The Future State — Jim Cymbala

You know when you're little and you have to go to the dentist, but you have a toothache and you know you have to go, but the idea of going to a dentist would always unnerve me? But you know what they would say is, you got to go because when they're done, it'll get better.

Otherwise, you're going to have a toothache, maybe worse, your teeth will rot and fall out. So go through whatever you have to go through because when you're done, it'll be better. I remember when I was recruited by a number of schools to play basketball, graduating from Erasmus Hall, and one of the schools was the Naval Academy, and that's where my parents thought I'd be safest because I was a little bit off the wall, Brooklyn kid, and this military control would be good and help me and develop me as a person.

But to go to the Naval Academy, you got to go through plea beer, and plea beer, that's freshmen. That means you're hazed. They can just be up in your grill all the time, yelling, screaming, making you do things you don't want to do, waking you up, and making you come around, that's what it's called, to their room at 6 .20 in the morning.

Reveille was at 6 .15, so you'd have to get up at five and shine your shoes and do all of that, and then you'd go into their rooms and you'd report, Mitch, assemble a fourth class, sir, and you'd be like that, and they'd say, get on the floor and give me 65 pushups, and you'd be down there.

You couldn't question, you couldn't say a word. They could make you try to sweat a penny to the wall from your perspiration by being in a shoved out position. You'd have to eat the meals braced up and eat a square meal, not look at your food, but be able to use your other vision, and they'd be firing questions at you, and they're trying to break you, because ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or die, and they're trying to find out who can break, and I saw a guy literally go up the wall.

He just broke. They screamed at him enough. They were pressuring him, and this is no joke. This is not a fraternity. This is, you're gonna be marching at five in the morning if you get on report, and I saw him actually run, foaming at the mouth, and try to go up a wall, and they took him away, and we never saw him again, but everyone would say to you, you gotta stay the course, because you gotta get through plebeia, because then after that, you'll be a sophomore, a third classman, then second, first classman.

I hurt my back playing basketball, was in the hospital for 90 days, and then ended up transferring to the University of Rhode Island, where I had my full basketball career, and the back never acted up on me, thank God, but everybody said, then when you graduate at the Naval Academy, then you're an officer, and then if you just serve a couple years, you can go in the business world, and they say, wow, you graduated from the Naval Academy or from West Point in the Air Force.

Oh, you're the bomb. I'm gonna hire you and all of that. The point was to get through. Now, the Bible is full of talk about that, although it's not emphasized much today, that our reward is not here, in fact, trouble is here, that life has lots of trouble, does it not?

Trials, difficulties, temptations, and we're living for Jesus, and if you think we would complain and think we have a hard time when our friends from Bethlehem and from the Persian Empire, our Christians over there are facing ISIS coming at you, so what's our problem?

The Temporary Present and the Future State

But the Bible talks about what I've named this sermon, the future state. This is temporary, but there's gonna be a future state that all of us will be in who are Christians in a place that Jesus and the New Testament called heaven.

We're gonna be in heaven. So let's go to the last book of the Bible, and we're gonna go to chapter seven, and let's see what we find. After this, John, who wrote the book, said, I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.

They were wearing white robes, and they were holding palm branches, celebrating in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, and all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, amen, praise, and glory, and wisdom, and thanks, and honor, and power, and strength be to our God forever and ever, amen.

Then one of the elders asked me, John, these in white robes, the ones you can't count, who are they, and where did they come from? I answered, sir, you know, and he said, oh, these are they who have come out of the great tribulation.

They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, because their robes have been made white, and they've made it through, therefore they are before the throne of God, and they serve or worship him, some translations have, day and night, serve is probably a better word, in his temple, and he who sits on the throne will shelter them.

How will he shelter them? With his presence. Never again will they hunger. Never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat down on them, nor any scorching heat, for the Lamb at the center of the throne, Jesus, will be their shepherd.

He will lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Oh, how many are looking forward to going there? Give me a loud amen. Now, because of the materialistic bent of our country, and because of the age of instant gratification, heaven is not preached about much, nor do a lot of Christians want to hear about what's going on in Bethlehem, and the West Bank, and ISIS beheading Christians, or whatever they're doing.

They don't want to hear that, because we've developed a theory that you gotta sell Christianity, and by selling it, you gotta make it like, you serve Jesus, and you'll get double the salary, and you'll drive a better car, and so on and so forth, and that's everywhere.

