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Welcome to the Bridge Church VB Podcast, your weekly source for uplifting and transformative Sunday messages! Each episode features insightful, practical teachings rooted in Scripture, designed to inspire and guide you on your spiritual journey. Led by our passionate Lead Pastors, Archie and Tangie Callahan, we strive to create a welcoming environment that encourages individuals from all walks of life to connect with the person, power, and purpose of Jesus Christ.
In this podcast, we delve into relevant themes and timeless biblical truths that speak to the challenges and joys of everyday living. Whether you’re commuting, exercising, or simply seeking encouragement, our messages aim to empower you to grow in faith and discover your unique purpose.
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I want you to take out your Bible and turn to Matthew 24.
Last week, we began this series called Last Days.
Last week, we talked about five problems that would exist in the last days.
It would be five problems.
That came out of 2 Timothy.
Paul wrote 2 Timothy to Timothy at the church at Ephesus.
He lines out the marks of the last days in 2 Timothy 3, verses 1-5.
Today, we're going to look at Matthew 24.
Matthew 24 is the words of Jesus.
All throughout scripture, there is apocalyptic scripture.
What I mean by that is there are certain scriptures that talk about the last days, what it would look like at the end of the age, the coming of Jesus.
We see that in 2 Timothy chapter 3.
We see it in 1, 2 Thessalonians.
We see it in the book of Revelation.
We see it in the book of Daniel and Ezekiel in the Old Testament.
And just as sure as Jesus came back the first time through the Virgin Mary, he's coming back again a second time.
And the proof of his coming is the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
All of our faith, man, the faith of the Christian church hinges and rests and finds its foundation on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In fact, so much so, Paul said, if the resurrection is not true, our faith is futile and our preaching...
is in vain.
Had an opportunity yesterday to speak to about 10 pastors and their leaders in North Carolina.
These pastors were from South Carolina, Tennessee, and North Carolina.
Can I tell you today, Bridge Church, our influence is just not in this region in Hampton Roads, but it extends across our nation and to other nations of the world.
God has blessed us with a capacity
Thank you, Jesus.
I did hit 92 one time, but I was distracted.
God, forgive me.
Forgive me.
But on the way back, something happened to my vehicle.
A light came on.
A light in the dash.
It's a 2025 Toyota Tundra.
The light came on and just said, maintenance soon.
I believe I just need to change the oil.
But how many of you have ever had a light come on, check engine light?
Don't you just despise those lights?
Don't you hate them?
It's like a false positive.
You really don't know why the light's on.
It could be your gas cap.
It could be an O2 sensor.
But many times when we see a light come on in the dash, you know what we do?
We
We either panic and go crazy.
Oh, my car's going to blow up on 95.
I'm going to be stuck out here.
Or we take a little picture of our better half, our spouse or a friend, and we put it right in front of the light.
We ignore it.
I got into my daughter's car, Peyton.
I could see nothing on her dash.
I couldn't see how fast you were going.
I couldn't see the gas needle.
I couldn't see any lights.
She had it plastered with this guy named Elijah.
I said, Elijah's going to get you in trouble.
You can't see how fast you're going.
You can't see the check engine light.
You can't see the oil light.
You can't see nothing.
I know you love him, but he will get you in trouble if you don't clear it off.
Not only do people panic or ignore the light, some people take the car into the shop.
And I believe as we live in these last days, you got an option.
You can panic.
You can ignore the signs.
Or you can pull in to the church and
Get a checkup and be prepared for what is coming in the future.
Have you ever taken a trip and man, you just follow the signs?
Now I'm going to tell my age here a little bit.
I was born in the day where you did not have something on your phone telling you where to make the next turn.
You could not put your address into your phone and get a sweet voice talking back to you.
You actually had to buy a map at the Texaco station.
And you would pull out these big maps and you would map out how you were gonna get to your destination.
And you would write it out.
I remember traveling with my parents and my mom would pull out this big map, bigger than the car.
And she would tell my dad where to turn.
Now, as we grew, we got something when we got computers and internet called MapQuest.
Anybody remember MapQuest?
You printed out the map.
And so you had to use the map.
