January I'll be teaching at Emeas Bible School. And, so you guys are gonna kind of be a test for me.
I'm gonna see if by. Whatever time 1130 or whatever I can put you to sleep. So if you're still awake, that means I failed.
All right.
So. Last week, I was talking about the fact that
The fear of death. Causes people to freeze up and rightfully so. I mean, God did not make us for death.
He meant he meant to make us for life, he had to allow mankind to make the decision so that we could actually say yes or no to him, you know the story.
And as a result of that as a result of being cut off. From God, we die. And it's because of that fear of death.
That. The enemy is able to cow us and influence us and deceive us and even without him because of that there are those things that we think we would miss and we talked about that last time.
The reason I'm reiterating this is because it's going to be kind of important to this message too because if you're still afraid.
And if you live in fear, then what I'm gonna say is gonna be like throwing gravel on you and that'll cause you to go sleep easier.
But the point being is this. God has already planned a new life. When we say eternal life, we Don't conceptualize what that means. We can't picture it.
It's like being on a cloud. It's like being whatever. It is a new life.
I don't know about you, but this last week I kind of tried to put some of this into action and I'm thinking to myself.
As I woke up, you know, some of these mornings going walking, I'm thinking to myself, okay.
Imagine now, Dan. That you are resurrected and you don't have all of the stuff hanging on you and you've been given a brand new day, what would that even look like?
That lasted for about 31 s. And then, you know, you're back to your mind drifting and your back to all sorts of things.
The thing is the light that got has for us will not have that. We will be perfected in the Lord.
There will be a new earth. We'll be able to literally run without being weary. And he's going to have service for us.
It's going to be an amazing thing. And again, you have to look at some of those last chapters in Revelation.
To get the drift of that. He doesn't give us a lot of detail, but there's enough detail that if you take the words literally and you ought to.
You see, this is going to be a brand new life. It is going to be a great thing.
We're not going to miss life. So you don't have to worry about getting all the gusto here.
We're not going to miss love. We're going to be able to love more and experience love more in that life than we ever have here.
Here we just get, where it's like pulsed looking through a glass darkly. We're not quite seeing it.
We get glimpses of it. And we're going to be able to live forever with God, face the face with, I mean, you just have to read those last chapters in Revelation.
And I want to make a little commercial for reading. Not only the Bible through every year, but If you do this, you will be reading revelation through every year.
Revelation is the only book in the Bible with a promise for having read it. Now I know in Revelation it says for someone who reads it aloud but you realize when this was written in ninety- Not a everybody had Bibles.
So when a Bible would circulate to an assembly like this. Somebody would have to stand up here and read it out loud so you could all hear because you wouldn't have your Bibles.
The reality is you've got several Bibles at home and you're probably not reading them anyway, but you should read the book of Revelation because it's very important.
It's one of the things that kind of made the Plymouth Brethren very strong. During that era when the brethren were forming and other things were happening, the Bible was a half-closed book.
No one could understand prophecy. No one really gave it any time. It was the tradition of Christianity to overlook prophecy.
To be able to look at that and read it in understand it in a plain sense. Is really helpful.
And not only that, you know, we're talking about praise, there is so much praise in the book of Revelation.
Well, so we're going to be talking a little bit about death this morning, but actually more about witnessing.
Death is inevitable. Everybody knows that. At least. To a degree.
Ben Franklin came up with it. He said that there were 2 inevitable things in life. And we all know that.
That's one of the throws of being an adult. You get to pay taxes, right? Death and taxes.
And once you see what your taxes are, There are some people who wish for death.
John Wayne said it. When he played Hondo. Comes into the situation and his woman says, where so and so?
And he says, he died. She says, he's dead? He says, everybody dies. It was just his fern.
Very philosophical. Woody Allen said, I'm not afraid of dying. I just don't wanna be there when it happens.
But God talks about it quite a bit too. And he gives us assurances. It's given unto people men and women one time to die.
And after that the judgment. And that's a tragic, tragic thing because God has planned.
Life to be after this life. This is barely walking into the foyer or the that little air trap thing when you walk into a building.
This earth is only a glimpse. A shadow of what will be. Who wants to get trapped in this?
And I just want to encourage you. You know, God has. Given his son and he's given us all of this information and if you're an adult in this room you realize that life is not cracked up to what what we think it's going to be, not what Hollywood says, not what anybody says.
God gives us. The glimpse, the understanding, the truth of what this life is. And this is not something to give yourself to.
