Will I Be Raptured? | Revelation | Full Experience

We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. He gets all our glory, all our honor, all our praise. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. He gets all our glory, all our honor, all our praise. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus.

We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus.

We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. We're glad you're here. We're in this room right now to fix our eyes on Jesus. ♪♪♪ We're glad you're here. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ By heaven's throne, Messiah's Son, and all the love And oh praise the name of the Lord Sing it out! O praise His name forevermore O praise His name, O sing our praise Oh Lord, oh Lord our God On the third, a break of dawn The Son of Heaven rose again O tremble, death, where is your sting? The angels roar for Christ the King O praise the name of the Lord our God O praise His name forevermore For in this day we will sing your praise Oh Lord, oh Lord our God

A blazing sun shall pierce the night And I will rise among the saints My case is set on Jesus' bed O praise, O praise, O praise the name of the Lord our God O praise His name forevermore For in this day we will sing your praise Oh Lord, oh Lord our God O praise the name of the Lord our God O praise His name forevermore For in this day we will sing your praise Oh Lord, oh Lord our God Oh Lord, oh Lord our God Yeah, y'all came to worship. Thank you so much for singing. You can be seated. I want to welcome you all again to CCV, whether you're physically here at our Peoria campus or you're tuning in online. My name is Travis Brown. You know, over the last decade, there's been incredible advancement on how we track our individual health. You know, the studies would say that nearly one third of all Americans now wear some sort of device that tracks their health, whether it's a watch or a ring or some sort of fitness tracker. And it tracks all sorts of data, right? It tracks our steps, it tracks our heart rate and our sleep and our recovery.

And I'm telling you something, I love data. And I think it is fascinating. I actually think it's really helpful for us to understand how our bodies work, but I have been noticing something lately. And here's what I've been noticing, that instead of people using data to inform future decisions that they make, I'm seeing people allowing that data to dictate how they feel in that moment. I've had people come to me in the morning and say, hey, my watch told me I didn't sleep very well and I'm going to have a really bad day today. And I'm like, do you actually feel that? Or are you just waiting for your watch to tell you how you feel? Because too often we allow external things to determine what we experience. We allow the news to tell us what's true. We allow the weather to determine what our mood is. We allow our phones to tell us what kind of day we're going to have. And let me tell you something. as followers of Jesus Christ, listen, our perspective and our peace should not come from external noise. Because this is why, the world will constantly tell us what we should think and what we should feel. But that's why I love the fact that God's word tells us what we should set our minds on.

In Colossians chapter three, verse two, the apostle Paul writes these words. He says, set your minds. He's talking about our mindset. He says, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. See, when we set our minds on Jesus, it reminds us of something powerful. It reminds us that our peace does not come from all the things that are happening around us. Our peace only comes from what Christ has done for us. And that's what I love about the fact that we take communion every single week here at CCV because we get to set our minds on Jesus. We take a piece of bread. We take a cup of juice that simply remind us of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross with his body and his blood so that we could experience forgiveness in life. And for these next few moments, I just pray that you can block out all the external noise that's telling you how you should feel. I pray you'd set your mind on Jesus and what he did for you. Let's pray. Father, we're so grateful that we get to come to this moment and block out everything else and remember what you did for us and why you went to the cross.

You did it with us in mind. Lord, we worship you. We love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Anybody else think it's crazy how fast the year's going? I mean, it's wild. And what is really wild is that in four weeks is Easter weekend, four weeks from this weekend. And we are so excited to celebrate Easter here at CCV. We can't wait to celebrate with you all. And I wanna let you know, if you've never experienced Easter at CCV, man, you are in for a treat. And just so everybody knows, on Easter weekend, we have three different experiences for you to take in. We have a Good Friday service that's happening on that Friday.

