with me father we thank you this evening that you um have shown us your marvelous love and your son jesus um you have shown us um by his cross um god that you have loved us in a very place where

um where we did not deserve to be loved jesus love you’ve covered over our sin and you have given us the righteousness of christ and you’ve called us your own and you’ve given us a hope and you’ve given us a future

so we just want to say thank you we don’t want to live as if it’s a small thing to know you to be known by you

father we pray that you would bless our tithe and our offering

lord keep us generous keep us sacrificial keep us living with open hands and open hearts to give the best of what we have in our finances in our talent and our time to your church to your kingdom oh god we pray these things in jesus name amen

well good evening it’s good to be uh with you jessica’s at home with the the two younger babies they’re a little under the weather so they’re at home um this evening i know it’s that time of the year where everything kind of goes around seasons change um but it’s good to be with you and we’re gonna be back in revelation um tonight if you turn with me in revelation chapter 8 revelation chapter 8 verses 6 to 13 um revelation chapter 8 verses 6 13

this is now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to come to what i will say tonight blow them. And the first angel blew his trumpet and there followed hell and fire mixed with blood. And these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up. And a third of the trees were burned up. And all green grass was burned up. The second angel blew his trumpet and something like a great mountain burning the fire was thrown into the sea. And a third of the sea became blood. A third of the living creatures in the sea died. And a third of the ships were destroyed. The third angel blew his trumpet and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch. And it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became Wormwood and many people died from the water. Because it had been made bitter. The fourth angel blew his trumpet and a third of the sun was struck. A third of the moon, a third of the stars, so that the third of their light might be darkened and a third of the day might be kept from shining. And likewise, a third of the night.

Then I looked and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead.

Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth at the blast of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow.

So this is a foretaste still of what’s to come. When somebody like build something up, you’re like, could you just say this? Like, what are you building up if it’s a surprise and it ends up being like a big letdown? This is a this is a really slow build up and it’s not going to disappoint in the worst way possible because it gets worse and it becomes nightmarish and it becomes the most dreadful events imaginable and the scenery that we see in Revelation. And even as we walk through the seals, remember the seals that we look at, the seals were warning signs. Kind of like, you know, the Lord, you know, doing some warning shots here like, hey, things are getting really bad. But the trumpets are for judgment. The trumpets are for judgment. We need to keep that distinction in mind. The seals were a warning to the whole earth. The end is coming. God is coming. And all the different seals that we looked at. Yeah, all the different catastrophes were really fulfilling what prophets foretold. And we’ve looked at different prophets in the Old Testament that kind of foretold those things. And even Jesus and Matthew 24, he kind of gives those signs and they they line up. But now that the lion lamb warrior has opened the scroll and broke all those seals, we’re into the trumpets now and the trumpets, much like the bowls that will follow. So we have seven trumpets, seven bowls. They are not for all people to take note of. They’re specifically to be poured out. The trumpets are blown as judgment upon the wicked. We’re told multiple times in Revelation that those who are sealed by God will be kept from the trumpets and the bowls. It’s not that you and I don’t need discipline sometimes because you and I do need discipline sometimes to correct course. It’s not that you and I don’t. It’s not that you and I don’t need discipline sometimes to correct course. We need sometimes the Lord to work in our lives when we’re wayward. We do need that. And that’s a good thing. The Bible talks about that. This is a kind of judgment by the hand of God that has a great finality to it upon the unbelieving world, upon the unregenerate. What book comes after Revelation?

Nothing. You get the charts of map, you know, maps and indexes and weight conversions and all that stuff, because that’s it. That’s it.

And you and I live in, and I think the world has increasingly become a world where people tend to live with a, I mean, I’m young forever mentality. I’ll put it off to tomorrow attitude. I’ll get right with God someday. You’ve heard perhaps people say that I had a neighbor. He used to say that all the time. I’ll I’ll get right with God when the time’s right for me. My neighbor would say. But friends, that’s that’s lethal and that’s suicidal because there is a fixed end and it’s coming.

