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"Here as in Heaven."
For more information visit : garden.church
Welcome to Garden Church podcast. We're in part two of a series on the book of Revelation. We're doing a deep dive into how to read and interpret this amazing book. Enjoy.
Jon Rosene:I am so honored and privileged. You heard Marcus talk about it. We are been hosting global partners over these last few weeks. We have a family with us, the Castiles, that are such a gift to the kingdom. You know, there's a verse in scripture that says, pray to the Lord the harvest for the workers are few.
Jon Rosene:The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. And Blake and Shannon Casteel are an answer to that prayer. Their ministry, their lives are seeing a multiplication in the kingdom to fulfill the great commission. And they are a part of it's incredible. They are they they are so humble, they're gonna come up here and you're like, wow, there's so much they do that they're not gonna talk about.
Jon Rosene:Shannon founded and helps leads brave women. Brave Love, which is an incredible women's ministry that's equipping the next generation of women. Blake leads a group of of coaches and fitness coaches through through Respected Corners. Respected Corners, training coaches to go to other nations to coach nations. It's incredible.
Jon Rosene:So would you welcome Blake and Shannon as they make their way up here? I'll give you guys the mic. Who wants to start? Who wants to start? Yes.
Jon Rosene:We decided to match today just an abundance of brotherhood and camaraderie. Would you share with us what you see Jesus doing? And I think you two particularly, I wanna just give our give us perspective of what you see in the nations like what you're seeing in this time right now of what Jesus is doing. So just share whatever's on
Jon Rosene:your heart for that.
Blake Castille:Absolutely. I I I don't know how to continue without saying how much I love the garden. And Ew. You know, I Darren, John, no Alan didn't ask me to say this. I just want you guys to know that this is an amazing church.
Blake Castille:You're part of an amazing church. And what Darren's gonna teach on this morning, there's very few people teaching on things like this. And it's a it's an honor to sit in here and receive from somebody that I know is a really good teacher, really well spoken, but but has the fear of God. I was so impacted by the fear of the Lord. It's it is so convicting.
Blake Castille:So I just wanted to say that as you listen this morning, let it hit you and let God expose and do what he does with his kindness and tenderness and his gentleness.
Jon Rosene:It's okay.
Blake Castille:I'm remembering now what you just asked, Sean. So sorry for that. No.
Jon Rosene:That was received. But get ready. Get ready tonight.
Blake Castille:What what what God's doing in the nations of the earth is unbelievable. You know, there's there's 3,200,000,000 unreached people. There's you know, Muslims have here heard the name of Jesus, but they're still unreached because they don't know the gospel of Jesus. And there's only 400,000 workers in the nations, and that includes South America, which is predominantly Catholic. That includes Europe, which has had an an awakening over the years and needs another one.
Blake Castille:But there are so few workers in the The Middle East, so few workers in Central Asia, so few workers in North Africa, so few workers in the Himalayas, which is an amazing mountain range that I'm gonna just share briefly about. But we're seeing God move, and especially amongst men. There's, you know, there's seven to one ratio of of women to men missionaries. Where we at, guys? Where we at?
Blake Castille:It's it's I believe God is raising up men to step in and and and and and that gap to where that ratio it'll always be more women, but bridge that gap to the the ratio decreasing. So men, let's keep it rising. I love pursuit. I love what God's doing, but let's keep it rising. So I I lead respect to corners.
Blake Castille:We train coaches using Avenue of Fitness. We track bibles to the unreached villages in these mountain ranges. It's vast. There's many. And I looked out of an airplane once as we were flying out of a village, and I saw countless smokestacks.
Blake Castille:And I realized that there was no way I could do this by myself. But that day, took responsibility for calling men and women that wanna use what God's given them with fitness or becoming fit to put bibles on their back and to take the word of God to those places that have never
Darren Rouanzoin:received the word of God.
Blake Castille:And my wife leads a ministry called Brave Love and we started. Good Yeah. Good did I say started?
Blake Castille:But No.
Blake Castille:But but she leads a ministry and we're called Brave Love. We're seeing young women step into their identity that is it's it's overcoming what the world says they should be and what the world says they should look like and how the church says they should dress and and they're becoming these women of God that are stepping into their destinies of seeing Jesus made known. And lastly, we've started these internships. We're training up men to become holistic men that read the word of God, that know how to pray, that believe in emotional health and it's not just for women, it's for men. I love that you are doing this here.
Blake Castille:And they're stepping into the holistic lifestyle that Jesus walked out and they're taking that to the nation. So I digress, but it's a joy to be here with
Jon Rosene:you So good. I I couldn't I couldn't help myself. Shannon, do you have anything you wanna share? Yeah. Because I feel like there's just something on your heart.
Shannon Castille:I'll just
Shannon Castille:share two quick examples. Yeah. Is that okay?
Jon Rosene:Yeah. It's great.
Shannon Castille:Yeah. I was just during worship. I'm so moved. Lindy is a dear friend. I've known her for fifteen years.
Shannon Castille:And it is so good to just be in, like be with the body of Christ in a corporate setting and just worshiping the Lord is so awesome. So I was so moved by worship. But during worship, because I'm a woman, so I think of a lot of things and can do a lot of things at the same time. I was I was like, was two things that were sticking out to me if I had a chance to say it. And it was the moment we went to Mongolia with our family.
Shannon Castille:We went to a village that had been unreached. A little church had like just been established, but the pastor was older and had not had a chance to go to any of the homes. And so we were able to go in the rain, in the cold, to these places and go into people's homes. They open their homes and let us come in. And one of the homes, the kids were acting crazy.
Shannon Castille:It's so un pretty. It's not pretty. It's not like what you see on, like, Instagram. It's, like, so messy. The kids are falling apart.
Shannon Castille:Everyone's exhausted. We're eating rotten food. We're throwing up. Like, it's crazy. And yet, there's, like, crazy joy connected to bringing Jesus his reward.
