Attempting to Demystify Revelation: Week 8

My name is James Robertson. We're so excited that you are here today as

we continue on our journey through revelation, and I'm excited about hanging out with

you all after church today. We will Andrew and I will actually be in

the ice cream truck and so you come see us and I won't judge you.

Andrew probably will, but if you want an extra scoop, you know,

just kind of give me that look like I'll get you that extra scoop.

But I'm excited about the Arabic Congregation, the Spanish Congregation, Anglo and

I've had some requests. People have asked me if if I can find an

Asian congregation and then we'll have all the food groups pretty much. That would

be pretty awesome. And so today we're going to continue on in revelation.

And it's a tough passage, but it's a passage that is very necessary for

us to understand, especially when it comes to rounding out our theology. Let

us pray, God, we love you, and we thank you so much

for the opportun unity to worship you today, to honor you today, to

bring you glory today. So God, I pray that your word challenges us,

and God help us understand your word at another level. Today in Jesus

name, we pray Amen. Now, I love to watch old Westerns,

and poor Gina, she knows that after I go through all the apps,

if I can't find a show to watch that I'm going to probably land on

an old Western. And I love old Westerns. There's took me a long

time to figure out why do I love old Westerns. And I think because

deep down inside of me, I have this thing about justice. I want

to see justice. Now, if you've never watched an old Western, I've

watched about one hundred of them. Let me explain to you what a Western

is. Okay, I'm gonna give you the whole plot of a Western movie,

any of them. Throughout history, something bad happens, somebody decides to

do something about it, and then they do something about it. That's a

Western, okay, And so there's always justice at the end. At the

end of every Western, you're like, yeah, the good people win.

But then a few years ago to someone decided to turn the genre on its

head. And well, I don't know if you've seen the movie No Country

for Old Men, but if you have, you know what I'm talking about.

If you haven't, you can skip this movie, but I'll tell you

all about it anyways. But in the movie Old Country, No Country for

Old Men. It's a movie about the relentless pursuit of evil. There's two

main characters. The first character is named Leeuwllyn and Llewellyn is a Vietnam vet

who is also a welder who lives out in West Texas and one day he

decides to go hunting. He's hunting antelope and he comes upon a scene where

a cartel and another cartel had gotten into a huge gunfight over druggs and no

one was left alive. Llewellyn finds a suitcase that has two million dollars in

it. Now, I know that's not much money today, but back in

nineteen eighty that was that was a little bit of money, you know.

And so Llewellyn decides to take this money to go hide him. Well,

this is where the second character comes in, Anton Sugar, and Anton is

hired by the cartels to go retrieve this money. And let me tell you

something about Anton. Anton is psychotic. He's a true sociopath and psycho and

often he will engage with people, and he will flip a coin and decide

whether or not this person will live based on the flip of the coin.

So this guy is a complete nutcase. Okay, So out throughout most of

the movie, they're chasing each other and man, you're just hoping, because

you know it's a Western. Llewellan's gonna get the money, he's gonna live

a good life. But then all of a sudden he gets caught and Llewellyn

is killed. And when Llewellyn is killed, my heart is crushed because I'm

like, this is not how a Western is supposed to go. And I'm

very upset because Anton Sugar got away with it. But then at the very

end of the movie, Anton is involved in a tragic accident and this pastor

of yours got so excited. Yeah, Antonie got it, and I'm like

yes, and I'm like, man, you know, evil does not win

today. And then Anton gets up and walks away, and that's the end

of the movie. I know. It's really disgusting, and you're so disappointed

because evil won and it's unsettenly to the soul because evil is not supposed to

win. The film reflects the harsh reality. Sometimes it seems like evil wins

and it's frustrating to watching a movie, but it's a lot worse to watch

in real life. When we look around, think historically, do you know

that ninety nine percent of all Nazi officials were never brought to trial. That

means that ninety nine percent of them got away with the murders of the Holocaust.

Right now, this morning, there's human traffickers waking up in their luxurious

hotels or their luxurious penthouses. I don't know about you, but that makes

me mad. And then we look all over the world. If something doesn't

happen this week, I promise you in to here next couple months you will

read about a terrorist group that overtakes a small town somewhere in the world,

and they hurt and they kill people in the name of their calls, and

there is nothing anyone can do about it. These things are unsettling because it

seems like evil winds. What about you in your life? What about that

person who hurts you, that person who wanted you, that person who really

upset and destroyed your life, and it seems like they're gonna get away with

it. Well, let me tell you something about Revelation fifteen and sixteen.

