In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the trap of materialism in America and how it distracts people from following Christ. He highlights the struggle of Americans who have become consumed with earning money and accumulating possessions, leaving little room for spiritual growth. The preacher urges the congregation to resist envy and comparison with others, and instead focus on their own spiritual journey. He reminds them of the importance of keeping their eyes on the goal of following Christ and storing up treasures in heaven. The sermon concludes with a prayer for deliverance from fear and a call to recognize the problem of materialism and prioritize the kingdom of God.

Why do you long for the day of the Lord? Why do you long for the day of the Lord? Well, we long for the day of the Lord because we figure that's when our troubles will be over. But the Old Testament and the New do not portray the coming of the Lord in the way we have been taught. And all I'm going to say this morning is simple. Simple is that we may not be, and when I say we I'm speaking particularly to us who are Americans. We may not be prepared for the day of Christ. We may have a mistaken idea of what it's going to be like. And I say Americans because we have been greatly favored as a nation. We have been favored not only materially but we have been favored spiritually with teaching. Someone told me one time I think it was the president of Foursquare former president. He said America not only has the most money, the most material things, but we have way more of the gifts of the Spirit than any other country. And of course he was in a position to know. I remember one time hearing someone tell how they were with some Russians out in the woods. They were hiding at that time. It was in the days of the Iron Curtain. And they were teaching the people to raise their hands when they praised God. They'd never heard of such a thing. Never heard of it. Much less abundance of tongues and prophecy and discernment and understanding. Their understanding is practically the same as it was 200 years ago. Very little understanding of the Word of God. And God has favored us in America with many teachers, many religious books, many religious tapes. We have all the Bibles we want. We're greatly favored people. And you know it came to me when the Filipinos were here last Sunday. There's always a special touch of God when Edgar and the group are here. There's a special touch. And I can sense that. And as he was talking and as he talked to us privately and he was certainly not bragging and he wasn't pushing anything. But I had a sense in my spirit that the Filipino people will receive what God is saying today. And American people we may not receive it nearly as readily. Then someone called me the other day and they were telling me about a Spanish speaking pastor in Texas. And God was revealing to him exactly what we teach here. And he had no idea that anybody else. He would imagine he was wondering what in the world. And he was evidently preaching what God was giving him. And his congregation drops like something from 80 to 5. And he said, I can't go back on what God is showing me. And then someone gave him one of my tapes. And he said, well this is exactly what God is showing me. And he's all excited now. And this person that he asked, that gave him the tape now is putting the discipleship study, I think it is, on tape so that these people can hear it when they're riding in their cars. And maybe this Spanish pastor will also put it on tape in Spanish. I don't know. But I said, he said, is this alright? I said, sure it's alright. Sure it's alright. Just don't put anything on the outside of the tape except your own name. And inside just put our copyright thing to copyright the text. But encourage people on the tape to duplicate them. We're trying to get the word out. We're trying to protect it. And so we expect that's going on. But he was saying to me, you know, I think the Spanish speaking people will be much quicker to receive the word of God today because they're more humble. And I said, I noticed that among the Filipino people. You can feel, some of the things you can just feel, and I'm sure you all can, when you get around Spanish speaking people or people from the Philippines who speak Tagalog or whatever, there's something that's entered our culture that is arrogant. It's arrogant. And that makes it, and then we approach the word of God and we figure, well we've got it all and in the meanwhile, how's the stock market? And that's a real problem. We're too distracted. And what Stan was saying this morning is exactly true. That's exactly what God is saying to us. He's saying that we need, we're apt to be like those people that wouldn't come and when you analyze their motive, why they wouldn't come, why they had to test their oxen, why they had to go to a wedding or whatever, when you examine that motive, see it's a great honor to be invited by a king. It's a great honor. It's not only a free lunch. It's a great honor. And why would they despise this honor in that way? Well, what they're saying is, these oxen are more important than you, oh king. And that's why he got angry. Well, we've got the king on the one hand that says, I'm inviting you, and we've got this other around his oxen, and they're smelly. I mean, cows are smelly. They're nothing