(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Welcome everybody and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. It's great to see everybody here tonight. We can go ahead and find our seats. We'll go ahead and get started. And for tonight's first song, we're going to go to song number 215 in your hymnal. Song number 215. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Song number 215. Everybody sing it out together on the first. Oh what a wonderful, wonderful day, day I will never forget. After I wandered in darkness away, Jesus my savior I met. Oh what a tender, compassionate friend, he met the need of my heart. Shadows dispelling with joy I am telling, he made all the darkness depart. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. When at the cross my savior made me whole. My sins are washed away and my night was turned to day. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Born of the spirit with life from above into God's family divine. Justified fully through calvary's love, oh what a standing is mine. And a transaction so quickly was made when as a sinner I came. Back up the upper of grace he did proper, he saved me, oh praise his dear name. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. When at the cross my savior made me whole. My sins are washed away and my night was turned to day. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Now I have a hope that will surely endure after the passing of time. I have a future ahead for sure there in those mansions sublime. And it's because of that wonderful day when at the cross I believe. Rich is eternal and blessing supernal from his precious bed I receive. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. When at the cross my savior made me whole. My sins are washed away and my night was turned to day. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Great job everybody. Now let's all open it up with a word of prayer. Lord we love you and we thank you again for Steadfast Baptist Church and the opportunity to gather here together and praise you Lord. We just ask that you fill this room with your spirit and bless this church in Jesus name. Amen. All right for our next song let's go to song number four. Song number four. Song number four the way of the cross. Song number four. Everybody sing it out together in the first song number four. The way of the cross leads home. It is sweet to know as I onward go. The way of the cross leads home. I must needs go on in the blood sprinkled way. The path that my Savior trod. If I ever find to the highest of one where the soul is at home with God. The way of the cross leads home. The way of the cross leads home. It is sweet to know as I onward go. The way of the cross leads home. And I bid farewell to the way of the world to our good and evermore. For my Lord says come and I seek my home where He waits at the open door. The way of the cross leads home. The way of the cross leads home. It is sweet to know as I onward go. The way of the cross leads home. Good evening it's good to be back and to be here with you guys. If you don't already have a bulletin you can lift up your hand nice and high. One of our ushers will come by and get you a bulletin. We are working on our Bible memory passage Proverbs 31 verse 17 on the inside. We have our service times, soul winning times and then some church stats. Please make sure you are turning in stats for January. We also have a list of several expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for them. And then we have our prayer list. We have been praying for brother Cameron. And actually the flesh of his legs pretty much completely been covered now. It's still healing but it's no longer an open wound. And so that's just definitely a big praise report. Just in the sense that we have been praying for that for a long time. And he has been struggling with that. And so hopefully his leg is going to continue its healing process. And we will just keep praying for him. Also we have been praying for the Cooley stepdad for cancer. We have been praying for brother Oz, his brother. We have been praying for the name's grandmother. We have also been praying for the Spurgeon's grandfather. We have also been praying for Miss Negara. We have been praying for the Warner's friend Miss Debbie. We have been praying for the Southern's uncle Larry. And then Miss Faith also asked for prayer for Miss Tamara who is also struggling with cancer. So a lot of health prayer requests in there. And we will just say a quick word of prayer as a church family. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for our church and all these ladies who are expecting. Please be with them during their pregnancies. I pray that you would give them a great delivery. That their children would be very healthy and it would go smoothly. I pray that you would also help our church family that has health issues. That you could give them speedy recovery. Please be with them during their difficulties. And give them peace, give them comfort. I pray that you would also help those who are praying for our friends and family members. That you would also bless them and give them favor. And if any of them need salvation that you would give us the opportunity to open our mouths boldly. To make the mystery of the gospel to them. And I just thank you so much for our church and for those who were mentioned. In Jesus name we pray, Amen. Amen. On the back we have a note about a baby shower on the 3rd of February for the Crakers and her baby girl. All of our baby showers are nursing only preferred. And then if you would like to RSVP please do that to Miss Milstead. We also have an upcoming event. This event is a men's preaching class. It's going to start on January 20th which is a Saturday. And we'll be meeting here at the building at 2 p.m. So it's at 2 p.m. And that's pretty much the structure for every class. It's a 10 week preaching class. There is going to be a couple times where we maybe skip one week. We'll skip the 3rd, February 3rd specifically. And then I don't know if we'll have another time where we skip. But just keep that in mind. If you are planning and participating please just bring a 5 minute sermon on any topic. A button up shirt and tie. And the class should be around hour, hour and a half time length is what I would estimate. I'm not necessarily going to be there for every single class. In fact Brother Oz is going to help me lead the class. He's going to probably do a lot of the classes. But I'm going to be there for the first one. And I should be there for a couple others as well. But we want to at least have an opportunity where people who want to learn how to preach better and just get more opportunities to work on preaching to have that option. So if you are 18 and above, soul winner, you're a man and you'd like to just learn how to preach better at all. We would love to have you. There's a lot of opportunities to preach. Not just behind the pulpit. Of course that's a major opportunity. But there's also opportunities in nursing homes and other ministries, other outreach areas, soul winning trips, missions trips. We went to Bahamas last time. In fact pretty much any person that wanted to got many opportunities to preach in the classrooms. And so there's definitely always an opportunity for those who want to just generally learn how to preach a little bit better. And I also like to use that opportunity to identify people to use more in the ministry and to use them for other preaching opportunities. So I do take it seriously and I hope those who participate would also take that seriously. Just to give you a little recap. So I was gone for the last week and it was kind of a multi-faceted trip. So I had a lot of things packed into weeks long of traveling. But the primary goal was to visit the Philippines. That's where we're sending our evangelist. Evangelist Duncan Urbanic. And so he was ordained here in our church and sent to Pure Words for a few years. But we're going to relocate him to the Philippines. And that's most likely going to happen in the middle of February or the beginning of March. Is kind of the timeline when his family is going to permanently move out there. So they're going to just be out there 100% of the time in the Philippines. And we're not going to send him out there to just start cold. He's actually going to join up with and collaborate with Verity Baptist Church. Which is a church pastored by Pastor Matthew Stuckey. Now that was a great part of the trip because I got to learn so much more about the Philippines at Verity Baptist Church than I already knew. But Verity Baptist Church pastored by Pastor Stuckey actually has six churches. And so I was not even aware of that. But essentially they have one kind of near Manila. It's not exactly in the main part of Manila. But they have one that's kind of somewhat close to Manila proper. And Manila, Philippines is a very large city. It's approximately over 14 million people. And it feels like it because wow, the population density is extreme. I've been to a lot of places in my life and this is the top as far as just population density. I'm sure there's other areas, maybe in Africa or other places where it could seem that dense. But boy, the traffic is insane. No one beats the traffic like Manila proper. I mean I think our hotel was only like 10-15 minute drive from the airport. But it took like an hour because you're just basically going at a walk pace. And there's a million people on bikes and cars. It's chaotic. In fact it was funny because I was witnessing to one of our cab drivers. And I was saying something about the traffic. And he's like, yeah, the only other place that's crazy like driving like this is Jamaica. And I was like, you're exactly right. I instantly had camaraderie with him because I knew what Jamaica is like too. But Jamaica is not nearly as much traffic on the road. It's just extremely dangerous. But Manila, it was just like cars everywhere, bikes everywhere. They kind of have these little mopeds or something that everybody's riding on. And so it was really extreme. But it's really interesting to be able to go over there and visit. He also has, Pastor Stuckey has a church in Pampaga. And I might be saying that wrong but that's closer to where he lives. And then they started a church in Poland. So it's in Warsaw I believe. But he sent out an evangelist and started a church over there. They have one other church and I can't remember the name of it in, what is it? Picol. Yeah, Picol is another church that they have in the Philippines. And then they have two other churches that are kind of like a once a month church. So essentially just because they have so many people traveling great distances to come to their church, just once a month they have a service that's kind of out in a particular area where some of their church members are at. So they're running approximately six churches. Two of them are just a once a month church plant. But lots and lots of people out there. The service that I attended, we had 110 people in the service. And literally people are falling out the building. No, I'm just kidding. It was packed. I mean it is extremely packed. They do not have space for that many people. So the fact that we could even just cram into their space is just a testament to people that want to hear the gospel being