I think Isaiah chapter fifty five versus six has always been for me such a clear, you know, concise way to communicate that the prophet says, seek the Lord while he may be found. What does that imply? There’s a time when he can’t be. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man, his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. The only time to do business with God, if you will, is right now is right now. That’s if we really do believe in, you know, finality. And we really do take the Bible. As it’s been taught and preached for the last two thousand years, we’ll call, you know, historic Orthodox Christianity.

I was looking at their, I guess, increasingly popular church, just an hour and a half up the road in Nashville, reading some things on their Web site. It came to my attention and. They wanted you to know that one of their core values at their church is that Jesus is a way he’s not the way. There’s multiple ways to be joined to, you know, the sacred head, to have oneness and unity with God. There’s more value, the Web site said, in asking questions than having answers and finding absolutes. And I clicked on this Web site and where they’re about. And of course, they had a link to discover more about progressive Christianity here. So I click on that link to discover. A litany of articles about. Progressive Christianity, what does this church believe? And I found I found one, I guess we’ll call him a theologian. I don’t know. But the title of his article was why we should raise hell. R.A.Z.E. Raise hell. Get rid of it. He says, because hell is a vile anti-Christian doctrine. That depicts God is cruel, vengeful, violent. Psychopathic, sadistic, terrorist. It’s totally incongruent with the loving, merciful and forgiving spirit of God revealed in Jesus. And it’s grossly unjust and disproportional punishment.

Punishment. So so you you and I have to make a choice. Do I really believe that this stuff is going to happen? Do I really believe that there’s a fixed time when the judge will return? Do I really believe that there are? The seven angels who will blow these trumpets and it’s going to pour out judgment on the unjust who have not repented? Are you willing to stand on that and take this that serious? Because I think certainly the gospel, the scriptures have always rubbed. Sinful man role. That’s true. But how much more today, friends, in our 21st century in this make life. What you will environment we live is there a growing hostility, not outside the church, as I just plainly showed, but inside the church against these once, I guess, assumed, you know, given doctrines of the Christian faith. We believe that these trumpets are going to blow. How does it change how we live now?

Verse seven. Says the first angel blew his trumpets. And there followed hail and fire mixed with blood. And these were thrown upon the earth and a third of the earth was burned up and a third of the trees were burned up and all green grass was burned up. You’ll notice that a good bit of these trumpets are kind of mirroring the plagues of Egypt. This is very similar to plagues that we see in Egypt with with lightning and hail. Coming down and destroying much in Revelation, specifically what’s destroyed is vegetation and go to, you know, in Palestine, fruit trees are a major source of food. So for for this to say that trees and green grass, just vegetation, a huge portion of it is ruined is significant, isn’t it? And you think, well, well, why, why, why did God have to get so mad and do that? And why did God have to do that to those poor Egyptians back then? What were they doing that was so wrong? God just going around picking on people. No. If you remember what happened was Pharaoh and the Egyptians refused obedience. God said, let my people go. Pharaoh said no multiple times. So it’s not like you have, you know, Pharaoh and Egypt and they’re just there and they’re doing their thing. And God’s just going around trying to be mean to folks. It’s just judgment with the end in mind in hope that people change. And I think you always need to see that in judgment is there’s this element of God’s mercy and hoping for change.

The drama then as the drama now is hopefully a wake up call to the wicked. Sometimes severity is a blessing. Sometimes my children, you know, like, hey, don’t do that. That’s wrong. But when they’ve done it like 100 times. Or to say it, you know, popular adage, the crime fits the punishment. Sometimes a hey, don’t do that’s not going to work. It’s going to involve, you know, a belt. It’s going to involve worse things for them because I’m a harsh father. No, but because I love them and I want them to change. The scripture says that the Lord doesn’t desire, you know, he doesn’t enjoy punishing the wicked. But we see here this hell. And the lightning, I think one commentator wants to say where it says blood mixed with fire, simply to say a red colored storm just in how it looks. And it’s ruining, hopefully for their good, to turn to turn them to Christ. A third of what’s green on earth.

But a verse a second angel blues trumpet, something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea. And a third of the sea became blood. A third of the living creatures in the sea died. And a third of the ships were destroyed.

