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Revelation 3: 7 -13 the church of Philadelphia

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Live from Bremerton. It's Monday night during this Christmas season. We are in Revelation chapter three beginning with verse seven tonight. The church of Philadelphia of brotherly love. And so those of you on Facebook, we welcome you to join us. Get together together in your name. Thank you for keeping us safe as we drove through that aquatic river and lord, we just pray you get us home safe. Pray that you pour out your Holy Spirit and lead and guide us into all truth, Lord be our teacher, bless the time as we worship you in fellowship, thank you for the meal, thank you for the Christmas party yesterday, and Lord we again we thank you for this season of the celebration of the birth of your dear son in Jesus name we pray, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. And then we're gonna have our illustrious friend, Thomas Poole, come and do a special. Okay. Alright. It it's always tuned at home. Anyway, I like to sing a song. It's called Christ Returns. You you you would recognize the melody here. I'm doing a song called tuning. Yes. I mean, if this was heaven, it'd be perfect. Alright. Thank you, bro. Good job. Right, with the spirit of the age. Right, we are in Revelation chapter three beginning with verse seven, the church of Philadelphia. Everybody ready? Everybody got all their Christmas shopping done? Yes, good. Okay. Getting it done right now. Yeah. Alright. Well, let's pray. Father, we just commit this night into your hands and ask that you open the scriptures unto us lord that you would be our teacher. Lord, we know that you're truth incarnate and Lord we don't want to water the word down, we don't want to you know distort it. Lord we want everything you have for us tonight Lord just open our hearts give us ears to hear to hear what the spirit is saying to those in the churches, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Alright. This church Philadelphia, church of brotherly love, and so we to kinda review, you got seven churches that are in the area of Asia Minor, which is resident day Turkey, and they're not there's other churches besides them. They're not just the only churches that are there. But John the Revelator is exiled the island of Patmos and in chapter one verse 19 the Lord gave him an outline to write the things which you have seen which was in chapter one a vision of the Lord. Write the things which are in the present tense which is the church age and then as we'll see when we get to chapter four verse one, write the things which are hereafter which metatauta after these things so after the church age. So presently we're in in the letters to the church age, the church of Philadelphia. Three ways that we look at this. Number one, we we we interpret the bible literally. So this is a literal letter to a literal church and they're to heed the the rebuke that the lord has for five of them. The solution which is repentance and his his evaluation and all. So, for them, as a church, they need to look at it, look in the mirror and say, alright, the lord's Lord's calling us out. And then the second way we look at it is personal. Any one of these churches could be speaking to you and I. So for instance like the church of Ephesus they'd left their first love and that's what the Lord had had, you know, to rebuke them about. So all scriptures given by inspiration to God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. And so Jesus is using the scripture, you know, obviously, he's the scripture incarnate, but he's he's rebuking them and telling them to get right, you know. And so that's the second way. The third way that we interpret this is we look at it as a overview of church history and that it prophetically speaks of different epochs or periods of time that these churches represent. So this church we're looking at here, Philadelphia, this represents the church from about the seventeen hundreds and nineteen hundreds, which is a missionary effort. Their their outreach was phenomenal and so this was an open door. The lord's given them an open door to go forth with the gospel and we remember in Matthew chapter twenty eight eighteen through 20, Jesus said go and make disciples of all nations. Right? And let me read that for you. This is called the great commission and it's not a suggestion, It's a commandment that he's telling his disciples and he's got his 12 and then it goes to a 120 that are waiting the upper room and then ten days later, he's going to at Pentecost send the Holy Spirit unto them but after forty days of his resurrection, he meets with them and he gives them this this final commission and and he and Jesus came and spoken to them saying, all authority is given on me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. So three persons of the godhead are all involved, one one god and three persons. And and so baptism is a witness where they're gonna outwardly witness and testify of their faith and believe in me and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. So they're gonna pass it on. These apostles are gonna pass it on. And lo, I'm with you always even at the end of the age. So we're at the end of the age and god's eternal and he's I got a little bit of Thomas in me. Don't know how I got that but can happen to anybody. So so the the emphasis here of going, but what are you going with? You're going with the word of God. You're going with what he's taught you. You don't make it up as you go. It doesn't change as you go. It doesn't become antiquated and old at the end of the age two thousand years later. The message is the same. And and you're growing in authority as a witness of him. He's the one that told you to go. You're going in his name and and he's and he's saying, I'm there with you. I'm with you always. And and, you know, we teach and we preach. We preach to unbelievers and we teach believers. We seek to make disciples and that people would learn the word of god and get to know the lord through the study of his word and and so let's see. Go you therefore and teach all nations. Now, I want to stop there for a second because there's a huge effort right now with evangelicals. There's a huge division that's being created and we call it replacement theology or predatorist. You know, it's already happened and so when we're looking at prophecy, there are many protestant churches that are saying that Israel already had its chance and the church has taken its place and and so we don't need to worry about the nation of Israel and if Rubio or anybody else says, hey, in Sunday school, I remember that the Lord said in Genesis twelve three that I'll bless those that bless Israel and curse those that curse Israel. So you have a lot of Catholics whether it be a Candice Owens or whoever else is out there right now. And they're they're really fighting against the nation of Israel and blaming the name of Israel for Charlie Kirk's death and all those sorts of things. And I don't know what's true. It's not true with any of that. But now on the other side, you have several Calvary Chapel pastors and other pastors out there who are point blank saying, I'm a I'm a Zionist, and I'm for the nation of Israel. And and we're not gonna be caught up in this antisemitism, and nor are we gonna be caught up in this peace deal that's taking place where where Israel's gonna give up Gaza and a two state solution and all that because it's, you know, it's demonic and all. So you got this this thing going back and forth, but what I'm not hearing what I'm not hearing that really concerns me because the fixation is upon the nation of Israel. And that's great. And I love Israel. And I know that the priority of going and making disciples is to the nation of Israel. And all of the apostles, you know, are Jews. Right? And you got Luke who's not an apostle, but he's a he's a doctor that's traveling along with the apostle Paul, and he's a Greek. And then later with the the the you got Grecian speaking, Philip and Stephen later with those the deacons in the book of Acts. But the church starts out completely Jewish. Our messiah is Jewish. But the nation of Israel rejects Jesus and and so you see Nicodemus coming to the lord and you see Joseph of Arimathea and you see some Jews coming to the lord but you don't you don't see the amount of people like you do with Gentiles. Enormous amount of Gentiles. 3,000, 5,000. Then you see the Judaizers, the religious leaders, those that were responsible, as Peter would say, for the crucifixion of Jesus being antagonistic like the apostle Paul was as Saul of Tarsus to stamp out the early church as these Gentiles as the gospels going forth in the book of Acts in reaching these places like Philippi and and Ephesus. Paul spent three years there in Corinth. Predominantly, what's taken place is Paul, first of all, would go into a synagogue. And so as he's pointing out in Romans chapter one verse sixteen and seventeen, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation everyone that believes. To the Jew first. So the priority is to the Jew first. So you go into the synagogue and you give the Jew the chance to believe. And then if they don't believe, right, then now you're gonna meet with any of the Gentiles that wanna meet. And you meet in homes, you meet out by the riverside, you just share the gospel, and all of a sudden they're responding. And as they're responding, a church is forming. Then so Paul's got to deal with Judaizers coming through there who want the people to adhere to the Mosaic Law and be circumcised and things like that. And so he has to continue to try and teach sound doctrine to keep the church that's brand new from apostatizing and, you know, and being infected with false doctrine. So, the priority is to the Jew and then to the Gentile and it says, go and make disciples of all nations. So, my question to the guys today is, how come I don't hear anybody talking about Iran? Or the Palestinians that live in the Gaza area. There's a lot of Christians there. A lot of churches represented there. Churches in Nigeria. Churches all over. But so you have this this fixation with Israel right now. And people are trying to be real careful. They're not anti Semitic. So I'm a Zionist. I'm a Christian Zionist. I'm for Israel. But I don't hear anything about go and make disciples of all nations. So, it breaks my heart. So, I know Romans 11, we're not going