many blessings to you. Good afternoon, wherever you are, whatever your timezone is across the earth. It is Thursday, it's around about half past three, we got a good brother Steve, on the other side of the mics. And we're just gonna be here for about 45 minutes as we as we do. And as much as God places on his heart, we capture him, and we draw him into this little studio that we're here, but it is the Thursday before Good Friday and everything and whatever. And however we see what is going on with that in this moment. But Steve is bringing something very interesting to the mics. And it's lovely title, but an interesting one, and I got a feeling we might be going a little bit deep on this one. It's about the approaching of the last seven years, Steve, good afternoon.
Steve:Good afternoon. Good afternoon, everyone. Good to be back. Yes, in variable for a long time. But so by the grace of God, that when we see
Reverend Ben Cooper:he's back here, put your seatbelt on, we're about to go. It's good. It's good. God's grace is upon us. And wherever you are across the world today, we just want to say thank you so much for sharing everything. You can find us on all the social platforms, Buzzsprout, Spotify, Amazon, music, and Spotify. Please, please share all this stuff out. We're getting some great feedback. And may God bless you, Steve. Let's have the Scripture. Let's go. And it's all over to you.
Steve:Okay, well, I've got five scriptures. So I've got a bit of Scripture that I'll be reading, but primarily just as a preamble. Let me start by saying that we are not in the time of the beast or the time of the Antichrist. We are rapidly approaching that time. We can see things fall into place, dear old Carl Schwab was in Dubai A while ago, and he said that the governments of the world must now start working together much more closely so that we can resolve all the problems of the world. He's the guy that came out with the great reset. And when one of these, one of his associates came out recently and said, God is dead. It's just we just haven't buried the body yet. Did he really? He said that? Yes. He said that. Yes. Yes. And so good. God have mercy. You got an idea of where these people are coming from where we seen where they're going. So yeah, all i all i when he said that? I just thought the most. You've got a big surprise coming, Phil. Yeah, keep keep looking. And there's every possibility in your timeline, you might, but as the church, we have to understand. We have to be aware of the times in which we live. Yeah, without being overwhelmed by them. Yeah, letting fear come in, affected by them to affect our choices and what we should or shouldn't do. So what it faces in the world, what he's going to face from the false church, we have to see that there's a false church, that he's going to rise up at the end times. Yeah. And that is burgeoning. That is growing all the time. That's growing. Oh, yeah. And when did that start right back from it's always been new. I mean, New Testament time. Seriously? Yeah. I mean, it started right back then it. I mean, Paul said to Timothy, you know, beware because I think it was something where there will be wolves coming to you dress the sheep.
Reverend Ben Cooper:Yeah.
Steve:And that's that happened
Reverend Ben Cooper:1000s
Steve:Very, very quickly, very quickly after the crucifixion, and it's just grown and grown and grown and grown and grown.
Reverend Ben Cooper:But I think what God is doing now he's opening our eyes, isn't he? And we're starting to see things Quicken,
Steve:I think,
Reverend Ben Cooper:and fall away.
Steve:Yeah. I mean, when you look at people's like the J W's and the Seventh Day Adventists and the Roman Catholic Church, these are obvious. Yeah, but what we're seeing now is this nonsensical. wokeness and the left wing of politics, moving deeper and deeper into the church dressed up as some sort of Christianity and it's very, very attractive to some people. Yeah, just before we started, you talked about that. People keep telling you that God is love. And yeah, that's that's the that's the club that I tend to beat people over the head with or beat other Christians over the head with that God is love. You should be loving just the same as everybody else. And accepting every everything, everything, everything. And and we have to know What's happening also in the faithful church? Yeah,
Reverend Ben Cooper:the faithful church
Steve:so we have got to know what's happening in the world happening in the false church and happening, what's going to happen or is happening in the faithful church. So, I'm gonna we're gonna go one Chronicles 12302, we're gonna go AXE 1710 to 11. Then I go Matthew 24, three to 14. Yeah, that's probably everybody's go to Yes, place at the moment along with Matthew, Daniel nine, two Timothy 319. And two Thessalonians, one, four. So try and read these. So that I can sort of go along quick without breaking a rhythm. Now,
Reverend Ben Cooper:before you get into that presser that when we say the faithful church, we are looking at the persecuted church, aren't we that that is that that is what we are looking at because they are faithful in so much, aren't they? That is what we should be looking at. Would you? Would you look at that when you say the faithful church,
Steve:the faithful church isn't always persecution is going to come this is a promise from the Lord Jesus Christ. But as we sit here now, are we persecuted? God there? No, we're not with us because we are not under any persecution. Hope. But would you say that we are part of the faithful church? Yeah. By the grace of God by the grace of God. Okay. So we have to, we have to bring ourselves Yes. Okay. All right. So you've got to see it from the point of view of the faithful church. She did. There are times when God will allow parts of the church to suffer certain areas. Yeah, but they don't lay down, you know, okay. Right. Okay. I know that persecution will come eventually, that I understand is going to come here. Yeah. And it's growing. Now. I understand it. But no, I mean, we can see the laws that are being passed in Canada. Yeah, that's going on in Australia. Right. It's gonna come here we understand. Yeah. But we can't alienate those Christians who are not being persecuted. No.
