- My title is Anti-Christ,
America, and the end of days. The United States of America,
I don't know about you but I'm proud to be an America. (cheering and applauding) I know that's fallen
out of favor with some. Patriotism is looked down on by some. But I've had the opportunity
to travel around the world and I still believe the
United States of America is the greatest country on the planet. (applauding)
I do believe that. Some of you are saying, "Greg, "have you looked at American lately?" That we have a lot of problems,
oh, I acknowledge that. I acknowledge the
divisions and the problems, and the conflicts, and all
the areas we fall short in. But this is a unique nation,
different from any other nation, the only other
nation you could keep compare us to would be the nation Israel, established by God in
the land that they're in. But we have spiritual roots, you know? A very important name in
the history of America is George, right, George, is
anybody named George here? Any George, that's a good name, George. Now you're immediately
thinking of George Washington, and he was our founding
father, and we named the nation's capital after him. But I'm not talking at this
moment about George Washington, I'm talking about our
spiritual founding father, George Whitefield, ever heard of him? He wasn't even American,
he was from England. And George Whitefield
was a great Evangelist. So he came over to our shores and preached to the colonists and many
of them came to Christ. In fact, 80% of the people
living in the colonies at that time, heard
George Whitefield preach in person, including Benjamin Franklin. Sometimes as many as 40,000
people would come to hear George Whitefield preach,
and thousands and thousands of people came to Christ, and
a spiritual awakening spread across America, so while
France was having a revolution, we were having a spiritual revival. And it was in that soil that
the seeds of this experiment, this new concept of a nation was born. One nation under go,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, that we
say even in our declaration of independence, we've been
in doubt with our creator, with certain unalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. And we would not be ruled
by a monarch on a throne. We would have representatives
who would go into our capital and speak for us, and with all
of the flaws of our system, and there are many, but this
amazing this has worked. And America was born, in fact,
it was George Washington, our first president, who said,
"Well, anyone who believes, "you can explain our victory
in the American Revolution "without the hand of providence completely "misunderstands what happened." And then one of the ratifiers
of the US Constitution, Patrick Henry, made this statement which is very significant,
"It cannot be emphasized "too strongly or too often
that this great nation "was founded," listen, "not by religion is "but by Christians, not only religion, "but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. "And it is for this very
reason people of other fates "have been afforded a silent prosperity, "and freedom of worship here." Very true, and revisionists
want to edit that out of our history books but
it's part of our story. And then we entered into a
civil war, you know, of course. It almost destroyed America
because we were killing each other, we survived that and
ultimately urged as a superpower in the world, and imagine
if you will, for a moment, a world without the
United States of America. Imagine if the United States
of America did not exist during WWII, Hitler could have won
that war with the amazing technology that they had
developed so far ahead of it's time, but it was
when America stepped in that England knew that the
war would ultimately be won. Now, England was taking
a beating from Hitler. But we stepped in and
they fully returned back, imagine what would happen
to the Jewish population of the planet if Adolf Hitler had won. And then you go forward in
history and you look at all the times we've stepped
forward, we've faced down the Soviet Union, the Evil
Empire as President Reagan said. And we won, it was America
that has pushed back and stood against the spread of
Islamic terrorism since 9/11. It is America that sends
humanitarian aide around the world, no other nation
really even comes close to the generosity of American people. We gave away $30 billion
in humanitarian aide last year alone.
