Glorious Way Church
Glorious Way Church equips believers for the work of the ministry and stands for God’s truth in our culture. We serve as a regional center, where people from all backgrounds find refreshing worship and true communion of the saints.
Glorious Way Church
Resurrection Readiness
The biblical pattern is clear: Jesus was "taken up" after His resurrection with the promise that He would return "in like manner." His disciples witnessed this ascension firsthand, and angels confirmed His physical return. Today, we stand at the precipice of this promised event, yet many believers have fallen into a dangerous spiritual slumber.
Let's pick up our Bibles and lift them up and wave them around and make Jesus glad and the devil mad. It's good to see all of you here today. Let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I'm here to celebrate the resurrection and Lord, when he rose, I rose with Him. When he was seated in heavenly places, I was seated with Him, far above all the circumstances of this life. I'll not be intimidated by the devil. I tread him under because Jesus rose up from the dead. In Jesus' name, praise God, you can be seated.
Speaker 1:You know, before we get started, I've got a message I want to preach, but we just got a call from Kevin and Sarah Fuller. Kevin is our new sound man. He's coming on board and they had an accident on the way to church today. Let's lift a hand for them, father, in Jesus name. It's not as bad as it looks. We just declare they're healed, if you heal them over any wounds that they have. They've been taken to the hospital by ambulance, but, lord, it's just. I thank you that they have. They've been taken to the hospital by ambulance, but, lord, it's just, I thank you that they're going to have the finest of care and you're intervening on their behalf In the name of Jesus, they're safe and sound, and Lord, you make them whole. In Jesus' name, and we thank you for it. Right now, in Jesus' name, hallelujah, everybody say God bless Kevin and Sarah. God bless Kevin and Sarah, amen, amen, all right, praise God, let's open our Bibles to Acts, chapter 1.
Speaker 1:Acts, chapter 1. Reading, with the very first verse I'm in the book of Acts and my normal reading and just read this a few days ago. Verse one, the former treatise, have I made, o Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach until the day he was taken up. Everybody shout taken up Until the day he was taken up. After that, he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God and being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the father which saith he you have heard of me, for John, truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together. They asked of him saying Lord, wilt thou, at this time, restore again the kingdom of Israel? And he said unto them it is not for you to know the times of the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power, but you shall receive power after that. The Holy ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and under the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up. Everybody shout taken up. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up. Everybody shout taken up. And a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel you know, white apparel is the King James Version but they were in glorious robes, they were shining brighter than the sun. Amen. When you look up the Greek, which also said you, men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, everybody shout taken up, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven. Praise God.
Speaker 1:And so today I wanted to share a message entitled resurrection readiness, resurrection, readiness. Are you ready for him to come back? He's coming back. Jesus is coming soon. I know we're talking about the resurrection, but there's another resurrection. There's a resurrection of the righteous and Jesus is coming. I think the whole world knows that there's gonna come, a second coming. They like to forget about it, they like to dwell on other things.
Speaker 1:There's many in the church they know these things. They've heard them time to time. We've got Christians that come to church once a year. We've got Christians that come to church when they feel like it. And there's something about Easter that draws people, even when they're not believers, even when they're not actively participating.
Speaker 1:There's something about Easter. I mean we, you know it's. It's all over the world. People know they've got this God vacuum inside of them that knows there is a God that they don't, that that they need, that they want. But you know, their mind blinds them. Their mind is blinded by the God of this age.
Speaker 1:But, um, you know, I, I believe that Jesus is coming soon. I said I believe that Jesus is coming soon. And why do I say that? Well, I believe the signs are all around us. It's every, every day that goes by, a Bible prophecy is being fulfilled, right in front of our eyes, the things that Jeremiah and Isaiah and Ezekiel wrote about many other prophets, the minor prophets, the major prophets. They all prophesied of these days. But the greatest sign of the return of the Lord is Israel, the return of the Jewish people to Israel. And Israel became its own nation.
Speaker 1:In 1948, which happened to be the year after I was born. The United Nations finally had a vote. They finally voted to give them their own nation and, of course, immediately the Arabs attacked them. Five nations attacked Israel on that very night. I just got through watching the old movie Exodus and it's pretty accurate, actually, for Hollywood. They had a pretty accurate portrayal of that time. And Jerusalem has become a cup of trembling and a stone of stumbling. Right now we're seeing the major.
