Preparing for the End Times // Calin Ciupe

Preparing for the End Times // Calin Ciupe by HungryGen

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
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(00:23):
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(00:44):
The best is yet to come.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Okay, going forward, I do have a word that I
believe the Lord put on my heart, and I want
to speak this morning about preparing for the end times.
My title of my message is preparing for the End Times.
I'm curious how many of you when you hear the
word end times, kind of brings a little bit of

(01:10):
fear into your heart.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Be honest.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Okay, Okay, I'm talking to her to the right crowd.
Some of you, at least some of you, are very courageous.
But I remember, going back, I was raised up in
a Baptist church. Nothing wrong with that. But there was
a lot of talk about the end Times, about rapture,
remember those talks, and I remember I got so afraid

(01:37):
about the rapture stuff about being left behind. One time
I was eleven. I remember I was waiting for my
mom to come at home. She usually come at home
at two thirty out of her job. And then it
was three o'clock and she didn't came, and I was like, suddenly,
I have this thought rapture came and I was left behind.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
All oh my.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Gosh, so I kneel before that. I started crying and said, Lord,
please have mercy. And then my mom came and I
realized I wasn't left behind. But it was alway this
fear that kind of was attached to the end Times
message and going forward in my high school time, I
walked away from the Lord and I was definitely a
backsleden and I was doing crazy stuff. And one night

(02:22):
I have this dream the rapture is coming. And I
wake up from that dream and I and I remember
this fear come upon me. Oh my gosh, I need
to do something about it. So for three days that
was it. For three days, I stopped smoking, drinking because
I want to tell you, fear, it will never be

(02:44):
fuel enough for you to run with God long term.
Fear is never a catalyst, can never be a good
catalyst for you to walk with God. It's interesting for
me in when we talk about the end times. Luke
eighteen eight says this, nevertheless, when the son of Man comes,

(03:08):
will he really find faith in the earth. I want
to challenge you this morning, Church, the main thing that
we need to carry in our spirit is faith, not fear. Now,
it's very easy to fall into fear, especially if you
watch the news, and I remember I fall into this
trap also with this world of Israel and everything that's happening,

(03:32):
and thinking about, oh is this a good time actually
to go back? And I remember the same thing when
the world with the Ukraine stark as we live in Romania,
Romania's border with Ukraine, and the same fear came.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
The same fear came to my heart.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
And I remember Holy Spirit said, hey, look at me,
don't look at the news, don't look at the things
that struck fear into your heart. And I started this
journey of actually going through scriptures. How many of you
believe that that's our news?

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Amen?

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Scripture should be our first news channel.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
Amen.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
I would say amen for myself, and then going to
the scriptures and see what actually the end times would bring.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
And when you see the.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
News from the Lord were actually our the end times
should be, it is fantastic. Like for example, let's go
to Hagai chapter two, verse nine. It's a quote for
the end times. What is going to happen? The glory
of this letter temple shall be greater than the formal,

(04:39):
says the Lord of Hosts. That's great news. You remember
the glory of the first Temple. Remember the Temple of Solomon.
Remember what happened when they inaugurated. Literally they were worshiping
the Lord and the glory of God came with such
a part they couldn't stay there. They needed to exit
the building.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
Literally.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
When we talk about endtimes, this is what we need
to feed our souls with.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Amen. Because the Bible, my Bible says that.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
The antimes for us is going to be glory in
this season is going to be greater than what happened
in the letters.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
How do you believe that? So, church, I want to.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Tell you it takes faith, real faith, not produced mind faith.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
Real faith.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing the
word of God. That real faith we need for the endtimes,
not fear. It takes huge faith to believe what actually
the Bible says Isaiah chapter two, Verse Tuo says this,
now it should come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the Lord's House, what's that? That's

(05:48):
the Church shall be established on the top of the mountains,
and shall be exalted above all the hills, and all
the nations shall float it. What a great promise, And
we feed ourselves with garbage from news that talks something else.
How many of how many of you know that actually

(06:10):
doesn't take a lot of faith to believe that words
is going to happen. Tribulation is going to happen. Doesn't
take a lot of faith. You can be faithless, actually,
and that's gonna happen regardless if you believe or not.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
But I want to challenge.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
You, if we want to see these words come to pass,
it requires faith, not fear.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
Faith. Can we say amen? Amen? Church?

