JUN 26 2022 | Seven: A Study of the Book of Revelation S1E4 | The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord

Sea Change Church · JUN 26 2022 | The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord
Revelation 6:12-17
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

I'm on the website And I will be in the courtyard later So if you're interested in coaching Please come up and say hello So today's reading is from Revelation 6, 12 through 17 I watched as he opened the sixth seal There was a great earthquake The sun turned black like a sackcloth made of goat hair The whole moon turned blood red And stars in the sky fell to earth As figs dropped from a fig tree When shaken by a strong wind The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up And every mountain and island was removed from its place Then the kings of the earth The princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty And everyone else Both slave and free Hidden caves And among the rocks of the mountains They called to the mountains and the rocks Fall on us And hide us from the face of him Who sits on the throne And from the wrath of the Lamb For the great day of their wrath has come And who would stand it?

The word of the Lord And the people you do And the people you do And the people you do And the people you do And the people you do And the people you do And the people you do And the people you do And the people you do And the people you do And the people you do And the people you do And the people you do And the people you do And the people you do And the people you do And the people you do And the people you do And the people you do And the people you do and the people you do and the people you do and the people you do �� and the people you do �� I do Thank you.

Thank you. Before we hit that, by the way, I just got to say, nice work on the Top Gun. Did you see, did you guys hear the Top Gun riff during the hymn? I mean, you're not going to get that in a lot of churches. No, I'm just serious. It's so culturally relevant and very, very cool. I better pray. When my glasses start fogging at the beginning of the service, we know it's a little warm up here.

So let me just pray, get going. Lord Jesus, I want to bless you, God. We bless you today. Just bless the Lord. Just right now in your heart, just bless the Lord. Bless you, Lord. Invite him in to speak to you today. Invite him to change your life, to make you watchful today. Wake up. Be watchful, Jesus says. We just bless you. Be with us in this word.

In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. We're in Revelation 6, and India did a great job reading about what is happening. Six seals are really interesting seal. Remember, last week we saw the fifth seal, the only seal that does not have some form of impending doom. You talk about the martyrs, and so we see the martyrs. We'll speak about that in just a moment.

But there was no judgment. There was nothing happening in that, other than they were crying out and asking God, when are you going to avenge our blood? And Jesus is like, hang out. God's like, hang out. I'm going to give you some robes that are white. I want you to chill out in your righteousness and my righteousness for a little bit. And we're going to let things unfold.

We don't like that oftentimes, right? We don't like things to unfold. We want what we want when we want it. And so we see that here in the scripture. Now, the key today, and I've been really trying to frame Revelation not as a book where we get out our protractor and figure out exactly who the Antichrist is and when this will happen and what will happen.

And the Bible is so clear that you will not know when it is going to happen. And a lot of things you won't know, you know, the sequence of events. It's very clear. So why does God show us these things? I think it's because how he wants us to live all the time being awake. And one of the keys that I've been trying to do is have these meta themes.

How does the book of Revelation practically change your life? How do you look at the book of Revelation? How do you look at these things that can be very, you know, honestly, very scary as you look around the world and see the things happening and say, how does that get me on my game? How does that wake up my spirit? How do I become awake in that?

And so one of the other keys that I put in the top of your notes is this. The time of tribulation is a time of judgment and grace. You have to remember that. It is a time of judgment and a time of grace in which there is still time to repent. That you see during the tribulation, as we go, I believe it's in Revelation 12. Don't quote me. Sometimes it can be a little bit confusing sometimes.

But not far beyond this, you'll see a group, a multitude in white robes that stand before the throne of God. Where did they come from? They were saved during the tribulation. And so one of the things in order to be prepared is God is depending upon us, no matter what is happening in the world, to share the message of Jesus, a message of hope, a message of good news, and not a message where we are just repeating the headlines of fear and worry.

And when we look at the things that are happening, I would say that God wants us to be closer to the things of the fruit of the Spirit as we give a report. What say you to these events? The fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, those type of things, as opposed to, oh no, look what's happening. I'm really concerned. And you can be concerned, but is everything filtered through those things?