The televangelists, a lot of them, have really cashed in on that. Of course, it's all totally fallacious, and not found anywhere in the scriptures. No, we have found out that in scripture, there's countless verses that tell us, while we're here on earth, we're involved in spiritual warfare.

Some Christians face not just persecution, they lose their life. Jesus wrote to a church in Revelation, and he said this, be faithful unto death, and I'll give you the crown of life. What do you mean, if I serve Jesus, I might die?

Yeah, depending when you live, where you live. Am I correct or not? Are these things happening or not? So, don't be seduced by another gospel, which is not a gospel. Serving Jesus involves warfare, and sometimes real difficulty and heartache.

Haven't you ever cried since you've been a Christian? Haven't you ever been through difficulty? Haven't the bottom ever come out? Haven't you ever had your heart broken by someone? Haven't you ever prayed and had a battle through, the answer didn't come right away?

So, the little formulaic Christian message is not Christian, but it's a way to get followers, and a lot of times, their money, by telling them what they want to hear, rather than what they need to hear.

Heaven as Eternal Reward and the Symbolism of Revelation

But the scripture tells us that there is a future state, and that's where the payoff is for us, and it has no end, it has no end. This, of course, is a thought hard to grasp. Everything we know in life has a beginning and an end.

This has no end, no end. There'll never be a moment where you say, okay, that's over, there'll be no end. We will be with Jesus forever and ever, for he is eternal, and he grants eternal life, and although it means more than just length of time, there will be no more time.

So, one day, when this stuff is all over, we're gonna be with Christ, and we're gonna be with him forever. Now, in this chapter in the book of Revelation, previous to this, there's some terrible things happening on earth, and let's do full disclosure.

There's four angels or messengers holding back the wind, and there's devastation to the earth, like there is in other parts of Revelation. Revelation is a very hard book to understand. There's obviously a lot of symbolism.

Some people see more symbolism, some people see less. Some people try to take it more literally, some people not so literally. There's certain parts where you could take it literally when it gets into the imagery, but then there's difficult places to say it's literal, because it says, and an angel, and a star fell to the earth.

Well, no star could fall to the earth, because the stars, the sun that we call, 93 million miles away, the sun, that's a star, and if it ever fell on the earth, there'd be no more earth. Ditto with all the other.

So, what are those stars? What does it mean, all that devastation? Well, previous to this passage, the wind is held back, and all kinds of bad things are happening to the earth. Christians, down through the ages, have looked at the book of Revelation basically in three ways.

That these things are future, that they're gonna happen sometime in the future, and it's very literal. Some hold, no, this is symbolic language of things that happen back to the readers that it was written to, and it has symbolic meaning, and a lot of it was fulfilled before 70 AD, when Jerusalem fell, and there was no more temple, and the Christian message began to spread even further around the world.

Other people say that it is symbolic and spiritual. It's circular, it's rotational, it's things that are gonna happen, but you just gotta understand it. It's gonna happen over and over again through history.

Some people take a historical approach, that all the things that are happening can be linked to different emperors of the Roman Empire, and going all the way through Napoleon, and then all the way to Hitler, and Christians see this differently, and we're never to argue or lose fellowship over the way we look at the book of Revelation.

It's a place where we have to agree to disagree if someone doesn't see it like we do. But there's a lot happening on the earth prior to this, but now the scene is definitely in heaven. Now this scene in heaven is described a lot in chapters four and five of the book of Revelation, where this whole scene is set with angels, myriad of angels, and four living creatures, and cherubim, and seraphim, and people worshiping God nonstop in heaven, and now we see this place where God dwells.

Not a planet, it's another place in another dimension, and it's where we're gonna be forever and ever. And now we find that John sees a crowd of people that he can't number, and they're from every nation, every tribe, every tongue.

If you have trouble with people who are different than you, you're gonna be very uncomfortable in heaven because that's God's rainbow coalition that he's putting together up there. There's gonna be black people, and white people, and Hispanic, there are gonna be people different countries, and tongues, and nations, and they're all together, and they're worshiping, and they're thanking God and the lamb who sits on the throne, i .e. Jesus.

They're praising Jesus, and they're praising God for salvation, these white-robed saints who are waving these palm branches. And then the other people on the set there, they bow down, and they worship a little differently.

