Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / Living Waters of Grace March 13, 2026

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Living Waters of Grace March 13, 2026 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
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Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
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County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
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continues teaching through God's Word.
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For Christians, we're not of this world.
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The Bible says we have a heavenly Father who's builder
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and maker, who's God. So the believers are not under
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the authority of the devil. But if you're here today and
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you're lost and you don't know Jesus Christ, you're caught in
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the snare of the devil. You're under the power of his
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influence and you're in bondage to do His will, and the only way
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you can get free from that is the gospel.
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Do you want to be here to deal with this stuff if you're not a
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Christian? Pastor Clark asks you a pointed
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question today. So do you?
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Do you really want to be around for the things that are
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mentioned in the books of Second Thessalonians in Revelation?
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As Pastor Clark continues on in his message, you come to realize
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that the wrath of God is meant as a consequence for those in
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the world who have willfully run the other way from salvation.
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So let me urge you today, run toward Jesus, run toward
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salvation. It will be the greatest choice
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you will ever make. Now here's Pastor Clark in
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Second Thessalonians chapter 2 with today's edition of Living
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Waters of Grace. Only he, capital H, referring to
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God Himself who now restrains, will do so until He's taken out
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of the way. What's restraining all this
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stuff from occurring right now to a great degree is still the
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Church in this world. And when the lawless one will be
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revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breadth of his
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mouth, and destroy with the brightnesses of his coming.
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Even though this Antichrist will be raised up one day and he'll
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rule and reign for a period of time on earth, Christ will come
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back at the second coming in and deal with Him in a very, very
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dramatic way. The coming of the lawless 1 is,
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according to the working of Satan, with all power signs and
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lying wonders and with all unrighteousness deception among
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those who perish because they did not receive the love of the
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truth. That's what's heartbreaking, all
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the people in the face of the earth being deceived to believe
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and to follow this world ruler because they did not receive the
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love of the truth, that they might be saved.
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I pray today, if you're here, you would receive the love of
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the truth that you can be saved. And for this reason God will
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send them a strong delusion. God will send them strong
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delusion, and they should believe a lie, that they all may
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be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in
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unrighteousness. Now, when John is speaking here
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in chapter 4 and writing down the things that the Lord has
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given him to reveal to the body of Christ, he's seeing all this
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stuff and living color way ahead of the time it's supposed to
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happen. And this book was written, It
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was written a long time ago, thousands of years ago, and it
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is so contemporary and current with the times that we are
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currently living in now. And so he's seeing all that's
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going to take place as a prelude to the tribulation, which will
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actually start in chapter 6, verse one.
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We'll get to that in the weeks ahead.
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That's when Jesus, a lamb, will open up the first seal.
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And the first seal is a picture of this Antichrist on the face
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of the earth. He's going to pose as a savior
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of the world. And in verse 1 of chapter 4, he
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says again, the future is insight.
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He says, I will show you the things which must, must take
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place after this. He says he was caught up.
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He was told to come up here and God would show him what was
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going to be revealed. And I'd like you to look at
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First Thessalonians chapter 4. This is really an important
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section of Scripture for us here today who believe that the Lord
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will come before this great tribulation.
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It says in First Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 13, Paul, his
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passion for the church, He doesn't want people to be in
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ignorance. He wants us to know what's going
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to happen, what's going on. I love what he says here, but I
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do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who
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have fallen asleep, meaning those who've passed on and who
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have died, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.
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For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, Even so God
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will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus.
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Now when someone dies, a Christian dies and their bodies
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in, you know, the casket that isn't that person anymore.
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Their body is a shell. They're out of that body.
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The Bible says they'd be absent in the body is to be present
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with the Lord. So as soon as you die, if you're
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a Christian, soon as I die, I'm not going into some ground and
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the worms are going to get me and you aren't either.
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We're going to be taken out by God's power and taken up to be
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with Jesus is the apostle Paul says to be absent.
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The body is present with the Lord, but the physical body will
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still be in the grave. I did a funeral this week and I
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reminded the people that this dear woman who died at 92, that
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love Jesus wasn't at the grave site going into the ground.
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She was already with the Lord, but her physical body, her old
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body, was going into the ground. And it says For this we say to
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you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain
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until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those
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who are asleep. For the Lord himself will
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descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an
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Archangel, and with the trump of God.
