking the word, and I’m showing us how to view what’s happening in the world.»

Addressing Current Questions
I have never, in my five years at LakePointe, had a question asked more frequently in the last three weeks than, «Hey, what should we think about everything that’s going on in Israel, and what does that have to do with the end times? Is this an end times or last days thing?» So, let me confess a little insecurity today: I’m going to talk about that in a very direct, straightforward way. We’re going to move really fast, and you all need to track with me, but let me confess some insecurity really quick as I dive into this today.

Usually, when I’m preaching, this is what I feel like: I feel like I’ve got the sword of the Spirit in hand, and we’re charging hell with a water pistol and setting captives free, all that stuff. But today, as we’re talking about the end times, the return of Christ, and the last days, I’ll be honest: I feel a little bit more like this. This is a little bit how I feel, and some of you right now are thinking, «Yeah, Josh, actually, you should feel like that because that’s what you look like talking about this stuff.»

Everyone Believes in an End Times
So, let me just say something at the very beginning of this message, especially if you’re not a believer, you’re not a Bible-believing Christian, or you’re trying to figure this stuff out and didn’t know what you were getting yourself into today. When you hear me talking about the end times, you might think, «Oh my goodness, what a superstitious, primitive thing to believe in an end times.» Can I just point this out to you? You may have never thought about this before: everyone you have ever met, from every religion, worldview, and philosophy that you have ever heard of, believes in an end times. Everybody. Everybody believes in an end times.

I’ll give you a couple of examples. For instance, Muslims believe—we’re going to talk about this here in a little bit—Muslims believe that eventually there will arise a false Messiah, and that Allah will send a prophet named Esau to destroy the false Messiah. After that, there will be a judgment, and you’ll be judged based on whether you did more good works than bad works. That’s what Muslims believe.

Hindus believe that eventually Vishnu will appear for the 10th time; he’ll come back riding on a white horse holding a sword that looks like a comet. He’ll destroy all evil and usher us into an era of perfection. That’s what Hindus believe.

Now, a lot of people don’t think about this: even atheists and agnostics believe in an end times. There is an end times script to atheism and agnosticism. Atheists and agnostics believe that eventually the sun will burn out, that entropy will take its course, and every star in every galaxy will eventually run its entropy course. There will be no energy left, and all life will cease to exist. It will not matter whether you lived this life more like Jesus or Hitler; it will not matter whatsoever.

Now, one more: I just want to point this out—Astros fans believed that hell would freeze over before the Rangers won the World Series! Let me just say that! Bro, come on, somebody! Man, there is praise in the house this morning. I’ve been waiting for that all week. Ever since that game ended, I was like, «Bro, that’s going in there; that’s got to get in.»

So, I just want to set that script: everyone, everywhere believes in an end times. The question is, what does God believe about the end times? That’s the only thing that matters. Now, let me just get right into this. Heads up: we’re going to move very fast, and we’re going to cover an enormous amount of Bible. I don’t have the usual amount of jokes, illustrations, and emotional flow; we’re just going to go at this in a very direct way, so stay with me. This is a little bit heavy.

The Events of October 7th
Let me talk about what prompted this message in case you’ve been under a rock for the last month. About three and a half weeks ago, on Saturday, October 7th, 1,500 Sunni Muslims who were part of a terrorist organization called Hamas—by the way, Hamas is a publicly labeled terrorist organization. It is, you can Google this. This is not biased; it is in the written charter of the organization called Hamas that aims for the extermination, that’s right, the genocide of all Jewish people in Israel first, and then the extermination of all Jewish people in the world. That is the publicly stated goal of Hamas.

On that day, 1,500 Hamas terrorists broke through the Palestinian border, the border between Palestine and the rest of Israel, and that day they murdered 1,300 innocent Jewish people—yes, men, but in particular, women, children, and even infants. More than that, they broadcast some of those brutal murders online or sent videos of those executions to the families of the people, even the babies, that they slaughtered. In killing those 1,300 Jews that day, it was the largest killing of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust. People have been rightly referring to that day as Israel’s 9/11; that’s what they’ve been talking about—Israel’s 9/11.

