Revelation | Week 2

Hey there. Came on too fast. How's it going Rock Point? Hey. Yeah. Good. Wake up. Awesome. Yeah. It's good to be here. I love love love love being here. Some of my favorite things to do is be with you all in the house of the Lord, and I just turned southern on us right there. Sorry.

Howdy y'all, you know, but, you know, I I love being here, but you you know what's not fun? Oftentimes, adulting. Anybody think adulting is hard? Like, gotta be an adult right now. There's there's times when it's just not enjoyable. And one of the things that that it to me is the least

fun part about trying to be adult is when you have to go buy an appliance. I mean, it's not like a car. At least you get to drive away with something. It's not like a trip. It's not like it's

not like you did something to your house that's just like, you buy an appliance, and basically, you put something there that was already there, and you paid all this money for it to just do what the other thing was doing the day before or two days before since it broke, and and and now I'm out the money.

And and I have that up. We had to go get a new refrigerator this week, and and and it's just like, wow, I can't believe I just paid all that money to put the exact same thing in

there. It's like, ugh, unfun, unfun. But that's not even where the worst part of it was. It was as the refrigerator started to die, you have that, okay, it's seven years old, do I get a repair guy, what do I do, or you're trying to debate it, and it started off, it was only the freezer that was going.

And I knew this because I

got up one morning, this last week, I went to get some ice, and there was ice, it was still ice, it wasn't completely melted, but it was ice that was just barely hanging on as ice. You know, it's kinda had that a little bit of softness, it wasn't that rock solid ice that you expect. So I go, why is the ice kind of like sweating or whatever? And and then I feel, and then my wife comes and she goes, oh, our freezer's going out. I'm like, oh, okay. So I saw the sign, I heard the word. I go to work. At night, I get off work and I had to go get something to the store. I walk by the freezer aisle and they have this type of Italian ice that I love on sale.

So I immediately buy three boxes of it. There's six containers of it in each box. I bought three of them. That's like a two day supply for me. But I I I bought them all, I'm so excited, and I go home, I open the freezer, and I go, why is the freezer as warm as the room? As I'm dumping in, my wife walks in, she goes, how many of those did you buy? I go, three boxes. She goes,

I just told you this morning our freezer doesn't work. I'm like, duh. I saw the signs. I heard the word. Why did I not pay attention? So I bought three boxes of stuff, I dump it in, I invested the money and the time, so then I stopped and I looked at my wife and I go, I know what has to be done. Give me a spoon

and stay out of my way. I'm gonna eat all three boxes of this right now. I'd already eaten dinner, and I'm so I was gonna eat them all. I'm there it's it's it's I'm beating

these things. And so I started eating them. The first box was pretty easy because that's kinda standard for me. But when I got in that second box, man, number seven, it was alright. Number eight was starting to get rough. I wasn't by by number seven, I had to go get a hoodie and and put a hoodie on and then get a blanket because that much ice, I started to get really cold. I think I was dropping my core body temperature as I kept eating all these, and and I'm on the couch just eating them, and then when I got to number nine,

out of 18, I'm like, I'm I'm on number nine. I'm halfway through, and my wife comes in and and I don't look happy. I'm like, She's like, why are you doing this? Because I paid for it, and I'm gonna enjoy every one of them. And I and I mean, I just finally, a toothache started

because of all the cold and the sugar, I guess. So I was like, I have a toothache, I have a headache, I'm freezing, and I felt nauseous, and and so I just ate one more after that. And

and I go, and they win. I can't do it. I stopped. I I just stopped. I gave up after after after doing that, and I was like, why did I do this? Why did I why did I not listen to the signs? Why did I not listen to the word of my wife? And then why after I realized I had invested in something that was gonna melt, why did I then try to cram it all in as fast as I could? And I realized that that what I just did there describes why we're looking at the last book of the Bible.

It's because it's exactly what many of us struggle with in in this world right now. What we struggle with is what's happening. Is is we have the word of God. We have the word of God saying what's going on, and we hear the words. We see the signs,

but we continue to invest in the Italian ice of this world. Things that are gonna melt and not be that important, and we try to cram it all in until we make ourselves sick.

That's why we're going through the last book of the Bible, which which starts off with some letters to some churches. Starts off with a vision of Jesus, but then John has this vision that Jesus came to say, hey, here's how it's gonna end.

This is the how time as we know it's gonna end. And what we've been looking at is this this big idea for each week is this. Why is this book in the Bible there? Why do we need to read it? It's simply this. If I know what's gonna happen next, it should impact what I do now.

But yet we still wrestle with that. We don't really listen, do we? Just like my wife, I heard, I knew what was happening next, the freezer was going out, but I still invested in the Italian ice.

I should have really listened to her warning. I should have listened to the signs of the ice melting, and I shouldn't have invested the money in all of the Italian ice. Then once I realized it was gonna melt, I shouldn't have just sat there and said I'm gonna cram as much of it in as I can.

But yet, that's what we do with our lives. That's what we do, and that's why we're reading this book because we're trying to say, okay, what is happening next? But let's really listen to it. See, if you just wanna know about the book of Revelation to be interested, maybe you like, like I said, you're a Christian horror fan. You like to be creeped out a little bit by these things, but you or you just wanna just, you know, know things, but if if studying this book, if going through the last book doesn't change the way you live now, you're missing the whole point of it.

