Dear Father, I do pray that you do help us understand your word, get ready for your coming. Lord, we see so many signs, so many calamities, but we know your grace and mercy, your patience, your long suffering is still here pleading with your people to get right and be soul winners and just the things that matter to put at the forefront of our lives. And we do pray, Lord, that we'll rescue the perishing, give them your truth, and that many will come to you, Lord. It's in Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen. Title of the message is Violent Windstorms Will Increase. Violent windstorms will increase. I'm talking physical storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, all of these things. And then of course, wind storms or a picture in the Bible of devils and demonic doctrines. Those will increase and are increasing right now. And of course, various trials can be pictured by winds. But let me show you some literal scripture. When you're looking at Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, you're dealing with what we call double prophecy, double application, where some of it applies to the first century at the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. And it's gonna replay again in the last days with Israel back in the land. And everything that wasn't literally fulfilled The first time around will be fulfilled this time around. And let's take a look at this. Luke 21, 25, and there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the earth, distress of nations. Think of that distress. With perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring. That's wind. That's wind. Men's hearts failing them for fear. Heart attacks because of not just emotional distress, but heart attacks. For looking after those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. What happens is we'll see in a moment We can call it the bouncing ball of prophecy. Or Tabitha was at a birth that she was supposed to be in labor, but then hasn't had her baby yet. And so sometimes there are what we think is the labor. It looks like we're in the middle of the tribulation period, but You're just seeing preparatory, stage setting signs. So the closer we get to the real thing, the more it's going to look like you're there in some ways. So I expect, and our forefathers have expected, that you're going to start seeing hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, not just randomly, but all over the place. increasing in intensity, in number. So we know that our county, God help us, lost some lives and had some homes wiped out. And then down in Arkansas, and really all over America, in this monster storm or storms, There was a lady down that Tabitha knows in Arkansas that trained her to some degree to become a midwife. And they're up in their 80s, I believe, and they lost their house. You know, people we know. God help them. The Mail, I believe it's today, reported it this way. Violent tornadoes, devastating wildfires, severe storms have decimated homes, wiped out communities, and killed at least 32 people throughout the Midwest and South over the weekend. At least 247,655 people across Missouri, Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, and Michigan are without power Sunday morning. Yesterday, they reported apocalyptic storms. Kill 17 is deathly. Of course, it ended up being more. Tornadoes and wildfires and dust storms wreak carnage and millions are put on high alert. More than a dozen of the deaths were reported in Missouri as deadly tornadoes tore through the Midwest on Friday. At least three more people losing their lives in Texas and Arkansas. Numerous more people reportedly injured as huge storms flipped cars and destroyed homes as hurricane strength winds unleashed severe thunderstorms, whipped up deadly dust storms, and fanned over 100 wildfires. The extreme weather conditions are forecasted to affect over 138 million people, with winds gusting upwards of 100 miles per hour, stretching from the Canadian border all the way down to Texas. Serious tornado threats in eastern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, western parts of Florida, Panhandle, and Georgia. Dust storm causing mayhem on Texas roads, described as the worst they've ever seen. Dust storm, worst they've ever seen. ABC News, put it this way, tornado outbreak, live updates, 40 tornadoes, 31 dead in cross country storm system. NBC News, Storm kills 34 across US, knocks out power for hundreds of thousands. Storm system have left buildings in ruins, wrecked power lines, intensified more than 100 wildfires. 34 have died across Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Mississippi, as powerful storm systems sweep through and on and on. I personally, praise God, not a direct hit, but I've seen a tornado go by when we were in our mobile home there in Texas, and it ended up hitting or landing, dropping in the community on past us. But it's a horrible thing to be in the midst of that in a mobile home. And I never knew what those storm anchors were for. And I remember when they were putting up the mobile home, I was asking, what are you doing? And he's like, oh, you'll be glad that I'm putting these here. And when that thing hit, just the sound of that wind, it took my whole porch and threw it in the field behind us. this giant porch, just put it in the field behind us. And it tried to lift up the mobile home. You know, people crying out to Jesus as it tried to lift it up and tried to lift it and try to hit it. And God preserved our life. But it's amazing what that wind can do. I remember in Texas, in the middle of the summer, No wind anywhere. And here comes one