to really get romantic about. And the kings are usually tend to be bright, and he saw it, he said, they're comparing me with those oxen. They became angry. Sent out his soldiers and had them all killed. But you see, the reason they were like that and the reason he said to his messengers, go out and bring in the people that don't have anything, is because they can't say, well, I've got oxen, because they're broke. They can't say I'm doing this or the other, because they have nothing. And so he said, bring them in. Somebody's going to be in here. The cook's got all this stuff, and we spent all this money and everything. Get somebody in here to eat this stuff. And that is our problem. We've got too many alternatives. And I think what Stan was saying is, what God is saying to us today, even though we're Americans, even though we are cursed with this affluence and this distraction of education and technology and corporate life in general, the colorful provocative elements of our society we're apt to say, well, yeah, we know the word of the Lord is important, but it'll be there when I get to it. And in the meanwhile I've got a lot of stuff going here. And we don't realize it, but we're weighing it against God. And we can't help it because we're here in America, so we didn't choose that, most of us. We're here, we don't have money enough to go anywhere if we wanted to. Or get a visa. A permanent visa and go live in Denmark or somewhere else. We're here. And so what we have to do is recognize the problem. As Jesus said, the rich have a terrible time entering the kingdom. And why is it? Because they have alternatives. Money is power. There's a lot of things that are power. Emerson said knowledge is power. Well, Perry Mason says truth is the most powerful thing. Well, there's all kinds of power. But the antichrist form of power is money. And when you have enough of it, you can do things that the average person cannot do. You can control things and people with money. You can do a lot with money. The other person, I mean, if you don't like what's going on, you can sue somebody. They don't even have the money to get a lawyer to fight back. You just win because you got money. You stand to spend $50,000 on a lawyer. And the other guy doesn't have a dime. What's he going to do? Take his life savings and try to hire a lawyer and bond. The other guy doesn't matter to him if he loses $50,000, he's got another $50,000 where it's coming from. So having money enables you to do things. And I think and I may be wrong on this, you can correct me, but I think it gives people a false sense of security that the poor don't have. The poor are wondering where their next meal is coming from. We don't wonder, most of us, where our next meal is coming from. But the poor have this problem. And I can remember going to Bible school I shuddered whenever anything went wrong with a car because I knew I had no money to fix it. In fact, one time in downtown San Diego I got a flat or ran out of gas or something, pulled over to the curb and walked all the way down to South Boundary Street. There was no money to do anything. Stamps were three cents in those days. First class stamps. And there were times when I couldn't mail a letter. See, now a rich person doesn't he doesn't even know what this is like. He doesn't worry about something goes wrong with his car, he takes it to fix it. But the poor guy, that to him, he figures where am I going to get the money to fix this thing? I don't have any car, I don't have any money to fix it. Try to borrow it somewhere, get it advanced on my payroll. So it makes a big difference. Money makes a big difference in the life of people. And I think for that reason the third world countries, and of course the two that have come to my attention are the Spanish speaking people, and not all of them are poor by any means. The Filipinos are the same as true. But nonetheless they don't have this money that causes this arrogance. This independence. And so they have to say, I really ought to be seeking the Lord more. I'm not sure everything is up to date here. But man, I've got this to do and I've got that to do when I retire I'm going to do it. Boy, that's dangerous because you may not live to retire. And you form habits too, which can't be broken. Not only that, but you miss opportunities to serve the Lord. Things for which you would have been rewarded in the day of the Lord will never be. It will never be. We're not used to that. We say to our children, you know, if you're bad you won't get any Christmas presents. Well, we know better than that. We're in that kind of a society. Things don't go right. We figure, well, it can always be fixed. Especially if you've got enough money, it can always be fixed. But you know, there are things in life that can't be fixed. When somebody dies, you can't fix it. And when your opportunity for serving the Lord is over, you can't fix it. You can't recall it. And so there are things when, yeah, there are no Christmas presents and there isn't a blessed thing you can do. You can't sue anybody. You can't make amends or nothing. There comes a time when the door is shut. And as I say, when we have money and the prospects are good, we figure, well, yeah, he's probably true, but if you only knew there's this thing and it's broke, I've got to take it back. This has got to go back and get fixed. There's this