If you would come on up and bless us with the word of the Thank you. For inviting me to come and, everybody for your kindness while I've been here and a whole lot kinder than I deserve, but we sure are are so thankful to you and look forward to our time we come in the future. And if, if pastor, see if that works better. Yeah. That's working better.

Can you hear me now? So I'm looking forward to the time that we get to come in the future. I've enjoyed being with pastor quite a bit. We've we've we've pretty much been inseparable through the whole week. Katie is a wonderful pastor's wife.

She does a whole lot of good that a lot of people don't know behind the scenes. A great pastor's wife and just a great wife period and a good mom. She messed up on Josh a little bit, but, no. Josh back here, was gonna say, is a is a fine fine young Christian man. And and Josh, it's been very exciting to see your heart for the Lord this week and our times that we've had together.

And, good character and a good young man, gonna be a great servant of God. And he is a great servant of God. In the back here, of course, pastor's son David and all three of us were playing and everybody's serving. It's just great to see, all of that. And, I look forward to time to be with you again.

Thank you all for, what you've done on that table in the back. There are pictures back there that my wife has painted. She can't travel because she got sick in Africa, and so she can't sing any longer. But she said she can't travel. She's not strong enough.

And she used to sing, but sometimes she can barely talk, so she can't sing. But she said, that's okay. I'll make music with my artwork. And so she's been doing some wonderful things, and, those are available. And what comes in from that, we are gonna use for mission trips.

And you guys, I can't believe how many you've bought this week, and it's just been a real blessing. And I hope that you like the pictures. I'm just being nice to to me, but, hope they'll be a blessing to you. Now, I think she's an incredible artist. But then, also, just hope that we get to come back in the future.

And you tell pastor, if you if you want us to come back and he won't invite us, you tell him you won't you won't tithe. Okay? Alright. But anyway, I do do believe we'll be back. We've been with you many times.

Now, let's take our Bibles this evening. Now, the seriousness of God's word. And I want us to look at Isaiah chapter 30, and we're going to look at verse 33 as our text. Isaiah 30 and verse 33. The, Jensen's here are some of my favorite people in all the world.

You'll just love them if you get to know them afterwards. You will not be very long without a big smile on your face talking to them. They'll cheer cheer you right up. They're spark plugs. So get to know them before they get out of here.

Okay? Alright. Now let's look at Isaiah 30 and verse 33. For Tophet is ordained of old, yea, for the king it is prepared. He hath made it deep and large, the piled thereof is fire and much wood.

The breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it. Let's pray. Our heavenly father, we ask for your holy spirit. We pray Lord that you'll speak to hearts and people even maybe that weren't intending to even consider anything seriously that they would and that they'd sense your love and your your your your hope, but they'd also sense their need. And Lord, we pray that not one of us would leave here today without being helped in some way.

And we ask for reviving and we ask for salvation of the lost if they're there. And we ask this in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you. And you can be seated.

I love a campfire. In fact, some of my fondest memories growing up would be getting around a campfire with some of my friends in the youth group. We'd play guitars, we'd sing songs, we'd roast marshmallows, and we would have a great time. Now when I was first in the ministry, I didn't have a full schedule. So I asked my pastor since nobody's working with the teenagers, would it be okay if I did?

And he said, sure. And so my very first youth activity, they just would give me a little gas money and all of that was just pretty much volunteered. But my very first youth activity, I wanted everybody to think that I knew what I was doing and I always enjoyed a campfire. So I thought, we'll start with a campfire. And so during that first day of being a youth pastor, we're gonna do this.

I went out and I made this huge pile of wood to get ready for the the campfire that night. And when the activity started, I said to all the teens, you stay in here, I'm gonna go light the campfire. And I went out, lit that puppy up. And then I called everybody out to the campfire, but the problem was I had made that fire so big and so hot that nobody could get within a 100 feet of it. And on top of that, it was already 90 degrees outside.

And so it was a big flop. Now there are other times when I try to make a fire and I can't get it very big. So if it's just a little bit burning, I'll get down close to it and I will blow on it and I'm trying to make it bigger. And now in this passage, Tophet, I believe is referring to hell. And I believe that as you look at it, it appears that God is making it very big and he seems to be doing it on purpose.

Let's look at it again. Isaiah 30 and verse 33, For Tophet is ordained of old, yea, for the king it is prepared. He hath made it deep and large. So he's making it very big and that he hath made it deep and large. And then he says, and he adds wood to it every day.