of those dust devils or whatever they call them. And it just started in the field next door and it came and it came and it came and it came. And I couldn't believe it. No wind blowing, it's hot summer. And it hit my chicken coop, exploded the chicken coop. Whole thing goes up in the air, chicken feathers everywhere, and then it disappeared. So I just couldn't believe that that little teeny thing, waist high, was able to do that to my chicken coop. And so it's just unbelievable the power that these winds have. God have mercy on us. God have mercy on us. Of course, we lost a building. God with his grace and mercy and power has put one up better than we had. Thank you, Lord Jesus. We need to finish it. But that wasn't a tornado, they don't think. It was just straight line winds that were so high in speed that it just demolished the building, you know. So these things can bring discouragement. As the Lord said, they can bring heart attacks. And whether that's just physical hearts failing, or whether that, I think it's both. It's also intense discouragement and dismay. And it's all associated with the physical and the emotional. Sometimes it's a spiritual attack. because people can get so discouraged. Many of our forefathers said, the devil is gonna spend more time trying to tempt you to sinful discouragement than he is to lust or something like that. He's gonna do both, believe me. But if he can discourage you, that is one of his most powerful weapons for getting you to do what the devil wants you to do. And so he's gonna try to use calamities and trials and storms in your life, physical storms and spiritual. He's gonna try to use these things to knock you out of the race. And it's very important that we do not allow that. Now we need to ask a question. Why does God allow these things to happen? And we need to really nail down this first point. To be a victim of one of these horrible storms, listen to me carefully, does not necessarily mean that one is being punished for sin. or that whoever got hit by the storm is a greater sinner than somebody else that received mercy. We see this in John 9. His disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? It is a truth. that God often punishes and brings afflictions because of sin. And of course, sin entered the world, and that's why we have some of these things, but I'm talking about individual direct sin. It's true, some things happen because of what somebody did. But the Lord's gonna make it clear that that's not always the case. And you have to be very, very careful righteous in your judgment because remember they attacked Job and they said this must be because you're sinning and they were totally wrong about that and they got in a lot of trouble. And so Jesus answered, neither this man has sin, nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. In other words, God had a higher purpose. It wasn't because of the parents, it wasn't because of the man, it was because of God and the glory, the purpose that he had to bring out of that situation. And we don't always understand those things. God, what good are you bringing out of this situation? The Bible says to those that love God and are called according to his purpose, he works all things for good. But we don't understand these things. We don't always see it immediately, what the good is. As I mentioned a moment ago, it says in Job 1, there was a man in the land of us whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright, one that feared God and eschewed evil. So whatever bad's happening unto him, even though God's going to use it for good in Job's life, nobody should be judging Job because of the things that he went through. And one of the things that Job had to experience was having a whirlwind come and kill his family. All these messengers kept coming to Job to give him bad news. And while one was yet speaking, there came also another and said, thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. They were having a birthday party of some kind. This was an alcoholic wine. No reason to assume that. And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young men and they are dead. And I, only I am escaped alone to tell thee. I'm trying to show that what Job experienced here with a horrible storm was not the result of his sin. But sometimes, sometimes it does mean God is angry. Sometimes storms are happening everywhere all around you because God is angry. So our Lord teaches us a great lesson that we should use storms in other people to not judge those people. but to judge our own lives. And we need to draw closer to God. We need to repent. We need to fear more. Listen how he makes this clear. Luke chapter 13, he says, those 18 upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them. Think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you nay. So what they experienced was not because that tower fell, that was a horrible calamity. But he says, no, they weren't worse sinners than other people that a tower didn't fall on. But except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. What the Lord's saying, I believe, is that you're to be careful. in judging storms and emergencies and calamities and judging others, but you are to use them for your own repentance. You are to use them to fear God, to understand that God could bring any type of judgment to us. And it might be a judgment in our lives. So that's why I say people that died in this latest round of storms, there might've been some of the most precious people. I don't understand the mysteries of God, but I do understand one thing, that Jesus is coming. And he warned about this in the last days. He warned