Revival '26 Session #2: Judgment Day (Revelation 20:11-15) | Louis Azuma

Speaker: All right, well, for those of you who might not know me, my name's Lewis.

I'm the student ministry director at North Texas, and I'm excited to be here.

We are gonna be in everyone's favorite book, the Book of Revelation.

All right?

So buckle up, 'cause we're, we're going there.

So we are going to be in Revelation chapter 20.

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

And so maybe this week when you've been thinking about revival, right, maybe

you're thinking, "Oh, it makes sense to, to do a revival on God created

because creation is such a big deal, and

creation and evolution, all that stuff."

And maybe you think holiness, because that's who God is, and

that's super important.

But, but why justice, right?

Well, maybe, just maybe, justice might be the most important

thing you need to worry about

Justice might be the most important thing, the most relevant thing about God to you.

And the reason I might say that is because every single one of

us will experience God's justice.

God's justice will matter to you and to me forever, because God's justice

is gonna determine our forever.

It's gonna determine where you go forever, where you spend

the rest of your existence.

It's gonna determine where I spend the rest of my existence.

So this morning's sermon, uh, it's not much of a good morning

and welcome to camp sermon.

This is, this is a big deal sermon.

You can probably tell by, by the title on the screen behind me.

This is a big deal.

We're gonna be talking about the end of the world, okay?

So Revelation 20:11-15.

Revelation 20:11–15

All right?

I'm just gonna read it for us a- and set the scene of, of what, what's happening.

I've got it on the screen if you don't have a Bible, but I'd prefer if you

looked at your own Bible a- and, and put your eyes on it in Scripture.

All right?

Verse 11, "Then I saw," I is John, the, the apostle, and he's having a vision.

"I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.

From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.

And I saw the dead, great and small," right?

That's not large and short.

That's important and unimportant.

"Standing before the throne, and books were opened.

And another book was opened, which is the book of life.

And the dead were judged by what was written in the books

according to what they had done.

And the sea gave up the dead who were in it.

Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one

of them, according to what they had done.

Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the second death, the lake of fire.

And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he

was thrown into the lake of fire."

This is a scary scene.

And so to help us digest it, let's, let's pray together one more time,

and then we'll, we'll explain more about what that looks like.

So join me.

We'll talk to God, and we'll, we'll get ready to unpack this.

All right?

Father, you will judge everyone.

You, you said that all of us are gonna die and face judgment.

And so I-

Whether we believe it's true or not, whether we like it or not, whether we

want to be with you or not, we will.

We'll either be with you enjoying your presence

So I pray right now that you help us to open our hearts

to be ready to hear from you

So in this scene, what's happening here in Revelation chapter 20 is

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

there, there's a scary moment, right?

And John, he sees a big white throne, right?

Great, important, powerful, mighty, majestic, right?

This is a big deal.

This is, in fact, the biggest deal in the whole world.

In fact, such a big deal, I don't know if you saw that at the very beginning in

verse 11, it's from His presence, earth and sky, right, earth and heaven, they

run away because this is God, right?

I don't know if you remember you were here last year.

We talked about God is holy.

This is God.

The very fabric of creation is ripping apart because God is here in this moment.

He is there to, to recreate the world, to, to get rid of the old creation broken

by sin and bring about the new creation.

The next chapter of Revelation says, "Then I saw a new heaven," right?

"A new sky and a new earth."

Right?

This one's gone.

The new one is coming.

And then John, he sees the dead in verse 12.

The, the important ones, right?

The billionaires, the kings, the emperors, the explorers, the people you

read about in your history textbook, and the regular people, right?

Me and you, people that you've forgotten about, all the billions of people that

have thought the same thoughts as you and, and done the same things as you.

Doesn't matter who you are, they're all equal before the throne of God.

No one has any extra credit before God.

Everyone's on the same playing field.

Everyone is judged by the same books, right?

There's books, and they're judged by what they have done.

And there's no hiding from this judgment day, right?

Verse 13, the sea, if you think about it, I don't know if you've ever been

in an airplane flying over the ocean.

You ever wondered how many-- This is maybe a scary thought or maybe a morbid thought,

but have you ever wondered how many dead people are at the bottom of the ocean?

Have you ever thought about that?

I remember I flew to Japan one time, and I looked down, and I--

it is miles of, of black ocean.

And I thought about all the explorers, all the people from, from all the

centuries, all the Pacific Islanders that decided to, to, you know, be

like Moana and go out and see, you know, the, the, the sea, it calls me.

I just gotta go see what's over there, right?

