How it Ends || Pastor Adam Mesa

Let's get started today as we finalize our series called You Asked for It,

And these last two weekends we've been talking about the Book of Revelation, not

the Book of Revelations. It's only one revelation, and so it's John's revelation.

And so if you find yourself always saying revelations, you can say the

revelation of John. You won't say the revelations of John. That can help

you in that framework, because it's John's revelation that the Lord had shown him

and it is the testament of Jesus. And so if you want to just

prepare your heart for a moment revelation, chapter five is where you can go

and hold your place. If you missed it all last week, don't be

too worried. You don't have to have caught last week in order to understand

this week. But if you'd like to, because I would say, as

I shared last Sunday, chapters one to three in the Book of Revelation are

most applicable to you personally. That is the one that you ought to apply

immediately today. That is Jesus's encouragement for the seven Churches of Asia, which

represent all churches of all age that we would encounter certain things. So last

week we encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit, where might you be in

your faith? Have you gone cold in your faith? Have you gone tired

in your faith? Have you gone lukewarm in your faith? Have you gone

to false teachings in your faith? Have you merged a previous religion or faith

into your current faith? Whatever that is. We've encouraged you to reflect on

that and say, God, how am I continually continually line myself up with

who you are Jesus? And then as we find ourselves today, we're gonna

surveys chapter four to twenty two. It's a big endeavor. One day,

hopefully we'll do a series where we could break this down fully in a way

that you can know every ounce of it. It would take at minimum eight

weeks to be able to do that, to be honest, probably twelve weeks

if we were honest. So I had two weekends. Just today or yesterday.

As I passed my sermon off to the team, it turned out my

sermon had forty slides, and as I recorded yesterday, we got through four

slides. Okay, So just an idea of how much it takes to share

the Book of Revelation. But I'll promise you this. I do believe that

just at the end of the day's message, if you've never touched Revelation before,

you will have or if you've read it and you didn't understand it,

you will clearly be able to read it in such a way that you do

understand it better better. You may not understand everything that it's saying, but

you will definitely get a hold of what the Book of Revelation is. This

is probably the most notable book in human history. So in humanity, a

lot of movies are made based off of the idea, whether it's Christian or

not, there's always a theory of the end of the world that comes from

an idea of a desire for them to share about the Book of Revelation,

and so that's it's most widely known. If you were to ask someone who

wasn't a Christian, what book of the Bible do you know? Most they

may say not know it, but just the name of it, they would

probably say Revelation or the way the World ends. They would say that.

And there was a group that surveyed a group of Christians and asked them,

what book do you wish your pastors talked about more. It was unanimous that

they all wished the Book of Revelation was talked about more. Then they took

a large amount of pastors and they asked the pastors what book do you least

want to preach in the Bible. They all said the Book of Revelation.

So you could tell there's a desire from people who don't know the Book of

Revelation. But to pastors who've read it and are probably still confused, they

say, I'd love to teach it to my people, and they want to,

but sometimes they fear that they may not do it justice. That's why

a lot of times they may not touch it. But there's great stuff online.

But we'll touch it today to conclude, and it's important as we go

to Revelations chapter five and a second. The Book of Revelation is with symbolisms

and quotes from predominantly three books of the Bible, the Book of Psalms,

the Book of Ezekiel, and the Book of Daniel. And so if you

read the Book of Daniel and you read the Book of Ezekiel, you don't

have to read all of the Psalms, because all of the psalms aren't referenced.

But if you just looked online and said, what psalms are referenced in

the Book of Revelation, read those, more than likely you will understand the

Book of Revelation morek Too many times when we try to read it, we

read it in a vacuum. We just read Revelation by itself. But you're

not supposed to do that. You're supposed to have known the Book of Daniel.

You're supposed to have known the Book of Ezekiel, and you're supposed to

have known those psalms that are written in the Bible. That's okay, we'll

do a survey with that really briefly today. But I just want you to

know that because sometimes go people go, I read it and I just didn't

understand it. And I said, have you ever read Daniel before? No,

I've never read Daniel before. Do you understand that Daniel was given visions

in dreams and there were animals that represented government and world leader and stuff.

Each animal represented different Oh no, I never knew that. Well, that's

what Revelation is symbolically showing. Because John was a Jew, he knew the

Old Testament, and so that's why the spirit of God was showing him those

things, and so same thing with Ezekiel. There are in times imagery in

that as well. So let's turn to Revelations chapter five. We're just gonna

read verses six to fourteen today. We'll try to get to some other verses

today, but we may not because I've already recorded this yesterday and I know

that we pretty much got here, so but you will get to I will

explain four to twenty two for you. So let's stand for the honor of

reading God's word today as we dig into God's word. Here's what it says.