thing and that isn't working and this is coming up. And you don't realize it, but the days go by. None of us in here are as young as we used to be. The days go by. And I think the Lord is talking to us today that for many of us Americans, and I'm keeping it out there so you won't feel rebuked as a church. I'm sure that many of you are doing the very best you can, given your circumstances, but I'm speaking just generally to us as Americans who have had, along with many other nations, a very heavy dose of the rapture. And see, the rapture is always presented as being good. It's a good thing. It doesn't fit Amos at all. Because the rapture teaching is unscriptural, that's why it doesn't fit Amos. And so, we're in the condition of Israel. We're saying, we're longing for the day of the Lord. Oh, when that comes and I won't have to worry about income tax anymore, I won't have to worry about my bills anymore, I won't have to worry about sickness or dread or anything. And he said, for you, how does he put it? He says, the day will be darkness. He said, the coming of the Lord will be darkness? Yes. It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear. Well, is that true for everybody? No. It's not. It's not true for those who are really living it. Who are really in Christ. For them, it will be a blessing. But for all the other Christians in the rest of the world, it will be the worst thing that ever happened to them. Those who are not carrying the cross, those who are not presenting their body a living sacrifice, it will be the worst, the coming of Christ will be the worst thing that ever happened to them. Now, we need to see in the scripture, does this passage in Amos chapter 5, verses 18-24 is this talking about the coming of Christ? The next coming of Christ. Well, it's called the day of the Lord. And there's only one day of the Lord. You'll never see days of the Lord. It's always the day. Now, we'll turn over to 1 Thessalonians 4 chapter to our favorite rapture passage and I'm not up here this morning to blast the rapture. I don't have time for that. What I'm talking about this morning is that we have in America, by and large, we have a false vision of the day of the Lord. So the first thing we have to establish is is there going to be a rapture before this great and terrible day. We know this is a great and terrible day. One of the last verses in the Old Testament says I'm going to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers before the great and terrible day of the Lord. Something to this effect. So, there's a day coming. And in our teaching in America, we have separated we have postulated a fun rapture seven years before the day of the great and terrible day of the Lord. And I want to show you clearly from the Scripture that this is unscriptural. It's a false hope. And it's the reason that American people, by and large, are not preparing himself to stand in the day of evil. As it says in Ephesians the sixth chapter prepare yourself to stand in the day of evil because we've been told there is no day of evil coming. So obviously that's a false, unscriptural, destructive attitude. So we're in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. And I want you to notice verse 17. After that and this is talking about the rapture. We who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them that is with the saints that Christ has brought with him who have been just raised from the dead to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words. Now remember, the Apostle Paul did not write in chapters. Imagine someone who took one of your letters to somebody and divided it into chapters. They might get the chapter heading in the wrong place. And of course the person would figure, oh now they've changed the subject. Well you didn't change the subject at all. You were writing a letter. And someone for ease of reference divided it into chapters. But as you can see it can confuse interpretation. So wipe out the five there. Paul didn't write five. He's talking about one thing. Which is very obvious. He said now brothers about times and dates. Well what times and dates is he talking about? What he just got through speaking of in the fourth chapter. We do not need to write to you for you know very well that the day of the Lord So the prior verses are talking about the day of the Lord. The day of Amos. Make sense? Thank you. We'll come like a thief in the night. The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. It's not talking about the Lord is coming to steal something. It's talking about that people are not prepared The idea is not stealing something. The idea is you're not prepared for a thief. While people are saying peace and safety, destruction will come on them suddenly. Now what that means is when the ascension takes place when the Lord removes when the saints are caught up to meet the commander in chief in the air sudden destruction will fall on the world. So you want to be in those that are caught up. Right? And another place he says the same day that Lot went out of Sodom fire came down and destroyed them all. Now notice carefully as labor pains on a pregnant woman and they will not escape. But you brothers speaking to the Thessalonians to whom he has been speaking all the time hasn't jumped around. He's speaking to the church at Thessalonica in Greece. You brothers are not in darkness