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So we continue our sermon series in the book of revelations as Paul told all of you that

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it's stretching our limits as a congregation.

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It is stretching my limits as a pastor.

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And one of the most interesting things, and I mean absolutely I don't mean this to uplift

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myself at all, the amount of you that have been in church for a long, long time, you

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feel free to put whatever number in you want, you've never heard a sermon about the entirety

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of the book of revelation.

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Now a lot of you have said we've done the letters, you'll hear the last, I'm the alpha

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and the omega, the beginning and the end, and again I'm not saying those are easy passages

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to preach at all, but what is going on, everything that is going on in the book of revelation

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is something that we need now.

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We need these, the importance and the urgency that we're going to see especially in our

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sermon today, we need that in our life.

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We need that sense of urgency or we will become complacent in the faith as some of the churches

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received in the beginning of the sermon series.

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But we're going to be talking about the seven trumpets.

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And trumpets are interesting because trumpets had more of a cultural context back in the

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first century.

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We don't use them a whole lot anymore for the reasons they did biblically or throughout

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history, but trumpets meant something.

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Trumpets served as instruments of proclaiming a king's voice to get everybody's attention,

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that it was something used to specify whatever is coming next.

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Do not miss.

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And it was hard to miss.

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It was there for invocations when people became kings and queens and princes.

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It was used in war.

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Trumpets were used in war.

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We use those even in our history as America.

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Trumpet, bugle, whatever.

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Trumpets were used to end something.

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Trumpets were used for war, were used for peace.

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But as we see that what these trumpets are going to signify are significant events and

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calling people to attention.

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I don't know if you can hear that trumpet or if any of you, and I know some of you,

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we've done that with your families, that if a veteran passes away and you have the trumpet

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ceremony of taps, there is nothing more somber than hearing that as someone is laid final,

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resting place, whether in a military cemetery or another one.

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But we see that there are some various contexts, and then we're going to get to the trumpets

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themselves.

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The first context we'd see is the calling of worship.

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That we would see this, we saw at Leviticus 25, Exodus 19, that trumpets summoned people

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to worship and to recognize the presence of God.

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Second context is they announced battles and judgments.

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Trumpets were used to announce war.

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We see this in the fall of Jericho in Joshua 6, where the sound of the trumpets combined

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with the obedience of God's commands brought the walls tumbling to the ground, reminding

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us of God's victory that is not dependent on human strength, but on his sovereign power.

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And then a third context we see is signaling warnings and repentance.

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In the prophetic books, trumpets warn the impending judgment and the call for repentance.

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Joel 2, 1 commands, blow the trumpet in Zion.

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Sound the alarm on my holy hill.

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That all who live in the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming.

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So contextually, trumpets would have meant something.

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We've lost a little bit of that in our culture today.

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We still see that when the president is inaugurated.

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We still see that with air of importance, both politically, somewhat religiously, in

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around the world.

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But the significance of the trumpets in Revelation, they function very similar to the Old Testament

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that we just talked about, but they're announcing something a little more brutal.

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I'm just going to use that word.

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They announce God's final judgment.

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They announce God's final warning to the people of a coming, an imminent wrath, a final call

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to repentance before more severe judgments follow.

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The number 7 signifies a level of completeness.

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We see that throughout scripture.

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Seven signifies completeness, indicating that these trumpet judgments are kind of comprehensive

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in nature, but they cover the fullness of God's decreed purposes.

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The seven trumpets in Revelation are part of a series of three and seven.

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We see that with the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls coming up and progressively

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intensifies God's judgment, ultimately leading to the return of Christ and the establishment

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of the kingdom.

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So as we read Revelation, as we read Revelation 8.6, it's going to set us up now, the seven

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angels who had seven trumpets prepared to blow them.

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So now the seven angels, completeness, bringing the judgment.

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We see them bringing the letters.

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We see them being called holy over the last two weeks, and we see them bringing a lot

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of negative things, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, the great silence, all of this

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kind of melodrama going on.

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Now we bring two trumpets.

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So what the trumpets are doing is they're bringing a context.

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They're bringing a focus about what is to happen.

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This is not a trumpet that is just blown in this sanctuary.

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This is a trumpet that the entire world hears.

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All parts of the world will hear these trumpets.

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So we're going to go through the first four relatively quickly because John goes through

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them relatively quickly.

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But the first trumpet, Revelation 8.7.

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The first angel blew his trumpet and there followed hail and fire mixed with blood, and

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these were thrown upon the earth.

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And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all

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the green grass was burned up.