to kick the Jews out but I know that Israel's been regathered in unbelief And so in that unbelief, you're not seeing a whole lot of people be converted in Israel yet because God said they wouldn't be. In fact, pastor Chuck at one point said he wasn't gonna invest a lot of time and money and effort into trying to evangelize Israel cause god told us ahead of time, blindness and part has happened on Israel but you always have chosen people ministries and aerial ministries and other ministries of of of godly Christians who are Jewish in background trying to reach their countrymen just like the apostle Paul would and but when the fastest growing church in the world is in Iran right now, I mean, that's something to take note. That's something to be be aware of and and so I say do both. I say support Israel. It's their land. They have a right to their land to do with their land whatever they want. God god gave it to them. They fought 05/14/1948, and according to Ezekiel thirty six and thirty seven, given that land. And the United Nations, none of those people should interfere with the nation of Israel. It's a small speck of land compared to all the Arab nations and all. But it doesn't mean that Israel can do things that are ungodly and immoral and genocidal to any of these countries around them. And and so god's not asking us to be accepting of ungodly behavior. So, for instance, I love Israel but I understand in Tel Aviv, it's it's like Sodom and Gomorrah. Very, very ungodly place Tel Aviv Israel. So am I supposed to say, well, I can't say anything bad about that because I'll get in trouble for not loving Israel. Right? I'll be cursed. No. That's not what it's saying. You gotta make a judgment about right and wrong no matter who it is and but you still love Israel and recognize ultimately that God is going to save a one third remnant of Jews and you got the 144,000 gonna be saved and and they have right to the land and just leave them alone. Let them let them have their land. But Zechariah 12 tells us that all the world is gonna turn their back upon Israel and so they're gonna be standing alone at one point. And so so my heart right now is there seems to be an imbalance in the focus presently where you swing from October 7 of of the supposed attack at Gaza against the Jews, and and we got information that the soldiers, everybody were told to stand down and allow that so that the sympathy that Israel's gonna need to counteract that. And then you got Jared Kushner and you've got president Trump and all these other Arab nations ready to build, you know, the a Riviera there and a whole new smart city, a whole new phase of Gaza. And then you've got peace deals and some saying they're gonna, you know, split it and and all that stuff going on. And and I don't really see where the lord's telling us to sort through all that. That's just politics and that's Israel's business what they're gonna do there. But I don't like being lied to and I'm not gonna jump on the bandwagon of wiping out Palestinian people. And you know what's funny? Is a lot of the Palestinians are Christians, and there's Christian churches there. But they don't get supported by Christians because we're in such a fervor to support Israel. At the expense of what? Do you understand how the world is demonizing Iran? Getting ready to take out their nukes or whatever. You know? So what happens is we spend all this time demonizing Iran, but you never hear the Christians in Iran. We all we all could agree that governments can be evil, but what about the people? If I went to Russia, there's some real good Russian Christians there. Can can I share the gospel in Russia and get the gospel out and get Bibles into the hands of the Chinese and into the Russians and in Ukraine? Huge void in Ukraine right now. So, if the globalists are trying to wipe these places out to rebuild, to reset, you know, and they're trying to con the Christians. Hey, jump on board here. No, what you've done is evil. You've genocided the whole people there. You're moving them out and your objective is to build these smart cities and to go with your global of Israel but in this dispensation, in this age, the emphasis in the church age is to go and make disciples of all nations, right? And so baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, the holy spirit so you have the trinity there. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you and low I'm with you always even the end of the age and so it's exciting for us to go and make disciples, to go and teach people what Jesus commanded. And John said if we were to try and tell you everything, all the libraries of the world couldn't hold all the things that he taught us. So tremendous body of truth that has been recorded for us and and the basic of the truth that that we have is so that people would come to know Jesus and and that's where salvation comes is is in knowing him. So you can be a Jew and not know Jesus. You can be a Jew like Saul of Tarsus and not know that Jesus, you know, is the Messiah. So the church of Philadelphia is a missionary church And this missionary church has an open door. Now they have very little strength. They're very weak. They're not like a big mega church. They're under attack. And that'll be typical. If you're a church of truth, the devil hates you for having a bible, hates you for knowing your bible, and hates you for sharing the gospel and teaching the bible. So you will come under attack. The next church that we're gonna look at is the church of Laodicea. They're not under attack because they're a church of compromise. They're neither hot nor cold. They're in the middle. They're lukewarm. If you're a church of compromise, you compromise with the world, you'd be left alone by the devil. And you'll be allowed to make a lot of money, you'll be allowed to have big buildings, a lot of people and all that. But the people that you do have, by and large, are not saved. They're not people that are saved. And so to keep that business going, you're going to have to continue to give them the things that they want, which is feel good messages, psychological message, pep rallies, and things like that. So we see that today. But the church of Philadelphia says, and to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write, these things say it he that is holy, he that is true, and he that has the keys of David. So in chapter one verse 18, he's got the keys of hell and of death. Right? Jesus is the one that holds the keys. Upon this rock, I'll build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So if God gives you an open door, you and I an open door that nobody can shut, that we go through that door. There are times where the apostle Paul is wanting to go into Asia and the holy spirit forbid him. The door wasn't open yet. Later it began to open but prior to that the Lord gave him a vision of a man in Macedonia, the area of over at Philippi and Paul could see a man saying come over here. So Paul diverted his attention and moved over the area of of Philippi of Macedonia, Philip of Macedon and so and then later an effectual door is open for me Paul would say. There's a great door, a door of utterance that opens for me. And when we see the Lord give us an open door even with people as you're witnessing, for some people you're sharing with them and there's not an open door. They're closed off. They they don't want to hear it. They're not ready. People that we love many times, we pray for them and we try to share with them at the holidays. They're not ready. They don't want to hear it. They they just it bounces off them. So you're broadcasting the seed. The seeds, the wayside soil, it's the hard soil, hard hard, and it just bounces off. Then the birds come and take it away. The devil comes and takes away that seed. But one man sows another waters, another person comes along waters the seed that you put out there as you're broadcasting. Broadcasting means you're putting the seed out there, you're throwing it out there. Right? And and so Lord talked about different types of soil. We need to remember there's different types of hearts, different types of soil that are out there. So when we pray in our in our evangelistic effort, our effort to share the gospel and spread the gospel, you know, we start with prayer, we continue with prayer, we continue to ask the Lord to soften the soil, soften the person's heart. Lord, go in there and break up the clods, Break up the fallow ground. Get the soil of their heart prepared. Get get their soil ready and get rid of the weeds and all the little things that are going to compete for attention and lord, prepare. Prepare them ahead of time and and so you broadcast the seed and and it falls upon a rocky soil and and that rocky soil, the person throws their arms up in the air and they're just so excited to be a Christian, to hear the Christian, they respond to the gospel, but then the sun begins to beat down on it which are trials and the trials hit against that profession of faith and then the person wilts. They wilt. They they don't grow. They fall away because they didn't get any roots. They didn't get any roots into Jesus. And so on the surface, looks like there's no water. The sun's beaten down. But if they had a root system, they could get their nourishment that they need from Jesus. There's a rock there. There's a rocky ledge that the farmer didn't see just below the surface. There's a third kind of soil and it's the soil that's with weeds in it. And Jesus interpreted it for us and he said, it's the seed where the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches, not riches, but the deceitfulness of riches choke off that seed and it doesn't bear fruit. And then there's a fourth kind of soil which is the good soil and it bears fruit, much, much fruit. And that's what we're praying for is that the Lord would help us lead and guide us. And so you're batting two fifty, you're batting 25% out of those four types of people you share the gospel with, there's only one that responds. And you well, you have two others that respond, three respond, but two fall away, one you never got started with, and you got one where they actually where Jesus said, you'll know them by their fruit and they start to grow and they bear fruit and so, we're not called to go and make converts. We're called to go and make disciples and in Mark's gospel you know you'll see where he says preach and teach. So we preach the gospel to every creature all over the