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Cascade Hills Church exists to help people from all walks of life experience a genuine relationship with God through Christ and become fully devoted followers
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In this video 0:00 Understanding the Book of Revelation16:30 God Works in Seasons of Isolation29:00 The Church Is a Body, Not a Building41:00 The Church of Ephesus: Commended Yet Corrected45:00 Remember, Repent, and Return to Your First Love
Understanding the Book of Revelation 0:00 Alright, Cascade Hills. How we doing today? Doing good? Alright. You excited about jumping in this new series of revelation? Great. I thought it would be just a few weeks long. I thought,0:12 hey, we'll cover this deal in 3 or 4 weeks. And Then I began to study. I said, we might be here till Jesus comes0:18 back.0:18 I don't know. There's a lot to this book. So let's just jump on in to the easiest book in the whole Bible to find. 2 easiest books. Geniuses in the beginning and revelation in the end. So0:31 the way to the right side of your Bible, if you open up, turn all the way to the right, it's the last book. If you're new here Hey, if you don't even got a Bible, we got you. We have we have all the things on the story.0:41 How many of you have a drawer in your fork and a spoon. This is gonna be a0:53 great day. Wow. Okay. Let's just go back to the basics. This is the bible. Yeah. Everybody's got a I hope, unless you guys are just eating with your hands,1:05 everybody's got a drawer like this. This drawer has forks and knives and spoon and it's easy to get what you need when you need it.1:18 Books like this. We tend to gravitate towards the Johns that we can just get what we need to get and get about our day. Or the Proverbs, we can go grab us a little something something and go about our day.1:34 Drawer that looks like I'm just curious. How many of you what do y'all call your drawer? Alright. We're on the same page there. So what we've learned so1:46 far is nobody eats with forks and knives that cascade, and we all have junk drawers. That's what we've learned so far. You know about what happens with these junk drawers is you just throw stuff in here that don't really1:57 have a home. You belongs, so you just throw it all in here. Then every 3 to 5 years, you you're looking for something, you dump it out, the whole day, just to find the 1 thing that you're looking for. I'm2:09 not at all saying that Revelation is like this junk drawer, but I'm saying this, Revelation is a beautiful, wonderful book of the bible. But many people look at it as if it's and2:20 treat it like a junk drawer where they say, you know, I don't really know what it means. Avoid2:32 it. Correct? We all do that. I did that for you. Or you have the ultra spiritual people, and we've all got those in our lives. But they will take something out of revelation and attach2:44 it to something going on currently in the world. But we have those I mean, let's see a cloud turn around while you see that horn. That horn right there is over in Revelations.2:56 It's coming back. He's coming back today. I know because I've read there and and we try to take it and attach it to a current event. I know you we've all got those type people in here because, now we got young people in3:07 this crowd, but how many of you lived through the 19 99, 2000 stage? Remember, there's a call y 2 ks. Let me educate the young people. Y 2 ks, the computers were supposed to shut down and the entire3:19 world was going to be over because we weren't sure if 19 99 would convert over to 2000 without just everything crashing. So the world was coming to an end. And you had 2 sides of people. You had 0.5 these people that3:30 were partying, like, as 19 99. I was on that side. And then you had these other people that they were storing up canned goods. If you know3:41 somebody that, you know, went through that and they were the Y2K person I've had, now might be a good time to hang out with them because food is scarce. Right? There's either 2 ways. Either we look at this3:53 deal, we say this is just too confusing to to make sense of it. And so we we just avoid it. Or we try to take it and we try to I mean, I got slinkies in here and all kind of stuff. You try stuff. You try to attach it4:05 to a current event. And neither is correct because we're taking them out of context. So I hope to kind of be your guide. I hope to be your guide over the next couple weeks, month, a year, whatever, however long it4:17 takes. And open your eyes to and it's not at all like a and it's not at all like a and and and easy4:29 to understand when we have a guide. And so4:31 I want to be that for you, if you'd like. And so I want to be that for you, if you'd like. And so I want to be that for you,4:31 if you'd like. And so that's what we're gonna and so that4:49 well, it means unveiling or to from the very beginning, Revelation 1 1. Let's just start there. The revelation of5:01 Jesus Christ. All the but what is it about? No, no, no, no, no, no.5:14 The revelation of Jesus. Story. We're going through the book of Revelations. No way. All of it. We're going we're about new I'm excited about this new series. We're going