This is now called the throne room of God. John is in God's

throne room. He is standing before God in his throne by his spirit,

and he says this. And between the throne and the four living creatures,

and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been

slain, with seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of

God sent out into all the earth. And he went out and took the

scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And

when he had taken the scroll, before living creatures and the twenty four elders

fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, a golden ball full

of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a

new song, saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open

its seals? For you were slain, and by your blood you were ransomed

people for God, from every tribe and every language, and every people and

every nation. And you have made them a kingdom and a priest to our

God, and they shall reign on the earth. Then I looked, and

I heard around the throne and the living creatures, and the elder's voice of

many angels, numbering myriads and myriads and thousand a thousands, saying with a

loud voice, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power, wealth

and wisdom, and my honor and glory and blessing. And I heard every

creature in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and in the

sea, and all that is in them, saying to him who sits on

the throne and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might

forever and ever. And the four living creatures said amen. And the elders

fell down and worshiped. You may be seated. You see, as we

just read, there's a moment we saw chapters one and three last week was

a letter written to the seven churches of Asia Minor, which are in modern

day Turkey. There were more churches in that day. There were even more

churches in Turkey of the time. The reason why it was those seven churches

is because those seven churches were going through very specific yet different things, and

there were seven because in a few moments we'll see seven represents God's completed work,

and so seven represents God's completed church. So every church of every age

may wrestle with one of these seven things. And so the chapters one to

three just are words to those seven churches. That's almost like a regular letter

that you've seen in the Bible, like Philippians and Ephesians and First Corinthians.

But once you get to chapters four and five, now immediately you're taken from

the letter to those churches into a vision in heaven where now John is in

the throne room of God. And in the throne Room of God, we're

seeing that there's a scroll with seven seals on it. The reason why there's

seven seals on it, because in Jesus's day, in John's day, when

someone would die and they would have a will and testament, it would be

sealed with seven seals, representing the refinement process that went into building that will,

and so you would break the seven seals, and that's the only way

it could be broken to read someone's will that represented this person thoroughly went through

their will and testament. So therefore the seven seals represented. The statements in

this are finished and complete. No addendums in this. If it had one

seal, a person may want to revisit. Oh, I want to kick

that kid out the wheel, I want to take money from this person.

I don't want to leave the house to this person. Seven seals said I

was done. So seven seals, these seals of God's will that is being

held. They're saying, who can open God's will and start the progression of

Jesus's return, And no one is there, and so John starts freaking out,

and he's saying, how can God's will be established? How can Jesus

return if there's no human worthy to open God's will? And then now comes

a lamb that was slain, which represents Jesus. So he has a vision

now of a lamb who is cut up, who has bled, who has

died, and then it represents Jesus. Jesus steps forward now in a few

moments, and then that's why he says, I can open God's will.

And then now that's why heaven falls down and worships him. They say,

worthy is the lamb? Worthy is the lamb Jesus. There is nobody like

you who can actually start this progression of redeeming human history. Worthy are you,

Jesus? So they start worshiping, because heaven is a celebration that God's

will and testament has been fulfilled. It's a celebration to say, the work

of Calvary, the work of resurrection, it is finished, and it's redeemed

us, so that one day, when God establishes eternity here on earth,

you can know without a shout of a doubt, if you are part of

the ransomed blood of Jesus. You are in the family. You're in the

family, and that's what we get to celebrate. That's why Heaven is celebrating.

Are we doing that around the clock twenty four hours day? No,

this is a vision. We'll see later. On. Part of God's vision

is that we all shall actually live. Read if you look at last week,

we talked about the comparisons between Genesis and Revelation. So it's God's desire

that we live and do life. So in our future, heavenly or earthly

bodies here on earth, in Jesus's kingdom, we will still do things with

each other. There are angels, and there are people who are petitioned in

the Throne room who are worshiping God twenty four hours a day. We will

be worshiping him, but you will also be worshiping Him through living a life,

and that you see later on in Revelation nineteen and twenty. And so

that's part of Jesus' millennial reign. And so here's what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna survey three things for you, really briefly. Number one, you

cannot understand the Book of Revelation if you don't understand numbers in the Bible.

Okay, so Revelation you're gonna read. If you read it, there is

number after twenty four elders seven this for this, six six six this.

If we don't know what those numbers mean, then you're just you're gonna think

that it's it's literal. So there's seven churches. You're like, oh,

okay, so God only wants to share this with seven churches. No.

Seven represents God's completed works. So God wants to share this with all churches.

Once you understand God's numbers, we're not gonna look at all numerology.

We're just gonna look at the numbers in Revelation really fast. If you write

these down the next time you read Revelation, you'll know what. Anytime a

number like this is mentioned, you'll go, oh, it represents God is

saying this. God is saying that God is communicating. Oh, that's very

clear. It starts to become much more clear in that way. Okay,

So here's the first number you have in the Bible or in Revelation. You're

gonna see the number two many times. Okay. Here's what the number two

symbolizes. It symbolizes God's completeness and is often connected to a valid testimony.