But on the journey, there were signs.
And if you were going to Disney World, you knew if you lived in this region, you would probably have to get on 264 to 64 to 58 West to 95 South and stay on 95 South for eternity.
Listening to kids say, are we there yet?
We just left.
And then you would have to get on Interstate 10.
And finally, you might arrive.
But how many of you know, on the way to Disney, there would be signs.
Disney, 200 miles.
Disney, 100 miles.
How many of you know, if you stop by the sign and you just gaze at the sign and you're overwhelmed at the sign and you love the sign.
You never see a family get out and just look at the sign and hug the sign.
We're at Disney.
Why?
Because the sign is not the destination.
The sign is not the reality.
The sign is not the substance.
It's not until you reach Disney when you get excited.
Mickey Mouse.
And oftentimes, as believers, we stop at the sign and we never receive the substance who is Jesus.
Yes.
It's not enough to understand the signs of the times or the sign of his coming.
We've got to understand that the signs, the things that are happening in our world are pointing us to a greater reality who is Jesus.
And that we need to be prepared.
We need to be ready.
We need to be alert.
We need to be watching.
So today, I want to talk to you about the signs of the times out of Matthew 24.
Matthew 24 starts with two verses.
Where Jesus is with his disciples.
He had just been tussling with the religious crowd in the previous two chapters.
He's about a week out from being crucified.
His disciples start to talk to him and say, look at this palatial structure.
They're looking at Herod's temple.
They're looking at this huge temple which was the biggest religious structure in the ancient world.
It was beautiful.
It is estimated that some of the stones in this structure weighed 70 tons.
I was thinking about that when I was researching this.
Who moved them?
I would have hated to be a donkey that had to pull that 70 ton stone.
But they built this palatial structure.
And people that would come to Jerusalem had never seen anything like it.
It was white stone.
And when the sun would hit it, it was glistened on the inside.
It was overlaid with gold, man.
Beautiful gold.
And the disciples are marveling at this.
And Jesus predicts.
He says, there's coming a time there will not be one stone left on this temple.
They're all going to be overturned.
It was like they were gazing at this thing and Jesus just popped their bubble.
And we know because of history, less than 40 years later in 70 AD, the Romans came in there and Titus burned and destroyed the temple.
They burned it and the fire was... You say, how do you burn stone?
Well, they didn't burn stone.
But what they did do, they were at the Mount of Olives.
They took olive trees and put them in the temple and caught it on fire.
And all the gold melted off the walls into the crevices and cracks of those stones.
And after the fire subsided, the Romans came in and got the spoils.
They pushed the stones over and got all the gold out.
And all the stones in the temple were leveled.
Let me tell you something about chapter 24 in Matthew.
You can read it a couple ways.
You can read it from a preterist view, which is saying that all the events in 24, Matthew, happened already.
Or you can read it from a future perspective, meaning that everything hasn't happened and will happen tomorrow.
But I believe when you take both of those extremes, you get in dangerous territory.
You have to blend both of them because some of this in Matthew 24 is historical, but some is yet to come.
In 70 AD, the words of Jesus were fulfilled when the temple was destroyed.
Jesus was actually alluding, hey, this temple is going to be destroyed.
I'm going to be crucified, but I'm going to be raised from the dead.
And in verse 3, it says this in Matthew 24.
As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately.
Tell us, they said, when will this happen and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of life?
The H. I want to tell you something about signs today.
Signs are meant to wake us up, not to scare us.
If you read the book of Revelation, if you read 1 and 2 Thessalonians, if you read 2 Timothy chapter 3, 1 through 5, if you read the book of Daniel, the book of Ezekiel, and it scares you and you live in fear, guess what?
You have not been perfected in love.
Because 1 John 4 says, perfect love, perfected love, cast out all fear.
The fear of what?
The fear of judgment.
If I'm in Christ, guess what?
I'm going to escape the coming wrath that's coming to this earth.
I don't have to fear the judgment of God.
Because I am in Christ.
I am safe.
I am saved from the coming wrath that's coming on the earth.
And Jesus on the Mount of Olives begins to speak to his disciples there and begins to talk about what's coming to the earth.
