A FINAL BLESSING AND CALL FOR URGENCY
A Bible study on Revelation 22 led after Charlie Kirk's death, focusing on Christ's return and the call to hold fast to faith. The leader emphasizes urgency in evangelism, separation from worldly corruption, and commands to 'keep' what believers have been given. Participants share grief and testimony while offering pastoral encouragement toward prayer and community care.
Chapters
You're more than able. Ain't no problem that's too hard for a strong and mighty God. You're more than a able. Ain't no problem that's too hard for a strong and mighty God. It's. You are. You're more than able. Time at a time. I can prove I can always can I use. Good morning, family. Good morning to you guys. A lot of you guys are on the, the prayer call and just joined us in that time of prayer that we had for the last 30 minutes or so. But I want to welcome everybody else this morning. Good morning. Good morning to you guys. We're all processing right now, right? And just prayed and talked about it a bit on the prayer call, processing as we just wrapped up that time of prayer, as we each had some individual prayer requests. But ultimately we all just are in a state of mourning just, just, just processing emotions after the death and martyrdom of Charlie Kirk. And I feel like the, the Lord spoke to me at the end of that prayer time and said, this is Koinonia. Koinonia is the fellowship that God desires of us, his body. That's the Acts 2:42. The fellowship that the church is to have in Koinonia is a oneness with one another. And I feel that oneness with you guys. I feel that oneness with the church, the, not the church building, but the, the body of Christ. I, I feel a oneness for our brother Robert, who, whose family, you know, attends Annunciation, the church in Minneapolis that saw evil a couple weeks ago with the shooting there. Those whose hearts are, are breaking and mourning for Charlie Kirk and his family. So I'm grateful for the oneness that we could experience. And as always, the enemy is going to try to sow division amongst us. He's going to try to sow lies. And yeah, the, the truth is going to prevail. We're going to be empowered and equipped for this season right now. I believe that. I mean, as we've seen throughout the book of Revelation, God's heart of mercy, throughout the, the whole book, every judgment that came forth, there was opportunity to repent. Until the time which I believe is coming soon, there's just going to be no more opportunity. Our days are short. And whether it's because the rapture happens or one of. One of us, you know, God forbid the Lord calls us home, I shouldn't say God forbid if he calls us home, but we don't know when our, our last day will be. We don't. And we should have an urgency right now like never before. And we're gonna. We're gonna conclude the book of Revelation. I also want this to be a time where that if y' all are still trying to process emotions from this past week, I want this to be. You guys could do that. As it's been a heavy week for me and I know all of us just seeing what happened to Charlie, knowing he was a brother in Christ known his mission was to lead souls to Jesus. And I mentioned on the prayer call that I. I've had the opportunity to meet Charlie did some events with Turning Point, Turning Point Faith, their ministry partners of the King's Council. And you. You realize real quick that it's not a political movement that Turning Point is Charlie's heart is to lead the lost to truth and the truth of the Gospel, the truth of Jesus Christ. So yeah, at any point this week, if anybody wants to jump in, the. The time is yours for certain. I the. The plan is to read through the end of Revelation. There's definitely some things to pull from it, especially, especially urgency as the last thing that Jesus says in the second to last verse of the entire Bible is surely I am coming quickly. There's a couple Beatitudes that we're going to talk about and there's seven Beatitudes throughout the book of Revelation. I didn't really get into them as we went through them, aside from the first one in chapter one, but we'll go over that a little bit. But we'll jump into the Word and we'll just hear what the Lord has to say to us. And one thing we prayed for is that the Spirit just ministers to us today every which way possible, wherever we have a need. If we, if we're brokenhearted, if we're afflicted, no matter what, the burden is that the Lord ministers to us today. So I know we just prayed on the prayer call, but Father God, help us in this moment. Speak to us. Holy Spirit, minister to us, help us, heal us, counsel us. Lord God, guide us in this time. And thank you for this group. Thank you for the oneness that we have. And we just commit this time to you. Lord, have your way in Jesus name. Amen. Okay, so we ended last week Revelation 21 with I feel like my spirit's like irking me a bit to not even get into Revelation 22 right now. However, I'm going to start it. We'll see how the Lord leads because there's certain certainly some things that we could pull out and that are helpful for us on a day like today, a week after Charlie's death. So. All right, I'll do my best here, guys. So we ended last week with the. Some of the descriptions of Revelation 21. And chapter 22 opens with. And he showed me. This is John speaking, as we know that. And this is one of the angels that poured out one of the bold judgments. He's the one that is, you know, carry John away in spirit to show him some of these last. Hey, Christian. Yeah, Christian.
Before you get going, I just feel like I need to.
To.
To give you power, man. If you feel like you're being let off this. I mean, we've been here for 37 weeks going through this, and it's going to be here next week, too. If you feel like Lord's pulling you somewhere, I just want to speak up and give you permission, man.
