WEBVTT 00:01.134 --> 00:02.357 [UNKNOWN]: Thank you for watching. 00:38.942 --> 00:40.944 [UNKNOWN]: Thank you for watching. 00:48.075 --> 00:52.538 [SPEAKER_01]: In 1976, one of the wealthiest men in America passed away. 00:52.598 --> 00:54.859 [SPEAKER_01]: His name was Howard Hughes. 00:54.899 --> 00:56.400 [SPEAKER_01]: Many of you have probably heard that name before. 00:56.460 --> 00:59.942 [SPEAKER_01]: He was a billionaire and an aviator and a filmmaker. 01:00.222 --> 01:06.246 [SPEAKER_01]: And at the time of his death, he left an estimated two and a half billion dollar fortune. 01:07.087 --> 01:08.167 [SPEAKER_01]: It was incredible. 01:08.267 --> 01:12.610 [SPEAKER_01]: But there was one big problem with the fortune, and that is, he didn't leave a will. 01:13.855 --> 01:15.777 [SPEAKER_01]: Nobody knew where the money was supposed to go. 01:16.357 --> 01:21.962 [SPEAKER_01]: And what followed was one of the longest and messiest estate battles in American history. 01:22.542 --> 01:33.632 [SPEAKER_01]: More than 600 people showed up claiming to be wives, long lost children, distant cousins, all trying to get a piece of that fortune. 01:34.456 --> 01:43.776 [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, there was even one individual who produced a will that became known as the Mormon will that said that he left his estate to a random gas station owner in Utah. 01:44.645 --> 01:47.167 [SPEAKER_01]: and that believe it or not turned out to be a fraud. 01:47.467 --> 01:57.474 [SPEAKER_01]: But there were a lot of confusing things and legal battles, and it just led to decades and decades of struggle trying to figure out who would actually get this money. 01:58.055 --> 02:08.422 [SPEAKER_01]: And because he was left no instructions for his estate and because these legal battles went on for years and years and years, a good chunk of his money didn't actually go to his ares at all. 02:08.522 --> 02:09.263 [SPEAKER_01]: Where do you think it went? 02:10.647 --> 02:11.548 [SPEAKER_01]: to the lawyers. 02:12.049 --> 02:18.537 [SPEAKER_01]: The lawyers were the real big winners because of the decades of lawsuits and legal battles that ensued. 02:19.077 --> 02:23.263 [SPEAKER_01]: A little piece of paper, what has made all the difference in the world. 02:24.473 --> 02:32.755 [SPEAKER_01]: in what happened to his fortune and in the lives of the people who in many ways their lives really were wrapped up in this debate for many, many years. 02:33.275 --> 02:36.336 [SPEAKER_01]: That would have been a very important document to have. 02:36.996 --> 02:43.038 [SPEAKER_01]: And as we look at Revelation chapter 5 today, John is going to introduce us to a document, like that. 02:43.858 --> 02:46.339 [SPEAKER_01]: a document that's like a will or like a deed. 02:46.419 --> 02:50.080 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's going to be a document that has been called the full-crum of revelation. 02:50.100 --> 02:54.502 [SPEAKER_01]: It sets up the all the future that we're going to see all the other visions and things of John. 02:54.842 --> 03:01.785 [SPEAKER_01]: This little piece of paper, a papyrus scroll, is the key to the purpose of the universe. 03:02.505 --> 03:06.529 [SPEAKER_01]: It's the key to understanding why bad things happen in the world. 03:06.589 --> 03:11.974 [SPEAKER_01]: It's what sets up all the other vision things and shows us God's plan at a very high level. 03:12.014 --> 03:16.738 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a very, very important document, a document of cosmic significance. 03:17.439 --> 03:20.602 [SPEAKER_01]: But there is one problem with the document. 03:21.663 --> 03:22.624 [SPEAKER_01]: It's not that it's missing. 03:23.805 --> 03:26.027 [SPEAKER_01]: It's that no one can open it. 03:27.107 --> 03:33.652 [SPEAKER_01]: and we're going to get into some really fascinating stuff in Revelation today and especially in the weeks to come. 03:34.172 --> 03:43.759 [SPEAKER_01]: We have made our way now through the seven churches of Asia last week John brought us back in Revelation and into the throne room of God to see that God is glorious and He is holy, holy, holy. 03:44.019 --> 03:51.865 [SPEAKER_01]: And today we're going to see that that setting of the throne room and Revelation chapter four is really just the setup to what we're going to see today. 03:52.005 --> 03:53.346 [SPEAKER_01]: It sets the stage 03:54.427 --> 03:57.368 [SPEAKER_01]: for this scroll of cosmic significance. 03:57.388 --> 04:02.271 [SPEAKER_01]: And before we study Revelation 5, I just want to remind everyone that this is a vision. 04:03.011 --> 04:04.752 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a vision that John saw. 04:04.772 --> 04:08.653 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a prophetic vision, which means there's a lot of symbolism in it. 04:08.713 --> 04:10.034 [SPEAKER_01]: John is on the island of Patmos. 04:10.074 --> 04:11.895 [SPEAKER_01]: He receives this vision from God. 04:11.915 --> 04:18.938 [SPEAKER_01]: And it doesn't necessarily mean that everything in the vision is meant to be a one-to-one relationship with the way things appear in the real world. 04:18.958 --> 04:22.080 [SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of symbolism in these kinds of prophetic visions. 04:24.378 --> 04:28.461 [SPEAKER_01]: will come up with all sorts of theories about what the symbols mean. 04:29.142 --> 04:31.183 [SPEAKER_01]: Now sometimes the Bible tells us plainly what they mean. 04:31.203 --> 04:36.368 [SPEAKER_01]: There are times where there is a vision and there is symbolism and very quickly the Bible says, and here's what it means. 04:37.343 --> 04:43.108 [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes there's a prophetic vision a long time ago and then Jesus tells us what it means or Paul tells us what it means. 04:43.328 --> 04:45.830 [SPEAKER_01]: And for hundreds of years they did not know what it referred to. 04:46.391 --> 04:50.955 [SPEAKER_01]: It was not something they could figure out and then it gets revealed and so we don't have to wonder any more what it means. 04:50.995 --> 04:56.520 [SPEAKER_01]: But when we don't have a clear indication from Scripture about what symbolism is. 04:57.625 --> 05:02.488 [SPEAKER_01]: We have to be very careful, not to be dogmatic in our interpretations. 05:02.948 --> 05:13.653 [SPEAKER_01]: And many Christians and many churches have been divided over interpretation and theories about the symbolism and revelation and we just have to be careful to hold those with open hands. 05:14.174 --> 05:15.995 [SPEAKER_01]: There are times when the Bible is very clear. 05:16.855 --> 05:20.837 [SPEAKER_01]: There are times when God has intentionally veiled things from us. 05:21.397 --> 05:28.420 [SPEAKER_01]: And we can speculate in theorize and wonder and all of that is perfectly fine, but we have to be careful not to be too dogmatic about that. 05:28.821 --> 05:33.183 [SPEAKER_01]: See the undivided series on our website if you want to learn more about that concept. 05:33.603 --> 05:36.104 [SPEAKER_01]: But with that in mind, I want to remind you of some things we talked about. 05:36.484 --> 05:41.767 [SPEAKER_01]: Way back in week one of this series because some people see the book of Revelation like a crystal ball. 05:42.387 --> 06:01.046 [SPEAKER_01]: like if we can look at it just the right way we can kind of figure out who the antichrist is going to be and when the rapture is going to happen and what the tribulation is going to be like and I'm going to try to decode all of this and maybe write some novels about it and then we're going to know what's going to happen in the future and some people see revelation that way like it's a crystal ball for decoding the future some people look at it as a newspaper companion. 06:01.607 --> 06:06.911 [SPEAKER_01]: Like I'm reading the stories of current events, I'm trying to figure out, okay, what is it in Revelation that matches to this to all of that? 06:07.171 --> 06:12.756 [SPEAKER_01]: This thing that's happened with this country over here, and this war, and this thing in the stars, that must relate to what the Bible's talking about here. 06:13.336 --> 06:16.899 [SPEAKER_01]: And often those are very forced and unverifiable connections. 06:17.787 --> 06:34.211 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, some people see revelation as a very literal detailed blueprint and they want to take everything in the vision as much as possible as not being symbolic and actually being the actual thing that has pictured in John's vision and that doesn't make a lot of sense either and we'll talk more about that in the coming weeks. 06:34.871 --> 06:41.153 [SPEAKER_01]: But most people, if we're being honest, most people treat the book of Revelation like a museum relic. 