We Are There (10/06/2024)

Well, good morning. Good morning.

So our volunteer of the week

is, Noah. Noah is sitting right over here.

And I I knew his father was out

of town. So in 1st service, I said

he was out of town too. But he's

not. He's right here.

And,

Noah does a lot of stuff. He's definitely,

pastor Emily tells me all the time, he

is a huge asset,

in the kids'

ministry downstairs. And so,

and I also wanna mention the fact that,

when we got here 12 years ago,

Noah was, like, 4.

And

and he told me one time

that,

of all of the people in the whole

church, I was his best friend.

He remembers. He may not act like he

remembers, but

we were pretty tight there for a while.

And,

because he had a birthday. I think it

was his 5th birthday.

And, he invited me to his birthday party.

Me and like 10 5 year olds.

It's great.

You may laugh, but you weren't there. So

he bought me some socks one time too.

But we've we've grown apart

over time.

It's it's not me, it's him. So,

so,

so some things that, been happening.

Obviously, you guys are paying attention. Hopefully, you're

paying attention to this stuff. But Iran has

basically just, declared war in Israel.

They

they in in one day, they sent the

largest

barrage of ballistic missiles

ever in the history of the planet,

to attack another country. And if you're if

if you know, I mean, do you just

casually look at a map? Our map, Iran

is like this, and Israel is literally this

over here. Just a little sliver,

compared to this. And with all of those,

in fact,

they

a very few of them were even getting

through their iron dome.

And, and when they did, they would fall

on places that nobody was.

And, the only the only

people that have been hurt or casualties

have been, some soldiers,

but no civilians have been hurt by any

of those.

200 ICBMs,

think about that,

to a to a country the size of

Israel.

And there's to me, there's no way you

that you can deny that this is God

keeping the the Jewish people safe. I mean,

it's just

how did that all happen? And you can

say the Iron Dome, it's it's

that's, that in itself is a miracle. So

just continue to pray for that. I I

I do think as we set up and

we see this more and more and more,

Iran is going to try this is what

I think. K. This is supposition here. But

Iran's gonna try to build this coalition. I

think it potentially could be the coalition that

we see in Ezekiel 38 that's being built.

And for a long time for a long

time, I've I've I've,

thought that, Magog in Ezekiel 38, it could

be Russia because of

the the roche and the the Gogs and

all that kind of stuff.

But I I have been changing my view

on this the last couple years,

and I I've been studying this a lot

even in the last few months. I really

think that Magog,

is not Russia. I think it's Turkey.

And and part of the deal with that

is because

all of the countries that are mentioned are

all Arab countries,

Muslim countries. Why would Russia be part of

that? Right? You say, well, Russia has some

Muslims. I I think it's Turkey, And I'll

I'll be explaining some of that probably the

next couple months.

But but, pay attention to this because this

this literally could be Ezekiel 38 setting up,

right in front of our eyes. And the

fact that Ezekiel 39

is the building of the temple, which has

to happen,

before the 3 and a half year mark.

Now you you say, why are you saying

that? To me, battle of Gog and Magog

has to happen before the tribulation. Why? Because

the temple,

it gets built after the battle of Gog

and Magog, and it's built at the 3

and a half year mark. In fact, that's

what the Antichrist does is he dedicates the

temple. It's when he desecrates it. So

things are happening.

I I also wanna mention this. We had

a we talked about a bunch of different

stuff Wednesday night having to do with and

I'm it's actually gonna use, one of the

scriptures that we use Wednesday, and I'm gonna

use it this morning. But

one of the the conversations we have is,

could could the government

could the government of America

be doing things knowingly,

deceptively

and knowingly

corrupt and those kind of things?

And the

the

the the answer is yes. So

but but here's the thing. Okay? So this

this over the last 2 or 3 days,

this has been found out.

And the way that it got found out

was,

so with the

hurricanes and that just devastated North Carolina. Right?

There's a there's a bunch of groups,

FEMA,

Red Cross,

with the Assemblies of God. It's got a

group called Congo of Hope.

All these groups are are sending food and

resources and all this kind of stuff,

And Elon Musk was doing it also. He

was sending,

Starlink,

the Internet satellite

to,

to North Carolina so they could and just

gonna be donating these by the 100, setting

these up so they could get Internet again,

and even,

potentially phone service for towers that went down

and stuff like this. And and they

began to one of the people that were

running that for Elon Musk realized that something

was happening and this wasn't these these, starlings

were not getting through and weren't getting to

North Carolina. And so began to do some

investigation

and uncovered with, not just their group, but

many different groups,

Red Cross and some other groups,

that FEMA

had been taking all of this stuff and

putting them in warehouses and not giving anybody

anything.

And and this and, yeah, again, this has

happened before.

And so Elon makes a big fuss about

it because he's got enough money to make

it an issue. Right? That's that really people

like to say, well, you know, if you

just as the the individual, the the common

man will make a fuss, it'll make a

difference. It helps if you have 1,000,000,000 of

dollars too. But so he starts making a

fuss. He gets lawyers involved, all this kind

of thing, and finds out that FEMA has

warehouses

all over the place that have,

resources,

food, these satellite dishes, all kinds of things

stockpiled, so that FEMA can control when and

how this stuff gets out. They're not giving

the people the stuff. People are needing,

food, all kinds of things. They're not giving

it, so that FEMA can be in control,

and then they get all the credit for

this when this goes down. The guy that

Pete, that, you know, you're in for president

and all this stuff, and he's the guy

that's in charge of the fee. He he

came out later and admitted that there was

a problem. He said at first, this is

all made up. Nothing has happened. And then

later,

he resolved the issue. He didn't say later

there wasn't a problem. He just resolved it.

Guys, our our government is so

corrupt.

It is amazing,

how bad we have gotten so quickly.

But again,

I believe that this is

I believe that this is, prophetic too.

