Go a little deeper
In this message at Journey Church in Bend, Pastor Keith Kirkpatrick continues a series through Revelation, landing in chapters 15 and 16, the season he calls the great tribulation. He frames the passage by tying it to Exodus: just as God judged Egypt for refusing to release the Israelites, so these final plagues will fall on an unbelieving world. His core concern is the question people ask—how can a good God pour out wrath? His answer is that God is a perfectly just judge whose ways are not ours, and that His judgment is intentional rather than emotional.
Before the bowls are poured out, John shows worship. The sea of glass recalls the Red Sea, and the song of Moses and the Lamb recalls Israel singing after their rescue. The pastor points out that the first-century church, then suffering under Rome, would have sung this as a song of victory. He stresses that this message shows God answering the prayer of the martyrs in Revelation 6:10 for justice. Along the way he names the seven bowls one by one and pauses on Jesus' words in Revelation 16:15 about coming like a thief.
Throughout the message, Pastor Kirkpatrick makes a pastoral appeal: no one needs to go to hell, that people choose it by rejecting the light, and that Jesus' mission in John 3 was to save, not condemn. He defines repentance as a complete change of thinking—a 180-degree turn. He notes this is Pentecost Sunday and reads Peter's call in Acts 2 to repent and be baptized. The service ends with an invitation to surrender to Jesus, prayer over the church for awakening, and a note about texting the word "life" to connect with the church.
Take this with you
God's judgment is perfect, not petty
Pastor Kirkpatrick insists that the bowls of wrath are not God waking up angry or having a bad day. Reading the plagues of Revelation 16 alongside the plagues on Egypt, he argues that God's judgment is deliberate and complete, and that His punishment always fits the crime. Because God knows every wrong ever done, He judges with perfect knowledge.
Worship comes before the wrath
In Revelation 15, before the bowls are poured out, John shows a sea of glass and the song of Moses and the Lamb, echoing Israel's song in Exodus 15 after the Red Sea. Pastor Kirkpatrick says that for readers facing persecution, singing was a declaration that God is their strength and salvation. He treats gathered worship as the right response of a people who trust God's justice even when they cannot yet see it.
Tribulation does not last forever
Pastor Kirkpatrick notes that Revelation 15 calls these plagues the last, and he leans on that word: this season of tribulation has an end. He compares the feeling of an endless season to a long quarantine, then turns it toward hope that God is still in control and still makes a way for His people, as He did at the Red Sea.
No one needs to go to hell
Pastor Kirkpatrick draws a sharp line from Jesus' words in John 3: people are condemned for loving darkness rather than light, not because God wants them condemned. Jesus said He came to save the world, not to condemn it. Forgiveness and eternal life are a free gift received by believing, not a payoff for being good.
Repentance means a complete change of thinking
Rather than treat repentance as a shameful word, Pastor Kirkpatrick defines it as a 180-degree turn—away from our own way and toward God's way. He traces the call to repent to John the Baptist and to Jesus in Matthew 4, and ties it to Peter's preaching at Pentecost in Acts 2: repent, be baptized, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The conversation,
in their words.
Transcript from the recording’s captions. Select any timestamp to hear the original audio.
man well welcome to journey church my friends you may have a seat my name is keith i'm the lead pastor of journey church in bend and i've got to say i'm so glad i get to be with you if you're visiting with us for the first time today may i say welcome i'm so honored that you spent a part of your weekend with us and i know that god's going to bless you i hope you'll receive what he has for you today we're studying the book of revelation everyone shall revelation revelation is the last of the 66 books you find in the bible we find ourselves today in revelation chapter 15 and 16 we're in a season that's known as the great tribulation in this story about jesus christ john is the author and he's laid out for us the reality of who jesus is the great tribulation is a terrible time of judgment upon an unbelieving world
when god pours out his wrath on those who have rejected him at this point in history the church has been caught up and we see god's judgment now for some of us we have a hard time understanding how a good kind loving god could do something so destructive why would god do it in this way why would god pour out his wrath on people why would so many people die in fact what we're going to read today is the last of the god's judgment upon the earth and we're going to see some destruction how can these things happen we ask these things of god as if god owes us a response we try to counsel god in his ways and what we read we can read a part of the story instead of reading the entire story and miss what god has for us when we read the bible we've always got to
look at the entire story we can never just take a portion of the story we've got to understand what's before what's ahead we've got to understand the context the best way to understand the book of revelation is to understand the whole bible the author john references the old testament hundreds of times as we'll see today the text parallels the book of exodus exodus is the second book of the bible and it tells the story of the israelites who were held under the oppression of pharaoh they were slaves in egypt and god would raise up a leader named moses to be their deliverer he would rescue them from slavery and take them to the promised land and we'll see today's text parallels this so closely as we begin to understand god's judgment
we'll start to understand the history of our own lives how we too when we go through difficult troubling times we too turn to god and say god why what are you doing god what why would you do this in my life why would you allow this in my life why would you allow this pain and this problem in my life and i would say we have the same perspective of an ant to a human can you imagine an ant criticizing the human in his ways i want you to know we're just the tiny creatures and sometimes we try to tell the tremendous eternal god how to do things and i want you to know that god is perfect in all of his ways the scriptures teach us that he is perfectly just he's a perfect judge and he wants us to trust in him and how
he's going to have his way i would like you to get vulnerable for just a moment if you will i don't want you to be uncomfortable in this but i want us to see that there are other people in the room like us i wonder by a show of hands if you'd be willing if you were hurt by someone in your childhood someone left you abandon you they hurt you sexually physically emotionally spiritually if you were hurting your child would you raise your hand nice and high i want you to just look around and see how many people were hurt as a child you see our childhood impacts our adulthood whether you like it or not it will impact who you are and if you were hurt as a child someone did something to you they should never have done they left you when they should have been there they did something to you they should have never done they said a word to you that that sticks with you even to this
day now how do you cope with those feelings of what happened to you at a young age for some people manifest through some type of substance abuse that you take marijuana or alcohol to to feel differently to cover up those feelings of shame or pain or or insecurities or or fear for others they turn to other resources uh they turn to some other destructive behavior some have been addicted to things like a career or even sports can become an addiction you want that endorphin to be released so you no longer have to feel that pain any longer in the worst case someone who's been hurt they hurt other people they replicate what happened to them hurt people hurt people
