❓ What do these grades mean?
We do not issue this rating to attack the speaker, but to protect the listener. This ministry's overall teaching trend consistently deviates from sound doctrine. As per Romans 16:17, we identify these patterns so believers can guard their hearts.
🧐 Overview
Theological Verdict & Summary
Sermon Summary: A message on end-times hope that unfortunately relies on human decision-making rather than divine grace.
Pastoral Analysis: While the sermon offers engaging illustrations and a call to eternal perspective, it is fundamentally compromised by a synergistic view of salvation and a dispensationalist eschatology that detracts from the sufficiency of Christ. The Gospel Engine is not intact.
Biblical Parallel (Archetype): Sardis — The sermon presents a 'name that it is alive, but is dead' orthodoxy. While it maintains a veneer of evangelical activity and eschatological teaching, it fundamentally fails in its soteriology by teaching Synergistic Soteriology (Decisionism). This reliance on human decision for salvation, combined with a dispensationalist framework that obscures the finished work of Christ in favor of future timelines, constitutes a dead orthodoxy that lacks the life-giving power of the Gospel.
Big Idea: Understanding the signs of the end times and the certainty of the 'levy breaking' should shift our focus from fear to hope, inspiring us to prioritize the local church, pray for the lost, and live with an eternal perspective because we ultimately win. [00:28:00 ▶️ 📄]
📖 How they Handle Scripture & Jesus
- Primary Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:16
- Usage Classification: Thematic
- Text-to-Talk Ratio: Moderate
- Pulpit Decorum: ✅ PASS - The tone is engaging and pastoral, though the theological content is flawed.
✝️ Christological Focus: Moralistic/Imitative
"Christ is presented primarily as the object of a decision or the future King, rather than the active agent of salvation in the present age."
Scripture Saturation: Verses Read: 4 | Referenced: 3 | Alluded: 3
📖 View 2 Passages Read Aloud
-
Ecclesiastes 3:11
[00:03:49 ▶️ 📄]
"He has also set eternity in the hearts of men."
-
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
[00:10:13 ▶️ 📄]
"the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, out of nowhere, one day, the church will be raptured. ... with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words."
Key References: Ecclesiastes 3:11, 1 Thessalonians 4:16, Revelation
💧 Liturgy & Sacraments
Altar Call / Invitation Observed: Yes
- Theological Conditions: Admitting sins to God, Turning from sins, Turning to God, Believing Jesus Christ died on the cross for sins and rose again, Asking the Lord to come into one's life, Recognizing faith as a gift from God if one lacks it
- Sinner's Prayer: "God, I'm a sinner. I admit my sins to you. I turn from these sins and I turn to you. I believe you sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for my sins and rise again. And right now I ask you Lord to come into my life." 00:33:35 ▶️ 📄
- Coercive Pressure: "if there's someone here and you've never ever ever asked the lord jesus to come into your life i would pray right now that you would you might be going, well, I don't know how to pray. Do what Sterling did to me and just go, teach me, God, how to pray." [00:32:40 ▶️ 📄]
🎙️ Sermon Content & Delivery
Word Count: 3,948 words
📌 View 7 Key Topics Addressed
-
End Times & Prophecy
[00:00:22 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor introduces the series focus on the end times, prophecy, and the final things, noting that one-third of the Bible addresses this. -
The Rapture
[00:10:13 ▶️ 📄]
> He defines the rapture as the 'invisible snatching away' of believers, citing 1 Thessalonians 4 and describing it as a moment of encouragement rather than discouragement. -
Divine Drama / Acts of History
[00:15:17 ▶️ 📄]
> He structures the timeline of history into three acts: Incarnation, Redemption, and Coronation, using a stage metaphor. -
Readiness & Signs
[00:06:13 ▶️ 📄]
> He urges the congregation to recognize the signs of the 'levee breaking' and to be spiritually prepared, contrasting those who see the signs but aren't ready with those who are. -
Eschatological Timeline
[00:16:02 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor outlines a chronological 'divine drama' including Jesus' death, resurrection, the invisible rapture, a period of peace, the tribulation, the rise of the Antichrist, the visible second coming, the millennium, and final judgment. -
Signs of the Times
[00:21:41 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor lists increasing violence, murder rates, drug usage (fentanyl), occult practices, sexual promiscuity, and theft as evidence that the 'levy is breaking' and the end times are near. -
Application to the Believer
[00:28:09 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor argues that knowledge of these events should inspire prayer for others, provide hope for the future, help navigate worldly distractions, and distinguish between the temporal and the eternal.