Because this will not last. How much better than to surrender yourself to Jesus Christ because he's died for you?
I mean, he's not only showing the way, but he shows how much he loves you, why not give yourself to him?
Turning from your sin and turning to Jesus is not turning from your sin and turning to religion. It's not turning from your sin and turning to this chapel.
It is turning. To him. And he is there with open arms. I mean, you just read the Bible and you understand it.
If he had a hundred sheep and you were the one missing, you're the one he would go after.
He wants to have a relationship with you and it is the thing that makes his heart beat because he gave his life for you to come to him and why not start now?
If you haven't given your life to Jesus Christ, why not start now? Because you can start building.
You know, they say the best 2 times to plant a tree. It's 10 years ago. And today, is that Thunder Array?
No, good. 10 years ago in today. Just imagine if you had started 10 years ago, where you would be with him in your life.
I mean, he'd be speaking into your life every day, you'd me be making steps that you had never made before, you'd be forgiving people you never thought you could forgive.
You'd be becoming a blessing in people's lives. It would be great, but if you didn't do that 10 years ago.
Do it today. Because he is waiting there for you. At the end of the book of Revelation it says this, it says and he who is seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new.
He said, write this down for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it is done.
I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning in the end, to the thirsty I will give.
From the spring of water of life without payment. Are you thirsty?
Are you thirsty? That is the thing. Are you disappointed in life? Now you're getting close.
Do you need a savior if you need a savior? You have one.
And I'm gonna Change that a little bit also for. Those of us who have been in the Lord for a long time, are you still thirsty?
I thirsty for him in his blessing. Do you still seek after him? And this is in a good way.
Because the thing is, when we become, there's a place where we become too content and if we become too content.
We miss a lot of what he has for us. Basically in this message, what I'm going to be saying is that we need to Be witnesses for Jesus Christ.
He is designed us a certain way. And if we live that way. We receive all of the blessing that he has for us.
If we stop and we become content. The problem is, is that we're not living the way he wanted to live very quickly.
Being an ambassador for Christ. I mean that isn't that isn't sort of a hobby it's what we are.
So if we don't ambass it. Is that a word? I, I have a gift of making awards.
If we're, if we don't act like ambassadors, we can't live up to our potential.
If you're an artist. And you can paint but you never do you will be frustrated you're not living up to that gifting in that potential in the same way we are designed for that.
But. Even more than that it is important to our world. It is important to us. It is important to our world that we are able.
To be witnesses for Jesus Christ. Now, I was taking a class. I've just taken 3 graduate classes and at my age, I mean, what a thrill and what a adventure that was.
In one of the classes, what the guy made us do. Was have a perjury. I don't know I said it was a perjury journal because it wasn't a perjury journal but Part of it was to read.
On you know 3 or 4 apps a day. And you say, wow, you know, you're on your phone all the time anyway, right?
Well, these apps were rather depressing. Okay, one of them is called Voice of the Martyrs.
Now can you imagine reading that every day at your quiet time? Who's like, why am I reading?
It's reality.
When you see what is happening to believers in other parts of the world, I mean the statistic is crazy, but every 2 HA Nigerian Christian is martyred for Jesus Christ.
In Pakistan and Afghanistan. People are dying daily. They are being oppressed. They are being thrown in jail for no reason because they stand up and bear witness for Jesus Christ.
You know what the second largest unreached people group is on this planet.
Japan. How did that happen? They've had missions for over 500 years. Nobody has cracked the code yet.
Nobody has given themselves to figuring out what's going on. I mean, people are trying, but I mean, it's an unreached group.
There are so many people who are still in reach. But the thing that I want to Center on is reading these global Christian relief.
I mean they have stories every day about people in India who are being persecuted for their faith. And what's interesting is some of these people.
Don't give up. They get thrown in jail. They get out for a day. The government grabs them, throws them back in, but they don't give up.
Now, we live in the Western world where everything is sunny and nice and we have malls and you're all driving cars.
Can we be witnesses like that too? What I'm saying here is that it's necessary. For us to be witnesses just like that here too.
No, where I'm going to camp out in a way. Is in the book of Revelation.
So if you have book revelation, just open it up. Right to chapter one.
And we're gonna take a little bit of a walk here. And to do this, what we're going to do is we're going to take the word witness.
And we're going to change the word witness to martyr because it's really the same word in Greek.