They fall on their face, saying glory, and honor, and strength, and power, and wisdom all belong to God. And then one of the messengers says to John, who are all these dressed in white? And John says, I don't know, I'm the one in the vision.

I'm the one seeing the vision, I don't know. You know, sir. He said, oh, these are those who have come through the great tribulation, the great persecution, some translations have, the difficult times.

I'm not gonna wanna pin down what that specifically means. I wanna look at it in a more generic sense because in a way, we all go through a tribulation. You can't serve Jesus without having your heart broken once or twice.

And the Bible says that then the messenger says to him, no, these are those who have come through the great tribulation, and they've, you know why they're white in white garments? They used to be filthy garments, speaking of our lives and our character.

But they have washed their garments and made them white in the blood of Jesus. And that's why they're worshiping, and they're always at the throne worshiping God and serving God. And God is gonna shelter them with his presence.

And he's gonna lead them to the streams of living water. And he'll wipe away every tear from their eye. They're never gonna wanna, they'll never know battle, they'll never know temptation, they'll never know want.

It's perfect comfort, no need, no tears, no longings. Just everything that we need that satisfies and brings joy, and forever. Now what's interesting here, which I'd like to point out to you, is that there's a continuation in heaven of things that the true Christians have experienced on earth.

Continuing Worship and Service in Heaven

And we don't often think about that. In other words, Christians serve God on earth. And the Bible says here that when we get there, we're gonna continue to serve him without end. Most of us think we'll just play harp and hang out.

But it says they worship and they serve God day and night. So that in this time span of eternity, I don't know what God will be doing, but we're gonna be serving him. Serving him how? It doesn't say. But we won't have any tiredness, we won't have any devil to fight against, and we're gonna serve and worship God.

In other words, you start serving, you start worshiping now if you're a real Christian. So heaven just accents it. Heaven makes it more intense. Now you really serve and worship God because you see him face to face.

Notice this, and he shall shelter them with his presence. But God protects us now. How many have ever been attacked or gone through something and God's presence has just protected you and you found a hiding place?

I love that song. A wonderful savior is Jesus my Lord. A wonderful savior to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock. He hideth my soul. Have you ever just run to God and he protects you? You feel you're gonna fall apart and he protects you with his presence.

This is even gonna be more accented. You think you've been protected now? Wait till we see him in this eternal state. Then the Bible says that he's gonna lead them to rivers of living water. That thought just dawned on me.

How could he lead them to rivers of living water when Jesus already said he that believeth in me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water? We already have the Holy Spirit when we're here, don't we?

In fact, the definition of a Christian is really in the New Testament someone who's believed in Christ and the Spirit of God is within them. That's the question. Have you been born again? Have you been changed?

Is the Spirit of God living in you? If he's not, you don't belong to Christ. You might belong to a church. Might belong to a denomination. You might come to the Brooklyn Tabernacle, but that doesn't make you a Christian.

No, to be a Christian is to have the Holy Spirit within you. But notice when we get to heaven it says we're gonna experience the Holy Spirit in a million ways deeper than we've already experienced him.

What will that be like? Come on, do I get a witness here? What will that be like? He's gonna shelter us like he's sheltered us now, but greater, we're gonna not just taste and see that the Lord is good, we're gonna be inundated with the Holy Spirit.

We're gonna continue to worship and serve him. And just like we've been comforted here, the God of all comfort, Paul says in 2 Corinthians, the apostle who wrote those two letters, 1 and 2 Corinthians, for those of you new to scripture, he was a leader in the Christian church.

He wrote two books in the New Testament, these two among others, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and in the second letter he says that God is the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our trouble. But now the Bible says, then he'll wipe away every tear.

You think you have comfort now? Wait till you get that comfort in heaven. Because even though we get comforted now, there's still the stress of living here on planet Earth. And there's battles that no one knows we go through.

Just reading before we came down here, Providentially picked up this book called Wounded Heroes, and one of the chapters is about Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher in England who became the most famous preacher in the English-speaking world.

He preached his last sermon in 1891. He preached in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90. He started out pastoring a church at 19 years old. He was a great speaker. But he battled his whole life with depression. And he absented himself so much from the pulpit that he almost thought they would let him go.

Because he wasn't there enough. But he was such a phenomenal preacher and used by God that the ruling board in the church said, no, stay. We'd rather have you two times a month when you're not feeling good.

