1. Illus: One of my favorite stories is told by Thomas Gillespie of Princeton University.
1. It's the story of a schoolboy who was at his desk late one afternoon, composing a report for his class.
1. Needing an appropriate introduction, the boy headed for his mother, who was scurrying about the kitchen, preparing the evening dinner.
2. Without warning, he blurted, "Mother, how was I born?"
3. Now mother had been expecting such a query regarding human reproduction from her boy, but she was hardly prepared to discuss the birds and the bees at this untimely moment.
4. So she put him off with the old saw, "A stork brought you."
5. The boy nodded and headed out to the living room, where his grandmother was knitting.
6. Again with no warning, he questioned, "Grandma, how was my mother born?"
7. But Grandma was a holdover from the Victorian era, and she wasn't about to touch this one with a ten-foot pole.
8. So, she too quickly explained, "My dear, the stork brought your mother."
9. "But, Grandma," the boy persisted, "how were you born?"
10. "Oh, the stork brought me, too," was her neat and tidy answer.
11. Thanking her, the lad returned to his desk, picked up his pen, and began the report with these words: "There hasn't been a normal birth in our family for three generations!"
2. The fact of the matter is, ladies and gentlemen, there hasn't been a normal birth on this planet for three generations!
3. Something is happening to human civilization in the waning hours of this millennium-and quite frankly, nobody's quite sure just what it is!
1. Ask any thinking man or woman anywhere on this planet tonight-and hands down the nearly unanimous and ominous observation will be the recognition that we are living in a most momentous hour of human history!
2. An unprecedented moment in this civilization-unprecedented in its explosive upheaval and change, unprecedented in its exploding proportions of human tragedy.
3. There hasn't been a normal birth for three generations!
4. Any way you want to stack it: Ecologically, economically, politically, morally, socially, spiritually--on the eve or brink of the neXt millennium we are facing a stupendous challenge as a human race.
4. It makes you wonder--could it be that we are no different than the Titanic-cruising mindlessly beneath a starry midnight sky, partying to beat the band beneath the decks-and all the while-could it be-ominous global warnings are mounting-danger, danger, destruction dead ahead.
5. Wake up, planet earth!

6. "The Titanic: Are We Next?"
7. Because on that fateful voyage in 1912, it was an hour before midnight on a cloudless and starry, starry night. [begin to run film sequence on screen]
1. There was no wind to speak of, and so the frigid, dark sea was utterly calm, like a plate glass mirror beneath the star-spangled heavens.
2. No moon either.
3. Just 2,235 souls crowded aboard the R.M.S. Titanic on that fateful night of April 14, 1912.
8. And so it was that while the band played on beneath the decks in the first class lounge and while the night watch paced the Bridge high above, the greatest maritime tragedy in the history of sailing stealthfully. silently awaited them in the ice-strewn midnight waters of the North Atlantic.
1. They were cutting through the night sea at approximately 22 knots/hr., when the survivors recalled a gentle shudder that briefly shook the 900 foot long vessel.
2. It came and went so quickly that nobody gave it much of a second thought.
3. Except for the occupants of the Bridge-who in the split seconds before that collision, saw the towering iceberg ahead, floating in their unlighted pathway.
4. The helmsman swerved to miss the berg-but they would have been better off to have struck it head on.
5. Because in narrowly avoiding a head-on collision, they suffered an even worse fate!
6. You see, with 3/4 of the iceberg beneath the still ocean surface, in swerving the Titanic brushed the iceberg's underside on the starboard (R) side of the bow, slitting a quarter of an inch wide opening more than 300 feet down the side of the vessel!
7. Like a titanic can opener the iceberg knifed open the side of the iron hull.
8. And the damage was just enough to cause the metal plates to buckle so that SIX watertight compartments began taking in sea water.
9. Illus: NOT EVEN GOD HIMSELF COULD SINK HER, had been the pre-voyage boast-so scientifically had this great sailing ship been constructed-with 16 watertight compartments in that 1/6 mile long hull, the builders calculated that even if FOUR of the compartments should burst, the ship would still float!
10. But on that starry, starry night-SIX of them exploded open and began to suck in the frigid water of the North Atlantic!
11. And as one researcher noted-almost mathematically the "unsinkable" ship was mortally wounded.
9. And in two hours she was gone.
1. Illus: Let me read to you from the eye-witness account of Commander Lightoller, one of the few crew who survived the tragedy-he's clinging to a capsized lifeboat:

"When [floating in the dark] I recognized my surroundings, we were full fifty yards clear of the ship....Lights on board the Titanic were still burning, and a wonderful spectacle she made, standing out black and massive against the starlit sky; myriads of lights still gleaming through the portholes, from that part of the decks still above water.

