Malachi 4 | The Day of the Lord is at Hand | Pastor Daniel Banna

The day of the Lord is at hand. And the good news, we have finally arrived at the last chapter, the fourth chapter of the book of Malachi. And I thought it would be the last message, but I regret to tell you it's not the last message. The subject, before us requires much more than just a single message, especially if we consider the current events, in The Middle East and particularly in Israel. It's very easy to be tempted to let the events interpret the scriptures.

We must be very careful when we do that. We need to be, very slow, never to jump quickly to conclusions, never to set dates and times. And if you know the history of The Middle East, you know that this could be just another war. But regardless where this war going to lead us, how this war going to end, Christians need not fear. For there is one thing we are absolutely sure of, that Jesus, our lord, is in control, and he is coming back soon.

And the spirit and the bride say, come. Come, lord Jesus. Maranatha. Let's back to our study. Now in the Hebrew scripture, the book of Malachi consists only of three chapters.

The last six verses of chapter four or the last six verses of chapter three of Malachi. Jewish Jewish scholars divided the Old Testament into verses, and they did not think there is a need for a division, a scripture a a chapter division at the end of verse 18 of chapter three. Christians have divided slightly different. Followed Jewish division, but there are some slight variations, and here is one of those variations. There's an extra chapter.

Now, personally, I think, if you ask me, I don't think there's a need for a chapter four here. I believe it goes smoother if we just keep the third three three chapters and going 18, the nineteen, twenty up to the end, but regardless. We see here, as we come to chapter four, an answer to a question the Jewish people, the Israelite has asked. Chapter three ended as we have seen with the arrogance of Israel that culminates in the last statement in verses 14 and verses 15. And these are the verses in chapter three fourteen and fifteen.

You have said, it is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed, evildoers not only prosper, but they put God to the test and they escape. And we have said that the rest of this book, which is the next nine verses, is God's answer to this very question. What is the profit of serving God?

This is a question the Israelites are asking and many even asking today. What is the profit of serving God? What is the profit of praying? What is the profit attending a church? What is the profit of ministry?

Since we are seeing almost nothing happening, nothing extraordinary happening, and this can go for days, weeks, months, and even years. And God's answer is this. Today, you may see the wicked prosper. Today, you might see the righteous suffering, but don't rush to judgment. Don't make your conclusions yet.

The prosperity of the wicked is not a sign of God's pleasure, and the suffering of the righteous is not a sign of God's displeasure or dissatisfaction with the righteous. The simple answer is this. God allows the wicked to prosper, but also he allows the righteous to prosper. Doesn't he? He let the wicked suffer, but also the righteous.

He sends his reign. He shines his sun on both, doesn't he? And when an earthquake strikes a land, both the wicked and the righteous may suffer loss. An earthquake or any natural disaster may not discriminate between the righteous and the wicked as much as the sun does not discriminate between them. Both get sick, and both may recover or even die.

Or even what seems to us much worse, the wicked recovers, and the righteous righteous succumbs to his illness. And you might say, what is the difference? Why is it so? And here it is in brief. Number one, God answers the prayer of the righteous.

Yes. He does, but not always the way we want it. Just wait. Number two, god's people, because of the indwelling holy spirit, can endure pain and persevere in suffering with joy and thanksgiving, which is impossible for the unbelievers. They live in fear, in fear of death.

They are so miserable at that deathbed. Three, our peace. Our contentment, our joy is such a powerful testimony of the power of God to this wicked generation. Number four, God is glorified in our suffering. When suffering has its full effect, which is a greater holiness and a greater display of God's character in our lives.

But number five, which is the answer for us in these next verses, the wicked has no future. The wicked has no future, has no hope, but we have both. Trust in God. Trust in Jesus. And God will make this distinction clear between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him very, very soon, as we will see in the coming verses.

This is the difference. Chapter four continues in giving us God's answer, as I said, to this question of distinction between the believer and the unbeliever. What is the future of the believer? You have seen that in three seventeen. We see, God says, they shall be mine.