Now, even that is actually a little misleading. There were 1,300 people killed on October 7th—1,300 Jews killed on that day. Comparatively, there were about 2,000 Americans that died in 9/11. But it’s actually a little worse than that because the population of Israel is 7.1 million people, while the population of the United States is 330 million people. So, if you were to make it proportionate, if you just proportioned the amount of death compared to the population of the two countries, what happened on October 7th in Israel would be the equivalent of 40,000 to 50,000 Americans being slaughtered by terrorists in a single day. Again, this is the largest killing of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust.

A 4,000-Year-Old Conflict
Now, what you must understand—and this is what we’ll talk about for the next few minutes—this was not something that was new; this was the continuation of a 4,000-year-old conflict. 4,000 years! Now, let me just give a principle that’s going to run through the next few minutes of this message: this is not primarily about foreign policy; it’s primarily about prophecy. This is not primarily about foreign policy; it’s primarily about theology and spiritual warfare.

Now, let me explain what I’m talking about. Heads up! I always want to give credit where it’s due! I did an enormous amount of research this week, and I want to give some credit, learning a lot from pastors Chris Hodges, Mark Driscoll, Gary Hamrick, Daryl Bock, and many others. I read a lot of things this week. So, right now we’re just going to cover a lot of biblical history, and I need you to see that behind what’s happening in the natural world, in physical nations, is something that’s happening in the supernatural world among principalities, powers, and spiritual forces of evil in dark places, according to scripture.

Now, if that sounds weird to you, just hang tight, because you’re going to see a few things in the next few minutes that may make you go, «Whoa, there’s a little more to that than I thought there was.» So, it all starts right here. Let’s trace this. In Genesis 12, God calls a man named Abram, whom the Book of Joshua tells us was called out of a pagan family. God calls Abram and tells him—this is really important, bookmark this in your head—to leave your father and mother, your nation, your family, your children, all these things; leave them and go to, quote, «a land to which I am calling you.»

The land to which God called Abram is still in contention today, 4,000 years later. Now, what the Bible says is that Abram, quote, «believed God, » and it was credited to him as righteousness. Guys, we are always saved by faith, not works, and Abram was saved in the exact same way that you are saved: by believing in the promises of God. So, Abram left his family and his nation in faith, and he went to the land to which the Lord God had called him.

The Abrahamic Covenant
Now, when he gets there, fast forward to Genesis 15. In Genesis 15, God sees the faith of Abram, changes his name to Abraham, and establishes something that Bible scholars for hundreds of years have called the Abrahamic Covenant. Now, I don’t have time to go into this—I wish that I did; it’s really, really awesome—but I’m going to do my best in just a couple of seconds. He establishes a covenant with Abraham, and there’s a difference between, watch this, a covenant and a contract.

A contract happens in a written culture like ours, where most people are literate, and the motto of a contract is, «I will be what I should be to you, as long as you are what you should be to me.» But they didn’t live in primarily a written culture; they lived in primarily a visual and verbal culture. So, instead of a written contract, they established a verbal covenant. The motto of a covenant is not «I will be what I should be to you as long as you are what you should be to me.» The motto of a covenant is, «I will be to you what I should be to you even if you are not what you should be to me.»

Now check this out. This is what I wish I had more time to go into. When a covenant was established between a greater party and a lesser party, because they couldn’t write it out in a not written culture, it’s a verbal culture. What they would do is slaughter animals, primarily a lamb—bookmark that, a lamb. They would take the slaughtered pieces of the animal and arrange them in an aisle. Then, what would typically happen is the greater party would watch the lesser party walk the pieces of the slain lamb and, as that lesser party walked the pieces of the slain lamb, he or she would recite the terms of the covenant: «If I do this, you will do that; if I do this, you will do this; if I do that, you will do this.»

What they were doing as they walked the pieces is they were saying verbally, «If I break the terms of this covenant, may I become like this slain lamb.» Now, in Genesis 15, when God establishes His covenant with Abraham, He does something very interesting. It’s the only time in all of ancient Near Eastern history that this happened: at the exact moment when Abraham, who was the lesser party, was supposed to walk the pieces of the covenant, the Bible says that God «put Abraham into a deep sleep, “ and God Himself appeared as „a smoking, flaming fire pot.“ It’s the exact same language the Bible uses to describe the appearance of God on the top of Mount Sinai when He gives the Ten Commandments.