🖼️ View 11 Illustrations & Stories
-
Sermon Illustration
[00:00:33 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor compares his role to Tom Brady's quarterback, stating he is just 'a guy going out for a pass' to receive the message from expert Jimmy Evans. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:01:11 ▶️ 📄]
> He uses the metaphor of being so 'heavenly minded' that one becomes 'no earthly good,' getting so immersed in the trees that they miss the forest. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:01:50 ▶️ 📄]
> He tells the story of Hurricane Katrina and the breaking of the levees in New Orleans, noting that officials ignored the signs and wasted money, using it as an analogy for how people ignore the signs of the end times. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:03:18 ▶️ 📄]
> He shares a personal anecdote about his unique study method of painting watercolors between study sessions, referencing a specific watercolor he painted of a breaking levee to illustrate Ecclesiastes 3:11. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:09:41 ▶️ 📄]
> He uses the analogy of a restaurant menu written in Japanese with English translations to explain his intent to break down complex theological concepts into understandable terms. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:12:36 ▶️ 📄]
> He illustrates the suddenness of the rapture with humorous scenarios: a plane taxiing with an empty seat, a mother embracing only warm blankets, and pundits like Dr. Fauci trying to explain away the disappearance of people. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:14:30 ▶️ 📄]
> He describes a massive church stage in Houston (4,000 square feet) to use as a metaphor for the 'stage of history' set by Jesus Christ. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:17:02 ▶️ 📄]
> He uses the 'Ever Ready' battery slogan to ask the congregation if they are 'ever ready' for the forever. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:16:29 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor uses the analogy of levees breaking in New Orleans to describe the escalating severity of global sin and chaos, noting that officials saw the signs but weren't ready, just as many believers may not be ready for the rapture. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:30:51 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his four-year-old granddaughter, Sterling, at Chick-fil-A. When asked to pray before eating, she looked up and said, 'Help me pray,' illustrating the need for believers to ask God for guidance in prayer. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:28:58 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor contrasts humans, who have a concept of the future because they are made in God's image, with his pets (Great Dane, Golden Doodles, Maltese, and cat), who do not think about the future.
🚀 View 4 Calls to Action
-
Pastoral Charge
[00:10:13 ▶️ 📄]
> Turn to or read 1 Thessalonians 4:16 -
Pastoral Charge
[00:07:31 ▶️ 📄]
> Chant the word 'revelation' in unison with the pastor -
Pastoral Charge
[00:32:01 ▶️ 📄]
> Submit lives to God and ask for guidance on how to pray. -
Pastoral Charge
[00:33:01 ▶️ 📄]
> Ask Jesus to come into their life (implied invitation to salvation).
🧭 Biblical Alignment Dashboard
Overall Verdict: Fundamentally in Error
| Category | Status | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Gospel Presentation | ❌ FAIL | The Gospel Engine is broken. The sermon explicitly teaches Synergistic Soteriology, framing salvation as dependent on a human prayer of decision ('ask Jesus to come into your life') rather than the monergistic work of God's grace. |
| Soteriology | ❌ FAIL | The sermon teaches that salvation is contingent upon human cooperation and decision, directly contradicting the doctrine of Monergism. |
| Bibliology | ⚠️ WEAK | While Scripture is quoted, the hermeneutic is heavily influenced by a dispensationalist framework that prioritizes literalist futurism over the redemptive-historical unity of the text. |
| Hermeneutic | ⚠️ WEAK | The interpretation of Revelation 7 and 20 relies on a rigid literalism that ignores the symbolic and typological nature of apocalyptic literature, leading to doctrinal error. |
| Theology Proper | ✅ PASS | The sermon maintains a orthodox view of God's sovereignty and Christ's deity, though the application of these truths is flawed by the soteriological error. |
| Sacramentology | ⚪ N/A | No sacramental errors detected, but no sacramental theology was presented. |
| Confessional Depth | ❌ SHALLOW | The sermon relies on popular cultural analogies and dispensationalist timelines rather than deep, confessional theological grounding. |
⚙️ The Core Gospel Framework
Why it matters for the final verdict: A complete Gospel framework protects a sermon from becoming man-centered. If a preacher gives commands for good behavior but leaves out the grace and atonement of the Gospel, it often results in a 🔴 Critical or 🟠 Major error for Moralism (teaching human self-improvement rather than reliance on Christ). However, if these Gospel elements are missing simply because the pastor is preaching a highly focused, practical message to mature believers (e.g., instructions on biblical marriage), our system applies a "Safe Harbor" pardon, graciously reducing the omission to a 🟡 Minor error.