Okay, well, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Yeah, that. Well, I know a lot of you guys were on the prayer call. Some of you just hopped on. Now, I do want to give anybody the opportunity. We could spend more time in prayer. Spend more time. Just sometimes it's just some verbal vomiting to process emotions. But a couple things on my heart. One is this last week, I was thinking a lot about Acts, chapter seven, when we're introduced to Saul, who we know as the apostle Paul. Right. But when he's introduced in chapter seven, he. He was introduced, and there wasn't much said. It was just that those who. Who stoned Stephen to death, Stephen, who's a deacon of the church, one of the first seven deacons, and the first Christian martyr that Paul well saw was there, and those who went to stone him, they. They cast their garments down at his feet. And it doesn't say anything in the Bible that that was an influence on his life, but I have to believe that it was. I have to believe not just for Paul's conversion, and it was a radical conversion for Paul, but also what he saw that day, that. That Stephen got martyred, that. That stayed with him through all the persecution he faced. And it gave him a boldness, courage. It equipped him for the mission that God had him on. And I. I believe this. This is. There's a parallel to Charlie's death and all of us seeing it and, you know, even seeing something like that is. It's hard to see. I. I don't think that, you know, that we're supposed to see stuff like that necessarily, but it was shocking. A lot of us were distraught. Some people called me, just cried, didn't know what to say. I felt like Calling some people without knowing what to say. Because although it may be branded as political violence, as I mentioned before, Charlie was about Jesus, period. All of his conservative views came because he was a Christian and he knew the Bible. His heart was to love folks and bring them to truth. Charlie wasn't preaching his truth, he was preaching the truth. And there's a lot of opposition to the truth, especially in the year 2025, when truth is relative, where it's not just deciding to believe in truth or not believe in truth, but what has evolved in this, this world is just this culture of you can have your own truth. We know that's not the case at all. Jesus is the way, the truth, the life. One of the commands of revelation is that we hold fast to the word of God. We hold fast the truth. And I, I will mention some of these Beatitudes because I. They're. They're so appropriate for us today. We know the Beatitudes in, in the Sermon on the mount in Matthew 5. And it's, you know, the Beatitudes are the blessings. The, the blessings are, you know, whenever you say blessed is. It's this Greek word macarios, and the, the blessings and the happiness that we are to experience, we are to enjoy, we are to walk in. They're available. And even, you know, when that word was translated to Latin, when Jerome published the. The Vulgate, it was this word beus, which we get the word Beatitude from. And this word was so highly reverenced that it was a happiness or joy, a bliss, a flourishing, a. A fortune, basically, that was reserved for the gods. Like that. That's, that's how they use this word macarios, to beatuse, to beatitude. And we, we use that word blessed. So, and it's like Jesus, like. Oh, no, no, no. It's like the. This happiness, this joy that you believe is reserved only for the gods. No, this is reserved for the, the children of the one and true living God. That, that's the, the blessings that. And the happiness and the joy that we could walking every single day. And the last. In Matthew 5, verse 10, it says black. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteous. Righteousness's sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. And I, I think Charlie is in a place right now where there there's nothing but joy. He's in the presence of the Lord. We're gonna mourn, we're gonna weep while we're still here. But ultimately we'll be with them. His. His wife will be with him. And it's tough right now, but we're going to be in a place. And it says that for those who revile and persecute us, say all sorts of evil stuff about us. Now surely Charlie falls into that category. And for it to say, rejoice and be exceedingly glad. So when we face opposition, oftentimes we, we get angry, we get upset, we get emotional. We want to just like, shake somebody, almost like, why, why don't you see the truth? Why can't you understand the truth? But opposition is going to come, and there's going to be those who ultimately never come to truth, never come to salvation, but it should never be because we weren't doing our job and sharing the truth and being the light and being salt. So the first Beatitude in Revelation comes in chapter one, verse three. It says, blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it, for the time is near. So as I mentioned, this last chapter of revelation, chapter 22, there's the last two beatitudes. And this chapter should spark an urgency in all of us because Jesus says, surely I am coming quickly, right? There's an urgency. We. We don't have time to wait. We know that when it says he's coming quickly, it means he's coming suddenly. He's coming like a thief in the night. He. He's coming. It could be at any moment, and he wants to come when his church is, is ready, a ready church. But when it says keep, right? If we, we read through this over the last, as Roger said, 37 weeks. So we read it, we heard it. But to keep it, right, keep the, the words of this prophecy, to obey it and to keep it. It is deeper than just obey. It's deeper than just doing it. It's action, it's guarding it as precious. It's holding fast to. It's continuing in it, right? So we're to do the words of this prophecy and it's like, okay, well, exactly what are the commands? What are we to. To keep? And in the notes, the top of the notes, all the, the different Beatitudes are there. And some of them, you know, in Revelation 14, it's Blessed are those who are martyred in the tribulation. In Revelation 16, it's Bless believers on earth during the tribulation who kept themselves pure in the face of of evil and persecution. The next beatitude is blessed are the believers who celebrate with Jesus at the the wedding banquet of the the Lamb. That's us. The next one is blessed are those who have part in the first resurrection and will reign during the millennium. Revelation 22 is the sixth one is blessed are those who keep the words of the prophecy in this book. Jesus says, behold, I'm coming quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. So it circles back to that, that first beatitude, that first blessing in chapter one. And then in verse 14 here in chapter 22 it says, Blessed are those who do his commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates of the city. Now if it it, when you think of this, say, okay, I'm to read Revelation, I'll be blessed. I'm to hear it, but I need to keep the commands. I need to to to do the things that it's saying to do in this book. And a lot of things that we're told to do are given to us when Jesus writes those letters to the seven churches, because it wasn't just for those churches at the time. We know that those churches represent the entire church, but also if you take a road map of history, they each represent a certain time in history and the state of the church. But ultimately, for at the end of every letter to the church, he says, hear what the Spirit says. That's one of our commands, right? That if we keep the words of this prophecy in Revelation, we're to hear what the Spirit says. That's an important one because we get on here. It's good to, to know the book of Revelation. It's good to know a timeline of end time events, but we're to hear what the Spirit is saying with all of this. And when we look at the commands of these seven churches, these are the things that we are to keep. And now more than ever, right where, where I believe that, that days are waning. John wrote back in his first Epistle that we're in the last hour. We got to be in the last minute, the last second. I don't know what we're in, but time is short. The command to the church at Ephesus was to remember your first love. Remember your first love. That this is, this is for all of us. Remember your first love. I know we get caught up in the things of life, the busyness of life, the stresses of life. But we're to always remember our first love and then repent and do the works you did at first. Every single day. Is this. This working out of our salvation, the sanctification process. It starts every morning. We wake up and we recommit ourselves to the Lord with the same fire, the same urgency, the same desperation that we had the first time we said yes to Jesus. We're to do that every single day. And if we're not desperate for Jesus right now, then I pray that. That our hearts are made desperate for Jesus. I know part of the way God turns for good, the things that the enemy means for evil is putting a desperation in our hearts. So we're to remember our first love, repent, and hear what the Spirit says to the church, to his bride, to us. For the church of Smyrna says, do not fear what you're about to suffer. We