through the book of5:28 It's plural.5:29 It's there's 1 revelation. It's about 1 person, Jesus Christ. From beginning to end, the last person to revelation says this. The very last person is So5:44 from beginning to end, this there. Prophecy, for those of you, it just means It's5:57 a revealing of what Jesus Christ It's a revealing of what Jesus Christ6:09 history. It's what God says is gonna happen, and then it happens exactly like he says is gonna happen.6:26 Happen. And then it happens. That's what it is. Prophecy is simply history pre written. Happen. And it's more current than any6:37 news outlet you watch. It is more current. But it's primarily about the person of Jesus and what he will do. Now,6:58 means Jon, the best for an asthron is Jhron is Jhron is Jhron is Jhron is Jhron is it's it's it's it's it's it's it's7:11 it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's7:11 it's it's it age and, that it was used to mine salt. And here's what would happen. They would send criminals and they would send slaves over to the island of Patmos to mine7:22 salt for the government. Not really a place you want to be.7:35 Bit of your brother and companion and the tribulation and the kingdom and patience. And the and the and the and the and patience. And7:59 There is a way to heaven. And it's through Jesus Christ. And as we learn to the There's a very turbulent8:12 They were to Shut, John. So you know what they did. Church history tells us they brought out a8:17 a a a a8:17 a a a a a a a a a a a They poured oil in here and brought it to a boiling point where it began to bubble, and they dropped John in here alive.8:30 Because he preached the word of God. Because he preached Jesus. But John was a contender. And John did not deny that Jesus was the Messiah. They Messiah. They pulled him out, and he didn't even have a hair.8:43 I mean, it freaked them out, and it would have freaked me out. And he just found it. It'd be like you putting in your Thanksgiving out and it's still Godwin.8:55 That's what happened to John. And so they said, all right, this is just send the dude away to the salt mines. Send him with the slaves. Send him with the Hey, I know what, it'll stop him from9:09 maybe we'll break him through isolation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We'll break him through isolation because there's only 3000 people And it's all slaves and criminals. And we'll take him away from his friends,9:21 and we'll break him of isolation. Now I want to pause right there for just a moment. Some of you feel like you're in a season of ice. You feel like you're in a season of loneliness. You feel like you're in a season where9:32 God has forgotten. Or God has forgot a promise that he had gave to you of a husband or child or career or this or that. I want to tell you something. God always does his greatest work in us when he gets a sorority.9:43 There's his greatest work in us when he gets a sorority. Don't despise this season of your life. Are9:56 so focused on there, don't you? If I get that degree, if I get the nursing degree, if I get the house, if if I get there, there, there, there, there, do we miss what God wants to deposit in us here? And what he wants to10:08 deposit in us here, we will need for theirs. So don't despise the season right now that you're in, if you're in a season of loneliness or despair.10:21 If it weren't for his, isolation. There and the holonomic. I remember for all of us, we go through sort of train wrecks for me 1 year ago today. Today's my birthday. 2 year10:33 2 days after my birthday. I remember I was getting loaded up in an ambulance, going to the hospital. I had COVID. I had pneumonia filled up both of my lungs. I'm hard headed. I'm a I'm a kind of guy I'm gonna beat this.10:44 I ain't going to hospital. And I remember I could walk twice down the driveway, and then I got where I could walk once, and I got where I walk halfway, and then we got a little hump in our driveway. And on the day that10:54 they took me to the ambulance, I couldn't make it up the drive. I still say I made it. My wife says I didn't even come close. I'm like, oh, I made that. She's like, no, Brett. You did. And I sat down in the pine straws.11:04 She said, I'm done with this. I'm calling the ambulance. And they came over there. I love our firemen. I love our 1st responders. Man, I love them. I mean, they jump right in the fire to do the the firemen sometimes11:14 aren't the most motivating people. Fires. They're not there to motivate you. Okay? They're there to save you. My brother-in-law is a fireman. He's way on up there in the fire. And the 311:26 firemen that came to my house until the ambulance got there. Here's what they said. They came walking in and they checked my little what was it? The blood oxygen level thing that put the put the thing on your finger.11:33 They checked it and they had 2 of them said, woah. Now, that's not what you wanna hear. And then this is what this is real life. This is what happened. He said, man, man, they're gonna throw you right up on11:45 that event, man. Then the other guy looks and said, yeah, man. We've had 3 people. The last 3 people we took have died, and they're oxygen no. This is what he said. It11:56 was 