And he actually tells them what's going to happen to them.
And there are five things he says not to do.
First, he says, don't be deceived.
Say deceived.
Look at what it says in the next verse.
Jesus answered, watch out that no one deceives you for many will come in my name claiming I am the Messiah and will deceive what?
Many.
Many.
Matthew 24, 11 says, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.
So Jesus is telling us in the age that is the last days, deception would be a mark of the last days.
And he says, watch out that no one deceives who?
You.
So Jesus puts the onus on his disciples.
He puts the responsibility on us personally.
Meaning Jesus is saying, don't let anything in the world deceive you because the deception here is not just false Christ.
It's anything that this world system uses to deceive you.
It could be a politician deceiving you.
It could be a politician.
pastor deceiving you it could be a prophet deceiving you it could be social media deceiving you it could be social super intelligence deceiving you it could be your own heart that deceives you it's called self-deception see to it that no one deceives you so what what part do i play in this the part i play in this is that i have to know the truth
But I have to know God's word.
It's not enough just to come to church on Sunday, folks.
God is doing something in our nation.
People are learning that they can't just depend on Sunday morning Christianity to help them make it from Sunday to Sunday, but they have to
have a personal relationship with god they have to get in the book they have to study the bible so they won't be deceived it's not enough just to come listen to talking heads on a stage church is good it's needed the bible says don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together as such are in the habit of doing but get together more as you see the end of times approaching but let me tell you something you got to get in the book you got to know the book
If you're not going to be deceived, you've got to know the real thing.
We're living in a day where false Christs do arise.
How many of you remember Charles Manson?
He said he was Jesus.
He was probably delusional, but he said he was Jesus.
David Koresh, remember that?
Branch Davidian, Texas.
He said he was Jesus.
For you older folks in the 70s, Jim Jones.
Don't drink the juice.
He said he was Jesus.
Jesus' words have come true that many false Christs would arise.
But he says, watch out.
In the Greek, it's in the present imperative.
It's a command.
It's not a one-time thing where you just gaze at something.
It literally means, in a command sense, watch and keep on watching.
Be alert and keep on being alert.
See and keep on seeing.
Keep your eyes open.
so that you will not be deceived.
Look what it says.
It starts out so that no one deceives you.
And it keeps going.
But many will be deceived.
At the end of chapter four, he says, if the time had not been cut short, it would be possible for even the elect to be deceived.
What is Jesus saying?
Look at the progression.
You, many, the elect.
The elect are all believers, Jew and Gentile, those that have been called by his name, those that have been saved.
It could be possible for even those people to be deceived.
So how do I keep from being deceived?
I learn the word of God.
I have the indwelling presence of Jesus.
We call that the Holy Spirit in us.
So when something false does come into my life, I might not be able to tell you where it is, you know, chapter, verse in the Bible.
But I just feel like something's not quite right.
It's that inner witness of the Holy Spirit.
Because I want to tell you today that everybody that says they are Christian doesn't mean they are Christian.
There is a brand of Christianity in our nation today called progressive Christians.
They do not hold to orthodox faith.
They do not see the word of God as a final authority in their lives.
In fact, they just see us following Jesus and they have this empathy that is not grounded in truth.
Progressive Christianity says just be good.
but don't hold fast to the truth of God's word.
One that has come out, just came out of the public arena, Tallarico in Texas, who says he's a Christian, but he believes there are seven genders.
When the word of God says that God created male and female in his image, he created them.
It's toxic empathy.
Where I want to feel your pain to the level that I will not speak the truth into your life.
Paul said speak the truth in love.
See to it that no one deceives you.
Next, don't be troubled.
Don't be troubled.
How many of us in here today, we looked at what was going on around the world Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, and we couldn't even get out of bed.
Jesus said, come on, if an election disrupts your faith, you probably didn't have faith.
God has never needed a politician to move.
God and company did not go defunct.
Jesus didn't get nervous on Wednesday morning.
He didn't check himself into therapy.
Hear me, folks.
America has never experienced the persecution that people have experienced in Iraq and Iran and other places of the world.
And somehow we hear the talking heads that say 40 million Christians didn't vote.