world. We share the gospel. We spread the seed and then as the seed begins to germinate and grow now we gotta go in there and make disciples of them. We need to have bible teaching churches where we can train up men and women in the word of God, teach them all that I've commanded you. Right? So Paul, to give an example, went into Ephesus where the people had no knowledge of Jesus, shared the gospel, began to grow, and then he spent three years there, night and day, teaching bible studies so that that group of people could be rooted and grounded in the faith so that they could mature. And then Paul is actually able to raise up some other pastors to oversee that work, and then Paul begins to move on as an evangelist, primary evangelist, and he's going to plant in churches, you know, afterwards. And he's wanting to go all the way to Rome. In fact, he wants to go beyond Rome to to the uttermost, which at the time they thought of as being Spain. And he at times he would take like a John Mark under his wing, him and Barnabas and and disciple of Barnabas, a Titus, a Tychicus, Timothy. So they're they're willing to have a broad group of people but also a narrow discipleship band and and then they're trained up and ready for ministry and such but I'm always going with the same seed which is the gospel. Always going with the same textbook which is the Bible and it hasn't changed from back then to now. And people like to read books and watch YouTube videos. A lot of different ideas on things. But you're safe. You're safe. Notice he says here, I write these things, say it he that is holy and he that is true. You get the truth from him. He's not gonna distort the truth, not gonna water down the truth. Why are people so afraid of the truth, you know? I'm the way, the truth, the life. No man come by the father but by me. Jesus said to the religious leaders that they were liars, and that they were murderers and that their father was the devil. An earmark, a characteristic of you as a Christian is truth. Is that you only adhere to truth. And I'll tell you with AI and all that stuff going on, they sure are able to cloud the whole thing up to sometimes it's hard to discern what truth is, know. As Pilate says, what is truth? But when we read the Bible we know what's true. His word is true. And we can use the word of God as a means of of checking every thought out, every idea. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. And so the devil wants to get you away from the word of God and get you to think like a worldling and to get away from knowing Jesus in spirit and in truth. He that has the keys of key of David, and so he's the Messiah. This is the root and the offspring of David. He's king of kings and lord of lords. He's got the key of David. He that opens and no man shuts. And, man, that's what you want. You want the lord to give you an open door and you wanna rev it up and you wanna get to fifth gear, sixth gear with a turbo. You just wanna go in there with everything you got and no pansy, no passiveness, no going slow. If he gives you an open door, you take it. You go with everything you got. And I like the idea of I go till the Lord stops me. I just I just go for it and I just keep going. And when he finally stops me, I start crying. Why'd you stop me? Why'd you stop me? You know? But some places the doors just don't open. Some places that are just hardened. So Jesus told us to wipe the dust off your feet and move on to the next city. Right? You can't force them. They're not ready for it. And so we got to be sensitive to leading, guiding, the spirit. Pastor Chuck used to say, it's no fun fishing where the fish aren't biting. So go somewhere where the fish are biting. And now that's a fun way to approach ministry. So if I apply that to my life, I would go to Orange County. I wouldn't be here in Washington because the fish, very few fish bite here. They're not interested. But if I go to a conservative community now think in terms of pioneering and settling. When America was being founded, what percentage of people were willing to fight in the revolutionary war to secure their freedom? You guys know historically? Three. 3%. So to be a pioneer, to come on the Mayflower Mayflower compact, be a pilgrim, and watch a few episodes of these guys die there, freeze to death, starve to death, Everybody's else waiting for you to do the hard work, for you to figure out a way to grow some food, to figure out to be nice with Quanto and Squanto and whoever else they are. You know? You know? And then finally, broke in, you got a breakout. And now the people that I'm waiting in the wings, now that the work not done is but the work is doable, now they're going to come in. So you have pioneers and you have settlers. You have church transplant growth. It's not growth where we evangelize and people got saved. It's church where we've got a better widget. We've got a better worship team. We got a better smoke signal or whatever, sound system. And so it becomes trendy in a community. Hey, I'm of this, I'm of that. I'm gonna go over here. They got this and that. That's called transplant growth. And so when you're in a very conservative place where men have gone before you, men and women have gone before you, they broke up the fallow ground and they established a foothold, a fort, they established a place, a standard, you go in there, the fish are going be biting as long as you're giving them the bait that they're desirous of. When you come up here, you might have an open door, but don't compare. Don't compare William Carey and a lot of these guys that went out during this missionary time, they could spend forty years in India and not see any results, very few results. But they're the pioneers. They're the ones that are translating languages and getting the Bible into many of the different dialects of the indigenous peoples and stuff. And they're the ones gaining trust with the people. And then it's a lifelong effort and those who come after them have a much easier time. The Jonathan Livingstons and others that go and pioneer these efforts in Africa and all over the world. It's arduous, difficult, but it's part of their calling and they wouldn't have it any other way. So don't don't worry about converts, numbers, nickels and noses. Be faithful to god and go do what he says. If your mission field is at work, then that's that's where you need to share the gospel. That's your mission field. If it's in your family that's probably the first one you want to go and make disciples your own family then extend from there. Your neighborhood, then at work, hobbies, different places the Lord takes you. Chuck Misra used to say that the Lord made him a businessman because he could be in corporate boardrooms and be a witness for Jesus that other people couldn't be. So if you're in the navy he was in the navy, an Annapolis grad, and he was high-tech digital, western digital he ran. So he's able to rub elbows with people that maybe you and I are unable to rub elbows with, but wherever the Lord sends us, we go with the gospel. You might be in a hospital room, you're a nurse or a doctor, caregiver, wherever he sends you, but he's sending you, not angels right now, but you. He's sending you and I, and he's given us an open door. He says he opens opens no man shut, so think of the authority. He has the authority to open the door and no man's gonna shut it. Right? And we're watching doors be shut in Canada. We're watching doors of utterance, doors of sharing the gospel be shut all over where pastors are and people, Christians are being arrested. One guy in Ireland has been arrested and put in prison because he refuses to use the gender whatever their words are words in Ireland as a school teacher. He refuses to do it. So an activist judge has decided I'm gonna throw him into prison till he agrees to it, you know? And then you have in in Europe and Canada, The UK, people that are praying outside of a building, maybe an abortion clinic. Just no words, just silent prayer. And people come up to them and ask them, are you praying? And if you're praying, you get hauled away. Not allowed to pray in front of it, you know? Like, not even allowed to pray in the quietness of your own head, you know? And sharing the gospel, we're watching censorship. We're watching the doors be closed to utterance but Jesus said, I've given you an open door that no man can shut and so, and no man opens. He says, I know your works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door. Hallelujah. And we need to know that. We need to know we have an open door because a lot of people come along and tell us we can't do that here, that it won't work here, that people tried that here, it doesn't work, and and you just you gotta walk by faith and say, well, I believe the Lord's called me here and this is what he's called me to do. And so by faith, I'm gonna step out in faith and let the lord decide. I had a pastor take me out to lunch and told me I shouldn't be here. And and I says, well, we're here and we're gonna try and let's let the lord decide whether we're supposed to be here or not. And been here thirty years. So so I know your works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door and boy, that's a that's a blessing to know you got an open door. Man, the Lord's given me an open door. He didn't close that door. Sometimes you pray, Lord, please give me an open door. Give me an opportunity. Lord, open that door. And when he does, oh, man. And he's told me to go and now he's given me an open door. Now I know where to go. We didn't know where to go, Kathy and I. We're invited to Oregon. We're invited to Kentucky. We're invited to Arizona. And we went to all three of those no, we didn't go to Kentucky, but we had friends that were inviting us there that previously were in our bible study. So we had to research those places and pray about those places, pray about other places. They had a a list at Calvary Costa Mesa of candidates, places that call the church and say, send us a pastor. We had a whole list, Breckenridge, Colorado, and all different kinds of places. And we knew we wanted to go, but we didn't know where we were supposed to go. And so we wound up going to Oregon, invited to Oregon. So we considered the invitation to Oregon like the Macedonian vision, come over here. So we went to Oregon and we were there for six months. And while we were there, a family that had been in our previous bible study that I grew up with in grade school, in