Shannon Castille:And we we I got a chance to sit in his home. Blake took the kids because they were acting nuts. And I sat with this woman and our translator. He was the first believer known believer in Mongolia. And he was our translator.
Shannon Castille:And we sat with this woman, and she said, hey, I'm a Buddhist. Like, I don't really wanna hear anything. I said, can I just share my own story as a mother? And I got to share with her my testimony. And she started crying.
Shannon Castille:And she looked at me, and I said, this is Jesus. And she said, this is the truth. How come no one's ever told me this? And the second story I wanna tell you is that I just had an opportunity to take 72 basically white girls from America to Nigeria that was posted last year, the most dangerous nation to go to because of persecution against believers. And we had an opportunity to sit with over a 100 women that had been widowed by martyrdom.
Shannon Castille:Their husbands had been slaughtered by Boko Haram in the North. They had been brought to the South to try to be healed and be restored, their hearts back to the Lord. They were only allowed to pick one child to bring with them because of space. This is real. This is right now.
Shannon Castille:The youngest one was 19. This is Gen Z Africa. And the Lord told us, more than even giving them like emotional health or these things, you're going to carry my presence and it's going to be enough. And we had an opportunity because one of the youngest girls with us was 13, and she had a dream that we were washing their feet. And so all of our girls filled up little water bottles and washed these women's feet.
Shannon Castille:We were with them for a long time. And as we began to wash their feet, they started weeping. And they got literally supernaturally delivered from real pain and trauma through us washing their feet. And I just I believe that we're carrying deliverance and healing for the nations, but we're also carrying healing and deliverance for our families and for California and for America. And the highest calling this is the last thing I'll say, but the highest calling is always going to be obedience.
Shannon Castille:Obedience is the highest calling. And we have to lean in in this hour for his whisper and believe that we're carrying the gospel and that it is enough. So yeah.
Jon Rosene:That is So they have you know they do this all with six kids? They do this with six kids. And so we have a QR code, please give generously, give abundantly.
Darren Rouanzoin:Wait, hold on.
Jon Rosene:I want Yeah yeah.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm so glad you're here. You were right. Missed the better half at the 8AM. I I I love Jesus' presence. This The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Darren Rouanzoin:When the Lord is speaking, you have to respond. And so would you just close your eyes for a moment? This is a testimony of Jesus and he's ministering to some of you right now. So just stand up for those of you that felt his presence in a unique way. God's stirring maybe calling you to missions, calling you to support.
Darren Rouanzoin:Would you just stand up? I wanna pray for you. We just really sense the Lord stirring as Shannon was giving a testimony that you can't deny. Just let the Lord minister to you for a moment. Is there a couple more if you're outside you can stand.
Darren Rouanzoin:If you're bouncing a kid, I'll count you. So father, anyone else wanna stand? Just wanna pray a blessing and Lord, I just release this word. Lord, break our hearts. Break our hearts Jesus for your people.
Darren Rouanzoin:Father would you thank you for the missionaries that are in the room. A new generation being sent to carry the gospel. I'm thinking of this passage in Romans 10. Gonna read as you stay there for a moment. How then can they call on the one they have not believed in?
Darren Rouanzoin:How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news. Lord Jesus, we just release garden to a season of sending missionaries to the nations to go to the places that are the most dangerous, the most unreached, to give our resources, our time, our energy, our lives to your great commission.
Darren Rouanzoin:In Jesus name, amen. Well, gonna pray for them now. Thank you, you guys can sit. Alright, so what I wanna say is take a photo. You can go to their page, support them, their family, they have six kids.
Darren Rouanzoin:Also Garden Church, we had Kai Kai and Kyle here yes last week and I said, please learn our culture as the church. Our culture is about scripture, about the presence of Jesus, mission, formation, hospitality and generosity. That doesn't mean generosity through website, that means get some cash out, give them a Pent Pentecostal handshake and bless them with some finances, okay? So let's pray a blessing. Father, we just thank you for this family, we pray.
Darren Rouanzoin:I just wanna recognize the cost on this household. The the warfare, the financial crisis that comes which is a form of warfare, the the sickness, the wondering how your kids are gonna manage. I pray in Jesus name for abundant provision this next season and a covering from the Lord Jesus that this next season would be marked by grace upon grace upon grace. Just to open doors and ease that you could say, didn't know missions would be this easy. May that be a testimony moving forward in the name of Christ.
Darren Rouanzoin:Amen. Amen. God bless you guys. You're so welcome. Thank you for sharing.
Darren Rouanzoin:I love it. My mentor Don Williams says the meaning of life, he passed away. He said, the meaning of life is relationship. And I met Blake on a trip where we got to fly fish with a bunch of pastors and missionaries. Never fly fished in my life but I We really connected our hearts and I'll just never forget seeing him, this yoked man of a man standing with like a overalls and no shirt under just fly fishing on his phone.
Darren Rouanzoin:Well, all jokes aside, today's a real tough one. I was I was up here with fear and trembling at the 8AM because this text, know, this is what pastor Bill and I were talking about how topical teaching's great and easy because you get to cherry pick the passages you love. But when you preach through the scriptures, there's passages like this you don't wanna have to spend time on very often. But praise the Lord. I wanna show you today.
Darren Rouanzoin:Well as I was reflecting on the challenge of the last service so I'm giving you like inner dialogue. Is that okay? Yeah. Will you just pull out your bibles real quick? I wanna see all my saints in the house with their bibles.
Darren Rouanzoin:There you go. Show me that phone you can just leave. Alright? Make room make room for that. The true believers outside that need a seat in here.
Darren Rouanzoin:Alright. Revelation chapter 20 verse 11. We're gonna go there in a second. Alright? I talked last week about the millennial reign and gave some deep theology about the various perspectives but really landed on this idea, seventh mention in the book of Revelation of Satan, the deceiver who's thrown into the lake of fire and we talked about the lake of fire which we'll talk about again today.
