Avoid His Wrath, Keep His Commandments — Shane Idleman

Keeping God’s Commandments as Evidence of Repentance

We are in Revelation 14. The title of the message, Avoid His Wrath, Keep the Commandments. Avoid His wrath, keep His commandments. If you're just hearing that and you're about ready to tune us out later on radio or social media, do not tune us out because this is so important.

We don't avoid God's wrath by keeping His commandments. Wait a minute, your title says that. Well, we're going to get into Scripture in a minute. Keeping His commandments are a reflection of what is in your heart.

So we avoid His judgment by keeping His commandments, and keeping His commandments flow from a right relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. You cannot know Jesus Christ and not keep God's commandments.

Thank God I didn't say perfectly. But a true believer, when he breaks the commandments or the heart of God, have you felt that before? There's something... I've got to repent. And that's a good feeling.

If people are sorry, not just sorry, tears, but genuinely repentant, they realize I don't want to keep breaking God's heart. That's why people in addictions, we had Teen Challenge Choir here Wednesday night.

I thought it was incredible. I don't want to rub it in, but you should have been here. We're going to have them out again. And I encourage a lot of kids, even adults caught in an addiction, that that isn't necessarily a mark of a person going to hell.

If they keep struggling, they keep falling. Now, I'm not giving permission to sin, but the reason drunkard, homosexuality, adultery, all that, Paul says, and such were some of you. It's when the lifestyle is embraced and I'm not repentant, that's when it's very dangerous.

I don't care. I don't care what God's Word says. I was born this way, and I'm going to enjoy it until the day I die. Versus the person saying, I know I talked about this last Sunday, but it's so important.

The person saying, Lord, I fell again. Please help me. I'm caught. I need help. God, I love You. I want to keep serving You. I can't keep falling. God, please help me. You see, big difference, isn't there?

One's in rebellion. One's struggling. Help. Help, Lord. That's a prayer He answers. That's why Paul said, and such were some of you. But let's catch up before we get to Revelation 14. We talked about the tribulation.

The Tribulation and the Day of the Lord

Big topic right now, isn't it? The tribulation is Jacob's distress in Jeremiah. It's the 70th week of Daniel. It's the tribulation of Matthew 24. It's the day of the Lord and first Thessalonians and second Thessalonians.

So the Bible uses different times in Scripture to really get the point across that there is a day of tribulation coming. And some of you are here for your first time. You can go back and listen to other messages where I talk about the different views on the book of Revelation.

Did you know there's different views? Yes, there are. I didn't know that when I first came back to the Lord. I'm like, was taught a certain way, and that's what I thought was the way, the truth, the life.

Nobody comes through into Jesus Christ unless they believe my exact eschological position, my view on eschatology. And it's not the case. There's different views. And I've talked about those, so I don't want to go into the different views, but we're catching up.

The first angel was proclaiming the eternal gospel last week. So this angel's proclaiming the gospel to all who are on the earth. And then the second angel, he talked about the fall of Babylon the great.

And then the third angel, what was that one? Anyone who worships the beast and takes his mark will encounter God's wrath eternally. Because that mark is something that marks you, either worshiping God or worshiping Satan.

Revelation 14 and the Reformation

And it's an interesting fact I want to share with you. How many of you read Matthew Henry? His commentary? It was written in 1706. This is what he said about Revelation 14. He said, Revelation 14 is about the progress of the reformation appears to be set forth here.

In other words, he viewed Revelation 14 as what happened during the reformation that he's talking about. 1517, Martin Luther nails his 95 thesis on the church doors in Wittenberg, Germany, challenging the Roman Catholic Church to all these false doctrines.

So these early commentators would actually link this up with the Roman Catholic Church, the papacy. That's what they thought and the parallels are amazing that they draw in. And again, I'm just saying that because it's historical fact, number one.

Number two is we love Catholics. I was raised Catholic. There's going to be Catholics in heaven. I'm getting controversial. There's going to be Presbyterians. There's going to be Methodists. There's going to be Pentecostals, I think.

There's going to be conservative Baptists because it's not the denomination. It's what you've done with Jesus. Now my question is to Catholics is how can you stay in a system that is totally blasphemous on many different levels?

That's between them and God. And I've talked to them, I just want to like Martin Luther, I'm trying to just stay there, make a difference if I can. But at some point, you got to realize that structure you're over is very unhealthy and very dangerous.

Enduring Tribulation and Keeping the Faith

And tribulation will no doubt increase before this great day of tribulation. Correct? For Christians? I mean, just look at anybody well-known trying to stand up for the truth. Or not even well-known.

