Revelation

I don't know if you've ever owned or had one of those 3D magic eye books.

Tim's going to throw a picture up for me.

I don't know if you remember when these first came out.

Some of you won't because you were probably born afterwards.

But I remember when these first came out and you get given the book

and there was just this peer pressure to act like you could see the picture.

And so everyone's passing around the book at school and you're looking at it going,

yeah, I can see the boat.

That's it over here, right?

Yeah, I mean in the middle.

That's where it is.

That's the boat, right?

And you're looking at it and everyone's going, it's simple.

Just look.

Look again.

Just fuzzy your eyes.

And I'm like, how do you fuzzy your eyes?

What kind of an instruction is that?

And so some people are just glancing at it going, yeah, it's no worries.

But when you first look at it, it's just this mess.

It's like, that's not anything, surely.

It's just a mess and they're making it up to make me look stupid.

You're waiting for one day.

Everyone's going to turn around and go, there's no pictures.

We know that you were pretending when you said you could saw the boat.

It looks like a mess.

And to see what's in there, you have to actually train your eyes to look past that first bit.

To go beyond your first glance, you need to look properly and see what is really there.

Now, this book of Revelation that we've been studying to the first century church, this letter, it's a pastoral one.

The bishop reminded us last week.

It's encouraging in many ways.

It's challenging in many ways.

But more than anything else, it's enlightening.

Because this book of Revelation, what it does is it trains the hearts and eyes of Christians so that they have right perspective.

It gives them the ability to see beyond their circumstance, to not be overwhelmed by what's happening today or next week or next month, and to see into eternity.

This book is designed to enable them to understand more fully the significance of Jesus' death and resurrection.

And tonight, we drop into chapter 12 of Revelation, which is almost like a snapshot of the whole book wrapped up in one chapter.

Chapters 12, 13 and 14 kind of sit together.

And they are really a summary of what Revelation is about without all the detail that comes in other bit.

And even though this snapshot that we get is a little bit creative and maybe a little bit confusing, it is a snapshot of history and eternity.

And it's showing us that things are not how they seem, that things are not how they look at first glance.

The pain and the struggle that the churches were facing, the pain and the struggle and the suffering that we face as Christians now is real and even normal.

But it's not the whole picture.

When we follow Jesus.

And so to give John this perspective, to give us this perspective, God gives John another vision.

Have a look with me at verse 1 and 2.

A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven.

A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and the crown of 12 stars on her head.

She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.

So first up, we've got this woman wearing the sun.

This woman is representative of Israel, of God's people.

That's what the 12 stars is about.

It's pointing us back to the 12 tribes in the Old Testament.

And she's in pain and she's about to give birth.

And there's this sense of expectation that something is going to come out of Israel.

Something is going to come out of God's people.

The next bit, verse 3.

So John sees this dragon, this enormous red dragon with horns and crowns and heads.

And verse 9 tells us that this dragon is Satan.

This is the devil.

His horns and his crowns tell us that Satan wants the power and the influence and the authority of God.

That's his desire.

And we know in this vision that Satan is sitting, waiting, wanting to devour the child that will come out of God's people.

Wanting to devour whatever it is that God's people will produce.

And we see what that is in verse 5.

She, the woman, gave birth to a son, a male child who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.

And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.

The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

So a child is born.

He's male.

He will rule.

And we know that he won't just be any male child who will rule.

This will be the saviour.

The fact that he will rule the nations with an iron scepter, that points us back to a special kind of king.

That Israel is waiting for a king in the line of David.

This baby, this child is Jesus.

And we're told in the vision that he is snatched up to God before Satan can devour him.

He is placed on his throne and the woman flees off into the desert to be taken care of by God.

And then the last bit of this vision in verse 7.

So Satan pursues the child.

He's waiting there to devour him.

But he misses his opportunity because Jesus is snatched up to heaven and onto the throne.

And instead he is cast out by the angels and hurled down to the earth.

Okay, deep breath.

Seems simple enough, right?

So we've got God's people.

Jesus is being born.

Satan is against them.

Satan misses his opportunity.

Jesus goes onto his throne.

Satan gets hurled down.

You with me so far?

I know there's a bit of weirdness.

So we've got to understand when we read things like this in God's word that this is a prophetic vision.

Which means it's not precise.

We can't necessarily connect every bit of this vision to specific details in history.

Even though it's obviously talking about some real things that did actually happen in history.

There's kind of links and connections we can make in this vision.

