The Tale of Two Kingdoms

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Don Filcek; Revelation 14 The Tale of Two Kingdoms

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You're listening to the podcast of the Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week,
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Pastor Don Filsak preaches through his series, Thy Kingdom Come, taking us through the book of Revelation.
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Let's listen in. Welcome to Recast Church. Glad to hear everybody talking.
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And we're going to go ahead and get started. So if you could make your way in here and find seats, that would be great. I'm Don Filsak.
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I'm the lead pastor here. I don't know if you remember me or not. I'm glad you're here. And I'm also glad to be back.
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Maybe you don't recognize me with the full beard. I don't know. But really glad to be back from a week of vacation.
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I was actually out two Sundays but took a week off in between there. Was in the office the week before. Had a good time away with my family but really missed all of you while I was gone and always glad to be back here.
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And I am so grateful here at this church to have people like Bill Smith who are willing to preach in my absence, are willing to bring the word of God to bear.
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People who love the word and particularly Bill who is eager for that opportunity. I don't know if you've noticed that the two of us have different style of preaching but I love also what he brings in that regard.
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That you can see that there's not a right and a wrong way to do it. And I just want to say to you that when
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I get a chance to listen to Bill preach by podcast, obviously I don't get to hear him because I'm not here, but we record all of that,
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I get a chance to hear him. And I'm just always encouraged. There's always something from that that either encourages me or challenges me to walk closer with God.
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And so just really grateful for Bill's preaching the last couple of weeks and walking with Jesus, drawing us closer to him.
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So I'm thankful to him. This morning we're going to be diving back into the book of Revelation. When I use the illustration of diving in, whether or not you're able to swim, this is like a shove into the deep end.
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When you get into the book of Revelation, everything really shy of the first three chapters of the book of Revelation is the deep end.
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There's a lot of mysterious symbolism that we see throughout the book. There's a strange use of numbers.
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Those of you that have been around for this series kind of get confused, or those of you who have read the book of Revelation before, has the use of numbers confused you in it before?
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Like is this a literal number? Is it a figurative number and all of that? That's obviously a part of that. And the reality is that some of those confusing symbols are not just confusing, but to our modern ears, some of them are just outright repulsive, right?
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It's not just that they're confusing, like what does it mean, but even just the way that it strikes us on an emotional level.
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When we talk about at the end of our text this morning, hearing the phrase blood running to the height of a horse's bridle for 184 miles, how many of you think that's kind of like gruesome, right?
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Like it's a little bit offensive to our ears. And so we've got to process all of that from an understanding of what it meant in their era to the time here.
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And by the way, some of that's intentional. The scriptures are intentionally shocking us. They're intentionally breaking into our world and our modern niceties and kind of saying, hey, sin is terrible.
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It's a horrible thing. And judgment is real and God's anger and wrath towards sin is going to come to a boiling point at some point in the future.
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And so because of that, we ought to live a certain way in light of that. I'm loving this book and I hope that you are too.
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It's really a challenge for me particularly as I study and I preach and kind of work through it.
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But God has personally been rewarding me with a stronger motivation to fight sin that I see in my life. I hope he's done the same for you as you've been a part of this series.
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And then also to motivate me and move me more out into the community in regard to motivation to reach those who are lost, to reach those who do not have the message of salvation but have really over them a message of judgment that can be brought out from underneath that judgment because of what
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Jesus Christ has done. So in our text this morning, we're gonna be looking at three primary movements. I introduce the text every week.
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And some of you, this is maybe your first time here. I'm not launching right into my sermon. I'm gonna give you a little bit of an introduction. Then the band's gonna come and we're gonna sing some songs and then
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I'm gonna really kind of take this apart. But just to whet our appetite for Revelation chapter 14 this morning.
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Our text has three primary movements that we're looking at. It begins by describing, and I don't do this very often, it's gonna be a three -point sermon.
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And I went ahead and illiterated it as long as I'm doing that. So three points and alliteration.
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The people of the kingdom at the end time. The middle of the text contains the proclamation of the kingdom.
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And that's gonna be one final call for people to run to God for protection. One final shout out of the gospel to the peoples of the world.
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And lastly, we see a very gruesome picture of the purging of the kingdom. So it's people of the kingdom, proclamation of the kingdom, purging of the kingdom.
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And think about it in these terms. When you think in terms of the purging, that's kind of the part that really grabs our attention in this text.
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When I read it, you're gonna go, oh, that's the part that he's talking about. It's about judgment. It's about the end of the world in a reaping that is beyond parallel.
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Something that we won't ever experience until the very end of time. But if you think about it, in order for the new kingdom to come, now remember, there's a new kingdom with a new king.
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Who is the king? Jesus is the king, right? In order for that new righteous king to come in and there to be an actual kingdom with no sin, well, how would we get there?
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To have a kingdom without sin and brokenness requires the absence of all who love sin and hate the king.
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How many of you know that there are people who hate the king? Have you ever encountered someone who hates your king?
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I have. Raise your hand if you've encountered somebody who hates your king. Or how many of you have noticed a love for sin that becomes quite prevalent in our culture but certainly prevalent in our own hearts as well?