But he would get these fits of depression. And even though God would comfort him, he battled with it his whole life. On top of that, he had this weakness where he would get anxiety about financial matters.

And this thing would just eat his lunch. And he'd be worried. Even though he's preaching the word of God, use mightily. You see, we all have battles. Nobody else knows we're facing. Ah, but when we see him in heaven, there'll be no more battles.

Can you imagine? No more battles, no more depression, no more temptation, no more devil, no more IRS. How many say amen? Amen. You won't need a metro card. You just get around on your own. Now, we're ministered to, but then, oh God, give me better words.

Help me, God, I'm not saying it right. Then, do you get it? Then, there's a payoff. There's an experience that we can't even fathom. They'll never hunger, never thirst. No heat will bother them. And I'll wipe every tear from their eye.

But it shows that to get there, we must still have some tears, even as we enter. And he's gonna wipe those away. No sadness, nothing. Is that not amazing? Here, it's hard. Here, we have battles. Here, you gotta get your body going sometimes, and the flesh says, don't go to church, or don't read the Bible, don't pray.

Just look out for yourself. Live a selfish life. And those are the battles we all fight with. You don't have to say amen. I know you're fighting with them, too, like every other Christian has. But then, oh, won't that be great for the people who are there?

The Judgment of the Unrepentant

Wait a minute, who's not gonna be there? The Bible tells us that not everyone's gonna be there. Maybe not everyone in this room. You're gonna live for eternity, too. Oh, yes, you will. But you're gonna be away from God, not with God.

This is not something you wanna hear or we like to think about, but I have to tell you what the Bible says. Who will be kept out of that city, the holy city, the New Jerusalem? Who will be kept out? Who can judge?

I thought God loves everyone, Pastor Cymbal. He's gonna let everybody in. Come on. He knows I try. I try to live a good life most of the times. So who won't be there? Oh, he tells us who won't be there later on in the book.

Look in Revelation. Now, those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. But the cowardly, those who won't stand for Christ, the unbelieving, those who won't really trust him, the vile, that word there speaks of perverted sex, murderers, the sexually immoral, those are people who practice sexual relations with people who aren't their spouse.

Those who practice magic arts, the idolaters, and all liars, not people just tell lies, people who live lies. They're living a double life. That's not who they are. They just pretend and put that on. They got another whole thing going on that you don't know about, but that's the lie they live.

All liars, they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death, not separation from your body. That's the first death. Death is when my spirit is separated from my body, but the second death is when for eternity, you separate from God.

So the Bible has all these wonderful promises, and then the Bible being faithful like a doctor. When you go to a doctor, did the doctor tell you everything nice, or did the doctor give you a warning? Doctor says, whoa, I have a friend who's a warden at a prison, and he's battling with his weight and he told me, my doctor said, you're digging your grave with a knife and a fork.

Gonna eat yourself right into the grave. Oh, that's not nice, doctor. Look, doctors, I'm not supposed to be nice. I'm supposed to tell you the truth, and that's the way God is. So let's just think about that.

The concept in America today is very fuzzy because the Bible is not preached. More and more people are biblically illiterate. Preachers just cherry pick their verses to make a nice production, and there's very little warnings about sin.

But here's what the Bible tells us. If you live dominated by these practices, and you're not gonna repent, you're not gonna confess they're wrong, you're just gonna hold the course. At the end of your life, you're gonna find out that experience that I just read about.

Now, it's commonplace. This is so commonplace that a minister of music stopped me in some city in the last two years and said, is it true that every one of your choir members is interviewed before they come in?

I said, yep, my wife interviews all the women, and then the men are interviewed. Is it really true, this guy said to me, is it really true that if someone's living with somebody and shacking up with somebody, that your wife would hold them back from being in the choir?

I went, yeah. And they went this. But what if he sings good? This was dead serious. You mean you would lose a good singer over something like they're sexually immoral? Pastor, what, are you a dinosaur?

No, I try to read the Bible. How many say amen? So if you're here and you've gotten that kind of brainwashing, like, look, everyone does it, or I don't, that's not my opinion, or you know what, God loves me, and he'll look the other way.

Please, listen to me. I plead with you in the name of Christ. Run from that or lose your soul. Listen, listen, I'm saying it in love. I'm not angry with anybody. Don't do that, because the wages of sin is death.