So in the Jewish faith, in the Hebrew faith, in a court of

law, something is not valid until there's two or three more witnesses. You

cannot have a one eyewitness account. And so in here, you're gonna see

two witnesses are said in revelation. All it's saying, may it probably is

too literal witnesses, but it's also communicating their statements are valid because there's two

of them, not one of them. So two represents an eyewitness account that's

validated. So whenever you see in Revelation to something mentioned, all it's saying

is the statements that are progressing are valid and true eyewitness accounts. In other

words, you think of Moses was given two tablets, ten words, the

decalogue, the ten we call them ten commandments, but in Hebrew they call

it the decalogue ten words. But written on what two tablets means, it's

a perfect witness of law. That's what two come from. Okay, then

the next thing you have is you have four. Four signifies full and total

coverage. So when you see four for this, four people of this,

and these are all God's numbers. Okay, they're satanic numbers too, but

these are all good numbers when they're mentioned. So right away you know if

two, four, seven, twelve, and ten are mentioned, those are

righteous numbers. They just each communicate something differently. So for is represented,

it's full and total courbage most of the time over God's creation. So what

do I mean by that? The four corners of the earth, that's God's

creation, right, we have every country has north, southeast, and west.

That's God's full and total coverage. So when you see four, all

it's sharing is God's creation is covered. The Star of David for the Jewish

people put in the people of Israel. Do you know what the Star of

David is. It's a compass, that's all it is. God is in

control north southeast or west. You may say, well, what are all

the little points northeast, southwest, southeast, northeast. That's all it is.

So next time you see a Star of David, it's a compass,

that's all it is. That's all it means. Okay, it's that God

is covering. It's full coverage. So you have four. Okay. Jesus

says that the Gospel is supposed to be spread amongst what Judea, Jerusalem,

Samaria, and what all the corners of the earth for total coverage. Read

revelation. You see four of anything, all it is total coverage, that's

it, and that's a part of creation. Then you have the number seven.

This is the most famous number that we know of. The number seven

candiates full completeness and totality, not amongst creation, amongst God's will. Okay,

so if you see seven, what did God do? How many days

did it take for God to create the earth? Seven days? That's his

full will, that's his full desire for humanity. That is where we get

the number seven from. And so you're gonna see what seven churches of Asia

minor at one point, you're gonna see seven elders and stuff like that,

or you're gonna have some type of multiplier of that number in some type of

way. Sometimes it's a multiplier. If you see any of these numbers multiplied

times, well, basically, all it's saying is that the number is that

number specifically is innumerable. It means it's an eternal number. That's what they're

trying to communicate. But the number may be times by something because that number

represents that specific thing. So we'll see that in a second. The number

ten, this number, and it's multiplier, so many times you'll see ten

times by something emphasizes indefiniteness, magnitude, and completeness in the view of time

and humanity. Of time and humanity So it's a human number that is given

to humanity in time, and a lot of times it's in opposition to Satanic

influence or sin. Right, So how many words I just share with you

guys, how many words was Moses given on the tablets? Ten? Who's

in opposition of God's laws? Satan? And so ten normally means there is

Satanic opposition against it, but God still wins. Get this, I'll trip

some of you guys outright right now. In the Old Testament, how much

are you encouraged to give in the temple? Ten percent a tithe? Why

does ten matter? Well, because Satan is opposed to you giving to God

that there is literally a spirit called mammin that is financial addiction, money diction,

either never having enough or having too much that you don't want to share,

that desire of that mindset that says I'll never be taken care of this

money's mind no one can have it. Whatever it is that is Satan saying,

oh yeah, you're playing in my court. So it's ten percent because

when you give it, it breaks that spirit. So it's not just about

tithing. And someone can say, oh, well, tithing's in the Ultimate

Testament. What's in the New Testament. Well, if you read the Book

of Acts, they said sell all of your things and give it all to

the church. You know, so I know you don't want to do that.

So pick your poison, ten percent or all of it. Okay,

you could be an early Church Christian and live in a shoe box and give

it all away, or you could give ten percent. Either way, it's

not God's desire that he has your money. It's God's desire that he break

the bondage. In the same way, it's not that God wants you to

force you to live out the ten Commandments. It's that when you live out

the law. Now we live out the law through following Jesus, but Jesus

fulfilled the law. What do you do you break the bondage of sin.

Jesus is the only one who permanently broke that bondage, so only by him

can we truly find freedom. So that's where you'll see ten is super relevant.

Lastly, in ten, every year, when it's Passover season in the

Jewish religion, they were to pick the Passover lamb, the lamb who would

die for the sins of Israel. On the tenth day of the month,

and so it always represents God's written law, has written desire for humanity that

breaks the bondage of Satan. So ten matters in the Bible, and so

you'll see ten in Revelation. And then here's the last one is twelve.

