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I ask you to help us all learn something and be attentive to your word tonight. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Now, the name of the sermon is Revelation 5.5 and necessary steps before we get to the end times. And about a month ago when I wrote this sermon, I was planning to preach this sermon and I think it's really apropos considering the coronavirus. And a lot of people are talking about the end times. They're wondering, are we in the beginning of sorrows? My position is we are not and we're going to see kind of some steps that need to happen even before we get to Revelation chapter 6. But notice what it says in Revelation chapter 6. Because if you remember, Revelation chapters 2 and 3 were specifically to the seven churches. And 4 and 5 are kind of overviews. And then you get to Revelation 6 verse 1 where it says, And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And so in Revelation chapter 6 verse 1, that is the opening and the start of Daniel's 70th week and the seven years and everything such as that. But some people kind of have this idea that basically right when you start Daniel's 70th week, all kinds of chaos happens. But quite honestly, what's going to take place is it's going to progressively get worse until we get to that point, okay? And honestly, right now, to say that because we have one virus, we're in the beginning of sorrows, that would be a pretty major letdown for the end times. Because I'm telling you, it's going to be a lot worse than just one virus that's nowhere near as deadly as the Black Plague or the Spanish flu or other epidemics that we've had. Now go to Genesis chapter 6. And so what are some of the things that are going to need to take place before we even get to Daniel's 70th week, before we get to Revelation chapter 6? Well, point number one is this. The world is going to become extremely sinful before Daniel's 70th week takes place, before Revelation 6 takes place. Now we're going to talk about this next week. But when it comes to opening the seals, it's not the Antichrist that's going to open them. We talked about that last week. Who's worthy to open them? Only the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when it comes to opening the seals, it's not the devil's determination, are we going to start the end times? No, that's God's determination. And God's going to determine, and one of the big things that must take place is this world must become so sinful that God says, I've had enough, I'm starting Daniel's 70th week. Point number one, the sin of the world will become large, the world will become extremely sinful. Notice Genesis 6 verse 5. Genesis chapter 6 verse 5. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. The world had become so wicked. All of the earth had become so wicked. Now when it says earth, that's representing all of this earth that's not the water, okay? In the Bible, that's what it's referencing when it says earth. So basically, every part of earth where people are living basically was just wicked. The wickedness of man was great in the earth, and God basically repents of this. He doesn't even want man to live anymore. He wants to start over. Verse 7, and the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made them. Go down to verse number 11. Verse 11, the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. And see, what the Bible says here, what God said to Noah, is I'm going to destroy the earth because of the fact it's become too wicked. That's the reason why he started over with Noah's ark. That's the reason why he killed everybody except Noah's family. Everyone else he destroyed. Why? Because of the wickedness of the world. So before the flood, God determined to start over due to the wickedness of the world. He said, did God change? We'll go to Genesis 19. Genesis chapter 19. Genesis chapter 19. And so before the flood, why did God decide to destroy the world? Because of sin. It said the wickedness of man was great in the earth. The earth was just basically too sinful. Did he change, though, after the flood? God will notice Genesis 19. Genesis chapter 19. So why did God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? Because of sodomy, because of sin, because of wickedness? He decided to start over in Genesis chapter 19 because they were so wicked. So before the flood in Genesis chapter 6, why did he destroy the earth? Because of wickedness, because of sin. Did he change after the flood? He did the exact same thing in Genesis chapter 19. When you think about Moses as they're in the wilderness, he tells Moses, I'll destroy everybody and start over with you. Why? Because he was sick of God's people complaining and being wicked and sinful. They're worshipping a golden calf. So look, this is God's pattern, okay? They're wicked, and he says, I'm going to start over. You say, but wait a minute. That's the God of the Old Testament. We're in the New Testament now. And see, the God of the Old Testament did, you know, Noah's Ark, had the death penalty and all this stuff. But now it's the New Testament. It's love, love, love. Well, let me point you back to an event in history in 79 AD. This is after Jesus already rose again. And this is the destruction of Pompeii. This was a Roman city which was very similar to Sodom and Gomorrah. And quite honestly, this was a very famous city in Rome, but it was completely forgotten for most of human history. You say, why? Because it was basically the Mount Vesuvius exploded on the earth. A volcano exploded in less than 24 hours. It went from being a very extravagant and great city to nothing overnight. You say, well, how do you know they were destroyed because of sin? Well, I would not recommend that you go to Google, to be honest, to look up Pompeii. Because quite honestly, it's pretty much the most perverted thing since Jesus Christ rose again. Basically, you'll see art of, you know, sodomy. Both men and women, you'll see things with animals. And those are their sculptures. Those are their paintings. And look, the remains of Pompeii, all you do is see all this perversion. Bestiality, sodomy. I don't think it's that surprising that God destroyed it with Mount Vesuvius. You say, well, I think that was an accident. I think it was a random coincidence. Look, when it comes to God's judgment being poured forth, it's not an accident. It's not random. It's not random right now. People are dying due to the coronavirus. It's a virus that's killing people. Why does God do that? Because man is sinful. Man's wicked. That's what God did before the flood. That's what he did after the flood, before Jesus came. That's what he did after Jesus rose again. He destroyed it because of wickedness, because of sin. That's why Pompeii was destroyed in AD 79. And look, it happened in less than 24 hours. Look, if you think what's going on right now is pretty rough, then honestly, you haven't really studied a lot of history before. In less than 24 hours, it went from being very powerful to nothing. Look, this is a warning shot we have right now. And I'll tell you what my honest opinion is. We've got a warning shot, and it's kind of up to God's people to determine what are they going to do. What are we going to do? What's the world going to do? And if we respond the wrong way, all it takes is for that virus to mutate a little bit or hold on till during the winter time, and there'll be like five times as many people that die every day. And right now, it's still trending upwards. Yesterday, there was over 7,000 people that died worldwide. There had not been a day that went by where 6,000 died. So it's still trending upwards, and it's really coming down to God's people. What are we going to do? And look, you know, if God's people don't respond correctly, and the world doesn't respond correctly, it's not going to be an accident when this world gets destroyed. Now look, I don't think this is the end times, but I'm just trying to give you some perspective here. This is the way God operates, and the Bible says, I am the Lord, I change not. Man changes, God does not change. Before the flood, after the flood, after the resurrection, he has the same pattern, and he'll destroy when man is really sinful and wicked. Look, I believe this is a warning shot because we've had worse viruses in history. This is why I'm not concerned in the slightest bit that we're during the end times. I expect to see my son get married, and grow up, and be a soul winner, and have a family. I don't think we're anywhere near the end times. I don't think it's honestly going to happen in my life, and I could be wrong, but quite honestly, this is not making me think, oh man, the end is