And that's it for this video, I'll see you in the next one.
I'll see you in the next one.
And that's it for this video.
And that's it for this video, I'll see you in the next one.
And that's it for this video.
And that's it for this video, I'll see you in the next one.
And that's it for this video.
And that's it for this video, I'll see you in the next one.
And that's it for this video.
And that's it for this video, I'll see you in the next one.
And that's it for this video.
And that's it for this video, I'll see you in the next one.
And that's it for this video.
And that's it for this video, I'll see you in the next one.
Song 211, there on the beginning.
Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you need a bulletin, lift up your hand nice and high in one of our ushers.
And come by and get you guys a bulletin for our midweek.
On the inside we have our service and soul winning times as well as our church stats.
Make sure you're turning that in.
Only got a few days left for this year.
We want to make sure we get all of our totals in and have an accurate count.
We've actually done really well this year.
Mostly considering the fact that we went to the Bahamas, we had a big push last year from that.
But also just a lot of other really hard soul winning has gone into this number.
And so thank you so much to our church family for pressing.
But there's still one last opportunity for a soul winning marathon.
Martha Marcell is helping leading one in Midlothian.
And there's a sign up sheet.
So if you want to participate this Saturday, it's pretty much the last time you get a chance to go soul winning this year.
I mean, you know, at the end of the year you're pretty much going to be done.
So that's your one last opportunity.
Hurrah! If you'd like to go, please do sign up so we can anticipate that.
On the right we have our list of expecting ladies.
Please be in prayer for all of them.
We have our prayer list.
We've been continuing to pray for Brother Cameron.
We've been praying for the Cooley's for their stepdad's cancer treatment.
We've been continuing to pray for Brother Oz and his brother who is on deployment.
We've been praying for the Naim's grandmother.
We've been praying for Brother Spurgeon, his grandfather, for healing.
We've also been praying for Miss Mara for healing and for travel.
And we've been praying for Brother Stewart who unfortunately his brother unexpectedly passed away due to a heart attack.
And so it's definitely sad.
And he has a son whom he was really close with.
And so just definitely pray for also his son and for that whole family.
Also pray for Brother Day.
And he has a health related issue there.
So we'll be praying for him and his ear.
That's pretty much all I have in regards to announcements on the bullets.
And we'll go ahead and say a quick word of prayer as a church family.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for Steadfast Baptist Church and all these ladies who are expecting.
I pray that you be with them.
Please strengthen them.
Please help their children's development.
I pray that you'd also help our church family that's struggling with health.
Please give them favor if possible.
Just give them healing.
And also just give them peace while they're going through this difficulty.
I pray that you'd also help these church members who we've talked about that need the gospel to go to a family member or a friend.
I pray that you would just give us boldness.
That you give us those opportunities.
That you would help those who are traveling.
And that you would allow us to all just be thinking of the gift that your son gave us.
And it's his name we pray.
Jesus' name. Amen.
On the back we have the note about the evening service for this upcoming Sunday as a New Year's Eve party.
And so if you're a soul winner and a man above the age of 18 and you would like an opportunity to preach on that Sunday night,
you need to wear a button-up shirt and a tie for the evening service and have a five-minute sermon prepared.
We'll probably put a guy's names in a hat.
There's no guarantee you'll get to preach, but that you would have the opportunity.
And so we'll just see who wants to preach and we'll kind of play it by ear.
But this upcoming Sunday evening, we're just going to have kind of a men's popcorn preaching.
And so you never know what's going to be preached.
But obviously if they preach heresy, then, you know, we'll get them.
Okay. So it's just a great opportunity to expose heretics and have some fun and everything else.
So like I said, if you're a man 18 or older, that's a soul winner.
You wear a button-up shirt and tie.
Have a five-minute sermon prepared.
We'll put names in a hat and we'll pull them out for the Sunday evening service.
And then immediately following the service, we're going to end up having pizza delivered.
So if you want to stick around and just have dinner with us,
I knew you weren't going to come because of the preaching, but you can come for the food.
All right. And no, I'm just kidding.
Come and join us. And then basically we're just going to hang out.
If you want to bring a game to fellowship, we're just going to basically hang out until New Year's Eve.
And so it's just an opportunity if you'd like to stick around.
If you got to work or you don't want to, of course, you can just stick around for dinner and then leave.
But if you'd like to stay, you're also welcome.
I know a lot of people have kids and they may not want to stay out that late.
That's totally fine. So it's totally up to you guys.
And that's just an opportunity that we have.
Also, congratulations to the Cotes on the birth of Josiah Micah.
He was born on the 23rd at 11 p.m.,
hang six pounds, 13 ounces and measured 19 and a half inches long.
Congratulations then. That's exciting.
Great to see our prayer list turn into pictures, you know. All right.
Let's go to our third song. It's going to be Psalm 15 as our Psalm of the week.
Psalm 15.
Now, the first Lord, who shall abide in my tabernacle,
who shall dwell in my holy hill,
who shall abide in my tabernacle,
who shall dwell in my holy hill,
he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness
and speaketh the truth in his heart,
he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness
and speaketh the truth in his heart,
he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness
nor doeth evil to his neighbour,
he that taketh up reproach against his neighbour,
he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness
in his eyes a vile person is content by the honor with them that fear the Lord
in his eyes a vile person is content by the honor with them that fear the
Lord is where it is owner and change
it's money
even where it is owner and change it
neither put it not his money
nor take it with ward against the innocent
neither do it these things shall never be moved
nor take it with ward against the innocent
neither do it these things shall never be moved
nor who shall abide in my tabernacle
who shall abide in my holy hill
Very good singing at this time. We return your Bibles to Revelation chapter number 8.
We'll pass the offering plate and follow along as we read the entire chapter of Revelation 8.
Revelation 8 the Bible reads,
And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
And I saw the seven angels which stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.
And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer.
And there was given unto him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
And the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.
And the angel took the censer and filled it with fire of the altar and cast it into the earth.
And there were voices and thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake.
And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth.
And the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became blood.
And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died, and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven burning as it were a lamp.
And it fell upon the third part of the rivers and upon the fountains of waters.
And the name of the star is called wormwood.
And the third part of the waters became wormwood, and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter.
And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars.
So as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
And I beheld and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice,
Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpets of the three angels which are yet to sound.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Father God, we thank you for Revelation chapter 8.
I pray that you would fill Pastor Shelley with the fullness and the power of the Holy Spirit as he expounds this chapter to us.
And I pray, Lord, that you would open ears in the room and minimize distractions for us so that we can learn more about this portion of Scripture.
We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Amen.
So we're here in Revelation chapter 8.
It says in verse 1, and when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
And I have a chart that I kind of made before where I kind of plotted a lot of these different things.