And then it says, the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone to kindle it. So he's adding more wood to it, and then he's blowing on it and you don't do that unless you're trying to make it bigger. Now it seems like since the day of the old time evangelist a hundred years ago, not too many people are preaching on hell. And people today will often say that you need to just preach on God's love. I do preach on God's love.

I do preach on forgiveness and those are so needed. But if we're going to have the revival that we had a hundred years ago, we're gonna have to preach on the subjects they did a hundred years ago. And we have to be taking them as they are in the scriptures. And they used to preach on hell and they would preach on it very warmly. So this evening, I believe the Lord would have me to hit this subject.

It's not a beautiful subject, but the subject of hell and there are many different ways that we can look at it, But I'm gonna look at it from a kind of topical perspective, and I'm gonna look at it from this angle. How hot is hell? How hot is hell? Now, it's not alliterated, but it's a biblical thing, and you'll see this as we begin. Now, number one, how hot is hell?

Point number one, it's real hot. Now, somebody says, can't you do a little bit better than just saying it's real hot to help people understand how serious it is? I'm using sort of a plan words when I say it's real hot. I mean, it is real hot, not fake hot. Now, there are some people that think that we made this thing up because we're trying to scare people into being saved.

Now, I want you to know first of all, if you accuse me of trying to scare somebody into being saved, my answer is right. Because some things are very scary. The Bible says some with compassion we make a difference. So sometimes I preach on the love of God. I preached on that this week, how God died on the cross in such a horrible way because he loves.

But yet others say with fear snatching them out of the fire. And when we have a fear of the danger that we're in, then we begin to think about our situation a little more seriously. Now, it is a real place, not a fake a fake place. Now, maybe you had a priest or somebody, a parent tell you there's no such place as hell. There's nothing for you to be afraid of.

But you be the judge if the Bible teaches that there is a place called hell. Psalm nine seventeen, the wicked shall be turned into hell and all nations that forget God. It is real not fake. Proverbs fifteen twenty four, the way of life is above the wise that he may depart from hell. So stay out of that place.

And it says it is real not fake. Proverbs twenty three thirteen and fourteen, withhold not correction from a child. If thou beatest him with a rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with a rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell. It is real, not fake.

Matthew ten twenty eight, fear not them which are able to kill the body but not able to kill the soul, but rather fear God. Don't be ignorant. Don't be complacent. Don't be arrogant. Fear God.

And it tells us who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. So it says that we have to get a fear of God because there is a hell and you are going to go there and I'm going to go there unless we prepare to meet our God. Now, what does the Bible teach about hell? Number one, it is a real place. Luke chapter 16 beginning at verse 19.

And in hell, he lift up his eyes being in torment. It has fire. Luke sixteen twenty four, he cried and said, father Abraham, have mercy on me, send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame. It number three is a place of brimstone. Revelation nineteen twenty, these both were cast into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

Now what is brimstone? The Bible doesn't say. But I kind of believe that brimstone is probably sort of like lava. If you were to go to a volcano, the guide might tell you that as you look into the volcano, this is lava fire. But he would say this is a lava lake, this is lava stone.

And that lava comes up from the center of the earth. Now where is hell supposed to be? Center of the earth. Now I contend to us that if hell is in the center of the earth and lava comes from the center of the earth, then brimstone might very well be hot seeding lava. Now imagine swimming around in a lake of lava.

Hell is a place, it is fire, it is brimstone, and the Bible does teach this. We didn't make it up. And the old time evangelist would preach it, and today people say, oh, come on. No. We need to come on in this generation.

Do you think that for some reason the Bible was true for nineteen hundred years and all of sudden because we are educated a deeper way in a university that it's no longer true. In fact, anybody who is honest and educated will see there are so many fulfilled prophecies that could have never happened by luck That this book has got to be true and anybody who is a thinking person in my opinion will consider instead of just totally reject it without looking into it. Now as I look at this and I am convinced that this book is God's word by the evidences of it, I believe then that there's a great need for me to tell people what God's word says. So you don't go there. There is a place, hell.

It is fire. It has brimstone. It is everlasting. And it is the place where you would never die. Now Mark nine forty four, of the soul, uses the term worm where the worm dieth not.

And people will just burn and burn and burn and never die. Think of it. Now, don't like to believe in cancer, but my brother got cancer and he died. Now, I can't wish it away and make it disappear because I don't like it. And friend, you and I, listen, cannot wish hell away because we love people and don't want them to go there.

I wish I could. I don't want anybody to go to hell, but it is there. God is stoking up the fire. He's adding much wood and the flames are there. Now, number one, it is real hot.