coming. Because look, there's been bigger events in history. The Black Plague killed one third of Europe. This has killed like probably one one-thousandth of Europe, or one ten-thousandth of Europe, okay? Now it's a real virus, people are dying, it's not the flu, but it hasn't killed anywhere near as many people as the Black Plague or the Spanish Flu. So this doesn't make me think we're in the end times, but what it makes me think is, here's a warning shot from God, and what are we going to do? It's not an accident, wow, this year we had a really bad version of the flu for some reason. No, it's called, God decided, you know what, the world is sinful, the world's wicked, and we're going to see how every country responds to it. Because some countries might respond a little bit better than others. And hopefully, in the Philippines, people will respond the right way. Because unfortunately, due to their poor choices and their idolatry, we're going to reap punishments for that. Because we live here. And we could crash economically, and things could be chaos, who knows, martial law, who knows what's going to happen. It's because of the judgment of God, okay? You can't really blame the government because God, at the end of the day, is running things. And if he allows us to be under that, that's God's choice. Now, I'm happy we're still freely able to serve God, and we're not living in North Korea or Communist China. So I don't think we should be gloom and doom because even though things are difficult now, it's really not that bad for us. This isn't the Dark Ages during the Spanish Inquisition for us. We're still able to serve God and go soul winning. You're able to read the Bible every single day. There's parts of the world where they don't have a Bible. There's parts of the world they'd get killed for having a Bible. It's really not that bad right now. But things could get a lot worse. Turn to Matthew 24, Matthew 24. See, that was God's pattern before the flood. That was God's pattern before the resurrection. Does God's pattern after the resurrection? Well, you say, well, how do you know it's gonna be like that in the end times? Well, first off, I am the Lord, I change not. He's not gonna destroy the world unless it's become too sinful and too wicked. And remember, he's the one in Revelation 6 who's basically opening up the seals to let things happen. Yes, it's the anti-Christ who's gonna be persecuting us, but the devil and the anti-Christ don't get to decide when the end time starts. That's God's decision. And God's gonna allow it to happen when things get so incredibly wicked. You say, why? Because God wants to be merciful to the unsaved people out there. He wants to give us a chance to preach the gospel to them. And so he's gonna come back when basically he's had enough and it's just too sinful and it's too wicked. You say, how do you know it's gonna be like that in the end times? Matthew 24, verse 36. Matthew 24, verse 36. This is the famous chapter on the end times. And notice what it says in verse 26. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, know not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. What day are we referring to? We're referring to the day of the Lord where God's people are raptured and God pours out his wrath, okay? Verse 37, but as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Now, when it comes to the days of Noah, there are many applications you could make, many valid applications because it's gonna be just like the days of Noah, basically. There are a lot of different applications. One application is obviously it's gonna come out of nowhere. Just like, you know, Pompeii, where basically people think everything's great, they're eating, drinking, being merry, everything's great, then it's like following us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For them, it's coming out of nowhere. They're not expecting it. During the days of Noah, people weren't expecting it to come. They weren't expecting the world to flood, okay? They didn't know what a flood was at that time. And then all of a sudden, boom, they're drowned. It came out of nowhere for them. There's many applications we can make, but one of the obvious applications is that as the days of Noah, God destroyed the world due to sin and wickedness. And before the end time starts, this world is gonna have to become so incredibly sinful and wicked that God says, I've had enough, okay? Notice what it says in verse 38, verse 38. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Now it talks about the days of Noah here, but another place in the Bible it talks about Lot as an example, like Sodom and Gomorrah. Did the people of Sodom and Gomorrah expect Sodom and Gomorrah to be destroyed like that? No, they didn't. Why were they destroyed? Due to sin and wickedness, and it came out of nowhere, okay? When it came to Pompeii in sort of modern history, first century AD, the same thing from the records we know. They weren't expecting it, and it came out of nowhere because they were a bunch of perverts and sodomites and weirdos, and a bunch of reprobates, and it came like that. Why? This is God's method when the world becomes that sinful. 1 John 5, 1 John chapter 5. You say, Brother Stuckey, but the world is wicked. The world is wicked right now. The world has always been wicked though, my friend, and we're gonna see in 1 John 5 verse 19, at least according to the Bible, going back 2,000 years, the world was wicked 2,000 years ago. The question is how wicked does it have to become, and obviously that's not my choice. That's not your choice. That's God's choice, but my opinion is that we're not at that point yet. I believe things are gonna get far worse before they get better. You have to understand there are plenty of countries in this world. Now, we are by no means... I'm not sure who has told people that this is a godly country because I don't think we're anywhere near the top of what a godly country is. I mean, we have one of the biggest problems with the LGBT of any country in the world. I mean, that's really not an exaggeration. I mean, you see so many guys wearing dresses here. You don't see that in other places. You don't see that in the US, and look, the US has all set all kinds of problems, and there's a reason why the coronavirus is hitting them worse than anyone right now, but let me tell you something. You don't see guys running around wearing dresses, not really even in San Francisco. I mean, we are a wicked country. We're nowhere near the top of being one of the godliest countries, and there's no country that's godly, but what I want you to understand, for God to destroy the world, the world must all in every country be incredibly wicked because Noah's Ark was not a local flood. It destroyed everybody because God looked at every country, and he said, it's all wicked. I can't just destroy 99% of countries. I've gotta destroy the entire world except for Noah's family, okay, and so when God's gonna come back, he's gonna come back when he looks down at every single country and says, man, every country is just so incredibly wicked. I'm just destroying them. I don't think we're at that point, to be honest. 1 John 5 verse 19, and we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. 2,000 years ago, the Bible said the whole world lieth in wickedness. You go back a couple thousand years in Acts chapter one, they asked the Lord, are you gonna restore Israel at this time, the kingdom to Israel, at this time? In the book of Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, especially 2 Thessalonians, God has to tell them the day of Christ is not at hand, and at hand means about to take place, and what that's implying is due to the persecution they were going through, due to the Roman Empire, they believed it was at hand, like it might take place during their lifetime. That was 2,000 years ago, and we have a couple examples of people that said it's gonna happen during our lifetime. So look, I'm a math guy. I'm not gonna live to be 1,000 years old. I figure I live to be 80 years old, and for 2,000 years, people thought it was gonna come during their lifetime. I don't think the odds are it will come during my lifetime. What I see is steps getting us closer because you can't get further away from the end times. You're only going to get closer, and I could be wrong. It could happen during our lifetime, and for all I know, just starting in the next couple months, just chaos will happen, and we'll see lots of wars. We'll see another virus and not just one, and we'll see massive famines, but quite honestly, we're not seeing massive famines in the world right now. I mean, yeah, people are struggling, but people have struggled a lot