Holes in Mountains

[0:00] If you have your Bibles, let's turn to Revelation chapter 7, verse 9. Amen. Amen.

[0:11] Revelation chapter 7, verse 9. After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.

[0:39] And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders, and the four beasts, which were angels, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen.

[0:53] Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. Verse 13. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes?

[1:09] And whence came they? Who are these people in white robes, and where do they come from? And verse 14. This is John's vision. And he said, I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest.

[1:21] And he said to me, These are they which came out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. What a beautiful, exciting vision of this great multitude from every nation, every tongue, that's around the throne of God, worshipping, and praising Him, and thanking Him for His salvation.

[1:47] Amen. What a wonderful vision that must have been. Amen. Thanking Him for salvation. Thanking Jesus that He washed away their sins and cleansed them with the sacrifice that He did by shedding His blood.

[2:00] Amen. Has anyone else made it up in their minds that you want to make it to that day when you can, that's a, that revelation, that is a prophecy. That's going to happen. Amen. There's going to be people from every nation, and every tongue, and every generation that has experienced the salvation of God, that's going to stand around the throne, and worship God, and praise Him, and thank Him for what He has done.

[2:21] Thank you for salvation. Amen. I want to be there when that happens. Amen. I want to get through the tribulation, and whatever tribulation I have to go through, I'm going to make sure, because it says, Who are these?

[2:33] And it says, Those that came out of the great tribulation. If I got to go through a great tribulation to get there, then I'll get through the great tribulation, because I want to be there. Amen. I'm not going to give up. I'm not going to go backwards.

[2:44] I'm not going to go from one side to the other, but I'm going to walk a straight line with God. Amen. I'm going to learn about what this Word says, and I'm going to get behind it, and I'm going to, I'm going to apply it to my life. And then there's, I got one destination on my mind, and that's in front of that throne room when I get to see Jesus face to face, and I get to thank Him for salvation.

[3:03] Amen. Amen. Amen. So I want to preach just for a little bit and teach maybe a little bit from this thought, from this subject, holes in mountains. Holes in mountains.

[3:15] Amen. You may be seated. Growing up in the 1980s, interesting times. I guess every generation has their own interesting things that happen.

[3:29] Amen. But growing up in the 1980s, one of the things that stood out most to me was the concern that that was always about this Cold War or having nuclear war, going through drills and classes where we'd have to get under our desks and doing drills in case there was a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union or whatever.

[3:51] But from 1947, following the end of World War II until about 1991, it's what is called the Cold War. It was a war between the United States and the Soviet Union.

[4:03] It was called the Cold War because it was fought through influence and it was a war without large-scale military conflict. It was through words and posturing and politics and influence and things like this.

[4:16] It was capitalism versus communism. And out of that was the nuclear arms race. Amen. It was a time where there was a competition between the United States and the Soviet Union about who could develop the most powerful and largest arsenal of nuclear weapons.

[4:36] And one of my junior high school teachers described it like this. He said, imagine that we're all in a room like this classroom, you know, or imagine you're in a room like this church building and you're up to your knees in gasoline and everyone's posturing and flexing about how many matches they have when really all it would take is just one.

[4:58] And that's basically how you can explain the Cold War, the tense times that was that of the Cold War. But while living it as a youth, I was really mostly unaware of it, not really at the top of my mind.

[5:13] It was getting towards the end of the Cold War. And I wasn't really just aware of how tense it really was, but it was a conversation. But during those times, you would hear a lot of talk about fallout shelters and bomb shelters and survival training and preparing for the devastating results of what would be a nuclear war.

[5:34] Amen. You might not get killed in the blast. You may not get killed by the bomb itself, but the radiation and the fallout of that would eventually get you. And so people with the means to do so would build shelters.

[5:48] They would build bomb shelters, fallout shelters, and mostly the government built large-scale shelters to protect their capabilities in the event that there would be a nuclear exchange that they would be able to retaliate and fight back and maintain stability within the government.

