Thank you.
Welcome to that Fast Baptist Church. Glad you could make it here this Sunday morning. Let's go ahead and take out a hymnal.
The 328, I Want That Mountain.
Song number 328.
And that's 328, I Want That Mountain.
I saw the giant of praylessness up on the mountain high.
He laughed so hard at my unended need.
No longer in the wilderness I'll stand so I cry.
I want that mountain, it belongs to me.
I want that mountain, I want that mountain.
Where the milk and honey flow, where the grapes of ash grow.
I want that mountain, I want that mountain.
The mountain that my Lord has given me.
There was a giant of laziness who said I wouldn't go.
And witness for the one who set me free.
I'll come from out the wilderness, I'll witness now I know.
I want that mountain, it belongs to me.
I want that mountain, I want that mountain.
Where the milk and honey flow, where the grapes of ash grow.
I want that mountain, that mountain that my Lord has given me.
One faithless child upon the crest of Hebrew's lofty hide.
As now that he's the one to make me flee.
I'll climb from out the wilderness and trust Jehovah's mind.
I want that mountain, it belongs to me.
I want that mountain, I want that mountain.
Where the milk and honey flow, where the grapes of ash grow.
I want that mountain, that mountain.
The mountain that my Lord has given me.
Let every child of distress in them, leaving sin.
Get ready now to vacate for you see.
I've come from out the wilderness, I know I'm going to win.
I want that mountain, it belongs to me.
I want that mountain, I want that mountain.
Where the milk and honey flow, where the grapes of ash grow.
I want that mountain, that mountain.
That mountain that my Lord has given me.
Amen, that's my next word of prayer.
Dear Lord, it is thank you for this day.
Thank you for this new year.
We can spend another year worshiping you and serving you.
I just pray you continue to bless our church.
Help us to be faithful to the gospel.
Please bless the service today.
Bless the singing.
Please fill Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit.
That he could teach us your word and edify the people here.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Next is going to be 149, trusting Jesus.
And that's 149.
149, trusting Jesus.
Simply trusting every day.
Trusting through a stormy way.
Even when my faith is small.
Trusting Jesus, that is all.
Trusting as the moments fly.
Trusting as the days go by.
Trusting in whatever befall.
Trusting Jesus, that is all.
Brightly doth his Spirit shine.
Into this poor heart of mine.
While he leads I cannot fall.
Trusting Jesus, that is all.
Trusting as the moments fly.
Trusting as the days go by.
Trusting in whatever befall.
Trusting Jesus, that is all.
Singing if my way is clear.
Praying if the path be dreamed.
If in danger for him call.
Trusting Jesus, that is all.
Trusting as the moments fly.
Trusting as the days go by.
Trusting in whatever befall.
Trusting Jesus, that is all.
Trusting him while I shall last.
Trusting him till earth be past.
Till within the jasper wall.
Trusting Jesus, that is all.
Trusting as the moments fly.
Trusting as the days go by.
Trusting him whatever befall.
Trusting Jesus, that is all.
Children ages 18 and under, if they can quote the verse of the week,
will receive an ice cream or a treat on our Wednesday evening services.
Maybe we should do like hot chocolate for the winter or something, I don't know.
But on the inside we have our service and so many times we have,
they like ice cream no matter what it is, right?
So we also have a Spanish service on Sundays at 4.30 p.m.
Sunday evenings at 5.30 p.m.
And then Wednesday evenings we have our Bible study.
We've been going to the book of Genesis and we're getting kind of in the tail end of Genesis.
And it just keeps getting better and better.
So I'd encourage you to come and participate in our Bible studies as well.
We have our church soul winning times.
Those meet here at the building.
So all the four times there just show up and we'll pair you up with someone.
And again, soul winning, you don't have to be experienced or even talk necessarily.
We'll try to pair you up with an experienced talker.
And you can just basically come and bring your Bible or something like that
and just pray for the soul winning to go well.
Also, regional soul winning.
We have various regional soul winning times throughout the year with different leaders.
Brother Jeff Goodwin and Brother Steven Malton lead two different times there.
So if you want to go with one of those times,
just get in contact with either of those gentlemen and they can help you.
Down below we have our Steadfast Baptist Church stats.
And the year to date is our 2022 stats.
Now, I'll just give you an idea.
In 2021, we had this.
Oh sorry, 2020. I'm getting my ears mixed up for a second.
So the year before last year, okay?
We had 2012 salvations, I believe.
So it was like 2012.
And in 2019, the year before that, we had 2080.
So we broke 2019 and 2020 for soul winning.
So congratulations everybody that participated.
And hopefully we can start off this year right and push ourselves
and have lots of soul winning marathons.
And there's lots of events planned for this year that I'm really excited about.
And hopefully we'll get that in our calendar pretty soon.
But this is going to be a great year.
A lot of great things are going to happen.
And I think there's a lot of things that we've been working on already
that are coming down the pike.
So new documentary.
We have a new kind of a soul winning conference idea that we're going to have.
Hopefully some more missions trips and everything like that.
So I'm really excited about this year.
On the right we have a list of our expecting ladies.
Please continue to pray for them.
Also down below we have a prayer list.
If you have any additional prayer requests, please add an email
or send us an email to our email listed there.
And we would love to add you into the bulletin.
Or if you're a visitor, you can always fill out a communications card
and slip that into the offering plate.
And we'll put that into our bulletin.
And even if it's a private prayer request, just mark that
and our staff will be praying for you.
On the back we have the list of upcoming events.
We have the, on January 16th, the ordination of brother Tanner Fur.
And he's been the leader in our Oklahoma City church plant for a while now.
And he's been doing a really good job.
And so basically this is just making it more formal.
It's going to do two things.
It's just going to kind of confirm the job that he's already been doing
and empower him to do even that much more and kind of just to help that church to grow.
And I'm going to be preaching about ordination specifically tonight.
And then when I'm there I'm going to be preaching some specific sermons to that in Oklahoma City.
So just be in prayer.
And if you want to, you're always welcome to go up there and visit the Oklahoma City church.
It's doing really good. A lot of great people up there.
And it's also very receptive for soul winning.
We also have a baby shower at the end of the month for the glossos.
Down below is a great, the best announcement.
Congratulations to Shane and Laura Warner on the birth of their son Noah Ezekiel.
He was born Friday, December 31st.
Just right in there for that tax day, you know, right?
At 3.27 p.m. weighing 8 pounds, 3 ounces and measuring 22 and a half inches long.
Congratulations to the Warner family.
Those babies pay off at tax time, alright?
And then down below we have the details about the baby shower.
It's going to be from 12.30 to 2.30, nursing's only preferred.
Also, she's registered on Amazon.
If you'd like to get a gift and if you're able to bring a dish, please make sure to sign up for these events.
Just because, you know, it's really hard to plan for food.
And most of you are just really bad about signing up.
So, it's like we had like 60 people sign up for our end year party, New Year's Eve party.
We had like 120 show up, so it was like, oh, okay.
But fortunately, I ordered pizza because I figured, like for a thousand people,
so I figured because y'all would just show up anyways.
Whenever you invite people with pizza, they just show up, alright?
And that's pretty much all I had for announcements at this time.
We'll go ahead and go to our third song.
363 Wonderful Words of Life.
363.
And that's 363 Wonderful Words of Life.
363 Wonderful Words of Life.
263 Wonderful Words of Life.
363 Wonderful Words of Life.
263 Wonderful Words of Life.
Amen. Great singing.
As the offering plates are passed around, please turn in your Bibles to 2 Timothy 3.
2 Timothy 3, we're going to read the entire chapter, starting at verse number 1.
2 Timothy 3, the Bible reads,
This know also that in the last days perilous time shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers,
false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God,
having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away.
For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins,
led away with diverse lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Now as Janus and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth,
men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
But they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.
But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,
persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra,
what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution,
but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of,
knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures,
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished, unto all good works.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for Steadfast Baptist Church, for our leadership, and for the service this morning.
I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit now, and enable him to preach his sermon boldly,
give him clarity of mind, and also give us ears to hear so that we can be edified by the sermon,
and so that we can apply it to our lives and walk out of here learning what we can do to be better Christians.
And I pray this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Amen. So, the title of my sermon is going to come from this first verse here in 2 Timothy chapter 3.
The Bible says, This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come.
Now, that's a strong warning that the Bible is giving us, and the word peril in your Bible means danger.
So, essentially, peril would be something that's dangerous.
But, you know, even though it's a very dangerous time as we approach the end,
as we get closer and closer to the coming of the Antichrist, and Jesus Christ, and the end of the world,
there's actually a lot of great things that happen in perilous times.
And the title of my sermon this morning is this, Great Things in Perilous Times.
Great Things in Perilous Times.
Now, keep your finger here, because I'm coming right back.
But let's go to Matthew 24 for just a second. Go to Matthew 24.