preached in the Bible. But then we also had 86 soul winners that afternoon, which their record for church attendance at the time was 111. So we were one off breaking the record for church attendance of all time. And then we, I guess, smashed their soul winning record. I don't remember. I think it was like high 50s or something, the number of soul winners they've ever had at a single time. But we had 86 soul winners out at the park. And so it's definitely a lot of hunger for the Bible and the word of God. And because of the fact that population density and driving and getting around town is so difficult, they have a great number of people that come to their church, but not necessarily every service, right? So it's not even necessarily representative of how many people are there and how many people are interested in that kind of church. There's a greater demand than can really be met. And so sending Evangelist Urbanic out there seems like it's going to be a great opportunity to just reach more people, help churches. And and so that's basically our goal and our vision is to have Evangelist Urbanic out there and just kind of assisting that church and then also helping with churches and everything like that. He may even plant his own church at some point and then we'll start doing that as well. So the sky's the limit. But I feel like me trying to give him any kind of direction from here and having never visited is just it would just be like a really difficult task. And I felt like going out there, I at least now kind of I can I can envision the space and and I've met some people and I have an idea what soul winnings like. And so it's really an incredible it's an incredible journey to go over there. It's a completely different world. Very unique. The people there are very poor. The salaries that they have there are very microscopic in comparison to America. Essentially, their money or currency is in what's called pesos. It's basically like Mexico, but Asian style. OK, you have to understand the Philippines. But essentially, in fact, a lot of the Tagalog language use a lot of Spanish words. It's kind of funny, but that area is so poor that the people are making a fraction of what we make. And while some prices are lower, like you can buy things cheaper over there for sure. It's definitely still not nearly as dramatic of a decrease as their actual pay. And so a lot of people are forced to live as family units where they're all bringing in income so they can work together. I talked to a cab driver and I asked him how much he worked. And he said he worked 12 hours a day, six days a week doing like taxi service over there. And that he made what would be approximately like twenty thousand pesos a month. Or maybe it was a week. I think it was a week, actually. But when I basically estimated how much that would be a year. He's making like $19,000 a year working 72 hours a week. And again, the expenses over there aren't necessarily that much lower. So imagine trying to live on $19,000 a year. And it's not like, oh, just get a second job. I mean, he's already working 72 hours a week. And he actually did have a second job. He does like development or computer stuff on the other day that he's not working. But I don't know how much money he makes in that. But essentially, I mean, the people over there, it's very poor. I talked to a young man and he was thinking about getting a job. And I think he was going to get paid equivalent $250 a week for the job that he was looking at. I mean, the people over there have almost no money. And it's very different. They have to work really hard just to make a small amount of money. So the country is very poor. But the people are very happy. I mean, it's not like they're really down in the dumps. I mean, most of the people seem to be in high spirits. In fact, you go up and down the park streets, they're all dancing. So they're really into dancing, karaoke, singing, and just all kinds of stuff. When it comes to the soul winning itself, you can get a lot of people saved over there. But I would say it's not necessarily, in my opinion, this is my opinion, I don't think it's necessarily more receptive than, let's say, the Bahamas or Jamaica or anything like that. But what makes it possible for you to get so many more people saved is you just have so many people that you have an endless number of opportunities to talk to people. And you almost have no wasted time necessarily with opportunities to talk to people because they're just everywhere. But because there's so many people, you can also kind of target younger people, people that are probably more likely to be a little bit receptive. And so because of the fact that you can target younger people and people that are a little bit more receptive and even lots of groups, like you're talking to lots of people at the same time, you can have a lot of people saved in comparison to other soul winning opportunities. But just on a person by person basis, honestly, I didn't think it was necessarily any more receptive than other places because when I go to the Bahamas or Jamaica or some of these other areas, it's like more likely that people will talk to me than they would in the Philippines. Additionally, the Philippines, only kind of the young people speak English universally. A lot of the older people don't necessarily speak English or speak English well enough to necessarily have a great dialogue and to get them saved. So you're kind of limited to targeting some of the younger people and people that are maybe a little bit more interested in hearing. The culture is also a little bit more diverse in religion. So not necessarily everybody's our style of Christian or anything, but there's a lot of Catholics that are easy to preach. There's a lot of Christian, but there's also a lot of cults over there. And because of the cults that are over there, it can make it difficult to get some people saved. So again, I don't think that the people over there are really necessarily any more receptive than some of the other areas in the world. But what makes Manila a unique opportunity is just the sheer volume of people that exist. We went to a park and there's probably like 10,000 people at this park when we went there. So when you have that many people there, it's just that much easier to just find somebody. And if they're not interested, just move on, just move on, move on. I preached a couple times to groups of like seven or eight people at a time, but usually only like one or two would get saved. But sometimes you could get lucky or you could get fortunate to run into a group like that and get four or five of them saved. I think that Evangelos Urbanic, him and James, they went out soul winning the day that I left. And I think he told me that Duncan had like 39 salvations for the day. And so that's definitely a giant number, but a lot of work had to go into that. And I'm sure that he probably, I think they went soul winning for like eight hours. So that's a lot of time. So you can get big numbers like that, but there's a lot of rejections in between that. You're probably having to preach to a lot of groups. So I also had a period in time where I was soul winning, where I didn't even get to talk to anybody for like an hour just because nobody was interested, nobody really wanted to hear, I wasn't running into a lot of young people. And so it's not necessarily like everybody over there is just jumping into the boat to get saved. But again, like I said, just my experience, there's just so many people that there's a lot of people that you can get saved. Earlier in the trip though, because of just going that far, you have to get on lots of planes. I was stopping through Fiji and I thought, maybe I should stop here for a day. But I also was told that Fiji is actually a really receptive area for preaching. And so I actually, me and James spent 24 hours there and we just went soul winning most of the time that we had that was free, like our free time. And actually Fiji is very receptive. It kind of reminded me of Bahamas as far as just soul winning, like the soul winning perspective of things. And so it was great. Me and brother James ended up having 23 salvations for just that one 24 hour period. And we didn't even necessarily go soul winning. We probably went soul winning like four hours. So only in about one hour and a half maybe in the morning and then maybe three and a half or two and a half, somewhere in that range in the afternoon. I can't remember the exact timeline, but it was very receptive. Almost everybody, I mean most of the locals, unless they were like real busy or something, they at least wanted to hear. So a lot of people wanted to hear. The thing that was difficult about Fiji and preaching the gospel was just that some people, it was almost as if they were not smart enough to carry the conversation. So a lot of times, you would just kind of like ask them questions and they would just kind of give you a blank stare. And they just wouldn't, they just wouldn't answer. Like you would just like ask them multiple times or different questions and they would just kind of keep looking at you. And I know at least for me and James, the first time we didn't, never experienced that really, we would just kind of waste a lot of time with that individual and then eventually start realizing like if they're acting like that, we just watch the video and move on. And then when you kind of stop wasting your time with individuals like that, you end up finding there's lots of people that are going to be easy to get saved. I would say the one thing that was probably the most unique about visiting Fiji and soul winning is I had more people asking me about follow-up than anywhere else I've ever been. So essentially like one guy didn't want to leave me alone. He's just like, can I, can we just hang out? Can I, can you come to my house and have tea? And you know, that could just be one off. But like multiple people are kind of asking me like, what do I do now? Where do I go to church? Like what do I do? Like they're really interested. I got a lot of emails from people in Fiji just to maybe send them sermons and stuff. And I need to follow up with them. I haven't yet. But you know, it was, it was really, you could tell there was a hunger for the truth and for knowledge over there. A lot of the people, when you asked them about salvation, they just kind of were like, I don't know, you know? And so, but Fiji is very poor. When we went into the, some of the neighborhoods and we went kind of just door knocking in a small area, the houses looked pretty normal. Like they looked like a normal kind of house. But when I walked in, there was literally zero furniture. Like every, like the only thing they had was just a mat on the ground. So there's just, all these people are just living in this house and the only furniture they have is a mat. And it just, it really kind of like blew me away. And so, you know, lots of people were living in these areas, living in these kind of conditions. I don't know if the housing was built by like some government agency or something a long time ago. And these people just don't have money for furniture. I mean, there was literally like nothing. And so, talk about poverty. You know, I've never seen poverty at that kind of extreme. But Fiji is a very poor nation, a very poor country in