[6:07] But in the United States, they built compounds, one called Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado and another called Raven Rock in Pennsylvania. And they were carved out of the side of mountains, deep into the mountain where these large military compounds built, designed, and they're counted upon to be able to withstand a nuclear attack.

[6:29] And so the same was for the Soviet Union and other countries as well. They would carve out expansive bunkers and compounds deep into the sides of mountains.

[6:39] And during that time of the Cold War, the Soviet Union controlled a part of Germany, and there they converted a whole mountain in Rothenstein, Germany, into a military shelter.

[6:50] And later after the Cold War, they lost their control in that part of Germany, and that mountain shelter was converted into private shelters for the ultra-rich.

[7:02] But although, and all through all the Cold War, governments and private individuals with the means to do so, they were building these out of fear of nuclear war.

[7:14] They would build shelters wherever they could, and often it was on the side of hills and mountains. And with the idea that if something were to happen, they could have a place of refuge to go to and survive in that time of trouble.

[7:29] Amen. In the United States, there were often publications put out to the public, like the one in 1959 called the Family Fallout Shelter, which encouraged private bunker building.

[7:42] And it was in the mountainous regions that were most often recommended places to build these fallout shelters because of the defensive qualities that a mountain would be able to provide to withstand such of an attack.

[7:58] Amen. And families would go into the hills and dig holes into the sides of hills and mountains and create shelters and keep them in secret. And they would train in survival training how to survive nuclear fallout, what you would need to do in order to make it through the weeks and months after such an attack.

[8:19] And digging holes into the sides of these hills and mountains and taking survival training on how to survive. And the instability of the world at that time of the Cold War caused people to look to holes and mountains so they can have a place of strength and security and a place of refuge and safety in a time of trouble and turmoil.

[8:43] The Cold War ended and most of you grew up in a time where this was not the top of your mind. There was probably other things going on in your generation, I'm sure.

[8:53] But it probably wasn't the Cold War, it wasn't the top of your mind. Or having a fear of a nuclear attack and fallout wasn't probably at the top of your mind growing up. But fast forward to today, it would seem, however, that even the world itself knows that something's going on in the background right now, even today.

[9:13] There are television shows out there centered around what they call prepping and survival training. People getting left out in the wilderness.

[9:25] This idea of survival training and survival is something that's a hot topic. Even today, people are once again wanting to build shelters. And for the last few years, it would seem more and more that I see these stories of billionaires building shelters in remote areas.

[9:44] And like Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, reportedly is currently now building a $270 million compound in Hawaii with blast doors and energy and food supplies, along with high-end security measures and things like that.

[9:59] But there's several big-name billionaires building shelters even now. And there are companies that even specialize in building these bunkers and shelters. And there's one in particular that I found.

[10:12] Vivos is a company that took over that whole mountain in Rothenstein, Germany. It's a company based here out of California. That mountain was once a Soviet Union military base.

[10:26] Vivos has now turned it into a shelter for the ultra-rich. With their slogan, their actual business slogan is the elite shelter for the privileged few. It's an elite shelter for the privileged few.

[10:38] Built inside of a mountain, it says that it can house a thousand of the world's most elite and can withstand a nuclear blast, a chemical or biological attack, an earthquake, tsunamis, electromagnetic pulses, flooding, and armed assaults, and whatever else.

[10:57] You could probably think of the throw at it. They think they've got a solution. And in their statements, they said that in crisis, members will arrive by car or private plane to a nearby airport, and then they would be transported by Vivos helicopters to the bunker.

[11:14] And by doing all this, it will ensure the secrecy and security of the facility. And so the facility is protected by blast-proof doors, airtight seals, radiation-proof entrances, and full-time security personnel.

[11:26] I was thinking about maybe looking for a job over there. And it has a self-contained water treatment plant, power generation system, climate control, air filtration, and ventilation systems.