could be going through fear right now. Right, because this more than a. An act of political violence, that this was martyrdom. Charlie was murdered because people didn't agree with his views. And his views were straight from the Bible. Right. Did he try to. They love his country. Did he try to reach a younger generation? Yes. But his heart, his goal was to reach him with truth about Jesus. And ultimately, I don't think he. He. He would care if every single person he spoke to received salvation and elections didn't go the way he wanted. I don't think he would care one way or another. But I also think that elections would go the way that he desired if everybody was saved. But Jesus also says to the church in Smyrna, be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. Be faithful in all that we do. We're. We're ambassadors, we're representatives of Christ or to be faithful in everything that we do to the church at Thyatira, he said, hold fast what you have until I come. Hold fast. Listen, if all we have is Jesus, if all we have is the word of God, that's enough. And they're told not to tolerate Jezebel's teaching anymore. Ality, that's the battle that we're engaging in now, 2,000 years after this is written. We're not to tolerate, right? There's no neutrality in the kingdom. Silence equals consent. If somebody is teaching a false gospel, if somebody's teaching anything contrary to the word of God, and we just sit, stand by the wayside, we're held accountable. We're held accountable. He said, keep my works to the end. Right? Endure persevere in your faith. To the Church of Sardis says, wake up and strengthen what remains. Wake up. Wake up. That there's a spiritual alertness. We need to walk with that the enemy prowls like a lying, seeking whom he could devour. We need to be spiritually aware and awake and alert and discern. And again, not just be aware, but beyond the offensive. We don't have to retreat. We have the, the power of God. We have the sword of the Spirit. We could be on the offensive at all times to take territory to advance the kingdom of God. And he says, remember what you received and heard. Take those times to remember all the testimonies, all the God stories that you have when you heard other people's testimonies, every testimony that's in the word of God by itself. And Jesus says, keep it and repent. To the Church of Philadelphia, he says, hold fast to what you have, that no one may seize your crown. Keep my word of patient endurance. Hold fast to what you have. Keep my word. Hold fast to my word of God. This is a battle of good and evil, but it's a battle also of truth and fable, right? We, we see the minds of especially younger generation just simply brainwashed. And there's a part of me where my heart goes out to somebody. These young people who just, they're so deceived, right? They're so deceived in, in this culture where it's okay if somebody doesn't agree with you to, to take their life, that that's what they're being indoctrinated with. That's what they're being brainwashed with. So there's, there's a part of me that actually has compassion for every, every person who's just so deceived where to us, it gets frustrating. We get angry sometimes, like I said, we just want to punch them in the face, right? But my heart breaks because they actually believe what they're doing is good, that what they believe is truth. And it's just such a work of deception. And take note of this. Revelation 21 and 22, there's an emphasis online, right? It started with the lie in the garden. And we know when it lists those who are going to be thrown in the lake of fire. We ended last week with. And it says those who lie, right? The, the cowardly, the drunk, the idolaters, the murderers, the sorcerers, but it says those who lie. And in this chapter here, the same thing. It's, it's. Those who lie are the ones who are going to be kept out of this heavenly picture. So there's an emphasis online that's the enemy's great, great tool, is to distort truth. And it's not that he comes with the truth that's so contrary to what real truth is, because you could spot a counterfeit if it looks so different than the real. But over the years, as you know, the gospel's been distorted. In Revelation 22, it says, For I testify to everyone who hears the prophecy of this book. This is verse 18. If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of this, the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the book of life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. The God is very serious. There's a high price to pay for tampering with the word of God, right? Because this is the truth. If you add to the word of God, it's legalism. If you take away from the word of God, it's liberalism, right? God says, you need to hold fast to my word the entire council of God. Do we understand it all? Sometimes we don't, right? Do we take issue with some things? Maybe some. Some people do, but we, we can't give in to. And a lot of leaders in the church have done injustice to the word of God by adding to it, right? It's become legalistic. It's become a workspace system and taking away, subtracting from it, which a lot of pastors are guilty of, a lot of pastors, a lot of churches are guilty of. They, they give in to the, the itchy ears. They want to tickle the ears of the listeners. They don't want to offend. They don't want to offend. The word of God is offensive. It cuts, it should offend it. It should convict, it should highlight the. The need to repent. It should highlight your own depravity, should highlight your need for a savior. You're not God. I'm not God. There's a real God. We need help. We need a savior. So the church of Philadelphia, as we know that, that's the. As the, the stream of the church throughout the church age has diverged into two different rivers, if you will. The Church of Philadelphia, the, the church that holds fast through the word of God, and then the Church of Laodicea and to the church of Laodicea, that was the lukewarm church. Jesus said, be zealous and repent, says, open the door and Receive fellowship with me. So there's, there's a, a church, there's those who call themselves Christians that don't even have fellowship with Jesus. And then other commands in Revelation that we'll, we'll, we will be blessed. We will experience joy, happiness, an eternal bliss if we obey these commands, if we keep these words that are just in Revelation, here in Revelation 18:4, there's a command to separate from Babylon's corruption, right? Come out of her, my people. The, the world. Come out of the world. I plucked you out of the world. I, I, I, I made this, this, this rotten. And I'm saying this because I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about myself. That, that, this rotten, filthy, disgusting object that this, this thing that God created into this beautiful, beautiful new creation, right? Come, Come out of the world. If you love the world, you can't love God. You're an enemy of God. In Revelation 13 and 14, there's a call for endurance of the saints. We are to endure, right? There's times where I, I mean, our endurance just sucks. Our motivation sucks, our discipline sucks. I'll just say it. There's times and again when I say this, I'm probably saying it because I'm speaking to myself first and foremost. But we're called to endure. Endure. God's grace is sufficient in everything that we go through. And no temptation comes our way that we can't withstand because we have the Holy Spirit. Greater is he who is in us than in the world. We could withstand anything. When we have the Holy Spirit, we're commanded to rejoice over her, like when Babylon falls. When world, when worldliness ends, we're to rejoice. We're to fear God and give him glory. We're to worship God. We're to be, be glad. One of the greatest things that we have already done, but this command to come, this command to come and it. And Jesus, he's so just. The heart of God is on display here. And Jesus says himself in verse 16, the only time in Scripture where he says this, he says, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you. These things in the churches. I am the root of the offspring of David, the bright and morning star. I mean, this is Jesus himself talking that this is the one who was. Who is it? Both a descendant and an ancestor to David. And it says, and the Spirit and the bride say so. And the Spirit, the Holy Spirit and the Bride. Who's the bride? Us. We're commanded to say, come and let him who hears say Come. If you're hearing this right now, your command is to go out to the world and say, come and let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. Where to keep this word? Where to keep this command? We're to go out and tell people to come. Who's to come? Anybody who desires Jesus. Anybody who desires a better way, anybody who desires healing. And what's the checklist? What's the prerequisite for this? Nothing. Just a desire. That's it. And we know something that a lot of folks don't realize right now. What they desire. What they ultimately desire is Jesus Christ. A oneness with the Father, fellowship with the Lord, the Holy Spirit. To. To take up residency inside of us and to heal every wound. To bring us a peace that passes understanding. And to.