All the people that no one knows, they just disappeared, right?

They didn't have Apple Map, they didn't have Find My Friends, they're gone.

Well, those people don't escape God's judgment either, right?

And, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in de-- Uh, there's

no one that escapes this judgment.

And then if dying once wasn't hard enough, there's a second death, right?

The lake of fire.

This is a scary scene, and, and that's our first point this morning.

I want you to see that God's judgment is scary.

God's judgment is scary.

This isn't just a dream.

This isn't just a movie.

This isn't just something that, that people try to freak you out with because

they, they want you to listen to them.

This is real, and this is a big moment.

This is the biggest moment, a big deal.

And I want us to all feel the right way about this.

It's easy, you know, we're, we're at camp, we're dressed up like

superheroes, we're running around collecting glow sticks, we're having

fun, but there's, there's a real sense in which your eternity, the rest of

your existence hangs in the balance.

A, a once for all moment that's gonna decide, are you gonna

be in the lake of fire, or are you gonna be not with the Lord?

Some of you probably aren't scared enough.

Some of you, this isn't real.

This is just there.

This is something your parents told you about.

This is just something that, that maybe you think is in an old

book that doesn't really matter

We all need to feel the right way about this, right?

When John is having this vision, he's not like, "Oh, that's cool.

I'll just write about it and see if I can write a bestseller," right?

Or, "I'll see if I can produce it and, and make some money off it."

No, when John sees this, he is on his face.

When he sees Jesus in Revelation chapter 1, he falls on his

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

face as though he's dead.

God is a big

And maybe you're thinking, "Well, I, you know, I can't wait till, till,

uh, we get to the, the good part of the sermon and the encouraging part.

We sing all these songs about how, uh, uh, going, you know, I, I'm saved

and all-sufficient merit, and it covers my sin, and His mercy is more.

Praise the Lord."

I don't want you to move on too quickly from the

uncomfortability of God's judgment.

I want you to, to sit there in, in a moment and, and think about what if that-

That's people, real people.

This isn't just people in a story.

These are real people that will go into the lake of fire.

Some of them might be in this room.

Some of you on this day might hear, "Depart from me, I never knew you."

This is a real moment.

And so before you, you apply your, well, God is good and his mercy is

more, I want you to realize that God doesn't show mercy to everyone

You don't just qualify for God's mercy because you showed up at church tonight,

or because you sang a worship song, or because your parents go to church, or

because you believe that God is real

But maybe your question is, "I, I don't know how a, how a good God could do this.

I, I don't know how a good God could, could send someone to hell."

Right?

It's a lake of fire.

It's forever.

How could we say God is love and God is good all the time,

and all the time God is good?

Well, that's not-- That seems like a totally different person

than the person you're talking about with us in Revelation 20

Well, the great news about God's justice is because He's good

that He punishes sin, right?

The reason God does this, the reason God sends people to hell is He's a good God.

God gets rid of all the bad stuff because He's good.

If you think about it, we all know there's things wrong with the world.

Actually, when I-- I, I remember one time I was sharing the gospel with one

of my coworkers, and this is actually where I started, which is usually

where they don't tell you to start.

They don't tell you, you know, they don't start with, like, the problem of

evil when you're sharing the gospel.

This is what I did.

And it actually was really helpful because everyone knows the world is messed up.

Everyone…

You just watch the news for two minutes.

There is a ton of bad things happening, and we say, "God, do something about it."

Right?

We want God to stop all the murderers and, and all the people doing bad things

to kids and all the natural disasters.

We wanna stop God doing all those things.

But where do you want God to stop?

If, if you want the good God to get rid of those bad things and those bad people,

what about the bad people who are selfish?

What about the bad people who are lying?

What about the bad people who are gossiping?

What about the bad people who are like us?

Where do you want God to stop getting rid of bad things?

When do you want the good God to get rid of the evil in the world?

Do you want him to get rid of some of the evil or other people's evil?

What about

So if we want the good God to get rid of all the bad things in the world,

guess who he's gonna get rid of?

Me and you.

So God's justice is because He's good.

We want a God who hates sin, right?

If, if you didn't have a God who hated sin and, and someone came to your

house and stole all your stuff, and God was like, "Well, you know what?

Uh, I'm good, so I'm just gonna forgive him and let him go."

I don't want that God.

You don't want that God.

We want a, a good judge.

We want a God who hates sin, who it matters to Him when bad things happen.

And so if you say, "How can a good God send people to hell?"

Well, a good God would send people to hell.