[11:39] And they advertise it as a modern-day Noah's Ark. A modern-day Noah's Ark. It includes a zoo with specific animals. It has a DNA and seed vault, an artifact archive, a hall of records, all to preserve culture's treasures and to support a post-apocalyptic repopulation, according to them.

[12:03] Okay? To be included in this, it is by invitation only. And they only invite global industrialists and billionaires. So you can't just go and ask to buy a spot in there.

[12:16] You have to be invited. Limited space is only 1,000, right? And so it's a luxury hole in a mountain is what it is. It's a luxury hole in a mountain for only the top 1,000 elite individuals in the world, by invitation only.

[12:32] And these men and women, the world looks at as their highest supreme industrialists, and those that they would want to start a new world with in the aftermath of some sort of global catastrophe.

[12:43] The elites of the world, the rich, the top dogs in this luxury mountain. But not only the rich, not only the rich in that one situation in that mountain, but countless others around the world, they're constructing shelters even today.

[13:01] Even today, there's the doomsday preppers, and they're constructing these things in hopes to survive some sort of global incident. But there are a lot of instances in the Bible that people are taking refuge in caves and in mountains to avoid trouble.

[13:21] There's dozens and dozens of Old Testament stories, actually, in the Bible. But today, I want to focus on the era that we live in.

[13:32] I don't want to look at the Old Testament story of how someone used that to escape trouble, but I want us to look at what we are going to face and what we're facing even now today.

[13:45] Our opening scripture today was in Revelation chapter 7. And now I want us to turn the Bible back a chapter and go to Revelation chapter 6. Revelation chapter 6 verse 15.

[14:00] Revelation 6 verse 15. I hope this is okay. I'm preaching, but I'm trying to teach something too. Revelation chapter 6 verse 15.

[14:13] And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.

[14:35] For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand? And so the opening scripture that I gave us, and where we got excited about thinking that time that we would be in front of the throne of God.

[14:53] Amen. It's a great contrast. It's a stark contrast to the scene that we read in the beginning, in which there was this great multitude standing in front of the throne of Jesus, worshiping him and thanking him for salvation.

[15:05] What I had read to you from chapter 7 is this brief sidetrack in scripture. Amen. Because Revelation chapter 4 through 10, it takes us through what the Bible calls the seven seals.

[15:18] Seven seals, and also the seven trumpets of the last days. John receives this vision from God into the last days, and the Bible gets very descriptive about the seven seals, and that the Bible says the Lamb is opening.

[15:31] Jesus is opening these seals to, basically, this is the wrath of God upon the earth. And by the time the fourth seal is open, a quarter of the world is affected.

[15:44] Amen. In Revelation chapter 6, it is the point in which we find the sixth seal being open. What we just read in chapter 6 is when the sixth seal is being opened, and by the time the sixth seal is open, God's judgment on the unbelievers has escalated now to what we just read in chapter 6, but in which they're hiding themselves in holes and mountains trying to escape the wrath of God that's upon them for their unrepented lives and their unbelief in their lives.

[16:15] And so in Revelation chapter 6, verse 12 through 17, I'm going to read it one more time, and I, but from a little further back, and I beheld, this is John speaking of his vision, and I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell into the earth, even as the fig tree casts her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

[16:43] And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man hid themselves in the dens and the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.

[17:11] For that great day of his wrath has come, and it ends with a question, and who shall be able to stand? Who should be able to stand? Who will be able to stand against the wrath of God as it begins to be unleashed upon those that have rejected this truth and never took living for God seriously in their lives?

[17:33] Who's going to be able to stand to that? Amen. They're going to try. You can run to a hole in a mountain and take shelter in a place built to withstand a nuclear bomb going off, but it will not withstand the wrath of God in the last days.

[17:49] Amen. Isaiah prophesied about it. In Isaiah 2, verse 10, Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty.

[18:00] This is a prophecy from Isaiah thousands of years before. Before it would actually come to fruition sometime in our near future. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in the day.