worse than this in human history. I mean, if you've ever read any books or studied anything with history, we are by no means living in the poorest part of the world or the poorest time in history. There have been plenty of times in history. Look, when my dad grew up, you lived meal by meal for survival. That is how he lived in the United States of America. They didn't have much. They didn't have anything. You worked really hard. When he worked, he'd work 60 hours a week to try to pay for his college and help support his family at home. Look, that's what the life was. Most people didn't have a lot of money. Honestly, the world was seeing an economic boom before this took place. I mean, everything was flourishing in the world, okay? We're not seeing these massive famines and pestilences, so unless that just starts tomorrow, okay, or over the next couple years, look, we're not in the beginning of sorrows, and quite honestly, I think we're a long ways from getting to that point, and although we're looking at a very wicked world and we see that the LGBT has gone from being when we were kids to being something that wasn't a big deal, a major thing, that is a huge progression, but I want you to realize I believe that progression will happen in every country in the world, and it has not happened in every country in the world. Look, there are still countries where it's punishable by the death penalty in those countries. When I was in Guyana, I remember I was there for a mission trip a couple years ago, and I remember I asked the taxi driver about Guyana, and I asked him, you know, do you have a lot of sodomites, you know, homosexuals in your country? And he's like, oh man, you know, we got lots. You know, it's a real problem. And I was there for a couple weeks, and I was thinking like one out of like 500 people are sodomites, and you can't even really tell. It's like his version of a problem was that he never saw any when he was a kid, and like once every month you see a sodomite, okay? Look, some countries are not like this country. I want you to realize that, okay? The United States is responsible for the bloodshed of the world, so I can understand where you live there, and you think, man, they can start all these wars, and that's true, and you know, us, we have a big problem with the LGBT. I'm just telling you, quite honestly, I don't look at the entire world and say the entire world is so incredibly wicked that God has to just start the end times. I personally think we're gonna start getting real persecution for serving God, and where's our persecution for serving God? I think we're gonna have persecution in 20, 30, 40 years. The things we preach, I mean, we freely put it out online. Nothing really stops us. I mean, people criticize, you know, YouTube for shutting sermons down, but quite honestly, we're still able to broadcast this stuff, and quite honestly, I don't think we're gonna be able to when we get towards the end times. I think it's gonna progressively get worse, okay? And so quite honestly, I think we have a lot of time left before we get to the end times, and one of the big things we're gonna have to see is the world's just gonna have to become incredibly wicked, and I personally just don't think we're at that point yet. I could be wrong, but I think it's gonna get a lot worse than it is now. John 10, John 10. I think one thing we can agree on, it's not gonna get better. The world's gonna get worse, okay? I just don't think it's bad enough right now that we're at the end times, and I don't look at the persecution we have, and I think it's a really light affliction. I think before the beginning of sorrows, I don't think just once this magical time comes, then boom, there's all this persecution. No, that takes place at the abomination of desolation when the Antichrist declares himself to be God. Then you must have the mark of the beast. But when Daniel's 70th week starts, nobody's gonna know. Nobody knows. We know what's the Antichrist reveals himself. So I understand people make guesses and things like that, but look, I want you to understand, you know, honestly, we're not going to know until the abomination of desolation. So what I believe is the world will get worse and worse and worse and worse, more sinful, more decrepit, less godly, and eventually it reaches the point where God says, I'm unleashing the seals, and we have three and a half years at the beginning of sorrows. The Antichrist declares himself to be God. And then, you know, we have basically 75 days for basically just an all-out, soul-winning marathon for 75 days, and I can't promise we'll provide the food because I don't know where we're gonna get it, but we're gonna trust in God for that, okay? So one thing we need to see is we need to see the world become incredibly sinful. Another thing we're gonna see is we're gonna see a massive ecumenical movement, which basically means the religions of the world are gonna get together as one, okay? Now I want you to realize, when I talked about the sin of the world, look, I'm not trying to downplay the wickedness of the world right now, because 2,000 years ago it said the whole world lieth in wickedness. It was wicked, and look, our country is wicked. We are by no means one of the godliest countries. We have a lot of problems here. There's a reason why God's allowing judgment upon our country, okay? We are a wicked country, and I understand things are getting really bad. It's very sinful. I'm just saying, quite honestly, I think it's gonna get far worse, and quite honestly, serving God's really not that tough in today's world right now. I think it's going to get bad. During the Spanish Inquisition, pretty much no country could freely preach the gospel. We are able to freely preach the gospel, okay? And nobody's stopping us. No one's stopping us from reading the Bible, but quite honestly, as we get closer to the end times, things are gonna get worse, and worse, and worse. Now, when it comes to the ecumenical movement, absolutely I see the religions getting together, but what I'm saying is I think it's gonna become more, and more, and more, to the point where Daniel's 70th week is starting. There's a phrase in the Catholic church, and I don't know if I'm quoting this correctly, but it's salus extra ecclesiam non est, which means there is no salvation outside of the church. You know, non Catholic church or non church, okay? No salvation outside of the church, okay? This is a phrase that's been around in the Catholic church for a very, very long time, where they said no one can get to heaven unless you're part of our church, okay? Now I'm gonna quote to you a famous church father, actually a few church fathers, and you might not know who these people are, but there's a church father named Saint Irenaeus, okay? He died in AD 202. Now if you remember from our series on the Catholic church, the Catholic church started in the early 4th century AD. Constantine was around 310 AD, give or take a couple years, I don't remember the exact date, but this person died in 202 AD. But during that time period, there was already the push for this universal church and this belief that every saved person is part of the church, okay? There was already that push. So when Constantine came, it was no problem to install a pope, because if you look before the Catholic church started, they will list the popes before the Catholic church, because they were already getting together in these ecumenical things with one person as the head, but what took place was once Constantine came, he made it basically the religion of the country, okay? That was the change. But here's a quote from Saint Irenaeus. He said, referring to the church is the entrance to life. All others are thieves and robbers. On this account, we are bound to avoid them. We here declared of the unbelieving and the blinded of this world that they shall not inherit the world of life which is to come. Resist them in defense of the only true and life-giving faith, which the church has received from the apostles and imparted to her son. So the church has received the one and only true and life-giving faith, okay? So what he's saying basically is, salvation comes from the church. The church determines this. The problem is when you have one man who's the head of the church, he makes the rules of what you have to do to be part of that church and to have salvation. And I wanna go back to the beginning of this quote where he said, the church is the entrance to life. All others are thieves and robbers. Turn to John 10. Because if you're familiar with your New Testament, that's gonna sound familiar to you from John chapter 10. John chapter 10. Because in John 10, what it says in verse seven is