❌ The Law And Wrath: Not observed in the sermon.
❌ Total Depravity And Inability: Not observed in the sermon.
✅ Active Obedience Of Christ:
"God formulating this brilliant plan to send his son to live perfectly, to live this holy life, to die on a cross for the sins of the world, and to rise again." [00:15:40 ▶️ 📄]
✅ The Cross And Atonement:
"God formulating this brilliant plan to send his son to live perfectly, to live this holy life, to die on a cross for the sins of the world, and to rise again." [00:15:40 ▶️ 📄]
⚠️ Theological Concerns
🔴 Critical Synergistic Soteriology
Root Cause: Decisionism / Arminianism
""God, I'm a sinner. I admit my sins to you. I turn from these sins and I turn to you. I believe you sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for my sins and rise again. And right now I ask you Lord to come into my life."" [00:33:35 ▶️ 📄]
The Belief/Behavior: He instructs the congregation to 'admit sins,' 'turn from sins,' and 'ask Jesus to come into your life.'
Why It's Dangerous: This teaches that salvation is dependent on human decision and cooperation (synergism) rather than God's sole initiative (monergism), robbing the congregation of the assurance of grace.
Biblical Correction: Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
🔴 Critical Dispensationalist Pre-Tribulation Rapture and Seven-Year Tribulation
Root Cause: Dispensationalism
""Then you have three and a half years of peace. Then you have three and a half years of chaos. This is known, this green right here, as the tribulation."" [00:18:39 ▶️ 📄]
The Belief/Behavior: He teaches a literal seven-year tribulation divided into peace and chaos, following an invisible rapture.
Why It's Dangerous: This introduces a false dichotomy between the Church and Israel, and obscures the single, visible Second Coming of Christ, leading to fear-based eschatology rather than hope-filled anticipation.
Biblical Correction: Matthew 24:30-31 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
🔴 Critical Literal Millennial Earthly Reign of Christ
Root Cause: Premillennialism
""So right here, you have 1,000 years. Then the final judgment, young people, I'm writing in cursive. You've never seen that, but it's a beautiful way to write. Final judgment. And then we have, and I'll just do E right here, eternity, new heaven, and new earth."" [00:26:34 ▶️ 📄]
The Belief/Behavior: He asserts a literal 1,000-year earthly reign of Christ before the final judgment.
Why It's Dangerous: This misinterprets Revelation 20, creating a future earthly kingdom that detracts from the present spiritual reign of Christ and the immediate transition to the new heavens and earth.
Biblical Correction: Revelation 20:4-6 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
🔴 Critical Literal 144,000 Ethnic Jewish Evangelists
Root Cause: Dispensationalism
""Also during this time, you'll see, I've written down in my notes, 144, you have 144,000 evangelists on steroids and God has to pick a group of people who are tenacious, who were smart, who were aggressive. These are 144,000 Jewish evangelists."" [00:25:27 ▶️ 📄]
The Belief/Behavior: He identifies the 144,000 as literal ethnic Jewish evangelists active during the tribulation.
Why It's Dangerous: This ignores the symbolic nature of Revelation, which identifies the 144,000 as the complete people of God (the Church) from all nations, not a specific ethnic group.
Biblical Correction: Revelation 7:4-9 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
✅ Commendations
Pastoral Care | Encouraging Focus on Eternity
The pastor effectively uses the analogy of Hurricane Katrina to shift the congregation's focus from temporal fears to eternal realities, encouraging a perspective that prioritizes the local church and prayer.
Illustration | Relatable Analogies
The use of personal anecdotes, such as the watercolor painting and the Chick-fil-A story, makes the message accessible and engaging for a lay audience.
📜 Full Sermon Transcript (Audit)
Use the 📄 icons next to quotes above to automatically jump to their location in this raw transcript.