(applauding) People expect the United
States of America to do that, and we do, now, imagine if
you will, a world without America, well, sad to
say, that day is coming. Oh, I don't know that
America will cease to exist but I'm saying there is coming the day when America will not be
the dominant superpower that we are right now because
as we look at the last days scenario, other players
emerge, starting with the anti-Christ, and his
10 confederated nations. And another massive force
called the Kings of the East. I think you could make a
pretty good case, biblically, for the existence of
Israel in the end times, in fact, and it gets in there, tight case. You can make a pretty good case for the existence of Iran
according to Ezekiel 37, existing in the end times, I
think you can even possibly make a case for the existence
of Russia, and China, in the end times scenario,
but it's alarming that you cannot really find
anything that resembles America as we know it
today, in the last days. Where are we, I don't
know, we'll explore that in another message, but in our absence, imagine a world where evil is
allowed to spread unabated. A world that ultimately
pledges it's loyalty to a man that will make Adolf Hitler look like a lightweight in comparison. That is coming to planet Earth,
and that's what I wanna talk about in this message,
Anti-Christ, American, and the End of Days, let's talk about
the anti-Christ himself. He will be sent by Satan,
you see, Satan is effectively an imitator, he's not an innovator. He imitates, whatever God
does, Satan does his devilish version of, and just as
surely as there is a father in heaven, there is a Satan from hell. And just as surely as the Father in Heaven has given us his only begotten Son, Satan, in a way, will have a son too. If the Devil ever had a
son, this will be him. The anti-Christ will be
energized by Lucifer himself. God has really Christians,
Satan has fake ones. God has real miracles,
the Devil has imitations of those as well, anti-Christ
will be history's vilest embodiment of sin and rebellion. But he's not gonna be what
you might expect, you know, dressed head to toe in
black with glowing red eyes, and steam coming off of him
with a Darth Vader song playing in the background when he enters a room. No, I'm telling you, this
guy will be charismatic. He'll be magnetic, he'll
be a powerful orator. He'll be a convincing
speaker, he will be probably a very handsome guy as well,
probably be on the cover of GQ, and Time Magazine simultaneously. Think, The Devil Wears Prada, right? (laughing) He will do what no man has
ever been able to do before. He will establish a
treaty between the Jewish and Arab nations that they will abide by. And he will pave the way for
the long-awaited third temple in Jerusalem, he will
be a Satanic Superman. But it's all a mask,
hiding who he really is, the most evil man who ever lived. You know, many people believe
anti-Christ is coming. I read an interesting
poll, done among Americans, not Christians necessarily,
and many of them, 49% believe that an anti-Christ
will come in the future. And then another article
revealed that 19% of Americans think the anti-Christ is on Earth now. And in the same poll, nearly
half of those who accept Biblical prophecy believe
anti-Christ is alive, right now, now we don't
know if he is or he isn't. We don't know if he's present
somewhere, waiting for his moment, but we know his
moment will ultimately come. Now, I know some of you are thinking, "Greg, I didn't come to church today "to hear about the anti-Christ." Oh, okay, well, listen,
it's important that you know something, there are over
100 passages that detail the origin, nationality,
career, character, kingdom, and the final doom of anti-Christ. He is discussed at length
in second Thessalonians, Revelation, as well as
here in the book of Daniel. The sheer volume of information
about the anti-Christ in scripture is enough for
us to want to understand who he is and what he is coming to do. And also, to know that
ultimately, he is going to lose, reminding us
that as dark as things can look at times, we win in the end. We must never forget that.
(applauding) We win in the end.
(applauding) And I bring that up because
there are times that when it seems evil is prevailing,
it seems like darkness is winning, and we're
losing, well, it does seem that way at times but
I've read the last page of the Bible, I'm telling
you, we win in the end. (applauding) Here's three things to
remember that are important. Number one, God is sovereign
over all of history. God is sovereign over all of history because history is his
story, number two, history is a blip on the screen of eternity. It's a blip on the screen of eternity. And thirdly, God will have the final word, and it will be good, so
