Fire – Part 4, The Lake of Fire by Pastor Rob Ketterling
All right. We are continuing our series on fire, and I really enjoyed preaching about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the fiery furnace. And today we are continuing the series, and I'm preaching on the lake of fire. I want you to know if you have your Bibles, you can go to Revelation, chapter 20. That's where we are going to land. But I want to let you know this is a hard topic. This is a very hard topic. I know that when we were planning this series and picking different passages that had to do with fire, it was so easy to say, "Oh, let's do the lake of fire!" And I can remember when we were looking at my travel schedule and which weeks I'd preach, I was like, "Oh, I definitely want the lake of fire." And then when I finally got to the moment of preaching on the lake of fire, I was kind of like, "Pastor Darin, do you want to trade? Do you want to switch out here or anything?"
He said, "No, it's all yours, it's yours."
There is a pressure. I just have to be very real. And I'm going to use humor, we use humor to connect and to relate. But this is a very, very, very serious topic. It's a very heavy, heavy sermon to talk about the lake of fire, to talk about judgment.
Because I will tell you this, that the world is okay with peace. They are okay with Jesus being somebody that gives you comfort and peace. If that helps you get through life, loving Jesus, you can love Jesus, and they are okay with that Jesus. But they are not okay with Revelation Jesus. They are not okay with God as supreme ruler, as Lord, as controller of your eternal destiny. When you start talking about that, the world doesn't like it. The church, a lot of churches don't like that. You will not hear a lot of sermons on the lake of fire.
And I've got to tell you this, if we really believe this, if we really believe why we are here at church, why we are serving Jesus, if we really believe we are on mission with God, that that is real, that we were created to be in relation with God, then we have to take the whole package. You can't leave this out. You have to take Jesus and the devil, and you've got to take heaven and hell, and you've got to take this, you've got to take eternal life. And if there is eternity with God, there is eternity separated from God. And as much as I would love to be able to preach an easier message, as your pastor I'm preaching this with boldness. I'm not holding anything back, and I'm really letting you know this is serious, and I believe we have an obligation to let people know this.
Now, I will be very clear with you. This is a believer's service. You say, "I'm sure he's preaching on lake of fire because he wants to do a great alter call at the end, and he's going to tell everybody that doesn't know Jesus to run to the alter to avoid the fire." Okay. You can give your life to Jesus Christ at every service that we have, but I'm letting you know that is not the motive in this message. This message is for believers. So if you just excused yourself, "Oh, lake of fire, it is easy, I got this one settled," this is for you. I'm preaching this because this message should shock us and wake us up. This one should bother you.
I lost sleep this week because I was thinking about this, because the more I thought about eternity and the lake of fire, those separated from God, I started thinking, "What am I doing for God?" I started evaluating my time, my treasures, my talent. I'm thinking, "Am I doing enough with it? Am I listening to God or am I listening to myself? Am I giving enough, doing enough, serving enough, am I sharing enough? Do my neighbors know? Do my friends know? Do my relatives know?" And it was bothering me. So this is a wake up message for you. This is so you can realize that God loves you and he saved you, and he doesn't want anyone to perish. And you are on mission with God to go out into all the world and to share the message. So I hope this shocks us and wakes us up and to be more sold out, more generous, more serving, more giving, all of the above.
Now, Revelation 20:10 15, this is my text. There are several places that talk about the lake of fire, but this is very clear. And just so you know, I could do a five part series on this one. It bothered me, too. I wanted to do a bonus sermon on a bonus sermon, but I won't. I'll cram it all in.
10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
Okay, so we have it there. Again, this is a very serious, serious thing. But I want to give you an end time crash course so you understand the context of where Revelation 20 is talking about. And so you understand this, the Bible talks about the end, and he gives us insight into the end. Like, how will this all end, how will this earth end? And I'm glad that it does. Revelation is a very tough book to understand. But if you read Daniel and Matthew and Revelation, you'll start to get a glimpse of how this thing ends. And I'm so glad God gives us the end time scenario so we can be aware of what's going on.
But here is what happened. When Jesus was on this earth, he died and paid the price for our sins. He became the sacrifice, the substitute for all that we've done wrong. All of our sin was placed on him, and then we were given a way to be right with God. And when Jesus left this earth, after he rose from the dead, he met with his disciples, and he said, "Guys, I'm building my church. You're going to go into all the world. You're going to be my witnesses. I'm going to giving you power. I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit, and He's going to empower you to be my witnesses everywhere you go. And you've got to share this good news that God loves mankind and sent his Son, and they can be forgiven. That's your job."
