Out of the Fire

[MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Look all around, couldn't find nobody. I went down into the deepest valley. I'd walk around down there, couldn't find nobody. I went across the deep blue sea, couldn't find one to come home. To your place, you love your mercy. Nobody greater than you, Jesus. Searched all over, couldn't find nobody. I looked high and low, still couldn't find nobody. Nobody greater than you, nobody can heal like you can. Almost only one, you are the greatest. Awesome in all your ways, mighty is your hand. You are human, without redemption's plan. You are human, without redemption's plan. [MUSIC PLAYING] Still couldn't find nobody, nobody greater than you, nobody greater than you, nobody greater than you, nobody greater, nobody greater, nobody greater than you, and just love it for you, Lord, coming in at the door. Nobody greater than you, nobody greater than you, Jesus, I spend once and for you, nobody greater than you, nobody greater, nobody greater than you, nobody greater than you, nobody greater than you, nobody greater than you, nobody greater, nobody greater than you, nobody greater than you, nobody greater than you, Jesus, Jesus, I spent all over, couldn't find nobody, I looked all over, couldn't find nobody right, you, nobody right, you, oh, yeah. I looked all over, couldn't find nobody, looked all over, couldn't find nobody right, you, nobody right,

you, that I spent all over, I spent all over, I spent all over, ♪ I'm nobody like you ♪ ♪ No, I'm nobody like you ♪ ♪ No, I'm nobody like you ♪ ♪ So slow ♪ ♪ Yes I am ♪ ♪ So slow ♪ ♪ No, I'm nobody like you ♪ ♪ No, I'm nobody like you ♪ ♪ No, I'm nobody like you ♪ ♪ So I'm nobody like you ♪ ♪ No, I'm nobody like you ♪ ♪ No, I'm nobody like you ♪ ♪ No, I'm nobody like you ♪ ♪ No, I'm nobody like you ♪ ♪ No, I'm nobody like you ♪ ♪ No, I'm nobody like you ♪ ♪ No, I'm nobody like you ♪ ♪ Yes I am ♪ ♪ No, I'm nobody like you ♪ ♪ No, I'm nobody like you ♪ ♪ No, I'm no, I'm nobody like you ♪ ♪ Nobody in this universe ♪ ♪ But Jesus ain't my dad ♪ ♪ My, my, my, my, my ♪ ♪ Thank you, Jesus, son ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Found what I'm looking for ♪ ♪ Found what I'm searching for ♪ ♪ I got, I'm on Tuesday ♪

♪ I got, oh yeah ♪ ♪ Found what I'm looking for ♪ ♪ Jesus found what I'm searching for ♪ ♪ I got, yeah ♪ ♪ I got it, you got it ♪ ♪ Safe ♪ ♪ Safe ♪ ♪ Do you have it, yeah ♪ ♪ I got it ♪ ♪ I got it ♪ ♪ Real love, real peace, real happiness ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪

♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ ♪ Tell them I've got it, tell them I've got it ♪ [applause] [applause] Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord. I'm a happy man today. I'm on my way to heaven. My next stop is at the feet of Jesus. Anybody want to go? I'm a happy man today. [applause] Father, I thank You. Oh, I thank You. I thank You. I thank You for the joy in the morning. Son Jesus. My Lord and my God, our soon coming King. I pray now. I ask it very humbly. I