Darren Rouanzoin:So hallelujah, praise the Lord. But what I was I was sensing, after I preached was how challenging this service was at the 8AM for me. I felt as nervous and shaky, I haven't In a way, I haven't felt in years preaching all over. And I think it has to do with the concept but I I was like, no, it's warfare because this talk, you'll see, has all sorts of false doctrine embodied in this church. So when you're dealing with uprooting false theology that's anchored in a belief system primarily formed by culture, then the the the battle for truth is really hard.
Darren Rouanzoin:But remember last week we talked about the way we battle deceit is by standing in truth. So I will say this will be hard in some ways because we've informed by comfort culture but is this is the word of the Lord and I wanna give you healthy theology, I wanna give you good theology so you don't have to heal from bad theology. So for some of you that some of you that are new, this is gonna be tough. It's gonna rattle some of the things that you might believe but within this text you'll see, we'll get We'll go sit through through some hard things and then it's gonna come out light. Okay?
Darren Rouanzoin:So it's gonna We're gonna dig in and then it's gonna come out light and you're gonna you're gonna feel like, yes, hallelujah, praise Jesus, I want you lord. Is that alright? Yes. And I love you so much. I do.
Darren Rouanzoin:And I told I've told a bunch of people, our church right now is receiving extra grace because my son is in this room now. And it's really hard to preach to my boy because he sees me Monday through Saturday. In fact during worship, I had to come up to him and ask for forgiveness for something because I was realizing because I don't know about you but I get here and it's like the list. And I'm like, Lord, forgive me for that. Forgive me for that.
Darren Rouanzoin:And then I'm like, well, you can't I need to ask him. So I like, get out of my seat and come buddy. He's like, I don't even remember that. I'm like, oh, praise God. He does.
Darren Rouanzoin:He says he does. Alright. He does. Oh. Just go to sleep.
Darren Rouanzoin:No. Alright. Let's pray. Shall we pray? Lord, we need you today even in this moment.
Darren Rouanzoin:We want your words not mine. We wanna know the difference between ideas and truth and we wanna we wanna we wanna submit ourselves to the word which is one of the ways you exercise your authority over your church is the word because you are the word and you gave us scripture to not just think about but to form our souls. It's alive and active and may it uproot the lives and give a clarity today of truth for our lives in a world of chaos and confusion. Thank you for this clarity. Show us the gospel in this in Jesus name, amen.
Darren Rouanzoin:Okay, we're we're in a series if you're new and you're coming here for the first time, we're in the most controversial book in all of the bible. Okay? So Genesis to the last book, we're at the last book, Revelation. And Revelation for lots of reasons has all sorts of speculation and hope. Most people interpret this book as a fantasy of what will happen in the end times, but what I've tried to present to you for many many months is that this is a discipleship manual.
Darren Rouanzoin:This is teaching you right now how to live for Jesus in the age of anxiety, chaos and fear. So that's the point. Now, what makes this book hard to interpret is it's written with three literary genres in one. So the first is it's an epistle or a letter from a pastor to a group of Christians. So this book is like the longest epistle in the New Testament encouraging local churches in the first century to remain faithful to Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:But it's also written in the style of apocalyptic literature. The word apocalypse means unveiling. So the word revelation is the word apocalypse. And the word apocalypse means unveiling. And unveiling means seeing behind the scenes of reality.
Darren Rouanzoin:So this whole book is to get you as a Christian to see behind the scenes of what you experience to know what? Not how the end comes but who Jesus really is. It's the unveiling, the apocalypse, the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's the title of the book, Revelation. This is not the unveiling of Armageddon, the unveiling of rapture, that word's not mentioned in Revelation.
Darren Rouanzoin:This is the unveiling of Jesus and as a church we fix our eyes on him. One of the things I'm realizing that's so hard in preaching is our attention span has dropped significantly since the invention of the iPhone. We've gone from twelve to fifteen seconds of available attention space and then the iPhone came around and now we have eight seconds. That's all you have. Goldfish have a nine second attention span.
Darren Rouanzoin:So move towards the goldfish. Ted Lasso, be a goldfish. But the third genre is prophecy. Now, most of us don't understand the biblical understanding of prophecy. We most of the time think, oh, this is predicting the future.
Darren Rouanzoin:But biblical prophecy is primarily thus says the Lord. It's a declaration of what God says for the moment. Now, in Old Testament, New Testament, clearly God does reveal future events. But even in the revelation of future events, it's for the purpose of responding now in obedience to God's will. So I will say that this particular Sunday with the the the the teaching that I'm about to have, it absolutely is apocalyptic epistle and prophecy.
Darren Rouanzoin:And prophecy in the sense that it is both future, this is not just symbolic today. This is future reality. And it requires a response because you'll see, thus says the Lord. You with me? Alright.
Darren Rouanzoin:Let's read this passage together. And at the end, no matter how you feel, you will respond with thanks be to God. Here we go. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence and there was no place for them.
Darren Rouanzoin:And I saw the dead, great and small standing before the throne and books were opened. Another book was opened which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
Darren Rouanzoin:The Lake Of Fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. The word of the lord. Much better than last service. Thank you.
Darren Rouanzoin:They didn't know what to say. Stunned silence. Revelation 20 is this picture that's very much familiar in the old testament of the great white throne or the final judgment. It's John's apocalyptic vision of divine justice. This is the divine cosmic courtroom that we see all the dead, people who have ever lived throughout all history, are brought before the throne to be judged.
Darren Rouanzoin:Have you ever heard this taught about? Some of us grew up with fire and brimstone teaching. This is apocalyptic vision of where all of us will be at some point in time. Is that so no wonder I was stressed all week. I have been formed by many other thinkers that don't have an urgency to what Revelation teaches as urgent need of the moment.