06:41.733 --> 06:42.634 [SPEAKER_01]: Put it up on the shelf. 06:42.955 --> 06:43.716 [SPEAKER_01]: Let it collect us. 06:43.976 --> 06:44.697 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think about it. 06:44.817 --> 06:45.738 [SPEAKER_01]: It's too confusing. 06:46.038 --> 06:47.320 [SPEAKER_01]: Not sure what all of that means. 06:47.600 --> 06:48.482 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's unfortunate. 06:49.383 --> 06:52.627 [SPEAKER_01]: Because the Book of Revelation was not given to be any of those things for us. 06:52.887 --> 06:57.192 [SPEAKER_01]: The Book of Revelation was actually given to us to be like a discipleship compass. 06:58.166 --> 07:17.829 [SPEAKER_01]: It is a book that was meant to be given and read to the believers and studied by the believers to encourage them and to help them know what God is doing in the world, what His mission is all about, and what our response to that should be it's given to provide hope and assurance to know that God has a plan not so that we can predict the exact details of that plan. 07:18.730 --> 07:21.392 [SPEAKER_01]: And that's the case with all Bible prophecy. 07:21.933 --> 07:30.239 [SPEAKER_01]: Bible prophecy is not generally meant to give secret codes and allow us to predict exactly how God will do things when God speaks about the future. 07:30.760 --> 07:38.967 [SPEAKER_01]: But it is given to us that we will know he has a plan, he has a mission in this world, he wants us to be a part of it, and he's calling us to enter into that with him. 07:39.027 --> 07:45.112 [SPEAKER_01]: So it's vitally important that we learn the differences between what is the Bible actually specifically say, 07:46.300 --> 07:52.564 [SPEAKER_01]: And what are people's theories about things that the Bible eludes to or gives us symbolism for? 07:53.125 --> 08:00.570 [SPEAKER_01]: Because the purpose of God's prophecies is never so that we can decode the future and have a leg up on people and invest in the right companies or something. 08:01.096 --> 08:10.365 [SPEAKER_01]: or even just know what's going to happen, or when it's going to happen, the purpose of God's prophecies is always to teach us something about Him and how He wants us to live. 08:11.026 --> 08:15.610 [SPEAKER_01]: Revelation was not written so that we can predict the antichrist. 08:16.271 --> 08:23.858 [SPEAKER_01]: Any more than the book of Isaiah was written so that the Hebrews could predict that the Messiah would be crucified and not be a military hero. 08:24.974 --> 08:38.888 [SPEAKER_01]: Revelation was not written so that we can know for sure which specific nation states are going to do certain things based on their historical associations with other nation states in the Bible any more than the Psalms were written so that the Hebrew people could predict where Jesus would grow up. 08:39.838 --> 08:41.519 [SPEAKER_01]: in Nazareth, they didn't know that. 08:42.199 --> 08:44.721 [SPEAKER_01]: They didn't understand those things at the time they weren't meant to. 08:44.761 --> 08:45.982 [SPEAKER_01]: So that's not the purpose. 08:46.402 --> 08:51.545 [SPEAKER_01]: The purpose is this is a sneak peek at God's mission at what he's doing in this world. 08:52.066 --> 08:55.968 [SPEAKER_01]: To know that he's got a plan, he's working at something he invites us to be a part of it. 08:56.028 --> 09:00.471 [SPEAKER_01]: So a couple of questions that we should be asking as we study the book of Revelation. 09:00.671 --> 09:05.894 [SPEAKER_01]: And as you work through this series with us, I encourage you, be reading Revelation ahead of time, studying this for yourself. 09:05.934 --> 09:06.655 [SPEAKER_01]: And as you do that, 09:07.550 --> 09:13.093 [SPEAKER_01]: It's okay to ask who might this person be, what might this nation be, it's okay to think about those things. 09:13.113 --> 09:15.855 [SPEAKER_01]: We just want to hold them loosely, but here are the more important questions. 09:16.295 --> 09:17.116 [SPEAKER_01]: What has got up to? 09:18.016 --> 09:18.757 [SPEAKER_01]: What is his mission? 09:19.828 --> 09:26.331 [SPEAKER_01]: And the second question would be, what does God want me to do as his child as a part of his mission? 09:26.831 --> 09:30.332 [SPEAKER_01]: Those are the questions that should be the priorities in our mind. 09:30.412 --> 09:38.956 [SPEAKER_01]: So now that we have that established, go to Revelation five with me, and we're just gonna work through this chapter together and see what we can learn about God. 09:39.816 --> 09:45.379 [SPEAKER_01]: Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who was sitting on the throne. 09:46.440 --> 09:51.642 [SPEAKER_01]: There was righted on the inside and outside of the scroll and it was sealed with seven seals. 09:52.503 --> 09:59.606 [SPEAKER_01]: And I saw a strong angel who shouted with a loud voice, who is worthy to break the seals on this scroll and open it. 10:00.586 --> 10:06.729 [SPEAKER_01]: But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll and read it. 10:06.789 --> 10:14.092 [SPEAKER_01]: Then I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll and read it. 10:16.690 --> 10:18.051 [SPEAKER_01]: really vivid dreams. 10:18.872 --> 10:20.934 [SPEAKER_01]: You have dreams that feel like more real than real life. 10:21.114 --> 10:27.019 [SPEAKER_01]: You have a dream where you wake up and because someone close to you did something mean to you and the dream you don't like them in real life. 10:27.700 --> 10:28.280 [SPEAKER_01]: You ever have that? 10:28.681 --> 10:30.562 [SPEAKER_01]: I can't believe my wife would do that to me. 10:30.963 --> 10:31.243 [SPEAKER_01]: She didn't. 10:31.263 --> 10:31.804 [SPEAKER_01]: It was a dream. 10:32.624 --> 10:34.386 [SPEAKER_01]: But sometimes we have really, really vivid dreams. 10:34.706 --> 10:37.309 [SPEAKER_01]: I remember when I was a kid, I used to have some crazy vivid dreams. 10:37.349 --> 10:41.933 [SPEAKER_01]: And one of my recurring dreams that I had a lot for some reason was this dream that I could fly, 10:44.079 --> 10:50.365 [SPEAKER_01]: But in order to unlock my ability to fly had to jump off of a high place, that's not a good dream for a kid to have. 10:51.266 --> 10:54.109 [SPEAKER_01]: Because you wake up in for a few minutes, you're like, I guess I can fly. 10:54.569 --> 10:55.910 [SPEAKER_01]: But I got to unlock it. 10:55.951 --> 10:58.613 [SPEAKER_01]: I got to go jump off the top of my house or something. 10:59.214 --> 11:01.376 [SPEAKER_01]: Unfortunately, I came to my senses quickly enough. 11:01.676 --> 11:04.018 [SPEAKER_01]: One time I had this dream was so vivid, it was so real. 11:04.298 --> 11:05.499 [SPEAKER_01]: And I could not believe this happened. 11:05.880 --> 11:06.881 [SPEAKER_01]: In the dream world, 11:07.778 --> 11:08.398 [SPEAKER_01]: in the dream world. 11:08.798 --> 11:12.100 [SPEAKER_01]: Someone did something that was like the worst thing imaginable to me. 11:12.140 --> 11:12.720 [SPEAKER_01]: It was awful. 11:12.740 --> 11:13.421 [SPEAKER_01]: It was a heinous crime. 11:13.441 --> 11:19.544 [SPEAKER_01]: And you know how the dream world just gets distorted and the whole idea of what's right and wrong can be just con bonkers in dreamland. 11:19.804 --> 11:22.845 [SPEAKER_01]: So my own family, my own flesh and blood did something terrible to me. 11:23.225 --> 11:26.167 [SPEAKER_01]: They finished off my cereal, my favorite cereal was gone. 11:27.452 --> 11:32.114 [SPEAKER_01]: You got to understand, in the dream reality, this was the worst thing you could do to a person. 11:32.494 --> 11:34.475 [SPEAKER_01]: And so I woke up furious. 11:35.076 --> 11:38.557 [SPEAKER_01]: And I ran downstairs and I opened the cupboard to check and see if my cereal was still there. 11:38.997 --> 11:40.558 [SPEAKER_01]: Because I could not believe they would take it away from me. 11:41.398 --> 11:46.641 [SPEAKER_01]: Dreams like that that are so vivid and real to us can really shake us and really have an impact on us. 11:46.801 --> 11:50.803 [SPEAKER_01]: And they can even distort our feelings of like what matters in the world, okay? 11:51.263 --> 11:55.505 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, here's John having a vision that's probably a thousand times more vivid and real than that. 11:56.347 --> 11:59.849 [SPEAKER_01]: And this whole vision up to this point has been building to this moment. 12:00.069 --> 12:00.930 [SPEAKER_01]: It's been setting this up. 12:00.950 --> 12:06.933 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, can you imagine what he is feeling seen all of this grandeur in God's glory and the worship in the praise? 12:07.193 --> 12:10.976 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's just building up to this climax where the scroll is revealed. 12:11.656 --> 12:16.339 [SPEAKER_01]: And clearly, this scroll is one of the most important things imaginable. 