Number two, how hot is hell? It's too hot for you. It's too hot for you. Take your Bibles if you will and let's look at Matthew chapter five verse twenty nine and thirty. And as we continue this, I do wanna say that God doesn't want anybody to go to hell.

I don't want anyone to go to hell. But God put in the Bible there is a hell so people will not have to go there. And he so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, not God so hated the world but God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. So if you would end up in hell, it would not be God wants you there. Did you know that the Bible says that God didn't make hell for people?

The Bible says that God created it for the devil and his angels. But when sin came because of the devil, then death came because of the devil, not because of God. And so God sent Jesus to save men, not to send them to hell, but to stop them from going to where they're already going because of sin. Now, you could look at me like, come on you crazy man and I understand it. But if you can understand what I'm saying is truly in the Bible, then you know he's not crazy and I don't really care if you think I'm crazy.

I care about you not ending up in a bad bad bad place. Now, hell is real, not fake. Number two, it's too hot for you, and I want you to see Matthew five twenty nine and thirty. Now, here's what it says. If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, cast it from thee.

For it's profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that their whole body should be cast into hell. Okay. Here's what it says. There are things that people can do with their eyes that will put them in hell. K?

There are things people could do with their hands that would put them in hell. And so honestly, Jesus is preaching this sermon. Now this is not a hellfire brimstone person who's not educated just yelling. Now sometimes people will accuse me of that. If I just use my stories then okay.

But if I'm quoting Bible which I'm trying to do because my stories don't matter but Bible is truth. This is not somebody yelling in the year 2025. This is way back when Jesus was here. In fact, it's red ink. Now anybody who looks at the Bible can see red ink is is there.

Now what does that mean? Whose message is this? Alright. So somebody says, well, I just love Jesus. Well, he loves you too.

Well, I don't like these guys yelling about hell. I'm telling you, I don't preach in it all the time, but I feel like I need to tonight. And I tell you what, if you wouldn't like anybody preaching on hell, then you would have been upset with Lord Jesus himself. This is red ink and he's not saying this because I hate you human beings. You wicked whoremongers, adulterers, fornicators.

You are on your way to hell and you should burn. That's not Jesus. But what he's doing is he's warning there's a hill and he said, I came to save you from it. Now notice what he is teaching. If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out.

Now I don't think he's like some preachers would get up and they would say, if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out. If your foot offend you, it off. He's saying, if your right eye offends you, pluck it out. If your foot offends you, cut it off. I've seen this place.

I built it. I know what it is and I don't want you there. I made it for the devil, Matthew twenty five forty four. And now you're going there because of the devil and I'm here to save you from it. Please take me seriously is what Jesus is saying.

I love you so much that I'm telling you, whatever would put you in hell, get rid of it. Because hell is too hot for you. Now, are two kinds of people in this world, and I will say there are two kinds of people in this room. Honestly, if the Bible's true, and it is, then there are two kinds of people in this room. Those who are going to heaven, those who are going to hell.

Now if the Bible is true that's true and it is and so the job is to consider are you going to heaven are you going to hell and if you're not sure you're going to heaven let's deal with that And sometimes if we can just get across the best in love that we can, but the seriousness of it and the fear if we can, then the fear will move us to salvation. Now if you think about this, Jesus preaching and he's saying whatever it would be if it's your eye. Now, that sounds pretty serious. Now, there are things people do with their eyes that would be looking at pornography. There would be things people do with their eyes looking and lusting.

And you can look at something and that is a banning of sin. If not for the blood of Jesus, you would go to hell for that. Now, if you are born again, if you have already accepted Jesus, you won't go to hell for that because Jesus saved you. But what you're doing is as bad and bad enough that you would have gone to hell if it wasn't for Jesus. So don't have a light view of sin.

But here's what he's saying. If you're not going to heaven and it's because you won't turn from your sin, you would be better to take a metal rod, stick it behind your eye, and pluck your eyeball out. That's what he's saying. Rather than die and go to hell because you won't stop doing it. If you're a thief, take a chainsaw, chop your hand off, throw it away, rather than die and go to hell because you won't stop stealing.

Now, does God want anybody to really pluck their eye out? Jesus, who is God? Does he really want somebody to cut their hand off? Absolutely not. But what he's saying is this is so serious that there's something keeping you from getting saved.

Get rid of it. Now for some people, it might be their eye. For another, it might be their foot, Another, their hand. They'd like like to go and steal. But others, it might just be their pride.