Darren Rouanzoin:This apocalyptic imagery of course is not anchored in John's vision of himself. He is reflecting to us Old Testament narratives and imagery. Daniel chapter seven, we have this passage where it says, as I looked, those were set in place and the ancient of days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow. The hair of his head was white like wool.
Darren Rouanzoin:His throne was flaming with fire and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him. 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. The court was seated and the books were opened.
Darren Rouanzoin:This is Daniel's prophetic, apocalyptic image of what is the final judgment. This idea of someone sitting the ancient of days that if you read Revelation chapter one, that description is already borrowed by John from Daniel that Jesus is this white haired finger or or the father is this white haired finger figure. And, these images are borrowed in the first section of scripture all throughout the chapter four and chapter five, we see this imagery and now we see that the books are open. There's something in the old testament that have to do with the books and in the Jewish consciousness, the Jewish tradition, books were considered the complete record of every person's life. Every compromising word, action, and motive.
Darren Rouanzoin:Nothing was forgotten. Nothing is misplaced. The books are the idea of being judged. It's the old testament concept of the final judgment. You read about this in Exodus 32.
Darren Rouanzoin:You read about in Psalms. You read about it in Daniel. In Ezekiel chapter 12 it says, God will bring every deed into judgment including every hidden thing. The one of the commentaries I love by GK Beale, he says, the great white throne symbolizes purity, authority and finality. It's not a throne of opinion, it's a throne of reality.
Darren Rouanzoin:Eugene Peterson says, God does not judge Not rule by brute force but by purity and truth. Isn't that good? And he goes on to say, judgment in God's hands is light filled and redemptive. One of the things I hear about a lot from non christians or people who are religious or spiritual but not religious is they love this idea of love being the center of the universe. But I have to say, a world without moral reckoning is not rational.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's absurd to think that you can just go on and have no justice. Right? If there's a God worth believing in, he must be just. He must put things to right. Where there is injustice and oppression.
Darren Rouanzoin:Where there's evil and corruption. A loving God must be just. Does that make sense? That's a God worth believing in. And I find it fascinating that our culture will push back against this.
Darren Rouanzoin:We want justice but we don't want judgment. Right? We will post online all about the injustice in the world but don't judge my motives. Judge don't judge my actions. Judge me by my intentions.
Darren Rouanzoin:Is that not the problem of our philosophy of the era? Like, want to be judged not by what I did but what I meant. So babe, when I said that, I meant this. Anyone? Any married people here wanna be like, amen.
Darren Rouanzoin:How I see you see me, Darren. The holy spirit is alive and active right now. I said that yesterday. Because that's that's what the world wants. We want our we want our perspective to be how the world judges.
Darren Rouanzoin:So we gotta give them our intentions and we wanna give justification for our behavior. But only God can see what's true. And this imagery that we have, it goes on it says, the dead were judged twice it says this, according to what they had done as recorded in the books. So the idea that John is conveying that the old testament writers also convey is every single thing you do is recorded. Now, not talking about surveillance, you know, communisms.
Darren Rouanzoin:Obviously, we live in that world. Can I just say like we're all afraid of being controlled by government, but every time you get a new app, you just give them the ability to survey you? They just go through, yeah, terms and conditions. It's like we're gonna record everything you ever said on this phone for the rest of your life. Yes.
Darren Rouanzoin:Do it. I want this 99¢ app. The Soviet Union longed for that kind of surveillance. You just swipe it away. Let's go.
Darren Rouanzoin:You're like, no way. Yes. Read the fine print. Anyways, the sea Listen to what it says. So you're gonna be recorded and and then it says, the sea gave up the dead.
Darren Rouanzoin:So the chaos being of the sea. So now the the chaos of the sea, we talked about this years years ago, months ago, is now giving up the dead. And then it says these two categories, death and Hades gave up the dead and those people also were judged according to what they had done. So this imagery is so interesting. What you have to understand is no one is excluded from judgment.
Darren Rouanzoin:So it says, you know, great and small. Every generation, every race, every culture, every background, every celebrity, every janitor, every martyr, every tyrant will stand in judgment according to the scriptures. You good? And according to the scriptures, will be judged according to what they had done. We'll come back to that in a second.
Darren Rouanzoin:Just let that sit in. Just like if you don't know what that means, okay, your browser history, your whispers, your thoughts, your actions, the good deeds deeds done for a show, the gossip, the things you did in the middle of the night when no one was home or around and you wiped the browser. Those things standing in light. You give an account for it. You alright?
Darren Rouanzoin:Okay. I'm a keep going. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. Okay. And the lake of fire is the second death.
Darren Rouanzoin:Anyone whose name was not found in the book of life, which we'll come back to, was also thrown in the lake of fire. Okay. We talked about this last week because this this imagery of the lake of fire has come up before and we already know that Satan was thrown into the lake of fire. The false prophet or the beast from the earth and the beast from the sea are thrown into the lake of fire. We'll talk about the Lake Of Fire but what you have to understand is hell and our understanding of hell is real but so is hope.
Darren Rouanzoin:And there's some categories theologically I need you to see and I'm gonna give you a little bit of theology that you can handle. You guys get up here? I know you already taking notes. Here we go. So, first of all, death is a word that's specific.
Darren Rouanzoin:It refers to physical death but it's specific to the condition that entered in the world when sin came into the world in Genesis chapter three. According to Romans chapter five verse 12, I want you to see this. This is so beautiful because if you miss it, you don't see what what John is trying to show you. Because we're gonna get to the end which is chapter twenty one and twenty two and it's amazing. But you have to see John is working out a theology to encourage you right now.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's right. Not to just give you hope about some future idea. You know, when Iran invades Israel and everyone, all the dispensationalists are like, yes, it's coming and then there's a peace treaty and they're like, no, we want war and you're like, what Christian wants war? That's that's for somebody here. The way we win is through the blood of the lamb and the way we win is the way of Jesus which is cruciform.
Darren Rouanzoin:So anything else that's not cruciform is not his way. Now check it out. What happens is death, this idea, a death comes into the world through sin. This is Romans five. And Paul works this out theologically in the book of Romans.
