The heavens proclaim the glory of God; the sky's display has craftsmanship. Day after day, they continue to speak; night after night, they make Him known. They speak without a word or sound; their voice is never heard, yet their message has gone throughout the Earth and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun; it bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding. It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race. The sun rises at one end of the heavens and follows its course to the other end; nothing can hide from its heat.
The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commandments of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living. Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever. The laws of the Lord are true; each one is fair. They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are a warning to your servant, a great reward for those who obey Him.
How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden thoughts; keep your britons; don't let them control me. I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to You, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
Rise up, lift your eyes to the heavens, and let your voices ring out as we worship His holy name. Welcome, Calvary Church! Go ahead and stand with us as we praise. We're so excited to worship with you; go ahead and put those hands together.
Do you see what I see? Do you see what I see? Light? Wonders, wake us up! There is a reason to be thankful for the resurrection in this place this morning. But I see that the grave is empty, and you know what? I know anything is possible. See you, wake up, sleeper!
Come on, Church! Don't you know we serve a God that'll never fail? Despite your circumstances, despite your situation, He never fails. Christ is my firm foundation, the rock on which I stand when everything around me is changing. I've never been more glad that I put my faith in Jesus, 'cause He's never let me down; He's faithful through generations. That's good news, right? Now come on, let's sing this next part.
I've still got joy in chaos; I've got peace that makes no sense. For Jesus Christ, I know He wants us to trust in Him, and He never will fail. No matter what you're going through, it's time to trust in Him. Come on, every voice, let's set this up today. My house was built on Him; safely with Him, I'm gonna make it through.
Come on, front to the back, let's go! Blue eyes in this place, I'm gonna stand. I'm scared, but I'm standing in Jesus, 'cause He's never left me, so why would He fail now? He won't fail; I know He won't. Jesus, Father God, we know that You will never fail, Lord.
As we continue in worship, we lift up our Hallelujah because You are worthy. Joy is mine with a thousand Hallelujahs. Redemption's resurrection means I have eternity to try. Your name deserves a song, a thousand Hallelujahs.
And it never will fail; no, it doesn't matter what you're going through; it's time to trust in You. Come on, every voice, let's set this up today. My house was built on You; safely with You, I'm gonna make it through.
Come on, front to the back, let's go! Blue eyes in this place, I'm gonna stand. I'm scared, but I'm standing in Jesus, 'cause He's never left me, so why would He fail now? He won't fail; I know He won't. Jesus, Father God, we know that You will never fail, Lord.
As we continue in worship, we lift up our Hallelujah because You are worthy. Joy is mine with a thousand Hallelujahs. Redemption's resurrection means I have eternity to try. Your name deserves a song, a thousand Hallelujahs.
Everybody, you know, come on, can you tell Him that God is so good? How thankful are we for the freedom that we have in the name of Jesus Christ? Amen. You guys can see what a good day it is to be in church. You guys excited to be in church this morning?
Anyone at Freedom Celebration last night that's really tired this morning? It was harder getting up than it usually is for a 9 A.M. service, wasn't it? A little bit more difficult to wake up this morning? And that's why my words are a little slower as they're coming out of my mouth this morning. But how great was Freedom Celebration last night?
Hey, it was pretty incredible! We were able to estimate, we talked to a lot of the vendors, we talked to our safety team, and we were able to estimate right around 12 to 15,000 people in attendance there last night, which was amazing! So good! We heard from a lot of the vendors; they're like, "Man, we do events with the city all the time for Fourth of July, but this was different."
God, You're so good. God, You're so good. God, You're so good. We magnify Your name; You alone deserve the honor and the praise. Lord Jesus, this song is forever. Thank You, so we sing, "God, You're so good."
Last night was an amazing event! More people showed up than to the city's event on the 4th of July, and the fireworks were bigger and more plentiful. This is good because Christians should be leading the charge, not behind the curve. We got to preach the gospel and gave out 500 Bibles to people who came forward.
The AVL team and production team worked hard until 1:30 in the morning and came to the campus early the next morning. We want to thank them and all the other teams and volunteers who showed the city that we love them. This was capping off Love Week, where we had over 1500 hours of service, 62 consecutive days of service, to show the city that we love them.
Geology is ready to launch their next season of groups on Tuesday, July 11th at 6:30. Lenny will be teaching a class called Waves of Revival, talking about Revival and Jesus Revolution. In addition, the next Man Up Rally is on the 14th of this month. If you've been to one of the Man Up Rallies, come out and bring your kids (if they are boys) and your friends. It's gonna be a great time!