Knowing what's next should impact what we do now. And last weekend, like I said, we're only going through it for four weeks. If you wanna discuss it at deeper level, get in a home group, read it on your own, study it. But what we're doing is we're looking at these little snapshots of things throughout the book that kinda help us understand what's going on. Last week, we looked at this thing called the rapture,

and that was like the next thing that's supposed to happen prophetically. It's where I believe that God just pulls out every Christian out of this world.

I think and I also believe that children that are too young to understand the gospel think they belong to the Lord too, and I think there's gonna come a moment like a blink of an eye. The Bible says it's like a thief in the night. It'll come on like the days of Noah. Everyone's gonna be going along eating their Italian ice of this world, and then boom.

And that's gonna kick off this last period of time called the great tribulation. That's what we wanna talk about today. It's these last seven years

of history as we know it, where God, Jesus is is reclaiming the world from death and sin. He's gonna reestablish the world, but in the meantime to get through it, we go through this time where God pours out his judgment

and and and his wrath and and he just judges the world, and he brings it all to an end. It's a seven year period. Where do we get that from? It it comes from oh, Matthew twenty four twenty one describes this time of tribulation like the world will have never seen, and he says it's from the from the time of of of the book of Daniel. You go back into Daniel chapter 12 verse one, it says there's gonna come this time, this period of tribulation before the end like the world will have never seen, and that's really coming out of a prophecy in the book of Daniel.

Book of Daniel, thousands of years old, and it's it's it's got these prophecies in it. And one of the most famous prophecies is what is called the prophecy of the seventy weeks. And the prophecy of seventy weeks, it's called really the prophecy of seventy weeks of years. So it describes these these seventy

seven year periods. And and the the biggest thrust of it in the that involved the first sixty nine weeks, the first grouping, is it predicts when the Messiah will show up. And hundreds of years before there is the the Persian Empire, with King Cyrus. They don't even know the name Cyrus.

It's not a common name. This empire doesn't exist. The book of Daniel predicts a king named Cyrus, actually calls him by name, will declare that the temple can be rebuilt. And then it says exactly how many years from that time that happens until this Messiah will ride into Jerusalem.

And if you do the math, which you got to do it by the lunar calendar, it's the it's the it's the Hebrew calendar, it comes out to exactly the day when Jesus rode in on a donkey on Palm Sunday into Jerusalem to head to the cross. It is so If you're a critic of the Bible, people don't tell you this. It is dead accurate.

And the only only rebuttal that people that don't want to accept the Bible's validity will say is, that must have been added later to the book of Daniel. That could not have been written at the time until they unearthed the Dead Sea Scrolls

and found the whole book of Daniel there. Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest oldest manuscripts of the Old Testament

Dating back to before the New Testament times. Before Jesus even showed up. It was already there. So just think about that if you're someone that doesn't wanna trust in the Bible's truth. So bottom line, this week, seventy weeks, it predicts all these things. There's a gap between week sixty nine and week seventy.

Literally in the writing, there's a gap. Talks about the first and then boom. The seventieth week is that great tribulation. The last seven years. That's the only thing left in this prophecy to happen. That's what chapter six through chapter 19 of the book of Revelation is discussing.

It's talking about this tribulation period. This final seven years of history where Jesus is gonna bring the new heaven and new earth. He's gonna recreate the world. He's gonna bring an end. And a lot people are afraid of it. They they they act like but what's funny is if you sit there and say why does God allow bad things to happen? Why doesn't he stop it? Why doesn't he do it? Then you should not be afraid or have a problem with this great tribulation, because this is God coming to bring justice.

And and and so this is the tribulation

period is the one where you've seen the movies or heard, you know, the mark of the beast, the antichrist, all these things happen. So I just wanna quickly here's what I wanna do. I wanna just give us a quick outline of what it what what this section's like so you can understand if you go read it. I wanna dive into one little piece of it so we can get a a deeper feel.

And then talk about why do I even need to know this. Especially because if if if if my theological view is correct from scripture, if you're already a believer, we won't even be here for this.

So why do I need to know? There's important reason to know. We'll see. So first of all, how is this tribulation? How is Revelation six through 19 outlined? Because it's got a lot of imagery

in the way it talks, so it can be really confusing to understand. But basically, chapters six through 19 is is divided into three waves of judgments. It's three waves of judgments that come. There's first these seven seals that that are broken. It's seals, not like it's

not like seal NATO. It's it's it's wax seals on a scroll. Maybe, you know, us, we don't seals, you know, and and it's not the singer. Nothing. None of that, but but these seven seals. Then come these seven trumpets that are blown by angels. Seven different judgments.

And then there's seven bowls of wrath that are poured out. So the whole chapter the those chapters are outlined by it's these they come in order and they get progressively worse. Now, interspersed

parenthetically throughout all of this happening is where you hear all those other stories you probably heard about or read about about the end times, the anti Christ, the rise of, you know, these 144,000

witnesses to Jesus, these two prophets, the the beast, and all all these stories that you hear that set up the timeline, and then it has these parentheticals where we'll jump to a scene in heaven, something happening in the throne, and then back to earth like I talked about the verse. All of that is interspersed throughout, but you can understand verses chapter six through 19 is basically following this outline of these three waves of judgments that are progressively stronger until Jesus returns and time's up.

Now, before I jump in and look at that a little bit more, when you hear the words great tribulation, what makes this different than any other dark time in history? Well, there's a couple things you gotta know going in scripturally.

It says, first, what makes us different than any other dark time in history is that this is not a localized event. This truly is global. Everything happens is global.