Darren Rouanzoin:And so so death it has a hold on God's creation since Genesis three. But not just death, there's this concept that we talked about a couple weeks ago. We talked about the idea of hell. There are many words in the old and new testament. There's Sheol.
Darren Rouanzoin:There's Hades which is the Greek word for Sheol, there's Abraham's bosom, there's Gehenna and then there's the lake of fire to mention a few. Alright, you good? I'm becoming the expert in hell all of a sudden. But stay with me because this is where false doctrine comes in. This is my job.
Darren Rouanzoin:I wanna I wanna make sure the saints of Garden Church hold to true teaching and the doctrine that matters because in my life it didn't really matter but the more I'm realizing this really matters and it I'll tell you why because it affects how you live today.
Shannon Castille:That's right.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm not trying to scare you into heaven. That can't happen. Jesus doesn't say believe in me so that you go to heaven when you die. He says believe in me so you experience heaven on earth now. But can I say you also experience hell on earth now?
Darren Rouanzoin:And hell is a future destination for lots of people and beings that reject God's will. I just jumped the gun. I'm like, no, you can't teach that right now, Darren. This is the biblical truth And it's so hard because I'm You're resisting based on comfort culture or a theology that is is picking apart words and making you feel better about friends who don't know Jesus when there should be an urgency. We should be equipped to share and live.
Darren Rouanzoin:Anyways, I'm gonna keep going. Hades, I'm feeling it. Let me say, I'm correcting years of teaching because I haven't taught on it. I'd have been influenced by other men and women in the church that have wanted to preach universalism which I like as an idea but can't teach as a bible student. Hades is this category for the realm of the dead and it refers to everyone who dies right now.
Darren Rouanzoin:So they're either in Hades, a holding place waiting for final judgment or Abraham's bosom. And then this other thing that I'm talking about right now is going to happen when Jesus returns. Where death in Hades are They they spit out the dead and those are personified as the last tyrants of God's creation. And they are thrown into the lake of fire. So what we know in the gospel story is this.
Darren Rouanzoin:We were designed to live for eternity as humans. You were designed to live Think about how beautiful this is. Your story doesn't begin with sin. That's chapter three. Chapters one and two it says, no, you were designed for shalom which is this Hebrew image.
Darren Rouanzoin:It doesn't have a clear definition. Flourishing life. Everything working the way it was supposed to be and I mean everything. The way you think about yourself, the way you interact with your kids, the way you interact with your spouse and your friends, and all of creation because you have right relationship with God. That shalom is what you were designed to live with for eternity.
Darren Rouanzoin:Is that good news? But the only way it works is through relationship with God. You take that out of the story, you pinch the hose of Shalom, and now you have death, you have sin and rebellion and decay. Death in Genesis three is a grace from God so that you don't live without him for eternity. And he's like, I'm going to redeem your story.
Darren Rouanzoin:And so from Genesis three until Revelation 20 chapters 11 chapter 20 verse 11 through 15, he finally deals with it once and for all. He on the cross, Jesus defeats the the consequences of sin. Atoning what the debt you owed, he paid. He not only he covers your sin, he also defeats Satan. The power and the the corrupt authority and ruler of the age where humans, Adam and Eve, gave their right to rule creation to Satan.
Darren Rouanzoin:And Satan held people in captivity. Jesus on the cross defeats the works of the devil according to John. And then the third is he conquers death with his resurrection. And so now we see the final resting place of death and Hades. Is that not good news?
Darren Rouanzoin:Throwing into a lake of fire. Now this is where it gets difficult. Right? Because the lake of fire, it says this, GK Beale says, throwing the throwing of death and Hades into the lake of fire signifies the annihilation of death itself which is the last enemy. Anyone here ever lost somebody to death?
Darren Rouanzoin:Anyone here around certain birthdays or holidays feel the sting of death? This is the moment where you're like, no. Death doesn't have the final say. You with me? And it goes on and it's Let me throw up some other Okay.
Darren Rouanzoin:So so this idea of the lake of fire is is what I would suggest and this is It's hard because there's so much nuance in the idea of hell. But I'll just say the lake Of Fire is probably our best understanding of hell. Now let me make sure you understand this. Hell is not a metaphor. Hell is not symbolic.
Darren Rouanzoin:It can be described through apocalyptic literature. It can be described in some scholars will just will have a viewpoint which I'll describe in a second as it is symbolic, but the idea, the concept of hell is very real even for those who wanna make it symbolic. Does that make sense? Or let me let me define it. So this is eschatology where where we recognize that the the way it ends impacts how we live.
Darren Rouanzoin:So Jesus, more than any other person in all of the scripture, talked about hell more than anyone else. And he didn't do it to manipulate people into believing in him. He used it to warn people of the life they're living now has a destination. This is in all of the old testament. If you read Psalms of the Proverbs, there is two paths and only two.
Darren Rouanzoin:In our culture, want everyone's path to lead to some great place. No. In the Hebrew consciousness, there are two paths. The blessed life and the foolish life. Blessed is living in God's will in accordance to his wisdom.
Darren Rouanzoin:Foolishness leads you down a path that leads to destruction. So in our understanding, there are two paths. Those that name has been written in the book of life and everyone else that has to stand and be judged according to everything you've ever done. So this idea of hell has been debated for two thousand years. And here are the the four primary perspectives.
Darren Rouanzoin:Can I give this to you real quick? I'll just go through these each. So first of all, I'll get to that one in a second. Can you come back to that one? Let's go eternal conscious torment.
Darren Rouanzoin:You've never heard that in a sermon. So most scholars hold to this belief based on this text and the the verse last week, verse, 10 of chapter 20 says, they will be tormented day and night forever. That idea, Sandlot, do you remember? Do you wanna watch Sandlot this week because of me? Yeah.