They are my treasure, and I will spare. That's the future of the believer. Your future, our future. What is the future of the wicked? Let's read beginning in verse one of chapter four.

For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor a branch. And verse one tells us of this coming judgment. A day is coming, burning like an oven. Now the Hebrew books of the prophets, beginning back in Isaiah two and throughout the New Testament, we see this phrase repeated, the day of the Lord.

It's not just Old Testament. No. No. It's the New Testament. It is the book of Acts two.

It is first Thessalonians. Second Thessalonians is the book of Revelation. It it is second Peter. We read of the day of the Lord. It is called the day.

It's called the day of wrath, the day of vengeance, the great and awesome day, The great day of God the Almighty. The day of the Lord is coming. Today, it's man's day. Man thinks he has control. Man think he can do whatever he wants, but that day going to end and new day will come.

It is the day of the Lord, the day of God the almighty. Now God has promised that he will not destroy the world again with a flood as he did in the days of Noah. And he gave his rainbow, the real rainbow, the true rainbow, as a sign of that covenant. But he has promised that another day of judgment is coming. But this time, not a flood of water, but that of fire and brimstone.

Judgment of God that never has been seen before. And as the flood as in the flood, the wicked perished and the righteous were saved and secured in the ark and were raised to the highest mountain. Remember? So it would be in that future day of the Lord. The wicked will perish with fire, and the righteous will be saved and secured in Jesus, our eternal ark, our eternal ark, and will be raised not to the highest mountain on earth, but to that holy heavenly mountain and that beloved city of God.

Now verse one, again, speaks only of the judgment of the wicked. A day is coming, burning like an oven. It is the fire of God that burns and destroys, and there is no way for the wicked to escape. It might not be very easy to talk about the day of the Lord. It might not be very easy to think about the wrath to talk about the wrath of God, about the fire of God, about the judgment of God.

It's much easier to talk about his love and his mercy and his compassion. For but for those who reject the love of God and his compassion, nothing is remaining but his fire and his judgment, and we need to talk about them both. Now this is the day of judgment. This is the fire of God that burned. This is not the refiner's fire that we studied in Malachi chapter three for the refining of the believer, for our refining.

It is the fire of God for judgment that we read about in verse one of chapter four. This is a day of indignation, of wrath of wrath against the wicked, no exception, of the arrogant, the proud, maybe God's most hated sin. This is a day I believe begins after the rapture of the church. Now in the book of Revelation chapter three verse 10, Christ encourages his church with these words. And today, by the way, I will be only touching the surface about the day of the Lord.

So Revelation chapter three verse 10. See how Christ encourages his his church, how Christ is encouraging encouraging us even today. He says, because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth. And then he says, I am coming soon. Now did you see that?

Do you see that? I will keep you from, not in, but from, some translation says, out of, I will keep you out of the hour of trial. That is reference to the seven years of tribulation, which is chapter four to 18 of the book of tribulation speaks about. Now we have similar idea in first Thessalonians chapter one verse 10. Now Paul encourages the believers there.

How does he encouraging them encourages them? Listen. First Thessalonians one ten. He says, and to wait for his son from heaven. This is what the church should be doing, waiting, getting ready as a bride for her groom for that great awesome wedding day and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath, again, from, not in, from the wrath to come.

The bridegroom is coming as he has promised. Let me give you one more scripture just to encourage your hearts. First Thessalonians four sixteen and seventeen. Before we move ahead. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven.

He will. With a cry of command, with a voice of an archangel, and with the sound of a trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, oh, I pray that I will be alive at that moment. Won't you like that? That you will never see death.

You'll be alive at the moment Christ comes to snatch us away. Paul says, then he had that hope. Then we who are alive, who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. Christ will come back to us, to his bride, to be with him forever before he pours his wrath on this evil world.

And Paul says to the believers, encourage each other with these words. Listen. If we are to enter, if we are to be there at that day, how can this be encouraging? That'd be very discouraging. That would be awful.

But say encourage each other. Encourage each other, yet you're gonna be gone when that hour comes. When the day of the Lord comes, you'll be in the presence of Christ. Encourage each other. Now we need to understand as we move ahead that the day of the Lord, again, is a day of wrath, a day of vengeance, A day of fire and brimstone.