Here's my first point, and I'm going to try and get all of my points straight from the Word of God this morning.
And the Bible tells us about things that are great.
Now, when we think about the word great, sometimes we think of something as being, like,
wonderful or really enjoyable or the best.
Sometimes great just means, like, a large scale, though.
It just means something that's of great noteworthy size or is very large.
And when it has here in Matthew 24, it has a real interesting phrase here, but it says in verse 21,
For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Now, the word great here is certainly not referring to wonderful or something that's really exciting or enjoyable.
It's talking about the scale and essentially is saying that there's going to be a time of the greatest tribulation ever known to man.
And we have to understand as we get closer to the end, there's going to be great things in perilous times.
One of those is the greatest tribulation that's ever been seen, ever in the history of the world, of the universe.
And in fact, it's arguably the greatest tribulation that will ever happen in all of eternity, if you think about it.
Now, go back to 2 Timothy 3 and let's see some of the descriptions of this great tribulation.
What is the world going to be like? What are Christians going to have to face off with in the Bible?
And what's pretty interesting is the fact that when we read through the Bible,
I mean, we could think of all kinds of fighting and tribulation and struggle and difficulty that God's people have to go through.
And I think sometimes we would think about it and we would say, man, I'm kind of envious that, you know, I don't get to face off with Goliath, right?
You know, David and Goliath, the epic battle, right?
Or there could be other battles throughout the Bible, you know, entering in the promised land and, you know, the walls of Jericho falling down
and all the different, you know, struggles and the things that they went through and they saw.
But the Bible says the greatest of all the battles, the greatest of all the challenges is actually in the future still.
So, you know, the most epic battle, because you can't be in all of them, you know, you can't see the flood and go out of Egypt and inherit the promised land.
You can't do all of those things, right?
So if you're going to get to pick, like, of all the battles, which one do I want to go to, wouldn't you kind of say, like, I want to go to the hottest battle.
Like, I want to go to the biggest battle, the most epic scene.
And in fact, when you go to see a movie, you heathen out there, you know, you always want to watch the movie with the greatest battle scenes, right?
I mean, I do. You know, you don't want to see some puny thing or you don't want to see it over real quick.
I mean, you want to see the epic fighting and the big battle and it kind of has this climax and a lot of great movies
where they have this great ending, you know, where there's this huge battle or something like that.
And really, it's kind of the same for Christianity. Really, Hollywood's just borrowing from the Bible.
In the sense that the Bible has all these battles and it's building up to one of the greatest battles ever.
But as we approach, there's going to be great tribulation.
And in this world, arguably, you know, there's already a lot of tribulation, but it's just going to get worse and worse.
Look at verse 1 again.
Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.
You say, I don't know if that's true, Pastor Shelley.
Well, if you showed up at Stemfast Baptist Church in the morning, you got a good glimpse of this verse right here, of this passage right now, didn't you?
People that despise those that are good, that are fierce, that are blasphemers.
I mean, this kind of nonsense has not happened in American history where, you know, God-fearing Baptist would show up to church on Sunday morning
and you have a bunch of freaks outside yelling and screaming at just normal, God-loving, God-fearing women and children, mothers, old people, young people.
I mean, it's just insane, the world that we're living in.
But notice that this anti-Christ, this anti-God agenda is just going to constantly ramp up and it's getting it more and more and more.
And you know what, it's not a shock that it exists out there because if the God of the Bible has power, if it's really true, there's going to be opposition.
You know, here's my question.
Where's all the protesters for all the other churches?
You know, why do they protest this church?
Well, it's because we're willing to actually read what the Bible says.
That's it.
You know, there's nothing special about me as a preacher.
In fact, I would argue that the majority of preachers out there, you know, in this world are probably more talented than I am.
They probably have a better sounding voice.
Actually, that one's for sure, okay?
They have a better sounding voice, you know.
Maybe they don't yell the whole time or whatever.
It's like more pleasant to the ears or something like that.
You know, they probably have had more formal training as far as being eloquent in speech and, you know, maybe God's gifted them with, you know, maybe they're taller, more handsome, you know, whatever it is.
But at the end of the day, the reason why our church, people will drive literally hours just to come to our church for a Sunday morning service.
People drive from all over the entire city to come to our church is because it's hard to find a church that will actually preach the Bible anymore.
You know, most churches are just filled with people that are about five miles or less from their church.
I mean, that's it.
People are driving across city to go to some church, you know, in this area.
And there's thousands and thousands of churches, yet, you know, they're not willing to make this kind of a drive because their church is not great.
You know what?
Whenever there's going to be great tribulation and great things in perilous times, you know, you're going to see great churches too.
Even though you're going to have this great opposition.
Because here's the thing.
In order to have great opposition, you have to have a great thread.
Think about it this way, right?
I mean, if there was no real threat, there wouldn't be any need to have that great opposition.
The reason why there's such a great opposition and because the opposition keeps escalating is because the threat of what we're going to do, the threat of what we can do for the Lord Jesus Christ is constantly just beating at Satan's door.
You know, we constantly are just conquering and conquering and doing more exploits.
We just got more people saved than 2019.
We got more people saved than 2020.
And look, I believe this year we're going to get even more saved and we're just going to keep just taking it to the devil.
We're going to keep getting people saved.
But let me tell you something.
When you're doing something great for God, there's going to be tribulation.
In all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, self-suffering persecution is what the Bible says.
And look, the word persecution and tribulation are synonymous.
And notice the world is just going to get worse and worse.
Look, this does not sound like a world I want to live in.
A world where everyone's unthankful, where everyone disobeys their parents, a world where everyone is unholy, a world where there's zero natural affection.
What is natural affection?
You know, it used to be that parents loved their children and that children loved their parents and that men loved women and that women loved men.
You know, and that, you know, brother, there was this brotherhood.
In fact, Texas is one of the few places where you even kind of see a resemblance of this or a semblance of this.
Where you just go to the store and a complete stranger will just, you know, be like, hey, how's it going?
And they'll, you know, they'll basically be like, hey, brother, how's it going or can I help you or whatever.
They don't even know you.
But they just act like they're brother or whatever.
You go to some of these liberal hell holes like Portland.
You go to Seattle.
These people are going to walk up to you and be like, hey, brother.
They're going to be like, where's your mask?
Put your mask up, you know.
Or you're like in Best Buy.
I already told this story.
But I'm like in Best Buy and this lady's just like, you know, freaking out like that I'm anywhere near her without a mask on.
I just saw a video of a lady on an airplane.
It was like a couple of days ago.
There's an old man eating and drinking on the airplane.
And literally this old, there's this, not old, this young woman who's like a hooker or a stripper or something.
She's like coming up and just starts screaming at the guy to put his mask on.
And he's like, you know, sit down, Karen.
And then she just, she literally assaults an old man.
How is that not, I mean, there's just no natural affection.
I mean, for a young woman to just walk up and just sock an old man.
I mean, it just shows you the weird, sick, depraved, reprobate culture that we're living in.
And look, I'm not railing when I say she's like a stripper or a hooker or whatever.
She was like on a magazine for adults or whatever and like posing and all kinds of weird, sick stuff.
And obviously when you go down that weird, dark road, you start losing what?
Natural affection.
All the perversion in this world, it starts to take away all that natural affection you have in your heart.
And look, it's exploding in this world today.
All the perversion, all the sin, all the smut, all the filth.
And you know what? It desensitizes you and it takes away your natural affection.
The natural affection for your wife, the natural affection for just children and people in general.
And it starts to just objectify every single thing in this world.
And I'm telling you, there's going to be even greater tribulation.
We haven't even seen it yet.
We don't even know what it's going to really look like.
It's just going to get worse and worse and worse.
But the reason why is because we're going to become a greater and greater threat.
We're going to keep doing great exploits for the Lord and doing great works for Him.
Now, because there's going to be so much great tribulation, you know, God doesn't like that.
You know, God doesn't like seeing His people afflicted and tormented and persecuted.
It makes them angry. It makes them sad.
He weeps with us. He mourns with us. He's angry. He's furious at us.
But He's going to avenge us.
Okay?
Go to Exodus chapter 6. Exodus chapter 6.
So point one I have for you this morning is this.
That there's going to be great tribulations.
Okay?
But there's other things that are great in the Bible.
And that's kind of the bad news.
Alright? Let's go to the good news.
I got the bad news out quickly. Okay?
Let's move on to some of the good stuff in the Bible.
Even though there's going to be great tribulation, you know, there's also a great judgment that's going to be waiting for those that are going to afflict God's people.
And I want to show you this verse.
Exodus chapter number 6.
And let's look at verse number 6.
The Bible reads,
Notice this.
And with great judgments. Great judgments.
So not only is there great tribulation, but there's also great judgments.
And what I like about this passage, if you get the context, is Moses is speaking with the Lord.
The Lord's wanting to send him back into Egypt.
Okay?