Many of us will also know twelve, seven, and twelve are pretty regularly

understood numbers in the Bible. And this represents fullness and completeness within the Church

and humanity. Okay, so there were how many tribes in the Old Testament,

how many tribes of Israel? Twelve? How many disciples did Jesus have?

Twelve? So there you go. So you'll also see a multiplier of

that. So you'll see and if you read Revelation, another famous number is

one hundred and forty four thousand, you'll see that when Jesus returns during the

Tribulation period, he'll have a one hundred and forty four thousand witnesses with him

or soldiers with him. There's two takes you could take on. That could

be one hundred and forty four thousand Israelites people Jews who during the Tribulation period

have given their life to Christ. Or it could represent twelve times twelve times

a thousand is one hundred and forty four thousand. So basically, if you

take twelve times twelve time one thousand, that's in what God would do instead

of saying infinite, He'll give you a number and he'll times it by something,

and that's supposed to That's like when Jesus was asked how many times should

I forgive somebody? What does he tell them? He's a seven times seven

times. What he's saying is infinitely, you infinitely forgive somebody. That's what

that communication is. So the idea of one hundred and forty four thousand and

is also all of Jesus's disciples in human history are with him in heaven,

all those that would say yes to Jesus. So that's what that number also

represents at the same time, and so if you understand those numbers, I

also tend to take more of a literal approach. I think the one day

there will be really one hundred and forty four thousand people with him while we

will still be in the sky watching this these things. But also you could

also take the approach that it would be all of us there with him.

It doesn't hurt the story to not know the answer. That's the beauty about

revelation. Just because you're not always clear on one particular verse doesn't mean that

the end of the story doesn't matter. We know the end of the story,

we know how this ends, and that's what I'm going to share with

you. This is what matters how the story ends. What happens in between,

whether the vaccine is getting the mark of the beast, or whether or

whether a politician in Russia right now is the antichrint, It does not change

the end of the story. Doesn't change the end of the story. It

really doesn't matter at the end of the day. But it's great to try

to understand. It is important to try to understand, but to not be

clear. There's nothing wrong with that, and the Spirit of God may give

you more clearity. And that's the beautiful thing about continually reading. So by

the beginning verse says, read this out loud, as the Spirit of God

would give you understanding, so you can get more clear. That's why I'm

saying, I believe it's one hundred and forty four thousand, but I have

friends that are pastors with doctorates who believe otherwise. So I'm not so prideful

enough to say that I have it right over the guy who spent his whole

life reading Revelation. I just feel that's what I'm convinced by, you know,

as my own reading. So let's look at this. I want you

to survey really briefly, this overview of the tribulation period, because that is

what's most famously of what we know. And so I'm gonna have us go

to this next slide. Okay, so I'll show you two slides. Now

at this point, this kind of where we'll land our time together. This

is chapters pretty much pretty much chapters after after four and five, so basically

chapters six to twenty two is what you see right here. Okay. I

had hoped if we have more time. That's why Lord Willing, we'll bring

something back in the future. I basically gave you guys a breakdown because there

are chapters that are clustered. The Bible wasn't written with chapters. Later on,

when they canonized the Bible or completed it, they added chapters and verses

for you to understand. But when the letter was written, it was written

just like a regular letter, so a lot of the paragraphs go together,

and so chapters four and five go together. Chapter six to seven they go

together. So what you see here, and this will make it very clear

for us is you and I we live in this age right here, called

the church age. This is Acts chapter two. If you ever read the

book of Acts, this is the start of the church, the inauguration of

the church by the Spirit descending and the Gospel being proclaimed. That is here,

that is Acts chapter two. Right here, you have the cross,

You have everything over here that's before Jesus ministry. And so what you have

here is now our church age. You and I still live in that day.

According to First Thessalonians, this is where we get the idea of rapture.

Rapture's not a biblical term. It's a Latin term that represents to get

caught up, which that is in the Thessalonians. But Latin was the predominant

language for over a thousand years in the Church, through the Roman Catholic Church

and many others. So rapture began a popular terminology out of the Latin term

to catch up. And so what are to be caught up? And so

what this is now is we await. According to Second Thessalonians two seven,

it gives the impression that one day as there will be a tribulation period.

Jesus even says to the seven churches, repent of the things that you are

not following me in should you want to avoid the tribulation period. So what

Jesus is not saying in those first letters is you're not saved. So what

he's saying, what he's saying is is he's saying, there will come a

tribulation period, and if you want to avoid that period, you must live

and quit being lukewarm, quit being unloving, quit being asleep. So he

gives these terminolies to say, wake up, be like the Church of Philadelphia.