who is this anti-Christ? Also called the Beast, the
Wicked One, the Son of Perdition? Well, that brings us to
where we last left off, here in the book of
Daniel, Daniel saw a vision of a winged lion, and a
bear, and a leopard coming out of the sea, in Daniel
7, remember we pointed out that in the Bible, the sea is a picture of the multitudes, the people,
and these are not literal animals, they are symbols of nations. So, the winged lion is
Babylon, and they even have the winged lion on the gate,
they had the winged lion on the gates of their city,
and so, the lion, the king of the jungle, this powerful beast, ruled and dominated for many years. But Babylon was defeated
by the Medo-Persian empire, under the direction of King
Cyrus, and that's the bear. The bear defeats the winged lion. But then the bear is defeated
by a leopard, also with wings and that is because the Medo-Persians were defeated by Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great
conquered most of the world in 12 brief years, and
he seemed unstoppable. But Alexander died
unexpectedly at the age of 32. And his massive kingdom was
divided among four generals. They were defeated
eventually by mighty Rome. And Rome was never conquered,
now, from the ashes of Rome rises a phoenix, the
new leader, the anti-Christ. Daniel 7, verse 8, "I was
considering the horns. "And there was another horn, a little one, "coming up among them before
whom three of the first horns "were plucked out by the roots. "And there, in this horn,
were eyes like the eyes "of a man and a mouth
speaking pompous words." We'll stop there, so
if you're taking notes, here's point number one, anti-Christ is coming to defy and
take the place of Jesus. Anti-Christ is coming to defy
and take the place of Jesus. A horn, as mentioned here in Daniel 7:8, is a symbol of power in scripture. But this horn has both eyes
and a mouth, reminding us that this is a person
that is being addressed. And I would also add
this, the prefix, anti, does not only mean against,
it also means instead of. So it's not just that
this coming world leader, this beast, this charismatic
politician extraordinaire is going to oppose Christ, and he will. But he also comes in the place of Christ. And for some, they'll
believe he is the Christ, or he is their messiah at least. Verse 8 says that he speaks pompous words, which means he boasts arrogantly, he's a powerful orator,
he'll win people over. He'll bring about a temporary global peace and economic solutions, but
here's something else to know about anti-Christ, point number two, he is coming to declare war on believers. He's coming to declare war on
believers, Daniel 7:25 says, "Then the saints will
be given into his hand, "and times, and half, okay,"
so, we'll read this phrase in Daniel, and elsewhere, it
basically comes down to this. The anti-Christ will
inaugurate what is often called the great tribulation period
that will last for seven years. And we'll be divided
into two sections, time, times and a half, or
three and a half years. In the beginning of the
tribulation, the anti-Christ will come off like a good
guy, he'll come with his peace treaty, he'll come with
his brilliant words, he'll come with economic solutions. And many will hail him and love
him, and especially when he rebuilds the third temple
for the Jewish people. But at the three-and-a-half-year mark, the abomination of desolation takes place, and we'll talk about this more later too. But this is when the temple
is rebuilt and it's desecrated by the anti-Christ,
marking the second section of the tribulation period
where this coming world leader shows his true colors,
and they're not pretty. He begins to persecute Jewish
people, and he persecutes Christians, and he
begins to rule by force. And so, that is what this is referring to. And already you see four shots of anti-Christ in the world today. Number three, anti-Christ is
coming to dominate the globe. He's coming to dominate the
globe, Revelations 13:7 says, "Authority was given to him
over every tribe, tongue, "and nation," now, again,
I want to emphasize how does he do it, through war? No, initially through peace,
see, 'cause he's the man of peace, they'll probably
award him the Nobel Peace Prize. And the Bible says, "Through
peace, he will deceive many." And so he'll establish these
but then he'll be the ultimate man of war following
that, and he'll also come at economically difficult times. And he will succeed
where others have failed. Now, you might wonder where in the heck does anti-Christ get
the ability to do this? Let me re-state that,
you should instead ask, "Where in the hell does he get it?" "Did Greg just cuss?"
