Revelation, Part 5

I guess this is number five, so I wanted to bring it to the apex today at the return of Jesus Christ. This will go into that. My wife asked me last night when I came to bed. She was reading, and she asked me what my favorite scripture about the Feast of Trumpets was. She's heard many, many sermons by many, many years on the Feast of Trumpets. So she wanted to know what it was, and I did surprise her, as I usually do. I said 2 Chronicles 5 in verse 12. 2 Chronicles 5 in verse 12. I'd like you to turn there, as we look and focus on the sound of a trumpet, as this is called the Feast of Trumpets. Like you'd turn to 2 Chronicles 5 in verse 12. The ark is brought into the temple at Solomon's time. In verse 12 says, In the Levites, who were the singers, all those of Esau. You remember Esau? If you do not, just go to the Psalms, and you will read most of his songs that he wrote. Starting in somewhere about the 70s, and goes all the way through the 80s. Psalms. So he was a great songwriter, and obviously a great singer. He so inspired Solomon, who was a little of both. And from all indications, he also worked for David. And we know what kind of composer and singer and talent that David was. And it says, The guys in Heman and Jettethin, with their sons and their brethren, stood at the east end of the altar, clothed in white linen, had to be quite a sight to see, having cymbals, stringed instruments, and harps. And with them was 120 priests sounding the trumpets. I've seen some large orchestras before. I've seen quite an impressive group of people singing and praising God. But 120 trumpets, can you imagine?

And then the word just says in 13, Indeed, it came to pass when the trumpeters, 120, and the singers were as one, to make one sound, to be heard in praising and thanking of the Lord. And when they lifted up their voices with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praise the Lord, saying, For He is good, for His mercy endures forever, that the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God. Can you imagine being there that day? Being impressed by the singers, by the instrument, by the song. And of course, this is a song that most historians believe that David actually wrote and sang, and it was also carried over. So when this was David's dream that he never got to see the temple being built. And can you imagine? They thought he danced when the trumpet came in, if he wasn't of old age, I can imagine how he would have danced, and shouted, and sang on this Feast of Trumpets when it all came together, when the house of God was finally built. Something that he had been dreaming of for a long time, that his son completed. Like you turn over 2 Chronicles 7. I can just cover a few verses here on this day, because it took place on the Feast of Trumpets. Psalm 7, verse 1. Solomon here gave a wonderful prayer. I hope you will read it this afternoon, this evening, when you go home and you see how Solomon's heart was so dedicated to God that he had just this incredible prayer that he prayed in front of the people and before God that day. Now, when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offerings and the sacrifices and the glory. Can you imagine that? You're standing there, you're impressed with the singing, the music. Everything is special. It is a holy day before God. And the offerings are laid out here. And all of a sudden, as the singing is going on, and the trumpets are playing, clouds, the shekinah, the glory of God, fills the temple and just comes out everywhere out of the temple. So the priest could not even be in there. And so they had to come out where the people were.

And all of a sudden, you see the animals, the altar that is there laid out with the animals as the people are like, what can happen next? And, whoof! Fire comes down from heaven and burns up the offering in front of all the people.

What an awesome sight!

And in verse 2, the priest could not enter the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house. And when all the children of Israel saw how, that was very important, how the fire came down, it wasn't a little flame started out. When God usually did something to get their attention, He got their attention, as I'm sure it will be in the future also. And the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and praised the Lord, saying, what?

For He is good, for His mercy endures forever. David's song. Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the Lord. King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000. Not 22, not 2,200. 22,000 bulls. Can you imagine the smell of beef? You go by a Longhorse Steakhouse, you think it's impressive. Well, guess what? 22,000 head of beef and 20,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God, and the priests attended to their service.

And the Levites also with instruments of music of the Lord, which King David had made to praise the Lord, saying, for His mercy endures forever. Whenever David offered praise by their ministry or their hand, the priests sounded trumpets opposite them while all Israel stood. So while this praise was going on on one side, these singers are singing. The people are over here.