But we need to be careful how hard or how closely we do that.

I mean, you've got a woman and a dragon or a serpent clashing.

Which points us back to the Garden of Eden when you had a woman tempted by a serpent.

And listen to these words when God pronounces judgment on the serpent back in Genesis 3.

He says,

I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers.

He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.

It's pointing us maybe to something that we are already warned about.

The woman being taken off into the desert to be protected for the 1,200 days reminds us of God rescuing his people out of Egypt.

Taking them out into the desert.

The book of Exodus talks about them being carried on eagle's wings just like the woman is.

And then at the same time, this vision could almost connect to the situation of the early church when they were reading this book.

The dragon is the emperor Domitian who is persecuting the Christians fiercely.

He's killing them left, right and centre.

And they are at his whim, it seems.

So there's things that we can connect through history that kind of are part of this vision.

But the focus is really in a tiny little bit of detail that comes in the middle of it.

The focus of this encounter between Jesus and the woman and the dragon is Jesus' life itself.

That's the bit we need to hone in on.

His temptation in the wilderness, his death at the hands of the Roman authorities.

In this passage, Jesus' life is summarised in 21 words.

Basically, he's born and then he goes to heaven and sits on the throne.

Those words are shorthand for the most significant event in human and created history ever.

See, what this vision is telling us is that Jesus' life itself,

his life growing up, his obedience to his father,

his life, his death and resurrection,

Jesus' life was the battle between Satan and Jesus.

It's not something in the future.

It's not something that happens out there in the heavens and we can't see it.

The battle took place on earth when Jesus came.

His death and his resurrection were the means by which Satan gets beaten.

And we see that because Satan gets hurled down.

Even as the angels are the ones kicking him out of heaven,

it's actually the blood of the lamb that overcame Satan.

It's Jesus' life, Jesus' death and Jesus' resurrection

that actually win the battle against Satan.

This great and wondrous sign that John gets shown is Jesus.

In all its weirdness and wonderfulness,

this chapter is a gospel chapter.

God is opening John's eyes to look at Jesus and Jesus' victory.

God is showing John that Jesus is sitting on his throne now.

And at the same time, Satan is wallowing in defeat now.

And it gets really clear for us because God gives us a clear interpretation

with a voice from heaven in verse 10.

I heard a loud voice in heaven say,

Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God

and the authority of his Christ for the accuser of our brothers

who accuses them before our God day and night has been hurled down.

They overcame him by the blood of the lamb

and by the word of their testimony.

They did not love their lives so much as to shrink back from death.

Now salvation has come.

This vision is pointing to an event that happened a few decades

before the early church would have heard about in this letter.

This letter is pointing to an event that happened thousands of years

before we opened it up tonight.

This is a past tense verse.

It says salvation is here now.

The kingdom is here now.

Jesus sits on the throne reigning in authority now.

Satan's been defeated.

The death and resurrection of Jesus have won the battle.

Satan has lost.

Forgiveness is available.

And yet, is that how it looked and felt for the early church reading this book?

I mean, we know that the churches were being persecuted.

When we read the letters in the first chapters,

we know they were facing opposition.

They were suffering.

We know that people are dying daily for calling Jesus their Lord

and for refusing to bow to the pressure of the Roman emperor.

Does it feel like salvation has come in your life?

Does it feel like Jesus sits on his throne in your situation?

I mean, the tension is hinted at in verse 11.

Did you catch it?

They overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.

They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

Satan was overcome, but they still died.

The victory was won, but they still died.

Even with the victory of Jesus, even having been washed in the blood of the lamb,

even being forgiven, they still died.

Many of them violently.

And yet, we get this verse.

We get this voice from heaven that says,

they were victorious in their deaths.

The kingdom of God,

the salvation that is talked about in this verse,

is not what we sometimes think it should be.

It's better.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to go on holidays,

just for a few days, to visit my sister in Dubbo.

It was a trip with a particular milestone that made me a very proud dad.

We mapped out when you've got to do five hours driving with a two and a half year old.

You really have to pick when you're going to stop,

how you're going to do it, when he's going to sleep,

what's an appropriate amount of drugs to put it.

No, I'm just joking.

Just how are you going to get from A to B without losing your mind and smacking your child inappropriately.

And this, for us, involved McDonald's,

because McDonald's has good food for me, it has good play equipment for him.

And the milestone was that our first pit stop,

my son came out with the word Maccas.