Reverend Ben Cooper:Who are part of that fight. Is that true? That's true. Right. Okay. So I've got to re re Lord reset my thinking, because it's when I look, I think, God, I'm not faithful. Because when, when I see what's happening in the world of the person, I blame Sandra for this one. Did I mean, we're bringing this persecute church, when you really look at that church, you think, Oh, my goodness, that is the real church being stripped and pulled and buildings flattened. And all this happening? And when
Steve:we come back to what you preached on on Sunday, Paul? Yes. And if we suffer, it's for your comfort tro, right. Yeah. So we look at what's going on here. They are suffering. Yeah. Now, what comfort can I draw from there? Quite simply, God is faithful to them through this. So if I know I'm going to go through persecution, as he was, as he's faithful to them, yeah, that comfort for me. He's going to be faithful to
Reverend Ben Cooper:me. So when I look at that church, it's a four run on what's coming my way? Yes. It's so it's what to be expected. What I say there is gonna hit the shores one day, if Yeah, I believe so. Good. Right. Got it. So we'll pick it up first in
Steve:one Chronicles, and it's the gathering of David's army in Hebron. But in verse 32, of 12, which is of the sons of Issachar, who had an understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do. And this direction is, this speaks to us, what's our direction? What is God's saying to us? In these times? How are we to be and we need to be in prayer seeking Him on that. In Acts 17. Paul goes to Berea with Silas, it says when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair minded than those in Salonika. And I received the word we'd already nests and searched the scriptures daily, to find out whether these things were so and so we have these people searching the scriptures to prove what the Apostle Paul is saying whether it is true or not, right? So what we have to do is we have to listen to whatever is being taught to the church, we then go back to the Word of God. And we check it out. And if we say no, this does not tap. This does not match up with the word of God, we can kick it out. For instance. Again, you were talking about on Sunday, about how it is we have these religious activities like Lent and so on. And there's that church I can't remember where it is that during Lent IT WAS GOING TO REPENT OF ITS whiteness sorry. Sorry, excuse Yeah, let me just search the script. Search the screen. Let me try find out if that's there. No, it's Not so they're talking rubbish kicked out is gone. All right? Yeah. So that's a simple illustration, okay? Then we go to Matthew 24, again is a so this is, this is probably one of the go to chapters for just about everybody. And Jesus answered in verse four and said to them, Take heed that no one deceives you, for many will come in My name saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that you're not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet for Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginnings of or the beginning of sorrows. And what it means is birth pangs. Yeah, birth, then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my namesake. And then many will be offended, we try one another, and will hate one another. There many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end, shall we say, No, I just want to pick up a couple of points here. Because lawlessness will abound, a lot of people think that this is the breaking of the laws of the countries which, yes, it can be applied blood. But many Jewish Christians look at this, that it is against the law of God. It's rejecting what God is saying, this normlessness That, that the Lord is speaking of here. And remember is strictly speaking to Jews. Yeah. So they understand what he's talking about the Torah. Okay, yeah. So he's saying here, many will rise up, that lawlessness will increase, and they will reject the law of God. Now, we as Christians, it's often noted that we do not live under law, but under great grace. But we broke the law as sinners, and we had to be saved from it from our console the consequences of breaking that law, and trusting in Christ, who fulfilled the law throughout his life, gave his life that we might be set free from the consequences of consequence, we are forgiven our sins. We have been given eternal life. There are people to die. There's one chap out in America, Andy Stanley, says that we should only hich the Old Testament from the No, no, no, no. And unhitch. The Old Testament from the low as far as Charles Stanley suggests the only son. Yeah, so now that is an image of lawlessness, he's rejecting the law GenCon. He's coming along and saying, Now, basically, the whole point of Jesus's time on the earth, He comes