I would probably say there's probably not 40 million Christians that are committed to Christ.
Being born in America does not make you a Christian no more than standing in a refrigerator makes you a piece of ice.
God quiet in this gospel church.
He said, do not be troubled.
In fact, look what he says in verse six through eight.
He says, you will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed.
That word alarm there, the New King James Version says, see to it that you are not what?
Troubled?
The NASB, New American Standard Bible, says see to it that you're not frightened.
How many people do you have in your family that are always calling you when something happens?
Now, chill out.
Have you not read the Bible?
Such things, what does he say?
Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
He's saying, we ain't quite there yet, folks.
Nation will rise against nation.
That word nation there, if you don't understand Greek, it's ethnos.
So he's not talking about nation states against nation states.
He's talking about ethnic groups against ethnic groups.
You can have race wars within the boundary of one nation.
That's what he's talking about.
He's talking about racial strife, ethnic strife.
And kingdom against kingdom, that's where the political forces come in.
Kingdoms will clash.
Iran, America, Israel, Iran, Iraq, and America.
All these nations and these kingdoms clashing.
There will be famines.
Man, we need some rain.
We got some the other night.
Earthquakes in various places.
Earthquakes that you never thought you would feel an earthquake.
I remember not too long ago, probably 10 years ago, my son, he was at the little water park up here.
What is this water park in Virginia Beach?
Ocean breeze.
You can tell I don't go there much.
But he was there and he was standing up on top.
And guess what?
We had an earthquake that was felt all the way here in Virginia.
It started up in the mountains of Virginia.
But he felt it while he was up there.
We're not used to that.
California is used to that.
Different parts of the world.
And the ring of fire.
But we're not used to earthquakes.
But he said there will be earthquakes in various places.
And all these are the beginning.
Say beginning.
Of birth pangs.
He says, don't let your heart be troubled.
I like what it says in the Greek about being alarmed or troubled.
It's in the present imperative.
He's saying this.
Don't keep on being alarmed.
Don't keep on being emotional.
Oh, look what's happening.
Oh, man, the world's coming to an end.
Oh, the Antichrist is here.
Stock up for 40 years with food.
Go buy 100 acres in the mountains and build a compound and get away from this bad world.
That's not what Jesus teaches.
He's saying stop getting into your feels.
That's what he's saying.
Don't be troubled.
Don't be alarmed.
Don't be uptight.
How many of you know the people around you that are in their feels and they're in their emotions and they get uptight and they're troubled.
They want you to be troubled, but when you don't get troubled, they get mad at you.
I got family members just because I don't get uptight.
When they get uptight, they're uptight.
I'm not taking on your uptightness, man.
I am secure in Christ.
I know who wins.
I read the end of Revelation.
We've already won.
We're not trying to win.
We've already won, folks.
Don't be troubled.
We have prophets all over our nation that make every election something built on prophecy.
That's not the way you use prophecy, folks.
That's an abuse of a prophetic gift.
There are people that have itching ears, and they get about four or five prophets, YouTube prophets, and that's all they listen to, and they never read the Bible.
I'm like, y'all are out of your mind.
I got family members.
Did you hear what he said?
No, I didn't, but I heard what Jesus said.
Jesus said, this is just the beginning of birth pains.
I'm not upset one bit.
And just because I'm not troubled, don't get mad at me.
Look here, he says, don't grow cold.
Don't grow cold.
Look what he says in verse 9 through 12.
Then you will be handed over to
To be persecuted and put to death.
Now I want you to understand, who is he speaking to right here?
His disciples.
He's not speaking to you.
Because some of this is historical.
It's already happened.
Some of it is future.
Look what he's saying.
I'm glad I wasn't one of his disciples, Sidney.
Then you will be handed over and persecuted and put to death.
And you will be hated by all nations because of me.
Now that's happening in our world today, but he was speaking to his disciples right there.
You're going to die.
And we know at least 11 out of the 12 died.
They were martyred for the faith.
Some historians like Josephus and others believe that John was boiled, but he didn't die.
And he was banished to the island of Patmos where he got the revelation of the book of Revelation and wrote it out for you and I.
I don't know about you.