One commentator notes less than 20 years before John wrote the apocalypse, Vesuvius had erupted and destroyed Pompeii. I’m sure you’ve heard of that in history class. Pompeii and Herculaneum. The catastrophe was widely known and variously interpreted among the volcanic islands of the Aegean. And Thera was especially notable. So the idea of a volcano doing a whole bunch of damage, that was like, oh, we remember that 20 years ago. We heard about that. Now, here’s where we got to do that thing. I said we got to do in Revelation all the time and be OK with the type of literature this is, because how do you how does a volcano get thrown into an ocean? I don’t know. I’m not going to stand up here and go, well, what’s going to happen is I don’t know. It’s kind of a weird thought. You could speculate. Maybe this is some mass coming. Down out of the cosmos, falling into the ocean. I don’t know. It just says something like a volcano falls into the sea. And what’s it do? It ruins a large portion of animal life in the sea, which is also, you know, a huge supply of food for the Mediterranean world, isn’t it? Seafood. It apparently was such a catastrophe. A third of ships are also destroyed. So we see God destroying a third. A third of the green vegetation. He takes out a third of the sea. Which reminds us of the Nile turning to blood, of course. We come to verse 10. Third angel blues trumpet and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch. And it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became Wormwood and many people died with. Died from the water because it had been made bitter. Now, that’s just an obvious one, isn’t it? You could live if you had to for a while without food. You can’t live very long without water, can you? A majority of your body is water. The nurses at the pregnancy center always telling me, Chad, you should drink more water. And I always tell them, I don’t like water. I like coffee. And they’re like, that’s terrible. Drink more water. And so this past week, even I bought myself one of those massive water bottles. You know, people that carry those around. It’s like a ball and chain. And I’ve been drinking water daily. And I have to say, I feel great after drinking so much water. Surprise, surprise. I need it. It’s been really good. But you need water. You’ve got to have water. Everyone needs water. Animals need water. People need water. It’s it’s. It’s so necessary to function in life. And yet we’re told that it gets ruined and becomes like work becomes like wormwood. What is wormwood? A few examples in the Old Testament show us what wormwood is. Proverbs chapter five, verse three, for the lips of a forbidden woman, drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil. But in the end, she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two edged sword. Amos. Chapter five, verse seven. Oh, you who turn justice to wormwood and cast down righteousness to earth. Remember the story in Exodus when the people come out of slavery, they’re complaining and fussing at Moses because they can’t drink as the water is bitter. Right. They cannot drink the water of Mary because it was bitter. It was called Mary. And the people grumble against Moses, cried to the Lord. The Lord showed him a log. He threw it in the water and it became sweet. The Lord. The Lord in some supernatural way made the water drinkable. So wormwood was is a plant and it’s really, really bitter. And it’s associated in the scriptures with what’s immoral, what’s bad, what causes death.

Here we see water, that very basic necessity of life, the thing that we all need. God has ruined a third of it, causing a great number.

People to die.

We come to the fourth angel here in verse 12. He blew his trumpet and a third of the sun was struck. A third of the moon, a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened and a third of the day might be kept from shining. And likewise, a third of the night.

Robert Mount says darkness as a symbol of judgment runs through the Old Testament. The prophet Amos spoke of the day of the Lord as a day of darkness rather than light. For the prophet Joel, it was a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Jesus quoting Isaiah says that in the day of the Lord, the sun will be darkened. The moon will not give its light. In the New Testament, darkness is often connected with the demonic. The demonic, unbelieving Israel is to be cast outside into the darkness where there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth. In Corinthians, light and darkness stand parallel to Christ and Belial. According to Colossians, the saints are those who’ve been rescued from the dominion of darkness. It previews that ultimate excommunication of unrepentant people to the punishment prepared for the devil and his people. Angels. And remember, darkness was the last plague in Egypt before that final one where God began to start actually killing the firstborn, the eldest from each family.