So, the key, a time of tribulation is a time of judgment. Why does God use judgment? Why doesn't God just wipe it all out? Because he loves humankind, and just like in our lives and in your life and in my life, hard times bring us back to God. And so he uses tribulation to tribulate people back to a realization of who he is. Now, here's Revelation in Review, a quick 30-second Revelation in Review.

We start with John's vision. Remember, it's very simplistic. Revelation has a lot of, you know, difficult details to figure out. But if you want to know the structure of Revelation, how it's laid out systematically, it's actually very, very simple. So we start with John's vision. God comes to his, Jesus comes to his best friend, an angel appears, and then Jesus to his best friend, John, okay?

Comes to John on the island of Patmos when John is being, had been put there. I think he had been already boiled with oil. They couldn't kill him, and so they sent him to Patmos. He ended up getting off of Patmos and dying of natural causes. But he came to him in a vision. So he came to somebody he knew to reveal himself. Revelation. God wants to reveal himself to you.

It's going to be really important in this message that if we're going to live in the end times, we have to believe that God is a revelator, and he wants you to be aware of what is going on. You don't have to know all the details to know how to live. Let me say that again. You don't have to know all the details to know how to live. And so he comes to John.

The next thing we see is John is whisked away to God's throne. I believe that is in chapter 2 and 3. And then you have the, you have, after that, you have the churches where God speaks to the churches. That actually missed your notes. Where God speaks to the churches. He warns the churches. He calls the churches back to him. He says, I'm going to remove your lampstand if you don't get it together.

And I would say that God looks at our church, and he has a thought, and he has a judgment, and an encouragement for our church as well. One of the things I regularly want to ask is, God, show me where we need to be more like you. We want to be like that Philadelphian church. You can go back and listen to that series from last year. The Philadelphian church was the one that he didn't have anything against that church.

They were in brotherly love. They were in community. So he speaks to the churches, and he warns the churches. So, first thing that you can know is this book is meant to warn you. But it's also meant to encourage you, but to warn you. So he's done that. Then we see the seven seals. Now, the first of the four seven seals are the four horsemen. The first seal is the first horseman.

We have the Antichrist come, saying he's about peace, but he's not. And then you have war, and then you have a black horse that is famine, and it's inflation. And then the fourth horse is the angel of death, basically, with Hades following behind him on a pale horse. Those are the four horsemen. So after the four horsemen, the next thing that happens is you see the altar basically lift up, and under it are all these Christians that died during the four horsemen, the period of the four horsemen.

Now, some of these are people from these churches, that God has spoken to the churches and said to the churches that things are going to happen, and Christians have been put to death. But others who have come to know Christ during the time of tribulation. I want to say right now, when all heck is breaking loose all over the world, which has happened many, many times, is one of the best times to have spiritual conversations with people.

One of the best times to speak. I believe people are more open now. People are less tethered. They're more anxious. They're more concerned. They're more worried. And one of the best times to speak about people, or speak to people, about Jesus is when they're in tribulation. And I would say that we are living in a season in our nation and in the world where the world is in some form of tribulation.

Now is the time to speak. And so be looking. Be aware for those conversations. You'd be surprised how open to the gospel people get when they start having suicidal ideation, or they start having anxiety where they cannot sleep, or they have depression. All of these things God will use, and some of you God has used, to turn them around when they realize that the things that they've been going after are no longer satisfying them.

And then we see in the martyrs in five, and then in six we see this climactic judgment we'll talk about today. And seventh is the silence in heaven. That's really interesting. You have a silence in heaven. Interesting, after that silence in heaven, prayers, remember in the first couple chapters, these living creatures held these bowls, right? And the bowls were all the prayers that had ever been prayed by all humanity.

Your prayers, your plumber, Christian plumber's prayers, Daniel, Moses, all the prayers that had ever been there. These living creatures hold the prayers in a bowl. Well, when the seventh seal was broke, you know what they do with that bowl? They dump it out at the feet of God. Like, whoa! Imagine every prayer that has ever been prayed being just dumped out and poured before the throne of God.

