The END Game

I'd like to welcome everyone to Bridge Gospel this morning.
I'm glad that you're here with us.
I'd especially like to welcome everyone who's visiting online.
I know a lot of people are out traveling and escaping the death of the valley heat.
So God bless you guys as you travel and watch at home.
I believe that God will bless you right where you are.
So we just have a couple announcements about some women's events.
I just wanted to invite Michelle and Terry to come up and talk about that
because, well, they're women and I'm not.
So I will go stand over here.
So it's time.
We're going to be kicking off our new women's, not new women's, but just women's program.
And we're going to be doing, it's going to be every second Tuesday of the month.
The theme the Lord's given us this year is Flourish.
And so I just want to invite you guys come every second Tuesday of the month.
This year, the kickoff starts at September 8th.
And, yeah, come join.
We're going to do extra fun and games this time.
Invite a friend.
And we're going to begin a beautiful journey of just diving in deep with the Lord
and walking intimately with him and what that looks like flourishing in his presence.
So, yeah.
Could you advance the slide?
In addition, there's one more women's new class.
It's going to be called Fruits.
And basically it's so that you can learn about practical ways to cultivate a life
that bears evidence of the fruits of the spirit.
Yeah, I'm not sure I could have said that without that.
Anyway, the class size is limited, and you have to sign up, okay?
And where you're going to go sign up is at bridgegospel.org slash events.
And please, I hate to say this, but I'm going to ask, don't sign up unless you check the website
because there's a couple of weeks where there's going to be a little bit of an interim in the middle
because I will be out of the state for a couple weeks.
If you can't make it to all six of the classes, I ask you not to sign up
so that somebody that could make it all six could come.
So thank you.
We're looking forward to the new class and for you guys to come on Flourish when we start that.
Thank you.
All right, so I will pray for the offering.
We're not going to pass a plate or shake anybody down or anything like that.
We have a box in the back.
You can make your checks out at Two Rivers Church.
I will pray for the offering.
So dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the ways that you provide for us through our jobs
and sometimes in ways that we don't understand, Lord.
So we thank you for the ways that you help us pay our bills
and what an opportunity to give back and to sow a seed into the kingdom of God.
So we thank you for that opportunity to worship you through our tithes and our offerings.
And we know that it may leave our hands, but it will never leave our life.
In Jesus' name, amen.
So we've been in a series about the supernatural world, living in the supernatural world.
We started this, I think, in February.
Today is the last day of that, so we're going to wrap this up.
Have you ever watched a movie or something and then, you know, not gotten to the end of it?
Maybe you got interrupted or had to get into something else or the cable went out or whatever
and you're kind of in the middle of this scene where, you know, like the hero of the story or who you think should be the hero is losing
and the enemy is winning and, you know, the whole thing is kind of falling apart and you just shut it off or you quit watching it.
And then somebody asks you, well, what was that movie about?
What would you even say?
You know, because you don't really know how the story ends until you've actually seen the story end.
And, you know, sometimes that can be how we look at the world.
That can be how we evaluate the things that are going on around us in our life.
And we can look around and we can feel like the bad guy is winning.
And that's our evaluation of the whole situation.
And, you know, our family can maybe be falling apart or we could be praying and, you know, not getting an answer that we're looking for.
We can see good people suffering and evil people prospering.
We can see wars carrying on and disease.
And we can still see people rejecting God.
But if we stopped at that point in the story, you may have think that the enemy won.
But you see, we haven't reached the end yet.
We talked about heaven.
We talked about hell over the last few weeks.
But that's still really not the full end of the story.
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is actually talking about the very end.
He says, makes it very clear.
He says, then comes the end in verse 24.
When he hands over the kingdom of God the Father, when he has brought to an end all rule and all authority and all power.
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
The last enemy to be eliminated is death.
For he has put everything in subjection under his feet.
But when it says, everything has been put in subjection, it is clear that this does not include the one who put everything in subjection to him.