Now there's been some dark times in our history that seem to be global, but they're not. There's always pockets that don't get affected. Always. Like even the the financial, the the housing market crash here in 02/2008, 02/1978.

Some of you probably still in a house that hasn't quite got back to what you paid for it, especially if you bought high. It's getting there, but but it that felt pretty global. That felt at least national. Right? You know where a lot of people that were at our church started to move to back then? Texas.

The the housing crash did not hit Texas. I guess they said don't mess with Texas, and it didn't. So even though that seemed like everybody's start no. No. The great tribulation will be global.

Will be global. The second thing that makes it so great when you see the power of it is, it's very clear. Chapter six, I'm gonna read that verse in a little bit. Makes it very clear that everyone on this planet knows that this is God.

There's no second. It is so powerful and so clear that no one's going, wow, this is bad luck. They will know by the end it is God that is doing this.

And so there is like no doubt about it. God. And so that's why some of us get creeped out when you think of Revelation. Get really afraid because you think, man, that's the book about all hell breaking loose. You realize it's not the book about all hell breaking loose. It's the book about all heaven breaking in. It's

heaven coming, bam. The lamb came, Jesus, and died for us. The lion of Judah Jesus is coming back to say, death is done. Sin is over with.

Let's bring on what's next. Does that make sense? So what I wanna do is is is is when you look at these three waves, to give us a better feel of it, of of these judgments, I just wanna read a few verses that describe the very first, the sealed judgments, the very first, the first four. All we're gonna look at is the first four

of the first group of judgments. Now you might have heard them called this, the four horsemen of the So that just sounds eerie, doesn't it? Remember what I said, they get progressively worse? These are the first four.

The four horsemen of the apocalypse is the least scary part of it. Just bear that in mind as we read this. Just think about that. So here we go.

Revelation six verse one reads, as I watched, the lamb broke the first of the seven seals on the scroll. Then I heard one of the four living beings say with a voice like thunder, come. I looked up and I saw a white horse standing.

There, so it's symbolic as they come on a horse. It's these horsemen. Its rider carried a bow and a crown was placed on his head. He rode out to win many battles and gain the victory. And like, okay, you're right. That's not so bad. He's on a white horse. We've seen enough westerns. He must be the good guy.

We're gonna see next week. Next week, we're gonna talk about who is this Antichrist. And I'm gonna tell you which person he is. No. I'm just kidding.

No. But this is describing this anti guy. This leader that's gonna rise up through chaos,

and he's gonna look like he's the good guy. He's gonna look like he brings peace. He's gonna look like he brings some victories. Like I told you guys last week, a lot of what's happening in this book has to do with God's covenant with Israel.

So it's if it's basically he's gonna mislead Israel. They're gonna actually think he's the Messiah.

They're gonna find out he's not, and he's gonna turn on them. There's all these things, but I get ahead of myself. It's next week. But but that's really this antichrist that comes to it. It looks like, oh, we're saved. We have a leader. Which is think about it. Well, how could that happen? How

many times have I told you guys government is not gonna save us? We always look for that thing to to rescue us, and so this guy's gonna come along look like he he brings peace and thing, but then what he's gonna bring is what follows next is gonna come.

He goes, the next seal says, then the lamb broke the second seal. I heard the second living being say, come.

Then another horse appeared, a red one. It's the red horse. Its rider was given a mighty sword and the authority to take peace from earth. And there was war and slaughter everywhere. So what this guy's really gonna bring is you're gonna have war. And he says war and slaughter everywhere.

And this is like I said, it is a global thing. This you think World War one, World War two, think something worse than that. Matter of fact, the next horse lets you know like what he says next happens as a result of all this war and stuff.

It says this, then the lamb broke the third seal. I heard the third living being say, come. I looked up and saw a black horse and its rider was holding a pair of scales in its hand. And I heard a voice from among the four living beings saying, a loaf of wheat bread or three loaves of barley will cost a day's pay and don't waste the olive oil and the wine. So he says, basically, because of the war,

there's gonna become famine and shortages of food, and he says how much a loaf of bread would be. Now, we know how much a loaf of bread cost in that day. We know what a day's wage was, and we can factor it in. That is an inflationary rate of 12 times the average pay. So

basically take anything and multiply by 12. So right now, a gallon of milk is right around $4. So if this was to happen today, this inflationary rate says a gallon of milk would be $48. That's pretty bad. How many people are not gonna be able afford to get any food? And that leads to the fourth horseman,

which comes right on the heels of the war and then the shortages. It says the lamb broke the fourth seal and I heard the fourth living being say, come. I looked up and saw a horse whose color was pale green. It's pale horse, pale rider, like Clint Eastwood movie. Its rider was named Death and his companion was the grave.

These two were given authority over one fourth of the earth to kill with the sword and famine and disease in the wild animals. What it's saying is, this last judgment, this war and all this is gonna bring famine and disease, and it says one fourth of the entire population of the planet is gonna perish.

And this is in a short period of time. Now if you if if I'm right about the the tribulation and the rapture, and say this happened in our lifetime. There's what like 7,000,000,000 people on this planet?

If you take out the Christians and the baby, you're talking two, three billion disappear right away. So maybe you're four or 5,000,000,000 people left. Now you take a quarter of them. That says in a short period of time another billion people are gonna die due to war, famine, starving rapidly.

There's gonna be a lot of mass graves. You're probably gonna have places where they don't even bury bodies. Because that's just the first four.

That's the first four.