The singers are singing on this side of the court. And here are the 120 trumpeters with harps, and they're sounding. And you can imagine the sound just coming right into the temple. And the temple is that way, and the people are this way. So they are really able to hear just what God is hearing and how pleased God was on this Feast of Trumpets to have all this take place.

With that in mind, I'd like you to turn back to Revelation 6. Revelation 6. So we've talked about it before. I handed out those little drawings. Hopefully you have yours. Because I want to lead up to the time that Orlando talked about when Jesus Christ would appear in the clouds, when we would be changed in a moment in a twinkling of an eye. It is a wonderful time that this day pictures a young man call me yesterday and asked me the question, in fact, from Tennessee, do you think he will return on the Feast of Trumpets?

And I said, well, no man knows, as the Scripture says, no man knows the day or the hour. But I said, it doesn't say the year. And I said, also, the day, does he return? If it was on the Feast of Trumpets, would that be in Australia, which is a different day than us? Or would it be eight, nine hours ahead of us in Jerusalem?

Or would it be our time? We don't know, do we? But thankfully, God does. And He's going to send him just at the right time. But these trumpets will be sound. Sounded. So are we prepared now? Are we preparing now? We better read. Is this something to fear, as we've talked about before?

Absolutely not. But you see in Matthew 24 and Matthew 25, Jesus Christ is describing something that you and I need to do. And He says, watch. Watch. Watch. Watch what? Watch the things that are going to happen that will lead up to the time. So we're not caught unaware.

So we see what's going on. We have the mindset, and we're ready for the trumpets. I'd like you to turn to Revelation 6. Hopefully you're there. As those who have been here for the last month, you realize each Sabbath we have covered the aspects of Revelation. So hopefully you will understand this will end this. We'll catch up next year and go into a different level. As I've said before, when I tackle Revelation or something hard, I like to take small bites.

Let's eat the cake one piece at a time, not just cram the whole thing in our mouth. So that's why we've taken our time and gone through Revelation. Because I want you to understand it, not only for yourself, but be able to explain it to someone else. And most of all, know that Revelation is a book not to be feared, but to be revered. In the chapter 6 of Revelation, Jesus Christ lays out, as I had my scroll last week, or last Sabbath, and you were able to see the scroll and how it's unrolled, as he was able to loosen the seals and be able to reveal the things that were inside.

Well, these are things that are inside. These are the things that we need to be watching. So as we know, there are seven seals, seven trumpets and seven trumpet plagues, or bowls. I want to look at the seven seals, because this is how we were able to tell when this day will be fully recognized, when this day will be a reality for the children of God.

Chapter 6 and verse 2, the first seal says, I looked and behold a white horse, and he who sat on had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. And a lot of theologians believe this is Jesus Christ. Well, it's not. It's a fraud. It's a false religion that has taken Jesus Christ's name, and that's why, as you realize in Revelation 19, when Jesus Christ does return, he returns on a white horse, but he has many crowns, not a crown. And he also has a sword in his hand, as he's going to get down to some serious business.

So then we talk here as we start about the four horsemen. I don't know if you saw our program this past week, but Beyond Today had a new program about the four horsemen of the apocalypse. So if you haven't seen it, you can dial it up on the internet and watch it. It's a new show that they went out, went to some guy's farm, and had to find some horses and go all this kind of stuff. It's one of the guys was telling me how they all how they put it together, and I wouldn't have known how they did it all, except he told me. So I think it's very interesting, as they thought this was very important to cover. As we look at these four horsemen of the apocalypse, as it's called, and you've seen movies, you see stories about it, and so forth, and we realize that that these four horsemen, the first one, that they all ride down through time, and they will ride all the way until Jesus Christ returns. But as these four horsemen ride as they represent four different things that's going to happen to this earth, they also will intensify the closer it gets to Jesus Christ's time. Some of these have existed ever since Jesus Christ. He said they would. That many false prophets would come in my name, and that's why on your chart there, it also shows from Revelation 6, but also Matthew 24 gives you a cross-reference. So you can say, well, yeah, Jesus Christ revealed this. But it talks about this false religion that's going to ride, and it did, just as soon as Jesus Christ died. And it will intensify that there will be more people coming out at the end time. The closer we are, they profess to be following Christ. They profess to be doing what's right, and they are false. And they will be so good at deceiving you and getting you to not just follow the Bible, but to follow them, that it says they will deceive many. And the elect will be some of those that we are to keep and make sure that we watch what we do.