It's a day of God's judgment upon this wicked world. It is God's wrath. It is, again, God's wrath, and God will spare his church from his wrath. Now this is very different, by the way, from the persecution the church has been told she will go through. She will suffer.

That church has suffered from persecution, and the church continues to suffer, persecution even unto death. And I believe we will hear a a message about persecution this coming Sunday. But this persecution, the church persecution is going through right now, is mass persecution, is the government's probably persecution, is is is the world's persecution of the church? That was foretold by our Lord. It was foretold by the prophets.

It was foretold by the apostles. But the day of the Lord is something very different. It has completely different character. It's not the world's persecution. No.

It's God's wrath. We will go through world's persecution, but we will not go through God's wrath. They have very different nature. Now think of it this way. Daniel's three friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, They have disobeyed the king's command to bow before him.

You remember the story very well. All of us have learned it probably at in Sunday school. What was the verdict for disobeying God's command? The three will be thrown in a fiery furnace. The furnace is the king's furnace.

The fire is man's fire. The wrath is the world of wrath against these three godly men. This, they will go through. This, they may suffer. Of course, in the case of these three men, God has interfered and kept him completely unharmed.

But in most cases, the king's furnace will result in the suffering and even death of the godly. Throughout church history, the godly suffered and died. Often, there was no escape from the king's from from the king's wrath. Christ has foretold his church this will happen. But, again, here we're talking about a completely different thing.

We're talking about God's wrath, not the king's wrath. Now, again, think of it this way, my friend. Sodom and Gomorrah, God's patience has expired. Their sin was very grave. His wrath upon these two cities and the surrounding cities is kindled.

It was time for God's judgment. But you see, there is a believer in the city. He should not be there, but he is there. His name is Lot. Now this man made very wrong decision to be in Sodom.

Clearly, he was not the most spiritual believer, but still, he was a true believer. True believer in the wrong place. Now Abraham understood this very, very well. And he told God in Genesis 18 verse 25, Abraham said to God, far be it from you to do such thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked so that the righteous fear as the wicked? Far be it from you shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just?

What would God do? What would God do? He will extract Lot first. He will snatch out the believer from the city first. And when he's far enough, he pours his wrath.

He sends his fire. And we see the same thing happening in the story of Noah and the flood that we mentioned earlier. We see god first, warns the wicked through Noah. Peter tells us that Noah was a herald of righteousness. God is patient.

He he's so loving. He desires all to be saved and none to perish. He gives opportunity, chance after chance for everyone to believe. Now he warns the world through the church, then through Noah, now through the church, through us. That's our task as a church, to call the world to repentance.

We are the Noahs of this age. The people of Noah's day rejected Noah's message. How was the the response of Lot's son-in-law, for example, when when when Lot warned him of the fire to come? It tells us he seemed to his sons in law to be jesting. Now do not be surprised at the attitudes of the world when you when you warn them.

They will mock you. They will think you're crazy, and probably your relatives may be the first to tell you that you are nuts. But what God did with Noah, first, Noah enters the ark. God shuts the door. When when Noah is safe in the ark, secure in the ark, then God sends his rain.

God sends his flood. God sends his judgment, but he does not do that until Noah is secure in the ark. Our lord Jesus tells us these words. For as were the days of Noah, so it will be the coming of the son of man. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark.

And they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming son of man. People have no concerns for eternity. They will not heed your warning. They eat. They want to eat.

They want drink. They want to get married. They want to make money. They want to live the American dream today while the nightmare of tomorrow is coming. Live the American dream today.

The nightmare, your nightmare of the day of the Lord is just coming tomorrow. That's why it's our task as a church to be Noah's of this age to warn the people. And, yes, to be Abraham's, to intercede for the believers who are in this world playing with fire. Noah and the family is are in the ark. Then God shuts the door.

