Sherman

The world is supposed to end on Saturday. At least that’s what is being said by a gentleman who has gained world wide notoriety because of this claim.

(I won’t help him by gaining any more fame by mentioning his name.)

Matthew 24:36 quotes Jesus as saying:

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

If God the Father is the only one who will know when Jesus will return, this gentleman is 100% incorrect. But that isn’t the point of my post.

In the midst of all of the jokes about this prediction, one point is being missed.

Jesus will return for his church.

We should be teaching the world at large the accurate depiction of the events that will lead up to his return. If we had been doing that all of these years, no one (including Christians) would be listening to this man.

The Great Commission still needs to be fulfilled.

I know he was as terrorist.

I know that he was one of the people behind the 9/11 bombings.

He was behind thousands of people dying.

My family was affected too. A cousin (on the Backous side) worked on the side of the Pentagon where the plane hit. He went out to smoke minutes before the plane hit.
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He had to be stopped. That’s the American in me.

But I do not rejoice in anyone’s life being taken. That’s the Christian in me.

I am thankful that none of the Americans involved were killed while fulfilling their mission.

My prayer is that those who shared the same philosophy as Bin Laden will see that there is a price to pay. It will not be the paradise they have been taught about.

Killing Bin Laden or any terrorist leader will NOT stop terrorism. A change of heart is the only way.

How many of the people in the US who are dancing in the streets are bold enough to witness to someone who they know is violently opposed to the Gospel?

We’ll need the whole armor of God to accomplish that mission.

In the church, we often get caught up in the “business” of church.

Making sure everything runs well and is set up correctly has become more important than our primary goal….souls.

To some of you, it may be cliche when I talk about souls. Outside of honoring God for sending us Jesus, the souls of mankind are supposed to be our primary concern.

In the early church, people viewed the Sunday worship experience as a time to sgare and a time to strengthen one another.  It was not a time to just listen to a sermon, hear a good song, shout/dance and go home.  Since the world has become more egocentric, the church has fallen into line and copied the same pattern of thought and operation.

Our church participated in the Quarterly Service of the family of churches we fellowship with.  There were things that ran smoothly and things that did not run smoothly (technology….).

The highlight of the night was not the singing of the choir or the sermons that were preached.  It wasn’t even the prophetic words that our Bishop spoke.

One person gave their life to the Lord.  That was the only thing that mattered.

A clip of the sermon I preached during the Sunday morning service of Refreshing Fountain Ministries (my home church).  If you are in the Philly area, joins us at 11 AM each Sunday at the Ramda Inn-76 Industrial Hwy in Essington, PA.

Follow me on Twitter (@shermanbackous) or send me an email at sherman@shermanbackous.com.