Anybody that's trying to make a difference. The guy who's exposing Planned Parenthood. Have you ever followed his videos? I think he's in California. He had to go through a major lawsuit, still in it, could possibly face jail time for exposing the unfruitful works of darkness.

So there is tribulation here on earth. And then Revelation 14 is where we left off. Verse 12, and this is where the message came from. Here is the patience of the saints. Here is the patience of the saints.

Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. So these who persevere, the true saints of God, they are those who keep the commandments. And again, works do not save us, but they do reflect us.

They reflect the true condition of our heart. Works do not save us. You don't have to put up your hand, but a lot of times, I talk to people who think their works do save them. Well, how exactly do you know?

They don't come out and say that exact wording, but what they'll say is something like this. Man, when I get to heaven, I sure hope God sees all the good things I did. Mm-hmm, you're being misled. He won't see all the good works you did.

Now, that's for the bema seat or the judgment seat of Christ where our works are judged, but in front of God as a final judgment, there's not a scale. And you'll see many religions live like that, I believe, from Islam to even the Mormon church down the street.

You have to follow their rituals. You have to be part of that church. There's no salvation outside of a certain church. Even Roman Catholicism was works-based. You have to do these works. And a portion of the Bible there, James, I believe it was, it talks about without works, faith is dead.

And many of you, you've read that. Basically, he's saying, show me your faith by your works, and I'll show you my works by my faith. And basically, James was saying that your faith is going to be reflected in your works.

So Martin Luther didn't like that book of the Bible. It's a scorn. It should be removed because of how the Roman Catholic church used it to support that works do save you. And it makes sense, right? If we're not trusting in Jesus, we've got the internal alarm clock going on, the conscious bearing witness of us, whether doing good or doing bad.

Read Romans 1. And so we think, okay, if I'm just doing these good things, but doing these good things do not save us. So what's the next portion here? Let's look at this. Keep, and this is why this is so important, even for young adults to understand this.

Keeping the Course Through Repentance

Keep my commandments. And Jesus actually says, those who keep my commandments, if they don't, they don't love me. And this passage says, these are the true saints of God who keep my commandments. Keep his commandments.

That word keep is the same word that a ship's captain would keep to reach his destination. So when they sail from New York to England, do you think they do a straight, perfect line? No, never, ever. What happens?

Gale force winds. Something breaks maybe. Or there's a drift. Anybody drift? Do you know that that famous song came from a drift? Prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the Lord I love. Here's my heart, take and seal it.

Seal it in Thy courts above. Can we just be honest? Anybody ever feel that prone to wander? I'm doing so good. This is so great. And then the old Shane comes out. Or the old Chris, Mike, Steve, Pat, Dorothy, Nicole.

I can keep going. Morgan, Aubrey, Abram, Erica. Right, you're doing, Layla, you're okay? But then prone to wander. But what am I going to do? No. Back to the Lord. And some people, that's why we have to have a lot of grace.

Some people wander a lot more than you. Will this work out? You ready? See you guys. Abram, take over. But still, there's still hope for me. Right? There's still hope for me. I didn't wander as far as you did.

But we need to start having more grace I think in this area. Not excusing sin, but some people wander. But even in that wandering state, they're miserable. Have you ever wandered? It's not fun. The prodigal son was eating with the pigs.

And he came to himself and he ran back home to the Father. And so a true believer, I believe, will always have that conviction in the Holy Spirit. They'll be yearning. They'll wake up the next morning and say, Lord, what have I done?

Please forgive me. Help me. Can we be honest? Anybody relate? Nobody's ever woke up in the morning and said, please, Lord, help me. Help me not to do that again. See, they want to keep the course. They want to keep the course.

They might say something and feel bad about it. But they want, oh, that was wrong. That was wrong. Oh, Lord, please forgive me. It's funny, it just happened the first service. Our sound went out, so I was a little irritated.

Right? Madeline's texting me. The usher's telling me I got it. And the usher came up and he goes, hey, the sound's out. I'm like, I know, you're the third person to tell me this. And after the service, I'm like, man, I'm so sorry.

You caught me at a bad time. But see, I'm like, oh, that didn't work. See, you're going to keep, even though you drift off course, don't act like you guys don't do stuff like that. I mean, I've seen it.

I have seen it firsthand. I've seen people in the grocery stores, they don't even know that I'm there. I walked in two weeks ago to Sprouts and Lancaster, and there's Abram in line. I hear him talking to the cashier.