The problem is, is we don't realize that we're the ones who are bad

God's the hero of the story.

Where, where does it go?

So the reason God sends people to hell is because He is good.

If you are good, you are going to hate evil, right?

Just like all of our superheroes here.

They, they hate evil because they are good

Now, I have to say this because there's, there's popular people that, that

disagree with this, but hell is forever.

Hell is not temporary, right?

There's, there's some people who claim to be Christians, and, and

maybe they are, maybe they aren't, but they, they say that God destroys

people in hell, and then they're done.

They stop existing.

And I don't think that's what the Bible teaches, and I don't

want you to think that either.

If you look at Matthew twenty-five, I think it's fairly straightforward.

Matthew twenty-five verses forty-one and forty-six.

This is Jesus talking.

He says, "Then he," the judge, right, Jesus, "will say to those on his left,

'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal,'" right, eternal, not

the limited amount of time, "'fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'"

Lasts forever, right?

Eternal conscious torment.

And then verse forty-six, "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but

the righteous into eternal life," right?

So you see the, the parallel there?

Eternal punishment, eternal life.

Eternal life lasts forever.

Eternal punishment lasts forever.

So if anyone ever tells you, "Well, hell's not gonna be that bad 'cause

it's gonna be over," not true.

Or maybe, "Hell's gonna be a big party with my friends."

You ever heard anyone say that before?

Not true, right?

There's no partying in hell.

So hell is forever, and, and there…

If you think that's too big of a deal, then I think you don't

think God is as big a deal

If you think hell is overkill for sin, then I don't think you think

God is who he really says he is.

If God is really so good, so amazing, so worth- worthy of living

for, of course, sinning against him deserves eternal punishment

because he's eternally incredible.

And so, uh, a sin against an eternal God deserves eternal punishment.

So maybe you're uncomfortable with the idea of hell, and,

and that's okay in a sense.

I, I understand why you'd be uncomfortable because we don't wanna

say, "Well, I'm better than you," right?

But it's not about, it's not about us being better than

someone when we talk about hell.

It's about God and His honor and His glory.

And God's glory is so great that when we sin against Him, it

demands, uh, an equal response

If you think about it, like let's say you, um, let's say

you slapped your sibling, right?

You get, you get in trouble.

You get punished for that, right?

But then let's say you slapped your parents, right?

That's a bigger, bigger punishment for that same crime, same hand

motion, bigger punishment.

Let's say you slapped the president, right?

You might, you might get shot, right, before you even slap the president, right?

See how the same crime against a different person has a bigger punishment?

So what if you slapped God, right?

That's what we're talking about here.

Same crime, bigger punishment because of a different person

you're committing it against

So some of you in the room, if, if you're someone who says, "I

don't think God exists," or, "I'm not a Christian," or, "I'm not a

Christian yet," I, I do want you to sit in this, that judgment is scary.

It's a big deal.

And, and don't just say, "Oh, well, it's okay.

I'll, I'll do it when I'm older, or I'll forget about it," or, or

just start scrolling on your phone and-- which you don't have, and,

you know, and, and just distract

We don't just move on from this reality that people, maybe

you, are really going to go

Real people that you know, that you talk with at school, that you've

had lunch with, that you've been in science class with, are gonna

be eternally under God's wrath.

And you should feel something about that.

You shouldn't just be like, "Oh yeah, whatever.

It's okay.

No big deal."

You should feel something.

There's a, there's a heaviness about that

But maybe you're in the room and you're saying, "I'm a Christian.

I'm, I'm-- I sang His mercy is more and I meant it 'cause I know it.

I'm forgiven.

Should I still be scared of God's judgment?"

Well, yes and no, right?

Let's look at Matthew ten.

Here's what Jesus says in Matthew ten: "Don't fear those who kill the body."

He's talking to the disciples, right?

"Don't fear those who kill the body," so don't be afraid of

people, "but cannot kill the soul.

Rather, fear Him."

So even if you are a Christian, there is a sense in which you should fear God

You should fear God, not the same way an unbeliever fears God.

You, but you should fear God in, in a, in some sense.

But what does that look like?

Well, one of the ways that has helped me think about it is thinking

about, um, thinking about my dad.

So my dad, um, is-- he grew up in Japan, and he is a black belt

in three different martial arts.

And, um, he, uh, he sent me a picture of his master, his,

you know, at his dojo in Japan.

His master has, like, a knife scar going through his eye.

And I was like, "You learned martial arts from the right person."

Well, hope-- I, I don't know what the other guy looks like, so maybe this,

maybe his master's actually a loser and got beat up by dude with a knife.