And basically, that is all he says when we're driving in the car now.

He's just looking for the next Maccas that he can stop at.

And I'm very proud because those of you who know me will know that McDonald's is a passion of mine.

But the funny thing is, we went to McDonald's multiple times and he didn't eat food once.

He's not interested.

I tried to give him hash brown.

He's like, no, just give me my mushy Wheat Bix or whatever.

And so he thinks Maccas is just about Playland.

And look, Playland is great.

But because he has this limited understanding,

he doesn't realise the goodness that he's on offer behind the counter at McDonald's,

he's sold himself short and settled for less.

And look, we have this limited understanding when it comes to the glorious future that God is preparing for us.

And we need to be careful that when we dream about the kingdom of God,

when we hope for our future,

when we imagine what he will do and what good he will bring in our life,

that we don't pull the kingdom back in and make it small and less impressive than it actually is.

The kingdom of God is victorious.

But we mustn't let our understanding of what that looks like be limited by our own sinful imagination.

This verse, verse 10, that salvation has come, that the kingdom has come,

was true for those Christians suffering 2,000 years ago.

And it's true for Christians around the world today facing persecution in Iraq and Syria.

And it's true for Christians today in Chatswood.

Facing temptation and depression and failing in their battle with sin.

We are both citizens of heaven and residents of earth.

Our names are immovably etched into the book of life.

God is preparing a place for us in glory.

And yet right now we live in a fallen and limited and pain-filled world.

This is the reality of the kingdom now.

It's there in verse 12.

Therefore, because salvation has come, because the kingdom has come,

because Christ sits on the throne,

therefore rejoice you heavens and you who dwell in them.

That's us.

But woe to the earth and the sea,

because the devil has gone down to you.

He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short.

Woe to you who live on the earth.

That's us.

When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth,

he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.

The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle

so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert,

where she would be taken care of for a time, times, and half a time,

out of the serpent's reach.

The woman is rescued, but there is an ominous warning in verse 17.

Then the dragon was enraged at the woman

and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring,

those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

That's us.

Because we live in both heaven and earth,

because we are citizens of heaven,

because we are guaranteed our place,

because we belong to that kingdom that is not of this world,

we experience both the joy that is declared for heaven

and the woe that is declared for earth.

Sadness and depression are not alternatives to joy in the Christian life.

We will experience both.

I mean, did you catch it there?

In verse 17, we are at war in our day-to-day life.

Satan is our enemy.

He is a wounded enemy,

but he will do anything to share the pain that he experiences with us.

There was a football game yesterday.

I've been very restrained.

We're 15 minutes in and I haven't mentioned it yet.

There was a football game yesterday

and there are some notable absences from church tonight.

But there was a football game yesterday

between the Sydney Swans and the Hawthorne Hawks.

You all know that I support a couple of teams

and whoever's playing the Swans.

Now, I could have gotten up to gloat tonight.

I could have intentionally, you know,

modelled my wardrobe on brown and gold.

Would have been tough.

But I could have intentionally dressed that way.

And you can imagine the pain that that would have caused for certain people.

Like I said, the Smiths particularly may have had to take a week off to recover afterwards

because of the damage to the relationship.

Waving that pain back in their face

would have been just exacerbating what they were already feeling.

And what we need to understand is that

Satan is a defeated enemy.

And every time he sees somebody who bears the name of Jesus,

it's like we wave the jersey in front of his face to remind him that he lost.

He is antagonised by people who love Jesus in their day-to-day life.

He is enraged every time you make a decision to treasure Jesus

above the things in the world.

He desperately wants to cover up that light of salvation that dwells in us.

He wants to damage our lives with pain and sin and temptation,

so much so that our love for Jesus will be diluted

or maybe even extinguished.

The war with Satan will not go forever.

Satan is defeated and the times, time and half a time,

the 1260 days, that's three and a half,

which in Revelation speak means a limited time.

Satan has not been sent down here with just open slather.

He knows that his time is short.

But until Jesus returns, we are at war.

And war is not easy.

If nothing else, reading this should make us ready

for what we will face in life.

If you're a follower of Jesus,

you must expect that life will throw things at you

that make it hard to treasure Jesus,

that make it hard to put him first.

One of our core values as a church is humble authenticity.

It's about being real and being honest with each other.

It's about not putting on pretense.

This passage has just reminded us,

maybe told us,

that every one of us who loves Jesus is at war with Satan.