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It's interesting that that trumpet shows up every time
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we're talking about this truth of the rapture being caught
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away. And it says, and the dead in
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Christ will rise first, meaning the physical bodies of all those
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Christians and believers in the Old Testament, New Testament
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that died, that their bodies are in the grave.
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When Christ comes back, those bodies are going to be
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resurrected, where the Bible says this mortality will put on
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immortality, this corruptible, the old dead body will put on
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incorruption and we'll be receiving these resurrected
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bodies. Those who are dead in Christ at
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this time, keeping in mind that we're referring to the body,
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their spirit will be reunited with the new body that they'll
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have at the time of the resurrection.
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And then it says in verse 17, then we who are alive, that
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means people like us that are still walking around on the
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earth shall be caught up. And that's where we get the word
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from, the Latin word rapture. We will be caught up together
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with them in the clouds to meet, keep the Lord in the air and
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thus we shall always be with the Lord.
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Isn't that awesome? It says, therefore comfort one
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another with these words. We need to remind each other and
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encourage each other no matter how tough life gets and what
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comes down on us at times that the best is yet to come for the
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Christian. So you know, you're driving down
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the road, you're in an airplane, you're getting ready to get your
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tooth pulled and you think, man, I'd love to miss this
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opportunity of getting this pain with this dentist right now.
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All of a sudden, the Trump sounds and you're out of there.
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You're just getting right ready to write your check to the IRS.
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You got to pay them taxes again, right?
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And you're taking out right at the right time.
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You know, I mean, there's so many awesome things that are
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going to occur and we're going to be literally vanishing from
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the earth. So the people in the world that
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are still here, what happened? Where did these people go?
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And there'll be some kind of government conspiracy thing.
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All what? These people were the real
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troublemakers and they were the wackos and the fanatics, you
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know, and they finally, like, all hid and took off somewhere
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and we don't know where. I mean, they'll make up all kind
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of stories to try to keep the human race stable in such a
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period of catastrophic like, why, how, how could this happen?
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And so the importance of understanding the rapture of the
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church, we ascribe to the rapture of the Church of Jesus
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Christ prior to the great tribulation.
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Don't confuse the rapture with the second coming of Jesus
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Christ, OK? Because that's a completely
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different event that occurs after the tribulation.
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And verse two or three of chapter 4 of Revelation, it says
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that God is on the throne here. Immediately I was in the Spirit
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and behold, a throne was set in heaven and one capital, O&E,
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that's referring to God. He's sitting on the throne, and
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this throne is a throne of judgment.
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This is a throne where God's going to begin to cast down all
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the things upon the earth that need to occur in order for the
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discipline and the justice of God's anger over a world that
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like completely ignores his love and doesn't want to have
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anything to do with them. And so in his fury, he's pouring
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out this wrath on this rebellious world.
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Now keep in mind as we're studying this guys, that God is
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a God of love. God, it breaks his heart.
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But he's just, he has to deal with the crimes of the human
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race. He just can't ignore them and
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act like they're not a big deal because look what they do to
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people. They destroy lives everyday.
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Babies are being aborted, right? I mean, there's more babies
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being aborted in this world since the beginning of time than
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any kind of Holocaust or any kind of world.
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How long will God be able to put up with this?
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There's a time when he says enough's enough.
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The the sex slave trade of little children in India and and
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Pakistan and other places in the world where they're taking young
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kids 5-6 years old and selling them into sex slavery.
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I mean, it's horrible. I mean, we're we're sort of
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isolated at times on to the horror of the world that happens
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behind the scenes every day. If we could see it the way those
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people have to experience it and hear their tears on their
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pillows at night crying out to a God they don't even know exists.
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Many of them, we would say, like they say at the end of the Book
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of Revelation, Maranatha, come quickly Lord Jesus, come
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quickly, Lord Jesus. And that was the heart of the
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early church. And so there's this beautiful
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rainbow though around the throne at the same time.
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And this is a beautiful truth here.