Then, in that moment when Abraham—the lesser party—is asleep, God Himself walks the pieces of the slain lamb, reciting the terms of the covenant. In that moment, God was saying to Abraham, listen to this, and all of Abraham’s offspring, „If you break this covenant, I will become like this slain lamb.“

Now, because God was the one who walked the pieces, this is an unbreakable covenant. It’s something that Bible scholars call an unconditional covenant because God both, listen to this, makes and meets the demands of the terms of the covenant. When God establishes this covenant with Abraham and his offspring, there are three pieces to this covenant. Listen to these three words; they will be key for the whole message: land, lineage, and Lord.

He promises Abraham land—that’s the Promised Land, that’s Israel. He makes a promise to Abraham, „Hey, even though you are really, really old—Abraham was in his 70s or 80s—He says, even though you’re old, you’re going to have a son, and from that son is going to come a nation“—lineage. Then God foreshadows that, from your son will come a nation, and from that nation one of the descendants of your son, someday I will raise up a Messiah, and that Messiah will be the Lord of the universe.

So, God makes this three-fold promise to Abraham: land, lineage, and Lord. Now, what you have to understand is that at exactly that moment a spiritual war began in the unseen realm; this is where we’re going to get a little creepy, but just hang out with me. A spiritual war began in that moment. Here’s why that happened: God is a Father who is a Holy Spirit, but He’s not the only thing that exists. So, God is a Father, that’s a Holy Spirit, but we also have an enemy who’s an unholy spirit that the Bible calls Satan.

Satan’s Opposition
And here’s how Satan works: whatever God creates, Satan counterfeits. Whatever God starts to build, Satan goes to break; whatever God inaugurates, Satan opposes. So the second God makes this promise, this covenant for these three things—land, lineage, and Lord—Satan goes into action throughout the rest of the biblical timeline to destroy exactly those three things. He wants to take the land, destroy the lineage, and set up an opposing Lord. That’s what happens throughout the rest of the entire Bible.

Now, fast-forward again to Genesis 16. This is the very next chapter. What happens at that point? Abraham is married to a woman named Sarah, and God made this promise to Abraham that in his old age, He would give him a son through whom the Lord would come. But it doesn’t happen immediately, so Abraham’s wife Sarah gets a little antsy and says, „Oh, I got an idea. Here’s what I’m going to do: I’ll take one of my servants, Hagar, who is, by the way, a pagan Egyptian woman. I will give you Hagar. Why don’t you sleep with Hagar, get her pregnant, and maybe that’s how God will provide the son to give us the lineage and the Lord?“

Now, in a massive colossal blunder, Abraham listens to his wife. Now, can I just say this? Husbands, you should listen to your wife but not when she brings another woman home for you to sleep with. That is not when you listen to your wife. But Abraham goes, „Gee, that sounds like a great idea! I’ll just do this.“ So, Abraham sleeps with Hagar, this pagan Egyptian woman. She gets pregnant, and she gives birth to a son, whose name—listen really closely—is Ishmael. This is very important: Ishmael.

Now let me just read to you a Bible verse; this is Genesis 16:12 that describes Ishmael and all of the descendants of Ishmael that would come after him. Genesis 16:12 says, „He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand will be against him. He will live in hostility towards all his brothers.“ So it is prophesied again, again—this is 4,000 years ago—it’s prophesied that the descendants of Ishmael would constantly be in conflict with the descendants of whatever Ishmael’s brother, Abraham’s other son, is. It’s prophesied in Genesis 16:12 that their descendants will constantly be at war.

Now, let me take it a step further. Ishmael ends up having 12 sons; this is really important—12 sons. Now, while this is going on, eventually God fulfills his promise to Abraham and Sarah, and through a miracle—Abraham and Sarah are 90 and 100 years old—they get pregnant and have the promised son, his name is Isaac. Isaac has 12 sons. Those 12 sons eventually become the 12 tribes of Israel. But watch this: Ishmael also had 12 sons. Whatever God creates, Satan counterfeits.

So here’s what you have—just think about this. What you have right here is, at this point, you’ve got Abraham, two wives, two sons, two sets of 12 grandsons, one covenant, and the spiritual war that takes place for all of the rest of spiritual history is over this land, lineage, and Lord. Which son is going to get the land? From which son will come the blessed lineage, and from which son will the one true Lord eventually come? Those are the three questions.