It's told us that Satan is powerful and clever

and so we should assume that at any given point,

some of us in this room will not be feeling

all clappy and cheerful about following Jesus.

We should assume that in this room,

sometimes all of us will not be particularly excited

about following Jesus

because Satan is pressing on pressure points in our lives.

We might be struggling with doubt,

maybe even anger towards God,

maybe a sense of failure

as we continue to fall into sin.

Humble authenticity is being honest

about the fact that that's how we're feeling.

It means we don't have to turn up to church

and put on a show and say everything's great

and yeah, I had a fantastic quiet time this week.

It's okay to say I really struggled

to open my Bible this week

because the reality is

that will be all of us at some point

and all we do when we put on a show

and say everything's fine

is we project that expectation

and that pressure onto other people

and suddenly this isn't a safe place

to just be how I'm going anymore.

It's the place where everything

has to be fine all the time.

I've got to be honest with you,

for me personally,

I'm feeling weary as a Christian.

I'm finding it difficult

to open the Bible

and be refreshed at the moment.

I'm trying,

sometimes more than others,

but I'm feeling weary.

My Sundays are fairly epic.

I get to three,

three and a half services

and I have to pray sometimes

to ask God,

don't make me switch off in this.

Don't let me be cynical in this

because when I'm tired,

that's where I go.

When I'm tired,

I start looking down at other people.

I start judging other people.

I start thinking

they're not really as holy

as they're pretending to be right now.

Now,

Satan is powerful

and he's clever

and he will press your life

in whatever way he knows

you are vulnerable.

It might not be pride.

It's right for us

to recognise

that Satan is behind

the persecution

that our brothers

and sisters face

in Iraq and Syria

when there is a gun

pointed at them

saying follow Jesus

or give up on Jesus

or die.

But we need to also recognise

that Satan has more weapons

than just guns.

Satan's goal

isn't to kill you.

It's to make you

stop loving Jesus.

It's to make you doubt

that God loves you

and he doesn't necessarily

need a gun to do it.

He can drag you down

with temptation

by maybe giving you

the opportunity

to get something

that you really desire

that you know God

doesn't want for you.

He can distract you

from treasuring Jesus

with the lure of comfort

by giving you something

that's not bad in itself

but that will be

a distraction.

He might attack you

with envy.

He might give things

that you want

to the people around you

just so that you start

wondering whether or not

God loves you.

God loves you.

God loves you.

God loves you.

God loves you.

God loves you.

God loves you.

God loves you.

This is why

knowing our hope

is so important.

This is why

perspective matters.

This is why

we need to train

our eyes

to not just see

what's right in front

of us today

and tomorrow

and next week

and next year

and for the next 50 years.

God's kingdom

is not

about

this life.

and if you think

it is

if your hope

is for a good life

as a Christian

then you'll probably

be disappointed.

If your hope

in dark times

is that

it's going to get

better soon

and by soon

you mean in a week

or a month

or a year

that's not the hope

of the kingdom of God.

It's an understandable hope

it's not a wrong

thing to desire

but it's not the hope

of the kingdom of God.

It's not the hope

of scripture

it's not the victory

that is won

in Jesus' death

and resurrection.

For many of the Christians

reading this letter

in the first century

reading about

the victory of Christ

they would either

lose loved ones

or die themselves

under persecution.

For many of them

life didn't get better.

They suffered every day

until their life

was taken from them.

But ultimately

it did get better

because for them

death was not the end

it was the transition

into the better place

that God had prepared

for them.

It was the transition

into the fuller

version of God's kingdom

free from Satan's

opposition.

If our hope

in this life

if our hope

as Christians

is just about

being a bit more

comfortable

a bit less sick

a bit less poor

then we make

Satan's job

really easy.

God never

promises

comfort

never.

It is nowhere

in scripture

he never promises

comfort in this life

and yet somehow

it just has

crept in

and become part

of our subconscious

expectation

of what it means

to follow Jesus.

we're happy

to concede

we will suffer

as Christians

but what we mean

by that is

most of our life

will be okay

and there'll be

the odd struggle

to teach me

something.

and so when

that struggle

stretches out

for a year

or for five

years

or for 50

years

we don't know

what to do

with it

because we

have convinced

ourselves

that the kingdom

of God

is about

having a happy

retirement.

last week

we prayed

for our

sister Janine

and her

family

as she

began a round

of intensive

cancer treatment

and we

continue to

pray for her

and we

cry out

that God

would intervene

and that he

would heal

her

and that he

would restore

her

but what

we have

to grasp

is that

even if

she dies

even if

God calls

her home

because she

knows Jesus

she still

wins.