I haven't given in yet. I ain't about to give in now. Well, you can keep your pride and you can lose your soul. You can hang on to something that you believed in the past. Maybe you had some grandma tell you and no disrespect to her that there is no hell.

But your Bible says there is a hell. You've gotta let go of the wrong thinking and take the right thinking. Now, what is it that is keeping you from getting saved? If it's your friends, who wouldn't understand? If it's your family, love your friends, love your family, but don't go to hell over it.

I was at a teen camp years ago, and there were four young people, five of them, excuse me, that when they came to camp they made a decision that they were not going to accept Jesus. And it didn't matter what they heard, they weren't doing it. And so then they made a pact with each other and they said nobody make a decision to receive Jesus. We're not doing that stuff. And if anybody caves in and receives Jesus, they've got to buy everybody else's steak dinner.

True story. So these four guys, I was thinking five guys, what in the world are they thinking? But the gospel was preached and people understood it and one at a time people got saved. And at the end on Thursday night, we were standing around another campfire and we were talking about what God had done, and we were so excited to see four of these five that were now on their way to heaven instead of hell. Is that exciting?

And so we then said to the last guy, Joe Curry, Joe, are you gonna accept Jesus? Because you know you need him too. The other four did and you need him too. And Joe looked at us all and he says, not me, man. I've got four steak dinners coming to me, and I'm not gonna give up my steak dinners.

So we looked at him and we said, Joe, that's stupid. It's not worth going to hell over four steak dinners. And he looked again, he said, no, I'm not giving up my steak dinners. And I never will forget Brian Malik who's a bigger guy than me, about three times my size. He went up behind Joe Curry and he said, Joe, you sure you don't wanna get saved?

He said, no. He said, are you sure? Nope. Not giving up mistake, Joe Curry said. And so Brian Malek said, okay.

And he just started walking toward the campfire. You sure? He said, no, man. He said, okay. And he's walking toward the campfire and as big as he is, he was just kinda pushing Joe Curry with no problem toward the campfire.

So Joe Curry says, stop it, Brian. And he just kept walking, stop it, Brian. And he said, what are you trying to do? And then he spun around and he got away before he went in that fire. I don't think Brian would have put him in, but he was putting him toward the fire and then he said, what are you trying to do?

And Brian looked at him and he said, Joe, I'm just wanting you to find out what it'd be like if you were to burn in hell. Then Joe Curry went around the corner of a cabin, got on his knees, and he prayed and accepted Jesus. And today, he is still serving Jesus because he realized hell was too hot for him. Now, this is not alliterated, but hell is real. Hell is too hot for you.

Number three, how hot is hell? It is hot enough to scare a demon. Now turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter eight. Now some stories that we read in the Bible, they are so amazing. You wonder if they really did happen.

But I'm telling you, it happened. And it's not that you believe it just because I say it, because obviously that would be foolish, but I'm telling you the evidences for the Bible are there. And for somebody to just recklessly say, well, I don't believe it. You can say I do not believe in cancer, but as I remind you, it doesn't disappear. I do not believe in terrorism, but it doesn't disappear.

And I do not believe in hell that doesn't make it go away. God is stoking up the fire, he's adding much wood, and the flames are full blaze. Now here in Matthew chapter eight, God put in his story in about a man who was demon possessed, and this demon possessed person saw who Christ was and it got to be a very strong confrontation. Now notice verse 28, and when he was come to the other side of the country, the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils coming out of the tomb exceeding fierce so that no man might pass by that way. And behold they cried out saying what have we to do with thee Jesus thou son of God?

Art thou come hither to torment us before the time? What time? The time when demons are going to be cast into hell. Now how many of you believe that demons are real? How many believe just like the Bible says that one day they're all going to be cast into hell?

So they're thinking, oh no, it's Jesus and we know who he is. Is this the time that we're going to be cast into hell? And they freak out and they begin to come up with a plan to stay out of hell. And so their plan was they asked if they could go into some pigs. Notice verse 30.

There was a good way off from them, a herd of many swine feeding, so the devils besought him saying if thou castest out, suffer, allow us to go away into herd of the swine. And he said unto them, go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine and behold the whole herd of swine ran finally down a steep place into the sea and perished in the water. Now when I think of a demon, I think of a powerful being, and I think of a demon never getting scared. I think of a demon scaring us.

I think of wicked hair, gnarly teeth, skeleton face, so I've never seen one, eyes of fire, and I think how they're very powerful. In fact, there was one powerful demon that was so powerful that seven men sons of Sceva went against that one demon and the demon beat the seven men up. And they ran wounded and naked for their lives. So demons are very powerful and these powerful demons see Jesus. They're afraid it's time that he's gonna judge them for what they did to hurt men and they freak out.