Isaac Chosen Over Ishmael
Now, this is what happens: these two guys eventually—God chooses Isaac and rejects Ishmael. Now fast-forward to Genesis 22. In Genesis 22, God comes to Abraham, so now he’s got this son, Isaac, the son of the promise. God tells Abraham to take your son—listen to the language the Old Testament uses, 2,000 years before Jesus—He says, „Take your son, your only son, whom you love, and sacrifice him on a mountain.“ So Abraham takes Isaac, and this is really interesting: they were in a place where they were already surrounded by mountains, but the Bible tells us that God led them to a different mountain three days' journey away from where they were. I wonder why.

When he gets to that mountain, Abraham looks at his son, his only son of the promise whom he loves, and watch this: he puts wood on his shoulders. His only son of the promise walks up a hill. At the top of the hill, that son is ready to lay down his life in sacrifice to the father. Any of this sound familiar? At the exact moment when the knife was beginning to be plunged into the son of the promise, Isaac, God stops Abram and provides a, listen, a substitute sacrifice who will die in the place of Isaac so that Isaac does not have to die. Any of this sound familiar?

Now watch this; check this out—this is absolutely amazing—2,000 years later, one son, a seed of Isaac, would go to, oh, by the way, Golgotha, which was the exact same mountain, the exact same place where Isaac went. That Son, Jesus Christ, would once again have wood laid on His shoulders. He would climb that hill and lay down His life to be pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our sins. Upon Him would fall the chastisement that brought us peace. That is. Listen, the Bible’s amazing! The Bible’s absolutely amazing!

So this is what happens: Isaac is chosen. Isaac is the one that is chosen; it’s the same hill. Now fast forward to 2,400 years later—2,400 years later—in around 600 or 700 AD, Muhammad is born. Muhammad is born. Now, check this out; this is really interesting. Before I say anything, I’m getting ready to say some things that are like super un-PC, but they are very biblically correct, so we’re just going to go right there.

The Birth of Islam
So, 2,400 years later, Muhammad is born. Now, before I tell you anything about the birth of Islam, I’m just going to read you this verse; this is Galatians 1:8. This is 600 to 700 years before the birth of Islam. The Apostle Paul is foreshadowing. He’s saying, „Watch out!“ And watch what he says: „But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel—in other words, a way of getting to God—contrary to the one that we preach to you, let him be accursed.“

Now you guys tell me—I’m asking you to tell me—what do you call a fallen angel that opposes the true gospel and that is cursed? What do you call that? A demon, a demon is what you call that. Okay, so here’s what happens: Muhammad is born; at some point in Muhammad’s life, Muhammad says that he went into a cave and an angel appeared to him. It was a demon! Galatians 1:8! An angel appeared to him and preached to him a gospel contrary to the one that was handed down to the apostles at the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. That is the birth of Islam.

Here’s the script of Islam. Now remember the satanic war that started being waged all the way back in Genesis 15 was about three things: land, lineage, and Lord. Keep that in mind when you think about the script of Islam. Okay? The script of Islam is that, whoa, the Hebrew scriptures were actually wrong! Actually, God chose Hagar, not Sarah; God chose Ishmael, not Isaac. Ishmael was the one who went up to the mountain, and oh, by the way, the result of all this is that all the promises of the Abrahamic covenant belong not to the descendants of Isaac, who are the Jewish people, but to the descendants of Ishmael.

Oh, by the way, Muhammad was a descendant of Ishmael, so the descendants of Ishmael are the modern-day Arabs and Palestinians. Now what Islam says is, „Hey, that’s our land! We are the blessed lineage, and our Lord Allah is the true Lord, not the Lord Jesus Christ!“ Land, lineage, Lord. That has resulted in now nearly 2,000 years of war between the descendants of Ishmael in Islam and the descendants of Isaac, who are the Jewish people, the ethnic descendants of Isaac.

The Meaning of Hamas
Now, let me bring us to this specific month. So this month, this terrorist organization called Hamas—now we’re going to get into this word; this is a really important word—the organization is called Hamas. Watch what happens. These are descendants of Ishmael attacking the lineage of Isaac in a fight over the land, and as they were slaughtering infants, what they were shouting is the phrase „Allahu Akbar.“ Guess what that means? „Our God is greater!“

So they were attacking the lineage of Isaac in a fight over the land, and they were opposing the Lord Jesus Christ. Land, lineage, Lord. Now let’s go a level deeper. What you’ve got to understand, guys, I hope you’re seeing this right now from the Bible: this is not primarily political; it’s primarily biblical and spiritual. This is not primarily biblical and spiritual.