Speaker 1:You know people that are screaming against the Jewish people. You know, after World War II some of that was squelched. You know Eisenhower and some of the leaders in those days. They did a good job of making sure that everybody knew there was a Holocaust. He forced, you know, when Patton sent a message to Eisenhower. Eisenhower came to one of the I forgot the name of it. But they came to one of the concentration camps and then he rounded up all the civilians in a place called Weimar, germany, and made them the piles of dead bodies and the emaciated people that had survived. And so you know, all those years later you know, this has been 80 years ago now and now you know, you've got people that deny the Holocaust oh, it never happened. Oh, no, no, it happened.
Speaker 1:And uh, you know, the church has got to stand up and be a witness. But you know Jesus, they ask him are you going to restore Israel again? See, they kept thinking Israel was going to come back into its own land and its own power. They thought Jesus was going to be the king of, of the new Israel. They'd been. You know, they'd been subjugated to other powers because of their sin, because of their covenant. They had curses of the law that they didn't keep, and so they were reaping the curses in Jesus' day. The Romans had control, and so they asked him are you going to restore? He said, well, it's not up to you to know those things. I mean, that's that's. He didn't say it this way, but it's much later, that's going to come much later, but in the, in the God. You know, dr Luke wrote the book of Acts. Well, he also wrote the gospel of Luke and uh, and I and I, I just liked the way that that that he addressed that.
Speaker 1:Uh, jesus addressed these concerns when he told the Jewish, told the apostles, here in Matthew, chapter 24. Let's turn back there real quick. I preach right out of the Bible. Folks, I want you to see this in writing here. Not my opinion, my opinion's kind of irrelevant, it's what does the Word say?
Speaker 1:What did Jesus say to His disciples about this subject? And they ask Him you know, in Matthew, chapter 24, as they sat upon the Mount of Olives, verse 3, the disciples came to Him privately. Tell us, when shall these things be? When shall be the sign of thy coming? That word coming is perusia, is the glorious appearing. What will be the signs of all the end of the age and of the end of the world, the end of this age? What are going to be the signs? What did he say?
Speaker 1:First, take heed that no man deceive you. We're living through the greatest deception you've ever seen in your life. You cannot watch channel two, channel 13, channel 11, channel 26, filled with lies, day and night. You can't read the Houston Chronicle. Lie after lie. I canceled my subscription, had one for 50 years and I canceled it. You bums, you can't tell the truth. Lie after lie. Listen. We've got to hold on to what the truth of the word of God, we've got to proclaim it. Are you with me now?
Speaker 1:And then he goes on and talks about all of these things that are going to happen. Many shall come in my name, saying I'm'm the Christ, deceive many and so forth. Nation, verse seven nation people group shall rise against people group, kingdom against kingdom. There shall be famines and pestilences, earthquakes in diverse places. But look at verse eight. All these are the beginning of sorrows, but the end is not yet. He said see all that, see that's going to happen. And he had already told them before this what we read in the book of Acts. He'd already told them all this before the crucifixion.
Speaker 1:He said all these are the beginning of sorrows. What sorrows? It's birth pangs. You see, this globe, this world that we live on, is not designed to handle the kind of sin that has invaded it. It is, as it were, a pregnant woman about to give birth to something. It's shaking, it's contractions are. You know when you're, when you're a woman and you're going to give birth, I mean toward the end of the gestation period, the nine month period, I mean you begin to have contractions and then they get stronger and then they get closer together. That's what we're seeing right now. You see, they was the beginning of sorrows was 2000 years ago, but here, after 2000 years, the contractions that are going to bring forth final judgment are coming stronger and closer together. And here we are witnesses, here we know the end from the beginning. We know that Jesus is coming at the culmination of that judgment.
Speaker 1:And let me just say, when we talk about the coming of the Lord, jesus never really talked about the rapture of the church. He talked about the final coming of the Lord. I like to tell people, the coming of the Lord is in two parts His coming with his coming for the church, which is the rapture Anybody ever heard of the rapture? Or the catching away, or the taking up. See, jesus was taken up. Hey, we're going to get taken up. So his coming for the church See, jesus doesn't come all the way down to the earth, he goes up in the clouds and we hear we'll read about that in a little while in 1 Thessalonians. Read about that, what the Bible says about it, and all of us that are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord. We'll follow the dead in Christ. The dead in Christ will be raised first.