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So one of the things we see here is we see that the creation is being burned up, that

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God is calling the creation back to Himself.

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We never think about this in a text of salvation or redemption.

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We only look at this when there's natural disasters.

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And the thing is we then blame God when those things, where is God in Hurricane Helene?

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Where is God in Hurricane whatever the name?

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Where is God in, we look at nature as a blame for what God is or isn't doing.

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What we see in the book of Revelation, God is calling creation back to Himself.

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That sin's curse has consequences in the natural world.

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We only ever talk about our sin.

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Adam and Eve go back to the garden, right?

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Difficulty in childbearing, that for the man the ground was going to be cursed, that cultivating

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anything was going to be hard, but the ground was cursed.

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We like to gloss over that.

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The destruction of vegetation signifies a loss of sustenance, a loss of beauty, highlighting

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the fragility of creation under judgment.

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We miss this a lot.

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It's not just people who are judged in the end.

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It is also creation itself.

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Trumpet two.

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Revelation eight, eight through nine, so we continue with Revelation.

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The second angel blew his trumpet and something like a great mountain burning with fire was

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thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood.

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I believe that's it, yep.

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The great mountain burning with fire is thrown into the sea, turning a third of the sea into

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blood.

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This event echoes the first Egyptian plague, Exodus seven, that results in the destruction

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of a third of the sea life and the ships, symbolizing God's sovereignty over commerce

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and trade.

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I thought that was interesting.

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Diving into this that the Lord is calling out, much like when you see the plagues in

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Egypt, those are the ten highest gods that the Egyptians worshiped, the ultimate one

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being Amun-Ra, the sun god, the god of life.

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God says, I don't think so.

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I am God overall, firstborn, done, dead, firstborn son.

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We see the same over the idols in our life.

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Our use of creation, gone.

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The use of commerce and trade being judged.

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One thing I would pull from this is woe to those who do sketchy business dealings.

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Woe to those who do not walk out their faith in their work in the way that they do their

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jobs.

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That if commerce and trade, first century business, is going to be judged, what will that business

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look like being judged whenever the Lord comes back in whatever year?

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Very, very interesting.

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In the Old Testament, the sea often represented chaos and evil, and God's control over it

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symbolizes his power to subdue opposing forces.

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God does a very god-like job throughout scripture of subduing the prideful and the arrogance.

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Being low, those who are proud and have big heads.

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Trumpet three.

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The third angel blew his trumpet and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch,

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and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.

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The name of the star is Wormwood.

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A third of the waters became Wormwood, and many people died from the water because it

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had been made bitter.

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Here we see a new character, a new person brought forth.

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The great star Wormwood, say that five times fast, falls from heaven, making a third of

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the rivers and springs bitter.

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Wormwood refers to the bitterness and suffering.

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We see this in Jeremiah 9, Lamentations 3, symbolizing the spiritual and physical contamination

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of the water.

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Water, a normal source of life, we see that throughout the scriptures, that water brings

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life, becomes a source of death under the judgment, emphasizing its loss of divine blessing.

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Hopefully one of the things we're seeing in a rabbit trail that will take two minutes,

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everything that we find our earthly comforts in, Revelation is calling out, is judging,

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and is turning on itself.

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Maybe that's why your pastors have never preached through the entirety of the book of Revelation,

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because even as pastors, we tend to find comfort in earthly things.

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But one of the things that God is doing is he is turning that mentality on himself and

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saying, church, I should be your only true thing.

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I am deserved of all of your worship.

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I am deserved of all of your love, all of your dependence, and your recognition of my

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sovereignty should be what's leading your life.

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Trumpet four.

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The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the

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moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and

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a third of their day might be kept from shining, and likewise, a third of the night.

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A third of the sun, the moon, and the stars, creating partial darkness over the earth.

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Again, judgment resembles the ninth Egyptian plague, Exodus 10, signifying a deepening

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of spiritual blindness and separation from God's light.

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And throughout the scriptures, darkness is often associated with God's judgment and the

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removal of his presence.

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So eternally separated from God, the removal of God's presence, we have another word for

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that.

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Hell.

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Not death.

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Hell.

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Doesn't that take on a little bit of a new meaning?

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That part of the judgment of the world, part of the redemption of the world, is that God

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was going to remove his presence.

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This is consistent with the lampstands that are going to be blown out.

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This is consistent with those churches who thought they were doing the right things in

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and of themselves, are being eternally judged and unfortunately, eternally damned.