high school, he moved up to Poulsbo, and then he began to invite us up. And then I said, well, there's already three Calvary Chapels or two Calvary Chapels up there. You know, why don't you go to one of them? And, oh, no. No. They're they're a little different and okay. And and so we came up to scope it out and agreed to do a bible study. And then the bible study, we sensed God blessing and so we stepped out in faith and we came up here. And so it's not like if your ship is tied to the dock and you're looking for the right kind of wind, the right kind of thrust, the right kind of weather, right kind of everything to launch away from that safe harbor, that safe place that you live and all that, sometimes you gotta push off of the dock and let the Lord drive you to where he wants you to go. And you don't know where he's sending, you know, but it's a it's a that's an adventure. It's a venture in faith and the lord will begin to show you. And I used to always say, hey, even if we fail, we can always go back. Right? You you go out and you go for it and try and open a business or something new, go to school or whatever, try a new thing And I think the Lord's directed me in this area, and and it looks like he's opening the door. And so you take that step of faith. You don't know till you take that step of faith. And so, like Philip, you know, you leave Jerusalem, the the revival, the great big church, and he says go down to Gaza, which is desert. And you're like, don't wanna go to a desert place. I like the revival. I like Christian Disneyland. I like where there's all the bells and whistles and the people and the worship. And why would I leave here and go to some place that's a spiritual desert, you know? And so he obeyed. And he went down to Gaza, which is desert. And when he's at Gaza, which is desert, what happened next? There was an Ethiopian eunuch all the way from Africa that had come to the Passover in Jerusalem but went away empty, went away not knowing Jesus. But he had a scroll in his hand and that scroll that he purchased was of Isaiah 53. Philip didn't know that but the second edict from the lord or command from the lord was go near him. Now, he wouldn't have got the second one had he not obeyed the first one. Right? Go near him. Then he went near him. And the guy's on his chariot and this animal whatever. And Philip says, you know, what are you reading? I'm reading, you know, Isaiah 53 and and and do you understand what you're reading? How can I unless somebody help me? And so he preached Christ. Right? And then there was water there and then the Ethiopian eunuch says, what's to keep me from being baptized? You know? So Philip then baptized him. And then after that, Philip got the experience of being raptured. He got caught up. He got taken all the way to Azotus after that. Now all of that fun, all of that excitement, that walk of faith like Peter leaving the safety of the boat and walking out on the water. Right? And those are the open door. Those are the things that we you never feel qualified. You never feel like, you know, you know how to do this. You've never done it before. I've never planted a church before. How do I know? I was never an assistant pastor at a church. I just taught bible studies and like Vicky calls me, I'm a one trick pony and that's all I got. I just got I just got the word of God. I got this little book here, you know, and and when I open it up, the Lord shows up and we're able to get to know Jesus, all of us collectively together, and God nourishes us and helps us. I go away, I drive home. Every time I drive home from church or whatever, I think, you know, that was worthwhile. I think God spoke to me tonight because he speaks to me first, you know, and foremost. I need it more than anybody. And I'm just so excited that I got I got to be a part of what God, you know, is doing in that given time, but it not doesn't mean he's over. So Philip he's got more. He's got more after that. Then he goes into the area of Samaria chapter eight and he's preaching Christ there and a revival breaks out in Samaria. Philip the evangelist. Right? And then he's got four virgin daughters who are prophetesses. I mean, it just keeps getting better for Philip because of obedience. You take that first step of obedience. And when you take that first step of obedience, then the Lord shows you the second step. Unfortunately, people want to know the next 100 steps that God has for them because then they can evaluate whether they want to even go or not. Is it worth it? You know? And a lot of times the Lord throws curveballs. Those things in Australia they throw where it goes out, comes back and hits you in the head. Man, it's like, how did that happen? You know? Why didn't I see that coming? You know? Why didn't I duck? You know? And but it's all part of his plan and I don't think it's hitting you in the head because you were obstinate or rebellious or unwilling or disobedient but sometimes that's just how it is. Sometimes, you're serving the lord and a snake, a viper jumps out of the wood to bite you in the hand. All you're trying to do is bring some wood to the camp so people could get warm, you know. And for your service, you get bit in the hand by a snake, a viper. And and that those are things you don't anticipate. But the Lord wanted to demonstrate that he'd heal you. So he he lets you get bit and he'll and he the people there saw you rather than dropping to the ground dying because they know it's a poisonous viper, God heals you. Right? And God confirms his word there and but very seldom do we know ahead of time what's going to happen up ahead. And that's why we were exhorted to walk by faith, continue to walk by faith. We love to we love to evaluate. If I go to the Christmas thing yesterday or church yesterday or tonight, we love to evaluate and see, all right, where's the fruit? Did anybody get saved? How do we evaluate? How do you evaluate if it was worthwhile, if it was worth doing what we're doing? In other careers and things that you do, you pour your heart into painting a house and it starts out really ugly and you're scraping and you're spackling and you're caulking and fixing everything ahead of time before you put the paint on there, pressure washing, masking, all that kind stuff. It's all ugly. It's just ugly work. And then you start to put the paint on there. And and when you're finally done spraying and you it's dry, you start pulling that masking off of the windows and pulling it off the rain gutters and the deck and all that stuff, all the paper that's down. And you stand back and you say, man, the the body of that looks really good now. What kind of trim are we gonna paint on there? So you start putting a little bit of trim, and it just starts to pop, starts to brighten up. What kind of plants are we gonna put in the front there? What kind of pots? What colors? You know? You want it to pop. And you might have just put forty hours, fifty hours, hundred hours into that project. But one thing you get to do is you get to stand back and enjoy the fruit of your labor. It's exciting. It's so exciting. Being a Christian, being a pastor is not always like that. You can pour your heart into people's lives for years and not see a whole lot of fruit. And the fruit for Cathy and I is when we see Jesus transform and change you, when we see you growing in the Lord, when we see you getting more and more excited about Jesus, we know that God is doing a work. Only he can do that work. Right? And that's a huge reward. It's a huge eternal reward and then you go and invest, reinvest what you've learned and pass the word of God on to people that in your sphere of influence and God continues to be glorified and the word is spread and the church continues to grow at his pace and how he wants. But so no man can shut it for thou has a little strength. And so the Lord says I opened the door and I know you got a little strength. You got just a little strength, know. Laodicea they're gonna think that their risk increased with good need of nothing. They're they're self satisfied. But I know you guys got a little strength. And the great apostle Paul in second Corinthians 12, he's the greatest. Right? He's he's like one of the greatest evangelists, the greatest teachers, the greatest Christians that ever lived. Right? The great apostle Paul. And god let him get sick. God afflicted him with a messenger of Satan that was buffeting him. So, he had a physical infirmity that brought him to his knees And maybe there's times where you think, wanna serve you, Lord, but man, I can't. My knees hurt so bad. My hips hurt. I get headaches. I get all this stuff, Lord. I just don't know that I can, you know, keep that pace. I don't know if I can keep doing this and all that. And Paul's eyes are oozing pus. He's losing his vision. He can't see very well, and he needs a secretary to help him write down what he's dictating. He needs a doctor, doctor Luke, to be there to care for his wounds and stuff that's happening. He's getting beat up a lot and he's naked and at times he's he's cold and people are robbing him and and sometimes even despairs of life. Reaches a bank where he doesn't even wanna live anymore. And but he's got a job to do. And how's he gonna complete that job? How's he gonna do it? And then with all that that's happening to him, now the Lord gives us a messenger of Satan to buffet him. Well, like I really need that right now, like I need a hole in the head. And so Paul prays that the Lord will remove that messenger of Satan that was buffeting him. And and the Lord answers his prayer, no. He said, I'll pray again. The Lord Jesus prayed three times in the Garden Of Gethsemane for the Lord to remove that cup that he had, I'll pray again. No. Maybe you didn't hear me right. Maybe I need to rephrase it. Right? Maybe I need to face Jerusalem, you know, while I pray. Open my windows like Daniel did, you know, and and again, the lord says, no. And so you've got the lord's answer. You got his answer. You're clear. You're not putting a fleece out there like Gideon did, you know? You're not questioning God's will. He's made it real clear to you. And the Lord has more to add than just know. He says, Paul, my grace is sufficient for you. For my strength's perfected in weakness. So God's gonna give you his unmerited favor. He's gonna empower you. You're gonna rely on the power of his resurrection rather than your own intellect as the great Saul of Tarsus, your own ingenuity. Hey, I've