It's really something we know as the great commission. We are commissioned to go into all the world and preach the good news that God has made a way for us to be forgiven. And so we are in that age right now. We're in the age of the church where we are out there preaching the good news. We have an obligation to do that.
And we are waiting for this moment. We are waiting for this moment that God will say, "Time's up." And when God says, "Time's up," there is going to be something that's going to happen, and that event is called the rapture. Now, you may look in your Bible, you may look at a concordance, you may word search it; "rapture." The actual term is not there, but the idea is there. The idea is there that God is going to tell Jesus God, the Father is going to say to Jesus, "It's time. Time's up. Go get your bride. Go get the church, all those that believe in you. All those that asked you for forgiveness, go get them. It's time. Time's up."
Now, I want you to understand. We don't understand that in our culture, but in Jewish culture they understood that. Because here's what would happen: When a father would pick a bride for his son, he would say, "Now, son, go and prepare a place for your bride, and when the place is ready, I'll decide when you get married. And when I decide, I will tell you, 'It's time,' and then you can go with trumpets and with a shout, and you can go get your bride. You can snatch her from her dad, because it is time; you are getting married and time's up." So that's what's going on. We understand that. We understand that this event will take place just like the Jewish culture celebrated their weddings.
This is illustrated in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 17. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
So that's what's going to happen. There is a moment. Do we know when it's going to happen? We don't know. We don't know. Only the Father knows when he's going to tell Jesus, "It's time to get your bride." But until then we are ready, and we are telling people that they can be in on the love of God.
Now, it is our church's belief, it is our elders' belief, that this moment, this rapture moment will then start the seven years of tribulation. You read about that in Revelation. There's horror movies that talk about it, the pale horse and the red horse, and the moon will be turned to blood, and all these things that are going on. And there will be trials and tribulations and all these things that are being unleashed on the earth. It will be in that seven year period. And I want to let you know this is known as a pre tribulation rapture. That's what we believe. We are going to go out, and then the wrath of God is going to be poured out on those seven years. It is going to be chaos on this earth.
Now, there are others that believe it will happen midway through the tribulation. And there are others that believe it will happen at the end, that the church will go through it. As I study it, as I read it, I think we are being snatched out first and then all that stuff happens.
Now, you may say, "Pastor Rob, I believe in mid trib. Can I still stay here?" Yes, you can stay here. You can stay in the church, and you can stay halfway through the tribulation. I want out. Okay?
Post Trib. You're like, "Well, I believe post trib, and the way I read it is a little different." That's okay. That's okay. Revelation is written in a way that we are trying to understand it. You may be post trib, okay, and you can stay in the church.
And I love what one person said. They said, "I don't know if I'm post trib or pre trib." The person said, "I'm pan trib."
I said, "What does that mean?"
He said, "It will all pan out. And whatever way it goes, I'm going."
But we believe it's happening right there, and then seven years of tribulation happens. Then what happens is the battle of Armageddon. You've probably heard of that. If you go with us to Israel, you'll see the valley where this is going to happen. You will be able to see where Armageddon is going to happen, where the whole word comes against God, comes against Israel, and the battle of Armageddon takes place. And in that battle God wins. God wins. Jesus wins. Read Revelation 19. He came once on a donkey as a servant. And now he's coming back on a white horse as a conquering king, and he wins the battle. Yeah, it's a good thing.
In that battle, then it sets up a thousand years of just pure joy of living on this earth for a thousand years, because the devil is bound in chains for a thousand years. And that thousand years is known as the millennium. And in that thousands years the devil is bound. And the only reason that I can think he was bound and then let go would be to help us with our theology, and I'll get there at the end of this service. But I'm trying to figure out, like, why does he bind him up for a thousand years, he's in chains, and then God lets him go one last time. And then we read in Revelation that one last rebellion against God, and then God throws him into the lake of fire, which is interesting. He throws him in there with a false prophet and the beast. And the false prophet and the beast and the devil make up a fake trinity. He says, "The fake trinity is gone. You're bound, you're in the lake of fire. You're gone forever and ever." Then at that moment it is forever and ever and ever and ever in eternity with God with those that love God. It is just an amazing joy forever and ever and ever. Okay?