To.
To quench that thirst that we've been talking about for weeks. We're commanded as the Bride. Go out to the highways and byways and tell people to come. Period. You don't need the. The title of evangelist to do this. You don't need to be in church leadership to do this to come. And then that's where he goes on and he says, for I testify to everyone who hears the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of this book, God shall take away his part from the book of life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. He who testifies to these things says, surely I am coming quickly. Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. That. Even so, come Lord Jesus. In the Aramaic, you may have heard this before Maranatha. That. That term, that. That's. Even so. Come Lord Jesus. And Jesus starts by saying, surely I'm coming quickly. And then right after quickly, it's amen, right? It's. This is sure. This is a sure thing. He's coming quickly. He's coming. Suddenly were to be aware. So just kind of a summary of these commands in revelation. To repent. Turn back to your first love. To hold fast. To keep his word. To. To keep is. Isn't to just plant a seed, right? To keep his word is to plant a seed, to nurture it, to get it to proper sunlight, to get its proper nutrients, to keep his word, to help that thing grow. Then we have to worship, to be devoted, to fear God, to give him glory, to separate ourselves from evil. To come out of Babylon. Do not compromise. To wake up, be ready to have the spiritual alertness and to hear what the Spirit is telling us. Hear what the Spirit is telling us. So I continue to ask God, minister to us, Holy Spirit, talk to us right now. Lord God, may we have open hearts and open ears to hear what you're saying as you minister to us right now, in this moment. I wanna. I don't know if you guys could hear it. Probably not, because what I'm hearing is like, almost an eerie silence. Like, I just hear this eerie silence. So I wanna open it up to you guys and just hear what you have to say, what's on your heart. But I. I think it's somewhat appropriate to talk about these last couple Beatitudes in Revelation, where we're instructed. Again, These specific last two, they're in verse 7 and verse 14. Jesus, three times in this. This chapter, Jesus says, behold, I'm coming quickly. Three times, he's coming quickly. That should be on the forefront of our minds every single day. I need to be ready. I need to be ready. I need to be ready. Blessed who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book, then verse 14. Blessed are those who do his commandments. So keep the words of this book. Obey them and do his commandments that they may have the right to the Tree of Life. And this Tree of Life, it's described in the beginning of the chapter. I won't go too deep into it. We spend a whole Bible study on the. The Tree of Life and the. The river of Life. But I do want to open it up to you guys. Leslie. Hey.
So I have a question specifically about verse 14. I had this very intense dream the other day that I was on stage about to give a sermon, and I was supposed to give it with a girl, and she and I were, like, developing it on stage, and I was like, let's do 10 ways to wear the Commandment. And I kind of, like, woke up from that dream because I was, like, writing it down in my dream, like. And I literally woke up and wrote this. I was gonna go through the commandments. And then in my dream, I was supposed to talk about how each commandment, you wear it. And then I didn't know. I kind of got stuck. And then I read 14 just now, and I'm like, wash their robes. And then apparently that means also commandments, because that's.
That.
That's in my translation. So for me, it's just kind of hitting me in a very interesting way. So I was hoping we could be like what does that mean to wash your robes but also obey the commandments. If it's the same thing, it's just weird that my dream was also that way. I had no idea that those two were equivalent in any way. So I don't know. I just, I just, I kind of got stuck there because I'm like, there's something in that for what I recently am pondering.
Yeah. So some translations say wash the robes. Some say do his commandments. And in the original language this is in the, the notes. I'll try to pronounce these two words. The word for wash their robes is right. The word for do his commandments is Hoi, BO and nasdaq. There's. It's a very long word for both. And one has an lu, one has like an O, I, O, U. And there's some, there's some contention if you will not contention of what words should be there something that that word for wash their robes should have been the other word that looks very similar do his commandments. But in the end even if they're no matter which word is supposed to be there the, the original language, I don't think either one of them lose the, the emphasis of, of what we're supposed to be doing if it's washed their robes. We're. We're commanded to be the ones to go out and, and get people to come to Jesus and we're instructed throughout Scripture and even here where our garments. Right where to part of that washing our garments. Washing our robes is to be pure, is to be holy. So I, I think the two God one in the same where if we're doing God's commandments, we are doing that by washing our robes by, by living a pure holy life. If we're living a holy life, we're obeying his commands. If we're obeying his commands, we're going to have pure garments. What translation are you reading?
The nlt.