What you have to understand is that behind kings and nations are principalities and powers. The book of Ephesians says, „We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, powers, and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.“ So very often when you see conflict between worldly kingdoms, that is just a result of conflict in the spiritual realm spilling out into the natural realm.

So let’s go a level deeper. So this word Hamas, that’s the title of this terrorist organization—Hamas is a Palestinian acronym that translates in their language to „the Islamic resistance movement.“ So, like in our language, we’ve got acronyms like FBI; that’s an acronym. Hamas is an acronym in their language that stands for „Islamic resistance movement.“ It’s the Arabic word for zeal. But this is what’s important: Hamas is also a Hebrew word that’s used in the Bible. I’m going to show you a couple of examples of where the Hebrew word Hamas is used in the Bible.

Okay? So, I want you to see it. I’m going to put it up on the big screen. This is Genesis 6:11. Here’s one example. So now, this is in the days of Noah when God looks out and sees that the whole world is corrupt and full of violence. Here’s one of these usages: now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of—there’s that word—Hamas.

But here’s what it actually means; it means this. Go to the next one. „Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.“ Hamas is the Hebrew word meaning „violent evil.“ It’s actually sometimes translated as „possessed.“ It’s actually sometimes translated like that.

Now, interestingly, this exact word, Hamas, is used in Genesis 16 when Abraham’s wife Sarah is being wronged and attacked by the servant, the Egyptian pagan servant Hagar. Watch this: Sarah has to cast out—that’s literally the word the Bible uses—to cast out Hagar, and watch the language it uses. So check this out. Genesis 16:5 says this: „She, “ Sarah, says to Hagar, „May the wrong done to me be on you.“ But guess what the word is? The word is „may the Hamas done to me be on you.“

The exact same word. This word Hamas continues to be used throughout the rest of the Old Testament to describe the people who attack the land, the lineage, and oppose the Lord through the Jewish people. So Hamas is used to describe the Chaldeans and the Babylonians in Jeremiah 31:15; it’s used to describe the Shechemites in Judges 9:34; it’s used to describe the Egyptians in Joel 3:19.

Now, let me lean in really quick. What the Bible is showing us is that the same spirit of violent evil continued to be at work after the days of Noah, and that same spirit of evil is still at work in the world today to attack the land, try to destroy the lineage, and oppose the Lord.

The Final War in Ezekiel
Now, this is the spot in the sermon where I think a lot of you guys are like, „Bro, where is your tinfoil hat? Y’all are crazy!“ Like this is getting a little spooky, okay? Well, if you think I’m crazy, let me ask you this: have you ever noticed this? In every generation in world history, some world superpower rises up to try to exterminate Jews. Have you ever noticed that? Egypt, the Philistines, the Babylonians, Persia, Rome, the Nazis, and now Hamas. In every generation, some nation rises up to try to exterminate the Jewish people. Why?

Let me ask you: why do the same things keep happening? Because the same spirits are still working to attack the land, try to destroy the lineage, and oppose the Lord. These three things are still happening. Now here’s the question, and this is the question I’ve been asking a million times in the last week. Well, how’s it going to end? If that war has been going on for all of history, how is the war going to end? Ezekiel 38 and 39 specifically talk about how this war will be the culmination that ends all wars at the end of time.

So here’s what I’m going to do. I can’t read Ezekiel 38 and 39; it’s a really confusing passage. But let me sum it down for you: the Bible says that eventually there will be a final war; it will be the war to end all wars, and it will be a war over those exact three things: land, lineage, and Lord—all the way back to the Abrahamic covenant 4,000 years ago.

In Ezekiel 38 and 39, it lists the nations that will be involved in this war at the end of time. Now, before I show you what these nations are, it lists the names of the nations as they were when Ezekiel wrote. It would be the equivalent of like if I wrote down in a journal, „Hey, we’ve got Canada to our north and Mexico to our south, “ and then somebody fast-forwarded like 5,000 years, and those nation-states didn’t exist anymore, but they would know, „Oh, but he was referring to those regions.“ That exact same thing is what’s happening in Ezekiel 38 and 39. The nation-states don’t exist anymore, but we do know where their boundaries were, where the regions were.

