 Well, it is with great reverence and with a very heavy heart that I choose to teach on this topic. It's something you don't hear about often anymore. In fact, many are afraid to preach on this because it is so offensive. And while it gives me no pleasure to talk about this, if I am to remain true to the Word of God, I must warn the wicked of the coming judgment of God. I'm talking about eternity. I'm talking about the afterlife. Talking about hell. In fact, I'm beginning a new series now. Now, this series, I don't know how long it's going to be as far as lengthwise, as far as how many installments of lessons there will be. All I know is that there is much to discuss in this topic, and I'm just going to take my time. I'm going to get into the Word, and I am going to address these issues of hell and heaven and the judgment seat of Christ and all of the questions that arise with those topics. This is something I've been wanting to do for a while. I think it's necessary, and I'm going to start with that controversial aspect of the afterlife, which is hell, and that's what we're getting into on this edition of Spirit Church here on the Encounter TV Network. I'm David Diga Hernandez, and with me as usual is Stephen Mock-Bezuma. He's going to lead you in some anointed worship, and then we're going to get right into this lesson, and I do want to give you a heads up. This is a heavy topic. Here is Stephen Mock-Bezuma. And so I begin my series on eternity by talking about hell, more specifically the importance of preaching hell, the importance of preaching the coming judgment and the wrath of God. Now, very rarely will you hear preachers talking about hell because they don't want to offend people. The sad truth is that many preachers are actually comforting people into hell when they should be offending them into heaven. I'm not saying that offense is the key to salvation, but I am saying that truth must be heard if truth is going to be responded to. And so we have to present the fullness of the truth of the gospel. Jesus saves, but what does he save from? He saves from sin and he saves from hell. People are offended at this topic because they don't like to be confronted with the truth. When you begin to talk about the wrath of God or the judgment of God, it is something that is confrontational and people are forced to deal with it. They come face to face with the reality of the consequence of sin. They come face to face with the depravity of the soul of man. They come face to face with the righteousness and the holiness of God. This is why we must present the truth. I was watching a documentary, a medical documentary on obesity and there was this woman who was working to overcome her obesity and she was aided by this doctor who specialized in helping people overcome this problem. Now I'm not trying to compare sin to obesity necessarily and I don't mean to offend anyone who's struggling with their weight, but I do need to present this as an analogy because it illustrates the point powerfully. This woman, I recall in this documentary, she was going to see this specialist who was helping her lose weight and he was helping her with nutrition. He was helping her with the emotional aspects by getting her psychological help and psychiatric treatment. He was helping her by giving her direction, medical direction and all sorts of different things and they were working toward a surgery. This woman was coming to this doctor consistently and he would keep up with her and he kept her accountable trying to help her lose this weight and become healthy and so every so often she would come in and visit this man and they would sit face to face and he would ask her questions, how are you doing? How is the diet coming? How much weight have you lost? He would weigh her and he would tell her if she lost weight, good job. If she didn't, he would say you really need to pick up the slack here and so eventually this woman began to become offended by this doctor's analysis. Every time she would come to see him and she hadn't lost weight, he would be forced to tell her because he was a good doctor, he would tell her, hey look, you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing, you're not sticking to the program, this is why you're not losing weight and I'll never forget what this woman did and when I saw this, it struck me and the spiritual parallel presented itself or I should say the Holy Spirit presented the spiritual parallel. I remember that she stopped going to the doctor and she said, I'm just going to do this on my own and they asked her, why is it you're not wanting to go to this doctor anymore? Why is it you're going to go do it on your own? She says, I don't want to go to this doctor anymore because he's not positive and he doesn't make me feel good and that struck me because there are people who don't want to hear about the holiness of God and the consequences of sin because it doesn't make them feel good because they don't want to hear it, they avoid it. The scripture describes that people in the last days are going to have itching ears, they're going to bring unto themselves teachers who will tell them what they want to hear. Now I'm not saying that every message needs to be a hellfire and brimstone message. I'm not saying that every sermon needs to make people feel guilty and sometimes there is conviction, not guilt involved when we hear messages. What I am saying is that we must lovingly present the truth otherwise we are forced to really leave people on their own. If we don't present the truth, we are forced into disobedience. There are no other options. Now I'm not saying