today I'll be continuing our sermon series on the Book of Revelation which is considering John's vision of Hope including our message today we've got four weeks left in this series so we're kind of getting close to the end here I on the Extended Cut this week was talking to Pastor Chris it's kind of like you know the plane is beginning to descend um you collect all your trash and make sure you get buckled up we're kind of on the on the downhill here we're almost there uh but there's a lot packed into the last several chapters of Revelation if you've uh been missing these sermons you can always go back follow along on our podcast last week Pastor Chris's sermon he unpacked the main adversaries uh that are kind of uh foretold in John's latest Vision the dragon the Sea Beast the land Beast Babylon and about 27 other symbols and illustrations that have amazing and Powerful profound real ities for us but the primary takeaway uh as as we find often throughout Revelation is that the people of God are assured of God's ultimate victory in Christ that despite the chaos and Brokenness and just messiness of the world and the things that happen we can be sure that Christ is going to be Victorious and so we're urged to press on with endurance and with peace trusting him and where we find ourselves in Revelation 15 today the full out poring of God's Wrath is on display chapter 15 is the Prelude to the seven bowls of Wrath which I will summarize when we get into the text here from chapter 16 and uh as you're listening if you've been engaging in this sermon series with us just think back to some of the sermons we've done before and see if any of this language or vocabulary Rings any bells because I I think that you might find some familiarity with with some of it but we're we're going to find ourselves in Revelation chapter 15 it'll be on the screen if you don't have a Bible with you today and then after I read through Revelation 15 I'll just do a summary of chapter 16 for the sake of time Revelation 15 says I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign seven angels with the seven last plagues last because with them God's Wrath is completed and I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and standing beside the sea those who had been Victorious over the Beast and its image and over the number of its names they held Harps given to them by God and sing the song of God's servant Moses and of the Lamb great and marvelous are your Deeds Lord God Almighty just and true are your ways King of the Nations who will not fear you Lord and bring glory to your name for you alone Are Holy All Nations will come and worship before you for your righteous acts have been revealed after this I looked and I saw in heaven the temple that is the Tabernacle of the Covenant law and it was opened out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues they were dressed in clean shining linen and wore golden sashes around their chests then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bows filled with the wrath of God whose lives forever who lives forever and ever and the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power and no one could enter the temple until the seven PL seven plagues of the Seven Angels were completed this is the word of the Lord all this sets up what happens in chapter 16 which I have on the screen for you and this is where you might kind of think I feel like we've read something like this before a loud voice from Heaven shows up and calls out out the angels to pour out each of the seven bowls of Wrath and here are the bows the first Bowl terrible Soares come on those who have the mark of the beast and worship His Image in the second bowl every living creature in the sea is killed as the water is turned to blood when the third boil of Wrath is poured out rivers and springs are struck and turned to blood the fourth bull mankind is scorched with heat when the sun is struck the fifth bull the Throne of the Beast is struck and his kingdom is cursed with Darkness the six bowl the river Euphrates is is struck and the water is dried up effectively preparing it to become a war zone this is where we're introduced to the idea of Armageddon and the seventh bull wrath is poured out completely over the earth and its evil inhabitants marking the conclusion of God's Wrath towards evil would you pray with me before we continue on in this sermon Lord uh here we approach another heavy and often difficult difficultly reive passage um but lord it's your word and as we sang earlier God we want to take your word seriously it means something it's supposed to change something in us and so father with with reverence and awe we approach your word today and ask you to help us holy spirit we invite you helper to move in our hearts so that we would come alongside your vision of what's good true right and beautiful for the world not what we think is best so help us God in Jesus name amen the first thing that I want to reflect on from this passage is that we find ourselves in a bit of a familiar scene if you've been with us throughout this series chances are that this passage rings of some themes and examples that you think that we've covered before in fact this is the third time that we have seen a set of seven events marking God's Redemptive plan towards the Earth humans have rejected God but God God in his Mercy restrains himself from full and complete judgment towards the Earth so that people might turn back to him before evil is completely removed from the world pastor Matt Chandler explains that throughout Revelation there has been this repetition of the same event uh but just shown on three different perspectives with varying symol change um and and different kinds of extents to which things are unpacked but it's it's all told to retell the same story from three unique perspectives the Seven Seals in Revelation 6 through 8 chapter 5 represent this narrative from the perspective of