You know, who loves, who practices faith, who seeks me finds

me. And so here's we have. There will come a day where Jesus

will catch all the current saints up to heaven. Okay, where we will

avoid the tribulation period. You may see hints of what's to build in our

day, but you will not see the actualities of our day. Okay.

That's why if you're searching for in time stuff, you know, Jesus says,

you won't know the daytime or hour that he returns. And so in

actuality. You'd be remiss to change. You'd be remiss to chase who the

anti Christ is, because the reality is you be in heaven by then you

may have an inkling, but to actually get the answer, which is normally

what we Christians are looking for, black and white. I want to know

who. Where is he born right now? Is he? Is he in

Middle East? Is he in China? Is he in Russia? You would

if you if you're saying you're gonna find out, what you're saying is you're

gonna be left behind. I'll tell you this, you don't want to be

that person. I think I know who it is. If you know who

it is, then we've all been left behind. The three Christians in the

world have been caught up in because you have no idea. And so at

that point when we're raptured, it starts seven years of a tribulation period.

Some theologians believe, because numerology represents seven, represents God's completion of his work

of his will. They say it could you know, seven years could equal

one hundred years of a tribulation or two hundred I believe still literal approach.

I believe it's gonna be seven years. I believe that when Jesus catches his

church in heaven, that that starts God's clock on these end times. And

so I believe it's seven years of literal And this comes from the Book of

Daniel where we get a lot of clarity clarity from it's in Revelation, but

the clarity of the symbolisms are in the Book of Daniel, okay, And

so it's split into two. You'll notice here that in Revelation we're given seven

years, which represents God's allotment or allowing the tribulation to go. Seven represents

God's involved. Halves represent what Satan's involved, Okay, And so I didn't

give you guys that slide. But the bad numbers, they're really easy.

There's two main versions of bad numbers Satanic numbers. It's quarters halves or unfinished

numbers. So if a number is unfinished, if it says a year and

six months, that's a Satanic number, that's a satanic destination. God's always

complete with the number. And so if you're giving an if you're given a

number in Revelation that ends in quarters has or it's an unfinished number, then

that means Satan's involved. Or you have six sixty six, which is the

mark of the beast, which is the which is the antithetical number to the

number seven. God's completed will, Satan's will is six sixty six, his

allotment, his allowed number. And so you'll see the mark of the beast

equals that number. Originally, if you write in Hebrew, Hebrew names and

numbers represent six sixty six two. So the audience of John's day would have

understood the number six sixty six if you write the the The ruler of their

day was a ruler named Nero, who was a horrible figure. Horrible figure

if you research him. He hated Christians. He was also just defiled.

He was strange guy in general. He used to love. He used to

love to swim in pools and have have little He would teach babies how to

swim. He would swim in pools and have them nip at his naked body.

That's how strange Nero was. That's how that's how perverse Nero was.

And so he he was. He was an embodiment of Satan's work in government,

That's what he was. And so if you write Caesar Nero in Hebrew,

and the numbers, it's six sixty six, and so it also represents

a ruler. That's where we get the idea that there's going to be a

physical ruler during the tribulation period, because sixty sixty six represented a governmental leader.

That's how we would know that. And so basically you have three and

a half years. For the first three and a half years see immense persecution

on Christians and pretty much everyone else is in peace. Christians are not.

So anyone who realized the raptured happened and they're like, man, I need

to get my life together, they're they're doing it at the cost of their

life because it basically Christians become the ones to blame for everything in that day.

They're all of our problems, they're all their morals, all their ethics,

all their this. Now there's a theory that there's one other religion that

becomes the predominant leader of that time and the predominant instigator of the religion and

towards Christianity, and so some have said that might be Islam or something else,

but the understanding is that is could be the case, But the reality

is everyone this person brings peace to Israel. Israel's on the brink of war.

Israel does exist in this day. So the reason why you're like,

why do people why did Paul believe he was in the end times? But

then how come we also believe we're in the end times? Well, in

Paul's day, when he wrote two thirds of the New Testament, Israel existed.

Rome kicked out because the Israelis. They had a protest, a mass

protest against Rome in seventy a D. In seventy a D. The Romans

kicked the Jews out of Israel. And you want to know how long the

Jews were wandering without a home being Israel till nineteen forty eight. So from

seventy a D to nineteen forty eight Israel did not exist. Okay, So

whether you like how Israel is handling things today, that doesn't mean that government

can't make mistakes, that doesn't mean that you can't be critical to the national

national government itself. But the reality is you can't get it not to exist.

It's in revelation, it's in God's plan and it's there. So either

you could take the responsibility of saying I'm gonna be empathetic towards this nation that

God still has a plan for or you just say I don't want anything to

do with God's plan. It's kind of one or the other. In that

statement. Once again, it's not that you can't say I don't like how

they handle this. You could say that that's fine. We do that in

our nation all the time. I don't like when government leaders in America do

things sometimes, so probably the majority of the time. So that's okay to

say that, but still love America or still love something else. You can

still do that, right, And so that's in this story. Okay,

So a leader brings peace to Israel, and then in three and a half

years, which is a satanic number of uncompleteness, that ruler switches the script.