Revelation fifteen and sixteen. Even though it seems like evil wins, Revelation fifteen

and sixteen teaches us that it doesn't. Now here's the thing. These chapters,

they are apocalyptic, and so they're hard to understand. And that's why

it's okay for us to have different interpretations as long as we agree that Jesus

wins in the end. But these two chapters we're about ready to read.

It's gonna have bowls of wrath. They are gonna be plagues. There's gonna

be beasts, uh, there's gonna be uh frogs coming out of dragons.

And but here's the overarching point of the two chapters. Today, God will

bring justice in the end. God will bring justice, and an evil may

get away with it in this life. But this life is not all if

there is. And so there's two things we're gonna study today. One,

we're gonna look at who receives God's justice, who which groups There's three groups

that are gonna receive God's justice. And then on the flip side, we're

gonna talk about what is our response is Christians when these groups receive they're justice

or how we're supposed to respond in parts. Okay, here's what we're gonna

do. We're gonna start in chapter fifteen. And what you're gonna see in

the beginning of chapter fifteen is this final epic battle, this final victory between

good and evil. Let's go ahead and look at this together, says I

saw in heaven talking about John, another great and marvelous sign. Seven angels

with the seven last plagues last because with them, God's wrath is completed.

So here's what we see. We see the final judgment moment here and then

it kind of switches, and it says, and then I saw a book

like what looked like a see of glos glowing with fire and remind you of

hell here and standing beside the sea, Pay attention, who is watching those

who have been victorious over the beast in its image? Member? Last week

we talked about, you know, the mark of the beast and all that,

and over the number of its name. And then what do they do?

They held harps given to them by God, and they sang the song

of God's servant Moses and of the Lamb. Great and marvelous are your deeds,

Lord, God, Almighty, Just and true, are your ways,

King of the nation. So here's what we see. We come upon this

scene where all these groups are being judged by God. It's a moment of

judgment. Judgment is being handed down, and then you see something else going

on on the side. You see the angels of God and us and those

who were in the faith before us and those who were in the faith after

us. We are all coming together in this moment of judgment and we're worshiping.

Do you notice that there was a heart given. I don't know if

that's probably where we get the imagery of angels with hearts, but there's a

heart given to us by God. And God is encouraging us to worship in

this moment because the Lord is victorious. Now here's the point. Why is

this a joint celebration. Well, it's a joint celebration because something has happened.

Revelation twelve to eleven has been fulfilled. We looked at this a few

weeks ago. Revelation twelve eleven says they overcame him talking about the devil by

what, by the blood of the lamb and what and the word of their

testimony, For they did not love their life, so much as to shrink

from death. So two groups have come up against Satan and his minions,

and that was the group of you know us who've been following, and then

the Trinity. The Trinity defeats the enemy the blood of the lamb Christ goes

to the cross. But then after that the people of God, they don't

shrink from them if they share their testimony. They're faithful to God. And

because of that, the enemy is overwhelmed and the enemy is defeated. So

this passage that we're looking at today answers a few questions. What happens to

those who do evil? What happens to those who oppose God? What happens

to Satan and his minions? And the answer is simply this, they receive

the wrath of God. So here's what we're gonna see. We're gonna see

seven angels appear carrying seven bowls filled with God's judgment verse six. What does

it say? Out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues

Verse seven, Seven golden bulls filled with the wrath of God. And the

temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power.

And no one can enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels

were completed. Now this is the imagery of God's wrath me and poured out

on his enemies. Now think about this. You're gonna notice something as we

read through the next few verses. If you pay close attention, you notice

that there's a similarity between God's people during the Exodus and these verses. You

see, God's people were free, they could do nothing. God's people were

oppressed, they were enslaved, they were beaten, and they were cheated,

I mean, and they were treated horrifically, and they could do nothing.

So they cried out to God. And then God answered, And what do

we see happening? We see that God brings all these plagues to the Egyptians.

And at the end of the day God swallows up the Egyptian army and

the rest scene. And what do the people do they worship? So pay

attention to these similarities. For the day of judgment, It says, talking

to the angels, go pour out the seven bowls of God's wrath on earth.