It gets worse to to not go into great depth. I got a picture to kind of give you some so if you go to read this, you'll understand kind of what's going on. Like I said, this is the outline and interspersed are all these little what's happening here and there. But so you have the the seals, they go on to the there's martyrdom.

There there's these great disturbances. Then you jump over and look at the trumpets. It gets worse. A third of the earth. The land is like unusable. A third of the sea. A third of the rivers and waters. A third of the heavens go dark.

And then the number five, we don't even know how to explain it. It describes these creatures. We don't if it's mechanical, if it's literal. Who knows? Because it's really it's just the way it describes it. Don't know. Might be something we don't understand. It might be something, but we just call them locust demons. I mean, they're they're like, they're they're they I think of when I read it, I think of like giant scorpions with wings.

I mean that And it says that they will sting. If it's a mechanical thing, but it says the the whole thing and it tries to describe it, it says the people that get stung or get hit with this thing will will live, but you'll be in agony for like months and months and months and months.

And you'll it says, you will wish to die, but you won't. Not sure exactly what that means, but it does not sound pleasant, does it?

And and and then you have an interlude, then the bulls begin, and look at the bulls. Everyone's gonna have sores. Whoever's left is gonna have sores all over their body. There's gonna the seas are gonna turn to blood. All the fresh water springs are gonna turn to blood. So now you're have no drinking water.

No fresh water. Scorching of the earth. Utter darkness in the sky. Euphrates dries up, and then destruction. It is done. You have the battle of Armageddon. And then Jesus returns. Doesn't that sound like a fun vacation?

That's terrifying, isn't it? Now before I tell you why do we need to know that, and some of you are like, this is why I don't like looking at this cock.

Some of you are going, this is why I have a hard time with the Bible, or I have a hard time with Christianity, or some of you are like, this is why I have a I struggle with religion in general. Because it just seems like it just wants to terrify us.

But you know what this really drives you to why we get scared about this is guys, you realize this is God's doing. This isn't evil. This is God pouring out this judgment. So I know what comes to my mind, maybe to yours a little bit is does this seem a little bit overkill? Is God bloodthirsty and cruel?

Am I the only one that you can kinda go that way if you if you don't know what's going on? It can seem a little bit extreme, doesn't it? Well, you gotta understand two things about what's going on here before before you get. First of all, let me read a verse to you. Chapter six verse 16. Well, actually starting in verse 15 says this.

It says, then everyone, when this is going on, it says, then everyone, the kings of the earth, the rulers, the generals, the wealthy, the powerful, and every slave. It's funny, used to people say, says slaves, it can't be in the future.

There's more people enslaved right now on this planet than there was before the civil war. Did you know that? So I don't know why I threw that in there. It's just free. All hid themselves in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.

And they cried to the mountains and the rocks. So this is this is what happened. People are crying to rocks. Fall on us and hide us from the face, and look what it says, of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb.

For the great day of the wrath is coming, who is able to survive? So it's describing the people that are left, the people that are going through this, they know clearly this is coming from God, and what are they still doing?

Running from him. They don't wanna experience this, but they won't run to him. They are shaking their fist. It's just basically describing, if you wanna know that this is not as as as as you think it's not being cruel, it's being necessary. It's something God just said he would do. He's bringing justice. It's bringing, like I say, the great comeuppance, so to speak, in in a lot of ways. If you go read Romans chapter one, you'll understand this. It says in Romans chapter one, it says there will be those that know the truth, yet they suppress the truth.

They don't wanna accept it. And it says, this this judgment will befall them, and it says, it is God bringing his righteous judgment upon ungodliness and unrepentance. So you're not talking about people like, well, wish I knew it was God. I wanna turn around. It is his people shaking their fist. They know it's God

and still won't listen. And you think, why would people you know, a lot of us in this room do this right now. There's things happening in your life. You've caused it. You just don't listen to God, and you shake your fist, and you still want it your way. If you are a parent, you've seen this.

You get those moments where kids are just like, they just don't get it. They just don't get it. And you know that alright, I've used the carrot, I've encouraged, I've loved, but at some point you have to bring some justice to the moment. Hopefully, to get them to turn.

But have you ever had one of those kids? It just doesn't matter what you do. They just

maybe you are one of those kids.

So you understand this is not a world filled with people like I wish I knew. They know it's God. They even know it's Jesus as they know it's the lamb.

And they're just, I want my Italian ice. I don't care if the freezer's not working anymore. But now about the heart of God. In chapter eight verse one, it says this, then the lamb broke the seventh seal. So right after this happens,

then the lamb broke the seventh seal on the scroll. This is right before the trumpets start, the next wave. Says there was silence throughout heaven for about a half an hour. So the heart of the people in this are people that just refuse. They're like Romans chapter one. God is saying, hey,

I have my grace. I've given you Jesus. You've had all this time. You're trying to see. I'm showing up. You know it's me. You know this is happening. You know what's that? And you refuse and refuse and refuse. So I'm up in the game. I'm up in the game. I'm up in the game to try to give you a chance to pay attention, but they're not. And then when he knows the seals are broke, okay, and now he's gotta bring the trumpets, it says he just stops for half an hour.

Now you know the heart of God, the heart of the people is. But the heart of God is still a God who's it's like he stops. Just like you know as a parent, when you know you have to you know, I can't let this kid get. I gotta do something. But don't you just pause for a minute and go, do I have to do this?

Some of you have been pausing for fifteen years. That's another sermon. So you see even in the midst of all of that going on, God is righteous, holy, and just and he will judge sin. The Bible's really clear. Sin will be judged and you can either have your sin judged in Christ or you can be judged by Christ for your sin.