now this is not always the case in fact for some who have been hurt they are determined not to do the same thing they are determined to not let that hurt define who they are for some they've gone through counseling and there's some healing in that process and and they're they they grow and they mature and they realize they're not defined by what was done to them still for others they accept god who heals their life they're born again and they're they're changed forever but the reason i bring up this pain is to recognize that all of us have had hurt done to us and i want you to know that according to the scriptures that nothing is overlooked by god nothing there's not a single thing that was done to you there's not a single thing that
you've done that is overlooked by god there's not a single thought there's not a single deed there's not a single word that's ever been said in history that has been overlooked by god he knows everything and since he knows everything he's able to judge accordingly as we come to chapters 15 and 16 we come to the third and final set of god's judgment there have been three sets of judgment the first set was the seven seals now these aren't seals like animals you find at sea world if you're just joining us these are seals that are found on a scroll like a wax seal with an imprint on it this scroll represents the title deed to
earth and john has asked this question who could open the scroll and there are seven seals on this and there's one worthy to open the scrolls the lion and the lamb that's jesus christ jesus opens up those seven seals the second set of judgments are the seven trumpets those are blown by seven angels and the third set of judgments the seven are the seven bowls of god's wrath now you'll note here that these seven judgment comes in a set of three i want to speak to this for a moment for the author john uses this apocalyptic imagery so that we would use our imagination to understand how great god is he uses signs and symbols and creatures and numbers the number three in the bible is the number of perfection our god according to revelation 4 is
holy holy holy the number three is perfection the word holy is set apart our god is perfectly set apart he's perfectly holy so when we see this judgment found in three we see it's a perfect judgment the number seven is the number of completion god is going to complete his judgment on the world this will be the end and finality of god's judgment upon the earth so we see in these three sets of seven judgments god's complete and perfect judgment for he is the perfect judge and we're going to see that he will do what needs to be done this god that knows everything which is
so serious we should take him serious wants us to know what he's going to do he wants us to know who he is he wants us to know that he is a god of justice it's what he wants for us as a people micah 6 8 says that my micah 6 8 says that he has shown you what is good that you should do justice deep down inside we all want justice when someone's done wrong to you you'll say something like this he'll get what he deserves when we say phrases like this what comes around goes around you're going to get the same thing you dished out benjamin franklin once wrote justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are we have seen this over the last year and
a half people outraged with injustice saying why aren't you as upset about this as me and they go to the streets and cry out come on can we just get justice because deep inside there's something inside of us that wants justice if something's wrong it should be made right g k chesterton wrote for children are innocent and love justice which is the truth kids learn at an early age that's not fair his ice cream is bigger than my ice cream that's not fair he's taking up more room in the seat
than than i have that's not fair and we we begin to see that at a really early age and then something happens in our lives chesterton says he says while most of us grow up and we realize we're wicked and naturally prefer mercy it's what i try to teach my kids at an early age life's not fair get over it because we know life's not fair and we do not want it to be fair i mean how many of us would not have a driver's license today if we got a speeding ticket for every time we sped you know you don't want life to be fair if you really got justice for how you lived your life it wouldn't look good but here we have in the scriptures god's going to reveal to us what perfect justice looks like because he's a perfectly just god
and although we might be the tiny creatures this great tremendous eternal god is going to expose us to his ways how we can live our lives and he's been doing that from the beginning his ways are perfect and there's really only two choices in life there's there's god and you you either choose god's way or your way that's it there are not many ways there are not a million ways there's god's ways and yours there's your way throughout humanity humankind has constantly turned against god's ways and and sought their own way it first started in the garden with the first man and woman god set a standard he said my way is great it's perfect it's good you get to enjoy all this it's yours
and they had to wonder is it really that good i think we'll try our way i think we'll i think we'll do things our way instead of god's ways and that's how sin into the story and now throughout history we continue to see that replicated god says i have a way for you now on that journey of the israelites from egypt to a promised land god had given them his way it's known as the torah the torah is a hebrew way of saying instructions or laws on this journey god gave moses their leader his rules to follow we know some of the famous ones the ten commandments how many you heard of the ten commandments that was given to the israelites on the journey from slavery
to freedom god wanted his people to know you're no longer slaves i have a perfect way follow me now the ten commandments are as relative today as they were when they were first given thousands of years ago god's ways are always right they were not the ten suggestions they were the ten commandments yeah humankind in our ways we question and we wonder is god's ways really it's a bit archaic we really come a long ways from when these rules were first written so we come to our own conclusions of how to live our life we come to our own conclusions what justice is we come to our own conclusions what sexuality is we come to our own conclusions of what marriage is or or many other things but when it comes to the scriptures we want to say what is god's way so that i can
live right with him and with one another and the justice we read in the book of revelation is god bringing forth his justice perfectly let me just go through a brief history of where we've been in revelation to catch you up to chapters 15 and 16. in chapter 1 the author john introduces us to the purpose of the book it's all about jesus so chapter one he tells us this is the revelation of jesus christ in chapters two and three there are seven letters to seven churches that remember the number seven means complete there's a complete message to the church in chapters four and five john is caught up in heaven the very thing that will happen to the church and he gets a vision this reality of this revelation put in front of him in heaven centered in heaven is the throne it's here that john will understand all that he sees it's really another dimension if you
will in chapter 6 we start the first of the judgments we see six of the seven seals opened up in revelation chapter six in revelation chapter seven we have a hundred and forty four thousand jewish people that give their lives to jesus they become evangelists which means they share the good news of jesus john tells us in revelation 7 that during this tribulation time many will come to faith in jesus he is a grace giving god and as many come to their faith in jesus we move to chapters eight and nine where we see the seventh seal is opened and that starts the seven trumpets the seven trumpets are then blown or at least six of the seven trumpets are blown and we take an intermission in revelation chapter 10.