Speaker 2 (06:32):
So going forward to the New Testament, we see the
Lord Jesus. Now there's a lot of talk about end times,
but through my surprise, a lot of it has to
do with the beast. Sixty sixty six, the number which
I don't think is wrong. I want to remind myself
that actually there's a book in a Bible called Revelation,

(06:53):
which is not a revelation of Antichrist. It's not a
revelation of the devil. Is the revelation of Jesus Christ.
So my preoccupation should be on him and what he
wants to do. So going forward to the New Testament,
we see that the Lord Jesus gives us clear instructions
what needs to happen in the end times and what

(07:14):
needs to be our position. So if we want to
start in Matthew twenty four, verse six and seven, Jesus
is talking with his disciples and saying this, and you'll
hear okay, yeah, and you'll hear of wors and rumors
of worse. See that you are not troubled. There is

(07:38):
again fear. Fear tries to creep in. Jesus says, don't
be trouble when you hear about rumors of wars, and
when you hear about words. For all these things must
come to pass, but the end is not yet. Go
to the verse ten, and now he's describing something that

(07:59):
has to do with us as a church. And then
many say with me. Many will be offended, will betray
one another, and will hate one another. Then many say,
many false prophets will raise up and deceive many. And

(08:19):
because lawlessness will above, lawlessness will abound, the love of
many will grow cold. But he who endures to the
end shall be saved. I don't know about Cuba. When
when I read these verses, when I see many though
that were many, that kind of repeats itself. It brings

(08:40):
to my attention that I need to be careful. What's
happening with my heart in these times is extremely important.
The fact that Jesus is saying that many will go
away from him, Many will run from him, their hearts
will grow cold. I have a responsibility, can we say,

(09:02):
a man, I have a responsibility to watch out what's
happening in my heart. And then Jesus goes to chapter
twenty five. It's all connected, it's in the same passage.
But chapter twenty five he gives three parables. And I
want to talk the first parable. You remember the parable
with the virgins, the wise and unwise virgins. That's the

(09:24):
parable that I want to talk about. And before I
get into it, I want to tell you this church,
we have great news. This story will end with a
great wedding, the most epic thing that Kingdom of Heaven
waits for us. It's actually this will end with a crazy, beautiful,

(09:45):
amazing wedding. At that wedding you should not miss. Can
you say, A man is the wedding of the bridegroom
with his bride.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
We are his bride.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
It's our wedding that we need to make make sure
that and the end of everything, we make it there,
not late, but actually on time.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
Can we say amen?

Speaker 2 (10:07):
So Jesus is talking about thank you, thank you. Jesus
is talking about this epic event, and he's giving us
illustrations how to prepare, how to prepare for that amazing
event and starting met to twenty five verse one, Then
the Kingdom of Heaven shall be likened to ten virgins

(10:31):
who took their lamps and went out to meet the pridegroom.
And my first point this morning for you church is
desire him is not enough?

Speaker 3 (10:42):
Is not enough?

Speaker 2 (10:44):
We see all ten virgins went to meet the pridegroom,
but desiring to meet him is not enough. Actually, Bible
says for God is working in you. That's Philippians to thirteen,
giving you the desire and the power. So the word
of God is telling us that desire comes from him.