that hell is our message. Hell is not my message. My message is Christ and Him crucified. My message is the saving and healing power of God. That's what I preach, but if we're not warning people of the wrath to come, if we're not talking about this consequence, this ultimate eternal consequence to sin, then really we are not doing anyone any good. If all we say the gospel is, is blessing and abundance and provision and favor, then those who don't see themselves as being in need are not really going to respond to the message. I mean, why would a wealthy person want to be saved if all we're telling them the gospel is is blessing and wealth, which really that's not the center of the gospel at all. If that's all we're telling them, they're going to say, I don't need Jesus. I have it all already. But if our message is, look, Jesus wants to save you from your sinful state. He wants to forgive you. He wants to wash you. He wants to transform you. He wants to save you from sin and hell and the consequence of sin and the wrath to come. Well then when we put the focus like that, when we force them to look inward at their heart, there's no one without Christ who can honestly look at themselves and say, I don't need him. Every believer must preach truth. Now as I said, this is not necessarily something that we have to always talk about and I'm not saying we should even take pleasure in it. I don't, I do not take pleasure in talking about hell. The thought of it brings sorrow on me. The thought of it brings a weight on me. The thought that anyone would pass into eternity without Jesus. It breaks me, but I hope it breaks you too. The scripture says in Proverbs chapter 27 verse 5, open rebuke is better than secret love. I remember one time I was given a vision. I was about seven or eight years old. I was given a vision concerning hell and I'm not saying that my vision has any ground, it doesn't present really a foundation for saying, oh, that's what hell is like. I think sometimes the visions that God gives to us are metaphoric or symbolic. In other words, if hell was anything like my vision, then hell is a horrible place. But I remember lying in bed and turning over and seeing on the floor this, this rumbling and then the ground opened up and there was this pit and in the pit there were, there were walls and these walls were covered in flames and fire. And there were people inside of the walls, limbs were sticking out and faces were sticking out and people were, it was like they were stuck into the walls in this pit. And I remember feeling the heat rush over my body. Now I don't necessarily believe that that is what hell looks like, that it's literally this open pit. Who knows that we're going to get into this in the coming weeks and we're going to go over what hell is like and many other topics concerning hell. And by the way, I'm going to be talking about universalism, which is the idea that ultimately everyone goes to heaven, even if they didn't receive Christ in this world. And that is going to be very interesting. So look for that in the coming weeks. But I'm not saying necessarily that that is what hell is like, but if hell was anything like that, then it was a tormenting place. It was a place that you don't want anyone to go. And I remember being filled with this, this, this dread about this place. And I knew that I didn't want anyone to go there from, from a very young age. God was speaking to me. God had called me from a very young age. I always knew of my connection with the Holy Spirit. But what I saw shook me. I think of this verse, 1 Corinthians chapter nine, verse 16. For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of. For necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me. If I preach not the gospel, woe is me if I don't preach the gospel. Woe is you if you don't preach the gospel. If we do not preach the gospel, nobody will. If believers aren't preaching the gospel, do you think other religions of the world will declare our message? Will the atheist declare Christ? Will the politicians and the entertainment industry spread the message and the love of God? No. It's the church. It's you and I. We've been given a task and woe is us if we preach not the gospel. Necessity is laid on us. In other words, it is absolutely essential for the sake of the eternity of others that you and I preach the gospel. Your obedience could impact someone's eternity. The scripture also says in Acts chapter 18 verse six, but when they opposed and insulted him, Paul shook the dust from his clothes and said, Your blood is upon your own heads. I am innocent. For now on I will go to preach to the Gentiles. Paul is saying that now that I've preached the gospel to you, your blood is on your own hands, your blood is on your own heads. But if he didn't preach the gospel to them and the blood was on his hands, I don't want to go to heaven with blood on my hands. I don't want to face anyone or see anyone in eternity who I missed. This is why we must be vigilant. You realize that eternity hangs in the balance. I want you to really consider the weight of eternity. Eternity really means forever as we're going to learn in this series. Eternity really is forever. When the Bible says eternal, when the Bible says forever, when the Bible says eternity, it really is talking about an actual forever, something that goes on and on and on and on, never ending forever and ever. This is why we must consider our words, our actions, our obedience toward what God has called us to do. Why? Because souls hang in the balance. We must preach the truth. John chapter 14 verse 6, Jesus