And when we look at where we're at in this timeline, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, has been opening all of these different seals that we've been kind of looking through.
When we looked in chapter number 6, we kind of started that kickoff point of the first few seals and then essentially led all the way up to the sixth seal.
And then when we get into the seventh seal, there's just a lot more happening with the seventh seal.
Because with the seventh seal, you end up having seven trumpets and you have seven vile judgments.
These sevens are all kind of connected because when you study this in the next chapters, and we haven't gotten there yet,
but when we look forward in the next chapters, we'll notice that the vile judgments are in coordination with the trumpet judgments.
That they're basically kind of simultaneously happening.
So this seventh seal, everything that's going to happen with all these trumpets and everything is part of the seventh seal.
They're all being unleashed.
Whereas when we kind of looked at some of the other seals, they're kind of like maybe a one event.
They're just kind of like one thing that's happening.
Like you kind of have just the white horse, and he's going forth to conquer.
And then you have the red horse, and that's just talking about death and bloodshed.
And you have the black horse talking about basically the economy crashing.
And then the pale horse is just like how many people are dying and everything.
So you kind of just have like these singular events. You have the souls of them.
The sixth seal is Christ coming back.
Now the sixth seal had a few aspects to it because we had the 144,000 also being marked,
as well as you kind of have a rapture or a gathering together of all that great multitude.
But we kind of think about the timeline.
The first five seem to be, from my understanding, systematic and they're not simultaneous.
They're basically, and I don't know the timeline, right?
It could be one's open and then we wait five months or a year or something before the next one.
But they're basically just systematically kind of being unleashed and rolled out.
And then when you get to the sixth seal, you know, the sixth seal is not a very long period of time.
You know, the sixth seal, if you think about it, it's Christ coming.
Then everyone's gathered together with him.
And then the 144,000 are sealed.
That's all really in the same day, most likely.
And then really probably the exact same day you have here this seventh seal.
And when he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
You look at those first five, they're kind of in a period of about three and a half years.
And then you have a midpoint, which is where there's going to be an Antichrist who's going to reveal himself.
And then he's going to have great tribulation on the earth.
Now, how long is this great tribulation period?
There's no way to be certain.
There's a pretty good theory that it's about 75 days.
And I think that that is a likely scenario.
Just based on the fact that if the days were not shortened, no flesh would be saved.
So it can't necessarily be the whole period of time.
Because we have a few elements that don't align.
Number one, the great tribulation is not the period of time when God's pouring out his wrath.
God's pouring out his wrath for a very long period of time.
So if we're going to look in this chapter, we're going to see certain events even taking a period of time.
Not necessarily everything is unleashed here, but when we talk about locusts, I'm sorry, I'm thinking about the next chapter.
But in chapter nine, locusts, it specifically says they go out for five months.
So they're like a period of time of five months.
So you would have to say that the rapture has to happen at least five months before that three and a half years would expire.
But it's most likely way, way before that as well.
So if you kind of look at the timeline and the sequence of events, the abomination of desolation on my chart is pretty much the midpoint of the Daniel's 70th week.
So that's about the three and a half year mark.
Some point shortly after that, we're going to have the sixth seal where Christ comes, raptures, the church, and every saved person is gathered together with Christ and they are in heaven.
The only people that are an exception to that are the 144,000 who were marked and sealed and they're sent down into the earth.
So we've set all that up, then the seventh seal is finally unleashed.
And this is where we kind of get our doctrine of being post-Trib pre-wrath.
Because we believe that the seventh seal is the essential unleashing of God's wrath.
This is God about to unleash all of His wrath.
All of the events that have happened before this are really the wrath of the devil, the wrath of mankind.
They're essentially just tribulation that comes from human sources, from the devil, him trying to kill mankind, these type of things.
It's not God directly unleashing His power and might on mankind.
This is rather the devil, his minions, or just the hearts of men going out and doing evil.
There's that tribulation period and it culminates, it gets really intense towards the very end, and then Christ rescues and saves every single believer.
So if you think about the earth, the earth is filled with only unbelievers.
At the sixth seal, when everybody's raptured, it's only the unsaved that exist on the earth.
And then 144,000 that are coming down.
And if you think about it, look at chapter 7 again and look at verse 1.
And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
And I saw another angel sending from the east, having the seal of the living God, and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given, to hurt the earth and the sea, saying,
Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God and their foreheads.
So notice, you have to realize that chapter 7 was leading into chapter 8 because all of this is happening basically on the same day, or the same period of time.
That there's this great catching up, there's this great rapture event, and all of the earth is just completely calm, there's no wind, all of a sudden everybody's been gathered together.
What happens with the unsaved? All the unsaved are hiding in rocks, saying unto the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne in the face of the wrath of the Lamb.
Because it says their wrath is come, meaning it's now going to happen.
So it's kind of like this double-edged sword of we're saved but then they're doomed. It's kind of like how the perspectives are unfolding.
And we get up into heaven, and what is essentially the first thing that happens?
Well, look at it says in chapter 8 again, and when he opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
Now, I'm assuming this is all kind of relatively the same day.
We get raptured, we're in heaven, we're singing salvation. Hallelujah.
And it's like we're basically just worshiping Jesus, and then at some point Jesus is basically going to just be like, alright, now it's time, and he unseals seal 7.
And it's such an incredible event, it's such an amazing event, that it literally leaves all of heaven speechless for 30 minutes.
Now that is a long period of time.
I don't really necessarily understand if it's voluntary, like we're just trying to keep quiet, or if it's just so horrific, or what we know about it is just so
awestruck that you're just kind of like, you don't even know what to say.
Because this is really one of the worst things that's ever going to happen.
This is the worst wrath that's ever going to be poured out on mankind, and all of history, what's about to happen is really just terrifying.
And I think there's a few things that are really important about this first verse, because this first verse really sets the tone for a lot of things.
But number one, you know, when we look at chapter 8, you have to understand that this first verse is really, excuse me, the only thing that pertains to us.
The only thing that pertains to us, really, is this opening section here, because what we're about to read after this doesn't have to do with you and me.
Like, we will not physically have to experience it, we're not going to go through it, but we will be witnesses to it.
We will participate in seeing it, we're going to watch it unfold, we're going to see what God does, but we're not going to be in this wrath.
And we don't have to worry about this wrath. If you're saved, you don't have to worry about this wrath.
But I think what's important is if you recognize the fact that God can keep every single woman quiet for 30 minutes straight, this is a serious thing, okay?
And if it's that serious, then we should be motivated to get people saved, because the only way for someone to escape this, what we're going to read in this chapter and all the unfolding events, is to be saved.
At this time. And anybody that's born or alive today is going to have to get saved if they want to avoid this, okay?