The word that we have for witness is the word martyr. And that adds a good sense to it because there is a price to pay.
There's a price for me to pay for you to pay. When you walk out and you talk to somebody, when you pray to God and you say, okay, you know, give me an opportunity to speak with my neighbor what you are actually doing is you are walking out onto the battlefield.
Because there is a battle going on in the Western world we don't think there is but there's a huge battle going on and that's one of the reasons we feel so cowed.
We feel so fearful, fearful. Fearful of what?
See, it all comes back down to that fear, doesn't it, of life? What could possibly happen to you?
What this neighbor could say about you? You realize in northern Africa or in Islamic countries, if you go out and you witness and they find that you witness the people, you will be persecuted.
Your name will come up somewhere.
Could that ever happen here? Could you ever lose your job for being a witness here? You You could now.
I mean, I wouldn't have known what to have said maybe 10 years ago, but after the last 6 years, I mean, you got to watch what you say, right?
There's a price tag that goes with that and here's what I'm. Same, God wants you to pay the price.
You will have a much deeper life, a much more vibrant walk with Jesus Christ. If you're willing to pay the price.
The book of Revelation is built. On the price of being a witness or a martyr for Jesus Christ.
So in chapter one of John, we're just gonna look at some of these in chapter one of John verse 5.
John is introducing himself. And he says, you know, grace to you in peace from him who is and wasn't who is a common from the 7 spirits who are before the throne and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness.
The Faithful Martyr. Isn't it interesting that Jesus is? Identified right at the beginning of the book as the faithful witness.
He wasn't afraid. To give his life for us. He stood up and he told the truth.
And for that mankind put him to death, but aren't we happy that he is the faithful witness who did that?
The firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings on earth, he's the ruler of the Kings honor, they are just placeholders, they're supposed to be giving obedience and supposed to be running their nations according to Ho Jesus is and they're not.
Are they going to be in trouble? To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom.
Priest to his God and Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever amen.
Behold is coming on the clouds. The first message that Jesus gave to his disciples, the first thing they were supposed to preach is that the kingdom is coming and they need to, people need to repent.
I think that's still a good message for today. This life.
Can have light in it because the king is coming because Jesus Christ won and he's coming back.
I mean, that's a good way to start a discussion, right? What is life all about?
It's coming to know who Jesus Christ is. So anyway, right here at the beginning of the book of Revelation, Jesus is described as being the faithful witness, the faithful martyr, someone who gave testimony and paid the price for it.
So now look at. Chapter 6. I'm gonna gotta skip a little bit here. You guys will keep having your cars out there.
I heard that if your car is still out there, when they block the street, they're going to use that for children's games.
Paintball and running on top of your car with paint on their feet, all sorts of fun things. Anyway, chapter 6 is a very interesting chapter here.
Chapter 6 is a very interesting chapter here. Okay, you can see if you've got titles here, it talks about the 7 seals.
Jesus is the one who can open those 7 seals. So when you get to The fifth seal, which is in verse 9.
It says he opened the fifth seal and I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.
These are martyrs and they're under this altar. This is the altar of incense.
Okay, so if you understand what the tabernacle looked like in the holy place there was the table of the showb on the right side and then there was the lamp.
Stand on the left side and then right ahead, right against. The curtain. Was the altar of incense.
And the idea of the altar of incense was that The prayers of the saints would go up and over into the presence of God.
These martyrs are under the altar of incense. This becomes a key to the book of Revelation.
Because these martyrs are very important. And in verse 10 they cry out and they say, with a loud voice, O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on earth?
And they were each given a white robe and told the rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete who were to be killed as they themselves had been killed.
Just take it by faith. That is huge in what is coming in the book of Revelation. But again, it's the importance of their witness.
These people who are under there, you know, I mean, you understand the Gospels, right?
Jesus said to the fairies and the scribes and all that he said, every drop of business and blood that has been shed since Adam to now will come upon this generation and 70 AD the hammer fell.
In 78 AD there was no longer a temple in Jerusalem. There was no longer a nation of Israel.
That's when that judgment came. So I get the idea that since Jesus rose from the dead, Every other drop is being counted now.
All of these people who have given their lives in testimony and witness as martyrs for Jesus Christ are present under that.
Altar. And again, it figures big. So now turn the page over to chapter 7.
This is big. The 100 the 144 witnesses now that doesn't call them witnesses right it just says the 144,000 who have been sealed on their forehead and i know that i've read some people and they say well we don't know that they're really witnesses but here's the deal.