Do you remember I text you later and say, were you at Sprouts today? I'm like, just going to want to see. I live in a fish bubble, so do you now. Or my favorite one, I'm walking in, and people see me, like, oh, hey, Pastor Sham.

I say, oh, it's okay, you can still keep looking at the Budweiser, Coors Light. I mean, you don't have to, like, because you know right, they're talking, like, that would be good, six pack of IPA. That was, oh, hey, how's it going?

Hey, we're just, it was air conditioning. Or when they're grocery shopping, they're pushing the cart, like, oh, hi, it's good to see you. We'll see you Sunday. Isn't it? Captain Crunch, Donuts, Pringles, and then I love when my wife does, hey, Doritos, but they're the organic Doritos.

Let me tell you, that doesn't mean much. What was that all about here? Where are we? Oh, yeah, so at least you'll keep, right, you'll keep the course. You keep, you mess up, but you want to get back on track.

Rebellion, Sin, and the Evidence of Faith

The world, the world just, I don't care. I don't care. I don't care if there's a God, and this is why when I teach on this topic, it's so important because many people struggle with sin, but they don't want to live there.

And so that's why when Paul said, neither fornicators, sex outside of marriage, neither idolaters, committing adultery, even in your mind, you're hooked to porn all the time, committing adultery, and this is going to be outlawed at some point, so I might as well say it.

Idolaters, idolatry, homosexuality. Paul said it. It's clear in the Bible. But then he goes on to say, such were some of you. So here's the person in sexual sin. I don't care what God says. I could care less.

It's how I was raised. It's how I was born. I don't care. Rebellion. Or you have the person, Lord, I don't want to keep falling in this area. I need help. Where are these desires coming from? What's this temptation?

Lord, why am I tempted like this? What's wrong with me? I can't go. God, please help me. Big difference. One's going to heaven because their Savior is holding them together. The other is hell-bent. They are hell-bent and they are on their way to hell because they are rejecting God.

So the works don't necessarily send the person to hell. The rejection of God does, and the works are just an outflow of a corrupt heart. Their marriage, their relationship with others, the church, it must be the church's fault.

Things get difficult and challenging, and that's what we test our faith. Now, I'm not saying that's not easy. I get a little irritated too. Let that be a surprise to you. Tribulation, I do not like it.

It will challenge my faith as well. Fear, things aren't going, it challenges our faith. There's nothing wrong with questions. It's what you do with those questions. It's not wrong to be tempted with something, tempted with doubt.

It's what you do with the doubt. That really tilts the scale. So, if it's not based on what's happening to me, it's not based on my feelings, it's not based on circumstances, it's only based on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ.

You want solid faith? You've got to build upon Him and His teaching and the relationship with the Word of God, but also with the Word, literally, Jesus. If I'm building on that foundation, here comes a storm.

Well, I'm on the foundation. It's not contingent upon a storm not coming. It's no matter. That's why Job could say, though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. That's why Paul could say, what can separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus?

Neither height nor depth, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things to come. Nothing, not even a creative being, can take away the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. So Paul went through hell and he's experienced heaven.

It doesn't matter what's happening to you. It matters what's happening within you. Is your life built on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ? Stop playing games. I'm tired of people playing games with God.

Fully surrender your life. Stop playing these silly games with God. If you do this, or if you do that, or if my... I remember one gentleman, because God didn't repair his marriage, he's not coming anymore.

Couldn't that be why he didn't repair your marriage? Could it be that you chose plan B and got hooked up with someone? I can get real. The complaining and the bickering at God has to stop in order for you to truly, truly experience a foundation that will never crack and never crumble.

Be thankful. Thankful. I'm trying every day now, I'm gonna try to do a hundred of them if I can think of a hundred. On Facebook, why I love California. And it drives people bonkers. I moved because of this.

I don't care why you moved. I'm just telling you why. My goodness, are you that convicted? That's all it is. Why I love, my kids are here. My parents raised me here. They're buried here. This and this, and just reminding God, thankful, thankfulness, thankfulness, thankfulness.

Build on the foundation. Perseverance is so important, isn't it? Actually, many of you, you've heard of Calvinism, correct? One of their main points, which I actually agree with, number five, point number five is perseverance of the saints.

That's how they end their tulip. Total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and the true saints of God will persevere. In my opinion, how I read Scripture. I'm not gonna go into all the details on that, but it's a fruit of genuine faith.