we're told of a mighty angel with a little book in his hand a scroll john the author is told to eat the book it's what we ought to do with the bible the word bible just means book john's told it will be sweet and sour it'll be sweet to the mouth and bitter in the belly so we learn in our own lives in chapter 11 we continue in this intermission and we're told of these two witnesses that will prophesy for the first three and a half years of this tribulation time they will be hated and despised because they preach jesus they will be put to death yet they will be resurrected and they will ascend into heaven then we're told of the seventh trumpet there in chapter 11. in chapter 12 we start a history lesson why does evil exist john goes back in history
it's not a linear lesson for that's what we find in the book of revelation there's complexities but as we study we begin to understand we're told of a red dragon we're told in this apocalyptic imagery that satan represents death this red dragon red represents blood represents death this dragon wants to destroy a child this child represents jesus of this woman and this woman represents israel we see here in revelation chapter 12 12 a war waged between satan and god and god's people satan will not do it alone in revelation 13 we read of a beast and a second beast there's this terrible trio with satan the beast and the second beast the beast is the antichrist a ruler that will unite the world and then the the false prophet is one that will get
the world to worship the antichrist the first beast and the whole purpose will be to deceive the world and the world will not know they're being deceived and they will want to destroy all christians in revelation 14 john gets this vision of the 144 thousands that gave their life to jesus they're in heaven and they're singing a song that no one else can sing for they were persecuted and what do they do in heaven they sing they celebrate and we're told of three angels in revelation 14 that have a voice a message and the first voice is this the gospel gospel means good news is eternal the good news is now as well the second message is babylon is fallen babylon is a corrupt city for the first century reader it would have been rome
we're told that babylon will fall it might look like they're going to last forever but it will fall and then third we get to know this that one day we get to be with god forever when you believe in jesus it changes everything and at the end of chapter 14 there's a sobering look of a harvest jesus has a sickle and he swings the sickle and brings down the whole vineyard normally when you think of a vineyard with grapes a gardener will prune jesus relates that to our spiritual lives in john chapter 15 he says he's the vine and we're the branches and the father's the gardener and he prunes that which doesn't bear fruit and and we see some pruning but in this final judgment it's the end this is the grapes of wrath these grapes have become fat and sin they've refused to ask for forgiveness they refuse to
trust in jesus and so one day they're going to be judged and we see the grapes of wrath poured out and it's simply a prophetic picture of where we're going right now in revelation 15 and 16. john now says in revelation 15 verse 1 then i saw another sign in heaven great and amazing seven angels with seven plagues which are the last for with them the wrath of god is finished we're told here that this is the end of this judgment of these sets of three john notes that this is the last this is the end of the wrath of god it's finished this is important for us to know that tribulations do not last forever it may feel like it if you've ever had
to quarantine because of coven it feels like it lasts forever once you've watched all of netflix you just wonder what else can i watch you know hulu 2 then all of amazon prime and just it just feels like it can last forever but we're told here that the tribulation will not last forever but you should know this about the tribulation the wrath of god is real sometimes when we're not experiencing it we forget how great and mighty god actually is that he's holy he's glorious and this is real just as the ten plagues were brought upon egypt because pharaoh refused to let the israelites go
so we see these plagues will be brought upon an unbelieving world a world that will persecute christians unlike anything that christians have ever experienced before and no one that's going to experience this wrath of god is getting it because god is just angry sometimes we think that maybe god is having a bad day so he just unleashed his fury maybe he should have had something to eat maybe he woke up on the wrong side of the bed and he just did this mean duty to the world because we begin to think of it through our lens but no one is under the wrath of god except those who choose to be you see we often think that god sends people to hell god doesn't send anyone to hell
you choose hell jesus in john chapter 3 is having a conversation with a religious man in the middle of the night john records the biography of jesus life and in this biography in the third chapter jesus reveals to this religious man his purpose who he is in john 3 16 and says for god so loved the world how many of you ever heard john 3 16 before it's familiar right now this if it's unfamiliar it needs to be because jesus is letting us know who he is now this is familiar i pray that you would ask god for a fresh revelation of this it should never get old jesus said for god so loved the world i like to replace the world with my name i just want to remind
myself god so loved me sometimes you need to be reminded you are loved now i just declare that today jesus says you are so loved here's what he did that he gave his only son that whoever shout whoever whoever that's you you're the whoever aren't you glad there's no stipulations if you were born into the right family if you were born into the right nation if you went to the right church no if you believe in jesus you should not perish but have eternal life this is a free gift that by believing in jesus you're forgiven of your sins and you get the free gift of eternal life this is
awesome no one needs to go to hell no one the worst of sinners can get saved the most wretched of sinners can get be saved there's nothing you do to earn your salvation it was done for you in jesus name jesus continues to clarify his mission he said for god did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him this supports what paul writes in romans chapter 8 when he says there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus this is so important that god does not condemn you because of your sin he forgives you of your sin the only one that condemns you of your sin is the law because you have sin and if you haven't been forgiven of that you stand in your sin and jesus came to take your sin on the