[18:19] For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and upon everyone that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low. And upon all the cedars of Lebanon are the high and lifted up, and upon the oaks of Bashan, and upon the high mountains, and upon the hills that are lifted up, and upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.

[18:49] And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, and the idols he shall utterly abolish.

[19:03] Verse 19, And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake terribly the earth.

[19:16] Amen. Amen. There's coming a day of God's wrath and judgment upon those that have rejected salvation. Those that don't repent. Those that don't live a life for God while they can.

[19:27] And those that want to do it their way. They want to live life their own way. They don't make God a priority. Those that don't want to pay attention to how the Bible says to live. Those that want to make things of the world more important than things of God's kingdom.

[19:41] Those that never get to grip this word of God and actually apply it to their lives. Those that are unwilling to get a grip on it and put it in their hearts and to make it part of who they are and make up their mind, I'm going to serve God and make it their number one thing.

[19:57] They, those, will face this wrath described in the sixth seal. Revelation 6, verse 15 through 17. We've read it of the kings of the earth.

[20:09] And it ends with, for the wrath of God has come. Who is going to be able to stand? Who's going to be able to stand? The prophet Joel prophesied.

[20:19] In Joel 2 and 28, verse 32. And it shall come the past afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. And your old men shall dream dreams.

[20:31] And your young men shall see visions. This is an Old Testament prophet. And also upon the servants, upon the handmaidens, those days will I pour out my spirit. Talking about the last days. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke.

[20:45] And the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come the past that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance as the Lord hath said and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.

[21:05] So Joel prophesied and said there's coming a day that God was going to pour out his spirit. And then after that, there were going to be these great cosmic events that would take place.

[21:15] The sun's going to be turned to dark, the moon to blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord. That's describing the sixth seal. And then Peter in Acts chapter 2, after the Holy Ghost fell on the day of Pentecost, which is next Sunday, by the way.

[21:29] It's 50 days after the Passover. That's what Pentecost means, 50th. Next Sunday is Pentecost Sunday. Amen. Make sure you're in a Pentecostal church on Pentecost Sunday.

[21:40] Amen. So then in Peter in Acts chapter 2, this is on the day of Pentecost after Jesus had been crucified and then went into heaven.

[21:51] And now they went to Jerusalem waiting for the promise, which was the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit. And then the Spirit was poured out in Acts chapter 2. So here we are in Acts chapter 2, verse 14.

[22:02] But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judea and all ye that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words. For these are not drunken as ye suppose, seeing as but the third hour of the day.

[22:16] But it is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

[22:33] And upon my servants, and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. That was 2,000 years ago. And it was called the last days.

[22:44] And that's the era that we're still living in. 2,000 years have gone by since that outpouring. And the Holy Ghost is still available. It's still being outpoured today. And we're getting so close to the end, the day of Pentecost.

[22:57] And the Holy Ghost outpouring was that fulfillment of that prophecy by Joel up to the point in which the cosmic signs began to unfold. We haven't seen that yet. The cosmic signs in the heavens, in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke, the sun turned to darkness, the moon to blood, as Joel prophesied.

[23:13] Just in the next verse, that hasn't come to pass yet, but it's on our horizon. It's what's next to come. And Joel prophesied and said that it was going to happen before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.

[23:26] We have not come to that point yet, but we're getting very, very close today. And we need to be concerned about that. We need to understand this, and it needs to motivate us to make sure that we're living for God and that we're helping others around us.

[23:41] But today, you can be baptized in the Spirit. You can receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Or if you have already, you can be filled again. You can pray through and get right with God and get His Spirit renewed in you.

[23:54] And we should be doing that. You don't just speak in tongues the first time and then you never experience that again. It should be almost a daily thing, actually. There's no reason why we shouldn't pray through every single day.

[24:05] But especially when you come into the house of the Lord once a week, it would be a good idea to make sure you're filled with His Spirit. Amen. Amen. And make sure that you're good. And we should get to that place in prayer often.