ask you Lord Jesus to open. And Lord you know I pray this a lot and some people don't really get it. But I'm praying for you to open the eyes of our understanding because we think we understand things sometimes but oh you have a much deeper level show us something today that will make us walk out of here rejoicing. I ask it in the name of Jesus and the whole church said amen. Before you see it I'd like for us to read together an odd passage of Scripture. I say odd because many times people read it and go I don't get that. So I want us to read it and then I'm going to preach on it because I'm odd. I like odd scriptures. Odd is drawn to odd. Verse 21 in June read with me please live in such a way that God's love can bless you as you wait for the eternal life that our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy is going to give you. Show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. There are still others whom you need to show mercy but be careful that you aren't contaminated by their sins. Anybody ever read that and go? You may be seated. Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. You know there's a similar verse in the Old Testament, Zechariah, third chapter, second verse. It's the account of Joshua or Yeshua the priest standing before God in heaven and Satan is accusing him before God and the Lord said to Satan "I the Lord reject your accusations, Satan." Yes, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebukes you. This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from a fire. Same meaning in both passages. One is Old Testament, one is new and I'm going to put those two verses on hold. Preach a little while then come back to them at the end. So for a number of weeks I've been what I call reminding you. Don't know me the other day. I can't tell anybody anything new. All I can do is remind you what you've already heard or read. So I have this drive in me for you to get it. I want more than anything else in this world for this church to be a church full of Bible scholars and prayer warriors. Now having said that, I've called a prayer meeting for tomorrow night at seven o'clock right here in the sanctuary and I don't even know why the Holy Spirit pushed me to do it but something is a stir and we need to pray. So last week I preached to you on the rapture of the church, the great catching away, the great disappearance, how that we will be caught up in the clouds to meet Jesus, that the rapture is followed by seven years of tribulation, horrible, horrible things will happen on this earth. It's the time when God will pour out his wrath and judgment as he never has before nor will he ever to that degree do it again. God is angry with.

nations. Every nation, all people are going to have to come before Him that are alive at that time and give an account. Now when He finishes this, the thousand year reign of Christ will begin, the millennial reign of Christ. For ten centuries, 1,000 years Jesus Christ is going to sit on a throne in Jerusalem and rule the world alone. For 1,000 years, the earth is going to repopulate. Jesus is bringing in the restitution of all things. That's what the Bible calls it. "In the regeneration," He said to the apostles, "you'll all sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." So this judgment of the nations is a real thing that is going to happen in the Middle East, in Jerusalem. When people will stand before Him, see Him, give an account to Him. Here's how Jesus said it in Matthew 25. But when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, then He will sit upon His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in His presence and He will separate them as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at His right hand and the goats at His left. Then the king will say to those on the right the sheep nations, "Come you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." And then He goes on and gives the criteria by which they are considered sheep nations or saved nations. First of all, they heard the gospel preach during the tribulation and believed. They refused to take the mark of the beast and they helped Israel escape the Antichrist. The goat nations did none of that. So, the king will then turn to those on the left and say, "Away with you cursed ones into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons." And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life. Now church, nothing can be plainer than what I just read to you. It is absolutely understandable, so simple that a child can understand it. So here's what we have at this point. Jesus comes back to this earth, He then judges the nations, the lost nations, the goat nations are cast out. They've gone to the lake of fire. The sheep nations are all saved. This is important. When Jesus begins His millennial reign in Jerusalem for 1,000 years, everybody in there will be saved at first, but they will be mortal just like you and me. See, I'm saved, but I could do some bad things if I listened to my flesh. I'm saved, but I stay strong when I'm in the Word and I pray. I'm a mortal, saved, but the potential is always there. So everybody that goes into the millennium, the thousand year reign of Christ is saved.

And Jesus sits down on a throne and a temple is rebuilt, and the government of the entire world will be upon His shoulders. And His kingdom will continue to expand, not just for a thousand years, but for eternity. Because what we can see and hear and what we know from But there is a world out there. There is an invisible entity of spirits and powers that are watching what's going on right now. We the church are on a stage. This play is called the plan of salvation. Jesus is the main character. We are the characters that are fulfilling the plan. And the universe is watching what's going on on this earth right now. So Jesus is going to sit down on a throne in Jerusalem and he will begin his reign with happy saved people. Wow, no foul mouth centers, no drug addicts, no drug busts, no liquor. No perversion. You start off in a beautiful pristine paradise where Jesus is Lord. I want to read to you from Revelation chapter 20, beginning with verse one. Then I saw an angel come down from heaven with the key to the bottomless pit. The bottomless pit is not the lake of fire. The bottomless pit is a fiery place of misery. It's a holding place and a heavy chain in his hand. He sees the dragon that will circle the devil Satan and bound him in chains for a thousand years. Folks, that's literal. There are churches that teach that the thousand year reign

