<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18852">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=4> Who is this passage of Scripture addressed to today? It
must be the old people, everyone who is sixty and over, receiving ARP
advertisements, on social security or getting ready to die. Those people think
more about mortality and death; these Bible verses are for them.
<DIV>
<P>I don’t think so. Life changes so quickly. The totality of life moves by so
quickly. … I look at an infant, and the infant today is a two year old
tomorrow. And you blink and the child is thirteen. And you blink,
where did time go, and the kid is now a young adult. I blink my eyes again and
you are now married. I blink my eyes again and you have children. I
blink my eyes again and those children are gone and you have an empty nest. I
blink my eyes again and you are grandparents. I blink my eyes again and you are
a widow or widower. I blink my eyes again and you are ready to die. That’s the
way life is. </P></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_b_suddenly.htm">http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_b_suddenly.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Edward Markquart</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Our enemy was easy to identify when our enemy was communism or
the nazis. The enemy was easy to identify when it was pornography or sexual
violence. It is much harden to identify the enemy around us and within us when
the enemy is comfort, materialism, pleasure seeking hedonism. So we say to
ourselves in America, “We can relax. There are no big problems around us and the
church. There are no thieves out there trying to destroy the lives of our
people. We can relax, slump back and fall asleep.” The number one sin of a
watchman has always been to fall asleep and not be alert to the enemy around us;
that was a problem two thousand years ago and it is a problem today.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>This is not a time for apathy when 89% of the children in the
Highline School District do not have their original mother and father living in
their home. This is not the time for apathy when an average person watches
10,000 murders a year on television. This is not the time for apathy when 90% of
all sexual relationships for young people is outside the marriage covenant. This
is not the time for apathy when recent studies tell us that in a survey of three
hundred men, these men spend only an average of seven and a half minutes per
weeks with their sons. This is not the time for apathy when the population of
the state of Washington is increasing by double digit increases and meanwhile,
the population of church membership is decreasing in the same area. These are
time when all kinds of enemies are around us; there are thieves out there.
There are thieves out there who are trying to rob couples of good marriages. I
mean, 89% of the children in a neighboring school district do not the have their
original mother and father living with them. There are thieves out there, trying
to rob people of good marriages. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_b_wake_up.htm">http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_b_wake_up.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Edward Markquart</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>I love the quotation from Peter Pan: "Death is going to be an
awfully big adventure." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><></FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><FONT size=2><FONT size=4>Do you what <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">the last prayer in the Bible</I> is?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is the second to the last line of the
book of Revelation.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Revelation,
chapter 22: verse 20.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“<I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Amen. Come Lord Jesus</I>.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Amen. So be it. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let it happen.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Amen.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Come Lord Jesus.”<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That is our insistent, our persistent,
our consistent prayer.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“Amen.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Come Lord Jesus.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Please come.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Come with your love.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Come with your compassion.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Come with your wisdom and strength.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Lord Jesus. It is time. I need you to
come.”</FONT><?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O /><O:P> </O:P></FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><FONT size=2><O:P><FONT size=4>The word, "come," occurs
1462 times in the Bible. It refers to God's coming to us; but it also refers to
us coming to God.</FONT> </FONT></DIV></O:P>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_a_coming.htm">http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_a_coming.htm</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Edward Markquart</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>For me, one of the most interesting films about the future was
T.B.X. 1138, 4.E.B. by George Lucas when he was a student at Stanford
University. In that film, you don’t see any blood, gore and guts like you would
in movies today. The film is not a “scare-you” thriller. In the film, what you
see are thousands upon thousands of miles of tunnel. The human beings are now
living like ants, living in tunnels underneath the earth. One person comes up
from the tunnel, out from the ground, peeking through a metal lid. He peeks his
head out into the air, and the Geiger counter on his helmet goes “tick, tick,
tick, tick, tick.” The crust of the earth has been incinerated by nuclear fire
and is radioactive. With the crust of the earth being radioactive, the human
race has gone underground and is now living in tunnels, like ants. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_c_futurologists_and_their_vision_for_the_future.htm">http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_c_futurologists_and_their_vision_for_the_future.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Edward Markquart</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>No matter what "take" we have on the eschatological texts of
the gospels, the injunction to be watchful and prayerful is perpetually
relevant. When crisis and turmoil are rocking the world - when war and
injustice is destroying persons - the faithful have their sight firmly fixed on
the One who is to come with justice and peace.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>The roaring sea and the warring nations point to natural and
political powers that govern our lives - the teaching of Christ is that no power
is greater than the power of God. When the Son of Man comes with "power
and great glory" - all other powers will be vacated. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.lectionarysermons.com/decem_0300.htm">http://www.lectionarysermons.com/decem_0300.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>John Jewell, 2000</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>