[24:16] Amen. We can have His Spirit renewed in us. That's still the era that we live in. There's still time for that. Amen. Before that great and terrible day of the Lord. But even the worldly people, and this is where I'm trying to get to, even the worldly people, they know something's going on in the world.

[24:34] They know something's coming. You've got all these people spending billions of dollars just being spent on these bunkers and shelters and, you know, on the sides of these mountains and all these people taking survival training and learning how to live off the grid and how to survive everything, you know, if something, if some nuclear, whether it be a nuclear bomb attack or an asteroid hits or whatever it is, they just, they don't understand or know, but they just have, there's a sense in the world that something's going to happen.

[25:06] And I need to do what I need to do to be ready. And they don't understand the Word of God and they're not interested in the Word of God. But, but they're just doing what, what they're going to do. And that's not going to help them on that day.

[25:18] It's not going to help them. The Bible says that they're going to be hiding in those holes in the mountains and they're, and they're still going to cry out the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the judgment of God. But they, they're not going to escape God's wrath.

[25:29] It's not going to happen. And so the sixth seal in Revelation chapter six and then Revelation chapter seven, it takes a break from talking about the seven seals. And that's where we read about chapter seven, where we're in, standing in front of the throne.

[25:42] It takes a break from the seven seals, but then it picks up the seventh seal in chapter eight. So that's your homework. Go and read and then try to understand. If you have questions, let me know. But when we open with the scripture from chapter seven, is that break between the sixth and seventh seal.

[25:58] And so a vision of all the great multitudes standing in front of the throne and worshiping God, thanking him for salvation. And the Bible answers who these people were.

[26:09] These are which came out of great tribulation. I've washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Amen. I believe every word that's in this Bible. There's not, there's not a word in this Bible.

[26:21] I don't believe there's not a teaching in this Bible that I don't believe. I believe everything from the front page to the back page. I believe it. Amen. I believe it with faith. Amen. And I want to apply it to my life.

[26:32] And I believe that there's, there will be seven seals open. I believe that. And I believe that the wrath of God is going to judge the earth and those that didn't repent. I believe that.

[26:43] I do believe Revelation chapter seven, that those that make it through the tribulation, that we're going to stand there and those that have lived holy lives and have washed their robes in white with the blood of Jesus applied to their daily lives.

[26:56] I believe they will stand before the throne and thank God for salvation. I believe that. Amen. I believe Jesus, when he said in Matthew 24 and 13, but he that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved.

[27:08] I believe exactly what Jesus says. Every word of what Jesus says. I believe it. I believe that if I would endure to the end, then I'll be saved. Amen. There's going to take some enduring to the end. Amen.

[27:18] But the end will come. Amen. And there's, the enduring needs to happen. And I believe that. And the Bible's right. But let me also say the world is right when they believe something major is coming.

[27:29] Just look around. Everybody can sense something. Even the worldly people that have, they don't have it figured out, but they kind of paying attention to the world around them and they can sense something's going crazy.

[27:41] Something's about to happen and we're getting to the end or something's going to happen. Amen. Just put your finger on the pulse of the world and see how it is right now. It's not a good place to be.

[27:52] Amen. Amen. And so they think they can save themselves, you know, from the trouble that's coming down the road that we're all going to see the great day of the Lord.

[28:03] But I'm not going to be looking to dig a hole in the side of a mountain for my refuge, for the trouble that's coming. My eyes aren't going to be on the side of hills looking for holes on the side of mountains, but my eyes are going to be over here in the eastern sky and I'm going to be looking for a hole in the eastern sky where God himself, Jesus, steps down off of his throne and says, enough's enough.

[28:28] Come up here with me and I can't wait for the day, amen, that I get to fly out of here and I get to meet Jesus in the air. Amen. I'm not looking for holes on the side of mountains and on the side of hills.