They are sealed for a particular task and they're all of the people of Israel.
Then you go down to verse 9 and it says after this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number.
Now some of you are good at math. I was never good at math. I would have had a hard, I would have struggled with 144,000, but this group is a group that cannot be numbered and they're from every nation.
And tongue and tribe and people.
And I'll just tell you what I think. These are the people who are going to be led to Christ through those 144,000.
The greatest missionary force that has ever hit the planet, Israel will be doing what God designed them to do from the very beginning and they're going to do it well.
And now the massive people who come to Jesus Christ in faith is going to be huge. When I was coming up, I was always told that there would be nobody saved during the tribulation, there are going to be tons of people saved.
This is like God's last big harvest. And there will be lots of people who will come to Jesus Christ.
Those people are very important. Because they also become witnesses. Martyrs. So when you get to the end of this description of these people says verse 13, then one of the elders addressed me saying, Hey, John, who are these closed and white robes?
And from where do they come? And I said, sir, you know, and he said, these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.
They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.
They will give up their lives. For Jesus Christ.
Dean witnesses is really important. This particular group of people. Are going to do something that no one has ever been able to do.
And we'll see it in a. Couple of minutes here. And then you go to chapter 8.
Chapter 8, you have the 7, the 7 trumpets. And. They are, yeah.
It says, at verse 3 it says another angel came and stood at the altar. Now we know what altar that is, right?
That's the altar of these witnesses. The altar of these martyrs. And it says he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of the saints on the golden altar before the throne.
And when he does this, now, here's what. I just want you to picture. These 7 judgments are going to come from this angel as a result of what this angel does at the Golden Alter.
This may be the angel, that is power over the fire. But see, it's being connected with these judgments that are about to come.
In chapter 8. That altar and those saints who are under it, the prayers of the saints.
Are very important. In what God is about to do. Okay, go to chapter 10.
Chapter 10 is very, very, it's kind of an unusual chapter. It looks like parentheses.
What's happening here, and I'll just say it really quickly, is that God is explaining what is going to happen during those first 3 and a half years.
And during those 3 first 3 and a half years, the. 144,000 are sealed.
They begin their ministry. God is already because of the, those, the seals being broken.
God has already kind of started to reduce the infrastructure of the world. And so these guys, these a hundred 44,000, will probably be pretty active and be able to fly into the radar.
At the same time there are going to be 2 witnesses. In Jerusalem. These 2 witnesses can only function in the first 3 and a half years and they're And again, they're witnesses, right?
And they're going to be very important. Now, in chapter 10, Just to just to say it really quick, what happens is an angel says the mystery of God will now be fulfilled.
And you're going what? It seems like the Bible is full of mysteries. This mystery is the mystery.
Of the saints.
Being given over to death. Basically, if you look at January chapter 9 and chapter 10 Daniel is sick in both of those chapters because he sees that that that Little Horn, the Antichrist.
Is able to make war on the saints and win. Basically putting them to death.
And in chapter 10, the This angel is announcing that this is now going to be fulfilled.
This is a bad thing. And you might be wondering right now too. Why is, why would any of this make sense?
If you want to convince me to witness, don't tell me that people are going to die if they witness.
That just seems like that's bad advertising. Don't do that. Why would God allow that?
See, that is a big question, isn't it? Because there are several things going on here.
But how many people are reading Job right now? It's in the one-year Bible. Right?
Jobs asking that question too. And if we're reading Job, we're wondering why in the world is God allowing that and God only says at the end.
Trust my wisdom. Trust me that I know what I'm doing. See, we know more than Job did at this point because of what's happening in the angelic realm.
What he's showing Satan.
Satan put it into the heart of Job's friends. That no one could ever be righteous before God.
And what God is showing Satan is that, that's not true. Here's a guy who's coming pretty close and we know what he didn't know.
Was that it would be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. God is accomplishing a purpose in this. He's showing his righteousness.
He's showing that judgment should come upon mankind. He's showing that judgment should come upon mankind.
He's giving mankind every possible.
Chance.
So, chapter 10 is a big chapter and then you go right into the 2 witnesses who are going to demonstrate.
Now the 2 witnesses are very cool, right? I mean, these are basically like Aaron and Moses living in Jerusalem for 1,260 days and they are bringing basically all of the trumpet things are coming from these 2 guys.
They are sort of the earthly people who are calling that down. We see what's happening in in heaven, but they are the ones who are on earth and they are calling that down.