I love those Man Up rallies. There's nothing like hearing a room full of men worship and sing furiously and passionately. Women, if you're trying to get your husband to sing, I've heard it and seen it - it is such a powerful thing to be with all the men of the house worshiping. Yeah, so amazing!
We got to celebrate a lot of life changes last night, and we're hoping and praying that so many of those would get baptized next Sunday. Next weekend is our baptism weekend, so if you are a Christian and you have not yet been baptized, take that step of obedience and get baptized. You can sign up on our website so that we have a t-shirt ready for you.
If you have been following the Lord for a while, I encourage you to come to the baptism. It reignites your faith and reminds you what it's like for new believers to have that passion in following Jesus.
Hey, I want to take a second to thank all of you who partnered with us for Freedom Celebration this year. Because of large donors and gifts, and because of our collection weekend, we raised over 175 thousand dollars to put Freedom Celebration on this year. That was really only a fraction of what the event cost, but thank you so much for your generosity.
It's because of your generosity and faithfulness that we were able to put that event on last night. It's because of your generosity that over 500 people said yes to Jesus and now have had their eternal destination changed from Hell to Heaven. They're living today with purpose, passion, and hope - and that could not happen without your generosity and sacrifice. So thank you!
We have black boxes around the campus for your regular tithes and offerings. You can drop cash or check in those, or you can also give securely online at calvarynm.church/give. But once again, thank you for helping create life change in this city that we love so much. Those boxes are also available for your prayer requests and praise reports.
Whether you're celebrating something that God's doing or maybe you're going through a season of storms and you need somebody to struggle in it with you, we're ready to do that. You can come pray with us in person, or if you're watching online, we've got a team that would love to chat with you directly. But if you're like, "I just need to write it down and set it in one of those boxes," you're invited to do that as well. We want to be praying with you and for you.
Amen. One final thing: I hope you brought your Bible today. If you did, hold your Bible up in the air. If you didn't, there should be one in front of you in your seat. You're going to need that today because Pastor Skip is digging deep with a message in our series, The End Is Near. He just told us before they're going to be flipping around to a lot of verses, so I hope your fingers are ready!
I hope you're ready to flip through those verses and dig into the word because it's going to be a great day. But right now, why don't you stand up, greet someone next to you, and tell them what your favorite part of Freedom Celebration was?
Well, we served at his table and slept on the floor, but he starved us and beat us and nailed us to the door. Well, I'm ready to die; I can't take anymore, and I'm sick of his lies and his tricks. He told us he loved us, but that was a lie; there was blood in his pockets and death in his eyes.
Well, my number is up, and I'm willing to die if the band will play six six. If it's been, we'll play 666. If the band will play 666.
We're finding that God is doing exactly what He says to declare this a global house. Now for the last look, good morning, good morning, good morning! Turn in your Bibles, please, to Revelation chapter 13.
Thank you, Chad, for setting us up with that Larry Norman song from the 70s. I had a special request for that to set up for today's study called 666, Revelation chapter 13.
Before we get into it, I just want to revel in the leftover wafting of the event last night. It was just so exciting to see so many people come out to an event that glorified Jesus Christ. The Gospel could be preached, and hundreds of people gave their lives to Christ. For me, that was like the crème de la crème. Thank you for your involvement in that.
Well, I'm going to put four words up on the screen. I want you to look at them because they're unusual together: stolen baby Jesus syndrome. That's a thing—stolen baby Jesus syndrome.
What this is, is around Christmas time when there are public nativity sets, there are people who go into the nativity sets and steal baby Jesus for whatever reason. Maybe they're protesting Christmas; maybe they do it as a joke, but they steal baby Jesus. Five of them in one season—five baby Jesus in one season were stolen from nativity sets in Washington State.
This is such a thing that there is a Wikipedia page named baby Jesus theft. It has its own Wikipedia page. In Wellington, Florida, they had their baby Jesus stolen from the public nativity set two years in a row.
Now, this town in Florida is a wealthy community; the baby Jesus statue, just the baby Jesus statue, was worth eighteen hundred dollars. So it was stolen two times in a row. Finally, they put a GPS unit in the third baby Jesus, and when it was stolen, they followed it to the house of the thief—an 18-year-old woman who stole baby Jesus from the nativity set.