But I'm assuming my dad is legit.

I've seen my dad…

Like, so there's this…

My dad teaches a martial arts class.

There was this college guy who did wrestling in high school for, you know,

four years, whatever, and he was like, "Oh, I think I could, I could take you."

And so my dad and him, they, they did a, like a judo, you

know, wrestle session, and my dad totally, like, headlocked the guy.

And I was like, "You're legit.

You know what you're doing."

Whenever I'm with my dad, like we went, uh, w- one time we were on

a trip in a different country, and when I was with my dad, I felt safe

because my dad is scary, right?

Whenever I'm on the playground, you know, I was in elementary

school, I was like, "Yeah, my dad can for sure beat up your dad.

I am one hundred twenty percent sure my dad could beat up your dad."

Right?

So my dad was, was a little scary, right?

I remember one time, um, our neighbor's dog jumped over the fence, and I was

little, and it was a big dog, and he started, you know, barking at me.

I don't know if they were happy or not.

My dad comes out with a hammer.

I was like, "Oh my goodness."

And the dog ran away.

Dog, dog was smart.

Dog ran away, right?

But my dad is scary.

Am I afraid of my dad?

Well, what do you mean?

Am I afraid that he's gonna take out a hammer and then

bash me over the head with it?

No.

Right?

Am I afraid that he's, he's gonna beat me up?

No.

But I know he could, and I know

Me?

He will

So there's a sense in which I'm not gonna mess with my dad, right?

I, I'm not gonna, gonna provoke my dad.

I'm not, I'm not scared that he's gonna do it to me necessarily,

but I know he could, right?

And there's a sense in which, you know, if you're, you're hiking,

you look over the cliff and remind yourself, "Oh yeah, that could be

me if I fall over the edge," right?

So I'm not ter-- I talk to my dad, I hug my dad, I love my dad.

But there is a sense in which, yeah, he's, he's a big deal

and he knows what he's doing

So in a, in a sense, yes, you, if you're, even if you're a Christian,

you, you shouldn't be like, "Oh, yeah, God's judgment's so great.

I love it," all the time.

You shouldn't be, you know, slapstick and, and happy about it all the time.

You should have a sense of heaviness and weightiness of, of what your Father can do

But also Christians are accountable for their works.

I don't know if you've, you've thought about this before, but Christians are

held accountable for what they do.

Even if you're a Christian, even if your sins are paid for, you will

stand before God, and He will hold you accountable for what you've done.

It's on the back of your Revival shirt, right?

2 Corinthians five ten: We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and

give an account of what we've done in the body, whether good or evil, right?

And that's Paul writing to the church in Corinth, to Christians.

Pastor Caleb mentioned this verse yesterday, and you're

memorizing this second verse here.

Ecclesiastes twelve fourteen: God will bring every deed, every deed

into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Whether you trust in Jesus or not, you will be accountable for your works.

And then Romans fourteen twelve, which you should have

memorized by tomorrow at dinner.

Each one of us-- Paul's writing to the church in Rome.

Each of us will give an account of himself to God.

So even if you're a Christian, you will stand before God.

You will stand before God a-and have to answer for how you spent your

time, how you used your car, how you did your homework, how you talked

to your parents, what college you decided to go to, how you played

your sport, how you spent your money.

You will have to answer to God for the things He gave you, right?

We see Jesus tell parables about it.

He, He gives His servants money, and He says, "Do something with it."

And He holds them accountable.

Now, the reason He holds them accountable is to reward them, right?

He's still for them.

But there is a sense in which you should feel that, "Oh, my Father

expects me to do something with the resources He's given me.

He wants me to.

He's given me time.

He's given me energy.

He's given me Bible knowledge.

He's given me friendships.

He's given me relationships at school, or at home, or in the church

for a purpose, and He's gonna hold me accountable for those things."

He's gonna say, "How did you invest the resources that I gave you?"

So all of us are going to stand before the Lord.

We're all gonna stand before His throne

And that's really part of the reason that it's scary, right?

Is the second reason is that God's judgment is inevitable

If your brain's on superheroes like mine is, I know what you're

thinking when I say inevitable

Right?

God's judgment is inevitable

You can't escape God's judgment

Believing God doesn't exist doesn't mean you escape God's judgment.

Growing up in the church doesn't mean you escape God's judgment.

Being a good kid doesn't mean you escape God's judgment.

Knowing a lot about the Bible doesn't mean you escape God's judgment

God's judgment is inevitable.

There's different ways we try to avoid God's judgment, right?