That's why when they die, everybody starts getting happy and exchanging gifts. It's like Christmas because these guys brought such anguish onto the earth.
The 2 witnesses. Now, isn't it neat? That they're there. I mean, we should be happy that the 2 witnesses are there.
And it says this, when the day, the days of their testimony are finished. God will allow the beast that rises out of the abyss.
The Antichrist to make war on them. And conquer them and it says their dead bodies will lie in the streets of that great city that symbolically is called Sodom in Egypt where their Lord was crucified.
This is really important. So, here's what happens. After 3 and a half days.
It says a breathroom god came and they stood on their feet. A voice said, come up here there.
And in the sight of their enemies. They rose up into heaven in a cloud. That hour there was a great earthquake a tenth of the city fell 7,000 people were killed in the city and the rest were terrified in G, glory to God.
This is the only time you're going to find that. People on earth giving glory to God. There's something that happens in Jerusalem, but even more than that.
After this, the seventh trumpet in verse 7 in verse 15, and After that trumpet sounds it says this.
The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of us Christ. And he shall reign forever.
And ever. Okay, the death of the 2 witnesses marks the end of the first 3 and a half years.
Now the great tribulation starts. And as these guys are raised. In heaven they announced. Get this, the kingdom of this world.
Has become the kingdom of our God. In of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.
There is something that happens with the death and resurrection of those 2 witnesses. Aren't we glad that they're there?
And this is happening at the middle. Of the tribulation.
Their witness was a proof to the earth that God was present.
Even if people wanted to tune them out. Their witness was a proof. To the people living on the planet that God was alive and was concerned about the planet and he wanted them to come to him.
I don't know what their words were, but certainly everybody had their eyes fixed on these 2 guys.
And what was the heart? Of mankind is in terms of a being revealed. They just wanted them dead.
They didn't want God. Mankind is proving to itself that it deserves. To be judged.
Yeah. The 2 witnesses are huge. Your witness is huge.
So don't hold it back. So this is a big point in the book of Revelation.
Normally when Jesus talks about The the olive discourse or there's a
He starts. At the Great Tribulation because this has something to do with Israel too. So. Quickly talk about chapter 12 and chapter 12.
It gives you a summary of Israel's existence. How Israel was going to bring that child that would defeat the devil.
All right. And so you have that being played out here. The important part of all this. Is that the woman flees into the desert.
Now you remember Jesus saying this a couple times, right? In that day, let him who was on the housetop with his goods in the house not come down and get them.
And if you're in the field, don't turn back, you can get your coat. Fleeted the mountains.
This is huge that Israel will obey. When they do that, something happens that has never happened before.
And this is where a lot of this comes together. So.
Verse 7. When they flee into the desert. It says, now war rose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought back.
But they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down and the ancient serpent who was called the Devil and Satan the deceiver of the whole world was thrown down to earth and his angels were thrown down there with him and I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation in the power in the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ has come
for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down who accuses them night and day.
In this act of faith. As Israel heads into the desert, something
Happens that has never happened before.
And Michael and his angels, it's sort of the time of judgment, the time when everything has been proved at least to the spiritual authorities that their authority is taken away and Satan is cast out of the out of heaven.
Now this is watered the earth. That that seat has been cast out of heaven. But here's the thing I want you to see.
Verse 11 and they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives.
Even unto death. Who defeated? The devil. The witnesses defeated the devil.
That number of people. That couldn't be counted who washed the robes white in the blood of the lamb.
Because they were witnesses. Because they bore testimony to Jesus Christ. As they were being put to death.
God used their lives. In this defeats the enemy.
Not big angels. The reason that the enemy is defeated here is because of the witness of mankind, the believers in Jesus Christ.
That is huge. Now, I'm not going to, I'll leave the rest of this to you because if you go through, I'll tell you that in chapter
15, these people appear again.
And they're singing a song before God. Oh, in chapter. 16.
In chapter 16, the bowls of judgment are poured out. And the second bowl goes into the ocean and turns the ocean into blood completely.
I mean, it says the blood of a dead man. The third bowl goes into the rivers and springs of water, turns all of them into blood.
And it says the angel who has power over the water says. How righteous you are in these your judgments, God.
Because they have poured out the blood of your saints. And you have given them blood to drink.
The blood of those saints are those. People that come to faith through the 144,000.