general. Most of their money comes from tourism. And I don't think that they're necessarily that high on the tourism spectrum because of its location. You know, it's not as close to the United States as most of the Caribbean. So most of us, we spend all our money down in the Caribbean. Additionally, you know, Australia, New Zealand and stuff, that's kind of where they're at. But those people don't have as much disposable extra income. So you can kind of tell like the Bahamas is a lot nicer overall. Like just the resorts are way nicer. The businesses, the restaurants, the food. Like pretty much just everything on the check mark, Bahamas is better. But from a soul winning perspective, Fiji is amazing. And you know, I just hope that people on that side of the world just get a hunger for soul winning. Because let me tell you about another place I went, Australia, okay. Australia is arguably one of the least receptive soul winning places in the world, okay. And I don't know for sure what's the worst. I've talked to people from Canada and that was pretty bad. But essentially, this is definitely one of the hardest places to get people saved. We had a large group, maybe 20, 30 soul winners that we went out for a while and we only had four salvations. Almost every door that I knocked on, they would not even take the invitation. Like basically, we were like, hey, we're from the church and they're like, not interested. You know, no God here, mate. You know, it's just like they're just really hardened towards just like religion and Christianity. The only person that would talk to me, Muslim. And I did at least waste time talking to her. And she got on the phone and then called her husband. He showed up and it was weird. But I did talk to them for a while and tried to plant a seed at least. But I was just like, it was kind of frustrating. It's like nobody even wanted to talk to us whatsoever. Not to say that you can't get people saved. Because hey, we got four people saved and we should still try. But let's just be realistic. Australia is not a receptive place for the gospel. But, you know, maybe people in that part of the world could be inspired to take some missions trips to other areas like Fiji. And in fact, when I was at the airport in Fiji after customs, I was just walking and somebody's like, hey, Pastor Shelley. And I was just like, yeah. And there's some guy I've never met. I've never seen. He's just like, hey, I listened to your sermons online or whatever. Can we take a picture? I was like, sure. And he lives in Papua New Guinea and he's from Fiji. And it was great. Great meeting him. Really nice guy. Had a nice family. He's like, hey, if you start a church in Fiji, I'm moving back and I'll be part of your church or whatever. I'm like, yeah, I don't know. But I can't promise anything. I'm sure there's plenty of people if I said I'll pay 100 percent, you're like, I'll be the guy, you know. But no, there's there's so much opportunity. And I think that Pastor Kevin Sepulveda is going to try and do a missions trip to Papua New Guinea. Maybe this year, maybe in the near future. So I just told him if he promote if he does any kind of event, I'll promote it. And so but, you know, it's great being in Australia and visiting Pastor Kevin Sepulveda and their church, New Life Baptist Church. It's in Sunshine Coast, which is about an hour north of Brisbane. It's kind of on the northeast side of Australia. And then all the way down in the south, they have a church plant also in Sydney called Blessed Hope Baptist Church. And so a lot of people actually came up from there to visit for our service. We had like I can't remember the exact number, somewhere around 70 people maybe in church on on Wednesday night. And I got to go over there and preach for them. And it was it was just a great blessing to see a lot of other people. They were really excited. I don't think they've had they've had anybody from the states preach before in one of their churches. And so it was definitely encouraging to talk to them and to motivate them. I think a lot of them are going to the Philippines for in February. There's a big missions trip in the Philippines in February that Pastor Stuckey is putting on. So I highly encourage anybody in that part of the world to go there. Or if you are traveling, I think the Plant Brothers were planning on going out there. And so definitely be prayer for that. But, you know, it was a great trip. It was a lot of fun. It's exciting to visit some different places and just see, you know, what the soul winnings like. And really, there's I think there's just countless amount of opportunities for soul winning that we're just not even thinking about, because, you know, Fiji is just one of many small islands all out there. There's all kinds. There's Samoa. There's American Samoa. There's also I think it's Calcedonia. And one of the parts of that's called New May. And it was actually a big, large island. It looked really pretty when we were flying over it. And, you know, there's there's all kinds of small little islands and areas and other countries and tons of people in that part of the world that also need the gospel. And so, you know, I hope that maybe the church in Australia, we can continue to strengthen them and encourage them. So maybe they can spearhead some movements to reach those areas, because obviously Australia is never going to be a great soul winning place. But those people have more money and more resources than a lot of these other smaller, poor areas. And so maybe they can have the resources necessary to go out there and do some of these missions, trips and reach some of these people. And so, you know, obviously that part of the world, there's a reason why it is the way it is. I mean, Australia is beautiful. There's it's everything's on the coast because the whole the whole country, basically everybody lives on the edge of a coast. And so, you know, and all the beaches and the water there, it's beautiful. It's very warm, almost the entire part of the year. And it's kind of a carnal paradise. You know, if you're just looking to just enjoy the pleasures of this world and of this life, I mean, Australia is definitely nice in that regard. Government perspective, not necessarily. You can't have a gun. Apparently they passed a new law. You can't smoke a barbecue grill because it offends your PETA neighbor. And then they have cameras literally everywhere, like the entire road, everywhere cameras. And they were telling me if the camera catches you without your seatbelt on, it's an eleven hundred dollar ticket. And if you speed ticket and they just ticket people to death over there. So so the driving, this is what's interesting about their job. Everybody's driving the exact same. I mean, you just every just kind of driving normal, not speeding. I mean, you can't you can't even get around because everybody's just driving the exact same speed everywhere because it's just like it's this terrifying experiment where they're just basically monitoring your every single move. It feels awkward. I'll just I'll just say it that way. You know, me as a Texan, I want to just put my foot on the pedal and just go. But it's like, you know, I'm just kind of annoyed by all the restriction. But it's like it's like the perfect system because there's no cops anywhere. It's just Mr. Camera Boy. And, you know, the camera is just sitting there monitoring everything. It's kind of hard to get away. You can't really get away with that kind of stuff. And so it's definitely annoying. I guess if you're over there, use the Waze app is what I was told. Who knows about the Waze app or something? I guess the Waze app. It'll tell you where those those pesky cameras are like, you know, so you can slow down a little bit or eleven hundred dollar ticket adds up fast. And so, you know, definitely definitely unique visiting all these different places. I don't know if we're going to have our church is going to have a soul winning trip in that part of the world. Probably not soon. My heart would probably be to maybe go back to the Bahamas first, just because it's closer. It's easier. It's cheaper. The soul winnings, in my opinion, still probably the best of all the places I've been. I still think Bahamas is probably the best just out of the sheer fact that the most people want to listen. They speak perfect English and they're very highly educated. So it's just it's just really hard to beat soul winning in the Bahamas so far, in my opinion. Now, again, I think you get more like a higher number of people saved in Manila, but it's probably just from the sheer fact of you have an endless sea of people. So, you know, you just can't really you can't run out of opportunities to preach the gospel in Manila any time soon. So definitely a lot of lot of opportunities. But I'll say this. You know, our area seems to be drying up slowly over time and getting less and less receptive. And there's other parts of America that aren't that receptive. Sometimes you just have to go. You know, sometimes if you want to reach a lot of people, you want to have a big harvest of souls, you know, it's those people that are willing to go. Obviously, the apostle Paul arguably got a lot more people saved than some of the other disciples from the sheer fact that he was willing to go. But let's also be realistic. Going has its, you know, sacrifices to traveling is not fun. It's there's a sacrifice. It costs money. It can be difficult. You can get sick. There's hazards, tickets and all this other stuff, you know, losing clothes. Obviously, Paul, you know, I feel in company with Paul because he also left his cloak, you know, at Troas or whatever. And so, you know, I left my suit in Australia, whatever. But I guess it's just how it is, right? Sometimes you just you're thinking about too many things. And so but I appreciate all you guys praying for me and praying for our trip. Continue to pray for Evangelist Urbanic. And, you know, I want our church to continue investing in Evangelist Urbanic and to potentially help out Verity Baptist Church more. You know, in the times past, we've donated money as a church to evangelists at the time, Evangelist Stuckey, now Pastor Stuckey. But I would love to see investing even more resources into them because they need a building and they kind of have to build. And, you know, for them, I think he was telling me it was maybe like fifty thousand dollars for a building or something. But, you know, for them, that's a lot of money. Like, you know, fifty thousand dollars doesn't even seem like anything to us, especially for a building. But for them, like fifty thousand dollars is just, you know, tons and tons of pesos and just a lot of money, a lot of government stuff that they have to go through even potentially. But it'd be great for them to have more space to grow, because unfortunately, when you don't have space to grow, sometimes people just don't come to church and people don't get as much plugged in and everything like that. And so them having a space would be a really big blessing. So I went through a lot of announcements, but I think this chapter we have is a little bit shorter, so it shouldn't be that big a deal. But if you have your questions or you want to ask me about the trip, I don't mind talking to you about it. But that's that's pretty much the highlights. You know, we got twenty three people saved in Fiji when we were in Manila. All of our soul winning pretty much just went to Verdi Baptist, like to their numbers. But I think I had like 10 people saved, maybe. And James had like 16 people saved on the day that we went on the big soul winning marathon. So, you know, that's that's like twenty six. Whereas we had like twenty three in Fiji and we probably spent a little bit more time soul winning in Manila. So it wasn't even necessarily that much different when it came to just numbers. When you go to receptive areas, I mean, you know, you can get a lot. You get twenty, thirty people saved. But I guess Duncan's trying to find out what the max is. Thirty nine. I don't know. I don't know if he's going to beat something like that in a single day, but that's that's pretty much the recap. I won't I won't belabor the point anymore. We'll go ahead and sing our third song for the evening. What is that, which song? Psalm 67, Psalm 67. All right. Psalm 67, Psalm Chapter 67 in your handout or in your King James Bible. God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause space to shine upon us. That the way may be known. Nice saving help. All nations. Let the people praise me. Oh, God, let all the people praise me. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy. For thou shalt judge the people. Righteously and govern the nations of honor. The nations up on earth see love. Let the people praise me. Oh, God, let all the people praise me. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy. Then shall the earth yield her increase. And God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us in all the years. Of the earth shall fear it. Let the people praise me. Oh, God, let all the people praise me. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy. Great singing, everybody. Now, as the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bible to the book of Revelation, the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation, the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation, the book of Revelation, the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 10, we'll read the entire chapter as is our custom. Starting at verse 1, Revelation chapter 10, the Bible reads, And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. And he had at his hand a little book open, and he set his right foot upon the sea and his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice as when a lion roareth, and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write, and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and swear by him that liveth forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that therein are, and the earth and the things that therein are, and the sea and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it and eat it up, and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it up, and it was in my mouth sweet as honey, and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples and nations and tongues and kings. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for Revelation chapter 10, and I pray that you give Pastor Shelley clarity of mind and fill in with the Holy Spirit as he expounds this chapter to us, Lord, and help us to draw connections in your word and to pay close attention to tonight's Bible study so that we may learn more about this portion of Scripture. We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Here in Revelation chapter number 10, we're ending our woes. We essentially had the, we're in the seventh seal that's been opened, and there's seven trumpets which are sounding, and in the last three, there's four trumpets that sounded, the last three were described as three woes. There was the woe, woe, woe, and we're kind of here in this last woe, this last trumpet, and it's named as the seventh trumpet. So it's the seventh trumpet of the seventh seal, and it says here in verse number 1, And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little book open, and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth, and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. So this particular angel comes down from heaven. The Bible says that when he cries, there's these seven thunders uttering their voices. It says in verse 4, And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write, and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven. Now, we have a setting here where the seventh, it's basically the seventh trumpet, it's this ending, this climax event, and particularly there's something said here that John was going to write, and then the Bible says he didn't write it. He was told not to write it down, which to me is kind of interesting. What I find interesting about it is we believe that the Bible itself is complete, that it's a whole, and there's not really added scripture, we don't need another book, there's not another book coming, we believe that it's an entire thing, but that doesn't mean that that's all the information available that can be known about God or things that are going to happen. There's still more to be discovered, more to learn, there's more conversation that we can have with God than is just in the Bible. But for now, our mode of communication with God is the scripture, and I believe that that is how God speaks to us, and I believe that's how he speaks to us exclusively. I do not believe that God is coming and just whispering in our ears and is this chatty Cathy that wants to talk about anything and everything. I believe that his mode and method of communication is the Bible. Now, you have a big movement in charismatic churches, Pentecostal churches, a lot of non-denominational churches, and in fact this has spread to many different denominations, even sometimes Catholics get involved in this, is where they have all these conversations with God and they're constantly dialoguing with God and having all these private communications. You know, there's nothing really in the Bible to confirm such an idea, and if you did have a conversation with God, then you would have to argue that it should be put in the Bible, because the conversations that God has with man is God's word being delivered and it's not supposed to be of any private interpretation, it's for every single person. You know, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. So if someone truly had an experience with the Lord or with God, you would argue, especially if it's something written, that it would be something that needs to be added to Scripture if this is God speaking. I don't know, is it possible that God could send messengers or kind of a new revelation in the end times? I'm not going to say that it's impossible, I just don't think that that's going to happen, I don't believe that necessarily, but obviously with the advent of new Scripture or every major event in time, God sent angels to particularly use men, you know, like the two witnesses, I don't know exactly how that's going to work, but I think it's most likely this is Moses and Elijah, that's probably the best interpretation of those events. So their instructions are probably being given from heaven, but if it was modern men today, I would assume that they would have to have had at least an encounter with an angel or someone to tell them what to do or where to go or some kind of an event. But at the same time, I wouldn't personally believe it, I'd probably most likely be like John, John the Baptist's dad, I'm sorry, who essentially is not believing the angel and is like mute for not agreeing. I mean, think about it, no one told Mary or Joseph that they're going to be visited by an angel before they were visited by an angel, right? I mean, nobody is telling any of the people in the Bible that they're going to be used by God or do something great, until it actually happens. But here's the thing, it would always be consistent with scripture. You know, if an angel comes to you and says, hey, all of the Bibles are wrong, and I want you to write a special book called the Quran, and you have special privileges where you can marry everybody else's wife. This is not the Bible, okay? This is not the word of God. It's so funny to me, I was talking to some Muslims out soul-winning in Australia, and I always do this with them, and it's just funny to me, but I just say, hey, I want to describe a religion, and I want you to tell me what do you think it is. I say there was a guy who was visited by an angel and was told that all the scripture had become corrupt and that he was going to be a special prophet of the Lord to deliver the right scriptures and that he had the scriptures written down and he delivered new scriptures and started a new movement, and he was actually given special privileges to marry several women, he had several wives, and he started a completely different movement. And I say, what religion do you think this is? And they're like, Islam. I said, no, it's Mormonism. And they're like, what's Mormonism? And I'm like, it's the exact same story as your story, okay? And they're both wrong. I said, look, the apostle Paul wrote the book of Galatians before Islam and before Mormonism, and he already told us what the gospel was, he already told us salvation was by faith alone, and then he gave a warning saying, if any angel comes after me preaching any other gospel than that which he received, let him be accursed. You know what? Islam is accursed. Mormonism is accursed. Muhammad is burning in hell. Joseph Smith is burning in hell. And anybody who believes their false doctrine is burning in hell right now. Because, you know, any angel or any visit from any person is always going to line up with this. It could never be contrary to this. You know, some people say, what about the book of Enoch? Or the gospel of Thomas or the gospel of Mary? There's all these extra biblical books. But here's the problem with all of them. They don't line up with the Bible. You know, if you could show me some other book that was consistent with the scripture and had the same power and magnificence of the word of God and had prophetic dealings that were actually proven true, it would be hard to argue against it being included in the canon of scripture. And, you know, for some people, I'm sure that's how they even decided the Bible. I mean, we decided the Bible because we could recognize it as God's word. You know, we could recognize it as this was truly prophecy. This is really the word of God. And the more you actually read the Bible and study it, it confirms itself constantly. It's constantly confirming itself with all different kinds of shadows, pictures, metaphors. Just when you read it, you see all the symbolism tying to Jesus Christ and the power on every single page and every single word. I mean, the magnificence and brilliance of God's word is evident from itself. It just testifies of itself over and over again so that these forgeries are easily spotted, easily discarded. But when you have an angel coming and delivering a message unto you, you have to understand it's gonna match with the Bible. And I believe that the Bible is our mode of communication. But we do see... I mean, there really was an experience that John had. There really was something uttered that John heard that he did not write down. Now, someone came up to me and said, Pastor Shelley, I found this scroll. John actually afterwards