89, and yours is 82. Then he gets worse. He said, you want us to leave you here, or you want us to take you? This really happened.12:09 I'm like, we got to give these guys some motivational speeches and help them out, you know. I said, yes, take me. Maybe there'll be a nurse there that has more of a positive attitude or something. I don't12:21 know. And I loaded up and took me there and they found a little closet. I was laid on the floor of the hospital there for hours and hours all day on my chest. I couldn't breathe unless I was on my chest. And they found a12:32 little guy went to school with, found a little closet. He said, man, I found the closet. You I can put you in there and start putting some IVs and we've I said, I'll take anything you got. Roll me in there and you know12:41 that story. For months, I battled that and you pray for me and people in this city pray for me. Churches I don't even know pray for me. And I had a doctor friend of mine, he might be here today, that would come by my12:51 house every day and he treated me like his personal patient. He would check my vitals and he even rented an oxygen machine and I was on oxygen 24 hours a day for 2.5 weeks. And he did he was like an angel sent, you know,13:03 from heaven. And I remember he said if we could just get past a certain day, it was like 3 weeks, I'll know basically if you're gonna have a full recovery or 0.5 recovery. And I like what he did there. He didn't he13:13 didn't say you're not gonna recover. And then when we got there, we sat on my front porch and he said, Brenda, I was trying to stay positive. He said, you got past this certain amount of days. You you you're gonna make a13:23 good recovery. So I feel strong about it. He said, but, now that we're past that, you do know you knocked on the door. Right? I mean, you were you were knocking on the door. You got you got close. There's a lot more13:34 patients with less, symptoms than what you had that didn't make it out. During that season of isolation, I wanna tell you something if you're in a season today of isolation. God changed me. I went13:46 in a a preacher. I came out a pastor. I went in thinking I had it figured out, fired up my own strength, and I came out with compassion. I13:58 went in 1 guy, a hard guy, came out soft. I went in with anointing. I came out with greater anointing. I want to tell you that God will never14:10 use someone greatly until he breaks them deeply. And if you're going through a season right now of breaking, get ready because blessing is coming. Everything14:22 that God ever does, there's a pattern in scripture. He breaks it, and he blesses it. So if you're14:34 going through a season, hold on. I know it's difficult. I know it's tough, but you will be better for this. And God will will bless you through this break.14:47 He's over here and they're saying, hey, now he won't speak Jesus. We've got him now. And here's what happens. Jesus comes to him through the Holy Spirit on a Sunday. I love that detail. On a14:59 Sunday, lifts them up and gives them a vision and tells them, hey, write down what I'm about to tell you. And write down what you're about to see. And send these to the 7 churches. It's a different chapter. Now,15:11 you must understand the churches of these days, like I said, they were being persecuted. They were being killed by the tens of thousands. They were flat out discouraged. The island of Patmos looked like this. It's way15:20 over here right here. And what he was gonna do is he was nominated to John to write these churches in order. John's John's efficient. In order to do what?15:32 To encourage them. To correct them and encourage them. We look at the book of Revelation and we say, oh, it scares me. Not a fear of a doubt. Your belief or a desire. He's writing them to encourage them15:43 and correct them and get them on track because they thought Jesus was never coming back. They were being beheaded. They were being lit as candles. They were being released to these theaters to be eaten by15:55 lions. They were saying, Jesus, from the Right, them this about the things that are gonna theme of16:07 revelation is this. It's the it's the return of Jesus Christ to defeat all evil and establish his eternal reign. I love the story of the old janitor who was waiting for the basketball team to get out the gymnasium. So16:19 he cleaned the gymnasium. And he's sitting there waiting. He's reading his Bible. The coach walks out and said, hey. I'm the last 1. You can get the clean. And he said, what book are you reading? He said, I'm reading the16:28 Bible. He said, what book in the Bible? He said, I'm reading Revelation. He said, dude, you know how to understand Revelation? That old janitor just smiled, and he said, yeah. What's it mean? And he said, it meansGod Works in Seasons of Isolation 16:40 Jesus is fixing to win. That's what the Book of Revelation is all about. I they16:51 were literal churches, local churches that John's writing. It says this. John is describing the churches during his life, not ours. 9 hours. There's what we17:03 do. We take this content that we're going to learn about the 7 and it makes us and it makes us and17:08 it makes us17:10 and it makes us and people do this. They