Because they will have to, or need to, be saved in order to escape the horrible wrath that's going to come on the earth.
Here's another thing that I find really interesting. Notice what it says in verse 1,
in heaven, about the space of half an hour. Notice that there's time in heaven. Did you notice that?
You know, some people, I guess because we don't know much about heaven, people just fantasize and dream all kinds of different things.
Sometimes people think that when you die, like time just fast forwards and you're just like already to the end of the events.
But apparently, according to scripture, time exists in heaven as it were on earth. Like we're kind of experiencing the same thing.
It's not like when you die, time just is different for you. I don't see any evidence of that where time ceases to operate the way that it's operating now.
In fact, I would argue it's operating in the same manner. It's just you're now at a different location.
Also, you're not sleeping, so it's not soul sleep. And this is really important for us to understand that, according to the Bible, we're going to still be locked into time in this particular scenario.
Go back just a chapter to chapter 6. This makes sense when you look at verse number 9.
Look what it says in chapter 6 verse 9.
Notice, they're impatient in a sense. They're saying, how long is this going to take?
And I think that this is evidence of the fact that the people that are crying are probably not people that died five minutes ago.
Think about how long Abel's been waiting. I mean, Abel's like, man, this has been a long time.
You know, there's that meme where there's like, Kermy sitting at the window waiting, and it's like, Abel waiting for the next person to die, you know, so he has someone to hang out with.
It's like, it's kind of funny, but at the same time, it's actually somewhat biblical in the sense that, according to scripture, they're still experiencing time.
And notice, whenever they're wanting this to happen, they don't say like, oh, just take a nap and it'll be over, or let's fast forward.
They say, hey, you have to wait. Isn't that what they're saying?
Hey, sorry, you're going to have to rest a little season. You're going to have to wait. It's not going to happen right now.
So they're locked into the same kind of time window that we are.
Think about how the Bible even begins. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
So heaven was locked into time in Genesis 1-1, when it was created.
So heaven is created in time, everything's in time.
So while we can't necessarily understand God, because somehow He exists outside of time itself in some manner, we are locked into time.
And it kind of makes sense for us that time is always going to exist, that there's just going to always be time.
But what's cool is that for us, we're going to live forever with the Lord in heaven, as opposed to those who are going to live forever in hell.
You're going to live forever. It's just where? Are you going to live in the lake of fire for all of eternity?
Or are you going to live with Christ and God on the new heaven and the new earth?
And so that's why it's important to get saved.
It's also important to get saved so you don't end up going through this horrible wrath.
Think about this. Isn't it funny how so many people, they're so mad at the government and society,
and they look at how many wicked people are on the planet today, and all the horrible things that they're doing.
And then they almost feel like God's just letting them get away with it. Or like, where is God?
But wait a minute. If these people make it into this section, they're going to experience the worst wrath that's ever been poured out on anybody that we've ever seen in all recorded history.
So are they really going to get away with it? Or are they going to actually go through the worst punishment that's ever happened in all of humanity?
That's the reality. Many people are going to go through this horrible reality.
And you know, our world is very wicked. There's a lot of people that need some severe punishment.
But don't think that God is slack. He's going to make sure that they get punished.
He's going to draw up a really horrible punishment for them.
I'm sure for the children of Israel, it was really hard. And I can't even imagine.
I don't want to know what this is like, but I cannot imagine what it was like for the Egyptian soldiers to march through
and steal all the men children, all the little baby boys that were born, and throw them into the river.
That had to be one of the most horrific things to have to have experienced.
I mean, we have so many ladies that are pregnant in our church.
I just can't imagine, after having all those children, for them to come and just rip all of those children out of our arms and destroy them.
That would be one of the most horrific things that's ever happened.
I can see how you kind of get a little impatient with God. Like, when are you going to judge these Egyptians?
When are you going to judge these horrible, wicked, evil people?
But wait a minute. Doesn't He do it? He does do it, doesn't He?
They do get that punishment eventually.
And so, even today, there's so much abortion, there's so much human trafficking,
there's so much just greed and theft and just sodomy and all kinds of horrible things going on in our world.
But don't think that that's just going to happen forever.
God will judge. God will destroy them.
And it doesn't necessarily matter if we die or not, we'll get to see the vengeance.
Because what I'm trying to show you is that those in heaven, they're still locked in time,
and sometimes they have to even go to heaven to wait to see it, but eventually they'll see it.
Eventually they'll understand.
Eventually we'll notice what's happening.
Go over to Hebrews chapter 12 for a moment. We'll go to Hebrews chapter number 12.
You know, some people talk about how our loved ones are looking down from heaven at us.
I believe that. I do believe that our loved ones and the saved are looking down,
and they are watching, and they're experiencing our lives, and they're cheering us on.
Look what it says in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1.
Wherefore seeing, we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight and the sin which just so easily beset us,
let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
Now, this is what's interesting, especially getting older.
It's kind of rough, all right? I get it.
But when I was little, and you like professional sports, you kind of end up getting some heroes, right?
And I don't know why, really, maybe it's contrarian or something,
but I didn't like the Cowboys as much, but my whole family loved the Cowboys, okay?
I liked the Green Bay Packers, all right? Who was a Green Bay Packers fan?
All right, yeah, there's some saved people here.
And, you know, I don't know why I just liked Brett Favre.
Now, I'm not saying he's a good person, okay?
I'm just saying I liked Brett Favre and I liked the Packers. I liked Reggie White.
Now, he was actually a Christian. I don't know if he was saved or not,
but Reggie White was pretty notorious for being a Christian.
He was a great football player.
And so I liked a lot of different football players, and I looked up to them.
And especially as a kid, you know, a football player is just like these, they're giants.
I mean, if you've ever seen one in real life, I mean, these people, these guys are just giant, huge, men, manly guys.
Well, now that I've gotten older, I've noticed that like pretty much everybody that plays football is like younger than me,
except for like a handful of quarterbacks.
I mean, it's pretty much like almost everybody at this point is now younger than me.
And I find that interesting.
But it wouldn't change the fact that even now, I don't really watch a lot of football anymore,
but it wouldn't change the fact that maybe I still like a certain player, I root for a certain player, or I'm encouraged.
And especially, there's plenty of older people, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, who they cheer on,
and they even have their favorite players that they root on, even though this person's a lot younger than them.
And this is the perspective that I wanted to give you, that I find interesting.
You know, we read in the Bible, and we think about David, and we think about Abraham,
and we think about Isaac, and they're our heroes, aren't they?
The Apostle Paul, I mean, who would say some of these guys are their heroes, right?
Yeah, I mean, you're like, these guys are awesome.
But think about it this way.
Some of these guys are in heaven right now, looking down, and they're actually cheering on some of us.