That all the the stuff that that is

happening and and has to happen. And so

throwing that out there. I also have been

getting some questions

from from,

some of you guys, but also online and

and different things that,

that we when

before the primary,

we had, like, a Wednesday night that I

you guys asked questions, and we talked about,

the candidates and stuff that we're running.

The question that I'm getting right now is

with all of these ballot initiatives,

we have more ballot initiatives

than ever in the state of Colorado. This

is,

hands down more than we've ever had. And

so there's a lot and people are asking

questions and and there's a 2 or 3

that seem to be confusing, and I believe

they're intentionally so.

And so I was gonna take some time

on a Wednesday and and walk through these.

And, I'm not gonna do that now. I

think the best way to do this would

be go to my website, and I explain,

my stances. I don't explain all of the

details on them. I just explain,

how I would look at these.

If you've got a question on a few,

let me throw one out that I think

is pretty important.

Obviously,

about an issue of 79

that is

the

the

yes. The making making abortion constitutional.

K?

But please please, as a Christian,

get out and vote against that. Okay?

This is the thing for me. I know

I I kind of danced around and

I mean, not for most people, but for

me, it feels like dancing. Let me let

me just say this. I don't see how

you can call yourself a Christian and vote

to murder babies. I don't.

I'm tired of playing that game. Oh, well,

this, you know, we just no. If you

believe in murdering babies, I don't think you're

serving the Jesus that created them. It's that

simple. And so we need to get out

and do something about that.

80 also is one that people have been

confused about.

It because it talks about,

rights for children in schools. As if you

give in children's rights, you're taking them away

from parents.

Parents are the ones in charge of children,

not children in charge of children. K? When

you let children be in charge of themselves,

they eat nothing but sugar.

K?

So let's let's,

let's have a little common sense.

And so I I put all that stuff

on the website. You can go there.

Alright.

Over the last,

and it's my, political website

which is

pastor Scott

for hd15.

Dotcom.

So

alright. So, the the last handful of weeks,

I've been looking at

looking at

these are all built together. It's not it's

not it wasn't a series, but they're all

building into the next one kind of thing.

That we're looking at the fact that Jesus

is coming back.

Looking at the rapture, we're looking at because

of these things, we need a sense of

urgency. And I don't think the church I

think we're losing that sense of urgency. Let

me let me say it different. I think

we it hasn't been there for a long

time, but I think we're kind of getting

it again.

This, hey,

you know, this this thing's going downhill quick.

You know, that kind of thing. And so

that sense of urgency.

And then also the the understanding that we're

going to suffer,

as Christians, we're going to suffer. And if

we and if we do everything we can

to shy away from that at some somewhere

in that process, you're gonna miss god.

K? You're gonna have to be ready to

step up.

When when things are getting difficult, step up.

And the church cannot run

from that moment.

And and we as individuals

cannot run from that. We've got to

we've got to be who we're supposed to

be. And so with all of that kind

of building in, I wanna

I want us to

end very positively

this morning

and and look at this. You know, Paul

talks a lot about that we're running

this race and, and to keep our eyes

on the prize.

The the even the idea of running a

race means that there is a there's an

endpoint.

Right? There's there's some

there's gonna be a finish line somewhere.

For life, there is a finish line.

Depending on when Jesus comes back, most people

that ever live

die before the rapture.

You know that. Right?

A lot of people are have already gone

before us so that they're not gonna make

the rapture.

But we all have a finish line called

the end of our life.

And and Paul talks about that we make

sure that we keep our eyes on what

we're here for. What is the point?

What's the point of our existence, our life,

and that we keep our eyes on Jesus?

Because if not,

we get sidetracked.

And this is every one of us in

this room,

have done this in our Christian walk many

many times. It's it's normal.

We can get sidetracked and forget what

what our life is about.

Forget the big picture. Forget that that, this

is all about Jesus.

And we we see all of this this

language, the stuff involved with this. And so

I want us to to kinda

relook at this this morning.

What is

what is what is the end game?

What's what's the goal,

with with everything? And then who knows what's

gonna happen between now and then? Right? There's

so there's so many

I mean, I've been alive 54 years, and

I have never seen things culminating

worldwide

and here in our country, like, it's culminating

right now. That

that the the last 3 or 4 well,

the last 4 years,

we have seen so many things happening, changing

that we'd never would have thought possible

just in the last 4 years. And it's

been building till then. But then you take

the last 6 months even and all the

crazy stuff.

There's I mean, I I think the average

person could have said this was definitely possible

4 years ago. But all of this even

just all of the stuff, you just pick

Trump. All the stuff that happened here.

Four different assassinations attempts in the last few

weeks.

There's an election in in less than 30

days

that literally sets the stage for our complete

future.

Think about

all the stuff that's been going on and

then everything that's going on around the world.

Now we have

now we have, you know, Russia's invaded Ukraine.

Israel is just cleaning up terrorists all over

the place.

This is

Iran has actually,

declared war on Israel, and Israel's like,

bring it.

I mean, they they

I mentioned this some Wednesday night.

Once they sent them ballistic missiles in, Israel's

like, okay. Now, thank you for that. It's

not exactly the way it went down. But

thank you for that because now we're coming

after your oil field and we're coming after

your nuclear

sites.

So you open the door. We couldn't have

done this,

a month ago, 6 months ago, but thank

you. Because we're gonna take out the things

that needed to be taken out. But nobody

else will stand up against Iran. All this

stuff is happening.

But guys, at the end of the day

at the end of the day,

Jesus is on the throne.

Galatians chapter 6 verse 7. Don't be misled.

Galatians 6:7

You cannot mock the justice of God. I

love it when it the the the justice

of God, that statement. Because depends on depends

on your relationship with Jesus, depends on how

you see that that phrase, justice of God.

If you don't belong to God, if Jesus

has is not your savior, you are not

covered with the blood of Jesus, you are

not right with God, You should be very

concerned when the statement justice of God is

said.