The second seal that we will find is war. It says in verse 4, And another horse, fiery red, went out, and it was granted to the one who set on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another, and there was given to him a great sword. A lot of war is going to take place in the future. A great war we know, but many wars are going to take place. You may say, well, yes, but that horse has been riding a long time, and that it has. You know, it's interesting in the history of man, the history outside of the Bible, people have been able to keep a history of world events for the last 3,400 years. That's as far back as they can really go.

Do you know, during that 3,400 years, historians have put it together, there have only been 268 years where there was no war. Out of 3,400 years, only 268 years did not have war in them.

Now, what's interesting, as we talk about this war that will intensify, the one record they can keep up with very well is since 1945 at the end of World War II. Since 1945 to 2013, thank you, quite a few years, right? Do you know how many years there has been peace on this earth out of those 60, 70 years?

No, not one year. Out of all that time since 1945, only 26 days on this earth. I said, peace. 26 days. The intensity is getting greater.

Greater and greater. We need to watch the wars.

And then the third rider is famine, the third seal, the third horseman. And it says in verse 5, And there will continue to be famine, and it will intensify. And as we've seen the account in Revelation of the two witnesses, they're going to, what? Call down fire. But one of the other things they're going to do, they're going to stop the rain for three and a half years on the entire earth. Can you imagine the famine at that time? No rain, three and a half years across the entire world.

It's going to be serious. This famine is going to get so bad as it intensifies down to our time that if you put this in today's dollars for two loaves of wheat bread, it is going to cost between 80 and 100 dollars. 80 to 100 US dollars to buy two loaves of bread.

That's what it's going to be. The horseman will increase. And we come to the fourth, which is pestilence. But it's more than that. It's more than pestilence. And I want you to understand that from the scriptures. Because as we can see, there's going to be false religion. There was, there is, and there will be. And as there was war, there will be more. And as there will be famine, there will continue to be more. But then we come to a time of pestilence. And in chapter 6 and verse 8, it says, I looked and beholded pale horse, and the name of who sat on it was Death and Hades, or the grave, and they followed him. And power was given to them over a what? What's that say, brethren?

A fourth of the world. See, we've always had pestilence. We've always had things that happen. But it's going to get so bad that at the end time, not only are you going to pay $100 for two loaves of bread if you can afford it, which most people will not be able to afford.

But that things are going to happen that are so great that 25% of the earth will die.

That's a lot of people. How are we going to know it's a fourth seal? We're going to know when you see that many people die.

A little over 7 billion people on the planet.

And how are they going to die? It says here, power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with the sword. What? Where did that come from? War. So now war is going to kill a lot of people. And then hunger. Where was that? The famine. That's the third seal.

And then by the beast of the earth, which most people don't even think about. Beasts of the earth. And we're thinking, well, how could that be? Even the nature of animals will be what? To survive. Do you think we're not going to think about that when we're just trying to have enough bread to feed our families? Mm-hmm. Talk about faith counting on God.

You'll remember the scripture and call it to God's attention many times that He's never seen a righteous man. He's never let a righteous man go hungry.

But that when we have close to 2 billion people die, one and a half billion people die from peasants, from famines, from wars, that animals are not going to increase.

And they will attack and kill.