To deliver and to rescue his people.
But if you think about it, nothing's even happened yet.
You know, he hasn't gone.
There hasn't been the tribulation yet.
There hasn't been the deliverance yet.
He's just telling him everything that's going to happen.
Okay?
And he's telling him there's going to be a great judgment.
And why I like this is because we can put ourselves in Moses' shoes right now.
Okay?
Where the Lord's basically saying, hey, there's going to be a great judgment coming.
And a great deliverance.
But you know what's going to happen before that?
A great tribulation.
Okay?
And so he's trying to give us hope to go through that great tribulation.
Because when Moses comes back into town and he tells Pharaoh to let his people go, what is Pharaoh going to do?
Pharaoh's going to say, oh, you guys are lazy.
Oh, you guys, you know, you're so idle.
Why don't you go ahead and start gathering straw to make your mortar and your bricks and everything like that.
You can gather it by night.
And all the people mourn and they basically afflict them more and they whip them more and they beat them more.
And it can cause a lot of mutiny against Moses and against the ranks because they go through this tribulation.
And you know what?
Some people can get mad at the preacher for tribulation.
I'm just being honest.
Or they'll get mad at their church because they'll think like, well, I wouldn't be going through all this pain and suffering if, you know, I didn't go to steadfast.
You know, if I didn't go to, you know, if I didn't have that pastor.
If my pastor didn't say that.
You know, why did Moses have to go up there and pick a fight with Pharaoh?
You know, whatever.
And it's like Moses didn't have to.
He didn't want to actually.
God told him to.
God was like, hey, go preach this.
And you know what?
Some people get mad at me and they'll be like, why did you preach that sermon?
And it's like, I don't even know if I wanted to but God said preach it.
All scriptures given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine.
You know, the Bible doesn't say preach some of it, the popular parts.
It says preach the Word.
That's what it says.
So if I open the Bible and I preach any aspect of the Bible, any section, no matter what it says, you know what?
You're not allowed to get mad at the preacher.
You can get mad at God but guess what?
That's a foolish task.
Why would you want to get mad at God for doing that?
And of course when you preach the Word, of course when you preach the Bible, people are going to get mad.
I remember somebody came up to me like, hey, why do people protest your church?
And I'm like, everything in the Bible.
I mean, you know, it's not one issue, my friend, okay?
It's everything that this book stands for.
And I've heard all of it, you know, whether it's the feminism, you know, whether it's just because you hate fags or whatever.
You know, whatever it is, whatever issue it is, because of what the Bible says, you know what?
They're going to be offended.
Just for believing that salvation is a free gift, people will get mad at you.
They'll get super frustrated with you.
When you call out people that preach repent of your sins, when you call out people for using a different version, people freak out.
You know, when you call out the doctrinal statements of the Southern Baptist Convention where they literally say you have to genuinely turn away from all your sins, people freak out.
People lose their minds.
People are going to get frustrated at every single thing that's preached.
Don't think it's a one-issue situation.
Don't think like, oh, well, there's one thing that people get mad at.
It's everything, my friend.
When Jesus came on the scene, people were getting upset left and right.
And you know what?
Jesus was preaching some of the best stuff.
He was just preaching the gospel, and he was really making people.
He preached replacement theology, and it really got people mad.
But you know what?
Even though we go through great tribulation and people will afflict us, there's going to be a great judgment that comes on them.
Go to Psalms 58 for a moment.
Go to Psalms 58.
And when we think about Egypt, it's probably one of, if not the greatest judgments that we've seen throughout history, okay?
And you know, I mean, I would say maybe the flood arguably is maybe the greatest in the sense that it killed everybody but eight people, okay?
But the thing that's unique about the Egyptians, even though it's probably less as far as how many people in the world are affected by it,
it's kind of like a spectacular show, though.
It's kind of like fireworks because it's got all these various plagues and all these crazy things that are happening.
And a lot of them are just like really interesting miracles, and they have kind of a parallel to the end times specifically.
A lot of the same plagues that we see in Egypt are happening in the future, okay?
So when it comes to judgments, when it comes to these things, you know, it's probably one of the greatest things that we've ever seen.
But what's coming is even greater.
It's going to be even more better fireworks, okay?
It wasn't really the finality.
Now, in Psalms 58, what should be our attitude when we see these judgments?
Look at verse 10.
The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance.
He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
Let me read that verse for you again.
The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance.
He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
You know what?
You go through all this just pestering and pestering and pestering and pestering, but eventually God's going to knock them out.
You know, just imagine you got that little hip squeak just sitting there just like, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip.
And you're just like, someone hit it, someone hit it, someone hit it.
You know what?
God's like, you don't do it.
You're just like, okay, okay, okay.
And then God's going to punt it and you've never seen anything punted like what God's going to do.
And when he kicks it, you're going to be like, woo!
I mean, that's what the Bible says.
You're going to actually enjoy it.
You're going to finally get to enjoy.
But you know what?
You get the greatest joy out of the longest amount of time that you endured it.
Right?
I mean, if it was just, it just goes, yip, and then you just punt it, you're just kind of like, oh, okay.
But if it's just like bam!
You're like, yes!
It just gets sweeter the more you have to endure, right?
I mean, just the more and more and more and more you're just like, okay, get it, get it, get it.
You know?
And that's the same with us, you know?
When we go through all this great tribulation, you go through all this evil and you see all these people
run in their mouth and all this blasphemy and whatever,
we're gonna finally get to a point where we're just like,
how long, oh Lord?
People in heaven are literally begging for it.
They're just like, now, come on, now, please, now.
And eventually it's gonna come.
And it's just gonna make it that much sweeter
when it happens, the great judgment that happens.
Go to 2 Thessalonians chapter one.
Go to 2 Thessalonians chapter number one.
And you know what, we get a lot of that in the Bible.
When David finally slings that rock
and just crushes Goliath right in the forehead
and then he walks up, takes his own sword out of his hand
and just slices that guy's head off,
think about what he does afterwards, okay?
Because you were all, you know, it was a little gruesome,
like, posh and you're feeling a little wicked.
David literally picks up his head
and starts running around with it
and chasing the other Philistines.
I mean, he's running around with Goliath.
He's just like, ah!
I mean, that's gotta be incredible.
And you know what, I'm searching him,
that blood's falling down on his feet
and he's just kinda like, yeah, woo!
Washing his feet in the blood of the wicked.
Just running around, screaming with Goliath's head
in his hand, that's pretty cool.
You know what, it was like 40 days
that he's sitting there just taunting
and defying the God of Israel
and defying the armies of the God, of the living God.
It's just, he's just like, ah, someone's gotta get him!
You know what, he finally gets it, doesn't he?
And it's the same, you know,
Goliath's kind of a picture of the Antichrist
when you think about it,
because he's gonna have his little, short little stint,
you know, it's about 40 days with Goliath.
If you believe the pre-Trib,
I'm sorry, not a pre-Trib, wow.
If you believe the pre-Rapture, okay,
it's probably about 75 days, you know,
somewhere in that timeframe, right?
He's gonna get his little thing,
but then the Rock is just gonna completely crush him.
You know, the Rock killed Goliath,
and you know what, the Rock, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is just gonna slay the Antichrist.
It's just gonna be like, bam, you know, just over.
And we have all kinds of other great,
you know, victories in the Bible,
but 2 Thessalonians, chapter number one,
is gonna basically tell us that, you know,
God is just kind of a storing up wrath for these people,
you know, and he's just kind of making it
just that much more evident of why
he's gonna do the things that he's gonna do.
But look at verse number three.
We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren,
as is meet, because that your faith growth exceedingly
and the charity of every one of you,
all toward each other, abounded,
that we ourselves glory in you and the churches of God
for your patience and faith and all your persecutions
and tribulations that you endure.
Here's something, hey, if you don't go to a church
without any persecution and tribulation,
how would this even make sense to you?
Oh, you know, our coffee machine went out.
You know what, Paul's praying for us.
You know, I mean, that's not, that's,
you know, it's cool when you're like,
hey, our friend, we're praying for our friend
because his church got bombed, literally.
Like it literally, they put a bomb in his church
and blew it up.
It's like, that's persecution, that's tribulation.
You know, you listen to the story of Dean Miller,
listen to Dean Miller's life story, I had posted it up,
I don't know, YouTube and me are fighting,
you know, I posted, they deleted, I posted, you know.
I don't know where it's at right now, but it's out there.
The Dean Miller life story, that thing is great.
But you know what, it's great tribulation.
I'll just give you a spoiler, it doesn't ruin the story,
but he said at one point, he moved to like
Colorado Springs to start a church,
and when he moved there, he doesn't know who did it,
but a bunch of people just came and just like
literally opened trash bags all over his front yard,
and just boulders, just like huge rocks and stuff,
and they even did it like up against his front door
so they couldn't even get out of his house,
and just like spray painted on his car, like Jim Jones,
cult leader, and everything like that on his car.