12:16.379 --> 12:20.421 [SPEAKER_01]: He understands that there's cosmic significance to this scroll. 12:20.481 --> 12:23.163 [SPEAKER_01]: It's in the hand of the one on the throne. 12:24.127 --> 12:25.688 [SPEAKER_01]: It's got writing on the inside and out. 12:25.708 --> 12:29.592 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, these scrolls were typically made of papyrus. 12:29.612 --> 12:31.533 [SPEAKER_01]: This is actually a sheet of Egyptian papyrus. 12:31.954 --> 12:33.935 [SPEAKER_01]: And they would write on the inside of the scroll. 12:34.376 --> 12:35.377 [SPEAKER_01]: And then they'd roll it up. 12:36.197 --> 12:43.503 [SPEAKER_01]: And they would write on the outside of the scroll, the contents, a summary of the contents, so that you could know just by looking at the outside. 12:43.523 --> 12:45.225 [SPEAKER_01]: OK, this is what's inside this scroll. 12:45.505 --> 12:49.869 [SPEAKER_01]: And inside are all the details of a deed or a will or something like that. 12:50.309 --> 13:00.673 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, a really important scroll, a legal document that was meant to be sacred and legally binding, would have a seal put on the gap right here. 13:01.153 --> 13:04.894 [SPEAKER_01]: And that seal was meant to close it off so that you knew it wasn't tampered with. 13:05.414 --> 13:16.638 [SPEAKER_01]: Because those seals, they were used like IDs or signatures, and people would either have a stamp or they would have a ring, and they would pour hot wax on it, and they would push the seal into it, and that would seal the document. 13:17.300 --> 13:23.404 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, really, really important documents in Rome would have seven seals. 13:24.205 --> 13:33.251 [SPEAKER_01]: Seven witnesses would each bring their own seal and they would each seal this document so there would be seven wax seals up and down the edge of this thing. 13:34.080 --> 13:40.043 [SPEAKER_01]: so that it was verifiable that seven people observed this, it's like a notary, it's like the ancient version of a notary. 13:40.624 --> 13:45.266 [SPEAKER_01]: And you knew by looking at it, wow, it's got seven seals, that's an important document. 13:45.286 --> 13:50.069 [SPEAKER_01]: So here is this document that John is seeing, he knows it's incredibly important. 13:50.829 --> 13:55.212 [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, these seals that people used on these scrolls were so important. 13:55.552 --> 14:03.976 [SPEAKER_01]: It was, well, one time there was this battle where this Carthaginian general ambushed and killed a Roman general. 14:04.277 --> 14:06.758 [SPEAKER_01]: So the Carthaginian general, his name was Hannibal Barca. 14:07.118 --> 14:11.981 [SPEAKER_01]: And he ambushed and killed Claudius Marcellus and he took his ring that had the seal on. 14:12.481 --> 14:13.362 [SPEAKER_01]: and he was very clever. 14:13.823 --> 14:20.971 [SPEAKER_01]: He used that ring to seal some documents that said, hey, my army's about to come through, open the gates and let us in. 14:21.584 --> 14:22.165 [SPEAKER_01]: Isn't that smart? 14:22.805 --> 14:31.494 [SPEAKER_01]: And then he stole all the Roman clothing from the troop that they ambushed and they were going to head through these cities and just have them open the doors and let them walk in and take over. 14:31.574 --> 14:37.880 [SPEAKER_01]: But there was another Roman general that understood that Marcellus was defeated and he knew what might happen. 14:37.900 --> 14:42.164 [SPEAKER_01]: So he sent letters ahead of them to say, do not trust Marcellus seal. 14:42.204 --> 14:42.864 [SPEAKER_01]: He is dead. 14:43.165 --> 14:45.247 [SPEAKER_01]: If anyone sends you something with his seal, it's a trick. 14:46.191 --> 14:47.713 [SPEAKER_01]: That's how important these seals were. 14:47.733 --> 14:49.916 [SPEAKER_01]: They were life and death for some people. 14:50.116 --> 14:56.024 [SPEAKER_01]: And this scroll that John saw, well, it's got seven of these seals on it, which means it is incredibly important. 14:56.044 --> 14:59.608 [SPEAKER_01]: And John knows this has been built up to be a really big deal. 14:59.628 --> 15:02.211 [SPEAKER_01]: You'll find out later in the book here. 15:03.083 --> 15:07.144 [SPEAKER_01]: How this scroll, it's got the keys to the universe. 15:07.404 --> 15:13.686 [SPEAKER_01]: It's understanding God's plan for everything and what He's doing with evil in the world and what God is up to. 15:13.706 --> 15:15.346 [SPEAKER_01]: It is a very, very important scroll. 15:15.406 --> 15:22.468 [SPEAKER_01]: But here's the thing, no one on heaven or earth or under the earth is able to open it. 15:23.147 --> 15:32.670 [SPEAKER_01]: which tells me that there was probably some search that John witnessed, but he's probably there and in the dream world, in the vision world, time can be compressed and can function differently. 15:32.710 --> 15:38.572 [SPEAKER_01]: So he's experiencing this universe-wide search for someone that can open the scroll. 15:38.812 --> 15:40.853 [SPEAKER_01]: And he's been built up to this moment of anticipation. 15:40.873 --> 15:42.293 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I've got to see what's in that scroll. 15:42.513 --> 15:49.055 [SPEAKER_01]: This is the answer to the things I'm here in prison on this island, all these Christians that I'm writing to there being persecuted in their different areas. 15:49.095 --> 15:51.376 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, what does God's answer to all of this and no one? 15:52.036 --> 15:52.836 [SPEAKER_01]: is found who can open it. 15:52.856 --> 15:53.417 [SPEAKER_01]: So he weeps. 15:54.237 --> 15:55.097 [SPEAKER_01]: He weeps bitterly. 15:55.137 --> 15:57.418 [SPEAKER_01]: He's devastated by all of this. 15:58.239 --> 16:03.701 [SPEAKER_01]: Because these Christians and John, they want to know God, do you have a plan for all this? 16:05.221 --> 16:08.183 [SPEAKER_01]: This suffering that we're experiencing right now is there an end to all of this? 16:08.423 --> 16:10.644 [SPEAKER_01]: Is this just what it's going to mean to be a Christian forever? 16:11.284 --> 16:12.584 [SPEAKER_01]: It's always going to act like this. 16:12.644 --> 16:13.725 [SPEAKER_01]: It's always going to be this way. 16:14.714 --> 16:18.296 [SPEAKER_01]: Or are you going to somehow bring this to a conclusion and a resolution? 16:18.356 --> 16:21.598 [SPEAKER_01]: And he knows that this scroll is the answer to that. 16:22.399 --> 16:24.180 [SPEAKER_01]: We often ask the same types of questions. 16:24.440 --> 16:33.485 [SPEAKER_01]: And we may not experience persecution the same way that the first century believers in Asia minor did, but many of our brothers and sisters and Christ around the world do today. 16:34.206 --> 16:35.346 [SPEAKER_01]: And so we need to pray for them. 16:35.987 --> 16:41.190 [SPEAKER_01]: But even in our own lives, we face trials and troubles and difficulties, where we ask the same types of questions. 16:44.333 --> 16:45.553 [SPEAKER_01]: Is this suffering going to end? 16:46.434 --> 16:48.614 [SPEAKER_01]: Can you just show up and take away these problems? 16:48.674 --> 16:50.835 [SPEAKER_01]: For me, Dawn did a great job in her testimony earlier. 16:51.155 --> 16:52.395 [SPEAKER_01]: Explain to you how that's how she felt. 16:53.136 --> 16:55.376 [SPEAKER_01]: I just want God to show up and solve this for me. 16:55.416 --> 16:56.797 [SPEAKER_01]: God, could you do that right now? 16:58.237 --> 16:59.897 [SPEAKER_01]: We ask those same types of questions. 17:00.678 --> 17:03.118 [SPEAKER_01]: And John is good to get an answer for that in the rest of the chapter. 17:03.418 --> 17:04.539 [SPEAKER_01]: Let's keep reading, verse five. 17:05.139 --> 17:08.360 [SPEAKER_01]: But one of the 24 elders said to me, stop weeping. 17:09.230 --> 17:14.573 [SPEAKER_01]: Look, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David's throne, has won the victory. 17:15.054 --> 17:19.256 [SPEAKER_01]: He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals. 17:19.736 --> 17:24.979 [SPEAKER_01]: Our pause here to talk about one of the things people have different theories about, and that is the 24 elders. 17:25.520 --> 17:27.341 [SPEAKER_01]: Who are the 24 elders? 17:27.361 --> 17:32.524 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, they could be the 12 apostles and 12 leaders of the tribes of Israel. 17:32.544 --> 17:33.945 [SPEAKER_01]: That would make sense, 12 and 12 makes. 17:34.325 --> 17:34.465 [SPEAKER_01]: 24. 17:35.286 --> 17:38.370 [SPEAKER_01]: They could be members of God's Heavenly Council. 17:38.410 --> 17:45.838 [SPEAKER_01]: We've talked about the Heavenly Council in our series on Genesis, our series on Daniel, and so they might be members of God's Heavenly Council. 