We have a sunrise service that's happening early on Sunday morning. And then we have all the other services are regular Easter services. But the best part, the best part of Easter weekend is we celebrate life change all weekend long because we're doing baptisms all weekend. It's an amazing weekend. And I would just wanna put this in your mind to start thinking about Easter weekend, four weeks from now, what services you're going to attend, who you're gonna invite to come with you. And maybe you're here and you're like, man, that would be a great weekend. That'd be a great weekend for me to step in and get baptized. The best time to get baptized is today. The next best time might be Easter weekend if you're not going to get baptized today. So if you wanna know any information about. Easter weekend, all of our services, you can go to our website, you can sign up to get baptized through our website as well, but we're excited to celebrate all that Jesus has done in an empty tomb. But this weekend, right now, we're getting ready to hear a great message from our senior pastor, Ashley Wooldridge, as we continue this series that we've been in for the last couple of weeks called Revelation.

So the three in carrying the pickets means expecting to be quite lucky. But unfortunately, that isn't necessarily true. A few hindrances in reading this version have actually been presenters making the pre-revelation spring. Will they? Will they? Will they? Will they? Well, when I was a kid, I grew up actually on a football field. My dad was a football coach all through high school, and so I was just at all the games. And a lot of times I get to be on the sidelines, and I love that as a kid because you're on the sidelines as a little kid, and you're watching these big football players, and the game's going on. And just being an observant kid, I just started to realize that as the fourth quarter approached, everything kind of changed on the sidelines. Like, all the intensity picked up. People started getting really excited, and I watched my dad and other coaches start walking down the sidelines doing this. Anybody remember this? Like, everyone would hold up the four, and they'd be like, it's the fourth quarter,

and everyone's getting pumped. Fourth quarter, fourth quarter, and all the players were like, fourth quarter. Everyone's going crazy. And it's because what? Fourth quarter matters. Like, you gotta have urgency and intensity because the time is running out. Like, if you wanna win the game, this is what matters the fourth quarter, right? Unless you've been a Cardinals fan for the past couple years, okay? So, I'm kidding. Actually, we've got some leadership now in the Cardinals that some of them are part of our church, and I believe them. And hey, who believes the Cardinals are gonna get better next year, right? That's right, all right? We're not fair weather fans here. We're not switching over to Seattle like some of you have done, all right? I see you. Anyways, the Cardinals are good, but the fourth quarter matters. Now, according to Scripture, are we living in the fourth quarter of our world today? Is it the last days? Is it the end times? We've talked about this a couple weeks ago

when we started this Revelation series. Yes, we're in the fourth quarter. Remember, let me show you a chart I'm gonna come back to multiple times in this message to help you understand Revelation. According to Scripture, when Jesus died and resurrected and ascended into heaven, that ushered in the last days. We are living in the last days, and at some point, Jesus returns. So we're in the last days. Do we know when Jesus is gonna return? No. I wanna remind you again, anybody who tells you they know, they don't know. They don't know, period. And so we're in the last days, and we need to have some urgency. Does anybody think it's a coincidence that we planned this series, by the way, almost a year ago to be at this time, and right when we're preaching through the book of Revelation is when our world is at war in the Middle East? And that worries some of you. That scares some of you, because you look at the world events, and you think, oh no. I wanna remind you of what Revelation's designed to do. I said this week one, Revelation was written to prepare us, not scare us. And as we're going through the book of Revelation,

even if you look at world events, if you're scared, if there's fear, I wanna tell you that didn't come from God. God does not give you a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-discipline. So if you got a spirit of fear right now with everything going on in the world right now, that's not from God. And Revelation's gonna prepare us. In fact, I told you this, that Revelation's the only book in the New Testament that tells us we'll be blessed if we read it and take it to heart. Do you remember this? Revelation chapter one, verse three, watch this. It says this, blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy. That's the book of Revelation. That's what we're doing right now. You are blessed right now just being in this service, hearing this prophecy and knowing, but not just that, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what's written in it. So you gotta take it to heart today. And I just think God has someone here today because he wants to tell you something in your heart that you better get right. Why? Because the time is near.