Darren Rouanzoin:Look at that. Man, sheep, all of you. Let's go. No. It's a good summer movie, a kickoff.
Darren Rouanzoin:You should watch it this week, July 4. It's great. Here we go. But the idea is that the Lake Of Fire is a literal place. It could be metaphorical but it's a place of ending, unending conscious punishment for the wicked Satan's demons and unbelievers.
Darren Rouanzoin:So the second death is a category of eternal separation from God which I will say is clearly in the scripture but it is irreversible alienation from God's presence where there is an awareness and a rather like an experience of torment. How horrible is that? The second is I would say is a gracious view of hell. Annihilationism. You guys okay?
Darren Rouanzoin:Annihilationism is that only the saved are granted immortality. So the wicked are ultimately destroyed and those who go into the lake of fire, the second death, they cease to exist after judgment. And you see why lots of scholars and people would like hold to this. This also is formed out of Romans six, Malachi four, Matthew 10 where they see the second death as a literal death of the soul body. They they're completely non existent anymore.
Darren Rouanzoin:And you could see why that would be gracious. And then there's a false doctrine of universalism. This is a lie many people love to believe. And it comes from a good idea taken too far where if Jesus is love, how can a loving God send people to hell? And that's not the right question.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's a pair That's that is a a straw man argument in the philosophy of following Jesus, which I'll explain another time. But the summary is all people will eventually be reconciled to God even after judgment. So, they they are judged according to what they did and God's grace and mercy includes them and they're not thrown into the lake of fire even though it says that here. And they are God accepts everyone. And this comes from the Bible, Colossians one, Philippians two, first Timothy, there is this design within the heart of God.
Darren Rouanzoin:You see doesn't want anyone to perish. I'll talk about that in a second. But then, and there's lots of current like TikTok influencers. Oh, can I say this? Yes.
Darren Rouanzoin:Get your theology from dead people. Yeah? Yes. Four influencers that have a platform, a 100%, they should be rooted in a local church and learning theology and teaching biblical stuff. But if your primary influence is an influencer rather than a dead saint or a theologian who studied it or a local church pastor who's studying and preaching expository, not, you know, topical, emotionalistic, like surface level stuff.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm not saying I'm I do We teach expository scripture here. We teach the word. That's the authority. Because my perspective doesn't trump this perspective of the word. It has to be anchored.
Darren Rouanzoin:Anything we do in the church has to submit to the authority of the word in our best ability to interpret it. So you as disciples of Jesus Christ, let the word of God shape your view. I love the idea of universalism. Of course, I want everyone to be saved. Even if it means in, you know, they die and then they have a chance to accept Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:If Jesus wants to do that, great. I don't see that in scripture. And the problem with it is it gives you no urgency. It gives no one that died for their faith a sense of urgency. Like, why are we sending out missionaries to unreached nations?
Darren Rouanzoin:They're all gonna be saved anyways. That's That just loses the sense of the early church, the disciples who died. Just Googled how did the disciples of Jesus die? Look up the word filleted. Right?
Darren Rouanzoin:Are they dying for an idea? No. The person of Christ raised from the dead, historically, bodily resurrected, and it changed everything to the point where they go to India and Armenia. They go around the world telling the people that there is a God who came in the flesh, died and rose from the dead. He's coming back for judgment.
Darren Rouanzoin:You need to believe him now. Yes. Alright. That's my anti universalistic approach. And the last one's symbolic, which which symbolic is connected to the the top two as well.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's this idea that the language used is not necessarily descriptive of what happens in the lake of fire, but an idea, a category of eternal separation. So there is some type of place. We don't know what it's like. It's used as the final judgment where God eradicates evil and the disobedient and those who reject him for all of eternity out of his loving posture of grace. He says, you can reject me for all of eternity because I will empower your free will.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's symbolic nature of hell or the lake of fire. In all of these, I wanna say this, you gotta hear me, hell is not God's desire. Jesus said that, depart from me you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Hell is prepared for the devil and his angels, not for people. And I need you to hear this because this is so important to think about.
Darren Rouanzoin:If hell is the antithesis of the resurrected life in in new creation, Jesus desires you to live right now in life. Second Peter says, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hell is not some primitive theology. It's a necessary implication for moral accountability. Eternity is not something you opt out of or opt into after retirement.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's part of your breath right now. You are living into eternity. So stop playing with sin and believe in it. I just wanna think about this. This is a a total rip off.
Darren Rouanzoin:I didn't use this in the first service. From my dear friend and Francis Chan. Yeah. And it's an illustration and I I've seen pastors use it but for me like all art is borrowed but make sure you cite your sources. I'm so like, people like, this is not original.
Darren Rouanzoin:This is Francis. I I don't know where he got it but I'm I'm giving him credit. He talks about your life and eternity. And but because you're up here, Ezra, will you grab this and just take it that way? So this is my son.
Darren Rouanzoin:Thank you. Will you walk that down as far as you can? Just take it that way. Go go that way. Yeah.
Darren Rouanzoin:Thank you bud. And so if this is your This is life of eternity. Right? So this whole thing is eternity and Francis does this, he's like, this is your life. Alright, you can stop right there bud.
Darren Rouanzoin:Thank you. So this is like your first 10 of life, twenty, thirty, 40, let's say 80, let's say 85, you lived a long life, 85 is the black part. Most of us spend all of our time preparing for this part of our eternity. Right? Our savings, our travel, our worries, our anxieties, our fear, whether or not we'll be successful or deemed successful by culture.
Darren Rouanzoin:You can come sit down. Thanks, Ezra. Leave it right there. It's fine. We'll just leave this out as an illustration.
Darren Rouanzoin:So we spend all of our time worrying about this, not preparing for the rest of eternity. And let me say, the lake of fire, this judgment moment for all humanity that's ever lived, this is where the white begins. So are you investing for the rest of eternity you have with God to be in his presence or to be separated from his presence is the question that revelation has. And that you will give an account for all of this And as a result, be judged and have the consequences of all of this and it's just gonna go on forever. Metaphorically speaking, you with me?