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And so the love for sin has to be dealt with and a hatred for the king has to be dealt with.
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And since you and I live in the same world, we might have varying degrees or varying perspectives on the world or even various diagnoses as to what the problems are, but how many of you would identify that there's some problems in our world?
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Anybody here read the news? Anybody paying attention to what's going on around you? If you are, then you have a pretty good idea that we live in a highly divided, sin -saturated, jacked -up world, right?
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How many of you think it's getting messier by the week and the expectation is where's next, right?
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Where is next? And I mean, I don't know about you, but I'm becoming emotionally worn down by the wave after wave after wave.
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How often can you change your profile to match the problems that are going on in the world?
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Your profile pic on Facebook or whatever, social media, and it's like, where's it gonna be next?
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And so we live in this world like that and I think we can all acknowledge that some things are gonna have to go away for there to be a genuinely righteous kingdom, right?
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How do you get from this world that we are in today in 2016 to a place where righteousness, goodness, mercy, and love for all is the norm?
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How do you go from here to there? And it's through the avenue of a very, some difficult passages in the book of Revelation.
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A culling, a breaking down of kingdoms. There are kingdoms that must fall in order for that kingdom to rise.
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How many of you look forward to that kingdom rising? Our own kingdoms must fall in order for that one to rise.
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So as quick as we are to raise our hand to that, recognize that we're talking about our own stuff here, right, the way that we roll, the way that we do things has to bow and be subservient to that ultimate king.
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The purging of the kingdom, though, doesn't come until the world has an offer of repentance.
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God is gracious. In the days that you and I live in, as trying as they can be, as difficult as they can be, as dark as they can be, at the same time, we recognize, and I hope you recognize, that you are living in the days defined by God's patient mercy.
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Why are these things permitted to occur without justice? Why are these things not sewn up and taken care of, these tragedies that we see on the world scene?
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Because God is patient that more might come in, that more might come into his kingdom before that final day.
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And so all of our lives, every breath you have ever taken has occurred in the place of God's patient mercy towards this planet.
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But a day is coming when his judgment will be justly dispensed to everyone who stands against him.
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So let's open our Bibles to Revelation 14, if you're not already there. We're gonna read the entirety of this passage,
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Revelation 14. If you don't have a Bible, I'd encourage you to just please do me a favor, raise your hand. Mike and Mark back here have
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Bibles in their hands, so we just want everybody to have a copy of God's word on their lap so that you can see that throughout the morning, the things that I say are coming from this text, a follow along.
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I'm reading an English standard version, you can follow along in whatever you have there or grab one of those. But Revelation 14 recast, this is
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God's very word. This reveals something to us. It's written to reveal something to us of who God is and who we are.
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And so let's listen in. Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the
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Lamb, and with him 144 ,000 who had his name and his
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Father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder.
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The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. And they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders.
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No one could learn that song except the 144 ,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins.
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It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the
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Lamb. And in their mouths no lie was found, for they are blameless. Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.
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And he said with a loud voice, fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come.
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And worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water. Another angel, a second followed saying, fallen, fallen is
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Babylon the great. She who made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.
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And another angel, a third followed them saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath poured full strength into the cup of his anger.
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And he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the
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Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night.
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These worshipers of the beast and its image and whoever receives the mark of its name. Here, here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.
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And I heard a voice from heaven say, write this. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.
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Blessed indeed says the spirit, that they may rest from their labors for their deeds follow them. Then I looked and behold, a white cloud and seated on the cloud, one like a son of man with a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.
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And another angel came out of the temple calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, put your sickle, put in your sickle and reap for the hour to reap has come for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.
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So he who sat on the cloud swung a sickle across the earth and the earth was reaped. Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven and he too had a sharp sickle.
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And another angel came out of the altar, the altar who has authority, the angel who has authority over the fire and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth for its grapes are ripe.
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So the angel swung a sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God.
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And the wine press was trodden outside the city and blood flowed from the wine press as high as a horse's bridle for 1 ,600 stadia.
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Let's pray as Dave comes to lead us. Father, in the context that we live,
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I know that we are coming from a variety of different responses this week. We've seen tragedy in the news.
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Some of us have even had personal celebration and good things that have happened and there's been a hodgepodge of different experiences.
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Some of us were arguing and fighting with family on the car ride in. Others of us were singing praise songs together.
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Father, it's just a whole lot of different things going on. But Father, I have this one thing that I really believe is true and that is that the evil one would desire to pluck away knowledge of you, would seek to distract us, push us away into other endeavors this morning.
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And I thank you for these who have gathered together in your name. Father, I pray that you would honor us in your presence by,
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Father, giving us knowledge, giving us wisdom, and giving us some motivation, Father. Would you allow this to be so much more than an educational talk on Revelation 14?
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But would you allow this morning to be about moving us in our spirits to draw closer to you in recognition of who you are and what you've done for us?
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Father, as we have an opportunity to sing songs to you, I pray that it would just not be so much more than singing, practicing our vocal chords, but it would be an exercise of worship, of recognizing how glorious you are to sing these songs, recognizing we've never walked alone, we've never been away from you and you are always so close to us.