the suffering Church the seven trumpets in Revelation 86 through 11:19 represent this narrative from the perspective of sinful Humanity who refuses to repent and the Seven bows that we just covered in Revelation 15-16 represent this narrative from the perspective of Jesus's throne in the heavens yes there are some differences in the retelling of the stories especially in the symbolic use and the extent of some of the disaster that's communicated but especially between the narratives of the trumpets and the Bulls there is a remarkable amount of similarity between these two tellings of the story look at these we have them on the screen the first trumpet and the first bull life on earth is struck the second trumpet second B the Seas and the third the rivers the fourth the Sun the fifth evil is struck and six the river Euphrates there's a lot of similarity there's very very like uh unique themes to just kind of be retelling us again and all three of these passages end on this upward trajectory of God's Victory being imminent and his kingdom being ushered into the world and it's kind of a funny thing that happens throughout the Book of Revelation is like we see the story it ends on this Victorious like super happy note uh but then all of a sudden we jump back into more mess more chaos which again I think is reinforcement of this kind of idea that he's retelling the same story three different times from different perspectives trying to give us the fullness of God's efforts to reach humanity and invite them back invite them to receive his Mercy before he pours out his wrath and since we've already considered in depth this story and two other sermons I'd encourage you to go listen back uh to those sermons from Pastor Chris and from myself if you kind of curious or maybe new to uh some of the nuances or symbols or ideas um as we don't just kind of want to keep hitting the same thing over and over again weeks five the title of the sermon is called be prepared and week six is mine less creatively titled uh the seven trumpets of justice and uh if you want to dive a little deeper into the narrative that John is painting please go check those out uh you can find them on our podcast or our website but because like most of the Book of Revelation this passage forces us to consider something that is often challenging something that is often or usually controversial maybe even more controversial than the judgement of God which I was blessed to preach on a few weeks ago but if we're going to accurately consider God's word here we're confronted with something that we have to explore that we have to consider and the first of my three Reflections from this text is this that God's Wrath is real God's Wrath is very real there's no escaping a very harsh reality and very intentional use of the word wrath throughout this scripture many are familiar with God's judgment anger and wrath explored all throughout the Old Testament and a lot of people either choose to read by quickly or they try to develop some sort of framework or theology that they can say ah no look how God's changed from the Old Testament to the new or they just simply choose not to believe that part of the Bible uh thinking that if God is love he can't have anger and wrath mixed in there too but we can't forget about the New Testament either and its teachings on wrath for many of our theological contributions to the idea of Wrath come from the New Testament verses like Matthew 18:34 Matthew 10:28 Romans 1:28 25 325 and 59 Ephesians 56 Colossians 3:6 1 Thessalonians 1:10 and Hebrews 4:3 all describe or warn against the coming wrath of God against Wicked Humanity or evil in general outside of the scrip scriptures perhaps the most famous Christian work on the wrath of God is a rather Infamous sermon from Jonathan Edwards called sinners in the hands of an Angry God he preached Deuteronomy 32:35 which says their foot shall slide in due time and painted a picture of humans being dangled over the fires of Hell by their ankles so that people would would fear what awaits them and turn and repent to God it's reported that many listeners were hysterical with fear and trembling and most historians and researchers have considered it to be the most powerful sermon of all time and this idea is still very rampant still very influential in our day and age today in the ways that you see people talk about faith the way that you see people talk about judgment or wrath uh resulting in the kind of like hell fire and brimstone preaching that most of us would look at and would say yeah it's not the most effective way to preach' it's not the most compelling especially to a modern audience in fact I attended a Seattle Mariners game uh last summer with a couple non-Christian friends of mine and we were entering at the home plate entrance and there was a man with a big megaphone just shouting over the whole crowd at us just verses like the ones I mentioned earlier just trying to scare people trying to warn them of the impending doom that awaits them thinking that this is going to be the most compelling way to get people to follow Christ and as I prepared to enter the game with these two non-Christian friends I cannot help but feel angry and even a little bit of Shame at the fact that like I could be associated with that that they knew I'm a Christian and they this guy's claiming to be a Christian and like what are they going to think of me and unfortunately for me his his speaker was so loud I couldn't even speak over it to say hey remember we're not all like that it was so loud it was definite Tim thorburn uh notes that there are several kinds of responses we see in our world to the idea of God and wrath for atheists it's like a rather absurd image uh seemingly designed to scare people into submission to religious observance and so it must be resisted it's just absurd that your God would exist for one it's absurd that he would try to scare you like that to follow