Darren Rouanzoin:The point of judgment is not to terrorize us into obedience but to awaken us to the seriousness of discipleship and the reality of the lamb's victory and I'll add right now. So judgment proceeds renewal. Evil is not swept under the rug, it's brought into light, it's judged and then it's burned away. And this is where our cultural formation clashes with the truth of the text because we want justice without judgment, love without truth and forgiveness without repentance. But if the books, plural meaning every single one of you has a book.
Darren Rouanzoin:So the images, every person that's ever lived has a book with everything recorded. How would you do on that judgment day? Remember the goal according to the scriptures is perfection but not Greek perfection. Hebrew perfection of holiness, wholeness. Shalom.
Darren Rouanzoin:So everything you've ever done is now exposed. What does it show? So imagine if you would, every single purchase for all of your life is judged. Every action, every lie, every thought, every whisper, all of your browser history, all of your social media history, all your WhatsApp, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube history, every comment, every word, every habit done in secret when no one saw it, every good thing you did for show, all of that is on display and you have to stand there with that book and give an account. That's where history goes, not symbolically, not metaphorically.
Darren Rouanzoin:You will stand before the great white throne. Every person, your children, your grandparents, every person when Christ comes back, this event will take place. This is not this is not something I wanna nuance with symbolism of the apocalyptic or historical context. This is the future prophetic moment. What will you do?
Darren Rouanzoin:Have you ever been caught and and guilty of something? And like and then let's say it was bad and then you have to like give context and your your process for all the things. Right? For your whole life. And everyone that's not in the book of life, lake of fire.
Darren Rouanzoin:And here's the problem. The problem is in our culture, right now, is we think our performance gets us somewhere. Right? We think like the way like my yoga practice, my therapy, my life coach, my my discipline equals freedom approach, my mindfulness app, my elimination of certain foods and the, you know, red dye, all of that is gonna get me to salvation. Only when we get there, everything's recorded.
Darren Rouanzoin:And it doesn't matter because God expected perfection and according to Romans chapter three, there is no one righteous, not even one. This confronts our religious pride, our moralism, our self righteousness. It shows all of us law keepers that the moral good that's required can never be achieved because God is holy. So our human goodness, our human progress doesn't lead us to a path of God, it leads us to the lake of fire. Romans three twenty three, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Darren Rouanzoin:You see you were designed for glory but you settled for fire. But there's this one line. Anyone whose name was not found in the book of life. So this idea that there are these books opened standing in front of judgment and then there's singular, one book. His book.
Darren Rouanzoin:The lamb's book of life. And where you would have to now with forty years of history give an account. Jesus's book is open and your name's on it and he says, come on in. Nothing you could have done gets you access to this kind of eternal life with me. Because you aren't judged by what you've done, you're judged by what I've done.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's the gospel in Revelation in a half verse that your good deeds won't save you, your religious performance won't save you, your spiritual resume won't save you. Jesus Christ saves you. He is our escape. But hear me. I need you to hear this.
Darren Rouanzoin:The decisive difference is not behavior but allegiance to the lamb. Those written in the book are not perfect, they're purchased. Jesus writes your name in his book when you trust him. You don't need to add salvation to your to do list today. It's a gift, not a task.
Darren Rouanzoin:You don't need to follow Jesus to get approval. You follow him because you already have it. It's grace. Grace has to be received. It's never earned.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's why Billy Graham says there are two kinds of people in the world. Those who know they need a savior and those who haven't figured it out yet. Tim Keller says, we don't need to be better people, we need to be born again people. You need to be born again. You know in Matthew's gospel Jesus says, that some of us will do the activity of Jesus and when they get to this final judgment, he will say to them, I've I never knew you.
Darren Rouanzoin:You've preached sermons. You showed up to the prayer meetings. You did all the tithing every week. You went to the bible study. You did alpha.
Darren Rouanzoin:You were good. You put the Christian symbol on your business card but you don't know him Or worse, he doesn't know you. Could you imagine when you're in that courtroom and Jesus looks at you piercing your soul with intimacy and he says to his father, this one's mine. Let me tell you about Darren. And he just brings the list of all of the grace that is found in him stamped with approval because of the blood.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm afraid so many of you are just doing the things but you don't know Jesus. You don't believe in him, a better word. You don't trust him. And I'm not talking about trusting for salvation. Yes, of course.
Darren Rouanzoin:But trusting him now so that this eternal picture is existing in this breath, in this moment where your kids experience the grace of Jesus through you. Not because you took them to hear about grace, because their dad and mom revealed grace. Because they too are beggars who found a morsel of bread and wanted to share it with their kids. Grace is it doesn't make sense to us. Grace doesn't make sense.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm gonna keep going for a second. Can I keep going? It doesn't make sense. I remember this story in 02/2008, a pastor told my friend, told this story about something that happened to his church. It was after 02/2008, after the markets crashed.
Darren Rouanzoin:And it happened from a person within their church. They told the story where the family, the the father lost a job. He was a sole breadwinner and, and the family experienced extreme poverty for a season because he couldn't work. The the food stamps ran out, the the support ran out, their savings ran out, and their son got a sickness that took him to the hospital that required extraordinary medicine. So they they are expensive medicines, so they spent all this money paying bills.
Darren Rouanzoin:And all of a sudden, the collection started coming in. All the envelopes started coming into the house. They were hiding it. And there was one particular day, he tells a story where this family with three kids, a mom and dad, they're eating a meal and the meal was so cheap compared to what it used to be. They sat feeling the weight of loss, of despair.
Darren Rouanzoin:The mom's eyes, this moment was broken because she sees the cabinets are empty. Johnny's sick. They don't have what they once had. They was they were full of despair. In that moment, this woman, this neighbor, they didn't know just barged in carrying a bunch of stuff.