And when all things are subjected to him, then the son himself will be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him.
So that God may be all in all.
So Paul says, then comes the end.
And there is an end.
You know, history is not just repeating itself in circles.
The universe isn't meaningless.
There's an end.
Good and evil are not going to be fighting forever.
You see, Satan is not just God's opposite.
He's a less than.
Amen.
And Paul tells us what the end is going to look like.
It says that Jesus is going to reign until literally every enemy is under his feet.
That's every ruler, every authority, every power.
And the last enemy, he says, is to be defeated is death.
And then Paul kind of gives us this destination of the whole thing.
It says, so that God may be all in all.
And that is God's end game.
That everything is reconciled back to himself.
Everything is conforming to his will and his desire for it.
God is in all things.
And all things are reconciled back to him the way that he intended.
That's not just Satan being defeated or us being forgiven or us just going to heaven.
There's so much more.
It's all of creation being reconciled back to God the creator.
It's every rebellion, every enemy, everything.
God all in all.
And that means that every victory of the enemy has an expiration date.
The problem with that is that we live before that expiration date.
And that's hard.
You know, we always say, well, Jesus won at the cross.
And that somehow we try to use that to ease our mind about it.
Well, Jesus won.
Then, you know, all these things are still going wrong.
And we know that Jesus defeated Satan on the cross.
But then evil is still everywhere.
So we're living in this time before the real end.
And we live in a tension between what Jesus has accomplished and what we can see today.
And if you stare at this middle of the story long enough, you forget that there's a little bit more to the ending.
And I think that we need a little more than optimism.
We need a little more than positive talking and positive thinking.
You know, optimism will say, well, I think things will probably get better.
And it just keeps saying, well, just think positive.
Well, I think that's good, right?
But it's not enough.
It's not what God is asking us to do.
The Christian hope is that I know who reigns.
And we always want to point people to that truth.
That we know that God is going to be all in all one day.
That he's going to reconcile everything to himself.
Am I having a problem here?
All right.
I can't see it.
I'll play with that later.
All right.
Where am I?
So where is all this going?
You know, where is God's end game in everything?
You know, what was he doing in Genesis?
Where was he?
You know, why the nation of Israel?
Why the incarnation?
Why the cross?
Why the resurrection?
Why this huge elaborate plan?
The church, Pentecost, the spiritual gifts, the deliverance, the resurrection, just all
of it.
It's difficult to look at the whole arc of history and decide, you know, what is it that God is
ultimately wanting?
What is he ultimately trying to do?
And I think to understand the story, we can go back to the beginning of our series and we can go back all the way to Genesis.
And in Genesis 1, it said,
And you see, before there was sin and all this chaos, God is telling us what his intention was, that his humans may rule and that they were created in his image.
And throughout scripture, we see God is surrounded by a heavenly host, a heavenly family.
You see mention of the sons of God, you know, God is alone as king and his creator, but he also has representatives in the spiritual realm.
But there's one king.
And there's one purpose.
God's creation is ordered under his rule, but through his family.
And it's a sense we had a message called the family business.
And it's not because God needs help.
God doesn't need our help.
God doesn't need anybody's help.
You know, he wasn't overwhelmed and he said, well, I've got to hire some people.
I've got to create some people or I need some other people to help me.
He wants participation.
And that's a really important aspect of God that he chooses to share.
And it's amazing that humans bear his image and they rule under him, that he allocated that to us.
And he has heavenly beings that we're serving within his administration.
You know, so God is ruling, but his family is participating.
But you see, then this rebellion happened.
And it never changes God's purpose.
That's important to see.
You know, sometimes people talk about Genesis and everything was perfect.
And then, you know, that was plan A, but that didn't work out.
So God had like a plan B and said, well, let's just get everybody off the earth and let's just get them out of there and take them somewhere else.
But you see, God never abandoned his creation.
He never backed down on his will and he doesn't back down on his purpose for humanity.
So the entire story of Scripture is God accomplishing what he intended to do all along.