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The rainbow around the throne is representing God's mercy in the
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midst of judgment. In the midst of God's judgment
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when He destroyed the earth the first time with the flood,
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right, He promises after that event that He would put a
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rainbow in the sky. And every time we would see that
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rainbow, we would be reminded that He would never destroy the
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earth by a flood again. God's mercy in the midst of
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judgment and His promise in Genesis 9 regarding that the
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earth will not be destroyed by a flood again even in this time of
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judgment. And the wrath of God is about to
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be poured out upon the earth, His mercy still going to be
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present on the earth at the time.
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Do you know that there's going to be many people who will come,
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believers during that tribulation period?
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They'll be your friends, your relatives, your neighbors, your
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coworkers that you tried to tell about the gospel.
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You tried to remind them about the love of God.
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And they need to get saved. I'll do that later.
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It's no big deal. I'm not interested.
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Whatever. And so, you know, you only can
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tell them, right? You only can warn them, tell
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them the house is on fire. They don't want to get out, that
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you, you know, you try to drag them out.
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But people, they don't want to think that the house is on fire.
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They think everything's OK. What's going to happen, though?
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You're gone. And all of a sudden the first
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thing you're going to think is I remember what he told me or she
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told me. This is that event that they
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were always excited about and anticipating coming and
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happening. What they said is true.
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And now I realize that I need Jesus too.
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And so many will become believers at that time.
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There'll be no bow or beautiful rainbow around the last judgment
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as we get in chapter 20. When we get near the end of the
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book, that's a great white throne judgment, and that's when
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there's no more chance. That's the final judgment when
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God will separate the sheep from the goat, the believer from the
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unbeliever, and those who are not found written in that book
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of life. Because because God puts down
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everybody who believes in a book.
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Our names are there today, guys. It can't be taken out.
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And the good news is, is that when we stand before the Lord in
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that last day, all of us in that final judgment, He'll see your
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name in there. If you're born again, you're
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going to be sent into the Kingdom.
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But those whoever's name was not found written in the Lamb's book
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of life, all unbelievers, all those who rejected Christ will
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be cast into the lake of fire and be in hell forever and ever.
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And there's no more second chance.
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No more second chance. Now the elders it refers to in
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Revelation 4, chapter 4 and five, there's these 24 elders
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sitting on these 24 Thrones. And we believe this symbolizes
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the leaders of the congregation in the Old Testament, in the New
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Testament, that in the Old Testament there was 12 tribes
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that ruled in Israel. And the representatives, the
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leaders of those 12 tribes will be sitting on 12 of those
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Thrones. And the other 12 will be in the
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New Testament. There are 12 apostles
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representing us before the Kingdom of God.
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And they're sitting, physically sitting, which is a beautiful
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picture that they're wrestling from their earthly laborers.
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There's no more work to do. Everything's been accomplished.
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They've finished their task on earth.
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They've been faithful to do what the Lord's told them to do.
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And they're just sitting there waiting and they're clothed in
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white raiment, white clothing. And this is a picture that God
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has justified them from their sins, the garment of Christ's
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righteousness. You know, the beauty of
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salvation and what Christ has done.
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I, I still sin and you'd still sin, right?
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We, we know that the Bible says if we say we have no sin, we
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deceive ourselves. We're, we're, we're deluded If
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we think we're perfect, none of us are perfect here.
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The difference between the believer and the unbeliever is
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that whenever you come to Christ as a Sinner, Christ wraps you in
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his righteousness. His blood cleanses you from all
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your sins. And so as a father sees us now,
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he doesn't see us as rebellious, hateful, ungodly people anymore.
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He sees us as his kids, and he sees us wrapped in the
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righteousness and the robe of Jesus Christ, the unbeliever.
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When he stands before the Father, a Sinner has no covering
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to protect him from a holy God. Because the only way you and I
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can stand before a holy God is by having Christ in between us,
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right? Because if we don't have Christ,
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we have no foundation, no leg to stand upon.
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And so they're also wearing these beautiful crowns.
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It says they are, they have crowns of gold on their heads.
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And these crowns represent victor crowns.
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These people were faithful in their life to follow the Lord.
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And they're being rewarded because they overcame through
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Christ's blood upon their struggle on this earth.
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And the wonderful thing is that you and I are all, we're all
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going to be given crowns if we're true followers of Jesus
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Christ. And these crowns are beautiful
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because they represent a life. And, and I know you guys and,
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and myself, we all have trials and struggles.