disobeyed and wrote it down. Or John told somebody and they wrote it down. He wasn't allowed to write it down, but he told someone else and they wrote it down. Here's what the seven thunders uttered. I would regard it as trash, okay? I'm not gonna believe it. I don't need it. And here's the thing. I think sometimes there are things that God just doesn't want us to know. I mean, sometimes we have those questions like I wonder about a particular subject or what did Jesus look like exactly. You know, the Bible doesn't really describe that. It doesn't say if he was tall, short, average. It doesn't say if he had bushy, curly hair, if he had straight hair. It doesn't say exactly what skin color he had, as if that mattered at all. It doesn't tell us a lot of different things about Jesus, what color eyes he had. You know, the only time we see the color of his eyes, it's fire and it's in the New Testament, okay? But I'm just saying like we don't have, you know, descriptions of everything. We don't know everything. And it's okay because you don't need to know everything. Sometimes you don't need to know everything. And this should be a lesson for all of us because isn't there a time when you have children or your children asking you questions about something they can't understand and you won't give them the answer and they won't take it? They're like, no, no, no, tell me, or why? Or they just keep asking why, why, why? This is like, just don't worry about it right now. You can't handle that. You don't understand it. I'm not capable of describing this to you. And you know, we even as adults need to recognize the fact there are some things that God is not ready to deliver to us, to explain to us. Maybe we can't handle it. Whatever reason, we need to just trust that God is God under control. We don't need that information. There's a reason why he told them not to write it down. Let's trust the fact that we don't need this information. Let's focus on the information we do need, on the information we do have. Some people, they're so concerned with things that they can't know that they ignore the things that they do know. They're so concerned with all kinds of things that are unknowable and yet there's so many things that are knowable and they're not gonna worry about that. They worry about where should I live or what kind of job should I have. Here's the thing, those things are technically unknowable. You know what I do know? That God wants you to be on church Sunday morning and that God wants you to go soul winning and that God wants you to love your wife and that God wants you to actually raise the children that you have and people, they get so concerned with things that they can't even know that they'll never know but then they ignore the things that you can know for sure. And people just get so obsessed with things that are unknowable or things that aren't even certain as opposed to just getting dialed in on the things that are certain, dialed in on the things that we need and that are important to us. And I think that's an important lesson that we can learn from this, this seven thunders being uttered but we don't have them, we don't know what that is. How about obsessing about exactly how many people you've gotten saved? You can't know that. I mean, we don't know the exact number but you know what, we just keep a general tally. People that just get so over the top and so obsessed with this, it's like, you're missing the point. The point is to just get people saved and to have conversations and you know, I'm more concerned with making sure that people understood the gospel message than just trying to get a number, than just trying to add to my total or something like that. You know, it's more important that we're just doing the work of the Lord in a sincere and genuine heart and we're trying to get people really saved. You know, there's lots of times where I'm just not even gonna pray with somebody or I'm not even gonna count it because it's not certain. And some people, it's like they just, they like rush through the gospel just so they can pray, just to be like, oh, I got one or I got two. You know, you're not impressing me by having a number because frankly, I don't know what your numbers are. I don't even care. You report them to your other soul winning captains and lieutenants or whatever. You know, we should care more about actually getting people saved and being genuine because some things you just won't know and you don't know what kind of effect you're having on someone's life even if you didn't even get them saved. Some people, they may need a couple different proddings or a couple different opportunities and if you're so obsessed with numbers, you may not even just plant a seed sometimes whereas that seed may have had a bigger impact than your number or whatever. You know, instead of just worrying about things that you can control and know for sure, just do the work of God. Go out and preach the gospel, win souls, love people, do what's right and just have contentment in the fact that you're doing what God told you even though you may not understand the ramifications of all of it. Are you going to really understand how well your soul winning went until you get to heaven? No. None of us are going to really understand exactly what impact we had with our soul winning but you know, we can just trust that that's what God really wants us to do because we walk by faith, not by sight. And some people, they just get so dialed in, why does God know? Well, you know, why would I go soul winning? I mean, what's going to be the benefit? I can't tell you what the benefit is. Well, how many rewards am I going to get in heaven? I don't know. Well, how many numbers do I have? I don't know. Stop worrying about what the seven thunders uttered and just serve God with your life. You know, God is going to reward them that walk by faith. You have to diligently seek him by faith. You know, God is not interested in just telling people, hey, you're going to get one dollar, do this, get a dollar. He wants to just see what you're going to do when you don't know what the prize is. You don't know what the reward is. You're just doing it out of faith, out of just trying to please God, and you're just fulfilling his will. And you know what? I guarantee whatever these seven thunders utter, it's going to be great when we finally hear it, okay? There will be a day when you find out. It's not like you won't find out. You will find out. It's just not today. Just like we don't know the day or the hour when Christ is coming back, but eventually you'll know. You'll be there, you know? And if you're not there, you're unsaved, and you're going to have fun in the wrath, okay? So there's that. But notice what it says in verse 5. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven and swear by him that liveth forever and ever who created heaven and the things that there and are and the earth and the things that there and are and the sea and the things which are therein that there should be time no longer. Now, it's interesting who this particular individual is as far as this angel. I don't know, but there's a couple things that are interesting about him. Number one, it says in verse 1, and I saw another mighty angel. So he's kind of distinguished from some of the other angels in the context that he's described as being mighty. Additionally, if you look at his personal attributes, they seem distinct from some of the descriptions of other angels, and they seem very similar to that of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I don't think, you know, I could be wrong. I don't think this is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. I think it is really an angel. But what I do think is interesting is how he has some of the similar characteristics. Notice what it says about him, that he comes with a cloud. He has a rainbow upon his head. His face shines as it were the sun. Now, that's the exact same description we have of the Lord Jesus Christ in Revelation chapter 1. But then it also says his feet as pillars of fire. This makes me feel like this particular angel has a very close proximity to the throne. And why I say that is similarly the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, his feet are shining as polished brass as it were fire. It seems like those who are standing on that sea of glass or near this altar, often their feet are resembled as what? Fire or as burning in fire because you have that live coal pit. And so it seems like these people that have their feet as fire are often people that must be very close in proximity or standing near the presence of God. Now, there are specific angels in the Bible that are described this way. They are called archangels. Archangels have a significance as far as their relation to God. Go to Luke chapter 1 for a moment. Go to Luke chapter 1. And we will come back to Revelation, of course, to finish. But I want you to go to Luke for a second. And I want to just notice a couple things about angels. In Luke chapter 1, it says in verse 19, And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God. Now, Gabriel is a significant angel because he's mentioned by name. He's also brought up in another book of the Bible, Daniel. Go all the way back to Daniel. And I want to go to chapter 12. We're going to kind of look at a few different things in Daniel for a second. But Gabriel and Michael, the archangel, are both talked about in Daniel a lot. Additionally, Gabriel is described in the New Testament as being someone that stands in the presence of God. That's significant. Additionally, Michael is described as the archangel in the book of Jude when he's contending with the devil. And Michael specifically is always kind of contending with the devil. You kind of notice that where in the book of Jude he's contending with the devil. Then in Revelation chapter number 12, Michael and his angels get in a fight with the devil and his angels. And Michael's the one who ends up throwing the devil out, basically casting him out. And so Michael almost always seems to be kind of representing like a captain of the angels or like one of the highest of the angels, one that's kind of in charge of other angels. And he's significant in the sense that he seems to be the primary force dealing with the devil often. You have him mentioned again, I said, in Jude. You have him mentioned in Revelation chapter number 12. And in the book of Daniel itself, it also brings up Michael in context of dealing with the devil specifically. Now look at Daniel chapter 12 verse 1. And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time. And at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. Now the book of Daniel is a much more difficult book to be understood than Revelation. But if you kind of think about some timelines, Jude 1 talking about Michael the archangel is kind of the earliest mention we have from a timeline perspective. And then later the Bible talks about Michael throwing out the devil from heaven. And that's kind of to signify like the beginning of this 70th week. Here in Daniel chapter number 12, Michael standing up, this is kind of in the time of the great tribulation. So you kind of see Michael's contending with the devil throughout the New Testament time period. Then he's doing something significant to kind of kick off this