Like, we're their favorite player. Isn't that interesting?
Like, somebody, like, David is looking down from heaven, and he has his favorite players on earth.
You know, like, a lot of people play, like, fantasy football, or, like, fantasy baseball, or these type of things.
It's like the guys in heaven, they're looking down, and they're like, who's your favorite player playing right now?
And you know what, some of us, I'm not necessarily saying us, I'm just saying us as saved Christians as a whole.
But there are certain saved Christians on this earth that are their favorite players.
That they're cheering on, that they're looking at, and rooting for, and getting excited,
and enjoying the works that they're doing for the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I think if we had the right perspective, I mean, how much more would you do for God
if you noticed that you had a spiritual Twitter account, and you could see, like, David is following you?
King David, right?
King David's following your every move. Abraham's following your every move.
Wouldn't you, like, think, like, maybe I should do a little bit more spiritual things today?
Wouldn't that kind of motivate you to change your attitude, or your behavior, or the actions that you do?
It also kind of maybe make you embarrassed sometimes, too, right?
You'd be thinking, like, oh, you know, we pick on David, and he's like, oh, yeah, huh, buddy?
I see what you do.
I know who you are. I know what you're like, right?
I mean, this is what the Bible's saying.
We're foreseeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.
And it's not even just, like, one person. It's racking up.
I mean, we're getting a full stadium here.
You know, in times past, football didn't have as big a stadium or have as many people watching them play.
Now, it's just the stadium's getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
I mean, there are just so many people in heaven cheering on the Christians.
And you know what they don't like?
They get disappointed when someone doesn't preach the gospel, right?
When someone has that opportunity, and then they, oh, he fumbled.
Oh, interception.
Oh, he scored for the other team.
Oh, he quit.
Oh, now he's on injured reserve, you know, or whatever the problem.
They get disappointed when we don't do the works.
And I think that it's important that we realize these people are locked in the same time.
You don't think that they're looking down, wondering what's going on and curious and excited.
I mean, think about how the Bible talks about all the angels in heaven that are rejoicing over one sinner that repenteth.
They're paying attention, folks.
They're excited. They're engaged.
This is the game. We're the ones playing the game.
And just like in the NFL, how kids only have a 10, 20-year window, and then they're done, you know what?
We only have our life right now is our window to play the game.
We might as well play.
We might as well get in.
We might as well say, hey, coach, put me in the game.
I'd like to do something.
I'd like to play.
I'd like to compete.
I'd like to do something, even if it's just defense.
You know, put me in a defense, coach.
I'll tackle hard, right?
Whatever it is, but just doing something for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Getting plugged in.
Go if you would to John, chapter number 8.
Let me prove this more for you.
I think this is important because when we think about chapter 8 here, Revelation, it's a completely different scene.
There's not really a lot of people to root on for anymore.
We've got the 140,000, but it's just all unsaved now, and we're just basically watching the demolition of the wicked,
which is a fun part of the movie.
Okay, I get it.
It's a fun part of the game in some sense, but right now, we're on offense.
Right now, we've got the ball in our hands.
We need to start scoring.
We need to start doing something for the Lord Jesus Christ, and we've got a great cloud of witnesses watching and witnessing,
and even Jesus Christ, when he was on this earth doing his ministry,
there were people in heaven watching and rooting him on and cheering.
I mean, isn't that...
That's like humanity.
Like, all the things that we like on earth are just reflections of the things that actually happen in heaven, if you think about it.
Like, what do humans like to do?
Eat, sing at a concert, right?
Watch some kind of great event?
Watch stuff?
And it's like, what are you going to do in heaven?
You're going to eat, you're going to sing, and you're going to watch the greatest show on earth.
Humanity, right?
Doing their thing.
I mean, you're basically getting all the great things that we like to do here, but just in a way cooler sense up in heaven.
And Jesus Christ, when he was on this earth, he had a great cloud of witnesses watching him.
You know who one of those was?
Abraham.
Look at John chapter 8, verse 56.
Your father, Abraham, rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.
Hey, you know what?
Abraham got to witness the Lord Jesus Christ and his day.
I mean, you know who was also singing when the Lord Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem's manger?
All the cloud of witnesses in heaven.
Not just the angels that came and were letting the shepherds get in on a little sneak peek of how many people were excited about the birth of Christ.
I mean, the incarnation was a special event, not for just us on earth.
It was a special event for those in heaven as well.
They got to see their Lord and Savior go down from heaven and be born into Bethlehem's manger.
What an incredible event that they get to witness.
And notice what it says.
Abraham saw my day, and he was glad.
And they're thinking, like, how in the world does Abraham see you?
Because Abraham's in heaven, and Abraham's looking down.
Then he even says before Abraham was, I am, right?
So he makes that great and famous statement.
Go back if you went to Revelation chapter 8.
But here's the point that I want to really emphasize, is the fact that, hey, we're locked in time, you're locked in time,
and because you're locked in time, and as soon as you die, you're going to be in the bleachers, do something now.
Do something now.
Because what is the emphasis of this chapter?
It's over.
Who in this room is going to go soul winning in chapter 8?
No one.
Like, you're not going to the Bahamas to witness in chapter number 8.
You're not going on a Mexico mission strip.
You're not going to Midlothian.
You're not going to your neighborhood.
You're not going to that brother or that sister or that aunt or that uncle or to anybody.
It's over.
You're out of the game. The game's over.
The clock struck zero.
And what we're going to read is a horrible unleashing of God's wrath.
It's so horrible.
Everyone's just going to be completely silent for almost 30 minutes.
It's so bad.
It's like, oh.
And I guarantee all of us are going to think, I wish I had done more.
I wish I had accomplished a little bit more.
I wish I had put more out.
Not less.
Not less because it's over.
And I'm trying to emphasize that point because now is the time.
Redeeming the time because the days are evil.
We only have a short space.
And it's hard to see because we have human tunnel vision.
But the Bible's trying to kind of open our minds a little bit to realize, hey, there's a great cloud of witnesses up there.
Abraham has a favorite player of the game.
David has a favorite player of the game.
I mean, think about it. When Lazarus died, he went straight to Abraham.
Abraham's like, come here Lazarus.
How does Abraham know who Lazarus is?
Abraham died way before Lazarus was ever born.
Because they're looking down and they're like, I like Lazarus.
And then he comes up and Abraham knows Lazarus.
Did you ever think about that?
But it's like we get so wrapped up in our carnal world that we forget about the true reality of our existence.
The true reality of our existence is that every saved Christian is right now looking down from heaven and cheering us on to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
To do something.
And we often get very disappointed with life for very selfish and carnal reasons.
Things that they could care less about.
Like I had a bad day because I got a bump in my Beamer or something.