(11:07):
The fact that you want to read the Bible, it's
not you, it's the Holy Spirit. The fact that you
want to pray, it's not you, it's the Holy Spirit.
He brings desire and he brings power to fulfill that desire.
Now what's missing? What's missing between desire and the power

(11:27):
to fulfill it? I tell you what's missing. That's our part.
You need to choose. You need to choose. Remember when
it says in Luke ten that Mary choose the good thing.
Talk to this about talk about this with Calvinists. They
literally don't believe in a lot of choice. But actually

(11:48):
God has left us a choice to choose him. Why
because desiring Him is not enough in the last days,
just for me, just because I want to be with
Jesus will enough.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
I need to choose.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
I need to constantly wake up and choose the good part.
Can we say a man, So desire is not enough
going forward? Morality is not enough. Now, don't understand me wrong.
Morality is good to keep your heart clean is amazing.
Please do that. We serve a holy God. We serve

(12:24):
an amazing God. We should keep our hearts holy.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
Amen. But it is not enough. All ten virgins, they
were virgins.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
They were keeping theirselves clean. Now it's grain news that
you don't go into drugs anymore. It's great news that
you don't go into party anymore. But that is not
enough to qualify you to get to this wedding. That's
not enough. You need something more than just morality. For
most of Christians, Christianity means that I go to church,

(12:55):
I don't cheat on my wife, I don't drink sometimes,
I don't causs.

Speaker 3 (13:02):
Guys.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
We should have a higher standard, can we say, man,
morality is not enough, as we will see what happens
at the end of the story. But going forward to
the third thing that I want to share with you,
that's in verse three and four. Matter twenty five says,
those who were foolish took their lamps, say with me lamps,

(13:25):
and took no oil with them, Say no oil. But
the Wyse took oil in their vessels with their lambs.
So we see that's the main difference between the Wyse
and unwise. They have the lambs both have lambs, only

(13:46):
one had oil. Now what that lamps represent I want
to propose to you.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
That.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
My third point is we can have the form, but
not the substance. We can have the lamp. The form
we know how to do Christian needs. We know how
to speak it, we know how to pray. Why because
we are very good at noticing other people.

Speaker 3 (14:15):
So if I notice past to.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
Rudy praying in a certain way, I kind of imitate him,
and that's.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
The way I pray.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
But how many of you know that prayer is actually
communicating with the Lord. It's not three steps that I learned.
The Lord is not sitting in Heaven waiting for me
to pray perfect like three points. He's not interested in that.
He's interested in your honest heart. He's interesting what you
have to say, not.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
What your form.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
Depends on the church that you're going in. You have
a certain way of speaking, you can have the form.
You can come to every single prayer meeting in the morning,
which is not bad, which I actually encourage you. But
actually only have the form and the substance. Do you
understand in the Bible it's mentioned a category of people

(15:05):
in Matthew seven twenty one. They were casting out demons,
they were healing people, they were doing great things for
the Lord. But the Lord said, depart from me. I
never knew you. We can have the four We can
also see things happening when we step out in faith,

(15:28):
but actually don't know the Lord. And the oil that
I want to talk about is exactly this.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
When you will get to heaven.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
Nobody will ask you how many worship SAIDs have you led.
Nobody will ask you how many times have you preached
or not or whatever, how many times you served in church. No,
the only thing that will qualify you to get there
is that oil. If you have it, you're good. You
don't have it, you have no place there. So this morning, church,

(16:04):
I know, I know that this might sound harsh.

Speaker 3 (16:09):
What do you mean like we shouldn't do this?

Speaker 2 (16:11):
No, no, no, you should heal the people, you should
cast out demons. That what actually the Lord commanded us.
But also in the Bible says these signs will follow.
We don't follow the signs, they will follow us. What
they follow they follow a walk with the Holy Spirit.

(16:31):
They follow a person who understands the value of buying
oil every single day. Can we say a man, so
going forward Church and want us to have the right
perspective about the end times. The end times has to
do with buying oil, learning to pay the price. Isn't

(16:53):
it interesting the unwise versions knew the price of the oil.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
They knew it.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
Why because later in the parable they go and they buy,
so they knew the price. But somewhere along the line
they lost that perspective. Isn't that the story of our lives?
Isn't that how it feels sometimes? And I want to
challenge you, it's not how you start, but how you
finish that matters. You can start great, you can have

(17:23):
an amazing revival, amazing time with the Lord. But how
you finish will matter more than how you start. Remember Judas,
Remember Judas, he probably saw more miracles than all of
us here together.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
He saw a lot of great stuff.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
You know what the Bible actually, Jesus says about him,
is better for him to not be born.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
What speaks to my heart?