The time is near. Now, as we've gone through this series, week one of the series, we talked about chapter one and we discussed, is it the end times? Yes, we don't know when Jesus is coming back. Last week, Dave did an awesome job walking through Revelation chapter two and three, which is the letters to the seven churches. And today, okay, we're gonna get into the meat of Revelation. Let me give you a little preview. Three weeks from now, as we end this series, let me go back to the chart. As we end the series, I'm gonna go all the way to the end of Revelation. As we get to the end of Revelation, Revelation chapter 21 and 22 talks about the new heaven and the new earth that is created for those of us that are followers of Jesus. That's gonna be an epic weekend. I can't wait for that. But today and next week, we are in the heart of Revelation, some of the hardest stuff to understand. We're gonna help you understand, and we're gonna dive into what's called the tribulation. Now, the tribulation is basically the seven-year period. There's seven years of tribulation before Jesus returns, and we'll talk more about that in a minute, but let me just dive in to Revelation chapter four,

starting in verse one. It says this. This is John. Remember, he's on the island of Patmos. He's been given this vision from Jesus. He's told to record it for us to hear. He says, after this, after what? After he spoke to the seven churches, I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven, and the voice I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, come up here. Remember, put that in your mind. Come up here. Bam! And I will show you what must take place after this. Now, what happens next is John is immediately transported up to heaven. And in chapter four, we get this real picture. If you read through chapter four, John is in heaven. He sees the throne of God. God is on the throne. He sees all these epic things in heaven. Why does God take John to heaven? He takes John to heaven because what's gonna happen in the tribulation, you can only see from the perspective of heaven what's gonna happen on earth. That's chapter four. Now, chapter five,

immediately what happens in chapter five is this. Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, that's God, a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. So God has a scroll, has seven seals on it, and here's the significance. In Jesus's day, what happened was there was Roman wills, or like a last will in Testament, like what you'd have in a document form if you have a trust or a will or something like that. In Jesus's day, there were wills that looked like this. It's a scroll, and it has seven seals on it. The reason it has seven seals is because they don't want anyone to open it until the person has what? Died, passed away, that's when you open it. Nobody gets to peek early. And so this is the last will in Testament. What's gonna happen in the great tribulation, keep that in mind as you read what's next. It says, and he says this, it says, and I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll? Like, who could do it? But no one in heaven and on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside of it. John's like, what's in the scroll? So he says next, he says, I wept, and I wept. This is John, because no one was found worthy

to open the scroll or look inside. Verse five, then one of the elders in heaven said this to me, do not weep. See, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, think about this, who's the lion? Who came from Judah? Who came from the line of David? Who's that talking about? That is Jesus. If you know scripture, you know Jesus came from the line of Judah. He came from the lineage of David. He's the lion. So Jesus enters the scene, and it says he is able. Only Jesus is able to open the scroll, which means only Jesus is able to tell us what the future holds, and he's the only one that can hold your future in his hands to be secure. So he opens the scroll, and it's seven seals. And what happens next in chapter five is Jesus opens these scrolls, and we see the tribulation start. Chapters five through 19, and some argue 20, it talks about this great tribulation that's gonna happen. Now, the seven years of tribulation are basically some of the worst, most painful, most suffering times that humanity will ever face. And what we're told throughout Revelation is that there'll be global conflicts. There'll be wars allured.

There'll be natural disasters everywhere. There'll be the rise of the Antichrist and the mark of the beast. There'll be lies and lies and lies and deceit and deceit and deceit in our world. Do you see it? And there'll be divine judgments. And let me just give you the summary. It's bad, like really, really bad. And some of you are like, that kinda sounds like what's going on right now. Well, hold that thought, and we'll come back to that when we talk about the tribulation. But the tribulation, that's what the tribulation is, but one of the greatest questions that people have, and I want you to understand this because this will help you reading the book of Revelation, which so many of us stay away from because it's just kind of scary and confusing. I want you to understand it today. One of the best, like, questions. you can ask when it comes to the tribulation is this, will I be raptured? And some of you are like, what's a rapture? Not a Ford Raptor, okay, if you're thinking that, like what's a rapture? And the cleanest way I can define it for you today, the rapture is this. The rapture is a promise Jesus will instantaneously take Christians out of this world to be with them.