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And so, Father, as we sing these songs, would you meet us in this place? Would you encourage us?
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And would you send us out from this place with a sense of challenge to live more for you? We ask this in Jesus' name.
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Well, I wanna just start off by saying I'm really grateful for Dave and the ministry that he does here. I don't know about you, when
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I'm on vacation, I enjoy the process. I don't get a chance to visit other churches, so the chance to visit another church.
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But one of the things that I really miss the most about Recast is the worship here. And I don't know if you guys have been to another church, most of you have been to another church, but you have, just don't let me know about it.
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I'm just kidding. I think you can imagine a more flashy, glitzy worship set.
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You can imagine some pyrotechnics and a huge light setup and all that stuff. And I wouldn't challenge you to find that because you could go out and find that easily, but I could challenge you to find something more authentic and true than Dave's heart.
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I work with him and I know his heart and I know he loves Jesus and that shines through. So I just really appreciate
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Dave's ministry to us all. Encourage you to get comfortable this morning and keep your
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Bibles open to Revelation 14 as we're gonna walk through and kinda dissect this passage, pick it apart and see what it has to say to our hearts and what is the implication of this for you and I and where we live.
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Remember, in the process of getting comfortable, if you need to get up and stretch out or get more coffee or juice or donuts, I don't know if there's any left there, but whatever's left, you can check that out and you're not gonna distract me.
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So feel free to get up at any time. But really, our focus is gonna be Revelation 14, trying to keep our attention there for the next half an hour or so.
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And for those of you who like taking notes, let me refresh that outline just for you briefly.
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Verses one through five are gonna show us the people of the kingdom. Verses six through 13 will show us the proclamation of the kingdom.
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And verses 14 through 20 will show us the purging of the kingdom. And the primary reason we start off here in the text, in chapter 14, looking at the people of God, is because a few weeks ago, if you remember where we left off,
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I know that was a while ago, three weeks ago, we left off in chapter 13. And we were left with a picture of the people of Satan.
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And so looking at, remember the people that were marked with 666 on their hand or on their forehead, the number of the beast, the number of the
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Antichrist, his name, something to that effect. And in a strategy to imitate
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God, Satan placed a seal of his Antichrist on the hand or the forehead of the people on Earth as a figurative symbol of his ownership.
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And so again, that's some future event. And whether that's a literal sign or not, we talked about that last week. You can go back and pick up the podcast to hear thoughts on that.
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But remember also that where we left off, Satan was in the pursuit of the people of God on Earth.
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He was heavily pursuing them and seeking their ultimate destruction. And so he raised up a beast out of the sea and a beast out of the
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Earth, the Antichrist, the false prophet. And in the end times, there's gonna be a significant level of persecution against God's people.
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Remember, there were 144 ,000 former Jews who gave their lives to Christ way back in chapter seven of Revelation.
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And they are his witnesses. And they are here on the Earth, even though the church has been raptured to heaven during this time.
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And so there's still a witness that remains here. And they are undergoing persecution. And any that they've led to faith in Christ are going through persecution.
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So what does it look like on the ground at the Earth during this time for anybody who's a believer? It's a pretty ugly picture.
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It's persecution, starvation. You're not allowed to buy or sell during this era without the mark of the beast.
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And so starvation, persecution, martyrdom, being hunted down is kind of the picture. So in that context, verses one through five should be a little bit of a stark contrast.
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In the spiritual realm, what is said of those who are on Earth during that time as followers of Christ looks very different than what it looks like on Earth.
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In other words, the spiritual image that God wants to give us of those people is distinct and quite unique compared to what we actually see really going on on the outside.
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They are targeted by Satan for destruction. But in the spiritual symbolism of verse one, they have their feet solidly planted on God's holy hill,
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Mount Zion. They stand resolute on the hill where the temple of God resided in history. They stand resolutely on the worship of God is what the imagery is that we're looking at here.
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And the beautiful, glorious reality is that while they're standing there, these 144 ,000 sealed by God, His witnesses, being persecuted, being destroyed, being sought after for destruction by Satan and by the evil one and by evil people, they do not stand alone.
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They are not alone. And the description of the people of God here in this first section of text has three main observations that I'd like to point out.
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First, we see that Jesus Christ Himself stands with His witnesses.
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He stands with them. The Lamb of God is in the midst of His witnesses.
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I hope you find that that is a powerful encouragement to know that the risen Lord stands with His people.
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In the tumult, the pressure, the strain of persecution, He is with us. In other words, just like we just sang,
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God's people never, ever, ever walk alone.
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And you, as a follower of Jesus Christ, whatever trials, whatever hardships, whatever difficulties you face, you have never been alone.
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And you will never walk alone in any of it that God sends your way or that the world sends your way or that Satan would even bring to you.
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In the end, I believe, in the end of time, there will be a literal contingent that we're looking at here, these 144 ,000 former
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Jews who now follow Jesus, and they will undergo severe persecution. But they will remain strong to the end and they will be encouraged by the presence of Jesus, just as we ought to receive encouragement by the presence of Jesus in our own trials every day.
