Creflo Dollar - Are You Ready for the Return of Jesus? - Part 2
He's coming back. He's coming back. He's coming back. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is the Lord and the King of kings. He's coming back I tell you. See, I don't know if you understand, first time he came, he came as a lamb. The lamb gone. Next time he coming back as a roaring lion with a sword in his hands, and guess who's gonna be coming with him? Those of you who are born again shall be changed in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Let me explain something to you, I don't know if you've ever been explained. The return of the Lord is in two part. There is the first part, which is the appearing of the Lord in the air where he won't touch down. He won't put a foot on the earth. There's a meeting in the air where he's... oh, glory to God, thank you, Jesus. Oh, Jesus! Oh Lord, there's a meeting in the air.
The first resurrection, he gonna wake up, He gonna wake up everybody that is asleep in Christ. Everybody that's born again and got saved by grace and they asleep in Christ right now, he gonna wake up and he gonna call them to meet him in the air. So that means a lot gonna be going on in the earth that day. Some people have had their ashes spread over in the sea, so the sea gonna have to reel and rock like a drunk man Some people were put in the vaults and cement and stuff on top of it, so there's gonna be a lot of cracking and a lot of thumping and a lot of boom and stuff going on because the dead in Christ shall rise.
Now, what about those of us who hadn't died yet and we're saved? He said, first of all, let me wake them up and then those of you who remain, who are alive and remain, watch this, shall be changed. Oh my God. What is it talking about shall be changed? Your mortal body is gonna put on your immortal body just like the ashes are gonna have to come together and put on their immortal body, glory to God, and so you're gonna be changed first in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, you're not gonna be able to wash up, put deodorant on, you're gonna be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, and the Bible says, and you shall be caught up, ooh, ooh, ooh, caught up, whoo! Hey, hey! Hey! You're gonna be caught up to meet them in the air.
All right, now watch this. Then we all gonna go away for a minute. Check out the beauty of this complete salvation, you're saved now but it ain't complete until you get your supernatural body, and then when Jesus comes back for a battle called Armageddon, which will take place in the Middle East, the blood would be as high as the horse's bridal, guess who the army gonna be? This will be the battle to defeat the false prophet, to defeat the antichrist who will now be on earth, who is already on earth right now.
Somebody says, how do you know he's on earth? Well, listen out for these words. Peace, peace, peace. With peace he shall deceive many, but we're coming back to defeat the antichrist, the devil, all demons will be locked in the hell that was prepared for them, and then there'll be the second death or the second resurrection. That's where everybody who wasn't saved gonna be raised up, and I guess God's gonna judge them by their works. That's another sermon but the one you needed to hear is where you are at right now. You don't know nothing about this, but 35, 40 years ago, my mama know, some of the others know, church used to sing songs like that.
You remember there's a storm cloud on the ocean, "and it's moving this way, if your soul's not anchored in Jesus, you will surely drift away, drift away, drift away, you will surely drift away, if your soul's not anchored in Jesus, you will surely drift away". You should see some of these younger people, like... If you saved, you should not be scared one bit. If you're not saved, this ought to scare hell out you. Okay, somebody said, I didn't curse, hell is a real place. All right, look at this, all right, 8 and 9, Matthew 24:8-9, he says, they shall deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. They shall deliver you up to be afflicted. They shall kill you; and you shall be hated for my name's sake.
So according to Open Doors USA, the most recent figure available to show Christian deaths that were martyred 2,983 Christian martyred deaths in 2019, and then look at verse 12, verse 12, let's read on down a little bit more. He said, "And because iniquity shall wax cold," or sin shall abound. Sin is gonna increase. Can't nobody doubt that it has already increased. It's crazy out there. "Sin shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold". Wow. So from this source on drugs and crime worldwide in 2018, there were 874,000, over 874,000 people who were murdered intentionally, an intentional homicide. Consider the inhumanity of human trafficking in 2019, and like I said, I think this is much larger.
There were over 1.2 million cases of violent crimes, and I know they reported America being the number one cases in rape in the world, but I think that's probably, they're probably up there, but with other nations as well, I guarantee you, cause you talk about the rape that happens in Africa, when Taffi had a chance to visit a women's shelter and the stories that we were, oh, they were terrible. The stories that were told were terrible, they were terrible, and I want you to know we had an opportunity to support that shelter financially. Women who couldn't get away, they were raped daily. I'm not talking about, oh, from 12 years maybe. Oh, sex trafficking that people don't even appear to care about, and then legal abortions from 1973 to 2011. 2011, they quit counting. How many of you know God is still counting? 53 million children. There's a lot going on, but it all says this, Jesus is coming soon. Jesus is coming soon. Are you ready?
Look at, while we're in Matthew 24, move on down to verse 23. You'll find this in verse 23, men posing as Jesus will try to deceive people in the last days, as I mentioned, but look at this verse here in the NIV, Matthew 24:23-24 in the NIV, he says, "At that time, if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect," if it were possible. So here's the deal, it's like Christian people don't even know that. You're so quickly drawn by a false christ because he performs a sign or a miracle, and the key to it is you're not listening to what they're saying. They're not speaking in line with the Word and there's no peace in the Holy Spirit.