So one day we're here and like, bam, the next we're with Jesus. How many of you grew up watching Star Trek? Any Trekkie fans out there, you wanna admit it? I was more of a Star Wars guy than like Star Trek, I just didn't get the ears and weird and I just couldn't get it. But I watched, some of my family watched it, so I've watched enough Star Trek that, you remember the part, I think it's Captain Kirk, what's he say to Scotty? He says, beam me up, Scotty. And then like in a moment, he's like somewhere else. Okay, that's the rapture. That's what happens, it's not Star Trek, it's real life that you are here on this earth and then immediately at some point, Jesus takes you to be with him. And the question is not just, will I be raptured? By the way, that is the most important question, we're gonna answer that at the end of the message so you can be certain. I think the question that you have to answer as you read through Revelation, because this is the big question people wrestle with, is this, is when is the rapture? Now we'll get to that, but let me just read you the most famous verse on the rapture, so you can just see it. In the New Testament, 1 Thessalonians 4,

verse 16 and 17 says this, it's talking about the tribulation and the end of days. It says, for the Lord himself will come down from heaven at some point with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God. There's gonna be a trumpet sound and immediately, it says, and the dead in Christ will rise first, so all the dead that have been followers of Jesus, their bodies will rise. And then it says this, verse 17, and after that, we who are still alive and are left, those who are still on earth, followers of Jesus only, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord, how long? Forever. Now, watch this, watch this. See this will be caught up? Bring the verse back for a second. See that, see this word will be caught up right here? This is one Greek word. And here it is, let me just show it to you. It's the Greek word harpazo, which is where we get the word harpoon, where you grab something, bam, it's out. It's also the Latin word, it's where we get the Latin word rapturo, which is where we get the English word rapture,

and it all means the same thing. It means to be, in Greek, it means to be seized, to be snatched immediately, and I love this, to be rescued. So that is the rapture. It's gonna happen, okay? To be rescued by God, praise God. That's the rapture, but the question is, when's it gonna happen? And I wanna show you the three most popular views today. It's really two and a half, kinda, cause I think one of them is a little bit of a minority view, but I'm just gonna, I feel compelled as your pastor just to tell it to you anyways. But if you're taking notes today, here's the three most popular views of the rapture. I'm gonna show it to you on the chart so you can really get it today. View one is called pre-tribulation, right? Or remember, Jesus dies, last days, seven years of tribulation. There's something called pre-tribulation, which is just what it sounds like, and that is that we are raptured, watch this, bam! We're raptured to be with Jesus before the worst of the worst of the worst, the seven years of horrific things that happen on earth, and then Jesus returns to rule on earth and to eventually create a new heaven and a new earth. So pre-tribulation means we get raptured

before all the worst of the worst of the tribulation. Now, proponents of this view, and I'm just gonna give you pros and cons of each of these views, okay? Proponents of these views would point to Revelation 3.20. This is one of the churches we looked at last weekend, the church in Philadelphia, one of the good churches. It says this about them. Since you have kept my commands, Jesus says, to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that's gonna come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the world. So people say, look, Jesus is gonna keep them from the hour of trial, the worst of the worst. That means they got raptured before the tribulation. One of the strongest, I think, reasons for this view, in my opinion, is when you read Revelation, this is amazing, in the first three chapters of Revelation, the word church is mentioned 19 times. In chapter four and five, all the way to the end of the very end of Revelation, chapter 22, the church is not mentioned one time, zero. And that's when the tribulation starts. So when the tribulation starts, the word church is not mentioned at all until Jesus and God. God created a new heaven and a new earth. Which people would say, see, if the church isn't mentioned at all, then they must have been raptured, right?