"The fore part, and up to the second funnel was by this time completely submerged, and

as we watched this terribly awe-inspiring sight, suddenly all the lights went out and the huge bulk was left in black darkness, but clearly silhouetted against the bright [starry] sky....This unparalleled tragedy that was being enacted before our very eyes, now rapidly approached its finale, as the huge ship slowly but surely reared herself on end and brought rudder and propellers clear of the water, till, at last, she assumed an absolute perpendicular position. In this amazing attitude she remained for the space of half a minute. Then with impressive majesty and ever-increasing momentum, she silently took her last tragic dive to seek a final resting place in the unfathomable depths of the cold gray Atlantic.

"Almost like a benediction everyone round me on the upturned boat breathed the two words, 'She's gone.'

"Fortunately, the scene that followed was shrouded in darkness. Less fortunately, the calm still silence carried every sound with startling distinctness....heartrending, never-to-be-forgotten sounds [of victims drowning all around us]....[T]here are some that would be alive and well to-day had they just determined to erase from their minds all memory of those ghastly moments...of that awful tragedy." (The Story of the Titanic as Told by Its Survivors, pp 299,300)

1. Of the 2235 occupants, 1522 met their death in those dark waters.
1. Most of the men, most of the third class, most of the crew, and all of the band.
2. 713 were rescued.
2. And the world has lined up for hours this year to relive their tragic story in the most watched movie ever in human history-WHY?
1. Could it be that Titanic is more than a tale about love and death of heart throbs Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio?
2. Could it be that there is a deep, subconscious sense the world over tonight that this tragedy at the beginning of this century is in fact a warning parable of an ominous, unnamed tragedy that hangs like Damocles' sword over our planet on the eve of the next millennium?
3. And all the while are we partying to beat the band?
3. Illus: The great Jewish writer Abraham Heschel penned: "The crack of doom is in the air, but the people, unperturbed, are carried away by a race to be merry."
4. You say, But that's a bit drastic, don't you think? But is it?
5. Illus: At the end of August I was in a bookstore and saw a new title that immediately caught my eye-I have it right here-1998 copyright-written by a seasoned journalist for Time magazine and the New York Times newspaper, Eugene Linden--The Future Is in Plain Sight.
1. But it is his subtitle that is most intriguing-"Nine Clues to the Coming Instability."
2. For 282 pages Linden meticulously lays out his case for why this planet is teetering on the brink of imminent global instability.
3. And he didn't say a word about American politics!
4. #1-the collapse of our integrated global economy, #2 the massive, unpredendented migration of the rural poor to the world's bursting cities, #3 not only urban but national and global over-crowding through population explosions, #4 the widening gap between the rich and the poor, #5 the ominous global warming and rising sea levels of earth, #6 the spreading collapse of the bio-ecosystems of life on this planet, #7 mounting water and food shortages from troubling climate changes, #8 the resurgence of spreading infectious diseases, and #9 growing radical, right-wing fundamentalism in all the world religions.
5. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize his ominous bottomline is true: We are rapidly headed tonight for global instability!
6. Illus: Remember Jacques Cousteau? He died a year ago.
1. The greatly admired French scientist and oceanographer and reknown undersea explorer who took all those truly breath-taking movies of the under-water world.
2. Jacques Cousteau-loved and admired by kids and grandparents the world over, also highly respected in scientific circles.
3. That's why the headline caught my eye, a few days after his death at 87: "Cousteau's memoir predicts early extinction for human race."
4. Cousteau had spent more than two decades putting together his 425-page autobiography in French, whose English translation title reads, Man, Octopus and Orchid.
5. Days after his death, his publishers rushed it into print in French.
6. And then it was that the world discovered a dark pessimism and alarm not heard before from this gregarious and beloved explorer.
7. His posthumously published words sound an ominous warning:

"The road to the future leads us smack into the wall. We simply ricochet off the alternatives that destiny offers: a demographic explosion that triggers social chaos and spreads death, nuclear delirium and the quasi-annihiliation of the species."