up with an explanation which I can't get. No, it's got nothing to do with the artists not that we can check that out. I've never had so much rubbish nonsense in my life. What, what, in the church, what we have with this as well is reinterpretation of what God says, Okay? Instead of taking the basic truths of the Word of God, we reinterpret them, okay. To such a degree that we become lawless ourselves. Yeah, okay. One of the ways that that occurs, is by not studying the prophetic word of God, and understanding the types within the Old Testament, and how they affect both Christ and the growth of the church. If you reject all that, and just try to go along with, for want of a better word, an intellectual understanding of Jesus, and we come back to, you know, all churches together, and you know, and we'll sing Kumbaya and all that whole nonsense. If you reject the prophecies of God, and there's loads and loads of churches that will not teach you how fussy they won't look at it, they reject it. You are becoming lawless Ness, you're becoming a part of
Reverend Ben Cooper:a slight degree over time will bring you into the to the bracket of lawlessness. Yes. And that's quite interesting that a lot of people will think lawlessness is, as Steve said, breaking the laws of the land. man's laws when actually it is referring to Scripture. Yeah, I mean, we can see this, don't we?
Steve:Yeah, without a doubt. Quite simply, most places have a law. Thou shalt not murder. Otherwise, you're gonna get you ready to cut off you'll get on well, you get put in poky. Every time someone does it, they break the law of God. They're not breaking the law of man. They're breaking the law of God. So We are seeing violence increase. This is breaking the law of God. The whole thing goes back to breaking the law of God, even though it's breaking man's laws. man's laws so often are based on the script to Christian understanding of God. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So all the law comes from the text. When you when you drill bad laws. Now shall not speed thou shalt abortions, which I saw the other day. Oh, yeah. Abortions are hitting a figure of 78 million a year worldwide. Now that that alone, that is murder, yeah. Okay. Yeah. But he's also child sacrifice. Yeah. It's child sacrifice. You're sacrificing the life of a child for your own benefit. That's exactly what child sacrifice is all about. When they went to Moloch. Yeah, they threw the children into the fire. Yeah, they were doing it. So that Maalik would bless them. So they're killing their children for their own benefit, their own gain. All right. So they might not think that they're doing it, but they are. Why? Because well, I don't want this kid. It's no use to me. So I fight and get rid of it. It's going to benefit me. Yeah. And restore is the same thing. Same thing.
Reverend Ben Cooper:But yes. So when we look at all these laws and everything, there's been a slow, gradual, a gradual turn within the church itself, you can see how law less less it is. And a lot of people go, Well, what are you talking about? Very simply, through certain teachings are in and they are completely against what God said.
Steve:I mean, if we look at the present day, prophets and so forth, they come up with this idea that they can be 60% accurate, and we're still learning that they get the other 40%. Well, I'm sorry, it what it says in a word that if you are a prophet, and you speak a word, and it doesn't come about, and you're saying it's of God, you're gonna get stoned to death. Yeah. That's so you are lawless? Yeah. All right, you're lolis. Because you're rejecting done law of God, you're rejecting what's stated very, very clearly, black and white, in the Word of God, that's it. And so if you reject this, and follow on after whatever new and you take whatever's going on in the church, and you're not referring, as the Bereans did, going back and checking it out,
Reverend Ben Cooper:back, and back, and back, check to check, check, check. Yeah, go. It's a similar game. What does the word say? Yes. What? Let's, let's line it up with what Scripture bring up with scripture.
Steve:I mean, what was it the other day I heard Chris Valentine again. Oh, God is now might get this, I might not have it completely right. But it was something along this lines, that God is giving the church, the spirit of the owl, because the owl is wise, and the church is going to get wisdom from God. Well, anybody knows anything about false worship, they will know that the owl was the cipher of Athena was one of the Greek goddesses. And the owl is still venerated, still very, plus the fact the owl if we go back to Deuteronomy, it's an unclean bird. Now why would God send the Spirit of an unclean bird upon the clean church that his son has purchased his blood?