him so we'll just turn away for deists it's incomprehensible why would the watch maker feel anything about what happens to his far off disconnected distant planet let alone be angry about what's happening God's removed if there is a God and whatever he does so they just don't really care for some Christians it feels at odds with the image of the benevolent God that we read about how could God love me and be angry with me at the same time and for the biblical Christian deeply convinced of the amazing Gra of God and his son it just doesn't seem to fit it's an outlier in our Systematic Theology and something that we just kind of set aside it's something that's rather alien to us and not something we want to consider many have tried to bypass the theme of God's anger and wrath in the scriptures but as we've explored so far it's obviously there to minimize it or to move aside from it completely uh would would do a dis service to what we say we believe about the scriptures but at the same time not wanting it to be this Central Focus that our evangelism strategies just all of a sudden become trying to scare people into following God because we don't see Jesus do that I think there's hope for this reality for us and I think there's a framework that we can consider that changes how we live Christian or not today my hope today is to challenge our preconceived ideas about God's Wrath and equip us with encouraging language and perspective about the reality of it Gavin ortland writes in the Bible God's Wrath is not the problem but the solution not the offensive Doctrine needing defense but the long- awaited Vindication of Justice after the tension of the prophet's cry how long oh Lord so let's talk a little bit about the Bible and wrath John Piper once spoke on the subject in a fantastic sermon and he had six main takeaways about God's Wrath these are some of the Bible's most kind of famous and compelling teachings about the wrath of God first God's Wrath is terrible and eternal make no mistake about it though the end result of God's Wrath is good news and is the solution to evil as we will consider it is a terrible reality for those apart from God it comes with horrible consequences both now on this Earth and eternal as it marks the complete and final separation from God second 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 says the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven and flaming fire inflicting Vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus they will suffer the punishment of Eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might second point from John Tyson is that or John Piper is that God's Wrath is present it has already begun Romans 1:18 says the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth wrath has already begun it is something that is revealed not just will be revealed though it will be but it is something that is presently experienced on this Earth for those who are unrepentant of sin and disobedient to God the the third the wrath of God is coming and final judgment this is similar to what we've explored kind of all throughout the Book of Revelation if you haven't caught so far Revelation is pretty like uh filled with repetition uh which I always think is like oh they really want something to stick they they they said this three or four times they really want me to get this and I think what's sad about the Book of Revelation is most people just get caught up and the images and the numbers and all these kinds of things and they miss the things that are just so plainly said four or five different times and so as we like kind of repeat a lot of these different themes part of that like because that's what the Bible's doing because God cares a lot about these things these truths being ingrained in us but part of God's Redemptive plan for the world is going back to the way that it was meant to be which means pouring out his wrath on the evil that has corrupted it although we live in an age of Grace or and mercy we often call this the age of decision where people are given the opportunity to repent and experience God's grace to become in relationship with him both now and for eternity uh there will come a day where God says no more I will now pour out my wrath and Usher in my kingdom and the fourth point is that the wrath of God is owing to our sin Romans chapters 1 through3 famously describe the corruption of humanity cons containing sharp rebukes like all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God that we've exchanged the glory of God for the immortal God or of the glory of the immortal God for images resembling created things and that all are under sin not even one is righteous this means that no one can fault God for his wrath it's totally justified and righteous because humans have exchanged the glory of God for created things we have disobeyed God and turned away from him and we are right and God is right to give consequences for that action Fifth and similar to our last point the wrath of God is righteous he's making things right and good when he executes his his Justice on the world and sixth and finally from John Piper the wrath of God is God's prerogative not ours this is the great difference between Islam and Christ Christianity we don't go and show the wrath of God to our enemies or adversaries we love them we evangelize to them we feed them and clothe them we welcome them into our homes and we trust God to carry out Vengeance in his timing we recognize that we live in the age of opportunity and we are called to love people and draw people into the gospel and we trust God and his timing for his Vengeance and Justice on the earth the second reflection that I believe we must consider from this passage is that God's Wrath is not like human wrath God is not like humans who have bad nights of sleep or have persisting headaches or interactions or experience with people that lead to uncalculated and uncontrolled