So I’m going to toss this map up here, and here’s what Ezekiel 38 and 39 describes. So, Israel is so tiny—this is Israel, a little tiny dot right there, and I had to make it bigger over here so you could even know what I was talking about. So, in Ezekiel 38 and 39, it mentions nations. First of all, it mentions Gog and Magog. Gog and Magog were far to the north of Israel; that would be like modern-day Russia, like this area. Oh, by the way, Russia, a lot of people don’t know this, is about 18% Muslim. It also mentions Persia in Ezekiel 38 and 39; that corresponds to modern-day Iran, a Muslim country. Then it also mentions Goomer and Togarmah, which correspond to modern-day Turkey, a Muslim country.

You see all of that there. It also mentions possibly Libya, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Central Africa—all these things, which, by the way, are all Muslim countries. Now here’s the question: the Bible says that this attack at the end of time will come on Israel from the north and the south, and that will be the final war—the war to end all wars—that will usher in the end of time.

Now here’s the question: the question that people are asking is, „Hey, are we entering into that war right now?“ The right answer to that is, we don’t know. What we do know is that if Iran enters the war, that Turkey and Russia will probably go with them. Behind them will be North Korea and China. If all the world powers start attacking from the north and the south, trying to attack Israel, that could be the war to end all wars that ushers in the end of history.

Hope in Christ’s Return
Now, you may be thinking right now, „Bro, this is heavy.“ Man, can I just say this? There’s a lot of hope in Ezekiel 38 and 39 because we know how that battle ends. We know how that battle ends. Okay? So, check this out. The Bible says that that will be the moment, here’s what Ezekiel 38:39 says: if no one intervenes, that would be the one war that Israel lost that would actually result in the loss of the land, the eradication of the lineage, and the opposition of the Lord if nobody intervened.

But the Bible says exactly at the moment when it looks like all hope is lost for the descendants of Isaac, that the Lord Himself, Jesus Christ, will descend. He will take the battlefield, and He will win the war once and for all for all time. So check this out: you need to understand this. Guys, you may look at me like I’m crazy; I’m going to get to that in a second. You need to understand Jesus is going to return; that is going to happen. The two most important moments in the history of the Bible are the first coming of Jesus and the second coming of Jesus, and they are very different.

The first time Jesus came in humility; the second time He will come in glory. The first time He came riding on the colt of a donkey; the second time He comes riding on a warhorse with a big tattoo on His thigh. The first time He came to save sinners; the second time He comes to judge sin. The first time He came to die for the world; the next time He comes to win the war. Jesus will return, and He will win the war. He will eradicate evil; He will wipe away every tear from every eye, and He will remake all things, and all things will be new again.

Now check this out. This is the spot when I think some people are like, „Ah!“ And you start to actually let—let me just read it; this is so awesome. Let me just read it. This is what the book of Zechariah describes this moment; this is Zechariah 14: „A day of the Lord is coming, “ and that moment is coming, my friends. I just need to tell you this because I love you: as long as you’re still breathing, there’s still hope.

You’re still breathing; there’s still hope. But there is coming a day when either you will stop breathing, or the Lord Jesus Himself will return, and the window of opportunity for you to put your faith in Him and to give your life to Him and to surrender your knee, bow your knee to the lordship of Him, that door will slam shut, and there will not be an opportunity to come to Him anymore. That’s Zechariah 14:1. Then it says this: „I will gather all—“ I skipped a part, and I don’t want to.

„A day of the Lord is coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions will be plundered and divided up within your very walls, “ talking about this war. „I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it.“ The book of Revelation refers to this as the battle of Armageddon. „Then the Lord“—and it’s talking about the Lord Jesus Christ—“He will go out and He will fight against those nations as He fights on a day of battle. On that day, His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives”—by the way, I have stood at this exact spot; someday I hope all of you can come with me.

By the way, it’s really interesting—the Mount of Olives is the exact spot where Jesus ascended into heaven; it is also the exact spot where He will descend back to earth for this war. He will reclaim the land because the land belongs to Him. He is the seed of Isaac to whom the land belongs, east of Jerusalem, and on the Mount of Olives, the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west. Jesus is returning, and that will happen.