Now pay attention to similarities. Here the first angel went and poured out

his bowl on the land, and ugly festering swords broke out on the peace

people who had the mark of the beasts and worshipped its image. The second

angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like

that of a dead person, and every living thing and the sea died.

And the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and the springs of

water, and they all became blood. So you see this imagery from the

plagues of the Exodus, And let me just give you a few more to

happen. Here. We see that terrible sowreds break out on the backs of

people. We see that the sea, in the springs they turn into blood.

That the sun scorches the earth, and then the earth goes dark,

and then we see Hell pummel the earth. And what we see is this

thing that is entirely, you know, very very reminiscent of God's judgment on

the Egyptians. And we see that after these things are poured out on the

Egyptians, the people of God praise God. And we see in Revelation the

same thing happening. These judgments are poured out on these enemies of God,

and then the people of God praise God. Why because they see justice.

Justice for what Why would we cheer people being judged. That doesn't sound like

the church, doesn't. Here's what we're cheering. We're cheering because those are

being judged are the rapist, the murderers, people who calls and lead the

genocides, the wars, the people who molest, the people who abuse,

the people who cause violence, the people who persecute and cause pain to others.

See, we are rejoicing because the enemy is finally being reckoned with.

And so here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna look at which groups will

receive this justice. And there's at least three groups that receive this justice.

The very first group is those who persecute believers. Those who persecute believers.

Revelation sixteen six says, you are just in these judgments, Oh Holy One,

you who are and who were? For they have? Why are they

receiving judgment? Here? It is for they have shed the blood of your

holy people and your prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as

they deserve. Now think about this wild revelation was being written. Christians all

throughout the earth are being persecuted. They're being tortured, they're being killed or

being taken away from their families. John himself, we kind of like to

have this image of John. He's away on this island called Patmos, and

this is long extended vacation where he's in exile. No no, no,

no, it was a work camp. Today we call them concentration camps.

John was in a concentration camp, and they believe that this is the cave

that he had to live in for many years and where he wrote the Book

of Revelation. And all over the empire, Christians are being put to death

for their faith. They're bringing brought into the call of sim and they're being

ripped apart just for people's entertainment by wild animals. Some of them are put

on steaks and then they're put they put tar on them and then they light

them up, just to light the garden parties that the Roman people would have.

And let me tell you something, no one could do anything about it.

Imagine, all over the Roman Empire, little groups huddle together in small

little homes and they're whispering songs. They're whispering their prairie quest, they're whispering

the scriptures. Why because if anyone hears them or finds out, they will

lose their job, they lose their family, and ultimately they will probably lose

their life. And here's what I want you to know. In the midst

of this immense persecution, Christianity spread like wildfire. I mean, it blew

throughout the whole kingdom. Why because we have people like Polycarp. I don't

know if you've heard of Polycarp, but Polycarp not only read the Book of

Revelation, but Polycarp was one of the personal disciples of John. So he

not only read Revelation, but he knew John. And Polycarp was this man

who stayed faithful all throughout the years. He eventually became the Bishop of Smirna.

But let me tell you about this moment history that really changed time.

It really knew the Christian movement forward in many ways. He was brought before

the leaders of Rome because he refused to bow down and say that the emperor

was God. So he's standing before the pro council. And here's what we

have from the history books that the pro council actually gave him one final chance

to renounce his faith. And the pro council said to Polycarp swear and I

will release you, reproach Christ and I love this. Polycarp responded with unshakable

faith. Listen this, he said. Eighty six years have I served him

and he has done me no wrong? How can I blasting my King and

my Savior? And then they took Polycarp out to the courtyard. They tied

him up to the wooden stack, and in front of all the people,

they lit him on fire and watched him burn. He didn't complain, he

didn't shout, he didn't renounce Christ. But this man stood up for his

faith and the other people watching it, and it gave courage. See,

these people understood that persecution was a part of their discipleship. Do you hear

that the early Church understood that persecution was a stage or a step in your

discipleship journey. And I want to tell you something today. Did you know

that one hundred and fifty one out of one hundred and eighty countries are people

are still harassed for being Christians. It's been flipped upside out. Nowadays Christians

are being attacked a lot of our harassments are on social media. The average

evangelical Christian on social media, we're made to look like parias of culture.

We're made to look like, I don't know, we're on this Salem witch

hunter, or that we're out of touch with reality, and we're made to

look like that we hate people just because we don't agree with what the Bible

says about certain issues. Let me tell you something. I've been in church

probably since my first week of life, so now we're over forty five years.