[00:00:00] Welcome to Fellowship Church. I want to say hi to everyone here at our central campus in Grapevine. Give yourselves a clap. Also to all of our different locations if you're watching online. Thank you so much for being here.
[00:00:15] Today, as you know, we're embarking on a really industrial strength series.
[00:00:22] We're talking about the end times.
[00:00:26] We're talking about prophecy.
[00:00:28] And I'm teaming up with Jimmy Evans, who's an expert on this subject.
[00:00:33] It's sort of like Tom Brady is the quarterback and I'm just a guy going out for a pass.
[00:00:38] And so today we are going to get into the final things, the last things we're going to look at forever.
[00:00:51] And everyone, I think, is fascinated by that. I mean, I am.
[00:00:55] On one hand, you have the people who freak out about the end times. You really do.
[00:01:00] Those who are just into the what and the why and the how, yet sometimes they forget about the you and the me.
[00:01:11] You can be so heavenly minded, the old adage says, that you're no earthly good.
[00:01:17] I'm not saying people aren't earthly good, but we can get so immersed in the trees that we miss the forest.
[00:01:24] On the other hand, some of us, you might be like, well, what?
[00:01:29] Jesus is coming back.
[00:01:30] that's surreal, my man. I mean, I just have a hard time buying that in this materialistic world. I mean, Jesus coming back forever, I can't get my brain around that. And you know what, we're not really supposed to because we're finding that God is infinite. Yet the Bible
[00:01:50] says from cover to cover that we will live forever in one of two places, either on the right side of the levee or the wrong side of the levee. You remember back 2005, Hurricane Katrina,
[00:02:05] it smashed into New Orleans and in 50 places in the different levees, the levees broke and our brilliant governmental officials, the feds, and also those who were in local leadership in Louisiana, they were like, oh, that's not going to happen. I mean, it's a 99 point
[00:02:26] point maybe five percent that we're going to have a hurricane with that kind of force it's not going to happen and money was wasted you know the whole political game and fingers are pointing here and
[00:02:42] there and yonder katrina hit and the devastation was absolutely enormous the levy broke well i'm here to tell you the levy is going to break. All we have to do is look around and we can, we can
[00:03:01] see the signs. No one knows the exact date of when the end of the world will take place. No one knows the exact time when Jesus will come back. The Bible says he will come back like a thief at night.
[00:03:18] God does tell us though, in Ecclesiastes chapter three, verse 11, you'll, you'll see it on your message map. Don't you like this? I did this watercolor. It's behind it, and that's sort of a levy breaking because many times when I study, I'll study for a couple of hours, then I'll paint
[00:03:37] a little watercolor and then study again. It's kind of my weird way of studying because I got some of my best artwork done when I was in school. I really did. Some of my algebra classes,
[00:03:49] unbelievable. I wish I had those notebooks. The Bible says though in Ecclesiastes chapter three verse 11. Let's read that together. Okay. One, two, three. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men. Now, if you're a downtown Dallas, Fort Worth, if you were at Frisco, if you're online,
[00:04:12] if you're at one of our other many campuses, you're at one of our prison campuses.
[00:04:18] Have you ever thought about that? I mean, that is so profound. God has set eternity in our hearts.
[00:04:26] And because of this, here are your blanks.
[00:04:29] Are you ready for this?
[00:04:30] There's something about a blank that screams for us to fill it in, right?
[00:04:34] Because of this, we have a focus on forever.
[00:04:39] We have a focus on forever.
[00:04:43] I like to write down things because as you've heard me say a squillion times, thoughts disentangle themselves when they pass through someone's lip to your fingertips.
[00:04:51] The dullest pencil is sharper than the sharpest mind.
[00:04:55] So write it down.
[00:04:57] I mean, whatever you have, write it down.
[00:04:59] We have a focus on forever.
[00:05:01] And we see this in so many areas of life, so many streams of life.
[00:05:05] Movies.
[00:05:06] Most of us like movies that have a happily ever after ending.
[00:05:11] Children's books, a happily ever after ending.
[00:05:15] Even when we're watching different athletic contests, we like for our team to have a happily ever after ending.
[00:05:23] We're made, we're hardwired in the image of God.
[00:05:26] God has set eternity in our hearts.
[00:05:28] We're made to live happily ever after.