cross so that you would no longer have to bear the burden he sets you free you're no longer even defined by that you now have his righteousness whoever believes verse 18 whoever believes in jesus is not condemned but whoever does not believed is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only son of god and this is the judgment the light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil what happened then is still happening today where people look around and say you know i don't really want the way of jesus i want my way and instead of embracing god instead of embracing love
instead of receiving grace we will get what we deserve and so we have here in revelation 15 this this glimpse of the beginning before these bowls are poured out john wants us to get this message clearly there are these seven angels that have these seven plagues and we see this judgment is coming and what does john do he turns to the image of worship we see singing we see singing because at the beginning of revelation 15 we see a sea of glass that represents water mixed with fire which represents our god and we have here the image of the red sea the image of the israelites who were set free but then they came to this wide body of water with nowhere to go
with the mountain on either side but yet it was god that told them to go you ever feel like maybe god told you the wrong thing or you're in the wrong place you get up against the sea and there's nowhere to go you got a mountain on one side and a mountain on the other side and then right behind the israelites there's an enemy charging after them but yet god had a way i don't know about you but i find myself in uncertainties all the time i have no clue where i'm going god you brought me here but where are you gonna take me i got nowhere to go i've got something in front of me and something on either side of me where am i going to go but god provided a way it was the lord god almighty that split the red sea so that the israelites could
walk on dry land and as they're walking on dry land they've got to be amazed as they look at the wall of water on either side and then they get to the other side just in time to see that the army is chasing them and i just gotta wonder what was going through their minds as they watched the army chase them like come on god you get us this far and this is going to happen they're still chasing us and just then the water swallowed up pharaoh and his armies absolutely awesome and what the israelites do next is what we ought to do every time we gather together they sing their only response is to sing exodus 15 verse 2 the the start of this song the lord is my strength the song reads the lord is my strength and my song he has become my salvation a few minutes earlier they were in fear
now they're able to declare i know who did that that was my god he's a savior that's what should happen when we come to church i have no clue what god's gonna do but then he reminds me who he is he's the lord my god he's my strength he's my song he's my salvation i don't have to figure this out my god's going to provide a way he's the savior i'm not the savior that's why i sing to him what we read in exodus 15 is a long song and then now we read in revelation 15 another song listen to this in verse 3 and they sing the song of moses the servant of god and the song of the lamb saying who's the lamb by the way come on jesus saying great and amazing are your deeds o lord god the almighty just and true are your ways o king of the nations
so they break forth in song and it sounds a lot like the song in exodus 15. here they are before the sea here they are right in between the the final judgments between the trumpets and the bulls now this has to be encouraging for the first century church that would have read this the first century church at the time of this writing was being persecuted by rome they were being put in prison they were being put to death it felt like they were winning like the the egyptians were over the israelites it seemed like the roman government was just having their way but to sing a song of victory to know that my god can do anything is an encouraging thought when we come together and we don't know what god's going to do though one thing we can do is sing we can know that what we're going through now isn't going to last forever but my god will i'm going to sing because i'm saved i'm going to sing because he's worthy of
praise i'm going to sing because i know that my god is greater and this is a message of god's vengeance that he will have his day on those who have caused blood he's going to have his day that god's going to do what needs to be done he's going to answer the prayer of the martyrs those who died for their faith in revelation 6 10 they cried out with a loud voice oh sovereign lord holy and true how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth god's timing has come now god's timing is not our timing see i would love god to work on my timing in fact if i get really vulnerable and honest with you i often think that god's timing is poor
but yet what i read in the scriptures is god's timing is perfect it's perfect he never makes a mistake he never says whoops maybe maybe i should have done that at a different time i could have done that at a different hour god's timing is so perfect he's actually patient just waiting for us to align our time with his for he stands outside of time so that we would see who he is so that we would hope in him right in the middle of this song there's a question that stands out to me they ask in this song who will not fear o lord and glorify your name i love this question because i often wonder that why don't more people give their lives to the lord i think about that every sunday when we gather here at journey church like the whole city of ben should be here
experiencing the great love of god who who would not want this god that saves us from our sins who would not want this god that gives hope to everyone who would not want to put their trust in a god that is just that he will bring vengeance in the world who wouldn't want this god well chapter 16 will answer that question tragically there are many that want nothing to do with jesus so before these bulls are poured out we see that worship is where our hearts should be god is not asking you to be a better person he's not asking you to try harder he's not asking you to be more religious god's asking you to follow him and when you do you worship him at the end of 15 we see a ceremony with these seven angels they get themselves in these priestly garments they're setting
themselves apart for this judgment and it reminds us one more time in revelation 15 this is not accidental god is not being emotional this is intentional as they set themselves apart for god's judgment we're reminded that we too should be set apart in this world what does it mean to be set apart well the word holy means to be set apart peter writes in first peter 1 verse 15 but as he who called you as holy you also be holy in your conduct since it is written you shall be holy for i am holy we should not just live in this world accidentally we should be intentional with our lives we should live on purpose we should want to be more like our god and that's what we read at the end of revelation 15.