So, church, we have four terrible judgments. And these plagues are nightmares in the least. It’s the hand of God. The wrath of God weighing down, pressing on the wicked. And the following trumpets to come

are worse, are much worse for the unbelieving, godless nations. In verse 13, it says, Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead. Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth at the blast of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow. Remember, whenever we see in the book of Revelation, the phrase, those who dwell on the earth, dwell on the earth exclusively refers to the ungodly, to the unsaved. It’s pronouncing these woes. So you have this bird of prey, what’s usually translated as an eagle. It could have been a vulture. But you have this very strong, very swift, very fast bird of prey. Where is he in John’s view? He’s at the zenith of the sky. So he’s right in the middle, directly overhead. In other words, he’s somewhere where everybody can see him. He’s somewhere where everybody can hear him. And he says, woe, woe, woe. The three trumpets to come are not just plagues. He says they are woes because they’re so intense. And they’re so unbearable. You’re probably trying to read it in your Bible. What are they?

What do we do? What do we do with these texts? Because this is not, is it, a Pauline epistle. So what Paul says is you got to love your neighbor. So we can see from this story in Exodus, you got to trust God when times are hard. Like, what do we do with this text that is really lofty, right? I mean, it’s Revelation. It’s apocalyptic literature. It’s lofty. It’s somewhat abstract in its imagery. What do we do with it? I think what we do is see and heed the implications of the text. And what are they? Here are a few I want to share with you. Here’s the first one. What we should do when we read these four trumpets, these texts, is you and I should exercise humility in the fear of the Lord. Exercise humility in the fear of the Lord. Would you agree that if it was not for the grace of God, you and I would surely be counted among the wicked, among those who dwell on the earth? If it be not for the grace of God to call us into the marvelous light of Jesus, I would be with these people raising my fist against God in Revelation. Friends, if not for the gospel, you and I would be counted among the lost and the woes would be pronounced over you and the woes would be pronounced over me. So if you agree with me, what this text should do for you is remind you of just how small you think about God’s gospel, how wonderful it is, and how few times we think on the preciousness of it, that you, a sinner under the wrath of God, by the grace of God, according to no merit of your own, you were called out of slavery to sin and into slavery to Christ, and you have been sealed with His Spirit, and you’re being kept for the day when Christ returns, and you’re being kept through the fire, you’re being kept through every temptation, and God has called you His own, and God loves you, and God’s Spirit lives in you, and Christ bears with you and shepherds you. Friends, that’s what this text should do for you, is say, thank you, Jesus, that you have called me your own. I don’t deserve that, and I don’t think on it enough, and I don’t worship you enough for it.

Would you say you take holiness to be a small thing? Because we haven’t just been saved, and Elijah and I are going through a book on doctrines right now, and we just talked about this before the service. We haven’t just been saved to be saved. That’s great. It’s called being justified. But you and I have been saved so we can be sanctified. Becoming holy is my primary business in the Christian life, lest the wrath of God would come on me at the end of time because I was a fraud, and I didn’t take it serious, and it wasn’t true to me. So, friend, let this text stir up in you disgust at the thought of God. trying to create a Christianity, call it progressive, call it what you want, but a Christianity made in your own image, a Christianity that works for you, a Christianity that’s a little bit more comfortable, a Christianity that’s not so rough around the edges, a Christianity that the world won’t, you know, sneer at so much. Friends, let us not practice conforming to the world at all. A world, isn’t it true that God will soon destroy and fire?

What does Christian pilgrim say? Flee the wrath to come. Flee the wrath to come. Don’t be like my neighbor who said, I will go to God when the time is right. Friend, the only time you have is the very moment in which you live. To flee from the wrath to come means I will flee from godlessness now. This text reminds us our business now is to conform to the image of Christ and be transformed by the spirit of God, whatever those temporary costs, because the temporary cost of suffering, the temporary cost of sacrifice, the temporary cost of giving up pleasures of this life can’t compare, can they, with the great woes to come on the wicked at the end? No, they cannot. The awesome wrath of God to be made manifest.

Let this text drive you to the foot of the cross of Christ, that warrior lion lamb, and plea for mercy and praise him for a fresh supply of grace to cover you in your sin and his promise to keep you, that he may pass over you on this dreadful day. Remember that in the Egyptian plagues? Moses said, if you put the blood over your door, the spirit of God will pass over you. This is the very same truth here. If you want to be safe on the day of judgment, the only place to be is inside the shelter of Christ’s life.