fits of Rage like we know so well from the people around us in our lives we all have someone around us that's just like going to fly off the pan at any moment you just don't really know how to handle it and that's often I think what we think of when we consider wrath but God is not like human wrath it's not uncontrolled it's not uncalculated it's not because he's super emotional and you better get out of his way today God's really mad it's calculated it's precise go there is a very specific cause to God's anger into his wrath and it's evil thorburn writes in his article that we that I noted earlier and if we reflect on evil even a little bit we realize that evil should elicit anger pick any day and follow the new cycle on your preferred medium and you will get angry angry that another woman has been assaulted and murdered angry that corporate greed has left people reeling in poverty angry that children have been neglected by self-indulgent parents angry that porn has demeaned and objectified people if you not angry at such things it is not because you love but it is because you don't love you don't care about the victims to be indifferent in the face of such evil is morally reprehensible God's anger arises directly from his love his love for victims his love for goodness and flourishing and well-being of his creation and God is right to be angry Ed because it is human rebellion and sin the neglect and turning away from him that has led to such evil in the world around us and I think this helps us think like more correctly about God's judgment God's anger and wrath towards the world is not the act of a distant detached and uncaring deity towards the Earth but it's the action of a loving father who judges because he cares because he sees the things that his creation are sub subject to because of their rebellion and Brokenness and he cares deeply to pull them out of it to restore them and heal them God does not shout from a distance condemning the bad behavior of the world just begging them to stop he enters into the story first offering grace and mercy through Jesus Christ to those who repent and then thundering judgment on those who destroy the world that he loves so much David trro writes truly the wrath of God is not the main message of the Gospel but the biblical gospel cannot be understood apart from it and what's beautiful and good news about the truth of God's Wrath is that it changes that image that we talked about earlier that was painted from Jonathan Edwards sermon sinners in the hands of an Angry God God does not dangle us over fire to threaten us to turn back and scare us away from sin and its consequences but in Christ we see that it's actually God has reached in and pulled us out of the hell that we've created and the hell that we're bound to continue to experience unless a loving God enters into the story and does something about the wickedness that you and I continue to perpetuate God's Wrath is not like the wrath of humans that you've experienced there's a lot of people in this room who have experienced horrible things people have mistreated you or done Wicked evil violence to you God is not like that God is not he doesn't have a bad temper where he just loses it and we all better look out God's rage God's Wrath is precisely poured out on evil he's not like the parent who unfairly took their rage out on you physically or emotionally the friend that tried to damage or ruin you socially or the boss who used you and overlooked you God does not deal with wrath like humans do so we don't need to portray or put our image our understanding of Wrath because of our Earthly experiences on God because that's not what the Bible tells us God does not just emotionally throw his wrath at random people because he's having a bad day his wrath is specifically reserved for Evil And for those who refuse to turn from it now wrath isn't my favorite topic to preach on uh and if you're new here you brought a guess uh you're probably sitting here with some squirrly feels thinking all right case when are we going to turn away from this one it's not the most fun topic to think about to which my response and this is our third reflection is that the reality about wrath is experiencing wrath is a choice Romans 2:5 says but because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's Wrath when his righteous judgment will be be revealed the wrath of God is reserved only for those who are stubborn and unrepentant it is for those who refuse to repent and turn away those who refuse to Humble themselves before God and continue to allow evil and to participate in it in Christ we've been given an out from this this doesn't this doesn't have to be something that you experience there is the opportunity in Christ to avoid judgment and to actually get to celebrate it to some degree because you're recognizing that God is making all things new and the things that you've been victim to the things that you see other people be victim to in the world God is making all things right through this it's not just God saying a man you all should have stopped doing this but it's God saying I'm making this world new we're starting over and we are done with the wickedness we're done with the evil and people have been given the opportunity to turn and repent this is good news of the Gospel in connection with our topic of Wrath or judgment in Christ there's no need to fear Judgment of God Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 to Christians in thessalonica he said for they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God from Idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from Heaven who he raised from the dead Jesus who delivers us from the Wrath to come no one can say that God is unfair to pour out his wrath because in Christ all have been given the opportunity to turn back and experience loving relationship with the father both now and for eternity and to avoid the terrible things