There's been times that I wasn't good, but I'll still in church.

And let me tell you something about the people of God. I think the

people of God are the most wonderful people you'll ever meet in your life.

You get into a group of people here at the church, you get to

know them. Watch what happens if your life ever falls through the cracks,

or well, what happens when your life gets set upside down. They will

love you. They will care for you, they will be there for you.

They will put their money where their mouth is if you need help.

Let me tell you something. The people of God are the most wonderful,

wonderful people I have ever met. And here's the thing. Right now,

there's this harassment because they want to make our message illegitimate. Now there's that

level of harassment. But then there's also real persecution where people are suffering.

Just take back just a few years ago when we saw the twenty one Egyptians,

and I want you to know this today when you hang out with some

of the Egyptians in our church, that most of them have been persecuted.

Most of them, you listen to their stories, most of them have been

persecuted because the Muslims just really just passionately hate the Christians over in Egypt.

But just a few years ago, what happened. The Muslims had twenty one

Egyptians get down on their knees and they execute him for one reason, because

they were Christians. This is still happening today. But we have to remember

even though we see these injustices, God will make it right one day.

The second group that God judges is those who oppose God. Those who oppose

God. Now, I want you to understand that there's been this spiritual battle

raging throughout all time. And here's what's going on. You have the Kingdom

of God going up against this epic battle of the Kingdom of people, and

you and I we are caught in the crossfire. Okay, we're in the

middle of this epic battle. And I want you to remember this because the

next one, next time someone comes and attacks you and destroys your life and

says all kinds of things about you and wound you. Don't think that it's

just flesh and blood. No, no, that end of me wants to

destroy your soul as well. So many times things happen to us and we

just think it's just the flesh. No, no, don't forget in all

those attacks, Satan is attacking you as well, because there's this epic spiritual

battle. Paul talks about this. What does he say in Epheesius six,

He says, for our struggle, it's not against flesh and blood, but

against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world,

against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Jesus will give

us the power to resist, and one day the struggle will be over.

But before that happens, the Bible talks about this great face off between the

enemy and God who he heard of armageddon. We're going to dive into that

for a few moments. Hopefully you will understand a little bit about more about

armageddon and what it means to us by the end of today. So let's

look at this. In Revelation sixteen sixteen, it says, then they gathered

the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. Now Armageddon

is a place, okay. It's a valley, the valley of Megido,

Israel, okay, and it's in the northern part of Israel. For most

part, it has always been a fortified city that overlooks a beautiful plain.

Now, this was a very very important city historically. Here's what you need

to understand about Maguido. Throughout ancient history, Meguido, over and over and

over again, was the battle ground in which we saw great empires either rise

or fall. It was a great battleground. And also it was right in

the middle of the big trade route between Egypt and Mesopotamia. And so it's

this very important plot of land. And so people have been fighting over this

piece from many years. But then spiritually, because this has been a place

where these epic battles have happened, where ancient empires have fallen and risen out

all throughout history. The Bible picks it up and it talks about the ultimate

battle. One day is going to happen at Armageddon. When we look back

throughout history, we see some very famous battles there. One was Thutmost the

third he was a pharaoh of Egypt, and Thutmost was coming up against the

kings of the Canaanites. In other words, those egypt versus many kings,

just like we see in our passage here. And let's look at this next

picture here and let me talk a little bit about this battle plan. So

as you look here at this map, you'll see Meguedo up to your far

right. Now, this land all around Megdo to get to Megedo is treacherous

ground. It's mountains, it's rocks, and there's only a few passageways.

Now, these little passes are very thin and hard to get through. So

often when another nation would try to bring their army through them, the soldiers

was standing up on top of these rocks and just attack them. They were

like sitting ducks. And so the kings of the Canaanites, they thought,

for sure, there's no way that the Egyptian army is going to come through

the middle area. No, no, They're either going to come up through

the yellow area or down at the bottom kind of the Blue area because those

passes were a little bit wider, and so they set up their garrisons their

armies around those areas. But this middle area, who would go through this

the red area, because there's some parts of it we're barely a soldier or

too you could fit through and you're like sitting ducks. Well that's exactly what

the Egyptian army did. They went right through the Middle surprised all the kings

of the Canaanites, and they wiped them out. And it's this famous battle

on history. But this is this famous battle that echoes through time that they

are now comparing to Armageddon. And again, let me look at this,

because now they're taking those famous battles and say, those battles were between empires,

but ultimately the great empires of good and evil were battled out on the

Last Day Revelation sixteen sixteen. Again it says, and they gathered them together

at a place in Hebrew called Armageddon. Now, we've had a lot of

fascination of arm again and throughout the years, and I've read some books that

talk about how this is when Russia is gonna come in and invade Israel.