17:46.479 --> 17:47.420 [SPEAKER_01]: It's also possible. 17:48.353 --> 17:54.535 [SPEAKER_01]: that they're just meant to be viewed as symbolic representations of leaders of God's total covenant community. 17:55.095 --> 18:09.439 [SPEAKER_01]: And so in a way they may represent the 12 apostles and the 12 tribes of Israel coming together and forming one family of faith grafted together without those 24 elders in the vision actually representing 24 specific people in real life. 18:10.277 --> 18:11.618 [SPEAKER_01]: We're never told who they are. 18:12.038 --> 18:13.480 [SPEAKER_01]: We're just told there's 24 of them. 18:13.520 --> 18:24.069 [SPEAKER_01]: And with the significance of numbers in ancient Israel, maybe that just communicates the idea of this is God's total covenant community and their leadership being represented here. 18:24.489 --> 18:27.371 [SPEAKER_01]: If I had the guess, I think it's probably a symbolic representation. 18:27.411 --> 18:34.898 [SPEAKER_01]: But whoever they are, they tell John that what he needs is the lion from the tribe of Judah. 18:35.498 --> 18:37.279 [SPEAKER_01]: who is an heir to David's throne. 18:37.319 --> 18:38.200 [SPEAKER_01]: He is victorious. 18:38.220 --> 18:42.903 [SPEAKER_01]: He's worthy to open the scroll that no one else can open along with all the seven seals. 18:42.923 --> 18:45.445 [SPEAKER_01]: And this is full of prophetic connections, though. 18:45.785 --> 18:50.488 [SPEAKER_01]: Lion of Judah comes from Genesis and the heir to David's throne comes from Isaiah. 18:50.508 --> 18:53.110 [SPEAKER_01]: And he's the victorious conquering King. 18:53.350 --> 18:54.070 [SPEAKER_01]: He's royalty. 18:54.291 --> 18:55.131 [SPEAKER_01]: And John turns. 18:55.331 --> 18:55.872 [SPEAKER_01]: And he looks. 18:56.112 --> 18:58.213 [SPEAKER_01]: And here's what he sees in verse 6. 18:58.333 --> 19:00.795 [SPEAKER_01]: Then I saw a lamb. 19:02.495 --> 19:05.857 [SPEAKER_01]: a lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered. 19:06.898 --> 19:11.521 [SPEAKER_01]: But it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the 24 elders. 19:12.702 --> 19:21.708 [SPEAKER_01]: He had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the sevenfold spear of God that is sent out into every part of the earth. 19:22.429 --> 19:28.113 [SPEAKER_01]: Now the way this is crafted by John, you can tell he wants you to understand this is a surprise. 19:29.103 --> 19:30.444 [SPEAKER_01]: This is unexpected. 19:31.105 --> 19:36.709 [SPEAKER_01]: The elders set it up as the lion of Judah of the tribe of David, the royal areas, the conquering heroine. 19:37.470 --> 19:44.175 [SPEAKER_01]: And we see a lamb, a lamb that looks like it's died, but it's still alive. 19:45.936 --> 19:51.340 [SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is a conquering warrior, but he didn't come to conquer physically. 19:51.381 --> 19:52.942 [SPEAKER_01]: He came to conquer spiritually. 19:53.623 --> 19:55.344 [SPEAKER_01]: He conquered sin and death. 19:55.564 --> 19:57.665 [SPEAKER_01]: This is not what the Jewish people were expecting. 19:57.685 --> 20:03.448 [SPEAKER_01]: They thought the Messiah would come and deal with their physical foes on earth, but he was gonna deal with their spiritual foes. 20:03.488 --> 20:09.331 [SPEAKER_01]: And he did it by giving up his life like a sacrificial lamb. 20:10.592 --> 20:13.553 [SPEAKER_01]: So what is God saying through this vision? 20:13.574 --> 20:14.394 [SPEAKER_01]: What is he telling us? 20:15.795 --> 20:18.316 [SPEAKER_01]: Things aren't always what they see. 20:19.717 --> 20:21.878 [SPEAKER_01]: And what God is up to in the world and his mission, 20:23.090 --> 20:24.571 [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes we're just not gonna understand it. 20:25.591 --> 20:37.256 [SPEAKER_01]: He works in ways that we cannot always understand and the people thought that they needed the power and the might of the lion when they actually needed a God who was willing to humble himself and become lowly like one of us and die on a cross in our place. 20:38.556 --> 20:42.738 [SPEAKER_01]: It was unexpected, but it was exactly what we needed. 20:44.279 --> 20:49.721 [SPEAKER_01]: And it makes me think that today you and I, we often want God to show up as the lion, don't we? 20:51.248 --> 20:53.849 [SPEAKER_01]: Aren't there times in your life or you just think, God, I want you to fix this. 20:55.069 --> 20:56.149 [SPEAKER_01]: I want the miracle right now. 20:56.169 --> 20:58.710 [SPEAKER_01]: I want you to show up like the lion and defeat this problem for me. 20:59.790 --> 21:01.370 [SPEAKER_01]: I want you to make my life better in this way. 21:01.390 --> 21:02.550 [SPEAKER_01]: I want you to solve my marriage. 21:02.570 --> 21:03.631 [SPEAKER_01]: I want you to fix this problem. 21:03.651 --> 21:04.211 [SPEAKER_01]: I have it work. 21:04.231 --> 21:06.751 [SPEAKER_01]: I want you to fix this issue that I have with my kids. 21:07.771 --> 21:08.632 [SPEAKER_01]: And I want the lion. 21:09.932 --> 21:16.013 [SPEAKER_01]: And we think we want the lion and God is saying, no, actually, you need the patient, calm, gentle lamb. 21:17.453 --> 21:19.014 [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes we want the lion, but God knows 21:21.137 --> 21:28.582 [SPEAKER_01]: He knows that we need the lamb that went through suffering and allows suffering to happen in our lives for a reason. 21:29.502 --> 21:38.888 [SPEAKER_01]: The lamb that knows it's better to gain spiritual growth than to always have personal comfort. 21:40.609 --> 21:44.792 [SPEAKER_01]: The lamb that knows it's no good to gain the whole world and yet lose your soul. 21:46.633 --> 21:47.754 [SPEAKER_01]: We want the lion a lot. 21:48.890 --> 21:51.894 [SPEAKER_01]: But sometimes we need the gentle and lowly and humble lamb. 21:51.934 --> 21:58.122 [SPEAKER_01]: And so I want this phrase to stick in your mind this week, and it means a lot more than just these simple three words, but the phrase is, trust the lamb. 21:59.564 --> 22:00.606 [SPEAKER_01]: Trust the lamb. 22:00.966 --> 22:02.468 [SPEAKER_01]: And it doesn't just mean trust the lamb. 22:02.488 --> 22:05.032 [SPEAKER_01]: It means trust the lamb who is unexpected. 22:06.308 --> 22:19.693 [SPEAKER_01]: Trust the lamb who doesn't show up as the conquering line, even though he could, the lamb that allows suffering, the lamb that views spiritual growth and your spiritual growth and his work and the kingdom in this world and his mission as more important than our present comforts. 22:20.053 --> 22:28.476 [SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes, I'll be honest, the way the lamb works is really annoying, he allows some stuff to happen in my life that I would rather not happen. 22:29.136 --> 22:30.276 [SPEAKER_01]: And I'll bet he does in yours too. 22:30.756 --> 22:33.157 [SPEAKER_01]: And yet through it all, he has teaching us, he is developing us. 22:37.051 --> 22:42.836 [SPEAKER_01]: perseverance, the testing, the trials, they're actually good for us. 22:42.856 --> 22:47.960 [SPEAKER_01]: They don't feel good in the moment, but God allows them in our life because they actually grow us. 22:48.000 --> 22:57.588 [SPEAKER_01]: The lamb cares more about your spiritual growth than he does your present comfort, just like he cared more about spiritual victory than his personal comfort when he was here. 22:57.828 --> 22:59.229 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, I know that's easier said than done. 22:59.249 --> 23:00.611 [SPEAKER_01]: We want God to show up as the line. 23:00.651 --> 23:01.131 [SPEAKER_01]: I get that. 23:01.511 --> 23:03.913 [SPEAKER_01]: He'll me now, fix my marriage, solve this problem with my kids. 23:03.933 --> 23:04.354 [SPEAKER_01]: I get that. 23:04.394 --> 23:05.715 [SPEAKER_01]: But when he doesn't, 23:07.139 --> 23:12.760 [SPEAKER_01]: We have to remember that God does things in unexpected ways that we don't understand, we have to trust the Lamb. 23:14.160 --> 23:22.262 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, the text shows us a humble and slaughtered, gentle Lamb instead of the conquering lion. 23:23.242 --> 23:28.744 [SPEAKER_01]: But it also gives us some important clues that this is no ordinary Lamb. 23:28.764 --> 23:30.704 [SPEAKER_01]: There's some big symbolism here. 23:31.064 --> 23:33.064 [SPEAKER_01]: Remember the description that was given for the Lamb 23:36.433 --> 23:38.877 [SPEAKER_01]: seven horns and seven eyes. 23:40.099 --> 23:49.734 [SPEAKER_01]: These numbers of seven are really, really important in the ancient Hebrew language, because we've talked about this before, but just as a reminder, the ancient Hebrew language had somewhere around 8 to 9,000 words in it. 23:51.240 --> 23:54.821 [SPEAKER_01]: The average adult vocabulary today is 30,000 to 50,000 words. 