seven-year period. Then right at that midweek point when you have the antichrist coming to power and you have that abomination of desolation, notice what the Bible says again in verse 1. And at that time shall Michael stand up. What's that time? This is talking about the midst of the week. Okay. Now just to give you that reference, look at chapter 11, you're right there, and look at verse 36. And the king shall do according to his will. This is talking about the antichrist. And he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god and shall speak marvelous things against the god of gods and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished for that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the god of his fathers nor the desire of women nor regard any god for he shall magnify himself above all. So in Daniel chapter 11 it really goes into a lot of detail about an antichrist. And of course most of Daniel chapter 11 is talking about a literal kind of predecessor to the end times antichrist. It's kind of a in-between antichrist where there really was Antiochus Epiphanes coming and they destroyed Jerusalem. And then later you kind of have another fulfillment with Titus and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. But then you really have the ultimate fulfillment of the antichrist in the book of Revelation. So you have a lot of fulfillments kind of in this passage. But from a timeline perspective, you have a guy coming into power and declaring himself god. That's what it means when we see here in chapter 11 verse number 37 for he shall magnify himself above all. Meaning he's going to say he is the god of the entire universe. That's the actual event of the abomination of desolation. Is the antichrist being in the temple, in the holy place, declaring himself that he is god. And why is that significant? Because you know who's not going to believe that? Christians. Christians won't believe that. They won't believe in him as Jesus. They won't believe in him as god. And then he's going to cause all small and great to receive a mark in their hand or their forehead. And they have to worship the image of the beast which is not even the antichrist himself but is just some kind of a casted image that somehow is able to speak and has some kind of a projection. I don't know if that's AI, supernatural, whatever. But in some way there's some kind of image. And you have to literally worship the antichrist, worship the image, as well as you have to then additionally get this mark. And it kind of makes sense why the image exists. Because if you think about it, Jesus Christ or god, they can be anywhere. They're omnipresent. But you know who's not omnipresent? The antichrist. So in order to worship this thing, not everybody can geographically travel to Jerusalem or travel to Israel and worship this thing. So basically they got the projection version for all of us in all the corners of the earth. You've got to worship that image. You've got to worship that picture. You've got to worship that thing as kind of the representation of worshiping the antichrist in order to get that mark. So it's not just, you know, people would be like, oh, it's the COVID shot. But we weren't worshiping anything. And number one, you know, number one, I don't think anybody got the COVID shot in their forehead either. You know, that was good. Like, I already don't want the COVID shot, but especially if they're like in your forehead, you know, that's really weird, OK? Some people said, Donald Trump's the antichrist. Well, did you read this verse where it says, nor the desire of women? Not Donald Trump, folks. I'm sorry. This guy likes women. All right. He's on his, what, third wife or something like that. So, you know, I don't know who it is. I'm not going to make a lot of speculation, but I know who it's not. It's someone that likes women is not the antichrist, OK? And so the timeline, though, is significant in the sense that Michael's standing up then. Well, it just makes sense to me, and I'm not saying that Revelation 10, the angel is Michael, but it makes sense to me that it's someone like Michael or could be Michael or Gabriel, that it's possibly an archangel. And we notice Michael being significant and standing up to eliminate the devil from heaven. Then to fight him at the time of the Great Tribulation. And then we're here at the very end. We're kind of at a climax timeline of something very significant happening. It's a mighty angel coming down. The physical descriptions of this particular angel fit that of someone that's most likely in the presence of God near the throne based on a lot of his physical descriptions. And so, you know, I see a lot of parallels. Here's another parallel that we saw is in Revelation, I'm sorry, Daniel chapter 12, we talk about some angels, and they, like, lift up their hands, and they do this swearing proclamation. It's very similar to what we read in Revelation chapter 10. Look what it says here in verse number 5. Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river and the other on that side of the bank of the river, and the one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, so long shall it be to the end of these wonders. And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand into heaven, and swear by him that liveth forever and ever that it shall be for a time, times, and in half, and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. So what's kind of interesting is it talks about another angel standing on water, lifting up his hand, swearing unto God. But here's the difference. In Daniel 12, he says it's going to be for a time, times, and a half, whereas in Revelation, he said there will be time no more. Do you remember that phrase, time no more? I don't believe that the time no more signifies the fact that time ceases to exist, but more indicating that there's an end, the end of something. And that makes sense because consistently in Daniel and in Revelation, we're being brought specific numbers of, like, specific times. So it makes sense that there will be an end of those times. Or sometimes people talk about the end times. Do you know that phrase? It's like, so there should be time no more is signifying the fact that we're at the end, we're at the climax of these particular events. This is describing a specific amount of time. Because it's kind of in a dark saying, it's not immediately obvious what's being interpreted here, but it's very likely that time just represents a year. Because if you look at it, a time would be essentially one year, times would be two, so that's three, and then a half would be half a year. That's where you get three and a half years. Three and a half years can also be symbolized by approximately 42 months, okay? And that's also a number that's constantly being brought up. In this particular section of scripture, it also says in verse 11, and from that time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that make a desolate set up, there should be 1,290 days. Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the 1,305 and 30 days. Now, in Revelation, we're also brought a number that's 1,260 days. Here it's 1,290 days, so that's a 30-day difference. It's because if you take 1,260 days and you double it, so that's like a half a year, or half of a seven-year period, and you double it, that's three and a half years, three and a half years, you're still technically 30 days short of a full seven-year period from a calendar going around the sun perspective. And even in the Jewish calendar, they would have to make up days because their calendar was a 30-day cycle per month, and eventually they would have to have like a make-up month for all the different days that they lost. We celebrate like 365 days a year, but if you have a 30-day month calendar, you only get 360 days a year. Well, that causes a problem because you're five days short, right? And if you're five days short for six years, then you have essentially what? You have 30 days left over, so that's where you kind of get this extra 30 days tacked on. So you kind of have like 1,260 days as the first portion of Daniel's 70th week. Then you kind of have a 1,290-day portion. It also mentions here 1,335 days. Now, that's most likely what it's kind of referring to is the first 1,335 days of the 70th week. Now, if you take that 1,000... I'm using a lot of numbers, but if you can track what I'm saying, it'll help when you read. The 1,335 days, you take that number and you subtract 42 months, which would be 1,206 days, you're left with 75 days, okay? This is where a lot of people have conjectured or believe that what it's saying here is that that's the rapture, that essentially we kick off that Daniel's 70th week we go the 1,260 days, then that hits right in the middle where we have the abomination desolation. But then there's a 75-day period from that to the rapture, that's where you get the 1,335 days, and that's why it's saying, blessed is he that waiteth, and comes to the end of the 1,300 and says it awkward, doesn't say it how we would say it in English, but essentially 35 days. Now, I want to point out another verse here, in Daniel's chapter, and I'm not sure exactly which one I have written down here, I'm thinking, yeah, go to chapter 8 for a moment, go to chapter number 8. So we kind of have a general timeline of these events, there's also another event that kind of goes beyond the halfway mark, and it's, look at verse number 13. Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot? And he said unto me, unto 2,300 days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. So we also see another ending period. Now, we don't know exactly when this is going to start. Essentially, to get the start date, you kind of have to backload it. You kind of have to say, okay, well, it's 2,300 days till the end, then whenever essentially the daily sacrifice starts, that's when you have 2,300 days until the end, okay? So, you know, most likely this is going to happen sometime in the very beginning of the Daniel 70th week. It's interesting how this is worded, how long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, notice this, and the transgression of desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot. Why is this being trodden underfoot? Well, think about this. Jesus Christ is the lamb of God. He was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He's the one that gives us forgiveness of sins. So if I take an animal and I offer it on an altar, what I'm doing is I'm replacing Christ with that animal. And that's really what the definition of anti-Christ means. It's in place of Christ. So when I take an animal sacrifice and I'm offering it, I'm really fulfilling the anti-Christ spirit by basically rejecting the Christ of the Bible and replacing it with an animal. And then that animal sacrifice is there to represent that they don't believe the Messiah has come because the Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah. I've listened to plenty of Jews. They all say the same thing. Hey, your person, your figure is not the Messiah. We reject him. We're awaiting our Messiah. So they're going to start that sacrifice system, and at the midpoint, the anti-Christ is going to die, rise again, and he's going to say, I am the God Almighty. I am that Messiah. I am that Christ. And he's going to cause the