But those that don't know God, the Bible says are cast in the lake of fire. And even saying that statement just is hard for me to say. I have no joy. Some people preach like, "These people are going to hell!" and they act like they are happy. I'm not happy. I'm not happy. I don't want anyone to go to hell. Okay? And that's why this church is all about missions and global projects and sending our youth group and investing and growing and starting campuses, because I believe that hell is real and I don't want anyone to go there. So how does somebody end up in the lake of fire? It is just by not being in the book of life. Because at the end of life, there is really two things that you have to give account for; what did you do at the cross, and then you'll stand before God at the great white throne judgment. And while you're here on this earth you'll have an opportunity to look at the cross and make your mind up. Do you believe that God loves you so much that he covered your sins and you can be forgiven and you can accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior? And if you do that on this side of eternity, the Bible says you have eternal life with God in heaven. If you don't, if you reject God, the Bible says you're going to stand before him and give account. So we all have to look at the cross and decide what are we going to do.
Mark 16:16 says this: Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved... Saved from what? The lake of fire. From eternity separated from God. ... but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Condemned in the lake of fire. So the cross demands a response.
The other thing is we are going to stand before the great white thrown judgment. That's what it says. Then I saw a great white thrown and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.
Okay, realize everybody is going to be there; great and small. You cannot buy your way out of it. You cannot vote your way out of this. Everyone stands before God. And the Bible says it's a great white throne because it symbolizes purity. It's uncorrupt. It's uncorrupted. It's no ignorance and no injustice. God cannot be bribed. It is the purest judgment that can ever exist. And every single person has to stand before God. He's judge, he's jury, he's executioner, he's the prosecuting lawyer and attorney. He's everything.
And it says the books are open. There is two books here. And it is very important that you understand this. The first book is deeds. The first book is deeds. It is going to be everything you did that was bad. It's everything you did to push away God. It is going to be every moment that the appeal was given to you and you pushed away God. Everything os there. All the deeds will be there. And it will be exposed, you and God. No defense. Just you and God. And everything, people will have to give account for it. I mean, you think about this moment. You think about this in the video age that we live in. I mean everything we do is recorded now. And you watch it.
How many know sometimes you do a video with friends, and, all right, let's say you're under 30 and you got your iPhone and you're recording something. You thought it was really funny until you showed it to somebody in authority, and then it didn't seem so funny anymore. You're like, "Yeah, that was really dumb. I can't believe I said that. I'm sorry I showed you that, mom and dad. Let's delete that video."
You'd love to have a delete button on that day, I guarantee you. When you give account for the things that you have done, you're going to wish you could push delete. Stop, stop, stop, delete, stop, stop! But you can't. You've got to give account. It's all there. There is a second book now. This is the good book. This is the book of life. The one book is the book of deeds. The other one is the book of life. This one is judgment. This one is grace. So you want to be in this book. All you need is your name in the book. That's what you need. You need your name in there. If you need your name anywhere in life, you need it in that book. That's the only place that counts.
Now we will get into this later on in this series. We are going to talk about our works being tried by fire, because it says for those that are in the book of life, then our good deeds are going to be weighed by the motives that we did. And some of it will be wood, hay and stubble. But it says that as long as your name is in there, you're good, you get out of a fire. It says some of you are going to escape this earth like getting out of a fire; like all you got out with was your life. But thank God you got with that. Okay, so there is something going on here. We'll talk about that in our future series. But all you have to do is make sure your name is in that book. Name is in there. And how you get in there, remember, if you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you ask him to forgive your sins, your name goes in that book. And you start living for God instead of yourself your name is in the book. That is the key thing.
But if your name is not in that book, the other book brought judgment against you, and the Bible says you will be sent to the lake of fire. Now here's the thing. The lake of fire wasn't really even created for mankind. Because of sin, because of sin entering this world, the lake of fire was brought into play for mankind. But the Bible says in Matthew 25:41, Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.' But you don't have to go there. You can go to the cross. So the lake of fire, the lake of fire is hell. That is hell.