Maybe it's just not that we're thinking, "Oh, you know, one day I won't have

to," but in the moment, we don't wanna think about God's judgment, right?

Maybe we try to hide like Adam and Eve did.

We hide and, and we say, "Well, I- I'm just gonna not tell anyone about my sin,"

and we pretend like God doesn't see it.

We say, "Well, if I don't say anything about my sin, then, well,

no one's ever gonna find out, and I, I guess I'll worry about it later."

Right?

Keeping sin in the dark is actually just gonna enslave you to it further.

If you hide your sin, that doesn't help you at all.

It actually makes it worse.

It, it makes you more afraid of God's judgment.

So hiding your sin does not help you escape God's judgment, neither does

forgetting about it or trying to move on.

I don't know if you've ever done that before.

I know I have.

You sin, and then you just say, "Oh," you feel horrible about it for

a bit, and you just try to move on.

You try to just do the next thing on your calendar, the next thing in your day.

You forget about it.

You hear a convicting sermon at camp, and you're like, "Well, I'll

just make it through small groups.

I'll go to lunch.

I'll play some kickball, and I'll forget about it.

I don't need to worry about it anymore."

Time doesn't forgive your sin

Your t-- the, the amount of time, let's say you, you sinned really bad two

weeks ago and you forgot all about it.

Two weeks later, if you haven't taken that sin to God, you're still just as guilty.

You're not less guilty because it's been two weeks or two

months or two years or 10 years.

Time does not take away your guilt before God

Hosea 7:2 says, he's talking about Israel, he says, "They do not consider

Hosea 7:2

that I remember all their evil."

I don't know if you, you've ever thought about this, but if you're

not a Christian, God knows every single sin you've ever done.

All of it.

He's not forgetting about it.

Every time you've been selfish, every time you've been prideful, every time

you've gossiped, every time you've had impure thoughts, every time that, that

you've looked down on God, every time that you've been lazy, every time you

disrespected your parents, e- all, all of the, the sins are before the Lord.

And He will judge you

And that's what Hosea 17, their deeds surround them.

Right?

If, if you have not put your trust in Jesus, it's, it's almost like your, your

sinful deeds are-- They're just all…

They're just like you're wearing them like a backpack, and it's getting

bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.

Or maybe it's hanging over you like a cloud, and it's just

growing and growing and growing.

And if you don't do anything with your sin, if you just try to forget

about it and move on, God sees all of it, and He remembers it

And that's what makes the gospel such good news, right?

Is because Jesus can take away from it.

He can take all of it away.

It's gone.

No more.

But if you haven't trusted Jesus, it's still there.

Doesn't matter if it was 10 years ago or 10 minutes ago, it's all there.

Maybe we try to avoid judgment by making excuses, right?

I know I do that.

"Oh, but God, you don't know what my siblings are really like," right?

Uh, y- if I just, you know, if, if the Bible was easier to understand,

I, I, I would, I would love you more.

Or, uh, if, if I- I'm just…

The people at school and all, all of that, just I, I really like that or, or,

"Oh, but you just made me this way, God.

I have to do this.

I'm just an angry person," or, "I'm just a, I'm, I'm just, uh, this

type of, of, of way, and I just…

I'm more prone to this type of sin."

We make excuses, or maybe we say, "You don't understand what it's like

to, to live in, in this time period, in this place with these people."

And God's standard is the standard for all people at all times, and God

knows exactly what your life is like.

But God will still judge you, even no matter how much

you try to shift the blame.

Maybe you compare to avoid God's judgment.

You, you don't wanna…

You try to minimize God's judgment by saying, "Well, everyone else is doing it.

Well, I, I don't do.

I'm not as bad as that person."

And we try to say, "God, your judgment shouldn't be as harsh on me."

Right?

It's like when you're driving and everyone else is speeding, so you're

speeding, and you're the one that gets pulled over, and you're like,

"Well, they were all speeding."

Like, well, you were still breaking the law, right?

Maybe we try to make up for our sin to avoid God's judgment.

Maybe we try to, try to say, "Well, I sinned really bad, but I,

this, I'm gonna make sure I read my Bible every day this week."

Or, "I, I, I, I, you know, I have all this sin in my life, but I'm gonna try to

be really kind to, to people at church."

That doesn't take away your sin either.

You can't make up for your sin.

You can't work your sin out of your life and, and try really

hard to get it to go away.

That doesn't help you escape God's judgment.

We talked about this last year, right?

You, you don't clean yourself up and then come to God, and then He accepts you.

