The Coming Storm
Notes
Transcript
THE COMING STORM
THE COMING STORM
Good morning everyone. I want you to know that there is storm coming to America and possibly the entire world. I think you would have to be blind to not see the black storm clouds gathering on the horizon, we are hearing deep rumbles of the thunder in the distance, occasionally we see lighting strike just bright enough to light up the night sky by far enough to give us a false sense of security.
I want you to know that the powers of the heavens are beginning to quake, and I feel like America is at a real crossroads. She is about to repent and we will see another great awakening or she will harden her heart even more and God Almighty will have no choice but to enter into judgment.
God always, always gives a nation time to repent of her sins. She did so with Sodom and Gomorah, He did so with Nineveh when He sent the prophet Jonah to preach the shortest sermon in history… His sermon was 40 days until Nineveh is overthrown.
Yesterday I watched a story on Fox news where NORAD intercepted Russian Fighter jets in Alaskan Airspace. And the reporter speaking to to 4 star General Oshaghnessy (O- Shawnenssy) asked why the Russians would cross the Bearing Straight into our aerospace? And he said that Russia was probably checking our responce time, seeing if we had any vulnerabilities. And He said and I quote “ We have no vulneralbilities”. NOw I am thankful that our military is prepared and confident. But at the same time I thought that is a foolish statement. Every country has vulnerabilities, especially when that nation is in danger of God overthrowing them.
This last week we seen something quite alarming out of Kenosha Wisconsin as a 17 year old man armed with an AR 15, out of self defense shot 3 rioters, killing two of them. It seems as the weeks get longer the violence gets stronger. And it reminded me of a passage that I preached out of just a few weeks ago in Rev 6
4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Now are we seeing the fullfilment of this prophecy, I don’t believe so but I do bbelieve these things are a harbinger. If you are not familiar with that word Harbinger it means
Harbinger: a person or thing that announces or signals the approach of another.
I believe that God is warning us that things are about to get much worse if we do not turn to Him.
The Roman Empire ruled the World in some shape, some form for over 1,500 years. There has never been a mightier army than that of the Romans. But do you know that it wasnt the sword that brought the Mighty empire down. It imploded from within.
And in America, we see hatred and division beginning to grow. Violence is spreading like cancer. And it doesn’t take much imagination to see what we seen in Kenosha this last week multiplying and taking place in cities and towns throughout America. Add to that the fact that natural disasters are growing in their intensity, wild fires consuming millions of Acres, I think it is foolish to say that America has no vulnerabilities. We are perhaps the most vulnerable then we have ever been before.
But I didn’t come here today to talk about all the woes of the World. Today God has sent me here to tell you to check your heart. As Christians we are called to always be examining ourselves to see if we are still in the faith.
5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
This morning I want to remind you that if you are indeed in Christ, that means that Christ is in you. And Jesus prophesied about these days in which we are living
12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.
This is where it is going to take some Christian maturity, Im not sure how much we have in the church anymore but when you said yes to Jesus your eyes become open to the real war. and it is not a war against flesh and blood, it is a war against the principles and the powers of Darkness.
But too often we war against our neighbor. We war with that crazy liberal on our FB page and we need a fresh reminder that when someone is under the enemy control that person is not going to be reasonable. They are not going to understand things that are simply plain to us.
They have been blinded by the devil, their minds have been poisoned by the deceiver.
They have been blinded by the devil, their minds have been poisoned by the deceiver.
It is important that we remember the Lords words that we are to be as innocent as doves and as shrewd as serpents.
MY FEAR IS THAT WE ALLOW THE WORLD TO SO ANGER US THAT IT TURN FROM A RIGHTEOUS ANGER TO JUST HATRED AND OUR HEARTS BECOME HARD AND OUR SPIRIT BECOMES SILENCES BY OUR FLESH.
I DO HAVE GOOD NEWS, ITS OK TO FIGHT, ITS OK TO GET ANGRY, ITS EVEN OK TO TAKE UP ARMS. But make sure you are fighting the right enemy, and in order to fight that enemy you must fight with the right weapons.
I need to remind you this morning that God has made you for the battlefield but that can be misrepresented.
The Disciples asked Jesus one time as they were going through Samaria, and the Jews hated the Samaritins because they were considered half breeds,
54 And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?”
55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.
We need to understand something this morning is that the Lord did not come to destroy people but to destroy the works of the devil, and to rescue people. And when our hearts become hard, when we forsake the love that we had at first, all we are going to be is a tool in the hands of the enemy.