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Judas in a place of revival, his heart was far
away from the Lord.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
Can you imagine that being here?

Speaker 2 (17:59):
Maybe you think, if pastor life is doing great things,
I'm there too. Well, that's not how it works. The
only thing that will qualify is looking at your lampstand
and see if there is oil there or not, and
that will qualify.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
Can we say, a man.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
One of the biggest lies that we actually fall into
this trap of believing it's not actually a lie, it's
just a half truth, because sometimes lies comes in half
truth is that Jesus came to die for our sins,
which is actually true. It's part of the gospel plan.

(18:49):
But the most important thing that Jesus came and died for,
hit me out, church, is for you to get restored
with the Father.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
In the garden.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
What happened greater than the fact that they sinned was
actually they were separated from the Father, and Jesus came
and threw his act on the cross, not just washed
away your sins, which is amazing, it's amazing and I'm
so grateful for that, but actually he made a way

(19:19):
for you to be reconciled with the Father. So the
gospel story has this at the root of the thing,
at the foundation of the gospel, there is this relationship
that we need to.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
Guard with the Father.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
And I want to say to you that our number
one enemy when it comes to buying oil is not
the devil. It's not the devil. You know what it is.
It's spiritual complacency. It's spiritual complacency. We become very comfortable
with sacred things, and actually we end.

Speaker 3 (19:55):
Up not pursuing. We start great, we are full of fire.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
Full of zil, and somewhere along the line, these things
become just a religion, just a form. Your heart is
not attached to it anymore. Why because spiritual complacency creeps
in your comfort? Did you know this that every single
time that you try to pray, there's the crazy thoughts
come to your head. Is it just me or is

(20:21):
it all of us?

Speaker 3 (20:22):
Every single time.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
That we try to do spiritually, like reading the Bible,
we suddenly remind ourselves about an invoice that we really
need to pay right now. Everything inside of your fights.
Do not have this relationship with the father, everything inside
and outside. Sometimes it comes from your kids, Sometimes it
comes from like you don't know.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
From your brothers and sisters.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
Why there is a continuous fight that you don't have
that oil because the devil knows if you don't get
the oil, you don't qualify. Makes sense, That's why it's
a real fight. And I tell you it's much stronger
than the fight that you think you have with the
spiritual entities. They those spiritual endedies wants to get you

(21:09):
very far from the Lord because they know if we
got that in this person, this person will be compromised.
So remember, I want to kind of end around this
thought about the church in Ephesus. The church in Ephesus
in Acts nineteen is presented as an amazing church. They

(21:31):
have a great start. Remember when Paul went there for
two years and they literally had a kingdom. I don't know,
atomic bomb released. And after two years, the Bible says
that Paul's handkerchiefs is to how we say handkerchiefs were healing.
People were casting out emails like the handkerchiefs. Imagine prayer

(21:53):
line in Ephesus. You come to church and you find
your handkerchiefs. You use that handkerchiefs to get your self
set free. But actually the glory of God was so
intense upon that church that even their physical objects were healing.
That's how they started. But not just that, but going
into Acts nineteen nineteen, I saw something that really touched

(22:17):
my heart and I want to share it with you. Also,
many of those who had practiced magic, brought their books together,
and they burned them in the sight of all. So
can you imagine all the sorcerers, all the people who
did bad stuff just because of what was happening in

(22:37):
the church. They came and they burned every single thing.
But take a look at this, and they counted up
the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces
of silver. Now, what you don't know or you know,
common silver coins at the time roughly equivalent to a

(22:57):
day's wage for a laborer. Today's average average daily wage
for a basic laborer and in US is roughly one
hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars. The value of
that fifty thousand pieces of silver in today's term is
between five two points seven point five million US dollars.