of Christ is spiritual, that the millennium is when Jesus comes into your heart, that is false. If the thousand year reign of Christ is not literal, then the cross of Calvary is not literal. If the second coming of Jesus is not literal, neither was the first coming. Churches have decided to allegorize and make spiritual, that which God says is literal. We literally interpret scripture. We rightly divide scripture. We know that all the symbols and symbolism in Revelation and Daniel and all that are not literal beasts, but they symbolize governments. And we understand that from scripture because we rightly divide it. So the devil is going to be bound with a heavy chain for 1,000 years. The angel threw him into the bottomless pit, which he then shut and locked, so Satan could not deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years were finished. Afterward, he would be released for a little while. Folks, that's three times now he's mentioned a thousand years. God means business. Then I saw thrones and the people sitting on them had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony about Jesus, for proclaiming the word of God. And I saw the souls of those who had not worshiped the beast

or his statue nor accepted his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life again and they rained with Christ for a thousand years. This is the first resurrection. That's the resurrection you want to be in, the resurrection of the righteous, the resurrection of the just. That goes all the way up to the second coming of Jesus, all who were saved will be in the resurrection of the just. The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years had ended. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. For them, the second death holds no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him a thousand years. When the thousand years end, Satan will be led out of his prison. He will go out to deceive the nations from every corner of the earth, which are called Gog and Magog. He will gather them together for battle. A mighty host as numberless as sand along the shore. And I saw them as they went up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded God's people devil who betrayed them was thrown into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur, joining the beast and the false prophet. Hey, you don't burn up in hell. I don't know who told you that. It's forever. The beast and the false prophet have been there a thousand years. He still ain't burned up. Pardon my grammar. They will be tormented day and night forever. Now I've had, in fact I had a beautiful sister ask me this in the aisle last week. Can you

explain why God would let this happen? Why doesn't He just obliterate Satan? Why does He put him in a holding tank? And why does He let the world go on for a thousand years? Why does He then let Him out at the end and let Him create another rebellion against Christ? Why would God do this, pastor? Because God is teaching the universe a lesson. That unseen world I'm talking about, the numberless beings and powers that He created that are out there. They are watching us learning about God's grace, mercy and justice from the things that God is allowing to happen. So God says, just to show you that I'm not a capricious God or hot-tempered, hot-headed God, I'm going to let humankind try it for a thousand years. And I'm going to lock the devil up and he will have no influence, power whatsoever on the earth at that time. Now folks, this, after a while this will grip you. I've been hearing a lot lately about America's golden age that's coming, whatever. But this is not the golden age. I can tell you that a golden age is coming. And it's the millennial reign of Christ. There is no way I have time right now to go into all the details of this new kingdom. So I'll hit some highlights. First of all, when the saints go in and Jesus starts ruling, it's going to take Him about 75 days to get things cleaned up and get people put in charge and in their appointments. If you read the last chapter of Daniel 12, you'll notice that it says something about 1,290 days. And blessed are those that hold out until the 1,335 days. That's 75 days, which tells me that when Christ comes back, it's going to take Him 75 days to judge the nations, to fix everything that's wrong, to appoint us in our positions and get the world ready for paradise. And that's what it will be, a perfect environment. You don't know what a perfect environment is. I don't either. I came into a filthy, demonic, ungodly world. Every day of my life, since I can remember, I've been tempted to do something wrong. Every day of my life, there's been a force working on me, my mortal body, trying to get me to live contrary to the Holy Spirit of God that's in me. But when this comes, it will be a perfect environment. In a thousand years, you see, life's going to be prolonged and the Bible teaches that if someone were to die at a hundred years of age, they'd be considered a baby. So we know right away that the lifespan of humanity is going to be lengthened as it was before the flood in Noah's day. So people are going to live a long, long, long time, maybe a thousand years, and they'll be having babies for a thousand years. And their babies will have babies and babies and babies and babies and people