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I think this trumpet packs a punch that we don't understand, because darkness, if we're

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going to put the hell definition on it, the eternal separation from God, should be making

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this judgment very real as we like to tiptoe our days in light and in dark.

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We say we love God, but we do things that worship the dark.

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And 1 John wrote us already saying, and we read it before Revelation, in 1 John, you

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can't do that.

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If you have a foot in the dark and a foot in the light, what doesn't know you?

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The light.

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The light doesn't know you.

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To live that hypocritical life.

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And the number of us just tensed to understand that maybe we in this account are being judged.

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These first four trumpets show God's judgment, which impacts both nature and humanity, revealing

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the effects of sin over all creation.

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So what this shouldn't do is all of a sudden, for some of us, we may be going, but I'm not

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as bad as that person, and that, oh, I know I'm not as bad as that person.

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Have you seen what that person posted?

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Friend, stop.

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This is over the entire ball of wax.

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This is the every day of creation sin has affected and is now being judged.

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And this is a call for repentance.

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God limits His judgment to a third, indicating His purpose is not complete destruction, but

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repentance.

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The restraint shown by God demonstrates His patience and desire for people to turn back

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to Him before even more severe judgments are released.

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But here's the thing.

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I just said that and a bunch of you got offended.

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So God's gonna scare me into believing in Him?

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Maybe for some of you, that's how you came to know Jesus.

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I remember very early on going through a hell house, which was a church version of a haunted

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house, absolutely terrible idea.

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I remember going through a room to their depiction of hell.

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Looking back on it, the Chucky doll was in there.

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And I go, I judged that.

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That is the dumbest thing I have ever, not the dumbest, but one of them, that they're

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trying to throw everything at you to scare you.

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You might as well throw Michael Myers in there.

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If you're me, you throw clowns in there.

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You throw all of these things.

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And then you go into a room and there is a preacher wanting you to preach the prayer

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of salvation.

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If that is not the bait and switch of church culture, I don't know what is.

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Because what is happening there, you're being completely scared in your flesh to then receive

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something completely eternal.

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Now don't get me wrong.

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I think a question to ask someone, if you die tomorrow, if you meet someone in a restaurant

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for the first time, you sit down with them and say, if you die tomorrow, you're gonna

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go to heaven or hell.

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They're probably gonna run away.

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They're probably gonna get scared.

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But the urgency of that question is important.

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Having the comfort and peace of salvation, of knowing that you are heaven bound is something

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tangible we all need to wrestle with.

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But for those that are mad that God might be just this bully, I think we're past that.

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I think we're past any point in our relationship with God when we try to understand why God

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moves the way He does.

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When we try to figure out that we're trying to put God in like, okay, what kind of manipulation

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are you gonna do with me?

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Stop.

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That's not a thing.

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God doesn't manipulate.

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This is the sovereign God doing sovereign things just as He said He was going to do.

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God's not doing a mea culpa here.

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God's not saying, oh, by the way, I changed my mind.

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It has been forever, everlasting upon everlasting.

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This is how it's going to go.

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So how do we look at these first four?

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When we experience natural or societal disasters, we should reflect on our own need for repentance

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and to be quick to share the gospel with others, pointing them to God's mercy amidst His judgment.

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We are not called to bring the third of the sun and stars and moon down.

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None of us have that power, but we know who does and we know what He's already done.

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He sent His son to die so you and I could have everlasting life.

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He rose again to conquer death, but this is the end of the story.

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It doesn't get better.

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The fifth trumpet, Revelation 9, 1 through 6, and the fifth angel blew his trumpet and

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I saw a star fall from heaven to earth and he was given a key to the shaft of the bottomless

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pit.

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He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke

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of a great furnace and the sun and the air were darkened with smoke from the shaft.

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And from the smoke came locusts on the earth and they were given power like the power of

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scorpions on the earth.

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They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but

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only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

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They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not kill them.

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Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.

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And in those days, people will seek death and will not find it.

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They will long to die, but death will flee from them.

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What in the Disney version of Hercules is going on with this trumpet?

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How many of you have ever been stung by a scorpion?

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I was hoping there would be at least one.

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I was hoping you got stung by a scorpion, but you can talk about how excruciating that

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might be.

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But I've never been, but I can tell from people that I know have, it hurts.

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But understand, there's something way bigger going on than scorpions, things, and locusts.

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The fifth trumpet introduces a star fallen from heaven, second character in this narrative.

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A second star now is falling from heaven, symbolizing a demonic figure.

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Nine out of 10 scholars agree this is Satan.

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This is the fallen angel.

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This is Lucifer given the key to the abyss, to Hades, to hell.