Okay. Yeah. I think NLT and NIV have and I'm sure there's others. There's a million translations have washed their garments. But for me, I, I take it as it. It almost doesn't matter which word is supposed to be there that. But I think that could be something for you for sure. Especially with that dream.
But yeah, it was nuts. Like honestly, like I, I was just sitting here just now. I mean I've read this before but today it's hitting in a whole new way. So. Yeah.
Yeah, that's good. I. Yeah. For me personally, whichever, whichever translation it Is. It's. They go hand in hand. In my mind, the way I see it, the washing of the robes, the washing of garments. It's. We know where to put off the. Those things that are immoral. Put on the righteousness of Christ. And we. We can't fulfill his commands if we don't put on the righteousness of Christ. We can't. And, you know, Jesus says in John 14 that basically, the. The way that we show and we prove that we love him is if we keep his commandments, right? So it's not just doing the commandments, but keeping the commandments. We. Because we could do any of this one time. But it's the keeping of it, right? It's. It's always being on watch. It's always being on the clock, always being on duty. It's keeping of the commandments. Roy, what's up, man?
Yes, I. I find it kind of hard to focus on, you know, the academic side of this with everything going on with Charlie Kirk. And, you know, you know, I actually cried that night.
And I got into.
A fight with my sister about it. Like, you know, my sister's all, you know, she's a. She's an activist. And I went to call her about. It was. Her birthday was coming up, and I called her and I said, roxanne, don't say anything about Charlie Kirk. Let's talk about other things. And she immediately went on a rant about how he's an evil, racist fascist. And so. And we were about to make birthday plans for her, and so I just.
Hung up on her.
And, you know, for days, I was pissed at her. And as her birthday approached, I called and I was like, you know, we shouldn't put politics above anything. Let's just ignore it. Let's go. Let's go out to a meal. And so, you know, I put it behind me. But, you know, those first couple of days, all I felt, I felt like. I felt the rage, I felt the evil, you know, like, you know, people are calling for civil war. And I was like, yes. You know, in my mind, obviously not Christian thoughts. You know, I shook it off after a while. But, you know, how do you not feel infinite rage at something like this? Like, how do you see what his wife is going through or his children when people show videos of his children and people are dancing on this man's grave? It's just been an emotional. It's been an emotional week for me, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who's feeling this. But I Just thought. I thought something needed to be said about that. So.
Yeah. Yeah. Glad you shared that. I wanted this to be a place where people could vomit, if you will. Just what you're feeling. Emotions. And it's been hard to. Hard to process. It has been hard to process. And then to see a lot of the evil that's come forth after, it's. It's disgusting, but at the end of the day, it's evil. Evil is there. We. We know evil is real. We know people are terribly misguided. Even all those who say, you know, he's a racist, he was a fascist, all this stuff, right? How many clips are you seeing now where, you know, Charlie was misquoted or they took something out of context and then they play the whole clip. And I mean, it's hard to find a clip of Charlie where he's not talking about Jesus, right? It really is that. That was his heart before he was killed. He. He proclaimed the gospel, right? Like that's what he. He does. One. I'll call on you in one second, Stan. One verse. Because we didn't go verse by verse here, but it says in verse 10 of Revelation, says, then he said to me, this angel said to John, do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand, right? We know Daniel was given a prophecy and the Lord told him to seal it. But now it's like, hey, don't seal this prophecy. Write it down. This is to be heard right now. But then it says, he who is unjust, let him be unjust still. He who is filthy, let him be filthy still. He who is righteous, let him be righteous still. He who is holy, let him be holy still. This is the last chapter of scripture, right? It's like if we do our job and share the gospel, share Jesus. Love on, folks. And there's still people who are unjust, there's still people who are filthy still, people who are just unrighteous and evil. That there comes a time where it's like we just have to almost let them go. There's a, There's a whole. That there's a. A tremendous field of souls that are going to come to salvation. And I was talking to a couple people about this yesterday in Matthew 10 where Jesus is saying, hey, if the message, You're, You're.
You're.
You're giving out, if it's rejected, it's like, okay, dust off your feet. If peace doesn't come to that household, let the peace. Let your peace come back to you. Dust off your feet and keep it moving.
Right?
There's. We're always going to be praying for our lost loved ones. But the reality is a time is going to come. Like, once they know the goodness of Jesus Christ, once they know the gospel, once they hear it, it's on them now. And we can continue to plant seeds, we could continue to water seeds that have been planted. But ultimately it's like by the end of the Bible, after the whole council of Scripture, now's the times, like, if they're unjust, if they're filthy, that they're going to stay filthy. Romans 1. You know, God, you want to stay so lost in your sin, you want to choose to be deceived, then there's a point where God turns us over into, over to our, our debased thoughts. So I'm not. And the peace that we have, right? Colossians 3:15. Let the peace of God rule your heart. But the, the peace rule, rule is like an arbitrator in a sporting event. So let the peace of God call the balls and strikes in your life. If you don't have peace with your sister being unsaved and God's calling you to continue to. So, so, so then you do it. But if there's a piece where you're just to kind of like wipe your hands of it, then that's it. Then maybe it'll come from somebody else. But you, you can't feel the, the burden if God's not calling on you to feel that burden. I know it's frustrating. My mother. I'm sorry. God gave me a piece about my mother when I was just doing everything I could. Sometimes led by the spirit, sometimes just led by my own, you know, want of her to be saved. And then God gave me a piece and just said, cut it off. Like, just, just stop those conversations. Just don't do it.
You know, I, I haven't, I haven't given up on her. And I talk to her about the Bible all the time. Yeah, I, I have not given up on her.