grow up and suddenly, in a thousand years, you have billions of people walking this planet. But watch those that went into the millennium were saved, but the children of those who begin to rebel against the fact that there is only one Lord, one King. They don't get a vote. They don't have any human rights. They don't get a Congress. They don't have representation because that's man's desire. Man wants to run himself and call it government. Man does not want God to tell him what to do. His laws are too strict. His ways cannot be kept, so man rebels and so as the years pass and more children are produced and more children come to life, there will be an incremental and increasing rebellion against the fact that all the laws come from Jerusalem. And this is important. This is happening in an Eden. It will be returned to the beauty that Eden had, and all of these people are living there. There will be peace. You know, the Bible teaches that they're going to beat their swords into plowshares, and they'll know war, no more. There won't be any battleships. There won't be planes and guns, ammo, soldiers, armies or anything. Jesus will have burned all of that stuff up, and now he's the commander-in-chief over everybody and everything. It's going to be a time of peace. Nation will not rise against nation. People won't be worried about a stronger country coming in and taking their land. Peace. No more. Safety. People won't be mugged and robbed, killed. People won't have to live in fear and lock up everything, because they're living in the paradise of God. Health. Everybody will be healthy. Even as I'm preaching this, my throat is on fire, and I got several other things wrong with me too. And so do you, because health is just not something we totally enjoy in this life. But when Jesus comes, he's going to make sure everybody has a healthy body. There's going to be pure water that they can drink, a clean environment they can breathe. He says that trees will grow on either side of that pure river of water of life. Every month they will produce a different fruit, and that fruit is for the healing of the nations. Wow. Instead of taking medicines all the time, we just eat the fruit of God and the nations are healthy. Long life, pure water, perfect weather, no more tornadoes, no more hurricanes, earthquakes. None of those natural disasters will take place when Jesus sits down on the throne. The earth will be a productive earth. The Bible says the sun is going to shine seven times brighter, the moon will be seven times brighter, and the earth will be seven times more productive than we have ever known. That means fruits and vegetables are abounding everywhere. Everybody's eating. Everybody's happy. Everybody's full. Everybody's healthy. It's a good place. It's paradise. The Bible says the violence of the

animal kingdom will be removed. No more will one animal kill another and eat it. The blood thirstiness will be taken out of animals. The lion and the lamb will lie down together and lick one another. Lions will eat grass like cows eat straw, and a little child can crawl up to a serpent's hole, put his hand in it, and a snake will not hurt him because the violence of this millennial reign is gone. Can you imagine? And yet there's going to be a rebellion against this. Oh, this is where it gets interesting. I said, and yet there's going to be a mighty rebellion against the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the question is, why would God let this happen? Because God wants you to know that you don't have to have sinners. And there's no reason in the world why these people, billions of them, even for one to stand up and say, "We don't want Jesus to be our Lord." No reason for it except, and I found it in Jeremiah. Jeremiah said, "The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked." What? Didn't say the devil, "The human heart, your heart." Who really knows how bad it is, but I know the Lord searches all hearts, and he examines secret motives. He says, "I give all people their due rewards according to what their actions deserve." God can see the heart. I don't know my heart. You don't know yours. We have no idea the fathomless depths of darkness that reigns in the human heart. And if it were not for the restraining power of the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, this thing called conscience. The world would destroy itself in a matter of hours. Here's how Jesus said it, "For from within, out of a person's heart comes evil thoughts." Oh, yeah. Sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, eagerness for lustful pleasures, in envy, slander, pride, and selfishness. Jesus just named everything that's wrong with the human race. Every desire, everything you see, everything you want, everything you want to be, he just named it. And he said, "It comes from within." Here's how Paul said it to the Romans. They knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God, or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. The result was that their minds became dark and confused. So last week, I gave you that illustration of someone who used to attend this church who was involved in it, who would declare that he was saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. But some disasters came into his life, and he came unraveled, and now he spends every day after we're going to a bar somewhere trying to pick up one. And he was confronted. I told you this last week. He was confronted. And yet he said, "I'm saved. Don't worry about me. I'm saved."