so this day should surprise you like a thief. So the day of the Lord is not coming as a thief to those who are walking in the light of God's presence and will. They will know. And they will not be caught off guard. Now notice you are all sons of the light and sons of the day so then we do not belong to the night or to the darkness so then let us not be like others who are asleep but let us be alert and self-controlled. Now stop and think. If there were to be a rapture, a fun thing that would happen a kind of a Sunday school picnic in the air that would happen before the day of the Lord he would have said so right here. He would have said but you brothers have no need to worry because you won't be here. Now are you following me intellectually? Do you see what he's saying here? You are not in darkness so that this day, what day? Should surprise you like a thief. Now if we weren't going to be here this would not make sense. It would read differently. He would say but brothers you are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief because you will be in heaven with the Lord. He wouldn't say it won't surprise you because you're walking in the light. He would say it won't surprise you because you won't be here. So this teaching that there's going to be a fun thing happen before the day of Amos 5, before the great and terrible day of the Lord and that everyone who has made a profession of belief in Christ has no need to fear because they will be caught up so that they do not suffer is a complete, it may be one of the most destructive heresies ever to enter Christian thinking. It is totally unscriptural. As you can see, we go to other places but this is enough. This is what you call prima facie evidence. In other words, it's on the face of it. You can see that the teaching of a fun trip before the great and terrible day of the Lord is not scriptural. We've said that the other week, the same thing you can prove the same thing from the first chapter of 2 Thessalonians but right here if you will follow this intellectually, in your mind, using your reasoning power, you can see that Paul was continuing his address to these people it is a funeral passage. He was speaking to them who were grieving about Christians who had died. That has nothing to do with escaping suffering whatever, there's not an inkling in there that this passage has to do with escaping suffering. Not an inkling but then the text is any reasonable scholar who was pursuing an analysis of the text trying to get the thought. You always when you're interpreting the Bible, you always try to get the thought, particularly the New Testament. The Old Testament has things that ramble as the oracle of God spoke mysteries but this is not the oracle of God speaking mysteries this is a human being writing to a church to edify it. A church in Greece writing to it to edify it in the Lord. He's not speaking here any symbolic message. This is something that any scholar, Christian or not, can examine what the man is saying. And if someone were to come along and say oh in here there's a fun trip seven years before the day of the Lord he'd say well where do you derive that? The context seems to indicate that this is not the case at all so I hope the young people are following the logic here because this destructive idea of a fun trip called a rapture so that Amos doesn't apply to us that doesn't apply to us because we Gentiles are going to be caught up before the great and terrible day of the Lord, but you see when you nail it down, it doesn't follow the Bible at all Paul says the day will not surprise us like a thief. Why? Not because we're not here, but because we are not of the night or of the darkness. We're walking in the will of God and so we know these things, we're not caught off guard. It's not that we're removed, it's because we are living so close to God. It isn't one of removal because we're Gentiles, it's because we are living so close to God that we're not caught by surprise. Does that seem to you to be what it's saying? Or as I say I don't have a big cause against it, only as it impacts on what God is saying to you and to me today because if we have this suspicion in the back of our mind, well anyway, it will all come out in the wash. We're not going to do anything serious about it, but if we really believe there is no such thing and what we're facing is what the prophets have spoken of from the beginning and it has not changed one whit as we read in the book of Revelation and we realize that we're Americans and most of us are lukewarm and then we begin to say to ourselves, well I'm going to face this kind of thing am I ready? You and I should be asking ourselves today, am I ready for this? And not blowing it off because we've got a notion maybe people that are teaching the rapture are correct. We've got to get that out of our system. It's the most destructive thing one can imagine because it takes all of the cutting edge out of everything that the prophets and the apostles spoke to us. It takes it right out of us. And we say, oh well, hi-dee-hi, it'll all happen. It won't happen. We have the angel, I think God is speaking today to the angel of the evangelical church. He's speaking today to the angel of the evangelical church and he's saying, you're asleep. You're asleep in the lap of Delilah. You're asleep in the world. And destruction is coming like