Remember What God Has Done
Now, listen, some of you right now—this is the spot where you’re like, „Josh, like I just…even you might be a Christian, you’re like, ‘Bro, this just sounds a little crazy! ’“ Like, you’re talking about all this stuff that’s going to happen, and you doubt what will happen. Like, will y’all just pause with me for a second? Before you doubt what the Bible says will happen, stop and think about what the Bible said would happen that did happen.

You guys got to get this in your head: forgetfulness is the greatest enemy of faith because when we forget what God did, we stop believing what He’ll do. Before you stop believing what God will do, look back and remember what God said He would do that He did. The Bible promised that a nation would come from Isaac; it did. The Bible promised that the lineage of Isaac would last until the end of time; it has.

The Bible promised 2,400 years before it even happened that the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants of Isaac would always be in conflict; they have. The Bible promised that all of human history would look like a battle for this promised land; it has. The Bible promised 600 years before it happened that someday a Messiah would come who would be of the seed of the lineage of Isaac, that that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, that He would be born to a virgin, that eventually He would rise, and He would go to a hill, He would have wood placed on His back, and He would ascend that hill; that He would be pierced for our transgressions, He would be crushed for our iniquities, and upon Him would fall the chastisement that brought us peace.

And that is exactly what happened in the person and work of Jesus Christ—His death and resurrection at the cross. The Bible said it would happen, and it did happen. The Bible said that Israel would eventually, after a long time of not existing, be recreated. Isaiah 66 says, „In one day, in 1948, after 2,000 years of Israel not existing, the Bible promised it would be remade in a single day.“

God said He would draw His people from the four corners of the earth to come back. In 1948, in one single day, Israel became a nation—in one day! And guess what? Jews from all over the world, from every continent, came flooding back—7.1 million of them—to that place. The Bible said it would happen, and it did happen.

And now the Bible says that Jesus Christ will return; He will eradicate evil, He will save sinners, He will make all things new, and He will wipe away every tear from every eye. It will happen; it will happen; it will happen! Everything the Bible said would happen did happen; everything the Bible says will happen will happen!

Signs of the Season
Now, here’s a question. The question everybody’s going, is, „Okay, but when? When is that going to happen?“ Now, I don’t have time to get into this; this may be a whole other message at some point. But the Bible says nobody knows the day, but it actually says you can know the season; it does say that.

So let me just give you a couple of—I don’t have time to go into this. There are things happening in the world today that are like, „Ah! That’s the first time in history where that prophecy could be fulfilled.“ For instance, I don’t have time to click on this, but the book of Revelation says that there are some events that will happen in the last days that it says, quote, „The entire world will see at the same time.“ For centuries, people were like, „Well, that can’t happen! How can somebody in South America see what’s happening in the Middle East?“

Well, within the last 100 years, worldwide broadcast technology for the first time in human history makes the fulfillment of that prophecy possible. Things like worldwide financial technology—there are predictions that, man, in the last days, there’ll be a worldwide economy from which people of faith might be excluded. To have that, you have to have worldwide financial technology; we have that now.

The book of Daniel says in the last days there will be an increase in travel. In the last 100—this is the only time in history where I could walk off this stage right now, hop on a plane, and be on the other side of the world in Australia on the same day—that’s never been able to happen. It also predicts an increase in knowledge. We call this the information age; that’s like literally what we call this age now.

So those are some; but let me just read you what Jesus said. So, this is Jesus: His disciples are just like you. They’re like, „Bro, this is insane! When is all this going to happen?“ Okay, and this is what it says in Matthew 24: „The disciples asked, ‘When will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming at the end of the age? ’ Jesus answered, ‘Watch out that nobody deceives you.’“

Hey, church, can I say that to you? Watch out! Satan is the father of lies. He will produce, the Bible says, incredibly powerful delusions, plausible lies to pry people, get them to deconstruct, and walk away from their faith. But hey, watch out! That nobody deceives you. It says watch this sign: because many people will come in My name, proclaiming, „I am the Messiah.“

In other words, lots of other religions are going to pop up. Because, watch this: whatever God creates, Satan counterfeits. God creates one true way in the Lord Jesus Christ; Satan counterfeits with all these other, you know, religions and other ways to try to get people away from the one true way. And they’ll deceive many.