God has to take away your sin.

You can't do it

Or maybe you're thinking it's not hurting anyone, or it's only one time.

Those are the lies we tell ourselves.

It's not that big of a deal.

All that to say is that this is-- y- you are not gonna escape God's judgment.

It's going to happen.

Whether you like it or not, whether you think it's fair or

not, really, that doesn't matter.

You can think whatever you want about God, about His Word.

You are going to stand before the Lord

It's inevitable.

There's no avoiding it, there's no minimizing it, there's no, there's no

getting extra credit and making up for it.

There's, there's nothing

But even for a Christian, I want you to think, "Will, will I be

ready to stand before the Lord and give an account of my life?"

Right?

You're not scared of God's wrath anymore.

You know I've trusted Jesus.

He's taken away God's wrath.

He's given me His righteousness.

I come before the Lord in Jesus' name, on His righteousness, not

my own, all sufficient merit.

We just sang about it.

But I still want you to think, God will judge the world.

I will stand before the Lord.

Will I be ready?

Am I living like I will give an account of myself to God?

We don't have time to go there, but 2 Peter 3:8-13 is

2 Peter 3:8–13

a great place for you to look.

Peter's writing to the church.

He's writing to Christians, and he wants them to think about the end of the world.

And he says, after he describes that God's gonna come and judge the

world, His patience is gonna run out, and then he says, "What sort of

people should you, Christian, be in light of, of what's gonna happen?"

You should be living thinking about God's judgment.

So even for a Christian, this isn't just, "Well, I don't have to

worry about God's judgment anymore.

Jesus took away my sin."

I want you to think about what sort of people sh- what-- how should I live?

Would I do this if I knew Jesus was coming back?

Would I be okay watching this show if Jesus came back and saw me doing it?

Would I be okay hanging out with these people, having this conversation, if I

knew Jesus was gonna come back tomorrow?

Would I be this lazy about my relationship with God if Jesus was

gonna come back at the end of this week?

I want you to think about, am I living like Jesus is really going to come back?

I realize my third point's up here, so I spoiled it.

But God's judgment is final.

There you go.

God's judgment is final.

That's the third thing I want you to know about, about standing before the Lord

There's no do-over

You don't get to say, "God, can I, can I have 30 more minutes

and, and fix everything?"

Every, uh, is, what is it, July 22nd today?

This is your last July 22nd

You have one shot at living July 2nd, 2026 for the Lord.

That's it.

You don't get to do it again.

After today's over, it's the next day.

You have one of these days, one of each day to live for

the Lord, and then it's done.

You can't fix it.

You can't, you can't go back in time and, and, you know, do the, the Avengers:

Endgame thing and do it over, right?

You can't do it.

You get one shot

In Hebrews 12, it says something really scary about God's judgment, and I

want you to see it here in Hebrews 12.

So he's warning his, his audience.

He's, he's talking about Esau.

You know Esau, right?

Esau, Jacob's brother.

And so what happened was, um, Esau sold his birthright, right?

You see that in verse 16.

So Esau was the, the firstborn, um, and he was like, "Well, I'm really hungry, so

I don't wanna be the firstborn anymore.

Here, Jacob, I'll give you some, some red stuff.

Um, well, actually, I need the red stuff you're making, and I'm gonna

trade you my birthright for it," right?

And so what Esau did, essentially, is he gave up on the promises of God, right?

Esau knew God's promise that through the first, you know, through the,

the birthright of my parents, God is going to make a great nation, right?

Promise to Abraham, all that stuff.

And Esau said, "No, I'd rather have soup.

I like soup more than I like God's promises."

Which sounds really dumb, right?

But he did that.

But then what we don't see is this part.

You know that afterward, Esau, he desired to inherit the blessing.

He said, "I messed up.

I shouldn't have done that.

I shouldn't have traded the soup, or the inheritance for the soup.

I should have trusted God's promises.

I should have relied on the Lord."

He said, "I shouldn't have done that."

He desired to inherit the blessing.

He was rejected.

He didn't get a chance to make, make up for it and do it over again.

He found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears

God's mercy is a temporary offer, student.

Temporary

This might be your last chance to turn from your sin and trust Jesus

And maybe you didn't expect to hear this on a Wednesday morning at 11:00 AM.

You maybe expected this after worship night when you're

crying and, and all that.

But you don't need to wait until there's a fog machine to trust Jesus

You might not make it to Thursday night.

You understand that, right?

Or your heart might be too hard by Thursday night.

You might have rejected the gospel too many times to trust Jesus

I don't want any of you to be like Esau and say, "I wish I trusted Jesus.