that these storms would increase and his goal whatever other goals he has, whatever other purposes he has, one of the primary purposes of God's storms that he brings or allows to happen is that there will be repentance in the nation, repentance in our family, that people will turn to Christ who are unbelievers and that believers will begin to repent of sins, get sober in their Christian life, get serious, prioritize what they're supposed to be prioritizing and be more careful and quit living so careless. Our Lord says he's coming in judgment, but he told us also in the Bible that judgment must begin at the house of God. Meaning that the first thing, when the Lord comes to the sky above earth, the first thing he's dealing with is his people. He'll deal with the nations of the world. He'll deal with everybody else, but he's gonna first deal with his people. The next thing you can expect on the horizon is the Lord Jesus dealing with his people. Revelation nine, in the middle of the tribulation period that's coming, it says the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, you would not believe, just read a little bit of the book of Revelation here up to chapter nine and see the plagues that are gonna be unleashed upon this earth. If you say, wow, we have a lot of calamities, you haven't seen anything yet. The woman's not even in labor yet. Said, oh, it looks bad, that's just pre-labor. That's just pre-labor. Wait till the water breaks. The rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and of wood, which neither can see nor hear nor walk. Neither repented they of their murders, nor their sorceries, nor their fornication, nor their thefts. It's clear God is bringing bad weather, horrible plagues. And one of the purposes that God brings these things is so we will repent. That's what he said in Luke. That's what he says here in the book of Revelation. He says, and they didn't repent. I brought all this stuff upon them and they didn't repent, which means God wanted you to repent. God didn't want you to judge somebody. He wanted us to judge ourselves and repent. These horrible plagues that will be in the tribulation period. Some of our forefathers say the coming events will cast their shadows before. Some call it the bouncing ball of prophecy. We're starting to see the stage setting for these things, the pre-labor pains. So whether punishment for sin, or to drive us to him, or just an exercise of our faith to increase our faith, we've got to use these things. So God will have mercy and not have to cause more severity in our lives. Psalm 107 says, oh, give thanks unto the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. Fools because of their transgression and because of their iniquities are afflicted. That's why Job's friend says, well, you obviously are in sin. Because we know this happens to fools and people that are secretly unrighteous. That's why the disciples came to Jesus, says we can't figure out, we know it's somebody, was it the parents or was it the son? Somebody's at fault here. And that's because that is a principle in the word of God. You reap what you sow. The curse causeless shall not come. but don't let that principle be an absolute. So we end up with unrighteous judgment. So God does send affliction because of the transgression and iniquities of fools. But it says, then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble and he saveth them out of their distresses. So this is a song. we ought to give thanks unto God. Why should we give thanks unto God? Because fools do horrible things and sin and then God sends affliction and then they cry unto God and God saves them out of it. Wow, God is merciful, isn't he? God's merciful. He'll try to wake up a nation. He'll try to wake up a county. Here's another example right here in the same psalm. For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, God did it, which lifted up the waves thereof. They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm. so that the waves thereof are still." And he concludes it by saying, oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men. That's praise Him in your daily life. Praise Him at work. But hold on, let them exalt Him also in the congregation of the people. Folks, God's saying, that sometimes he brings things and we don't understand why. But one reason sometimes he brings things is that we will seek after him and repent of our sin. And then he brings deliverance and mercy. And then he's watching to see if we will praise him and become thankful in our life. Let's see if they go to church now and make church a big part of their life. Let's see if they'll get up and say, this is the Lord's day. We gotta go. Well, why do we need to go? For one reason, I need to praise God. I need to give thanks to God in the presence of other believers in the way that God has ordained for me to do. I want to show that I get the picture, God. I get the point. You want me to glorify You. You want to be involved in my life. You want me to acknowledge You as Lord of my life. And I need to do that in my individual life. I need to do that in church. It's not a good idea. It's my duty. And there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars. I'm writing a book right now almost done about the satanic UFO alien agenda. About some of the things that you're gonna start seeing in the skies and already people are seeing. And upon the earth, distress of nations with perplexity, see in the waves, roaring hurricanes, men's hearts, failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. We're told in Isaiah 29, thou shall be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder and with earthquake. and great noise with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire." Around the second coming, you can expect a lot of fires, a lot of burning, a lot of heat, a lot of earthquakes, a lot of winds, a lot of tornadoes. It's the second coming of Christ. This isn't the first coming, the second coming. The Bible says he's coming with fire. He's coming in flaming fire. Things are just getting ready for him. He's given warnings. Let me show you again. Jeremiah 23, I've seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem, a horrible thing. They commit adultery. There's Bible teachers today in adultery. There's pastors in adultery. They walk in lies. They strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness. Fella writes a book and says, hey, we're not listening to these warnings here. Nobody's warning God's people that there is accountability for how they live after they're saved. Why aren't these warnings being taught? And some people get troubled. Some people say, I think I need to change my life. And then some pastor gets them and says, oh no, that's not true. Don't listen to that. He's probably into adultery himself. I don't know. But God says they strengthen the hand of evildoers so they won't repent. They are all of them unto me as Sodom and the inhabitants thereof is Gomorrah. Behold a whirlwind of the Lord. A whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind, and it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked." Every time a tornado lands, don't think, well, there it is, that was one of those wicked people. But understand, this is gonna happen. This is going to happen. That is one way God speaks to all of us. The anger of the Lord shall not return until he have executed, until he have performed the thoughts of his heart. And though in the latter days, in the latter days, you shall consider it perfectly. That's a prophecy for our age. Israel's already a nation right now. And this certainly applies to spiritual Israel. It's been grafted in. But if they had stood in my counsel and had called my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doing. If somebody got up here and preached, if somebody had warned the people that there is accountability, don't mess around with God, he's coming in judgment, you better get right, a lot of people would have repented. God says so. So God's angry at the pastors. He's angry at the teachers. He's angry at the older Christians that should have been teaching the younger ones. And one more time, Jeremiah 30, Behold the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind. It shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked. The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return until he hath done it, until he hath performed the intents of his heart. In the latter days you shall consider it. Again and again tells us pretty much the same thing. Y'all wait. You hear that wind? God's serious. Lord help us. Now people have been looking for the second coming. Especially I'd say past 500 years. They did in the early church time period. For the first 300 years after Christ. But people began to become more intense in their expectations, whether it's Luther or many other Christian writers in the 1500s and 1600s. They said, listen, somewhere around the year 2000, Jesus is coming. Expect great storms. Expect the return of Israel to their land. But remember, Jesus says he can come early. and we're only a few hundred years from the year 2000. So we better watch for him right now. And they got afraid and they looked for the second coming of Christ. And then they did it in the 1600s. Then they did it in the 1700s. And then they did it in the 1800s. And they began to really start watching in the 1800s because things were happening so quickly that looked just like fulfillments of prophecy. So much so here is the New York Mercantile Journal of 1868. Tornadoes. This isn't some Christian magazine. It's not a Christian prophecy magazine, a newspaper. Tornadoes, water spouts by land as well as at sea, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes have become almost a daily occurrence and of continually augmenting intensity. They're growing. Moreover, they embrace a larger and larger area of territory at each recurrence. The last shock, which so fearfully devastated South America, was felt over one third of the Earth's surface. The phenomena are seriously engaging the intention of the scientific world, these phenomena. The remark that they only seem to us more frequent because our means of communication are more complete and rapid will not explain the matter. And they go on to show that no, you scoffers that think that this stuff's not happening more rapidly, with more intensity, you're wrong. You're wrong. And of course, Christians were right there saying, the Lord's coming. These things are happening more rapidly because we're getting closer. We're getting closer to the coming of our Lord. Now, over a hundred years later, I'm in the 1990s. And people begin to say computers are gonna crash in the year 2000. And I've got books as big as this desk here from the 1600s with men looking toward the year 2000 for all of these things to happen because Jesus is coming. And the media is telling you that computers are gonna crash? Why isn't anybody talking about the coming of Jesus? You've got all of humanity looking toward the year 2000 and somewhere around about for the coming of the Lord and all of these calamities. And you're talking about computers. I got very angry. I got very angry. As I wrote in my book, A Defense of Biblical Literalism in 2012, In the 1990s, I wrote in my