read about the 7 churches and they say, Yeah, Cascade Hills is this church. We're the good church down the road. They're that church and that church. Hey, that TV poster. You17:20 know, he's soft on the Theology. He's this church and he's gonna get and we start playing we start playing God and that TV pastor this and this church and that they're this church and they're gonna get that kind of17:30 judgment. Oh, they're gonna get a spiritual sprain. They're the church in the end days. They're this and we start pointing the finger and pointing the finger. I want you to hear me out. Here's and this is a very17:41 And this is a17:42 very and this is a very and this17:42 is a very and this17:43 is a very Look at 1st Corinthians 6 19. It says, do you not know that your body is the I love this translation. Other translations say, if17:54 you go back to the King James, and he says, do you not know that your body is the temple?18:12 You, whom you have found from and you are not your own. The church is not a building, it's a body. It's never been a building. The building is where the body meets. Yes, I know we're commanded to meet together. I know.18:25 But you are the church. And when you understand that your body is the temple, it makes us stop pointing the finger out, oh, they're that church, they're that church, and it makes us pick up a mirror. And when we put18:37 down the finger and we turn the mirror, it makes us ask a bigger question. Which church am I? If you'll go through the next few18:49 weeks and you'll take the finger down and you'll put up the mirror and say, which church am I? That's when life change happens. Because I can't answer that for you. Only you and your heart of hearts can answer the hard19:01 question when we go through these which church. And, Paul says, examine thyself. Let's look at the 1st church, the church of Ephesus. We're just gonna cover 1 church today. I can see it on some of y'all's19:13 oh, God. He's about to cover 7. That was just the intro. We're gonna be here all nigh. We're just gonna cover 1.19:22 Story.19:26 It was a rich city. It was a blessed city. It was a populated city. It's 252 hundred 50000. This city. That's around the same population as Columbus, Georgia. They had a 25000 seat theater.19:38 I mean, that makes Auburn, you know, look like nothing, right? Or Georgia. 25000 cedar overlooking the harbor. They were a commercial town where people could bring in and could trade, and they could trade commerce, and19:50 they were very, very wealthy, very prosperous. Architecturally, they were amazing in the middle of the city. It's the Yeah. The The20:01 the ancient world, not wonders of the ancient world. Best picture. The pillars were actually made out of marble. You know, like Spencer Dallow. And then overlapped20:13 with gold in its original. And then overlapped with jewels. So this is even a little bit. And then overlapped with jewels. So this is even a little bit. And today it's that. But back in its day, it was the epicenter of20:24 architect. I mean, it was just and this temple was for the Greek goddess of fertility. They would have temple prostitute. They would do some pretty bad things there in the hopes20:36 that they would be and they were to and they were to and they were to Now, that's the city, okay? So it's a pagan, godless, and But there was a church there in20:48 Ephesus that was very and Priscilla are thought to be the ones that brought, the faith to Ephesus has had the who's who of preachers21:00 come AP21:31 correct them. And he goes to commend them, and this is found in versus 1 through It says right these to the angel of the church and and when he says the angels of the church and evidence, he's talking about to the21:41 poster. I did think that was neat when I was listening. He said, write this letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus. This is a message from the 1 who holds the 7 stars in his21:53 right hand. Who's that? Come on. Right hand. Who's the who holds the stars in his21:58 right hand. Who's the who holds the stars in his right hand? Who's the who holds the stars in his21:58 Jesus, and the 1 who walks among the 7 gold the things you do. I've seen your hard work. I've seen your patient endurance.22:28 Patiently supported. And he's saying there are people dying all around you. But you He says your works, your patience,22:40 your hard labor, your non tolerance of ignorant of, ignorance and and and you're a serving choice. Sacrificing church.22:52 That you are a steadfast church. You don't that you are a separated church. You separate yourself from wickedness all around. What? Hey, church. When I look at this, I'm like, this this is a23:06 If I had a church like that and this town, I'd be at that church. I'm like, the church of Ephesus was a conservative Bible teaching23:22 ain't heard a word. I've said about Jesus. I conservative. Let me help you with this. I ain't talking about politics. You know what conservative means? Let me help you to to conserve. That's all I mean.23:33 And they had conserved some biblical advice from Paul and Timothy, and they all of us really are conservatives. I hate to break your bubble, but you are. Let me prove it. Aren't there some23:45 values that