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We have tragedies that come into our life.
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We have difficulties that sometimes we don't know how
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we're going to get through the next day.
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But what causes us to persevere and to keep pressing on is the
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Lord, isn't it? He empowers us, He strengthens
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us. Some people might say to you,
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how did you get through that? How did you make it through that
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that difficult time in your life?
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And you know there's only one answer.
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It's the Lord. And you'll be given a crown one
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day for overcoming. And it wasn't your own strength
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that caused you to overcome. It was Christ in you that gave
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you the power to overcome. It isn't amazing.
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He gives us a crown. What do you give me this for?
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Lord, I didn't deserve it. I know you didn't, but I did it
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for you and I love you. Wear it, enjoy it.
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And the beauty of that crowd is one day we'll be able to take
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them off. And when the Lord is on the
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throne at the end of time, we'll be able to go up and offer
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something to Him, something He gave to us to give back to Him.
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And it'll be so wonderful to cast our crowns at His feet.
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Revelation chapter 2, verse 10 talks about Smyrna, the
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persecuted church. They were tested and they were
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tried and they had different difficult trials.
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I bet they were given a crown of life because they overcame
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through Christ. Jesus says in the world you will
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have tribulation. Anybody have difficulty in here
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today? Raise your hand.
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Anybody have trials? And sometimes you don't know how
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you're going to get through the next day.
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We all are there. But he says this is Jesus in the
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world you will have tribulation but be of good cheer have
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overcome the world and so we overcome through Christ and
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these that represents the leaders and those who are
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wearing a crown of life. They're the faithful ones that
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were faithful to death. They didn't ever give up.
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They never denied Christ. They never renounced him once
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they received him. They believed until the end.
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These 24 we believe in this chapter 4 have already been
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caught up into the heavens as we just studied in First
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Thessalonians chapter 4. Now they're witnessing and
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they're awaiting the beginning of God's righteous judgment upon
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an ungodly world. So we're all going to be up
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there at this time in in the future, and we're going to be
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aware of what's going to begin to transpire upon the face of
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the earth. And I believe as Jesus is ever
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living to make intercession for us.
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Praying for you and me right now, every one of us that will
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have strength to persevere. We will be praying along with
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him in the Kingdom for all those loved ones who are left on
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earth, that God's mercy will reach them and they'll become
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believers even in that horrible time.
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As we conclude the last thing he talks about verse 5, we'll pick
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up verse 6 next week. He talks about the throne
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proceeding lightnings and thunderings and voices the
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lightnings and thunderings and voices, a picture of ominous
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judgement. They all symbolize God's
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presence coming near for judgment.
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We see this when God gave the law on Mount Sinai.
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You guys watch the 10 commandments and the movie and
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whenever Moses went up there and the lightning and the Thunder
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and the noise and this the the cloud and this the glory of God,
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it was, it was frightening. Everybody on the face of the
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earth at the time below the mountains had their face to the
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ground. They were wondering what in the
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world is going on. And Moses had to go up and walk
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in the midst of that, God's presence being near.
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And this was seen at the time that God gave his law to Moses,
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saying, this is my character, this is what I want for the
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people I've created. This is my holiness, my
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righteousness. It says it came to pass on the
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third day in the morning that there was thunderings and
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lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of
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the trumpet was very loud. So to all the people who were in
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the camp trembled. I don't know about you, but
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sometimes I'm at home and there's a lightning storm or
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Thunder and you hear it a distance, no big deal.
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But when it comes and it sounds like it's coming upon your
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house, it shakes you, doesn't it?
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I mean, what is, man? That you are mindful of us,
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Lord. 1 Little ZAP on a golf course could take you or me out
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like that. And the Thunder and the
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lightning of God's power and His glory being revealed, and the
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and the wrath of God coming down upon the earth.
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People are going to be fleeing for their lives, trying to hide
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under the rocks and mountains. But you can't hide from God's
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presence during the apocalypse. There will be great physical
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violence and disaster about to be poured out upon the whole
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earth. Revelation 11.
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We'll talk more about that in verse 5.
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It talks about the seven lamps. And this portrays the all
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present Holy Spirit who's everywhere present and seeth all
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things. And the Holy Spirit is a witness
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here today with us guys. In John 16, it says the Holy
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Spirit is here to convict the world of sin, of righteousness
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and of judgment of sin because they do not believe in me.