We will get to that next week. So, with the opening of the sixth seal, we see the following signs and wonders being orchestrated by God rather than the horsemen. Now, this is really key as well. Remember, there's seven seals and there's seven trumpets. We're not going to make it to the trumpets. I thought we might. We ain't making it to the trumpets until next year.

But the first four seals, the Lord releases four horsemen that are either demonic or they're in league with Satan, these first four horsemen. And God allows them to go and cause havoc on the earth. He allows them. Remember, we said that Satan can't do anything unless he's allowed. He's on a very short leash. He is allowed to do these things. And it wasn't even God that released them.

Remember, it was the living creatures that said, come. And he let each of the horse come. So, God, it wasn't even God that released them. These living beings have authority even over the four horsemen. So, they release the four horsemen. I mean, there's one, two, three, and four. And it was these demonic creatures that go and God uses them to bring tribulation.

Then there's that break in the fifth seal where the martyrs cry out. Now, in the sixth seal, God is the one judging. God is the one bringing the climactic issues to the earth. So, that's a major shift here with these seals. The first four, it's like he lets Satan go do his business. And sometimes, you know, God allows Satan to run amok, especially when people are asking for it.

Paul says this, remember, in the scripture, if you remember. He says, I've turned that person over to Satan to be taught some lessons. And sometimes, God will do that. He will use, he will allow, he will use Satan for his own purposes. So, that happens in the first four seals. The fifth seal is once again a break. The sixth seal, God gets to business now.

And God starts to bring in the judgment. That's a major shift. And that shift is called the great and terrible day of the Lord. If you've ever heard of the great and terrible day of the Lord, the sixth seal is when that happens. And it's definitely different. So, you have the four horsemen, you've got a break, and now God is getting to business.

Now, this is spoken about in Joel 2, verse 30 and 31. It's actually spoken about all over the scripture. If you want to, I just got to say, there are some rabbit trails when it comes to revelation. Like, I was going down so many rabbit trails. I'm like, I can't get into that. Like, I'm going to be on the third heaven before I know it. You know what I mean?

I'm going to be so lost and so confused. It's totally confusing to me. There's all these different opinions. What I noticed a lot, and when I stay away from it, people are like, if anybody told you this, they are exactly wrong. It is this. And I'm like, okay, delete. Like, as soon as you just start telling me that you understand things the scripture says that we won't understand, then I don't have a desire to understand you.

But I do believe that there are some things that we can know. So once again, going back to the beginning of the sermon, and why I'm telling you this is, what are the practical things? We're going to hit that at the end, that are going to change your life, that we can live and be a church that matters. So in Joel 2, 30 through 31, it says, and I will show wonders in the heavens.

This is Joel the prophet in the Old Testament. And in the earth, blood and fire, pillars of smoke, the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord to come. So he talks about this. We'll talk about that in just a second. And then Revelation 6, 17 says the same thing. For the great day of wrath has come.

This is the sick seal. Who can withstand it? So you have this climactic changing of the environment. Even the heavens are affected. I, when it comes to the whole debate on climate change and all those, I don't really get into that. But what I do believe is this. I don't believe you can poison anything without it not functioning well. And I think we are poisoning the earth.

And so I think if you take anything, you take that with a plant. You just grow a plant in your house. It's just basic. And you start putting, you know, the wrong chemicals in it or something, you can kill it easily. So do I think that human sin and greed has poisoned the earth? Absolutely. Do I think that is changing the way things happen and the way the earth functions?

Absolutely. It makes perfect sense that that is happening. Whether I know about all these, you know, different theories and whatever, I don't know about those things. But what I also know is this. The scripture says that we are deeply tied, our souls and our being is deeply tied to the earth. Remember when the Israelites went in to take the land of the Canaanites, it said because of the evil of the nations that were living in the promised land, that it said the earth did what?