Reverend Ben Cooper:Isn't it interesting, though, how all of this this is scripture? Yes, it's false prophecy. But in that world of the satanic it's very right. Because they are using the owl to depict the wisdom of God when actually it's false. It's satanic. It's, it's in the book, but you're reading it and you've interpretated it the wrong way.
Steve:I mean, this, this idea, but why would he send it anyway? Why would he send an owl when He sends His Holy Spirit? I mean, yeah, and the only time the Holy Spirit ever looked anything like a boat was a dove, you know, the Lord's baptism so these people will they make this thing up and everybody gets caught? What a good some things just make you want to crawl under the table didn't know the spirit of an owl. Yeah. Very witchcraft, very paganistic. to If we now go to to Timothy. Now sitting on the window, if we go to Timothy. And so Timothy, chapter three, get out Timothy, and one and I know that another one of those go to passages from for a lot of people these days. But notice that in the last days, perilous times will come Four men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money boasters, proud, blasphemers disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self control, brutal, despises of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power, and from such people turn away. Now, I'll stop there because I won't go down into verse nine. But here's the kicker. He's talking to the church. He's not talking to the world. That is the church. Very fascinating. So if we read this, we say, for men, what kind of when you're talking about poor what I'm talking about people in the church? Yeah, we'll be lovers of themselves. lovers of money. boasters proud, bless famous. Well, people that aren't in the church are already blaspheming. So you know, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unholy. Well, that later on anyway, so, yeah, so clear indicator that it's to the church, it's to the church. But the church can easily point that, yes. Then we can see the world going sideways. But this is a warning to the church. This is a warning to the church. And this is exactly what we've got with people like Patricia King, and jivan gonna jump in and all the rest of it true. And all the other false prophets, and the false teachers, I mean, for instance, we've got this. This thing about the seven mountain mandate that comes out of America, this isn't anything new. This idea that Christians are going to take over the world, they're going to take over politics and entertainment and education, sport cities, we're going to take over the whole of the world for Jesus, the whole world can be saved this this came out of classic Calvinism, Calvin said that we are going to Christianize the world call, okay, the world is going to be Christianized. The reason it's going to be Christianized is because this gospel must be preached to the whole of the world. And Calvin, Calvin rejected. The it was through Calvin and people like that, you've got what is called supersessionism, which is the church over takes over from Israel, Israel has been forgotten. We have nothing to do with us anymore. Nothing to do with God anymore. Rather. We are now the new kid on the block. And we're going to take this forward. And so if we look at what Calvin preached, it's the same thing. I saw this coming out. 4050 years ago, really? Yeah, I can't remember the blog started. It did have his name, but I can't remember. It wasn't called a seven mount in mandate, but it was, you know, we're going to take the world for Jesus. You know, I need to remember the marches for the marches. Same thing is all part part of the same thing. We're gonna go out and hear people doing prayer walks, Okay, you go out, I'm going to claim, you know, we're going to claim Swanley for the law, we're gonna pray on the streets. And we're going to even work the reason Tim works because as we know them, what was the state we're in at the moment? And it's not scripture? No, it's not scriptural. But if you if you want proof of it, yeah. What was done 40 years ago, it came to nothing. Yes. Is it so you know, that it didn't come true. So all that so called prophecy
Reverend Ben Cooper:is false is false. So when you look at the persecuted church, again, you can see we're going to take the world for Jesus, then there's Afghanistan, Iran, you know, all in places are crashing, they're chasing Christians, like they're hunting them. So they're not that's not going to be taken for Jesus, is it? No, but the Scripture doesn't. Where does it say that the world will be all Christianized? It doesn't does it? He's coming back. No, no.