You should be scared,

because the justice of God is a real

thing.

And nobody

nobody is gonna get away from the justice

and the judgment of god.

If you serve Jesus, it should not scare

you. In fact, you there's a there's probably

a little bit, at least for me, there

is. There's a little bit that says,

yeah. I'm ready, Lord. Bring it.

I'm ready for the justice of God.

I'm tired. I'm tired of all of the

stuff that I see constantly day after day

after day

of of

babies being murdered,

children being groomed, all of the evil, the

the twisting

and the perversion of society.

I'm tired of the the bad guys lying

and and and getting away with it in

half a society going,

okay.

I'm tired of this.

I'm tired of the world

scene where the bad guys seem to win

day after day after day. I'm tired of

this.

And I'm ready for the justice of God.

I'm ready for this.

I know I belong to Jesus. I know

I'm covered with his blood. I am ready

for the justice of God.

I'm ready for for

pedophiles to be put down.

I'm ready for this.

This is

this is now this is where you gotta

be careful, because

you can get so caught up in that.

You do have to keep a little balance,

because the justice of God includes everybody.

Make sure you're covered with the blood of

Jesus,

because the justice of God's gonna include everybody

and all of our sins.

Make sure you're covered with the blood of

Jesus.

But I like I like the justice of

God.

You will always harvest what you plant.

Those who live only to satisfy their own

sinful nature will harvest decay

and death from that sinful nature. But those

who live to please the spirit, and that's

the key, only you know of every person

in this room, nobody knows for sure anybody

else.

K?

You there because nobody knows what's totally within

your mind and your heart. Only you do.

Now I think I can make a decent

assessment

of people.

The people that are closer to me, I

think I can make a decent assessment. But

guys, at the end of the day

at the end of the day, I only

know where my heart is with Jesus.

I only know if I am trying to

please the spirit.

But if you're trying to please the spirit,

that's really what you're living for. To please

God. To make sure that you're pursuing Jesus

and you're saying no to sin. I mean,

that's just a simple way to address this.

Just saying no to sin.

If you've got if you've got sin in

your life, guys get take care of it

now.

Get repent of that. Get it out of

your life and stop sinning. We are we

don't have I I strongly believe this. We

don't have time to be playing around.

Get rid of the sin.

K. But it says, if you're if you

live to please the spirit, you will harvest

everlasting life from the spirit. And we're gonna

unpack that quite a bit this morning.

You're you will harvest

everlasting life from the spirit. So let's not

get tired of doing what is good. We

talked about that some Wednesday.

It's it's difficult when you see all of

the stuff. All the things I was just

talking about, it's difficult sometimes to to feel

like you're doing anything.

Right? I I get a lot of people

a lot of people. I get emails. Many

of you have said things. I get emails

from all over the state. In fact, Linda

was Linda was noticing this yesterday, I think

it was.

Just sitting there and reading, and she says,

you're getting people from all over the state

of Colorado are emailing you and saying thank

you

for doing what you're doing. I don't I

don't know who these people are. Thank you

for doing what you're doing. But here's the

problem with it is when I hear that,

I I hear in my own head and

my own spirit, you're not doing anything.

You're accomplishing nothing.

Now I do I do balance that out.

I don't need you to come afterwards and

hug me and make me feel better about

this.

I do I do balance this out. I

know I know I'm giving everything I got.

I know I'm trying.

But

but this is the way I I've even

prayed this recently.

God, it'd be nice to have a win

Just every now and then.

Now I'm talking mostly in the political realm.

Right? I feel like I feel like I

have wins all the time as a pastor.

I feel like I have wins all the

time when I'm talking to people about Jesus.

I feel like they're mostly wins.

But but when you're doing all the stupidity

of the the political arena,

we're just we're just getting our rear handed

to us here in Colorado.

We are the most liberal state in the

United States. That is they they they made

this as a goal 2 years ago, and

they are proving this over and over and

over.

We are more liberal now than

California, Oregon, New Mexico, all of those

kind of things.

So so here's the thing.

Don't get tired of doing what is right.

Guys, you got to do the right thing

even if nobody seems to notice, nobody seems

to care, and you never get a win.

You still gotta do the right thing.

You've got to do the right thing.

Don't get don't don't give up.

Don't give up. I know I said this

a few weeks ago. This has always been

a big thing for me. This is one

of my my strongest

life mantras and I and I tried to

instill this in my children as strong as

anything else.

Don't give up.

Don't quit.

What what has accomplished if you quit?

You see, this is the thing is we

we get so frustrated by this stuff and

you're like, I'm not doing any it's not

accomplishing it. I'm wasting my time. Blah blah

blah. So I'll quit.

Well,

then you guarantee

nothing happens.

At least if you stay in there.

At least if you keep pushing back on

the darkness. And here's one of the easiest

things. Just keep living for god. Just keep

being a light. Just keep being a a

person of truth and the word. And and

regardless of what anybody else around you does,

you keep being that.

And it's amazing.

What does he say next? Look at this.

At just the right time

when is that? I have no idea.

Neither do you.

At just the right time, we will reap

a harvest of blessing

if we don't

give up. I never know when that is,

but I have experienced it. I can look

back and tell you some of those moments

that was just the right time.

Right?

Therefore,

whenever we have the opportunity, we should do

good to everyone,

especially those in the family of faith. Just

just be Jesus to every single person you

can.

In action at all times and words as

often as possible.

Just be Jesus.

That's an old quote that I made proper.

The old quote was,

be a witness at all times. Use words

when necessary.

That's not I don't like that quote.

Here's a better one. Be Jesus all the

time. Use words as much as possible.

Do both.

Okay. 2nd Timothy chapter 4

verse 1. I solemnly urge you in the

presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who

will someday judge the living and the dead.

That's you and I.

You're gonna be one of those two things.