That's what's happening here.

God's justice will prevail.

But yet, in that moment, he still pauses. Almost as to say, can't believe I have to do this. I can't believe.

And I think the other thing that should help you not think God is seeing so so cruel is what I told you guys last week. A lot of what's going on in the book of Revelation, the reason it's confusing to us is we like to make us, American Christians, the center of the biblical world and we're not.

Most of what's going on here, because I don't believe we're there, but Christian I believe God is calling Israel back. He made a covenant with them and I think he's gonna finish it off. And there's always described that when Israel ones away from God, they fall into

fall away from God. He brings some kind of judgment. Something happens and when it gets to the darkest of the darkest, the remnant turned to him. It's always a remnant. It's not they're not just automatically saved because they're Israel. It's they have to turn in faith individually. So he always talks about a remnant. There's always a remnant of what he calls true Israel that then turns to the grace of God and he rescues them. And I think he used Israel to bring Jesus. It was his plan to save the whole world for us to be no Jesus, but then Israel itself, he literally made a covenant. Every covenant God has ever made with any person, he's followed through literally.

Even the covenant he made with Ishmael, he made a great nation out of them. That's where that whole Arab peoples come from, and he says, I will make you into a great and he did. He followed through with that, and he always keeps his word. He has a covenant with Israel, and I believe he brought the Messiah, but now there's gonna be a remnant. That's why it talks about these 144,000

sealed evangelists that stay to share the gospel during this tribulation. That's why I believe the church is not there. If we're there, why we need a 144,000?

But they're sealed. They come from the 12 tribes of Judah. They are Jews, and they're gonna be evangelizing. And I think in that last moment, the remnant of Israel's gonna turn to their Messiah. They're gonna realize the Antichrist was the false Messiah, and you're gonna see Israelites turn back to Jesus by the millions. I guarantee you watch that happen, because that's consistent with what happens to every story in the Old Testament all the way through. That is how it is played out.

So a lot of this horrible things happening is to get Israel to wake up and get back in the game. Does that make sense? So God is not bloodthirsty or cruel. He is just and he is holy.

So what is this? If we're not gonna be there, what so what? Why do I need to know this? If I know what's happening next, it should have lose me now. First, you should understand that even though we are saved by grace, God takes sin seriously.

But more importantly, more importantly, the reason I think he wants us to know this is this. Would you want anyone you remotely care about to have to go through that?

Some of you probably have a few people you want to go through that. Hopefully, they're not the person sitting next to you because that's another whole sermon series too. But you would not want anyone you care about to experience this, would you?

See here's the point of why God wants us to know that, especially even if it's not a time for us. Is if I know that this is happening next, what I need to do now is I need to choose to be intentional about pointing people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus.

I need to be intentional about what we call evangelism. I need to be intentional about letting people know who Jesus is and giving them an opportunity to put their faith in Him now. Because you don't want them to go through that. And that's the whole point,

that we need to be a people that are about sharing our faith. Remember, that's the last thing Jesus said to His disciples before you ascended into heaven. I've I've been on the mount where you ascended. I've stood where He had this last conversation in His physical body with them on earth before He ascended up, and the last thing He taught them was go

do what? Go form churches that circle around and only teach themselves the Bible and don't care about outsiders. And no, that's not what he said. Go make disciples.

And the goat means wherever you go, wherever you live in life, you should you should be sharing your faith. You should be going out there and spreading the gospel. He says that's what we need to be doing.

And so he wants us to know this because we should know that you don't want anyone to go through that. We need to be people that share our faith, that we point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. That's why we are the church we are. That's why I started this church.

Is is is we need to be about pointing people to Jesus. But sometimes we get confused. We get caught up in the Italian ice. And and we get distracted, and we get busy, and then we just don't care. And then and then we get frustrated when a guy like me gets up and say, we're starting a fifth service,

and we're changing all the times, and I don't want any of you to go to the 10:00 service.

Go to 11:30 or 08:30. Don't come to this 10:00 service when we start. And you're like, well, quick. I serve here. I've been in church, and then you start to think that I'm the guy that makes it sound like, wow, you really hate Christians, don't you? All you care about is the new person. That's all you care about. You only care about the new person. Now, I gotta go find a church that really wants to feed the believer. Right? I I see, you know. There's

only one one being on this planet that yells feed me.

And has stuff spewing out of every part of its body all the time. It's a baby.

Guys. Guys. The reason we have to start services, I said don't go to that one, is people that don't know Jesus are gonna come to the 10:00. 10:45 and now ten. I guarantee that's when all of our new people show up.

And you might think, you not care about us? Yes, I care about us, but we are the ones that are supposed to be going and reaching out. Do you realize all the things we do as Christians? Fellowship, learning who God is from his word.

The worship, all the things we do as Christians, we will continue to do on into eternity. Except for one thing. There's one thing that God asked us to do that has a shelf life. And this is proves it. This is why I read this. There's one thing that has a shelf life. You know what that is? Leading other people to Jesus.

That's the one thing that ends. That's the one mission we have that that's gonna end. We have to be about that. I mean, I don't if there's any firemen, policemen, soldiers in here, but especially firemen. If you're a fireman, you're an emergency work, you run-in the burning buildings, don't you?

Everyone else runs out. Why do you run-in? Do you stand out there and go, why do I have to go in there? It's hot.