I've heard that there might be other nations who come together. I love people

saying, oh my gosh, did you see what happened the other day?

That means this nation and this nation and this nation. Man, we have

these blood moons, we have this and that and this and that, and

man, Armageddon is coming. I've heard I don't know how many times I've

heard Armageddon is coming, and it could be these armies coming up against Israel.

For me personally, I don't think it's gonna be tanks. I think

it's talking about a spiritual battle here, spiritual battle between good and evil.

And I believe there's gonna be one final showdown for those who oppose God's ways

in the Lord himself. So I believe that's what's gonna happen to Armageddon,

a final spiritual battle. Now, the last group that the text today talks

about who will received the wrath of God will be the arrogant world powers.

The arrogant world powers. What was to say here? Says the great city

is split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapse, and

God remember Babylon the Great, and he gave her the cup filled with the

wine of the fury of his wrath. Now we already seen here the great

kingdoms are gonna fall. But during that time, what was the great kingdom?

And and it was Rome. And so when John was righting this,

Rome was Babylon the Great. It was Babylon the Great, and because they

were the central power. And so what people try to do today they try

to figure out who's gonna be the great Empire. What's today's version of Babylon

the Great. Because if we can figure out who Babylon the Great is today,

then we can figure out who's gonna usher in the final battle of Armageddon.

And so people are always looking at that. But I want to help

you today, and I just want to help you understand a little bit about

what I believe the Book of Revelation is about. Let's look at this.

I believe that the Book of Revelation was not written to tell us when the

end will come. It was written to encourage us to live faithfully so that

we're ready no matter when it comes, so we can get really caught up

and check it out. This sign, this sign, this sign, this

sign. And by the way, I have heard literally hundreds of these be

wrong over the years. I don't believe the Book of Revelation is sitting there

pointing to the end times. The Book of Revelation is saying the end times

are coming. Be ready a couple other things. If you're living in full

out devotion to Jesus day and guess what, we're ready for whatever comes,

whenever it comes. And also today God gave us the Book of Revelation to

help us live with the godly attitude and readiness. And that's the main message

I believe of chapters fifteen and sixteen is that evil will not win it in

but God will judge. Now here's what I want to do for the rest

of the time I have today. I want to switch directions and I want

to address something that is pretty big in our culture today. And maybe today

when I was preaching and just walking you through the text, maybe you were

rubbed wrong several times. So I just want to help you understand a little

bit. Let's talk about this for a few moments. In today's culture,

we don't like to think of a God who judges, because we like to

say God is love. My God would not judge. My God would not

sendence people to hell. My God is a loving god. He would definitely

not do only an evil God would judge people on this earth. So in

this passage today, it actually talks to us about how are we as Christians

supposed to respond to God's judgment when we see God's judgment happen. Let's look

at it number one, Because God judges first of all, he's worthy of

worship. Now that might be hard for some of you to hear today,

and it says this is says, and I heard the altar respond Yes,

Lord, God, I'll mighty true and just are your justness? Why is

God worthy of worship when God brings judgment? Why? Because his judgments are

just, they are right. The Bible talks and teaches us that God is

a God of love. At the same time it says that God is a

God of judgment. They are not mutually exclusive. God describes himself as a

God of love and a God of judgment. And there's people who say man

only in evil God would judge people. Now, let me tell you something

that might sound noble, But if that were true, then ultimately there's no

difference between wrong and right on this earth. In the end, if you

believe that God does not judge, then the people who kidnap and harm little

girls will be treated the same as those who sacrifice the her life to teach

you and caring for young girls, because God wouldn't judge. Imagine if one

of your family members was killed and executed because they were a Christian and then

they come before the judge and the judge says, you know what, I

know you did it. You committed this evil and you killed. But here's

the thing. I love everyone, so surely I cannot judge you today,

and so I'm gonna have to let you go. You're free. Does that

feel like justice to you? Does that feel like love? No? No?