He has two prophets that work for him. Okay, he sayan comes

and there are individuals the Antichrist, and there's one prophet that shows up,

and that prophet uses signs, wonders and miracles to validate the Antichrist. Now

here's the thing you have to remember. In this modern age, the signs,

miracle wonders could be a miraculous concept, or it could be some type

of miracle medical concept that humanity can't define. Today we have a lot of

magic that's occurring that may not be majestical in nature, but it's the magic

of technology. It's the magic of assimilating something, some type of principle,

so that prophet could somehow be an intellectual genius that solves a problem and forces

everyone, through that technology to adhere to the Antichrist, in which everyone will.

Anyone that rejects it, it says that they will be rejected and put

to death. And so during this time there's a great persecution, now not

just for Christians, of persecution on the world. And during this time there

are also in the earlier time there are famines and wars and all these incredible

things happening that your eye has never seen. Okay, and so mind you,

this is this is usually where Christians get caught up the most. But

if you're a believer, this is the most thing that actually has nothing to

do with you, because at this time you're with Jesus. So most most

of us were like always trying to figure out this part. Here's the part

you want to care about the most, This part right here, Okay,

this is the most important part for you, all right, This is the

this is like, this is like oh, this is interesting to note book

of Daniel. God's expanding it. In John we see how the end times

and the tribulation are gonna be. That's great stuff. We can know that

stuff, and you could dig deeper, and I'm gonna show you a brief

slide where you can dig deeper. But what you really need to care about

is at the end of that seven years, Jesus is going to return on

his second coming. Mind you, at the beginning of the seven years,

he catches us into heaven. Okay, we don't get to experience these things,

thank God. Others would say, no, that's not true. We

will go through tribulation period. And the way that you'll see Jesus early is

if you die for your faith. So I mean, if you take that

perception, okay, I see how you come to that conclusion. But over

I believe in a rapture. I believe Jesus catches us up. I believe

Second Thessalonians makes that clear and other passages. But second coming, Jesus returns,

and he doesn't just return just for us we're already in heaven with him,

not just for the believers of the day. He returns to show humanity

because people are gonna be like, we hate this guy, this guy who

brought peace to all of us, this guy who was doing X, Y

and Z, and then three and a half years in he turns his back

and then he starts persecuting us. He starts making us get this mark where

we can't purchase or eat or do and go to medical clinics or anything without

this mark. This guy's horrible. Someone get this guy out of office of

this world government. Jesus will come and say, I'll do that. Okay,

he says, I will do that. So he binds Satan for a

time. So Satan does that have arms and legs anymore to do work on

the earth. He can't roam the earth anymore, and so you'll see battles

happening in heaven. That's what kind of what it's picturing. The Book of

Revelation is not written in a consensual story. It's written more like Oceans eleven

and twelve. If you ever seen Oceans eleven and twelve, what it is

is you see the heist somewhere around the middle of the movie, and then

the rest of the movie gives you perspectives of each actor and how they saw

the heist. That's how Revelation is written. So one chunk of chapters show

you what's happening in heaven, one chunk shows you what's happening with the church,

one chunk shows you what's happening with the Antichrist. It's all happening at

the same time, though, so you're not reading it in chronological order.

It is shown. It's giving you a little microscopic so that if you understand

those aspects then you won't get confused when you read Revelation. You're like,

oh, we're still in the same time period. It's now just showing me

what's happening with the Antichrist and this image of the beast and this image of

a leopard and this image of a dragon that's Satan, the Antichrist and the

false prophet. So it's like you just get those words. You're like,

okay, I get it. It's it could be clear. And so here

we have Jesus returns and for one thousand years, Jesus will reign here on

earth, reign here on Earth with you and I part of his redemptive people.

Also though with humanity in general, humanity that has not been to Heaven,

so Jesus will rule physical humans, not not not human spiritual beings like

us. It will be physical humans, and we will the Bible says in

Revelations nineteen, we will rule with him with him, okay, and so

will be. You may potentially God may put you over the garbage disposal area

of government, of his government, and you will love it. Others he

will put. He may put you over sanitation. Uh, he may put

you over of he may put just think of However, most government is formed

in terms of what serves people's needs. We we will rule with him with

Jesus like hey, Jesus, be like, hey, next Friday, I

want I want to throw festival for everyone, and You're like cool, I'll

get the balloons, I'll get the food, I'll get the we we we

we are working with him in his dominion for that one thousand years. And

then at the end of that thousand years a thousand years, what's gonna happen

is And remember the thousand is is a multiple of what ten. Okay,

So that's that's why it's a thousand, and so you have a multiple of

ten here. And then Jesus, at this point Satan will be loosed from

from Uh from bondage, he will roam the earth one more time. He

will get a generation of that day, a certain number of that generation of

that day, and they will rebel against Jesus as king. Jesus will mount

up in battle with an army in Israel, in a place called Meguido,

which many people have traveled Israel. We've shown you where right over where Elijah

called over the beat the prophets of all in a land it's very flat.

