Preparing For Jesus' Return | Pastor John Greiner

In this powerful Easter message, we explore the resurrection not as an ending, but as the beginning of God’s kingdom and the mission He gave His disciples. From Acts 1, we reflect on Jesus’ 40 days with His followers, His commandments, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the source of supernatural power for living out the Great Commission. Drawing on 2 Peter 3, we consider the urgency of preparing for His return, living holy lives, and actively participating in God’s plan to bring souls to repentance. This episode challenges listeners to embrace the resurrection’s transformative power, receive the Holy Spirit, and step boldly into the work of hastening Jesus’ return, living as witnesses in a world full of scoffers and deception.

Transcript

Resurrection Celebration And Confession

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Down and pick up our Bibles and wave them around. Our custom around here, we like to wave our Bibles around and make Jesus glad and the devil mad. And let's say this together. Say, Heavenly Father, I celebrate the empty tomb. I celebrate the resurrection of my Lord and Savior. The word of God is about to be broken. I'm going to eat of the bread. I'm going to drink of the wine. I'm going to get full of what his word says about this wonderful day. And I'll live in the light of it. In Jesus' name. Amen. Praise God. Let's turn in our Bibles. We've got a couple of places. First, Acts chapter 1. And while you're finding that, find 2 Peter chapter 3. We'll start with Acts chapter 1. First. And this was written by Saint Luke. He wrote the book of Acts and also the Gospel of Luke. It says here in verse 1, the former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach. You see, the resurrection was the beginning, not the end. It was the beginning of everything. Until the day in which 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, and the amplified says, and convincing evidences. Being seen of them 40 days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And being assembled together with them, and my mortgage says, eating together with them. The risen Savior is eating a meal. Kind of reminds you of the Last Supper. You know, the Last Supper wasn't the Last Supper. Here it is, right here. He's eating with them again. And he said, commanded them. Everybody say, commanded. See, he commands twice here in a couple of verses. He's talking about the commands. You think about, uh, he's about to be lifted away. This is his last visit. It's pretty important what he says. Same in John chapter 12, 13, 14, he talks about the Holy Ghost. Here he's starting to talk about the Holy Ghost. He 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 from now. Verse 8. But you shall receive power. Dunamis. The word dunamis is Greek, like we get our word dynamite from. It's supernatural power. It's not authority. Other word, exusia, is authority. You know, authority is one thing, supernatural power is another. Without supernatural power, your authority doesn't really work that well. Try an unarmed cop. You know, a cop has got authority, but with no service weapon, he doesn't have much to do. I mean, there's not much he can do. All these people wanting to have a counselor come out to the crime scene. No, we need people with power. So he he said, you don't leave Jerusalem and try to preach the gospel to every creature without this baptism of the Holy Ghost. He's going to baptize you in the Holy Ghost. He's going to come upon you and you shall be witnesses. And one version says, witnesses with supernatural evidence unto me, both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up. And a cloud received him out of their sight. How many of you know it wasn't cumulus clouds? No, I believe the cloud of saints came down out of heaven. I believe Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Daniel, David, I mean all of them, I believe they came to escort the king to his throne. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, say you just think about it. Put yourself on the scene. How amazing it had to be. He's eating with them. Then he commanded them. And the next thing you know, he's lifting off. Did you see Artemis II lift off the other day? This was a lot more glorious than that. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven. Amen. Alright, and then let's look at 2 Peter chapter 3. You know, the twelve, the eleven, I should say, 12, we lost Judas. Judas is dead, so there's 11 that were there to witness that. One of them was Peter, and Peter's writing 2 Peter, and he's writing here in verse 3, he's given a prophecy of the end times. Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers. Scoffers. People that are not believing that Jesus is coming back. In fact, they don't much believe he rose from the dead. They really kind of just nothing burgers. They might call themselves a Christian because they're really not a Muslim or they're really not a Hindu. There's a lot of people like that in America. They kind of loosely believe they're Christian, but they don't hold to the principles that are right here. They're scoffers. There's going to become scoffers in the last days. Saying, and they're walking after their own lusts. They're not walking with Jesus, they're walking with their own desires. They're doing their own thing. They've got their own business to be busy about, and it's far from the kingdom of God. Catch this now. Catch it. I want you to catch it. And saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. And then in verse 8, he says, But beloved, now he switches, he's talking about the scoffers, now he's going to talk about and what we ought to be doing, what we ought to be thinking about. But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing that one day with the Lord is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. He's not indifferent concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long suffering toward us. Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved. What thing? Well, just look around you. Look below you. I mean, this church won't be here. At some point in time, this church will be gone, burned up. This earth will be completely redone. I mean, all that's gonna be left is Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Ghost and His kingdom. He said, you know, seeing this as all temporary, they're all gonna be dissolved. What manner of persons, what possible sort of people should we be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking unto for and hasting or speeding up the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Question mark. What sort, what possible sort of people should we be? And so today, my Easter message is a little different. I'm preaching on this subject, preparing for Jesus' return. You know, I preached on the resurrection many times, and I talk about the resurrection and the and the glory of it, but today I wanted us to get beyond that day to a little bit later and and and and get the warning that is in the Bible for those of us. Man, we just think about what you believe that's in the Bible. Most people don't believe that. They don't believe, they don't, it's too fantastic, it's too, it's too crazy for them to put their hand on it. They can't conceive it. They're so rooted and grounded in the in the in the now. And besides that, we have a whole generation of people that are educated online. Their knowledge comes from social media, which is about 90% lies. And it's a deception, and you have friends. Well, you don't have friends. There's no friends on Facebook. You're not your friend. I mean, are you kidding? I mean, they wouldn't, they were not gonna die for you. You got one friend, he died for you. And you might have a friend here, or there might be somebody here that would die for you. I'd die for you. I would. I know I've given my life for you already, what part I have. But there's not a lot of those running around. And so this text, let's look at Acts, you know, with this text picks up 40 days after the resurrection. Jesus spent 40 days and he had to prove himself alive to his own disciples. I mean, they just couldn't get it. I mean, they knew he was gonna, Jesus told him there, I'm gonna die and rise again. He told them ahead of time, but they just thought, oh, I they saw him raise Lazarus from the dead, they thought, saw him raise a little girl from the dead. They knew he raised the dead, they knew he did these things, but somehow, someway they became detached from it. And Jesus had to spend time proving himself alive with many infallible proofs and convincing evidences. Well, you know what? If he had to convince the eleven, how much more do we need to be convinced? And how much more do the people that are out here outside of us need to be convinced? The church needs to be the living testament that Jesus is alive. And so he spoke to them concerning the kingdom of God because they thought uh he's gonna come back and he's gonna be the king of Israel and they're gonna rebuild this earth. No, no, I'm and and he didn't even bother with that. He didn't bother with that statement. That's why I skipped over those verses because I cut to the chase. He said he commanded them, he commanded them to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He already commanded that. He that is uh believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be condemned. But don't do that. Don't try to obey that command, it's called the Great Commission. Don't try to obey the Great Commission without being baptized in the Holy Ghost. Because then you're relegated to nothing but an argument. You're relegated to nothing but words. You're gonna argue with people about what the truth is, and you have no evidence, no supernatural evidence. That's what the baptism of the Holy Ghost does. It brings the power, the dunamis power into a believer so that when they stand up and testify that Jesus is alive, or they testify that Jesus saved them and they give their testimony. Last week I gave my testimony. If you weren't here, be sure and get the media. Think it'll bless you to hear how God dealt with me. I'm like a brand plucked out of the fire. I mean, I was on fire going to hell. He plucked me out for such a time as this. Amen. And so he commanded them to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost in evidence of speaking other tongues. He basically said, Don't leave home without him. Don't leave home without him. And uh, and he and then, you know, so then after all of that, he's lifted up, raised up from their presence. And uh they were just amazed. I mean, you