newsletter, this is a quote from my book, which was posted on our website at the time, a two-part article titled, The Year 2000. We weren't in the year 2000 yet, but I'm warning people. The year 2000, significant, scary, but not the end of the world. In other words, it won't be the end of the world because there still has to be a tribulation period. Another article I wrote during the same period was titled, How to Prepare for Y2K. In these articles, I argue that the world would not end in the year 2000. But I said, why aren't you people worried about hurricanes? Why aren't you worried about earthquakes and calamities? And ultimately the second coming of Jesus. Why aren't you preparing for these things? So I wrote other articles, hold on to your flashlight. With this computer thing, whether it happens or not, you better hold on to your flashlight and all your prep stuff. And when you're prepping, you better prep for Jesus to come. For example, 2 Timothy 3 warns that perilous times will come in the last days, with people growing evil and increasing frequency. And Jesus warns that earthquakes will be in various places, and there will be distress of nations, waves of sea roaring, men's hearts failing them for fear. The Bible likens these coming sorrows to a woman's labor in childbirth, which begins and grows increasingly intense, often after a series of preparatory labor pains. Based upon these, this is what I'm writing in 2012, based upon these and other scriptures I warned back in the 90s, that there would be soon record-breaking temperatures, droughts, intense weather emergencies. I issued a warning for people not to discard their Y2K preparations, but to save them for the true perils that were coming after the year 2000. In July, 1998, I wrote, 2000 AD will not be the end of the world. Christ's kingdom will not be set up on earth on or before or even directly following the year 2000. The year 2000 will not bring the end of the world. The Bible is always to be taken as literal as possible unless it conflicts with scripture to do so. Upon this principle alone, the scriptures point to at least a seven year time period before Christ's kingdom is set up. Since we are not yet in the midst of these seven years, it plainly follows that there's still future. This being the case, the world cannot end in the year 2000. It cannot be the end of the world because there is still a seven year period coming. And I will later prove there's a much longer period than that that is yet to come. That was in July 1998. In October 1998, I wrote, one may expect a continual increase in natural disasters, calamities, wars, riots, evil men, seducers, and deceivers. I do not know to what extent computers will crash. Nevertheless, even in a worst case scenario, Y2K is beside the point. As we approach the year 2000 and beyond, calamities and perils will continue to increase at an alarming rate. Christians must know how to prepare and respond to these perilous times in general. The Bible predicted earthquakes in diverse places. We can see the signs of this preparing to happen. The Bible... predicts an increase in infectious diseases, real bugs, famines, hurricanes, tidal waves, wars, riots. The Bible specifically mentions these other calamities. It never mentions computer crashes. This does not mean that computers will not crash. It does, however, establish beyond a shadow of a doubt that in the very near future, storms will be so bad that men will have heart attacks from fear and worry. So in 2012, I go on to write, so what have we seen since the 1990s? The millennial bug was only a small gnat, but what about weather? Droughts and record-breaking heat waves opened the new century, followed by the perils of 9-11. In 2004, and particularly 2005, record-breaking hurricane seasons were experienced. The 2004 tsunami killed a quarter million people and displaced a million others. The year 2008 was a record-breaking year for tropical cyclones. The internet is filled with headlines referring to the 2000s, that decade from 2000 to 2010, as the decade of natural disasters. They used words such as bizarre, unprecedented, never seen anything like it, apocalyptic. Economically, the decade began with the dot-com bubble bust, and it ended with a worldwide financial downturn with the mortgage crisis. These were just some of the perils of this turbulent decade. Notice the following report in 2009 from the Globe and Mail. Quote, between the breach levees of New Orleans, a heat wave that had Western Europe in a fatal sweat, and the crumbled tofu buildings of earthquake-wracked Sucheon, this felt like a decade of unprecedented natural disasters, starting in late 2002 with the SARS syndrome sweeping the Earth. infecting more than 8,000 people. A heat wave grips Western Europe in the summer of 2003, killing an estimated 35,000. It was the Northern Hemisphere's warmest summer on record. In December 2003, a 6.7 magnitude earthquake hits Iran, killing around 30,000 people. A tsunami ravages the Indian Ocean following the earthquake off of Sumatra in 2004. More than 230,000 people killed in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and other countries. Hurricane Katrina wreaks havoc on the Gulf Coast of the United States in 2005, killing 2,000 people, more than 80 billion in damages. 