They'll say we'll do anything. We'll live in pigs if we have to, just don't send us to that place before the time. Now sometimes we'll read stories as I mentioned, and we don't apply them to today. But this happened two thousand years ago, but demons are still afraid of going to hell. Now I'm gonna tell you a story I didn't tell anybody for ten years after it happened because I thought nobody would believe me, but it happened.

My wife will verify, my father-in-law will verify, the pastor Jim Hirschenheim will verify in Wilmington, North Carolina. I met a girl who was demon possessed. I've been to Haiti 10 times, so of course I've met people. I've never gone up and gone up to people and said, heal you. I never done that.

That's just not me. I've never gone with a mission to cast a demon out of anybody. But when it happens, I have gone just a few times, maybe three, four times of my entire life. So I'm not looking for a demon around every corner. But I met this girl the first time I thought was demon possessed.

And when she came up to me, I didn't know what was going on. First, she said to me, brother Pelletier, I keep hearing voices, and whenever I talk to people, they think I'm making it up. Well, I think everybody ought to be given an ear, don't you? So I didn't just blow her off. I said, well, tell me about it.

And she told me some things, they were odd, so I was beginning to wonder. And then I thought, I don't know why it pops in my head except maybe God wanted to. I said, have you ever played with a Ouija board? Now Ouija board's not a toy, it's the first step into the occult. She said, yeah.

A friend of mine in my senior class, Christian school by the way, are playing with a Ouija board. I said, So then I said, is anything strange ever happened when you play with it? She said, oh, yeah. I said, tell me. Well, one day we were playing with it and asking you questions and it would answer us.

And then all of a sudden it took over and it asked us a question. Okay. And then I said, what it asked? It asked, how would you like a special friend? They said, we want one.

And then they said, go open the window and stand by the window. She said, we went to the window, we opened the window and we just waited. And it was no breeze, no wind, nothing, and all of a sudden the wind kicked up so powerfully that it actually blew through the window, blew our hair straight back is what she said. And then all of a sudden it quit and the went rain went back, the hair went straight down. So I thought, well, maybe there's something to it because she said, Dan, my friend started talking with a different voice.

Now I know this sounds very odd. I'm not asking you to just take everything I say, but I'm telling you this this happened. Okay? Now all the Bible verses, in hell he lifted his eyes banged torments, tormented in the flame, everlasting punishment, brimstone, dieth not, smoke of the damned, distended forever and ever day and night, they, the damned, have no rest ever. I know that you can't ignore that.

You can ignore my illustration thinking I'm stretching it. I'm asking you to please believe me, but even if you don't, I am not lying, but even if you don't believe me, you can believe there is everlasting fire and you don't wanna go there. The authority of God's word. But here's what happened. So she heard these voices, so I wondered if there was something to it, and I didn't know what to do.

And I always heard that demons don't like to hear about the blood of Jesus. So I tested it. I said, what do you think about the blood of Christ? Please believe me, twelfth grader, thin girl, walk up to me and looked like she wanted to kill me and she shoved me with two hands. And she lifted me up and I landed flat on my back.

Now I have never had a girl in high school strong enough to throw me on my back. She started walking toward me like she wanted to kill me. I was scared. Felt the hair rage on the back of my neck. But I remember the bible verse, she overcome Satan by the blood of the lamb.

And so laying on my back, I looked at her and I said, you can't do a thing to me. I plead the blood Christ over you. And she sat down in her chair like a whipped puppy. I wondered if I was just in an emotional frenzy, if this was really happening. So I went up to her and I quoted another verse and she just shook there in her chair and I knew she had a demon.

Didn't know what to do. So I asked God and it's like God didn't all ought to be hear a voice, but like God was leading me to just ask the demon its name. So I said to her as she was sitting in this 800 seat auditorium sitting in that one chair, I said to her, what do you think of the blood of Christ? And she shook there. And so finally, I said, okay.

You know you're more powerful than me if you're a demon. You're not more powerful than Jesus. I don't come to you in my name because I'm not perfect and you know me and that I'm not. But I'm coming to you in the righteousness of Jesus and in the power of Jesus and in the name of Jesus, not in me. You're more powerful than me.