Most of you in here are living.

Thank you. Just seeing if everybody's paying attention.

Most of you are let me change that.

Most of you, maybe not. Okay.

You're gonna be living or dead, and that's

and he's gonna judge us. We're gonna stand

before God. Guys, every one of us are

gonna stand before God. As long as you're

covered with the blood of Jesus, this is

not bad. It's good. I'm gonna show you

that. It's good.

We're gonna stand before Jesus when he comes

to set up his kingdom. So what does

Paul tell Timothy here? Paul's an elder minister,

tells a younger minister. He says, preach the

word of God.

Now what we've done over the years is

we take that that phrase, preach the word

of God, and we make that about ministers.

Paul, elder missionary ministers telling this to a

young minister, Timothy. Guys, when we use terms

like that today, we actually change the context

of what it looked like then.

Timothy wasn't some kind of,

officially ordained kinda minister like we would do

nowadays.

That's all man stuff.

My ordination, I've said this before, and sometimes

it irritates the powers that be in

in higher up fellowship mentality.

But yours

I have I'm ordained with this in this

God. You know what that means? That means

a group of humans

ratified something that God already did.

They're just saying, Yeah we're on God's side

with this. It means really nothing.

I'm I'm not trying to downplay it, but

it doesn't mean anything. It's just a group

of humans that are saying we recognize that

God has called you to do this.

You are called by God just like I

am, and you have to do the same

thing that Paul's telling Timothy. Preach the word

of God.

But what we've done is we've taken preaching

the word of God, and we've limited to

the the what I'm doing as a professional.

Alright. I'm a professional. I'm a professional preacher.

How do we know? I get paid for

it.

I'm a professional.

But the difference is is you should try

this at home.

Because preaching the what I'm doing actually, Galatians

and Ephesians says, what I'm actually doing is

I'm teaching you and training you how to

preach the Word of God. That's actually what

I'm doing. Right? So you're actually the preachers

of the gospel. I'm the trainer and the

teacher of preaching the gospel.

That's really the way scripture looks at this.

So what are you supposed to do at

work? Preach the the preach the gospel. Home,

preach the gospel.

Community, preach the gospel. But what we do

is we think that it this means you

put together this nice little outline of a

sermon and everything else. Guys, I've learned over

the years and I and I have I

have been amazed at this so many times

over the years

that you preach the gospel as good or

better than I ever could preach the

gospel. Because

you don't you don't think you do because

we've trained our minds to think this way.

But you do because why? I've had conversations

with you about many different ones. Many different

times about this is what God showed you

through the scripture. This is what God showed

you in a time of prayer. This is

what he's done in your life. This is

how he saved you from this. This is

how he broke this addiction. This is what

he does. This is the gospel and you

preach it just fine.

When you stop and try to think

about a sermonizing

mentality

is when it is when it,

degrades.

Because we we we have these weird things

going on in in Christianity

where a sermon is a certain thing like

what I'm doing now. But you preach the

gospel just fine.

I've heard many of you do that.

This is what God spoke to me. This

is what God showed me. You know, we

were praying for this, our family, our house

or something else. And this is what God

did and that is a testimony

which is the gospel.

You preach the gospel just fine.

Don't be scared of it. Don't try to

don't try to refine it and and fix

it and all that stuff. Just tell somebody

what Jesus is doing in your heart.

What he's doing in your life. What he's

done with your family, your your your spouse,

your children, something.

This is what God has done.

Some of the strongest

sermons on marriage in this room are from

you.

Because what God has done.

Preach the gospel.

Preach the gospel. This is what he wants

us to do. Preach the gospel. And then

he says, be prepared whether time is favorable

or not. Now back in the day,

I'm saying 30 years ago,

this was actually pretty common before then up

to about the time and then oh. Nowadays,

this is not something you see happen.

But it used to happen all the time.

In fact, it was the expectation.

I'm a young guy, youth pastor of a

church.

Maybe just, started being the pastor of church

and I go on a vacation.

And back in that day, we only would

place here we went to vacation was to

see family. Right? You know, when you're young,

you got no money, that's where you go

to vacation. You go to your mom in

law's. So

we go back to East Texas. And if

I walked into the church

and, somebody got church, they knew who I

was. They knew I was in ministry.

If I walked in, the pastor would say

as I'm coming in the door, hey. How

are you doing? Would you like to preach

tonight?

Usually, sunny night.

That's when they would do that more often

than sunny mornings. Would you like to preach

tonight? I'm walking in the door. Would you

like to preach tonight?

That was the that was the norm. And

this is where it came from. Be prepared

whether time is favorable or not because

sometimes that's not favorable.

I just wanna go and sit in the

building. I don't ever just get to sit

in the building and and and draw on

the offering envelopes

and pick my nose and fall asleep. I

don't ever get to do that stuff.

Oh, it's hitting a little close to home,

isn't it?

So

sometimes, and I'm not making this up guys,

sometimes it had the song service, the pastor

would get up in the pulpit. Back in

those days, they had the big pulpit like

this. Get up in the pulpit and say,

oh, I see,

Brother Bottoms in the back.

Would you like to come up and preach?

I'm standing up walking up there going, I

should have something ready in 14 seconds.

Because

preaching the word but this here's the thing,

if you think that you have to come

up some kind of sermonized

speech

that fit some kind of criteria,

yeah, that's a scary moment. But if you're

just doing what Paul told Timothy, just preach

the gospel.

Just

just tell people what Jesus is doing.

It's not that big of a deal.

It's really not.

He says, patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your

people with good teaching.

You do that all the time. You're just

not processing it this way.

You're constantly

patiently correcting somebody. You're rebuking somebody, encouraging people

with good teaching. People at work, your family.

Because let's say somebody comes to you at

work

and they're going through a difficult separation or

divorce or something like that.