Now, Revelation chapter four, verse one, remember this, and this is what people with this view would say is, when right after, in Revelation chapter four, verse one, it says this, remember, it says, God says, come up here. People would view that as maybe that's the rapture. Like John came up and then the church is gone. Now, people would push against this view, but when I look at that, John was just up there in spirit, right? Or people would say this, they would say, just because the church isn't mentioned at all throughout the tribulation, that's just an argument from silence. And an argument from silence is not always the best argument. Some of you have not heard something, and so you've just assumed the worst about something. You ever been there? An argument from silence that may not work all the time would be something like this. If I said, well, the writers of the Declaration of Independence never mentioned cats, therefore they hated cats, I rest my case, right? You'd be like, well, that's just a dumb argument. And so they would say just silence doesn't mean that. They'd also point out that when you read through the tribulation, there are followers of Jesus that are experiencing some of the tribulation. And some would say, well, does that mean

they didn't get raptured? Does that just mean there's people that started following Jesus during the tribulation? I don't know, but here's what I do know, and I wanted to say this as clearly as I can, is that no matter what your view is on the tribulation, and whether you experience it or not, there's some of you right now that are in the middle of your own tribulation. And you walk in today, and you're experiencing one of the toughest things in your life, and you might say, well, I'm not sure it's the great tribulation. Well, maybe not, but would you say that to those that went through the Holocaust? What would you say to the person in the audience today that's going through, they just buried a child. They just had to bury a loved one. A couple weeks ago, I went through one of the hardest things of someone I love doing their memorial, it's so hard. What would you say to the spouse here today that their spouse just said, I'm leaving you for someone else? What would you say to the parents here that just found out their teenager or their child has been hurting themselves, and they're devastated, it's the hardest thing they've ever been through? What would you say to the single mom who just can't pay their bills over and over again, and the car just broke down again?

What would you say to the child or the teen in the audience that they just found out their parents, they were told they're getting a divorce, and it's like their heart is ripped apart. What would you say to the people in the audience right now that are still experiencing the deepest pain from sexual abuse? It's a lot of tribulations. And I'm just gonna pause right here for a minute, because I just feel like I wanna address something so clearly with our church. If you've come to CCV for any amount of time, you know the number of times that when I preach, I will bring up sexual abuse in someone's past. And I wanna lean in with people, I wanna pastor people, I wanna help people that have been going through that, because I think it's one of the hardest things to go through in the world. And the reason I brought it up so many times, and even Jamie, I brought this up three weeks ago, Jamie last year preached a whole entire Mother's Day message about the sexual abuse that happened in her family that is the most horrific thing you could imagine. And the reason that I speak about it, and she has, is because this is very personal to both of us. I have family members that have been sexually abused in ways that I would just crumble right now to just even describe the pain that I've watched, walk through with them.

And so as a church, to think that anyone would ever suggest ever that maybe, as a church, because CCV's a church where we are gonna have everyone that's welcome to come hear the message of Jesus Christ, but to think or to hear that maybe we would prioritize an abuser or an offender over a victim, I can't tell you how much it makes me shudder and hurts me to my very core. My only thought is that thought or those words must come from the deepest place of pain. And I want us as a church to be praying for all the victims of sexual abuse that are still dealing with the pain they're dealing with. It's so hard. But listen to me, if as a church you get almost most of your truth from social media, look at me, you will never have the truth. And if you have questions ever about anything we do or how we prioritize safety, security, anything, come ask any leader or staff member on our church. An open book, we will tell you transparently, and we will tell you truthfully anything you wanna hear. But listen, even though we're a church where we invite everyone to come experience the life-changing message of Jesus in the safest possible way you could ever imagine. I wanna say this as clearly as I can. The protection of our kids and our students with our safety and security is our number one priority as a church.