planted churches before. I know what I'm doing. No. Now you've reached something. You're doing something that it's bigger than you. You're fighting with demons now. You're fighting with you've always been fighting with demons, but these demons, god's allowing them to stop you, allowing them to afflict you, a messenger of Satan. Before he couldn't get at you, there was a hedge of protection to protect you, but now God removed that hedge and now you're getting thumped on and you don't know which way is up anymore. And and the Lord says, my grace sufficient for you for my strength is perfected in weakness. Then Paul says, most gladly then I'd rather choose the weakness because when I'm weak then I'm strong. So the Lord Jesus tells Church of Philadelphia, know you got a little strength and because you have a little strength it means you're gonna rely upon me more. You're gonna have to rely upon me to get the gospel out. And so it's my grandkids, we watch VeggieTales and, you know, little guys can do big things too. And so you might be little but you can do some big things, right? You can be a David and slay a Goliath because the battle belongs to the Lord. So he has little strength and you've kept my word. Boy, that's important. That's sure important to keep is God's word. If I if if I don't keep God's word, man, I'm vulnerable. I'm I'm really vulnerable for a lot of attacks from the enemy. And the lord says, you've kept you've kept my word. Over a period of time, as I've analyzed and I've observed your your guys' lives there in in Philadelphia, you've kept my word. And under persecution, you haven't denied my name. You've kept my word. You you refuse to compromise. You refuse to back down. You won't back down. You're you're singing with Tom Petty, I won't back down. Right, Judy? I won't back down. I like that. I like that attitude. I'm not gonna back down. I'm gonna keep God's word. No matter what, I'm gonna keep his word. That's a Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego attitude, isn't it? I'm gonna keep God's word. You know, I'm not afraid of you, o king. Not gonna happen. And you haven't denied my name, the name of Jesus. You're not gonna hide it under a bushel. You're not gonna be quiet. You're not gonna go along to get along. You care more about you care more about his glory. Care more about his glory and his being honored and exalted than you do what other people think. You're not motivated by what other people think. You only care about what does Jesus think. What does he have to say about this? And so how do you know? You keep his word. You look to his word. Lord, what would you have me do? Keep my word. You obey my word. Well, lord, if I if I lie, if I give in, then I could be more prosperous. And here's another way we lie to ourselves. Lord, if I if I give in and I compromise, I could reach even more people. I don't want you to reach more people. I want you to reach the one that recognizes who I am because you kept my word rather than a bunch of people that don't even know him. You know what I mean? Yeah. You reached a bunch of people and none of them know me because you didn't reach them with my word. You reached them with your psychology and your self helps and all of your man centered stuff, your philosophies of men. And they're not they're not saved dude. They're not saved. You haven't warned them about hell. They have a false sense of security. One day they're gonna hear hear from me, away from me, I never knew you, that practice iniquity. Yeah. They learned the lord, lord, but they don't know me. I never knew you. Little strength that has kept my word and has not denied my name. So you think of the countless martyrs that have gone before us, the martyrs that are in, you know, Nigeria right now and in Syria and in Iran and China. All they have to do to remain alive is to deny the name of Jesus. Simple. All all they need to do to live another day and to protect their family is to say Allah Akbar. It's all they gotta do. Allah Akbar. And they will not have their head cut off, but they choose to glorify Jesus. So again, we're gonna cover this by way of remembrance. How do they overcome him? The devil? Revelation 12? Three things? What? The blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony and they love not their life until the death. Thank you. See, their life is not their own. They're already crucified with dead. They're dead men walking. So how are gonna re kill a dead man? You know? I'm already dead. I don't fear death. The thing I fear the most is the Lord. I fear I fear that I would dishonor him. I fear that more than my own life. And the Lord Jesus is saying, you haven't denied my name. Now you remember historically what we've told you a million times, the early church in the first two centuries, six million Christians died because once a year they wouldn't go into the pagan temple and say Caesar is Lord and pinch a little incense. That's the history of the church in the first two centuries. They refused. They weren't gonna deny the name of Jesus. And Jesus said, you're gonna be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the outermost. And power is gonna come upon you. Dunamis, dynamic power to enable you to be a faithful Christian, to face fear, but your faith is stronger than your fear and so you you obey the lord and as Thomas just said, that word witness is a Greek word martyr, so you're you're my martyrs. You're witnesses of me. You're going in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. You're representing heaven. That's who you represent. Paul used the word ambassador. You're ambassadors for Christ. And an ambassador goes into a foreign land and represents the land they're from. Right? And our citizenship is in heaven. So we're in a foreign land. This earth is not our home. Not yet. One day, it will be when Jesus takes it back over. But our citizenship is in heaven. That's our politic. We're looking for our king. As he's king of kings and lord of lords. And he says, behold, I will make then of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews So again, you have this angst. You have this hatred of Jews from the synagogue of Satan. Like the Lord Jesus said in John eight, your father's the devil and he's speaking to Jews. In fact he's speaking to the Pharisees, the religious leaders and they're arguing with him about you know, about Moses and their father being Abraham. And Jesus said, before Abraham was, I am. I'm the great I am. And they pick up stones to kill Jesus and all. And so he's demonstrating that based upon the natural pedigree, simply being a natural Jew doesn't make you the true Israel of God. In Isaac, shall thy seed be called. So as though the true Israel of God are those who believe in Jesus. So these unbelieving Jews who do not believe in Jesus, they're very religious, they're very militant much like the Islamic guys today and they will chase after Christians and try to disrupt and and even kill. And so Jesus is saying I know that you're coming up against that synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews who are Hebrews or Judah praise and he says and are not. They're not. They're not the true Israel of God. So we recognize in Israel today that the nation of Israel has been regathered and is being regathered but very small percentage of them believe in Jesus because God has said blindness in part has happened unto Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. So until the rapture, when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, there'll be the rapture and the rapture is going to include Jews and Gentiles. It just means there may be very few Jews in in comparison of the enormous amount of Gentiles around the world. And but the nation of Israel is distinctly different than the church. The church can be made up of or is made up of Jews and Gentiles but the nation of Israel exclusively Jewish. So God's promises to the nation of Israel are yea and amen, he's gonna fulfill them. The gifts and the calling of God are out without repentance but their purifying is during the 77 of Daniel. During the the as a nation, they're purifying of going through the refiner's fire. The fire of the tribulation is where a one third remnant according to Zechariah thirteen eight nine is purified and and that enter into the Jeremiah 31 covenant, unconditional covenant, Jeremiah thirty one thirty one where god's gonna write his law upon their heart and so we're waiting for the scales to fall off their eyes and they begin to mourn and recognize that they crucified their messiah, this one third remnant, and and then they confess their sin and they cry out, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord, and that's at that point of conversion where they're converted. And so but meanwhile, there's a group being used by the devil to be antagonistic toward Christians and against the church. And so Peter is a Jew. All of the apostles were Jewish, like I said, and they were they were martyred. And many of them suffered at the hands of their own countrymen. Paul suffered at the hands of his own countrymen that were wanting to kill him. And so, the Romans intervened and preserved Paul and then eventually with all of the political uproar, the apostle Paul was expedient for him to be beheaded and by the Romans. And so the an open door let's see here. Behold, I'll make of them of the synagogue of Satan who say a lot of people say they're Christians. A lot of people say we call them professing believers. They profess that they know God but in works they deny him. Works as in fruit, there's no fruit. But a whole lot of people profess to be Christians and then as you talk to them a little bit more, you find out they're living together in sin. And then the bible says adulterers and fornicators will not inherit the kingdom of God. You're practicing sin, you're trying to Christianize your sin and acting like there's nothing wrong with it, but where did you get that sense of security living in open blatant sin like that? When the bible says be not deceived, be not deceived, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God, you know? And so we have to check ourselves and say, am I practicing, am I living like an unbeliever? Is there any point to my profession of faith where I repented, where I turned from my lifestyle of sin, and where I turned unto Jesus and yielded my heart and life unto him? If there's not that moment, if there's not that place and that ongoing work of the Holy