this, Then said Jesus unto them again, verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers. But the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. So according to Jesus Christ, he is the door and all others are thieves and robbers. What does that mean? Anyone who claims to be Christ or say we've got salvation or you gotta be baptized, you gotta do good works, you gotta repent of your sins, they're thieves and robbers, people that are preaching that. They're phonies, they're false prophets. And let me tell you something, this church that Saint Irenaeus is talking about is a thief and a robber. Why? Because they're saying they have salvation, not the Lord. He said, all others are thieves and robbers. Look, the quote is the fact that Jesus is the door and all others are thieves and robbers. So anyone who would claim I'm the way to heaven is a thief, a robber, a false prophet, okay? Salvation does not belong to the church. Look, God's the one who determined salvation. And look, anyone who believes on Jesus gets saved. The church doesn't decide who gets saved and who doesn't get saved, okay? Another church father, which you might be familiar with, is a guy by the name of Origen, okay? He's a very famous church father and he died in AD 254. This is why I don't quote church fathers. I don't really care what they believed. You know, all these churches wanna quote a church father from 2,000 years ago. What did this guy believe about the end times? Who cares? What does the Bible say, okay? These guys, most of them are phonies because they're lifted up by the world. They weren't true believers. They weren't saved. He died in 254 AD and he said this, let no man deceive himself. Outside this house, that is outside the church, no one is saved. So he's saying if you're not part of this church, this universal church, you know, you're not saved. Now I understand that when you get saved, you become part of the family of God and we're brothers and sisters in Christ, but what he's speaking of is basically, we determine this ecumenical church of what the rules are and what the beliefs are. We determine how often you take communion and do the Lord's Supper, whether you have to be baptized and if you don't follow our rules and what we determine salvation is, then you're not saved. Look, there's plenty of people that are saved on right near us that we've gotten saved and they're outside the church and they don't come to our church, but they're still saved because they believed on Jesus Christ, okay? Now I do want to take a bit of a rabbit trail to tell you something about Origen. Turn to Matthew 19, Matthew 19. And so Origen's a very famous church father and he's also one of the weirdest people in human history and I'll prove this to you from the Bible. I'll prove this to you from, he's gonna be a perfect example of why you should not read the Bible for not saving, okay? And you'll see why here in a second. Matthew chapter 19, verse 12. Matthew 19, verse 12. For there are some eunuchs which were so born from their mother's womb and there are some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men and there be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. And so in this verse, it says there are some eunuchs which were so born from their mother's womb. Basically, people are born without the ability to have children. Men that are born, males that are born without the ability to have children due to whatever reason. You know, it's not a common thing but it could happen. Okay, eunuch from your mother's womb. And there are some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men. So what does it mean to be made a eunuch of men? Like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, right? That were basically not able to have children. Basically, you know, sometimes, and this is actually very common that they would basically, when they conquer an empire, a lot of times they would castrate some of the men and they would take them as their own and they were basically servants but that is what they do to the enemy army. This is something that's been done throughout human history. There are people that have been made eunuchs of men. Okay, it happens oftentimes in war. Oftentimes they take those people and once they were a eunuch they would use those people to basically be the ones to be bodyguards for the ladies they wanted to protect. Okay, that's something in human history. So there are some that are made eunuchs of men and there be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. See, what does it mean to make yourself a eunuch? What it means is you decide not to get married like Paul the Apostle and just serve God. It's symbolism. I mean, isn't that obvious when it says they made themselves a eunuch? They just decided, you know what, I'm not like other people. I don't have that burden. I'm just gonna be devoted to just 100% for the things of God, okay? That's not most people. Most people should get married, okay? But you know, Origen decided he was gonna be one of those people but he misinterpreted this. He thought literally you make yourself a eunuch. And he had a doctor castrate him and basically he became a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven's sake, okay? This is the church father that everybody likes to quote. I mean, if there's one verse in the Bible you do not wanna misinterpret, this is probably right up there with a verse you don't wanna misinterpret it. But hey, if you're not saved and you're really religious, I mean, it is like Magdarame and Pampanga to a whole nother level. Not just crucifying yourself but even go more hardcore. But look, this is the person that they're gonna quote from, Origen. This is one of the famous church fathers, okay, that everybody likes to quote, okay? And actually turn in your Bible to 1 Kings 18. So those were a couple church fathers before the Catholic church was formed in around 310 AD. But there's another guy named St. Augustine and this is what St. Augustine said in 430 AD. No man can find salvation except in the Catholic church. When he says Catholic church, he means the church that Constantine basically put his stamp of approval on. Outside the Catholic church, one can have everything except salvation. One can have honor, one can have the sacraments, one can sing hallelujah, one can answer amen, one can have faith in the name of the father of the son of the holy ghost and preach it too but never can one find salvation except in the Catholic church. This is what Augustine said who is probably the most famous church father, okay? And he said if you're not part of the Catholic church, even if you have faith in the father, son and holy ghost, okay, your faith's not enough to save you according to him unless you're part of the Catholic church. So this doctrine has been a dogma of the Catholic church for most of their history but the Catholic church has changed their position on this. They no longer teach in priests that there's no salvation outside the Catholic church. For most of human history, this is what they taught. That's what they taught during the Protestant Reformation that if you're not part of this church, then basically you can't be saved. So a lot of people that wanted to leave the Catholic church were afraid to leave. Why? Because they might be damning their souls to hell because they weren't saved themselves and they were afraid if I leave, they might excommunicate me and I have no hope of going to heaven, okay? They're being lied to from their youth so they were afraid actually to leave the Catholic church even though they could see the Catholic church was wrong but they didn't know what the truth was. It's like today, most people in the Philippines know the Catholic church is wrong. Most of them know that but they just don't necessarily know what's right though. They know there's problems. They see the newspaper with all the pedophilia and they're not dumb. They understand something's wrong but they're not sure what church to go to because there's a million churches out there, right? And so the Catholic church used to teach you must be part of our church to go to heaven. Now, that's not... Basically, they were killing anyone who disagreed with them and at that time, it wasn't really this ecumenical movement. It was ecumenical to a certain group of people but if you don't agree, we kill you but it's changed the point with Christianity where they're trying to get ecumenical for everybody except people that go soul winning, pretty much. That's the way it's gonna become. Pope John Paul II, which was the pope before Emperor Palpatine or Pope Benedict. Pope John Paul II, here's a quote from him. "'Since salvation is offered to all, "'it