that are to come but many humans refuse to repent because they're hard-hearted and they refuse to turn away from their own ways they've placed themselves at the center of their own life they are their God they are the one who sits on the throne they are the one who gets to determine what's good right true and beautiful look at the world around us well everyone's doing that look how it's turned out a a society and a world full of people who put themselves as the judge and executioner of justice and rights and moral goodness look how horrible our world is humans have placed themselves on the throne and God must be the one to bow down to their preferences their wisdom their ideas for flourishing and joy it's backwards it's wrong humans have made themselves Lord and savior of their lives they have abandoned their creator and the purpose he gave them and sought to find purpose and things that were never designed to be that but freedom is available in Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit we have the ability to respond to the gospel and put God back at the center of our lives there are two consequences of being Lord over your life first is we find as we live long enough that when you are the one who sits on the throne uh you are the source of your wisdom truth beauty and goodness we make a lot of messes we hurt a lot of people we do a lot of damage to ourselves and to the world around us we just continue to perpetuate Brokenness and messiness and everything that we do and in Christ there's freedom from that we can find new life where we can become more like Christ become conduits of his values his attitudes his actions and his love towards the Earth we don't have to continue on in the Brokenness and messiness and the second consequence is the Eternal one the one a bit more you know Central to this sermon because of our rebellion and refusal to accept God's God's lordship and Reign Over Our Lives we become his enemies and deserve punishment as enemies we're okay with this idea anywhere else in the world if there's enemies if there's someone who breaks a law if there's anyone who does something that breaks relationship with us we really understand that there's consequences and there should be consequences this is something that many people really struggle with with God but if God is the creator if God is the one who has made us and set our path before us and given us purpose he gets to be the one that says no there's consequences there's consequences for abandoning the path that I gave for you he gets the throne and when we give him that Throne we experience grace and mercy each and every day as we grow more and more like him slowly but surely and we experience grace and mercy both here on Earth and for eternity because the curse of Eternal death and separation from God awaits only those who refuse to repent from their evil wrath and judgment are avoidable and that's why it's so important that we talk about it that's why we don't just skim past this or say hey we're just going to jump into the next section because we've preached on similar passages to Romans 15 and 16 throughout this this is important to talk about it's important to think about so those are three Reflections that I have U and I believe they're critical for us to think and feel correctly about God's Wrath because I believe like our thoughts and feelings often dictate our actions so we need to we need to substitute negative toxic and bad thoughts for truth those were three Reflections were that God's Wrath is real but God's Wrath is not like human wrath it's calculated it's controlled towards evil and experiencing God's Wrath is a choice we can experience salvation from the wrath of God through Christ now I have two applications for us or two take aways two things that I think these truths should result in for our lives and the first is the reminder that Christians live under Mercy not wrath now at face value that might not sound like the most uh revolutionary news that you've heard today but as a pastor and someone who's been in Ministry for almost a decade now I know a lot of Christians who feel and live like they are still subject to God's Wrath each and every day when they experience difficult circumstances awful tragedies or sometimes just very general roadblocks in life they're quick to determine that God must be the source of their pain and struggle God must be the one who is pouring this out on them people do this both directly and indirectly there are a lot of people who will tell you things like man I don't know God must be punishing me for something I did because I don't know why else I'd have to go through something like this sometimes people aware of their sin will distance themselves from God or from the church because they feel like they don't have the right to to engage anymore because of the Brokenness in them since they can't kick their use of porn or substances unhealthy relationships they just drift away because internally they feel like it's just not congruent with the requirements that must be to engage in a space like this or to be in right relationship with God so they drift away and others experience deep Shame about their thoughts thoughts and behaviors and they're crippled with anxiety and depression because their internal narrative says that they're not worthy of God's love you're too broken I want to remind you today that if you are in Christ your relationship with God is secure through a Covenant of Grace and Mercy according to your faith in Jesus Christ God does not relate to you through wrath but through Mercy Lamentations 3:22-23 says the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end they are new every morning every day when you wake up God's mercies are new in your life although your behavior the day before uh did not earn them there they are right there when you wake up welcoming you with love and reminding you of God's choice to be in relationship with you