You understand that? It's our number one priority. Listen to me. We are human. If there's ever even a sliver, a sliver of something we can do better, we will admit it, and we will change it, and we will always get better. But you, listen to me. I will take full responsibility as the leader of this church to make sure with everything inside of me that our kids and our students are protected at all times in every situation. I will do that. Just telling you that. So thanks for letting me just say that. I just wanna make that as clear as I can. If you have questions, ask any leader. Ask any of us on staff. We are an open book. We have our integrity and character intact. But some of you, listen, you've got a tribulation. Like you're going through something that's so hard, and you're just not sure how you can get through it. And man, maybe God brought you here today just to tell you he's still with you. But what revelation tells us is no matter what you're experiencing today, whatever the pain is, there's a tribulation coming

where it's gonna get worse. And the pre-tribulation view says that God is gonna take all followers of Jesus before anyone experiences the worst of the worst. Okay, that's the pre-tribulation view. Now the second view, and then I'm gonna hit this really quickly because this is a minority view, all right? Some people would say there's a mid-tribulation view. Now here's what it looks like. A mid-tribulation view is just what you think. It's like, we don't have to experience the whole tribulation. We get taken in the middle of it. And the proponents of this view would point mainly to Daniel chapter seven, which is a very prophetic passage of scripture talking about the tribulation and the end days. And it kind of breaks the tribulation into two halves, a three and a half year period at the beginning and a three and a half year period at the end. And so a lot of people with a mid-tribulation view would say, well, that would lean into that maybe we just get taken in the middle. And maybe, but I don't think there's a ton of biblical support for this one. So I'm gonna just say it at that. That's a mid-tribulation view. Now, the other main popular view, this is the third view, is what you think.

It's called post-tribulation, which means followers of Jesus have to endure through the tribulation if they're here on earth, and then they are raptured and then immediately Jesus returns back to earth, creates a new heaven and a new earth, and moves on from there. Now, proponents of this view mainly point to Matthew chapter 24 and the words of Jesus. And I'll just read you a few verses. Matthew 24 verse 13. The one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And they would say, see, we gotta stand firm to the end. We gotta go through the tribulation. They would also point to verse 21 in chapter 24. And then there will be a great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be equaled again. Verse 29, immediately after the distress of those days, talking about kind of the tribulation, verse 31 says, and he will send his angels, this is God, and with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect. Like this, they would say, this is the rapture, and it happens at the end of the tribulation. And they would point to these verses. Now, the push from people that would push against this view, they would say things like, okay, but it doesn't quite make sense,

if you look at the timeline again, doesn't quite make sense that Jesus would like, rapture us, and then take us straight back, right? Like, it'd be like, why does, boo-boo, right at the end, like, why that, you know? It makes, doesn't it make some more sense that if he was gonna do it, he'd do it here, versus like really quick, like that's a nice ride up and down, but why so fast at the very end? So all I'm saying is there's no foolproof view here. Does that make sense? But the views are the pre-tribulation view, there's the mid-tribulation view, and then there's the post-tribulation view. And if you understand that, that will really help you as you're kinda reading through the book of Revelation. Now, amazing theologians, amazing pastors hold to the differing views, and there's no foolproof view, I just want you to tell that. And even the pastors on our staff may not hold like the exact view. And that's okay, because we don't have to, because remember I told you at the beginning, some of our end times, like theology, it's not essential. In other words, we can disagree, like you could have premillennial or pre-tribulation, I could be. You could be opposite, doesn't matter, but we can still go to heaven having different views.