(23:22):
Imagine you being here just worshiping God, just doing your stuff,
and in the middle of tri cities sorcerers come and
burn everything. But the value is not just that they burn.
The value of what they burn is amazing. Talking about
seat for a soul seven point five million, Come on,
it's half of the price for the new building. So

(23:45):
that's a good offering right there. So what I'm trying
to say, is the glory that God poured out on
Ephesis church was immense, was incredible, was one of the greatest,
greatest things that happen in the history of the church.
That's why, to the church emphasis Paul, is the only
place that actually talks about spiritual the principalities and that

(24:07):
kind of like war in the principal Why because they
were very mature, they were very strong in their faith,
and you could see definitely fruits.

Speaker 3 (24:15):
Now I want to.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
I want to see how forty years later, I want
you to see how forty years later this church of Ephesus.
Jesus comes into that church and it says, this repent
and do the first works, or else I will come
to you quickly and remove your lamp stand. I'm like,
what happened? What happened this amazing church? Now Jesus comes

(24:46):
and rebukes it and say, if you don't repent, if
you don't repent, actually you will lose everything. The lamp
stand represents the Holy Spirit, so you lose everything. Now,
let's go back at the beginning of the passage in
Revelations chapter two one to five, and let's kind of
see what's happening to the Angel of the Church in Ephesus. Right,

(25:08):
So Jesus is speaking, I know your works, your labor,
your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil.
So we see a church that actually came against sin.
They were still coming against sin. They were still up
in their faith going forward, it says, and you tested

(25:28):
those who say their apostles and are not and have
found them liars. Their doctrine was flawless. They had amazing doctrine.
They only they didn't came only against sin, but their
doctrine was good. And you have persevered and have patience

(25:49):
and have labored for my name's sake, and have.

Speaker 3 (25:53):
Not become weary.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
I would go to that kind of church, don't you.
I mean, this seems a solid church. This seems a
solid church, good doctrine. They weren't playing with sin, they
were patient, they were very up to their feet, so
to say. But then Jesus goes further and say this, nevertheless,

(26:17):
I have this thing against you that you have left
your first love. You have left your first love. Remember therefore,
from where you have fallen. Interesting when we talk about falling,

(26:41):
we usually talk about moral failure. People cheat their wives
or whatever they do, they go drinking again. But when
Bible talks about fallen, talks about falling out of first love,
I wonder if that's not the first step that will
make you fall also in moral sin. I want to

(27:04):
say this church, if you lose that first love, you
lost everything. You're on a path to destruction. Pharisees Sati kids.
There were people who knew the Bible, most of them.
They knew all old testaments memorized. They have everything memorized.

(27:26):
They were morally good people, they were doing good deeds.
They were having such a strict conduit, and they were
very far from entering the kingdom.

Speaker 3 (27:40):
That tells me.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
That the most important thing that you need to guard
your heart for in the last days is make sure
that you have not fallen out of your first love.

Speaker 3 (27:58):
That was the destruction of the church in Ephesus.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
Everything seemed well, but then you look under the hood
and Jesus was not pleased to the point I said,
if you continue like this, bye by Holy Spirit.

Speaker 3 (28:12):
So I want to encourage you.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
This morning in the last days, guard your heart, make
sure that you are in love with Jesus, make sure
that you don't lose that first fire, that you always
had I remember I was a kid. Then I will
end with kind of my testimony, and then I want
to have a call. I was a kid and I

(28:37):
was in love with the scriptures, and I was like,
that was not normal unless later I found out that
I'm a fifth generation Christian.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
Fifth generation Christian. You know, you go back to my lineage.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
There were people who were killed for their faith. There
were people who lost everything for the sake of the kingdom.
That's amazing to be part of something like that, that's beautiful.
That's why when I was little, the Lord, I believe
the transferred this hunger inside of me. And nine years old,
my greatest desire was to get a big Bible. And

(29:09):
every single Sunday I would go to church and half
an hour I would read it by myself. I just
every single baptism, I would raise the hand. I want
to get baptized, which for a nine year old, that's
not so normal. Let's just say that and going forward
with this. When I was thirteen, I lost my mother.