Praise the lamb. He is won the victory for us and he keeps us.

Here’s the second thing that I think we should get from these trumpets. You and I need to invest not in the temperament, but in the justice. kingdom of this world, but invest now in the eternal kingdom of God.

John says in his first epistle, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world. The desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes, the pride of life is not from the father, but it’s from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. So the implication here is not put your hands in your pocket. Don’t buy nothing. Don’t look at nothing. Don’t do nothing because you might like, oh, that tasted good. And I like the taste of that food. Oh, no, I’m an idolater and I’m going to hell now. Oh, no, I have a house. I’m going to hell. The point is not to be this minimalist because you end up being and that’s not the calling of scriptures. The implication is enjoy this world because God did create, you know, sunrises and he did create beautiful sunsets and he did create the beach and he did create, you know, your favorite food and he did create people and he did create stuff. And sometimes people create cool stuff and inventions. And I think that there’s a level which if we’re truly Christian, I really want to enjoy this world because God made it. And even though it’s tarnished by sin, there’s still a lot of sin. And I think that there’s a level which still good in it. And I can see God in it. Like when I when I drive down the road and like the sun reflects, you know, like through my windshield and it’s beautiful at night, you got like a pink hue of clouds in the sky. It’s like, God, you did that. And I can worship you and I can enjoy you for that. We should do that thing. Absolutely. Enjoy this life. Difference. Don’t live for this life. Don’t make it your priority to have it to the point where it becomes your God. We have to be not by just this text in Revelation, but by the whole book of Revelation. This world is not our home. It’s not our home. And you could find yourself, you know, given to many pursuits and that’s never in view. So don’t give yourself to the place you live. Give yourself fully to the place you’re going to live. What Hebrews calls a city not made with hands, but a city built by God. Don’t love stuff. Man, I need stuff. I need security. I’ve got to have success. It’s not bad when those things come by God’s grace and providence. Simply said is this. Don’t exchange a godly agenda for a good one. And we say that a lot of times, a lot of times in life. It’s not like the overtly evil things that keep us from following Jesus. It’s just the good things. It’s the good things. Your goal should not be, you know, to be the number one salesperson, in your office. I hope you are. And you work really hard and you should, if you’re a Christian, your goal should be to be a Christian light where you work. Your goal should not be to raise overachieving children who wanted to get the best grades and have this awesome job and have all this success in the world. Your goal should be to raise godly children who will impact the next generation for Christ. Thank the Lord for his kindness and necessities for a roof over your head and clothes on your back. Don’t lust after these things.

Here’s the third thing. You and I, after reading these four trumpets, we should celebrate the destruction of the wicked. Celebrate the destruction of the wicked. And now that sounds like really anti-Christian. Like, hold on. Jesus said, love your neighbor. How can I celebrate the destruction of the wicked? When we’re talking about the wicked, I’m kind of in this final sense in the eschatology. logical sense. Remember, that means the end time study. When we’re thinking about wicked, we’re considering it in terms of the lines being drawn in the sand with a sense of permanence. OK, so this this is a time when evil is evil and evil is glad it’s evil and it’s not changing. The devil is the devil and those on his team are on his team. And there’s a sense in which God, I deeply desire for the wicked to be destroyed. Why? Because you said you’re going to destroy the wicked. And this goes back to what we learned a few chapters ago when the martyred saints under the altar, they pray to God for that. Remember that? And it’s like, what’s wrong with these people in heaven? There’s wrong with them. They want God to be glorified in overcoming his enemy way back from the garden when the serpent led Adam and Eve into sin. So I desire for the wicked to be punished because when the wicked are punished once and for all, what’s it mean? It means the end has come and it means there will be no more wickedness and it means you and I will be saved in holiness. And righteousness and joy and peace with Jesus forever. So long for the end when Jesus vanquishes once and for all the enemy. Because when Jesus wins by the grace of God, we win with him.