Spirit to keep us in compliance with him, then we have to question. So we'd say, well, they went out from us because they weren't of us. Had they been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out as a symbol of the old, you know, parable, a dog going back to its vomit and a sow going back to wallowing in the mire. So what he's alluding to is, yeah, they profess to be, they look from the outside to be, but as soon as Hillary had the chance she went right back to the to the pigpen. Right? Because her nature wasn't changed. From the inside, she wasn't changed. She still desired the filth. Right? Even though the outside of the cup could be made all clean and the sepulchre clean and whitewashed and looked good. Jesus said inside there's full of debt corruption and dead men's bones. And so it is the outward show if you will. And I'll make them to Jews who are not do lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet and to know that I have loved thee. Every knee is gonna bow and every tongue's gonna confess that Jesus Christ is lord. All those people that hate you and try to stop you and gossip and slander and all that, One day, the lord's going to have em all there and they're going to see that he loves you. That you're his And they were they were talking you down and they were trying to stop you. They're trying to everything that they could to get you to quit. And you continued. You kept the faith. You kept his word. You humbled yourself, you put your head down, and you just wanted to be faithful another day. You take it one day at a time, and there's a day where Jesus says, you know what, you're gonna be rewarded for that faithfulness. And these guys that have been talking you down and trying to hurt you and trying to stop, if they hate you, you know it's because they hate me. If they hated me, you know that they're gonna hate you. Right? And when they persecute you, they're really persecuting me. They're really persecuting Jesus. And he says, so every knee's gonna bow in Philippians two ten eleven and every tongue is gonna confess. The devil, the demons already know. But all these people are gonna bow before him at the great white throne judgment. Every knee is gonna bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is lord. And the angels already know it. All the fallen angels know it. The pretenders on the earth, they act like they act like somehow they're gonna live forever. They're gonna believe the lie. The lie within the garden. God's gonna give them over a strong delusion, second thus only two, that they would believe the lie. What's the lie? You'll never die. You'll never be judged. There's no accountability. You guys are gods. You're gods. He says, verse 10, because thou has kept the word of my patience Don't you love that? Because you've kept can you do that? Can you keep the word of his patience? Can you endure? Can you continue being faithful to God and to his word? And as you do, because he's gonna enable you, he's gonna help you to do this. Lord, I can't take it anymore. I can't do this. Yes. You can. Just die. Die to self. You can do it. Humble yourself. The sight of the Lord and he'll lift you up because thou has kept the word of my patience. I also will keep thee what's the next word? Oh, can you give me one verse in the bible that speaks of a pre tribulation rapture? This is it. If you ever have those knuckleheads call you and say, just one verse, Just one verse. I don't get to give them a several verses and show the pattern and show how it fits so nice and tight. They just want one verse. Alright. Here's your verse. Okay? Not gonna take you through it, the tribulation, because he could. You could be like the 144,000 Jews, 12,000 of each tribe that go through with a mark on your head and nothing touches you. Right? But he says, I'm gonna I'm gonna save you from because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation. The temptation. The great tribulation period, which shall come upon all the world. When does that ever happen? All the world is the great tribulation period, which shall. Jesus said there's a time coming that the world's never seen nor will ever see again, a time of trouble. Jesus said except those days be short and no flesh will be saved. But for the elect's sake, for the nation of Israel, the Lord Jesus can intervene. Jesus said this time would be a time where men's hearts would fail them, heart attacks, anxiety. Xanax can't help you because of fear. Simply because of fear what's coming upon a lack of peace, a lack of ability to cope. I also will keep thee from thee from. So if we look at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they weren't kept from the fire. They're an illustration of the nation of Israel going through the fire, through the time of Jacob's trouble, the fire of the tribulation period, so that they might be purified. And we see Daniel not mentioned as a type of the church. Who was kept from. And so so I I will I will keep thee from the hour of temptation. So I think of the 10 virgins. Five were wise and five were foolish in Matthew 25. The five that were wise kept his word in that they believed on him and they had the oil of the spirit full and ready. They kept his word by watching. They weren't the mockers, they weren't the scoffers that said 'Where is the promise of his coming?' Everything always continues as it always has. And Peter says they're willingly ignorant, willingly ignorant. You know better than this. You've been taught better. Next week when it's my birthday, you guys can just send presents ahead of time but something's going on. You know why? Because at the party last night, everybody was asking me when my birthday was. Something's going on. Somebody's passing the card around. But I get to choose on my birthday what I wanna do. Right? Mhmm. So I I'm gonna celebrate next Wednesday because next Monday, I'm gonna be here. Bummer. No. I get I'm I like I like to spend it with you. But when I get to spend it with my grandkids, I'm gonna have Fred Flintstone beef ribs. Haven't had them a long time, but I used to have them every birthday. Kathy has a kitchen now, and she can cook, and she's cooking up a storm. She's resurrected in our new kitchen. And she'll probably have to put the big aluminum tub in the sugar shack with our old oven. It's real big house type oven. And so I get that. And then I get mashed potatoes. Really good. And then my favorite on the mashed potatoes is creamed corn. And my grandkids, when I mentioned to them the other day, they both all of a sudden chimed in. That's so much fun, papa. You put a hole on the top of the mashed potatoes and you load that that that creamed corn in there. It's so nice. It's so good. And I'm like, right on, man. I got some converts here. I got some converts. This is this is working. Volcano. Then then I I don't get the channel changer anymore. I don't get to have the channel changer. Every time I'm with the family, the little kids get the channel changer. Somebody else gets to pick what we're watching. So I I'm like, alright. Well, it's my birthday, and I get to choose what I wanna watch. I gotta get permission from Britney to make sure the kids are old enough to watch what it is I wanna watch. But so I requested and I think I got approval, but I wanna introduce my grandkids to the old movie Thief in the Night. Alright. And I want them to hear Larry Norman sing, wish we'd all been ready. That is the best movie. Yeah. The end of the night. So Kathy got me four in the series, distant thunder and all that. So I get to now I get to take that hope that I have of the rapture that I've had my whole Christian life and see if we can transfer that hope, that blessed hope into our grandkids. Right? Amen. It's an exciting thing. And so because thou has kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them. So during the tribulation period, a whole lot of people to go through it, you're gonna have the biggest revival recorded in the bible, an innumerable multitude of people in Revelation six and seven. Now some pastors think the left behind series, the Tim LaHaye, the Larry Jenkins, and all of the effort that's been on teaching people eschatology, that a big part of why there's gonna be this huge massive revival in Revelation six and seven, innumerable multitude of people who go according to Revelation 20 verse four and are willing to get up their heads. And in that movie, Thief of the Night, they have a guillotine there. They don't show the head coming off, but they show the the the struggle and they show the betrayal of one of their best friends, you know, turning them in and all that. And and so it's all part of the dynamic. And and so many feel the reason is is because you shared the gospel. You had an open door and you shared the hope that's in your heart of the soon return of Jesus Christ and you shared the glorious gospel with people that you wouldn't be judged but that you'd pass from death to life by faith in Jesus Christ. And so a lot of people during the tribulation period are gonna refuse the mark of the beast that's demanded of them in Revelation thirteen sixteen through 18 on their right hand of their forehead. And I'm a little worried because the number of man the number of man is six. Six six. I'm gonna be 66 next Monday. That really concerns me. I don't like that year ahead of me. I wanna get to 67 quick as I can. I'm just kidding. 66. 