Speaker 1:Every graveyard that's got Christians buried in it it's gonna be upended. All my folks are at Forest Park Cemetery on Lawndale. It's going to be a disaster area. It's going to look yeah, I know y'all don't think that way, but I think that way. I've been out to that cemetery and a lot of other cemeteries that was my job at Lakewood do funerals. I did lots of funerals, did lots of weddings, lots of funerals, lots of weddings, lots of funerals. And, uh, you know I'll always thinking about you know this one of these days this place is going to. It's going to. It's going to look like a disaster area. I mean it's. There's going to be casket lids over on one side. There's going to be concrete vaults that are busted open, dirt everywhere, headstones flying oh glory to God. It's going to be messy.
Speaker 1:And then, all of a sudden, you and I, who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, we will be changed in an instant, in a twinkling of an eye. 1 Corinthians, chapter 15 says I'm ready for a new body. How about you Praise God? So Jesus said all these are the beginning of sorrows. Then he goes on down here and he said when you see these things begin to come to pass, then lift up your heads, look up, for your redemption draweth nigh. And then he said you know, learn verse 32,.
Speaker 1:Learn a parable of the fig tree. Learn a parable of the fig tree. What's a parable? It's a comparison. He is comparing a fig tree putting on leaves with his return. Now how in the world? Well, you've got to have revelation. You have to have revelation to make that comparison. And you have to understand that he wasn't talking about a fig tree. He's talking about Israel. Why? Because in Joel 1, 7, the fig tree is Israel. If you look up Joel 1, 7, the fig tree is Israel.
Speaker 1:Every time Jesus talked about a fig tree. Yeah, he cursed the fig tree in Mark 11, 22. He cursed the fig tree and it dried up by the roots, and that was a physical fig tree. But he was cursing Israel because Israel had denied him Amen. And they dried up from the roots and they didn't bear fruit and they didn't. They didn't stand for God's kingdom on the earth. That was their original purpose, that they were supposed to show how blessed a people could be who served God, and they failed at that mission.
Speaker 1:Now, we didn't replace them. I don't believe in replacement theology. There's a lot of churches that believe that. The Catholic church believes that Methodist, a lot of Methodists, a lot of it's out there, folks, you can get error almost anywhere you go but this church does not believe in that lie. We didn't take their place. We owe them a debt.
Speaker 1:We have this Bible because of the Jewish people. Hey, you know, everybody wrote anything in this Bible is Jewish. Are you goofy? What do you mean? We need to love Israel. You know, back when, in 1999, when God told me to wake up the church, I didn't understand. He said the church is asleep in their bed. They don't understand when I speak. They think it's the devil and one of the reasons that they needed to wake up was the ignorance over Israel. A hundred million Christians in America don't understand that God has a covenant, a land covenant with Israel and he has not gone back on that covenant. He is going to be faithful to that covenant. As a matter of fact, if he's not faithful to their covenant. How do we know he's going to be faithful to our covenant? God cannot lie. So you know, part of waking up the church is waking them up to the responsibility of what we should be doing with Israel and how we should be helpers and how we should show them love and we should support them.
Speaker 1:While we joined Christians United for Israel, we were in the foundational joining of that organization, pastor John Hagee, and Cornerstone Church in San Antonio formed that in 2005. And we were there at the first or 2006,. We were there at the first meeting. We went to the first convention, convention in washington dc. We support israel.
Speaker 1:I thought you were talking about, about resurrection readiness. Well, we're doing our part to be ready for jesus coming back. We want to line up with his word and we want to teach you the word of God so that you can line your thinking up with the word and don't buy into this anti-Semitic garbage. So he said behold, or he said learn. A parable of the fig tree While his branches yet tender and put forth leaves. You know that summer is nigh. So likewise, when you see these things, know that it is near, what is near His coming, even at the doors.
Speaker 1:And then in Luke. Let's turn over to Luke. Dr Luke again, chapter 21,. He wrote about it there too. Same time he has a little different perspective. That's why I love to read the gospels, because they're written by different men under the inspiration, and they have different perspectives. They have their witnesses of something. They the things that jesus said stood out differently to one as opposed to the other. So in Luke 21, dr Luke says it this way verse 28,.
