Grab a pen and notebook, or fire up your notes app… we don’t have fill-in notes this week.

Jesus’ first arrival here on earth looked a lot different than what his second coming will. What we find is the most unique birth story… ever! Because although Jesus became a human like us, He was still very much in a category of His own.

Nine months before there was a baby in a manger, there was a young virgin girl being told that she would conceive… and her child would be the Son of the Most High God.

This can’t ever be just a sweet Christmas story, because it’s so much more. We have got to know “Why the Virgin Birth Matters”.

The clock is ticking… and no one but God knows when time will run out. But it sure does feel like the end is near… really near. Which means that more than reading the headlines as just events happening around the world, we need to read them as a warning from God Himself… in what very well could be “The Final Warning.”

As we’ve been in the series, “The End”, we’ve looked at Israel… nations in the Middle East… Russia. All key players when it comes to prophecy.

But this week it gets personal. We’re looking inward rather than outward. And the thing is when you look at Scripture, there’s nothing written that makes a reference to this nation we live in.

Our country that has been a superpower for so long… nothing. So where do we fit into prophecy? Or as we’ll hear on Sunday, the better question to ask is “Will America Survive?”

The horror that started during the first 3½ years of the tribulation is only going to intensify. The wrath of God will be poured out and it will be terror like this world has never seen. The human mind can’t fully comprehend what “The Worst 3½ Years in Human History” will be like for those who don’t know Jesus.

The horror that started during the first three and a half years of the tribulation is only going to intensify. The wrath of God will be poured out and it will be terror like this world has never seen.

The human mind can’t fully comprehend what “The Worst 3½ Years in Human History” will be like for those who don’t know Jesus.

In the Bible, we see the unique relationship between God and Israel. They’re His chosen people. The Jews are the people that God’s own Son, Jesus, was born into. However, the enemy of God, Satan, has one mission. Destroy them. All through history, the devil has tried. But during the Tribulation, the target on Israel’s back is magnified like never before. The enemies of Israel will join forces and come at them in an invasion like this world has never seen.

One day, God will fulfill another promise He made. At a time no one knows, there’s going to be a shout that breaks through the sky, and in that split second, every single man, woman, and child who knows Jesus as their Savior is going to be caught up and meet Jesus in the air. This is amazing news for those who know the Savior but think about the rest of the world who doesn’t know Him. When every Christian disappears in that split second, God is going to remove all restraint on evil, and unimaginable chaos and evil is going to erupt on earth. May the upcoming events drive us to reach people and see them come to know Him.

This week we’re looking at the place that holds center stage during the end-times. It’s just one city in one small country. It’s less than 50 square miles. To bring it home, it has about the same number of people as right here in Columbus, Ohio.

It is a dot on the map.

But as Pastor Harrell brings the message on Sunday, we’ll see that when it comes to The End, Jerusalem isn’t just any city. It is literally Ground Zero. It all starts here, and this one city will hold the attention of the entire world.

We don’t know when the rapture of the church, the Antichrist, the tribulation period, and ultimately Jesus’ return will occur. But here’s what we do know. “The Stage Is Set!” Each day is one step closer. The question is are we ready? We need to ask ourselves if Jesus were to come back this year… this month… this week, what is He going to find us doing? The reality we face is that with every new day it feels more and more like the increasing labor pains Jesus spoke of as a sign of His return?