In a land called Meguido, Jesus will do a final war, but not

one sword will be thrown, because Jesus's words are like a sword. So

when Jesus speaks, it will cut through everybody, and they will all be

put to shame. Satan will be casted into the Lake of Fire, free

all eternity. And then here's the last part. Then God will descend not

heaven on earth, but a new Jerusalem and a new creation on earth,

in which all of us will be renewed. And all of us, through

our lives and through our followership and through our dedication, will give glory to

Jesus for the rest of our days. We will worship Jesus for the rest

of our days. This catalyzes in Revelation twenty one and twenty two. That's

where you can read that. So if you get an idea of where these

things are at, right, you have Revelation nineteen, then you have twenty

to twenty two, and then over here you have everything in between. Right,

you basically have six down to eighteen. Is this tribulation period. That's

what it's explaining, basically six to eighteen. So if you just read Revelation

with that in mind, you can approach it with clarity. But here's what

matters. This is the point of this book. Nobody is too far gone

to say yes to Jesus. That is the point of this book. We

see that Satan is real, we see that unjust Satanic governments are real.

We see that false prophets are real. But the greatest thing of all if

you see Jesus has defeated them. Jesus will defeat them. And also Jesus

can redeem any person, no far how you're gone, no matter how far

you have gone. If you can recognize his blood was shed for you,

then this work is for you. But don't wait. Don't wait, because

there are people who are caught up to heaven by their death or they will

be caught up to heaven by Jesus's return. But the reality is every person

will see Jesus, every tongue will confess, every need will bow that he

is king. But revelation. There's an important verse in there that says,

on the day of judgment there will be a book called the Lamb's Book of

Life. All a Ledger system because God is a god of law and order.

The reason why we desire law and order and justice today is because it

is a very image of God. So that's why when someone steals from you,

you say, hey, someone needs to do something about that. That

is a reflect Nobody steals from you and you just say they probably want in

my car more than me. There's no such thing as a true atheist,

because there's no person on theress earth that does not believe in justice. True

atheism says, there's no there's no law and order like what who created it?

What creates it? It's it's it's relative based off who decides what law

and order is. No, it's innately inside of us. Someone lies on

me, someone need to take care of him. If you come into work

and someone says that you were clocked out early and you weren't working half the

day. You say that's a lie. You don't say, well, that

was probably their truth. Y'all take the ride up. You say, no,

that's not fair, that's a lie. We all believe in law and

order. So one day in heaven there will be a ledger system that says,

not not all the good things you did, not all the great works

you did, not all the children you not all the orphanages you gave to,

not all the Those are great beneficial things for humanity. But what will

annotay is did you say yes to the blood of Jesus. Did you receive

Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior. And the point of all of this

is to share with the world this reality will come one day, and you

get hints of it today with wars, famines, pestilence. We see that.

Today you get mere optics. You get illusions of the end times every

single day, every single day you see illusions of what a tribulation period would

look like. That's God captivating you, saying, don't wait until the day

of judgment and the day of tribulation. Today you could choose Jesus no matter

how far you have gone. I'll end with this. You know, earlier

this week, we're always amazed with what God does with our podcast Beyond the

Letter and Beyond I Do. But earlier this week, one of our posts

for our marriage podcasts, Beyond I Do, it went viral like old megaviral

right now, like radio stations are playing these clips and and this really secular

Instagram account replayed our clip and shared it. But it's a story of my

friends who are pastors now, who they have a church now in northern California

in San Jose area. But they were sharing their story and there was a

clip we shared on how when they were dating, she had slept with someone

else and she now she was like a couple months new into her faith,

and so she had a total she had never been to church in her life

until the day she had went to church, so she was just a few

months saved. She's dating this youth pastor and she gets pregnant. She embarrassedly

has an abortion. She tells him, hey, we shouldn't be together.

I cheated on you. I've had an abortion. He says, Nevertheless,

God has told me that you're to be my wife. I love you.

I love you. Let me cover you, and she shares that clip and

it went megaviral. Now in the rest of the podcast, and in a

clip earlier, she shares how at the age of eight, starting at eight,

she was raped and molested by family members and step family. And so

when you start getting rape and molested that young of a age, you don't

understand the value not only of your body, but of your life. And

so many people started with megaviral because everyone's in the comments, oh, she

should die, she should give her life. I talked to my friend yesterday

who it's his wife. He said they had started getting death threat emails that

they both should die because of this story. Okay, it just shows you

the depravity of humanity. But here's what it matters. Here's what's incredible.