[00:05:32] As you look at the end times, as you think about it, two words, two words that I want you to concentrate on that I want you to understand, and these are positive words, okay?
[00:05:47] So get ready to clap, whether you are at one of our campuses or right here.
[00:05:51] Are you ready?
[00:05:52] Here are the words, we win.
[00:05:57] That's it.
[00:05:58] We win.
[00:06:01] So we're fighting not for a victory.
[00:06:03] We're fighting from victory.
[00:06:05] Let me say it again.
[00:06:06] We win.
[00:06:07] However, the levy is going to break.
[00:06:13] And we need to unpack that and see what God was driving at and why.
[00:06:20] He desires us to understand and to see the signs about when the levy is going to break.
[00:06:29] I rarely use my panoramic feature on my iPhone.
[00:06:35] I mean, does anyone here use the panoramic feature a lot?
[00:06:38] Some do now and then, but most of us are like, I mean, it's cool to have it, but we don't really use it.
[00:06:45] Well, today I'm talking about a subject that we don't really talk about a lot in church.
[00:06:52] I mean, some churches do, but most churches don't discuss this a lot because it's mysterious, it is supernatural, it is convicting, it's hard to understand.
[00:07:06] We're going to look, I'm going to do a quick panoramic picture of the end times because it's critical that we understand prophecy.
[00:07:16] Why should we understand prophecy?
[00:07:18] Well, that's a good question.
[00:07:20] One of the reasons is, and I love this, the Bible says we're gonna be blessed when we study prophecy.
[00:07:27] The Bible says in the book of Revelation, it's not revelations.
[00:07:31] Say it with me, one, two, three, revelation.
[00:07:33] One, two, three, revelation.
[00:07:35] It's the reveal about the end times.
[00:07:39] When I study the end times, the final frontier, the happily ever after ending, I am going to be blessed.
[00:07:51] Now, we don't study this just to be blessed, but I'm telling you, it's just a benefit of studying this. Moreover, a third of the Bible, that's another blank, one third of the Bible rightly interpreted is about the final things. Let me say that again. One third of the Bible.
[00:08:14] Now this is massive. Rightly dissected is about the second coming of Jesus Christ.
[00:08:22] So we've got to talk about this. We have to know this. Don't though, and here's a warning label on this industrial strength series, don't get so immersed and enmeshed in the data that doesn't matter that you miss the who and the you don't do that because it's easy for me. You know, I've gone
[00:08:49] as I've told you, I've had all this education and I've studied the original languages and I know some brilliant theologians and I read all these books. It's easy for me very quickly to talk talk over your head. I dare say every one of you could easily talk over my head in your area of
[00:09:10] expertise. So I believe the genius of this, of what the Lord Jesus wants us to do, and here's why I'm so excited again that Jimmy is going to be with us in this series, it's breaking it down
[00:09:23] so we can understand it. It's like you go to a restaurant or whatever, and I love food, Lisa and I, I guess, are foodies. And I enjoy, for example, Asian food. I don't mind if the menu
[00:09:41] is written in Japanese, if it's also in English beneath the Japanese, okay? So what I'm going to talk about sometimes is like, whoa, okay, what? I didn't understand that. And well, I want to break
[00:09:59] it down to make it understandable. So now that I've kind of set the ground rules, we can jump in. If you have your Bibles, you can turn to this text or you can read it in first Thessalonians
[00:10:13] chapter four, verse, verse 16. I'll begin reading for the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, out of nowhere, one day, the church will be raptured.
[00:10:43] Now, what does it mean to be raptured? You've probably heard that. It's the invisible snatching away of those of us who are in Christ. But it begins with a loud command.
[00:10:54] I grew up watching Tarzan.
[00:11:09] Tarzan would do the Tarzan yell as it would echo off of all the foliage in the jungles.
[00:11:18] All of the wild kingdom would turn.
[00:11:23] You know?
[00:11:29] And follow Tarzan.
[00:11:32] I mean, when things would get crazy.