So I was in the right frame of mind, and I said to them, in the name of Christ, what is your name? And please believe me, the eyes rolled up, I saw nothing but the white of her eyes. The eyes came down and there was the demon. And the name was so strange, I can't remember it. And it talked for a little bit, and then all of sudden eyes rolled up, came down, there was another voice.

Eyes went up, came down, and then there was this sweet grandmother voice. So she had more than one in her. And as I was talking to her, the sweet grandmother, I found myself actually liking this being from a different dimension, and I just kind of enjoyed this sweet grandmother type voice. But then I thought, wait a minute, that's a demon. And I remember how the devil is the angel of light, and so almost apologetically, I realized that I gotta cast this thing out.

And so I said, almost apologetically, I'm sorry. You're gonna have to come out now. And when I did, that sweet grandmother voice changed to what you might expect from a demon. It went from sweet grandmother to like you would expect. I felt the hair raise again on my neck.

And I said, you've gotta come out now. And then after a bit, the eyes rolled up, the eyes came down, and there was Joyce again. But Joyce said, stop it. I said, what Joyce? She said, stop it.

I said, what? She said, you're hurting my friends. Get it. They're burning. I said, what?

She said, they're burning, hurting my friends. Stop it. I said, Joyce, they're not your friends. They're demons. I said, you don't need them, you need Jesus.

She said, yes, Jesus. I want Jesus. I said, let me talk to the demons again. So she said, okay. And the eyes rolled up, came down, there were the demons again.

And I said again, you've gotta leave. And they said, we're not leaving. I said, what authority do you have to stay? And they said, well, you Joyce told us we could say. Joyce said she wanted Jesus.

She told you that, but then she told us that we could stay. So I just said, let me talk to Joyce one more time, and if she wants you to leave, you're gonna have to leave. Now here's where I'm going with this story. They wouldn't let me talk to Joyce. And honestly, I talked for two more hours trying to get Joyce.

I was two hours late for a date with my wife. My father-in-law said, where were you? And the pastor told him. And here's what happened. Two hours, I tried to talk to Joyce.

Two hours the demons would not let me. They were afraid I would talk her into wanting Jesus and I finally won. And you know how I won? I remember this passage where the demons said, alright, thou come here the torment us before the time. So I said to the demons, if you don't let me talk to Joyce this second, I'm gonna get on my knees and ask Jesus to cast you into the lake of fire before the time.

And the eyes rolled up and they came back down and there was Joyce's voice. And you know what that showed me? I already knew there was a hell, but that's affirmed there has got to be a hell. Demons are afraid of going there. Now friends, you might be tough, but you're not tougher than a demon.

And if a demon cannot handle going to hell, you certainly can't. So here's Jesus. What is keeping you from getting saved? If it's your eye, if it's your foot, if it's your friend, if it's your family, if it's your pride, swallow it because hell is too hot for you. Imagine taking, and I said this this other day, a little birthday candle, the smallest one you can find and take one little finger and stick it in that birthday candle for five minutes.

If you couldn't handle one finger enough birthday can five minutes, you could never handle a whole body burning in hell. Now, God doesn't want us in hell. God so loved the world, not so hated the world, but the whole thing is about that you would not perish and that implies that we are perishing unless we get hell. How hot is hell? Real hot.

Hot enough to scare a demon. Too hot for you. How hot is hell? It's too hot. There are many things we could say to pretend to be saved.

Now, the Bible talks about people that are religious but lost. There are people that pretend. And the Bible says basically because you pretend like the Pharisees after thy hardness and impenitent heart you treasure up wrath against the day of wrath. Hell will be hotter if you have a chance to be saved and you don't genuinely get saved. Now, when I was a boy, we went to Kankakee State Park for the fourth grade class and missus Miller, our teacher who took us said, Mike, you don't live far from here.

Why don't you lead us around? Do you know your way around the park? I said, oh, yes, I do missus Miller. I had no idea. I can hardly turn around in a parking lot and find my way back to where I'm going.

But I like to be the center of attention, so I pretended I knew where I was going. So I said, yep, Follow me. Let's go this way. So we went this way, and they all followed me. Okay.

Let's go this way, and we went that way. They all followed me. Okay. Let's go over this log. Let's go over and over the creek.

Okay. So we went over this big log going over the creek, and I was enjoying being the leader like I knew where I was going. The problem was when we got on the other side and we came into a bunch of trees that I couldn't get through and we were just totally at a dead end, missus Merleau looked at me and said, do you really know where you're going? And I looked and I had to say, I really don't know where I'm going. And I'd gotten us all lost because I was pretending I knew where I was going.