Now, I want to let you know that a lot of times we use terms that we think mean hell. There is only one correct spot where it's really hell, and that's lake of fire where we are talking about it here in Revelation. There is actually three terms we use loosely for hell, but they are not the same. There is Hades, there is Sheol, and there is Gehenna. All right. Gehenna is the one for hell; lake of fire. That's the third one.
But let me talk about the first two before we get there. When the wicked die today and they are not in the book, they don't know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they are sent to Hades, and in Hades they are awaiting judgment. They are awaiting the great white throne judgment. Hades is not a good place to be. It is a horrible place to be. Okay? When Jesus died on the cross, when he came and paid for the price for us, the Bible said that he went and set the captives free. Before there was Hades there was Sheol. And Sheol was a place that was separated in two. There was a good side that they were waiting, and there was a bad side where they were waiting. And they were separated by a gulf, an expanse that we don't know. It couldn't be bridged. So you have people over here who were on the good side waiting, and you have people on the bad side waiting. Jesus came and set these people free and said, "All right, you're coming into paradise with God." Now the only people that have to wait are the ones that are waiting for judgment on the bad side. Does this make sense? Okay, so this is what's going on.
And that's why before Jesus, the Bible talks about a rich man, that he was on one side, he was on the wrong side, and he lived for self and he didn't honor God, and he was on the wrong side. And then it talks about a beggar being over there, and he was on the right side. And the rich man was like, "I wish he could bring me a little bit of water to quench my thirst." It was a terrible place to be." And he said, "I wish somebody could go back and warn my brothers of this place." Nobody wants to be on this side. They want to be on that side.
Now at the end of age, that's where hell comes into play; Gehenna, okay? That's where it comes in. It's the Valley of Hinnom. That's where they got this term. The Valley of Hinnom is hear Jerusalem, and if you go on our Global trip to Jerusalem, we'll show you where the Valley of Hinnom was where Gahenna was. It was a garbage dump in Jerusalem. It was a garbage dump, and they threw all the trash in there and dead animals in there, and they lit it on fire so that it would burn up the trash. And they keep filling it up so it was always burning, always smelling, rotting, full of maggots, if you're getting the picture. And they said that's what hell is going to be like, and that's where they get the term Gehenna. It was a terrible, terrible, terrible place. So that's why we say the lake of fire is like that. It's like this place that burns and it never ends. It's worms and maggots and it's horrible. So as the people in Jesus' day were trying to understand this, they understood that's what hell is like.
Now there are some misconceptions about hell, so I want to give you some description of what the Bible says about hell, about Gehenna, about this lake of fire. The Bible says it's outer darkness, it's unquenchable fire. It says it's everlasting contempt, everlasting torment, everlasting destruction, where the worm does not die. It says the wrath of God is poured out there. There is punishment there forever and ever. And the Bible calls it the second death. It's eternal death and eternal punishment and eternal pain that is there.
Now, I want to let you know another misconception is this: Some people think hell is like Satan's lair, like he's in charge there. Can I tell you this? He is not in charge. There is no elevator and he opens it up and he's like, "Welcome to hell." That doesn't happen, okay? Doesn't happen. He is not in charge. That's his ending place. So any time you hear that, like the devil is in charge of this or that, no, he's not in charge. That's the final destruction and doom for him, okay? There is no red horns, no tail, and all that.
Just for a light moment in the midst of this, I do want to let you know that your pastor for his very first Halloween with his parents years ago was dressed like the devil. I was going through my photo album, and all of a sudden, ooohh. I go, "What in the world?" And it's your pastor. I'll put it out on Instagram this week. And I was dressed like the devil. I asked my mom and dad, I said, "What in the world were you thinking?"
They said, "Hey, we didn't know Jesus back then. We partied hard. We thought devil was a cool costume."
And I was about to take that picture out of the photo album and burn it and rip it up so no one would ever find it, and then God said, "Don't. Leave it there."
And I was like, "Why?" You know, pastor is the devil. That's not
And he goes, "Such were some of you. Your family was lost. Rob, your family was lost. You were going to hell. Before age seven you were on your way. Your family was on the way. You were gone. And they found me and you found me, and now you are redeemed. And you know what? Your life is doing pretty good. You've got a lot of clean pictures. You keep that one." And it reminds me.
Some of you say, "I have a 'such were some of you' picture too." Don't burn it up. Save it and show your kids some day. Show your family. Show, "That's what we used to be, but our pictures are different now." But it is not his lair. He is not in charge.