As we said, he's safe and God sends his flood his destructive flood upon this earth. And we see again the ark speaks of our lord Jesus Christ. He is our ark. He is our ark our ark. And in him, there is a refuge from the storm that is coming upon the world.

God will not pour his judgment upon this earth until we are first with the Lord Jesus Christ. Then the judgment of God will begin to burst forth as outlined in the book of Revelation. Now Christ Christ spoke of this day, the day of the Lord, in Matthew 24. If you turn with me to Matthew 24 verse 21. I want to warn you that, usually, I have an ending to every message.

Today, the message goes on and on and on, has no ending. So I will end it when I feel it's time to end it. I will look at you. I look at the time, but I just want to let you know. So hopefully, it would be a smooth ending.

Matthew 24 verse one. For then, there will be great tribulation such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now. No and never will be. And those days had not been cut short. No human being would be saved.

But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. Now when reading the New Testament, you will come often across the word day. And most often, the word day means what it really expect we expect it to mean. Twenty four hours a day. It refers to any day of the week, Sunday being the first day of the week, and it's called the Lord's Day.

In contrast with Saturday or Shabbat, which is the seventh day. God rested on that seventh day, and it was called Shabbat, which means to rest in the Hebrew. And as we read in Genesis chapter two so that's the first meaning that obviously, that's the, you know, twenty four hours day. But, secondly, the word day in scripture could refer to a time, but not necessarily to twenty four hours day. Let me give you example.

Behold, now is a favorable time. Behold, now is a day of salvation. Or another one, today, if only you would hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Now this is the first day probably for you when you heard the gospel. That was a day.

I heard the gospel. I didn't harden my heart. That was half a century ago. That sounds old. Okay.

Fifty years ago. I guess still sounds old. This is the day I I received Christ, and this is the day of God's grace extended to everyone. It's always now. It's always present until until the door is shut.

And the day of grace will end without prior notice. And maybe the events in Israel right now is a sign that that day is very, very close to us. Now we know Jesus is coming soon. His coming is imminent, which means can be at any moment, and we need to be ready. So don't be like those in the days of Noah doing business as usual.

Wake up. Now it's quite interesting that in first Thessalonians chapter five, Paul says these words beginning in verse one. He says, now concerning the times and seasons, brothers, You have no heed to have anything written to you. He has spoken already to them about that. Now he's writing to them.

And he tell them afterward, verse two, for you yourself are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night unexpectedly. When people say peace, peace. While while people are saying there is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as a labor pains come upon a pregnant woman and they will not escape. I was just thinking about this verse just very, very recently. Just a month ago just a month ago, everyone in The Middle East was talking about the deal of the century.

If you've been following the news, you know what I'm talking about. Just a month ago, everyone in The Middle East and even around the world were talking about the deal of the century, Saudi Arabia negotiating a peace treaty with Israel. Hopes are high. A peace treaty is a greater probably than Camp David Accords. That is a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1978, the first Arabic country to make peace with Israel.

There were talks then that the beginning of 2024 would see the signing of this peace treaty, the deal of the century between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Now you might not understand the magnitude of such agreement if it takes place. A peace treaty between the representative of Islam, the land of the holiest Muslim sites, and Israel, the wealthiest country in the Middle East, the eighteenth largest economy in the world, ranks twenty second most powerful militarily in the world, that is Saudi Arabia. Israel ranks number 18. So a very close military in power.

Four weeks ago, the world was talking peace between these two nations. But suddenly, October 7, none expecting, intelligence failure that we have never seen in our own life changed overnight. Everything. Israel's nine one one. The most terrifying day in Israel's history since its establishment in 1948.

What do you trust in? The most secure border in the world failed you. The best intelligence in the world failed you in one day. The political landscape in a matter of hours have changed. No longer talks about peace.

Everyone talking about what? War, even regional war, overnight. Overnight. The world is divided between for and against. Am I saying Paul is referring to this?

No. Not necessarily. I think he's referring probably to the peace treaty the antichrist will make with Israel in those days, but they're just a a taste of what of what might come. We will talk peace, peace, but overnight, the whole landscape changes. And many are asking, is this the end?