(29:33):
My mother died from cancer. The tragedy was that nobody
told me that she's sick. I just thought that she
has a cold or something, but actually she died she
died on a Christmas Day.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
How crazy is that?

Speaker 2 (29:46):
As a thirteen year old that was one of the
most traumatic experiences that I went through. And I want
to share with you that what stole my first love
was trauma was this event, and I ended up running
from the Lord and ended up the next five years
doing the most stupid, crazy things. I didn't need drugs

(30:06):
because they were too expensive in my country. That was
the only reason. Otherwise probably I would try that too,
But joke aside, trauma stole that first love. Now fast
forward for the sake of time and trying to be
very efficient here at the age of eighteen, because of
my praying mother that every single Friday she fested for us,

(30:30):
she died, and after she died five years later, I
ended up desired this design in my heart to pursue
the Lord again from nothing like literally I didn't understand it,
but I believe there was her prayers. By the way,
I want to encourage you if you have a lost child,
just pray. Don't stop praying. The Lord will hear those prayers.

(30:53):
And I'm a testimony of the fact that prayer works.
And I met the Lord that when I was eighteen
and I was so in love with him. I remember
I was driving four hours with the card, just praying,
and nobody needed to tell me, Hey, you need to
do this, you need to read scriptures. You know he
was inside of me. Why because first love came alive again.

(31:16):
And some of you remember that that tastes when you
read the Bible and you cry and you don't know
why are you crying?

Speaker 3 (31:23):
God, it doesn't make sense.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
You don't understand what your mind, but your heart understands
it perfectly, because that's the power of first love. And
I remember walking with the Lord, walking with the Lord
and coming into ministry, and fast forward, I end up
in a pretty broken place. At the beginning, I didn't
understand why is this happening.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
I served the Lord, I.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
Do my stuff, I do my devotions. Why am I
in a place that I actually cannot find myself anymore?
And I was keep trying to figure out which was
twenty eighteen, fourteen years later, I lost that fire again
and I didn't know it why because I was doing
ministry and ministry was really working. I was seeing fruits

(32:14):
in ministry. But what I didn't know was that every
single time that I needed to preach I would spend
time with the Lord if I didn't need to preach.

Speaker 3 (32:23):
Not so much makes sense.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Every single time that I need to lead worship, I
was there preparing myself. But when I didn't need to
lead worship, that wasn't the case. I want to tell you,
the ministry and the way the Lord uses you doesn't
speak anything about your relationship with him. What you do
when nobody sees you speak volumes about where you are

(32:49):
with the Lord. You can impress pastor Vlat for one
hour at prayer coming I prayer every single day, But
I tell you you'll impress Holy Spirit when it doesn't
get day, until you open your sciptures and you go
and buy.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
That ohil that will impress Holy Spirit for men.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
It's very easy to be impressed by exterior things, but
Holy Spirit looks for the inner things, the secret place.
One day, the Lord told me, you know, the secret
pace is built by the secrets that I share with.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
You that you don't share with nobody else.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
How many of you have revelations that you never share
with nobody else because.

Speaker 3 (33:34):
We feel so tempted.

Speaker 2 (33:35):
Once we get a revelation, I need to share it.
I need to share some revelations. You don't need to
share it, you to keep it for yourself. That creates
the secret place that my relationship with my wife has
a lot of secrets, not bad ones, but has a
lot of intimate secrets that makes us being intimate.

Speaker 3 (33:56):
I wonder if you're the same with the Lord.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
So I was in that broken place, and in twenty
nineteen I had a beautiful encounter with the Lord that
I cannot describe how amazing it was. And again the
Lord restored that first love. But this time was different.
This time the Lord asked me a question. He said,

(34:20):
do you want to become a friend of the bridegroom?
I was like, what a friend of the bridegroom? That
kind of sounded familiar. And I went to do scriptures,
and there's a scripture in John it talks about friend.