your grandmother gave you that you wanna conserve for your children? Yeah. See, some of you are like, no. Yes. Aren't there some things your mom and daddy taught you that you wanna conserve for23:57 your children? Are there some things in scripture that, my goodness, we want to conserve our children? Aren't there some recipes like my mama's brownie recipe?24:09 Brownies just be melted But I want to conserve for for for my children. Yeah. So they were just a good conservative Bible teaching church. I'm trying to teach my son that. My wife is24:21 all kind. I'm trying to get that value to pass down. And she's so, grateful. I'm trying to get that back. My son's more rigid. He's on the autism spectrum. He's just real And so the other day he said, I don't want people24:32 to be kind of Now, you have to my son is an interesting dude to to to parent. You have to do reverse psychology. He said, I don't like when people are kind to me. All he's wanting to do is argue. He's going to rub my24:43 feathers. But I ain't got no feathers. No feather. I said, oh, he wants to play that game. I said, okay. I won't be kind to you. Carrie said, alright. I won't be kind to you. He will order state. We took 0.5 a state.24:55 He liked that. See, he how many of y'all have kids, you gotta make them feel it? Some of the kids, you tell them 1 time and they're good at it. My 1st one's the name. This 1, you have to make him feel it. And then his25:05 big deal is he calls it Red Sprite. It's Shirley Temple. Red Sprite, that's what we call it. So we were at a Mexican restaurant the other night. And he orders it and then he chokes on a25:17 chip. Now I'm not talking about choking like diamonds. You know when a chip turns sideways? You can't get it now. And and he had just ordered a red Sprite, and he the the waiter freaked out. I knew it was okay. I'm like,25:27 I hate to be alright. He he'll choke it up. You know? You know how us men are? I hate to be alright. He's making noise. He's good. That's like our rule, you know? Women, oh my God, he's gonna die. It's25:40 still grumpy. We still got some Right. And the waiter went ran back, dropped his stuff, knocked out of over about 2 people, came back and gave him a Sprite. And he so and it went down to the and it went down to the and25:45 it went down to the and it came back and gave him a Sprite. And he soaked on that story. And it went down and it and it it's it's God is my witness. You know what that boy25:56 said? He didn't say thank you. He didn't say you thanked my life. He said it's not rare.26:13 It's a Bible believing, just a conservative Bible believing church. They just can served what God had taught them. And now they're just doing everything right. So this is remember, when we talk about this26:25 church in Ephesus, the big question is, are you the church in Ephesus? And only you can answer that. I mean, have you served? Have you not tolerated wickedness? Have you not tolerated a bad bible teaching? Do you have26:36 have you conserved Christian values? But watch out. Because God doesn't look just on the outside. He doesn't x-ray on the church of Ephesus and looks at the individuals. It'd be like if he took26:47 us and just didn't take us as a body and started doing an x-ray on individually on all of us. And he corrects the most I mean, in my eyes, perfect church. Look26:59 what he says. He says, but I have this against you. You've left your 1st love. Wow. Ouch. He's saying, you've served. You've stood strong when people have been beheaded.27:12 You've not tolerated wolves in sheep clothing. You've done all this stuff. You've done all this stuff for me, but you've done all this stuff in in my name, but your labor does not substitute your love.27:25 He's saying your actions were right, but your motivations were wrong. See, God judges a church. God judges you, the church, by 1 quality. Love for him and then love for others.27:38 And he's saying, you're doing it all right on paper. You're checking out all the box. Many times we say this, and I've been guilty, we'll say, I'm doing this for God. If you're really religious, you're going, I'm doing27:48 this for Jesus. You know? I'm doing this for Jesus. You know, we're not really doing anything for God. God's God. He can do it if he wants it done. We're not doing stuff28:00 for God. It's it's really that God is doing something in us for others. See, we are a conduit. You know what a conduit is? It's a piece of plastic that you run electricity through. So idiots like me don't28:12 shovel and electrocute myself. The conduit is not the power. The power is inside.28:32 I'm available if you want me to pray for someone today. I'm available if you want me to bless someone today financially. I will do what you would have done when you walked on earth. I will be that. That's28:44 what we are. We are to God does something in us so that we do stuff through us. And this church had forgot. And on the surface, it looked like they checked off all the stuff. I mean, it looked like they had checked it28:55 all off. All of a sudden. And he says, 'listen.' And he says, 'listen.' And he says, 'listen.' And he says, 'listen.' And and he says, listen. You once were like that, and you were on fire.Show more 