Now, do you know that you're going to go to heaven? Or are you just pretending? It's not gonna get you there pretending. You wanna know you're gonna go to heaven. There's so much that could be said.

How many would agree with this? How hot as hell? It's too hot for our friends. How many agree with that one? I don't want any of them to go there.

How about this? It's too hot for our family. And how hot is hell? It's just too hot. And then there's so much more that we could say.

But the Bible teaches very clearly, God so loved the world, not so hated the world. The Bible says what he did, so loved that he gave his only begotten son. Little boy went to his mom and she said to her little boy, do you love mommy? Yes, mommy. How much do you love mommy?

And then the little little boy said, a lot. So wanting to get a little bit more out of him. She said, well, what's a lot? And so he tried to think it just the right word and a little boy came up with a big word with two letters. Maybe you've heard this before.

He said, I love you a a lot. And she said, well, how much is a lot? And finally, he came up with these two letter word. He said, I love you so much. Now, letter word, s all, but a whole lot in that word.

Would you agree? Now, God so loved the world that he gave his son that you would not and I would not have to go to hell. You cannot love anybody anymore than to die for them. And I don't believe that there's anybody whether you're saved or not saved that hasn't heard about Jesus in America. Now was he here or not?

Our whole calendar system is set up on he was here. Did he die on the cross or not? Josephus, a historian says he did who's not even recorded to be a follower of Christ. Did he rise from the dead? Well, we sure don't have Easter because of an Easter bunny.

And the Bible message is the same it was nineteen hundred years ago, eight hundred years ago, and two thousand years from now. It's still gonna say the same thing. Without Jesus, we go to hell, and with Jesus, we go to heaven, and it'll keep saying he doesn't want us to go to hell. He wants us to go to heaven. And if you die and you go to hell, it'll be because you are walking away from the love of Jesus Christ.

Well, I'm not doing that. If you come to Jesus, you go to heaven. If you reject him, you go to hell. And I'm telling you, until you receive him by faith, you are rejecting him. Now so loved that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life, he wants you in heaven.

I close with this. Years ago, I was in Michigan and I was preaching. And when I was preaching, there were teens I was preaching to. And I got a phone call before I went in to preach. And secretary called me into the office when it was a landline time.

And so I went into the office, picked up the phone, and he said, it's it's your wife. Oh, okay. So I answered the phone, my wife, and I expected her to say, hey, handsome honk. Can't wait for you to come home. And she was very quiet.

And so I thought, well, something must be wrong. So I said, Becky, is everything okay? And she still didn't talk, so I knew something was wrong. So I said, Becky, something's wrong. You would not have called me if something was not wrong.

So I said, just tell me what it is. And she got out two words. She said, it's Aubrey. Aubrey is was our one and a half year old at the time several years ago. I said, well, what is it?

What happened? She's been burned. So I'm thinking, well, how badly is she alive? So quickly I said, is she alive? You see, she's alive, but she's burned badly.

I said, how bad is it? Doctor said second third degree burns, ten percent of her body. And I said, well, what happened? She said, I was filling up the bathtub and she dove in. Now, we lived in a trailer like out here and there's a 10 gallon water heater, and so we used to keep it very hot.

It was all my fault, not my wife's. And I would keep it so hot it could scald you, and you put in the hot water, add cold water, and you have a bigger bath is my thinking. I don't do that now, and I quit doing that after the burns. Anyway, Becky was putting in the hot water and my one and a half year old daughter was a tomboy, saw the water and dove in. So there was a scream and Becky took her out right away.

And thank God she was fully clothed, but where she wasn't clothed, her whole body was burned, but where she wasn't clothed, she got second third degree burns. So from here to here, she had second third degree burns. Here to here, her hands went down to the bottom of the tub, so those didn't get second third degree burns. She had shoes on. I'm glad for that.

And her chin went in and her chin got burned and some splashed on her forehead and burned her. But her body was burned, but not the severe burns. So anyway, I didn't even preach. I went straight home, got on a plane, went to the hospital. And when I went into the hospital, went directly into the room, didn't even stop by the house.

And when I saw her, she's laying there all bandaged up around her chin, looking like a little mummy and hands up her arms all bandaged up. And she's looking like, daddy, can't you take the pain away? And if you've never seen your child suffer, you don't know what we all felt that day. So anyway, the doctor then comes into the room and he says, sir, can I speak to you out in the hall? So I went in the hall and he said, sir, not only do we know she said second, third degree burns ten percent of her body, but we believe she's had congestive heart failure.

