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Advent Productions

Benjamin Ng

Occupy Till I Come

Father in heaven, thank you for this time.

Thank you Lord that you connect us all online through this medium that we're able to still come on fellowship.

And even as we're watching, we're watching together and we're so happy to see our friends and our family online together here.

I pray, Lord, that even if we're seeing other people for the first time in a long time, that we would renew some acquaintances of old and that we would reconnect with each other even though there's this social distancing at this time.

I just pray that you'd help us to be closer than ever.

And may your Holy Spirit bind us together with cords of love that cannot be broken.

And I pray that you pour out your Holy Spirit even upon us now.

Help us to understand the words that we're about to study.

May you please guide my lips, help me to only give glory to your name.

And Father, I pray at the end of it, we would all see Jesus uplifted in each of our hearts.

Help us not to look at the frail human instruments, Help us to look at the Word.

Help us to see Your message, hear Your voice speaking to us today.

Guide us, O Lord, please, and grace us with Thy presence now, we pray, in Jesus' name.

I'm sure for all those that are a bit older we remember this day.

I very, very, very much clearly remember where I was and whose car I was in, who I was with, what had just happened when I heard the news about when the planes hit the World Trade Center in the United States of America.

This was the first time in my life that I began thinking that the end of the world was about to come.

You know, the news was spreading fast, and of course there was some sort of an economic collapse over there, and it was George Bush that would stand up and say, you are either for us or you're against us.

I remember my brother preached a sermon about that and how US was flexing his muscles and it seemed like what George Bush was saying was a very much fulfillment of prophecy of what we read in Revelation chapter 13 And we began to realize that US was probably beginning to speak like a dragon.

It would be over a year later, a little over a year later that my life would change and change drastically.

I would move from IT into studying theology, but this was the first time that God began to speak to my heart.

A light bulb went on in my mind and things began to to pressure down on my heart and make me think even more.

Then in 2005, I remember I was in the Dominican Republic preaching an evangelistic series and I was on this mission trip.

I was preaching in person and over the radio and I had my translator there and I remember seeing on a little TV screen that Pope John Paul II had just passed away And the very next day I was going to preach on Daniel 7 and the revealing of the Antichrist You know, 1 of the things that flashed before me was Wow This is the end And I better really be careful about what I preach about and what I say, because I'm in a Catholic country, and I didn't want to make people hate me or attack the radio station where I was.

Things were flooding my heart and mind and then when they announced the new Pope and the Pope chose the name of Pope Benedict, well, of course, people began to speculate again about the end of the world and the end of time.

That word Benedict is short for benediction which means the end.

And I still remember my friend saying this is going to be the last Pope, he's the 1 that's going to usher in the second coming and when you look into his history and who he was, all sorts of ideas were coming up that would point us to the end of time and the end of the world.

Surely the mark of the beast was soon to come in.

2008, I was in the United States and I was working with a ministry there and the global financial crisis hit and it affected the whole world and that was the time shortly after that that I left the United States and I came back to Asia probably the best decision ever made because shortly after that I got married and still happily married to the love of my life today.

And yet it seemed like this crisis was going to bring the whole world to its knees.

And you know, when we talk about the global financial crisis and Revelation 13 and the mark of the beast, no man might buy or sell, People were speculating that the end time was here once again.

And then now here we are in 2020, we have this virus that's gone into a pandemic that's affected the whole world, that's affected many of our lives personally.

And we're going through this time in my life and I think in the lives of many, even those that have lived for a very long time.

Even Warren Buffett, he said that he's lived long enough to see so many things, but what's happening in the markets today is something new that he's never experienced before and he's over 80 years old.

We are experiencing something in this world that none of us have ever gone through before.

I've never experienced a lockdown before.

I've never gone through a time where I've had to be indoors for a month and not allowed to go out.

I've never lived in this time where people are fearful of being friends and talking to each other.

There's a social distancing that the minute you step out the door, people are wary of you.

I was going for a walk around in my condo and I saw 1 guy shouting out of his window at another guy.

I don't know whether they were friends or relatives, but he was like screaming at him, saying, I know that you've been going out, you've got to be careful.

And, you know, we're living in fearful times.

And, you know, I miss sitting in my car, I miss sitting on my motorbike, I miss shaking the hands of people at church, I miss going to church and wishing everybody a happy Sabbath and everybody replying at the same time, happy Sabbath.

I hear doomsday messages all over the place and the mark of the beast as soon to come, the little time of trouble as soon to start.

Look, friends, no man knows the day or the hour of Christ's appearing.

We can know when it is near, but every day is a day of preparation.

No man knows the day or the hour when the mark of the beast will come.

And so as we are going through and looking at all these events in our life history, you know, we got to be careful not to be sensational.

We got to be careful not to interpret every event as the end of the world.

However, we do have to look at these events and make us to realize that we are much closer to the end of time than ever before.

I want to invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 19.

If you were with us last week and you listened to my sermon on Matthew 24 and 25, it is 1 of those parables as mentioned again, but it's given a different perspective.

Luke chapter 19 and we're starting there in verse 12.

Please turn your Bibles with me to Luke 19 and verse 12.

He said, therefore, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.

And he called his 10 servants and delivered them 10 pounds and said unto them, Occupy till I come.

But his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us.

And it came to pass that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.

And so every single 1 of them received a talent each, and 1 gained 10, 1 gained 5, and then it comes down to that unfaithful servant in verse 20.

And another came saying, "'Lord, behold, here is thy pound, "'which I have kept laid up in a napkin.

For I feared thee because thou art an austere man.

Thou takest up that thou layest not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow.

And he said unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant.

Thou knowest that I was an austere man, taking up that I had not laid down, and reaping that I did not sow.

Wherefore then gavest thou not thy money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury.

And he said unto them that stood by, take from him the pound and give it to him that hath 10 pounds.

And they said unto him, Lord he hath 10 pounds for I say unto you that unto everyone which hath shall be given and from him that hath not even that he hath shall be taken away but those mine enemies which would not I which would not that I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me." So we know about this parable and there's these 10 servants and the citizens hated the king, this nobleman, who went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom.

But before he goes He tells his servant this 1 thing, occupy till I come.

What does it mean to occupy till Jesus comes?

How can we use our talents wisely in this time of waiting?

How can we make sure we use our time wisely in everything that God has given us?

From our money to our possessions, to our intellect and strength and mind.

How can we occupy until this pandemic, this COVID-19, this coronavirus is over?

Well, friends, the Bible tells us in Revelation 22, verse 11, that there's coming a time when these words will be uttered, He that is unjust, let him be unjust still.

He which is filthy, let him be filthy still.

He that is righteous, let him be righteous still.

And he that is holy, let him be holy still.

Friends, that is when our work on earth will be wrapped up.

That is a time when probation will have closed and that the destiny of every soul would have finally been decided.

That is a time when we get into the arc of safety and abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

That is a time when we run to the mountains in safety.

That is when the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God will then be of no avail.

That time we are referring to has not yet happened.

There is still a work for God's people to do today and we must occupy, as Jesus says, until He comes back for a second time.

Have you kept true to your commitment from last week to those that were listening?

Have you had a deeper walk with Jesus in this new week?

Did you have a deeper piety in your love, in your love for Christ and in your life?

Did you spend more time in prayer and in the Bible?

Did you try to share the Word of God with someone in your life in this past week?

Are you still praying for 5 people during the 40 days of prayer that God would bring light into their lives.

I want you to turn with me to 1 Kings chapter 20.

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Occupy Till I Come

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