In many of these cases in the stolen baby Jesus syndrome, Jesus is replaced with a stuffed animal or a doll that looks like Jesus. The Bible predicts there is coming a substitute Christ, often referred to as the Antichrist. We typically see him as somebody who is against Jesus, but the prefix 'anti' can just as easily mean 'instead of.'
It seems from all that we read in Scripture that this Antichrist will try to pose as a replacement to Jesus Christ, a substitute Christ. Gary Frazier, in his book 'Signs of the Coming Christ,' writes, "Somewhere at this moment, there may be a young man growing to maturity. He is in all likelihood a brooding, thoughtful man. Inside his heart, however, there is hellish rage. It boils like a cauldron of molten lead. He hates God; he despises Jesus Christ; he detests the church. In his mind, there is taking shape the form of a dream of conquest. He will disingenuously present himself as a friend of Christ and the church, yet he will, once empowered, pour out hell itself onto this world."
Last week, we looked at the beginning part of Revelation chapter 13 and noticed what John noticed in his vision. He said he saw a beast rising up out of the sea, which means the nations of the world. He comes up from the nations of the world and rules with national, even international authority. Because his number, Revelation 13:18, is 666, we gave six characteristics of the Antichrist, including wickedness, world domination, wonder, worship, words, and war.
Today, as we continue in Revelation 13, I want to give you three additional details that make Antichrist's rule so dangerous, including the mark that he's going to force everybody to take. Anyone who's ever heard of the Antichrist, whether they've read the Bible or not, has heard of 666. It is now common parlance in our culture.
One of the reasons it's so common is because there was a movie in 1976 called The Omen, starring Gregory Peck. It was all about an Antichrist figure, a child, a boy that was born named Damien. The movie was remade in 2006 and released on June 6th, 2006—6/6/06.
We are still talking primarily here about the Antichrist, though we have more information given about his agenda. We are introduced to another figure who is going to come, one who facilitates or mediates the work of Antichrist's rule.
Let me give you three additional details that make Antichrist's rule so dangerous. The first is his mark. John wrote the Book of Revelation in 96 A.D., and before he wrote Revelation, he wrote First John. In First John chapter 2, verse 18, he wrote to a wide circle of believers, noting that they knew the Antichrist was coming. This was a very common teaching in the New Testament churches, taught by John, Paul, and others.
To understand where they heard this from, we can look to Second Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 5. Here, Paul wrote that the mystery of lawlessness was already at work and that the Lawless one would be revealed in his own time. He would be consumed by the Lord with the brightness of his mouth and destroyed with the breath of his mouth.
This coming of the Lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. God will send a strong delusion to those who do not believe the truth, so that they will believe the lie.
Before John wrote Revelation chapter 13, the early churches were already being taught to look for a figure called the Antichrist. What was the source material for this teaching in the New Testament? The answer is the Old Testament. There are over 100 passages in Scripture that describe the Antichrist, though he has different names besides Antichrist.
In Daniel chapter 7, Daniel sees a vision of four beasts, and the last beast has ten horns. In verse 8, a little horn comes up among them and has eyes like a man and a mouth speaking pompous words. This individual starts out small but grows in power and influence. In verse 21, the same horn is making war against the saints and prevailing against them until the Ancient of Days, when God comes and a judgment is made in favor of the saints.
In Daniel chapter 8, verse 23, it says that in the latter times of their kingdom, a king will arise who will speak pompous words against the Most High, persecute the saints, and intend to change times and laws. The saints will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time, which is three and a half years.
This king obviously wants to change his own morality, history, and start a new religion. They knew he was going to be a political leader; they knew he was going to be a military leader; they knew he was going to be a religious leader; they knew he was going to be a deceiver; they knew he was going to be a destroyer.
Transgressors have reached their fullness, and a king shall arise having fierce features who understands sinister schemes. His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power. He shall destroy fearfully and shall prosper and thrive. He shall destroy the mighty and also the holy people.
He's going to be a deceiver and a destroyer. Remember what Jesus said: "There's coming a time, a tribulation coming to the Earth such as has not been from the beginning of time, no, nor ever shall be."
Now, once again, turn the page to Daniel chapter 9. Look at Daniel 9, verse 26: "And after the 62 weeks, Messiah will be cut off but not for himself, and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it will be with the flood until the end of the war; desolations are determined. Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, seven years, but in the middle of the week, three and a half year mark, he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate even until the consummation which is determined is poured out on the desolate."