23:55.381 --> 23:58.182 [SPEAKER_01]: Our English dictionaries have over 150,000 words. 23:58.722 --> 24:02.824 [SPEAKER_01]: So this is a fraction of the words available to them to communicate meaning. 24:03.084 --> 24:05.584 [SPEAKER_01]: And the way they did it oftentimes was through numbers. 24:05.905 --> 24:10.806 [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes it's called biblical numerology, but it's just the ancient Hebrew practice and other cultures did it as well. 24:11.146 --> 24:17.188 [SPEAKER_01]: Of assigning special meaning to numbers and using that as a shorthand way of communicating something important. 24:17.388 --> 24:23.053 [SPEAKER_01]: that maybe what's happening with the 24 elders that is certainly what's happening here with the seven horns and the seven eyes. 24:23.553 --> 24:26.175 [SPEAKER_01]: Seven is the number of wholeness is the number of completion. 24:26.976 --> 24:31.700 [SPEAKER_01]: And so when you have seven horns, horns is a symbol of power and of might in the ancient world. 24:32.281 --> 24:35.083 [SPEAKER_01]: And so seven horns means he's all powerful. 24:36.330 --> 24:38.152 [SPEAKER_01]: Eyes would be used of vision and sight. 24:38.513 --> 24:40.175 [SPEAKER_01]: Seven eyes means all knowing. 24:40.555 --> 24:41.356 [SPEAKER_01]: Can see everything. 24:41.836 --> 24:47.843 [SPEAKER_01]: And so what we have right here are examples of testimonies to the deity of Jesus. 24:48.864 --> 24:54.150 [SPEAKER_01]: The fact that Jesus, the Lamb, is God, because he is all powerful and he is all knowing. 24:54.931 --> 24:55.612 [SPEAKER_01]: Look at verse seven. 24:56.577 --> 25:01.442 [SPEAKER_01]: He stepped forward, the lamb, and took the scroll from the right hand of the one sitting on the throne. 25:01.942 --> 25:07.528 [SPEAKER_01]: And when he took the scroll, the four living beings, and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb. 25:07.968 --> 25:14.855 [SPEAKER_01]: Each one had a heart, and they had gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God's people. 25:14.875 --> 25:15.816 [SPEAKER_01]: A couple of things here. 25:15.856 --> 25:16.837 [SPEAKER_01]: Really important to talk about. 25:16.857 --> 25:19.860 [SPEAKER_01]: Number one, there is a shift in the object of worship. 25:20.705 --> 25:21.406 [SPEAKER_01]: Did you catch this? 25:21.966 --> 25:26.712 [SPEAKER_01]: Because in Revelation 4, the elders are worshiping the one sitting on the throne. 25:27.292 --> 25:33.940 [SPEAKER_01]: And right here, as soon as the lamb comes on the scene and takes the school, the worship focus shifts from the one on the throne to the lamb. 25:34.521 --> 25:36.923 [SPEAKER_01]: Now they are worshiping the lamb as God. 25:38.445 --> 25:44.330 [SPEAKER_01]: It's another example of the testimony that this is not just a lamb, it's not just the son of God. 25:44.350 --> 25:48.633 [SPEAKER_01]: Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons say, well he's the son of God, but he's not the same as God. 25:48.993 --> 25:53.917 [SPEAKER_01]: But here we are seeing he is being worshiped as God and has all known and all powerful. 25:53.957 --> 25:59.421 [SPEAKER_01]: It's another example of him being divine and being God himself and God with us. 26:00.242 --> 26:05.684 [SPEAKER_01]: And then along with worshiping the Lamb, the elders are holding out these bowls, which John says are filled with incense. 26:05.724 --> 26:07.585 [SPEAKER_01]: And he tells us what the incense represents. 26:07.985 --> 26:11.226 [SPEAKER_01]: In this case, the incense represents the prayers of God's people. 26:11.267 --> 26:12.947 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, why would he make a point? 26:13.948 --> 26:22.031 [SPEAKER_01]: In the throne room, talking about the elders, talking about the Lamb, to say, oh, by the way, they've got these bowls that contain the prayers of God's people. 26:22.931 --> 26:23.992 [SPEAKER_01]: Here's why I think he does that. 26:24.732 --> 26:27.213 [SPEAKER_01]: He's writing to people who are being persecuted all the time. 26:28.019 --> 26:32.661 [SPEAKER_01]: There are many examples outside of Scripture of the Christians who were murdered because of their faith. 26:33.401 --> 26:34.261 [SPEAKER_01]: Do you think they were praying? 26:35.322 --> 26:36.362 [SPEAKER_01]: I think they were praying a lot. 26:37.303 --> 26:39.744 [SPEAKER_01]: They probably prayed a lot more than we do to our shame. 26:40.764 --> 26:47.367 [SPEAKER_01]: And in those moments of praying and struggling and suffering and seeing people hurt and died and ostracized. 26:48.127 --> 26:50.968 [SPEAKER_01]: In those moments you start to wonder, my prayers just bounce him off the ceiling. 26:51.914 --> 26:53.275 [SPEAKER_01]: Does God even care about any of this? 26:54.075 --> 27:00.539 [SPEAKER_01]: And I suspect that this detail is in there to reassure them and then by extension reassure us, your prayers are right there in God's throne. 27:01.820 --> 27:03.481 [SPEAKER_01]: It may not be time to answer them yet. 27:04.102 --> 27:06.283 [SPEAKER_01]: It may not be time for him to show up like the lion. 27:06.623 --> 27:09.525 [SPEAKER_01]: This may be the gentle lamb that's allowing suffering to take place. 27:10.245 --> 27:16.990 [SPEAKER_01]: Call him in gentle and humble and lowly and waiting for the right moment, having a bigger picture in mind, but your prayers are right there. 27:17.230 --> 27:18.390 [SPEAKER_01]: They're in God's presence. 27:22.461 --> 27:29.650 [SPEAKER_01]: Then in verse 9, the elders and the four living beings sang a new song with these words. 27:30.398 --> 27:37.324 [SPEAKER_01]: you are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it for you were slaughtered. 27:37.925 --> 27:51.096 [SPEAKER_01]: And your blood has ransom people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation and you have caused them to become a kingdom of priests for our God and they will reign on the earth. 27:51.657 --> 27:54.680 [SPEAKER_01]: So that elders in the forliving beings they start a worship service. 27:55.617 --> 28:00.140 [SPEAKER_01]: and they sing a new song to God, praising him for his work among all the nations. 28:00.360 --> 28:02.221 [SPEAKER_01]: This is God's mission, it's what he's doing in the world. 28:02.441 --> 28:06.144 [SPEAKER_01]: He's reaching people from every nation, every tribe, every tongue, he's bringing them all together. 28:06.324 --> 28:09.266 [SPEAKER_01]: And they start this worship session just to praise him. 28:09.466 --> 28:12.808 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's interesting to me, some people like worship music a lot more than others. 28:14.289 --> 28:15.269 [SPEAKER_01]: I love worship music. 28:15.309 --> 28:16.290 [SPEAKER_01]: Who likes worship music here? 28:16.490 --> 28:17.391 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm a fan of worship music. 28:17.991 --> 28:22.494 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not gonna ask those who don't like worship music, but they exist, they're out there. 28:24.297 --> 28:31.040 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't remember who, but every now and then somebody comes to me and says, can we just not do worship in the services? 28:31.660 --> 28:33.461 [SPEAKER_01]: Like can we, I just, I'm there for the message, man. 28:33.901 --> 28:35.442 [SPEAKER_01]: I just, I want the teaching of God's Word. 28:35.682 --> 28:36.682 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't need the saying stuff. 28:36.702 --> 28:37.743 [SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't do anything for me. 28:38.403 --> 28:40.004 [SPEAKER_01]: And I understand that perspective. 28:40.024 --> 28:41.144 [SPEAKER_01]: We all have different preferences. 28:41.164 --> 28:43.205 [SPEAKER_01]: And it makes me go, okay, well, why do we do worship? 28:43.885 --> 28:45.446 [SPEAKER_01]: Do we just do worship for us? 28:46.246 --> 28:49.668 [SPEAKER_01]: Because it feels good, because we like the music, because it's nice show, it's a nice concert. 28:50.579 --> 28:53.021 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, worship music is absolutely partly for us. 28:53.782 --> 28:54.662 [SPEAKER_01]: It encourages us. 28:55.163 --> 28:56.644 [SPEAKER_01]: Man, sing songs with each other. 28:56.664 --> 29:00.127 [SPEAKER_01]: Where the people around you are all singing the same biblical truth you are. 29:00.828 --> 29:03.250 [SPEAKER_01]: That's an encouragement to our faith. 29:03.350 --> 29:09.715 [SPEAKER_01]: To see the biblical truth that's in those songs large into your memory so that during the week, those songs are coming up again. 29:09.735 --> 29:18.823 [SPEAKER_01]: And again, I just find myself during the day just randomly singing songs that we sang in church and because I don't listen to the radio, it's always in the voices of our people. 