(laughing) No, no, I used it in the literal sense. He gets it from hell, his
power comes from hell. His power comes from Satan,
he is the devil's disciple. He is Lucifer's leader, he's Satan's son. Revelation 13:2 says the dragon,
which is later identified as Satan, gives him his
power, and a throne, and his great authority, he
will oppose every law of God because he's anti-Christ, now
here's another interesting thing about him, number four, anti-Christ will establish global control
through a cashless society. Anti-Christ will establish global control through a cashless society,
over in Revelation 13:17. It says, "No one will buy or sell "except one who has the mark
or the name of the beast." That's the anti-Christ, "Or
the number of his name." Here's wisdom, let him
who have understanding calculate the number of the beast for it is a number of a
man, his number is 666. And we've all heard those
numbers, haven't we? I think everybody knows
that 666, those are not good numbers, if there was a house
for sale in a neighborhood and it was 666 anything,
many people would not buy it. If you Google the number
666, you'll find 543 million results, and you'll also
find 543 million different ideas about what it means,
and I don't think we should over-fixate on what it literally means. Here's the bigger picture,
anti-Christ will introduce a cashless society, requiring
people to take a mark, and no one will be able to buy or sell without the mark, under
the reign of anti-Christ. Now, I ask you, is this
possible in technology today? Well, of course it is, we all know it is. Bill Gates brought it up three years ago. He said the key to this
will be mobile phones. Already in the developing countries, with the right regulatory
framework, people are storing money digitally, on their
phones, and using their phones to make purchases as if
they were debit cards. "By 2030, two billion people
who don't have a bank account "today will be storing
money and making payment "with their phones," here's the problem. You can lose your phone, right? But now you can get a
watch, like an Apple watch, and you can make payments
on your watch as well. But the next logical step is
to introduce biometric-based payment systems, where I
don't have to carry a phone. I don't have to have a watch,
if I just had something you could scan on my body, and
this technology exists. And you know it does, there
was a day when I'd have to go into all these things
and all that's great. We all know this is already here now. And we know that this data is
out there, and it's accessible and there are people, we
talked about the dark web, who has sinister motives,
could access this data and have control over the
lives of a lot of people. That man is coming and that
man will be the anti-Christ. Now, I want you to
consider this for a moment. The words of Revelation
13 were penned in the age of wood, stone, swords, and spears. John the Apostle didn't have a cellphone. He didn't have a Twitter
account, no technology existed like that, and yet he made
these amazing predictions, reminding us that the
Bible is the one book that dares to predict the
future, not once, not twice, not three times, hundreds of
times, with 100% accuracy. You can trust what the Bible says. (applauding)
About all things. So, you know, some of you are
thinking, well, this is like, the most depressing
message I've ever heard. (laughing)
Okay, now let me pivot. Change my direction, anti-Christ
is coming, that's the bad news, good news, Jesus
Christ is coming before the anti-Christ.
(applauding and cheering) Therefore, we should not
be looking for anti-Christ, we should be looking for Jesus Christ. (applauding and cheering) Don't waste your time
trying to figure out who the ant-Christ is, you say,
"Well, I don't understand. "What do you mean Jesus Christ is coming?" I mean he's coming, he's
coming back for his people. In fact, I don't even
believe the anti-Christ can be revealed until
Christ comes for his people in what we call the rapture of the church, and I'll define that in a moment. But over in second
Thessalonians 2:7, it says, "The mystery of lawlessness
is already at work. "And now he who restrains
will continue to do so "until he is taken out of the way." So the Bible say, and then that wicked one will be revealed whom
the Lord will destroy with the brightness of his coming. So let me simplify that,
Bible say before anti-Christ can be revealed, the restraining force, the thing that's holding
them back has to be removed. So, what is the restraining
force in the world today? That keeps evil from spreading wholesale? It's Christians, Christians
who stand up for what is true, Christians who speak
out against what is wrong, Christians who make such a
difference in every situation. Imagine if we were all
suddenly just removed from the planet, you could see
how all hell could literally break loose, so the restraining force is the work of the Holy
Spirit through the church. Once the church is removed
or called up to heaven, I don't mean buildings, I mean people. Once we're caught up to heaven,
anti-Christ can begin his reign, you say, now, you
mention the word, rapture. You know, I don't know that I've ever seen the word rapture in the Bible. Well, okay, and I know
some people are critical of the rapture, "The
rapture's not in the Bible, "show me the word, rapture,"
okay, I'll show you the word, rapture, when you
show me the word, trinity, in the Bible, how 'bout
this, I'll show you the word, rapture, when you show me the
word, Bible, in the Bible. The word, Bible, is not in
the Bible, did you know that? But we use that phrase, so
you say, what is the deal with the rapture, the
teaching of the rapture is clearly in the Bible many times. In fact, they choose 13
times in the New Testament. The word rapture is just a
translation of a Latin word, (foreign language) so if you
have a Latin translation, you have the word,
(foreign language) okay? But the Greek word is (foreign language). (foreign language) so don't
get hung up on the word, rapture, I'm just saying that
there is an event coming, call it the rapture, call
it the (foreign language), call it the Great Escape,
whatever you like. But it is a teaching that
people are gonna be caught up to meet the Lord in the air,
the word (foreign language) can be translated to
take forcibly, to snatch, or to catch up, so, question,
why is there a rapture? Why is there a rapture, and
let me come back to this one thing before I say why,
what is the rapture? The rapture is when Christ
descends from heaven, and we're caught up to meet him. Now, could we be the generation
that sees the rapture? Yes, are we the generation
that will see the rapture? I don't know, I don't know.