And it really affects all areas of life, doesn't it? Perseverance. I'm not gonna recommend this. You don't have to put up your hands, but how many of you watch Joe Rogan sometimes? Oh, you didn't have to put up your hands, but you did.

Okay. And I know there's more. But anyway, a friend of mine, actually a pastor, sent me a clip, no cussing on it, not all that. His name is Kevin James. Remember him, the mall cop? You know, and that guy, he's in other movies and things.

But he was on just recently, and he did a 40-day fast, lost all this weight, and he just admitted, I got it all back. I don't know what to do. And it's just so, you know, I do good for a while. Perseverance.

Because when it comes to health and fitness, it can't be a diet. A 30-day diet's not gonna change my lifetime struggle. It's perseverance. It's getting back up. It's falling forward. It's getting back on track.

Perseverance. Ask any CEO of a company if they had to persevere. Any moms out there, did you have to persevere through parenting? Perseverance, perseverance. And the reason I'm saying that and stressing it so much is because I see in the American culture, we have really dumbed down biblical attributes.

Haven't we? Especially in men. Men are becoming more feminine. I'm gonna research this. I wanna research it before I share it with you, but I can't now, so the cat's out of the bag. And I found some links.

Cultural Influences and Biblical Principles

Do you know some of the billionaires who are investing in influencing our kids to become transgender are actually, many of them Chinese, billionaire investors. The Chinese do not allow anything to be posted where a man is a woman.

Anything at all. Nothing. Yet they come here, and any guess where TikTok is? Who owns that? You know that? And you don't think there's, some of the books on war, they say if you can just change the internal of the beliefs of a nation, you don't even have to go to war with them.

So I truly believe, whether it's the enemy of our soul, of course, there's an assault against these biblical principles. Billions of dollars are invested because influence matters, right? That's why they call them social media influencers.

They influence you. I tell my little kids, why are you watching a video that has six million views and all they're doing is building a house and knocking it down? Oh, but it's fun. That's stupid. That's silly.

I don't tell them that, okay? But it's like, guys, he's a social media influencer. I don't care. He did something stupid. He drank Drano, and now he's got a million followers on TikTok. You don't have to follow these people.

And so they use these social media ways to, look, I was born this way. When I grew up, I didn't know anybody that wanted, now they call it gender identity and all that. Is it a real problem? Of course, just like any other sin.

But you point them to the hope. You don't keep validating their sin. That doesn't help anybody. Why suicide an epidemic? Why are these people taking their lives? I have no joy. I have no peace. I'm a girl and I feel trapped.

Okay, let me just give you 100 milligrams of testosterone seponate every week. And then you'll be a boy and you'll feel better. And let's remove your breasts and let's do some surgery. No, you won't feel any better because you're still not pointing them to the hope that is in Christ.

That's the only hope for our nation. Come on, we've got to wake up folks. And we got to shoot people straight. We got to tell them the truth about what really gives you hope and peace. Changing your gender does not give you hope and peace.

And so these biblical principles, right? That are so important. Character, honesty, integrity, hard work, perseverance. They're all being removed, removed from our culture. 1 John 2, the NLT, I'm reading from the NLT.

It's more of a commentary on the Bible. They said this, and we can be sure. When the Bible says you can be sure, we can be sure that we know Him if we obey His commandments. Now be careful, there's something out there called the modern day Pharisee.

And when it's too much about works and they're all about what I do and what I obey, you got to be careful of those people. Aren't they critical? Those critical hearts? I mean, to be honest with you guys, I pray all the time, Lord, don't have me be too honest because I want to be honest.

Transparency is a better word because people use it against you. So I don't like my wife posting a lot of stuff on anything because people are like, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. Is that a TV in the background with Frozen on it?

Your kids are watching Frozen? I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it. And I will say, no, let's get something better on. But if something happens to happen like that, that's when the legalistic Pharisees come out.

They just want to pinpoint, pinpoint, no pictures with our address, no pictures with anything. Be careful because these people are ruthless. Ruthless. Do I think people, no, you're magic. And of course not.

But I've seen more kids be led to hell by legalistic parents just as much as compromising parents. Because when you shove God's Word down their throat, they don't want to have anything to do with it. And my kids now will call me, hey, they're going to watch this at this house.

Oh, God. Do I go pick them up? Sometimes. Sometimes they say, no, we don't watch that. Absolutely, we draw the line. But if it's something where, you know, it's not, it's not, it's not, I mean, where do you draw the line?