[00:11:38] Jesus will shout and all of us those of us who are in christ will be caught up with him in the clouds the dead in christ the bible says well let me let me read you what the bible says it says
[00:11:59] allow command with each voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of god and the dead in christ will rise first because they need a six foot head start after that we who are still
[00:12:16] alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will be with the Lord forever therefore encourage I'm here to encourage you not discourage
[00:12:36] you encourage one another with these words I've often thought about this can't just just think about this for a second. Can you imagine what's going to happen when we're snatched up? Conversations will end in mid-sentence. Big old triple seven will be taxiing. DFW, the pilot will turn to one
[00:13:05] of his co-pilots. Seat will be empty. A mother will go to embrace her child. All she'll see are warm blankets, the rapture of the church, the rapture of those who are true believers in Christ. I guarantee it. You'll have all the pundits, all of the people and all of the
[00:13:35] different news outlets trying to explain away where everybody went. I can just see it now.
[00:13:42] old Dr. Fauci, Dr. Doom. It's because of a variant and those who were not vaccinated spontaneously combust. And you think I'm kidding you. That was really funny.
[00:14:07] So as we look though at the rapture of the church, the snatching up, we need to think about it in a way like a play, like a stage. Friday night, Lisa and I traveled to Houston to do a conference.
[00:14:30] And we did a conference at a church there that had, I think, the largest worship center I've ever seen in my life. Minimal seating capacity of maybe 7,000 to 8,000. Giant place. No, it wasn't
[00:14:46] packed. I mean, there were several thousand people there, but when you would talk, it would echo. Anyway, we were talking about marriage, marriage. So it was, it was fun. The stage though at this church, 4,000 square feet. Now that's a big stage. The stage of history has been set
[00:15:12] by the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:15:17] Number one, the first act is the incarnation of Christ.
[00:15:20] We need to understand this, the incarnation.
[00:15:22] Jesus became flesh.
[00:15:24] The word became flesh, the Bible says, and dwelt among us.
[00:15:28] That's the incarnation of Christ, the miracle, the God of the universe stepping down the staircase of heaven with a baby in his arms.
[00:15:36] The second act, redemption.
[00:15:40] God formulating this brilliant plan to send his son to live perfectly, to live this holy life, to die on a cross for the sins of the world, and to rise again. Act three is the coronation. The coronation. Jesus is crowned
[00:16:02] King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And I'll talk about that in just a second. So that's how it's It's kind of broken down in God's divine drama.
[00:16:17] So a panoramic view.
[00:16:21] So a happily ever after ending.
[00:16:26] A time of encouragement, a time of blessing.
[00:16:29] A time where we can see the signs of the levees breaking.
[00:16:34] Go back to the government officials in New Orleans.
[00:16:41] they saw the signs they knew the deal yet they weren't ready we see the signs we know the deal and are you ready I mean seriously I know that many here are but maybe you're not ready it's like
[00:17:02] ever ready batteries you know are you ever ready are you ever ready for the forever are you ready Are you ready? Let's talk about the rapture of the church. Here's the church. There's the steeple.
[00:17:28] Open the doors and see all the people. So I just, that's an open door here, I guess.
[00:17:39] Little windows. There's the church. Of course, on this timeline, you have the life of Jesus, the visible life of Jesus. You have his death on the cross, burial and resurrection.
[00:18:03] Now you have the rapture of the church on this timeline, the rapture of the church.
[00:18:19] From there, you have three and a half years of peace.
[00:18:39] Then you have three and a half years of chaos.
[00:18:54] I'm a terrible speller.
[00:18:58] This is known, this green right here, as the tribulation.
[00:19:16] Now just call me out if I misspell something, okay?
[00:19:20] Okay. Tribulation. I got it. You deserve to clap for me just that I got this many words correct because I have learning disabilities and all sorts of issues. So that's incredible.
[00:19:40] Someone take a picture of that. I'm going to post that right there. Okay. So three and a half years.
[00:19:45] Then you have, of course, the Antichrist. Some say, well, maybe he's been one of the presidents.
[00:19:59] No, our presidents have not been smart enough to, seriously, to be the Antichrist.
[00:20:07] That's a good try.
[00:20:12] Of course, you have 666, that whole thing.
[00:20:19] Then this guy, this charismatic figure will come in, and I don't want to get too detailed, and set up his rule in the temple.
[00:20:37] Jerusalem. So are we tracking? We're out. Boom. With the command, this is invisible.
