We're going to tackle this, this text. You'll remember we're almost at the end of time that we've been through a lot of the plagues. And now we're coming down to the last series of judgments that God is going to bring on the earth. And there's nowhere to hide. There's nowhere to pretend you, you either are with God or you're not. And in fact, you'll see the separation quite evidently. As we look at this text, John writes, 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 mixed with fire and standing beside the sea. Those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and over the number of his name, they held harps given them by God and sang the song of Moses, the servant of God and the song of a lamb. Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways. King of the ages, who will not fear you, O 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 in heaven. The temple that is the tabernacle of the testimony was opened out of the temple came to seven angels with the seven plagues. They were dressed in clean, shining linen and wore golden sashes around their chest. Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels, seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God 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 plagues of the seven angels were completed. Father, I pray tonight you'll help us to understand the options that we have that we really have, but to worship a wrath and God, I for one Jews worship and God, I pray tonight that as we examine this text, the reality will not only motivate our. life changes, but motivate us to be passionate about telling this story about the reality of heaven and hell. So God, I pray that your spirit would lead the way tonight in Jesus name. Amen. Maybe seated. You know, we've talked, we've talked about what God's doing before, but In our culture, what we end up with is this world where there are just so many choices. You know, back in the 1950s, things were fairly simple. Things were black, things were white. But in today's world, that's not so much the case. You know, there was a time you could go to Wendy's and you could get a hamburger and fries and a soda and a shake. Have you been to Wendy's lately? I don't, I can't even pronounce the menu. You know, there's all these kinds of sandwiches and this and that and these specialty things and then the healthy options because they don't want to get sued and you know, they got all these things going on. It's a multiple option situation. Go to Starbucks. I doubt very seriously if there's anybody in this room that drinks more coffee than I do. And you go into Starbucks and you can't even understand what they're talking about. People are up there ordering and you're like, what did they just order? Because there are so many options and variations and twists and way to say it. And we get so used to that kind of thinking that we think it ought to be that way when it comes to God. We think that there ought to be just all of these ways to God and options to God. In fact, I talked to God this week. He was saying, well, I hope so. Our pastor ought to know. No, this this was God in the flesh. I went up to a guy and I invited him to come to worship here. And he said, oh, you don't want to mess with me. He said, I've studied theology. I said, all right. And he says, you know, you can't believe anything in that Bible. He said, I thought, well, you know, it's so cool that he's been there and seen it all and knows all the information ahead of time. And then it hit me, you know, how many people are really that way and not just outside the church, but a lot of people inside the church think they already have all the answers and know all the right ways to follow God. And we've lost our passion for God because we've studied theology. What does that mean? Well, it means we've decided what we think things mean, and so we're not going to let God change us anymore. And that's a very dangerous, dangerous place to be in. And yet we still want this multiple options. This is what Jesus said. He said, some of you will call me Lord, Lord, and you'll never get into the kingdom of heaven. That ought to scare you to death, because that means there are people like us. And we're not talking about the guy that thinks he's God. We're talking about people like us that are claiming. And they even said, Lord, weren't we there? Didn't we serve? Didn't we worship? Didn't we go through all that? And Jesus said, yeah, but I never knew you. You've never relationship with me. You had a wonderful relationship with religion. You had a wonderful relationship with the church building. You had a wonderful relationship with with with the worship concept. But you never knew me. And you see, the whole point of what we're about is to connect each other with Jesus, isn't it? That's that's why we're here is to do that. And I'm not saying that to scare you. I'm saying it to motivate you, because so often what happens to us is we think if we get together and talk about God, we've done what God wanted us to do. And we've never worshiped God. We've not served. We've not been obedient to Scripture. We've just talked a lot about God. And that's not what God's looking for. In fact, in