1. How long until this scientist's prophecy-like prediction of annihilation comes true--Cousteau wrote: "Our survival is no more than a question of 25, 50 or perhaps 100 years."
2. Reviewing the book, Francis Puyalte in the conservative daily Le Figaro wrote: The book "is a distress signal, an SOS. It's the work of a planetary sociologist deeply worried about the madness of man."
1. "There hasn't been a normal birth in three generations!"
2. On the brink of the next millennium, what on earth is going on?
3. Could it be that tonight, while the band plays one, there is a titanic tear that is slitting the hull of our civilization open-and all the economic and political and ecological watertight compartments in the world can no longer save us?
4. Illus: On the night of the Titanic disaster, one of the owners of the White Star Line was summoned to the communications room of the Titanic and handed a marconi-gram (much like our telegrams) they had just received from a ship somewhere in the evening ahead of the Titanic.
1. It was a communique, warning of icefloes and icebergs on the charted pathway of the luxury liner.
2. Do you know what the owner did? He took the telegram, folded it, placed it inside his tuxedo, and returned to party below.
3. If he had believed and followed the communique, they could have all been saved.
5. Makes you wonder, doesn't it-what if there were tonight a communique for the human race that could save us all from impending disaster?



1. I would like to submit to you, ladies and gentlemen, that in fact tonight there is just such a communique.
1. It-like Jacques Cousteau and Eugene Linden and Abraham Heschel and host of contemporary scientists and sociologists-not only warns of impending disaster-but this communique to earth tonight also offers a life-saving strategy for every inhabitant of this planet to survive the coming collapse.
2. Before you write this communique off, you'd better at least examine it like the owner of the Titanic did that fateful night.
1. Then, having read it, you may reject it, like he did.
2. Or you may decide that its compelling message turns out to be the very best news the human race could ever receive.
3. You decide.
3. And so tonight, I would like very much to put a copy of that communique directly in your hands, wherever you are in the world tonight-and let you read it for yourself.
4. Tonight I would like to draw your attention to a Book that is stirring up more than curious interest among both skeptics and believers alike.
1. A Book that has been weathered by 3500 years of examination and critique.
2. But while it is the most well-known and well-read Book in the annals of human literature, surprisingly its incredible secrets for unlocking the future and how to survive the next millennium with a new sense of security and hope and peace are not yet widely known by tonight's generation!
3. This communique has got to be the best-kept secret on earth tonight.
4. But it doesn't have to be-not for you and me.
5. Which is what the NeXt Millennium Seminar is all about-because THE TIME HAS COME FOR THIS GENERATION TO REVISIT THE COMMUNIQUE.
6. Nevermind what the generations before us have done.
7. I am not going to ask you to suspend your critical judgment and discernment, but I would like to ask you to set aside for a few moments the preconceptions you might have regarding this ancient document.
8. Whether you believe in God or not, as a thinking human being living on the brink of the next millennium, you owe it to yourself to at least examine this communique that will emerge over the next few moments and the next few evenings.
9. Fact of the matter is: you and I have nothing to lose, and we have everything to gain.
10. Because unlike the Titanic, WE DON'T HAVE TO BE NEXT.