a train on the edge of town. Well, what's our response? Oh Lord, you need to get a report card. You need to get a report card and say, I can see from the scripture that there's no fun trip that's going to deliver me from this day of darkness that is coming. A terrible day. A day of God's wrath. The disarray the Catholics call it. The disarray. The day of God's wrath is coming. And the only ones that will be spared are those who are walking in the light. And that means much more than what passes today for Christianity in America. It means much more. You're going back now to what Jesus said. You have to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him. You have to present your body a living sacrifice. You have to put to death the carnal nature. You have to follow Paul and the things he said. He said, if you're thus minded, be thus minded. Lay aside everything and count it as garbage. See, this is the standard of the New Testament. We're not talking about church goers. We're talking about disciples. People that know Jesus. And so, I felt this morning, I got so I felt so strong about it. Of course, Stan confirmed it all. I couldn't even go any further with my nose. I felt the Holy Spirit's going to lead us this morning and so I feel to go to Joel, the second chapter. I haven't talked on it in quite a while. Those of you that have been with us for a while know I'm very familiar with this, but I just felt this morning, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Joel 2. I said, okay, Lord, have your way. I'm not going to push it. If this is what you want, this is what you're going to get. How many think it's a good idea when God gets what he wants? That's not a good idea. Never mind how we feel about it. God gets his. Everything else is going to be okay. Blow the trumpet in the world, particularly in Washington, D.C. Where all them sinners are doing all their things. We're looking for the government to repent. God isn't asking the government to repent. He's talking to his people. Oh boy, there's more things afoot to straighten out the government. And we're the ones that are not even ready for the Lord. Blow the trumpet in Zion. Why? Because this chapter has to do with the day of the Lord. If we go down to verse 11 of this chapter, we see it. The day of the Lord is great. Joel 2.11. What are you talking about? I'm talking about Christ's coming. I'm talking about something that's going to happen after we have fun in heaven. Laughing Eating all the ice cream we want and not getting fat. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the coming of Christ. There is no rapture as it's currently taught. There's a catching up to meet the commander in chief. Yes. There's no rapture as it's taught. It doesn't matter if it's before or after the tribulation. There's no such thing as being caught up to heaven. It's in the Bible. The B-I-B-L-E. That's the book for me. Laughing. About you. Is that the book for you? Blow the trumpet in Zion. The problem is in the church. That's why he says in Amos, you've got all this stuff going. Music to beat the band. And then you've got the burnt offering. Talking about Calvary. You've got the grain offering. Talking about Pentecost. You've got all this stuff going. And he says, I can't stand it. Because you're not righteous. Get righteous and then I'll listen to it. Laughing. Alright. Sound the alarm on my holy hill. Well, what are we doing here this morning? Sound the alarm on his holy hill. I'm not railing about Gore or Bush. I'm talking about God's church. Sound the alarm on Gore and Bush. Laughing. Well, I have to say that because we get sucked into these things. C.S. Lewis said, save your breath to cool your porridge. Let all who live in the land tremble. He's talking about Israel. God's elect. Not talking about the heathen. For the day of the Lord is coming. Prepare ye the way. What are we doing this morning? Preparing the way of the Lord. That America's not ready. Oh, knocked by a long shot. Let all who live in the land tremble. It is close at hand. Well, if it was close at hand in 800 B.C., what in the world is it now? 2,800 years ago. It's a good thing that God is patient. Of course, time to God is nothing. A thousand years, what's that? To us, it's kind of hard to live. We have a hard time getting from the age of 31. Seems like it takes forever. Is that right, Joe? Oh, boy, is that right. Alright. It is close at hand. A day of fun. Y'all come. Meetin' all day and all get to stay. We don't have a good time in the morning. We'll have one at night, sure enough. Oh, Lord. A day of darkness and gloom. That's the coming of Christ. Yes, it is. Yes. Isn't He gonna come and bow down and ask us how He can serve us? Probably not. A day of clouds and darkness. Blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains. Still dark, but the day is at hand. Oh, hallelujah. I wonder how close we are to the dawn. The dawn of the day of the Lord. Stan says trouble's coming. I didn't say it. Stan said it. Like dawn spreading across the mountains. A large and mighty army comes. Now, I want you to fasten on that. You can put your highlighter on it. You can do anything you want to. But the vision of the coming of Christ predominantly... See, we have a vision today of being caught up in the air. That's not a vision of the coming of Christ. Paul was talking about the comfort of the saints with deceased loved ones. That's not the vision. You won't find that in the Old Testament. That's not the vision. The vision and it's repeated in numerous passages in the Old and a few in the New is of a great and mighty army. And we see the conclusion of it in Revelation 19 where Christ comes like this at the head of an army. Now, that is the vision of the day of the Lord. And for you and me as individuals we are either going to be in that army or on the receiving end of it. And these are God's untouchables. They cannot be moved with anything. They've been through it. They've been forced into death about everything they thought was important. They are dead living people. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I'm alive. But it's not I who am living. It is Christ who is living in me. You know, that's more than a doctrine in Galatians 2.20 that you mention, that you memorize. That's an experience. And it is not exactly pleasant at all times. But it's worth it. This army is untouchable. It cannot be moved. It has learned in life to move by the will of God, like Abraham going up to Mount Moriah with his son and slave with sticks to burn living dead people. Oh, Brother Thompson, preach the rapture to me. Let me hear about the rapture. I don't want to hear anything like that. Why not? Because we're rich. You say to somebody that has nothing which is probably true of half the people in the world, that's not such bad news to them. They say, I've got nothing to lose in this thing. Let's die and get over with. I'd like to live. But to us we say, I'm going to lose this, I'm going to lose that. What am I going to lose next? He's plucking feathers out of me. I'm not even dead yet. What's our problem? We're rich. And it's hard for us to enter the kingdom because the kingdom requires that you die on the cross with Christ. But that's the worst thing. This is good news. I hope I never hear the bad. It's good news if you love God. To think that we can get rid of this filthy Adamic nature of ours which has caused nothing but trouble from the time we are five days old. You ought to be glad to get rid of it. You know what we ought to have? We ought to have a funeral service in here for the Adamic nature. And have everyone bring up his Adamic nature and we'll put it to death once and for all and bury the thing and be done with it. Yeah, it's another name for water baptism. When we have water baptism we ought to have some funeraries in here. Some pictures of you. Some weeping. Oh, they're dying. Stan's getting ready to drown them up there. Our dear old Adamic nature may fire be on it forever. It's caused me more trouble in life, I tell you, than just about anything else. Yes, it's good news, but it's not good news to your sinful nature. It's good news to your spiritual nature that's been born again. Good news to your body someday it'll be raised and glorified so that you can take it any way you want to. A large and mighty army. That's the vision. This is going to be a large army and it's going to be strong, powerful people that have served God throughout the history of the world. People that have many of them have been tortured but there's many of them that have gone through things worse than torture. They've lived a life of denial. Of all their fervent desires. Patiently waiting on Christ. There before Him like precious jewels. And when God gets ready to return this army will be at His back. And the church people will be looking for love, love, love. These people have a love that the carnal nature knows nothing about. It's God's love. He sent His Son to the cross. God's love! Not human empathy or sympathy or nostalgia. All these things are largely self-pity when you think about them. There's no self-pity in God's love that will never come out of our Adamic nature. Never. It comes as Christ has formed in us. It's the love of Christ that passes knowledge. These people are filled with the love of Christ. It reminds me of the Psalm. It goes on and on and on and it tells about and he overthrew, he killed the king of Bashan and he killed this king and he killed that and after every one of them it says for His mercy endures forever. Maybe our idea of mercy and God's ideas of mercy is two different things. Praise the Lord. He killed Sion king of the Amorites for His mercy endures forever. I don't know how Sion read that. A large and mighty army look for it. That's what's coming. That's what's coming. And that's what it says in 1 Thessalonians 4. The Lord is coming to raise Him up. The whole army of God will be standing on its feet shining, shining, shining from the east to the west. The whole army of God. That's what 1 Thessalonians 4 is talking about with a shout. The voice of the archangel. That's the army. The archangel is the leader of the holy angels of war. The shout of Christ preparing for the battle. The trumpet of God sounding attack not retreat. Dumbkirk. It's the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord. And these people come and are raised up. They don't go fleeing up in the air to escape Antichrist. Why any one of them is a match for Antichrist and his whole army. All they're doing is worshiping Christ. And Christ is saying to them I told you so. I told you I was going to do it. I told you I was going to do it. And I've done it. The people who have served Christ with all their hearts not like the