Would you want to live in that judge's jurisdiction. Absolutely not. And

see, there's just something inside of us that just can't simply let injustice go.

And the reason we don't like watching movies where the bad guy wins an

end is because we are created by God. We were created by the God

of justice, and we reflect them. We reflect this God of judgments.

Secondly, today, because God judges, guess what, we don't have to

take revenge. Something inside of it screams justice. And when we've been unfairly

treated. But because God is ultimately gonna judge, I can trust in him

that he's gonna make things right the end, that he has my back.

A lot of you have heard of Malayla. Malayla's the young girl from the

Swat Valley in Pakistan. And Malayla, when she was about ten or eleven

years old, she started a blog and this blog was all about how the

young girls in the Swat Valley they didn't have any access to education. And

so she start talking about how they needed education. Well, the Taliban did

not appreciate this, and so one day, here she is, she's ten,

eleven year old girl. They jump on her school bus. They walk

up to her and they put a gun in her face and they shoot her

in the head. And they shoot her in the head. The bullet travels

through her face and down to her shoulder. Hospital for months, and while

she's in the hospital, you know, people are just up in arms.

And finally, after a while, she comes out of it. And when

she came out of it, she starts speaking again for girls' rights to have

education. And guess what happened. The government, the Pakistani government finally issued

a decree, a ratification that says simply this that the girl should have right,

The girl should have right and it changed the way they looked at girls

in their country. By the age of eighteen, she become the youngest person

ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Now here's the thing in this story.

God got his vengeance. God redeemed her. But let me tell you

that's not always going to happen in our lifetime. Sometimes it's going to seem

as though people get away with stuff. But I want to promise you in

the end, God always sets things right. Evil will not get the last

word. So if you've been treated unjustly, remember that it will not stand.

Someday God will bring justice and you, even though people have harmed you.

I want you, as followers of Christ, to follow the scripture Romans

twelve nineteen. It says, do not take revenge, my friends, but

leave room for God's Wrathford has written, it is mine to avenge. I

will repay. And lastly, today because jud because God judges, we need

Jesus. We need Jesus. I'm one of those people who did evil,

I'm one of those people who need mercy, and yes I deserve judgment.

But because of Jesus and what Jesus did on the cross for me and for

you, he took on the punishment, He took on the judgment for all

of our sins. And I know some of you today might be sitting here

going like, man James, you have no idea the mountain of sin in

my life. You have no idea of all the junk and all the trash

and all the evil I've done. And let me tell you, I ran

across this image yesterday and it was this huge, huge garbage mountain. You

ever seen these garbage mountains? I know that when I would drive from Pittsburgh

through Columbus to Middletown, we would always drive around Columbus, we would see

this garbage mountain and it was so disgusting when you saw just a mountain of

garbage. But every once in a while around Christmas, when we would drive

through it, it would all be covered with snow and you would look over

and go, oh, that's so beautiful. The snow covered the trash.

And I don't care what you've done. The blood of Christ will cover the

trash and the sin in your life. You do not have to go into

judgment day worrying about whether you're not you have been judged. Christ is more

than willing to take upon your punishment. So two things respond to today one

or two categories. One, you got some sin in your life, if

you've been building a mountain of trash in your life. Today, I want

you to go before the God of mercy and ask him to forgive you and

to cover your sin with his grace and his mercy. But I'm going to

give you one last thing today, And this is kind of like a tip

at the end of the mill. Just a little extra before you leave today,

Just one little thing before you leave. Okay, here's the cool thing.

Did you know that because God judges, we don't need to judge anybody.

I get to love people, I get to care for people, I

get to lift people up. I don't have to judge them. And so

maybe you have a critical spirit, or maybe you like to judge people,

or maybe you've been known as a judgmental person. Are you like to talk

behind and slater people? Guess what, you don't have to do that.

God sees all. God sees people who hurt you. Trust in God for

that. So today maybe you need to pray and ask God to help you

be less judgmental, less critical, or maybe you need to ask God to

cover the sin in your life with His grace and mercy. As the band

comes out, Let's just take some time to pray today and respond the way

the Holy Spirit is leading you to respond. God, we come to you

now, and we thank you for your passage of scripture. We thank you

for tough text like this, and God, we ask you in the mighty

mighty name of Jesus, that you will speak to us. So let's just

take some time now and respond where you were at