And they're feeling really down on this

and

maybe their spouse cheated on them and they're

saying, well I guess I'm not worth anything.

They're gonna they need somebody else besides me.

Then you say,

hey stop thinking like that. You're just fine.

Jesus loves you just like you are.

That's correcting somebody. That's rebuking somebody.

And then you say this is how you

think. This is what you're supposed to think.

And here's the opportunity where you bring scripture

in and you say this is what Jesus

says about you. It doesn't matter what anybody

else says about you. And that's encouraging people

with good teaching.

You do this stuff all the time guys.

Preach the gospel.

Do what you're supposed to do.

For a time is coming when people will

no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching.

We're obviously there. We know that. Right? I

don't have to beat that drum.

They will follow their own desires and look

for teachers who will tell them whatever their

itching ears want to hear. Then they will

reject the truth and chase after myths.

This is what I'm seeing so much

right now across the church world

is and and this is the the Internet

is doing this so is the is the

source of this so strongly right now.

In in American church, it's it's all over

the world. But in American church, there's so

many people listening to so many things. And

I see this stuff all all over the

place that's not biblical stuff.

It's all over the place.

I I I'll give you one of the

biggest ones

that I see. And you and you may

disagree with this. I'm gonna go I'm gonna

break into a subsidiary of this.

But there I I see this all over

the place where people are talking about this

great revival that's going to happen before the

end times.

As if I don't see that in scripture.

Where does it say that in scripture?

Not what we want to happen. I want

that to happen, but I don't see that

in scripture.

Okay. And then

there's two sides to this this kind of

side trail of this same thing,

is a lot of the teaching that's being

done around the country right now on the

7 mountains. Okay?

I like the 7 mountains teaching. Anybody heard

what I'm talking about? Okay.

A lot of the 7 mountains teaching. Basically,

what that is is there's 7 major,

areas or arenas of society, and the church

is supposed to get involved in all of

those 7 areas.

K? I strongly believe that. I've been preaching

and teaching that stuff long before we called

it the 7 mountains.

Alright. I believe this very strongly, but here's

the second step of it that is wrong.

It's not biblical.

Is they're saying

once the church has moved into all of

those areas, those 7 major areas of society,

and the church takes them over,

by the way the church will never take

them over,

because they're ungodly man institutions.

What we're supposed to do is invade them

with truth and light and affect them, but

you can't take them over.

You can't control them is what I'm saying.

But the teaching is is once you once

the church has taken those over,

then

Jesus will come back.

That is not biblical.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say that.

Nowhere does it say that.

Okay.

In fact,

that is

Jehovah Witness

theology.

You live for Jesus, everybody does better and

better and better. We all get gooder and

gooder and gooder, and then we'd step into

Nirvana. And Jesus just kinda takes his place

of authority

over Nirvana.

That is that is not biblical. That's demonic.

The Bible says, it's gonna get worse and

worse and worse, not better and better and

better.

In the last days, people will be having

itchy ears because they want to hear what

they want instead of actual truth. And what

we want is everything is just gonna get

good.

That's always been what humanity wants to hear.

It's just gonna get real good. Why? Because

we're good.

And as long as we're really good, it's

just gonna get good.

Except that's the opposite of what scripture says.

Scripture says, we're not good.

We need Jesus.

If we were good, we wouldn't need Jesus.

We need Jesus to save us because what?

We're sinners, and society is collapsing around us.

And the last days are going to be

evil.

That's what scripture says.

We gotta be careful we're not chasing after

just whoever that writes the next book or

does the next thing.

I remember when,

Rob Bell years ago wrote the book that

there is no hell.

And he was on Oprah Winfrey and all

stuff. He was a pastor and all this

kind of stuff. It's been a while, so

you may not remember or know. But a

lot of the church was like, well, maybe

there isn't. We should rethink this.

Because they just liked him so much, and

I really liked that guy.

But but you've gotta be able to recognize

immediately when something's not true.

Why?

Because you you digesting truth all day long.

You digest in truth. And when somebody throws

something in there that's not right,

you immediately recognize it.

Just keep going.

But you should keep a clear mind in

every situation. Don't be afraid for of suffering

for the Lord. Talked about that a few

weeks ago. Work at telling others the good

news and fully carry out the ministry God

has given you. Fully carry out the ministry.

Guys, this affects every single one of us

in this room. God has called every one

of us to different things, not just like

one big thing, but that could be true

too. But but he calls us 2 things

along the way, and then different ministries and

and opportunities and all this kind of stuff.

And here's the challenge for us. It is

it is difficult to keep our eyes on

Jesus and do all the things the Lord

has told us to do. We'll do good

in in these areas, but not over here.

This is one of the things I've noticed

in in different ways. Well, I'll start this,

this, Bible study or life group or whatever,

but I'm not actually witnessing to anybody. Well,

we've got to fully carry out the ministry

that God has given us. And every one

of us have ministry. Don't run from it.

Run to it.

Don't be scared of it. Don't worry about

it. The Lord's gonna give you what you

need to accomplish the ministry before you.

K? Run for it to to fully carry

out the ministry. As for me, Paul says,

my life has already been poured out as

an offering to God.

The time of my death is near. Remember

talking about suffering? He knew he was gonna

die. He knew he was gonna go to

Rome to die,

but he wasn't scared of it.

There there there has to be a part

where you're getting close. Now maybe not necessarily

looking forward to having your head cut off,

but

but as you're getting closer to that, there's

just a resolve that says,

I'm ready.

Right?

I'm ready.

I think about you guys that are, like,

in your seventies. You gotta be ready.

I got plenty of time.

He says, I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the race.

And guys, here's the key, I have remained

faithful.

I have remained faithful.

If that's if that's all you got,

that's amazing.

I remain faithful.

And now the prize awaits me, the crown

of righteousness.

Think about it. Revelation where all the 24

elders are sitting around. This is the 12

disciples and the 12 tribes. And we know

every that we know the name of every

one of those people. Right? Ain't that cool?