Is this the end? Would this lead to a regional war or even worse. The eyes were open today when they heard Hassan Nasrallah, the guy there, the head of Hezbollah in Lebanon, was going to speak. What he's going to say? Will you open a new front?

That would be a terrible war, a regional war, but he did not. What did he say? What other nation would say? He say, all options are open. All options are open.

Simply, the answer is we don't know if this war going to lead to a regional war or is going to end soon. We don't know. But I believe this war seems to be the worst we have seen indicates. But again, the last century had seen two world wars, one and second, and many believers thought it was the end, and they were wrong. So this might be just another war, but I believe this war is definitely different, different even than World War one and World War two and the war of nineteen forty eight, and the war of nineteen sixty seven, and the war of nineteen seventy three in Israel.

Because we are at a time in history that we have not seen before. Now Israel is in her land. In '19, in in the work first World War and the second, Israel was not there. Now Israel is in her land. The day of the Lord would not come until first the gathering of the Jewish people to the land of Israel.

That's what the scripture says. Israel as a country was not established until after World War two in 1948. Now since then, Israel went through many wars with its snowboard laborers, and the most significant one probably was in 1967 when Israel captured Jerusalem. Now I believe that was probably the most significant event that has happened to fulfill the words of Christ in Matthew 24 regarding the last days and Christ's coming. Now I want you to turn with me very briefly to Ezekiel 37 to show you one thing there.

Beginning in verse one. The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and sit me down in the middle of the valley. It was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. Very dry.

It means what? They've been dead for a long, long time. They're very dry. And there's imagery you're gonna be seeing right now. You can imagine with me as we read it, bones that they are very, very dry.

They've been dead for very long time. Verse three, and he said to me, son of man, can these bones live? The human answer would say, absolutely not. It's impossible. How can a dry bone come back to life?

But Ezekiel's answer was different. He says, and I answered, oh, lord god, you know. You know everything. Then he said to me, prophesy over these bones, oh, and say to them, oh, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God to these bones, behold, I will cause a breath.

And the Hebrew word here is ruach, spirit. I will cause a spirit to enter you and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skins and put breath against ruach and and put ruach in your spirit, and you shall live and you shall know that I am the Lord. Now skip to verse 11 And see the imagery again. Then he said to me, son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.

Okay? Behold, they say, our bones are dried up and our hope is lost. We are indeed cut off. Therefore, prophesy and say to them, thus says the Lord God, behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, oh my people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel. Promise.

There are dry bones scattered all over the world. Right? That's the imagery. And God says those bright, dry bones are going to come together come together and put sinews and then flesh, cover them with skin. Right?

That's the return of Israel to their land we just read. The gathering of the Jewish people back to their land. Now we see that. Now look back to verse seven. I wanna see the order of things.

So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound and behold a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. Again, that's the gathering of Israel as a nation back to the land. And I looked and behold, there were sinews on them and flesh had come upon them and skin had covered them, but there was no you can you can underline this this this this verse. There was no breath, no ruach, no spirit in them.

Can you see that? This is the first order. This is the first stage. There is gathering of bones, sinews on them, flesh and scars cover them, but something still missing up to this moment. What is missing?

There's no life. No spirit in them. They're still dead. Still dead. I see there a corpse that's dead.

Corpse is dead. Right? The house of Israel gathering to the land in 1948 happened and rapidly increased in number. In 1948, the number of Jews in Israel were about 700,000. Today, there are more than 7,000,000 people.

They have returned to the land of their is ancestor, but what with which spiritual condition? No spirit in them. This is what Ezekiel saw. No spirit in them. No longer bones.

They are not dry bones and scattered all over the world in their graves. No. Yet still a dead body. Still a spiritual corpse. Now I'm talking again about the in the the nation of Israel as a nation, not as individuals.

For there are tens of thousands of messianic Jews in Israel today with the spirit of God in them moving and changing little by little the whole spiritual landscape of Israel. But as a nation, Israel is still in disobedience, in rebellion against God. They're still a spiritual corpse. But this, I believe, this spiritual condition would remain until after the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, which could happen at any moment, even this very evening. But this spiritual condition will not remain forever.