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The second observation about the people of God that we see here in the text in verses two and three is that heaven encourages
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His witnesses. Now, verses two and three, there's this weird interaction between heaven and earth about singing a song in this loud song that happens.
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The 144 ,000 witnesses on earth are gonna learn a song from those who are singing in heaven, and they're the only ones who are allowed to learn it.
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The sound is first described as the roar of a waterfall. Any of you ever been to Niagara before? You've heard that roar before?
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But even some smaller waterfalls. Often, we've been taking a vacation every year. We're gonna be going again in August down to the
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Smokies, and my family, we just love to hike and find waterfalls here and there and stuff. Any of you ever been down there?
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Do you know what I'm talking about? And so there's all kinds of trails to hike on and stuff, and some marked and some not very well marked, but if you get a guide for waterfalls, you can go find them, right?
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And there are times where we've been on a trail, and we're getting, we were like, man, we gotta be getting close now, you can hear it, and it's gotta be just around the next bend.
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Well, you come around the next bend, and it's not there, and you're like, well, it's around the next bend, and it keeps getting louder and louder, and it doesn't have to be a huge waterfall, but just the noise, you can hear it for a long ways away even before you get to it.
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And the sound that's described coming out of heaven is like the roar of a waterfall, very loud. The implication is this is a loud praise that is being offered, and then it's also likened to thunder, but then it eases a bit.
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It goes from waterfall to thunder, the crescendo to the sound of harps and singing, and so it begins to make sense to the ear, and it kind of seems like it kind of comes into focus for John as he's writing.
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The symbolism of these two verses demonstrates that those 144 ,000 who witness to the end will be included in the delights of heaven.
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They will be brought into something that you and I can't quite see from where we're at. We can study it, we can believe it, we can trust it, we can hear about it, but we don't quite experience it like they will and certainly not like heaven does yet.
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I think of it this way. Just like the many who sang as the flames lit the wood stacked at their feet in England during the times when it was illegal to own a
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Bible, and they said we will stand on this, and they were killed at the stake, and they sang as the flames were lit.
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Or imagine like Paul and Silas singing in that dark, dank Roman dungeon after with their backs laid bare by the whip and just in this grimy, filthy, rat -infested place.
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They're there in the prison, and what are they doing? Singing, singing praises to the
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Lord Almighty. That's the kind of song that these will learn at the end.
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The great worth of the lamb is never shown brighter than when people love him even more than their comfort, more than life itself, because Jesus Christ is the way.
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He is the truth, and he is the life. And the chorus of heaven is a song we cannot yet sing with full knowledge.
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We can't sing it in complete knowledge yet, but we will be brought into it by knowing the words at least, knowing something of it, and it's a simple new song that goes something,
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I think, like this. He is worth it all. He is worthy of any sacrifice that you will make.
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Now, do you acknowledge that you have to believe that by faith? Do you know that for sure? Well, you can go, yeah, my faith is strong.
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I know, yeah, it's strong. But do you know it? The people in heaven know it, and they're telling it to us.
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They're saying, he's worthy. Whatever difficulty you might face, let me put it, let me lower the bar just a little bit.
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Whatever frustration the gospel might cause between you and a coworker, is he worth it?
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Whatever awkwardness it might cause at a family reunion where God is prompting you and you've got that opportunity to talk to your unbelieving aunt or uncle or brother or sister or mom or dad, and you have that opportunity to bring that, there, the truth there, and is he worth that sacrifice of, man, this could, what if this makes an awkward conversation?
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He's worth our very lives, is the song of heaven. Yeah, he is worthy of anything that you or I would sacrifice for his glory.
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He's worthy of anything that we would give up for him, push aside for him.
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We believe it, we hope for it, and we trust that God is worthy of the sacrifices of this world.
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We don't yet know, but those in heaven teach this new song to the end times witnesses, in essence saying what you endure will be worth it.
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The final observation about the people of God is that his people follow him. His people follow him. Are you following him?
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Bill was talking to us about following him, and it's right here in the text. His people follow him. Look at verses four and five.
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The 144 ,000 witnesses will be, will worship and witness with more than mere words, but they will witness to others with their integrity.
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Their life backs up their claims. Now, some people will say, share the gospel and use words if necessary.
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Well, you have to have words, and you have to also equally have the life, right?
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Man, if you're gonna talk one way, and you're gonna share the gospel like this, and you're gonna be living like the devil over here, man, that's, how many of you know that that produces hypocrites pretty quick?
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They're gonna be like, oh, I'll just follow your example so I can do whatever I want and have Jesus too. Sounds great. So integrity does, indeed, matter in all of this.
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Just as Bill called us to Christlikeness for the past couple of weeks, verse four is also a call.
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These, according to verse four, are men of purity. They have not defiled themselves with adultery or fornication.
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They have, being virgins, they clearly were not married, and therefore, no sexual expression was appropriate for them.
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That's not a popular message in our culture, but that's reality. And they have honored God in their sexuality, according to verse four.
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I would suggest to you that maybe one of the most unfortunately incredible statements in all of Revelation is found here, and I say it kinda tongue -in -cheek, but I mean it sincerely, and it's a little bit gut -wrenching to even say, and it is just that I find it incredibly difficult to imagine being able to find 144 ,000 men at any era that have not defiled themselves with women.