must be made concretely available to all. "'But it is clear that today, as in the past, "'many people do not have an opportunity "'to come to know or accept the gospel revelation "'or to enter the church. "'The social and cultural conditions in which they live "'do not permit this. "'And frequently, they have been brought up "'in other religious traditions. "'For such people, salvation in Christ is accessible "'by virtue of a grace which, "'while having a mysterious relationship to the church, "'does not make them formally part of the church "'but enlightens them in a way which is accommodated "'to their spiritual and material situation.'" Now look, he's very complicated in this quote because he doesn't wanna be very forthcoming of what he's saying. What he's basically saying is this, you don't have to be part of the Catholic church to go to heaven. We have decided since salvation belongs to the church, we're gonna grant it to other people now. If you grew up as a Muslim, it says people of other religious traditions. You grew up in India worshiping a cow and putting a dot on your head, hey, you know what, you can take that. There's this virtue of grace that's imparted to you, okay? You grew up as a Muslim, you grew up with some other religion, and you can still go to heaven because the church is responsible for salvation. The church is responsible for you getting to heaven and what we've determined is to change what we used to believe. Now they will still claim they believe there's no salvation outside the Catholic church, but what they claim now is you don't have to actually be part of the Catholic church, but basically since salvation's to the Catholic church, they've granted different ways to get there. Our current pope, not our current, not my current pope, the current pope, Pope Francis, there was a kid who came to him, who his dad had died, he was like an atheist, and he was really scared and he asked him, the pope, you know, is my dad gonna go to heaven? Is he in heaven? And the pope said, don't worry, son, he asked, he's like, was he a good man? And of course the son said, you know, yeah, he was good. He's like, you know what, by God's grace, I believe he's in heaven. That's what the pope said, that's what Pope Francis said. Look, that's a much different position than killing everyone who disagrees with you 200 years ago. You say, why is that? Because there's this massive ecumenical movement to bring together all of Christianity. And quite honestly, the only people that are gonna be excluded are people that are saved, okay? In the past, the Protestants didn't have the right message of salvation, but they were still excluded. Now though, basically, let's forget about the past and bring everybody together. Kenneth Copeland is, I believe, the richest pastor in America, okay? If not, he's very near the top of the list. And I actually put a clip of him earlier this week where he was basically preaching against the coronavirus, like he was preaching against the coronavirus that it was a devil and he was casting it down. And apparently, since he did that a week and a half ago, the US has no cases of coronavirus. I don't know, I guess that prophecy didn't really work out too well for him. But you know, I've also heard him preach before. He's the richest pastor, I believe, in America, or one of the richest, and he said that the Protestant Reformation was a church demon, okay? That basically, a demon came and split up the one true church, and he was calling all the Catholics and Protestants to come together. And on stage, this Pentecostal preacher had Catholics and Protestants of every flavor. Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians. Look, this is happening all over the world. And the Pope now, Pope Francis, he meets with leading Buddhists and Hindus. I mean, you can see videos of the Pope going to the Wailing Wall and he's doing this thing like everybody else. Why, all these religions around the world are getting together as one. Everybody is included, except people that are actually saved, okay? Everybody is included, except people that are saved. And look, we've seen this ecumenical thing before. Billy Graham was one of the big people to bring in this big ecumenical movement, because he was close friends with Pope John Paul II. He said Pope John Paul II was the greatest man of the 20th century, okay? We saw a big ecumenical movement back then, but it's getting more and more and more as we see the day approaching, as we're getting closer, okay? And so look, I believe it's gonna get more and more and more. I don't believe we're at that point, but this is one thing you're gonna see before Daniel's 70th week, is everything's gonna be prepared. All the wheels are gonna be in motion, because when the Antichrist reveals himself, pretty much everybody's getting on board with that, okay? The religions around the world, they're getting on board. And I don't wanna ruin the future sermons from the Book of Revelation over these next several weeks, but let me tell you something. The religions around the world, most all of them are looking for a coming Messiah, and when you read the description, you're like, that's the Antichrist. Every religion pretty much around the world, they're describing when the Antichrist is actually gonna come, okay? 1 Kings 18, 1 Kings 18, verse 19, 1 Kings 18, verse 19. Now therefore, send and gather to me all Israel onto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal, 450, and the prophets of the groves, 400, which eat at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together onto Mount Carmel. Here's an instance where basically you have Elijah versus all the false prophets, 850 false prophets. Verse 21, and Elijah came unto all the people and said, how long haught ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I, only remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. There's also 400 prophets of the grove. So 850 false prophets, and you have one man against all of them, and you know what? Especially as we get near the end times, I believe this is the kind of percentage you're gonna basically see. You're gonna basically see one true prophet, one true preacher, one true pastor, and a whole lot of false pastors, a whole lot of false prophets. Why? Because the religions of the world are getting together as one. It's not even acceptable anymore to say within Christianity that Jesus is the only way to heaven. Look, it used to be every Methodist would have told you Jesus is the only way to heaven, even if they weren't saved themselves. Every Lutheran would have said Jesus is the only way to heaven. Every Presbyterian would have said Jesus is the only way to heaven. Every Episcopalian, every Baptist. But look, I've heard from some of the pastors that went to Bible college in America how in their classes, a lot of their classmates in a Baptist Bible college said, you know, I don't know, what if you've never heard the name of Jesus? Maybe you get a free pass into heaven. It's like it's a Baptist Bible college. And it's like as we get close to the end times, like everybody's gonna be accepted. Just accept everybody except us. You say why? Look, we're not gonna bow the knee to Baal and say that there's other ways to get to heaven to try to get along with people. And we're not gonna be obnoxious jerks at work. You know, we're not gonna mock our coworkers that have some false religion. But look, we're not gonna bow the knee to Baal. And if they have some big ecumenical conference, we're not attending that. But I want you to realize as we get closer to the end, it's gonna be obvious the people that aren't on board with that agenda. And look, we're the ones that aren't on board with that agenda. We're gonna get more and more and more to this point. So point number one, and turn to Genesis 41. Genesis 41. Point number one, this world is gonna become extremely sinful. And that's the main thing, honestly, because the world gets to the point where God says I've had enough. We're also gonna see this massive ecumenical movement, but we're also gonna see an extremely large dependence on the government around the world from pretty much every country, a dependence on the government. Genesis 41, verse 34. Genesis 41, verse 34. Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plencheous years. And so basically, you know, Joseph has basically, you know, interprets this dream, and he says, what we need to do is take up the fifth part of the land because of the fact a famine is going to come. So you take up the fifth part of the land, and there's seven plencheous, during the seven plencheous years. So basically, you prepare for that situation, okay? Verse 47, Genesis 41, verse 47. Is that the right chapter, Genesis 41? Yes, we're good? Okay, Genesis 41, verse 47. And in the seven plencheous years, the earth brought forth by handfuls, and he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities, the food of the field, which was round about every city, lady up in the same. And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering for it was without number. So they're gathering up the food of the land. Who does this food belong to? It belongs to the people that live in the land. He's gathering up the corn from the people that live there. Okay, so basically he declared, we're gonna take up the fifth part from everybody in Egypt, take up all of the corn to prepare our country for the famine, okay? You say, why would the people allow that? Well, for one, when you have an oppressive government, you can't do anything about that. They're just gonna take over, and if you choose to fight the government, you're probably gonna end up six feet under the ground. That's the way it always has been. That's the way it always will be, okay? That's just what it is. That's why our battle is not a physical battle. We fight a spiritual battle, okay? And also, when you have all the money in the world, you're like, sure, you know, you can take up the fifth part. I wasn't even using it anyway. It's not gonna be as big of a deal to you when you basically have a lot, okay? But they didn't realize a famine's gonna actually come, okay? Notice what it says in verse 54. And the seven years of Dirth began to come, according as Joseph had said. And the Dirth was in all lands, but in all the lands of Egypt there was bread. So basically, there's no food, just as Joseph had prophesied. And when all the land of Egypt was famished, which means there's no food left, they're out of it, you know, basically they're going through a famine, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Now look, of course Pharaoh's gonna say, well, sure, we'll just give you back everything we stole from you, right? And that's not the way a government works, is it? They take and they're never gonna give it back. And look, that's every government around the world, okay? That's just the way it's gonna be. But notice, and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, go unto Joseph what he saith to you do. Verse 56, and the famine was over all the face of the earth, and Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold unto the Egyptians, and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt. Now wait a minute. Who did that food originally belong to? The people. What did the government do? They took their food and they sold it back to them. Now would that be right to sell the food back to them when you took it? Of course not. Look, I've heard people preach before that you never see Joseph committing his sin in the Bible. Well, here's one right here, okay? And look, obviously Joseph was a great character, but there's other mistakes he made, okay? Look, he basically took the food from the people and he sold it back to the people. That food belonged to them. And so he should have just given it back, but he sold it back. And when you go on with that story, they basically sell their selves into slavery of the government, okay? Look, when it comes to the world today, most people in most countries around the world, they're pretty much slaves to their government. We've lost all freedom, and we don't even really know what freedom really means anymore, quite honestly. I mean, we've sold ourselves into slavery, and there's so many examples I know from the US and everything like that. But look, this idea that the US is the freest, I mean, the US really isn't a free country either. There really is no country because we don't really have our freedoms, okay? They used to have that, and what you see here in Egypt is they sold themselves away. Why? They didn't have any food. They needed food to survive. The government stole the food, and the government charged the money to have it back, and then basically they had the people sell themselves into slavery of the government, okay? That's what takes place. When we get towards the end times, if there's anything you've noticed from this situation, we're gonna have pestilences during the end times. We're probably gonna have lockdowns during the end times. Right, I mean, it makes sense given the current situation because it's getting more and more to this point, and the result is everybody in every country around the world, they end up being forced to fully rely on their government for survival, okay? They have no options outside of it. All of us are gonna be forced to do that. And look, it's a cool thought to think, I'll just live off the land. I'll live in some mountain with a shotgun, and I'll be good to go and produce my own food. Yeah, you're gonna end up running out of food, and you're gonna have to rely on the government just like every single other person. And the reason why this makes sense, think about this. You've been at the grocery store the past couple weeks, right? You get to the grocery store, they make sure that you're wearing some sort of mask, right? They make sure you have everything that they require to let you go in. Doesn't that sound kind of similar to make sure that you can't buy or sell unless you have the mark of the beast? Well, wait a minute, do you have that mark? They're gonna make sure you can't just slip into the grocery store during the end times, like, oh, no big deal. They're gonna be checking everything you do in countries around the world. You say, how do you know that? That's what's happening right now. And we're just gonna get more and more to that point. And quite honestly, as there's famines with the pestilences and the wars which often cause famines, what's gonna take place is people won't necessarily have a lot of food to survive on, and they're gonna have to rely on the government. And here's the thing, if you don't go along with the government system, then basically you can't buy or sell, okay? Now that's taking place at the abomination of desolation, but realize the famines start before that. And so it's going to get progressively to that point. Look, if the antichrist just came right now and said, I'm God, people wouldn't get on board with it. It's gonna have to be something where they're gonna be willing to get on board with it, and the only way that takes place is if things get to that point. And quite honestly, I believe these progressions need to take place before those three and a half years, and then during those three and a half years, there's gonna be massive wars, famines, pestilences, and then people are willing to support the antichrist when he comes, because he's gonna declare peace and prosperity, and people love that message. He's gonna have lying wonders, but it has to get to the point where that's gonna be believable. I don't believe at this point that we're at that time right now. I believe it's gonna be more and more, and countries around the world are gonna lose more and more and more freedoms, and it's gonna get to the point where basically you can't buy or sell unless you've got the mark of the beast, okay? Look, when I used to read books, I read some science fiction books, and you hear of 1984, A Brave New World, some of these books, and Fahrenheit, oh, I can't remember what, Fahrenheit 411 or something like that, and basically they're these science fiction books about a future world, basically where you have no rights, and everything you do is tracked by the government, and they seem just kind of like a cool story 40 years ago, but it doesn't seem so crazy now. Now, there have been countries around the world that have been like this in the past. You know, you went to communist Russia, and basically during the gulags, there's a lot of this sort of stuff going on and things such as that, but it's gonna get to the point where basically around the world it's gonna be like that, where brother will sell out brother to basically the antichrist and things like that, but that doesn't just start. It must progressively get to that point. What you're gonna see is you're gonna see the world's gonna become incredibly sinful. You're gonna see a massive ecumenical movement, and people are gonna be fully relying on their government for their survival, so here's the thing. Once the government puts in more infractions, people won't even complain, because they're used to it, because in this story with Joseph, they don't complain. They thank the government. Why? Because they're used to it, so basically the world's gonna get you used to the fact, well, you just rely on the government. You have this communist sort of idea, and basically people are gonna grow