Steve:But again, if you if you look, if you go back to the time of the reformers, the when they started to read such things as the lion shall lie down with doesn't actually say a thing. It was talking about a millennial or millennium of peace, a must messianic millennium. Now that was rejected by them. And I came up with this idea of a millennialism. We live in the millennium. We live in a near still people to breach this. Yeah, there's still lots of reform teachers that preach this, right, as far as they're concerned, or whatever is happening in in Israel. What do we make your own words? This is wisdom here and we're stuck. And this this supersessionism, as I say, still very powerful. It's replacement theology. Yeah. replaced, which is it also is dominion theology. Same thing, same thing, and it's joined together, even though there are people that would say, No, no, no, whilst I, I agree with dominion theology, I don't agree with supersessionism produce their place. Wish rather than nicer than so. And so we, again, this is why we have to come back. There's nothing in the world now that the network in the words of supports it. No, in actual fact, what we've just read from Jesus in Matthew 24 is quite a reverse. You're going to be given up to synagogues, you're gonna be which you're going to be tortured. You're going to be betrayed, you're going to be killed. Yeah. famines, desolation, yes. Everything is no Christianity in that whatsoever. The conflict reverse. Yeah, I mean, the blood of the sexes is the seed of the church here. And the truth of the matter is that if, as we have been in the West for many, many years, living or just chugging along, we have MIT bobbing along. Yeah, we just been bobbing along in Bob got that Bob is going to run out. You can feel it, Kanye, you can feel that there's this big press about are you about those that are believers. And at the time of when you say to the British Empire, which stretched from Canada down to Australia, they we impose law and order on the rest of the world. So in that imposition, there was no persecution in places like India, in places like Persia, as was in these places because of our influence not imposed. It was part of our empire. But our Yeah, yeah. But wow. So because that influences as we died off, Saudi Americans came in and it was their Hagen, mini that, that kit, everything, but even then it started to go pear shaped. When the Shah of Persia was deposed, Iran was then turned into an Islamic state. Turkey, which was always when what's his face? I kind of remember the chaps name. The chaton of the founded the modern state of Turkey was secular. Yeah, Turkey has always been okay. If you want to worship you can, but we're a secular state. Okay. Now, you go to one come along. No, no, we are now a Muslim state. So you've got these these growths. So when you had political pressures, keeping these bound down, that would have persecuted that those political pressures and they're off? Yeah, it's been lifted, explain lifted, persecution now hits. And what's happening now is that the the influence Satan's influence on the Western governments is such that persecution is now beginning in Canada, Australia. Very clear. And I record it's going to happen here. Yeah, that's a fact. And so these things are going to happen. We are not going to take the world for Jesus. He doesn't need us to do it. Goodness for that, which is, yeah, it's a while for my mom, my God. Dear me, because at the site that, you know, this comes back June, I remember years and years ago being in certain churches, that would tell you that the reason we're in such a state is that you haven't been praying, praying enough and, and long enough to reverse it all on me again, when I say yes, we're in a state because you didn't, right. Yeah. Well, actually, we're probably in this state because the Church lost its salt and light. There's so much praying, because God's sitting, you know, because he always used to pass on when you don't you mean often, it's a god sitting up there. And he's Evan. And if I found a Pray, he has not been given the power to do what is necessary on the earth. So that may again, I have just a minute. And this I mean, it's just Kenneth Copeland got married. And, but but that's the way it is. Yeah. You know, God is in control. He knows what he's doing. You know, they're all Daniel for you got out Daniel boy comes out, Oh, you got rains in the kingdom and gives it to him every week, even the least of men. That's a really powerful text, isn't it? You know that God is going to do what he wants when he wants sovereignty. He is God. And that is it. And he's not waiting for me to pray to save the world. No, he's got he's got about relief, because it's almost like, well, you know, God says to me, do you know something? I've been waiting for you to come along, because I haven't been able to do anything until you got here. Yeah, I mean, by sitting there for eternity. I created you but I'm waiting for you to speak. Hang on a minute isn't a bit of baloney. And so coming back to this, what is very essential for the faithful church. We need to study our word, doctrine again, right? We need to study both doctrine and prophecy. If we turn away from prophecy, we will make all the same mistakes that the Jews did. When when the Lord sent is is Prof. It's to the Jews. It wasn't a pat on the back and say what a good job you're doing. It was to warn her they were failing up. And if they didn't change their wise things were gonna go very, very badly. So the profits we have today their bigness up in the sin that I'm living in. Right? It's all about me, you know all about me and all the great chap I am. So coming your way if I'm that great. Why did the Lord die for me? Yeah.