7.6 magnitude earthquake hits Pakistan-controlled Kashmir in 2005, killing 80,000 in Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. In 2008, cyclone devastates the delta, killing close to 140,000 people, leaving 2.5 million homeless. Close to 70,000 people killed, 374,000 injured, almost 18,000 missing from an earthquake in China. Next year, 2010, began with the Haiti earthquake. And the year continued to bring record flooding and hail and tornadoes. In 2011, Obama broke the record by declaring 90 disasters. On November 1, 2011, the AP reported freakish weather disasters. From the sudden October snowstorm in the Northeast US to the record floods in Thailand, they're striking more often. Other headlines called attention to the fact that America was being plagued by extreme weather such as flooding, record-breaking heat, drought, wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes, tropical storms, and killer record-breaking tornadoes that continued their fury all the way up into 2012 when this book is being written. The stress of these calamities in recent years has taken a toll on many people. Just as we see in Luke 21 I wrote in 2012, from the Daily Comment of 2011, quote, heart attacks and hurricanes, is there a link? Tulane University researchers found that the number of heart attack patients admitted to the hospitals increased threefold after Hurricane Katrina hit. This is why we need to turn to God, prepare ourselves, rest in the promises of the Bible in these perilous times. Isaiah 26, thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. My point in the 90s, my point in 2012 is my point now. We got to have God in our thoughts. This stuff's not going away. I don't care what some dumb scientist says. I don't care what people say. Oh, this is a pattern. Just go soak your head. I'm telling you right now, this stuff's gonna continue, okay? Don't let anybody come and lie and give you some excuse to try to relax you. No, no, you don't need to be relaxed in that way with lies. We need to be calmed and at peace by having our thoughts centered on God. God, we need to be right in our conscience with the Lord, and we need to think about Him. And the problem is this. Jesus says in Matthew 16, in the morning, you say it'll be foul weather today, for the sky is red and lowering. Oh, you hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky, but you can't discern the signs of these times. If that applies to the first coming, it applies to the second coming. People are able to some degree predict the weather. Not absolutely, but to a high degree. There's things you could look at to tell. And the Lord's saying, you can't look at everything around you and realize the second coming is soon. So we gotta prepare spiritually for Christ's coming. We just gotta be ready. So what should I do? Make sure you're saved. and then do everything you can to get sin out of your life and to make God the center and foundation of your thoughts in life. Everything you do, do for God in some way. Acknowledge Him. And people are going to say, well, you've changed. You talk about God more. Everything you do is for God and to God and through God. Why is God such a focal point of your life? And then you're supposed to tell them the reason you have hope and the reason that your life has changed. But we also should be preparing in physical things. We have the Bible. I sat back in the 1990s, I said, I'm gonna go study wild food. I'm going to start figuring out how to eat when calamity happens. And not only that, but to get away from the poisons that's in the food. I'm going to do everything I can to go try to learn how to eat from nature. I'm going to study herbs. I'm going to study these things. These are important things. I can't do everything. Some of you folks, you're doing honey. You're studying honey. I don't have time for that. I don't have the talent for it. I don't have the skill for it. But if we can all work together and study how to take care of ourselves in the midst, you cannot depend upon the system. You understand? It could fall apart any day. You can't depend upon Walmart. During COVID, I showed you. I know all this. I've written books. I've written the newsletters in the 90s. But during COVID, I was in, I can't remember, I told the story in Mississippi and then I drove to Louisiana. I can't remember where I was, Alabama. And I'm running into the Walmarts and I'm taking videos. I'm like, the food is gone. Now it stopped right before the absolute panic riots happened and they started restocking. But people were, people were crazy. I never seen anything like it. No toilet paper, no food, no meat, no nothing. It just caused your stomach to just get that emptiness, you know what I mean? You're just like, what? Okay, I knew this was gonna happen, but God had mercy. Next time around, folks, Walmart might not be restocked. You understand what I'm saying? In fact, we know these things are coming. We know these things are coming. prepare, but whatever you do, don't prepare physically and then forsake God. No, God ought to be for that. God ought to be the main thing, no matter what, let everything else burn, let everything else do whatever, but I'm going to get right with God because he might come tonight. See, now I want you to think about this for a minute. Our Lord, knowing that the hurricanes were coming, he warned about it. knowing that all this chaos was gonna come and continue to increase, what did he say is gonna be the number one problem? He did say people would be having heart attacks and things, but the idea that they're just turning and crying out to God, we don't really see that. It's gonna get a lot worse than now in the tribulation period, and he says they won't repent. Praise God, a lot of them do turn to God. but a lot of people don't. Let's hear what Jesus said, okay? Heaven and earth shall pass away. This is what he says right after the winds and the raging waves of the sea, talking about the hurricanes in Luke. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. after he talked about the sea and the waves roaring. Praise God, we still got a Bible. What are we supposed to do, Lord? What's the most important thing I can do as a believer? Take heed to yourselves. Okay, I'm listening. Gonna be hurricanes, gonna be chaos. Take heed to yourselves, all right. lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting. That's eating immoderately or unhealthy. That's how the word's used. And drunkenness and cares of this life. And so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell in the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore and pray always, so you gotta be praying, gotta be watching, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man. In other words, get ready. So at the second coming, he'll account you worthy to be taken and to reign with him when he comes fully down to reign in the coming millennial kingdom. Now, what is he saying here? What is this overcharged stuff from food, cares of this life? What is he saying? He's saying that junk food, gluttony, prosperity, I preached on this last week a little bit, and just simple cares of this life can almost be like alcohol in your life. You're not staggering, you're able to walk, but you're going through life almost like a drunk man. It's almost like a dullness to what's happening all around us. And he's saying, you've got to watch these things. You've got to moderate the cares of this life and put the important things first. You got to beware of gluttony and beware of the unhealthy things that the devil is doing to people to try to delude them in their minds, you know. What does he want? He wants us to think about him. Think about how he feels about things. God's just looking down and says, what about me? You're doing all this stuff for you. What about my house? What about my plan? What about my will, my feeling? In the middle of the tribulation period, Revelation 16, the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun, and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. You think there's wildfires now? You just wait. And men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues. And they repented not to give him glory. What does God want? Glory. Give me glory. Don't worship these idols. Worship me. Thank me for creating you. Thank me for mercy. That's what God wants. Repent of your sins and give me glory. Talking to believers, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9, what? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own, for you are bought with a price? and therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. My mind belongs to God. My body belongs to God. I want to glorify him. Whether I eat, whether I dream, whatever I do in my body, whether I work, everything I do in my body, let's glorify God. And let's just think about that for a moment. Can God look down and say, you are glorifying me with your body? You are showing the angels and showing everybody around you that that body belongs not to you, but to me. It was purchased by my blood. There it is. They repented not to give Him glory. What's God want these last days? Just for you to acknowledge Him, give Him glory, do what He says. And they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores and repented not of their deeds. The Lord says they're gonna be drunk. with junk food and the cares of this life, they're not gonna be thinking about me. They're not gonna be ready for the second coming. The one thing they ought to be thinking about as Christians is whether they're gonna be prepared at the rapture and the judgment seat of Christ. So the Lord says, as in the days of Noah, as the days of Noah were, So shall also the coming of the son of man be. For in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving a marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark. You say, pastor, stop for a second. Is it wrong to get married? No. Is it wrong to give your daughter in marriage? No. Is it wrong to eat? No. Is it wrong to drink? No. Well, what's the Lord upset about? The whole world was about to be flooded. Everybody's going to die. And nobody cared. Enoch had preached it. People had warned. Noah was preaching. But nobody cared. They just went along eating and marrying. And nobody said, what do I need to do to get ready for this judgment that's coming? Nobody said, am I marrying the right person or am I in sin? Nobody said, am I eating right? Is this pleasing to God? And they knew not until the flood came and took them all away. So shall also the coming of the son of man be. Then two shall be in the field, the one shall be taken, the other left. Right before the rapture, you're gonna find people eating, preparing for their wedding, going to work. He says, in the days of Lot, they builded, they planted. Well, those are good things. Nothing wrong with building and planting. We better get a garden in this day and age of chaos. So what's the problem? The problem is people that are out here building and planting, but can't prioritize their life for God. They can't show that the second coming in Jesus is my priority, not just living another day or another year on this earth. Glorifying God is my priority. That ought to be our priority. God says, they didn't give me glory. I poured out all these curses on them. They didn't give me glory. They won't glorify me. They won't glorify me in the church. They won't glorify me. They just go about their business. He says in Psalms 10, the wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. The psalmist is shocked as if, listen to this, God's not in all his thoughts. He doesn't think about God. God's