That's what the scriptures say. Not making us up. This is reality. This is what's going to happen. And we're going to look and go, how could that? I never dreamed that would have happened. And then, after the four horsemen ride, we see that the fifth seal is open, and it's about being martyrs. And you can see when the world gets so bad that people are starving to death, they are dying by the millions, that all of a sudden, anybody that professes to know God is going to be persecuted. Well, see, it's just God that you profess. Where's He at now?

It's going to look bad. And that is, as the Bible says, somewhere between the fourth and the fifth seal starts the Great Tribulation the last three and a half years.

And then we see, after the fifth seal, we actually see cosmic disturbance. As God is letting people know, He is still in charge. And as we read in chapter 6 and verse 12, He said, Then I looked, and He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake. And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of the heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs, when it is shaken by a mighty wind. There's going to be so many stars or other things falling from heaven that it's almost like a fig tree. It just happens. It just devastates the earth. Now people are wondering what's going on. Then the sky receded as a scroll, and it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. Everything shakes. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, and the mighty men, every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks and the mountains and said to the mountains, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. These are evil people, and they need to be hid.

17, For the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand? Only the righteous. Only the righteous, brethren. It's so interesting now as we see the martyrdom, because it took place in Jesus Christ's time. It took place a hundred years later with polycarp. It's taken place as people have been killed for the name of Jesus Christ down for the last 2,000 years. But at the end time, it will be even greater that there will be a great many who will be killed. And we've had earthquakes, haven't we? And we've had things that fell from the sky. But nothing likes what's coming. Nothing like it. As a matter of fact, it's interesting, as I have hopefully pointed out to you, that the intensity of everything will increase. Because in 19th century, there were 2,119 earthquakes. 19th century. In 1983, in that year alone, there were 2,588 earthquakes, just in one year. And so, in 1992, we jump ahead and there's over 4,000 earthquakes.

The earth is shaking. In 2004, earthquakes killed over 284,000 people.

And that's just a tip of the iceberg of what's going to happen. Where is our faith? Well, it has to be in Jesus Christ. As we look and we watch as these things happen. And then the seventh seal is open. The seventh seal becomes this seven trumpets of God. Seven angels or seven trumpets, as we heard in the sermon. And each of those trumpets will sound.

And you can read that. In Revelation 8, you have your chart. You'll see the vegetation is struck, the seas are struck, water struck, the heavens struck. And then, the last three woes when war is set. And millions and millions of people, as a matter of fact, it describes a third of the people will be killed just by the fourth and fifth six seals. A third of the people on earth, they've already already 25% has died. Now, we have over two-thirds of the people already dead. And the bowls are not even poured out yet by Jesus Christ.

Two-thirds or three-quarters of the people are dead on earth before Jesus Christ, before the seventh trumpet sounds. And then it says they would not even repent at that time. That's why He has to pour the bowls out. If the world would repent and turn to God, He never would have to pour out those bowls. But they won't. They want their way. But a lot happens at the seventh trumpet. You can see from Scripture, you read, hopefully you've read just what He read in 1st Corinthians 15, verse 50, 52, moment and twinkling of an eye will be changed. And from Scripture, it says that that happens at the very first sound of the seventh trumpet. Because as you know, the seventh trumpet opens up into seven trumpet plagues. But at the very first sound of the seventh trumpet, a beautiful thing happens as we will be changed. God's people will be rescued. I won't read 1st Corinthians 15, but I'd like you to turn to 1st Thessalonians, which gives basically another account. 1st Thessalonians 4.

1st Thessalonians 4, verse 13. Paul writes to Thessalonica and says, But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. A lot of people do not know what's going to happen. There's heaven and hell, and you're going to burn in hell, or you're going to be up there playing harps and become an angel. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with him those who sleep, who are dead in Christ. For this we say to you, by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means proceed those who are asleep. So we will, if we are alive at that time when Jesus Christ comes down, we will see the dead come out of their graves. Isn't that an amazing thing? We will see them come out of their graves and join Christ in there.