66. Alright. I'm really not that old though. Know. So so he says, I will also keep thee from the hour of temptation. Thou shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. So the the people that don't prepare themselves, that are not ready, who don't have the oil, the five foolish virgins, they live just as good a life on the outward side as you and I. It looks the man that builds his house on sand, it looks just as good as yours. Until the day of judgement, until the storm comes, until the rapture comes, then they find out, oh my gosh, it's true. It's true. And then they go in with that knowledge into the tribulation period and you're gone. Yeah. You're gone. But you left Bernie's books behind. If you don't if you don't see me here, read this, you know, and you've got Rapture Ready. I think we're gonna have Clovis put it on our website, but they have a whole Rapture Ready kit, you know, Tammy alerted us to if people that you love, what do we do now? What do we do now? And Alan and some people, they've got things in their home. When people come into your home and you're not there anymore, you're gonna have your, we were just raptured. If you don't see us here and we're gone, this is what happened. This is how you can prepare, you know? You were prepared now, but you can be before you leave this house, you know. Ask Jesus Christ in your heart right now. Whatever you do, do not take that mark of the beast on your right hand of your forehead. That's where their faith is proven in their refusal to take that because they can profess that they believe, but when it comes right down to it, we're gonna find out if you believe, if you really believe. Faith without works is dead, so we're gonna need to see the proof here. And and so the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, the whole world. In Revelation six, the wealthy billionaires, the one percenters, they're in their bunkers. They're building billion dollar bunkers. Zuckerberg over in Hawaii and a bunch of these guys are building these deep underground bunkers. They've got food stored up. All of the elite, all of the military, upper brass, everybody, they've got deep underground military bunkers where trucks so large, regular semi trucks bring food in there. So when you hear them say there's a recall on Hostess Twinkies, there's nothing wrong with those Twinkies. They took them all into those deep underground bunkers for them to eat during the time of crisis. Right? And eggs, oh, salmonella outbreak. No more eggs right now. No more chicken right now. Freeze dried food. All of the freeze dried food, the survival foods, it's funny. They're gobbling those up. They're grabbing them all up. We got an order. We can't give you any right now because we got a huge order because they know they're going underground. And underground they can't hide away from the wrath of the lamb, Revelation six. There there there's no place to hide when this planet starts shaking and boy God's gonna shake it so hard it's gonna pop off its axis like that globe did at church on Sunday. It says, boom. It's gonna crack it. It's gonna wobble like a drunken man, the planet, and everything's gonna be so out of kilter because god's wrath is being poured out and and now, let me ask you this. What do you have to lose in being a Christian? If we're wrong, you can go through the tribulation period. You can go through all that if you want, if we're wrong. But what if we're right? And we don't have to go through all that, you know? So what what do you have that we don't have? What is it you're doing that we're missing out on? You know, we as Christians, we we have joy. We have love. We have peace. We know god. Amen. What Even if somehow and I I this almost blasphemous to say, even if we were somehow deceived like you might think we are, don't we have a better quality of life? Amen. Then you guys who are perishing and can't cope, gotta get drunk and drugs and Xanax and, know, you're so miserable, so miserable. So what keeps us going? It's our faith. It's our faith in Jesus. It's the fruit of the spirit that he gives us, which is love, that should prove to you that he's transforming and changing us. That we're not like we once were. That we're being changed from glory to glory into the image of Christ. He says, behold, I come quickly. Well, it's been two thousand years. Now what this means is when it starts, it's gonna be very rapid. It's gonna be like dominoes falling. Once that first domino hits, boom. It's gonna be quick. In a moment in the twinkling of an eye for us in that tribulation period one domino after another. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Nothing gonna stop it. No rest period. No rest period at all. Every day is gonna be a day of hell as the seal and the trumpet and the bowl judgments are poured out and a condensed, condensed horror in just seven year period of time. But pregnant with calamity and destruction and those birth pangs, they're intensifying now and he says, behold, I come quickly. It's going to come like the lightning, right? It happens so quick. Hold hold thou fast which thou hast. Do you know the greatest thing that could be taken away from me is what? My faith. What if someone were able to take away my faith? I'm nothing without my faith. If I lost my faith, oh my gosh. Hold fast what you have. My faith is precious. Oh, I never want us to come to unbelief. Oh, that would be just so devastating. My whole life would fall apart. It's my faith in Jesus Christ. He's the glue that keeps me together. Even when I don't understand, especially when I don't understand, that's where faith kicks in. He's he's god and I'm not And he's gonna get me through this. Amen. Behold, come quickly. Hold thou fast what you have that no man take that crown. Oh, man. I don't I don't wanna miss out on hearing the Lord say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few things. I'm gonna make you ruler over much. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord which he's prepared for you, you know, before the foundation of the earth. Right? And, god, that's gonna be a glorious day. What kind of crown are you gonna get, Bernie? At least one. Get the participation one. The participation the crown of life? Yeah. Yeah. Get the participation of wearing. What are you gonna get, Vangie? What crown do you want? Murderous crown. Five crowns? What are those five crowns? We're going to cast the crowns out of its feet. You guys know the five crowns, right? Crown of righteousness. Crown of righteousness? Paul said he was going to get a crown of righteous. Second Timothy chapter four. There is now laid up for me a crown of righteous and not to me only but all those who love his appearing, who are watching for his appearing, right? What would the Olympian in the Greek and Ithmian Roman games, what would they get for winning a race? Celery crown. Celery crown. And and how long would that celery crown last? Not till the game's end. That's it. That's it. So it's over. It's gone. A fleeting. It's like the it's like the grass. A flower that goes up then fades away. Right? So you got a crown of life. The martyr's crown. Right? Crown of righteousness. What else? Crown of faith. No. Crown of glory. Glory. Crown of rejoicing. Impaired. Incorruptible crown that fades not away. All because of one other crown. Righteousness. All because of one other crown. Crown of life. Rejoicing. You already got the crown of life. Crown of rejoicing. Crown of glory. Salvation. What else? Crown of life twice mentioned. Okay. Crown of righteousness, crown of glory, crown of rejoicing, an incorruptible crown that fades not away, all because of one other crown. What is it? The crown of thorns. Oh, that's right. I What is the crown? Crown of thorns. Crown of suffering. He took the curse. The thorns were because of man's curse, the curse that God put upon the ground and then devils mocking him and causing them to fashion, the soldiers to fashion out of Judean thorns, really long thorns to fashion a crown upon his head to mock king Jesus. And the devil is saying you don't need to be mocked. And Jesus taught us there's no crown no crown before the cross. No crown before the cross. No shortcut. We all go by way of the cross. No crown until we take our cross up and follow him. The devil was offering Jesus a shortcut. You don't need to go by way of the cross. You can have it all now. Just bow down and worship me. And Jesus said, get thee behind me saying, thou shall worship the Lord thy God, in him only shalt thou serve. Earlier he told a man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Right? You and I are keeping his word that no man take away what man could take away my crown? There's no man out there that the Lord's gonna allow to take away my crown. We're looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior. Him that overcomes will I make a pillar in the temple. So you're going into the millennium and the Lord's gonna make you a solid part of that kingdom like a pillar. Stability. Peter, you're you're like sifting sand, man, but I'm gonna change who you are, you know. I'm gonna make you Rocky. I'm gonna change your name. Sephastha. Peter, little stone. And upon this rock, this massive Petra, I'm gonna build my church and you're a stone that's set upon that massive stone, Peter, along with these other stones and building his kingdom. Him that overcomes will I make a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go no more out. And I will, three I will statements. Satan had five I will statements and can't get her done. When Jesus says, I will, it's a done deal. You can count on it. You can bank on it. He said, will write upon him the new name of my god. Right now, everybody needs a biometric ID. Right? We don't want that biometric ID. God has a new identification for us. He's gonna write upon you a new identity, the name of my God. And that's gonna speak of the greatness that god's gonna place upon your life. The name of my god. In the name of the city of my god. Where are you from? The name of the city of my god, Jerusalem. Zion. I'm a Zionist for sure now. Jesus, king of kings, he's ruling and reigning from from Zion, from Jerusalem, the city of peace, the city of the king. And so I'm a I'm a I'm one that believes in a messiah. I believe in a monarchy. I believe in a millennial one thousand year rule and reign of king Jesus upon this planet centered at the city of Jerusalem. And I'm gonna write that that name upon upon your upon you. Everyone's gonna know that you're from Jerusalem, the city of my God, the new Jerusalem coming out of heaven and coming like a bride adorned and so wouldn't it be cool, some commentators have talked about this that during the millennium, you know, we're in the millennium in chapter 20 of the book of Revelation and chapter twenty one and twenty two, the new Jerusalem comes down from heaven. Right? And a new earth because the old earth is all burned up. But we're there for the thousand years ruling away Jesus as a kingdom of priests. Wouldn't it be cool during the millennium if we get to travel up to space, to the new Jerusalem, to the city of our God, our new glorified bodies able to move in that you know what mean? Wouldn't that be so cool? Have access there? And all the earth dwellers, they don't have access there, but we do. Boy, wouldn't that be amazing? Amen. Streets of gold, best waves in the universe. It's amazing. Come down out of heaven from my God and I will I will write upon him my new name. So you're gonna have you're gonna share in his glory. Jesus is not gonna