Here’s the fourth thing that I want to say is an implication from this text. There is for you and I until we die. We’re until Jesus returns at great urgency in evangelism, a great urgency in evangelism. Romans 13. Paul says, besides this, you know, the time of the hour has come for you to wake from sleep for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. So what what has this text? And what has revelation shown us? And what has Romans shown us? And what has so many passages in the Bible teach us? It teaches us that judgment comes and then there’s eternity. It teaches us that everyone’s life, no matter how long that life is, is very short in every soul. Every soul is precious because every soul made in the image of God must stand before the judgment of God on the basis of its works and everyone not found in Christ. Christ before the judgment will be found guilty. And again, against those who wish it away. And that’s all you can do is try to wish it away. The doctrine of hell stands in heaven and hell stand and everyone ends up in one of two places in the end. And friends, if we really believe that we must be about the business of preaching the good news that the father sent the son to receive, we must be about the business of preaching the good news that the father sent the son to receive. We must receive the wrath of God so that you wouldn’t and I wouldn’t. It doesn’t just apply universally. We must believe. You must hear me say it to you. You must. I must in the way that the spirit leads witness to the goodness of God in the face of Jesus until the end times. That requires a few things, and hopefully we’re growing in this as a church. That we know the gospel really well. It’s really difficult to talk about something if you don’t know it, know about it. If I’m at like a family thing and my brothers and laws start talking about sports, see ya, because I got nothing to add that conversation. I don’t keep up with it. I don’t know it. It’s not in my blood. Like, yeah, I’ve heard of a basketball like there’s my contribution to this conversation. It’s not it’s not part of me. It’s not part of me. I think we’ve got to get there if we’re going to be evangelists. It can’t be like we talked about prayer last week. It can’t be a box. I check like there. I prayed like there. I shared the gospel with somebody to get God off my back for a while. Like, no, it’s just in my blood. I really believe this stuff in this last book of the Bible. I think it’s happening. So I just it’s in my blood to let people know about Jesus. It’s just part of who I am. So I want to know it. I want to be prepared. I want to be equipped. I’m praying. I’m praying for it. I intend on sharing it. I intend on God giving me opportunities to share it. I intend on God giving me the courage and power to share it with my neighbors, with my friends, with my co-workers, with strangers. I’m grateful for those who went to Big Spring Park yesterday and shared. Richard told me that some good conversations were had there. That’s one way you can do it. We have some gospel talks on the hospitality desk, because as you engage people, it’s a wonderful follow up to say, hey, here’s a little pamphlet. Here’s a little thing that helps you understand more about who Jesus is. I’m so grateful for those of you who serve the pregnancy center as you do. Some of you are there volunteering all the time. Some of you are making knitting hats and blankets, and all of that is not going towards good works. Oh, we just do good things, there. No, it goes towards the end of preaching Christ to those who have no hope. As a church. And we’re a small church. One of the greatest things that we can be doing for for nonbelievers around the globe is praying, was praying. I was thinking about this earlier this morning. You know, the greatest and most effective thing that anyone can do for the cause of Christ, that anyone can do for the cause of Christ, that anyone can do for the cause of Christ, that anyone can do for the unbelieving nations is first pray. And, you know, the cool thing about the most effective thing you can do for the gospel to advance prayer, it doesn’t take a lot of money. In fact, it takes none. It doesn’t take big buildings. It doesn’t take these fancy programs. It doesn’t take someone with like a special secret knowledge. The most effective thing that you and I can be doing for bringing the nations in. Is something that old and young people and immature new Christians, people that have been in the faith for a really long time, like you and I are really well equipped in spirit to pray for God to move locally and around the world. Now, not to dip into my sermon last week, which I’m happy to do. We don’t do it enough. If you really want to see change happen locally, if you really want to see change happen for the cause of Christ around the globe, it does not start with doing. It does not start with doing. It starts with praying. So, friends, we must pray for the unbelieving. We must pray before we plead, but we must plead. We must plead. You must plead with sinners. We must plead with the unbelieving nations. I want to give you one more way that as a church, we can obey the implications of the gospel. We can obey the implications of the gospel. We can obey the implications of this text. I talked to you last week about it, and I’ll bring up again. We’re going in October to Guatemala, to Guatemala. Guatemala is in Central America. And as I mentioned, I’ve been to Guatemala a couple of different times. My wife’s been. We’ve supported a child from Guatemala in the past. Sue Ann has been to Guatemala many, many times. Sue Ann has lived in Guatemala before for a short time. So, Guatemala is a special place. But let me tell you something about Guatemala. Guatemala is a dark place. Guatemala is a hopeless place. When we go to Guatemala in October, we’re going to a place that is mostly a Mayan community. So, you get a lot of Mayan, Aztec society, you know, heritage mixed with, you know, current culture. And so, we’re going to go there. And this particular people group, this town is called the Chinoco. Chinoco? I was close. And I want to read this to you. It says it has a population of 14,400. It has high rates of suicide and alcoholism, family disintegration, abandonment and poverty. It has the highest alcohol statistic, alcoholism statistic, in the United States. And it’s a in Guatemala. Think about that. Think about that. The highest stats for alcoholism, which alcoholism a lot of times is what? It’s hopelessness. That’s what it is. People are filling a void. And we have, we have a great opportunity through some great connections we have there to go in October, share the good news of Jesus, to be happy. and feed of Jesus, but more so proclaim the gospel of Jesus to those who don’t know about it, who don’t know about it. So, I really, really, really want to press you, go to Guatemala. You’ve got nothing better going on October the 5th to the 11th. I promise you that. Okay? I want you to be in serious prayer over the next couple weeks about going. Okay? God will use you in a big way. God will change you in a big way. God will achieving your goal. And I’m going to be there. And I’m going to be there. And I’m going to be there. And I’m going to be there. And I’m going to be there. And I’m going to be there. And I’m going to be there. Otherwise, you’re going to die. So, I’m going to stay. stretch you in a big way to go and preach Jesus. We’re probably going to do some like VBS style things with children. We’ll probably be going house to house to do water filters similar to Mexico. People don’t have clean water, so to be able to give them clean, fresh water to drink and at the same time share Christ with them as well. So there’s a lot of opportunities, a lot of hurting people. Go, go, come with us. It’s going to cost roughly $1,400, okay? I don’t know if that sounds like a big or a small number to you, but let me tell you from past experience, God provides needs, okay? That’s nothing to the Lord. And Sue Ann is a fundraising machine, so we can talk about how to do fundraising, how to get the money, okay? Just trust the Lord for that. So I really want you to pray about that, and I believe it’s going to be a great trip to go and obey Jesus. To go and obey Jesus. Let’s truly put our obedience where we say our faith is and living out the urgency of evangelism as we talk about it so much weekly.