It's like, who cares about your BMW?
It was a big money waste anyways.
I mean, the things that spoil our days on earth, the people in heaven are thinking like, why are you upset about that?
That's so dumb.
That doesn't even matter.
We get so wrapped up and fixated on this life and this world.
And we just care so much about here.
We care so much about now.
And you know what?
It's all going to perish.
We should care about spiritual things.
You know why they're rejoicing in heaven?
Because a sinner appended.
Not because you got to eat some great meal or bought something great or whatever.
And hey, there's some time to enjoy here and I don't want to be so heavenly minded that I ignore the people in my life.
But at the same time, we need to make sure that we're constantly balancing our world view with the reality of heaven and eternity.
And having spiritual goggles and seeing through God's sight and seeing through the sight of these individuals that are in heaven.
Because if you could somehow time warp, which I don't think is a reality.
But if you could time warp to this point in time and talk to yourself, what do you think you would tell yourself?
What do you think that your spiritual soul would tell yourself right now?
He would probably be slapping you around and be like, be more spiritual.
Read your Bible more. Go soul any more.
Make church more a priority.
Get more people saved. Go talk to that family member.
Go talk to that neighbor.
Go do something with your life.
Go on another missions trip.
You know what they wouldn't be telling you?
Hey, you need to buy more stuff.
You need to worry about your hair.
You need to worry about your clothes.
You need to worry about your car.
They don't care about that.
It doesn't matter.
But isn't that what we're so fixated on?
We're just so obsessed with all day.
But that's just not the right type of mentality.
Not the right type of attitude.
And I'm trying to make it dramatic here because it is dramatic.
It's literally 30 minutes of complete silence in heaven.
I mean, even God is ceasing to be praised for 30 minutes.
It's that extreme.
It's a really big event.
And you know what? If you're saved, you're going to be there.
We're going to be there.
There will be a point in time where you remember,
hey, Pastor Shelley said I was going to be here and we're here.
It's that 30 minutes.
Look what it says in verse 2.
And I saw the seven angels which stood before God,
and to them were given seven trumpets.
And another angel came and stood at the altar having a golden censer,
and there was given unto him much incense that he should offer it
with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar,
which was before the throne.
And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints,
ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.
And the angel took the censer and filled it with fire
of the altar and cast it into the earth,
and there were voices and thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake.
So we are in heaven.
We've been rejoicing.
We've been singing to the Lord Jesus Christ.
We've been raptured.
Then Christ opens that seventh seal, complete silence.
There's seven angels lined up.
Then one angel comes and apparently has all the prayers of the saints.
Did you notice what it said here when it talks about the prayers of the saints?
Look at verse 3 again.
The prayers of all saints upon the golden altar.
So all the prayers are all on this altar.
It's then mixed with or filled with fire from that altar
that's underneath God the Father, seated on his throne.
We talked about how there's this live coal pit.
Somehow underneath that sea of glass,
you have those four cherubim that are at the edges of all of this.
There's a live coal pit fire underneath there.
He's going, getting this golden center with the prayers of the saints,
mixing fire in it, and as the Bible says,
then he unleashes all of this onto the earth.
Now, you know, a lot of this is just hard to discern exactly what's happening.
But did you notice what it said in verse number 5,
where it says,
There were voices and thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake.
Now, I don't know what this means,
but just one idea that came to my mind
was since our prayers are literally here
and they're being poured out and you're hearing voices,
is it somehow like you can hear the voice of our prayers,
like our prayers are literally being poured out
and being unleashed onto the earth?
Think about how many times you prayed for somebody
and it wasn't one of those positive prayers.
It was one of those Joe Biden prayers, you know what I mean?
One of those Let's Go Brandon prayers.
Something else Pastor Shelley said one time too, right?
It's one of those kind of prayers, imprecatory prayers,
and it's like it's literally coming to fruition.
There was a person out there, and think about it, we probably all know.
There's people out there that we just kind of generally know,
like a Joe Biden that we prayed for,
but then there's probably that one person that you actually know
that you prayed for.
There's that one really evil, sick, disgusting, reprobate person in your life
that you've just been praying for,
and it's like, here comes that voice.
Here comes that prayer.
You know, don't think that God just ignores your prayers.
You know what?
There are literal prayers that are going to be answered right here,
and then you're going to have...
How much more faith are you going to have in prayer at this point?
You know, when faith becomes sight, though, it stops to be faith, doesn't it?
We need to keep praying,
and you need to pray also imprecatory prayers
because there's coming a day
when you will get to literally see your prayers
being fulfilled before your eyes.
And wouldn't it be a shame if it's like,
hey, which one is you?
And you're like, I never prayed.
Wouldn't that be disappointing?
You know, some people think like,
oh, I'll just wait until my last dying breath,
and I'll just believe in Jesus and be saved.
But you know what that person's not going to have?
A bunch of prayers lined up, ready to go to unleash.
Like the thief on the cross,
it's like, how many prayers did you have?
I just got here, man.
Like, I didn't do anything, okay?
I just showed up.
Think about the people that have been Christians their whole life,
all the prayers that they had.
And it's saying, notice what it says here.
It says the prayers of all saints.
So if you're a saint and you've been praying,
hey, it's real, it's going to happen.
He's going to unleash this on the earth,
some kind of an earthquake, lightning.
You know, it's just maybe, I have no idea,
but I'm just saying, I've actually prayed several times
that certain individuals would be struck with lightning, literally, okay?
Like, there are some individuals that might have been really close to our building at times
that I'm just thinking like, God, just hit them with a bolt of lightning, please.
And it's like, that could literally happen.
Can you imagine, wouldn't it be cool?
That person, I get to watch that person.
They get to hear my voice like, God's striking with lightning.
And then it's just like, I would like cry tears of joy.
I'm just telling you, hey, you know what?
You know who prays? People that have faith.
I'm excited for this, okay?
And again, you know, soul winning is the most important thing,
but this is great too, all right?
Now, we haven't gotten the seven angels yet.
This is just starting. We just started.
It's kind of like that opening ceremony.
You know, you go to some kind of an event,
sometimes they have just that opening ceremony.
They blow the cannon and they basically shake the whole stadium
and everybody's like getting all amped up.
They haven't even started the game.
It's just, we're just getting started, buddy, all right?
We're just kicking off.
And it's interesting how God, he's actually pretty dramatic if you think about it.
Like, think about how this is unleashing.
I mean, he's got seven seals, and then that seventh seal's got seven trumpeters,
and then before the trumpeters, we're going to get fire.
I mean, think about it.
Don't you love when you go to the game and they shoot fireworks
and they throw the flames or whatever?
It's like, this is how God does an event.
It's cooler than any football game, any Super Bowl,
any event that you've ever seen before.