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When the abyss is open, demonic locusts are released to torment those who do not have

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God's seal.

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Where do you find this?

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We do a little jump back to chapter seven where the 144,000 is sealed.

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We'll get more to that because that gets brought up in about three weeks because we're going

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to do both of those together.

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But God's seal, God's presence have been placed on people.

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This judgment is both physical and spiritual as the locusts cause unbearable pain but cannot

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kill their victims.

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What does this torment reflect?

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Because there's a lot of emphasis, John is putting a lot of emphasis on the pain and

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the torment.

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What does it reflect?

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What did we just talk about?

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Separation from God.

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This is the same torment that spiritual darkness also brings us.

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It reflects the anguish of being separated from God, pointing to deeper spiritual reality

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of suffering without God's presence or and God's protection.

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It is a warning to those who refuse God's seal and continue in rebellion.

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Now here we're going to be starting some dialogues over the next couple of weeks that bring in

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kind of an understanding of premillennial, amillennial, postmillennial, postmillennial,

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sorry, understand that I'm not going to get so lost in that that we're going to not make

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our way out of revelation.

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There is a view that our Reformed church takes.

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We're going to get there when we go but I want to give you all of them because what

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you need to understand is that there is different interpretations that, and this is the gospel

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according to Jim, those people that defined them that way needed it.

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And I believe that there is a way to read Revelation that weaves through all of it to

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get to the biggest question, do you have the seal of God on your life?

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Do you have the seal of God on your life and are you willing to suffer because of that

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seal?

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Are you willing to go through whatever it looks like, whatever it's going to be like

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for you in 2024 or whenever this is going to happen for you, do you understand that

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your suffering is limited?

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That your suffering will come to an end?

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It should give our sickness, it should give the hard roads in life, it should give all

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of this context that if we, just as we sang 20 minutes ago, it is well with our soul no

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matter what comes, the same holds true in the book of Revelation.

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Though the torment reflects the anguish being separated from God, that's for those who never

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bought in.

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That is for those who have never professed that faith.

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Those are the ones who said my rebellious life is better, is sweeter, is more life giving

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than anything God can give.

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But friends, there's a reality coming and it's coming at a square in the face.

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The demonic locusts remind us the judgment of God is not only physical but spiritual.

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They symbolize torment and confusion having lived apart from God's truth.

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Where does this point back to scripture?

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Where can we stand on some comfort here because we need it?

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Jesus often casts out demons and confronts spiritual forces, demonstrating his authority

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over the demonic realm.

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One of the things we have to understand, though it's easy to say, God wins in the end and

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we go, oh thank God, God wins in the end, this is so great.

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But friends, we're not there yet.

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The end is not.

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It might be tomorrow, I don't know, I don't have a calendar, neither do you, we don't

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know the time nor the day.

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But understand, as we work through it, God is still winning.

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God has still won in your life, regardless of what we're going through.

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But that brings about great suffering and guess what, first we get to the application.

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So recognize today the reality of spiritual warfare and arm yourself with God's word and

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with prayer.

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When you see people trapped in spiritual confusion or torment, be quick to share the hope of

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deliverance and freedom that Christ offers because there will be suffering and that's

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trumpet six.

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Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet and I heard a voice of the four horns of the golden

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altar before God saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, release the four angels

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who are bound at the great river Euphrates.

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So the four angels who have been prepared for the hour, the day, the month and the year

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were released to kill a third of mankind.

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What do we do with this?

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Well the six trumpets release, the four angels bound in the great river Euphrates, the unleashing

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a demonic army that does end up killing a third of humanity.

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This judgment intensifies and it involves a massive loss of life.

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In some ways I could say this is God getting people's attention and unfortunately that

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may hold true in your narrative or in the narrative of the world.

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It's not until people lose that ultimate price or end up dying that we actually wake up to

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whatever the reality is going on in our world, going on in our life, going on in who we are.

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But this is God's word and so therefore we have to lean in.

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Despite the severity of this judgment, the text reveals that the survivors did not repent.

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The tragic statement highlights the hardness of the human heart and need for God's not

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only transformative grace but true repentance in their life.

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So when faced with this overwhelming judgment of all the stuff that has gone on prior to

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this, many still refuse to repent.

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This highlights not only the depravity but the stubbornness of our hearts.

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True repentance requires the Holy Spirit's work to soften and lead people to Christ.

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So how do we, what do we do with that?

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How do we know if we are hard hearted or not?

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My guess is some of us are.

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That hard heartedness, one way you know this is going to sting, not as much as the scorpions

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or the locusts.