That's the

hope of the

kingdom.

The victory

of God

might not

look like

victory to

us

but that

just means

we need

victory

redefined.

We are

so focused

on the

here and

now

and God

has a

bigger vision

for us.

He has a

bigger hope

than just

your 60,

70,

80,

90 or

100 years

on this

earth.

The hope

that he

has for

you is

eternal.

The 3D

images that

I was talking

about before

are blurry

at best.

Even when

you train

your eyes

to see

whatever

sailboat

is supposed

to be in

the picture

it's still

hidden in

a mess

of colour

or pattern

and it's

blurry

at best.

Now that

you've

trained

your eyes

there's

just a

picture

in that

blurriness.

There's

a little

bit of

clarity

but there's

still

mess.

The

kingdom

of God

is real

and has

begun

but in

this life

we see

it through

a mess.

We see

it amidst

suffering

being followers

of Jesus

and being

forgiven

being part

of God's

kingdom

now brings

clarity

and hope

in the

mess

but it

doesn't

remove

the mess

altogether.

It will

when Jesus

comes back

but right

now the

hope of the

kingdom is

not the

removal of

mess but

it's

clarity

in the

mess.

victory.

The

centerpiece

of God's

victory

the

centerpiece

of God's

saving

work in

history

is the

cross.

It's the

humiliation

and mockery

of Jesus

as he is

murdered as

an innocent

man and

through that

event he

is crowned

the Lord

of all.

Victory in

the kingdom

of God is

very different

to the way

the world

around us

defines

victory.

What God

has for us

is good

and is

better but

we must

understand that

to a lot of

people it

won't look

good and

it won't

look better.

It will

involve pain

and suffering

and possibly

even death.

We need to

take this

idea of

comfort in

the Christian

life and

throw it

away.

We need

to get

rid of it

because it

is damaging

our ability

to see

our eternal

hope.

Because we're

so focused

on what's

here we're

missing what

is further

out.

We're missing

what is more

exciting.

We're missing

what is hiding

in the mess.

So long as

we allow

comfort to

shape our

hope then

we'll be

setting ourselves

up for

pain.

Because God

just doesn't

promise you

comfort in

this life.

He does

promise comfort

beyond your

wildest imagination

but he promises

it when he

returns.

And if you

are expecting

him to

give you

comfort now

you will

be disappointed.

Now don't

mishear me.

There's nothing

wrong with

comfort in

itself.

There's nothing

wrong with the

fact that you

live in a

house and that

you can feed

yourself and

those sort of

things but you

must understand

it's less than

what God wants

for you.

So if that is

your ambition

if that is your

hope in dark

times that you

can get back to

that sort of

life it's not

the kingdom.

And it's a

distraction from

what God is

doing.

The Christian

life now, the

kingdom of God

now is both

joy and woe.

It's not one or

the other.

We're at war with

Satan and yet

Christ is on the

throne.

It's done, he's

won the victory,

eternity is sure

and we have heaven

to look forward to.

But the key to

having joy and

woe rather than

just woe is

perspective.

The key is

training our eyes

to look past the

fuzziness of our

situation and our

circumstance and to

see what is

eternally true.

To see more than

what first appears.

The whole book of

Revelation is about

perspective.

We talked about

this when we're

looking at

Revelation 1.

It's like God

tears the curtains

of time back so

that John can see

into eternity.

He can see that

God is still winning,

that he is still

in control and

this book is

designed to lift

struggling Christians,

those struggling

with opposition and

those struggling

with apathy and

laziness, to lift

struggling Christians

above their

circumstance so

that they can see

a glorious and

better hope.

So that they can

see the victory

of the cross

already achieved

and so that they

can begin to run

with excitement

to the future

heaven that awaits

them.

It will still hurt

to follow Jesus.

There will still be

sorrow but when

our eyes are fixed

on heaven,

fixed on eternity,

we can endure any

suffering with joy.

It doesn't mean we

won't cry, it

doesn't mean it

won't be painful

but in our pain,

in our woe,

there will be joy.

I read a devotional

book called Taste

and See a couple

of years ago,

it's just a daily

little bit and one

thing that stuck with

me and has really

haunted me ever

since was the story

of a family of

missionaries.