1. In fact-this may come as a surprise to you-this ancient communique actually predicted tonight's Titanic generation!
1. The communique of which I speak is a solitary Book called the Bible-and for the next few moments I invite you to critically examine it.
2. Illus: Before we read a dramatic prophecy in the Apocalypse, the Bible's last book, read another single line that describes the last generation on earth!
1. A description ominously familiar thanks to the tale of the Titanic.
2. Open your NeXt Millennium Seminar Bible to a cryptic line in I Thessalonians 5:3,4 (p 1137).
3. Those of you who are with us via satellite, the lighting in your venue may need to be kept low, so we will display the quotations on our screens so you can join us as we read from the Bible.
4. Here at our university site we've provided everyone at the seminar a personal copy (NKJV), and so I will be giving page numbers to assist in our examination of the texts.
5. Page 1137-read I Thes. 5:3,4.
6. PLEASE NOTE-while it appears that life is coming up roses and the human race is partying beneath the decks, THEN SUDDENLY DESTRUCTION STRIKES LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT OR AN ICEBERG ON THE MIDNIGHT SEA!
7. "When they say, 'Peace and safety,' then sudden destruction comes!"
3. Jacques Cousteau and Eugene Linden and Abraham Heschel may be very right tonight!
4. Supposing they and this communique we're examining are right-HOW THEN SHALL WE LIVE?
1. The Book offers an urgent appeal.
2. Read the words of an ancient prophet named Amos-Amos 4:12 (p 890).
3. PREPARE TO MEET YOUR GOD.
4. A five-word imperative for the Titanic generation.
5. Living with the possibility of colossal global upheaval and sudden destruction, this communique issues an earnest summons: Get ready to meet your God!
5. HOW? The communique doesn't leave us in the dark there either!
1. In the light of this predicted generation, the Apocalypse-the Bible's last book-shapes an urgent HOW-TO message for this Titanic civilization!
2. You will hear it in the voice of a lone midnight angel!
3. Revelation 14:6,7 (p 1183).
4. [Note that "loud voice" in GK is mega phone, from when comes our English word, megaphone--obviously a very loud shout!]
5. But you might be thinking, What's so urgent about this message?
6. Take a look at what happens at the end of this message.
7. Read vv. 14-16.
8. Nevermind the apocalyptic symbols here-you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that those cryptic lines describe the end of human civilization--through the metaphor of a harvest.
9. Somebody is returning to the planet and history is abruptly brought to a cataclysmic end.
10. An end as real as the sinking of the Titanic.
11. But before the end, a message is sounded to every corner of the globe.
6. Illus: And it hardly seems coincidental that angels are used to depict the final message to this Titanic generation-after all, aren't we the generation that has gone bananas over angels?
1. Here in the West angels are a hot marketing commodity.
2. Even Hollywood has gotten into the act with "Touched by Angels" becoming one of the hottest Sunday night television programs here in the U.S.
3. Go into any bookstore, and the subject of angels occupies a whole shelf by itself!
4. They're everywhere tonight.
5. And according to this apocalyptic prophecy, they're also streaking the midnight heavens with an ominous summons to the human race-reread Rev. 14:6,7.
7. The pressing question tonight is, What is the meaning of this urgent message?
1. "FEAR GOD AND GIVE GLORY TO HIM."
2. Can you believe it-for a NO FEAR generation there comes a FEAR GOD message!
3. Illus: Our son Kirk is eighteen years old and moving on to college.
1. Four years ago he came back from the mall with three or four black and white T-shirts: All of them with giant red letters on them proclaiming two words: "NO FEAR."
2. I've got one of them right here-should've worn it tonight!
3. Because like the rest of his generation, Kirk has no fear.
4. He'll do anything, and love every minute of it.
5. Illus: When he was 13 we went to Great America: Six Flags Over Atlanta, which is an amusement park with some of the fastest roller coasters in the world--or so they brag.
6. He's the one who dragged me on the Wild Ninja--a corkscrew roller coaster that propels you 360 degrees through outer space at a force of a million G's per second (looking like the Russian cosmonauts on that first Sputnik flight!)
7. I chose not to go on it, under the pretext of wanting to get pictures of him on it! (Yeah, right!)
8. But when he jumps off at the end with a grin, "Common, Dad!" I had no choice but to defend my manhood and weakly grin, "But of course!" as my heart raced into tachycardia while they locked me into the red rocket!
4. We're living in the NO FEAR generation tonight-NO FEAR about unprotected sex, NO FEAR about unbridled adrenalin, NO FEAR.
5. Because there are millions tonight who believe in NO FEAR simply because they're resigned to NO FUTURE.
6. "Party on, Dude!"
7. Like there's no tomorrow.
8. Which is closer to the truth than any of us realizes tonight.
8. And yet what's so paradoxical is that for a NO FEAR generation comes an urgent FEAR GOD message!
9. And did you notice--it's fear GOD.
1. But-come on--who wants to know a God who apparently is Someone you're supposed to be afraid of?
2. FEAR GOD, we just read the words.
3. But before we write Him off too quickly you need to know that when the words FEAR GOD are used in this Book, it is actually compelling language that simply but earnestly means--TAKE GOD SERIOUSLY --DO NOT WRITE HIM OFF SO CASUALLY, SO EASILY.
4. Illus: Major league baseball is entering its grand climax in the World Series now-and the whole world watched as the homerun records of Babe Ruth and Roger Marris were shattered a few weeks ago by a St. Louis Cardinals slugger named Mark MacGuire-I happened to see that moment as MacGuire rounded third and triumphantly ran toward home plate after his record breaking home run #62-he pointed his index finger to heaven in a quasi-prayer, I suppose, of gratitude-later when he was interviewed, he thanked "the Man Upstairs" for that homerun.
5. Is that who God is? The Man Upstairs? The Buddy Next Door? some sort of celestial Santa Claus who gives us gifts-homeruns or otherwise--if we've been good?
6. Do you know how He's portrayed in this Book?
7. From page one He appears as the Creator of all life, the Source of all life, the Ruler of all life, the Judge of all life-the God of all gods, the King of all kings.
8. And not just on this planet, by the way-but throughout this solar system and galaxy and universe.
9. The supreme Being of the cosmos who alone is eternal and infinite and almighty and wise and good and just and holy.
10. And so to the Titanic generation tonight sounds the lone cry of a midnight angel, FEAR GOD AND GIVE GLORY TO HIM FOR THE HOUR OF HIS JUDGMENT IS COME AND END OF ALL THINGS IS NEAR-PREPARE, O EARTH, TO MEET YOUR GOD.
11. Ladies and gentlemen, any way you cut it, it is an urgent appeal to this generation on the brink of time to take God seriously.