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Do you see that in the text? And yeah, here are 144 ,000 men who are undefiled.
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It's a beautiful thing. They haven't given themselves over to promiscuity.
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They've not given themselves over to adultery or fornication. So why would these men, why would these men here at the end of time, or why would any man, for that matter, surrender what our culture defines as an erotic right?
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I would say, how many of you think that that's becoming increasingly the issue, is that sexual expression is a right in our culture now?
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Do you agree with me on that? Are you seeing that? A right that trumps all other rights is where we're heading, where the ability to express yourself sexually is the ultimate high, it's the ultimate value, and increasingly the ultimate value of our culture.
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I'm not saying it is. I mean, somebody could take that clip out of context, and that would be really bad. You know, what
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Pastor Don said, quoting our culture. Why would they do that, though?
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Why would they surrender what increasingly humanity has always said, man, this is it. This is all that and a bag of chips.
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This is what it's all about. And I think it's because of this beautiful statement in the middle of verse four. Look at verse four.
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It is those who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the
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Lamb, wherever He. Why would they sacrifice anything of themselves?
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Why would they forego any type of sexual expression or anything like that? Well, because they're following the
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Lamb. They're following their Lord and Savior, and they love Him. They wanna be known by Him.
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I don't know about you. I hope I know this about you, that you want to follow the Lamb, that you want to be a student of His, you wanna be
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His disciple, you wanna walk like He walks, you wanna dress like He dresses. I mean, the whole WWJD, what would
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Jesus do? You wanna be a person who honors God with your decisions and with the things that you do with your life.
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I never want to be found far from Him. He is my Lord, He is my
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King, He is my Master, He is my Savior, and He is my only hope.
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He is the way, He is the door, He is the bread of life. He sustains me,
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He encourages me, He is my only hope. And these exemplary witnesses to the end testify truthfully.
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They are above blame, according to verse five, and they are the firstfruits for God and for the Lamb. It's a beautiful description of the people of the kingdom here.
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The word firstfruits, by the way, signifies that they're going to be offered as a sacrifice. These 144 ,000 are not permanently protected.
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They will be sacrificed, just like the harvest, just like the firstfruits of the harvest was burned on the altar, and the firstfruits of the flock was offered to God in the
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Old Testament. These 144 ,000 stand strong with Christ. He's with them.
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But remember, they are following the one who suffered and died. And just like Him, we ourselves may eventually be called to take up our cross and follow
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Him. These 144 ,000 witnesses stand as an example and an encouragement to you and me.
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Christ stands with us. Heaven is there encouraging us along, and we are called to follow the
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Lamb wherever He goes. And that leads into the second section, verses six through 13, which shows us the proclamation of the kingdom.
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And once again, we're gonna find three main points to this proclamation. First, we see that God is gracious to all.
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God is gracious to all. He's providing an opportunity for salvation. The seals of judgment have been broken.
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Remember, already in the book of Revelation, we've seen those. The trumpets of judgment have all sounded. And John is being granted an image of the final hour of humanity.
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The final judgment is merely verses away from where we're standing on this text in verse six.
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And look at verse six. The gospel is proclaimed to all who dwell on the earth. Even just verses away from the final judgment of all of humanity, and there stands the gospel.
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Now again, I wanna encourage you to consider the highly symbolic nature of apocalyptic writing when an angel is shown flying, circumnavigating the globe, flying around.
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Is he flying low, shouting to every individual person? How is he declaring this gospel?
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I don't believe that there's a day coming where the people of earth will hear an audible shout of an angel who's flying low overhead, proclaiming the gospel to them.
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I believe it's a figure of speech just saying the gospel will indeed reach all. There is a day coming when the gospel will have reached all.
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And I believe that the fulfillment of this angel's activity will be the gospel's reach to all peoples through us.
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Through us. But here in this context, it's important that we see how God has consistently called people to repentance.
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He has regularly held out hope for anyone who would run to him instead of away from him. He says, come, depend on me, while humanity runs off on our own, shaking our fists at him, saying we've got this on our own.
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We can do this on our own. And the gospel's call in our text is a pretty low hurdle.
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It's a very low hurdle, but an important hurdle. What the gospel is explained as here, it goes out to the world and says, revere
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God, give him honor, acknowledge the judgment that's coming for you, and worship him as your creator.
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Now many of us, when we hear that call of the gospel, we might want something more than that, right?
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Like just a hey, could, you know, hey everybody, believe in God, he's gonna judge you. Is that what we technically think of as the gospel?
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I thought that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose again three days later, and shed his blood for our sins.
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That's the gospel. But this is a gospel. This is a gospel according to the text, and it's that definite article that's in front of it that it is not the gospel, it is a gospel.
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It is good news. It is important for us. It is a hurdle for us to overcome. It is something that everybody needs to grasp before they are gonna come into the kingdom.
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Hey, God is there. You're not him, and he is the rightful judge of all people.
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That's an important message that we all need. Well, let me suggest to you that the good news in its most infantile form is simply this.