I mean, welcome, welcome to Colorado.
Welcome to Colorado Springs.
You know, Colorado Springs is probably,
he even mentions this, but it's probably the number one
parachurch ministry mecca of the world.
I mean, it's like hocus pocus on the families there,
and just like every bizarre parachurch ministry
you could ever imagine, and you know,
that place is a den of iniquity.
You know what, he was gonna do a great work,
and so it came with great opposition.
It came with great tribulation.
And you know what, real churches are gonna go through
real struggles, real problems, real evil, real issues.
Verse five, which is a manifest token
of the righteous judgment of God.
What did he say is the token of the righteous judgment
of God is the fact that you go through
real persecution and tribulation.
It doesn't really make sense for God to punish people
with such a great judgment if they don't really deserve it.
You know, it's not like Pharaoh's over there just,
you know, doing great things for the Lord,
and loving the Lord, and then God judged him.
No, he was throwing the children
of God's babies in the river.
He was literally just executing every male child
by just throwing them gruesomely in the water,
in the river, and just killing them,
and slaying them, and murdering them,
just having no empathy,
enslaving the entire children of Israel,
afflicting them, whipping them, giving them no freedom,
not allowing them to basically be a normal human citizen.
And you know what?
God heard the cries of every single person.
God heard the cries of every person being whipped,
and the cries of the mothers.
I mean, imagine how many women are crying every single day
because their male child was thrown in the river.
And you know, when we get a birth announcement,
it's exciting to us.
Can you imagine the fret, worry, and anxiety
of these women when they found out they were pregnant?
And they don't even have a sonogram.
They don't even know what the gender is.
So nine months.
Look, I already know what it's like to be married
to a woman who's pregnant for nine months.
There's a lot of anxiety, okay?
There's a lot of stress.
The fact that her child might be thrown in the river,
I don't even wanna know.
I mean, you know, that's just gotta be insane.
There's a reason why God punished Egypt
the way that he did, my friend, okay?
And when we get tribulation and persecution and the evil,
you know what, it's a manifest token of the fact
that when God judges these people,
he was righteous in judging them.
He says that you may be counted worthy
of the kingdom of God for which ye also suffer.
Notice again that the kingdom of God is suffering.
It's not your best life now, okay?
I don't know who told you that, but it was a liar.
Verse six, seeing as a righteous thing with God
to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you.
Notice, God is gonna trouble them.
Verse seven, and to you who are troubled, rest with us,
when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with his mighty angels, inflaming fire,
taking vengeance on them that know not God
and that obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall be punished with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of his power.
So according to the Bible, these people are gonna get
what's coming, and let me tell ya,
that is a great judgment.
You wanna know the greatest judgment ever?
Hell.
Isn't it interesting that when someone really
wants to get ya, when someone really wants
to say something evil about you,
the worst thing they can always say is go to hell.
And the worst punishment they can ever dream up
is going to hell.
That's it.
They never think of a different punishment.
They're not thinking like, well, you know, do this.
They don't have anything.
They just have to say go to hell,
because that's literally the worst punishment imaginable.
You wanna proof that God's real?
You wanna proof that God exists?
How about the fact that he already thought
of the greatest punishment ever?
It's called hell.
A place of burning and fire and torment,
and there's no rest day or night, never.
Weeping and gnashing of teeth, total regret,
and the worst thing, it's forever.
The torment ascended up forever, ever,
and there's no rest day nor night.
None.
No water.
Not even just, I mean, this guy was in so much torment
in Luke that he was just like,
can I just get like a drop of water?
And it's like, no.
There's nothing.
Just the worst punishment ever.
Now you say, how could someone deserve that?
Well, when we stand at the great white throne judgment,
we'll find out.
And you know what?
God is a righteous judge, God is a righteous God,
and you know what?
He sacrificed his son on the cross,
and you know what?
He bled for every single one of these people
that rejected him.
And don't tell me, oh, they didn't have a chance.
Look, if you live in America,
you probably hear the name of Jesus every day of your life.
And you literally date everything,
which is a constant reminder of Jesus Christ's birth.
The entire world is running on the same date.
Well, I've never heard of Jesus.
You really think that nobody ever asked the question,
like, why is it 2022?
Like, no one ever thought of that.
No one ever asked that question.
Like, why is it 2022?
It's because of Jesus.
That's why.
Everything is about Jesus, my friend.
Everything in this world.
What's the most popular book ever?
The King James Bible?
Look, it's really obvious what's going on.
And look, there's Christians in every nation.
And in fact, the Bible says in the end,
when we're all in heaven, there'll be every tongue,
every tribe, there's people going out.
You say, where is this guy in the jungle
that has never heard the name of Jesus?
I don't know.
He doesn't exist.
It's a figment of your imagination that you dreamed up.
Because you know what?
I've knocked thousands of doors,
and my church members have knocked thousands of doors.
I personally, maybe you have, maybe there's an exception,
I've never met anybody that said
I've never heard the name of Jesus before.
Never happened.
And let me tell you something.
Even if it did, in that moment,
I'm gonna tell them about Jesus,
and they'll never have that excuse.
I mean, it's that obvious, my friend.
Go to Revelation chapter 19.
There's gonna be a great judgment.
And look, you wanna know the number
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10
reason to believe the gospel?
It's called hell.
I don't want, you know, some people preach fire insurance.
Yeah, it's the best ever because it's free.
You know, you can't get any better
at fire insurance than the gospel.
I don't want the flaming fire.
I don't want the vengeance.
I don't want the great judgment.
I don't wanna stand in the great white throne judgment,
which hasn't happened yet.
Think about this.
Probably, I mean, outside of hell,
the next greatest judgment would probably
just be that throne.
You know, standing there naked,
exposed for the world to see.
And when I say naked, it's meaning
that there's nothing you can hide, right?
You're gonna stand there,
and there's not gonna be any more excuses.
You don't have an attorney to represent you.
You don't get a public defender.
The devil's not gonna defend you.
He's gonna accuse you.
That's all he does.
You know, if anything, he's gonna join
on the prosecution's team.
You know, he's the prosecution's witness.
They're like, all right, next we call the devil.
What did this guy do?
And he's just gonna, he's gonna lie
and accuse you up and down, okay?
He's not gonna speak, though.
I'm just saying this in jest.
Obviously, it's just, it's God the Father
that, you know, the books are gonna be open,
and you're gonna be judged according
to the things that are in the book.
You know, the Bible says,
the thought of foolishness is sin.
Good luck on that one.
I mean, lying is a sin.
It's funny when people try to tell me
that they're not a liar, you know,
or insinuate the fact that you have to lie a lot.
And I'm like, what's a lot, like 100, 1,000?
I'm sure you're up there, you know?
Like, I mean, if you put it in any other sin,
you would think it was a lot, right?
I killed 1,000 people, you know, it's like,
but I didn't kill a lot, you know?
It's like, what are you talking about, you know?
I mean, we've probably told thousands
and thousands of lies.
Unless you're a baby, you know,
you've told thousands and thousands of lies,
all kinds of deceits, foolish thoughts.
I mean, and think about this, every single one of those.
I've had some really bad thoughts, some stupid thoughts.
You know, we're gonna find out who all the flat earthers are
whenever we're in heaven.
You know, I don't wanna be standing before God
and have to answer for that stupid idea,
that stupid thought.
If you get saved, you won't have to.
And if you're not an idiot, you'll never have to, okay?
Just kidding, but seriously.
Revelation chapter 19, look at verse one.
And after these things, I heard a great voice
of much people in heaven saying,
Alleluia, salvation and glory and honor and power
unto the Lord our God, for true and righteous
are his judgments, for he hath judged the great whore.
It's not Kamala, this is a different one.
Which did corrupt the earth with her fornication
and at the venge the blood of his servants at her hand.
And again they said, Alleluia!
And her smoke rose up forever and ever.
There is a end times Babylon that is going to be judged.
It's called the great whore.
And you know what?
Whenever it's destroyed, all of God's people
are gonna yell and scream, Alleluia!
But you know what that tells me?
That Babylon's gonna do a lot of damage to God's people.
Because you're not gonna be that excited
if it was just 1950s America,
where everybody has a car and a 401k and everything's great.
I guarantee America's gonna get really bad.
And you know what?
We already got Biden in president.
I mean, it doesn't look like it's getting better
any time soon.
It's funny to me, all these Trump supporters,
they're like 2024.
And I'm like, so if you lost the election
because it was rigged in the previous one,
you're gonna win this time?
Like how does that even make sense?
How could you even be honest with me?
How could you say I believe this was stolen
and it's rigged but I'm gonna do it again?
What?
I mean, imagine that you're like standing
at the ATM or something and you're like plugging
in your money for deposit and just says error.
And you're like, I don't know, I'll try that again.
Just keep shoving money just as error.
No money's going to your car.