2. So is it bad news or good news?
1. I want you to see how in fact it is the very best news you've ever heard!
2. Watch this!
3. We've just been told to give God GLORY, but do you know how this Book tells us how to do that?
4. Jeremiah 9:23,24 (p 738)
1. Beneath the surface there's something quite compelling in what we've just read!
2. Illus: The Hebrew word for "to know" is yada-here God is saying, I WANT YOU TO YADA ME.
3. What's so fascinating is that this is the very same word that is found in the great Adam and Eve story in the beginning of this Book.
4. Genesis 4:1 (p 3 )-"And Adam knew Eve his wife..."
5. She became pregnant!
6. Listen folks, you don't have to be an OBGYN or Dr. Ruth (the sex specialist) to figure out that the word yada or "know" is a codeword for describing the sexual intimacy between a husband and a wife, right? (Please note that the Bible doesn't resort to the "stork brought you" fable!)
7. Human sexual expression at its most intimate level in marriage is described as a deep and lasting "knowing" each other of husband and wife.
8. What's so fascinating is that God embraces that same language (the language of husband and wife) to describe what His own heart longs for with every human being: I LONG-He tells us through Jeremiah-- FOR YOU TO KNOW ME, EVEN AS I KNOW YOU-SO THAT WE MIGHT DEEPLY SHARE A VERY PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP TOGETHER.
9. God could hardly be more graphic and passionate in expressing His desire to share a friendship, a very personal relationship with every child on this planet--i.e., you and me!
5. Illus: Listen, if ever there were a generation on earth that finds its meaning in relationships, it is this one, isn't it?
1. GenXers, the twentysomethings of this civilization, place a very high premium on meaningful relationships, more so in fact than their Baby Boomer parents did and do.
2. Watch the heartbeat of MTV--and you will feel the throb of a passionate hunger for relationship.
3. Illus: Take Titanic's hit single from Celine Dion, "My Heart Will Go On"-what is that smash global hit about if not about the enduring passion of a relationship that lasts even beyond death's farewell?

"Every night in my dreams, I see you, I feel you./That is how I know you go on./Far across the distance and spaces between us/You have come to show you go on./Near, far, wherever you are./I believe that the heart does go on./And you're here in my heart./And my heart will go on and on./You're here, there's nothing I fear./And I know that my heart will go on./We'll stay forever this way./You are safe in my heart./And my heart will go on and on."