Speaker 1:And when these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your head, for your redemption draweth nigh. And he spake to them a parable. And in this way he said it this way. He said the parable. He's still talking about the parable of the fig tree. So what does he say? He said behold the fig tree. Now we know that the fig tree is Israel, because Joel 1.7 says it's Israel. So behold doesn't mean glance their way. It doesn't mean kind of look there and lose your interest in it. Behold means to fix your gaze on it. You better be paying attention to Israel If you want to not miss what he's about to do. Millions of Christians are about to miss. They think they're Christians, they call themselves Christians and I think the reason it's like me.
Speaker 1:At one point in my life I call myself a Christian because I knew I wasn't a Muslim. I was afraid to say I was agnostic. I almost put agnostic down. I was filling out some paperwork for Greater Houston Builders Association and I was filling out the paperwork. We need to join the organization and all and give them $1,000 of our money and I was griping about why do we need them? But anyway, I'm filling this paperwork out. It says religious preference and I got mad. I thought well, what business is it of yours, what religion I am? I was mad and the application laid on my desk for two weeks because I couldn't put it.
Speaker 1:See, at that point in my life I was no longer Catholic. I wasn't going to church Catholic church because I was offended at their teachings most of them. I didn't agree with them. I was raised Catholic. I was an altar boy, president of the Knights of the Altar, the nun's favorite Eight years of Catholic school. But by the time I got to be an adult I just didn't like anything they had to say. I didn't like their political philosophies. I didn't like anything.
Speaker 1:So I quit going and I wondered there for a little while whether I really believed in God or not. And then this thing is on my desk and it's making me say what I believe. So my partner says, hey, when are you going to get this thing? We, we've got to get this in this application. Come on, what are you waiting on? So I went over there and that was the last little thing that I had to do. It says you know religious preference, and you know what I did? I put Christian on.
Speaker 1:It Wasn't too long after that, I got saved. I mean there's something in me that I couldn't deny. There was a God I couldn't deny. I mean I was okay with denying being a Catholic, but I couldn't deny that I believed in God. I said Christian, but I wasn't really a Christian. I wasn't born again. If I'd have died right then I'd have split hell wide open. Why? Because I was not born again. Anyway.
Speaker 1:So he said behold the fig tree and all the trees here in Luke 21. Well what? All the trees? All of the biblical nations, people, groups around Israel. That's what we're living through right now. Iran wants to stomp its big foot in the middle of Israel and annihilate it. You know, in the Middle East they have a saying first comes Saturday, then comes Sunday. The Jews are the Saturday people and America are the Sunday people. Everywhere in the whole world, everyone recognizes we are a Christian nation, period, and we're going to vote like it. We're going to advocate for the right laws for it and the right candidates for it. Amen, everybody, everybody say we're a Christian nation. So he said you know verse 34,.
Speaker 1:He said take heed to yourselves lest at any time in your hearts you be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness. That kind of pretty much describes me. In those days I made my own beer. The stuff I could buy at the store wasn't strong enough to dull my pain. My beer was 14.6% alcohol. I mean, you drink one of my beers and it's equal to well, let's see, the regular beer is six, so it's almost three beers with one beer. If I rank three beers, I'm drunk without all the volume.
Speaker 1:Y'all are looking at me so sanctimonious. I can tell that you're judging me. Right now Many of you are just judging me. Well, that guy died and I got saved. Okay, I'm no longer. That guy went away. I'm different now. Gladys is so excited. You know, sister Sparkle's here, in case you didn't see her, she's here here. In case you didn't see her. She's here.
Speaker 1:He said take heed. He said, he said take heed. Say take heed, take heed to yourselves that at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life, and so that that day come upon you unaware, for as a snare, shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. When the church is raptured, it's going to be a snare to all the unbelievers. They're going to make up a story to explain what happened, what happened to the graveyard. That's why you're seeing all this UFO business, all this baloney. You mean, pastor, you don't believe in it. I don't believe in any life, except that's what's right here. There's no life out there. God didn't create that out there. There's no life out there. There's no aliens out there. So all that's a lie, so that the world will have something to explain our departure. Do I believe in demons? Yeah, there's demons, like there are demon powers, no question about that. Evil angels I know, I believe in those two. I know they're there. But no, it's like an alien, like you know the weird looking, you know the all these sci-fi movies. No, there's nothing. That's not true. It's just a convenient excuse to explain what Jesus. It's going to be a snare on everybody that's on the face of the earth when we're gone. It's going to be a snare to people that have heard this message and didn't do anything about it. Say are you ready or not Because he's coming? Are you ready, ready or not, because he's coming? Are you ready, ready or not? Here I come, watch, ye, therefore, and pray always that you be accounted worthy to escape all these things, that and to stand before the Son of man. So are you ready?