know, they're just now getting used to the fact he's risen from the dead and now he's leaving. And they're just, man, they don't know what they're gobsmacked. You know, like, what? What is this? And uh the angel said, Wait, what are you doing? What are you looking looking up for? He's coming back just like he's leaving. So if you keep reading, we didn't read it, but they they left right then to go find the upper room, and they they went and found the upper room and they prayed to have a prayer meeting for 10 days until the Holy Ghost fell and filled them all. 120, not just the 11, but another 109 people. Mary was included in that group, different ones. But I read in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, where the apostle Paul said that Jesus, after his resurrection, appeared to over 500 people at one time. He had a big meeting and 500 people were there. And yet only 120, 24 percent showed up to the upper room to get on down the road with Jesus, to go ahead and continue with the kingdom of God, to go ahead and and and start, start to do these things that you've been told and commanded to do. Well, if that was the case back then, guess what? We've got a pretty pretty good work ahead of us. We're gonna have to make sure that there are some things that we do to prepare for the coming of the Lord. And I'm gonna talk about those today because they're so important. We can have a nice little Easter service and we can we can have all these things about Jesus out of the tomb, but if we don't do something right now, then we're hindering his return. Which, you know, so everybody says scoffers. So uh in the early church, the disciples just thought that he was coming back at any minute. They didn't have any revelation about the timing, even though he told them in Matthew 24 and in Luke signs of his return. He gave it to them in detail, but they weren't able to really know exactly. So they just thought he could come at any time. Come. So they lived like it. Well, that's a good way to live. It's good to live like he might come any moment. But uh Peter said he's not slack, he's not tarrying, he's not, you know. We say if the Lord tarries, I I've said it myself many times. Well, if the Lord tarries, I, you know, I might I might have to go the way of death, but I'm believing to be here when he comes. But if the Lord tarries, you know what? The Lord is not tarrying. We're tarrying, we're not doing what he said to do, and it's hindering him from coming back. Why? Because he's not willing that any should perish. He only wants he wants all to come to repentance. That's why he hadn't come. We haven't really hastened his return. I mean, we're getting over into Peter now. But one day with the Lord is a thousand years. A thousand years is one day. So, you know, I was coming across Hosea chapter six, verse two. I'll read it to you. It says, and this is the uh prophetic word. It says, After two days will he revive us, in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. And then shall we know if he follow on to know the Lord, his going forth is prepared as the morning, and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and the former rain unto the earth. So he said, After two days he will revive us. One day with the Lord is a thousand years, thousand years and one day. So after two thousand years, so we did what happened? Well, we're we're in the third day, aren't we? We're in the third day, the year 2000. You know, now there's the revival, and I believe ever since then there's been uh the beginnings of a great end time revival. It hadn't quite hit in its fullness yet, but it's coming as the former and the latter reign. He will raise us up. Glory to God. And uh in James chapter 5, just uh a few pages over to the left here. Uh James is the Lord's brother. He knew a few things about the end days. And he said in chapter 5, verse 7, be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. See, these scoffers are not patient. They miss the fact that God's timetable is different than man's. And they conclude wrongly that he's tarrying or he's waiting or he's indifferent. We're known as the bride of Christ. He's the bridegroom. I've never known a bridegroom and a bride that were indifferent to their wedding day. I mean, if they were indifferent to their wedding day, they probably ought not get not getting married. But no, he is eager to come for his bride. But he's not because the bride's not quite ready, hadn't done the job, we haven't got enough people in to the church for him to have a harvest. Be patient, therefore, verse 7, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman, the gardener. See, he's farming souls. He his life was the first, he was the first seed in the ground, and he came out. He's the firstborn among the brethren. He's the firstborn, but not the last. There's going to be many more resurrections. We just sang that song this morning. Many, many more resurrections. I'm a resurrected person. I was dead, now I'm alive. I was in darkness, now I'm in light. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it until he received the early and the latter rain. Here's that phrase again. He picked it up from Micah. It's it's harvest rain. It's what, you know, Israel was an agricultural country. They had, they depended on God to send the rain for planting, and it's a lighter rain, a couple of inches. But then when harvest comes, when the crop starts growing, it requires a lot more moisture for it to put on its fruit. And so it's the former and latter rain. That's he's talking about the move of God. He's talking about the Holy Spirit. He's talking about signs, wonders, and miracles. And where's most of the church today? Most of the church is just dried up and doesn't have, they don't have the miracles. And yeah, when they preach, they preach and they do preach the good news, but they don't have the baptism of the Holy Ghost, so there's no real Holy Spirit behind their words. Word is anointed, all right, but it's not designed to work like that. I don't know, since we've been having different meetings in this church, you know, people come in here for another reason besides church. They come in here, for instance, some Republican convention we had recently, and they walk through those doors, and almost all of them just, you know, they they feel something when they walk through the door. There's an atmosphere in here. Well, what do you think that is? Well, it's the holy, well, I thought God didn't live in buildings. I think we've I think we've emphasized that too much myself. I know God doesn't live in the building in the sense uh of that, but his presence is everywhere. And it's more present here than it is anywhere else. Give me a break. Church should be something where you can go and experience that something, and they don't know what to call it. Man, there's something about it. Yeah, something is God. That's what I mean. When you walk in the door, there ought Be something about you that makes people back up and pay attention. That's what you get when you get baptized in the Holy Ghost. That's what we all need. So his love for the precious fruit of the earth, he said, be, you know, he said, I the husband waited for the precious fruit of the earth. Just think about what God calls sinners. God calls sinners the precious fruit of the earth. He calls the LGBTQ, transgender, Democrat, crazy people, the precious fruit of the earth. They're all potential. They're all potentially able. Look at Paul. Paul was a murderer. He hailed Christians off to jail, killed them, and threw them in prison. And God saved him. I have to believe that God is not through. There's the precious fruit of the earth, and we need to be busy about harvesting it and bringing a demonstration, bringing a presence where they can either accept it or deny it. I remember talking to Brother Roberts and interviewing him back in 2005, and then again in 2007. I went twice and sat with this mighty man of God, a general of the faith. He did things that no preachers. There's not an Oral Roberts growing on every tree. You know, there's not a bunch of Kenneth Hagens running around. There's not enough of John Osteens running around. These are men and women. I mean, Catherine Kuhlman. How many Catherine Kuhlmans are there? Not very many. And so to be able to talk to him, and he said, you know what God told him about the end days. He said, you know, uh son, I can't, I'm not going to be able to stand it if people come before me in that great white throne judgment and face me and say, Nobody told me about Jesus. I don't belong in this line of going to hell. I shouldn't have to go to hell. Nobody told me. He said, I'm not going to be able to stand that. So that's why Jesus said in Mark that this gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all the world as a witness, and then the end shall come. You've got a lot of work to do yet. But that doesn't mean that we're not gonna, we're not, we're gonna just say, oh, it's not gonna happen tomorrow. Well, you know, it might. He said now that you think not, I'm gonna come. He said it twice. And so we have to be patient but eager for him to come. You remember Revelation 21:5, you know, God gave me that word for this year. And uh he told John, uh, he said, Behold, I make all things new. And so we've we've launched out and we've been thinking about, you know, that word make means to to throw overboard, lighten the ship. There are some things that we're involved with that we need to quit being involved with, and let's get on to God's plan. Let's get let's get accurate about what God wants us to do right now. And uh He's making all things new, but then in the next chapter, chapter 22, he says, Behold, I come quickly. And then at the end of that, the second to the last verse, he tells John, he said, Surely I come quickly. And the word quickly means suddenly also. Surely I come suddenly. Suddenly means you're not expecting. Suddenly means, oh, like a thief in the night. Why would he say a thief in the night? Well, he said that in Matthew. He said, you know, if you if you'd known what hour the thief would come, you wouldn't have uh allowed your house to be broken into and stolen. I mean, a lot of people, their their destiny is gonna be stolen because they're asleep and they're not watching and they're not waiting and they're not longing for the bridegroom. And suddenly he comes and they go, Oh. And then it's too late. No, I mean, you know, we gotta be watching. See, surely I come quickly, but what was what was John? See, John was there that day when he went up. John was there, and John said, even so, come, Lord Jesus. Maranatha, even