chapter 16 is going to go into these bowls of wrath but we can be assured as believers in jesus we will not experience this wrath you do not need to experience this judgment remember what jesus says that great invitation if you believe in him you will not perish but you'll have everlasting life that eternal life is found in jesus christ and this is a great reminder that you did not do this you're not better than any other person paul writes that in titus 3 5 he says he jesus saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness i hope you know that you didn't save yourself you're not going to get into heaven because you were good enough god doesn't save you because he looks he says you're so good you're better than all my other kids
you get in no here's what paul says he says this but god saved us according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the holy spirit the holy spirit is god god comes into your life and he changes you that's what the word regeneration means there's a shift there's a change your heart is no longer the way it used to be god has done something differently in your life god is so merciful that when we start to comprehend it we realize his mercies are new every morning when you wake up god's not even judging you on what you did last night he's loving you right now this is so good to understand that you were made in his image and he's restoring what he made to begin with that when you believe in jesus you are now called a child of god you've been adopted into his family your father is the king of all kings you see this is great news to know that
he doesn't just call you his child he calls you you are called by god you are chosen you have a purpose you have a plan nothing is overlooked by god there are no mistakes you are fearfully and wonderfully made you are made in your mother's womb and your parents may have thought they made an accident but god knew exactly what he was doing he says all that you've been through i'm going to use in your life that pain that suffering all that hurt that you went through i'm going to use that for my glory the devil thought he was stopping you but god says i'm going to elevate this because i'm going to show what i'm able to do and all this is to lead us to a place where one day you get to be with god forever you get to be glorified as we get there i can't wait to preach on this as you get there in revelation 20 there can be no more sin no more suffering god's going to see all
those tears he's going to wipe them away and you're going to see he's the creator of new things a new heaven a new earth beyond what you can fathom you're going to be glorified but until then he's given us the revelation of who he is that what we witness in revelation is the same thing we witness in the book of exodus he's a grace-giving god that saves but there is a moment where it's too late just like the ten plagues came upon egypt the seven plagues will come at the end of this judgment time let me go through these and just paraphrase them quickly if you want to follow along in revelation 16 let's just look at the seven plagues the first plague is the bowl of wrath of painful sores this plague is painful source from head to toe and it's on the whole population that does not believe in jesus as savior so to the unbelieving
world to those who are marked by the beast and the mark of the beast is 666 so if the number seven is completion the number six is incompletion it's the mark of man so if you choose man's way you're going to get judgment instead of god's ways painful sores on every person now we thought that pandemic was bad last year this will be way worse the second bowl of wrath goes into the sea that's all the oceans this is hard here because every creature will die the whole ocean will turn to blood i don't like this one i love the ocean all the dolphins are gone i love dolphins i have tattoos of dolphins on my body that's yes true story this isn't two truths and a lie this is
just the truth i'm serious i love the ocean stay focused stay focused safe stay focused listen listen i tell you that because i want you to know this that which is good and created by god is now judged and it's not just the oceans which i love the ocean some of you love love the fresh water you don't mind getting in the cold deschutes river or one of these freezing cold lakes up here all of them turn to blood that's the third bull the third bull it it's reminiscent of the first plague in egypt when moses turned the nile river into blood because water represents life and all of a sudden the life now is death when god governs he always does it
perfectly his government's called the kingdom we look at the political powers of this world and we think that they're going to last they won't there's one kingdom last forever it's the kingdom of god and god always gives a punishment that fits the crime he doesn't do it by act he doesn't our judicial system in america is awesome but it has tons of flaws there are many people who have been prosecuted that didn't do the crime god won't do that his punishment always fits the crime it's perfect when pharaoh tried to kill the babies in egypt and had them drown the punishment fit the crime pharaoh and his armies drown we see this haman when he tried to eradicate the israelites he ended up being hung
so so now we watch the oceans the waters we see the plagues of painful sores the angel that's over the water says listen god finally this is good the angel that oversees the water says this is i love the ocean that's that angel that's overlooking the water actually says this god you are good to do this could you imagine being an angel through history watching how silly humanity can be i mean from the beginning with adam and eve you think no no no you did it and then throughout history what does humankind do they say you know god i hear you tell me your ways but i want to choose my way and then they get in a problem and what do they do they turn to god and what does god do he gives mercy and he he gets them out of that situation he blesses them and then they say okay that's enough god we want to do things
our way again then they find themselves in trouble and god gives mercy and there's that reciprocal cycle through history there's nothing new under the sun you just look back in history that's what you record in the bible the bible is god's story and we see god's story works through history and i can only imagine these angels you could read this in revelation 16 looking at all this just thinking finally thank you lord so we see the third bull was poured on the clean water and we see that god is having his way revelation 16 7 and i heard from the altar saying yes lord god the almighty true and just are your judgments we now see the world that's rejected god is simply getting what they've sown the fourth angel poured out the bowl of wrath on the sun