be ashamed to call you his brother, his sister, a family member. He's gonna write upon you belong to him and he's you're a joint heir with him. You're a son, been adopted in the beloved as we studied on Sunday. He that has an ear let him hear what the spirit is saying unto the churches. And we know that the natural man understands not the things of God neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned and we thank the Lord when he gives us ears to hear, when we're meditating upon his word, studying his word and we're not walking in darkness, we're not the blind being led by the blind falling into a ditch. The Lord wants to lead and guide us and he wants to lead and guide us by his spirit through his word. And so we want to follow the Lord moment by moment as he speaks to our hearts and gives us ears to hear what the spirit is saying to the church. I like to watch presently. I like to be a watchman. I like to prophetically try to discern the times I'm living in and connect the dots prophetically with the times we're living in, but not to abuse that, not to impose upon the world so I can write a book and make me famous or whatever because I do know when the raptures happen, but I have to hold that back for you guys. But it's exciting to not be living in darkness, to not be surprised by the world moving in a direction of a one world government. I don't live in denial about everyone receiving a mark on the right hand of their forehead. The Lord's given me ears to hear and given use to hear and he's given us his word to let us know that it's a precursor to the mark of the beast on everybody's right hand or their forehead, these digital biometric ideas and this digital biometric economic system that's happening. I'm not in the dark about it. I can see it clearly. It's happening. It's exciting. It's glorious. When you see these things begin to come to pass, look up because your redemption is drawing nigh. Pray always that you'd be able to escape these things that are coming upon the earth and stand before the son of man praying always. And so we see it coming. We see the birth pangs. We see the one world governmental system coming. And before that governmental system can come, this governmental system has to be destroyed. Before that new economic system comes, this present economic system has to be destroyed. So when I was thinking about in this religious system, I was thinking about Pearl Harbor yesterday eighty four years ago, after Pearl Harbor when you see Stalin and Roosevelt and Churchill and they're at a table and they're gonna move the chess pieces now via the bankers telling them what to do. They're gonna divide Germany in half, and they're gonna move things around. One of the things that took place through the bankers was they made the dollar become the global currency. It's called the Brent and Woods agreement. So they took and they even though other countries had currency, the dollar was the dominant currency that would go all over the world and everybody would buy and trade with the dollar. And that made us the most prosperous nation in the history of the world. That agreement right there. Secondly, in that agreement, our military would be the muscle for the bankers. We would impose the bankers might on every single country that would try and go rogue, that wouldn't play ball. So what that means is eventually every nation had a central bank tied to the Bank of International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland with the with the Rothschilds. So if you're Qaddafi or if you're Saddam Hussein or any other rogue nation and you tried to buck the system, you'd be invaded. You'd be invaded. There would be regime change in Venezuela. And you knew it was gonna happen. And that was the the present system. And that system allowed you and I as Americans to be the most prosperous generation in the history of the world, a Christian nation with getting the gospel out, the whole thing. And then the next part of that agreement is it it came off the gold standard, and Henry Kissinger brought in what's called the petrodollar. So now the dollar that's going all over the world wasn't backed by gold anymore or silver. Countries actually would sell their send their gold to our Fort Knox for us to watch over their gold, you know, and and you'd get dollars based upon how much gold you would deposit. Well, all that changed in 1973, I think it was, and Nixon took us off the gold standard. So now you have paper dollar and but in order to keep the control, Kissinger came up what's called the petrodollar. So every barrel of oil that was sold all over the world had to be sold only in dollars. So if Qaddafi or Saddam Hussein wanna take their oil and sell it in the dinar, you're going to be invaded and we're going to do a regime change. We're going to force you to stay in the system. Well, now the present system's actually imploding by design, by the bankers because they have a new system to put on the table, which is the digital blockchain. They don't need the dollar anymore. They don't need our military anymore. They don't need that system because once this system is implemented and all the central banks in the world with Vietnam as an example, 83,000,000 people's bank accounts were shut off this year that didn't comply with the biometric ID. You don't need to invade that country when the banker is already in compliance. Now you got the people in compliance. They can't run drugs with dollars. They can't have a black economy. Everything's gonna be tracked and traced, the whole thing. And and that's the era that we're living in. We're gonna watch the most tyrannical system, the most tyrannical form of government and economy, the whole thing that the world's ever seen. It's called the beast system. And we're not in denial. We're not acting like it's not happening. We know it's happening. We can see it. It's here. And so we can't save America. We can't save the dollar. It's already on its way out and the new system's coming in and that new system is in preparation for the beast and the beast system. We're living in a very, very exciting time because what that means is Jesus is coming for us, his bride, before that peace treaty signed in Daniel nine '27 by the Antichrist. And now we could see a global government before that happens, but we are not gonna see the Antichrist as the head of that government. And we could see the prelude to the economic systems with a biometric ID, but it's gonna be more of on your phone, a picture of you. And later, when it's on your hand and your forehead, that's the tribulation period, and we won't be here for that. But the beast system's there. So he that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches. God's communicating to his church if they're willing to listen. But if they don't wanna listen, they can go to a church of denial to a clown show and acting like none of this is happening. But they're going to be caught off guard. Right? They're going to be caught off guard and they're going to wind up going through the tribulation period because they weren't ready. They didn't have the oil. They professed that they know God, but in works they denied him. And next week we'll see a picture of that church in the church of Laodicea. It's an apostate church. Apostate apostasy means in rebellion to God or a departure from God's word. And and the name Laodicea means people rule. So you have people. It's like a democracy. The people decide what they want. And Jesus, where is he? He's outside his own church. And notice it says the Church of Laodicea. It's not Church of Ephesus, it's the church of the Laodiceans. Like Jesus saying, it's not even my church. But he's still evangelizing them, knocking on the door in verse 20. If you hear my voice and open your heart, there's the individual part. I'll come in and sup with you and you with me. He's still willing. But the apostate church is self satisfied. I'm rich. I'm a priest with goods. And that prosperity that we talked about, it lent itself toward the apostasy. The cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches chokes off the seed and it doesn't bear the spiritual fruit that it could have. But we'll look at that next week. So let's pray. Father, we come before you. Thank you for the time that we're able to spend in bible study. And Lord, we pray that you pour out your holy spirit upon us. And I thank you for this body of believers that helps me and Kathy, that tells me when I'm supposed to stand and when I'm supposed to sit and when I'm supposed to have communion and if I should have if I should have grape juice or crackers or whatever. And they love us so much and I love how they laugh and and I love their joy and their love for you, Lord. And it's truly a privilege, Lord, to be able to gather with two or more gathered in your name knowing you're in the midst there, Lord. And thank you so much for the sweet fellowship that we enjoy with one another. Thank you for the party last night and all that everybody contributed and helped and and prayed about. And, Lord, we we're enjoying so many things now but lord we also are reminded of Mike Goodson who's has physical infirmity he's fighting through and Shannon caring for him. We pray you strengthen him. That you'd be with James as he cares for Sally and heal her cancer lord. Dear God who heals, we pray you'd heal her. And Lord, we pray you'd heal Joe and Linda, that they'd have great health, that you would deliver them from the cancer. And God, you're the great physician. Lord, we know the doctors do what they can, but God, we implore you, we beg you, we ask that you would intervene and please heal, Lord. And bless, Lord, we pray. Help Sean, Shannon, help little Keith with his fever tonight. And and, Lord, help Sean as he tries to resurrect Brittany's well, the water as Wayne's gone. And and, Lord, I've been speaking to that well all night long, Lord. And when I get home, I'm gonna strike it, and we'll see what happens. So thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.

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About This Podcast

Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Home Bible Study

Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, lead our home Bible Study session in worship and teaching the Word of God. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes released on Tuesdays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.

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