So now I'm thinking she may die. But we found out later it wasn't heart failure. She actually inhaled so much steam that it burnt the inside of her lungs too. Now they began the debrief process, which is basically you have to take off the burnt scan to make room for a new scan. And so they took her into the room and I was there holding her.

They were trying to take off the bandages and she would just shake and I knew she was in pain. And as they're removing those bandages, I said, could you be a little more gentle with her? I'll try. So he tries a little bit, she's still screaming. I said, you're gonna have to be more gentle with her.

And the man said, can't, she's gonna scream. I say, give her something. He said, I can't take away this pain. It's too intense. I said, why?

Well, the first layer of her skin is all burned off and all of her nerves are exposed. And so when they take off the bandages, the oxygen then hits those nerves and it burns all over again. So they begin to take it off, come down, come up to the hands, and I can't tell you everything, But when they took the bandages off, everything looked like all of her skin had just been peeled off like an animal. And then every joint is three times its normal size. They're all bubbled up, and I'm seeing things I never thought I'd see.

I'm seeing blood, didn't expect that. I'm seeing mucus. I'm seeing things I never thought. And as I looked at those, I thought she'll never use those fingers again. And then they began the deburring process and all I'll tell you is they had to take tweezers, touch her burnt skin, and pull it off so that new flesh could grow.

Now folks, every time they touch her skin, she'd just scream all over again. And I cannot preach on hell without thinking about my daughter's burns. And the thought that goes through my mind is that that was just water. What could fire do? God is stoking up the fire and the flames are there.

They're full blaze. Let's bow our heads. Now with our heads bowed and eyes closed this evening, how many of you in the room would say, brother Mike, I may not be what I should be, but I definitely know this. If I were to die, I would go to heaven and I have a Bible reason why I'm thankfully knowledgeable. I know that I'm going to go to heaven.

If you are not bragging but you're thankful, you know you're going to heaven, you've taken care of this and you have no doubt. It doesn't do any good to pretend to be saved. But you have a bible reason why you know you're saved. Would you slip up your hand if you have a bible reason, not a baptist reason, but a bible reason? Okay.

Good. Good. Good. Thank you. You can put your hands down.

Now very, very, very softly, if the pianist will just softly, softly, softly play his tans of invitation, How many of you in the room would say, brother Mike, I could not raise my hand because I don't know that I'm gonna go to heaven. I don't know it. But I do know there's something to it and I don't wanna go to hell. So if you would say, brother Mike, I may not know everything about it, but I know there's something to it and I don't wanna go to hell, and I I want to go to heaven. Would you pray I understand it?

I won't say your name. I won't force you to do anything you don't wanna do. We don't force. We invite. But your soul is at stake.

And if I could help you, I would do it. I would be more intense if it would help you. But you are the one who's got to understand your need. And so let me ask you, is there anybody like that? I don't know I'm going to heaven, but I know there's something to it and I don't wanna go to hell.

Pray for me. I want God to help me with this. Would you slip up a hand if you're willing and just slip it back down and I'll see it and remember you in prayer? I do not know I'm going to heaven, but I don't wanna go to hell and I want help. Pray for me.

Anybody like that? Alright. There are some of you here tonight that could not raise your hand that you know you're gonna go to heaven. And I'm telling you with all the love in my heart, you're in great danger. And I hope that tonight will make you think about your soul.

You may have another week. You may have another year. You may have another decade. Or you may be dead in a car wreck tonight. But you've got to prepare to meet God.

And I wanna ask just one more time, is there anybody who would say, I don't know I'm going to go to heaven, but I want help. Pray for me. Anybody. Just lift up the hand. Alright.

Now again, how many of you would say in light of this message, count me and I wanna do more than what I've been doing to try to get my friends and loved ones. Hell's too hot for my friends and family, and they're people that I wanna go after again. Would you just lift up a hand at the end of this revival meeting if you got people on your heart? God bless you. God bless you.

God bless you. Let's do this. Let's all stand to our feet. And I'm gonna ask if you have someone you're burdened for their soul and you want to, you go to them and you talk to them about their soul. But I wanna ask across the room that those of us that have someone we're burdened for, why don't you just slip out across the room?

There are about 30 of you. And just come and lift up that name of the person you're concerned about before the Lord. That God will help you to win those people to Jesus, and you could come right now as the pianist is playing. Come pray for those souls you're burdened for. Just pray, God, help me to reach these people.

Help me to reach this person. God, help me as I try to go after this unsaved family member or friend. God bless you. God bless you. Just come and pray about those souls if you have someone you wanna pray about.