Yeah, I know. I know you haven't given up on her, but let God give you a piece of how she's best to be ministered to. If it, if it means that you hold off on the, the Bible talks. Let the, Let the peace of God rule your heart. Let the peace of God guide you in that. To call the balls and strikes to, to direct you and guide you as to how to best minister to her. Because for me, it was, it was hands off. Like, I stopped having those conversations with my mother, she ultimately just watched my life, and that went a long way into leading her to the Lord. But none of us are going to be okay with anybody we love just like just letting them, leaving them to their own devices, just continue to be deceived and brainwashed and, and not come to the goodness. When you taste and see that the Lord is good, you want everybody, especially. I mean, you want the whole world to taste and see this, right? Especially your loved ones. So I understand your heart, man. And we'll circle back on some of the other things, just a frustration and, and the heaviness and, and all the emotions from this past week. Stan?
Yeah.
Thank you, Christian. I love your notes. The summary of commands in Revelation. Repent, turn back to him, hold fast, keep his word, persevere and endure, regardless of circumstances. And I can go on and on. The notes are there for you to persevere and endure. Part that requires contentment. And from my experience, I Think of Philippians 4, 11, 12, where Paul talks about being content in good times and bad, regardless of what's going on around him, he stays content. He doesn't let the highs get too high or the lows get too low. God is there. So I get a lot out of this because on August 9th, I thought it was a good idea to get some beer and hang out on my porch with my cousin and drinking. And then on August 20, I ended up falling, having a concussion in a hospital. I have L4, L5 slipped discs. They kicked in a little bit, and I lost the ability to hold my own weight. And I got out of the hospital on August 26. The doctor said, you will heal. And by God's grace and mercy, I'm 100% healed. Sitting here in this Bible study, I didn't persevere. I didn't endure. It was just circumstances that led to me feeling bored and unfulfilled. And that is. That's on me for not going to God. So these little trials that we go through, I mean, this one, you know, you know, it could have been much worse that I'll leave it there. And I just hope that, like, when I look at this summary of commands that I realize that, you know, God has been there watching me the whole time. I need to, you know, come out of Babylon. I hear his word, I'm involved in ministry. I can go on and on with, you know, all the things. But the moral of the story is if I don't find that contentment and that understanding that God, God is there always. And I just need to seek him no matter what the circumstance is. If I'm getting bored, that's on me. That's me. Lack of connection on my part and feeling unfulfilled. So just ask for prayer that I remain resilient. I think today is four weeks for me. Since August 20th, I think it's four weeks so that I remain, you know, endure and I remain steadfast and understand that the little sins that I sometimes participate in, they can tumble in your heart and take you down. So thank you for letting me share. That's all.
Yeah, Amen. Thank you for sharing that. And you guys catch that you said the little trials. I'm sure when you were. When you fell or when you were sitting in the hospital, it didn't feel like a little trial. But always once we come out of it, once we overcome, we could look back at everything and be like, oh, that was a little trial. It was smaller than I thought it was at the time because, oh, turns out God is in control. Turns out he is a healer. Turns out that he does provide a peace. Thank you for sharing that, Stan.
I'll just throw in really quickly. I get home, you know, it took me some time to heal. My car breaks down 2000. My refrigerator breaks, my coffee. Everything starts breaking, including my head. Weeks earlier. And the moral of the story is it's just these little trials, and I remain content to it all. It's just some money, which, praise God, I have replaced them. You know, I'm not rich or anything, but. So little trials can wear on you. But I didn't let them this time because I'm like, this can't happen again. This. This. This can't happen again. So thank you.
Yeah. And if it weren't for those little trials, how many of you would trust yourselves to just get up every morning, just be 100% reliant and dependent upon God, to cry out to him to repent, to go back to our first love. If we didn't have those. Those hiccups in our lives, I. I mean, I'm pretty convinced that God orchestrates those hiccups or some of those trials, those tests, so that we can be right at the foot of the cross where he desires for us to be every second of every day. Leslie.
So I like what you said early on about how we're not meant to see that. And I'm just looking at the chat and at the heaviness that people feel, and I actually found out about it because, I mean, I saw a post about him, but then my ER doctor group was talking about the injury, and I was like, oh, okay, well. And I elected to watch the video. And being a combat veteran physician who has seen this stuff, I mean, you're right. We're not meant to see that. It's meant to be. That kind of an act is usually small and not on replay. I mean, this is the first time in history that this kind of thing is happening where we're going to be seeing it again and again and again or it kind of, you know, see if it's playing on the back of your eyelids. That's normal. And I think it strikes the whole country because it's kind of the spiritual war, the unseen realm made flesh. And so actually seeing it suddenly in that shocking way, it's like, yes, we. These powers and principalities that we talk about now, the rest of the world is seeing exactly what we're talking about in this. In this way. And so that's where, you know, being in war, how do we deal with this after seeing and experiencing something like that? And it comes down to, you know, fellowship, like what we're doing now. That's why veterans, we get together, we talk, we. We have this group shared experience where we support each other and we talk about how we're always there for each other. So I was just going to say, like, if you're feeling heavy, you know, that's normal. And this is exactly the kind of place we should be, is all together, lifting each other up and continuing to worship God through all of it. And I mean, I saw that video and I was like, oh, gosh. I mean, you know, again, I've seen stuff, but even for me, I was like, okay, God, I'm not meant to see this. So, God, tell me, like, just. Just speak. Please speak to me. And then just for me, the heaviness hasn't been as bad, I think, because he just showed me. And again, I've seen many people die, and in this case, he showed me how the spirit was just taken right away with. With Charlie. So in case you're wondering, that's kind of what was shown to me when I sat in prayer is there was no suffering. It was just immediately, like, whisked away and just the body remained so his. You know, he may have had slight consciousness for, like, just a moment, but honestly, I, you know, knowing what I know, but then also what I saw in prayer gave me a lot of peace. So I just hope to share that with you.
Yeah.
Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, we know. And we could take heart that Charlie's in the presence of the Lord. And you know, whether we live a year on this earth or a hundred years, we live a thousand years. It's a vapor, right? Our time here is short. And ultimately that there's nothing bad that happens. There's no sorrow, there's no tears that we cry that are even remembered in heaven. Right? So, but then just your heart breaks for a wife, for, for those two little kids. I was on the road in Oklahoma, I know Riley was in Michigan. And it was like we, we had things we had to do, but we just felt like getting home to our families. Right. We just wanted to give our kids a hug, our wives a hug, kids. It's like, man, every time we leave the house, it could be the last time. We, we don't know. Not that any of us necessarily are going to get shot at. Maybe one of us will, all of us will for our faith one day. We don't know. But it's just so, so heartbreaking just in, in the natural, what's going on here. But yeah, it's, we, we've read through revelation. A lot of those judgments were like wake up calls and, and you could just almost picture God in heaven. It's like, okay, I'm just going to turn the fire up a little hotter, a little hotter, a little hotter. Because ultimately he doesn't care how you come to, to the decision to repent and turn to Him. That's his desire. And for Charlie, he's in heaven. I seen plenty of clips of so many people going to church for the first time. So many reports of churches being packed out. You know, for pastors that didn't mention Charlie, I think it's cowardly. They're afraid of talking politics and I think that's cowardly in itself. But a lot of pastors did. A lot of people went to church because I love that they may not have even known. I mean, I think most of us are pretty mature Christians and we didn't know how to process our own emotions. It's like you do just want to be in a place like this because we could talk to each other and we're to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, ultimately. And just sometimes that ministry of presence, it's enough and it helps in the moment. But Graham Allen, who I think a lot of you guys know, he posted now his followers generally are in the, they're 30 to 50 year old women, the majority of his followers. And he made a post on Facebook about Charlie that in a day got 24 million views and 98, I think it was 98 of the views were men between 18 and 30 that saw it. So that's a lot of people who don't typically see Graham's post that are seeing this about Charlie. And I hope they dig deeper. I hope they start trying to find every time he made a racist remark, he said something that was mean, or his hate speech, quote unquote. I hope they, they dig it all up and they search for it and they hear the gospel and they hear his devotion to Jesus. Roger?
Yeah, I just want to encourage everybody to, as we're, as I'm looking at these, these, these summary commandments, you know, holding fast, repenting, worshiping, separation from evil, just to encourage everybody to, to, to call out evil when you see it and not to remain silent. The other side is, is getting a big voice. You know, if, like, we saw, we saw the, the, the pop up of evil, right, as it happened with people, you know, dancing and celebrating. And we've seen some of that get called out. And, you know, we're seeing people, you know, getting fired. We're seeing, we're seeing there's consequences to that. But in the background, I'm still seeing a rise of that evil voice. And it's not as blatant. It's not, you know, YouTube videos and everything like that, but it's happening in comment sections. You know, Christians and people are getting gaslit. They're being, they're being challenged. And we have to be able to hold fast and to call out evil as we see it, because the enemy is getting stronger, the enemy is getting braver, and all it takes is for us to do nothing and to remain silent. So I just want to encourage people like, just to, to, to hold fast and to, you know, spend time with God so that, you know, you know, the real deal, that, you know, you understand the counterfeit when you see it, that you understand the evil when it is, when, when you're faced with it and to just know that we've got God in our corner, that we have won, but we have to, we have to. We cannot remain silent.
Amen. Amen. I saw headline the other day that said Chris Pratt might get fired from Marvel for comments after Charlie Kirk killing. I was like, oh, my God, what did he say? And all he said was praying for Charlie and his family. That was it. It was like, wait a second. That's why I thought, like, at first, I was like, oh, he said something like ignorant or hateful. It's like, no, he might get fired because he said he's praying for Charlie Kirk and his family. It's like, wow. So I think even, like, the stupidity there and, like, this is being recorded, so I'm going to bite my tongue as to what I was just going to say. But some of that stupidity, I. I think there's a lot of people who are just kind of, like, toeing the line, and you know that they're not there with Jesus, but you know that they're not completely deceived. They do have some morals and values. And you know that at. At some point, they're going to be like, enough is enough with this to see somebody might get fired from a movie studio for saying they're praying for. For somebody. It's like, that's just ignorant. That's just stupid. And I think a lot of people, a lot of eyes are going to be awoken. It'll be interesting. When we're in heaven, we know that our Paul writes in First Corinthians. It's like, right now, what we see, it's like we're. We're looking to a foggy mirror. But a time is coming where we're going to see everything more clearly. It'll be pretty cool if we know, like, from this, Charlie's death, how many souls actually came to salvation directly through this? And I know it's going to be a lot. And I'm the. I think any of us, we would say, hey, if I know my family will be saved, like, multitudes will come to salvation. If it just means taking me out, then, yeah, do it. But then it's like, well, really, I mean, I don't want to leave my kids without a father. You know, I want to leave my wife without a husband. But ultimately, if they're going to be in heaven with me soon enough after this vapor of time is done with, it's like, I don't know. I. I don't think Charlie, like, Charlie is. I mean, he's a martyr. He's. He's gonna have his rewards. Yeah. I don't even know what I'm saying here. I'm just kind of verbal processing like. Like some of you guys. Roy.
Yeah.
Chris Pratt is a real deal Christian man. There's been people trying to get him fired or canceled forever just because he's always been an outspoken Christian and they hate them in Hollywood, you know, I mean, he'll be in an interview and he'll be like, oh, he spent Easter building a church. And then somehow the Next day there'll be, like, slanderous posts or articles about him. And so don't. Yeah, don't believe that they. They're not going to fire him for that. But, you know, basically, you already touched upon. What I would raise my hand for is that, you know, the positive sides of martyrdom and, like, you know, we have to realize that God may have chosen that. He says the best way I can use Charlie right now is a martyr to inspire all these people. And so there's all these new turning point chapters, you know, the applications for them. As a matter of fact, my friend Steve, who used to attend this Bible study, he actually put in an application because he wants to start one in his area.
Amen. Amen. I see, Roger, you say your oldest went back to church with his wife and their kids last week for the first time in almost 10 years.
