Brother Figeroa Sunday Morning 7/19/15

Brother Figeroa Sunday Morning 7/19/15

Rev 10:1  And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:

Rev 10:2  And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,

Rev 10:3  And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.

Rev 10:4  And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.

Rev 10:5  And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,

Rev 10:6  And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:

Rev 10:7  But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

It is difficult to jump into the book of the Revelations and deal with it.  It is especially difficult for those that have not been exposed to the book of Revelations. 

There are two reasons to preach about this:  the first reason is because through the years we have been losing the message of Revelation.  It is important.  It is the last book in the Bible.  The Bible says, “Woe to the man that adds to this book.” 

It is more than just symbols.  Because we are losing the message, we don’t preach about revelations as much as we should since it is so relevant. 

It is hard to jump into the middle of all this story.  It is a historical picture of the Church.  This message is the message that can bring people out of Babylon and bring the Church into focus.  When John sees Jesus at the beginning of the book, he did not recognize Christ.

Then John actually understood that he was facing his beloved master the one that he laid his head on his breast.  He was in an island where they mined salt that would make people blind.  He was there because of the gospel.  Despite the circumstances that we find ourselves in, God can still come down and strengthen and bless you.

In your darkest hour, you find out who God is.  I don’t want to go through problems and trials.  But I have found that you don’t grow in blessings.  It is in trials and situations that you feel you cannot handle that you grow.  You come out a better father, better mother, a better person for God.

God revealed to John what was going to happen to His church.  In some of this chart, we see what looks light and shiny.  Then we see clouds:  darkness and troubles.  Then the picture changes again and there is more light and understanding.

In the time of darkness the book is closed, the Revelation of God is closed.  Then it begins to open and the more it opens the more light you have.  The Revelation has been opened today.  We don’t have new revelations.  This is it. 

You have to crack the nut to get the meat out so that you can enjoy it.  In spite of everything that has happened, I am so glad that God is who He is.  The message stays true.  People may not stay true, but the message does.  By the grace of God I mean to stay true: preaching, and practicing the message. 

If the Word of God is not what it is then we are nothing more than following the philosophy and belief of someone.  Thank God that He will back up this message Himself.

I would like to preach this morning about the revelation of the seventh trumpet.  We see on the chart there are seven angels.  Each one has a trumpet in their mouth that they are blowing.  The trumpet is a symbol of something that is being proclaimed.  The angels are just messengers, not angelic beings.

The word ‘angel’ that is used in Revelations is not the same word as it is in the other books.  The prophesy is almost over.  We are like Noah in the ark; we are in the waiting period.  At any time the door will be closed.  This is the last chance that the world has to hear this message. 

There are perilous times ahead for the church that I believe we can face if we hear the message of the seventh seal.  There was a book in the fifth chapter of the Revelations that was closed.  It was a scroll, not like the books we have today.  Each scroll had a seal. 

Every time a seal was opened, John was able to see something.  He was crying because no one could open the seals.  No one on heaven, no one on earth was worthy to open the books.  John was crying because no one could open it.  God said, “Stop it.  There is one, the Lion of Judah, who is worthy to open the books. 

When John is told that Jesus is going to open the seals, he hears a voice say, “Come and see.”  Not just come, but come and see something.  The second reason that this message is important is found in Revelations 1:3.

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

There is a blessing.  Do you want to be blessed?  That is a reason to get into the book.  It is a good reason to preach on this.  I want to be blessed.  This is the only book that carries this promise.  All the books of the bible are the best book, but there is a promise here that you are going to be blessed if you read it, if you hear it, and if you keep it.

We need this message for a practical purpose.  This is not about you.  It is not about me and my issues, situations, and problems.  It has to do with the church, an army. 

This book is saying what it says to you.  It is the revelations of Jesus Christ.  You are going to see Jesus in a different way, a way that you don’t see Him in the gospel.  You don’t see him here healing or dealing with the sinful world.  His face shone as the sun. 

Even John needed to be shaken up because he saw some things.  When he saw the harlot he was amazed, he felt an attraction to what he was seeing.  Jesus said, “I will tell you about that woman, she is no good.  She is a bad mystery.  She is a harlot, the mother of harlots.  She has a beastly image.” 

Today we are facing this beast in many different ways.  Some face it in the school system, some in their job, and some in the government.  It is doing such a work that we don’t even recognize it.  Representing something as liberty that is nothing but slavery.  We allow it by being quiet and not speaking our mind.  Because of the political correctness police, we are afraid to say anything. 