American church goers for the most part. Disciples. Saints. Patriarchs. That's what God wants you and me to be. But we're rich. We've got too many alternatives. And boy that's hard. It's hard for a rich man to enter. It's going to be hard for you to enter. You're cursed. You've got too much money. Too much stuff. He says don't go back down to get your stuff. That's what he says. Don't go back down to get your stuff. We're married to our stuff. A large and mighty army such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come. That is the army of the day of the Lord. That's the true vision. And why is it dark? Tell us. Before them fire devours. We don't think of Christ coming like that. That's why he says it's out of the frying pan of the fire. Habakkuk says in the third chapter when I heard, when I saw that, I trembled that I might rest in the day of trouble. The army of the Lord. Behind them a flame blazes. For them the land is like the garden of Eden. And why is that? It's because they come just when people of the earth are saying peace and safety finally. Antichrist has got it together. We've got a one world government. We've got a one world police force. Everything, cradle to grave security. We've got everything, everything man could want. Everybody gets educated. Everyone has enough money. We've got a peace and safety. Finally. Finally the politicians put it together. Finally the land is as Eden. But behind them a desert waste. Nothing escapes them. They have the appearance of horses. We see that in Revelation 19. Also in Habakkuk 3. They gallop along like cavalry. With a noise like that of chariots. They leap over the mountaintops like a crackling fire consuming stubble. Like a mighty army drawn up for battle. At the sight of them nations nations are in anguish. We're worried about Antichrist. We're worried about the army of the Lord. Every face turns pale. They charge like warriors. They scale walls like soldiers. They all march in line. Not swerving from their course. That's our problem. This distraction. When I leave church today, I'm going to serve God. I'm going to get a report card if he tells me to sell everything I've got and give it to the poor. He's got it. Suppose the Lord said that to you. Sell everything you've got and give it to the poor. Suppose he said that to you. Could you do it? He said that to one guy. What will I do to inherit eternal life? Sell everything you've got and give it to the poor. He didn't say give it to the church. He said give it to the poor. And we look at that and say, oh that dumb cluck. He could have had eternal life. Well, suppose he said it to you. Could you do it? Brother Thompson, you quit preaching and gone to meddling now. I never heard anything like that. It's all right. 2,000 years ago, whoever this dude was, but he wasn't in 20th century America. If I was to sell everything I had and give it to the poor, what in the world would ever become of me? That's terrible. What a thought. Oh God. Don't hear Thompson, Lord, whatever you do. Forget it. Forget it. Forget it. Let's go out and have a hamburger or something. Forget that. Well, he might. If he did, what would you do? We get sucked off. We don't walk in our line. We see somebody else and we envy them. He said these people are strong. How many believe these people are strong? How do you get strong? By exercising. Exactly. You get strong by pushing against resistance. Americans, we've developed all kinds of machines. You plug them into the wall and they'll exercise for you. Hopefully you'll get bulging biceps and excellent muscle tone and generally improved health. You can plug it in, hold on to it and watch television. Isn't that neat? Then take a pill, you never gain weight again. Now, the only way that you can gain strength is by pushing against resistance. Isn't enough to push. You have to push against something that's resisting you. That's how you gain strength. Now that is why God is putting pressure on you in your life. It's so that you will gain strength. But you won't gain strength if you avoid it. And you can almost always avoid pressure. But you have to lose your integrity to do so. What you do is go around blaming other people. Blame, blame, blame. You'll never gain any strength that way. You gain strength. You don't have to worry about something to push against. God will provide that free of charge. You don't have to spend a nickel on something to push against. God will provide the weights for you to lift. Okay? That's why you're lifting weights. That's why the pressure. It isn't something bad or the devil got in or it was your husband's fault or your wife's fault or your boss's fault or anybody else's fault. It was given to you to go to Christ and find out how to deal with the thing. And that's the only way you can gain strength. If you go through life with no problems, you'll flap around, you'll be flaccid. And I know no one in here wants to be flaccid. God is preparing an army today. And you can be in it. But as we were warned this morning by the spirit of prophecy, we're all together too apt to say, I'm busy today. We'll work on it tomorrow. Shall we stand? Well, I didn't intend to say all these things. In fact, I looked up my notes and I thought, now I should make some notes here and take them up to the man up in the third heaven so he'll know what I'm going to be quoting from. I couldn't do