I wish I turned from my sin."

There's gonna be a day where, it, it might be this week

A long time from now that you don't know.

There's gonna be a day when you don't have a chance to, to respond

You're gonna stand before the Lord, and you're either going to have

responded and trusted Jesus or not.

And it's over.

It's done

Our judgment is fucked

I remember one of my teachers, um, I needed-- I had a eighty-nine

point, I think, four in the class.

And I was like, "Please, is there any…

Can you round it up?

Is there any extra credit I can do?

Can I vacuum your classroom?

Is there anything I could do to get up to, to a eighty-nine point

five so you can round me up?

Is there anything?

I just need point one of a percent, please."

It's…

And he was a teacher who didn't believe in extra credit

He said, "I gave you all the chances you needed to earn all the

points, and you didn't take them"

You should have thought about this when you got an 80 on that last test

You should have thought about this when you forgot to turn in that worksheet.

You should have thought about this before the last day

Student, don't let God say that to you.

If you're standing before God, you're saying, "God, please let me, let me go

He has given you all the chances you need.

You, you have all, all the, all the instructions that you need.

You, you know the gospel

God's judgment is final.

There's gonna be a day when, when you have nothing left to add, and the

books will be closed, and that's it

And it's real

What's great about God's judgment being final though, is it's

also final for Christians.

God's judgment is final for Christians, too.

Hebrews 7:27 says that Jesus has no need like those other high priests, right?

Hebrews 7:27

Think about Old Testament tabernacle high priests.

They go in, they, they cut the animal.

They offer the sacrifice to atone for sin, to offer sacrifices daily, first for

his own sins, and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all.

Right, we don't go to mass, we don't go to temple because we don't need to offer

sacrifices anymore if you're a Christian.

If you're a Christian, Jesus once for all satisfied God's wrath.

All the sins you've done, all the homework you didn't do, right,

all the points you missed out on

Jesus says, "Here's my 100%.

I'll take your 29%"

Probably a lot lower than that, to be honest, right?

It's once for all.

When you trust Jesus, you are declared righteous forever.

You can't take anything away from that.

You can't edit your perfect score.

That would be like my teacher coming back to me from, let's say I-- let's say I

got 100% on a test, and teacher, uh, two years later is like, "Hey, actually, I'm

here to take points off from your test."

Not gonna happen, right?

I'm done.

I, I graduated.

See you later, right?

When you trust Jesus, His righteousness i-is, is finished.

It's final.

You don't add to it.

You don't take away from it.

Y-you-- If you're a Christian, on your worst day, when you

totally blow it, guess what?

God's judgment through Jesus is also final.

You are declared righteous forever.

You are just as righteous after your worst sin after-- than you are after your best

day because your righteousness has nothing to do with, with how you did that week.

It has everything to do with Jesus and His righteousness, and that lasts forever.

You don't have to be afraid of w-w-what if, what if I, what if I don't?

What if I'm not good enough?

Well, you're not.

That's why you trust Jesus.

I know you're out there, you're saying, "I'm not sure if I'm a Christian.

I don't know 'cause I'm not sure if I'm living like it."

Trust Jesus.

That's the whole point.

The whole point is you're not gonna live like it all the time, and

so if you're not sure if you're a Christian, you just come back to Jesus.

You say, "I trust you.

I need you.

Save me.

Keep me safe."

So God's judgment is final So I want you to think about what will

be the final verdict on my life?

What will God say when I stand before this throne?

And I'm not gonna be able to add anything to it or take away from it.

What will he say?

Well, the last thing I want you to notice about God's judgment

here is that it's unquestionable.

Unquestionable

One time when I was at a camp called Revival, uh, we had to make

team videos for spirit points.

And, uh, we, you know, tried to, tried to make a cool video and have some fun.

I don't think we're doing that this year, but the games crew,

the referees, made a video.

And the theme of their video was Games Crew Always Wins.

And so their whole video was basically just the games crew, like

all the refs just bullying people.

Like they would just push people into the pool and be like,

"You're out, it doesn't matter."

Or, you know, they'd be eating and be like, "Get up, my

spot," and they'd take it.

And the whole point is at Revival, when the referee tells you something,

right, there's no VAR, there's no AVS, there's no challenge flags.

It's done, right?

If the referee at Revival makes a call, it's done.

No, no argument.

It's over.

All right?

Games crew always wins.

And yeah, peop- they're imperfect, but the whole point is that

you can't argue with the ref.

There's, there's nothing you can do about it, right?