James, he says, look, even the demons believe and they shudder. At least they're afraid. They're not saying, yeah, I know there's a God. So what? I can't wait to see him face to face. And that's a lot of times the kind of attitude that we bring about. Recently, there was an arrest in Leavenworth, Kansas, of all places. They picked the place of a federal penitentiary to do this. But they were interviewing the policeman. He said, you know, when the crack dealers make up their own business cards and put their name on it and say crack dealer, they really make our job a whole lot easier. And that's what this guy was doing in Leavenworth. And I thought, you know, I don't know, you just scratch your head. Even I'm smart enough to know Leavenworth wouldn't be the place to do that. But anyway, I got to thinking about that and I thought, you know, what is it that advertises who we are? What is not to make a Christian church? What is it that advertises who I am, that I'm a follower of Christ? Well. It's got to be my lifestyle. It's got to be who I am, not where I go. But maybe more than anything else, worship defines that. Worship is my advertising. It's not it's not so much of where I go to the building, but worship is not something you do. It's got to be something you are. And if it's not who we are, then is it really us at all? Because there's a lot of things I'm a part of. But if you ask me, Joe, are you this? I would say, no, I'm not that. Oh yeah, I go there to eat sometimes, or I go there to visit sometimes, or yeah, I like to go to a ball game there, but I'm not that. The difference is who I really am and who I am is advertised and defined by who I worship and by how I worship. As we take a look at this text, Here tonight it gives us really some facts about God and some options that are really pretty simple because while we want this multiple option God says no, it's really either or It's Jesus and worship and a lifestyle of following me Or it's nothing So the first option is victory over the beast. It's verses one and two that we read there. And you know, man, Satan had been in a 6,000 year struggle ever since the garden of Eden, that battle has raged. And yet it says in this text that God's wrath is going to be completed and we're going to be victorious. I don't know about you, but I like to win. Now, I'm doing a little better as I get older. I don't have to win everything. But I wonder about these people that don't seem very passionate about winning at anything, especially when it comes to spiritual things. I don't understand why there's not excitement and energy about ministry, about serving, about prayer, because that's who I am. So how can I help but be passionate? And I already know that I win. That takes a whole lot of the pressure off. I don't have to prove anything. All I've got to do is make sure I stay in the battle. And I've already won because of Jesus victory over the beast, over his name and over that number. Remember that number six, six, six, because God's number will trump Satan's number. And he said, we've gotten victory over that. Romans 16, 19 says the God of peace will soon crush Satan underneath our feet. How tragic it would be for some people to get so close to the finish line and yet give up. And right now it seems like there are a lot of people I know, not in this church, but just a lot of Christians that seem to be giving up. And I'm thinking, you know, what if the Lord comes tomorrow and you quit today? You can debate all you want about, you know, saved and not saved. But the point is, when I go in, I want to go in with my head up. I want to go in saying, you know, I was I was hopefully getting a little better as I got to the end because I didn't start out very good. God saw, you know, I'd like to show you that I'm making progress. But the truth is the victory is being given to us. And it says, as these last plagues and calamities, wounds or the words that are used there, it says God's fierce wrath will be used up. Now, remember, I've told you before, and I try to emphasize the love of God, the forgiveness of God, the hope of God, because that's, I think, the message that our world needs to hear. But if you reject that, there's another side to God. And that is this fierce wrath. And the world's going to endure this for a seven-year period of time, and it's going to be bad. It's going to be worse than anything you could have imagined. When people are crying for the rocks to fall on them, they're going to try to hide in caves, and Scripture says they're going to long for death, but death won't come. That's going to be what the world is going to be like. And that's nothing compared to the reality of hell, which we don't like to talk about, but it's there. Folks, Matthew 25, you can't get around that. Well, you can be like God that I talked to the other day and say, you know, you just can't believe that stuff. Well, let's see, do I believe you? You have studied theology or do I believe God? Those are the choices you got to make. And when you read Matthew 25, Jesus said, I'm going to, I'm going to sort you out. Sheep and goats, heaven and hell and hell. It says is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, a