I probably would rather die than be boiled in oil.
And you will be hated by all nations because of me.
And at that time, many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other.
And many false prophets will appear and deceive many people because of the increase of wickedness.
The love of most will do what?
Grow cold.
Look here.
Because of the increase...
wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.
Why do our hearts grow cold?
Because of the increase of wickedness that we see in our world.
Do you remember when you heard about the first mass shooting in our nation?
How it impacted your heart.
How it grieved you.
I remember Columbine.
That was one of the first ones, the big ones.
I have a pastor friend that preached two of those Columbine funerals.
Pastor Billy Epperhart.
And how it grieved our nation.
But if you wake up tomorrow and there's a mass shooting and you see it on the news, they'll mention it for about 15 seconds and it doesn't impact you.
Could it be that our hearts have grown cold because of the increase of wickedness that we see on media every day?
Notice, the coldness doesn't happen immediately.
It says the love of most will grow.
I mean, growing is a process.
That there are things that happen to me, wicked things, wicked things that people perpetrate on me, wicked things in this earth, the things that I see on social media, the things I hear on Fox News and CNN and MSNBC and the view that tries to give you a distorted view.
That my heart is growing cold.
That my heart has gotten cold.
Cold love leads to quitting.
Endurance keeps the fire lit.
Then he says, don't quit.
Did you know the whole book of Revelation is not about the Antichrist?
It's about Jesus Christ and the church being a faithful witness to him.
That in the midst of trial, tribulation, persecution, hardship and pain, famine, war, that there is a faithful witness of Jesus in the earth at all times.
That we have to be faithful witnesses and don't quit.
Say don't quit.
Look what he says.
But the one who stands firm to the end will be what?
Those who do what?
Stand firm to what?
The end will be saved.
I'm going to tell you right now, Jesus does not hand out participation trophies.
Listen to me.
My son, when he was about 12, 13, he was probably 10, probably 10.
He played on a team, football team.
They were terrible.
They were just terrible folks.
Just like the Cowboys, terrible.
But after every game, they gave them some kind of trophy.
And I'm sitting there scratching my head.
Every time that coach would try to hand out a trophy, I'm like, what are we doing here?
What are we doing?
I finally got the nerve.
I said, man, don't give my kid no more trophies.
He's a good player, but the rest of his team, it stinks.
Y'all have not won a game.
You ain't even been close.
Why are we giving?
There is no trophy for participation in the kingdom of God.
He says, those that endure to the end will be saved.
Endurance does not save you, but it's proof that your faith is genuine.
Hear me?
Your endurance in the Christian walk is not what saves you, but it's proof that your faith is real.
So if you give up when trial and temptation and persecution and hardship come your way, it's a good indication you were probably not saved.
You were just emotionally moved by an altar call, but you have not dedicated your life fully to Jesus.
Because endurance is proof that your faith is genuine.
In fact, James, the half-brother of Jesus, said, Consider it all joy, brothers, when you go into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be complete, lacking in nothing.
He says, consider it all joy.
When you enter into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith, having a faith that cannot be tested is a faith that cannot be trusted.
There's tests that comes into our lives that will cause us to endure the spirit of God in us, pushes us to finish the race so that our faith can be made complete.
And that test tests the genuineness of our faith.
Don't quit.
It's easy to give up.
Oh man, everybody's going to hell.
Politicians lie.
We know that.
We know that.
I can't trust anybody.
Well, you know, in the Bible, the Bible never tells you to trust a human being.
Nowhere in scripture does it say trust in the woman of your youth.
with all your heart.
No, it says trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Lean not in your own understanding, but in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your path.
Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us to put our trust in other human beings.
Your full trust can only be put in Jesus who never changes.
Are we living in perilous, dangerous times?
Yes.
If you don't believe it, just look at gun sales.
Crazy.
Are we not living in wicked times?
Yes.
When a state passes abortion, abortion all the way up to birth, that's wicked, folks.
From a biblical standpoint, I'm not talking politics.
Don't read it that way.
I'm talking about from a biblical standpoint, that's evil.
When a baby is coming out of the womb, you kill it.
But if somebody shoots the mama and the baby dies, it's double murder.