His plan never changed.
And in Genesis 6, I think the story gets more interesting.
You see a series of rebellions in the book of Genesis.
You see a rebellion in Eden.
You see a rebellion in Genesis 6.
You see a rebellion at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11.
And the first one in Genesis 3 in Eden, you see the serpent entering the garden.
You see humanity rebelling.
Sin is entering.
Death enters the picture for the first time.
And humans are literally driven out of the presence of God.
They lost access to the tree of life.
And this whole relationship that God had with humanity is fractured.
And the human beings who were created to rule under God and to bear his image,
all of a sudden they're a slave to sin and to death.
And it looks like a victory at the time for the serpent.
But almost immediately, you see that God is announcing that his victory has an expiration date.
You see this descendant is promised of the woman.
A descendant is coming.
The serpent will strike his heel, but he will crush the serpent's head.
You see every victory of the enemy has an expiration date.
And then in Genesis 6, you see another rebellion.
This time it's a spiritual one.
It says in Genesis 6,
So you see the difference there in verse 2.
The sons of God were talking about a spiritual rebellion.
It says,
So God dealt with this rebellion.
And you see the sons of God are transgressing this boundary that God had established
between the natural and the supernatural.
And we see after this happens, human wickedness just, it gets out of control.
Violence literally just fills the earth.
And all of creation becomes corrupted.
And the judgment comes in the flood.
And again, it looks like chaos is just destroying and swallowing everything that God set out to do.
But yet, through all that, God manages to preserve humanity.
The family survives.
The promise of a Savior survives.
And then Babel, humanity gathers again.
There's a rebellion.
Now, I think the story of Babel, it's in Genesis 11, is interesting.
And I want you to think about the story.
Think, why is this a problem?
Is it pride?
Is it human pride?
Or is there more going on here?
Genesis 11 says,
So a lot of times we think, well, this was about pride.
It was.
There's more.
It says,
It's what were Adam and Eve asked to do.
They were asked to multiply and fill the whole earth.
So this was more than human pride.
This was a rebellion against the very purpose that God had for his people.
He said, well, go fill the earth.
And he said, no, we're going to gather in one place.
We're going to build a monument to ourselves.
So we're moving in the opposite direction that God has asked us to move.
And that's why the Tower of Babel is such a big deal.
So they gathered in rebellion.
And God completely scatters them.
Because his will was for them to fill the earth.
And his will was done.
And Deuteronomy describes this a little more.
It describes the nations being divided.
And they were actually placed under lesser rulers.
Deuteronomy 32.8 says,
And that's why you see all these warnings in the Old Testament
about the Israelites serving, you know, don't serve false gods.
There's these warnings everywhere.
They're horrific.
Don't marry foreign wives.
Because he placed these other nations under the rule of lesser spiritual beings than him.
And immediately after this happened, God calls Abraham.
And he says,
Through you, all the families of the earth will be blessed.
Genesis 12.2 says,
Then I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great.
I will bless those who bless you.
You see it?
I will.
I will.
Not you will.
I will.
This is God.
I will.
I will.
And Babel was all about,
Well, we want this.
We want to do this.
We're going to do this without God.
Here comes God.
I will.
I will.
I will.
You see the difference?
So the nations are scattered in Genesis 11.
And in Genesis 12,
God starts announcing his whole plan to reclaim them back to himself.
And, you know, Babel does not defeat his plan,
but it sets the stage for everything else.
And from Abraham comes Israel.
And Israel is called to be God's portion,
his people, his inheritance, his priestly nation,
his witness among the other nations who are serving lesser gods, right?
But the nation of Israel, it struggles.
And Egypt enslaves them.
And Pharaoh looks unstoppable for hundreds of years.
Until the moment that God walks them right through the sea.
But empires continue to conquer Israel.
They go into exile.
And again and again and again.
It looks like the promises of God have failed.
But every one of those victories had an expiration date.
