HOLY GHOST EXTRACTION
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: QUALIFICATIONS
1. A man went to Washington D.C. to interview for a job at a bureaucracy. “What can you do?” asked the Human Resources interviewer. “Actually, nothing,” said the man.
2. “That’s wonderful,” said the bureaucrat, “then we won’t have to send you to reorientation training.”
B. THESIS & TITLE
1. Our men and women in military get a locator beacon when they go on a mission. This beacon sends out a signal telling where they are. Its signal is placed on a global terrain grid, and their position can be placed within a few feet.
2. If they need to be extracted, special teams are sent and when it’s safe, they locate the downed pilot and evacuate him/her back to U.S. territory. That is what happened in the case of Scott O’Grady.
3. Scott O'Grady was an Air Force fighter pilot who was shot down over Bosnia-Herzegovina on June 2, 1995. He ejected from his F-16 into hostile territory.
4. O'Grady radioed for help immediately but had to maintain radio silence while enemy troops searched for him, coming within a few feet of him. He had had to keep his radio beacon off while his enemies scoured the area for him. On his 6th night on the ground he made radio contact, and rescue plans were set in motion.
5. Two CH-53 helicopters with 51 marines from the 3rd Battalion lifted off USS Kearsarge, accompanied by 2 Supercobra gunships and 2 Harrier jump jets. When the choppers arrived at the location of O'Grady's beacon, the pilots saw bright yellow smoke from O'Grady’s flare. Within 7 minutes O’Grady was found and evacuated, making it back to the aircraft carrier in under an hour.
6. O'Grady received a Bronze Star and Purple Heart for his mission. The 2001 film “Behind Enemy Lines” is loosely based upon his experiences.
7. God has an extraction planned for His people, very similar to that of Scott O’Grady. So tonight’s message is entitled, “Holy Ghost Extraction.”
I. WHAT IS GOD’S EXTRACTION?
A. TIMING OF THE EXTRACTION
1. This world is becoming hostile territory for believers; it’s getting worse and worse. As we approach the End Times, the Man of Sin will arise and then will begin the seven years of Great Tribulation. God will pour out a series of plagues over the whole world. That’s when you & I don’t want to be here.
2. When the Man of Sin has comes, the time will have come where WE need an extraction. And the Holy Spirit will do it! The locator beacon of the Holy Spirit inside us will tell Jesus where every one of the Christians are. He won’t have any trouble finding us because “The Lord KNOWS them that are His” 2 Tim. 2:19.
3. So we ought to feel very safe – we can’t be lost! If we were lost at sea (“The sea will give up the dead that are in it” Rev. 20:13) or died in a foreign war – and our bodies were lost to our families, God knows right where they are! There are no MIA’s to God. He knows where every particle of your bodies are and will raise them up at the Last Day. Praise God!
B. HOW IS THE EXTRACTION GOING TO HAPPEN?
1. When things get too “hot” for us on this earth, God will send in His special forces (angels) who will I.D. His people, gather them together from all over the world, and remove them. What’s our destination? Heaven!
2. The Spirit of the Lord will play a vital role in our extraction. Our earthly bodies aren’t ready for heaven, so the Spirit will “quicken our mortal bodies,” transforming them to be like Jesus’ resurrected body ([He] “will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body;” Phip. 3:21, Rom. 8:11).
3. This won’t be the first time God’s ever done extractions. He did them for Enoch (Gen. 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kgs. 2:11), although there are some differences between theirs and ours.
4. Paul described our extraction like this, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” 1 Thess. 4:16-17.
II. THE EXTRACTION IS BASED ON GRACE
A. WE’RE ALL INVITED – IT’S OPEN TO ALL
1. All are invited to be evacuated. You don’t have to be a certain rank, or economic class, or I.Q. level to qualify. There are no limitations, quotas, barriers – everyone – rich or poor, educated or illiterate, male or female, nationality or whatever background – everyone is invited!