So one more page—turn the page to chapter 11. Chapter 11, verse 36: "Then the king shall do according to his own will. He shall exalt and magnify himself above every God and speak blasphemies against the God of gods and shall prosper until the wrath has been accomplished, for what has been determined shall be done. He shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women nor regard any God, but he will exalt himself above them all."
Because of that, many have conjectured that he will be a homosexual, though we don't know for sure; that is a guess. But in their place, he shall honor a god of fortresses and a god which his fathers did not know. He shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones, pleasant things, and he shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign God he shall acknowledge and advance its glory, and he will cause them to rule over many and divide the land for gain.
He's going to buy force; he's going to pour all of his wealth into a military machine for control. He is, according to Daniel chapter 9, going to make a covenant with Israel for a week. He'll slaughter the Jews at the three and a half year mark; he'll try to wipe them out, as we saw last week, so that God cannot fulfill His promises to the Jews, so that they cannot receive the kingdom that He promised to them.
So when John writes and says you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, indeed they had. Paul taught it; John taught it; they referenced Daniel, no doubt, and Jesus Himself referred to Daniel when He said, "When you see the abomination of desolation as spoken by Daniel the Prophet standing in the Holy place, you who are in Judea, flee to the mountains."
So by the time John writes Revelation chapter 13, First John, Thessalonians, and other letters had been written and widely circulated, so the church was aware that the Antichrist is coming. They knew that he was going to be a political leader, a military leader, a religious leader, a deceiver, and a destroyer.
He's going to combine religion and politics, and he's going to be a religious promoter, and he's going to be a political promoter, and he's going to be a sidekick to the Antichrist.
They probably didn't call him the Antichrist, but they certainly knew of him. Paul and Jesus both taught of the abomination of desolation, and Revelation 13 brings it all together. One detail to look at is his mediator, someone who will come to be a helper to the Antichrist and help facilitate his agenda.
This person is referred to as the false prophet in Revelation 16, 19, and 20. He has two horns like a lamb and speaks like a dragon, combining two animals with opposite natures. He will have a striking and inspiring look and sound, but what you see is not what you get.
He will combine church and politics with religious fervor and passion. During the tribulation period, people will be so vulnerable and looking for answers in any way, shape, or form. The false prophet will be there to provide them with an answer, swaying the world with his combination of religion and politics.
A global religion is being brought by someone, which incentivizes the marrying of church and state. This seems impossible to some, especially in America, as we talk about the separation of church and state. However, this does not mean that Christians don't have a right to speak into the public forum, but rather that the government cannot intrude into the church.
In the tribulation period, this person will marry church and state, integrating religion and politics. This is possible due to God sending a strong delusion, as mentioned in Second Thessalonians. Revelation 13 introduces a false prophet, who brings a worldwide religious system and is a spiritual deceiver. This system is called Mystery Babylon, and the false prophet will perform great signs, such as making fire come down from heaven.
He will also cause an image of the Beast to come to life, and those who do not worship it will be killed. Today, this idea of an image coming to life is more plausible due to advances in technology. For example, animatronics such as Mr. Lincoln at Disneyland, and more recently, artificial intelligence.
Sam Altman, the CEO of Open AI, recently announced that they have created a robot that can write a book indistinguishable from a human-written book. The CEO of the group called Open AI was just in Israel and spoke to the Israeli leaders. What got my attention is he spoke his vision of the future, predicting that AI (Artificial Intelligence) will soon cure all disease and rid the world of poverty.
What a promise! Cure all disease and rid the world of poverty—everybody wants that. In the article that I read, it said Altman sees himself and his company as the creators of a kind of digital Messiah which will remedy humanity's educational and material ills. That's happening now, right now.
Whenever this happens in the tribulation period, the false prophet, the second beast, will erect an idol in Jerusalem and commission some gigantic sculpture to honor the Beast, and then he'll animate it. It'll look like it comes to life.
Notice it says it was granted to give breath to the image. So can you imagine a statue? I just saw a video the other day on something called The Impossible Statue that was made out of a printer—a large, lifelike statue, beautiful, but it was all done with artificial intelligence.
Imagine just a dormant statue suddenly breathing and seeming to come to life. Now, I don't know that he's actually going to come to life because it just says that it was granted power to give breath to the image, and the word is pneuma, not zoe or bios; it's not the word for life; it's the word for breath.