Speaker 1:In 2004, I went to Galveston. We were building, just about ready to move in this building. It was about this time of the year 21 years ago, I went to Galveston. Pray is my custom. I go three or four times a year to just fast and pray and just to see if there's anything God wants to talk to me about that I've missed. I just lie, just like taking, taking myself out of everything and shutting everything down and going and just seeking his face. And sometimes I I have things that he tells me and sometimes it's just a time where I can just worship him and hang out with him.
Speaker 1:But this time he began to speak to me and he said it this way. He said many are satiated I knew it was God, because I don't use that word. Many are satiated with the cares of this world and the pleasures of this world the cares of this world and the pleasures of this world, and much of the care comes from the pursuit of the pleasure. He said. Many just tip their hat to me and go along their merry way. And so he began to speak to me about the apathy and the sleepiness of so many. And he was speaking about the church. Because why was he speaking about? He didn't say the church, well, I know, but he's. That's more, that's more critical. Because the church.
Speaker 1:He told me to wake up the church in 1999, march of 1999, just time of the year, march of 1999. So that's been 26 years ago now. Wake up the church, well, wake up the church to the fact that Jesus is coming soon. Wake up the church to their alliance with Israel. Wake up the church to the fact that there's no such thing as separation of church and state. Wake up the church to start voting and quit sitting in the pubes complaining about the results when you don't even do anything about it. Are you with me now? And we spent a long time doing this and we're beginning to have some results. Praise God, people are waking up.
Speaker 1:He said many, many are satiated, many are indifferent and apathetic. And then, just right on the heels of that, I was standing outside on that slab in the lobby there one day and God spoke to me. He said there's a dearth of the word. And I said dearth, Dearth is, you know, famine. It's a dearth of the word. And I said dearth, dearth is you know famine. It's a kind of a Bible term, kind of nobody uses that word anymore, but it's in the Bible. Agabus prophesied a dearth in the book of Acts and it came to pass that the rule of a certain Caesar. And so he said there's a dearth of the word. I said well, lord, I don't understand. There's more churches now than there ever have been. There are church on every corner. He said your children don't know what you know. Now. He wasn't talking about Jay and Claire, he was talking about the next generation.
Speaker 1:He began to warn me all these years ago, 21 years ago, that there's this great gulf between the generations. Our kids are being indoctrinated rather than being educated, especially when they go off to places like Harvard, yale and Princeton. You can lose your faith. I mean, and we had a young man that was, you know, parents came to the church a long time and he went to Christian school when he was in high school and then he went. He just went to Stephen F Austin down the road. It didn't take but the first semester for him to lose everything he ever had. He came back doubting that there was a God just like that. Grown up in church, taught better, knew the word, he could quote it very. I mean. I mean to me he was kind of amazing for a kid his age 16, 17, 18 years old but he took it. Only took him a few months in Stephen F Austin for in Nacogdoches to lose his faith.
Speaker 1:Your children don't know what you know. So we began right here at Glorious Way Church. God said I want you to start teaching the things you take for granted. You make sure the children's church is teaching. Back then we had teachers that were competing with one another One would buy pizza, you know, when he taught and these were male teachers. We had three male teachers that were competing with one another.
Speaker 1:I met with Children's Church and I laid down the law. I said we're going to have a curriculum. You're going to teach these children the Word of God. You're going to get them filled with the Holy Ghost. You're going to teach on the Bible and we're not going to have this business of who gets pizza and who gets a bicycle and who has all the stuff donuts and all of this stuff. No, we're going to get down to business and make sure our children know something and prepared when they leave this place. Are y'all getting anything out of this today? Are you ready? I want you to know. We've worked day and night to make sure you're ready, but you've got a part to play. I can't do it for you. You know.
Speaker 1:2 Timothy 4, 7,. Paul was writing to his son in the faith and he said I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge notice. What he called Jesus. He didn't call Jesus something else. This is what he called Jesus. He didn't call Jesus something else. He said there's laid up, because I've kept the faith, I've finished my course. There's laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will give me at that day, and not to me only, but to all of them who love his appearing. I mean, it pays to be awake, it pays to serve God with all your heart and soul. Are you ready? It's my question.