And they take their crowns. The Lord comes

in and they take their crowns and they

throw them down before the lord.

I hope I get a crown,

and the only reason is so I can

throw it down before the lord.

I'd like to throw other things, but I

don't think he cares.

Right? My jeep, he's like, I don't like

jeeps.

He does. He does.

He does.

Look at this. He says, now the prize

awaits me, the crown of righteousness,

which means I've been made right with God.

I've been covered with the blood of Jesus,

which the lord, the righteous judge, will give

me on the day of his return.

And the prize is not just for me,

but for all who eagerly look forward to

his appearing.

That we're focused on him coming back. That

that is our that's where our attention is.

Jesus, you're coming back and I'm gonna live

today like you're coming back. I'm gonna live

tomorrow like you're coming back.

Because this is where a couple weeks ago,

I talked about the urgency.

This is where the church were were losing

this.

We need to regain this urgency in our

spirit that says, Jesus, you're right on the

you're right on the cusp of coming back.

And and I've heard this many times before

where people will say, I've been hearing this

all my life. I've been hearing this all

my life. Now I'm a 112 and Jesus

has not come back yet.

Okay. I get that. But guys, Paul

Paul lived

like Jesus was coming back during his time

frame. And he he thought he was.

He thought Jesus was coming back during his

life.

Was was Paul just an idiot?

No. He understood.

Keep your eyes on Jesus, because you don't

know when he's coming back.

Keep your eyes on him. He could come

back today.

Now there's a large part of me that

says,

oh Jesus, come on.

Let's wrap this thing up.

Let's stop. Let's let's stop babies dying. Let's

stop these kids being twisted.

Come back now.

But Jesus Paul Peter tells us,

the the reason he's dragging his feet

is because he doesn't want us to perish.

He doesn't want anybody to perish.

That's the point.

So shouldn't that be our point? We don't

want anybody to perish.

Jesus, I know you're coming back. I know

you're coming back. This stuff gets in my

spirit sometimes strongly.

Yesterday or day before or something like that,

I was thinking about this.

I'm praying for my kids.

I I know I've mentioned this before, but

I feel like Job.

I feel like Job so much. Not not

the persecution part of Job, but at the

very first part where

where he's constantly sacrificing for his kids

because he says, I'm worried that they're that

they've done something wrong.

Right?

I've got 5 grown kids, 3 3 biological

and 2,

daughter in laws.

And I

I worry about them all the time,

especially after I've talked to them and I've

been around them.

I worry.

Right? They come over for dinner and the

whole night, I'm like, God, help us.

Help us, Lord.

So I text them all. We have this

group messenger thing on Facebook Messenger, and I

just send them all a message. I said,

if Jesus comes back right now,

are you ready?

It it it

sometimes I wake up in the middle of

the night pleading with God. God, please

make sure my kids are right with you.

I don't wanna take the chance.

I need them there with me

when we step into eternity.

You should try that sometime.

Text your kids whether they're grown or not.

If they're 12 sitting in the other room,

text them, Jesus is coming back. Are you

ready?

Here's one. Teenagers, text your parents that.

Jesus is coming back. Are you going with

me?

Right?

As it's not something we can play around.

Now my my son is sitting over here.

He did text back, well, Amanda is probably

gonna have to get dressed.

The prize is not just for me, but

all

who eagerly look forward to his appearing.

Revelation 12

Revelation 12:10

verse 10. Now I'm gonna walk through a

couple places here in Revelation. I love this.

But I want you to get I want

you to get a picture in your head.

So this is 2000 years ago that Jesus

takes John, the spirit of the Lord, but

Jesus is involved with all. It's called the

revelation of Jesus Christ. K. Let me help

you guys.

It's not revelations.

Stop putting an s on the end of

that word.

K? If you've done it, repent.

It's the

revelation

of Jesus.

Okay. So Jesus takes John,

and he runs him forward, at least we

know for sure, at least 2000 years.

We know that much for sure.

And he starts showing

John

stuff that has not happened to us yet.

It has not happened still,

and he shows him things.

And I love this because I wanna I

wanna I wanna show you something.

Maybe you haven't processed it the the the

same way. But in verse 10 of Revelation

12,

it says, then I heard a loud voice

now this is John. He hears a loud

voice shouting across the heavens. It has come

at last,

Salvation and power

and the kingdom of our God and the

authority of his Christ.

For the accuser of our brothers, that's Satan,

has been thrown down to earth. The one

who accuses them. Now the part of what

we see in Revelation 12 is John God

is showing John this the revelation, this revelation,

this epiphany,

this understanding.

But it goes all the way from before

the earth was created

or or before Adam and Eve up until

now. Because

Satan and the 3rd of the angels were

cast out of heaven before Adam and Eve

sinned.

K? That gets confused sometimes because where it

falls in the line. But this is a

good way to look at Revelation

is you've got these cycles.

Okay?

Starting in a past and going into the

future. Backing up not quite as far going

into the future. Backing up not quite as

far we're going in the future. So you

have these cycles that are going like this.

Because we see where God will show John

something and it's it's starting

from before

creation

to after it ends. And then he takes

other times and he does the exact same

thing. We know that Satan

was cast out of heaven

before,

the end of time in Revelation 12.

Because Satan tempted Eve. He was already cast

out at that time. When he came in

before God in Job, God says, where you

been?

It ain't in heaven.

He said, been hanging out on the earth.

Right?

So this is part of this. But look

what he says. For the accuser of our

brothers and sisters was thrown down to the

earth.

The one who accuses them before God day

and night in verse 11.

So strong.

And they defeated him.

This is temporary, but this is also transcendent.

This is one of those things that God

does all through the Bible, where something is

happening

for you and I individually, but it's also

happening into time.

K. The temporary

into the transcendent at the exact same time.