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Acknowledge you can't save yourself, and run to God for mercy. You can't save yourself, run to God for mercy.
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And I believe that nobody who has expressed that level of repentance will be kept out of salvation that will come to them through Jesus.
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Nobody is saved, I'm not saying, nobody is saved by just believing in God. Oh, I believe in God. It's not by believing in God.
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People are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. And I'm convinced that God will bring those who humble themselves and ask for salvation to Jesus, just like he did
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Cornelius in Acts chapter 10. In case you don't know that story, there was a guy who is a
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God -fearing man. He feared God. He was raised in a pagan family.
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He was Greek by birth, he was Roman, a Roman soldier. And he worshiped
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God, okay? He said, I believe that you're there, and he made sacrifices to God, and he made offerings, and he paid a tithe to God, and did all kinds of good things, and prayed regularly, and repented, and talked.
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And so it doesn't say in the Bible, well, so Cornelius was saved. But instead, what it says is he, in his prayers,
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God said, I'm gonna send somebody to you, and he's gonna explain to you the way of salvation. And Peter is on his rooftop praying, and is told by God, hey,
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I got this dude I need you to go share the gospel with. And so Peter goes to Cornelius, and you can read all of that on your own, in your own time, on Acts chapter 10.
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A really cool story. But I believe that if somebody expresses that interest in God, and has humbled themselves, and said,
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I can't do this on my own, I believe that there's a almighty God, just by looking at creation around me, somebody out in a pagan tribe somewhere could be out there going,
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I believe that there's a God, and I don't know how to get to him. I believe by faith that God would provide a method, or a means, for that individual to encounter
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Christ. Even some in the Muslim world have testified to having received dreams and visions of Jesus Christ, sharing that he is the way, the truth, and the life with them, because they've come to God, and said,
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I don't believe that I can do it on my own, I don't believe that following all these rules, and all these laws are enough.
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So in the proclamation of the kingdom, we see God proclaims coming judgment, he declares the human need for forgiveness, and that he is the source of salvation.
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And he provides a final opportunity for the world to come in. The second part of the proclamation of the kingdom is a simple observation, that the coming of God's kingdom requires all other kingdoms to fall.
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God will not ever be a partial king, the new earth will not be a place of his partial rule, or his partial dominion,
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King Jesus will restore a new heaven and a new earth. And so in verse eight, part of the proclamation is the declaration of the fall of the world system that has opposed the
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Almighty. Babylon, by the way, is a very apt, fallen, fallen, is
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Babylon. Why Babylon? Babylon is a very apt nation to use as an illustration of those who oppose
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God, and really opposes people down through the ages. Babylon conquered Jerusalem and broke through her walls in 586
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BC, historical event, even secular historians acknowledge this event occurred, it's recorded for us in the
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Bible, and King Zedekiah was blinded with a hot poker and hauled off along with any survivors into exile in Babylon by the
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Babylonians. They were notably wicked people with many pagan practices that ought to make us blush,
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I won't share any of those with you, but they should. And now they stand in the book of Revelation, Babylon is a symbol for all that formally opposes
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God and his people. And we may be tempted in the coming weeks, and especially once we get to chapter 18, we might be tempted to really try to figure out who
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Babylon is in this text, because we get some really specific information about Babylon in chapter 18, and many have attempted and tried.
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I was told as a child by preachers that if America wasn't careful, because how many of you ever just try to find
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America in Revelation? Have you done that? And I joke about every time you see the eagle, it's America, or whatever. I'm joking, folks, okay, that's not real, so in case you missed that as a joke, but have you ever looked for America in there?
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It doesn't mention the USA, it doesn't mention anything about us, and so as a child, I remember just,
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I remember my pastor going through a series, I must have been like maybe middle school or just pushing middle school, and I mean, it was like big eyes, you know, and some of you remember
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The Left Behind? I mean, The Left Behind, The Thief in the Night, and I'm really dating myself, but any of you ever see that movie?
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It scared tons of kids into the kingdom. One of the most powerful evangelistic tools on the planet was this terrifying movie that they showed to kids in mass, and we were all crying and going,
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I just need Jesus, but not necessarily the most powerful motivation for coming to faith in Christ, but nonetheless,
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I'm sure that for some, it really was their turn, but I don't remember where I was going. Babylon, who is
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Babylon, though? Who is that nation gonna be, and we might be tempted to try to identify that nation, but I would not recommend that we keep our eyes peeled for the one nation that will rise up on the world scene to play the role of Babylon in the end, as we might be tempted to, but instead,
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I would suggest that we should learn the bigger picture lesson from this, and that is that Babylon has repeated herself many times in all generations.
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There's not a Babylon. There are Babylons, and we're either a part of it or not, but any nation or world system that sets itself against the
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Almighty is Babylon, and all Babylons, all of them, will eventually fall.
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I find it interesting in verse eight that the strongest indictment against the Babylon and all of her manifestations is her seduction towards sexual immorality.
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Satan has many temptations. Many things could have been used of Babylon here, but it's the seduction of sexual immorality that is the particular flavor that Satan often uses to seduce and entice, and we're gonna see plenty more about Babylon when we get to chapter 18, so I'm not gonna steal my thunder from there.