sacrifice to end, because the sacrifice is supposed to end as soon as the Messiah shows up. Why is the sacrifice then stopped all the way up to this point? Because obviously God forced his hand and caused it to stop and destroyed Jerusalem in 7080, and we've had that long period of time. But the anti-Christ is going to stop that particular sacrifice, but then he himself is going to declare that he's God, fulfilling the ultimate anti-Christ spirit, being in the place of Christ. So that whole period, the 2300 days, is just an entire time of blasphemy, an anti-Christ spirit, rejection of God, and they're trotting underfoot, the sanctuary and the holy place, and they're rejecting the God of the Bible. And so it's a very extreme time. And notice the sanctuary is going to then be what? Cleansed. So it makes sense that this angel is proclaiming with this loud voice, hey, there's going to be time no more. What time no more? This time. This 2300 days of blasphemy, an anti-Christ spirit, this rejection of the God of the Bible, that that is going to cease, that is going to end, and we're going to usher in the millennial reign of Christ. So we're no longer going to have this anti-Christ, this Christ-rejecting religion, and the anti-Christ spirit. We're rather going to have the real thing come in. And so that kind of really makes sense as to why this is being proclaimed. It makes sense that it would be someone like Michael, because Michael's throwing the devil out of heaven, and then the devil's going to be thrown out of the sanctuary into where? Into the lake of fire, okay? Where the beasts of the false prophet are. I'm sorry, he's going to hell. I said that wrong. But the beasts of the false prophet are going straight into the lake of fire. The devil's going into hell for a thousand years, but essentially they're being locked up, chained up, discarded for this period of time. And so it makes sense that it would be someone that's similar. In Daniel chapter 12, the guy that did the same function was not Michael, but it could be maybe the same guy. Maybe it's the same guy in Daniel chapter 12, is the same guy in Revelation chapter number 12. But this is someone that's of significance, a mighty angel, probably an archangel, if I had to guess. Go back, if you would, to Revelation chapter number 10. And it's interesting that when we get to verse 7 now, it says, But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. So, you know, right now we still kind of live in a timeline where there's a mystery of God. Like, we don't really necessarily, we can't see Jesus, we can't see God. A lot of things that we do are by faith. But in the millennial reign of Christ, Jesus will literally be on earth. He can literally be seen. He's going to be ruling and reigning with us. And the Bible even talks about the fact that the knowledge of him is going to be everywhere. There's not going to be a lack of knowledge of who God is anymore. There's not this real mystery anymore. It's just Christ ruling and reigning on the earth, and it's evident. It's just obvious that Christ is there. And even though Christ is there, it doesn't mean that everyone is still going to automatically believe in him. Still get the battle of Gog and Magog at the end. But it just, there's no longer this mystery of who Jesus is, or where is he, or any of this kind of stuff. All of that has been fulfilled, and many places in the Bible it points to this. Look at verse 8. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again said, Go and take the little book which is open, and the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it and eat it up. And it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it up. And it was in my mouth sweet as honey, and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples and nations and tongues and kings. So the Bible is talking about this angel having a little book. I think that this little book represents the book of Revelation. And it represents this portion of scripture. This portion of scripture was given to John. If you go back to Revelation chapter 1, just look at verse 1. Revelation 1 verse 1. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John. So the way that this is even given is Jesus is giving this to an angel and then the angel is giving it to John. Now the angel mentioned here in Revelation chapter 1 I believe is distinct from the angel in Revelation chapter 10. But it's the same concept of an angel being given the Bible and then the Bible or the word of God and then the word of God being delivered to the man of God. And we see him eating it, consuming it, putting it into his heart, putting it into his mind. And you know we as God's servants need to digest the word of God. We need to read it. The Bible constantly says blessed is he that readeth in this particular portion of scripture. And it's also blessing to those who keep the sayings of this prophecy. Notice that eating it is bitter and sweet. This is kind of just to also signify how the Bible is. Go if you would to Ezekiel chapter number 3. I just want to go to a few more places and we'll finish on this point. But go to Ezekiel chapter number 3. The Bible constantly refers to itself as something that needs to be eaten. You know the manna from heaven was obviously bread that we ate but it was supposed to signify us reading the Bible. That was the picture. Jesus Christ is the word of God. He even said they were supposed to eat his flesh. And that's to signify us trusting on the Lord Jesus Christ, believing the scripture. You know the Bible is described as something that's in our heart, being sown. You know just like we bury something in the earth. You know we are dirt. And it's like the word of God coming in us is that seed that's planted in the dirt. We're the literal dirt folks. And you have that water. It's the dirt in the water that gives the seed the sprouting. And you know there's just a lot of the symbolism in the Bible that represent literal things too. But that symbolism is important that we digest the word of God. That we read the Bible. That that's going to bear the fruit in our lives. Other men of God are told to eat the Bible. Look at Ezekiel chapter 3 verse 1. Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest. Eat this roll and go speak unto the house of Israel. Now when I say roll, I think about the rolls that my wife makes. And they are delicious. Okay. You definitely want to eat them. But the roll here is talking about a scroll or really a word of God. So he was eating a Bible here. Verse 3 and he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness. Notice in the mouth the taste of it is good. It doesn't really describe how it is in the belly. But Ezekiel, do you think it's a really positive book of the Bible? It's a pretty negative book. And even for Ezekiel specifically. I mean we call it Ezekiel bread for a reason. Okay. It's not necessarily the pleasant stuff that you want to eat. Ezekiel has to go through a lot of difficulties, a lot of personal tribulations. Jeremiah similar. Go to Jeremiah chapter 15. Go back a little bit further. Jeremiah chapter 15. And this is what we have to realize is that the Bible is always sweet to the taste. We love the Bible. But some of the messages of the Bible are bitter. And the bitterness is the fact that it's a negative message. The bitterness is the fact that people are going to suffer. The bitterness is the negative reality of God's word. You know, we love the sweetness of the Gospel. You know there's a bitterness to the Gospel too, isn't there? The fact that few are saved. Isn't that kind of bitter? It's bittersweet in the sense that, hey, I'm glad I'm saved and I'm going to heaven. But it's bitter when I think about people I love that won't get saved. It's bitter when I think about people that don't want to believe the Gospel. Or people that have even died that I know that haven't believed the Gospel. And it's very bitter for them. Look at Jeremiah chapter 15 verse 16. Thy words were found and I did eat them. And thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart. For I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. So notice he also was eating the words of God. Go over to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. That's the last place I'm going to turn. You know there's another parallel. I don't want to go there for the sake of time. But there's an interesting parallel in the law. Where a woman, if she was suspected of committing adultery. That her husband would cause her to drink a special potion. Maybe that's not the right word. Especially some bitter waters as the Bible describes it. That the priest or the man of God had proclaimed a curse on. That the man of God proclaims a curse on bitter water. And essentially makes this woman drink this bitter water. And if she's found guilty, then she ends up receiving a horrible curse. Her belly and her thigh, her belly swells and her thigh rots as the Bible describes it. Whereas if she was faithful and was innocent, then the Bible says that she conceives. And that there's kind of a blessing. And it kind of just signifies how the Bible is. That the Bible, unto those who are righteous, it's a blessing. But those who are wicked, it's a curse. So it's the same water. It's the same message. It's the same exact thing. But you know what? It's you that's the difference. Right? It's not like, well, why does this person get saved and the other person doesn't? It's not the message. It's the same gospel. It's the same cure. We all have the same opportunity. The difference is the person, how they receive it. And of course for that woman, in order for her to not be cursed, she had to be perfect. She had to be spotless. She had to have no blemish. And that's impossible for us as mankind. So the only way that the Word of God is sweet unto us is because we have the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ unto us so that we don't have that curse upon us. But you know what? The Word of God is a curse to those who don't believe in Jesus Christ. Now, 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 is describing the return of Jesus. I want to read in verse 4, So that we ourselves glory in you and the churches of God for your patience and faith and all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure, which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which ye also suffer, seeing it as a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you. 