29:19.675 --> 29:24.698 [SPEAKER_01]: So I have our singers in my brain, singing these songs over and over, I don't even know what the real one sounds like. 29:25.118 --> 29:35.263 [SPEAKER_01]: I just know our people, seeing these songs and those truths that come up and sometimes what'll happen, I guess God does this as he prompts the right lyric and the right song at the right time for the thing I'm dealing with. 29:35.943 --> 29:36.504 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's awesome. 29:37.124 --> 29:37.564 [SPEAKER_01]: I love that. 29:37.584 --> 29:39.945 [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, there's an element of the worship songs that are for us. 29:40.586 --> 29:46.529 [SPEAKER_01]: But there's maybe even a bigger point about the worship songs that we sing and why we do it, 29:49.975 --> 30:04.119 [SPEAKER_01]: Evidently God, who is a creative God, and he created beings with creativity, and he made music and all the wonderful amazing things that go into that, both the creativity and the science of it, he has surrounded himself, he or in his throne room with worship songs. 30:05.239 --> 30:06.419 [SPEAKER_01]: Cause he appreciates music. 30:07.300 --> 30:09.240 [SPEAKER_01]: And Evidently, he appreciates new music. 30:10.241 --> 30:15.162 [SPEAKER_01]: Over and over in scripture, you see these words, sing a new song to the Lord. 30:15.922 --> 30:17.182 [SPEAKER_01]: They sing a new song, 30:20.181 --> 30:21.803 [SPEAKER_01]: All of us, I don't know if you've ever realized this. 30:22.383 --> 30:26.248 [SPEAKER_01]: We tend to lock in on whatever we liked in high school and young adulthood. 30:26.268 --> 30:27.589 [SPEAKER_01]: Have you ever noticed that? 30:28.210 --> 30:31.093 [SPEAKER_01]: This is true for hairstyles, look around. 30:31.493 --> 30:33.796 [SPEAKER_01]: It's true for dress. 30:34.897 --> 30:36.659 [SPEAKER_01]: It's true for decorating in your home. 30:37.600 --> 30:45.347 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, there are exceptions, but generally speaking, we tend to lock in in high school and young adulthood, and that's the thing we like for a long time. 30:45.988 --> 30:55.097 [SPEAKER_01]: And studies have been done on this, to show that what you see as someone who is old, that same exact style that you just feel so old was actually fresh and new at one time. 30:56.698 --> 31:00.242 [SPEAKER_01]: And you see pictures of people from a long time ago and you think, wow, they look so old. 31:00.422 --> 31:02.584 [SPEAKER_01]: That was the style at that time. 31:03.591 --> 31:04.391 [SPEAKER_01]: That's just the way it works. 31:05.392 --> 31:07.572 [SPEAKER_01]: You know who's not locked into any style? 31:08.692 --> 31:11.853 [SPEAKER_01]: God, God appreciates new songs. 31:11.873 --> 31:17.835 [SPEAKER_01]: He appreciates his created beans, using the creativity that he has given them to come up with new and fresh ways to praise him. 31:18.055 --> 31:27.698 [SPEAKER_01]: And so God has just as glorified by the very different sounding music in China and Japan and Thailand that sounds very different from the songs we sing here. 31:28.684 --> 31:41.897 [SPEAKER_01]: There is a burgeoning worship music initiative happening in Greece right now that we've actually been able to help with and be a part of our people have been able to help them as they are starting to write songs in their language with their own style. 31:43.118 --> 31:51.526 [SPEAKER_01]: I think God loves the diverse way of praising him that gets experienced among the African believers in all their different countries and tribes and nations. 31:52.613 --> 31:54.114 [SPEAKER_01]: God is not stuck in anyone's style. 31:54.134 --> 31:56.095 [SPEAKER_01]: We are, I've got my preferences. 31:56.495 --> 31:57.756 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't like some of the stuff that you like. 31:58.036 --> 32:00.098 [SPEAKER_01]: You definitely don't like some of the stuff that I like. 32:00.478 --> 32:00.898 [SPEAKER_01]: That's okay. 32:00.918 --> 32:07.983 [SPEAKER_01]: We can have our different preferences, but God likes that creativity, and he likes worship songs, and he likes new styles of things. 32:08.003 --> 32:09.103 [SPEAKER_01]: He likes new music. 32:09.123 --> 32:12.546 [SPEAKER_01]: We see it all over Scripture, which is great news for the songwriters out there. 32:12.566 --> 32:13.326 [SPEAKER_01]: Keep doing what you're doing. 32:14.507 --> 32:15.848 [SPEAKER_01]: So the elders sing this new song. 32:16.609 --> 32:19.371 [SPEAKER_01]: They start this worship service in its spreads. 32:19.991 --> 32:20.752 [SPEAKER_01]: It's contagious. 32:20.772 --> 32:22.293 [SPEAKER_01]: Look at what happens next in verse 11. 32:22.533 --> 32:23.254 [SPEAKER_01]: Then I looked again. 32:24.254 --> 32:41.167 [SPEAKER_01]: And I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders and they sang in a mighty chorus worthy as the land who was slaughtered to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. 32:41.887 --> 32:43.488 [SPEAKER_01]: And then it spreads again. 32:43.508 --> 32:46.049 [SPEAKER_01]: So we go from the 24 elders to 4 living beings. 32:46.369 --> 32:47.890 [SPEAKER_01]: It's 28th year of math whiz. 32:48.150 --> 32:50.151 [SPEAKER_01]: And then we go to the millions and millions of angels. 32:50.191 --> 32:50.971 [SPEAKER_01]: And now it spreads again. 32:50.991 --> 32:51.892 [SPEAKER_01]: Look at this first 13. 32:52.172 --> 32:56.594 [SPEAKER_01]: And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth. 32:56.734 --> 33:02.737 [SPEAKER_01]: And in the sea, they sing, blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne. 33:03.397 --> 33:05.859 [SPEAKER_01]: and to the lamb forever and ever. 33:05.939 --> 33:08.700 [SPEAKER_01]: And I just wonder reading through that, what do that sound like? 33:08.740 --> 33:13.643 [SPEAKER_01]: Because I love sitting out here or walking in the back and just hearing all of you sing. 33:14.023 --> 33:16.345 [SPEAKER_01]: When you sing out loud and I know not everybody sings out loud. 33:17.065 --> 33:18.066 [SPEAKER_01]: Some of you are louder than others. 33:18.086 --> 33:19.486 [SPEAKER_01]: And some of you are thankful for that. 33:19.506 --> 33:20.667 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I get that. 33:21.608 --> 33:25.290 [SPEAKER_01]: But just the feeling of, wow, we're all praising God together. 33:25.310 --> 33:25.970 [SPEAKER_01]: That sounds amazing. 33:26.190 --> 33:28.932 [SPEAKER_01]: Can you imagine what it was like for Johnnie here, every creature? 33:30.010 --> 33:30.750 [SPEAKER_01]: all over the place. 33:30.850 --> 33:34.111 [SPEAKER_01]: Every one of them, praising God at one time. 33:34.151 --> 33:35.452 [SPEAKER_01]: It must have been overwhelming. 33:35.712 --> 33:37.833 [SPEAKER_01]: It must have been so incredibly cool. 33:37.873 --> 33:39.673 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's actually what was predicted in Scripture. 33:40.734 --> 33:46.195 [SPEAKER_01]: Paul says that the day is coming when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. 33:46.215 --> 33:47.116 [SPEAKER_01]: That's what he's talking about. 33:47.756 --> 33:50.097 [SPEAKER_01]: Every single creature will say, the Lamb is worthy. 33:50.817 --> 33:52.338 [SPEAKER_01]: All glory on our power, wisdom. 33:52.378 --> 33:53.918 [SPEAKER_01]: The Lamb is worthy and the one on the throne. 33:54.658 --> 33:55.539 [SPEAKER_01]: David said in Psalm 140, 34:00.826 --> 34:07.890 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, sometimes when I go through these passages, I get hit on the head with some random question that I think, well, maybe somebody else out there has this, too. 34:09.051 --> 34:14.134 [SPEAKER_01]: And the question that I thought I was, okay, you've got these escalating circles of worship, music. 34:14.854 --> 34:22.639 [SPEAKER_01]: People singing, this group sings, then a bigger group sings, then a bigger group sings, then I go, wow, every creature, every creature. 34:22.659 --> 34:28.742 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I couldn't think through history about some people that I have a hard time visualizing, 34:30.900 --> 34:34.822 [SPEAKER_01]: And I guess God could control him like a puppet, and say, sing whether you like it or not. 34:35.523 --> 34:36.863 [SPEAKER_01]: But I go, man, that's a weird thing. 34:38.024 --> 34:46.048 [SPEAKER_01]: To every creature, all the way back through history, all some of these wicked horrible people who rejected God, they're gonna sing praise songs to God and so I dug into it a little bit. 34:46.829 --> 34:47.409 [SPEAKER_01]: Here's what I found. 