it. I could not do it. Just wait it out because God's going to give you what you need this morning. You don't even have to write down scriptures or nothing. And then when I heard Stan take off, I thought, yeah, that's right. I'm on the right track this morning. So this is what God wants us to hear. He's not up there beating us with a bullwhip. He wants us to take heart and realize that we're in a trap here in America with material things. First thing you know, our life is over and all we've done was earn money. That's all we've got to show for our life. And then when they go, the undertaker, we can't take it with us and what we could have done for Christ, we get snookered. Oh God, help us. Help us this morning, Lord. We know it's true that in America, Lord, I believe, I feel in my spirit that you're going to be moving on the Spanish speaking people and the Filipino people and who else. Here we in America are going to be sitting high and dry thinking we're God's pets. And here we have missed the whole boat with our stuff. We're sitting in the midst of our stuff, hanging on to it lest any of it get away from us. We need help, Lord. We need help. We need help. We're dead while we live because we're bound with pleasure. Jesus, help us. Jesus, help us this morning. Look to the Lord this morning. What do we do? Do we come to the altar? Do we stand there? Do we go out and eat a cheeseburger? What in the world do we do? This is what God is saying to us. I know what we'll do. We'll all come forward and we'll stand here and we'll pray together. Let's do that. If you have to go, you have to go. You got an ox that hasn't been tested, you better get out there and test it. You know, better not put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Get out there and test that ox. Boy, he's just having a terrible time because he hasn't been tested. I'm not going to pray some patriarchal prayer over you. You're going to have to pray for yourself. Our individual salvation is our individual preparation for the day of the Lord now. That's what God is saying to us. You've got to be prepared to meet the man. Don't, don't, don't. Pray silently. Pray. And so this day he is saying anticipate with great joy the coming of fire upon your life for he shall baptize you and he shall cause you to purchase through that fire things that will be lasting, that will come through the fire and be eternal and this is the desire of your heart. Even as John the Baptist said that he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire so this joy shall be your portion for it shall burn the dross in anticipation of the coming of the Lord. You shall pass through a fiery time but it shall be a time of refinement. The fan will be in the hand of your maker and your master. The fan that shall cause the fire to burn brighter or to diminish according to the ability that he grants you to withstand. Hallelujah to the Lamb for he is thy maker, thy creator and thy refiner. He shall purify you as silver tried in the fire, as gold that has been absolutely passing through that which will cause it to be indestructible. Hallelujah Hallelujah. There are many things you are not sure that will pass through the fire. So rejoice that they shall be tested. Rejoice that they shall be passing through a fire of refinement. Hallelujah Hallelujah. Oh Rabbah Oh Rabbah Fear enters your heart. Fear says oh I cannot withstand. Oh fear is not the way to approach the dealings of your God. Approach it with confidence. Approach it with satisfaction that he has heard your prayer. Approach it with the confidence that comes from the knowledge you have already walked through fire. You have already come through waters. You have already passed through testings. You have cause to be confident in him. Hallelujah You have cause. Look back upon your life See the miry clay from which he has snatched you. See where he has planted you on the rock and stand firm. Know that he has your end in mind and it shall be glorious. Rejoice in the Lord your God. It was stated by the four. They said are not careful about this. It is not a cause of concern. We are confident and are not careful to say keep us from the fire. We are rather confident to say we will go through the fire. Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah I pray for faith Lord. I pray for this confidence I pray Lord that we will not be affrighted with anything Lord. Oh God I pray. Hallelujah Hallelujah Resist it. Resist it. You are not resisting it Oh my It is not a bad thing. It is a good thing What are you saying to resist? Let's do it Let's resist it now. Denounce it No place with dread. We will not accept it We will not accept fear. We will not accept it We will not accept it. Hallelujah Hallelujah. We will not accept fear. We will not accept it Out of this church all fear all dread. Out of here. You do not belong among God's people You do not belong among God's people. No No way. We will not accept it. Praise the Lord So Ryan Yes we do It is just to keep your eyes on the goal. You see the rich man was invited to get rid of his riches so he could purchase treasures in heaven and then Jesus said come follow me and the goal was to get him to follow Christ and to purchase the treasures in heaven and this is the root. This is the root. It is the goal Keep your eye on him. Hallelujah. Amen Amen Ryan would you conclude in prayer please