1. Because we all live in a generation that hungers for some sort of meaningful relationship that can go on...and on...even beyond the touch of death.
2. Which is why this Bible portrait of God is so profound!
3. Prepare to meet your God-is the urgent cry of an endtime angel.
4. IS THAT BAD NEWS OR GOOD NEWS? Well, it is VERY GOOD NEWS when we pause long enough to realize that the God who cries out PREPARE TO MEET ME is the very God whose deepest longing IS FOR US TO GET TO KNOW HIM AS HE KNOWS US!
5. Talk about a relationship that can last beyond death's cold touch!
6. Celine Dion is right-there IS a relationship that can go on and on!
1. Maybe Augustine, the desert sage, and Douglas Coupland, the GenX guru, maybe they were both right:
1. Augustine describes the God-shaped vacuum within every human heart tonight: "Our hearts are restless until they find rest in You, O God."
2. Douglas Coupland in his Life After God: "My secret is that I need God--that I am sick and can no longer make it alone."
2. Ladies and gentlemen, MAYBE BEHIND ALL OUR EXTREME AND FRENETIC FRENZY ON EARTH TONIGHT is in the end a desperate effort to fill the God-shaped vacuum that lies deep within every human mind and heart--no matter how apparently successful the life or rosey the future.
3. In a world that has written God off, there comes tonight the passionate and urgent appeal to take God in: "Fear God and give glory to Him."
4. To this civilization and generation comes a God with the offer of a FOREVER FRIENDSHIP WITH HIM.
5. Illus: NO WONDER HIS APPEAL resounds throughout this Book!
1. Look at Job 22:21 (p 496).
2. Who on earth doesn't long for peace and good?
3. Again and again, the invitation is simple, but the promise is profound: Get acquainted with God--Get to know Me--I want to be your Friend.
4. Illus: As the writer A. W. Tozer has put it:

"The whole outlook of mankind might be changed if we could all believe that we dwell under a friendly sky and that the God of heaven, though exalted in power and majesty, is eager to be friends with us." (Knowledge of the Holy 89)

1. Illus: United Airlines promises "the friendly skies"--but the skies are friendlier than United ever imagined--for "the God of heaven...is eager to be friends with us."



1. How much of a friend? JUST LOOK AT JESUS.
1. In closing I must share with you the most shining truth of this Book--it is this: the God of the universe is offering this generation tonight a friendship with Himself through Jesus Christ.
1. In a world of broken relationships and failed friendships, there is Someone who offers a FOREVER KIND OF FRIENDSHIP that will never fail you.
2. Your lover may have walked out on you, your spouse may have rejected you, your parents may have abandoned you, your children may have forgotten you, but there is Someone who offers you tonight a FOREVER KIND OF LOVE IN A FOREVER KIND OF FRIENDSHIP.
2. You must read it for yourself, the most profound verse in all the Bible--and no doubt the most well-known, as well--John 3:16,17 (p 1027).
1. Does that verse portray a God who is Somebody to be afraid of?
2. Oh no, my friend, read the story of Jesus, God's Son, for yourself.
3. And there discover the truth that GOD IS NOT SOMEBODY TO BE AFRAID OF, HE IS SOMEBODY TO BE A FRIEND OF.
4. "For God so loved the world [you and me] that He gave [us] His only Son."
3. Want to know what God is really like? One of His closest followers had the temerity to ask Jesus that very question the night before the crucifixion--Jesus' profound answer couldn't be any clearer--John 14:8, 9 (p 1043 )
1. Look at My life, Phillip--it is a portrait of God!
2. Everything I do, He is!
3. Read v. 7.
4. Want to know the truth about this God who offers you a forever friendship, my friend? Then take a look at Jesus in the stories of this Book!.
1. Want to know how God treats the children, want to know how God treats women, want to know how God treats tax collectors and prostitutes and other such sinners like you and me?--Then watch Him, watch Jesus and see for yourself the truth about God in the gospel story.
1. A story told four times in Matthew and Mark and Luke and John.
2. Because when you need to turn up the volume in a printed message, the best way to turn it up is to tell it over...and over...again.
3. And so God does, four times--the story about Jesus in the gospels.
4. It obviously is the most important story in all the Bible!
5. Read the story!
2. Want to know how God treats the guilty?--Watch Him, watch Jesus like a hawk as the religious leaders of the city throw the crumbled and weeping form of a young woman at His feet, a grown-up girl they caught in bed with a man not her husband, and so they ask Him to stone her according to their civil-religious laws, but Jesus doesn't flinch. Reading the guilty hearts of the prelates, Jesus asks for those without sin to cast the first stones, and since no one is without sin, they slink away, leaving Jesus alone with the girl with the runny mascara down her cheeks, and He quietly forgives her with the words: "Neither do I condemn you; now go and leave your sin behind."--read the Gospel of John chapter 8 if you want to know how God treats the guilty.
3. Want to know how God treats the social outcasts?--Then watch Him, watch Jesus like a hawk if you wish, as a man with leprosy (the medical and social equivalent of AIDS) comes stumbling toward Jesus, the ravages of the disease plain to every fleeing eye, but Jesus doesn't move and instead in loving compassion reaches out His hand and touches the pariah on his disease and cleanses him of his rejection--read the Gospel of Mark chapter 1 if you want to know how God treats the social outcasts
4. Want to know how God treats those who deny Him and betray Him and reject Him in the end?--Then watch Him, watch Jesus on the midnight eve of His death, as like a pack of fireflies the bobbing torches of a ruthless mob come streaming into an abandoned Garden called Gethsemane, as there at the front of the rabble comes the cold-hearted betrayer, one of Jesus' closest followers named Judas--and as Judas plants a wet midnight kiss upon the bearded cheek of his Master, Jesus looks into the heartless eyes of His betrayer, and do you know what Jesus calls him--you must read it for yourself--Matthew 26:47-50 (p 964).
5. He called him FRIEND, because mark it well, ladies and gentlemen-- even when He's rejected, God still longs for our friendship.
6. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son."
1. This is the God who is not Somebody afraid of--He is Somebody to be a friend of.
2. He is not Someone to run FROM--He is Someone to run TO.
7. Illus: Before I conclude this evening with a story, listen to some final words from God--Jeremiah 29:11 (p 760) [on the screen: "For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."]