[00:20:48] N-V-I-S. Thank you guys for helping me out. So this is invisible, the rapture. That's where we have cats like Dr. Fauci talking about spontaneous combustion caused by aliens and the fact that we were not vaccinated and whatever. Okay. So that's the invisible situation. So here we go. We're kind
[00:21:20] of up here. All right. Then right here, it goes absolutely crazy. And we have, well, different things taking place during this time, especially this three and a half year window right here.
[00:21:41] We have various crimes, various sins that are just like exploding, literally.
[00:21:50] Violence.
[00:21:52] Don't you see violence increasing?
[00:21:55] You realize, I read this yesterday, our murder rate is as high as it's ever been in our history.
[00:22:03] The violence.
[00:22:06] Just think about what's going on.
[00:22:09] Just think about what happened in Coppell.
[00:22:11] several days ago.
[00:22:14] I read last night, right before I went to bed, a young woman, a mother of four, was murdered in cold blood, an Uber driver.
[00:22:21] Just on and on and on and on and on.
[00:22:25] So violence, an increasingly amount of violence.
[00:22:30] Also drug usage.
[00:22:33] I read that fentanyl kills more people than car accidents.
[00:22:38] It's killed more people than COVID and all sorts of things.
[00:22:42] It's the number one cause of death, for example, in kids from 17 to 45 years of age.
[00:22:51] Then you have the occult, false religions and witchcraft and all sorts of things.
[00:23:01] And as you read a lot behind some of the A-listers and some of even the political figures, and you realize what they're involved with.
[00:23:11] I mean, some even in straight up Satan worship and, and, and, and drinking blood and all sorts of things. How about, how about sexual promiscuity off the charge? 23,000 people a second log on to pornographic websites. Let me say that again. 23,000 people a second log on to these websites.
[00:23:42] So then you have theft.
[00:23:45] I mean, theft is in effect.
[00:23:49] So you see, I mean, it's easy to see these signs.
[00:23:53] I mean, we're not getting any better.
[00:23:56] I hope you know that.
[00:23:59] I mean, the levy is getting ready to break.
[00:24:03] It's getting ready to break.
[00:24:05] So here's the good news though.
[00:24:11] You got Jesus and all of us.
[00:24:16] and then you have the mother of all wars, Armageddon. I'll put a big A right there.
[00:24:31] Napoleon said, the Valley of Megiddo is the most natural battlefield in the world.
[00:24:40] And I've been right there with many of you as we've toured Israel, and there's almost an eeriness. Well, there is an eeriness about it. When you see it, you're kind of like, wow, this is where it's going to go down. Then, okay, you have all of us, right? And then
[00:25:02] you have the second coming of Jesus Christ, which is visible. V-I-S-I-B-L-E.
[00:25:20] Guaranteed in heaven, I'll be able to spell. I mean, just like, it'd be amazing.
[00:25:27] Also during this time, you'll see, I've written down in my notes, 144, you have 144,000 evangelists on steroids and God has to pick a group of people who are tenacious, who were smart, who were aggressive. These are 144,000 Jewish evangelists. So then from there,
[00:25:57] we had the second coming of Jesus Christ. We all come back. And then from there, you have things that are out of place, suddenly that are put in place.
[00:26:08] Are you one of those people, you're like, man, I gotta have everything in place.
[00:26:12] I gotta have everything in place.
[00:26:14] Well, the bride and the groom are in place.
[00:26:18] Jesus is the groom.
[00:26:20] The church is the bride.
[00:26:23] The devil himself put in prison.
[00:26:30] Jesus on the throne.
[00:26:34] So right here, you have 1,000 years.
[00:26:36] I ran out of space. Then the final judgment, young people, I'm writing in cursive. You've never seen that, but it's a beautiful way to write. Final judgment. And then we have, and I'll just do E right here, eternity, new heaven, and new earth. That is the panoramic
[00:27:08] view of the end times. Take a shot of that, fill in the blanks, because that will be a template, a grid that we're going to use over the next several weeks as we get into this.
[00:27:28] So what, Ed? I mean, wow, that's interesting. I didn't know you knew all that. Jesus lived and and he died and rose again, and now he's come back for the church.
[00:27:44] It's invisible, and whoa, the tribulation, and the second coming.
[00:27:51] Whoa, okay, cool, but what does it mean, what does it really mean to me?
[00:27:59] Signs, S, we should shift our focus, our complete focus to Jesus and the church.
[00:28:09] The only thing Jesus ever built was local church.
[00:28:12] This should cause a seismic shift in our lives.