What a reward! What a reward for us, for those who have known people who have died in the faith. We will get to see that. Can you imagine that feeling? And whether it's minutes or seconds or even an hour later, it says then that we who are alive will be changed in that moment in the twentling of an eye. We will be changed to spirit. We will be glorified. And then we will rise up to also meet Christ. And what a reward to those who have died before that can look down and watch the changing, the quickening, as it's called, of all of us being changed to spirit beings. It's a fantastic thing to view. It's a fantastic seventh trumpet that will sound.

You know, when I came here 19 months ago, I asked you to do a couple of things as a church of God. First thing I asked you is to read the book. I want you to read the Bible. Just read the Bible. I've never quit saying that, and I never will. It's a word of God. Read the book. Yes, we have great booklets, and we reach a lot of people. And that's part of reaching the gospel. But brethren, it's the book. It's a word of life. Those are the words of life. I also asked you to pray a lot, and I asked you to pray with all your heart. Love God with all your heart and your soul and your might and your being. This is the foundation of our church. This is the foundation of Jesus Christ's church He started almost 2,000 years ago. This is what we must do. And then I asked you to do one thing. I asked you to learn to agape. Learn to agape. Put agape love into your life. It says, By this shall all men know that you are my disciples.

These are still the three most important things you must do. We must do every day. Read the book, pray, and show agape. Start living with godly love.

Without us learning and practicing and living agape, we will not be changed at that trumpet. It won't happen. We can know the Bible inside and out. It should be a nice thing to do. I've never known anyone who's been able to do that yet. If you do come up, I've got a bunch of questions for you if you can do that. And then it's important that we pray.

That's it. That's one of the things we must do. But we must practice agape and show it and love each other. And love this world. Not the things of it, but love those who are in this world. Because God loved them. John 3, 16, for God so loved the church of God. Doesn't say that, does it? So loved this world. It's just they're part of the plan later. But God can open up some incredible minds.

And He said not just the hearers of the Word, but the doers. Let's do it. Let's not just practice it. Let's do it. Let's show agape. Let's live the kind of life that people can look and say, well, I don't know that I agree with everything that crazy old Smith guy says, but you know, he truly believes it. If I ever need anything, he's right there. And you know, if I ever have a question, that old guy seems to notice my name. That's what we have to do. Every one of us, not just because I'm a minister, but you're called to be a priest and a king too. What we covered in Revelation. See, agape is godly love. The deepest love we can have. It's a beautiful love. Boy, it's a hard one to do, though, it isn't. As God said, I want you to love your enemies. When it's hard sometimes to love the ones we love. And it's incredible, but in the time of war, takes a different mindset. Our ladies can tell us here, we're nurses. In the time of war, it's been documented so many times, that doctors and nurses in the battlefield have to work on both their side and the enemy. It's been done for years. My home back in Tennessee, there was a large hospital. The house turned into a hospital, and both sides were bringing in from the Civil War. Both sides were in the same room. Doctors working on the same people. It's happened all during war.

Takes a different mindset to be a doctor and a, you know, Janae's husband had won. It takes a different mindset. Can you imagine?

To work on someone who has vowed to kill you.

But they do it. Why? Because it's just that. It's a mindset. We need to be able to adapt that mindset to where we love, even those who hate us, even those who spitefully use us. Why? Because that's part of training to be a God. Because that's what God does. And He can't help it because He is a Gape. Gape is an attribute of God.

See, our Agape can never be limited. Gape can't. We must make sure that we do not limit our love. Or let our Agape be tempered.

Limited because He says, Love your enemies. And we've had people in the Church, down through the years, will continue to have, that they limited their love. They could love some people in the congregation, but not all. Brethren, that cannot be.

We must love each other, no matter our color, no matter where we came from, what we look like, our social, economical background, our past. We must love each other. It's that important.

And that's what this Church, as long as I'm here, will stand for.

Because that's what I find in this book. It's the mind of Christ.