It spit them out. And so we know that God is alive in our universe. We know that God is alive and that the stars speak of him, the oceans cry out. And I believe that human sin, when we sin, the earth will react against that. So I do believe that it is very possible that some of the things you see happening around the earth, whether it be a weather event, whether it be a flood, whether it be all these different things, I think some of that is tied to human sin.

And I think a lot of that sin is human beings not caring for the planet like we were told to care for the planet. And because of greed that we begin to destroy the planet, that poisons the earth. So I think those things are happening. But here we have another level. In this, we start seeing the heavens folding back. We start seeing the earth turn, you know, the moon turn to blood and the sun turn black.

What does that mean? I have no idea what that means. I can't tell you. I mean, an earthquake and all of a sudden there's some soot and it goes around the world. And we know that, you know, there's big enough earthquakes. If you've been up to Mono Lake up there, if that blew up again, we know that we've been told that the volcano that blew up went around the earth at that point and would have made the entire earth dark.

So is that possible that those things can happen? Absolutely. Here's what we see happening. One, you have a great earthquake in the sixth seal. I don't know if that's a worldwide earthquake. I don't know. I have a feeling when it happens, you'll know. All right. So we'll do that. The sun becoming black as sackcloth of goat's hair. That doesn't sound great.

Okay. Number two, the moon becomes as blood. We just had a blood moon, I think, this week, which was so interesting. I'm not sure it was the same one from this. Stars in the heaven falling on the earth. So all of a sudden you have like an, is it asteroids? I read all these different things. Let me just tell you, I'm going to definitively tell you this.

I have no clue. Okay. So what it is. And neither do you. But it says there will be some climactic event. And when it happens, you'll probably know. Number five, the heavens depart as when a scroll is rolled up together. Now, I don't know what that means, but that's heavy. Like basically the heavens rolling back in some form. Is that metaphoric? Maybe.

Maybe. Is it not metaphoric? Is there some weird thing that happens? Once again, let me just definitively tell you, for sure, I have no clue. I have no clue. And neither do you. But we know that there will be some climactic event in the stars. And every mountain and island will move out of their place. Now, that's an issue. I mean, I haven't studied a lot.

But if every mountain and island moves, is this a metaphor? Does these things really happen? Once again, I don't know. Let's get to the things that we are supposed to know, okay? And this is the part that I think you should be deeply concerned with. And it goes back. Now, I put this in the notes today. This is from 2 Peter. And the Bible speaks. You can write this down and look it up later.

It's 2 Peter chapter 3, verses 10 through 12. The Bible speaks more about how to live in these times than it gives clues about exactly what's going to happen and when it's going to happen. It says in 2 Peter, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief. You've heard that before. So the day of the Lord. He's talking about the sixth seal here. He's talking about the sixth seal.

What I did realize when I studied this week is how much the sixth seal actually plays into a lot of the New Testament narrative. We'll see in a moment where Jesus in Mark 13 speaks all about the sixth seal and how to live. So if you want to juxtapose Mark 13 with the sixth seal, go ahead and do that. It's a fun little exercise to go and just, you know, to dive into the word of God.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief and the heavens will disappear with a roar. Once again, no idea what that means. Doesn't sound great. The elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, here's the key point. What kind of people ought you be?

That is what matters. That is what matters. If anything is going to be revealed, what type of people should you be? There's a war in Ukraine. What type of people should you be? There's economic hardship around the globe. There's food shortages. What type of people should you be? That is today's message and he speaks about this. He says you ought to live holy lives.

You ought to live godly lives. As you look forward, right? As you look forward to the day of God and the speed at which it's coming. Man, that right there is a little different than the doom and gloom, worry, fear. Oh, what's going to happen? How am I going to survive? That's not the kind of people we ought to be. When it comes to you and you read the headlines and you see everything that's happening or you give a report.

And I speak to a lot of Christians and many that I meet, they come to me with a lot of fear and intrepidation and worry. And I understand that. That makes sense because we're human beings. But if we stop just a moment and go back to the scripture, the scripture is asking you a question. Okay, that's fine. Now the question is this. What kind of believer ought you to be?