(laughing) No one knows, oh, by the way, no one knows the day or the hour, and every
now and then someone comes along, "I figured it
out, I cracked the code "after eating a lot of Cheetos
and drinking diet Coke." (laughing)
And here's the thing, I know they're wrong because
when Jesus says no one knows the day or the hour, the
return of the Son of Man, if you were to go back
to the original language, it would translate, no one
knows the day or the hour, and what it means is no one
knows the day or the hour. (laughing and applauding)
So we should avoid (applauding)
date setting at all costs. So, we're caught up to
meet the Lord in the air. And it is at that moment
that we receive our new resurrection bodies, and
it's also at that moment that we're reunited with loved
ones who have preceded us, bringing me to point number
two, why is there a rapture? Listen to this now,
why is there a rapture? Well, back in Thessalonia,
there were a lot of Christians. And many of them had died,
some from natural causes, some had been martyred for their faith. So there was a concern among
the Thessalonian Christians. And I should say
Thessalonike, a concern among the Thessalonian Christians
living with Thessalonike, that they would never see their loved ones who had preceded them into heaven. And they wondered if they
would miss the rapture, and so, Paul writes these
words, Thessalonians 4:13. "We don't want you to
be uninformed, brothers, "about those who have
died, so that you will "not grieve as those who have no hope?" See, I bring this up because
sometimes it will say, "There's no point in
studying Bible prophecy, "no one can understand
it, there's a lot of you's "don't study it," now we
need to study Bible prophecy. Because if we understand
it, it will impact us in the way that we live,
and I find great hope from this teaching of the rapture. So I don't have to grieve hopelessly. Listen, Christians grieve,
but we grieve hopefully, not hopelessly, I just met a
family after first service, a big family, their last name,
they're the Carnie family. There are so many of them,
they call them the Carnie Army. (laughing)
And there's a young lady in their family, McKenna,
who went to be with the Lord recently, rather
unexpectedly, here's a picture of McKenna, what the gave
me, she was 20 years old. And you can go in for a
close-up maybe on that. But, McKenna died of a
blood clot, and she attended our church, and she
wanted her whole family to come and visit our church,
and they're all here today. In fact, why don't you guys all stand up? (applauding and cheering)
They're all here. The family, stand up,
you guys, there they are. (applauding) So, they're all here in honor of McKenna, Nicole Carnie, and they gave me this little yellow band that
I'm gonna put on here. And, so, she attended our
church, and they wanted to come and see this church
that she was a part of. And you know, I was talking to
them, after the first service and I said this is, you know,
I understand what you're going through, not completely,
it's all different. But, you know, our son went
to be with the Lord 10 years ago as most of you know, and,
you know, Christians grieve. And sometimes when we believe
or say things like this to people who just lost a
loved one, "Don't cry, they're "in heaven," and the correct
Biblical answer to that would be, "Um, shut up."