How many times are you gonna try that thing?
You're not gonna keep trying that thing.
Hey, this thing ripped me off.
Want some more?
You know, it's like, it's not turn the other cheek here.
Okay, with the residential election Trump, okay?
It's stupidity if you think that he's gonna rescue
from anything and I guarantee even if Trump comes
in office it'll get worse because let me ask you this.
What was better, 2016 or 2020?
2016.
Way better.
Think about all the crap that Donald Trump brought in.
Oh, I got vaccines in like six months or whatever.
A miracle.
Well, if you didn't there wouldn't be all these mandates
to get the stupid thing.
You know, usually the Republicans they bring in
all the weird laws and all the junk and all the weird crap
and then let the Democrats enforce it.
You know, like the Patriot Act from George Bush
and all this other stuff.
Sorry to bust all your political bubbles
but you know what, America's in the toilet, my friend.
And you know what's gonna fix it?
Nothing.
Oh.
You know what, some things are just beyond repair.
That which is crooked cannot be made straight
is what the Bible says.
You know, either one of two things is gonna happen.
Either America is gonna be completely destroyed
before it becomes Babylon or it's gonna be completely
destroyed as Babylon.
But let me just give you a guarantee.
America will be completely destroyed.
Why?
Look, G.I. Jane is not gonna rescue you
from the Chinese army, from the Russians.
You know what, feminism will completely destroy
a civilization, completely destroy a country
and you know what, it's already gone my friend
and the public fool system is pumping out idiots and morons.
You really expect, I mean think about it this way, all right?
All these little kids on TikTok and stuff,
these like little 20 year olds and everything like that,
you really expect them to fight against China for you?
When you're old and gray, you really expect them?
They think guns are yucky.
They're dangerous.
They don't even, like the only people that even know
how to use guns are like the thugs out here
and they don't even know how to use it.
They're just like, yeah, whoa.
And they can't even shoot a target from like five feet away.
That's why all these random people keep getting hit
at these like gang shootouts
because they don't even know how to shoot.
There's no armed marksmen left in this nation.
I mean it's just a small remnant that's in the military
and they're constantly being pushed out by liberalism,
bad policies, bad agendas and you know what,
our country is just in a complete plunge into hell.
Why, because we hate God.
You really think God's gonna keep blessing America
when we keep promoting the worst filth,
abortion and faggotry and just smut
and all kinds of just evil and wickedness?
Oh, but we support Israel.
Yeah, that doesn't make God like us more.
You synagogue of Satan worshiper you?
I mean why would you love the guy that blasphemes Jesus?
Why would you worship the guy
that says that he would crucify Jesus again?
Sarah Silverman.
Sarah Silverman, the Jew in Hollywood
in her stupid little like joke,
whatever you call those things, event,
what is it, conference or stand up comedy?
I don't know what they call their events
but she stood up there and she was like,
hey, I would crucify Jesus again
and I guarantee she would, the Christ-rejecting Jew.
Look, the Jews would kill him over and over and over again.
Why would I give money or support or pray for them?
In a sense that the only prayer that anybody would get
would be to get saved if they're doing it in ignorance,
like Jesus said, Father, forgive them
for they know not what they do
but I'm not gonna sit here and pray blessings on them.
Jesus told them that they should be weeping for their city.
They should be weeping for their nation
for what they were doing.
And let me tell you something,
there's gonna be some great, great judgments coming.
God doesn't like Islam.
God doesn't like Mormonism.
God doesn't like people getting up
and preaching lies in his name.
God doesn't like the modern versions.
God doesn't like all the filth and the sin and the smut
and the evil that's going on in our nation.
God is just getting angrier and angrier
and angrier and angrier, why?
Because eventually he's gonna have great wrath
and the only thing that's stopping God
from pouring out his wrath throughout the Bible
is God's people.
He doesn't want us to go through that.
So like, he's just gotta wait until he pulls us out
and then it's gonna be great wrath.
I mean, God literally flood the entire world
and killed everyone except for eight people.
And you know what?
He's gonna do a similar thing
where he's gonna rapture God's people out
and he's gonna pour out some of the worst plague,
the worst evil that we've ever seen, the greatest judgment.
Now go to Genesis chapter 45, go to Genesis chapter 45.
I've been kind of alluding at this point
but what's great is that when the judgment comes,
we won't have to be there.
But I think we still get to see it.
I mean, we're gonna get like,
we'll have stadium seats or whatever,
we'll be up in the nosebleeds.
But hey, I mean, we'll get to see some of
the cool tribulation up close and personal, right?
I mean, potentially us that are still alive
whenever that happens.
But some people are gonna see even greater
than there's the tribulation and the judgment,
they're gonna see a great deliverance.
Look at Genesis 45 verse seven.
And God sent me before you to preserve you
posterity in the earth and to save your lives
by a great deliverance.
Notice that Joseph said, hey,
I'm here to give you a great deliverance.
Do you know how they had a great deliverance?
They had great tribulation.
What was the great tribulation?
They had famine for seven years.
That is a long time.
If the earth had seven years of famine today,
we would all die.
Except for the Alex Jones guys
that have all their store-billed food.
No, I'm just kidding.
You would die too.
It's silly.
You just painted yourself a target.
Because all of your neighbors are gonna look at you
with your fat belly and think like, he's eating.
Albeit, it might be like weird dust crap
that he makes with water or whatever,
but he's eating some kind of garbage
and we're gonna find him and we're gonna get him.
I mean, think about it.
And when there was no food in Jerusalem,
they were literally eating their children.
And they were selling a half part of dove dung.
You didn't even get a hole.
I mean, just a half rack, okay, of dove dung.
And it was like selling for this great price.
I mean, just, you know, here's a chunk of gold
for half of a dove dung.
That's how starving they were.
You don't think they're gonna come
and beat down your door and kill you
for your little microwave meal or whatever that you have,
24 pack or something.
That's foolishness.
If there was seven years of famine, everyone would die.
Whether that be through the starvation itself
or through the bloodshed or just evil.
And here's the thing, even if you didn't die, okay,
let me explain something to you.
Even if you had food, you know what's gonna happen?
All of the businesses are gonna close immediately
because all the other people don't have food
and so all the electricity is gonna go out,
all the water's gonna go out
and the beasts of this earth
are gonna start roaming everywhere
and they're gonna be real hungry
and you know what, little Fido isn't real nice
when he's hungry.
Ever try to take food away from a dog when he's hungry?
Yeah, that's not a cool thing to do.
I remember my, I had like a little lab
and I thought he was like the sweetest thing ever
and I was like, five.
I remember trying to take his food away
because my brother never fed him
and I didn't know this, okay.
So he'd gone without eating in like four days.
I come and give his food.
He nearly bit my head off when I tried to,
because I put his bowl down
because I'm like carrying the food, okay,
let me explain this better.
I'm like carrying the food out.
He's so hungry, he dives into my arms,
knocks the bowl or whatever
while I'm just like trying to even walk out the door
because he's so like ravenous
and it's just like standing by the door
so you can't like walk or whatever
so I'm just gonna kind of like move it away from the door
and he almost like destroyed me
and I was just like, okay, I'm not touching the food.
We'll never walk there again.
It's like, it's serious.
All those dogs, all the birds, all the stuff.
I mean, you've seen that weird movie Birds or whatever?
When they're hungry,
when I played golf back in West Texas
and they have these Mississippi kite birds
and man, they will come and they'll swoop you
and they'll scalp you.
Those things are mean.
You wouldn't wanna go through that kind of a tribulation.
The Bible says in the end times, there's gonna be famine.
You say, well, how do I prepare for that?
I'd rather just be right with God
than any of the other things I could possibly imagine
because whatever you can dream up,
I mean, it's not gonna be enough.
Your little bunker or whatever, it'll collapse or something.
You know, an earthquake will come
and you'll collapse down in your little bunker.
You know, maggots will ruin your food.
You'll get some kind of disease
and there won't be the medicine.
I mean, God can get you wherever you want or he wants to.
You know, the serpent will just come out of the wall
and bite you, you know?
It doesn't matter how you hide.
Now, go if you would to Daniel chapter number three
for a second, go to Daniel chapter number three.
Let me get to more positive again, okay?
We're talking about great deliverance
and why am I saying great deliverance?
Because when you don't have food,
when you have everything hunting you down,
it's incredible that you survive.
But you know what, it's not incredible that you survive
when you have a bunker with missiles and turrets
and endless supplies of food or whatever.
That wasn't that great.
That wasn't really a great deliverance.
That was just, you know, great planning.
Great planning's not gonna save you.
No, no, no, no.
What'll save you is God.
God gets honor and glory out of you being weak and helpless
and having nothing and just depending on him.
And let me give you an example of this.
Your children.
All of your children under the age of 10
would be completely screwed if you just were gone.
They're not gonna know what to do.
They can't drive anywhere.
They can't make any food.