They have poured out the blood. Of your people and now you have given them blood to drink. Have you ever wondered why?
In Genesis. In the plagues that God bothered turning the Nile into blood.
I mean, yeah, you've heard stories like I have that the Nile was seen as a god.
What did they throw into the Nile? What would have made God really mad? That the Egyptians were throwing into the Nile not.
Litter. The babies, the Hebrew babies were being thrown into the Nile and so what did God do?
He turned it into blood. At the end of the world. At the end of the tribulation, God is going to turn the oceans and the rivers.
Into blood because of what mankind has been doing. To his people. And he has been giving it, you know that verse in Roman it's 8 where Paul says hey we're more than conquerors God has given us as sheep to the slaughter as testimony to mankind.
Of the love in the presence and and the working of God and all they had to do was turn. To mankind.
They're going to be people.
Who are going to appear before God and they're going to say, God, you never really fully gave me a chance.
You really didn't give me a chance. And God's going to say, Do you remember that guy who lived next door to you, the one you kept calling an idiot privately in your kitchen?
I heard it all, I'm sorry. I heard it. Remember how you used to call him an idiot?
You could have walked out of your house and gone to him and talked to him and he could have shown you how to get to me.
You know that that woman at work? That you guys would talk and make fun of. Because she goes to church every Sunday or whatever.
If you would have gone to her I could have gotten you through that marriage. I could have gotten you through the difficulties you were having with your children.
I could have given you a whole new perspective on life, but you all you did was wear those people down and in other countries in the world right now.
God is collecting His people through death. But he's putting them out there and giving. People in North Africa, he's giving people in Islamic countries, he's giving people in North Korea an opportunity to come to him and what are those people doing?
Very few of them are coming to faith. Some are. They are transforming witnesses into martyrs.
Now, what I'm seeing is this. This is what God wants of us. This is why he left us on this planet.
To have the joy in the life and all of this stuff in Jesus and say I never have to work together with anybody to see anybody come to Christ.
I never have to pray for my neighbor. I never have to ask God to give me the opportunity. What are we doing?
We are here to bear witness. To the true and faithful witness who for our sake gave his life and what happens here in the United States?
Right now, very little. You know, somebody might call you a boogerhead. Somebody might exclude you.
It's, you read the, the, Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, when you are excluded and you're hated and they talk about you, leap.
For joy. How many of us sleep for joy? I'm depressed for 3 weeks when they do that to me.
He says, leap for joy. Because this is real. You're putting yourself out in the battle.
You're putting yourself out where I want you to be. Jesus said when they dragged you. Before their councils and the kings and the rulers of the Gentile.
To give testimony to me.
You allowed that to happen? Hey, I didn't just allow it to happen. I designed it to happen so you would get in front of your boss so you would get in front of those people in your neighborhood so you would be able to tell them about me and even if you have stammering tongue don't even worry about it.
You, if God puts you there, he wants you to, and you have stammering tongue, he wants you there with stammering tongue.
Because they could always say, what is this guy trying to say? Let's figure it out. Go slower, speak easier.
Geez, oh, OK, this is about him, right? He puts you there on purpose.
And what I have to say is this. That is why we are here.
So. In conclusion and just saying. Revelation is one of the greatest books in the Bible. It's again, it's one of those ones where he says, if you read this I will bless you why because you begin to absorb with the purpose of our lives here is.
The purpose of our lives is not finding heaven on earth. Purpose of our lives is not ducking everything that comes against us and hoping we can get to the end without being hurt by anything.
Purpose of our lives because this life is temporary is to give glory and honor and praise and witness. To people and then.
We go into what life really is.
That's where life begins. That's where we will see life as God always intended it. To be and there will be challenges there but we will be up for the challenge because we're perfected in Jesus Christ if we know him.
You know, there's a guy. That I've been reading about named Dan Crawford.
And Dan Crawford was kind of weird individual because He was actually a very, very good writer. I mean, you could basically say that what he wrote is literature.
He wrote a book. Called Thinking Black. The reason he wrote that book is because he went to Africa as a missionary.
And this was his whole thing. God put him in a situation where he was really poor. And he had to live with the people and he decided what he would do in having to live with the people the way he did.
Was he would sit up with him at night and listen to all other stories. In listen to all of the proverbs and listen to all of their traditions.
And what occurred to him is what he was doing was he was absorbing their culture. He was absorbing their culture.
And at a certain place in this book, he says, how ironic is it to think of missionaries who come to Africa and live here for 50 years.