2. Illus: The story was carried by the newspapers in the eastern United States, the report of a woman who was driving all alone late one night on an abandoned stretch of interstate highway.
1. Her midnight reverie was broken when she noticed in her rearview mirror the distant lights of an 18-wheeler truck approaching her from behind.
1. Like most truckers, this driver was barreling down the night highway.
2. When the truck was close behind her his blinkers went on as he prepared to pass her.
3. But as that giant rig got right up beside her window, suddenly for no apparent reason at all, she heard the air brakes of the truck whoosh on as the semi suddenly slowed down and pulled back behind her.
4. He was right on her bumper, those massive halogen headlights like two staring eyes peering into the cab of the woman's car.
5. She reflexively and nervously adjusted her rearview mirror.
6. Well, you know, when you're a woman driving all alone at night you could imagine about anything anymore.
7. But she calms her thoughts with the idea that perhaps he had decided to travel more slowly--and so she pressed the accelerator and decided to out run the truck.
8. But as she did so, she heard his mighty diesel engines roar in response and sure enough he was right on her bumper, his racing headlights blinding into her car.
9. Now her anxiety has heightened, but then it hits her--perhaps he needs her to slow down so that he can pass--and so she takes her foot off the accelerator and lets her car coast her speed down.
10. But to her now twinge of panicky fear, she hears the air brakes once again whoosh on behind her as the trucker also slows his rig down, so that he remains pinned, as it were, to her bumper.
11. The woman now is panicked, she must flee her attacker.
12. Desperately she slams down the accelerator and searches for the next exit, while the mad trucker behind her roars and races on her bumper into the night.
13. Finally in the distance a green exit sign begins to glow in the light of her brights.
14. With spinning tires she flies off that exit ramp, squealing around the curve and over the bridge.
15. She sees the white light of a gas station that appears to still be open.
16. But roaring and screaming right behind her is that mad truck that will not let her go.
17. She screeches into the gas station, leaps from her door, and cries out for the gas station attendant, even as that massive 18 wheeler locks its brakes as it roars into the station behind her.
18. The trucker leaps from his cab, and starts racing for the woman.
19. But when he gets to her car, he stops, grabs the back door, throws it open, reaches inside, AND PULLS OUT A MAN WHO HAD BEEN HIDING BEHIND HER SEAT.
20. Sometime in the night an unknown assailant had slipped into the woman's car, awaiting the moment when all alone he might attack her.
21. And in that dark night a trucker passed by and from his high vantage point looked into the woman's car and saw her hiding assailant.
22. SHE HAD BEEN RUNNING FROM THE WRONG ONE.
23. FOR THE ONE WHO WAS CHASING HER, WAS THE ONE WHO ALONE COULD SAVE HER!
24. She had been running from the wrong one.
2. On the brink of the neXt millennium, on the edge of eternity, could it be that like that woman there is a Titanic generation tonight that has mistaken the evidence and is running from the only One who can save us?
3. "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 [screen]
4. With a promise like that, can you give me one good reason not to accept His friendship?

Further Study:

We Can Believe the Bible     (Lecture Study Guide from Discover Bible School)

Topical:   The Bible,   Trust,   Belief.

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