It's the mind of Christ, who loved so much and loved so deeply. And that's what that event that he had to see had to so shake him.

None of us have achieved that type of love yet, have we? Agape. True agape, just like God did, that can just love people.

No matter what they've done.

We have to work at that. But you can imagine a love so deep that the feelings, you know, sometimes when you fall in love with someone, you get married, or you just fall in love. You love that person so deeply, and boy, when they hurt you, it really hurts because you've loved so deeply.

Can you imagine the hurt that God has suffered for the last 6,000 years? Can you imagine what he's seen? How his love for all his people, and he had to watch people die and treat each other with such contempt.

Mary's father is 90 years old. Seen a lot in 90 years, as you can imagine, looking back. But he's had a lot of pain as he's buried a wife. Buried a mother, buried his grandson, buried a lot of people. Saw a lot of pain, as I think about my father, 74 years old. But you know, that's just so small compared to the pain that God has seen over these years.

I had a sermon that I drew out here that I was going to give today. I've given that sermon about probably seven or eight times, maybe ten times. Mary's heard it over the times. It's a graphic explanation of why Christ must return. And I had it. I used to enjoy giving it. It was very graphic. I had more than one or two people get up and leave because they could not take it. One boy got sick. So graphic. I didn't do it for that reason. But I wanted people to wake up and see what God has seen and try to put his eyes in you. So I went down through history showing some of the actual firsthand accounts of what people have gone through. But, you know, as I grabbed my notes and I grabbed the book and somewhere about Monday or Tuesday, I had to put it down. Couldn't give it. I can't do that anymore. Can't give that sermon anymore.

It's too graphic.

And I think my love has changed to where I didn't want to even read some of those things anymore because there's so much going on in the world and I know what's going to go on. But I just didn't want to give it. So I haven't. I don't be giving that. But I did want to touch on a few things from just the week that happened just this week.

There is the terrible butchering by sarin gas of young children, 400. They say over 400 in Syria. Took place in the last few weeks. And we talked about it even last week.

And that, shouldn't we do something as a country?

And I remember we looked at it and Maurice asked me and I said, No.

No.

And I remember asking, Why? You know, shouldn't we save those people?

Brethren, the answer is not with us. We don't have the answer. God has the answer. See, we have done what we thought we should do. What is right as a country, as people. But this country has turned from God. We no longer look to God as a nation. It needs to change. We realized that 10 years ago, or it was 10 or more years ago, we entered a war in Iraq. And for 10 years, we spent a trillion dollars and set up a government. Democracy.

Did we solve the problem?

I tell you, in the month of August, it just ended, according to the UN. 800 Iraqis were killed in August, mostly civilians, and more than 2,000 wounded. Just their fighting as they continue to fight.

Did we help? That's more people than was killed in this attack in Syria. Al Qaeda in July, just a month ago, killed 1,057, mostly children, and innocent civilians. And since January 2013, 5,000 people in Iraq, civilians, innocent, going about their work, and were killed 12,000 wounded.

We don't have the answers.

Only God has the answers. That's what this day is about, realizing He does.

Ariel Castro hung himself in a prison cell this week. It makes me wonder, as you looked at him, and you looked at what he did, it made me wonder if the demon had left. Because I've read so many stories from various people, things of people, do these heinous crimes, kill so many people, and treat people so badly.

And all of a sudden, sometimes they change, and they can't even realize what they did. It makes me wonder if the demons, like Jesus Christ, cast out, had left the people. They did all they could do. A lot of people can't live with what they've done. Can't believe it was them, and they killed themselves. What about those three young ladies that he kept prisoner in the house, raped and tortured, treating them like animals? God had to see that. They burnt down the house, they said, last week or a week before, Castro's house. That house of horrors. That God saw every single torture. He saw everything. And He loved them. Now they're trying to put their lives back together. And here, this man was a school bus driver. You don't know your neighbors, do you?