And after all the rebellions,
after all the failures, the defeats,
after the hardness of heart of Israel,
and after all their hope was completely lost,
the prophets were quiet for centuries.
Then,
a child was born.
And suddenly,
all of these rebellions
and all the fruit of what happened
starts to slowly move backwards.
You see, the incarnation is not just a Christmas story.
There's so much more to it than that.
It's about a king entering occupied territory.
And it's God taking on flesh
and stepping into his own creation
and coming to reclaim his world.
And everything that the rebellions had fractured,
Jesus starts putting the pieces back together.
Eden had brought humanity
under sin and under death.
And Jesus comes announcing life.
He forgives sins.
He heals disease.
He casts out demons.
These are more than just things for our comfort.
They are products of rebellion
that he is turning back.
And he announces that the kingdom of God
has arrived.
He says that it's here.
And at the cross,
Jesus disarms the rulers and authorities of this world
and makes a public spectacle of them all.
And you see how Babel scatters the nations,
but Pentecost starts to bring them back together,
but under God this time
and under the power of the Holy Spirit.
And then we have Jesus telling his followers,
go out into all the world.
You see the story?
You see, the Great Commission is not just some church growth program.
It's the reclamation of what was lost.
It was that commission that was given to Adam and Eve
to go out into all the world.
It's the same commission.
Only this time,
it's with the power of the Holy Spirit.
You see, Pentecost isn't just this experience.
It is Babel being turned backwards
and all the things that happen in the garden
being turned backwards
and the rebellions are all being turned around.
And the cross is so much more
than just our forgiveness.
It's so much more.
We can look at God defeating
all the rebellion in the world
through this event.
And it's not just proof that Jesus was telling the truth.
It was the beginning of the defeat of death itself.
And it says that Jesus came out of the grave
and it calls him the first fruits of humanity.
And now the powers of evil have a problem.
This man that they had killed is somehow alive.
This king that was rejected
is now standing on the throne
and the nations that the powers once had control over
are being reclaimed by Jesus.
The Spirit's being poured out.
The good news is spreading
and every victory that the enemy had
has an expiration date.
But think about the cross.
Satan's greatest apparent victory.
Jesus being dead.
In a tomb.
His disciples are scattered.
Peter denied him.
Jesus betrayed him.
Rome executed him.
They killed the Son of God.
And if there was ever a moment in history
where darkness looked like it had won,
it was then.
It was that Friday afternoon.
Now we call it Good Friday.
But a lot can happen in three days.
And on Sunday morning,
the stone was moved
and Jesus had walked out
and the enemy had never possessed that victory.
And then we see Jesus.
He starts to share his victory.
Jesus ascends.
He does something.
He sends the Holy Spirit.
And he sends us into the world.
And I think this is where so much
of what we talked about
over the last six months
starts to come together.
You know, why Pentecost?
Why the gifts of the Spirit?
Why healing?
Why prophecy?
Why all of these things?
See, the church is not sitting here
waiting to be evacuated from the world.
We're participating in God
reigning and ruling today.
You see, Jesus has already defeated
all of the evil.
He turned the table on all of it.
But it's not quite finished yet.
Not every enemy has been destroyed completely.
And we're still experiencing
some of the effects
of this rebellion.
You see, every time the gospel is preached,
the king is announcing his claim.
Every time someone comes out of darkness
into the kingdom of God,
territory kind of changes hands.
And when people are delivered from bondage
or healed or set free,
the powers are reminded
that their authority over them was temporary.
And every time God heals,
we get a preview of a world
where disease is gone.
And when the Spirit moves through the church,
we get a sign that the kingdom is already here.
Hallelujah.
You see, the gifts are not entertainment.
They're not trophies
that prove that we're supernatural
or that God likes us.
They're equipment for the family business
of advancing the kingdom of God.
They're manifestations of the Spirit
where we see that Christ is working
and reigning through his people.
See, the kingdom of God is already here.
But the perfect has not come yet.
And this is why we still pray.
We still fight.
We still preach.