Does that make sense? Like this is not something to divide over. So if you think, I'm right, good for you, right? But maybe you're wrong. Now, do you wanna know what my view is? Do you wanna know the view I think? Okay, if you don't, let's move on. Let's go on. You wanna know what it is? All right. I don't believe in the mid-tribulation view. I don't think there's as much biblical support for it. I think there's a lot of biblical arguments for both pre and post. But let me put it this way. What view do I hope is true? I really do hope that we have a pre-tribulation rapture, that we don't have to experience the worst of the worst of the tribulation. You might say, why would God take us then? I don't know. I think there's part of what could he be doing in these seven years? I think God made a covenant with Israel and the Jews. I don't know what he might wanna do during this time with them. I don't know, but this is kind of what I hope is true. But I'm not 100% on it. And even if we have to endure through the seven years of tribulation,

I want you to know, I am prepared to endure. And you should be too. God has promised, remember, no temptation has come over you. No temptation will seize you. You're not gonna go through something in this world that he's not gonna give you the strength to endure. And you need to be prepared as a follower of Jesus to stand strong to the end, no matter what happens. But when you think about the tribulation, does anybody else feel like our world's getting darker and darker by the hour? Do you sense it? Do you feel like just the darkness in our world, everything that you see around you, the division and the lies and just everything, and the wars and the, guys, when it gets darker, that does not mean God's not in control. It doesn't mean the church is losing. It means that we now have something to stand on to shine the light even brighter. The darker this world gets, the brighter the light of Jesus will shine. And as a church, we are gonna shine the light of Jesus in the darkest places of our world. No matter what comes against us, we will. Now, what I believe is God brought someone here today because you are experiencing the darkness that you don't know how to handle. The most important question today is not when will the rapture come?

The most important question is with all the darkness, what you're experiencing right now, you have to answer this question because this will give you more peace than anything else in this world, is will I be raptured? And I wanna ask you with 100% confidence, can you say right now, if Jesus came back tonight, today, would you be raptured? And if there's an inkling of like, I'm not sure, the safest place to be when Jesus returns is already in his hands. In other words, you need to be secure in your salvation because when Jesus comes, you do realize there will be people that thought they were good and they got left behind. Can I read it for you? It's the words of Jesus, Matthew 24, verse 43 to 41. Two men will be in a field. This is talking about the rapture. One will be taken and the other is gonna be left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill. One will be taken and the other will left. Now, can I modernize that for you? Two will be sipping coffee at Starbucks on their venti frappuccinos. And one's taken and one is left behind. Two will be on a golf course or the spring training game. One of them's gone in an instant and the other is left behind

to experience the worst of the worst of the worst this world could offer. How confident are you that if Jesus came back, you would be with him in eternity? You know, I was talking to Jamie about this this week and it's just been one of those weeks. So we're lying in bed, and the lights are all off, and it's dark, and we're just, we're sitting there talking, and I'm like, hey, could you imagine being left behind? And we both were just like, could you imagine if like, one, like you got left behind, you just didn't know! And as we're talking, I decided to do something. I, I, I, I quietly slipped out the side of the bed, and like went off the bed on the floor, and I just stopped, and she's like, she's talking more, and then she says, what do you think? And I just didn't say anything. Said, Ashley? And I didn't say anything. And then she like reached her hand over, and she said, Ashley! And I was like, I jumped up, and I was like, surprise! So I just wanted to see how confident you are in your salvation. How many of you know I did not do that, okay? I wouldn't be standing here today, I don't think. You know, I've been married for 26 years, and there's a reason, all right? I'm a little wiser. But some of you know you're not confident right now.

And God brought you today so that you could make a decision to definitively never wander again. When I was 10 years old, I was in my bed at night, and it felt like I had a 200-pound weight on my chest. And it's what some of you feel right now. Your heart's beating. You know the level of doubt you have. I remember running out of my room, running to my parents' room, because I just knew I'd never decided to follow Jesus. Listen, I've never decided to make Jesus the Lord of my life fully, to go all in, to repent of my sins and get baptized. I hadn't done it, and I knew if Jesus came back, I would be left behind. And I went in, and I remember making that decision and the peace it gave me. And I just wanna look someone in the eyes today and say this, God brought you here so that you would never have to wander again. At the end of this service, we have a prayer team up front. Outside the doors of your auditorium, we have a guest services center, and we have a baptistry, and it's set up today, because if you are doubting, you know you've never given your life to Jesus. Today's the day you need to make that decision and go all in. No more waiting. Let me, you say why, let me put it this way. Guys, it's the fourth quarter,