If they try, they probably just burn stuff down.
You know, and they don't fret all day long
like what are we gonna eat?
What are we gonna do, Dad?
I've been planning.
I've been storing, you know, every meal
that you've been giving me for the past week,
I've been taking a small portion of it
and hiding it under my bed
just in case you don't feed me today.
I mean, that's the same kind of logic
as what we are doing whenever we're like,
God, no, no, no, I've been buying all the storeable foods
and I've been getting all these things or whatever.
And he's just like, I can turn rocks into bread if you want.
I could have ravens come and feed you, Elijah.
I mean, why don't you worry about something spiritual?
So God could get a great deliverance.
Now, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
is mentioned here in Daniel, chapter number three.
Look at verse 15.
Now, if you be ready,
no matter what time you hear the sound of the cornet,
flute, harpsack, butt, psaltery,
and dulcimer, and all kinds of music,
you fall down and worship the image which I've made.
Well, but if you worship not,
you should be cast the same hour
into the midst of a burning fiery furnace,
and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Now, here's the thing.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego have no options.
It's worship or die.
That's it.
There's no like plan C.
There's no other alternative.
There's not like I've got a secret dagger underneath my leg
that I'm gonna get you, like Ehud or something.
I mean, this is their last stand.
Now, whenever you're put in this kind of position,
what can God then do?
He can deliver you, and it's a great deliverance.
It's an incredible deliverance.
If you're not really under a big threat,
no one needs to rescue you.
I mean, imagine if I came to your house tonight,
and I'm like, I'm here to rescue you.
You'd be like, from what?
From you, because you're kind of crazy.
You're kind of looking a little weird today, you know?
No, you need to be in trouble
for someone to end up rescuing you, right?
They're in great tribulation here, in great distress,
basically saying they're gonna be burned alive
if they don't fall down in worship.
Talk about your knees getting weak.
Verse 16, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
answered and said to the king,
O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful
to answer this matter.
If it be so, our God, whom we serve,
is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace,
and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
Notice, they just say, hey, you know what?
He can, and he will.
Now, from a human logic perspective, okay,
how could they rationalize this?
There is no way.
There's no, it's like, all right, so,
is everybody gonna fall down dead?
Like, you know, and then they don't, and they bind them,
and they're leading in the fiery furnace.
Don't you think there was a moment,
they're thinking like, I don't know
how this is gonna work out.
And then the first guard that's kinda like there,
he like trips and falls in the fire,
and he's just like, ah, burning alive, or whatever.
And you're like, that looked painful.
I mean, they had no idea, there's no way to rationalize that.
There's no way to plan for, so,
why would I do anything different than in the end time?
Why am I gonna sit here and think like,
I'm gonna figure out how God's gonna deliver me,
and I'm gonna make sure his plan works.
No, no, no, no, I'm gonna let him figure it out.
There's no way I could figure it out.
Look, if you had never read the Bible,
and you're reading this story,
you're sitting here thinking like,
I don't know what's gonna happen.
It seems like they're doomed.
Seems like it's over.
But then what happens?
They're thrown in the fiery furnace, and there's no hurt.
And Jesus shows up, and Jesus delivers them
and rescues them from the physical destruction,
just like the rapture, where it's impending doom,
it looks like there's no escape,
it looks like it's all over,
looks like every Christian's gonna die,
and then just out of nowhere,
Jesus shows up and there's no hurting him.
Why, because it's a great deliverance that's coming.
Go to Matthew 24, go back to Matthew 24.
Great things in perilous times.
You can only have the greatness with the threat.
And, you know, I've thought about this a lot,
because many people would say, you know,
I don't really wanna go through such a trying situation.
And I can understand, you know,
I don't think anybody wants to have
the threat of death upon them.
You know what, you can only be rescued
from the threat of death if someone threatens to kill you.
You kinda understand how those parallels work?
So the only way to actually go through great deliverance
is to have that great threat,
is to have that great tribulation,
is to have that great persecution.
And you know what?
You kinda have two options in the Bible,
because not everyone gets delivered physically.
Some do die as a martyr.
But think about this.
It should just be a great honor and a privilege
to have had faced a great threat.
You know, you'd be better off
having gone through a really great threat,
whether you die a martyr or you get delivered out of it,
for eternity's sake, rather than just saying,
you know what, truth and peace was in my days
and I just died in my sleep.
You're gonna be up in heaven and it's like,
oh, here's the die in their sleep section.
It's like, no one wants to talk to those people.
No one wants to hear about, you know,
well, I kinda like, for a split second,
I kinda like woke up and kinda like,
and then I went.
You're like, no, no, no, you wanna hear about the guy
that was thrown in the fire?
You wanna hear about the guy that was put in the lion's den?
You wanna hear about the guy
that was standing off with the Antichrist?
I mean, wouldn't it be cool?
And I don't know.
Neither of us will know, right?
What if it's like that 75th day
and you're just kinda like, you get caught
and you're brought up on stage and there's the guillotine.
And they're like, they're like putting your head in
and you're just thinking like,
all right, what's gonna happen?
And then that's when Christ shows up.
Couldn't that happen?
I mean, if they're doing beheadings every single day,
just like clockwork, just like head, head, head,
isn't someone the next guy on the chopping block?
That one person is gonna get delivered.
Wouldn't it be cool to be like, I was the last guy.
Like I was the guy that was gonna get his head chopped up.
I mean, my head was on the guillotine
and then Christ showed up.
Wouldn't that be the coolest ever?
And then if you're not, then you're beheaded.
So I'm just trying to give you hope, you know?
When you're on the stage, you're thinking like,
you know, it's the 13th day and you're like,
I hope they're wrong about 75 days.
I'm just trying to give you that hope.
But you know what, someone is gonna get
that great deliverance, aren't they?
I mean, wasn't someone, I mean, someone out there
is gonna be basically facing impending doom and death
and then Christ is just gonna show up
and it's gonna be like, woo, see ya, sucker.
I mean, you're just gonna scream hallelujah all the way up.
Someone's gonna get that experience.
Isn't that pretty cool?
Wouldn't you rather be that guy than the guy
that just, oh, well, I just died, peace.
I died from cancer.
I died from a heartache, you know.
I died choking on beans and chili or something.
That's not the way to go.
Matthew 24, look at verse 21.
For then shall be great tribulation such
as was not since the beginning of the world to this time,
no, nor ever shall be, and except those days
should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved,
but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened.
So according to the Bible, when there's that
great tribulation, I mean, this is just a killing machine.
In fact, I believe this verse is even saying
just everyone would die.
I mean, just what's happening?
I mean, the Antichrist, he's just under the influence
of the devil and the devil ultimately
just wants everyone to die.
I mean, he doesn't really, he doesn't want anybody alive.
He wants everyone to be destroyed
because we just look like God and he just hates God so much.
He just wants to kill everyone that looks like God.
He just hates everything about God's creation.
He just wants to destroy it.
He's like that kid that when you build
this really great tower, all he's been doing
the whole time is just sitting there wanting to knock it down
and when he comes to knock it down,
he's not gonna leave like a little bit up.
He's gonna knock every single piece, just all of them down.
That's the devil.
The devil's just there angry that he doesn't have
any building blocks and he's just gonna come
and try to knock every single thing down.
But you know what?
Because there's still saved people,
God's not gonna let that happen
and God's gonna even come and he's gonna rescue
some of the elects sake.
You say when?
Verse 29, immediately after the tribulation of those days.
Shall the sun be darkened and the moon
shall not give her light and the stars shall fall
from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken
and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven
and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn
and they shall see the Son of Man coming
and the clouds of heaven with power and great glory
and he shall send his angels with a great sound
of a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect
from the four winds from the one end of heaven to the other.
So the Bible couldn't be clearer, this is the rapture.
When Christ comes in the clouds, he saves his elect
from the great tribulation, you say when is it happening?
Immediately after the tribulation.
He's what actually separates tribulation from wrath.
I mean, he's the dividing point.
That's what causes it to cease because at the point
that Christ raptures every single saved person,
tribulation can't really exist anymore.
His tribulation arises for the word's sake,
the testimony of Jesus' sake.
So whenever there's no one saved, I mean, no one can be,
go through the tribulation and persecution
for the word of God anymore, it's all, you know.
So then it's just wrath, then it's just evil,
then it's just, you know, all kinds of problems
that are coming out on the, locusts from hell and okay.
I mean, just the worst things imaginable.
You know what, we get that great deliverance.
Go if you would to Psalms 18, go back to Psalms
and go to verse 18.
So what have we learned so far?
Number one, in perilous times,
there's gonna be great tribulation.
Number two, there's gonna be great judgments coming though.
And before that judgment, there's gonna be
a great deliverance, a great deliverance.
Look at Psalms 18, verse 46, the Bible says,
the Lord liveth and blessed be my rock.
Let the God of my salvation be exalted.