What does that mean? It means that once you close your mind to the truth, you start thinking up foolish ideas of what God is like. You think God's like me. So he understands my needs. He understands my weaknesses. He's not going to throw me to hell, inhale, just because I need companionship outside of matrimonial. Now you start thinking up stuff, and your mind becomes dark and confused. You cannot excuse sin. Paul said, "Throw off your evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through full of lust and deception." So why is God letting this happen? A thousand years to show us and all of the universe that human beings in a perfect place without a devil still have evil hearts. And do you remember me preaching at any time that you can change about anything in your life? Mankind can change about anything in his life, except his heart. You've heard people say, "Well, he had a change of heart." No. He had a change of mind, temporary change of mind. Nobody. I'm sorry to yell. Nobody can change the heart. You can stop drinking. You can stop doing dope. You can stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. But you'll still go to hell, because there has to be a crisis moment, not when you stop doing "I cannot change myself, I cannot save myself, I can't even help myself, but you can help me." I heard the preacher say, "You could change me." I heard the pastor say, "You could deliver me and I believe it by faith." And let me tell you something, brother, the moment you say with your mouth and believe in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead, that Jesus is the Savior of the world, that His blood is sufficient, that it can wash away every sin you've ever committed. The moment you believe that, you become eligible for salvation. You'll become a new creation in Christ Jesus. Rehab won't change you, it'll help you stop doing things externally, only the blood of Jesus, faith in the blood of Jesus. So what about these sticks and the fire? You forgot, didn't you? That's in the fire. In my mind, when I go to that Old Testament passage and I see God saying to Satan, "Leave that man alone."

He's a stick I pulled out of the fire. And when I come to Jude, and I hear Jude saying, "Snatch somebody out of the flames of the fire." That's what God's Holy Spirit is doing right now. That's what I'm trying to do right now. You see, I don't know, I'm always convinced not everybody in here is saved. You think, some people think they are, but they're not. You're not until you've been born again. Now, don't make me go down this road and lose my mind and get tore up, don't do that to me. Just let me be calm the way I've been all morning here. Ladies and gentlemen, there are people watching me online right now. Who are not saved. There are people in that building back there. There are hundreds of them back there watching, "Hey y'all." And there are people here, I'm telling you, without Jesus, your stick is burning up fast. Did that make any sense to anybody? You don't know how long you've been in it to start with. You don't know how much time you got left. You don't know if you've got a nub left or two feet left, but your stick is in the fire. The world's been burning you up, sin has been burning you up, taking advantage of you. Time is running out. Your efforts are not doing you any good, but there is a God in heaven. The same God that made it all is looking at you right now. You might be in Iran, Japan, Greece, Turkey, Mexico, Puerto Rico. I could go on and on and on. You might be watching me right now 10,000 miles away, and you may not yet know Jesus. You may have clicked on that clickbait thing, and you saw me at Trump's casket, standing between Kamala and Biden, and that's what made you click on. You didn't get that.

No. What you got was a 73-year-old preacher looking at you with the eyes of Christ, the love of God, saying, "There's not a sin he cannot forgive. There's not a sinner he cannot restore. He is a good God. He's the savior of your soul." But you see, I'm a desperate guy when I think, if you don't know how long your burning stick is, you don't know when it'll just drop off into the fire, but there's a Jesus. He's on duty right now. He can reach down and grab it. And this preacher is trying to snatch somebody from the flames this morning. Snatch. You notice that word? Snatch him from the flames. [MUSIC PLAYING] come off on you. Be careful." So I'm prayed up this morning and filled with the Spirit. As I snatch, I want somebody to realize that Jesus paid the full price. And all you have to do is call on the name of the Lord. I don't know why I do so much apologizing. You know, I get loud. And I think a few times I've used that illustration, if I drove it, was driving down the street and saw you out in your front yard and your house was on fire. And I jump out and you say, "Pastor, the fire department's not here yet. I got two babies upstairs. What can you do?" You think I'm going to say, "Don't make a scene here. Great day." Do you think that mother's going to say, "Now, be easy. Don't scare them. Don't scar them for the rest of their lives by all that yelling you do." No. If you the mama, you say, "Go get them. I don't care what you... How loud you scream. How many windows you break. How many doors you kick down." So what you did when you came today, you came to a house that's on fire. And I'm not playing games this morning. Somebody needs to yell enough to wake you up. Somebody needs to break some windows and some doors. Jesus is able to pull your stick out of the fire and give you up under any eternal life. We pray that today, as you watch Pastor Livingston's message, you will be encouraged and ready to dig deeper into a life with Jesus.

To help you on this journey, Central has two resources for you. First, you can sign up to receive Central's jail and prison correspondence course through the mail by writing to Central Church, jail and prison ministry's discipleship center 5143 Sardis Road, Charlotte, North Carolina, 28270. Second, by using Central's app and clicking on the button below, you can read a short daily devotional that will encourage you to read and pray daily as you draw closer to Jesus. Thank you for watching.