which is meant to scorch the people with fierce heat revelation 16 9 tells us they were scorched by the fierce heat now remember there's no water to quench the thirst and they cursed the name of god who had power over these plagues they did not repent and give him glory every single plague is an opportunity to turn to god to trust him and to say i've done wrong i choose to follow you god just as pharaoh refused to turn his heart his heart was hardened so we see it will be with people left on the earth and you see it today god gives opportunity he gives opportunity he gives opportunity but what do they do they curse god the name god today means nothing to most people
they say when they're surprised omg they use it the name of jesus as a curse word not realizing it's the name above every name it's the only name by which you can be saved it's the name that one day every knee will bow and declare that he is lord but we flippantly you hear it in hollywood you hear it in your workplace maybe you even hear it on your own lips no reverence for god you curse god and this is what happens instead of blessing god turning them trust him they curse god and john notes three times in this chapter they do not repent i believe the word repent has a bad rap today i tell you why we hardly ever hear of it repent is a great word you see the word repent means this and you could write this down it means a complete change of thinking
that's what the word repent means it means not just a little bit it means completely changed it means this i was going my way but i want all of god's ways it means i was going this way but repent literally means to do a 180. i i'm not going to do a a 90 i'm not going to do a 45 i'm going to do a 180 i want god's way but they were unwilling to go god's ways they refuse they refuse to repent and that's the message of god john the baptist when he preached the message of jesus in matthew 3 2 john said repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand he's talking about jesus jesus when he went into the wilderness when he came out of the wilderness after being tempted and defeating the devil in matthew 4 verse 17 from that time jesus began to preach saying repent for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand change your mind this world will not satisfy you but his world will the sin of this world will be a burden but he will forgive you of your sins that's what repent means when you repent you're acknowledging i've done wrong and my wrong doing separating me from god but when you repent you're connected with god and here's the great news about god when you repent god doesn't spank you for your bad behavior god actually gives you himself what an awesome god you say god i did wrong he says i'm going to give you all of who i am galatians 5 says this but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness
gentleness and self-control when you repent you're no longer held under law you have liberty this is why jesus said the truth will set you free and he's the truth the enemy's a liar he wants you to sin and then he wants to keep calling you a sinner but in jesus he actually says this you're no longer a sinner you are now a saint see when you repent god actually restores a right relationship with you and today is actually pentecost sunday it's a time where we celebrate god poured out his spirit upon believers in jesus is the beginning of the church it's wonderful to read about acts chapter two we see the start the birth of the church and when god's spirit came upon the church people were confused because of the different languages that were being spoken and peter stands up and he preaches the first sermon guess
what the sermon is about jesus the church should always be about jesus and at the end of the sermon all the people listening thousands were there said how do we be saved and here's what peter said in acts 2 38 and peter said to them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of jesus christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the holy spirit what's great about this message is it hasn't changed several thousand years later today that's the mess how do you be saved repent change your thinking you need jesus the the idea of baptism is an allegiance to jesus before god family and friends you're saying i love jesus because he loves me you align your life with him it's a reminder you've been cleansed of all your sins just as water covers your body it's a beautiful picture of a death burial and resurrection when you go under the water it's a representation you die to your
old life you come out of the water you're resurrected in jesus the same power that rose jesus from the grave the holy spirit is in you and if you've never done that you should today you can today there's no better day it's not another day it's not one day do it today back to revelation 16. let's look at the fifth bowl i gotta go quickly i know that some of you all might be getting hungry but feed on god's word for just a moment the fifth bowl is darkness darkness not on the whole world but darkness on those who do evil it's on the antichrist and those who follow him on those who have the mark of the beast jesus declared i am the light of the world now all of a sudden the enemy is being exposed because you need to understand what the scriptures say of the devil he's a liar and he's really good at it jesus says lying is his native tongue and he disguises himself as light and so in the
fifth bowl he's being exposed as darkness the sixth bull is the great river euphrates is dried up euphrates is a really um relevant river in the bible it's it's historically noted it's famous even today political powers are vying for the water in the river euphrates but it will be dried up prepared for battle it will end up being a highway to what we'll read in just a moment in a place called armageddon and right in the middle of this john takes a timeout in verse 15 and we see jesus speaking if you have a bible in red letters these words are read behold jesus says i am coming like a thief blessed is the one who stays awake keeping his garments on that he may not go about naked or be seen exposed nakedness in the scriptures represents shame it represents you being caught when you
didn't need to be it's as if jesus takes a time out and says this don't focus too much on these events and try to figure out where and who and how and when these things are going to happen focus on me you won't know the hour you won't know the day i'm coming like a thief you won't be prepared for this but you can be spiritually awake wake up o sleeper get ready for jesus don't wait for another day you take jesus seriously today and revelation chapter one says you will be blessed you will have a deep happiness for knowing who god is when we open up our eyes we see the way the truth and the life and we take this pause in this the these uh judgments here so that we could see the judge for who he is let's go back to the drawing of the river and they assembled verse 16 at the place