2. Aren’t you glad you don’t have to be a “Who’s Who?” Or a “Big Wig,” a VIP, a celebrity, a “big cheese,” a big gun, or “big wheel” to get to go? And we all get first class seats!
3. And you don’t have to go to a specific location. Wherever you are in the world, Jesus will come to that location to extract you; mountaintop or island in the Pacific! YOU ARE A CANDIDATE!
B. THE ONE REQUIREMENT
1. Now there are many people who mistakenly think they’re ready for the extraction, but they’re not. The Lord said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Matt. 7:21-23.
2. On the other hand, there’s many others who feel that they’re unworthy to be chosen to be extracted. They feel too sinful or that God doesn’t love them. They are also wrong.
3. There is ONLY ONE REQUIREMENT for being part of the extraction: you have to have surrendered your life to Jesus Christ and been washed in His blood. The blood of Jesus turns aside the wrath of God against sin (the word is ‘propitiation’). Paul said in 1 Th. 5:9, “God did not appoint us to suffer wrath.” The Lord Jesus said, “Repent and believe the Gospel” (Mk. 1:15). YOU CAN BE FORGIVEN!
4. John said, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness…. and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin” 1 John 1:7-9.
III. INCENTIVE FOR EXTRACTION
A. PEOPLE WILL BE SHOCKED BY THE EXTRACTION
1. One glorious day an entire generation is going to experience the Great Disappearance! Every person who’s walked with God will vanish in a split second. Those who didn’t walk with God will be left.
2. A man will leave for his office in the morning. While he’s gone, the trumpet will sound, and his wife will be instantly taken to heaven. He’ll come home and she and his children will be gone.
3. People will wonder what happened to their family members. They’ll call their neighbors and friends, but they won’t have any answers.
4. Deep down, we all know that there’s a God, and that He will punish the wrongs someday, and reward the righteous. That’s why we’ve set up courts to do the same thing now; there is right & wrong; God will reward & punish some day.
5. There’s some of you who don't think anything will ever happen. Noah preached about the flood to his generation and offered them a place on the Ark, but they wouldn’t listen and all drowned.
6. The Lord Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man” Mt. 24:37. How sad. Jesus told us that in the Last Days worldwide judgments will fall, but if we listen, we can be spared (Lk. 21:36). WILL YOU IGNORE THE SUMMONS?
7. But what about you? Will you be extracted? When Jesus comes, will He take you to heaven?
B. PREPARATION IS EXPECTED
1. “And that servant who…DID NOT PREPARE HIMSELF or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes” Luke 12:47.
2. To all Christians, just because Jesus is our passport doesn’t mean we should make no preparation for the extraction. “A tree is known by its fruit.” If you’re saved, it ought to show.
3. “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord” Heb. 12:14. God can’t have fellowship with unrighteousness. “And, let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity” 2 Tim. 2:19.
4. In speaking of the extraction, the Apostle John said, “And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure” 1 John 3:3.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: IGNORING GOD’S WARNING!
1. The people of Martinique sent representatives to that smoldering volcano, Mount Pelee, to see what the condition was. They returned and gave false reports and the city slept on, in all its vice/ sin.
2. Nature took warning and the reptiles commenced crawling down the mountainside, birds left their nests, and the cattle and the sheep took warning. But the people ignored the warning.
3. Then old Mount Pelee exploded and about 40,000 people perished. They heard the warning too late.
4. The Lord Jesus Himself said, "Watch therefore, for you don’t know the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man is coming."
B. THE CALL
1. Not everyone wants Jesus to come back! Harry Ironside was preaching in Stockton, California about the coming of Jesus.
2. After the message he went to greet the people at the door. A woman came up to him & said, "How dare you pray like that – ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’ I don't want Him to come. It would mess up all my plans. How dare you!"
3. He said, "Lady, Jesus is coming whether you want it or not!" True! He’s Coming, ready or not!
4. What about you? Can you sincerely pray "Come, Lord Jesus"? Or is there something in your life which isn’t ready?
5. Prayer for forgiveness of sins & new commitments for obedience and spiritual growth.