I mean, this thing is incredible.
Verse 6, and the seven angels,
which have the seven trumpets, prepare themselves to sound.
That means that the people who play instruments for church
need to prepare themselves, all right?
Notice the saying, hey, if you have this job, you've got to prepare.
They're preparing in heaven.
Isn't that interesting?
You know, that tells me that when you get to heaven,
you don't just like automatically get some chip upgrade
where you're perfect at everything.
Why would you have to prepare yourself, right?
They have to prepare themselves.
There's other portions, and I haven't gotten all this,
but there's other portions where the Bible says there's certain songs
that certain people can't learn.
Well, how is that a reality?
Because you don't get everything automatically.
You should try to be godly now and learn a lot now
because you know it's going to benefit you for the rest of your life.
Be a long-line life learner, okay?
And be prepared.
Look what it says in verse 7.
The first angel sounded,
and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood,
and they were cast upon the earth,
and the third part of trees was burned up
and all green grass was burned up.
So this is why it was significant in chapter 7
that this angel had sounded and said,
hey, don't hurt the earth until we've sealed
the servants of God in their forehead
because they are going to hurt the earth.
They're about to hurt the earth,
but they've got to seal all those individuals
before they unleash this.
This first plague is hail and fire mingled with blood.
Now, I don't even know what that means.
It just sounds horrible.
You know, I don't know how, you know,
it's hard to discern when we read some of this
how naturalistic they are and how supernatural they are,
like in the sense that is the blood coming from like maybe birds?
Like is the hail coming and just basically
just annihilating huge sections of birds
and so that's sending lots of blood
through just their existence up in the sky?
Is this a supernatural blood that's just basically
just being created in the sky?
I don't know.
This fire that's raining, you know,
is this like something like a volcano
where a volcano's shooting up fire way up into the sky
and then that fire's then coming down and raining?
Is it some kind of fire that's coming
from some shooting star, comet?
I don't know.
I don't know the answer to these things.
I don't know how supernatural they are,
how natural they are.
It doesn't matter to me because it sounds horrible.
But think about it.
It's supernatural in some sense just in the magnitude
because did you notice what it said?
A third part of trees was burned up
and all green grass was burned up.
That's a lot of damage on the earth.
That is a lot of fires.
That's a huge amount of forest and green things being burned
if a third of the entire earth is being just devastated
through this kind of wrath.
And, you know, California has big fires.
Some other areas have big fires.
You haven't seen anything where a third of all the trees
and all the grass has been burned.
That's going to be really smoky.
I remember we went to,
I went to Shure Foundation in Vancouver one year.
It was a couple years ago and we landed
and it was literally just like covered in smoke everywhere.
And like when you were driving on the road,
it was basically, you couldn't even see.
There's like this giant lake out to the left.
They say it's really beautiful.
I don't know, I just saw smoke.
It was just like covered.
And that wasn't even to the extreme of how much smoke
you would have from all of this forest and everything.
You know, they always talk about air pollution.
You don't even want to know how much difficult,
how difficult it would be to just even breathe.
Constant coughing and smoke and smog
and just death and destruction and burnt smell.
It would be really hazardous.
I mean, this is going to be a horrible thing
for people to have to go through.
Now keep your finger here.
Go to Exodus, if you would, for a moment.
What's interesting about the book of Revelation
is how it parlays or parallels with Moses
and the children of Israel in Egypt
and the plagues that were poured out on Egypt.
Now, not everything in the plagues of Egypt
seemed to match just 100% identical.
But there's a lot of overlap
and there's a lot of things that are very similar.
And it's clear that God uses certain events
throughout history to foreshadow or picture future events.
And that the timeline of Pharaoh and Moses
and the children of Israel and all these plagues
had an end-time significance
in how they parallel and foreshadow one another.
What's interesting about these plagues is
if you kind of look at them in order,
the first plague unleashed was blood,
which is basically God turned the Nile River into blood.
Moses put his staff into the river and turned to blood.
It's a pretty famous one.
It's one that a lot of people can remember.
Then after you start getting off of that, it starts getting hazy.
Who can remember the second one?
What's the second one? Anyone?
What?
Frogs. Who said that? I don't really know.
All right, there you go, Jimmy.
Frogs.
Yeah, it's like usually, oh, I got one plague.
You get to number two, people start forgetting pretty quickly.
I kind of created a...
I just thought of the first letter of a lot of these
and they kind of have this repeating pattern that helps me.
When I get to the second one, I get a little liberal on it.
But it's basically blood, frogs, lice, flies, and then a moraine.
And that's kind of like a B-F-L-F-M.
And then the second half, it does the exact same thing.
B-F-L-F-M.
So that kind of helps me remember this.
But then it boils, then fire and hail.
Locust is where I get liberal.
Feel darkness.
I said darkness is where I really felt.
And then massacre of the firstborn.
But that kind of helps me remember how those plagues unleash.
But what I thought was interesting is if you count blood, frogs, lice, flies, moraine, boils,
the seventh plague unleashed on Egypt.
Try to go to Exodus 9, right?
Look at verse 23.
Exodus 9, verse 23.
Let's read what the seventh plague was on the Egyptians.
I'm going to turn there too.
And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail,
and the fire ran along upon the ground, and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt,
and there was hail and fire mingled with hail, very grievous,
such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
It says in verse 25,
And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and beast,
and the hail smote every herb of the field and break every tree of the field.
So the seventh plague poured out on Egypt also seems to correspond with the first of the seventh seal.
So the first thing that happens in the seventh seal is a similar fire and hail raining down from heaven.
It's described as being mingled with blood in the book of Revelation.
Here's another interpretation of the blood.
Notice what it's saying in Exodus, that this fire is not just destroying crops,
it's destroying mankind and beasts, because then you have that series of hail coming down,
and what is that going to cause?
A lot of blood, a lot of bloodshed when you have giant-sized hail.
I've seen back where I used to live, sometimes you'd have golf-ball-sized hail.
I've heard of baseball-sized hail.
I mean, if you have a baseball-sized hail coming from the sky and it hits a person, it could kill them.
It could kill them, destroy them, especially if it got even bigger or was a different kind of shape.
I mean, who knows what could happen?
Hail can be pretty dangerous.
Imagine, this is like an end-times-apocalyptic-style hail.
This stuff is going to be deadly that's coming.
You can see why people are wanting to hide in rocks, because of what's happening.
I mean, they have this god-style hail and fire coming out from the sky,
destroying a lot, a lot of people very quickly.
And it's just interesting how it parlays.
Keep your finger here, because I want to go back and forth a little bit.
Let's go back if you went to Revelation chapter 8.
We see a little bit of a parallel here.
Look at verse number 8 again, now.