said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. He said if you want to enter the kingdom of heaven, you must be born again. There is no other way. The scripture declares there is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved. It's Jesus. Only by the name of Jesus are we saved. Now it may offend others to say that Jesus is the only way, but Jesus is still the only way. It may make others feel excluded when we say that Jesus is the only way, but Jesus is still the only way. It may not be politically correct to say that Jesus is the only way, but that doesn't change the fact that Jesus is the only way. I remember I was on a college campus and I was joining a preacher who specialized in open air preaching. Now his style was much different than I would do it. He was very confrontational in my opinion, a little too confrontational, but I'm not going to criticize in others' ministry. Some street preachers are known to be very abrasive, but if that's what God has called them to do, okay. So I went to this college campus with him and he taught me how to preach open air. And so I remember being there. I was about 16 years old and I'm watching this man preach. And he's going for it. He's talking about the wrath of God. He's talking about the need to repent of sin. And I'm just in awe of how he's drawing a crowd. This crowd of college students who would have otherwise never heard the gospel message, who would have otherwise never stepped foot into a church. As angry as they were with him, they couldn't leave. They were mad. They were offended. They were saying, how could you say this? But then they couldn't leave. And they just stood there listening to the message. They were drawn to it. It was amazing. And so this man is preaching. And this atheist is watching. I knew he was an atheist because I remember either he had a sign or he was wearing a shirt. He was an atheist. The shirt or the sign indicated that he was an atheist, I should say. And so this Christian stands up in the middle of everything that's happening. And I'm watching all of this. This Christian stands up and says to the atheists who are gathered, to the students who were gathered, I want you to know that what this man is saying is not representative of the love of Jesus. Jesus would never talk about hell. Jesus would never confront you on your sin. And he's actually saying that he's claiming to be a believer saying all of this. I'm thinking, wow, ignorant. He didn't know the Bible at all. And he was very emotional, almost crying, just saying, please don't judge Christianity by this man. And I'll never forget the atheist. The atheist said, are you a Christian? He said, yes. He said, do you believe what this man is preaching, the Bible? He said, yes. He says, do you believe there is a hell? The Christian, a little more shaken, said, yes. He says, really? Well, I think, and this is the atheist talking now, he said, I think this man is more loving than you. And he pointed at the Christian and he said this. He said, either you don't really care about me or you don't really believe the Bible. Leave it to an atheist to confront the Christian in that way. Do you believe the word? Do you care about souls? And this is a message we can't avoid. I'm not happy about it. It doesn't give me pleasure to know that a hell exists. But it does exist. But so does salvation through Jesus Christ. So does a way out. This is why we must preach the gospel. Necessity is laid on us to preach the gospel. Jesus saves from sin, hell, and the wrath of God to come. And that is it for this edition of Spirit Church. And this lesson now, before I pray, actually I'll pray and then I'll talk a little more about this series. Let's pray now. Father, in Jesus' name, I pray, Lord, that you would give us the wisdom to preach the truth in love. Help us, Father, to rightly divide the word. In the Holy Spirit, I pray that as we speak your message, I ask that we would not preach your message in any compromised fashion. And Lord, that we would not put too much flesh into it either. Help us to strike the perfect balance between truth and love, mercy and justice, as we declare your message in the name of Jesus. I want you to say it because you agree, say amen. Well, this series is going to be, like I said, this series is going to be very interesting. I'm talking about hell right now. And probably for the next few lessons, I will talk about hell. I'm going to cover universalism, which is the belief that ultimately everyone ends up in heaven through Christ, but that it doesn't matter whether or not they accepted Christ here and now in the earth, which that's not biblical. And I'm going to show you why that's not biblical in the coming weeks. We're also going to be talking about the afterlife. When do the dead in Christ arise and what is the difference between the afterlife for the wicked and the godly and what goes on immediately after death? And when is the judgment? And all of these things are going to be talked about in this series. And I'm going to be focusing on hell for the first few sessions. I don't know how long this will be. I don't know if this is going to be three parts or four parts or five parts. We're just along for the ride. I'm just going to cover the material and however long it takes me to cover the material will cover it. But I know it's going to be something that will be very enlightening and very, very good for your spirit. And it's good for you to know these things. Well, I want to welcome now the new members of Spirit Church. There you are up on the screen. I love you and I'm praying for you. I always say that because I always mean it. If