It's through that story how he says, I've covered my mind. And now

they've been married nine years and they've gone through counseling and they're so healthy,

and God has done a redemptant work. They have a daughter, he has

two sons from a previous marriage. He was in a game culture before.

God has changed their life. But guess what, But guess what humanity says

forgiveness and grace, for me, but not for forgiveness and grace for anyone

else. That's the human condition. The human condition says, I want forgiveness,

I need forgiveness. But when someone has done something that I don't like

or I don't appreciate, no forgiveness for them, no love for them.

And so just on Friday, I'm in LA. There's a guy with tattoos

all over his neck, all over his face. He's sitting down on a

bench. I'm out in Los Angeles. I'm standing and I look at this

guy at the bench out in Los Angeles, over an hour away, hour

and a half away, and he's watching that clip on his for you page

because it's gone viral. I can't make this up. And I look at

the guy and I wait for him to finish the clip. I say hey,

And there was another person there too that was with him. I said,

hey, you're watching my podcast and he looks at me. He's like

what. I go, Hey, you're watching my podcast and he goes,

what this is your podcast? I go yeah. And then like the friends

he's with there tripping out like what this is crazy, you know? And

so they're talking about it. I said, what'd you think about the clip.

He says, Oh, I think she's a bleep, bleep bleep and

that dude's a punk bob Bob bob. And so I told him, Hey,

let me tell you a little bit about their life real quick, and

I share with them what I just shared with you, guys. This is

how she was treated when she was young, This is what she went through

when she was young. This is what he went through. He was in

a gang culture, broken family, So her cheating and all, it's all

he saw in his own family, his whole life. It was normal.

It wasn't something that was out of the ordinary. And I said, but

he loved his wife, who God had told him that he was to cover

her. He loved his wife so much that he was willing to forgive her

worst of things. And I said, do you know that's what God can

do with you. You know, through your worst of things, through the

things that no one has ever seen, that God can forgive your sins.

Because if God had your heart, we would all go to heaven. And

he say, get out of my sight. But thank God, God don't

think like any of us. Thank God that in the Book and Revelation,

God tells us a different story that any judgment, any famine. You see,

it's all God just trying to heck, get your attention, get ready,

Get ready. Jesus is coming, and in this moment, he's saying,

your mess, your garbage, I can cover that. And so I

looked at this guy. I said, you may think my friend's a punk,

but to me, he looks more like Jesus than anyone I've ever met.

That's what he looks like. He's been a couple of seconds sharing the

gospel with that young man, and then he looks at me and he says,

I probably need to shut up next time and not judge so quickly.

Humh. This is someone with tattoos on their face, tattoos on their neck,

tattoos probably on his butt. They're everywhere. And he said, I

probably shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Yeah, my friend, you

probably shouldn't judge a book by its cover because the world is probably judging you

by your cover. But thank god, thank god, he don't do the

same with me. Thank God that the Gospel of Jesus is available for everyone.

And when Jesus returns, he don't care what's on your face. He

don't care what's on your neck. He don't care what's in your past.

He don't care what's in your presence. He cares have you confessed, have

you made him lord? And have you given his life? Because that's the

person he's coming back for. And he wants you. He loves you,

and Jesus wants you here. He wants you here. And the beauty is

he hasn't made it hard. He hasn't made it hard. Now in the

tribulation period, it will say hard to say yes. It will be hard

to say yes to Jesus, be very hard, but you'll understand the blessing

that the revelation shares, the blessing that's there for those in revelation. There

is an incredible elevation of responsibility that God gives those that die during the tribulation

period. But thank God, thank God, he has not made it hard

for us to follow us. So I just encourage you at this moment,

can we bow our heads and close our eyes? So we're gonna close now.

And just like I shared, if you've never never received the grace of

Jesus for your life, if you have never said yes to Jesus in your

life, let this be the moment the moment that you receive him. Many

people is all wait until I get my life together, All wait until this,

or let me fix my marriage first, or let me give up this

first. And no, Jesus wants you as you are. The spirit of

God will give you the ability to overcome in this moment. All you need

is to give him your heart, give him your life, and give him

your love. And so if you're here today, as we say this prayer

out loud together, I encourage you to be someone that says yes to Jesus

for the first time. Or maybe you've said yes to him a long time

ago, but you're like man, I have not followed it. If he

were to return today, I don't think i'd be I think I'd be left

behind. And I encourage you today to confess Him as your Lord and savior.

So would you all repeat this prayer after me today as many are going

to mean it for the first time, Would you say, Dear Lord Jesus,

in this moment, I confess you as Lord and Savior. I believe

in my heart that you died on the cross and you rose three days later,

and from this day forward, I commit to following you for the rest

of my days in Jesus' name, Amen,