What a person sows, they're also gonna reap. Does that mean we're perfect? Everybody up here is perfect? Everybody in the choir is perfect? No, they make mistakes. But listen, if you're a real Christian, you can't live in sin.

You can sin and repent, but you can't live in it. You can't practice it. You can't have it dominate your life and someone comes to you, or you read the word of God, and then you go, no, I don't receive that, and then you get all upset because somebody got involved in your business.

No, no, no, no. Anybody who lives like that, or perverted sex, or immorality, or murder, or lying, anyone who practices those things, steals from their job, practices it, and just justifies it, and says, come on, everyone needs a break once in a while.

I have an entitled man, I've had a hard life, so I can do that. Oh, brothers and sisters, listen to what John says. Look, look at the passage here. No one who's born of God will continue to sin because God's seed remains in them.

They cannot go on sinning because they've been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. Anyone who does not do what is right is not God's child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.

You practice hate and discrimination all your life, and even though God deals, or someone tries to deal with it, you just fluff it off and say, hey, look, that's the way I am, I don't want to hear about it.

Bible says you cannot be a born-again Christian. No, no, the Spirit of God cannot live in you, and you practice sin. You cannot. Oh, listen, when the Spirit of God is in you and you're a born-again Christian and you fall into the trap of the enemy and you fall away from God and you get involved in nastiness, God will keep you awake and just tear you up.

Come on, do I get an amen? He will tear you up. You won't be able to enjoy your children. You won't be able to enjoy a good meal because the Spirit of God will convict you. Why? Because he's mad. He's trying to save you from destruction.

Listen, how can I have a holy seed inside of me and then live and be comfortable and fight off all correction in a sinful situation? That's impossible. So John says, here's how you know. Don't go by how people talk.

Go by how they walk. That's a test. Don't go by how they talk because people are talking a lot of smack. Am I correct? America is full of that. I don't know how it is in Bethlehem or how it is in Persia, in Iran, but here we have Christians who have made up their own religion.

They've made up their own religion. Is Jesus in it? Yep, but it's not the Jesus of the Bible. Their Christianity is based on I don't even know what, and unfortunately, there's lots of ministers feeding it.

So that man looked at me and actually said, I remember my heart almost stopping. You wouldn't let them in the choir? No, we wouldn't let him be a member of the church, but what if he sings good? So I said, what would singing good have to do with anything?

How would God anoint a choir if we're living in the sins Christ died for? How could God bless our church if we're all living double lives? So I say this because I love you and I'm responsible for you.

Bible says, don't many of you wanna be leaders because we face double judgment? I'm not only responsible for myself, my children, my grandchildren. In a sense, I'm responsible for you. Can you imagine in eternity, I don't know how it is, what that lake of fire and that torment and punishment is like, but can you imagine the fake ministers who told people something other than the word of God when the people who wake up in eternity and they're there when they find those ministers and say, what, you never told me about this?

You never told me that I had to have my garments washed in the blood of the lamb? I thought I could live any way I wanted and still go to heaven. No, no, that's not a new Christianity, that's no Christianity.

Cleansing Through the Blood of the Lamb

I ask you this in closing, that multitude that's so happy in praising God, why are they so happy in praising God? Because they've washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Notice the only thing that can make you clean, not tears, you cry a river, it's not removing one stain.

Feeling bad for your sin does nothing in itself for your sin, but God knows I don't wanna do that. That won't wash it away, that won't wash it away. Although that you don't wanna do it is probably a sign you're a Christian.

Because see, that Holy Spirit has this instinct that makes you wanna be more like Jesus. And when you start to drift away, woo, it gets bad. Come on, how many have ever been a good backslider like me and you know what I'm talking about?

Lift your hand up high if you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, does it get bad, does it get uncomfortable? Oh, somebody says to me, you know, people who don't know, serve Jesus, they don't know joy or peace.

I agree with you, they don't know joy or peace, but you be a believer and live wrong, you tell me what that's like too. Oh my goodness, but I'm so happy he does that. Otherwise we'd relax and stay in the mud.

So listen everyone, don't move. Tears can't get your garments washed. Money, you can't buy yourself clean. No dry cleaners will work. Self-effort, make a promise. You know what, that's how I'm gonna do it.

I'm gonna get my garments cleaned by, pastor, I'm so happy you preach this way. I am making a promise to God. Yo, I am changing. No, I mean serious now. I've been fooling around before, but I am gonna change now.