You can go online right now and you can see all these miracle things that are supposedly happening, and I'm telling you, I remember there was this, 90s or 80s or something where some guy was supposed to raise somebody from dead and that was a whole planned out thing. I could not believe somebody would do that. I couldn't believe that a saved person could plan that whole thing out just to get their ministry going. Videotaped it and everything, and I just, and that stuff's going on all over the place. But then there are some look like genuine miracles, and some of them are, you see what the scripture says, that they will perform great signs and wonders to deceive. There will be signs and wonders, but it'll be signs and wonders to deceive. Somebody raised from the dead and then they'll tell you something that's not scriptural.
The Word is your sure word of prophecy, and if you don't know the Word, you're gonna be deceived by these great signs and wonderful. He says, "this will, possible even the elect, but the elect should know, and so I've seen them empty people's church go over to the false christ church because there were signs and wonders and then I've seen whole families messed up and destroyed because they were following the signs and wonders instead of following the Word, and that's gonna increase. You better get to know God and you better get to know him through his Word. You better get to know him through a sure word of prophecy, and when stuff happens that don't line up with the Word, you automatically know that ain't God because God said that in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God".
God and his Word are the same, and you keep following something. You gonna lead a church God called you to and go to a church 'cause they told you your address. "Oh, I hear the Lord said there's a Nadine A Nadine, it starts with a T, T, Taylor yeah. Nadine Taylor, you live at 2105, Oakwood, South Carolina, is that right"? "Yes, yes," and you're shouting 'cause they gave you your address. You ain't get healed, you ain't get delivered, you ain't get no direction, all you got was something you already knew, your address. It's amazing to me how people are just so hungry for something cheap, and we want to cheap up instead of the deeper. I ain't doing that. I ain't gonna play no church. I gotta see Jesus. You think I'mma sit over here and play with this. These people gonna fall dead. You think I'mma play with this? And every time I'm around one of them, it's amazing how they change. Where are your miracles at? Do your miracles. The appearing of Jesus is at hand. He's about to appear. The birth pains are getting closer and closer, more consistent and consistent. Famine 'cause the rain and then the fire and then the flood 'cause the vegetation is not where it used to be. Then the inflation, then the shortage of food.
Y'all, do you not see what's coming? The great appearing of the Lord is at hand. I'll show you this probably next week, but the scoffers will say, oh, they've been saying he's coming back for the longest. He ain't came back yet. Why? Can I answer that right quick? I'll show it to you in the scripture later, because he loves you so much. He wants as many people to get it right so he keeps smashing delay, delay it, delay it, hold on. I feel like Frank getting ready to come, hold on, hold on. I gotta plan, I got somebody coming by his way. I'm sending some believers across his path. Hold on, hold on, hold on. It ain't enough in, I gotta get some more people in. I gotta get some more folks in. No, not yet, not yet, oh. But there's coming a time where the earth can't stand too much more sin. The world is calling what's right wrong and what's wrong right. They justified everything that's wrong and cause the church as an institution to even question what Jesus said.
The appearing is coming. That's all I got. I done did everything I ever want to do in this life. I got nothing else left to do, but to be a servant to God and to try to recruit and get as many people saved, as many as possible, and we are having record numbers of people getting born again, coming out of darkness into the marvelous light. It's happening. He's coming. He's coming. Lord have mercy. My God. Almost here. Finally get to see him. Don't you get to so busy working for God that you forget to know God, like what Taffi said, crazy busy. Finally get to see him. We're gonna see and experience things that our minds could have never fathom. Oh, if I had 10,000 tongues, it wouldn't be enough to praise him, and anytime you allow the enemy to use your mistakes, just say, you know, I'm not perfect, but I am grateful that I am forgiven. He's coming back and I know for some of you, it's just so like, man, I'm trying to stay here, but every time you have a moment in the presence of God, it's like, oh Lord, and sometimes loved ones go away and you don't even know what happened.
You never even thought of the fact that they might have got a glimpse. It's hard to back up when you get a glimpse. I know, I did, it happened to me. I can never forget it, and I've spent almost 21 years, I could never forget it. I can't get it out of my head, what I saw and what I heard. He will appear and you will be ready. You will be ready. Some of you are already ready, and boy, when we get to heaven and all the world changes, nations come together. But until that time, I gotta cry loud like a trumpet. I got to preach what some won't preach no more because they say it's outdated. Man. I'll preach it. You'll preach it. We'll preach it. And you're gonna be glad, you're gonna be so glad that you made the one decision.
Think of that, live a whole life and can't even make the one decision that matters. One decision, you have a whole life to accept the forgiveness of God. Think of that. To accept the payment and the ransom for your sins, a whole life. Did you know, you know how deceived you got to be? For 50, 60, 70 years deny the only thing that can help you when you die, and yet there are millions who have concluded by the voice of fools that there is no God and I don't believe in none of this. Well, we got a problem, but you ain't seen nothing yet for I will prophesy this; that there's about to be a great gathering, that men from the north, the south, the east, and the west will have such a hunger for Jesus, that they will be crying, running to an altar. There'll be people getting saved in public places. There will be angelic manifestations that will increase like never before. You'll think you're talking to a person and you'll be talking to an angel. Somebody said that ain't scripture. The Bible says be careful when you entertain strangers because you might be entertaining angels and doing it unaware.