[28:39] I'm looking for a hole in that eastern sky and I can't wait until my name is called. Amen. Whether I'm alive and remain or if I'm in the grave, I'm going to hear my name called. I'm going to make sure that while I live this life that I'm living today, I'm going to make sure that my name is written in the Lamb's book of life.

[28:55] Amen. Amen. Amen. You want to know about my survival training? That's why I've been baptized in Jesus' name. Amen. That's why I've repented of my sins. I've been baptized in Jesus' name. I went down in the water in Jesus' name for the remission of my sins.

[29:08] I received the gift of the Holy Ghost. That's my survival training. Amen. That's what's going to get me to the other side. And every single day, every single day, I'm preparing myself and making sure that I know what's coming and I'm going to be on the right path and I'm going to make sure that when that day comes, amen, my name is going to be called.

[29:26] My name is going to be called. And I want my family's name to be called. And I need to get more passionate about making sure that my family's in church and making sure that my family knows truth.

[29:36] Amen. Amen. I'm determined to endure to the end. I'm determined to endure to the end. Through whatever tribulation comes, amen, we got to make up our mind that we're going to endure to the end.

[29:49] Amen. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. He's the one I'm going to run to, not to the side of a hill somewhere or the side of a mountain. Amen. And so when the great tribulation comes, you're not going to find me taking refuge in holes in mountains.

[30:06] My refuge is going to be with my relationship that I have with God. Amen. And I hope and pray that the people that come here and listen to me week in and week out, I apologize.

[30:17] I'm sorry. Amen. But I hope that you people also will make God your number one. Amen. And be committed to be obedient to his word. Amen.

[30:27] And not to look to the world for refuge and for strength and protection, but to know that that God should be your refuge. Amen. And the time of tribulation. Amen.

[30:38] The tribulation's coming. The tribulation's coming. Let's all stand. There's, you know, and this is the, this is the pastoral part, I guess. The tribulation's coming.

[30:52] Revelation chapter 14, verse 9. There's, there's plenty of scripture around what we call the mark of the beast. But, uh, Revelation chapter 14, verse 9 says, and the third angel, a third, the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, if any man worship the beast and his image and receive his mark in his forehead or his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.

[31:20] And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, and they shall have no rest, day nor night, who worship the beast and his image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

[31:40] Amen. That's what we call the mark of the beast. That's what's known as the mark of the beast. And the Bible teaches that there's going to come a day during the great tribulation. It's what the Bible calls the great tribulation. It's going to be three and a half years of great tribulation.

[31:53] It's when these seals are coming to fruition and there's going to come a day where you're not going to be able, the Bible says you're not going to be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast. And you don't want to take the mark of the beast.

[32:06] But you're not going to be able to buy or sell without it. Mario, you're not going to be able to pay your mortgage without the mark of the beast. You're not going to be able to pay your electric bill. You're not going to be able to deposit a check from Morningstar.

[32:20] We're not going to be able to buy or sell. We're going to be cut off from society in a sense unless you take the mark of the beast. We don't know exactly what it's going to be.

[32:33] We don't know exactly when it's going to happen. But the Bible is very clear. There's going to be some way to signify that you've accepted something, some world order in which you can only by yourself you have that.

[32:47] And it's going to be anti-God in some way. It'll be very, it's not going to catch us by surprise except for those that have a strong delusion and don't understand the word of God.

[32:59] But those that are faithful, those that know the word of God, those that are disciples of Jesus Christ, those, they're going to know. It's going to be very obvious and clear. But you know the hard thing is going to be is can you live?

[33:13] How are you going to live? Think of the pressure, how much pressure we had with COVID and how much, you know, how many didn't want the vaccine but got the vaccine just because they don't want to deal with the pressure of being accepted into whatever, you know, and it can't fly out of the country or can't go here or can't do there.

