Attempting to Demystify Revelation: Week 6

Good morning family, Good morning. Well, it is so good to be

here today, and so much is going on in the life of the church.

We can't even talk about it all. James had like a whole list

of things just the top tap. But this morning I want to dive back

in into this wonderful, wonderful book of the Bible, and James did tell

the truth. I was like, Nah, this is easy compared to Revelations,

but let us pray. Father. We just thank you right now.

We thank you for this opportunity. Lord God. This is your space,

Lord God, and only you should be speaking, Oh God. So Lord,

I pray even now that as I would, Lord God, decrease,

that you would increase, O God, that as I become silent, you

would speak. And that God, who is ever in this place, in

this house today needing something from you, that they will receive exactly what they

came from for Lord God. I pray, Lord, Father God, that

you would take Lor God all anxiety away, and Lord God, speak your

truth in Jesus' name. Amen. A man. Well, when we think

about the Book of Revelations, and I love the fact that we've been going

through the series and I've been watching online and getting to hear all these great

messages, and I don't think it gave me any more peace. It just

kind of get made me a little more anxious. But I understand why Revelations

literally comes at the end of the Bible, because if most people started with

regulations, they wouldn't read the rest of the book. And so Revelations is

a culination of so many things. It is literally what has happened, what

is happening, and what is to come. And so most of us we

struggle with that because most times we read a story, we kind of just

read it as it is and it goes on. But Revelation keeps us engage,

letting us know that as we are walking through life, that there are

things that have happened, there are things that are happening, and there are

things that are going to happen. And it's to prepare the body of Christ

to always be ready for Christ's return so that we don't get lost in the

sauce. Sometimes we can get lost and we can be lulled to sleep with

just regular day life, but Revelation reminds us that there is a battle going

on. So this morning, as we look at demystifying Revelations. I want

to focus in on hope in the battle. Hope in the battle. Whether

we believe it or not, there is a war going on while we're sitting

here comfortably in our seats. There is a war going on. And I'm

not talking about a war that's overseas. I'm not talking about a war that

is somewhere else in another country. I'm talking about the war for God's people.

There is a war against God's people. And the enemy of our soul

is constantly battling and scheming and trying to find ways to try to pull and

draw God's people. But the reality is that he is already defeated. Oh

amen to that he is already defeated. The schemes that he puts in place,

the things that he tries to do, they've already lost because of what

Jesus has done. But it's important for us to understand what has happened before,

what has come, and how do we now move forward when we look

at the Book of Revelation, and I'm going to be looking at three chapters

of Revelation Revelation twelve, thirteen, and fourteen, and just pulling some of

the larger themes from those books so that we can get an understanding that we

have already won. Look at your neighbors say, we have already won.

Uh huh. So I don't know if you know this. You didn't say

that like you really believe it. Okay, but let's try again, we

have already won. Oh that sounded. That's sounded more conviction that. It's

like, you know, it's a good thing to know that you've already won.

So many of you don't know this, and this couldn't get me in

trouble. So I happen to be a Celtics fan. Yeah, I know,

I know, I know. I know. It's still stings, doesn't

it right? And so the reality is that when we were watching the game,

and I'm watching the Celtics and I'm watching them play, and I'm looking

at that final game there as we're closing the series, and I see game

three and then game four comes and I'm like what and the rule is going

on. I'm seeing athletes play like they never played before, like it was

just horrible, and I'm like, why are we losing this game? We

should have closed out. And then the reality was like, oh, they

really want to win at home. They want to win at home. I

want to let you know that as the body of Christ, there are some

battles that we're fighting that it looks like we're losing. But I want to

let you know we're gonna win at home. We're gonna win in the end.

It is already set up. And so in chapter twelve of Revelations,

we encounter some very strong themes. There's some things that we see that are

very difficult. These images of the beginning of not just the beginning of this

war, but a part of this war, this battle that we're in.

And so we encounter three images. We encounter the woman. There's a woman.

She is clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and

a crown of twelve stars on her head. She represents the community of God's

people. She represents the body of Christ. She represents those who have come

through the twelve tribes. We see that in the stars, we see all

of God's people represented there. There's also the red dragon. The red dragon

is representative of the devil, the evil one, the enemy. He has

seven heads, ten horns, and he is attempting to devour the woman's child.

We can see the same image kind of portrayed in the New Testament.

When Christ is born, we know that there was also a decree that all

of those children were supposed to be taken, They were supposed to be destroyed.

We see that with Moses. We see this over and over, this

theme that has happened before that anytime God is setting some purpose up, setting

up a design, the evil one is always trying to destroy this male child

who is supposed to set up precedent or his create and avenue for God's plan

to be manifested. And so we see this image goes on and on again.

