The message for today is “Going back to the gates.” To summarize, this is the story of Mordecai who found a job to be a gate man. While at the gates three things happened. First, some people plotted to kill the king and Mordecai told Esther about the plot. The only reward he got was to write his name in the book of souvenir and that is all. Even the king didn’t bother to come out and thank him. 

People expect to get some recognition when they do good deeds. Often this does not happen. So what do you do? Many people will change their way of doing things because of this.

Second, Mordecai remained at the gates. He got no promotion or anything. Other people got promoted but not Mordecai. But Mordecai was humble and patient. He stayed at the gate and waited.

Third, Mordecai was faithful. He kept doing the same duty as before. Most people could not, or would not remain faithful. They would change how they work. For instance, they might show up late or leave early.

Then there was a man name Haman. He was Mordecai’s boss. He was very important. Everyone bowed before him except Mordecai. So Haman did not like Mordecai. Haman went to his wife and asked for advice on how to deal with Mordecai. Haman’s wife told him to kill Mordecai.

So Haman went to ask the king for permission to kill Mordecai. But the king asked Haman what should be done to the man that the king delights to honor. Well Haman figured that he was the man the king wanted to honor so he gave the king lots of good advice. 

The king told Haman to do for Mordecai as Haman had said. Mordecai was there so Haman had no choice but to honor him. If Mordecai had not been there, it might have turn out differently.

The time may come when your enemies will be forced to bless you. Amen!

How many people, after all of the honor, will go back to the gates? Most people will think they are better than that. Many people have destroyed their lives because of the first honor. But if you go back to the gates, the second honor will be greater than you can imagine!

We need to go back to the gates! Remember our origins. 

Chapter 18 contains a lament over a city that has not yet been destroyed. It is a prophetic action. The city is Babylon, the city of the harlot. We know it as Rome. The city of Rome today is not the same as the Rome we know today.

How are we supposed to view this today? Today the enemy of the Lord is everywhere, in every city. 

Today, we need to prophesy and understand that the end of this world system is coming. We should be encouraged by that. When you are suffering and being chased by terrible enemies it is good to know that there is victory ahead of us.

One of the reasons the sin of adultery is so bad is that it is a betrayal of trust. This is important to understand because we live in an age when adultery is accepted and we don’t even know how bad it is.

In verse 4 we see a message for the people of God. Come out from her people so that you will not share in her sins and receive any of her plagues. We are tempted every day to buy into the world system. Consumerism, politics, etc. We don’t belong there. We are to stand for the truth. As soon as we do, lots of people will come against us.

We are to be in the world, but not of the world.

Trouble tends to come upon us suddenly. God’s judgement comes upon us suddenly.

God says that in the same way you judge, you will be judged. Be careful how you judge others. This is pretty scary. Watch your words and watch how you think. Repent right away. 

In the bible we read about a new heaven and a new earth. That is the picture of how a church or a world should look. What are the characteristics?

“The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed the bear, their young will lie down together and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.”

What is God saying here? Different kinds of animals, predators and prey, living together in peace. This is not how things are now. People live in conflict. There are rich and poor. Proud people and people in fear. But isn’t this picture something else? Perfect harmony and friendship.

That is what God wants inside His church. So we are not done here. Even in Light of the Nations where we have many different types of people worshiping together. We can still do better! The bible says we should live in perfect love and harmony. No Jew, no gentile, no rich, no poor, no black nor white. We will all be one in Christ!

In Revelation 21:4 it says there will be death no more. God wants a living church! Not a dead and dry church. Dead churches don’t attract anyone. Live churches do.

God wants to have us live in perfect harmony and love. The He wants to fill us with His word and His spirit so that we can be truly alive. 

In chapter 17 we see an illustration of some of the judgement from the previous chapter. It is illustrated by a prostitute (named Babylon). Babylon is a picture of the sin of the world. Babylon was a great kingdom that ruled over much of the world and destroyed Jerusalem. They took the holy items from the temple and desecrated them. We need to respect those things that God says are holy. Your life is holy so you must respect it.

 We learn in this chapter that the leaders of the world are committing adultery with Babylon. Spiritual adultery is anything that take away from the worship of God. When you and I become addicted to something other than the worship of God, we enter into spiritual adultery. This could be materialism or money or anything that take you away from God.