They started it. Why do I need to go in there? You don't say that, do you? What do you say? I run towards what people are running away from because that's my mission. Jesus said, go and make disciples.

Jesus said, this is what happens when my just wrath shows up, and you don't want anyone you love to go through that. We need to share our faith. So here here's the throat punch. Here's the throat punch, if that hasn't already punched you in the throat.

Let me challenge you with this. Just think about this. If you have been a Christian for any length of time, have you had any part in bringing someone else to Jesus?

And here, that's just the jab. Here's the punch. Here's the haymaker. If your answer is no,

you're not doing what God wants you to do with your life.

You're spending too much time on the Italian ice of this world. You're investing too much and maybe even making yourself sick on this world.

I guarantee you read that book, you know if you are not about reaching people for Jesus, you're not doing what God wants you to do. Period. End of story. If that offends you, good. I guess we'll have another seat for people at 10:00.

There. That was the throat punch. Guys, that's why we do what we do here. That's why I ask you to give. That's why I ask you to serve. That's why I say we're gonna build another building and I'm gonna ask everyone to sacrifice for it. But if I am caught up with the Italian ISIS of this world, that seems hard.

That seems like a big ask. Ask. I said big ask once time and someone thought I said something else. My wife thought I said that. I didn't.

It might seem overwhelming. And now to say that we should be and you know what? Sharing your faith doesn't always have to be with knocking on someone's door. It could be serving. It could be getting involved. It could be simply not going to a 10:00 service. It could be.

But I know what you think. Somebody's like, this seems hard. And I know guys, I know what we're like. I'm a guy. We are masters of apathy. A lot of guys, you know the Lord, you're sitting in, you know what? He's totally right. It's true. He's exactly right.

I should be doing that. I'm not gonna do it at all, but I agree with you.

That's the thing because we're so tired and worn out. We feel overwhelmed by life. And I get it. I know some of are saying, oh, it's easy for you to say that as a pastor. This is your career. You started this church. You wanted to grow. You can make up all these stories that I'm making about me or anything like that, but it's not about me. Sharing our faith is hard and is draining. And sometimes life drains, and I'm just I'm with you guys. There's times that I lose track of the mission and I don't care either.

When we went to Israel, I told you guys last week how we got, you know, got stuck for twenty seven hours in Newark. Then we had to ship out all over the plan over the planet together. We had break our group into smaller groups and go different directions. Took my group fifty two hours from the time we were at Sky Harbor till we got to Tel Aviv. It should have only taken sixteen hours.

So and and I hardly slept. So I went about fifty hours with like maybe two hours of sleep. When we got, we left and we finally got on our way, our group had to ship out and go through Zurich, Switzerland. I told you about that last week. When we got there, we found out we didn't really have tickets

to the flight. We thought we were on, we were all on standby and the flight was full, and they said the next flight's not till the next night, and now we're already a day and a half late. If that happened, we either gotta go back to Arizona, or as I told you guys last week, I decided I was just gonna live in Switzerland.

I was done. I was on hour forty of no sleep. And and and so I'm sitting there going, I am so tired and frustrated.

And then finally, one of the people in our group were standing there, they're saying, hey, I don't think you're gonna on the flight. One of the people in our group says, you know, we should pray. And I, you know what I wanted to say? Yeah, we should pray, shouldn't we? Now I didn't,

but I wanted to. Because you know what, I was done. I didn't wanna pray, and then my wife goes, we should pray. And I'm like, pray, no. So then now look at me. Okay, well, let's pray. So I say, let's pray. And everyone gets in, they'll stare at me. Oh, I get it. When you say we should pray, you mean I should pray.

Because I'm the pastor. I'm the super Christian. I'm the one that gets things done. I can move heaven because I'm professional. You know, I haven't slept in forty hours. I don't even care. But then I said, you know, alright. I'll pray. And I'm like, what am I gonna pray? God, this sucks. Why do you hate me?

That's what I felt. But then I got this little nudge. And I just prayed Romans. This passage in Romans eight where says, you know, God works all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. I that was my outline. I just prayed that. I said, God, we know

that you can work all things together for good. I also know that all of us are sitting here calling out to you because we do love you. I'm doubting whether you love me right now, but we love you.

But here's the disclaimer, you hear that verse and you think, oh, so God works all things. Something's going bad in your life, a lot of us quote, well you know God works all things together for good, but you leave the rest of it off.

He does not work it for good if you're not committed to his purposes. That's what the last phrase says. You have to say, I'm gonna be about your purpose, God. I'm gonna be on mission with you. It doesn't work out for good if you don't do that. So I prayed, we love you.

This is not good, but we know it could be good if we do this. So I'm committing to me and all of us that if there is something that you want that I need to do to follow your purpose, I'm on board with you right now not knowing what it is. I'm tired. I'm exhausted. But I commit right now to be on board with your purpose.

Whatever it may be, so that we can see this work together for good. Amen. Right when he said amen, the people that were trying to work out the deal go, hey, Brad, come over here. We got you all on the plane. Yes. Worked out for good. But then I forgot, there's still the purpose part.

And so so they started handing us tickets, and and it turned out that all of our group was pretty much in the front of the plane, and then she comes to me, the one that I said was kinda mean. I'm not sure she liked me. And she goes, oh, yeah. You got the worst seat. I'm like, did you do this on purpose? And so I grabbed the seat, and I'm like, this isn't the worst. When she said worse, I thought middle.