34:48.230 --> 34:53.953 [SPEAKER_01]: Some of our versions will say, this group sang, and then this bigger group sang, and then this bigger group sang. 34:54.653 --> 34:57.235 [SPEAKER_01]: But actually the words that are used are different. 34:58.075 --> 35:02.617 [SPEAKER_01]: So the first word for the elders in the living beans is they sang a new song. 35:03.377 --> 35:09.160 [SPEAKER_01]: Then after that, they and all the angels together proclaim the next thing. 35:09.520 --> 35:12.181 [SPEAKER_01]: Now that could be singing, but it doesn't have to be singing. 35:12.861 --> 35:18.244 [SPEAKER_01]: And the third one, when all the creatures they're lifting up their voices to God. 35:18.564 --> 35:23.006 [SPEAKER_01]: And so they are confessing with their mouth that Jesus is Lord. 35:23.847 --> 35:25.529 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know whether it's to a tune or not. 35:26.169 --> 35:27.791 [SPEAKER_01]: I just had a hard time visualizing that. 35:28.411 --> 35:39.962 [SPEAKER_01]: But one way or another, every single creature on earth will acknowledge will admit that Jesus is Lord, which also speaks again to the deity of Christ. 35:39.982 --> 35:46.688 [SPEAKER_01]: They are going to recognize that both the Lamb and the one on the throne are worthy of all glory, honor, praise, everything. 35:47.689 --> 35:48.690 [SPEAKER_01]: After the worship song, 35:49.690 --> 35:58.556 [SPEAKER_01]: Now for the proclamations, the final verse of Revelation 5 says this, and the four living beings said, amen, in the words, it is good. 35:59.356 --> 36:00.317 [SPEAKER_01]: We all agree with this. 36:00.377 --> 36:00.937 [SPEAKER_01]: This is good. 36:01.337 --> 36:05.460 [SPEAKER_01]: And the 24 elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb. 36:06.224 --> 36:10.287 [SPEAKER_01]: Their worship has now shifted from the one on the throne to the lamb. 36:10.327 --> 36:17.732 [SPEAKER_01]: And what happens next in the next several chapters of Revelation is going to go into a lot more detail about God's work in the world. 36:18.232 --> 36:23.896 [SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to get to see inside the scroll and we're going to get to open it and see what God has been doing and what He is up to. 36:23.916 --> 36:28.860 [SPEAKER_01]: But this chapter here just gives us a glimpse into that future in the throne room of God. 36:29.360 --> 36:35.001 [SPEAKER_01]: where the land is finally worshiped and acknowledged by everyone have all authority and all power. 36:35.041 --> 36:45.543 [SPEAKER_01]: And this message of John, it goes out to all the Christians in Asia Minor to let them know there is a wonderful future in store for everyone who trusts the land. 36:46.223 --> 36:47.903 [SPEAKER_01]: At the end of it all, everyone's going to praise him. 36:48.183 --> 36:51.344 [SPEAKER_01]: Even if they don't want to, at the end of it all, Jesus is in charge. 36:51.364 --> 36:57.045 [SPEAKER_01]: At the end of it all, that great feeling that comes when you have an awesome worship service together, that's going to go on forever. 36:58.233 --> 36:58.993 [SPEAKER_01]: which is really exciting. 36:59.954 --> 37:06.077 [SPEAKER_01]: See, John writes this message in parts that the believers will trust the destination, trust the destination. 37:06.677 --> 37:07.878 [SPEAKER_01]: We know where we're going. 37:08.798 --> 37:13.160 [SPEAKER_01]: Over the summer, my family and I took a road trip and it was a lot of driving. 37:13.460 --> 37:16.882 [SPEAKER_01]: It was like 4,000 miles of driving, not an exaggeration. 37:17.473 --> 37:22.736 [SPEAKER_01]: And on the way back from that trip, we went out to Montana, on the way back from that trip, I relied on GPS heavily. 37:23.296 --> 37:24.137 [SPEAKER_01]: Who likes GPS here? 37:24.217 --> 37:25.017 [SPEAKER_01]: Big fan of GPS. 37:25.117 --> 37:26.958 [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, have you ever had the experience? 37:27.618 --> 37:33.562 [SPEAKER_01]: Where you're driving along, and you're just sort of blindly following your GPS, and it says to get off the expressway. 37:34.142 --> 37:40.185 [SPEAKER_01]: And so you get off the expressway, and you pull up to the stop light, and you're there wondering which way should I go, and it says, now get back on the expressway. 37:40.665 --> 37:41.466 [SPEAKER_01]: If you're had that experience, 37:42.384 --> 37:43.385 [SPEAKER_01]: It's very irritating. 37:43.885 --> 37:47.708 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, maybe it only costs you five minutes of your life, but still, it's like, come on, I could have just kept on going. 37:48.109 --> 37:49.109 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I had one of those moments. 37:49.950 --> 37:54.874 [SPEAKER_01]: We're driving our way back from Montana, and I know I'm gonna be on this road for several hours. 37:55.034 --> 37:58.136 [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, that's just the way those roads out there work, you're on them for hours. 37:58.757 --> 38:00.899 [SPEAKER_01]: And all this sudden, my GPS tells me, get off. 38:01.709 --> 38:07.094 [SPEAKER_01]: And I can't see very far ahead because of all the trees and some of the turns in the expressway and everything, but I'm like, I'm not getting off. 38:07.394 --> 38:09.916 [SPEAKER_01]: I'd just do that thing to me again where it's going to make me get off and get right back on. 38:09.976 --> 38:10.577 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm no fool. 38:10.897 --> 38:11.558 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not doing that. 38:12.339 --> 38:16.082 [SPEAKER_01]: And we managed to get right up to this exit where we're about at the point of no return. 38:16.302 --> 38:20.806 [SPEAKER_01]: And we can finally see around the trees and there's just cars stop for miles. 38:21.907 --> 38:35.511 [SPEAKER_01]: and then in the last possible second, I managed to get over, get off onto a side road, and evidently nobody else did that because it was just smooth sailing for miles, all the way past those poor cars that did not trust their GPS. 38:36.611 --> 38:41.113 [SPEAKER_01]: It probably saved me two hours of driving, sitting in that long backup of cars. 38:41.353 --> 38:46.794 [SPEAKER_01]: And we went all the way past all of them for a few miles and then hopped right back on the expressway and we kept going. 38:47.895 --> 38:48.835 [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes in life. 38:49.945 --> 38:56.106 [SPEAKER_01]: We are faced with what feels like a useless detour, a detour that may even seem like a roadblock. 38:56.126 --> 39:11.709 [SPEAKER_01]: Something that we didn't expect, it came up out of nowhere, might be a loss of a friend or a loved one, might be an illness, a disease that came up all of the sudden, it could be a relationship issue, with a spouse or a friend or a coworker, it could be something that we're all sorts of things. 39:11.789 --> 39:17.850 [SPEAKER_01]: All sorts of detours in life that we just come in, I didn't want this, I didn't need this, this was not my plan, this was not my map, 39:19.808 --> 39:22.230 [SPEAKER_01]: And it feels devastating to us in that moment. 39:23.310 --> 39:31.095 [SPEAKER_01]: But when I was on that detour right after we hopped off, we were able to just reach up to the screen and pinch it out and zoom and see the whole plan. 39:31.856 --> 39:35.598 [SPEAKER_01]: And that gave us the confidence to go, oh, yep, yep, it's still taking us there. 39:36.219 --> 39:37.459 [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, it's saving us a lot of time. 39:37.479 --> 39:38.580 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, look at all that red. 39:38.820 --> 39:40.842 [SPEAKER_01]: We're going all the way around, all that red on the road. 39:41.262 --> 39:43.804 [SPEAKER_01]: And we'll get right back on those poor cars that didn't listen to their GPS. 39:44.924 --> 39:45.985 [SPEAKER_01]: And we got to see the whole thing. 39:47.374 --> 39:52.377 [SPEAKER_01]: God does not give us the whole picture, but he does give us a glimpse at the destination. 39:53.118 --> 39:58.281 [SPEAKER_01]: And the detours of life, he invites us to trust that he's still taking us where he needs us to go. 39:58.321 --> 40:03.604 [SPEAKER_01]: And the thing is, as we go through these detours, a lot of times we find ourselves thinking, this is the worst thing that could have happened to me. 40:04.244 --> 40:05.125 [SPEAKER_01]: My life is ruined. 40:05.765 --> 40:07.767 [SPEAKER_01]: It's so discouraging, it's so depressing. 40:08.387 --> 40:11.489 [SPEAKER_01]: And some people even get to the point where they feel like, why is life even worth living anymore? 40:12.366 --> 40:16.667 [SPEAKER_01]: We have to recognize, we are on a detour, we have to trust God with the destination. 40:17.347 --> 40:18.627 [SPEAKER_01]: He has a place that He is going. 