And what kind of believer are you? Are you so frustrated right now? Are you so angry about all the things that are happening? Are you upset with Supreme Court decisions? Are you upset with the things that states are doing? Or perhaps what's happening in Rwanda and the people being migrated back to Rwanda from England? Or maybe you're not even aware of that.

Or what's happening in Thailand with sex slavery? All these things, are they overwhelming you? Or do you stop for a moment and say, okay, that's the world. What kind of person am I? What report do I have from my tongue? Do I speak the good news of Jesus? We're going to go for the last couple minutes of this sermon and we're going to look at Mark 13.

And what is interesting in Mark 13, if you have your Bible, you can turn to it. Mark 13, Jesus speaks about the sixth seal. And he says, when you see these things happen, and this is what I want you to do. He gives you a game plan. He gives you an absolute game plan. You know what the problem is with many believers? They have no game plan. They don't have a game plan other than reacting to what they see.

Now, in 1945, there was a man that owned a chicken. And the chicken's name was Mike. And he went to cut the chicken's head off for a family Sunday dinner. And oddly, there's a picture of the chicken. This is Miracle Mike. Chicken didn't die. All right, I'm not even kidding. This chicken lived a year and a half without a head. Now, if you don't believe me, don't do it right now.

Don't look right now. Okay? He missed the brain stem. All right? There's the chicken's face down there at the bottom. All right? Yeah, I know. Set. Mike the chicken lived a year and a half. He made the guy like $10,000. There's a museum. There's a 5K run. You can go for them. You can still run in the 5K Mike the Headless Chicken run. That chicken lived a year and a half.

Now, you cannot believe me. I want you to go on Google later and put in Mike the Headless Chicken. And you can go down the rabbit hole, the chicken hole, and figure it out. He was taking him around the country. And it's true. He was taking him around the country. He was feeding him with a dropper until one day he gave him a piece of corn and Mike choked.

Which is really sad, right? After a year and a half. The guy was making like $10,000 a year, which was like $50,000 to $60,000 back then. And we lost Mike. You take that picture off because it's just horrible. I've got to say, so many of us are just like chickens with our heads cut off. Like we're just running around the yard. You know, my grandma, she had a hatchet, my great-grandma.

And we came from back east and she would chop the thing up before I was alive, thank God, because it would have brought nightmares to me. And the chicken would just run around. And it's interesting, when you cut a chicken's head off, it'll run around the yard. And a lot of people are running around without any awareness of what is going on. But there's a lot of movement.

There's a lot of flapping of wings in your life. A lot of legs moving. But you're not aware because you're like Mike the chicken. What Jesus says in this passage, in Mark 13, we'll just get to these four things and we're done, is be aware. Don't run around like a chicken with your head cut off. And just because you've got a bunch of motion in your life doesn't mean you're doing the right thing.

All right, let's look at what Jesus says, these four things in Mark 13. First thing, 13, 5-8. Right? Jesus says, watch out. Watch out. Jesus said to them, watch out. Watch out for what? What are we watching out for? That no one deceives you. That you will not be deceived. That means tricked. Many will come in my name claiming I am he. And many will be deceived.

The word there for watchful is bleppo. I like saying it. You want to say that with me? Let's say it. One, two, three. Bleppo. Isn't that fun? Let's say it again. Bleppo. It means properly to see, to be observant, to be watchful. But it suggests to see something in the spiritual, something physical with spiritual results and perception. That it carries what is seen into the non-physical realm.

So that a person can take the needed action and respond and be alert. For everything that is happening on the physical level, there is a spiritual level. And spiritual discernment is what sees beyond the physical level. So this morning, I woke up for no reason. And I had this impending dread. Do you get that? Just that dread. Something's on fire.

I don't know what it is. But something's on fire and I got to go fix it. Right? I get that. And I'm laying there and I'm like, where is that coming from? And then I start, what I tend to do is go into fix it mode. Well, I can do this and I can get up and I can do that. And if I clean my house and if I organize a to-do list. And I thought, no, no, no, no, no.