Everyone is afraid.  I was just talking to my barber who told me that they were afraid to speak because of the two women there.  “We are afraid to say anything that may sound like we are putting women down.” 

We are afraid of a law that does not exist.  It has been sold to us that you cannot read the bible in school or pray in school.  Yes you can.  They can use the system to speak of Halloween, and sex preferences.  But if you say anything about Jesus then they get on you right away. 

Our granddaughter got in trouble in her philosophy class.  Because she spoke out about God.  They took it all the way to the top.  They finally had to back down.  The smoke screen of the law they say exists and does not. 

More things are accepted in churches.  They have taken the altar out and in the front they are allowed to dance.  They are doing it and saying, a repetition of “Jesus I love you,” and repeating and repeating. 

This eighth beast is working.  This is not my message.

In the third seal we have no angel sounding because the church went underground.  When the seventh seal is opened then the seven trumpets came out.  There God reveals that there is a message that needs to take us back to how the church was in its glory in the beginning.

I want to preach on the seventh seal.  The results of the seventh trumpet.  The reason why the trumpets are necessary is because of the result of chapter eight when the Lord shows John our time and a few years before, the modern time of the church. 

When the seventh seal was opened there was silence in heaven.  This is not the literal heaven, in heaven there is no silence, the angels are praising God there 24/7.  This is the Church.

Rev 8:1  And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

Praising God forever will not be boring in heaven.  There is no working there.  There is no carpentry.  Jesus went to prepare a place for us by going to the cross.  He did this to prepare a place for you.  The heaven was already prepared. 

He did this so that where He is. It is “Where I am.”  It is not, “Where I will be.”  “I am in the father’s will.”  “I am in my father and my father is in me.”  I will prepare a place for you through my blood and resurrection so that where I am there will you be also.

What will we do with the millions of years in heaven?  It is so wonderful, awesome, great, amazing, majestic, magnificent, incomprehensible.  Heaven is wonderful, so deep, so wide so immeasurable, indescribable, all these things.  Heaven is so indescribable that we read more about hell in the Word of God than we read about heaven because it cannot be described. 

I got satisfaction and reassurance from God.  Because, “Son I cannot describe heaven.  But you will be in eternity with me.  There will be no clocks or calendars in heaven.  There is no time in heaven.  Jesus came into time.  Every day after millions and millions of years will be as the first day.” 

Children get touched by the first impression in Disney World.  They see something that they have never seen before.  The first time I came to Montana, I would cry tears by seeing the wonderful things of God.  They are majestic.  When I saw the redwoods in California, I thought, “What a mighty God we serve.”  I begin to get used to this.  It is not new anymore. 

In heaven it will always be as the first impact.  Do you remember the first time you saw her?  The one that is sitting next to you?  The first time that your eyes met?  For you sisters, the first time that you saw him?  Something clicked and you don’t know what it was. 

Something clicked and you say, “This is not the normal guy.”  You didn’t see all the imperfections that you know are there now.  The first contact, the eyes.  That thing wears off after a while.  Sister Karen, you don’t say, “Wow.”  When Brother Kelly comes in sweaty from the garden.

In heaven it is as the first time that you saw it all the time.  It never gets old.  It is hard to describe it.

The enemy is trying to keep us from being the Church of God.  He is trying to destroy our identity, everything that we stand for.  It is happening slowly, but it is happening before our very eyes.  It is being eaten up, eaten up.

The message for today, the seventh trumpet and seventh angel.  What does He have to say to us?  There was a silence in heaven for seven years.  There was a silence in praise, in the preaching of the judgments of God. 

There are seven vials where God is pouring out His wrath.  God is pouring out His judgment: His opinion about things. What God thinks of certain things is His judgment.  It is not chastisement, it is “This is the truth, if you do not obey then there are consequences.” 

You will be judged by what is written.  Since you are going to be judged, you need to get your nose into the book and figure out what it says.

The reason for the trumpet is to break the silence.  If you play the violin I might go to sleep.  I could take a siesta right in front of you.  The trumpet has a strong sound.  If you go to the army there is not a violin saying, “It’s time to wake up.”  There is a trumpet.

The trumpet is a sound of warning.  It is warning the people.  There were two silver trumpets in the Old Testament that were sounded to draw people together.  The sounding of the true word of God will bring us to the same position.  Even though our cultures, thoughts, and personal opinions may be different, ee can be in one cause and back each other instead off stabbing each other.

