Global Warming

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I believe in global warming. Don’t turn me off yet. The last words we have attributed to the Apostle Peter “shortly before he put off this tent,” were almost entirely devoted to the subject of global warming. Let’s read them together with an open mind.

 

2 Peter 3  NKJV

1 ¶  Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder),

2  that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior,

3 ¶  knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,

4  and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."

5  For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,

6  by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.

7  But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

 

Just as God once destroyed the wicked world with a flood of water, it is presently being preserved by the Word of God, waiting on the already reserved fire as the  last judgment and deserved reward for ungodly men.

 

All it will take is one word from God. Believe me … there is enough heat available right now to destroy the entire world in a flash, anytime God chooses. Let’s talk about how much heat is available. How hot is hot?

 

The hottest day ever recorded in the United States was in Death Valley on July 10, 1913. It was 134 degrees F.

 

Hottest day ever recorded on the surface of the earth was in 2005 in the Lut Desert in Iran – 159 degrees F.

 

Average daytime temperature on the surface of the moon is 215 F.

 

The surface temperature of Venus, which is the hottest planet in the solar system – 863 F.

 

Lava from a volcanic eruption – 2192 F.

 

The hottest part of a wax candle flame – 2552 F.

 

The temperature at which iron melts – 2800 F.

 

Gold - Melting point: 1947.52 °F.
Platinum - Melting point: 3224F.
Ruby - Melting point: 3722°F.
Sapphire - Melting point: 3704 °F.

A diamond has the highest melting point of any mineral. A diamond will melt at 6416.33 degrees F.

 

The chemical element with the highest melting point is carbon, at 7280–8000 °F.

 

The surface of the sun is 10,000 degrees F, while the inner core reaches about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. 

 

The Earth’s inner core of iron has a temperature of approximately 10,800 °F, yet it is solid, because the pressure at the earth’s core is about 3 million times greater than on the surface.

 

The Earth’s inner core has a temperature hotter than the surface of the sun … that’s hot!

 

Did you know that one bolt of lightening can superheat the air around it up to 50,000 degrees F? That is roughly 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun and the core of the earth. But …

 

The heat generated inside a nuclear explosion fireball reaches approximately 18 million degrees F.

 

That’s hot but not the hottest thing man has caused. 

 

The hottest man-made temperature was created in 2012 by collisions of lead ions at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN Laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland – 9.9 trillion degrees Fahrenheit. This equates to only about 5.5 trillion degrees Celsius. That’s over 5 times greater than the big bang theorists calculate that it took to create the universe.

 

Man is fully capable of disintegrating the earth, its moon and all the plasma in the heavens in between here and there today. God doesn’t even have to lift a finger this time … (Source for much of this data:  http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131218-absolute-zero-to-absolute-hot).

 

It is a wonder the world has not already been destroyed. However Peter encouraged us to remember:

 

2 Peter 3:8 ¶  But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

 

What is God waiting for? According to heaven’s clock, it’s been less than two days since Peter wrote this warning . As well, both Peter and Paul admonished us to always be ready for that day. They said, it will come as a thief in the night, when we least expect. Peter continued in his last letter:

 

2 Peter 3    NKJV

9 ¶  The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

10  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

11 ¶  Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,

12  looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?

13  Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

 

Just one word from God is all it will take. Or, if God removes His steady hand at any time … boom! Knowing these things, what should we do?

 

2 Peter 3 NKJV

14  Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless;

15  and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation — as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you,

16  as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

17  You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand , beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;

18  but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

 

1 Thessalonians 5:2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.

 

Good News!!! Today we are having a relatively cool day. And there is still time to get saved. Beware and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord before Global Warming, or some idiot with their finger on the button, destroys the earth. (9.9 trillion degrees F! It’s just one click or one word from God away.)

 

Are you saved? Don’t allow untaught or unstable people twist the truth of the scriptures to deceive you. The devil has been doing this since creation. Beware, we are in the last days. Invite Jesus into your heart and into your mind. Decide you are going to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus. You’ve made a good start by going to Church today

One Day at a Time

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When Jesus was 30 years old, He moved from Nazareth to the city of Capernaum to begin His public ministry. The Psalmist prophesied, (Psalm 69:9), and His disciples all agreed, (John 2:17), that Jesus had a passion and a zeal for Church. He loved the house of God and every sabbath He made sure He attendedChurch (Luke 4:16).

 

Jesus was also committed to helping others everywhere He went throughout the week. He was a Bible Teacher by profession. Each day, after rising early and spending personal time with God in prayer, (Mark 1:35), Jesus found some person or some group of people to encourage or instruct in the Scriptures. He walked from town to town along the public highways, where everyother common man was walking, and along the way He met and helped people in need (Acts 10:38).

 

Matthew 4:23 & Matthew 9:35 both give the same account of an average day in the life of Jesus:

 

Jesus went about all the cities and villages of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every type of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.

 

This was His every day and all He wanted to do. Jesus wanted to show the love of God to others. Jesus wanted others to know God cared and that God would help them with their immediate personal need as well as teach them how to live a more godly and productive life. Jesus never left anyone worse than when He met them. Not everyone followed His advice, but if they had, they and everyone else around them would have been better off.

 

When Jesus first began His public ministry, He quickly gained a reputation as someone who cared and someone who had the ability to help. He healed the sick, He fed the hungry, He blessed the poor, and He loved the children. Jesus was perfect and except for the people who had an ungodly agenda or were motivated by the devil, everyone loved Him. He didn’t agree with or please everyone, but He was a good man. 

 

One day a large group of people gathered on a hillside close to the city of Capernaum to hear what Jesus had to say. Perhaps you have visited this location with me on one of our past tours in Israel. I’ve sat with hundreds of people and scores of Pastors through the years on what is commonly called the Mount of Beatitudes and opened our Bibles and read the whole Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5, 6, & 7) aloud together. It continues to be one of the most memorable highlights of our trips to The Holy Land.

 

This morning we are going to focus our attention on the last few verses at the end of the message Jesus taught the multitudes on the hillside that day. Picture them sitting on the waving grass looking out over the Sea of Galilee in all its beauty as they felt the God-sent breeze blowing the words of Jesus up the hillside and into their hearts.

 

I encourage you to read the whole sermon in a quiet setting and listen to that still small voice in your heart … this one passage has the power to change your life forever. Let’s read beginning at:

 

Matthew 7 NKJV

12 ¶  “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

13  “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.

14  “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

15 ¶  “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

16  “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?

17  “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

18  “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

19  “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

20  “Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

21 ¶  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

22  “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’

23  “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

24  “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:

25  “and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

26  “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand:

27  “and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

28  And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching,

29  for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

 

This morning I have no greater wisdom to share with you than to encourage you to listen to the words of Jesus … they are just as powerful today as they were 2000 years ago on that hillside. Let your guard downand follow the Lord with gladness. Jesus has no agenda but to save you from an eternity in hell and from the hell of this life as well.

 

Let’s sum up our time in the word today:

1. Treat others the way you want to be treated.

2. The broad, “anything goes” road, leads to destruction.

3. We are not judges, but we are fruit inspectors.

4. Build your house on the Rock.

 

How can a person build their life on the Rock? Simply listen to the words of Jesus and start doing what He said. It is simple but it is not easy. Do you think you can please Jesus for an hour? I think you can. Ok then – try it. Then the next hour … try it again. If all you can do is please Him with your next word or next decision … you can build your house on the Rock, one block, one hour, one word, one decision, one day at a time. 

 

Let’s all commit to the next hour … I’m going to start building on the Rock.