No, don't do that. Let's be, let's, let's, let's, let's watch. And so I began to ask the Lord for discernment. The Bible says you can do that. And I said, Lord, what's going on? What's going on? Where is this coming from? Where is this thought? Where is that impending doom? There's no, there's no bear in the room. I don't see a bear chasing me. No one's after me.

Lord. And I just began to ask the Lord. Lord, I need discernment. Where is this coming from? Where is this coming from? God began to speak to my heart that there's these things that you care about that you shouldn't care about. How many people come on Sunday? Whether we're going to be successful. Whether there'll be enough tithe. Whether we can accomplish this thing.

Whether we're going to get our building permits. All these things into do, that does with my job. That's my job. That's what I do. I think about those things. Lord said, let that stuff go. And just love people. And let me take care of the rest. And as soon as I laid there, I was like, okay, he gave me the discernment. He was watchful. I decided I wanted to open my eyes.

And say, and not just live in the feeling and try to sort it out on my own. And he began to give me spiritual answers that were underneath what is physically happening. There are things happening. Let's just take it home to home in your children's lives that you need to watch and ask God what's happening. There's things happening in your marriages, in your relationships, in your work.

There's things happening in Ukraine that if you were to ask God, what are you doing? God would begin to show you because God, as we know, is a revelator. He will show you how he has used immigration throughout the world to bring the message of Christ to different continents for the millennia that has been happening. All of England, because of immigration, was changed because believers went into England.

That's just one story in the 600s that happened. And so God is doing things behind the scenes. To blepo means that you are aware of something behind the scenes. You look behind the curtain. Jesus says, be on watch. Watch, he says. Are you watching? Coming in for a landing. Don't be alarmed. This is key. I'm a minimalist, okay? And I tend to minimize things.

And it's what kept me alive as a kid. You know, oh, parents are getting divorced. Things are horrible. I'll be fine. No big deal. Like, that's kind of how I dealt with things. And it's actually somewhat helpful sometimes. But I think rather than just minimizing things as a tool, to not be alarmed because of faith. You see, there's a difference between me minimizing my problems and figuring them out and having faith beyond my understanding.

I don't need to, as it says in Philippians, I don't need to understand this problem in order to understand it beyond comprehension. It says in the scripture, it says that he will give you a peace that goes beyond understanding. And so he says, don't be alarmed. In verse 7, Jesus said, when speaking about the sixth seal being broken, when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed.

Such things must happen. But the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. I'm going to tell you something. There's a difference between vigilance and being alarmed. God calls us to be vigilant. So when you see these things happening, vigilant in prayer, vigilant in my emotions, vigilant in my encouragement to others, vigilant in my joy, vigilant in my reading of the scripture.

Vigilance is not alarm. I tell you, I am my worst when I'm working out of a place of fear and alarm. I'm at my worst. When I get tense, when I get fearful, when I get upset, it's when I'm in that place, I make my worst decisions. There's a difference between alarm and vigilance. When you sense alarm, I want to encourage you, see a line with alarm on this side and say, okay, fine, I understand.

I'm going to acknowledge that. Now I'm going to step into vigilance. Now I'm going to do, I'm going to watch, I'm going to pray, and I'm going to do the things that are necessary in this time. Jesus says the first thing, watch. Second thing, don't be alarmed. Final two things, understand. He says there will be earthquakes in various places. There will be famines.

These are the beginning of the birth pains. In Luke 21, 28, he says, and when you see these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift your heads for your day. And this is the King James Version. I did it on purpose. For your redemption draweth nigh. For your redemption draweth nigh. I'm going to say, when you see these things, let it come, Lord.

Look at that. What did the Christians who were killed under the altar say? Lord, when? Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. I used to think if I could end the world and go to heaven right away, I would never press that button because I got things I want to do. I want to do this. I have these dreams. I have these hopes. I have no, I'll press the button now.