so, come. I know there's gonna be a lot of destruction. I know there's gonna be a lot of stuff going on, but even so, come, Lord Jesus. That's that burning desire. Are you with me now? So uh Jesus wants all to come to repentance here in 2 Peter chapter 3. He wants all people to come to repentance. He doesn't want any to perish. That means you can perish. Some people can perish. Some people do perish. And it doesn't give God a gladness. He's not glad. He's sad. Why? Because he paid the same price for everyone that perishes that everyone that is gonna go up into glory. It's not his will. That gives us great confidence when we're praying for other people, when we're praying for our unsaved loved ones, when we're praying for our children or our parents or our siblings that are unsaved. I'm telling you, you've got, you don't ever have to wonder about whether it's God's will for them to be saved right here. God said it right now. He does not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. What's repentance? It means change your life. It means quit walking toward heaven and start, or mean quit walking toward hell and walk toward heaven. Repent. A prayer can't do it. A prayer is just a beginning. You can pray the sinner's prayer. We're gonna pray it later. But that's not enough. You've got to actually have an action attached to the prayer. You've got to actually turn and hook up. I've seen in my life, probably, I don't even want to say how many tens, probably tens of thousands of people pray the sinner's prayer. Are they saved? A lot of them aren't. They just prayed a prayer, they just thought, well, I'll just pray the prayer. That's not gonna do it. You've got you've got to have a life that's lined up, you've got to turn. You can't go back to where you were and still say you're saved just because you said a prayer. That's not gonna work. No, you have to repent. So he's willing that everybody repent. So prepare. In 2 Peter 3.12, it says, you know, what sort of what possible sort of people should we be looking for and hastening, speeding up the coming of the Lord. We can speed up. We can knock down the obstacles to his return. That's how much confidence he has in his church, the body of Christ. He's the head, but we're the body. We have more to do with Jesus coming back than really the Father. We've just relegated it all to God. We say, well, God's got his timing, and it we can't know it. Well, we can't know. Well, it didn't really say he said you won't know the day or the hour, but he didn't say you didn't know the season. I believe we're in the season of the Lord. I don't think there's any way it's going to be another thousand years. I don't. There's too many prophecies being fulfilled. There's too many signs of his return coming. One after another after another. Just in my life, in the 45 years since I got saved. I mean, I've seen over and over. I've been intensely interested in this whole subject since I first got saved. And uh, I'm telling you, it's not going to be much longer. I don't know how much longer, but I want us to be prepared. My job is to get you to be prepared for Jesus' return. And so I've got three things for you this morning. Just simple things. How many of you are willing to prepare yourself for the Lord's return? Well, the number one is, and when you do, you're hastening his return. When you don't, do these three things I'm going to talk about. When you don't do those, then you're putting your hand up and say, okay, don't come yet. I I saw a preacher on uh had a big old church on television, big old church. And he said, you know, all of these people running around praying for the rapture and wanting the rapture to happen. He said, I pray the opposite way. I say, God, don't come yet. Don't send Jesus yet. We've got too much work to do. And I thought to myself, you've got to be brain dead. That's not my Bible. My Bible doesn't say that. That's the opposite. You're supposed to desire Him to come. If you need to do something, get out there and do it. But don't be trying to hold the Lord up. No, we need to speed it up. So prepare for Jesus' return. Number one, live for God. Live for God. Repent. If you're not saved, get saved. Many people know, I knew, I knew for years that there was more with God, and I just put it off. I kept thinking he'd deal with me, and I just put it off, and I'd think, well, you know, I've got, I'm just not ready yet. I'm not ready. I'm not ready. Well, yeah, you're not ready. And if he'd have come, I'd have gone to hell. If I'd have fallen down in that construction elevator when I was 18, I'd have fallen fallen right into hell. I mean, I the elevator I'd ridden on for weeks up and down the side of a skyscraper in Houston. I tried to catch it and it was above me. And I went down the next floor down below and caught that side. There's two elevators on the outside of the building like this. And so I caught the other elevator on the on the odd number floor. I was on an even number floor. I was on 28. So I went down to 27, took it down to the ground and walked away. And I saw the elevator operator. He's outside and he's his spool is unwinding. And I looked back, and that other elevator that I tried to catch and had been riding all summer fell to the ground, killed five plumbers right at my feet. I could have been on that