I hate the middle. I could be in the front row if I'm the middle. But it was I was in the back of the plane. You know, there's there's the the the bathroom

where the the flight attendants hang out, then there was me, strapped to the back. No. No. Wasn't that bad, but it was near the back of the plane. And I'm on the window, so I'm sitting there, so I go up there, so at least it wasn't the worst, but I'm not with everybody else. I have to go sit by myself, which at that point, I'm like, okay, I'm fine. I'm just gonna go sleep anyways.

And so I climb back there, I sit down, and as I sit in my seat, here I am sitting. The guy that comes to sit next to me is another big guy. And he goes to sit down, and so I'm like, I'm so tired, but you know, I just gotta at least be nice.

So I'm like, oh, how funny. They put the two biggest guys on the plane next to each other, and he just looks at me and then sits down. Pulls out his phone. I'm like, oh, okay. And I look and I see that his phone's in Hebrew.

So I'm like, oh, probably just doesn't understand what I'm saying. So okay, fine, nothing. So then we taxi and go, that's good. If he doesn't want to talk, great. You know, I'm just gonna go to sleep. I made my joke and I'm going to sleep. Which typically, I make a joke and then you guys go to sleep. But still,

so we start taxiing. We take off. It's been like fifteen minutes. And also he looks at me, goes, two biggest guys on the plane. That's funny.

I'm like.

He's just now getting some of the Seinfeld episodes, I guess. I have never had that long of a delay. I've either been called that's the dumbest joke I've ever heard or you laugh, but no one ever waits fifteen minutes and then starts laughing.

And I was like, and then he starts talking to me. So I'm like, oh great, now I'm not gonna sleep.

And and at first he starts talking to me and at first I'm like, okay, I'll do the chitchat, talk to him about he's an Israeli guy, was in the military. We talked about some things and you know the chitchat. And I'm thinking, you you sit next to someone, like, you wanna be nice, but then how much chitchat do I need to know before it's awkward, before I just turn, lean my head against the bulkhead and go to sleep? You know? I'm waiting for that moment, but then he starts asking questions about, well, why are you going to Israel?

And I tell him because I'm a pastor. And he goes, a pastor? What's that? I go, you're Jewish. It's a rabbi for people that love Jesus.

And he's like, okay. And so then he starts asking more questions about that. And I realized that I just don't wanna talk. But he is actually putting it up on a tee to say, tell me about Jesus. He keeps asking me more and more questions. Like he's inviting me to share my faith with him. And so you know what I did as the pastor? I said in my heart, I don't wanna share my faith with this guy. You know what I wanna do? I wanna finish getting my group of church people to the holy land so we can learn to be closer to Jesus. But I don't wanna share the love of Jesus with this guy that doesn't know him.

I'm just like you.

I was so interested in my own little mission to my own little group, and I was so tired. I was on forty two hours of no sleep. I get it. I did not wanna do this. And I was like, and I was trying to avoid it, and then all of sudden, a little tap on my shoulder, and God's saying, hey, remember what you just prayed

according to my purpose? Why do you think I stuck you in the seat? I

get it. I'm the pastor. You know, what what I say in the service says here, right?

My pastor just said he didn't even wanna tell someone that Jesus loves them. No, didn't. I wanted to go to sleep, okay? Someone else can take care of him. And and I said, was like, fine. So I just kinda prayed, alright Lord, I'm gonna go all in on this.

And we started to have conversations. And he started to talk about, you know, like about God. And and when I told him as a pastor, he started to share about how he doesn't believe in all the rules. So he goes, I believe in God. My family believes in God, but he's a Jew that doesn't really practice because he doesn't like all the legalism and rules. So I was able to walk, he just opened the door and he let me walk through the whole testament

and point him to Jesus. Just talked about who Jesus was and he understood it, he was tracking with me and and and it was great and all that, but then all of a sudden as as the walls broke down, he finally looked at me he revealed why he was on this plane. See, it turned out that his mom was going to to Zurich

to get experimental cancer treatments because she was dying of cancer. And the treatments were working, but she had a stroke and died anyways. And she had just died fifteen hours before. And so they're taking her home.

And he's sitting here, the rest of his family ironically was in the front of the plane with the rest of my group. For whatever reason, I get plopped there and he got plopped next to me.

And so he starts to share that. I'm like, oh, man. And opened up me to be able to say, man, your mom just died fifteen hours ago. My mom died fifteen years ago. The same thing.

And he goes, yeah, I just don't know how to move on. She was the center of our our home. And and and I said, know what? I get it. My mom died just eight weeks after my dad.

And so I had something that connected him. Only I had fifteen years of perspective on this. So he started asking me questions. I started talking about his mom. I just let him open up, and we had this amazing conversation

honoring his mom, giving him encouragement. He says, man, I really like this. But then comes this moment where he looks at me and he goes, I really really like what we're talking about. I get what you're saying, but I gotta ask you a question.

When my mom started to get really sick, me and my family decided to reach out to our God. And we prayed and prayed and prayed, and she still died. And that gave me an opportunity to talk to him about how no is an answer, and God has a bigger perspective,

and we talked for about thirty, forty five minutes on that. And at the end day, he goes, I get what you're saying. I get like he's leaning in. When he says I get, he was agreeing with me. And then he said, but I still gotta ask you this. So he felt so comfortable with me. He goes, I get it. So if that's true, fine. But why

did God not give me a sign then? At least let me know that he heard my prayers. At least let me know that that he cares and he does have a bigger perspective and all the things you just told me. Why didn't he give me a sign? And I looked at him and I said, can I tell you how I ended up on this plane?

