Luke 21: 5And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said, 6As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down

Look Up Redemption Draweth Nigh!
Luke 21:28

Luke 21:⁵And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said, ⁶As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. ⁷And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass? ⁸And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them. ⁹But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.

^{10Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: ¹¹And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. ¹²But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake. ¹³And it shall turn to you for a testimony. ¹⁴Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: ¹⁵For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. ¹⁶And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. ¹⁷And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake. ¹⁸But there shall not an hair of your head perish. ¹⁹In your patience possess ye your souls.

^{20And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. ²¹Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. ²²For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. ²³But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. ²⁴And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. ²⁵And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; ²⁶Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. ²⁷And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ²⁸And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

We worry about the things we hear about the endtimes:
Persecution, i.e. beheading, etc. We hear about the well-known 666 and the mark of the beast, we hear about not being able to buy or sell without it. We hear about such things as the False Prophet, the Antichrist, etc. We hear all these things and let us be honest, it probably is a time of concern and question in our lives.
But, should these really be what we think about? Are these what will prevent our knowing the Lord? Are these what we need to worry about or dwell upon? What did Christ say?
Lu. 21:28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

So what we need to do is not worry about how we may handle these terrible things, but we need to see what is preventing our looking to the Lord now, today, in this present time?
I want to look at 5 things that we allow us to prevent our looking up and letting the Lord be in our lives as He wants.

No. 1…

Greed

1 Tim. 6:¹⁰For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. ¹¹But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. ¹²Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

Create wrong goals - instead of righteousness
Compromise for gain - versus godliness
Cease seeking godly things - versus faith, love, patience and meekness

Then there is No. 2…

Pride

Pro. 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

Pride will push us to…

Not ask of God
Not attain from God
Not accept His offer

No. 3…

Pleasure

Lu. 8:⁴And when much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable: ⁵A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. ⁶And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. ⁷And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. ⁸And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. ⁹And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be? ¹⁰And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. ¹¹Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. ¹²Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. ¹³They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. ¹⁴And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. ¹⁵But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

Priority on the sensual elements
Patronize questionable things
Partaking of controlling things

And No. 4…

Fear

Heb. 13:6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
2 Tim. 1:⁷For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. ⁸Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;
Lu. 21:26Men’s hearts failing them for fear,

Pressures from our friends and acquaintances
Persecution from our foes
Prevention of financial gain and the loss it brings

And, maybe the greatest fear…

Pre-belief that we cannot serve Him properly

And finally, maybe the most deadly…

Time

Eccl. 12:¹Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;
Rom. 13:11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. ¹²The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

Heedless of the obvious warning
Hesitant to take the opportunity
Halted between two opinions

Who or what should we look upon? We should look upon CHRIST!
Should we be worrying about the endtimes' problems that we might face?
No! We need to handle the things that prevent our turning to the Lord and accepting salvation.
We need to…
Spend or give our greed to the Lord
Subdue or conquer our pride before the Lord
Squelch or starve our desires for pleasure for the glory of the Lord
Surrender or give back our time to the Lord
Above all we need to look for the Lord, call upon the Lord, Accept the Lord as our Savior, Ask Him to forgive us Believe on Him and that He will, and Confess Him as Lord and Savior-
Above all we need to look up, for our redemption draweth nigh!
Gary Marcum - East 38th Street Free Will Baptist - 120201am}}