Now with soccer, there's the VAR in the World Cup.

I liked it better when there was no VAR, and it was just like, well, ref said it,

didn't see it, nothing happened, right?

If the ref didn't see it, it didn't happen.

That's how it used to be in soccer.

Now it's like, well, we're gonna take twenty minutes and review

this call and sponsored by Powerade and whatever, you know?

Student, you have no right to question God's judgment.

No right

None whatsoever.

If God says something is good, if God says something is bad, who am I to tell

God, "Actually, I think you're wrong"?

Not a chance

God's judgment is unquestionable

We have no right to object to what God calls good and what God calls bad.

Think about what we just read in Revelation 20.

Was there anyone talking except God?

In that whole vision, no one says that-- There's-- None of the people whose names

aren't in the Book of Life are like, "God, actually, have you seen my life?"

Or, "Oh, maybe there's a mistake.

Surely not.

Surely, I've been a good Christian."

There's no one talking.

It's over.

It's done.

No questions, no do-overs, no arguing.

It's over.

God's judgment is unquestionable

In the Book of Daniel, everyone's favorite pagan king, King Nebuchadnezzar,

says something quite just, uh, I love this pass-- This is one of

my favorite passages in the Bible.

So King Nebuchadnezzar, he's been thinking about how great he is, right?

I'll just read this for you.

At, at the end of 12 months, he was walking on the roof of the royal

palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, "Is this not great

Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence

and for the glory of my majesty?"

Right?

He's like, "I'm so great.

I'm the best.

Look at me."

And then what God does is God drives him insane, and he

says, "You think you're great?

Watch this."

And he basically makes him live in the wilderness like an animal for,

let's see how long, a long time.

I don't even know if it says how long.

You can figure that out later.

Go to Daniel 4.

But at the end of this, at the end of days, "I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes

to heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised

and honored him who lives forever."

He learned his lesson, right?

He learned, "I'm not God.

God is God.

He gets the glory.

I don't."

And here's what he says.

I-- Here's why he praises.

"For his dominion is an everlasting dominion."

Right?

God's kingdom lasts forever.

Amazon's not gonna last forever.

America's not gonna last forever.

God's kingdom lasts forever.

Verse 35: "All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,

and he does according to his will."

One of the Psalms says, "Our God is in the heavens.

He does whatever he pleases."

God has the right to do whatever he wants.

You don't have the right to tell God-

And here's what he says.

He says, the last thing he says in verse 35, "And none can say, can stay His hand

or say to Him, 'What have you done?'"

No one can say, "God, why'd you do that?

That doesn't make sense.

I don't agree with that."

Right?

No one's tapping their head and saying, "We need, we need that call reviewed

So one day, student, you are gonna stand before God

Like Matthew twenty-five says, he's gonna separate the sheep and

the goats to the left or to the right, and there's no middle ground.

There's one side or the other.

And the good news, you probably heard of John three sixteen, but in John

three seventeen, Jesus says that the first time he came, he didn't come to

condemn the world, but to save the world.

All this stuff we talked about is future.

You are in between.

You have this moment, which might be your last, but you have it to

turn from your sin, to trust Jesus

And he will save you.

He will show mercy, and we'll talk about that more tonight.

But you can trust him, and your-- the judgment over your life is not,

"I'm not good enough," but "Jesus

And if you are a Christian, I want you to, to just think about how am I going

to give an account of myself to God?

I'm gonna stand before the Lord.

My friends will stand before the Lord.

My family will stand before the Lord, and I will answer for everything I've done.

And in that moment, how's that gonna go for you?

So I'm gonna pray for us, then we're gonna go up

Father in heaven, you are God.

You are the Lord

We're just people.

You made us.

You own us.

You are sovereign over us.

And one day we will stand before you, and you will judge the world.

There's no escape from that moment.

There's no getting out of it.

There's no making it easier on us.

There's no lowering your standard or arguing with you.

But we are so glad that you sent Jesus to live up to your perfect standard.

And so I pray for anyone here who's trying to escape your judgment, that

they would trust Jesus to satisfy your demand for perfect righteousness and to

satisfy your wrath against their sin.

And I pray for those of us who've already done that, that we would

keep trusting Jesus, that we wouldn't try to add to Jesus' work to make

ourselves feel more acceptable to you.

We wouldn't try to

To question what you've already said about our lives, but I pray that you

help us to trust you and to agree with you, to agree with what you say

is good and what you say is evil.

So please help us to, to be serious, to be honest, and to have the

conversations we need to have.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.