 Why adultery? We all are the bride of Christ. We are to be the wife of God and these things would be unfaithful to Him. Instead of being the bride of Christ, we go after the spirit of this world.

 The text shows the leaders of the world being drunk with this prostitute. But the prostitute is not drunk on wine but on the souls of the people of God. We live in a wicked world. 

 After this we see a war between the Lamb of God and the beast. Whose side are you going to be on? We must choose sides. Choose carefully because we already know the ending. Jesus, the Lamb of God will win.

The Light of the Nations’ 10th Anniversary celebration. A discussion of the past 10 years and all of the good things that have happened. Also, a brief message from Pastor Sam Rockwell. 

We were created to be power assisted. We were not created to do it ourselves. Without the Holy Spirit anything you accomplish will not be long lasting. It won’t be eternal. You must surrender to the Lord so that God can baptize you with fire.

You must surrender everything to the Lord. Your finances. Your family. Your marriage. Everything. And God will reward you with power.

Revelation is a prophetic book that teaches about what God is going to do. Chapter 15 talks about the final 7 judgments of God. These are the seven bowls. 

Each of the bowls will be poured out upon the earth. The trouble comes to the world that has not accepted Jesus Christ as savior. Before they are poured out there is a song of praise to God. Victory comes through praise. 

Lord God, All Powerful
Just and true are your ways.
You are king over the nations
Who will not fear You, Oh Lord
And glorify Your Name
Because you alone are Holy
All nations will come and worship You
God, Your righteous actions will be revealed

1. Ugly and painful sores
2. Sea turns to blood
3. Rivers turn into blood
4. Sun scorches people
5. Pain and blaspheming
6. Water dries up in great river
7. It is done!

Then lightning and thunder and earthquakes!

God likes repentance! Not so much good works. The first act of repentance is confession. Confess your sin then turn away from it. But, what if I do it again? The devil wants to make you think you will do it again. But if you make a practice of repenting you can overcome, with God’s help! You must commit to a lifestyle of repentance.

Fruitful repentance. Commit yourself to a lifestyle of repenting every time. Until you start repenting BEFORE you commit the sin.

As we read through the Bible, there are lots of names. We don’t know these people so often we just skip these parts. But God saw that these names are important because God loves you. God wrote their names in the book! How great is that? God knows you and when God knows you, you are very important before God!

God knows how important you are and e wants you to live eternally. He even knows the number of your hairs!

There are many people who did important things but their names are not in the Bible. But these people are in the Bible. That is great.

God knows us so we must stand firm and serve Him. You can be just a small person, even a slave, and you can change the world. Because God loves you.

Three things that you can do to make yourself different from other people:

First, the grace of God. You need the grace of God to be upon you. This comes with blessing. If God’s eyes are upon you, you will be blessed.

Second, the way you walk with God. How are you walking with God? People live carelessly but if you walk with God, it will make you different, and you will be blessed.

Third, a life of prayer. The way you pray will take you far. Many people pray, but some people do it more effectively. That is because they do it differently. Jesus was a prayer warrior!

Jabez was a prayer warrior. He has a very small part in the Bible. The Bible is listing names, names, names. And then it gets to Jabez and says some things about him. Wow!

Even stars differ from each other. The sun the moon and the stars, and even stars differ from other stars. 

God’s grace comes to us. Our walk with God makes us different. Pray fervently and often.

We have to be careful to not give too much or too little attention to the devil. That’s what these chapters of revelation are for, to help us better understand our enemy that wants to destroy us. And to know who is gonna win!

The next beast came out of the land. He looked like a lamb to look like Jesus. He works be deception to draw away the faithful. This beast looks like a lamb but has the heart of a beast. The devil will look like an angel of light to distract the people and make them focus on him. The point is to get attention off of God.

THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST – 666

The number of the beast is the number of a man. For 2000 years people have been trying to figure this out. Throughout history they have found lots of people wh meet the description, but the truth is the number is the number of man. If we worship man, or a man, it puts the mark of the beast on us. Anything that take our focus off of God will destroy us.

In the Hebrew language numbers have significant meaning. The number 6 is the number of man. The number 7 is the number of perfection but the number 8 is the number of Jesus. It is the number of new beginnings. It time for a new beginning.

In chapter 14 we learn that it isn’t only the devil who can put a mark on you. God can put His mark on you and it cannot be removed.