and you don't know how much time you have left. I don't know if it's the two-minute drill in your life, I don't know if there's seconds left on the clock, but I'm just telling someone here today, today's the day you better get right with God. And he is waiting, he is willing to accept you with open arms, because he accepts sinners, no matter your past. He's ready to receive you and to offer forgiveness of your sins. You gotta just give your life to him and get baptized, amen. And if that's you, listen, I'm just gonna invite you. Our band's gonna come sing one more song, and during this song, I want you to let God speak to you. Just say, God, what do you want me to do? And if you know the answer, don't put it off. At our baptisteries, we have a change of clothes, we have shorts, a shirt, towels for you, you got no excuses. And for those of you that are followers of Jesus during this song, I want you, especially those of you that are going through a tribulation, a dark season right now, I want you to know that God still has you in his hands. This song is called Glory to the One. And it says that God holds it all. And I want you to know that God is ready to hold your life in his hands securely, especially those of you who need to give your life to Jesus

for the very first time and get baptized. Can I pray for all of us? Father, thank you for the book of Revelation. Thank you that we are blessed when we take it to heart, and you have spoken to someone here today. So Father, help them not leave without making a decision for you once and for all. No more waiting, it's the fourth quarter. And God, for the person walking through a really dark season, would you remind them that you have never let them out of your hands? They may not see you, they may not sense you. You're still there, and you will get them through whatever they're going through by the power of your son, Jesus. It's in his name we pray. Everybody said amen. Let's sing this out. Come on, come on, come on. Come on, come on, come on. ♪ He's the God of all creation ♪ ♪ He's been good through all the ages ♪ ♪ For sure, boy, He never changes ♪ ♪ He never changes ♪ ♪ He's the God who moves the mountains ♪ ♪ He reconciles a broken hearted ♪ ♪ And in Him we found redemption ♪ ♪ Our redemption ♪ So we respond, we sing. ♪ Glory to the one who holds it all ♪

♪ Glory to the one who saved my soul ♪ ♪ To the one who I adore, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Glory to the one who reigns on high ♪ ♪ Glory to the God who saved my life ♪ ♪ To the one who I adore, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Glory to the one who holds it all, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ He's the high and never leaves ♪ ♪ His people through the generations, yes ♪ ♪ So what else can we do but worship Him? ♪ ♪ Thank you Jesus, Jesus ♪ ♪ Glory to the one who holds it all ♪ ♪ Glory to the one who saved my soul ♪ ♪ To the one who I adore, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Glory to the one who reigns on high ♪ ♪ Glory to the God who saved my life ♪ ♪ To the one who I adore, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ To the one, to the one who I adore, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ All praise to you Jesus, there's no one else ♪ Join with heaven, we sing all honor, power, glory and love. All honor and power to Jesus forever. All honor and power to Jesus forever. Come on, sing it out. All honor and power to Jesus forever. All honor and power to Jesus forever. All power to Jesus forever. All honor and power to Jesus forever. All honor and power to Jesus forever. All honor and power to Jesus forever. All honor and power to Jesus forever. Glory to the one who holds it all.

Glory to the one who saved my soul. To the one who rides on praise and love. Glory to the one who reigns on high. Glory to the God who saved my life. To the one who rides on praise and love. Glory to the one who rides on praise and love. All honor and power to Jesus forever. All honor and power to Jesus forever. All honor and power to Jesus forever. All honor and power to Jesus forever. To you alone all the glory, the power, the praise forever and ever. May our worship be pleasing to you, God. Jesus, it's in your name that we sing, that we pray, amen. For any of you that need prayer there'll be people up here at the front waiting for you for the rest of you go out Have a great week. We will see you next weekend