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One way you know that you have a hard heart is if there's someone in your life you haven't

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forgiven.

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I know.

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I get it.

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That's rough.

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That is rough to hear.

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I don't want to have a hard heart and have all these things.

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I mean, then it's time to forgive.

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But Jim, you don't know I've been hurt by this person.

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This person took my essence, my innit, whatever.

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I understand that you're hurt.

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I may not have ever gone through it.

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I get it.

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But that binding that you have that's keeping forgiveness from that person, whether they

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think they need it or not, that's not how forgiveness works.

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It is for us to give.

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It is for us to place.

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It is for us to offer the forgiveness just as the Lord has forgiven you.

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You must also forgive.

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It is throughout scripture.

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I just can't.

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Well then how do you understand a text when Jesus says, some will call out Christ, Christ,

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God, God, say I never knew you because you didn't forgive.

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Because if we're not forgiving, if we're not a forgiving people, if we're not a forgiving

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church, then in some weird way we are taking the stance up here that is only destined for

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God himself.

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And my friends, you know this, I know this, I am not it.

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You are not it.

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Even when faced with overwhelming judgment and suffering, many still refused to repent.

401
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Where do we see this?

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Pharaoh's hardened heart.

403
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Despite repeated judgment, he refused to let the Israelites go until God's final intervention.

404
00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:32,880
And maybe that's it.

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I'm going to go off script.

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We're going to finish with the number seven in a second.

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Maybe that's it.

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00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:46,360
Maybe just maybe you're waiting for God to give that person theirs.

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00:31:46,360 --> 00:31:51,440
That little pound of flesh you're just going to keep right here in your pocket.

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I will forgive them once the Almighty has smited them.

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00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:02,720
Friend don't play that game.

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Because what that is, is you're waiting for vengeance.

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Who does vengeance belong to?

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Not me, not you, not even the church.

415
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Vengeance is mine, declares the Lord.

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The doctrine of total depravity recognizes that apart from God's grace, no one seeks

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God or turns to him on their own.

418
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The sixth trumpet, the judgment, demonstrates the necessity of God's intervention for genuine

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repentance.

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So where do we go with that?

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Pray for God's grace to soften hearts and open eyes and start with you when sharing

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the gospel, recognize that it is only by God's spirit that people will turn to him.

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Be persistent in evangelism, knowing that God can use even the hardest circumstance

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to bring people to himself.

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How do we know?

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We just went through it and we're not done.

427
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Trumpet seven.

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And the seventh angel blew his trumpet.

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And there were loud voices in heaven saying, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom

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of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever.

431
00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:23,960
And the 24 elders who sat on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped

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God saying, they said something.

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We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was for you have taken your

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great power and begun to reign.

435
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The nations raged, but your wrath came and the time for the dead to be judged and for

436
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the rewarding of your servants, the prophets, the saints and those who fear your name, both

437
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small and great for the destroying the destroyers of the earth.

438
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Then God's temple and heaven was opened and the ark of his covenant was seen within his

439
00:34:00,840 --> 00:34:01,840
temple.

440
00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:08,840
There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, pearls of thunder, an earthquake and heavy

441
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hail.

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The seventh trumpet proclaims the establishment of Christ's kingdom and final triumph over

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evil.

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This trumpet signals the culmination of God's plan and the beginning of his eternal reign.

445
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The response in heaven is worship and the declaration that the kingdom of the world

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has become the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ or of the Lord and of his Christ and he shall

447
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reign forever and ever.

448
00:34:39,860 --> 00:34:45,360
The final trumpet announces the hopes that the believers that the church that you and

449
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I have been waiting for, the coming of Christ's kingdom and the end of all suffering and all

450
00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:53,080
sin.

451
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It calls us to live in the light of God's ultimate victory and to persevere in faith

452
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and hope.

453
00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:07,320
But we're not there yet.

454
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We haven't gone through this yet.

455
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This is what we pray.

456
00:35:13,220 --> 00:35:15,720
Our Father who art in heaven, hallow be thy name.

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Thy kingdom come.

458
00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:22,940
Thy will be done as earth as it is in heaven.

459
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Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive those or we forgive

460
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our debtors.

461
00:35:30,720 --> 00:35:35,160
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and

462
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the power and the glory forever and ever and all God's people said amen.

463
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:41,940
So what do we do with this?

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More on that next week but live with a mindset focused on Christ's return.

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When we are faced with trials remember the promise of his victory, of his reign.

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Remember his hope with those around you who may be struggling or discouraged.