place of darkness, a place of fire. It's, it is a tragic place and it's an eternal place. And it's not the option you want to choose. So if you're here tonight and you've not accepted Jesus, I don't understand why you wouldn't choose the victory. Why you would say, you know what? I'll take the defeat. I don't think anybody says that. You know what I think? I think we do spiritually. You say, I'll take apathy. And when you take the road of apathy, you end up in defeat because you either worship God. Or you face wrath and there's no in between. There is no gray area. Either you're sold out for the Lord or you're working against me. Jesus said you're for me or you're against me. You're helping me build the kingdom or you're helping me destroy the kingdom. There is no middle ground. Psalm 60 verse 12 says with God, we will gain the victory. So what's the victory? Well, I like to use the S's here. It's victory over sin, over Satan and over ourself. And I'm not so sure that we got them in the right order there. I think Satan probably needs to just be at the end, because I think we blame so much on Satan that if we would just live the way Christians are supposed to live, if we'd be in the word, if we pray, if we serve, if we would give, if we would go, if we'd be obedient to the word of God, you'd find out Satan doesn't have much power at all on you. That the only issue we got to deal with are those first two, which are both in my power. sin and self. Those are both about choice. Are they not? Satan does not have any more authority over your life than what you give him. And yet some of you choose to live in bitterness and addictions and sin. And you fill in the blank. You put in whatever sin you need to put in there. It's a choice. Don't be blaming Satan. Don't be blaming your mom and dad. At some point, you and I are responsible for ourselves. When Jesus said, you can choose when he said, I died for the world. I love everybody. You get to choose. You can live in misery if you want, or you can have victory over it. Number two is that victory is for eternity. Now, this is the real selling point, because everything else that I deal with in my life has a limited span of time. You know, you buy that car and it has a three year limited bumper to bumper warranty. What does that mean? That means whatever breaks isn't covered. It's pretty simple. And of course, three years doesn't mean three years. It's three years or 3,000 miles or 36,000 miles or whatever. There's always something so that when you get to the fine print, pretty much you lose. Would you agree with that? And that's true with everything in life. They can make a light bulb. We have the technology to make a light bulb that would probably last 50 years. But GE wouldn't make any money. If they did that and you'd have to pay probably five hundred dollars for the light bulb. So we pay 50 cents for it and it burns out. But Jesus is an eternal deal. This is forever and ever and ever and ever. And aren't you glad all the struggles, all the hurts, everything you've been through, if you know that at the end of the week, it all ends up and for all of eternity, things are right. Can't you put up with a little bit of struggling and difficulty and persecution now? First John 5.4 says everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory even our faith. Option number two is to worship the Almighty. In Matthew 2.2, when the wise men came in, there's a lot of discussion about where these guys came from. Most people think they came from Iran. Some of them think they came from modern day Yemen or Afghanistan. Saudi Arabia. There's even one legend that says that one of them may have come from China. We don't know. It doesn't tell us in the scripture, but it does tell us what they came to do. It says in Matthew two, two, they came to worship the newborn king. Took him two years to get there. We know that because Jesus was two years old by the time they got there. He wasn't in the manger. He was there. Mom and dad were renting a house and he's at the house and they go to worship him. What does that mean? Well, what did they bring? If I remember. Gold, frankincense and myrrh, that's right, they brought the money and that's the money that Joseph no doubt used to escape to Egypt with. He sold off some of those gifts that were brought and that gave him the resources to take care of Jesus and to travel and to do what he had to do to protect him. But the point is, when they came, they didn't come empty handed. They came to worship. And when you worship, you're bringing something to God. Now, I think that's a whole lot of things. I think that's my life. I think it's my words. I think it's my hands. I think it's my wallet, my checkbook, however you choose to define that. I think all of that is involved in worshiping God. It's not saying I went to a church building, I sat through a service and I went home. You did not worship. Worship is a verb. Every time it's used in scripture, it's an action. Now you can you can look and I think it's Second Chronicles 20, Second Chronicles 16 has another list of different styles of worship. And what you'll find is that in a lot of ways we're missing the mark. I was reading in Exodus yesterday and the people were so in love with God because he had delivered them from the hands of the Egyptians. that they started bringing money. They were going to build. They were going to build the tabernacle and they were going to build some of the furnishings and the Ark of the Covenant and all of that. And they gave so much that Moses said, look, tell the people don't bring anymore. We've got so much we can't even use it. We've got so much money and so many resources. We can't use it now. What's the difference in that story and our culture today where our missionaries are struggling all the time? I'll tell you the difference. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. They had nothing. Slaves normally don't have holdings. All right. You don't have stocks, bonds, houses, land, nothing, nothing. Where did the Israelites get anything? Do you remember? Yeah, the Egyptians gave it to him. That's right. God said when they finally got through the 10th plague, he said, now, listen, when you leave, don't you go out of here empty handed. You ask the Egyptians. They're mourning. They're hurting. And you say to them, you give us give us some stuff. And they gave everything. So they walk out. They walk out. They're slaves and they walk out with everything. They walk out with the gold and the nice clothes and the chariots and everything they have. God gave them. So when it came time to say thanks to God, to worship God, to bring it back to God, they were smart enough to say, you know what? This isn't ours anyway. And I just gave. Come to think of it, isn't that how we are? Where do you get what you got? Because you're smart, because you're gifted or because God chose to bless you, because God put you in a place where you could earn a good living, where you could be provided for. Don't you ever wonder why you were born in America? Boy, I do. where I got to hear the gospel, where I get to eat three meals a day, sometimes four, where where we're just blessed all the time. Did you ever ask why? I don't think the answer in that is anything except to say you are blessed to be a blessing. That's why we're here. Well. None of that was written down, but I felt like I needed to say that. But here's the deal. We exist to worship. That is the highest calling. And really, if you're a follower of Christ, everything you do is about worship. Giving is worship. Serving is worship. Helping people is worship. Anything you do for the kingdom of God, you help your neighbor. Anything we listed on that top 10 list for Wednesday nights, that's all worship. It's saying, God, you are worthy so much. You're worth so much to me that I'm going to give back. to you. And until somebody starts asking you, why would you do that? Why would you give that much? Why would you go to that nursing home? Why would you invest in that missionary? Why? Until somebody asked you that question, you probably haven't gone to the level that you need to go to yet. But I want to say one more thing. It's a little critical, but we're here to worship. We're not here to observe worship. We're not here to critique worship. We're not here to comment about worship or evaluate worship or to be socialized. And those are the kind of comments I get from Christians. Not from non-Christians, because non-Christians are hurting and broken and wounded, scarred. And they come in and somebody loves them and somebody cares about them. They don't know that they're supposed to complain about anything. They just go, you know what? This is cool. Somebody fed me. This is cool. Somebody hugged me when I was crying. You see, when I hear comments, and not here, but from other churches, it wouldn't happen here, but from other people, when they're criticizing their preacher or they're criticizing the worship, I just want to say, you know what? You're not here to evaluate anything. Either you're worshiping God or you're inviting God's wrath into your life. There's really no, there is no middle ground. We're not here to evaluate anything. We're here to worship our God. So it says they sang the song of Moses. We could spend all night in Exodus 15. You can go home and look that up for yourself. It's the song that Moses and Miriam wrote and sang after they crossed the Red Sea, after God delivered them across and all the the Egyptians died in the Red Sea. They wrote a song of worship. And it says that in heaven they were singing this song, no doubt, because it's a song of deliverance. It's a song about the enemies being destroyed and about God being victorious. And that's what these words are. They were songs of the song of Moses and the song of the lamb. There's a Lord God Almighty, righteous and true. Are you king of the ages? See, they understood worship says all nations will come and worship before you because of your righteous deeds. So what is worship? Well, worship is something we do corporately. But if you're not worshiping God as a lifestyle, if it's not who you are, then we're really phony. Now, I'm not telling you not to worship here. I'm saying we need to make sure it's real. That as we worship here, when we go, that's who we are, that everything about my lifestyle is worship. And we're going to give you