elevator. It could have fallen with me in it, and I would have gone right into hell. And I could go, I could go on and on about times where I've had just this close to going to hell, but I'm not, I didn't go to hell. Thank God. But I put him off, I put him off, I put him off. Quit putting him off. Say yes. Get right with God. What sort of people should we be? Well, we ought to be people of holy lives and godly conduct. Some people uh are backslidden, they're cray, they they they know they're saved, but they're not living like it. They've given themselves over a period of time for many reasons permission to not live close to God anymore. They just uh assess COVID. COVID uh was an attack on the church. And the church suffered greatly. And a lot of people got got offended, and then uh their church went woke. Or their church just you know just didn't have the right, you know, response, and they got offended, and then they start going online to live stream, but then they don't stay with live stream, they go and they start looking at other uh other sources of information, which are a lot of it's lies. And they've been seduced. They've been seduced, and they they're they're they're like what I call Lone Ranger Christians now. They know they're saved, but they they're offended at preachers, they're offended at pastors, they're offended at the local church. Well, I don't need a church. Well, you know more than Jesus, I guess, because Jesus had churches. He he ordained that there be churches. All the all the epistles are written to churches. Hello, local churches. You're not that smart, are you? Smarter than Jesus? No, it's pride, and you need to repent. Repent. Stop it. I'm so glad you're here this morning, but there's people watching, they need to repent. No, I didn't fall. I have not taken a hard fall. Shut up. Don't make that call now. I'm telling you. I can't, it won't hear no. I I keep saying no. Okay, well, if the EMS comes to tell them to leave. This happens all the time. How do I turn this off? I can get my IT department on it right away. Here you go. Get rid of it. Give me my old analog watch back. I take that. Let me have an alarm clock. I'll hang it around. This is an important part of the service. My the devil threw my Apple watch interrupted my point here. It's a very important point. Everybody say, I'm living for God. No matter who it identifies me with or separates me from. And the second thing, Jesus made commandments to his disciples to receive the Holy Ghost. Receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Quit putting it off. Quit finding reasons that are not true. All the reasons that people have for not receiving the baptism are errors. What you were taught is a lie. Jesus was right, and he didn't quit being right 2,000 years ago. He's still right right now. If they needed it, how much more do we need it? We need the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Well, I just, that's just so extreme. No, no, you're just dead. And you're you're gonna, you know, I'm not saying you're gonna go to hell with, you know, by by refusing it, but I am saying you're going to leave a lot of rewards on the table. Jesus said there in Revelation 22, Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me. He's got rewards for the body of Christ when he takes them up. We're gonna have crowns, we're gonna have medals, we're gonna have garments, I want crowns that I can throw down at his feet. I want something that I can lay at his feet and say, God, I don't even deserve any of this. I'm just doing what I was supposed to do. I'm just your servant here. I'll glorify you. I was watching a uh uh a piece on King Charles. They're coming for a state visit here pretty quick, King Charles and what's her face? Um Camilla. I get Camilla and Camala mixed up. They're probably pretty close. The same uh oh. Anyway, so uh Camilla. And anyway, he's he's standing in the microphone and he's speaking, and he's got he's got this, you know, a king's kind of a jacket. It's a different than than this jacket. Of course, this jacket is not pink, it's it's Rosa Sharon. But anyway, so this he had these medals across his chest. He had medals that started right here and went all the way to the shoulder. I mean, about eight or ten medals a night. I'm just sorry, but I started laughing. Oh what regiment has he led into battle? I mean, has he ever been on a battlefield? Has he ever has he ever even fired a gun? I mean, I I don't know about I mean King Charles is king because he inherited it. I mean, he's you know happened to be the son. It was it was the royalty, royal family, and all that. But he's got all these medals. I tell you, God, Jesus has got some things for us, and when we don't deny his command and say, oh no, I'm that's too extreme. Well, you're gonna leave some medals on the table. You're gonna leave some crowns off because we're we don't obey God. We ought to obey Jesus. Your life testifies that Jesus is alive and coming again. And without the baptism of the Holy Ghost, like I pointed out earlier, you just don't have that something. That something that people don't always know what it is, but you do. Amen. And the third thing is, see, again, we're we're hastening his return by obeying this. Now, the last one, participate in a local church that is actively involved in preaching