We still teach the gospel.
We still lay on hands of the sick.
We still prophesy.
We still need discernment.
We still need God's help.
And we still need to have faith.
But Jesus has not left his people
unequipped and defenseless.
We're still in a fight.
And a people without the power of the Holy Spirit
are a defenseless people.
But we're not defenseless.
We're empowered.
We're fighting the good fight,
as Paul says.
Because the King reigns today.
And one day,
everything and everybody
will visibly acknowledge
what we know is already true,
that Jesus Christ is Lord over all.
Listen again to Paul's words here.
He says,
He must reign.
He must reign.
I love that.
Not He might reign.
Not we hope He reigns.
Not He'll reign someday.
Not He'll reign if history cooperates.
Not He'll reign if we get everything right.
He must reign.
He must reign, Paul says.
Jesus Christ is King today.
Not someday.
Now.
And He'll reign until everything
is put under His feet.
Every ruler,
every authority,
every spiritual power,
and finally,
death itself.
The last enemy
to be defeated
is death,
it says in verse 26.
Now,
it's interesting.
You know,
some Christians talk about death
almost like it's a door.
And in one way it is.
It's kind of a graduation
towards heaven.
But nowhere in Scripture
does death really
call,
is called our friend.
You know,
they say people die
of natural causes.
But you see,
there is nothing natural
about death.
There is nothing natural
about it.
The Bible always talks
about death
as an intruder,
as an enemy,
as a robber,
as a thief.
Because it's not the way
that creation
was supposed to work.
It is the consequence
of rebellion.
You see,
death separates
and death seals.
And Paul says
it will be swallowed up
in victory.
The thing
that has swallowed
every generation
of humanity
will itself
be swallowed
and destroyed.
Think about that.
Somewhere in God's story
there will be
a final grave,
a final funeral,
a final person
who's left weeping.
And death itself
will be gone.
Not managed,
not reduced.
Swallowed up
in victory.
victory.
Because Jesus
must reign.
He must.
Until every enemy
is under his feet.
The serpent
is under his feet.
The powers of evil
are under his feet.
Sin and death
are under his feet.
Because every victory
of the enemy
has an expiration date.
And now we get
to the very end.
Revelation 21, 22.
John sees a new heaven
and a new earth.
He sees this holy city
coming down from God.
He sees the river
of life.
He sees the tree
of life.
He sees the nations.
He sees God dwelling
with his people.
In Revelation 22
it says,
there will no longer
be any curse.
And the throne of God
and the Lamb
will be in the city.
His servants
will worship him
and they will see
his face.
That was the first thing
that was taken away.
His face.
And his name
will be on their foreheads.
Night will be no more
and they will not
need the light
of a lamp
or the light of the sun
because the Lord God
will shine on them.
And they,
look at this,
they will reign.
Remember that thing
we talked about in Genesis?
That their job
was to rule
and to reign.
And when people say,
well, God wanted
to have a family
so he created these people,
it's like,
that's true
but it's not the whole thing.
He created humans
to rule
and to reign.
And here they are
in Revelation 22
reigning forever
with him
just like he said.
God finishes
what he started.
And the enemy
never changed
his intention,
never changed his plan.
I mean,
look at the story.
You know,
Genesis starts
with heaven
and earth
and Revelation
ends with heaven
and earth
renewed.
Genesis has a garden.
Revelation has
like a whole garden city.
Genesis has a river
flowing through it.
Revelation has
a river of life.
Genesis is a tree of life.
Revelation has
a tree of life.
Genesis begins
with humanity
being appointed
to rule
and Revelation
ends
with them ruling
with Christ
just like God said.
And in Genesis
the serpent enters
and in Revelation
the dragon is gone.
In Genesis
the curse enters
and in Revelation
it says there will
no longer be any curse.
In Genesis
death enters
and Revelation
says death
is no more.
In Genesis
humanity is driven
out of the presence
of God.
But in Revelation
it says they will
see his face.
Do you see it?