Darren Rouanzoin:Sari walks in, sees them at dinner and puts all of this produce and bags of groceries on top of the table, interrupts their dinner and then pulls up a chair and sits down and says, I've seen what you're going through. Here is groceries for the night. They begin to cry. No, we don't know. She says, no, no, no.
Darren Rouanzoin:I've already worked out a deal. The local grocery store knows that you're in need and I'm gonna cover for as long as you need the groceries you need for your family. Just I have an account, it's set up. You will never not have enough eat food in this house. And then she pulls out a checkbook and she says, how much do you own house?
Darren Rouanzoin:They're about to lose the house. And they're like they they're trying to give excuses on how much total do you owe and she she writes it down. And then, how much do you owe on the credit cards? All of them. All of the credit cards.
Darren Rouanzoin:Makes them calculate. She's calculated on the side. How much do you owe for Johnny's bills? Writes up, adds a zero, writes a check, signs it, slides it across the table and says have a nice meal and walks out. It's Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:You know that feeling you have right now? Now all of a sudden you're emotional. Now all of a sudden you're like, oh my gosh it's too good to be true. Yes. Grace.
Darren Rouanzoin:That is an image of grace. It's in the end of Jean Valjean's story in Les Miserables. Jean Valjean had just been released from the prison after serving nineteen years of stealing a loaf of bread. He served nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread and then trying to escape. He was branded a convict, he was rejected by everyone and he wandered into town after his release, bitter and hard hearted.
Darren Rouanzoin:And finally, he's taken in by an old bishop. And the old bishop treats him with kindness as a human, feeds him and gives him a bed for the night. But in the middle of the night, formed by his hard heart, Jean Valjean betrays his kindness. He gets up in the middle of the night, takes the valuable silver that the bishop served him with and he runs off, only to be caught by the police immediately. Dragged back to the bishop's house where they they say to him, we found this man.
Darren Rouanzoin:He claims that you gave him gave him the silver. What should we do with him? Everyone in this moment wants justice. Everyone expects the bishop to press charges. But the bishop looks at Valjean and he says, there you are.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm so glad to see you. And he grabs two candlesticks, the most expensive thing he owned and he hands them to Jean Valjean and says, you forgot about these. And then he whispers as the police go off and he hugs Jean Valjean and he says, with this silver, I have bought your soul. I have ransomed you from fear and hatred and now I give you back to God. And Valjean was undone as he staggers away in silence, clutching the grace he didn't ask for.
Darren Rouanzoin:He didn't earn. He couldn't replay repay. And in that moment, it changes his life. This is what Jesus has done for you. We are Jean Valjean.
Darren Rouanzoin:We are guilty, caught, owing a debt you could never pay, trying to survive on our own, carrying years of sin and compromise and rebellion. And Jesus shows up as a judge expecting condemnation. He gives us grace and he says, I know what you've done but I've already paid for it. I My blood has purchased your life. I bought your soul.
Darren Rouanzoin:Go and live in freedom. When we read that passage, another book was opened. Is your name written on it? Have you put your trust in Jesus? You see, at some point you will stand before God and you can't blame your parents, you can't blame church hurt, you can't blame a toxic pastor, you can't say I didn't ever know, I didn't feel ready.
Darren Rouanzoin:You will stand alone and have to answer the question. And can I tell you what I think he's gonna ask you? It's not, is your name written in the book? I think Jesus will look you in your eyes with tenderness and say, did you know that I loved you? And the faithful saints will say, yes.
Darren Rouanzoin:And I live my life in response to your love. You've run long enough. You've hidden long enough. Jesus is calling you to him right now you can feel it. He's inviting you to turn to him, to be baptized, to be born again, to repent and to believe, to walk in lights not in fear for the day of judgments coming and it's a joyful encounter where you know he says, that's my boy.
Darren Rouanzoin:Yeah. That's my girl. Amen? Amen. Alright, will you all stand?
Darren Rouanzoin:If you're standing in the middle or if you're in the middle, will you scootch all the way in because we're gonna do some baptisms and we need access to this. We have someone getting baptized that needs to come down through here. We're gonna do baptisms folks. So this is a symbol of the confession. Right?
Darren Rouanzoin:Romans chapter 10 says, if you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. When we go into the water, we're declaring to everyone in the world, I believe Jesus is Lord and raised from the dead. It is a symbol of our death with Jesus and our resurrection life with him and it is the only biblical model of confession. There is a prayer you can pray but the the biblical model of faith is getting dunked in water. So if you've never been dunked in water, now's the time.
Darren Rouanzoin:No. There's no excuse. You don't need to call mom. We have a live stream. We'll record it for you.
Darren Rouanzoin:You don't you don't need clothes. We have shirts. Pastor Michael, will you raise your hand? He's over here. There's a few people that have been signed up for the 10.
Darren Rouanzoin:We're gonna celebrate like crazy when they get baptized. But some of you have never been baptized. Today's the day of your salvation. Would you just close your eyes for a moment? I wanna invite some of you to respond.
Darren Rouanzoin:Would you just close your eyes? I know we're busy moving. Who wants to respond to the gospel today? Would you just raise your hand? The God has put on your heart.
Darren Rouanzoin:You wanna you wanna publicly with everyone's eyes closed, raise your hand and say that Jesus is Lord and raise him there. Would you just raise your hand wherever you are? This is you acknowledging right now that you wanna put your trust in Jesus. Is there anyone at 10:00 that wants to raise their hand? I don't see any hands.
Darren Rouanzoin:Oh, there's a hand. Okay. Just repeat this prayer. Lord Jesus, I give you my life. I confess that you are Lord and raised from the dead.
Darren Rouanzoin:That you are Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and let me walk with you for the rest of my life. In Jesus name. Amen. Alright guys, we're gonna worship and if you wanna get baptized come over here.
Darren Rouanzoin:Let's celebrate.
Intro/Outro:Thank you so much for listening. For more information, please visit us at garden.church.