I don't think Satan can give life, as I mentioned last week; I think it can only appear to do so, just like Pharaoh's magicians. Remember when Moses was performing all his tricks, and Pharaoh's magicians could mimic what Moses was doing?
So all of this will be part of that event we've been telling you about—the abomination of desolation—where this image is placed in the Jewish temple that will be built in Jerusalem. But notice, and we really kind of skipped over it because the animated statue takes up most of our interest, but notice in verse 13 he performs great signs that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the Earth.
You remember somebody in the Old Testament who did that? Elijah the prophet, right? On Mount Carmel, he called fire down from heaven like lightning came and struck the altar; the animal licked up all the water in the trough against the prophets of Baal.
Well, the Bible predicts in the Book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, chapter four, just the last few words, God said, "Behold, I send you Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he will turn the heart of the children to the fathers and the fathers to the children, lest I come and smite the Earth with a curse."
So it could be that the false prophet is going to try to mimic Elijah and fulfill in Jewish minds about prophecy. By the way, and I'm just throwing out information at this point, I wanted to insert this just by way of passing: did you know that in Islamic theology, Muslim theology, Muslims have an eschatology?
I don't know if you know this or not, but they are anticipating the coming of a leader they call the Mahdi, the Mahdi. Divided into Sunni and Shia, Shia Muslims believe in the coming of the 12th Imam, called the Mahdi. They say the Mahdi is a leader who will take control of the world system.
Not only will the Mahdi come, but Jesus Christ will return. According to Islamic theology, Jesus will return as a radical Muslim and tell the Christians they were wrong and force the world to lead the world to worship the Mahdi and institute Sharia law. Finally, after him, the Dajjal will come. The Dajjal is the false Christ, a deceiver who will attempt to stop the Mahdi, and he will be killed.
If you were to put both the Bible and Islamic teachings together, you discover the Bible's Antichrist is Islam's savior, and the Bible's false prophet is Islam's Jesus Christ, and the Bible's returning Christ is Islam's Antichrist. It is noteworthy and sobering how that will pan out in the end.
Satan's major role is and always has been deception. He is the father of lies, and Jesus said he is the father of lies. He is all about deceiving people from the truth, and he is doing it right now today. We have confusion over gender; people are killing babies, talking about that as a health care privilege, and extolling homosexuality as normal and good.
Matthew 24: Jesus said many will come in my name saying, "I am Christ," and will deceive many. Many false prophets will come, and they are here, but culminating in the future will be the false prophet who forces the world to worship the Beast, the Antichrist.
The Mark of the Beast is a concept found in the Bible, specifically in the book of Revelation. It states that both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, will receive a mark in their right hand or on their foreheads, so that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the Beast or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom: let him who has understanding calculate the number of the Beast, for it is the number of a man—his number is 666. This verse has been the seedbed, the source of much speculation, theories, and conspiracies. They run rampant, and 666 is such a creepy number to us in our culture.
Whether you've heard a sermon on it or read the Bible, you know that 666 is an unsettling number, similar to the number 13. Many hotels and businesses will just eliminate the 13th floor completely, even though it might be there. They don't register it in the elevator and don't want to have a 13th floor.
Moreover, the false prophet, and many Christians sort of skip over this part, will require some kind of identifying mark that signifies loyalty, adherence, affinity, or worship. It will be required for public and private commerce, so you can't shop at the mall, go to the grocery store, get a prescription filled, go into a restaurant, fill up your car with gas, or pay your bills without it.
A couple of years ago, there was a home in Bel Air, California, with the address of 666. It was Ronald Reagan's home after he left the White House. Authorities will renumber highways that are given the designation 666 and just get rid of it. You can get your kicks on Route 66, but not on Route 666.
It happened in the world; I think it was called Covid something, right? You weren't allowed to go in a restaurant; you weren't allowed to get on an airplane; you couldn't attend a public meeting unless you showed a vaccination card as proof that you had adhered. Then you were given admittance.
Now, that was just a precursor; that is not the mark of the beast, but it was worldwide, and it did affect everyone. It allowed for universal government overreach in culture after culture. Governments during that time were labeling groups as essential and non-essential. Among those regarded as non-essential were the church, and you were told you must comply or you don't love anybody.