Speaker 1:So right, when we're taken up, let's look at 1st Thessalonians. Read about it back when I did lots of funerals. I don't do them very much anymore. I try to rest more, delegate more. I want to live all the way till Jesus comes. Had a chance to go to heaven six years ago. I'm glad I got an extension on my life.
Speaker 1:First Thessalonians, chapter four, verse 13, paul's writing to the church. He says but I would not have you ignorant. Ignorant can be total ignorance, it can be partial ignorance, it can be ignorance. It can be apathetic, be an apathy. A lot of people just don't even want to hear about the rapture.
Speaker 1:They were raised in a Pentecostal church and the rapture of the church was used as a hammer to beat them over the head. You're going to miss the rapture If you cut your hair. If over the head, you're going to miss the rapture If you don't, you know if you, if you cut your hair, if you wear makeup, you're going to miss the rapture. I mean they have all these rules in some of these Pentecostal churches and uh, and and and. So the rapture was used as a hammer. I don't use it as a hammer, but I do want to remind you that we need to be ready. So he said, I wouldn't have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, in other words, the dead in Christ. Asleep doesn't mean asleep, it means dead in Christ. He's where he's talking about. That, you saw, or not, even as others that have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
Speaker 1:I used to read this at every graveside Standing by the casket before they lowered in the ground. I'd read this to the family. I was reading these verses with my cousin Max Greiner, out at Forest Park. I got a lot of relatives at Forest Park aunts, uncles, cousins, mother and dad and been out there all my life, been going out there all my grandmother, both grandmothers, grandfather, both grandmothers, grandfather. And then later on, when I became a minister, I started doing. I never will forget the first time I went out there as a minister for Lakewood to do a funeral. It was really amazing. I couldn't keep my eyes from weeping because I'd been in that chapel all those years, from this tall, and all of a sudden I'm the minister, I'm the one that's going to do the. I mean, it was amazing to me. I just thought golly this.
Speaker 1:But anyway, on that day I was doing his gravesite. He was. I was standing there with my family. I had my uncle Herman, who was a Baptist deacon, helped pray me into the kingdom and I started sharing these verses right here and I started encouraging.
Speaker 1:After I got through and I mean I heard this noise he's, oh, we're having revival up in here. And I went wow, that's Uncle Herman. I can't believe. He said that he was leaning on his cane, sitting on a metal chair under that canopy there. He got excited about hearing about the rapture. Well, he's out there now, but he's ready to get raised. He's not, but his body is.
Speaker 1:For this we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent or precede them that are asleep, for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort or exhort the word comfort there means exhort, it means to challenge one another with these words. Remind each other of these words. Let it be in front of your thinking. Let's not be apathetic, let's not be so consumed with this world and the cares of this world and the pursuit of the pleasures that bring the cares of this world. Let's not get so immersed in this world that we miss what God is doing and he's about to come. Jesus is about to come. Are you ready? Are you ready? Revelation, chapter 19. You know, upon being taken up, we're going to go to heaven and we're going right to what is called the marriage supper of the lamb. We're going to have a celebration in heaven, in revelation 19, verse 6, and I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thundering, saying Alleluia, for the Lord, god omnipotent, reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him, for the marriage of the lamb is come and his wife hath made herself ready. Oh, come on, lift your hand right. Bride of Christ, that's what the church is known as the bride of Christ. Notice, notice, he didn't say he made her ready. The bride or the wife hath made herself ready.
Speaker 1:About this time of the year, 57 years ago, I was at A&M in my spring semester, my junior year, and Gladys and I had a date, marriage date June the 29th. Here it is April, but I'd started. I had a calendar in my room. You know my semester started. I got back to A&M to do the spring term in January. So I had a calendar in my room at Mitchell Hall and she's down in Corpus working. She's got her first job, she's working. I've worked my way through A&M every other semester so we basically had our own money. You know, we weren't dependent on parents. So we had our wedding date established. Gladys went and had her engagement photo done. I had an 8x10 glossy of her engagement photo up on my desk in my room and on the wall was a calendar and I'm X-ing the days off, x-ing the days. Every day that goes by, I'm X-ing those days off. I've got a star on the 29th and I am looking forward to that day and I'm X-ing those days off.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, finally, at the end of the semester I run back down to Refurio, get me a place to stay temporarily, because I bought a 10 by 38 foot mobile home. I had it moved on to our little lot in Portland, texas, where we were going to set up our little love nest. After the honeymoon we're going to come back to our little home in Portland, overlooking New Asus Bay, and that's where we're going to start our married life together. And I had to get all that arranged. And you know she's, you know, getting all our wedding stuff. We paid for our own wedding, the only thing that my parents gave a hundred dollars to the preacher and a hundred dollars to our toward our uh, our honeymoon. But we paid for everything else. Gladys was working, I'm working, we paid for the whole wedding, got Got it all done.