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 our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe because our testimony among you was believed in that day. Powerful section of scripture. Notice, first of all, those who are not punished are those who believe. It doesn't say those who are penitent of their sins. It doesn't say those who live better lives. It doesn't say those who endured unto the end. It says those who believed. Notice why. Notice this. Because our testimony among you was believed in that day. It's like pointing back to a pastime event. Being like, hey, there was a day when you believed the gospel and that's the reason why you're here. That's the reason why you're admiring Jesus Christ. And notice that when Jesus Christ comes, some people admire it. Other people are going to be torched by it. Notice the opposite reaction. You know, it's going to be pleasant unto us. It's going to be sweet unto us. It's going to be honey unto us, but it's going to be bitter unto them. And, you know, he's telling John, you need to preach this again to a lot of people. It's interesting that this angel had his foot on the ground and had his foot on the sea, almost indicating that this message needs to travel land and sea. And the gospel message really does need to go to Fiji. It really does need to go to Australia. It really does need to go to the Philippines, and to Africa, and to Asia, and to Europe, and to Canada, and to South America, and to all parts of the earth. We need to preach the Word of God. You know what, hey, it's going to be honey for us, but it's going to be bitter for a lot of people. But, you know, at the same time, you know, we're supposed to just preach the same message. I don't have a unique message to the lower half of the world. You know, the bottom half of the world is experiencing summer right now. I'm envious of them, okay? But, I don't have a unique message for you. You know, there is multiple ways of heaven. There's one. It's just believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And because you believe that day, that's the reason why you're saved. That's the reason why you're going to be redeemed. And, you know, we're going to admire Jesus Christ when He comes, and He destroys all of these other people. But, you know, even that particular situation, we're going to be admiring Christ, but it's still going to be bitterness in the sense that we're watching a lot of people being destroyed, and the destruction, and the evil that's coming upon them. And, you know, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come under repentance. God wants everyone to be saved. But there will come a point when it's too late, and He will destroy them with fiery indignation. Notice when it says, take inflaming fire, taking vengeance on them. He's very angry at their rejection, at their rebellion. It even says in chapter number 2 that, in verse number 11, And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure and unrighteousness. Notice again, why is it that people don't get saved? Because they believed a lie. They believed Hinduism. They believed Islam. They believed Mormonism. They believed lordship salvation. They believed Catholicism. They believed a lie. Notice the reason why people aren't saved, because they believe lies. The reason why people are saved is because they believe the gospel. Right? They believe the truth. Look at verse 12. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure and unrighteousness. The reason why someone is dead is because they believe not the truth. And it's our job, it's our goal in life to spread the truth, to spread the gospel, to go out and contend with people. You say, why do you go out and run into people and try to get them to stop being a Catholic? So they'll stop believing the lie and they'll believe the truth. Why do you contend with the Orthodox? Don't they love Jesus? No! They're not saved. Why do you contend with the Pentecostal? He's not saved. Why do you contend with the Muslim and the Hindu? They have their God. Yeah, but their God's a lie. And they're damned. And we need to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And you know what? It's a bitter message because many people won't be saved. But you know what? It's sweet to us and it's sweet to them that we'll get saved. And we need to take the good with the bad. And we need to deliver the truth. And let's just be real. For you to get people saved, you have to recognize that they're not saved. I mean, you're not going to preach the gospel to someone you believe is saved. I mean, how many of you in here are constantly trying to get other people in this room saved? Like, after the service, how many of you are going to go up to Ben and try to get him saved tonight? You're not. Why? Because you don't think that he's unsaved. And if you do, you probably stay away from him, okay? People in this room you don't think are saved, you're probably like, that guy's a rapper. You're probably still not preaching the gospel, right? So in order to get someone saved, what do you have to do? You have to perceive that they're not saved. But you know what? That actually is bitter for a lot of people. You're telling me that my dad isn't saved? Who goes to the Catholic Church? Yeah, he's not. You're saying that my mom who's orthodox isn't saved? Yeah, she's not. You're telling me that my grandpa who was a preacher his whole life and is dead is in hell? Yeah. Isn't that kind of bitter? Isn't there some bitterness to that? And isn't it a little bit bitter when you kind of start thinking about maybe your upbringing and family members and things that are going out there? You know, in order to get people saved, you have to recognize the truth so that you can help people stop believing in lies. And even if, even if your family member is burning in hell right now, you know what? They're wanting you to get saved. I ran into a guy and he was just like, well, if I'm going to hell, I want my whole family to go with me. Me and Jornelle were talking to this guy, he was like, what a weirdo. He's like, if I'm going to hell, my cousin will go to hell with me. And I'm thinking like, what a selfish prick. You know, what a jerk. But you know, in order to recognize that someone needs a gospel, you have to recognize that the vast majority of this world is not saved. That bitterness of what the truth of the gospel is. And we have to open up our mouths boldly and make known the mystery of the gospel. We have to recognize that there are people in this world that live in these distant places that live in the Bahamas, that live in Fiji, that live in the Philippines, that they're not going to get saved unless we go. And you know what, that's a bitter message for some people. I mean, you know, I praise God for people like Evangelist Urbanic and people like Pastor Stuckey. But if you told me, Pastor Shelley, you have to sell all your possessions and move to the Philippines, that would be very bitter. That would be very bitter in my wife's belly. Very. And I'm not talking about the food, literally, okay? You know, just going over there, I got sick and I was told, everybody, like, don't drink the water, you know. I mean, you go over there and you're going to get sick probably, for sure. You're going to live in poverty. But you know what, why would someone do that? Because of the sweetness of the honey of the word of God and getting people saved and the gospel message. You know, why is it that people travel in this world? You know, you might get mad at your husband for traveling to go on a soul wedding missions trip, but you know what? Who's going to give those people the gospel? And don't tell me you, God's going to reward you for staying home and staying by the stuff and staying with the kids. You know, I praise God that my wife is very encouraging to me when I travel to go out and preach the gospel. You know, and she's not like that naturally. She would love for me to just never leave, okay? Not even for work. But at the end of the day, you know, sometimes we got to do what we have to do. And if we care about the gospel message, we have to take the bitter with the sweet. I mean, the disciples, they traveled everywhere. You don't think that was hard? The apostle Paul traveled everywhere. You don't think that was hard? You don't think it's hard for him to reject his entire upbringing and to count it all but dung that he may win Christ? You don't think it's going to be difficult when you lose friendships and jobs and houses and lands and you have to forsake all these different things for the gospel? You know what? Jesus Christ said he'll reward you a hundred times, a hundred fold in this life and the next. And we have to take the bitter with the sweet. We can't just take only the good from the Bible and just say, Well, I love John 3.16. That's the only verse I'll ever remember in my life. No, we need to also take Mark 16, 15. Gilly in all the world and preach the gospel of your creature. We also need to take Revelation chapter number 10 that says, Hey, you need to still prophesy again to many peoples and tongues and nations and kings. You need to get out there and you need to do the work, John. You need to preach the word of God. And you know what? We need many men, women and children to dedicate their lives to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. You want to change America? It's not voting for Trump over Haley, okay? It's not voting for DeSantis, that's for sure. And it's definitely not voting and getting it switched to Biden. That will really not help America, okay? What's going to help America and the world? The gospel of Jesus Christ. And getting people saved and getting them fired up to do something for God and dedicating their lives. You know, I love the fact that we have children getting involved in our music ministry and that we have children that are excited about going soul winning. You know, it gives me hope for the future that we have young people getting plugged in and thinking about things of God rather than concerned about money and this life and becoming the next Tiger Woods or whatever. You know, I wish that when I was a young kid I put more effort and energy into being a Christian than being some professional athlete. Than wasting my life trying to be something that I couldn't even be anyways. And we need to take this seriously. Oh, you're telling me I'm going to have to sacrifice and give up things. Yeah, there's some bitterness. But you know what, there's also a lot of sweet. And you know, who's ever going to lose his life for the gospel and for Jesus Christ's sake is going to find it. But let us be the ones that lead the example. Let us be the bright and shining light. Let us motivate others to do something big for God so that we can have great reward in heaven. And that as many people as possible can share in the honey of the gospel and not the bitter. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us the gospel and giving us this word of God. I pray that we would eat it, that we consume it, we'd meditate upon it, that we'd take it seriously. And as we know that there's going to be some bitterness to the word of God that sometimes we're going to have to make sacrifice. Sometimes we're going to have to be persecuted. Sometimes we're going to have to give up things. Sometimes we're going to have to just witness destruction and death and evil upon those who hate the Bible. I pray that we would accept all of it. That we'd eat all of it. That we would embrace all of it. And that we'd take seriously the job that you've given us. We would take the opportunity to get people saved seriously. And that we would really think hard about those who need the gospel. And that we would be willing to accept the truth so that we could give them a way to heaven. Amen. All right, closing. Let's go to song number four hundred and seventy two. Song number four hundred and seventy two. This is my father's world. Song number four hundred and seventy two. This is my father's world. Everybody sing it out together on the first. This is my father's world and to my Nature Oh This is my father's Acres brings He shines in all that's there Slinggrass I hear him This is my father's Oh I shall be satisfied Great singing You