I want out. Eject me out unless you want me here. I got nothing, there's nothing I look forward to here on this earth more than being with my Jesus. That's it. And so that whole idea of like, oh, I got things I want to do and I'm, no, even the souls that were murdered or martyred for Jesus were crying out, when, Lord, when is the time? The time draweth nigh.

I will say, I'll tell you this. I don't know when it's coming, but it's one day sooner than yesterday. And time is running out. It might be a thousand years. It might be four minutes. Might not even make it through the sermon. But I'll tell you what, time is running out. Time, like God, and he's got different time than me. Time is running out. It says, understand.

And then final, be on your guard. Be on your guard. Be alert. It says in Mark 13, be on your guard, be alert. You do not know when the time will come. Mark 13, 36, and 37. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you asleep. What I say to you, I say to everyone, watch. You ever had that nightmare? You ever had that nightmare and you're half awake, you're half asleep, you know you're asleep, but you want up, and you're like calling out to your wife like, wake me up, wake me up.

And then you have this weird voice that goes with it. You know that like sleepy voice, you know, like you're, does anyone else have that? Am I the only one that has that? And I'm like, wake me up. You know, and I get like this, I need to wake up because I got some crazy nightmare. I'm getting chased by a dragon and no one's waking me up. And then all of a sudden, you ever done it?

And all of a sudden you're like, wake up. And you wake yourself up. Have you ever done that? But it's like breaking through. Oh, yeah, we're done with the sermon. You're like breaking. Okay, I understand. Let me just one second. Timer. Yeah, I know. We're there. All right. And so it's like, you ever done that? It's like breaking through. You're like paralyzed kind of.

And you're like breaking through from the sleep world of the dead to like the life. And you're just like, ah. You know, it takes effort to do that to wake yourself up. Some of you are looking at me like, no, that's never happened to me. No, I got issues. I want to say it's the same process to wake yourself up spiritually. Some of you have allowed yourself to live in a nightmare.

Allowed yourself to live in that dream sleep, to be asleep. Jesus is saying, wake up. Wake up. And he's in the same way. Go get someone to wake you up. What does he say? Wake yourself up. Wake yourself up. Get out of it. Do whatever it takes. I've had to break through that. And sometimes when you wake up, you're like, oh, whoa, I'm here. Jesus is saying, wake up.

If you're asleep, only you know it. Let's be awake. Let's be a type of people that change the world, that go out. The time draweth nigh. That's what we learn from the book of Revelations. It's going to bring you joy. It's going to bring you peace. It's going to bring you hope. And nothing is going to be able to stop you when you have that kind of attitude.

Nothing will stop you. No door will be closed that God cannot open. No wall is too high for you to climb. No valley is too deep for you to go through. God will be with you in the midst of that. Let's go. Let's go. Let's stand and pray. Anyway, if you want to extend your hands, if you need prayer after the service, you need a breakthrough, we're going to have some people up here to pray for you.

If you want to know more about our church, if you want to ask Jesus to come into your heart, you want to know about me getting baptized, please go to the next steps table. If you want a cup of coffee, you want to say hi and meet the team, go out to the cafe as well. If you extend your hands, let me pray for you. Lord Jesus, I want to bless this church, Lord God.

I want to bless these people, a lot of other churches in this city, I don't know what they're doing, but we want to be that Philadelphian church. We want to be a church that is holy, that wakes up, wakes up, wake them up, Lord God, and give them discernment, Jesus. Some parents in here have no clue what Satan is doing with their children behind their back because they never ask.

Care about the grades, care about the club soccer, they don't know what's happening in their hearts. God, you will let us know, soft and sensitive, awake, alert, alive, Lord God. More of you, this church come alive, Lord Jesus. Just in your own heart right now, say, God, give me a blessing, wake me up. Wake me up, Lord Jesus. Lord, we pray for an awakening, Lord Jesus, in this church and in this city and on these people.

In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Now get out of here, go have a great Sunday. We love you. Bye-bye. So, I have a great time, and the family, I have a great time, and the work. Thank you.