Some parents draw a stronger line in the sand. I respect that. You know, some parents, mm-mm, nothing. Nothing. Nothing at all. And getting away from screen time is very healthy, very good, I think. But there is a group out there.

You've seen this group, right? Hey, nothing wicked before my eyes. The Bible says it. I don't go to Cinemark and neither should you. You went to the movies? How could you? And the reason I want to get this point across, because people think that obeying, and they're angry when they obey too, aren't they?

You know, that's where that Bible thumping, fire brimstone preaching, it comes out sometimes. I'll be honest with you, but it's not from a legalistic heart. But these people, they just, you can't do this.

You can't celebrate this. You can't go there. You can't, and it just becomes very, very hard to follow the, see, the commandments to me are not hard at all. Now that you live under grace, you actually have a higher responsibility.

Uh-oh, all these grace preachers, oh man, you just live under grace, don't worry about it. No, actually, because I live under grace, I have a more of a responsibility to serve and honor God. I love His commandments, why?

Because they're guardrails through the canyons of life. I like, there's no problem, a believer doesn't. Now, you might not like some of them, right? Hey, forgive your brother. No, not today. Mm-mm, mm-mm, it's not happening.

It's not happening today. The pride in others I can so clearly see. Thank God there's none in me. I'll shoot everybody in this sermon with spiritual bullets. But guys, it breaks my heart to see this. People will lecture me because of my Bible translations.

And we're going to hell because we're not using the King James only. Honest to God. You ever see those guys, I'm getting in trouble, but protesting Grace Fest? Don't try talking to them. I did, they don't want to listen.

You're an apostate, you're a wolf in sheep's clothing. It's a King James only. Well, did you know it had to be translated like 45 different times? Do you know there's still words in there? Go fetch a compass doesn't mean go fetch a compass.

Even the translator said, this is not the perfect translation. These are mere men taking the precious Word of God and putting it in a language that people will understand. William Tyndale, John Hus, Whitecliffe, two of them were burned at the stake for putting that.

And their translation's different. Read the Geneva Bible. Before the King James Bible, read the Latin Vulgate by Jerome. Wow. See, they did the best, but it's that legalistic, arrogant, rigid heart that will not repent.

So be careful. You're not obeying the commandments if your heart's not right. Because if you do something with the wrong heart, Pharisees, correct? Jesus said, do what they say. Because they were saying, but don't do what they do.

Their hearts were wrong. And we can be sure that we do know Christ if we obey His commandment. If someone claims, I know God, but doesn't obey God's commandments, Taylor Swift, Ice Spice, you see her next to her in the football game?

She's doing that devil sign and all that stuff. I don't think it's conspiracy. I think these people are, it's wicked. Wicked, wicked stuff that's going on. Google it later, you'll find it. But and Morgan spoke about her yesterday.

They will release a video to the young girls. We can love somebody, but you still tell people the truth. All these people saying they love God. I was in, when I was in Nashville, Tennessee, I'm like these people like they talk about God real quick, but then go get drunk, cheat on my wife.

My car broke down and my dog left. I'm gonna stop by and get me some more Jack Daniels. And I'll be singing on the way to church. Now I do like Craig Morgans, that's what I love about Sundays, I will say that.

But right, it's like, God, there's a disconnect here. Kanye West, did I pronounce it right? Pretty close, okay. I mean, see, we don't judge people like, oh, but guys, there's gotta be a little bit more fruit than just saying God and then you act like just the devil.

You can't proclaim God and act like the devil and promote things that are devilish. I've heard Katy Perry talk about God. But you see some of her stage performance are clearly satanic. And I just pray for them.

I pray for them. Be very careful what you're allowing to influence you. Again, all this is backed up with the Word of God. And then just on that section, I'll show you too if they ever come in, I'm gonna get these emails.

Judgment, Discernment, and the Falling Away

Who are you to judge? Who are you to judge? Well, actually, you might wanna keep reading that verse because it says as long as I remove the plank from my eye, long as I spend time with God weeping over the sins of others and myself and come broken and humble.

And God, I just wanna help people. And I can rightly judge. Because Jesus goes on to say, we're supposed to rightly judge with the Word. And we allow conviction. I don't wanna hear conviction. Conviction prevents us from not hearing.

Or it allows us to hear better. Lord, I'm convicted, that's wrong, help me. Or convicted, nope. Nope, I'm not gonna listen to that guy. That's for sure. So that, oh wow, that's some pretty strong language, John.

God, couldn't you be a little nicer? That person is a liar and the truth is not living in them. He's not living in, oh, John, come on. Let's, you know, come on. Let's tone it down a little bit. I truly believe over the last decade or so, we have become so weak, so woke.