The four trumpets are a foretaste of the gospel. Of judgment.

In Christ, you and I have a foretaste of heaven, don’t we? In Christ now, there is an unspeakable joy of knowing we are kept and we are secure in Jesus until the very end. Friends, as good as it is now for us believing in Christ, so much better will it be in eternity. Friends, let that be our motivation and joy that those who believe in Christ will be able to do that. So let’s pray.

Friends, let us say to them, woe, woe, woe is to come upon you, but there’s good news. There’s good news. God so loved the world, he sent his son Jesus to bleed and die, and you need not do anything but freely receive that gift. Let’s be faithful to the urgent call of being God’s people here and now. Let’s pray together.

Father, we pray that we would see things as you see things. We pray that we would believe according to your word. We pray that we would see the preciousness of the preciousness and of time, how few days you give us upon this earth to make your name known, to live for your glory. Father, give us a great discontentment with just enough, just doing what we think is just enough to be called Christian, doing just enough. Lord, we don’t want to just do enough. We don’t want to do enough. We don’t want to do enough. We don’t want to do enough. We don’t want to do enough. We don’t want to do enough. We don’t want to do enough. Lord, we want to be surrendered. We want to, having died with the Lord Jesus Christ, be raised and in that resurrection, fully surrender and fully live for your calls, oh God.

So would you work in us? Would you show us where, Lord, we’re disobedient? Show us where we’re selfish. Show us where our priorities are eclipsing yours. in our hearts and in our lives, Lord. So open our hands, open our minds, open our hearts to Jesus and let Him alone be our King and our Lord. And we pray it in Christ’s name. Amen.