For two thousand years, this idea of forcing people to take a mark to do anything in life, like buy or sell, was just not plausible. It's so plausible now; it's already in place. You have a barcode on the back of your credit card, do you not? You know how much information about you is there. You know you put that in an ATM on the other side of the country, and it says, "Hello, Skip Heitzig, what would you like?" I mean, it's like, whoa, it's all in a barcode.
Every item you buy has a barcode that is attached to the barcode that you purchase it with, so the information in the computer is there. This is just the next step.
Now, the big question for most people is what is 666? It would seem like, well, we should know because here it says, "Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast." And boy, have there been book after book written of calculations of what this means, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
People have guessed what this is; we really don't know what this is, but I guarantee you in the tribulation period they'll know what this is, and that's the reference I think, "Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast." At that time, people are definitely going to know what this is.
Now let me just take this down a notch in closing, and I'm not going to give you, I'm not going to even drag you through the mud of all the conspiracies, if it could be this, could be that, and maybe after church they'll say, "Oh Skip, it could be this or could be that," because I get this all the time.
It could be this simple; it could simply represent humanity in general, 666. The Bible often connects the number six with humanity, with mankind. Humans were created on the sixth day; we were told to work for six days; Hebrew slavery was limited to six years.
Whereas that's true also, it is true that God is associated with seven because seven is the number of completeness. Completeness, I know we like to say perfection, but it's complete. There are seven notes on a diatonic scale; there are seven colors in the color spectrum; there are seven days in a week; the feasts of God in Leviticus 23 were seven feasts, and the number seven appears over 30 times in the Book of Revelation.
It's a complete number. Man at his best is a six; God is a seven; man always falls short. His government is a six; his laws are a six; his system. No matter how hard we try, we can never reach perfection on our own.
It could be a lot of different things, but let 666 remind us that without God, something is missing from every life. Your life is a six; it could be a seven, but it can only be a seven with God.
To close with a fun little story, true story, you've heard of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach. He had kids, and he taught them music, and the thing that drove Johann Sebastian Bach nuts—and his kids knew it, so they did it all the time—is they would play a musical score and then they would end and leave off the final chord or the final note that resolves the measure.
So they would play, play, play, and then leave it off and walk away from the piano. This drove Bach nuts! Even if he was upstairs in bed falling asleep and he heard that, he would get up from bed, walk downstairs, and go to the piano to play the stinking chord because it has to be resolved; it has to be finished; it has to have the final note.
Satan is a six; God will play a seven; He'll play the final note when Jesus returns from Heaven to the Earth at His second coming. That's when that done goes off.
Antichrist, false prophet, six six six; Jesus comes along, it's a seven.
Happily, we live in a day and age when people are stealing Jesus from absolutely every corner of our culture and our institutions. A nation that has printed on its money "In God We Trust" is a nation far from trusting God.
And Father, we know that we are watching the disintegration of things we once held dear that were built into the fabric of this country. We see a world in confusion, a world deceived by Satan, and if we dare speak out about it or against it, we will be labeled; we will be maligned.
Father, I pray that You would strengthen us for the days ahead, strengthen us for the fight, strengthen us for the battle. Help us not to compromise, to love people wildly passionately, to give our time and our resources like we did this week.
It was such a good example—Love Week; this church loved this city and continues to love this city and pour its work and finances into it because God loved the world that He gave His only Son.
But Lord, there's coming a few individuals, two that we have seen so far, who are completely antithetical to the love of God. They love themselves; they speak pompous things, pompous words—one that will exalt himself above God Himself. That's where this is all going.
Keep us strong in Jesus' name. Amen.
Jesus plays that seventh chord, like Pastor Skip was saying.
Hey, if it's your first time here at Calvary, we're so glad that you joined us today. Church, are we happy that they were here with us?
Hopefully, you received a Next Step card on your way in, but if you did not, on your way out, connect with one of our team members. We have a gift for you, and if you fill out this card, we would love to make a five-dollar donation on your behalf to a ministry that you choose written on that card.
Well, if you are a little tired this morning, I hope you have a wonderful afternoon to nap and spend time with your connect group this week.
Let me pray for you. Father, thank you so much for Your love, for the salvation that You have provided for us in the person of Jesus. Thank You for the salvation that we got to celebrate last night.
We ask that You will keep those that made a decision to follow You, that You will help them to grow in You, to become strong disciples that lean on You and get connected with Your people.
We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you guys.
on Nov 05, 2023