WHEN DEMONS DOMINATE
This morning I want to redirect our attention to where the war truly lies iof you have your Bible open the to Revelation 9 and I want to show you something about the last days.
Did you know that in the last days God told us that there will be a resurgence of demonic soldiers. In fact it is going to be one of the judgments that god allows the world to be plagued with in the last days. Again this is not to breed fear, it is to focus your attacks. Its OK to be dangerous, just be dangerous to the devil and innocent as doves when dealing with people.
bEFORE WE READ THIS PASSAGE THIS IS ONE OF THE TRUMPET JUDGEMENTS . iT IS THE FIFTH TRUMPET JUDGMENT AND RIGHT BEFORE THIS TRUMPET IS BLOWN IN
13 Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”
Here the angel takes a timeout to tell us something, and that these next three judgments are going to be so bad, so damaging, so earth shaking that He cries out Woe, Woe, Woe
1 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. 2 He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. 3 Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. 6 And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
7 In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, 8 their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth; 9 they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. 10 They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails. 11 They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.
12 The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come.
Now lets establish this there is lots of symbolism in this passage. But God is trying to tell us something about the demonic realm. And if you and I are going to fight the Good fight it is important that we understand our enemy. And you need to understand something about living a clean life.
Many people ask why does God allow demons to still rome around. Well one of the reasons is that God uses them to help Gods people cling to holiness, to a clean life.
When your life is not filled with the Holy Spirit I promise you that it will be dominated by an unclean spirit and the devil will do some damage.
When you see Christians lives fall apart, its because they were living godly, they gave the devil a little area and the devil made the most use of his time.
When Christians have sin that has not been dealt with in their lives they are inviting demonic activity in their life. They are drawn to vulgarity, and sensuality, and licentiousness jsut like a shark is drawn to blood in the water. I have seen it time after time. He decieves, he defiles and then he destroys. Now lets look at this time in the future that may not be in the so distant future and lets see if we can learn some things about the demonic realm.
I am going to use another Pastors descriptions to help you understand the qualities of these demons ok?
They are Degenerate Spirits
They are Degenerate Spirits
1 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. 2 He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.
Now notice that John says he say a star fallen from heaven to earth and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. Now there is much speculation about what thiis star is. ‘
Let me tell you that it is not speaking of star out in outer space, no this is speaking of a person, because in verse two it uses the personal pronoun -He
Jesus spoke of Satan in htis way when he fell from heaven the first time. My guess is that it is the devil and it may be when he tries to overthrow God in heaven that you can read in Ch 12. When He says woe is the inhabitant of the earth because the devil has come down to you in great fury.Whoever he is he is about to open hells furnace and release a bunch of prison hardened demons
For some reason God in his infinite wisdom has allowed some demons to rome freely, but others in his great mercy he has locked away in the demon prison that the Bibble calls the abyss. Now there are a few places where this abyss is mentioned in scripture
30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.
Peter mentions them in 2 Peter 2:4 for if
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;
These demons are the worse of the worse. You have your different levels of convicts right? You have you small town drug dealer, your pimp and prostitute. But you have the ones down at the Supermax- the hcild molesters, and murderers, ande arsonist and human traffickers. Can you imagine the mayhem if all the prison doors were just slung open and they were all released? That will happen in the last days. These hardened demons will go out and go straight to work warring and tormenting the humnaity that is left
B. Darkening Spirits
B. Darkening Spirits
Number two: They are darkening spirits. Look in verse 2: “And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit” (Revelation 9:2). There’s a devilish smokescreen here, a smokescreen of darkness, a choking, demon darkness that’s going to cover the earth, led by the prince of darkness. It will be a time not only of physical darkness, but a time of spiritual darkness. “Men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil” (John 3:19). In the Tribulation, they’ll have more than they want of it.
Devouring Spirits
Devouring Spirits
3 Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. 6 And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
These demons will go out to devour but notust that they are not regular locusts, they are told not to harm the grass of the earth or plants. Oh no these demons are devouring men and women. Not eating them physically, because htey are not allowed to die, they are devouring them pschologically.
D. Debilitating Spirits
D. Debilitating Spirits
5 They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. 6 And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
There is a reason the Bible calls them unclean spirits, they are devouring peoples souls. Creating all kinds of chaos in their mind. Spewing the worst types of lies that are paralyzing and consuming people.