Reverend Ben Cooper:So the two types of Prophets, like the Old Testament prophets that are in warnings, warnings, yes, won't clear warning, this clear warning, and then prophets that we've got off today. So what we're saying is, is that everything has been prophesied there's nothing commit added or take emotional prophecies left. Now we have the whole picture. It has been spoken and foretold. Yeah,
Steve:I personally do believe that the there are prophets today. My reading of the first Corinthian letter tells me so. But the word of God is a foundational piece cannot be added to yet the reason I believe that. There are still prophets today is because there were certain prophecies that were spoken of during that period that we know nothing about, right? For instance, we know that Phillips daughters were prophets. Yep. Okay. They were stated in X, they were prophets, but we have no record of what they say what they said, Okay? If we look at Agabus, he pops up two or three times. There were times when he spoke, especially for poorly bound his arms or said this, you know, this is what men are going to do to you and take you away to a place where you don't want to go. But there was another time it says, He indicated that there was going to be a famine across the whole of the world. Now. The words aren't recorded. So how did he indicate? And again, every time you look at these things like a compass, they were warnings. They were warnings. If we look at the time when Jesus goes to his servant says, I want you to go down the road to a chap called, yes. And I want you to pray and lay hands on him. No, Lord, right now about him, Jesus. Do you know what this bloke is up to? You know, interesting man has to come back again. You know, God, you realize that God chose you. I want you to go down and tell him what he will have to suffer for my sake? That's correct. So there was a warning there to warn him. Yes. So warning God telling what's going to happen, oh, Lord. And so my earnest belief is that the the not an office, I don't believe it's the office of a prophet. But the gift of a prophet is there to bring warnings. Strangely enough, if we go back to the reformers, they believed that all the gifts had passed away, except the area of prophecy, but in the fourth telling of the word, not in the 14th, because they realized that as they were preaching, the Spirit of God was working in the congregation, I didn't understand what particular words or sentence or whatever was affecting those people. So there was a prophetic word going out to deal with these people. As the gospel was, as the gospel was being preached, we come back to you, and that comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So this, they were preaching, people were giving given ears to hear, as they heard, they receive face and they were saved. Got it. So they had this idea that the prophetic gift had not passed away. But it was only about fourth telling, and not 14. And so there's this resistance in some areas of church, and quite rightly so. And if we ever look at after these lunatics coming out of the New Apostolic reformation, Russia, you know, it's just, it's a nonsense aircraft in town. It's just absolute nonsense. It's just rubbish. It doesn't it's not just 60% accurate. It's 100%. Accurate. Yeah. So what we have is the Old Testament prophets. We're always dealing with warnings if you do not turn away from Yeah, I mean, also, the other aspect that they were always looking towards Messiah Thomas always looking towards Yes, yes. All right. Yeah. They were always looking towards that. And all of the prophecies with regards to the Jews, mainly in the sense of warnings, they were conditional. They were always conditional. If you do this, I'll do that. If you do this, I'll do that. If you do this, I'll do that. But if you do that, I'll do this. whereas if we look at things like the Agabus prophecies and stuff like that, they are unconditional. This is what's going to happen. Yeah, there's no choice to do about it. No. All right. This is one of the following. Yeah. across the whole of the world. And you can pray until you blue in the face, but I'm going to change anything that's going to happen. We're seeing a lot of this Don't wait. What's been foretold for spoken? Yes, actually coming into being and the governments in the world can't do anything about it. No, I mean, if we look at what the Lord spoke of in Matthew 24, he tells us that the there's going to be wars and rumors of wars, we're we're exactly that that tradition. We know there are going to be earthquakes when we see that we've seen kicking up all over, all over the place. Now, we know that there's gonna be a famine, which we know famine is coming, we understand that, you know, you got to be pretty stupid to not understand that. Brett's gonna go up something like five pounds a loaf? Yeah. And at the moment, it's about 130. Yeah. Alright, so that these are the things that we've got to understand these are going to happen. So how do we deal with as Christians, because we're human beings, we're subject to fear, we're subject to worry. We're subject to all those things. We need to persevere. Yes. But perseverance isn't down, gritting our teeth and down and keep going. endurance, endurance, endurance, indeed, that big word that the church has lost all understanding on. But then we go to Romans five. Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace, in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, to perseverance, character, and character, hope. So the point being is all that we go through in our tribulations, is to give us the ability to persevere to go, we don't have to be fearful of war, we'd have to grit our teeth, or teeth, or we don't have to worry about what's the what we have to look at is what we're going to tribulations that each of us go through, is determined by God for a purpose and a reason, a shaping, shaping us now, at the moment. I'm sure there are many Christians out there that are scared. Yeah. All right. fuel crisis, the food, as you mentioned, I mean, was the rumors of wars. I mean, we saw it during the lockdown and COVID and all that the number of Christians that were frightened of dying, which I must admit, I thought that don't. Sorry, yeah. Whereas now what we're facing, and each of us have to deal with this before God, we have to be honest, before God, am I afraid? Okay. Now, we have to approach this on several levels. One, if I am afraid, it means that I'm not trusting in God. Correct, are not trusting in His provision. We don't beat ourselves up about that. We can't be forgotten. So Lord, forgive me. Because this sing because that's what it is, tells me that I'm not trusting in you. And I need for you to deal with us in me. Now. I, it might be, but I doubt that, that will be dealt with in a single prayer. And the way God will choose to deal with each of us with regards to our fears, is up to him. He will fashion the way in which he delivers us from FES.
Reverend Ben Cooper:So it's a continuum walk with Him, going by faith going by trust, allowing him to work with us as we go. And as we see the activities in the world. There's nothing for us to fear of because it's been prophesied.
Steve:And the other this is another reason why going back to Brexit, I think that's Brexit COVID. Churches were shut down, and we could not make it is desperately necessary for us to meet so that we can encourage one another encouragement. All right. So if you've got a brother or a sister sitting there and they're in right, in or in a right state, we have to learn how to approach them. Talk to them, pray for them, intercede for them. Yeah, God may have mercy upon them. We can't always pray for ourselves. You know, so often we we don't know what to pray for. Paul says in Romans. And so it's vital that the church during this period of time, does not stop meeting is vital. It's more vital than ever been before gathering together. Yeah, I mean, in actual fact, in the past 3040 years, probably longer, the church, even even in the most faithful churches that are holding that have held strong to the Word of God. At the end of the day, you have to consider that all was, to some degree was a club. It was a it was a bunch of a bunch of people turning up and keeping one another arm's length. It's quite clearly stated in the Word. If I do not love the brother, I say, How can I love the God that I don't see? And I think that's James, isn't it? And we can we can pray for the persecuted church in Ukraine, which we should do. But we need to be able to pray for the lady or the gent that sits system I left. Yeah, that's cool. So this is necessary to for churches to gather together. Now another way that that Satan is trying to stop this. It's not over here at the moment. But in America. There's a pastor article, Tom Hughes that I've listened to every now and then. And he said that there's a movement out there a suggestion as to why you can save fuel is to stop people driving on a Sunday. Here we go. Oh, yeah, in America, Dr. Miles made, the rise in fuel is really much more so than as us because they drive 4050 miles for church. He's got a church that's preaching the word of God. You know, sometimes it's traveled across state lines aren't confined. They don't. They don't know. To hear the word. Yeah. Trolling measures? Yes. of stopping people get into church. Yes. hike in the fuel up. Yeah. I mean, it's the whole thing. Cost of Living. Yeah. I mean, it's all there. To draw us to that place of the revelation of the Antichrist. We have to understand that you've got a church at the moment that wants to repent of being what I would suggest that is a candidate for worshipping the beast differently. We've had that. Yeah. Anything like that is a candidate for worshipping the beast, because they have moved completely away from the Word of God. They have a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Yeah, yeah. I love that scripture. Yeah, they have a form of Yeah, a form of but denying, you know, in a power, the denying the power of what I've got, I've got the salvation, or the salvific work of the Holy Spirit. Yeah. And the honoring of Christ towards because of all his work towards all men, whether they are black, white, green, pink, yellow, spotted, you know, stripes, I don't care. If it's, God could not give a tummy tuck. When you're what color you are. It created you what color you are, because you want to do that car. And that's it. That's it, and all fenders story. Yeah. And so we have these, we have to deal with these things. We come