Don't offend. No, some things need to offend. Some things need to offend and wake us up. Not being mean and of course racist and all these things, but we need to be, wow, did the Bible say I'm a liar?

Is He calling me a liar? Yeah, it is. If you obey His Word but really do not know Him. These people, let's look at 1 John. These people left our churches. Okay, I should clarify, this isn't if you leave church.

What obviously they're talking about is these are the people who left the faith altogether. Brackets mean I added it. But they never really belonged with us, otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.

Now, if a person is coming to church and they just leave the church completely, like I'm done with God, it shows where their heart really was at. And then 2 Thessalonians 2 .3, let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.

Now, if we took time and we maybe will do that in the future, but 2 Thessalonians 2 .4, if you remember, the people are afraid that they missed Jesus' return. How many of you ever, it's hard for me to say.

Let's just say second T. But Jesus, did He already come and we missed it? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, you're not gonna miss it. It's gonna be crystal clear. He wrote this 2 ,000 years ago. So He's saying now, let no one deceive you.

The day will not come. What day is that? Jesus' return. Sometimes the day means the final judgment of God, the final of all things. This day, first there's gonna be a great falling away. And I think we're starting to see some signs of that.

A huge falling away. And you'll see more and more falling away when the heat is turned up. Can you imagine if they initiate a social credit score like China? Did you know that they have that where you can't buy or sell or go on trains unless your social credit score is pretty high?

Well, how do I get it high? You agree with the government. You don't do silly things like believe God. So what about if you, west side, hey, it's coming out, they call it the central bank digital currency that's coming out.

It's just coming. There's no way around it. And you're gonna get this card and it says, oh man, Shane Eidelman, that guy, he's gonna be like a 500 credit score. He's not going anywhere. Because of his sermons, of this, of this.

And you, they don't know a lot yet, but like, oh, did you post that on Facebook? About, you're challenging Biden? We won't be here by then, but you know, there's, oh, you just had 1 ,000. You could go anywhere, great deals on prices, great deal on electronics.

Sometimes you get free flights. Your 1 ,000 just went to 900. You attend west side, you attend a Bible believing church, ooh, now you're down to 700. You see, it's gonna be real quick, really quick what it's gonna take.

You can't go to work. You're a Christian, you can't work here. That's why I'm trying to prepare the church now. You don't get to that stage and get prepared. If you're not prepared now, you will fall later.

Because the foundation, he who ever hears these words of mine and does them, Jesus said, I will liken him to a man who built his house upon the sand, who built his house on a raft on the water, who built his house on the rock.

And when the storm did come, the storm's coming. Isn't it interesting? It's like, why does it say if a storm comes? When it comes, when it comes, it will not fall because it's founded on the rock. And so there will be a great falling away according to Scripture that I believe is still coming.

And then the man of sin has revealed the son of perdition. Most people think obviously that looks like to be a one world leader. And it's so easy to see how things are going in that position. AI alarms me.

I don't know about you, but AI is, there's some good things it does. Take my sermon and break it down into a manuscript real quick. But on the flip side, there's many, many things that will not be good.

So we need to be prepared as a church, not scared, but prepared. And how you do it is you actually say, Lord, I don't know what my credit score is gonna be, but I can't like Job, though he slay me, yet I trust him.

Lord, I need to be strategic. I need to maybe buy cryptocurrency or I need to have some silver. I need to have some store. Lord, I want to use wisdom, but I cannot, I cannot bow to this false system. Prepare me now.

Strengthen me now. I just feel for our kids and grandkids. And I keep seeing this thing on social media. I want to post, but I know some of my friends will get mad at me. There's like a 1 .008 chance your kid will end up in the NBA, Major League Baseball, or whatever, 100 chance that they will stand before Christ.

Isn't that true? And it's hard as dads. I know, don't you? You know you want to. I mean, I could build a batting cage in my backyard. I could build a pitching mound. I could go out there five days a week.

I know all the drills, all the things. I can make him really, really good for D1 college and then go to D1 college and lose your faith. However, God might have some kids going to those places. That's why I never draw a hard line in the sand.

I just say, be careful. Be careful. And so there will be a great falling away. The range of the word apostasia, apostasia, it can allow for either type of departure, a doctrinal departure or a physical departure.

The reason I'm saying this is some people think the falling away is the rapture of the church. However, doctrinally, you can look over hundreds and hundreds, there's just no way that means that here in this case.