0:00:00 - 0:00:25 OK. So one property of the end times is that we have, we're facing more situations with greater consequences. So, for example, uh COVID, there were a lot of things that came out with that through that. Um including the vaccine, but not limited to that um job choices where you live all that, all of a 0:00:25 - 0:00:50 sudden, um the worth of certain things drastically shifted all of a sudden by a lot and it sort of stuck that way. And so that's the pattern that we see today with a whole lot of things and that's only gonna accelerate and increase in frequency and in magnitude. And so you really should think about that 0:00:50 - 0:01:15 . I think it would pay dividends to think about that. Um There are a lot of things that you can do just once and it will permanently maybe terminally affect your life for generations. Now, at least decades, that has not been so much of a common thing. So 20 years ago, someone could decide to try certain 0:01:15 - 0:01:44 illicit drugs and not keel over from a fentaNYL overdose. But today, that's exactly what could happen on the very first time someone tries that. Right. Um in the past, uh, you could sample socially, try to word this well, uh, socially popular but radically different ideas on how to live your life. You 0:01:43 - 0:02:09 could sample that in the past and it wouldn't destroy your life. But today it will, it will destroy your life. If you, if you take a, a marble out of that jar, the odds are very high that you're gonna cause permanent damage. Um, and, or increase the odds of your early death. Well, um yeah, so it turns 0:02:08 - 0:02:35 out that with each passing day, it becomes much more important to develop the ability to accurately see consequences before they happen. And also to see choices that might not be obvious to all people. And as you develop the ability to do that or to develop the ability to find people who can do that 0:02:35 - 0:03:03 and listen to what they have to say to the extent that you're able to do this, you will have a profoundly different outcome in life or set of outcomes than those who do not. And that contrast is going to just keep increasing. So a lot of people are going to emerge, well, not numerically, but you will 0:03:02 - 0:03:29 see the advent of individuals who are living wonderful abundant lives in the midst of and against the the backdrop of gutted out, burned, over, burned to ashes society. And it will be like these people have won the lottery, except that's not a good analogy because lottery winners don't fare too well 0:03:29 - 0:03:56 in the long run. But you get what I'm saying, what do I mean? Well, you're going to see young men who, instead of wasting their time the way their peers did, they got busy prepping for life. They targeted a way to make money in a career and they optimize their young life to prepare for that career. And 0:03:55 - 0:04:17 they started making bank at a very young age. So, in a, in a world where their peers are probably never gonna own a car and may never move out of their parents' basements, they're gonna own a house and a car and be able to finance their wife to stay at home, having as many kids as she wants and homeschooling 0:04:16 - 0:04:44 them. And that contrast is going to be worlds apart, worlds apart, the life they have will be totally different than the life of those around them. We could go through this with a lot of uh like more narrow facets of life, those who grow their own food versus those who don't, those who learn the shadowy 0:04:44 - 0:05:11 background of uh different industrial complexes in our life like health care. Uh Well, military doesn't necessarily affect people unless you're dumb enough to join. Um I'm a veteran. So just so, you know, I'm not bashing my brothers and sisters. I'm just saying if you do that today, there's, you really 0:05:11 - 0:05:36 should have talked to someone before you made that choice. Um And on and on. So it's a light and, and night, it's a day and night light and dark kind of contrast and it will just keep increasing over time. So if you're a young person, you need to learn to figure these things out and find some mentors 0:05:35 - 0:05:57 or at least one look for people who understand things better than you do, who see more than you do and try to learn from them. You don't have to be weird about it. Although you'll find it an amazing thing. If you approach someone who knows more than you and say, hey, I'm looking for a mentor. Life is 0:05:57 - 0:06:16 crazy. You seem to have this or that figured out. Can we chat for a minute? Odds are that person is gonna actually take you out to lunch and tell you everything they know. Uh It's, it's shocking people who have figured something out. One of the, one of the greatest sources of joy for them is to help 0:06:16 - 0:06:35 someone else do the same with less pain, shorter path with less resistance. But uh it doesn't even have to be that direct. You don't even have to talk to somebody to learn from them. You know, you can go read a biography from someone and the chances are it's gonna be kind of dated at this point, but 0:06:35 - 0:06:57 you can watch a youtube talk by somebody, you know, you watch a TED Talk, you can watch just, there's tons of stuff out there you can read books. Um, there's a lot to learn and a lot of ways to do it. If you're an older person, you need to get serious about making life boats for your kids because the 0:06:57 - 0:07:17 sink, the ship is sinking. It's very obvious that there's a hole blown in the hull. And if you're just arranging the chairs on the deck, the failure of your Children, which is almost assured is going to be your own dame fault. And that's all there is to it. Now, what if you're late in the game, the kids 0:07:17 - 0:07:38 have flown the nest or your grandparent or whatever. And of course, grandparents, if they're not your kids, it's like, uh, they're kind of your monkeys but it's not your circus. Uh, you know, you do what you can because you never give up on the people we love and God never gives up on us. So do your 0:07:38 - 0:08:01 best and see what you can do. But the fact is that decisions matter more than they used to and they will only matter more as time goes on. It's time to figure out what the options are to really figure out what the consequences are before. Um, they're upon you and to make better choices and to stop pretending 0:08:01 - 0:08:22 like things are gonna get better or that they're gonna go back to the way they were because neither of those two things are gonna happen. They'll get better, but not in this system. This system is terminal and there's only one way this ends and your choice right now is to orient your life to walk through 0:08:22 - 0:08:44 the fire or to be burned up. Those are the two choices that are before us. So if you're still farting around deciding whether or not you actually want to obey God or not, it's getting late in the game and you're running out of time. That's a very simple choice. And if you know anything about God, it 0:08:44 - 0:09:08 should have been the easiest choice to ever make. That's the basics. That's the gate. There's so much more to cover. If you're still hung up on that, whether or not you want to obey God, you're on double overtime, whatever sports metaphor, you're out of time, you really need to repent. So, hopefully 0:09:07 - 0:09:09 that's helpful.