They began to sound the trumpet.

Rev 8:1  And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

Rev 8:2  And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.

They were given the trumpets to break the silence.  There are things that we need to stand against. We cannot allow the manipulation of preachers to hinder us.  There are times that I have to stand in a place of solitude. 

We have to break the silence even in Sunday school.  You have to get into the nitty gritty.  If you don’t then others will teach them and they will learn about it in their own way. 

The school is not better qualified to teach the children about sex than their mother and their father.  They have an agenda to preach.  We have to get over this taboo stuff and teach them the right way and the wrong way and make it so clear that they will understand it and not be ashamed of it. 

The blowing of the trumpet is sounding forth the Word of God.  There is a way to blow the trumpet without saying, “I am a Christian and from now on I don’t want you telling jokes.” 

I remember a man that wanted to see souls saved.  He was a barber.  “Tomorrow,” he told God, “The moment someone comes I will witness to them.”  When the first man came he pulled out the razer and started sharpening it and asked the man, “Are you ready to meet God?”  That was unwise. 

We have to blow the trumpet, at our family reunions, everywhere.

We sometimes specialize in don’ts.  There are so many do’s.  They need to know what is happening that is wonderful.  If you start talking about the wonderful service that you had, then they get fidgety.  They want to hear about you being dead and dry and not having a good time.

Rev 8:5  And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

We are the earth.  If the fire of God is in you, then how come you are sleeping and don’t have an expression in your face at any time?

The fire came into the earth.  The people had quit expression the praises to God as they should have. There are some molds that need to be broken.  He will not move His presence into the little mold that you have created.  God is not in a box.  We cannot put Him in the box.  We cannot say, “This is the right way to sing a song.”  You sing the song as the Spirit moves you to do.

Halleluiah is the word that contains every element of praise that there is.  Hosanna means praise God for what He is going to do.  You may say, “It is not my personality, or in me to get excited.”  That depends.  For some things you get very excited, very vocal.  Yet you come to the service and it doesn’t come out.  “God knows what I have deep inside me.”  It is so deep that it doesn’t come out.

Now there were voices, thunderings.  Now there was noise.  Some worship demands noise and sound.  Not every service has to be noisy.  The Spirit of God does not know personalities or cultures.  It will move into any nationality. 

The Anglo Saxon communities are more quiet?  Except at ball games, parties, tailgating….

Silence had come so they got into a rut.  To the point that when you came to a worship service everything was quiet.  When someone prayed you practically knew what they were going to say. 

Blow the trumpet.  “Thank God that I am saved and sanctified.”  Jesus was tempted and He was the Son of God.  Just because you are sanctified does not mean that you will not have trials or be tempted.

Samuel was praying to God.  God spoke in the thunder.  The same thing happened in the Revelations.  John was going to write what the thunders said.  God said don’t write that, seal it until the day of the seventh trumpet.  Now we understand what we could not understand 60 years ago.

There was an earthquake.  We have been praying for a revival.  According to what we are reading to you, an earthquake should come.  In an earthquake things move.  Some things come up.  Somethings come down.  Sometimes we are influenced by people and they need to come down from the pedestal that they are on. 

The church cannot afford to be in a rut.  No matter your age, you need to be moved.  Let the church be the church.  This is His house.  This is God’s house.  We cannot behave here as we behave in our homes.  There is something special here.  It is a sacred place.  In Korea people do not bring their shoes with them when they come into the church. 

An earthquake came. 

Rev 8:6  And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

Rev 8:7  The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

In order to blow the trumpet, we have to prepare ourselves.  We have to know how to blow the trumpet.  We have to prepare ourselves.  When you go to work, prepare yourself to blow the trumpet. Be anointed from God to deal with the children, with the young people. 

We have to prepare ourselves in such a way that they can acknowledge, “Something is here; it has to be God.”  “Why are these tears coming out?  I am not pushing them out.  There has to be something stirring in my soul.” 

God is trying to get across to you that He is real.  It is not a philosophy.  He is God.  God can do what we cannot in the soul.  God has your number.  He had mine one day.  Give heed to the seventh trumpet message. 

I will get to the message tonight.  This sound needs to be heard.  To carry one it takes four.  If you get healed from your literal issues and attitudes, we won’t have to carry you anymore.  You can carry others.  You can be a pillar.  Not just in revival service, it is because you have the anointing of God in you.

God is trying to tell you something.  He wants a reaction from you.  Even just to tell Him, “I heard you.”