(laughing) Because Christians can grieve,
and Christians should grieve. They should mourn because the Bible says there's a time for mourning,
and a time for laughing. I mean, Steven was the first
martyr of the early church. He was put to death for his faith. And we read godly men mourned over him. Wait, why are you mourning over him? He went to heaven, he's
off, he's into Jesus, yeah. But they missed him, they
know, they knew they would see him again but they missed
him, it's okay to mourn. You need to mourn but we
don't mourn hopelessly, we mourn hopefully because we
know we'll see our loved ones again, who have gone to heaven. (applauding) We'll either see them through
death, when we die, we'll see them in glory, or we'll
see them in the rapture. So, imagine this, those of
you who have lost loved ones. You could be just going
about your business one day, and suddenly, in a moment so
quick you can't measure it, the Bible says the rapture
will happen in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,
that's pretty fast, isn't it? Twinkling of an eye, it's
faster than a blink of an eye. Let's all blink our eyes,
one, two, three, blink. It's faster than that, that's fast. (laughing)
Except at lunch, you blink very slowly, I
don't know what that's about. (laughing)
No. Or were you sleeping, I don't
know what's going on up here. (laughing)
No. No, but seriously, that's so
fast you can't even measure it, so try to imagine it,
I don't think you can wrap your mind around it,
you're just walking along, maybe you're even thinking
about your loved one, how much you miss them,
how much you wish you could be with them, all of a sudden,
boom, you're with them. It's the rapture, boom, you're there. Reunited with them, the
dead in Christ rise first, which means when you die as a Christian, you go to heaven, and we
which are alive and remaining, shall be caught up
together with them, who? Those who have preceded us
will be caught up together with them in the clouds,
and so shall we ever be with the Lord, and then Paul says, "Therefore comfort one
another with these words." (hooting and cheering)
See, that's the practical side of this teaching.
(applauding) There's no theology without
docsology, and that simply means it's great to study doctrine,
and it's great to study scripture but what does it
mean to me in real life? And that's what it means
to you, it means you'll see them again, and that is a great hope that we have as followers of Jesus Christ. Caught up in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye. To meet them and to meet the Lord. So the rapture's gonna come,
and sometimes people get confused about the rapture
and the second coming. By the way, they're two events. And they're separated by seven years. Now you wanna talk about
date setting, I'll tell you when the second coming of
Christ is, you wanna know? It's very simple, it's at
the end of the tribulation period, it's during the
Battle of Armageddon. Well, when's that, I don't know. But I just know once
the church is raptured, and anti-Christ is revealed,
you can do the math and go forward seven years,
and that's when Christ is gonna come back, at the second coming. But here's the difference, in the rapture, he comes for his church,
in the second coming, he comes with his church, in
the rapture he comes as a thief in the night, and in the second coming, every eye will see him, Jesus said, "As the lightning shines
on the east to the west, "so will the coming of the son of man be." So, let's conclude, we've
talk about anti-Christ. Now let me ask you a
question, let me surprise you. Are you anti-Christ? What, are you saying I
could be the anti-Christ? I didn't ask you that,
there's a difference between the anti-Christ, the beast,
and being anti-Christ. That term is used of those
who've turned against Jesus and away from the church,
first John 218 says, "Dear children, the last hour is here. "And you refer that the
anti-Christ is coming, "and already many such
anti-Christs have appeared. "From this, we know that
the end of the world "has come, these people left
our churches because they never "really belonged with us, otherwise "they would've stayed with
us, and when they left us, "and proved they did not belong with us." Remember, anti-Christ, anti
doesn't just mean against, it means instead of, now there
can be someone here listening to me, or wherever they're
watching or hearing this later. And they'll say, "Well,
I'm against Jesus Christ, "and I'm against Christians,
and I'm against the Bible." Okay, man, you are anti-Christ, you are. But then there can be
someone that would say, "Well, it's not that
I'm against Christians. "It's just that I have other
things in the place of God "in my life, it's not that
I don't care about God "but I care more about my
career, or I care more about "my vice, or I care more about my money, "or I care more about this relationship." Do you realize that can be a form of anti because it's instead of Christ? And these people were in our
church and they left our church and they never came back, proving they were never part of
us, so what about people that come to church and you
see 'em for weeks, months, maybe years, and they seem
to be a passionate Christian? And then one day, they just, walk away. "Eh, I don't believe in that anymore. "I'm not into it," and they
never come back to the Lord again, did they lose their salvation? I would suggest to you, maybe
they never had salvation. Here's how you know if
you're a real Christian. It's where you end up,
Christians have lapses of faith, Christians have doubts,
Christians fall short, and Christians backslide but
if they're real believers, they'll always come home again. They'll always return to the Lord again. (applauding) But if they never return
to the Lord again, I suggest to you, they
were never Christians to begin with, and in effect, in a strict Biblical definition, they are anti-Christ. You do not wanna be that person. So let me ask in closing, are you anti-Christ or are you for Christ? Those are your only options,
and before you is death and life, and heaven and hell. You decide which it'll
be, rapture, it's comin'. Could come in your lifetime,
could come this year, could come this month, could come today. Nothing standing in the way of it. So, I ask you now, are you rapture ready? You say, how do you know
if you're rapture ready? Well, here's what you need to do. You need to admit you're a sinner, you need to turn from your
sin, you need to ask Christ to come into your life, and
forgive you of your sin. Also, you're basically saying
you need to be a Christian. Bingo.