Right? They will not stay the way they are today, for God has commanded the prophet to speak to this corpse. Didn't he? He spoke to the corpse. Look at verse nine.

Then he said to me, prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, thus says the Lord God. Come from the four winds, oh breath, and breathe on the slain, and they may that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood in their feet on their feet, an exceedingly great army. This is a spiritual revival.

This is life from the dead. This is to fulfill Zechariah's prophecy twelve ten that says, and I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas of mercy so that when they look on me on whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and we bitterly over him as one weeps over. A firstborn is also to fulfill the words of Paul in Romans eleven twenty six, all Israel will be saved. There's a great future for the nation of Israel When they truly come to repentance and know the Lord, and, yes, the words of the prophets will be fulfilled, all Israel will be saved. But this will not happen until the precursor of the day of the Lord begin.

For the apostle says these words, Romans 11, lest you and there's 25. Lest you be wise in your own sight. I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers. A partial hardening has come upon Israel. A partial hardening, not a full hardening, not a complete hardening, a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the gentiles has come in.

And in this way, all Israel will be saved. Paul is revealing a mystery. Paul, when he speak about mysteries, and he often does, he's referring to truths that were hidden in the Old Testament, were hidden to the Old Testament saints, but now they are revealed to the church. He tells them, I have a secret to tell you. I'm going to tell you right now, these are the order of events that had been revealed to me, that they were unknown to the Old Testament saints.

First, the fullness of the gentiles must come in. In other words, first, the divided numbers of Gentiles are saved. The full number of Gentiles comes to Christ, number one. Secondly, Israel as a nation will also be saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Does that mean every single Jew will be saved?

Of course, no. But that's what this means that Israel will experience such such spiritual revival, repentance, great spiritual awakening. And this happens, as Paul has made it clear, when the day of grace ends and another day begins. The day of grace ends with the rapture of the church. The trump will sound the trump of victory.

Dead believers would be raised to life. Living believers are clothed with glorious immortal bodies to meet the Lord in the air. This must happen before the day of the Lord begins. Paul has a name for that day, by the way, and I will end with this good news. Paul has a different name for that day, different name for that day when Christ shall come for his bride, when Christ shall come for his church.

He doesn't call it the day of the Lord. You know, what does he call it? Philippian one six, he calls it the day of Christ. Also, in second Thessalonians two two, first Corinthians one eight, he say, the day of our lord Jesus Christ. It's a day of triumph, a day of joy, a day of receiving our heavenly inheritance, a day of glorification.

It's a day when we meet the lord in the air and never be separated from him throughout eternity. And this day, I believe, will resume again when Christ comes again to reign on earth for one thousand years following the great tribulation. I will end at this time as we think about Christ coming for us to take us home and spare us that day of judgment, that day of wrath, that day of vengeance, that day of the pouring of all the plagues, the seals, the wolves, everything mentioned in the book of Revelation on this earth, we will be spared. Why? Because this day, that day, the day of the lord is not meant for us.

It's not meant for us. It is a day of Christ we are expecting. The day he comes for his bride to take us home to the place he went to prepare for us. Are you ready? Let's pray.

Oh, lord, we we thank you that your word is true. We thank that we have edification. We have comfort. We have encouragement in your word, but also we have warnings. But we thank you that you have sent us also this world to comfort people, to encourage people, to tell people of your love, but also to warn people, to be the Noahs of of this age, to be like the apostle Paul who did not just speak gentle words, but also he rebuked and talked harsh words sometime to warn the people, to make people wake up, repent, and turn back to you.

Lord, help us show our love to this wicked generation by telling them what is to come, the judgment to come. Lord, we pray that we will see in our days a revival, an awakening. We'll see, lord god, here beginning in this church, people will rise up to speak the truth. People will rise up to stand for your truth, to speak of your love, and to speak of your judgment to come. Lord, help us not shy away to speak your truth without any hesitation, without any fear, with love and compassion, you only can give.

In Jesus' name. Amen.