the gospel in all the world. And not every church is. There's a lot of churches that don't have anything to do with missions. They have a feeding program, you know, they give to the homeless, they do this, they do that. I'm not saying that's not worthy, but you know what? If you're not reaching the unreached, if you're not getting the witness of the gospel to people groups, nations, he said this gospel of the kingdom must be preached in every nation. That word nation is not uh borders and countries, it's people groups. And people groups have different languages, they have different dialects, and if they're not reached with the gospel, it hinders Jesus for coming because he's not willing that any should perish. But they have to hear. They have to hear the gospel. Now, once they've heard it, they only have the right to hear it once, and then it's on them. But if they haven't heard it at all, see, that's what he told Brother Roberts. God told Brother Roberts, I can't stand that. So I see that's God's attitude. He's not willing that any should perish. It's the precious fruit of the earth. It's precious to his heart that they get reached. So this church has always been involved in world missions. Always. I've gone myself, my children have gone. Gone across the water, I've gone both directions. I've gone north, I've gone to Canada, I've gone to Mexico, I've gone to Asia, I've gone to Europe, I've gone, I've gone in every direction. I've done the work of an evangelist. But God told me in 2016, now I want you to stay home, I want you to reorder your missions program because your nation's hair is on fire. That's what he said to me. He cares about America. So we started revamping our missions and we we started strategically supporting people that were doing greater than us. That's why the Hankins, they, I mean, we support them in a major way. And we just started uh supporting the pays, Dr. Pay and Ilka. They've been in 173 nations. Do you know how long it'd take me to go to 173 nations? I would never be here then. But we're sending them. We're helping to send them. We're helping to send the. I mean, I think about uh Mark and Trina Hankins. They've got books in all these different languages. They've got books in Farsi, they've been in the Muslim world, they've been in the Hindu world, they've been in the, they've been everywhere. Preaching the gospel of this kingdom. We're actively engaged in that. We're putting money in their hands to do it. We've got missionaries that are in underground ministries. They can't, they can't publicly, they have to go underground. Well, where are those? We're principally Muslim countries and communist countries. Those are the ones that persecute Christians. They won't allow them to preach, they won't allow them to make disciples, they won't allow that's how crummy their belief system is. They don't even believe it themselves. So they have to control their population, or else they wouldn't have one. Everybody would leave if they didn't have fences. We have fences to keep people out. They have fences to keep people in. They destroy the internet, they don't let them have any access to the outside world. Iran is a perfect example. Iran has an underground church. It's estimated if there's a million Christians in Iran. You know, China, Indonesia, I mean, there are so many places, Vietnam. There are underground church. We've been to Vietnam, Gladys went to Vietnam and Cambodia. They ran her out of town. They came to arrest her and her ladies that she was with. So get involved with a church that has an active uh ministry that's reaching people that haven't heard yet. I mean, you know, he didn't say just go preach to the easy places. Yeah, go preach to uh, you know, preach to Honolulu, Honolulu, Oahu. Walkiki, Walkiki, Honolulu. I like going there, but I mean, you know, they've already heard. They've heard. I don't need to go back. I'm gonna go where it hadn't been hadn't been named yet. Are you with me now? The third place that nobody went to is a political world. Oh, yeah, it's a world. It's a it's a world that has great influence. The devil is in there wall to wall, up and down, through and through. He oh, we can't go there, that's evil. No, that's why we need to go there. We need to be in the middle of that and bind the devil and rebuke the spirit of Antichrist and keep the spirit of Antichrist from running for office. And getting elected. Pastor, that's against the, I don't care what it's against. We're going to do it no matter what it's against. It doesn't matter to me what the IRS says about it. It doesn't matter what the government says about it. I've got a higher responsibility. And we are going to do it. And we have been doing it. So get involved and participate. See, it's not enough just to come. You know, we're glad you're coming, but hey, hook up. And we're about to launch some things. Next week we'll talk about it. We're about to launch some things that's going to make it easier for you to hook up, easier for you to identify places to serve, and uh and we're going to hasten the return of the Lord. We're going to get ourselves and prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord Jesus. Come on, lift your hand right now. Father, we thank you. Thank you today that we're committed to hastening your return in Jesus' mighty name.