But they've never been in Africa. Because they never allowed Africa to get in them.
Wouldn't it be ironic? To think that we have been believers for 50 years.
But we know so little about Jesus Christ. Because we never allowed Jesus Christ to be full come fully into us and I mean that in a metaphorical way obviously I understand salvation.
But I'm saying how much we give of ourselves to him. If we're going to give ourselves to him, we have to be in his word.
We have to absorb his word. We need to let that become the culture in the tradition, in the proverbs, in the driving of our lives because that's where we find this heart.
And if we're really going to give ourselves to him, then we have to be what he is.
The good and faithful witness. We have to witness and be willing to die every day for the sake of Jesus Christ.
And if we do that, that's where this becomes the adventure. That's when we burn through.
I'll say this one thing here. I should actually throw this at David Livingstone. You know, obviously if you're going out to the jungle, you're going to be afraid of things.
And he writes this one thing in his journal that's really kind of weird. He says, you know what?
I woke up the other day and my head was in a lion's mouth. And he had one of his paws on my chest, I couldn't get up. And he said, didn't it occur to me?
I was no longer afraid of the lion.
Get in my, getting his head in the lion's mouth took away the fear of the line.
Now thankfully, he was able to finish the story. But you know the thing is we stand there with the sphere and we think what if why would God do that to me?
Find out. Why does God lead the way he leads? Live dangerously for the sake of Jesus Christ.
He gave everything for us. Let's give. Everything for him that's prayed. Heavenly Father, we thank you.
That you have made this. An adventure. We live in a dangerous world and you know that there's danger here.
You've told us there is. Jesus has said that we need to be wise as serpents but harmless as doves, but we still need to go out there.
Paul told Timothy to to avoid Alexander because of the the nature of that guy's heart but he didn't tell Timothy not to witness anymore in fact he told Timothy to come to a dangerous place to visit him in jail under with the Romans.
Father, you. Ask us for the sake of your son for the sake of witness for the sake of your love for so many people on this planet.
To be bold and live for Jesus Christ to walk right out into the street. To go right up to our neighbor to invite him over or her over for something to eat, to be bold because we have been saved, we have nothing to fear, we have only life in front of us and it only gets better and better.
So why shouldn't we live right now? In that boldness and in that joy and in that life that has been granted to us now in Jesus Christ.
And then following him on earth becomes that thrill in that adventure that we always knew it would be.
It's says, in this is my father glorified. That you bear much fruit. In so proved to be.
My disciples. And we see the wonders of your power. We see the wonders of the spirit.
We see the wonders of this eternal life. Opened up before us because we're seeing lives changed.
Because we are bearing witness. For Jesus. We thank you for that. In his name, he meant.
Remember your cars out on the street? Stick around for a great meal.
We'll have one more song just in closing. Number 392 This I feel is I didn't talk to Dan beforehand, but I think it's appropriate for being a witness out in this world, we will get tired at times or we need to draw strength from somewhere and this song calls us to essentially run to Jesus to come to him and in the chorus it says he will keep us day and night one
of the verses Dan read from Revelation was how Satan is the accuser of the brethren day and night.
And we can rest knowing that Jesus is there as our defense advocate day and night. So number 392, Jesus strong and kind.
Jesus said that if I thirst I should come to him No one else can satisfy I should come to him For the Lord is good and faithful He will keep us day and night We can always run to Jesus Geez are strong and kind Jesus said if I am weak I should come to him.
No one else can be my strength. I should come to him. For the Lord is good and faithful he will keep us day and night we can always run to Jesus.
Geez are strong and calm. Mind. Jesus said that if I fear I should come to him, no one else can be my shield, I should come to him.
For the Lord is good and faithful. He will keep us day and night. We can always run to G's us.
Geez are strong and calm. Jesus said if I am lost He will come to me. And he showed me on that cross he will come to me For the Lord is good and faithful He will keep us day and night We can always run to Jesus Jesus Geez are strong and kind Amen.
Red, would you like me to pray for the meal? Very good. Let's pray once more.
Heavenly fathers, we thank you for this day we've had to come to sing praises to you to hear from your word to be inspired and encouraged to live for you.
To our utmost. Lord, we thank you for this meal that is downstairs, the potluck that everyone has brought.
And I pray that she would bless the food to our bodies. Please help us to enjoy the time to enjoy the fellowship and to give glory to you.
In Jesus name, amen.
Thank you.