(laughing) See, if you're a Christian,
you've got all your bases covered, if you're a Christian,
it's win, win, win, win. Right, so if I die, I go to heaven. If the rapture comes, I'm
taken to be with the Lord. I have purpose in this life
and hope for the life to come. That's our hope, so that's how you know you're rapture ready, by having
Jesus live inside of you. Listen to this, when Jesus
comes back for his people, not everybody is gonna be
caught up to meet him in heaven, only believers will, there'll
be people who are left. There'll be people who are
left who probably thought they were believers but
never were believers. You don't wanna be that person. So if you're not sure if
you're ready for the return of the Lord, if you're not
confident that you would go to heaven if you were to die today, why don't you respond to this invitation and ask Jesus Christ
to come into your life? He'll forgive you of all of your sin, and you don't have to be
afraid of any of the things we've been talking about,
you don't have to be afraid of anti-Christ, or the
tribulation period, or hell, or any of that because
you have hope in Christ, and you have the promise of
spending eternity with him. If you're not sure of this,
let's get this resolved right here, right now, let's all pray together. Father, thank you for your word to us. Thank you for sending
Jesus to die on the cross on our place, and to
rise again from the dead. Now, I pray for any that have joined us who do not yet know you, Lord,
help them to see their need for you, help them to
come to you and believe in you now, in your name, we pray. Lord, our heads are bowed,
and our eyes are closed, and we're praying, how many
of you would say today, "Greg I'm not sure if I'm rapture ready. "I'm not certain I would go to heaven "if the Lord were to come back. "In fact, I don't even have the confidence "that I would go to heaven
if I were to die today. "But I want it, I want Christ in my life. "I want him to forgive me of my sin. "I want to find this meaning
and purpose in my life "that you've talked about, pray for me." If that's your desire, listen,
if you want Jesus Christ to come into your life, if
you want him to forgive you of your sin, if you want to
go to heaven when you die, or you want to be ready
for the Lord's return, I want you to stamp your feet right now, wherever you are, and I'm
gonna lead you in a prayer. Just stand up, don't hesitate,
stand up, sayin' I want Jesus Christ, and I'll lead you in
a prayer, and you can leave Harvest today knowing your
life is right with God. By the way, others are
standing, are you one of them? Don't hesitate, you wanna do this. You wanna be ready to meet the
Lord, let me pray with you. Just stand to your feet, wherever you are. Remember, you're either
for Jesus or against him. You're either for anti-Christ
or you're for Jesus Christ, which side are you on,
if you're not for Christ, you wanna be standing, and
I'll lead you in a prayer. And I'll wait one more
moment, anybody ese, wherever you are, you might be watching
me on the screen right now, would you stand as well,
and we'll pray together. God bless you, I'll wait one
more moment, anybody else? God bless you, anybody else stand now. I'm gonna lead you in this
prayer, God bless you too. God bless you, many are standing, I hope you're one of them,
anybody else, stand now. Let me lead you in this prayer, alright. Now you that are standing, I
want you to pray this prayer out loud after me, again, as I pray, pray this prayer out loud
after me right where you stand. Just pray these words if you would. Lord Jesus, I know I'm a
sinner but I know you're the Savior, who died on
the cross for my sin, and rose again from the dead,
Jesus, I turn from my sin. And I choose to follow you
from this moment forward. Make me ready for your return. Thank you for forgiving
me and accepting me, in Jesus' name I pray, amen,
God bless each one of you. (applauding)