It is God that avenges me and subdueth the people under me.
He delivereth me from mine enemies.
Yea, he thou lippest me up above those
that rise up against me.
Thou has delivered me from the violent man,
therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord,
among thee, then, and sing praises unto thy name.
Great deliverance giveth he to his king
and showeth mercy to his anointed, to David,
and to his seed forevermore.
So again, the Bible says great deliverance.
And you know what, the greatest deliverance
that we all have, hell.
Coming judgment.
And we're all gonna be delivered from hell.
And you know, there really,
even if I don't get spared physically,
hell's enough of a great deliverance.
I mean, even though I die in my sleep,
I'm still delivered from that great judgment of hell.
That great white throne judgment.
And you know what, there's nothing wrong
with serving God your whole life
and basically bringing in righteousness.
You know, there's some guys that they fought a lot
in the early years, and in the latter years,
they kinda get to enjoy and reap the benefits
of the works that they did in the past,
and there's nothing wrong with dying in glory,
dying a respectable death, okay?
There's plenty of men of God,
righteous men who died in peace.
But their journey was pretty rough.
Think about the Apostle Paul.
I mean, the Apostle Paul, I believe, died at an old age.
He went through and he finished his course,
he finished his work and everything like that.
Maybe he did die in his sleep,
and I'm sure he's still greatly rewarded.
But you know what, he has a lot of stories to tell still.
He has a lot of things that he could tell,
and you know, for some of us
that maybe haven't really had the life of him,
maybe we can have a great death, you know?
I mean, it's like, hey, I did nothing for Christ,
but I got beheaded, you know, at the end.
I mean, that kinda makes up for you,
like, being a do-nothing Christian
for a really long time, doesn't it?
Maybe you lost a lot of time being young,
youth and vanity, but now you can make up for it.
Go to John chapter 14, go to John chapter 14.
Here's my fourth point, though,
and here's probably the biggest admonition for us, is
we don't want to get to the end
and have had done nothing, though,
because even though we don't go
to the great white throne judgment,
we're still gonna go to the judgment seat of Christ,
and the Bible teaches that every one of our works,
whether it's good or bad, will be judged
at the judgment seat of Christ, okay?
So he's not gonna pull out your sins,
he's not gonna pull out, you know,
all the wickedness and the evil thoughts
that you had or whatever,
but he's basically gonna just look at your life
and say, you know, was it wood, hay, and stubble,
or is it gold, silver, and precious stone,
you know, what was going on in your life,
and if it's just wood, hay, and stubble,
it's just gonna all burn,
and you're gonna suffer losses, is what the Bible says.
You're gonna basically be like, wow,
I really wasted and squandered the opportunity
that God gave me on this earth, and for what?
Especially, I mean, the whole world is just melting.
I mean, why build a snowman when it's sunny outside?
You know, I mean, that's kinda like what it's like
whenever you live for this world.
You know, you're basically building a snowman
in the month of July, you know, it's just like,
that's not gonna work, it's meaningless, it's vanity,
you won't even get to enjoy it,
you won't even get to see,
it's gonna melt away forever,
and it's better to lay up treasure in heaven.
It's better to lay it up and have a lot of great rewards,
and you say, well, how do I do that?
How about I go soul winning?
What can you do better than going soul winning
in this world?
Giving the gospel to someone,
pulling someone out of the fire.
I mean, if you're saved, you know how to get someone saved.
Okay, otherwise you're not saved, all right?
That's how I say it.
I mean, if you can't tell someone how you got saved,
then are you saved?
You know what, Jesus Christ,
he did a lot of great works while he was alive.
In fact, that's all he did was work.
He wasn't taking all these breaks and doing,
in fact, this Bible's like, this guy's beside himself.
He's just work, work, work, work, work, work.
You know what, that's what it should be like
with God's people for the things of God,
that it just looks like it's just work, work, work.
It's just like, man, we just got back from a mission trip,
you wanna do another one, and another conference,
and more soul winning times?
It's like, yeah.
We'll work till Jesus comes, we'll work.
It's not like, we'll sleep and play, no, no, no.
We'll work, right?
And look at this great verse, John 14, verse 12.
This is Jesus, verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me the works that I do
shall he do also, and greater works
than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father.
Jesus said that there was gonna be greater works
done by men on the earth than Jesus himself.
How?
Because Jesus was only here for three and a half years.
You know, the Apostle Paul's here for decades.
Jesus preached all the, basically, the tribes of Israel.
Paul preached to the world.
Think about it.
And you know what, we have such a large world
with so much opportunity, I mean, you can be a soul winner
for Jesus Christ longer than he was on this earth,
because he was only here for three and a half years
and doing his ministry portion.
I mean, you could have decade after decade after decade,
and you know what, it's all the works that we're doing
are through the power of God anyways.
It's not really, I mean, obviously,
Jesus is the best vessel you could ever imagine.
He's perfect, right?
Never man spake like this man spake.
We understand that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.
We understand that when Jesus Christ preached,
you know, people are taking the ceiling off
just trying to hear it, you know?
Okay, but at the end of the day,
I'm telling you what Jesus said.
So if you get mad at anything I'm saying,
you're getting mad at Jesus.
Jesus said that men would do greater works, did he not?
And from a collective, we're gonna do more
than Jesus Christ did if we get to work.
If we go out there and we put our nose to the grindstone
and we're going out and preaching the gospel
and doing all the works that God has for us,
Jesus already told me we're gonna do greater works.
And that's why there's the great tribulation.
These things are going hand in glove.
You know, if we weren't doing a great work,
there wouldn't be that much opposition,
there wouldn't be this need for people to attack
and all the evil to happen or whatever.
You know what?
Everything that the devil's doing
is just trying to stop you from going soul-wanting.
Whether it be attack you financially,
attack your health, attack your family,
attack your work, attack your marriage,
attack your children, whatever it is that he's trying to do,
he just wants you to quit soul-wanting.
He doesn't care why you quit soul-wanting.
The devil's not over here like,
well, if I get him out with this, you know,
that'll be a double point or whatever.
You know, if I get him out because of his job,
you know, that's the, he doesn't care.
He's just like a scatter shotgun.
He's just casting a wide net,
just trying to capture as many people as he possibly can,
intimidate as many people as he possibly can.
You know what?
We're supposed to do great works,
and you know what, there is great works done
in the great tribulation times.
Jeremiah, one of the greatest tribulations
that you ever read about in the Bible,
yet in Jeremiah 25, he goes and he preaches
to every single place in the entire world.
This is all the kingdoms of the world.
He went everywhere and preached the word of God
to literally everyone during one of the greatest
tribulations ever known to mankind.
You know, you can think about Daniel 11.
It says that people that do know their God
are gonna do great exploits.
Go to, if you would, to Psalms 19 again.
Go to Psalms 19, go back to Psalms.
You know, the Bible says in Matthew 24,
the gospel's gonna be preached in all the world.
Someone's gonna do that.
I mean, someone's gotta preach the gospel.
You know, and if it's not you, someone else will do it,
but I'd rather be on the team that's doing it.
I'd rather be part of the group that's like, that was us.
You know, there's a lot of great prophets
at the times of troubleless times too.
Because when you think about it,
prophets usually came when the world got really wicked
and there was like a coming judgment, okay?
Then you get some of the greatest preaching of the Bible.
So you know what makes me excited
is the fact that when we have the world
getting super wicked and a great judgment coming,
we're gonna probably get some of the greatest preaching
that's ever happened in the history of the world.
You know, you could think about the destruction
of Jerusalem, I mean, at the same time,
you got Jeremiah, you got Ezekiel, you got Daniel.
I mean, that's like a trinity
of some great preachers there, right?
Great prophets all around the same time
when there's all this evil happening.
And you know what, I believe the same thing.
I believe that we're gonna see
some of the greatest preachers and men of God
rise up out of this great tribulation.
We're gonna hear some of the greatest sermons.
And you know what, as the years go on,
it just seems like the preaching of God's word
just gets better and better.
And you know, we get more knowledge and more wisdom.
And to me, you know, I sometimes have this thought
of like, just every single day,
I have this thought of like, I have nothing left to preach.
Like, I just feel tapped out, you know?
I just kind of feel like, oh man,
how am I gonna preach another sermon, you know?
What am I gonna preach, you know?
And to me, you know, especially,
I've told my young preacher guys this.
I say, sometimes when I have a good sermon idea,
there's this idea that you say like, let's hold back.
Like, let's not preach that.
Or like, let's wait on that one.
Let's wait for the right timing
for a good sermon, you know, or whatever.
Some of my sermons are good, okay?
I'm just saying, theoretically.
But it's silly because I remember I wrote down
like all these like great sermon ideas that I had.
And then like a year back, like a year later,
I went and I found them all.
And I was like, these aren't even very good.
And it's like, you know, you read the Bible
and you think like, well, I've already read it one time.