that in hebrew is called armageddon these are two hebrew words har megiddo megido is a valley where many battles were fought the place of the troops in hebrew har is the word hill it's the hill of megiddo it's the it's the place where the battle is going to happen now some are confused because in this region there are not a lot of mountains but mount carmel is there that's the place where elijah called fire down it's where he confronted the false priests of baal that's mount carmel that could be armageddon it could be that very battle where so many battles were were fought before uh barack fought the um the gideonites in judges chapter five uh the the gideon fought the midianites in judges chapter seven and king saul lost
his life there at armageddon in first samuel chapter 21. so we see there's going to be a battle fought here and these will be political nations fighting against one another and we learned the forces behind all of this is evil it's demonic and john paints the picture of three frogs representing the terrible trio that comes out of them these demonic forces remember this is apocalyptic imagery use your imagination frogs are gross right and so spiritually speaking here we're gonna see the forces behind wars we we live in a fragile world my entire life i've wondered are we going into world war iii we live in a fragile state and god is setting the stage for at the end of these three judgments there will be armageddon and we we actually see the battle concluded
in revelation chapter 19 the outcome i always have good news when we read revelation jesus wins verse 17 we conclude with the final judgment the seventh angel poured out his bull into the air and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying it is done god always keeps his word when jesus was on the cross he said it is finished he will always do what he says and in this final plague we see that it's finished jesus can declare that it's done and we see the plague in verse 21 great hailstones about 100 pounds each fell from heaven on people and they cursed god for the plague of the hail because the plague was so severe this is where it's really important to
read god's word you do not want to go through this hailstorm some people read the book of revelation and say it's all figurative we can't take any of this literally some of this book is figurative the devil's not a red dragon with seven heads and ten horns with crowns on each horn that's figurative to give us an idea of who the devil is the seventh plague in egypt was hail that was real hell it was not figurative that was hail that fell on egypt and killed the crops and they were done with it that was a seventh plague this seventh plague of hail is real i need you to know the severity of this hail to the to date the largest hail recorded in history was 2.25 pounds
that was in 1986 in bangladesh that hail killed 92 people two pounds this hail will be a hundred pounds this isn't like hail you're going to catch it's coming down i'm wondering if i could uh get a volunteer could i use you young man all right come on up here uh how's your back today you're doing good all right nathaniel could you grab those weights over there just both of them just grab those two dumbbells and bring them right over here i got these dumbbells during the pandemic to get in shape and they stay in my garage right where they're supposed to be right so i think my wife was hoping i'd get strong so this is about a hundred pounds
right could you just do ten curls real quick with those just that how would that feel if those fell on you not great no do you think a person would survive nope there's no way a hundred pounds is heavy it's easy for us to forget the weight of what's in god's word there's a reason this is the final of the seventh plague now you can put that back can you give me a hand thank you so much i know that i know that i know that there are people today that are going to question this and say this is scientifically impossible there are some that say faith and science cannot exist together because they seem to be diametrically opposed to one another but i'm here to tell you faith and science must collide because god is a god over science
our god will use the natural for the supernatural and if we try to say they're separate we'll miss god we've seen that in this pandemic the government will say we've got to follow science and every two to three weeks the science seems to change and it's not because the scientists or the doctors aren't trying they're very intelligent but they're nothing compared to god my god can do the impossible and the book of revelation is to remind us that he's real and he wants us to know him and you do not have to wait for a judgment to experience god's wrath if you've never received jesus today's your day the most supernatural miracle of all is when you give your heart to jesus everything changes i love that god offers us an opportunity to repent time and time again
there's two people i want to speak to for just a moment the first one is the person that's never given their lives to jesus you've never surrendered at all saying i need to give you my life jesus and when you do everything changes it's the greatest decision you can make if you want to do that right now you can but i also want to speak to us church you've made that decision you prayed that prayer maybe years ago it's time for us to wake up some of us need to repent so some of us are so consumed with substances to numb those feelings of our life maybe it's the stress of work maybe it's depression maybe it's the pressure that this last year has put upon us and we're doing all sorts of things that are destructive and god wants to step into your life and say don't find satisfaction in the things of this world find it in me see some of you say well you know what i'm not sure i could believe in god if
he did a miracle then i'd believe and i want you to know you wouldn't these were the greatest miracles in history these last plagues and they didn't turn to god they cursed god so don't think that if god did something you would respond because here's reality miracles come when you believe in him signs and wonders will come he can do anything he's the god of miracles the religious people of jesus day they said do a miracle and then he did it you know what they were consumed on you did it on the wrong day they missed the miracle worker when jesus gave provision through the multiplication of food they missed the provider and they wanted more provision we're not a whole lot different it's easy to get distracted quickly and easily you you've seen that with me today i get distracted easily
but i know this that our god is good and he loves you and he wants you to come home today what you just in your heart right now if you close your eyes i don't just want to turn our attention to jesus do you know that he loves you today could you say that god so loved me he came to this world to die on the cross if you've never done that i'm going to ask you to make a bold move right now because you have to take jesus seriously i'm going to ask you if you want to surrender your life to jesus today would you raise your hands i could pray with you just raise it high so i could see it right now praise god praise god amen hands all over the place anyone else today this is the greatest decision you could ever make amen i love it men women you're never too old you're never too young