[33:31] You know, that was just a taste. That was just a taste of what's to come with the mark of the beast. That wasn't the mark of the beast but it's just a taste. It's almost like a preparation. I think that COVID was almost like a little preparation but I mean, we got, when I say we got, I'm not talking about in this church although it is in this, even in the small confines of this church.

[33:54] it's just in Christendom across the board, every church. There's people that they can't make the church because they have this tummy ache or whatever the thing may be, right?

[34:08] And we're not really, I don't know, I'm concerned. Like, how serious are we about living for God? I mean, we think that when the day comes when the mark of the beast arrives, we're going to reject it, you know?

[34:21] And we'll be fine. We're going to be committed to God. But, I mean, are we displaying that type of attitude now? I mean, it's nice to think that you're going to rise to the occasion and maybe you will, I don't know.

[34:34] But, I mean, we have to really take a walk circumspectfully and take a look at our own walk with God because we can only control us and our walk with God.

[34:45] It can hurt us. It can cause us stress and anxiety to see others, you know, that we love not making right choices and things like that. But we can't, there's only so much we can do about that.

[34:56] I mean, salvation is a personal thing between us and God. And so, we can pray for them, we can encourage them, we can teach them truth, we can say, hey, be careful, you know, we can do whatever we can do and we should be doing those things.

[35:09] But, we really need to take a look at our walk with God and say, how serious are we about this, really? Because, if these things keep us from doing what the will of God is for our lives, then what happens when they're pulling your child out of, Taylor, when you're pulling Miles out of your hand and saying, take the mark or you're never going to see Miles again.

[35:32] Or, the Bible says that we're going to be killed. They're actually going to be hunting us and killing us, those that won't receive the mark. But the Bible also says that there's going to be people that make it.

[35:45] So, God's going to provide provisions, protection, divine interventions, things that are going to happen to protect people. But there's going to be people that die a martyr's death because of, for standing up for God and against whatever the mark of the beast ends up being.

[36:04] So, I know this is not like an exciting message, you know, but I care about the people in this room so much and so deeply and people that aren't in this room, the people I'm called to reach the city with.

[36:18] I mean, how many people know what I just taught or preached today? Not too many people know that, but I didn't pull it out of some place other than the Bible. It's in the Bible and we can talk about it more, we can learn about it more and we should.

[36:32] We shouldn't, we shouldn't, you know, this, what they call eschatology is the study of the end times. It's, people push it to the side because they don't want to try to understand it, it's too scary, you know, they want to put their head in the sand and stuff like that, but that's not going to do us much justice when the mark of the beast comes and we don't know what it is, we don't know what to expect, we haven't been educated but the Bible says, how come there's so much in the Bible that talks about the end but we don't want to talk about it?

[36:59] You know, it's there to warn us, it's there to have so that we can be prepared. You know, at the end of the day, I might get separated from my family, I might have to die over it but I know that if, I know that I need to make it to that throne room and if I lead by example and my family will also take it seriously and to that same extent that they're willing to die for this, for this cause, you know, the cause of Christ and for God, you know, make God that important, then I know that they're going to be there around the throne room with me.

[37:38] Amen. And like I preached last week, it's what's greater and better than heaven itself is who's going to be there with you. It's who's going to be there with you.

[37:50] That's what's going to make heaven heaven is who's there with you. Amen. So, what I want us to do is let's just take a moment and pray and let's have some self-reflection right now before we leave.

[38:05] Amen. I know this is a teaching that's hard. It's a teaching that we don't like to hear sometimes but I think it was necessary. I felt it to bring and I hope you're not upset with me.

[38:17] I hope you've understood it and if you have any questions you can talk to me about it. Let's pray before we leave today. Let's really think about our commitment to God and anything you can do to increase that commitment and if there's anything I can do to help you, if there's anything I can do as a pastor to help you, please seek me out, find me, talk to me and let's figure this out.

[38:38] Let's make heaven together. Amen. Let's make it to the throne room together. Amen. Lord Jesus, God, I thank you, God, for this word. God, God,