Here is another misconception. Your friends will all be there. I hope your friends are not there. I hope you're not there. But here's the deal; even if they are there, you will not know they are there. Hell is not some big party. Some people say, "I'm going to drink beer in hell with my friends, yeah!" No way. You're going to be alone. You're going to be all alone.
As a matter of fact, a friend of mine, Rick Mattson, he wrote a book about faith is like skydiving. He said, "If you think hell is where you're going to drink beer, it's an empty pub." No one's there. You are all alone. There is no one to celebrate with. It's an empty pub. And if you drink all by yourself, you're an alcoholic, it's miserable. And he said that's hell, it's going to be miserable. All alone. We know the Bible says it is not good for man to be alone. You are separated from God.
And here's the thing, you are separated from the love of God. And even worse than any fire or torment, I think knowing that God loves you so much that he sent his Son to die for you, being separated from that love all eternity would be the worst thing in the world. Could you imagine over and over and over and over again hearing God say, "I love you so much that I sent my Son to die for you, yet you rejected him."
Could you imagine over and over and over again in hell hearing your neighbor that invited you to church that wanted you to come to church and you said no, no, no, and God is like, "I gave you a Christian neighbor and you mocked him." "I gave you a Christian employee." "I gave you a Christian boss." "I give you Christian students." "I gave you a Christian teacher." "I gave you a Christian spouse and you mocked your spouse!" And you're going to hear over and over again the voice of that person. You're going to hear the prayers that you pretended not to hear over and over for eternity where they were begging you to give your life to Jesus. That little kid that was begging you to give your life to Jesus over and over and over again. That would be hell.
Imagine every moment that took your breath away. Every moment. Every time you saw a sunset you're like, "That's incredible!"
And God whispered to you, "There is more to this life. Follow me." And you shunned the spirit. Nature was crying out like Romans said, in Romans 1 it says all of creation was making you without an excuse. Every time you saw the mountains, every time you saw the ocean, every moment that took your breath away God just shows you over and over again, "I was calling you, I was whispering to you, I was begging you." Every TV evangelist you turned by and ignored, just over and over and over again.
Separated from God. And God's love is right now saying you don't have to be on the wrong side of that. You don't have to be on the wrong side of that. And it is so horrifying just even saying this stuff. It is so horrifying. That's why people have said, "You know what? Let's make up these new things. Let's make up new things because it can't be. We can't do this. It can't be this bad."
And I want to tell you the reason we do that is because we don't think sin is very bad. Sin is horrible. Sin is horrible. I can't even in our society we are making sin no big deal. We have little sayings like, you know, "Sins are forgiven, so sin is in." No, it's not. Sin is horrible. Don't go on pursuing sin.
I tried to even wrap up things to make you understand how bad sin is. If you were to take Hitler's DNA and cancer and the Ebola virus and poison acid and nuclear radioactive fallout and mix it all together and say, "Do you want that?" that isn't even close to how bad sin is. But all of us would run from that mixture a hundred miles an hour.
And yet we don't even pray to say, "God, get all of this wickedness out of me. Help me to be more like you. I want to be holy. I want to be more like you."
Sin is so bad and so horrifying, we minimize it so much to come up with things to try to deal with it. We don't even like lake of fire and hell. So churches and theologians have come up with this "anihilationism." What does that mean? It's just a fancy term saying that you'll be punished at that moment on the great white throne, but then God will say, "Now you don't exist anymore." Poof, you're gone. Oblivion. You don't exist anymore. There is no eternal punishment. You're just gone, you're just wiped out.
It's interesting, people that say, "I don't want God," their whole life, their punishment is to not have God then. It doesn't make sense. As a matter of fact, it is not in the Bible at all. It is not is in the Bible.
And if you want to look at the term eternal or eternity where it is used about God, heaven, and hell, it's the same word; aionios. Aionios. This word means eternal forever and ever. And if it's saying God is aionios, eternal forever, and you're going to spend aionios, you're going to spend eternity with him in heaven, and aionios, separated from God, how can you say this one doesn't exist but this one and this one does? You can't have it. You've got to take the whole package. That's the way the Word of God does it. So it can't be. That's just a lazy excuse for a church that wants to be politically correct and doesn't want to take the heat. There is heat with this one.