We have lost it and our hearts have become wicked and cold.
And God's word says, before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you.
I knew you.
Number five, don't stay silent.
Don't stay silent.
There are times you can speak up and you remain silent.
God will put you in positions where you can speak, as Paul said in Ephesians 4.15a, the truth in love.
I can speak the truth, hard truth, and smile and still love you.
I do it every week.
I do it every week and still love you.
I can disagree with you and still love you.
Don't be silent.
He says in the next verse, and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a what?
Testimony to all ethnicities, all nations, and then the end will come.
You say, Pastor, what does that mean?
That means we've got to preach the gospel, whether it's to our neighbor.
We've got to become the witness.
We've got to know what the gospel is.
We've got to know how to testify.
We need to know how to share our testimony with other people.
If we truly believe that there were two eternal destinations, one heaven for the righteous and one called hell for the unrighteous, if we truly believe that, we would witness to everybody that came into our presence
presence we would tell them about Jesus we would weep over a city that's going to hell we would weep over our family members no we've grown cold because of of increased wickedness in our world and we said well I can't I can't help you I'm going to heaven but I'm gonna get there even if you I'm gonna get mine's
I grew up with guys on basketball teams and football teams.
They would always say, I'm going to get mine.
I'm going to get mine.
Meaning they were going to be greedy.
We can't be greedy with the gospel.
The Bible says if the gospel is hid, it is hid to those that are lost.
Hid to those people that need it.
You can no longer be an undercover Christian in our society.
The times demand that you stand up, that you be a light, that you be a witness, that you know the gospel, that you know the word of God, that you get in it daily.
There is no excuse for not hearing the word daily when it's on your phone.
You got apps, man.
There's so much to teach you today.
We have to be that.
This gospel.
That's why our mission is to connect all people to the person, power, and purpose of Jesus.
That's why we plant campuses.
That's why we help church plants.
That's why we help missionaries.
That's why we build churches in Guatemala.
That's why we dug a well in Africa.
That's why we give to missionaries.
That's why we help church plants.
That's why we raise up people.
Because the gospel has to be preached.
And Jesus said, when you see all this stuff coming, it's just the beginning of birth pangs.
My wife and I, we had four children.
Well, she had them.
And I watched.
I'm glad I'm not a woman.
I don't want to be.
But how many of you know there were some birth pangs that fooled us?
Braxton Hicks.
Especially with Ethan, we were newlyweds there and now four and a half years later, we got this baby boy coming and sometimes this Braxton Hicks would fool us into believing that he was on the way.
I mean, the Braxton Hicks, you know, they're a little intense, but they're real far apart.
It's just the stretching.
But when those real contractions come, that real pain come, maybe we're in that time of that real pain.
When those contractions come, the real ones, they're stronger and eventually they get closer together.
And when they get about two minutes apart, you better be at the hospital.
What's the difference between somebody that's ready and somebody not ready?
When the real contractions come and they get close together, the ready person always has the bags packed.
The baby's room is ready.
The vehicle is gassed up.
They're ready to go to the hospital at any moment to give birth.
The person that's unready, man, they have to search for clothes.
They have to search for keys.
They have to search for the car.
They have to search for the baby seat.
They forget the wife and just drive to the hospital by themselves.
They're not ready.
Are you ready?
I want you to stand.
Are you ready?
Are you ready for the coming of Christ?
Are you ready if times get increasingly hard?
I'm not talking about having three days of water in your house and 18 days of food.
That's good.
I'm talking about are you spiritually ready?
Is your heart ready?
Is your spirit ready?
Do you have a firm foundation?
Paul said if we live, we live for the Lord.
If we die, we die for the Lord.
Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
He was ready, folks.
Because just as sure as Jesus came the first time,
On Christmas, he's coming a second time.
First time, he came as a gentle lamb.
The next time, he's coming as a roaring lion to judge the nations of the world.
Are you ready?
Let's bow our heads.
Lord, I just thank you for every person in this building today.
God, give us gospel, last days honesty to answer the question, am I ready?
Am I preparing?
Am I watching?
Am I looking?
Am I ready for his appearance?