up, and it's basically just gonna become normal to them. Right now, I don't really think it's normal to people, so I think it would be a big shock to the system that people are not ready for, so we're gonna progressively get to that point. Let me go to you a few things in human history, and this is gonna tie into the fact where there's gonna be a one-world currency people are gonna get on board with and things such as that. Let me read you a few things from history in the US. Going back to the Civil War, which was in the 1860s, you had the Union versus the Confederates, and the Confederates were pro-slavery, and the unions were sort of pro-slavery, but sort of against it. That's a whole nother topic or whatever, but anyways, during that time period, you had two competing sides, and you have the military industrial complex where basically you'll have these big bankers will fund both sides of the war, and they're gonna win out no matter who wins the battle, so basically you have the Union versus the Confederates, and what happened during this time period is the Confederates basically had paper money, okay? So here's the thing. That paper money, it has value if your side wins the war. Let me read this to you real quick, and I'll give you an example. Less than 100 years later in 1861, two competing currencies were used to finance the opposing sides of the Civil War. It'd be like if in this country you could pay with dollars or pesos everywhere you go. Two competing currencies. This is what the rich and powerful do. They finance both sides of the war. It's the military industrial complex. Their values fluctuated with the fortunes of the war, yet it wasn't until the National Banks Act after the Civil War that the US government introduced a monetary system where banks could issue paper notes based on their holding of government bonds. These disparate currencies were taxed out of existence in the following decades and replaced with national bank notes, giving the US its first uniform paper currency, okay? Right here it's talking about having a paper currency. We pay in a paper currency. Now I forgot to bring up money here. I was gonna bring up 500 pesos and 20 pesos to kind of give you an example, but I want you to understand something that let's say for example you have 500 pesos and 20 pesos. Okay, now this has more value than this, right? 500 pesos versus 20 pesos. But why does it have more value than 20 pesos? Is it the yellow color on the paper? Like yellow's more valuable than orange? No, it's because the government decided 500 pesos is more valuable than 20 pesos, right? There's no inherent intrinsic value to paper. You can buy 500 sheets of paper for a printer and it costs you 200 pesos, right? It costs you nothing. There's no real value in a 500 peso bill except that the government determined it has value, okay? This is why in the world they wanted to get you on a paper system, okay? People didn't used to pay that way. Do you see them paying that way in the Bible times? No you don't. We're used to this today. Now look, in the Philippines you pay with cash but you could ask brother Jerry too, you don't pay with paper in America, you pay with a credit card. Say what? Well every country's gonna get to that point as well. And people are gonna grow up and it's gonna feel normal. Look, I didn't carry cash with me in America. You say what, I have a credit card. You just pay with a card. That's the way it works. And look, it's nice, it's simple, it's easy and it's accepted by everyone so guess what? Nobody really pays with cash. That's what you're used to. I grew up and basically it changed from when I was a kid and in college it was just the easy thing to do. You just give them a credit card, a debit card, you pay for whatever and it's all in basically in the cloud out there in the internet world or whatever and you're just doing this and you know what? It's nice and easy, okay? It shifted from the paper money and look, in this country that's probably what's gonna happen in 20 years. People will not carry pesos with them in 20 years because it's trying to get you progressively to that point. Okay, now let me read you something else here. During the Great Depression in America and I mentioned this on the drive over with brother Jerry and brother Prince. In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt, FDR, was elected President of the United States by promising to end the Great Depression which had driven the national unemployment rate up to 25% and gutted the economy. One out of four people could not find a job in 1933. There was a real famine in 1933 in America. That's why I said we don't really have much of a famine right now, okay? There's a real famine less than 90 years ago in the U.S. in 1933. Now a lot of people think the government intentionally caused that and that's very possible but that's a conspiracy there. It's outside of the scope of this sermon. During his presidential campaign, FDR promised to lower government spending and taxes and balance the budget. Once in office, he did the exact opposite. Wow, a politician who lied. What a shock. FDR's government spent more in an effort to create jobs and increase consumer demand. He raised taxes to fund the hike in spending as well key government services. All of this was meant to stimulate the economy while assisting struggling American households in order to bring the nation out of the depths of the economic depression that had begun with the 1929 stock market crash. FDR quickly realized, however, that he could not print enough money to pay for a spending program even by increasing taxes. The Federal Reserve Act of 1914 and the Federal Reserve was basically the bank, this one world bank in the US that everyone goes off. Almost every country in the world now has a central bank and that is tying together with having one universal currency. There's a reason why because you go back 15 years and there was like a dozen countries that didn't have a centralized bank and it's just kind of amazing. All the countries the US goes to war with are the countries without a centralized bank. Why? Because it's setting up for the end times. Get everybody under one system. Every country the US goes to war with. Guess what? Iran doesn't have a centralized bank. They're one of the last three. I wonder why the US wants to go to war with Iran. Because of the fact they're part of the devil's program to get everybody together on board for this one system and they all control the money source. And paper money only has value if they say it does. Using your credit card, it really only has value if they say it has value. During the Great Depression, notice what it says, in the Federal Reserve Act, that was when they had the centralized bank of 1914 limited the amount of money that could be printed by the government. All Federal Reserve Notes paper money had to be backed by 40% gold owned by the federal government. In other words, for every dollar printed, the government needed 40 cents of gold in the bank. See, when you go to a bank, they don't really have any real intrinsic value backing up their money. If a bank crashed, you'd just be out of all your money and you couldn't do anything about it. It used to be the banks had to have gold to back up that money. So in case there was a crash, they could actually give you your money because they had something with real intrinsic value. All they have is paper back there in the bank. That's all they have. They don't have gold back there in case they run out of money. All they have is value that's sort of kind of out there as long as this centralized money system determines it has value. And when the economy crashes, that money could just be gone overnight and you lose it all. Look, if you had a million pesos in a bank, it could be gone in a couple days. And during the end times, guess what's gonna happen? The economy's gonna crash and everybody's gonna lose their money. This has happened in human history in countries all over the world because they rely and trust on a bank that's giving them fake money, paper money that has no real intrinsic value. And when the bank crashes, you lose all your money. They can't pay you because they don't have it backed with anything. It used to be in the Bible, you paid with animals, salt, things that had real value because not everybody had them. But the governments around the world have gotten us, and I grew up with this, paper money. It doesn't have any value. They did that to prepare you for the end times and that's gonna shift to the credit cards where basically you don't even think about it. It's all under this one system. And look, what I'm saying is this. When it comes to paper money, none of us even think