Then there is "universalism" which means this: After being punished for awhile they will finally come around. It's like a rebellious kid. You know, sometimes you've got to put them in time out a little longer, and the ones that were smart repented early, and then these ones you had to hold them in timeout for a long time. After while, after they have been punished, everyone will eventually come around to saying Jesus is Lord, and they will get it right and they all get in.
Okay, again, there is no second chances. It's this side of eternity. You have got to do it this side of eternity. You make the decision here and now what will you do with the cross. What will you do with Jesus? And over there your name is either in the book or it's not. But it's not like you get another chance.
And here's the interesting thing and where I was saying earlier why the devil must be let go. Because it must be to show us that even after a thousand years of being tormented in chains, he still doesn't repent. Universalism isn't right. Even after a thousand years of being tormented, being bound up, even he doesn't repent. So it's not going to happen. You're not going to get to hell and finally wake up to how bad you are and then come around and say, "Okay, please let me in." So it doesn't happen.
Again, these are things that are made up by a lazy church that doesn't want to be on mission, that just wants to play while the Titanic is sinking. Not acceptable. Not acceptable.
Now here's the thing, with all this some people have tried to, you know, use logic to get people in. Pascal's wager, how many know about that? All right, he said this basically, he said the wager. He said, "If there is a God and I accept him, then I have eternity with him. But if I accept him and I'm wrong, I only lose out on a few things that this world calls fun. If you say there is no God and there really is a God, you're burning. And that's big loss. And if you say there is no God and you party, you get to enjoy the party." And he said, "The wager, the smart person would bet that there is a God and accept the wager and minimize their odds." Okay?
Makes sense logically, but let me just tell you this. God does not want to be your wager. God does not want to be your fire insurance. That's why I said this message is not for people that don't know God; it's for the believers. Because God does not want it to be, "Well, I didn't want to burn so I loved you instead."
I mean, imagine that in a marriage, like, "Well, no one else would marry me, so I chose you." It's not going to work.
God does not want to be your wager. He doesn't want to be your fire insurance. He wants to be your treasure. And he's saying that's why he talks about the pearl of great price. And he said when you find God and you realize how much he really loves you and how amazing he really is and you really find purpose in this world, you will sell everything to grab the pearl of great price. And you won't even worry about what you lost because you know what you gained. That's how he wants you to love him. That's how he wants you to come to him. Sure, the fire may wake you up, but the love needs to win you, because after awhile people that make fire conversions tend to not hate their sins so much because it was just Pascal's wager and they kind of walk away. God wants you to find the one you love, the one that loves you so much, and give your life to him and live forever and ever and ever for him.
Where is the good news in a message like this? Here's the good news. It is kind of like one of those movies where they say, "If you are watching this video, there is still time." That's my good news. If you're hearing this message, there is still time. There is still time to get in on forgiveness. There is still time to make a difference.
There is still time to say, "God, if you commissioned me, I will develop my spiritual gifts and be used by you. I will step up and serve in the church you called me to be a part of. I will part with whatever money you ask me to part with. I will gladly do it because I have gained what is really important."
And there is good news in this that this church loves you enough to tell you the truth while there is still time to make a difference. There is coming a day where the Bible says it will be dark, there won't be any opportunity to work. Time's up. The trumpet will sound. It's over. But now we have the opportunity to make a difference. Let's rescue the perishing. Let's care for the dying like the hymn says. Let's snatch them in pity from sin and the grave so that whoever calls on the name of the Lord can be saved.
So, God, I pray right now you would help us to do that. This is a believer's message, and right now I pray over every believer that hears this. This is real. Either we believe it or we don't, and we believe it here, God. And we believe that we have been given the opportunity to make a difference for eternity. So, God, I pray we'd make the most of every moment, we'd make the most of every dollar. When you say give, we give. You tell us what we keep, we keep. When you say go, we go. But, God, we would obey this because we have been commissioned to rescue people from hell. And not by saying "turn or burn," but by saying respond to the love of God, respond to the one that loves you so much that he gave his Son to die for you.
And, Lord, if there are any here that this is their moment, this tipped them over, they are like, "Okay, okay, I'm in, I'm in," I pray it wouldn't be a fire conversion, but it would be the last piece, that they understand the love of God so much and they'd make their way into the Kingdom of God. Help us to rescue the perishing.
In Jesus's name I pray. Amen, amen.