There was a little five-year-old and seven-year-old boys went up to Canada to visit some friends. And so they stayed in the apartment above a reptile store. And one of the pythons got out and went up and got both those boys in their sleep strangled and killed them both.

Even the family was sleeping in the same room, but it was so quiet. Family didn't hear it. Can you imagine?

Imagine God wanted to say, Christ, are you ready?

How much more do I have to see? How much more do we have to see?

Woman in China came across a six-year-old boy, walked. She grabbed his hand and took him into the woods. And God shot both of his eyes. They want to walk. She just did it.

It's interesting, as we, as a nation, want to say, well, it's not right for all those innocent kids to die in sarin gas by a sot. 400 kids die.

And yet they can look at us and say, you hypocrites, we don't abort babies at 3,000 a day. 3,000 a day. Abortions in the United States alone.

It figures out to about, while I'm speaking here, the one hour I speak in concern, 130 babies have been aborted during my speech. One every 26 seconds.

And we have the right. We killed over 1.2 million babies last year. And we have the right to say, oh no, let us come in. We'll take care of this. Hypocrites.

There's a lot going on.

And all the other heinous crimes. God has to watch them all. So I sometimes wonder if He isn't looking to His people to just say one thing.

We need to pray more. Thy kingdom come.

Because you know He's tired of seeing it. Are we possibly being His children holding up? Because it isn't first in our mind. Mind says what? Sinky first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Maybe we need to pray, brethren. I need to pray more. I need to make sure every day I pray for this day become a reality and pray Thy kingdom come. And if we had the opportunity or the horrendous task of seeing everything that's going on right now, all the little young kids that are being abused, murdered, and treated, we would have no problem right now. Everyone was falling on their knees and saying, Please God, please send Your kingdom.

We must admit we're not the answer. We must as a country, for any of you who have read the book or saw the video or whatever about the harbinger by Jonathan Cahn wrote years ago. And as she told about the things of 9-11 and the accounts and tied it to biblical accounts, and the one thing it brought out for sure is, we didn't turn to God. We just said, We're going to stand strong. Will, nobody's going to take us down. Because we're America. Land of the free, home of the brave. They left out in God with trust.

But brethren, that's our job, isn't it? We trust in God. We must walk that walk and talk that talk. And we must admit, God is the answer.

God is the answer. And if we would turn. And you know, many people said there's no way that we could turn now. We're such a evil country. We have so many problems and money's tied to everything. And one guy did an interesting report. Because he believes that maybe this country can turn back to be more of a godly nation. Because he found research that she pointed that when the this country was being founded, we were fighting the British for its freedom.

That only a third of the people in the United States was that country, the colonies at that time. Only a third of the people followed or believed in what George Washington and the founding of this country. Another third was strongly against it. And another third said, we don't really care.

But that third that did, form his country, believed that it was divine providence. Believed that God was directly men.

We're to hold on and we're to proclaim the gospel right up to the end. And maybe we can, in our own little way, in our own little communities, in our own house, in our own families, in our own town, be that light.

Till this day becomes a reality. God is the answer, brother. And we need to know that. One last scripture and we'll close.

I'd like you to turn to 1 Corinthians.

I won't cover what Orlando covered. 1 Corinthians 15, though.

1 Corinthians 15. Because there will be a time when Jesus Christ returns, He sets up His millennium, then the entire world will have a chance after the thousand year reign of Christ to have an understanding of God and His ways and His world. And then after that, eternity.

And in verse 24 of chapter 15 says, But then comes the end when He, Jesus Christ, delivers a kingdom to God the Father. When He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

Death. The last enemy. God has seen so much of it. Jesus Christ has seen so much of it. And before this day is a reality, so will we. So will this entire world. But there is a wonderful time coming.

Brethren, let the trumpet sound. Let His kingdom come. Let that be a reason we pray, thy kingdom come. So that down the road, there will be no more death, no more sorrow. But there is a wonderful time coming. The answer to every problem in the world is coming. And it will be started by the sound of a trumpet.