40:18.888 --> 40:23.109 [SPEAKER_01]: He's allowing us to go on these detours, because He knows what is best for us. 40:23.129 --> 40:26.089 [SPEAKER_01]: And we may not always see the big plant, but God does. 40:26.149 --> 40:32.291 [SPEAKER_01]: Even if we don't have the details of the path ahead Revelation teaches us that we can trust God with the destination. 40:32.331 --> 40:33.211 [SPEAKER_01]: He has a finished line. 40:33.451 --> 40:35.311 [SPEAKER_01]: He has a wonderful future in mind for us. 40:35.591 --> 40:36.772 [SPEAKER_01]: He is getting us there. 40:36.952 --> 40:41.853 [SPEAKER_01]: And when we keep the future of God's throne room in mind, you could read Revelation four and five every day. 40:42.413 --> 40:42.573 [SPEAKER_01]: you. 40:43.513 --> 40:48.935 [SPEAKER_01]: For whatever I face today that's unexpected, that I don't like, that I'm not a fan of, that I have a part of my plan. 40:49.675 --> 40:51.836 [SPEAKER_01]: I go, wow, look where God has taken me ultimately. 40:52.616 --> 40:58.898 [SPEAKER_01]: And that perspective, this thing I'm dealing with right now is so small compared to what God is doing ultimately. 40:59.478 --> 41:03.700 [SPEAKER_01]: We can trust the destination that God has for us. 41:03.920 --> 41:06.640 [SPEAKER_01]: And that also means that we don't have to catastrophize. 41:07.261 --> 41:10.222 [SPEAKER_01]: We don't have to treat, however horrible the thing is 41:12.525 --> 41:17.029 [SPEAKER_01]: Whatever tragedy, whatever disaster has come your way, we don't have to treat it as the end of the world. 41:17.049 --> 41:18.950 [SPEAKER_01]: We don't have to treat it as the worst thing that could ever happen. 41:19.171 --> 41:24.015 [SPEAKER_01]: Because in light of eternity, it is relatively small. 41:25.076 --> 41:40.589 [SPEAKER_01]: And that reality unlocks another application for us from Revelation chapter five, which is, if God has allowed this teacher in my life, and if I'm trusting him with the destination, he has a reason for this, he's allowing this, then I can trust the Lamb, I can trust the destination, and I can also worship in the detours. 41:41.469 --> 41:45.790 [SPEAKER_01]: We don't have to wait for that heavenly throne room to start the big worship session. 41:46.730 --> 41:48.691 [SPEAKER_01]: We can worship God in the detours. 41:48.711 --> 41:52.771 [SPEAKER_01]: At the end of all of this, every creature's going to praise God, why not start now? 41:52.851 --> 41:55.152 [SPEAKER_01]: James says, to consider it joy. 41:55.852 --> 42:00.613 [SPEAKER_01]: When we face all sorts of trials, because we know they develop our perseverance. 42:01.073 --> 42:04.554 [SPEAKER_01]: Job lost his sons and his daughters, and he still praise God. 42:05.195 --> 42:07.756 [SPEAKER_01]: He lost all of his wealth and he still praised God. 42:07.796 --> 42:11.178 [SPEAKER_01]: Paul and Silas were locked up in prison and they were praising God right there. 42:11.218 --> 42:15.219 [SPEAKER_01]: So what does it look like for you to praise God in the detourous of life? 42:16.560 --> 42:17.340 [SPEAKER_01]: What does it look like? 42:17.740 --> 42:28.565 [SPEAKER_01]: As you have that unexpected thing happen to you, to trust the land, to trust the destination and then to take the next step at which is to say, God, thank you for allowing me to go through this, even though I have no idea why you. 42:29.885 --> 42:33.707 [SPEAKER_01]: What I praise you, because I trust you more than I trust myself in this moment. 42:34.822 --> 42:38.604 [SPEAKER_01]: God, I can look back in my past and see all the amazing things that you have done for me. 42:38.844 --> 42:42.725 [SPEAKER_01]: And so I trust in you, even though I don't understand why you've allowed this to happen right now. 42:44.526 --> 42:47.627 [SPEAKER_01]: You can worship God in the detours. 42:48.008 --> 42:55.171 [SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to wait for heaven to make that constant song of praise, a reality in your life. 42:56.087 --> 43:04.114 [SPEAKER_01]: That's possible that there's some people that are here or watching us online right now, who don't actually have that kind of relationship with the Lamb. 43:04.775 --> 43:09.839 [SPEAKER_01]: The relationship that guarantees us a home in heaven and a part of God's family. 43:09.939 --> 43:19.468 [SPEAKER_01]: So I wanna make sure I speak to those of you right now because if you do not know Jesus as your Savior, the first step for you, go back to what we talked about at the beginning is to trust the Lamb. 43:20.384 --> 43:31.897 [SPEAKER_01]: You have to trust the Lamb who came as one of us, Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, died on a cross, took all of our sins on him to pay for them, so that we could be a part of God's family, and God would see us as righteous. 43:31.937 --> 43:36.122 [SPEAKER_01]: The Lamb stands before God the Father on the throne and says, I paid for all of that. 43:37.080 --> 43:39.941 [SPEAKER_01]: So that they look righteous, they look perfect, they look holy. 43:40.442 --> 43:42.403 [SPEAKER_01]: As long as they have trusted in the work of Jesus. 43:42.423 --> 43:44.764 [SPEAKER_01]: See, it's not just enough to believe that the Lamb existed. 43:44.804 --> 43:50.366 [SPEAKER_01]: It's not just enough to believe that Jesus was a good person or a prophet or that he really was here, even though there's so much evidence for that. 43:51.287 --> 43:55.649 [SPEAKER_01]: You actually have to believe he died on the cross for me to save me from my sins. 43:55.969 --> 44:04.553 [SPEAKER_01]: And if I put my trust in him and confess my sins and accept his free gift of salvation, I become a part of God's family and have my sins forgiven. 44:05.460 --> 44:07.762 [SPEAKER_01]: That is the gospel in a nut show. 44:08.642 --> 44:11.604 [SPEAKER_01]: But would love to talk with you more about that in person if that's you. 44:12.065 --> 44:19.150 [SPEAKER_01]: If you don't know Jesus is your savior, top and talk to me afterward, talk to one of our prayer team members, talk to anybody around this church with a landier to if you're on line right now. 44:19.430 --> 44:21.531 [SPEAKER_01]: Send us an email, use our website, contact form. 44:21.751 --> 44:26.755 [SPEAKER_01]: Let us know we would love to talk with you about what it looks like to be in relationship with Jesus Christ. 44:26.935 --> 44:28.276 [SPEAKER_01]: It changes everything. 44:29.557 --> 44:30.538 [SPEAKER_01]: In the detours of life, 44:31.431 --> 44:32.272 [SPEAKER_01]: Can you trust the lamb? 44:32.873 --> 44:33.974 [SPEAKER_01]: Can you trust the destination? 44:34.554 --> 44:36.837 [SPEAKER_01]: And can you worship even in those detours? 44:36.857 --> 44:37.898 [SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if your bow your heads with me. 44:37.918 --> 44:40.361 [SPEAKER_01]: Let's pray and ask for God's help to do this right now. 44:40.401 --> 44:44.125 [SPEAKER_01]: Lord Jesus, you have done such a wonderful thing for us. 44:45.266 --> 44:46.848 [SPEAKER_01]: Giving us a glimpse into the future. 44:47.148 --> 44:50.492 [SPEAKER_01]: I can't even imagine what it would be like if this book of Revelation were never written. 44:51.563 --> 45:01.819 [SPEAKER_01]: Just think if we did not have the book of Revelation to understand the outcome of so many things, to understand that you have a plan or in control, have incredible things in store that we can't even understand right now. 45:02.515 --> 45:21.493 [SPEAKER_01]: but Lord, we trust you with those details, and so God, as we understand better your mission, and what you are doing in the world, help us to step into that and be a part of it by first of all, having the right heart and the right mindset, to trust in you at all times, to trust you even in the detours of life, the trust that you know where you are going, you have a plan for us. 45:22.798 --> 45:23.919 [SPEAKER_01]: and a worship you through it all. 45:24.619 --> 45:39.090 [SPEAKER_01]: And out of that trust and out of that worship, God, I pray that it would be such an overflow of faith that we have, that it would be visible to those around us, and it would be contagious, and would inspire other people who also want to have faith in you because you do make such a difference in our lives God. 45:40.251 --> 45:44.234 [SPEAKER_01]: You have saved us, you have rescued us, and so we wanna praise you. 45:45.215 --> 45:47.557 [SPEAKER_01]: We wanna praise you with loud voices. 45:48.378 --> 45:51.360 [SPEAKER_01]: We wanna praise you in a way that's a little picture of heaven today, God. 45:52.192 --> 45:56.746 [SPEAKER_01]: We want to lift up our voices and praise you because we know that you love it. 45:57.909 --> 46:00.337 [SPEAKER_01]: And we want to glorify and honor and bless you. 46:01.580 --> 46:04.329 [SPEAKER_01]: It's in the precious name of the Lamb we pray in them.