Did you know that the word for tormwnt was created to describe the pschological distress that people endured when being afflicted by demonic
Today there are millions of people are being paralysed by irrational fears and phobias that I promise you is coming from demonic opprssion. Maybe that describes you this morning. You find yourself constantly dying on the inside, constantly paralyzed by irrational fears and lies. maybe you have been to the psycholigist a hundred times and have takes dozens of different medications.
I once witnessed to a young man that was coming here for a season and he had been in and out of the Behavioral center here in town. Tried multiple times to commit suicide, was heavily addicted to drugs and living a worthless life. And when I shed light on what was devouring him, do you know what happened? He gave his life to the King of Kingsd and just like Jesus always does, set that man free!. In these days these individuals will be utterly consumed but unable to find death
this later passage is revelaing
20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, 21 nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Just know this that if you give the devil room in your life you will not escape his devouring power!!
Do you know this about Smith county, that it has the highest suicide rate in the whole state of Texas?
JIm Mckee who is the Director over the Crisis Responce ministry here in Tyler, and they go into homes after a violent crime has been commited and minister to the victims of the family. He told me this that in the areas where there is a concentration of people practicing witchraft- whitehouse , and places around the lake palestine over by the beer stores, that in those places where there is a concentration of witchcraft there is also a concetration of murders and suicides
E. Dauntless Spirits
E. Dauntless Spirits
7 In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces,
Like horses that are trained and prepared for battle here they come! In the days when men would train war horses they trained them to be fearless, a good war horse would gallop straight into battle. Fearless, bold and powerful. These demons will be dauntless, for there is nothing that will be able to stop them, nothing that can cause them to retreat
F. Domineering Spirits
F. Domineering Spirits
Verse 7… On their heads there looked like crowns of Gold… now the crown speaks of dominion. They are domineering spirts. They will have full legal access to inflict an incredible amount of pain on these poor lost souls in that day. There will be nothing humanly speaking that will be able to stop them. It seems that every devil will have his day during the tribulation and listen to me you do not want to be here
G. Deceptive Spirits
G. Deceptive Spirits
Verse 7 their faces are like human faces..... In typology human faces speak of intelligence. They have learned the art of deception. And beloved listen they are good at it. They always decieve first before they can destroy.
I remember hearing the testimony of the Chief of the Waodani tribe. The tribe that murdered the Missionaries Jim Elliot and Nate Saint… they made a movie about it called the End of the Spear. The whole tribe eventually Got saved but he said before they were always murdering other tribes… and whenever a new chief was elected that chief would go to the top of some mountain and beat his drum and chant for days at a time asking the Great Spirits to posses them. And when these demons came they didnt come first as hideous monsters. they came as beautiful powerful spirits that promised the glory and power. But He said that after he was possesed by these spirits he noticed after a while that he began too have incredible hatred and even began to hate those of his own tribes.
Listen to me young people the devil is good at making things like witchcraft and the occult desirable, but demons are demosn
H. Defiling Spirits
H. Defiling Spirits
I. Defiant Spirits
I. Defiant Spirits
11 They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.
Nowe you need to get this deep down into your heart. The devil is a devil of war and his demons are demons of war and this is why the church needs to be arming iteslef in the right way. The World right now is oon the bring of war, the United States right now within itself is on the brink of war. Why is it that people can’t seem to understand simple things anymore. Why is it that cul;ture can;t see through the simple lies of the media dn the left. Well its because the devil is gearing up to bring the world into another catrophic war
Nowe you need to get this deep down into your heart. The devil is a devil of war and his demons are demons of war and this is why the church needs to be arming iteslef in the right way. The World right now is oon the bring of war, the United States right now within itself is on the brink of war. Why is it that people can’t seem to understand simple things anymore. Why is it that cul;ture can;t see through the simple lies of the media dn the left. Well its because the devil is gearing up to bring the world into another catrophic war
13 And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. 14 For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.
That is why its going to take more than a concerted grass roots movement. We need a knee root movement. The Saints of Heavens armies, arrayed in her white robes of purity to hit their knees in prayer. The Devil laughs at our plans and programs, but he trembles when we hit our knees before the Almighty. And right now we need God Almighty to rescue, restore and redeem our nation...
K. Diabolical Spirits
K. Diabolical Spirits
Rogers, A. (2017). When Demons Dominate. In Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive (Re 8:1–9:12). Signal Hill, CA: Rogers Family Trust.