Speaker 1:Oh, my parents did front the rehearsal dinner at Moya's Cafe, where we had enchiladas. At least I did, I don't know whatever. I wasn't paying attention to anybody else but her and me. That was it. It was kind of like us. But anyway, she made herself ready and so when I'm standing in front of that church and Gladys came down and opened the back doors of that church and her brother walked her down that aisle. I thought I was going to faint. I mean, she had made herself ready, holy mackerel, and it was a high mass. It was an hour. I mean we had to wait a whole hour. I thought everybody complained about how long the wedding ceremony was. Are you ready? And I want to read this. I don't know how to describe this.
Speaker 1:It was supernatural utterance that God gave me in August of 1989. I was leaving my house to go walking in the neighborhood getting some exercise. In those days I was trying to get better health and trying to walk, and of course August is hot and humid. I started off by just praying in tongues. I'd pray in tongues the whole time usually and so I got to the end of the block we lived right in the cul-de-sac and I'm walking up the block got to the corner, I had an utterance that came to me that I just knew I had to turn around and go back and write it down. It was coming fast and I didn't want to lose it, and I don't typically do that. That was very unusual for me. So I went back to the house and got pen and paper and sat down at the dining room table and this came out. I didn't edit it, I did. It came out as I wrote it and it's entitled the Cloud, and it was given by the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:I met a cloud today on my way through up, where the air is crisp and the sky so blue. Cumulus clouds were not in my gaze, but the glory of Jesus made me amazed. He held my attention. I could not speak. I felt awe and wonder. Jesus made me amazed. He held my attention. I could not speak. I felt awe and wonder. I fell at his feet.
Speaker 1:When I saw the love in my Jesus face, I knew for certain that I had won my race. Gladness and joy filled my heart full. The cares of the world no longer could pull. I was looking on Jesus, my Lord and my King. No fear, no dread, no sorrows. Death had lost its sting. Then, in wonder, I beheld the cloud that was all around. The mighty cloud of witnesses filled the air with a joyous sound. People from every kindred, every tongue and every nation were singing our God's praises with gladness and elation. Deep within me, laughter rose. I noticed no one crying. I began to laugh and shout praise God. I've started flying.
Speaker 1:Everything happened in the blink of an eye, first on the earth, then in the sky, multitudes flying with me up there, looking like Jesus, without any care. I saw brothers and sisters, neighbors and friends, clouds of witnesses on the wings of the wind. Then I looked closer. Suddenly I felt a keen sense of loss. My heart began to melt. I flew through the cloud. I searched and I searched. Surely you must be in the glorious church Shouting your name.
Speaker 1:I looked high and low, no response given. So I started to go down to earth to find you, to bring you with me. Then Jesus said no, son, listen to me. I went down there already to die on the cross. I laid down my glory. I suffered their loss. The one you are looking so desperately for refused to surrender or to walk through the door of my mercy and grace. They wouldn't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. So we'll have to leave. The earth grew smaller as we started to rise, higher and higher. Tears filled my eyes. I deeply regretted that you were left behind, Still in bondage by the ties that bind.
Speaker 1:Then I awoke from the dream, so real, trembling and crying. I could actually feel the darkness and torment that kept you from joining that mighty cloud of witnesses on resurrection morning. Oh, thank God, I was dreaming. It's not too late. You can still be saved. You don't have to wait. Just surrender to Jesus. He'll cleanse all your sin. He'll make you brand new and teach you to win. Then, on that day, when the trumpet blasts, you'll rise up in glory and you'll be aghast at the beauty of Jesus, our Lord and our King, and the mighty cloud of witnesses will begin to sing. You'll be there in glory, no darkness, no sin, to live with God forever and ever. Amen.