[00:28:15] The geological plates should shift as we focus on these things.
[00:28:22] I, it should inspire me and you to pray for others, to pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ, Also to pray for people that you know who are on the wrong side of the levy
[00:28:37] because the levy is going to break.
[00:28:44] G, it gives us hope for the future.
[00:28:49] We're made in God's image.
[00:28:50] We have a concept of the future.
[00:28:52] This morning I got up with Lisa as we go through our drill every morning and feed all of our dogs.
[00:28:58] We have a Great Dane, two Golden Doodles and one Maltese and a cat named Meow Meow.
[00:29:08] As I was looking at these beautiful animals, I knew they were not really thinking about the future.
[00:29:15] They weren't really thinking about, oh man, I know you guys are going out of town for a couple of days next week and then you're coming back and I know that Ed, your dad, is coming in town tonight.
[00:29:25] No, no, no, they're animals.
[00:29:29] We though are made in the image of God and we have a concept, right, of the future.
[00:29:36] Awesome. So hope for the future. So yeah, is the levy going to break? Yes. Do I have hope for the future? Yes. Because we win and we're going to live forever. Also too, it helps me to navigate
[00:29:51] the world. All of a sudden, if I go on some website or, or listen to a podcast or, or, or watching television or reading a book, I have this grid, this, this, these, these things that
[00:30:06] are happening and these signs that I can see as big as Dallas. And also S, it helps me to see the temporal versus the eternal. I have one eye on the things of the world, but one eye on eternity.
[00:30:26] And when you have that eternal eye, it's a complete game changer.
[00:30:32] Well, how do I pray for this, man?
[00:30:34] How do I get into this?
[00:30:36] How do I do this?
[00:30:41] Yesterday, I met Lisa at the mall with our grandkids, some of them, and we ate at Chick-fil-A.
[00:30:51] I love Chick-fil-A.
[00:30:52] So we're sitting there in the food court.
[00:30:56] I brought all the Chick-fil-A bags to the table, put them down.
[00:31:00] We spread out the Chick-fil-A items that we were getting ready to feast upon.
[00:31:08] And before we ate, I said, let's say a prayer.
[00:31:16] And our four-year-old Sterling said, I want to pray.
[00:31:20] I said, great, great.
[00:31:22] I'm thinking, wow, unbelievable four-year-old already wants to pray.
[00:31:29] So she bowed her head and closed her eyes.
[00:31:33] And then she looked up and she goes, help me pray.
[00:31:37] I said, what?
[00:31:40] she said help me pray so I led her in a prayer for the blessing of the food I know this is a lot of data I know this is a lot of information I know in our minds it's surreal it's hard to even
[00:32:01] grasp and many of us I know we're like it's hard for us to even believe because we're here on planet earth, but it's time that we look to our father and say, God, help me to pray because I
[00:32:21] don't know always what to say, Lord. So it's my prayer during this series that we'll look to him, submit our lives to him and say, God, lead me, teach me to pray. Would you bow your heads?
[00:32:40] father thank you for this series that i mean bottom line is difficult to grasp and difficult to understand it almost seems like lord that we're like is this really gonna happen we trust you god
[00:33:01] and we know it is and we know that we win and if there's someone here and you've never ever ever asked the lord jesus to come into your life i would pray right now that you would you might
[00:33:14] be going, well, I don't know how to pray. Do what Sterling did to me and just go, teach me, God, how to pray. Teach me, God, because God interprets our prayers. Even when we don't know what to say,
[00:33:28] even when our words don't even make sense, he interprets those. So just pray this prayer.
[00:33:35] If you want the Lord Jesus to come into your life, just say, God, I'm a sinner. I admit my sins to you. I turn from these sins and I turn to you. I believe you sent Jesus Christ to die on the
[00:33:47] cross for my sins and rise again. And right now I ask you Lord to come into my life. You might be going, well, I don't have enough faith. Faith is a gift. Ask God for it. Others of us who have
[00:34:04] prayed that prayer before, we need to ask God to help us interpret this and to help us make sense of this in our world, at school, the office, at the gym.
[00:34:21] So Holy Spirit, lead us and guide us.
[00:34:25] We ask these things in Christ's name, amen.
[00:34:31] Hi guys, thank you so much for watching the Ed Young YouTube channel.
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