I can't remember

exactly what

country they're

from and that

family was basically

rounded up and

forced to dig their

own grave before

they were going to

be executed for

doing Christian

ministry in this

country.

It was a father

and a mother and

three children.

So they dug their

own grave with the

soldiers standing

around, guns ready.

Just before they're

about to be killed,

the dad asked if

they could kneel and

pray first before

they were shot and

the soldiers allowed

them to kneel down

and pray and as

they began to pray,

the eldest son ran.

He jumped up and

just bolted off into

the bush and the

soldiers got very

aggressive and were

ready to go after

him and the dad

asked them not to

chase the son.

He said,

please allow me to

call him back.

And the dad said

to his son,

please come back.

It is better for

us to enter,

eternity together

today than for

you to live with

a regret of

fleeing from

faithfulness.

The question I

find myself asking

when I hear a

story like that is

how did he do

that?

If I was in the

situation with my

son, would I call

him back or would I

cheer and try and

slow down the

soldiers so that he

could get away?

How did he do

that?

And the answer is

perspective.

The answer is he

had trained his

eyes and his heart

to see more than

what was in front of

him.

He wasn't consumed

by the soldiers and

the guns and the

grave and the death

that he knew was

coming.

He had trained his

eyes and his heart to

see the cross first

and the victory

that was won on the

cross and the

sure hope he had

for heaven.

And so even in the

pain of anticipating

the death of his

children and his

wife, there was the

joy of knowing that

soon they would all

enjoy perfect eternity

with God.

the key to not

loving our lives

too much, to not

loving the things in

our lives too much,

is training our

eyes on the two

key moments in

eternity.

The two key moments

that stand either side

of us.

The first is the

victory of the cross,

the complete and

irreversible victory of

the cross which

enables you to be

forgiven and loved

and adopted and

which enabled Jesus

to ascend to his

throne where he

reigns forever.

And that first

point points toward

and guarantees the

second point.

We live here in the

middle.

You've got the cross

and the second point

is Jesus coming back.

It's the guarantee

that the king on the

throne will come and

gather up his

subjects.

He will bring the

comfort and the

joy and the

satisfaction.

He will remove the

pain and the

suffering and the

sickness and the

death.

He will fill us with

pleasure beyond our

wildest imagination

as we spend

eternity in the

presence of the

good and loving

and gracious

God.

The key is to

train your eyes to

see past today,

to see past this

week, this year,

to see the cross

and heaven.

those two things

bring joy into the

war that is raging.

John saw a great

and wondrous sign in

heaven.

He saw war and

pain and suffering

in this life,

but he saw his

risen Savior Jesus

on the throne and

he saw hope for the

day when it would

all be made right.

As you look at the

mess in your own

life now, as you

look at the world

around us, train

your eyes to see

the hope and

victory of Jesus.

Train your heart to

see Jesus because

in him and in his

kingdom there is joy

even in woe.

There is peace even

in uncertainty and

there is hope even

in death.

Train your eyes,

train your heart

and fix them on

Jesus.

Let's pray.

Father God, we

want to confess

that we are so

quick to desire

and settle for

less than you have

designed for us.

We want to

acknowledge that we

get overwhelmed by

our situation and

our circumstance.

Father, there are

many of us in this

room who right now

are dealing with

pain and doubt

and frustration

when it comes to

our lives following

you.

God, please lift

our eyes, train

our eyes, train

our hearts to

focus on the

cross, to focus

on the victory

that you won in

Jesus.

Open our eyes to

see the hope that

awaits us, to

look forward with

anticipation, to

not love our lives

or things in our

lives because we

know that there

is something

better that you

have prepared for

us.

Give us the joy

and the peace and

the hope that you

promised that is

bigger than any

circumstance in our

life.

Give us the

humility and the

honesty to admit

when we're

struggling.

Give us the

love for one

another to

rejoice as we

overcome, as we

find joy.

Give us the love

for one another

that we might

struggle together,

that we might

bear with one

another.

Father God,

please imprint

Jesus on our

hearts and minds

so that we may

love you more

than anything

else, so that

we may live

wanting more

than anything

else to get

to that future

kingdom that

awaits us.

And we pray,

please come

soon.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's continue in

prayer.

Almighty God

and merciful

Father, we

give you humble

and heartfelt

thanks for all

your goodness and

loving kindness to

us and to all

people.

We bless you for

our creation and

preservation and

all the blessings of

this life, but

above all for your

immeasurable love in

the redemption of