Yeah, we. We talked to him Sunday afternoon, and they just kind of casually mentioned that they went back to our church, the old church that we went to. And Amy and I are just looking at each other like, really? I don't think my grandkids have ever stepped foot in a church until this last Sunday.
Wow, that's. And it's like, what? Whatever it takes, right? We say that all the time. I pray that all the time. Whatever it takes to it. Make sure my kids are saved. Whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. And I. I think part of the. The oneness we have as the body of Christ, that Koinonia, which really is a oneness, right? Like, if you win, I win. If you lose, I lose. If you celebrate, I celebrate. If you cry, I cry. It's that oneness that we're to have. And I believe we. We have that with this group here. I believe that there's a large portion of the church that is like that. So ultimately, it's like, yeah, if whatever has to happen, even if it's not my kids, if it's Roger's kids, Roger's grandkids, any of your kids, whatever has to happen, if I gotta, you know, take the hit for it, for my brothers and sisters and your family to be a part of the kingdom, then that's the lives we should live. I've mentioned this on Bible study before. None of us may die the death of a martyr, but we're all to live our lives as a martyr.
Right?
So what. Whatever it takes. Live your life as a martyr. Yeah. I appreciate this time with you guys, and I know it's still. There's still, like, a measure of shock with all This. I, I think the enemies at work and trying to. I, I think that the shock is. It, it's. It's hard to process, but part of it is good because it does make you want to just simply, like, obey all these commands with urgency to go back to your first love, to repent, to invite others to come, whoever desires. Right? Just, just come. Come into the kingdom. Come to Jesus. But the, the enemies at work, to sow discord as he always does. I, I think it was just last night on Jimmy Kimmel, you know, it was a mockery, and they were saying, like, it's certain that the killer is maga. And you know how all conservatives are trying to pin this on, on the other side and all that. And it's ultimately like with all the things that you hear, the conspiracies. I mean, one of the conspiracies was that guy with the white hat and the sunglasses that, you know, gave the sign. That's Frank Turek. I didn't even recognize him at that first video because he, he always wears big wraparound glasses, but there were sunglasses. He had the hat on. But Frank Turek, who I've met through Turning Point, like, he's one of Charlie's closest friends, and like, he was everywhere. Oh, he gave the sign to, for the shooter to shoot. So there's so much, so many conspiracy theories and ultimately what the truth is for everything, I don't know. I don't know. But at the end of the day, no matter who killed Charlie, he was killed because he stood for truth, period. Whether it was the dude on the roof who was arrested, if it was somebody else, if Israel was behind it, right? But whoever, whatever it is, he was killed because he wouldn't budge in his convictions, period. And that's something to admire. That's something for us all to strive to, to do, to be. And he knew. He got death threats every single day, and he still did it because he was on mission. And that's. That's honorable. It's admirable. And we're all on mission. And may millions of Charlie Kurtz be birthed out of this. Charlie was a one of one. I mean, in person, he's like, he is on camera, like, he's quirky. You know those people that are just so. You're so smart that you, you seem abnormal, that sort of thing. That's how he is. So he's one of one. I don't know who could sit in that chair and answer every question, debate everything, and in my eyes, come out on Top, you know, every single time. But as far as his heart and passion to serve, his love and devotion for Jesus, his love and devotion for others, it wasn't about just getting people to vote Republican. It was about getting people to see the light, see the truth of Jesus Christ. And guess what? Once you know Jesus, that you're how you vote in an election, it. It's gonna. It's gonna play out the way God wants it to play out. All you need to know is Jesus. And, yeah, he's gonna be missed and looking forward to seeing just how many crowns he has when we get to heaven. Right. Because he's going to have quite a few. I'm sure. We're at 8, 13. Yeah. He was killed because the generation was starting to listen. How remarkable is that when you see the earlier videos and everybody hated him. And then, you know, he showed up last week and there's an ovation. People are there for hours and hours waiting to see him, tossing out hats, and it's just remarkable. And it started with one guy who was on mission that turned it into a movement. And for all of us, I mean, there's. I've been in rooms with Charlie where there's just a handful of us. He was talking to, like a room full of pastors as if he was talking to 10,000 pastors. And it's like he didn't get discouraged. There was like 20 pastors in the room. He didn't get discouraged. So whatever your mission is, whatever God's called you to, don't think that you're missing the mark. If, if your, Your message or your platform is in front of the masses at this point, just keep doing it. Just keep doing it. If you reach even one person, if one person is. Is saved from despair, the lake of fire, and it's because you are on mission. And that was on your radar, that was on the agenda God had for you to get to that one person, then that's such a big win. Such a big win. So I, I hope this time blessed you guys. It blessed me. Well, you know, next week we'll just kind of see how the Lord leads. Maybe there's just more verbal processing, some of these emotions that, that we have, and I'm sure we're going to have them for quite a while. But at the end of the day, we need to engage, we need to be active. There's no neutrality in the kingdom where there's no bystanders. When we sign up for this, when we say yes to the Lord, maybe somebody just preached the love of Jesus and you fell in love with Jesus. That's all you knew. You weren't aware you're signing up for warfare, but you signed up for warfare. You signed up for battle. And the good news is, is we win in the end, right? We. We win every single day. The. The loss of Charlie isn't even. It's a loss. But in the end, thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions come to salvation. There's revivals. We saw videos of people in England, which is like, oh, like such a Muslim country now, an anti God country in India, where they're rallying together. When multitudes come to the kingdom, heaven rejoices. We should rejoice here on earth. So I love you guys. If any of you guys need more, just a chat, a talk. As I mentioned, I was on phone call with a couple people where we're just both silent. It's like both speechless. Didn't even know what to say. But somebody else was speechless on the other end. So if you guys need that, reach out to me and just want you to know I love you guys. Proud of you guys. We're on mission. Let's continue to do it.
God bless.
We'll see you. Love you.
All right, bye, guys.