And yet Paul says
in 1 Corinthians 6.3
he says
do you not know
that we will judge angels?
Oh that's interesting.
Remember that
spiritual rebellion
we talked about
Genesis 6.
The very spiritual
beings who tried
to pull humanity
away from God
do not get
the final say.
It says humanity
will actually
participate
in their judgment.
I think that's
interesting.
You see the Bible
does not end
with God
giving up
on what he started.
It ends up
with God
accomplishing
all of it.
And the problem
is not that
God's purpose
has failed.
The problem
is that
we don't see
everything subjected
to God
the way
it's going
to end
yet.
But we do
see Jesus.
We do see
the one
who assures
us
how it
will end.
See Genesis
tells us
a whole lot
about what
God intended.
And the
rebellion
show us
all the things
that tried
to destroy it.
the cross
shows us
what it
cost him.
The resurrection
shows us
that the enemy
has lost.
Pentecost
shows us
that the nations
are being
reclaimed.
And the church
gets to participate
in the mission
of the king.
And in Revelation
he shows up
and everything
gets finished.
And God
gets to keep
his family.
God gets
to keep
his creation.
And human
beings bear
his image.
And his children
are reigning
with him.
And every
rebellious power
and every
source of evil
is gone.
You see
the family
business
survives
the whole
rebellion.
And then
Paul gives
us this
final destination
so that God
may be
all
in all.
so what
do we
do with
this?
You see
I don't
think the
book of
Revelation
was given
to us
so we
could sit
around
drawing
charts
and
timelines
and debate
and divide
amongst
ourselves.
I think
that by
doing that
we miss
the main
point of
the text
is that it
was written
to people
who were
suffering.
It was
people who
were living
under
empires.
They were
living under
persecution,
the threat
of death.
And they
knew what
it was
like for
evil to
feel so
powerful.
And God
is using
that book
to give
them a
picture of
how things
end.
Why?
I think
it's because
knowing how
the story
ends
changes how
you live
in the
middle.
You see
if you
know that
the enemy
loses
you don't
have to
be terrified.
If you
know that
death is
going to
be ended
one day
you don't
have to
spend your
whole life
afraid of
dying.
And if
you know
that Christ
is going
to inherit
all the
nations
of course
we should
continue to
share the
gospel.
And if
you know
that
resurrection
is coming
well getting
old kind
of loses
a little
bit of
its sting.
And if
you know
that your
labor
is in
the Lord
is not
what are
you laughing
about?
Richard?
Richard?
How old
I am
versus
what you
said.
That doesn't
bother me
anyway but
it's just
the sound
hallelujah.
Oh my
goodness.
And we
can know
that our
labor in
the Lord
is not
in vain.
Because he
promises a
reward.
Right?
And we
can know
that earthly
kingdoms
will pass
away.
We have
struggled
with this.
The earthly
kingdoms that
we see
that rule
over us
today they
will pass
away.
But if
you know
that Jesus
is reigning
you can
live like
your king
is winning.
That doesn't
mean pretending
everything's
fine.
That doesn't
mean pretending
that the
battle that
we face
isn't real.
It's very
real.
But it's
just knowing
that it
isn't over
yet.
I mean
there will
still be
moments that
you pray
and it
just
heaven feels
silent
sometimes.
There will
still be
things that
happen.
There will
still be
diagnoses.
There will
still be
pain.
There will
be people
that walk
away.
And there
will be
moments that
you look
around in
the world
and you
say,
God,
what are
you doing?
But don't
confuse the
middle of
the story
with the
end.
You haven't
seen that
part yet.
So when
we first
started,
we started
with a
story about
a frightened
servant.
This was
back in
February.
It describes
him.
He walks
outside and
he sees
an enemy
army surrounding
the whole
city and
he runs
back to
Elisha.
This is in
2 Kings 6.
It says,
when the
servant of
the man
of God
got up
and went
out early
the next
morning and
an army
of horses
and chariots
had surrounded
the city.