It says,
And the second angel sounded,
and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea,
and the third part of the sea became blood.
And a third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died,
and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
So the second plague kind of corresponds to that first plague of Egypt.
Go if you went to Exodus 7.
We'll look at that real quick.
Exodus chapter 7.
Look at verse 20.
Exodus 7 verse 20.
And Moses and Aaron did so as the Lord commanded,
and he lifted up the rod and smote the waters that were in the river,
and the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants,
and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.
And the fish that was in the river died,
and the river stank,
and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river,
and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
So very similar again, how the waters are turned to blood,
causing the animals to die.
Meaning this isn't some kind of a superficial die,
just changing the water color.
The water is literally becoming blood,
and it's killing all of the animals, killing all the sea creatures.
Not only that, it's destroying ships.
Somehow ships can't drive through water,
or I'm sorry, blood.
I don't even know what that would be like,
but that's kind of just creepy that all of a sudden you'd be in the ocean.
I don't even want to be in the ocean when it's normal,
let alone when the waters have been turned into blood.
That sounds terrifying.
I don't know what that's like.
Obviously you could very easily probably interpret this
as being a supernatural thing.
I mean, how does the water just turn into blood?
I have no idea.
Go back to Revelation chapter 8, look at verse 10.
So we've got two angels sound.
Here's the third.
And the third angel sounded,
and there fell a great star from heaven,
burning as it were a lamp,
and it fell upon the third part of the rivers,
and upon the fountains of waters.
And the name of the star is called Wormwood.
And the third part of the waters became Wormwood,
and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter.
So most likely this is probably something like a comet,
or some type of heavenly body that's descending,
falling into the water of the earth,
and causing, just contaminating a lot of the water.
There's not really a direct parallel.
I couldn't really find in my mind a direct parallel
to this particular event and the events of Egypt,
but in some ways it's a little similar,
just because the water is getting contaminated
and becoming almost, you could argue, diseased,
where they're bitter and it's causing some kind of an issue,
or it's killing people.
You can't even drink it now.
And you could see similar things
because the moraine is a disease that comes upon cattle,
kills a lot of them.
You also have the boils, which is kind of like a plague
or a disease that's coming upon mankind.
So you can kind of see a little bit of a semblance
of kind of this disease, contamination,
also being relayed to parts of what happened with Exodus.
Look at verse 12.
And the fourth angel sounded,
and the third part of the sun was smitten,
and the third part of the moon,
and the third part of the stars,
so as the third part of them was darkened,
and the day shone not for a third part of it,
and the night likewise.
Now, this is pretty interesting, too.
Definitely a direct parallel to how the Bible says
that there was darkness in Egypt,
and it said the darkness could be felt,
which is, I don't know, that just sounds intimidating.
But when you read the passage,
it says that those in Goshen had light.
So it's only in Egypt
that they're experiencing this darkness,
and it's a darkness that's just kind of an infinite darkness
in the sense that there's literally no light.
Like, you just can't see anything whatsoever,
just zero light at all.
And that's what's being illustrated here.
There's no sun, there's no moon, there's no stars.
Now, you have to think, like, how is that even possible?
If you think about the sun itself,
the sun is just basically just a giant light source.
I mean, it's just a big ball of gas
just emanating light.
Now, there could be a theory out there
how I've heard that somehow the sun can have a dark spot,
but personally, I don't think that's what's happening.
I think what's most likely happening
is there's some heavenly body
that is somehow now eclipsing
on basically the rotation of how the Earth
and everything is rotating around the solar system.
Now, this could happen, you know,
with Mercury or Venus potentially
or maybe even some other object.
You know, we talked about a comet.
What if another giant object that's hurling through space
just kind of gets caught into that loop
of orbit around the sun?
And because of its orbit,
it's blocking that direct ray of sunlight
towards our Earth.
Because if you have some kind of other planet
or something that's blocking,
well, the moon's not going to shine,
because the moon is not a light source.
It simply reflects.
So if the sun is not sending any kind of light source
in a specific direction or is being blocked in some way,
then that would cease the moon
from even showing any kind of light source.
Additionally, depending on how this structure is,
where it's at in this heavenly body,
it could also just be obstructing
any light that's coming from stars.
But to me, it seems like there's something blocking,
and notice it's like a third.
So there's about a third somehow
with either the orbit or the structure
or whatever's going on,
it's somehow just blocking a third.
What's interesting about this is, like,
it's not the whole Earth.
It's just the third part.
So it reminds me of how that same plague happened in Egypt
where only a portion of the Earth
is getting blocked and getting darkness,
whereas the rest actually is getting light.
And I don't know if potentially,
because the Bible talks about the Lord
making the beast's kingdom be in darkness.
So I don't know if God's, like,
literally just making it where it's just only dark,
where the Antichrist and the beast is
for that portion of this period of wrath
and, like, other parts of the Earth
are not necessarily experiencing that darkness.
That's a theory.
Maybe that darkness is shifting.
I don't know.
There's probably a lot of theory there.
But that's just, in my mind,
one way that God could potentially accomplish this
with the heavenly bodies that are at play,
that it's some kind of an eclipse,
some kind of a solar body
that's essentially just blocking the direct sunlight.
And this would cause other problems
because it would cause an issue where,
essentially, light, it would be cooler
because you don't even have the heat from the sun
either in those specific portions.
So who knows exactly what's happening?
Later in the Bible, it talks about
people being scorched with the sun too.
So perhaps, you know,
maybe even the distance from us to the sun has changed.
Who knows what's actually happened?
Maybe I've heard that somehow the sun is, like,
expanding or could have, like,
some kind of a supernova effect.
That's another theory that people have had
where some part of the sun kind of
has something happen to it, explodes.
I don't know.
I don't know what's going to happen.
But I'm going to witness it.
And I'm not going to want to be on Earth.
But this is crazy when you think about how
one part of the Earth can literally be dark
that we know of today that's normally not
and other parts are not.
Similarly, like what happened with Egypt
where people are feeling darkness and others are not.
Look what it says now in verse 13.
...held and heard an angel flying
through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice,
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!
to the inhabitants of the Earth by the reason
of the other voices of the trumpet
of the three angels which are yet to sound.
So it ends in chapter 8
with the build-up for the final three trumpets.
We have the first four trumpets
being poured out and it's already been pretty horrible.
But it gets even more dramatic.
Another angel comes and he says,
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!
Notice what it says in verse 13.
Specifically, why is he saying it?
...to the inhabitants of the Earth
by reason of the other voices of the trumpet
of the three angels which are yet to sound.
So you have three whoas
corresponding to what?
Three trumpets.
And this is what I want to draw out
that I think is significant.
The Bible is not using the word whoa
superfluous
or just for no reason.