Speaker 3 (34:34):
Of the bridegroom.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
And then I did a little bit of study and
I ended up in this place. What I'm talking about
is the parable virgens is from chapter twenty five. And
It's interesting that I never saw this. All virgins went
to sleep, but there was a category of people that

(34:57):
never went to sleep.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
Hear me out.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
Verse six of Matthew twenty five says this, and at
midnight the cry was heard, Behold the bridegroom is coming,
Go out to meet him. And then I realized, those
are the friends of the bridegroom. They never go to sleep,
They never let the oil run out. Why because their

(35:25):
preoccupation is not ministry, its ministering under the Lord. Their
preoccupation is not what they do for the Lord, is
actually what they do with the Lord.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
There's a relationship.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
There, there's a fire, there's a.

Speaker 3 (35:40):
Hunger for knowing him more.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
And I literally heard last night while I was kind
of looking through the message, Holy Spinning put on my
heart to challenge you. I feel that there are some
people here who going to respond to the Lord. Do
you want to become the friends of the bridegroom? This
is what the end time is all about, folks. It's

(36:06):
not about six sixty six. I could care less. Jesus
when he walked on earth didn't had much to do
with the devil. Makes sense, when we walk on earth,
let's kind of leave. I mean, don't understand me wrong.
We need to do what Jesus told us to do,

(36:27):
which is part of the thing is to cast out demons.
It's there, but our preccupation should be follow him. And
these are the signs that follow those who believe in
my name. The signs will follow you when you follow
what actually really matters, and what really matters is buying oil.

(36:49):
That's what really matters. Close your eyes as we come
to the end. I really felt like the Lord's relief
some invitations this morning. And I don't know how to
put this is not an altar call that it's negative.
This actually should be celebrated in every church. When we

(37:11):
realize that we've fallen out of first love, it should.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
Be a good thing.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
Why because we are not deceived, We are not part
of the many that are deceived. We actually realize that,
oh my gosh, I'm in this place right now. Maybe
you let trauma, maybe you let discouragement, maybe you let
other things creep into your heart, and you find yourself
in a cold place that actually don't find pleasure anymore.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
You're just like the.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
Older son in a practical story that served the father
all his life, but never find pleasure. He wanted a
calf to celebrate with his friends, not with his father.
His father was not on his mind. But there are
some people here and I feel it very strongly in

(38:04):
my heart. If you respond to this calling of becoming
a bright groom's friend, the Lord not only is going
to restore your first love, but actually you start being
thought by the Holy Spirit being teached. Yeah, that's the

(38:25):
word teached by the Holy Spirit, how to keep this
first love. So, if you're here, just before we end
up the service, I want to make space. If this
message speaks to you and you find yourself in that page,
I just want to stand up, stand up to your feet.
There's no shame in this, absolutely no shame. Just stand
up whatever you are. I want to say a short

(38:46):
prayer that the Lord is going to restore that first love,
will bring back the desire, We'll bring back the scriptures
to life. Come on, come on another ten seconds. If
you are in this, I promise the Lord wants to
do something special into your heart. Care about Shakatarab. Thank

(39:09):
you Jesus, Thank you Jesus. I pray for those who
had bondness to stand. They don't stand before me, the
Lord Lord, they stand before you. They want to acknowledge
that they want to be friends, friends with the bridegroom.
So right now I pray that supernatural grace will come.

Speaker 3 (39:28):
Upon their lives.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
Supernatural grace will come upon.

Speaker 3 (39:33):
Their walk with you.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
Lord, Restore that first love, Restore that fire, Restore that hunger,
And even for those who didn't have courage to stand up,
restore that first love. Restore that fire, Restore that

Speaker 3 (39:47):
Desire in Jesus' name,