today because of Jesus Christ 1 John 2 1-2 says my dear children I write this to you so that you will not sin but if anybody does sin like he knew we would we have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous one he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins not only for ours but for the sins of the whole world the language of advocacy is legal language it's describing a legal status when God looks at you you Jesus intercedes as our Advocate and says they are mine so they are yours they don't deserve the Wrath that that they've lived and experienced that that they are bound to experience because they're mine they're in my name so father they are yours so I want to encourage you this morning when you experience difficulties in this life which you will I want you to remember that there are other forces at work and the world to try to disrupt and discourage you God is not behind all the things that are hard and challenging and terrible that you experience first there's Satan an adversary of your soul Who's seeking to kill and destroy you and this whole world he is jealous of God he is seeking to deceive you and me and the world and he tricks us into thinking that God is the one behind the bad things we experience may we follow the example of Christ in the gospels and defeat Satan's Lies by learning scripture declaring the truth and combating his lies second you must remember that you have a part to play in some of the mess and Brokenness that you experience every once in a while because of your imperfections recognize that often times the messes we find ourselves in are because we trusted in ourselves instead of God don't blame God when you did something to yourself and third remember that sin has corrupted the world and creation at a deeper level than we often remember remember and recognize sin is so awful so horrible that it has changed the way that we experience the world around us things were never meant to be this way we weren't meant to experience pain and Brokenness and sickness and death and it's not God who wrathfully pours those things out those are consequences of our actions they're consequences of sin and it's Dee rootedness that has corrupted the world around us when we feel tempted to blame God for evil and Brokenness in the world would we turn to our Bibles turn to our trustworthy friends Brothers and Sisters in Christ turn to prayer and remember that God mercifully offers his love to the world and Promises a day that evil will be taken away completely don't blame God for the evil you see in the world but let your heart cry out as the prophets in the bible did for justice and Vengeance to be fulfilled I think for a long time in my life I was motivated by fear of God's judgment and wrath uh I I kind of have like the the firstborn syndrome where it's like you got to do everything the right way and um you're you know you're setting the example for everyone behind you and you feel like that pressure to like get the rules right and I'm I'm a classic rule follower uh but I recognize as I look back throughout most of my life it was not always motivated by the right uh thing it didn't always have the greatest inspiration behind it and so much of it was fear so much of it was like one of these days God's going to be done with me he's going to be so sick of putting up with this ongoing sin in my life he's going to be you know so sick of my inability to fix things and turn this around it's just not true it's not in the scriptures God relates to us through mercy and we get to live from the love of God not for the love of God and finally our second and final application is that it's not too late to stop suppressing the truth we read earlier from Romans 2:5 and I'll read it again but because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's Wrath when his righteous judgment will be revealed if you're here today and you have contemplated Christianity and you've felt nudges in your heart over time today you have the opportunity to stop suppressing the truth and accept the work of Christ in your heart the Wrath and Judgment of God can no longer be this dirty thing but it can be received it's God's plan for making the world right and realizing that he's giving you the opportunity to be a part of it that he wants to do something in your life here and now that he wants to partner with you to change your family to change the city to change your workplace the schools you're invested in God wants to do something with your life now and he's offered Eternal relationship with him everlasting life that's free from judgment free from wrath second Timothy 24 says that it is God our savior who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth despite your self-reliance and rejection of God God lovingly desires to be back in relationship ship with you giving you the life that you could only dream of and he wants to free you from the consequences of your actions God does not dangle your feet over fire and demand that you accept his love but he offers to pull you from the fire that you've started and that you're doomed to stay in God was so serious about being in right relationship with his creation and freeing them from the consequences of their actions that he sent his son to live the life that we couldn't to Die the death that we deserved and to rise from the dead so that he would conquer this eternal death that we were facing and anyone who believes in this and accepts it in their heart receives Jesus as their lord and savior has given a personal relationship with God and granted freedom from the Eternal consequences of Wrath and judgment this is available to you today you know I've heard a lot of testimonies over the years I've uh if if if you've heard my story you know that like I basically was going to church like the week after I was born and like it's always it's always been you know a part of my life and one of the blessings is I've heard probably