Each whoa
represents
a trumpet. You know, when we see
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!
It's not just like, I just wanted to say it three times
because it just sounds cool.
It's like literally one for each single trumpet.
It's significant in recognizing
that there's something there
that's a multiple
and we're denoting three distinct trumpets
three distinct sounds.
So let's keep that same logic
for half a second and go back to Revelation 4.
Go back to Revelation 4.
And of course
we believe the King James Bible
is the word of God. It's inspired.
It's inerrant.
And no typo is ever going to change that.
Don't get too nervous, alright?
Don't get your knickers
in a twist, okay?
Revelation 4, look at verse 8.
And the four beasts
had each of them six wings
about them and they were full of eyes within
and they rest not day and night
saying, Holy, Holy,
Holy, Lord God Almighty
which was and is and is to come.
So that three
Holy, Holy, Holy has to have
some kind of a significance
of three when it's
being denoted. Of course
one interpretation could just be in
reference to the which was, is and is to come.
But I think the more
apropos or the more clear answer
is it's the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Just like you have
the three woes for the three trumpets
you have the three holies
for the Father, for the Son
and for the Holy Ghost. Noting it's not just
we just want to say holy three times for fun
denoting that distinction
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
You have the fifth, the sixth
and the seventh trumpet. So we have
a similar pattern of how
we denote three different types
of things with the three different
mentions of the same word.
And you actually find a couple times
in the Bible we have triplets like this.
Where the Bible will express itself
and it will have kind of a triplet
of the usage of the exact same
word right in a row.
And so when we notice those
we should pay attention. There must be some
significance to the fact that it's mentioned three times
in a row. That wasn't a typo.
Okay. It wasn't
like the printer got stuck like holy, holy, holy,
okay and then he went back. No that
was significant, right?
Just like the three woes
was significant and so we
understand that this is what God
intended for us to read
and to understand. And the next
three are way worse. We got
the locust, the army, and the voices
coming.
I wanted to finish on one other thought.
Since we're connecting this to
Egypt
I think that you can kind of get
an idea of
what this is going to look like
and what the end times even look like a little bit.
Because they're very similar.
You have Pharaoh set up
and he's
arguably a one world
dictator. A worldwide
dictator in a sense. That's
basically got control of all the
economy and everything like that.
That's similar to how the Antichrist is going to be
a one world leader, a
dictator that's going to have
supreme rule over the
entire earth.
Then of course what does Pharaoh
do? He afflicts the people of God.
And then they're going to have a
deliverer. But more specifically
when we look at chapter number 8
it's also very similar when we
think about this wrath portion.
Because
when all of these plagues are being poured
out on Egypt
it never gets poured out
on the children of Israel. Did you notice
that? Like the darkness doesn't
affect them. The
massacre of the first born
doesn't happen to them.
They have the blood of the lamb.
They have the blood of the lamb that covers them
and they're spared.
They're seeing and witnessing all these
horrible plagues but they themselves
aren't experiencing it. Similarly
us that have been raptured, we're going to be
in heaven and we're going to be witnessing
all of these plagues on
Egypt but we ourselves are not
going to have to go through them.
Other pictures here, because
you have Aaron and Moses
is kind of like your two man
show. Kind of like you're going to have
two witnesses here at this
point in time going out and
doing their wonders and their works and
they're kind of the spokesperson for
God. You kind of have Moses and
Aaron as these spokespeople.
And what's significant is think
about this. When the children of Israel are
in the camp, they're just there doing their thing
they're protected, they're fine. Aaron and Moses
they go into Egypt themselves
and they're talking with Pharaoh
and interacting with all these
people during these horrible events
and that's kind of like the two witnesses
the two witnesses are actually entered into
the world and they're the ones
that are interacting with the
world stage. So there's a lot of parallels
that you can draw from
this period of time and
what actually happened already
in Egypt with Moses
and Aaron and the children of Israel.
And so, you're really just mind
blowing how
anybody could think that the Bible is not the word of God.
I mean,
how can you have this many parallels and
perfect foreshadowings and just
all the overlap and it really should motivate
you to read instead of your Bible more because you'll get
more out of it. The more you know
and the more the stories and the more the events you'll see how
they all tie together and you get more
detail and a better understanding so
I appreciate a Wednesday night
service where we get to kind of slow down
and study and pay attention to these things
and I get that Revelation
for some of us may be
something we're not as interested in
but I guarantee if you study it and you slow down
and you pay attention, you're going to draw a lot
of stuff out of Revelation that you never thought you would.
And so, even though we won't
be there, we're still going to watch it.
So what's
the message for me Pastor Shelley?
Do something now while you can.
Because pretty soon we're just going to be watching it.
Pretty soon you can't
do anything. This is your one time
to do something. Do something
with your life.
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and
David are cheering somebody on.
Let it be us. Alright, let's close in prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for
giving us insight to the
future. For
giving us this opportunity to do something
for you now. I pray that we actually redeem
the time that we would
take special note of how
people in heaven are looking down and cheering us
on. Even the Lord Jesus
Christ himself is looking down
from heaven and cheering us on. I pray that
we would be motivated
by them watching
us, by the participants,
by the people that have
gone before us, their example.
Pray that you would also motivate our hearts
knowing this knowledge now.
That we would take our lives seriously.
And that we would try to see as many people saved
so that they wouldn't have to go through
this horrible evil that you're going to unleash on the earth.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Let's go to our final song.
370.
So while you got a little bit of time left,
this is when you can throw out the lifeline.
Because when you're up in heaven
and he's unleashing that wrath,
there is no lifeline anymore.
Especially when you're in blood.
This is not a blood lifeline.
So this is our time to throw out that lifeline.
Let's sing it out nice and loud.
370 throughout the lifeline.
Throw out the lifeline.
His barrel to share.
Throw out the lifeline.
Someone is drifting away.
Throw out the lifeline.
Someone is singing today.
Throw out the lifeline.
With hand quick and strong.
Why do you tarry?
Why linger so long?
See, he is singing a pace and today.
Throw out the lifeline.
Throw away then away.
Throw out the lifeline.
Someone is drifting away.
Throw out the lifeline.
Someone is singing today.
Throw out the lifeline.
To danger's rodman.
Singing in English where you've never been.
Winds of temptation and billows of woe.
The sooner them melt where the dark waters flow.
Throw out the lifeline.
Someone is drifting away.
Throw out the lifeline.
Someone is singing today.
Soon will the season of rescue be o'er.
Soon will they drift to eternity's shore.
Takes then my brother no time for delay.
But throw out the lifeline and save them today.
Throw out the lifeline.
Someone is drifting away.
Throw out the lifeline.
Someone is singing today.
God bless.
You are dismissed.