What's the big deal?
I kinda know it all.
I kinda got the gist or whatever.
But then you read it the second time and you're like,
wow, I feel like I learned more the second time
than the first time somehow.
And then you like read it again and again and again.
And it's like, it astounds you how the word of God,
you actually keep learning more and more
and growing more and more and getting more knowledge
and start realizing there's even more to be known
than you could have fathomed at the beginning.
Don't think like, oh, I've arrived.
We'll never arrive.
And you know what, preaching will never arrive.
That's why you wanna just keep diving in the word of God.
You wanna read the New Testament again and again and again
and new stuff will stick out to you
and you'll understand even more.
And as we get closer to the end times,
these things are gonna make even more sense.
And when you learn anything, this is what I've known
or realized, anything I learn,
the next time I read through the Bible,
what I learned somehow helps me learn something else.
It's like I found something or I learned something new
and then I see it all of a sudden
again and again and again.
You know, and like a sermon for me,
like I'm thinking like,
I preached a sermon called four gospels, okay?
And I was trying to help motivate you
through the New Testament, right?
But I said, you know, in Matthew,
it's a lot about scripture being fulfilled.
And you know, yesterday I started in Matthew,
I read about 10 chapters
and to me it was just like coming off the page,
how much of everything he was doing
was about fulfillment.
You know, like chapter number one
is about the fact that, you know,
he's fulfilling all the genealogy.
And chapter number two, whenever he gets baptized,
the whole reason why he wants to get,
I'm sorry, chapter two is the wise men coming or whatever.
Chapter three is when he's getting baptized.
Chapter three, when he's getting baptized,
he's like, the only reason he's getting baptized
is just that scripture's fulfilled.
It just like flew off the page to me
and I'm just thinking like, you know,
he's like, hey, this chapter's all about the fact
that I just need to fulfill the scripture.
I'm doing all these things just to fulfill the scripture.
And you just keep reading, it's just like,
scripture being fulfilled, being fulfilled,
being fulfilled just over and over and over
just every page of Matthew.
And it's like, if I had never heard that sermon,
it probably wouldn't have jumped off the page at me
when I was reading it.
You know, and if I hadn't heard other great sermons,
you know, I hear sermons from my friends,
Pastor Bruce Mejia or Pastor Steven Anderson
or Pastor Roger Jimenez, and they have this thought
and then all of a sudden it just triggers something
in my brain, in my mind.
The only reason I even had that sermon idea
was because someone was preaching
the stupid false doctrine of preterism
and they were saying, well, the abomination of desolation
is not in the Gospel of John.
And I was like, okay.
Well, first of all, kind of is in the sense
that all the events in the book of John
parallel with Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
So it still happened whether or not he brought it up.
You know, it's not like during that time
it just didn't happen, it still happened.
But then I was like, well, the purpose of John
is to get people saved.
Why do I need to roll out the abomination of desolation?
You know, hey, I really want you to believe
in Jesus Christ to be saved.
Wink, wink, nah, nah, the answer is just gonna come
and make an image that you have to worship
or you're gonna die.
It's like, maybe that just scares you into getting saved.
I don't know, but I'm just like,
that probably isn't the reason.
And so I just started dwelling on like,
what's the purpose of these chapters?
And so by hearing really good preaching
from Pastor Steven Anderson on, you know,
rebuking that preterism, which I already knew,
and thinking about those thoughts
and meditating on the Bible,
it's like new thoughts come into your mind.
From the Bible, the Holy Ghost will reveal things to you,
verses will flood in your mind.
You know, the verse flooded in my mind from John
that's talking about these things are written,
you know, that you might have life.
And I'm like, that's the reason why John's written
the way that it's written.
You know, not because it has to meet
some kind of end times prophecy timeline
of when the actual epistle was written
and it was past 70 AD, so it already happened.
That's stupid!
That's human reasoning and secular logic.
You know why John was written?
It tells you in the Bible.
Now, look at Psalms 19.
Last point, I'm just gonna make it real quick.
What have we talked about?
Number one, great tribulation.
And in perilous times, we're gonna have great tribulation,
but you know what?
You're gonna have, with that, a great deliverance, right?
You're gonna have great judgments, great deliverance.
Then you're gonna have great works.
And what comes with great works, great rewards.
Psalms 19, look at verse nine.
The fear of the Lord is clean and enduring forever.
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey
and the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is thy servant warned,
and in keeping of them there is great reward.
Great reward.
Go if you would to 2 Timothy chapter four.
Last place, I'll have you turn, okay?
Matthew five, I'll read for you.
Blessed are ye when men shall revile you
and persecute you and shall slay all manner of evil
against you falsely for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceeding glad,
for great is your reward in heaven.
Notice how the Bible describes it.
Notice how Jesus says it.
Great is your reward in heaven.
You say, you know, I don't do that much for Christ.
Well, do a lot of people just hate on you?
Do a lot of people just say evil?
Cult, you're a cult, you're a cult follower.
Hey, you're getting great rewards.
Blessed are ye when men shall call you a cult
and shall lie about you and say all evil about you
and rail on you.
That's what the Bible says.
I mean, why would someone have to,
I mean, there's people that will just lie about you
and rail on you and they've never seen you in their life.
Think about that.
Why would someone have to go,
why would you go through the links?
I mean, when you just go to a random store
and you just see someone and you're just like,
you just start, you're a pedophile and an evil person
or whatever, you've never seen them,
you don't know anything about them, they look formal.
Like, that would be weird, right?
Why would someone just come and lie
about a person they've never met or never seen?
Because you're representing Christ and Jesus Christ.
And you know what, if they called the master
of the house Beelzebub, they're gonna call you way worse.
He said, you're the salt of the earth,
but of the salt of loss and savor,
wherewith shall it be salted,
as thenceforth good for nothing,
to be cast out and trotted on the foot of men.
You're the light of the world,
a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel,
but on a candlestick, and it giveth light
unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men
that they may see your good works
and glorify your fathers in heaven.
When you go to the right church,
you're letting your light shine.
And so people have to try and put their darkness on it.
When you go out and you preach the gospel,
people see your light shining,
and they wanna put a blanket over that,
they wanna hide it, you know what,
to try and discourage you from going out
and preaching the gospel.
You know what, we're letting our light shine
so they can glorify God.
Because they don't know you, they don't know me,
there's nothing special about us.
They're saying like, how do these people keep growing?
They're so like weird looking,
and you know, there's nothing special about them,
and they're not like really rich,
and they don't have all these great attributes and talents.
I'm not trying to talk bad about you,
but I'm just saying,
like there's nothing really special about us, you know.
We don't look like a football team or something.
We don't look like gladiators.
We don't look like a literal military.
We just look like random plumbers and construction workers
and drivers and computer guys.
I mean, you've never really seen a computer guy
and thought like a formidable foe, you know.
Usually it's the neck beard, you know,
and basically just an overweight neck beard.
You know, just like, yeah, he's probably into computers
and dungans and dragons, you know.
He'd probably get me in that, but you know.
They're not really thinking like there's anything special.
It's like, how do these people keep growing?
How do people keep converting to Christianity?
Because of God.
Amen.
It's the power of God.
And we're letting our light shine
so that God can get the glory.
You know, when God uses people like us,
they're like, I guess God can use anything.
I guess God can use anyone.
You know, there's nothing really special about us.
And you know what, when you do that,
when you lay down your life and you say,
hear my Lord, send me.
You know, there's a great reward.
Look at verse number eight.
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness
which the Lord, the righteous judge,
shall give me at that day, not to me only,
but unto all them also that love is appearing.
You know what, there's a great reward for us all
if we do the great works before we get delivered
from the judgment of the great tribulation.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us the word of God
that we can live by it,
that we can know what's coming in the future.
I pray that we would be strengthened and encouraged
by your admonitions, by your warnings,
and that we realize that even though
there's a coming tribulation
that's gonna be the greatest ever,
I pray that we would realize
that you're gonna judge it eventually.
And either way we'll be delivered at least from hell.
And even not just hell, many of your people
you're gonna even give physical deliverance unto.
They have nothing to fear at all.
I pray that we would realize that there's no time to waste.
We need to go out and do the great works
because there is a great reward that you've laid up for us
if we seek you by faith.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
With that, let's go ahead and sing one more song.
We'll head out of here.
We'll take our hymnal to 147.
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
And that's 147.
All together.
What a fellowship, what a joy to find.
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
What a blessedness, what a peace of mind.
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
Oh how sweet to walk in this pilgrim.
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
Oh how bright that that rose from day to day.
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
Leaning, leaning, leaning.
Safe and secure from all alarms.
Leaning, leaning, leaning.
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
What have I to dread?
What have I to fear?
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near.
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
Leaning, leaning, leaning.
Safe and secure from all alarms.
Leaning, leaning, leaning.
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
Amen. Thank you all for coming. God bless.
Thank you.