not the purpose for what he does. Jesus says in Luke 17, Jesus answers and says, were there not 10 cleansed, 10 lepers? Where are the nine? There are not found that return to give glory to God, save this stranger. Has God saved you? Man, he saved my life physically from death. I can't count the time. He saved me spiritually. He has saved me from eternal damnation. If I'm still here, it's because he wants some Thanksgiving. He wants thanksgiving from you. If you're still alive, he wants you to return and give glory to God. Say, thank you, God. I wanna thank you with my life. I just wanna say thank you. Thank you for saving me. Thank you that I didn't die in the car wreck. Thank you that I didn't whatever, whatever, whatever. But in the last days, there will be people, Jude says, spots in your feasts of charity. When they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds. That means they're unstable, blown about. Now they're here, now they're there, now they're here, now they're... Trees whose fruit withereth. Without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. What's the point here? They just, I don't know, give me something to eat. Give me some fun. Let's go find something to do. And let's be busy about our own lives. Just not even thinking about God, man. Not even thinking about the second coming in the way they should. It says in Proverbs 21, a high look, a proud look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked is sin. It's as if a prophet of God walks over and says, what's Jake doing right now? Oh, he's got that proud look on his face again. What's he doing now? Oh, he's plowing. He's getting ready to plant his corn. Well, that's good. No, it's sin. Why is it sin? He's not doing it for God. He's not acknowledging God in it. He's not doing it the way God said to do it. He's not following God's rules while he's doing it. Brother and sister, I'm not just preaching to you. I'm preaching to me too. I'm reminding us all, we got to acknowledge God in everything. We can't cheat. You can't get out here and do something and cheat God. You can't cheat his time. You can't cheat him with money. You can't cheat him by sinning. We just can't, we can't cheat. We gotta do things right in order because we fear God and love him. So Proverbs 3 sums it up. In all thy ways, everything you do, acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. He talks about that Haggai and Malachi that he's able to give us increase. And he's able to just blow on it where it disappears when we expect it because we've cheated somehow to get it. And then he just blows on it and it disappears. Let's acknowledge him. Be not wise in thy own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel. We now know that's the center of health. Your immune system right here in your belly. and marrow to thy bones. Honor the Lord with thy substance, with the firstfruits of all thy increase. He's showing you how. First, don't be proud. Secondly, the firstfruits of your increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presence shall burst out with new wine. Okay, so I gotta acknowledge him in everything I do. Don't be proud. Fear Him. Depart from evil. Honor Him with the first fruits of my substance to show I acknowledge that God is the one who gives me this. And then, my son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. Some people get chastened and they get further away from God. Some people go through afflictions and they say, oh man, things are getting bad right now, things are rough, I gotta get further away from God. No, the thing we gotta do is get closer to God. There's more reason to go to church now. I tell you what, When you start getting into financial trouble, you gotta get more of God, not less God. When we're running out of time and having afflictions and things blowing through the house, no, I gotta get more of God, not less God. I can't say, God, I gotta put you on hold right now because I got some serious things to do. Woo, no, no, the serious thing I gotta do is not despise His chastening. Dear Lord, we don't know what's going to happen from day to day. We don't know if we'll have another day of life, God. We don't know whether you'll come before I even close this prayer. We don't know if you'll come before we lay our head upon our pillow tonight. And we don't know if somebody will take their last breath before they wake up tomorrow morning. We don't know what storms will come, physical storms or spiritual storms. But Lord, we pray right now that you lead us not into temptation. We wanna thank you for the mercy that we're here and you've given us another day of life. God, you've been so good to us, way better than we deserve, Lord. We're not worthy of the least of your mercies that you've given us, God. Oh, how we ought to praise you. We ought to glorify you in our life, Father. We ought to be busy working for you. And Lord, we thank you that we can plow, we can plant, and we can build, and we can be married and given in marriage if we can all do that without sin. We can eat and we can drink and rejoice in you if we can do it with reverence towards you, Lord, and acknowledge you in it, and do it to your glory. But let us prioritize our lives, God, please. Help us not to try to cheat you, Lord. And I know, Father, that you'll bless us and take care of us. You always do, God. Even when we've been foolish, Lord, your mercy helps us and restores us, and we pray, Lord, that we'll be wise and not proud, do things your way, because we don't know when the next storm will hit, Lord, but we know there will be many coming. Help us, protect us, come quickly in Jesus' name, amen.