We see that all through Old Testament, New

Testament. I think so. They have defeated him.

You have defeated Satan. How do you defeat

Satan? By the blood of the lamb. That

part you can't you can't do that. That's

Jesus.

He's the lamb. It's his blood. He died

on the cross. That's what gives you the

ability to defeat Satan by the other 2.

But you have to have the blood of

Jesus.

Because you have to be covered with the

blood of Jesus.

Please know that.

You have to be covered with the blood

of Jesus. I talk to people all the

time that say they are Christians and have

never asked Jesus to forgive them, become their

lord and savior, and cover them with his

blood. They've never asked that question. Many of

these people are Catholics that have never asked

Jesus to be their savior, but they grew

up in the church so they think they're

good.

As the same thing can happen in any

church,

any denomination,

any setting. You can grow up in the

thing. But until you have asked Jesus to

be your savior and covered with his blood,

you're not saved.

This is important.

We have defeated Satan temporarily, but also in

the end,

He's gonna be defeated by the blood of

the lamb and by their testimony.

Remember what Paul told Timothy, preach the word

of God. Preach the word of God.

This is vital.

Preach the word of God.

That's your testimony. That's what I was talking

about earlier. Your testimony defeats Satan.

That the best way to go after Satan

is, if you got this army and you've

got this army, the best way to defeat

that army is convince all of them to

join your side.

Then there's no army.

You win by attrition.

There's no army to fight.

So what do you do? You witness to

them. You tell them about Jesus. You wanna

bet the one of the best ways there

is to save babies lives?

Tell somebody about Jesus. They get saved and

they stop murdering babies.

That's how we win the battle.

Our testimony.

One of the best way to to change

the whole LGBT mentality,

tell them about Jesus.

Not

not real against them. I mean, we have

to stand up against it. I get that,

but you're not winning you're not winning the

battle in that. You're just illuminating the problem.

It's the same thing Paul says that the

law does. It just shows everybody the problem.

Alright? When we when we talk about abortion

bad, we we're just illuminating the problem. No

babies stop dying.

But when people get it in their head

and their spirit that Jesus Christ saved them,

created them, wants to change them,

they stop murdering babies.

That's how we win. Our testimony. And then

the third one has to happen for the

second one to happen. It's that we don't

love our lives and we're at to the

point where we're not afraid to die.

If you're not afraid to give your life

for this,

probably not gonna win the battle.

And by the way, that's just a mantra

of all warfare anywhere in any setting physical,

spiritual, or whatever.

If you're not willing to give your life

for it, you're probably not gonna win.

But if you're willing to give your actual

life for and and this is why I

pick on things like, well, we're scared to

death that somebody's saying something on Facebook about

us.

We're we're scared to death that somebody

ridiculing us at work.

Right? Oh, they said this. Did you did

you hear them say that?

I don't care.

Right? When we're willing to give our life,

then what somebody says is irrelevant.

What somebody thinks is irrelevant or wouldn't when

we're willing to give our life,

then we'll we'll we'll bring our testimony.

A lot of times, we don't bring our

testimony because we're scared. We're we're we're worried.

We're nervous. We're what are they gonna say?

What are they gonna do? What if they

reject all this other stuff?

For not if we're willing to give our

life, we'll give our testimony

that Jesus' blood covers me.

And that's how you defeat Satan.

Then verse 17, it says,

and the dragon was angry at the woman

and declared war against the rest of her

children. That is,

the church.

K? Look at this.

They the the the

dragon declared war against the rest of her

children, all who keep God's commandments and maintain

their testimony

for Jesus.

That's what the church does. And that's what

Satan gets mad about is that we're keeping

god come god's commandments

and we're maintaining our testimony for Jesus, which

if you think about is the 2 greatest

commandments. We love god with everything, which means

you're gonna obey him. And you love your

neighbors yourself, which means you're gonna tell them

about him.

That is that is the 2 greatest commandments.

That's also our mission statement here at the

church.

Let's go to Revelation chapter 21.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

Then I saw a new heaven and a

new earth. Now who's seeing this? John.

When is this?

Not yet.

This hasn't happened yet.

K?

God is giving John

this revelation.

I I wouldn't you like to just I

mean, you don't have to be the guy

writing it down, but wouldn't you like to

just when tagging along?

I think it would be

it would be awesome and also overwhelming

and also terrifying.

At the same time, all the stuff

that's happening.

Says, I saw a new heaven and a

new earth. For the old heaven and the

old earth had disappeared, and the sea was

also gone. And I saw the holy city,

the new Jerusalem.

You understand that's not just a city. It's

the people

that he's talking about.

I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem,

coming down from God out of heaven like

a bride.

A city is not a bride.

We're the bride.

It's us coming down with this whole thing.

Okay. A bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

I heard a loud shout from the throne

saying, look God's home is now among his

people. Which means that wasn't just a it

wasn't it wasn't just a dwelling place that

was lowering down. It was us

that's coming down with this.

God's home is now among his people. He

will live with them and they will be

his people. God himself will be with them.

Guys, this is this is the thing.

This is the picture I want us to

get in our head of what's happening here.

God takes John,

and and through vision, and I think some

of it's actually bodily because

the the reason I say

could be bodily and vision is because

God is not limited to time and space.

God is outside of time and space, so

all of it can be seen at the

same time for God. He can see Adam

and Eve, and he can see Revelation 21

at the exact same time.

K. That's hard for us to wrap our

minds around, because we're somewhere in there going

one direction. Can't go backward. Can't get outside

of it. Can't see the whole thing. We're

in it.

God's not.

So he pulls John out and says, John,

I'm a show you something.

He takes him all the way to the

end

and he says, look at this.

Now here's the cool thing.

John is looking at this,

and he can see

everybody

that is covered with the blood of Jesus.

Every one of them.

Which means,

if you're covered with the blood of Jesus,

he can see you

in the future.