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The Lord God wants everyone to believe.
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He's not willing that any should perish, but all should come to
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repentance. The Holy Spirit's main ministry
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is to convict us and show us I'm lost and I need a Savior.
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That happened to me when I was 20 years old.
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I didn't think I needed anybody. And then God got me in a place
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in my life, as I'm sure He has many of you.
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There was no more opportunity to negotiate.
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I needed a Savior. I needed to be saved.
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He convicts of righteousness because he goes to his Father
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and you see me no more. In other words, the work is
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finished. Christ proved He is who He said
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He is. He's at the right hand of the
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Father and of judgment. And that's the last conviction
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because the ruler of this world is judged.
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Second Corinthians 44 talks about Satan being the God of
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this world. There is a counterfeit God and
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there's a real God. The counterfeit God is Satan.
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His major influence is over the mindset expressed by the ideals,
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opinions, goals, hopes, and views of the majority of people.
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The way the world Thinks guys is jaded because it's influenced by
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the God of this world. It says his influences encompass
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the world's philosophies, education and commerce.
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The thoughts, ideas, speculations and false religions
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of the world are under the control of the deceiver, the
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liar, Satan, and they have sprung from his lies and his
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deceptions. And it started right in the
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garden. Remember Eve?
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She's there and she's dealing with this temptation and the
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devil's telling her, hey, if you eat this apple, you can become
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like God. And she's like thinking, wow,
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that sounds pretty, pretty interesting.
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And she gets Adam over there and convinces him this is what they
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should do. And Satan just took the word of
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God, just twisted a little bit and said, hath not God said?
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That's a little bit of doubt to not trust what God had told them
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to stay away from this particular fruit.
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But even though we have this enemy who's influencing this
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world, he's referred to as a God of this world.
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He's not the true God, and the true God is still in overall
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control. Satan only can work within the
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boundaries God has set. He only has dominion over lost
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people. He doesn't have dominion over
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you and me now, right? We're Christians.
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We're not of this world. The Bible says we have a
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heavenly Father who's builder and maker is God.
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So the believers are not under the authority of the devil.
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But if you're here today and you're lost and you don't know
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Jesus Christ, you're caught in the snare of the devil, you're
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under the power of his influence, and you're in bondage
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to do his will. And the only way you can get
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free from that is the gospel. Do you want to be here to deal
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with this stuff if you're not a Christian?
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I mean, why wouldn't you want to give your life to Christ today,
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to be spared from the wrath that's to come?
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And sometimes people think, well, what's that mean to become
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a Christian? What do I have to do?
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All you have to do is believe. You have to realize that Christ
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is who he said He is, that he died for you, and that he rose
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again and he's the only one that can save you.
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This has been Living Waters of Grace with Pastor Clark.
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We're going through the challenging and also intriguing
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Book of Revelation. Whether you're a fan of reading
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ahead in books of fiction, there's such a benefit to
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reading ahead in the Bible to read about how it all ends.
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But in an interesting turn of events, the Book of Revelation
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is not really the end, but rather the beginning.
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It's the end of life as we know it here on Earth, but there's so
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much to look forward to. But what comes after all?
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The judgement of the earth and those who reject God?
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There's a lot to work through, and it can be heartbreaking to
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read through the intense judgements and wrath that will
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come on those who hate God with all their might.
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The thing is, God has given chance upon chance to these
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people. They don't want it.
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So the outcome is that there are judgements and consequences for
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those who've rejected the good news and the gift of salvation
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that's offered through Jesus's death and resurrection.
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Are you one who has heard about these things but doesn't really
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want it because you want to live life on your terms?
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Trust me, living for Jesus is so much better.
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That doesn't mean it will be easy, but as you listen and read
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through Revelation with us, you'll come to a stark
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realization that you don't want to be on earth when the
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apocalypse happens. So check out Calvary Chapel
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online.com to learn how to come to a saving grace through faith
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that will allow you to be with Jesus for eternity.
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We'd also love to meet you in person at Calvary Chapel
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Westmoreland. Come join us at 400 E Pittsburgh
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St. Ste. 6B in Greensburg, PA 15601.
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This has been living waters of grace.