that opportunity in just a minute. But here's just a few of the things. And we'll just we'll just touch on these. You know, singing, dancing, clapping, crying, laughing. You know what? Look, there's some more hands raised. If you're new here and you don't know why people raise their hands, I'll give you two reasons. Number one, if if you're being convicted, you raise your hands and sign a surrender. Number two, when you know the answer to something. You raise your hand. All right. That's why you raise your hand. It's a command in scripture. It's not optional. So don't think it's a weird thing that people raise their hand thing. It's a weird thing when people don't, because scriptures, Paul said, I want all men everywhere to lift up holy hands to the Lord without complaining. That's what it said. You look it up. But those are styles of worship ways to worship God. Now, there are a lot of ways to worship God, but there are some of the active ways. If worship is a verb, you can't come in here and watch Charles and Melanie. That's not worship. Worship is when we are involved. I'll remind you again, our choices are worship or wrath. is wrath upon sin. Conrad Dobler was a offensive lineman with the St. Louis Cardinal football team back in the seventies. Conrad Dobler was known as one of the meanest human beings ever to play the game of football. He would get in the bottom of a pile and he just started biting people and he didn't care who was down there. And that's pretty much the kind of a guy that he was. And this is a true story. Boyfriend came over to pick up his daughter one night for a date and Dobler met him at the door. And he said, son, I want you to have a good time tonight. And if you do anything to hurt my daughter, I'm going to put you in a wheelchair permanently. So you can think about what you did. Now go have a good night. Let me tell you what God said. Romans 6 23. He said the wages of sin staff. Yeah, there is there are consequences for our choices. And he goes into these last seven plagues that are being poured out. And he says that God went into his temple and smoke filled the temple. I don't know what the temple looks like in heaven, but obviously it's an amazing place. And God's presence so filled it that nobody could even get in while all this was going on, because I don't think this is the way God wanted it to be. But this had to happen. Now, you say, well, how do we know there's going to be judgment on sin? Well, let's start with Noah and the whole world being destroyed. All right. Now, if you talk to God that I talked to, he may not believe that story, but I do. That's what the scripture says. And certainly history backs that up. Then you've got the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Fairly good accuracy there. Fire and brimstone falling from heaven. Matthew 25. Then Jesus said, there's a time coming when everybody's going to be divided up. And there's enough history to back up what I see in scripture and enough archaeology and enough geology to support everything that if God says this is the way it's going to be, then I think that's the way it's going to be. I don't want to go down that road. I'd like I'd rather not spend all night talking about hell and how terrible it's going to be, because all that ought to do is motivate us to make sure that we're on the right side. But please listen to me. It's not about us. It ought to motivate us to get right so that we can help other people. get right with the Lord. But if you want to look at wrath, it's pain, suffering, hurt, weeping, gnashing of teeth, physical, emotional, spiritual. How about all eternity to think about all the things you did to hurt God? I'll take grace. Maybe we can learn from the Moslems. If you remember the fiasco, I guess it's still ongoing with. The cartoon deal that went on and one of the guys was carrying a sign and he said, I sacrifice everything for my profit. Now, here's people that are willing to sacrifice everything, including their lives for a man that's in the grave. He's dead. And actually, if you look at his life, there were a whole lot of inconsistencies and a whole lot of of sinful things that he was involved with that you certainly would not want to follow. And you and I have the opportunity to follow the man who lives the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And I wonder if we oughtn't to have that kind of a sold out attitude that said, I'll sacrifice everything for my profit. First Chronicle 1629 says, worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. Father, we're We're here tonight and I know some people are at a crossroads. There are people tonight that need to accept you as savior. And I pray before they go home, they'll do just that. They need to say, you know what? I've been that one in the middle thinking, oh, it doesn't matter. And I'm sort of in the ballpark. I pray tonight that we understand the importance of all of us being sold out for you. God, I don't want the wrath. I don't want wrath on anybody. But God, I pray tonight that we will understand that worship really defines who we are. God, I pray that we'll understand tonight that we're worshiping an audience of one. In Jesus name, Amen.