And I walked him through everything. And I told him how I just prayed about the purpose of God. I told him how I just wanted to go to sleep. And then you opened up, and I'm sitting next to a guy that I went through the same thing you would have done in fifteen hours, fifteen years ago. And now I'm telling him all about how what God how he works, his perspective and all that. And I said, listen. Listen to me.

I said, I don't think it's the lack of sleep talking, but I can confidently tell you God did give you a sign. It's me.

No. That's not even the weird part. Right as I said that, the guy sitting right behind me leans up, sticks his head between the two seats. You see his eyes. And he goes,

well, brother? And he's like, he had the southern accent. He goes, I'm from Atlanta, Georgia. I'm like, how is this guy on a plane in Zurich? And he goes, and I'm a and I love Jesus.

And my flight from somewhere else got all messed up. I shouldn't have been on this plane either. And I just want you to know two things. One, my wife died two years ago, so thank you. I've been listening to you the whole time. You just greatly encouraged me. But secondly, the second he started talking to you, brother, I want you to that another Jesus follower got placed right behind you, and I've been praying for both of you this entire conversation.

And he goes and then he leans back. And I look at the guy to go,

we both end up at the back of the plane. Our groups are up there. This guy from Atlanta is sitting behind us. I go, what is there not to know? God wants me to tell you. I never say this kind of stuff. I'm not but I just felt like God said, I need to tell you. He heard you. He understands. He's got a bigger perspective, but you need to know he loves you and quit running away from him and you need to trust him.

And I did not want to do that. I wasn't tired anymore. I was still exhausted, but I wasn't tired. And I'd like to say that he says, alright, I need Jesus, praise Hallelujah, right there. But I think God wanted to use me just to plant a seed because he wasn't quite ready, I could tell. So we just talked some more

and I told him don't give up on this journey. I told him about our website, you could watch online. If you're out there brother, can't pronounce your name, but.

But you know what he did do? They brought our food right after that. And he goes, would you pray for me and pray for my family? And I just prayed that he would know the grace of Jesus. That he would know that he loves him.

And I just gotta count that if God put me in that seat, there's someone else that he's gonna come across when he gets off that plane. I just hope the people he comes across when he gets off the plane understand that when you know what's happening next, I hope they're just as intentional

about wanting to point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus or he might walk right past an opportunity.

How about you? I get it. I was exhausted and didn't want to. But there's something powerful when you just get on mission with God. And that's why we do what we do around here.

You know one thing you could do right now, because that here's where the rubber hits the road is. We can talk about you get inspired. We can go out of here. But there are some things you can do. You don't have to go get on a plane and find some random stranger.

You know one of the first things you can do to help us? To help be a part of pointing people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus? Is when we start this fifth service, we need a 102 volunteers just for our children's ministry to start a fifth service. You know why?

We don't need a 102 every week, but we try to get enough people to rotate so no one gets burned out. So it takes a 102 to staff a whole service to have the rotations where you're not every week. And and they need that.

We need you. If you were to volunteer and do that, some you like, but I got too much Italian ice life going on. And and and you you're busy and you're tired and you're exhausted. You're just like me on that plane. But you know what God's gonna do? If you do that, you're gonna get to see kids come to Jesus. But you're gonna create an experience for them that's gonna let mom and dad relax, and mom and dad are gonna be able to come in here and hear about Jesus.

You're gonna help lead people to Jesus by serving that way. So I just want to encourage. If you're someone that can maybe even feel like you can do that and you're nudge, don't listen to the Italian ice voices. They're gonna tell you you're too busy, too tired, and too nauseous from trying to live life. Push through.

Push through. Because you know what? I just wanna encourage you with something about how cool this church is. The people that are already serving in children's ministry,

Our children's director said, I know we need to start this fifth service after Easter. It takes time to get a 102 people and train them. We're not gonna have enough people by the time we launch, but we need to launch because we need the gospel to go out. So she went to the current children's workers, and a lot of you are in this room.

Let me encourage you. She asked will you be willing to do two services a weekend serving until we get these other people trained up? She only got 90% yes. I said that jokingly. 90% said yes. Did you get that? So that's why we're able to launch the fifth service right now. But here's the deal.

You have some committed people that are loving your kids and they're willing to double up. But they can't do that forever. This is where it gets practical. This is where you have to make a decision. Are you gonna get uncomfortable in order to be about what God wants us to be about? Because if I know what's next

from what we learned today, I need to be intentional about pointing people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. And if you're willing to get involved in that you can go on rockpoint.io or

literally you can walk into either one of the children's rooms. They have a table in there and tell them, where do you need me? Show me what to do. I encourage you, especially if you feel like I did on that plane. Some of you feel like you've had four years without sleep. I get it.

But there is a power that comes from the Lord when you go where he wants you to go. This might be the moment that you will have some of your life have all things together work for good. Because you're gonna choose to be called according to his purpose. Amen?

Father God, I just thank you Lord. I thank you that you love us so much. Thank you that you care. And Lord, I just God, have a simple prayer.

That as we we see these these things that sound so scary, but it's really you just the other side of the scary is is the new creation. It's it's it's you rebuilding life the way it was supposed to be. So Lord, I just pray that each one of us would would would say, how do I need to be more intentional

about chasing after what you want us to chase after? Lord, help us to set aside the distractions. Help us push past the fatigue, Push past the fears and just trust you. May we be a people that share our faith by sharing our lives. I just pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.