That won't get your garments clean. Your garments won't get clean. There's only one thing that will clean your garments and it can happen in a second, is when you say, God, have mercy on me. I believe in the cross of Jesus Christ.

I believe he died for me. I receive you as my savior. Wash me, wash me. That's why they sing in heaven. That's why they're celebrating because they've made their garments clean through the blood of the lamb.

That's a word for anyone who needs to hear it today. If you're here today, do not be deceived and on the day of judgment, never tell God that I lied to you. Never tell God that. Never tell him I lied to you.

I told you the truth. Coming to this church does nothing for you. You need a relationship with Jesus Christ. You need to be born again. You need to have your garments washed. Come on, let's say amen in the blood of the lamb.

Nothing else will do it. Nothing else. Now, number, last thing. Last, don't worry. Listen, listen, everybody. Last word. These are those, yeah, they've washed their garments, but these are those who have come through it.

Perseverance, Temptation, and the Call to Remain Faithful

The reward comes when you get through it. Life is a fight. It's like those, what do they call those exercise things? Treadmill. But it's on those, you know, life is like the treadmill when they put it where it burns more calories, where you have to go up all the time.

How many have found that life can be uphill sometimes? I mean, just everything in the world. And listen, here's a word for someone here. Temptation is not sin. When the devil tempts you, that's not sin.

Until you consent your will, it's not sin. I don't care what image is put before you. I don't care if you feel that inclination like that's attractive to me to do that, smoke that, be that, watch that.

I don't care what it is. That's not sin. And don't go, how could that happen? That's what temptation's about. It's never sin until you look at it, affirm it, say yes, I'm all in. Then it becomes sin. So don't let the devil fool you and try to bring you into condemnation.

Every time you and I feel tempted, we have the right to say no, no, no, no, in the name of Jesus. I'm not going that way. My garments have been washed in the blood of the lamb. I am going to serve Jesus.

I'm going to serve Jesus. Many will say on that last day, Lord, Lord, didn't I cast out demons in your name? Didn't I go to church? Didn't I get a bulletin at the Brooklyn TAM? Wasn't I part of the recording?

Look at me, God, I'm third row in the balcony. I'm swaying with the choir. And the Lord will say to some of those people, depart from me, I never knew you. Oh, please, don't believe in American Christianity.

Believe in the Bible. Don't not believe in what they're selling out there. It's wrong. Judge everyone you listen to, me, starting with me. Don't listen to one word I say and believe it until I back it with something from the word of God.

And if I or anyone else here start preaching stuff that's not in the Bible, while I'm preaching, get up and leave the building. Leave it while I'm preaching it because it means I've been seduced by some deceiving spirit and doctrine of a demon.

No, the word of God is precious. We love the word of God, don't we? Bow your head with me. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you that we can make our robes white, not by self-effort, but by the blood of the Lamb.

We thank you that everyone is in heaven, not because they've lived perfect, but everyone has come the same way through the blood of Jesus Christ. There's not one saint that wasn't a mess, there wasn't one white garment that wasn't filthy and polluted, but then you came and you made all things new and you washed it and became white as snow.

So Lord, the people that are here, I need no altar call, I don't need them to join the church right where they're sitting. Your conviction is enough, even as you spoke to the crowds and then you would just go down the road, but your words were full of life.

Speak words of life to people, Lord, who need to get their garments clean pronto, today, ahora, now. Secondly, Lord, for those of us who are going through the Great Tribulation, problems of every kind, whatever the Great Tribulation might mean in the book of Revelation, Lord, we pray you'll give us understanding, but all of us to enter the kingdom must go through tribulation and problems.

Help nobody here to lose heart, but help them to trust you, Lord, and to keep holding on to your precious hand. We ask you to keep us from sin. Make us discerning of the smell of sin, the approach of sin.

We don't want to practice things that you died for, but we want to live victoriously and come through the fire, more like Jesus, every day. And help us as your word said, and this is another sign that you know a real Christian, not only because they run to the light and want to live in the light, but because they love one another.

This person is a liar who says they know God and doesn't love his brother or sister. Increase our love for each other. We pray this in Jesus' name, and everyone said? Amen. Here's what I want you to do.

Everyone stand and tell five people, I love you with the love of the Lord. Come on, everybody.