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Some of you might feel like after this message, just kind of pushing ahead and reading that to have at it this week, chapter 18 gets into a lot of detail about Babylon, who will fall, but this final aspect of the proclamation, the final one is the declaration of judgment coming for any who align themselves in opposition to God.
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There is a devastating, devastating judgment that's coming, and it's not a pretty picture, as we already know.
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All who belong to Satan, all who are marked by his stamp, will drink from the cup of the undiluted wrath of the
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Almighty. The torment that is explained in chapter 13, actually, rather, chapter 14, verses 10 and 11, are never mentioned in Rob Bell's popular book,
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Love Wins, a book in which he proposes to teach you and I about hell and how it's really not that bad, but a book about hell that leaves out these verses should be considered lacking something.
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It's skipping something. The eternal nature of the suffering and lack of rest that we see in these verses for those who align themselves in opposition to God is indeed a devastating truth.
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I can understand anyone and the motivation of a heart that might desire to get away from those truths.
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A desire to say, oh, hell is just extinction. When a person who is not of the faith is not put their trust in Christ dies, they just cease to exist.
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How many of you think that sounds better than eternal torment? Can you understand what might motivate someone in their heart to desire it to be other than what
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Scripture reveals here? Make better PR campaign for God, right?
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Some of us wanna spin that PR campaign for God and just make him sound really good and just all love and no justice, no, well, we like justice, but no wrath, no real solid judgment against sinners, and boy, and in the end, everybody's just gonna come in.
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It's kind of the idea that people like to hold to. The doctrine of eternal suffering in hell is not a convenient truth.
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It is not a comfortable truth, but you see it here and you can see it and read it with your own eyes.
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It is indeed biblical truth. Not convenient, not easy, and painful, but true.
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And then ask yourself, if we believe this is true, what are we gonna do about it? We should be moved in our hearts for the lost.
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We should be inviting friends, family, waitresses, neighbors, coworkers, the guy on the street playing
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Pokemon Go. They're walking right by your house and your business anyways.
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Swing by and talk with them. We should be inviting everyone to come along to the singing place.
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See it here? It's the singing place versus the burning place. You inviting them?
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Bring them along. Sing this song with us. The alternative is terrifying.
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If you don't feel comfortable sharing your faith with others, I recognize that some people are just, it's in your
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DNA, it's in the way that you're made, it's in all of your personality. It leads you away from that kind of conversation.
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Maybe even leads you away from conversation, right? Some of you know, I'm a pure introvert.
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I'm not, I'm an extrovert, but I mean, some of you would say that. I'm a pure introvert. I mean, I charge my batteries. I get all, all that feels life -sustaining to me happens alone in isolation.
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I love it. It's weird. But, sorry. But if that's you, then
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I would just challenge you to say, could you just, could you invite them to church? Could you invite them in here to hear?
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And not that, by the way, the gospel isn't recast. The gospel isn't invite them to recast, but man, the gospel, I assure you, as often as you're faithful to bring them,
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I will seek to be faithful to proclaim the gospel to them. So if that's all that you can do, man, bring them, invite them.
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Can you say to somebody, hey, we got a church service that meets at the school, 10 .30, be there. Out, right?
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I mean, if that's the extent of the conversation you're able to have, do that. By the way, the majority of people who visit a church, do you know how they, why they visit a church?
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It's not because of the website. It's not because of the sign. Why is it? Someone invited them.
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And there are people, I read a book that was strictly about people who are now Christians because somebody invited them, and it was all research about what happened before they became a
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Christian, kind of understanding what were the steps. There was one testimony, one case study in the book where a guy got out, he got out of, backed out of his garage every
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Sunday morning, went down his driveway, his neighbor was mowing the lawn, and every single Sunday, this guy says,
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I was out there mowing, and I wondered, why doesn't that guy invite me to his church? Eventually he did, and they got, but I mean, an unbeliever who is mowing his lawn on Sunday morning going, man, why won't my neighbor invite me to church?
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Can you imagine that that might be happening? I was just, wow, okay, so enough of that.
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I mean, I have to beat you over the head with that, but I mean, you know, obviously, if we believe that hell is real, is it motivation to us?
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Are we motivated to share with others and to bring the truth to them? To obey
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God and witness in our witness and to cling to Jesus is the right response for his children who are reminded of coming judgment.
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Man, when we're reminded of judgment, how does that response work up in your heart?
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Judgment is real, and it's gonna come down like a hammer on anyone who is without Jesus. So instead of letting that paralyze us, this doctrine of hell should fuel our mission.
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It's not like we've got fresh, cool water to offer somebody on a cold winter day. We have fresh, cool water for those who are standing on the brink of the flames of hell.
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The last movement of this text is found in verses 14 through 20, which is the purging of the kingdom. When we come down to verse 14, we have moved beyond the proclamation of the gospel now.
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We're past it. The gospel is done. The warnings for coming judgment are done.
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The open door to run to God for mercy is closed, and the king comes for his harvest.