praise god if you made that decision right now i want you to pray something like this in your heart just has to be genuine you don't even need to say it out loud in your head and your heart to god right now say something along this line lord i give you my life forgive me of my sins today i follow you i receive your holy spirit i receive the gift of grace i've received the gift of eternal life god i ask for your help now as i follow you my friend if you prayed that right now it is the greatest decision you could ever make don't let the enemy distract you the devil's a liar he's going to go after your heart now but you've been sealed by the power of the holy spirit you are saved now it's
time to take the next steps get baptized keep following him keep growing keep coming to church church i want to pray over you today as well some of you have been living in a place of complacency and apathy you've you've been doing things that you know are not of god if that's you today and you're saying you know what i just want to wake up if that's you would you just throw up your hand right now i want to just pray over the church that you're saying i just want to surrender it all i'm going to wake up i want to be who god wants me to be awesome praise god praise god praise god lord you see your church you know our hearts and i know that's what matters most it's not a hand you care about our hearts god so i pray over your church that your church would awaken oh god that your spirit would cause us to be alive that we would represent your love your light
your joy your peace to this dying world may we be your church god that is transformed and changed in the name of jesus christ may we live in the power of the resurrection of jesus christ that when we suffer i just say i just want to know you and the power of the resurrection god i pray today that we would believe we can do all things through christ who gives us strength that we can be content in our suffering that we will love you the way you love us oh god please awaken us please lord send revival on this land even if it's a few of us god today send revival so that we would experience more of you come lord come you are worthy of praise you're so good god church if you want to just open up your eyes i want to tell you god's grace is so
great people got saved today that means they were rescued from hell come on no greater news today i want you to know if you made that decision we want to connect with you we want you know you're not alone take the next step just text us one word life because that's what you get in jesus text us this word life to this number we're going to connect with 541-527-7277 we want you to know you're not alone none of us are perfect but we have a great god he's worthy of praise if you're able would you stand to your feet as we sing one last song
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Coming Like a Thief: A Call to Wake Up
In the middle of the bowls, Revelation 16:15 interrupts with Jesus speaking about coming like a thief and blessing the one who stays awake. Pastor Kirkpatrick treats this as a deliberate pause in the message: don't get lost trying to calculate the when and the who—look at the Judge. He then closes with a call to the unprepared and to the church, naming complacency and apathy honestly.
Revelation 16:15
- Pastor Kirkpatrick says Jesus interrupts the judgments to tell His people to focus on Him rather than on calculating prophetic events. What does that focus look like in an ordinary week?
- The pastor calls the church to wake up from complacency and apathy. Where do you sense that call landing in your own life?
Answers from this recording
Start a conversation.
Why does Revelation 15 and 16 focus so much on God's wrath?+
In this message, Pastor Kirkpatrick frames Revelation 15 and 16 as the third and final set of judgments—after the seals and trumpets—that complete God's judgment on an unbelieving world. Rather than present the wrath as God losing His temper, he describes it as the deliberate, complete judgment of a God who knows everything and holds everything accountable; the three sets of seven, he explains, point to perfect and complete judgment. He acknowledges the harder question—how a good God could do this—and compares us to an ant criticizing a human, asking listeners to trust God's ways even where they cannot see His reasons.
How would your reading of Revelation change if you read it for who God is rather than only for when things happen?
What does worship have to do with the plagues of Revelation?+
Before any bowl is poured out, John shows a sea of glass and a song of Moses and the Lamb, and Pastor Kirkpatrick draws a direct line to the Israelites singing in Exodus 15 after the Red Sea. They sang because they had watched God make a way where there was none. In the same way, the song in Revelation 15 declares God's deeds great and His ways just before the judgments come. For the first-century church facing Rome, the pastor says, this was a song of victory, and it shows God answering the cry of the martyrs in Revelation 6:10.
What has helped you keep singing and gathering with God's people when you cannot yet see the outcome of a hard season?
Are the seven bowls just figurative language?+
Pastor Kirkpatrick speaks to this near the end of the message. He acknowledges that some parts of Revelation are clearly symbolic—the devil is not literally a red dragon with seven heads and ten horns—but he argues that not everything is figurative. He compares the seventh plague of hail in Revelation 16:21 to the seventh plague on Egypt, which he insists was real hail, and he stresses the severity of the hundred-pound hailstones described in the text.
What does repentance actually mean, and why does it matter here?+
Pastor Kirkpatrick notes that Revelation 16 says three times that the people under judgment did not repent—they cursed God instead. He defines repentance simply as a complete change of thinking, a full 180-degree turn from our way to God's way, not a partial adjustment. He traces this back to John the Baptist and to Jesus' own preaching in Matthew 4:17. He describes every plague as an opportunity to turn to God, and emphasizes that repentance brings forgiveness. He then ties this to Pentecost Sunday and to Peter's words in Acts 2:38 about repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Where would a 180-degree turn in one area of your life begin this week?
Does God send people to hell?+
Pastor Kirkpatrick states plainly that God does not send anyone to hell; people choose it for themselves by rejecting the light. He grounds this in Jesus' own words in John 3, where Jesus says the world is condemned because people loved darkness rather than light. He emphasizes that God did not send His Son to condemn the world but to save it, and that Jesus' invitation in John 3:16 has no stipulations based on family, nation, or church—whoever believes receives eternal life. He then stresses that salvation is a free gift given by mercy, not earned by good behavior.