you like information on how you can join the spirit family, then go to davidhernandezministries.com slash spirit church. You can join for free. When you sign up, you're going to get a free teaching from me every single week via email in that email. You're going to get that fresh, anointed word from heaven. You're going to get a worship song from Steven Maktuzuma. You'll be able to reply for prayer, support from our ministry staff, and on top of all that, you'll be joining over 4,000 members from all around the world. So join the spirit family, get those emails, be the first to get those teachings. It's absolutely free. Do that today. Join the spirit family. Well, I want to get to your comments now. And these comments are from last week's teaching. Holy spirit, the keeper of the call or keeper of the call. And if you'd like me to read your comments from this week's teaching next week, then go ahead and leave a comment now. I may read your comment on next week's edition of spirit church. So here are the comments from Holy spirit, keeper of the call. Foster Langone writes, really refreshing message. Many thanks to God because of his love, grace and mercy. I pray that this message will bear fruits in due time to every child of God. K. Steele writes, thank you, evangelist David Diger Hernandez for this great teaching. I also love the worship heart of Stephen Moctezuma. Holy spirit, I pray that I always surrender to your leading and obedient to your voice in Jesus' name. Donna Y. Pickett writes, thank you, Pastor David. I know the Lord is speaking to me. Mary Doncker writes, thank you, Pastor David. God richly bless you for the weekly motivation. Kim Donla writes, this sermon made me fresh again. Thank you, Brother David and Stephen. Corey Smoot writes, glory to God in the highest. Thank you, evangelist Hernandez for this anointed message. This is much needed for the body of Christ to know who they are and what they're called to do as followers of Christ. Blessings upon you, my brother. Nikki writes, thank you, Pastor David, for this word today. It pricked my heart and gave me hope knowing that God is still with me and has a plan for my life to bring him glory. Yes, that was a lesson about the call of God. And if you're someone who's watching this and you fill in your heart as though you have missed the call of God or you're wondering about the call of God for your life, you need to go and watch that lesson. It will really bless you. And Azuka Wisdom, the final commenter writes, Pastor David, thanks so much for this message. I know now that I can truly fulfill God's call on my life. God bless you, sir. And really, this is one of those messages that encourages the believer. Our ministry is twofold. We want to win the lost and we want to build the believer. We want to win the lost. Why? Because we want to win souls. We want to see them enter in the kingdom of heaven. We want to see many receive Christ and we build believers. Why? Because they go and in turn, win the lost. So really, this ministry has a very focused vision. And as we are winning the lost and building believers through events and media, we need help to do so. Now, don't turn off this video. This is where I need you. If you've enjoyed these messages, maybe you enjoyed the teachings. Maybe you like seeing the healings of the demonstrations of God's power. Or perhaps you like the interviews of Steven Mock, the Zoomers worship, whatever it is that you're receiving from this ministry. We want to do more. We want to do more events. We want to put out more media and we want to win more souls and build more believers than ever before. But this is where I need your help. We need people to come alongside of us and say, we're going to invest in this ministry. And really, when it comes down to it, we need to preach the gospel. We have to get this message out. Why? Because eternity hangs in the balance. Your obedience could impact someone's eternity. Your obedience in giving to our ministry and investing in the kingdom could actually reach into someone's eternity and and change their entire eternity. Really think about that. And this is why I need your help. So I need you to consider giving a one time gift today or becoming a monthly ministry partner. Consider a one time gift of a thousand dollars or five hundred dollars or one hundred dollars or consider becoming a monthly ministry supporter at thirty dollars a month, fifty dollars a month, a hundred dollars a month, whatever God places on your heart. But whether your gift is one time or monthly, large or small, everything counts. Everything counts. I mean that. But if you'll become my partner for thirty dollars or more a month, I'll send you either carriers of the glory, twenty five truths about demons and spiritual warfare, or encountering the Holy Spirit in every book of the Bible. I will sign one of those books for you and send it to you as my initiation gift to thank you for becoming my partner. Again, you can pick a book if you become a partner that's a monthly supporter. You sign up for monthly automatic deductions for thirty dollars or more a month and we'll send you one of those books. But again, everything counts a one time gift or a monthly gift. It all goes into helping us expand this ministry so that we can win more souls, build more believers through events and media. Well, that is it for this edition of Spirit Church here on the Encounter TV Network. I'm David Diga Hernandez and until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God. Thank you for watching Encounter TV. Don't forget to subscribe. 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