He can see you right during writing this.

He can see you in the future. We

always talk about God knows the end. John

got a little glimpse of the end too.

And he can see. He can see you

standing there.

I would love to to somehow make a

movie of this.

And you're sitting here right now, you're watching

the movie that I made of John

watching what God is showing him in the

future that hasn't happened, and you stop and

turn around in the movie and wave at

you here.

Right?

This hasn't happened yet, but all of the

people that are covered with the blood of

Jesus are there.

It's you and me.

And then he says,

he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

When John saw this, he is literally seeing

God. I I don't know if this is

like

per person

or if it's like all at once, but

God is wiping the tears. When John sees

this, he is seeing literal

faces

of real people

with tears and God is wiping that tear

away. John has already

seen

some of the faces

that are in the future.

Having their tear wiped away.

It could be you.

How do you know if it's not or

it is?

It's

the people

that are covered with the blood of Jesus

that are about to step into the presence

of God for eternity, what we call heaven.

John can see them.

And here's one that'll throw your mind

the whole space time continuum thing.

John can see himself

as one of those people.

Because this is real. This is not made

up stuff. This is real and it's going

to happen

and you're standing there.

This

this is why we keep our eyes on

Jesus.

This is the point of this. He will

wipe every tear from their eyes. There will

be no more death or sorrow or crying

or pain. All these things are gone forever.

I don't know how to wrap my mind

around that. I have to accept that by

faith because I don't understand.

I'd I've never lived in a world where

there is no crying or sorrow or pain.

I've got lots of life of sorrow. I've

got lots of baggage of pain. I've got

lots of tears.

And so when Jesus says, John, look at

this. I'm gonna take it all the way.

I have to accept that by faith because

I don't know what that feels like.

Could you imagine right now just inside your

spirit, your mind, your heart,

instantly all the hurt is gone?

Disappears?

Gone?

You don't know what that feels like.

All the the distrust

gone

Instantly,

this is what he's gonna do.

And the one sitting on the throne said,

look, I'm making everything new. And then he

said to me, write this down. I think

he said that because I think John's going

he's like, John, Write oh, yeah. Write this

down.

For what I tell you is trustworthy and

true. And he also said,

it is finished.

He said that once before, didn't he?

At the cross, he said, it's finished.

Everything that you need to be right with

god, everything you need to be forgiven

is finished. It's done. It's been provided for.

And then when he says it this next

time,

it's

everything

forever.

Everything on this earth,

it's done.

We're there.

It's over.

And we get to start the amazing part.

It's finished.

I'm the alpha and the omega. The beginning

and the end. To all who are thirsty,

I will give freely from the springs of

the water of life. All who are victorious

will inherit all these blessings.

And I will be their God

and they will be my children. 2nd Corinthians

chapter 4

verse 16.

This is why we never give up.

That is why we never give up. Though

our bodies are dying, our spirits are being

renewed every day. For our present troubles are

small and won't last very long, yet they

produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs

them and will last forever.

When Jesus said it is finished,

all the stuff you've dealt with on this

earth

will seem so minuscule.

It's finished.

So we don't look at the troubles we

see now, rather we fix our gaze on

things that cannot be seen.

For the things we see now will soon

be gone, but the things we cannot see

will last forever. Why don't you stand with

me?

Jesus, open our spirit.

Open our

spiritual eyes.

God, I pray that every single person in

this room

will just get a a little spiritual glimpse

right now

of how

amazing eternity with you is.

Or just give us just a little taste

through your word.

Lord, that I want every single one of

us in this building standing there.

Every one of us covered with your blood

standing

there.

And our tears will be wiped away.

That we get to hear you say in

person, looking right at you, we get to

say, hear you say it is finished.

We get to look across,

see friends,

family members,

even people

we

didn't

like.

And we all get to

be amazed at your glory, your presence.

We get to worship you out loud with

you right there.

Lord, help us to get this in our

spirit.

I'm not gonna get tired of doing what

I'm supposed to be doing. I'm not gonna

give up.

I'm not gonna I'm not gonna

cash in and just say, I'm tired, I'm

done, I've tried this.

Lord, I'm gonna pursue you. I'm gonna chase

after you with everything about me. I'm gonna

chase after your word. I'm gonna chase after

your truth.

And I'm gonna stand when you've told me

to stand.

In the name of Jesus.

Jesus, every one of us in this room,

convict us. If we don't belong to you,

convict us right now.

Help us to get it right,

right now.

But Jesus, forgive us. Forgive us of our

sin.

Cover us with your blood,

and make us right with God.

We repent.

In the name of Jesus.

In the name of Jesus.

I like Linda to,

lead us in the course of this

song as we finish.

Let's just tell him. Tell him in your

own words.

Lord, we love you.

We worship you. We exalt you.

You're the king, Jesus.

You're the king, Jesus.

We belong to you.

Thank you, Jesus.

God, we exalt you.

We exalt you, Jesus.

Lord, I want my heart, my mind to

belong to you,

my existence

to be totally yours.

My life is not my own. It is

yours.

Lord, my life is a drink offering.

My life is a drink offering for you.

Lord, pour me out any way you want.

In Jesus name.

God, I pray for our church, I pray

for our city,

our state,

our country. Help us to turn to you.

To turn to you, the beginning and the

end, the Alpha and the Omega.

We wanna belong to you.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus.

Before noon tomorrow,

God's gonna give you the opportunity to ask

somebody,

if Jesus came back right now, are you

good?

Take the opportunity. Tell somebody. Look for any

way possible to tell somebody about Jesus,

and God will honor that in your life.

It's a guarantee.

Don't forget we have prayer tomorrow night if

you'd like to join us up here.

If not, we will see you Wednesday night.

Shake somebody's hand,

ask them,

if Jesus came back right now,

are you good?

And, we will see you then. Have a

great rest of your afternoon.