======================================================================== (CLIP) HOW TO SURVIVE IN THE END TIMES by Zac Poonen ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of truly knowing God and Jesus Christ personally, comparing it to the depth of intimacy in a long-term marriage. It highlights the distinction between having Bible knowledge and genuinely knowing God's ways and being intimate with Him. The message stresses the significance of renewing the mind through Scripture to align with God's thoughts and will, especially in facing challenges and temptations in the world. Topics: "Intimacy with God", "Renewing the Mind" Scripture References: Daniel 11:32, Romans 12:2, Malachi 2:16, John 5:39 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of truly knowing God and Jesus Christ personally, comparing it to the depth of intimacy in a long-term marriage. It highlights the distinction between having Bible knowledge and genuinely knowing God's ways and being intimate with Him. The message stresses the significance of renewing the mind through Scripture to align with God's thoughts and will, especially in facing challenges and temptations in the world. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ It's the difficult times that are lying ahead in this world. You're not going to face them with plenty of money. It won't solve your problem. You're not even going to be able to face them by coming to church regularly. That's good. All this is good. But you've got to get to know God. Eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, and to know Him personally. You know the difference between marrying a wife and getting to know her over a period of 30-40 years? The day you get married, you may love your wife intensely, or love your husband intensely, but you don't have a clue what type of person he is. But once you live 30-40 years in love with each other, you really know each other. That's the difference between getting married to Christ, which is being born again, and knowing Him. So I want to ask all of you who say you've been born again for so many years, how much do you know the Lord? Have you come to know the Lord better? Have you come to know the Lord's ways? Have you come to know what the Lord loves? Have you come to know what it means to be intimate with the Lord? Like you got married and you love your partner and you're intimate with her or him. Are you intimate with the Lord like that? Many Christians are not. They don't know the Lord. That's the thing that's going to help in the last days. Let me show you a verse in Daniel chapter 11. In Daniel chapter 11 we read verse 32. Daniel 11 verse 32, the last part. The people who know their God will be strong. It's speaking about the last days. It's speaking about the Antichrist and the spirit of the last days. And in those days, says the Antichrist, verse 32, with smooth words, turn to godlessness, those who act wickedly towards the new covenant. But in that time, the people who know their God, they'll be strong. Years ago I memorized that verse. The people who know their God will be strong in the last days. Remember this. It's not Bible knowledge. It's a world of difference. Bible knowledge, the Pharisees had that. Knowing God, Jesus had that. There's a world of difference between the two. There's a difference between heaven and earth. So I was telling you how worship is, first of all, presenting our body. And then, Romans 12, 2, is our mind. That's the next thing. My body must be presented, I told you, piece by piece. And my mind must be transformed, renewed. My mind must be renewed. And as it's renewed, I'm transformed. So, how do I get transformed into the likeness of Christ? By the renewing of my mind. And thereby I prove what is the perfect will of God. In the old covenant, God spoke from outside. Abraham, Samuel, do this, do that, do the other thing. Because God was outside. But from the day of Pentecost, God came inside. The Holy Spirit is inside and He speaks from inside. And there, as I allow God to renew my mind, in different situations, I prove what God's will is for my life. And when we think of God's will, we think of what job I should take, whom I should marry. Those are not the primary things. They are important, but they are secondary. The primary things is, what should be my attitude to this sin, what should be my attitude to this thing, what should be my attitude to so many things in this world, which don't please God. That is where I need to have my mind renewed to think like God thinks. And if I want to think like God thinks, it's a legitimate paraphrase of my renewing of my mind and being transformed, to begin to think like God thinks, like Jesus thinks, I need to be saturated with Scripture. Because this is the only book in the whole world that tells me how God thinks. Even the Old Testament. I read the Old Testament passages like Hosea and Joel and all that, and I see God's tremendous hatred of sin. Of idolatry, for example. How He condemned those Israelites for idolatry. And the biggest idolatry today is the worship of money. And God hates it. If I see that, I say, Lord, I want to hate it too. I want to use it, but I don't want to worship money. I don't want to worship pleasure. I don't want to worship anything because God hates idolatry. So there, as I read the Bible, I begin to see the things that God hates. He hated adultery. He hated fooling around with the opposite sex. He believed in the sanctity of marriage. Malachi says in chapter 3, God says, I hate divorce. Chapter 2, sorry. So, as I read the Scriptures, I begin to think like God thinks about the different subjects that I'm facing in the world today. That's the renewing of my mind, where I begin to think like God thinks, then I can prove what is God's perfect will. So I was telling you about John chapter 5. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/JOYNuGsWRUA.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/zac-poonen/clip-how-to-survive-in-the-end-times/ ========================================================================