And he
says,
oh no,
my Lord,
what shall
we do?
What shall
we do?
You ever
scream that?
What are we
going to do?
What are we
going to do?
And
everything he
could see
with his
eyes told
him that
they were
losing.
The army
was very
real.
The danger
was very
real.
You know,
and Elisha
didn't just
sit there.
Come on,
son,
don't be
so negative.
He didn't
give him a
pep talk.
He didn't
give him
some positive
wishful
thinking.
He said,
don't be
afraid,
for our
side out
numbers them.
Then Elisha
prays this
prayer.
He says,
oh Lord,
open his
eyes so he
can see.
And suddenly
this servant
saw what
had been
there all
along.
The mountain
was full
of horses
and chariots
of fire.
They
weren't
alone.
The whole
host of
heaven was
there,
ready to
fight for
them.
And maybe
the last
thing we
need God
to open
our eyes
to is
the
ending.
Because
there will
be moments
in our
life where
everything
that we
see tells
us that
the enemy
is winning.
But we
can open
our eyes.
When we
look at
our family
or our
job or
whatever is
going on
around us,
we can
open our
eyes and
see that
there's more
to the
story.
When we
pray for
people and
nothing happens,
we can open
our eyes and
see that
there's more
going on.
when evil
seems to
win,
we can
open our
eyes.
When we
wonder whether
our own
faithfulness and
our own
obedience
matters,
we can
open our
eyes.
Because the
king is
raiding,
the powers
of the
enemy are
temporary.
We just
haven't seen
the end
yet.
And there
is a day
coming that
Satan will
tempt the
last
person,
the last
victim,
the last
destroyed
relationship,
the last
disease,
the last
sickness,
the last
tear,
the last
war.
Because every
victory of the
enemy has an
expiration date.
Jesus wins.
Hallelujah.
And he
will rule and
he will reign
forever and
ever.
And there
will be no
curse, no
night, no
death.
And his
people will
see his
face.
His family
will be
restored, the
nations will
be reclaimed.
And every
enemy will be
swallowed up in
victory.
And God
will dwell
with his
people.
You see,
God will
finish what
he started.
And his
plan never
changed.
All these
rebellions never
won.
The king
never lost his
throne to
begin with.
And every
victory that
the enemy
has in
your life
has an
expiration date.
That's the
end game.
And the
end game is
that you
can know
today that
you can be
right with
God.
That the
enemies that
you face do
have an
expiration date.
The Bible
says that you
can know that
you have
eternal life.
How many
of you believe
that?
Amen.
Amen.
And we know
that in the
meantime,
we have
access to a
comforter,
the Holy
Spirit.
And he
does heal.
And he
does deliver.
And he
does set
free.
And he
does help
us overpower
our addictions
and our
weakness and
our anxiety.
And he
is with us
from now
until forever.
Amen.
So dear
Heavenly Father,
we thank you
for what
you're doing
in history.
And we thank
you for what
you're doing
in our lives.
And I pray
that you can
open our
eyes to
the ways
that you
are working
and that
you are
present.
And I
pray that
anyone who
is struggling
to see
what you
are doing
or where
you are
or to
hear your
voice.
I pray
that you
can open
their eyes.
That you
can make
yourself
known to
them.
And I
also pray
that everyone
can understand
that what
they're experiencing
today is
temporary.
That it's not
the end of
the story.
And that you
alone get the
final victory.
So Lord,
we celebrate
that this
morning.
And Lord,
I pray that
you release
healing and
favor and
wisdom
over your
people.
That you
bring joy
and hope
where it's
been lost.
Open our
eyes,
Lord.
Open our
eyes.
And Lord,
I pray that
you bless
every person
and every
household
represented
here this
morning.
I pray that
the things
that everyone
sets their
hands to
are successful
and fruitful.
And Lord,
that you'll
make a way
where there is
no way.
Lord,
we thank
you for
that in
Jesus'
mighty name.
And everyone
said,
Amen.