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I wanna be clear. Anytime that Jesus, when Jesus, and on this earth, in the gospel recordings, and throughout his life, and even many of the epistles, when they mention harvest, it's a good thing, not a bad thing.
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By Jesus, it's unanimously a good thing. He talks about the fields being ripe for harvest, right? And it's a good thing that the king comes to harvest those who are his.
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And so I agree, I agree with many scholars who see this first harvest in verses 14 through 16 as a good harvest.
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You'll notice maybe in my reading when I read it that there's two different harvests. There's 14 through 16 and 17 on.
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It sounds like it's redundant, but it's not. The first one is a harvest by Jesus, the son of man who is coming in the clouds for his people.
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The imagery here is one of a wheat harvest. There's a time coming when all the world will be reaped. And those who believe in a literal millennium, a literal thousand years, which we're really not gonna get to until after chapter 20, but it kinda needs to come in here, because I mean, timing -wise, you're like, when is all this harvest gonna happen?
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And when is there a point where there's nobody on the earth anymore? Is that gonna be here, and then it's gonna be repopulated somehow during a millennium period or whatever?
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I lean in the direction there is a literal 1 ,000 year reign of Jesus Christ on the earth, particularly because chapter 20, when we get there, is really compelling that there's gonna be a time where Jesus reigns on this earth in relative peace.
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But before I get too far into the weeds trying to figure out the timing, which by the way, chronology is not my specialty when it comes to the book of Revelation.
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I mean, I think you've identified, I'm not super eager to try to give you a timeline or a chart, but I do believe that there's 1 ,000 years nestled in here somewhere that we're gonna get to in chapter 20.
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But we do need to know that a time is coming when Jesus brings home his harvest. There's no mention here in the text during this first harvest of blood, no mention of flames, no mention of pain, no mention of suffering, just Jesus taking what belongs to him and leaving those who don't.
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Jesus will take his own. But in this final purging comes verses 17 through 20.
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Jesus collects his wheat, leaving the grapes. And angels are given the gruesome task of the final reaping of the earth, of collecting the grapes, they cut down the clusters, throw them in the winepress of God's ultimate wrath.
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And the winepress is crushed as the stone basin is filled with the grapes, it's stomped on by the feet of the one who is harvested and producing each grape crush to bring out juice.
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Only here in our text the harvest isn't grapes and the product is not juice, but it is blood.
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And the imagery of the great and final harvest is that blood will form a lake from that winepress reaching approximately five feet deep for 184 miles, 1 ,600 stadia, 184 miles.
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Again, this is symbolism, but symbolism with a point. How deep is God's righteous anger towards sin?
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How busted is this world that we live in? How much will it take to move us from here to that ultimate kingdom of grace and peace and mercy where there will no longer be sin?
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How could it ever be made right without the removal of sin and those who love it? How could he ever truly be king without the removal of those who reject him as king?
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Judgment is gruesome. Would you agree with me on that? Judgment is gruesome, but so is grace.
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So is grace. We're about to take a cup of juice this morning. Tiny amount, not five foot deep, 184 miles, barely enough to wet your tongue.
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It's a small amount of juice. But what this cup symbolizes defines the difference between eternal torment and eternal life.
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We see in our text that in the end, for real, real people, real lives, real humanity, and they will give their blood to the winepress of God's wrath.
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And it will be an unprecedented flow of blood. There was another unprecedented flow of blood.
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One shed his own blood for the forgiveness of any who would come to him by faith. He himself,
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Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, was crushed in the winepress of God's wrath for you and me.
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He willingly went there and took upon himself the undiluted wrath of the
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Father. He said, Father, may this cup pass from me. Silence in heaven.
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He got his answer and said, your will be done. And he went there for you and I.
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So that any who trust in him will never be found in that winepress.
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But woe to any who go into that final day on their own. Woe to anyone who places their confidence in anything other than the blood of Jesus.
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He alone has taken the wrath of God for you and I. And if you're trusting in the sacrifice of Jesus this morning, then
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I encourage you to please come to one of the four tables and take the cup that reminds us of his blood that was shed to give us eternal life.
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And take the cracker to remember his body that was broken in our place. And then as we dismiss in prayer,
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I'd encourage you to think even now in terms of taking a moment when you take that cup and take that juice, go back to your seat and drink it.
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Just take a moment to think this through. Go out from this place to be the people of God.
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Proclaiming the kingdom of God in light of this gruesome purging of God that is coming on one final day.
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Let's pray. Father, it is with awe that I work through this text and just think about what
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I deserve. Couldn't be further from what you promised to give to your children, what you promised to give to those who are in with Christ.
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How could we ever be arrogant? How could we ever be proud when we know our own sin and the depth of our own heart?
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And it is only to the credit of your grace and mercy that we have any hope at all.
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That we will not be placed in that winepress only because of your actions. And so Father, I pray that you would move us out from this place with humility, with motivation, with a refreshed reminder of the severity of your judgment and the power that we have to bring the good news to those around us.
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Father, move us, motivate us, shake us out of our apathy. Father, I pray that you would fight and war against apathy in our hearts.
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How could we have apathy when we recognize what's at stake? So Father, move in us and grow your kingdom through Recast Church.