back, we need to study prophecy. We need to teach prophecy. We need to gather together, we need to Yes, pray for one another. But we also I think the other aspect we need to do is learn how to pry on what pride is very important. I learned a lesson many, many years ago. And I can't remember the exactly how it came about. But I was in this congregation and people started to pray about certain things. And I came to understand that they were actually praying against the will of God. You can you can do that. And I think the evangelical church. I mean, it has a lot to answer for with prayer meetings. Yeah. And so if we, let's fast forward to when President Trump was voted out of office, the number of American Christians said Why didn't God answer our prayers? I wonder? Well, because God had a plan, but you are in line with that plan. And that comes back to understanding where we sit in Scripture. When I know where we sit in Scripture that determines my prayer life. Yes. I mean, it's good that we intercede for people that people Yes, but what we need more than anything else, Lord, give me wisdom to understand what your will is the will is everything all right. Yeah, give me the wisdom to understand what your will is any ability to walk in that wheel. Now you can only do that if you want God's will in your life. Oh yeah. If you want it if you want to do really want God's Will the really want this. Do you want him to willing to work? He always he's already doing it. But you can either work against him or you can work with him. It can your exhaust yourself working against him. And we can see that very clearly. Can't wait. Yeah, I mean, there's loads of exhausted Christians. It's listening to the Word of God. Listening to him, being sensitive to him. Yeah. And blocking out all the rubbish that is coming. because he does not move within it's coming like it's like a train, isn't it at the moment, it's it's picking up pace. Yes. And you can feel it, you can feel it, you can see it, you can hear it. It's all around us. Now, I will say that one of the reasons I believe God is sending these things against the West, is because we have been on faithful, listen to His word. Right. And we have been fast asleep, snoring, and the only way that we can be woken up is by kick up the backside of a real dash of cold water in your face. Yeah. And to alert us we'll wake people up and it's coming. All I'm saying is that, don't wait for the kick up the backside or the bowl of water thrown in your face, getting the word understand what's going on now. And sick got to deal with you now. So that when it really goes pear shaped, you're ready for it, you're ready for endurance, you're ready to endure, they're ready to go. You're ready. You're you know what's coming, the signs that you can read the atmosphere, you know, not understand whatever you've gone through yet. That tribulation net stress, whatever it is, that is a gift from God, to make you endurable or durable. Yeah. Whatever you like that this is something that I was praying about the other day. Each of us have our own testimony. He said our own life, the troughs, the mountain valleys every All right, yeah. And we've all had loss, and we've all had destruction. We had all sorts of things. And I was able to come before God and say, Lord, I am grateful to you for everything that has gone on in my life. Oh, reaching, reaching that point, The Good, the Bad, whatever it is. I am blessed, pressed down, shaken together and overflowing. Thank you. And I'm grateful to you and I would not change one thing. I wouldn't change any of the turmoil. I wouldn't change any of the heartache. I wouldn't change any of those difficult times. Because you have made me what you've made me either. I was good. Now. I've not done it by its grace, by His mercy by His grace and His mercy and all that he's gone through. And if we can look back on that, it's difficult it is. I mean, okay, poops over. You know, what about people? Yeah, okay. I lost my dad when I was five. And I shared this at various points along the way. There was a time in my life when I was clinically insane. So so, you know, this isn't easy peasy lemon squeezy stuff. No, no, this is serious. I look back on it. And I say, but God was in it at the time. I didn't understand him. We don't do it. No, no. But I stand back now and I look back at my life. And I know that I was and and blessed.
Reverend Ben Cooper:Praise God, because He lives up and face tomorrow. The Scripture is on point. The Scripture is on time, Steve, it has been absolutely wonderful. Just to sit here and just listen to what God is saying through you through His Word. And you can find Steve, very simply, on the social with us here. You know, please share all this stuff out. Steve, we want to thank you so much for sharing your heart and what God has put onto you onto your heart of the last few days and bringing the scripture to us. And it's been about approach in the last seven years. May God bless you and strengthen you wherever you are across the world. You can find us on iHeartRadio you know, you can find us on Amazon music so many other platforms Buzzsprout and Spotify. Thank you so much. Take care. Have a great rest of the day wherever you are in the world but keep your eyes on Jesus. God bless bye bye