about that because we grew up with it. I grew up with paying with paper money until it switched to the credit card, okay? And look, what's gonna happen to the end times is we're gonna get so used to something, we don't even think about the fact that we're getting so close to the end times. Now, we're getting steps closer to the end times. I'm seeing steps right now with the coronavirus that I feel like we're getting closer to the end times. I just don't think we're at that point yet. Now, let me read this last thing from the Great Depression. All Americans were required to turn in their gold on or before May 1st, 1933 to the Federal Reserve in return for $20.67 of paper money per troy ounce. It was illegal to have gold in America in 1933. Americans who did not turn in their gold were subject to arrest on criminal charges and face up to 10 years in federal prison. So why did America do that? Now, you're able to have gold now. I mean, that's changed since then. But the reason why they did that, they didn't want a single person in the country to have any sort of value on their own outside of maybe their house that they had. They wanted to force people to be fully dependent on the government. And guess what? It worked because everybody in the US is counting on cash that has no real value. Look, a thousand peso bill, it's just a piece of paper. It only has value because the government says it has value. And this is happening all over the world. And you see, you know, when economies crash, what takes place is people lose all their money. That's why we don't put our trust in money because it can be gone overnight. It's happened throughout history. And look, quite honestly, if you got money in the bank, who knows what's gonna happen these next couple of months? You might lose some of your money. I might lose some of my money. We really don't know what's gonna happen, okay? Because of the fact we're trusting in something that honestly isn't very safe. And when it gets towards the end, everybody's gonna lose their money and then there's gonna be an Antichrist that promises he's gonna fix everything. And guess what people have done throughout human history? They just get on board with it. And that's what's gonna take place. We're gonna get to that point. And look, I didn't go too much into that because quite honestly, I'm not an expert in economics. I've watched videos and things like that about the Federal Reserve and things like that. It's an interesting study. But that's going to take place to get us prepared for the end times. And look, I believe probably we're gonna see pretty much all the countries make that shift from the paper money to using the cards. And it's gonna be a slow transition to the exact system the devil wants. And so basically, you have to realize, if you told people to take the mark of the beast right now, they'd think you're crazy. They'd be like, I know what that means. But what's gonna take place is the world's gonna get to the point where people think it's normal because they're gonna be in a system that's very similar to it. We're getting closer to that point. We're not at that point yet, okay? I don't believe this is the beginning of sorrows. Quite honestly, if it's the beginning of sorrows, it's gonna have to get really bad really quickly because we have multiple pestilences. We have famines. We have earthquakes in diverse places. We have wars. I don't know of a whole lot of wars that are going on, quite honestly, right now. There's really not a whole lot. And so we'd have to have quite a bit of chaos in the next couple years, and maybe I'll be proven wrong. Maybe just out of nowhere, it's just gonna get worse and worse and worse over these next couple years, and this virus will just stay forever. I don't personally think we're at that point. And the reason why I'm preaching this sermon, for one, it was already lined up to preach anyway. But two, I want you to realize, you know what? Don't just have this attitude, man, I'm only gonna be here for a couple more years. Don't prepare for my future. Don't worry about work. I'm just gonna go soul winning, whatever. Look, I'd prepare for your future. You know, people that are newly married, you know, you're gonna have families. You know, I'd plan to raise those kids for decades because people have for 2,000 years, for 2,000 years have thought the end is coming during my lifetime, or it's right around the corner, and it's never happened. We are getting closer and closer and closer, but think about the events throughout history. Think about when the Roman Empire in the first century AD and second century AD was slaughtering anybody who was a Christian. I'm sure at that time they thought the end is upon us. During, I mean, during the inquisitions where the Catholic Church is murdering someone who gets baptized, I'm sure they thought the end was upon us. We don't really live in that time right now, okay? It's gonna get to that point. I'm sure during the Black Plague, when one third of Europe died, one third, okay? I'm sure they thought that. During the Spanish Flu, what I saw in a documentary I saw was that someone would be in the prime of their life, 25 years old, they'd get the Spanish Flu from someone, 12 hours later they were dead. That's not the coronavirus. It's, I mean, it's a real pestilence. Make no mistake about it, it's not the flu, but it's also not the Black Plague, unless God allows it to get worse because we don't respond correctly. Quite honestly, we've seen a lot of things that are worse, and I think the reason why so many people are scared, for one, people live in fear, but for two, quite honestly, most of us have never really suffered real hardships in our life. And you might feel like, oh man, I live in a poor country. Quite honestly, we have it pretty good. Even growing up, I understand, I grew up in the US, but growing up in the Philippines, quite honestly, you had a pretty good comparator lots of times in human history, lots of parts of the world. We just haven't really experienced much trauma or persecution before. So just one virus that hasn't even killed 100,000 people yet, we're like, this is the end. We're not gonna make it. I can't go on anymore, I can't live my life. As God's people, God will provide for us. That's what the Bible teaches. We have no reason to be in fear, and look, we don't know what's gonna happen. The lockdown, we hope, is gonna be over at the end of this month. We'll pray about that after we do our final song and things such as that. We're not sure, but quite honestly, as God's people, we shouldn't act fearful, and especially at this moment, because your friends and coworkers and acquaintances are scared to death right now, almost all of them. And when you act confident and say, you know what, this isn't that big of a deal, it's gonna be fine, it actually might make them think, well, maybe there's something about that Christianity thing. Maybe I will check out that crazy church I've heard about, because they seem to be in a good mood, even though the world's falling apart, because quite honestly, the world's not falling apart right now. It really isn't that bad yet. It's been a lot worse throughout human history. I think it's gonna get a lot worse. We're not at the beginning of SARS. I'd be shocked if in the next three and a half years, there were so many wars and another pestilence and so many famines, a lot would have to happen in three and a half years. I believe it's just sometimes in life, these sorts of moments happen. There's downtimes, there's gonna be financial strains, but it's gonna be over. We're gonna be serving God a month from now, two months from now, things are gonna be back to normal or a new normal. We are getting closer to the end times. It might be different, but I believe we have a lot of time left to serve God. Let's close in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and just getting to see your scripture on Revelation 5.5, just kind of the steps of things that need to take place before we get to the end times. And I could be wrong, this is my opinion, but from what I see, I don't believe we're at the end times yet, but whether we are or not, God, help us to keep courage during this time and ask you to provide for everyone in our church, provide financially, help us to be physically strong, help nobody at our church to get the coronavirus and no one that we care about and love God, help them to be okay. And help us use this time though to reach out to people to preach the gospel and maybe people that have never been receptive before, never interested, now might be the perfect time. God, we ask you to continue to bless our church. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.