thousands of testimonies at this point and one of the fascinating things that I can identify that I've heard over and over again from people is like they'll say these kinds of phrases where they'll be like yeah I just like felt like like this this voice or this like presence was like nudging me or like I felt this like shame or conviction even though like I was doing my own thing I thought I was living the right way like I recognized that deep down I knew something was wrong something fell off and if that's you if you've experienced that where you just feel like you felt God nudge you in different moments maybe it's been through a previous worship experience maybe it's been through conversations with friends or just things that you think about you don't have to suppress that any longer those nudges that God poking at you say hey I'm here I love you I want to be in a relationship with you I want to change your life for now and for eternity you don't have to suppress that anymore you don't have to just hide that and say no it's not a thing it's not there I'm probably just you know burrito I ate last night like sorry that felt silly as I said it if you've heard God nudge at your heart join the millions and millions of people who have come to realize God was drawing me home we can celebrate your testimony and hear about the unique ways that God was trying to talk to you today it's my prayer that you would stop suppressing that feeling or that inner voice and recognize that God is trying to get your attention because he loves you and he wants to be in relationship with you both now and for eternity he loves you and he sent his son on the cross so that you would not have to die and he wants to change your life and bring you into the fullness of what he's made you to experience worship team you can come on up I'm going to close um in prayer over each of these uh kinds of groups of of people that I described there in the application points I recognize um these are these are relevant takeaways uh for for our lives and you might find yourself today in the camp that says well I've been following Jesus for a long time but yeah I have just always kind of lived like I'm I'm under the wrath of God like like he's not happy with me he's he must be punishing me today that that gets to change and today I'm going to pray that God would change your heart would change your perspective how you relate and connect with him in that way and then second I'm going to pray for those who want to stop suppressing the truth and who want to make a decision to receive Christ as Lord and so if everyone would close their eyes this is intended to be a a private moment I'm not going to ask you to come up to the front of the room not going to put you on display uh but first if if today you recognize that for too long you have related to God as a as as through this lens of Wrath instead of Mercy because you follow him but you just feel like you're you're at odds with him um today I just want to encourage you to raise your hand so that I can pray for you and believe that God wants to change the way that you relate to God he wants to change that lens so that you look at him as a loving father so if that's you please go ahead and raise your hand I'm going to pray for you God I thank you that you don't look down on us with with frustration and anger and judgment waiting for us to mess up waiting uh for us to finally change finally get over things like God you love us and your mercies are new each and every day and we don't relate to you to you this morning and we don't relate to you going forward with a lens of judgment and wrath but of mercy and Grace because you have lovingly offered that to us in Christ Jesus so father would you help us recognize the nuance and complexity of a broken world that has a Satan who's opposed to you and to your people to recognize and admit even the the places that we cause mess the the things things that we perpetuate and God that we would recognize the Brokenness of the world that we would see you're not the one who's hurling judgments and bowls of Wrath towards us because you relate to us through Mercy we thank you God that we have that opportunity and second I want to pray for anyone this morning uh that maybe has experienced that nudging they feel like they they have had God move in their life uh and they're they're done trying to you know just suppress these feelings but to recognize that they're there and to recognize that God wants to do something so if that's you this morning I encourage you to raise your hand too now as I pray Lord thank you for the ways that you speak you speak uh not just to the ones that your spirit indwells within thank you God all throughout the scriptures we see the way that you speak even to people who are far from you and Lord we just praise you this morning morning that we have the opportunity to stop suppressing the truth and to receive your love we get to stop suppressing these feelings we get to freely receive freedom from yes the Eternal qu consequence that awaits us uh but also freedom of the life that you want to do now through the relationship that we can receive so Jesus I just pray that you would help anyone who finds themselves in this place this morning to have that conversation with the person that's been reaching out to them through the church uh to join that that class they hear about or to jump into a small group so they can learn more to ask a leader or a pastor friend like questions God will you help us would you help those who are ready to take that next step today do so Lord we're so thankful for the ways that you move and we thank you God that you have a plan to make the world right and good and we can't wait to see what you do and to experience the joy and freedom of a world free from sin and Brokenness and Chaos come Lord Jesus we long for your kingdom in Jesus name amen amen would you please stand as we conclude with some worship