And then Jesus said, „You’ll hear of wars and rumors of wars.“ We’ve got that; we’ve got that. But almost every century could say they had that. But see to it—this is important—that you’re not alarmed. Hey, hey, church, don’t be alarmed! God didn’t want you scared; He wants you prepared! He don’t want you scared; He wants you prepared.

Good stuff’s coming! Is what He said! Don’t be alarmed; such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom; there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginnings of the birth pains; it’s just like the Bible says.

It’s just like giving birth. If you’re a couple that’s pregnant, you don’t know the day when the baby’s going to come, but you can look at the belly and the contractions, and you can say, „Oh, she’s getting close!“ Same thing! He’s going, „Hey! Same thing!“ Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of Me.

I just need to say this; I am convinced—this was convicting to me. I’m afraid that I haven’t done a good enough job preparing you to be hated by everyone for the name of Jesus. That’s my job, and I’m literally planning on preaching in the next year because I want you to be prepared for this moment. And then what it says is, „Some people won’t be able to handle being hated by everybody, so here’s what they’re going to do: at that time, many will turn away, huge apostasy from the faith, and they’ll betray and hate each other.“

Does that sound familiar? That’s our world right now; in our world right now, I can’t just disagree with you. If I disagree with you, you have to hate me and label what I say „hate.“ That’s what we have right here. And many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.

Hey, just because somebody can do a miracle or spiritual thing doesn’t mean they’re of God. You’ve got to test the spirits. Sometimes Satan will be the one that empowers miracles. You test everything by the word of God. That’s a word to—because of the increase of wickedness, we’re seeing that the love of most will grow cold.

But the one who stands firm to the end will be saved, and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world. Here’s the biggie; here’s the big sign. Here’s how you’re going to know we’re getting real close: and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Now, you’re—let me just encourage you, y’all! That’s happening right now! That’s happening! There have been more people that have become Christians in the last 120 years than the previous 1,500 years combined. Did you know that? If you were to look at a little line graph of people who are Christians, it started at the cross, that little line graph would just kind of do this and just very gently rise and rise and rise and rise and rise just a little, little, little, and then in the last 100 years, it does this!

Because this right here, through technology and missions—that’s about to—y’all, we’re getting close! Like, this is happening! So, He’s saying the gospel’s got to get to every nation! Now here’s—you may be going, „Every nation? Bro, it’s going to take forever! Why in the world is He waiting?“ You know, „Return, eradicate evil, wipe away every tear from every eye, make all things new! What’s He waiting for?“

Why God Waits
Jesus answers that exact question last verse, and then we’re done. Jesus answers that question: why is he waiting? Second Peter 3:9, the Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. Y’all, listen, listen to me, man. If you’re going, „Hey, what’s he waiting for? What’s he waiting for?“ He’s waiting for you. He’s waiting for your lost brother. He’s waiting for your prodigal child. He’s waiting for nations that have never heard about him. He’s waiting on them.

Now I just, like, I even picture this man. The Bible actually says—I didn’t have time to read that—Jesus himself doesn’t even know when he’s going to return; only the Father knows. I just picture Jesus, like, you know, he’s sitting there on the edge of his throne in heaven, and every single day he can’t wait to go get his bride. Every single day he’s looking back at his dad, going, „Hey, today? Today?“ I think some days God’s looking at the wickedness of the world, going, „Maybe today? Maybe today?“ And I think Jesus hears that; he’s like, „Let’s go, man!“ So he gets up, polishes the thigh tattoo, hops on the warhorse—he’s all ready to go.

In that exact moment, I think God grabs the back of his robe and he’s like, „Whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait! Let’s wait!“ Because I think there’s one more. I think there’s one more person that might place their faith in me, that we’ll get to spend eternity with if we just wait just a little longer—just one more. One study says that every day, in the continent of Africa, 16,170 become Christians—every day! Every day, man! Every day!

So think about this. Think about this: every day Jesus waits—16,000 more people get eternity with him. Every hour, Jesus waits—673 more African people get eternity with him. Every minute, Jesus waits—28 more people on that continent get eternity with him. God has given us one more day so that one more person might have one more chance to come to Christ. That’s why he’s waiting, man. He’s waiting for you; he’s waiting for them. Now, hey LakePointe family, I want you to see-like, listen, we are all in on reaching the nations for Christ. Lord, haste the day, like the hymn says.