And then there's a male child who is destined to rule all nations,

destined to rule over everything, and so the enemy wants to kill that.

But that plan was definitely destroyed. And so we see this going on.

And this woman is about to give birth. She is screaming in pain,

and the Lord provides a way for her not only to produce, but also

to find an escape, to find a place of refuge. And the Bible

says that she is protected. She's protected for a season, and she is

hidden away, that the enemy is still pursuing her. And then there's a

war that breaks out in chapter twelve, a war in heaven. What now,

everybody's ready to go to heaven. But there was a war in heaven.

And there's a war between Michael and his angels, and the angels and

the evil one, the devil himself, this dragon. They were at war.

But the dragon is defeated and cast down to Earth, where he continues

to pursue the woman and her offspring and offspring, meeting anyone who will come

after offspring, of all those who will be produced after. But the good

news is that we see even in Genesis this idea of the offspring. When

Eve falls into temptation, remember that the Lord comes. Not only did she

fall, but Adam it too. Let's not forget him, okay. But

when they fall into temptation and they sin, remember that the Lord then starts

to deal with each and every one of them. Remember that he deals with

Adam, he deals with Eve, and he also deals with the surfing.

And this is what the Lord says to the surfing. He says, because

you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals.

You will crawl on your belly and you will eat all the days of

your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between

your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his

heel. Remember this is that already, though the enemy may strike the heel

of the offspring, the offspring will crush his head. It looks like somebody

already won the battle. Have you ever seen a snake? You ever seen

a snake? Uh? Huh? Listen. I don't like snakes, and

I don't know if it's because of the Bible or they're just creepy. Okay,

I don't like reptiles. Okay, I don't care if they're little ones,

big ones. And I know some people like love them, they get

them, they put them around their necks at the fair. Listen, stay

away from you with that stuff. Okay, it's not my thing. It's

not my thing. It just can't do it right. And so anytime I

see a snake, I'm reminded of a garden, and so I kind of

just like, oh no, I don't want a surface, no get away,

right and so, but the reality is that they crawl on the brown

and we have dominion. So the the fear that I have of the surfing

is probably not realistic. If it's a small snake, right, I probably

could take it. Right now, you give me a python, I probably

have some trouble. Well, I won't have any trouble at all, because

I'll be gone. But the reality is that the snake has already been defeated

because even though it may strike, it has already been defeated. It's been

crushed. The head has been crushed. So what are you facing today?

What are you dealing with today? Yes, it may sting, it may

attack you, you may go through it, you may be dealing with it.

But I want to let you know that you already have the victory.

You already have the victory through Jesus. It has already been done with.

Whatever the battle is, whatever the turmoil is, you have already been victorious

over that situation. Yes it might be sickness, Yes it might be joblessness,

Yes it might be all these other things, but you still have the

victory. So this weekend, I'm actually staying in downtown Indianapolis, and while

I'm down there, I have not I never realize how the big homelessness problem

we have. It's a huge problem. So as I'm walking downtown Indianapolis,

I'm seeing so many people who are homeless, people who are have mental illness,

people who are drug addicted. I'm seeing all of these things right there,

right there in the city where people are going to gains and concerts and

all these things. It's right there in that area, right at our doorstep.

But while I was watching that, I still found hope because I know

that God can deal with that, that God can pull people out of homelessness.

I know that God can pull people out of addiction. I know that

God can pull people out of these circumstances and situations. So we may be

overwhelmed by dealing with the thing that we're dealing with, but God remains faithful

that He will pull us out of it. He will bring hope to our

situation. He will bring hope to our circumstances. He will bring hope to

our sickness. He will bring hope to that marriage. He will bring hope

to those kids. He will bring hope to our communities. Although we may

be dealing with something very visible and something that strikes us at times. So

the good news for the redeem is this that despite this fear, opposition that

this woman face, this child face, the child is brought to the throne

of God, and the woman is protected in the wilderness for one two hundred

and sixty days, symbolizing God's provision and his care. God will provide for

you. He will care for you. Even when you're going through the hardest

thing, he will care for you. We're reminded that no matter how intense

the battle is that we're facing, God is sovereign and he will protect his

own I want to let you know you're in a safe space today because you're

under the protection of God. The most dangerous place to be is to be

in a place where you're not under God's protection. But the body of Christ

is under the protection of God. Chapter thirteen. I breeze right through that

one, didn't I right? Chapter thirteen. In chapter thirteen, we encounter

two beasts. Now we have the dragon, who is symbolic of Satan,

who is symbolic of the devil. And now we have these two beasts,

and we're asking ourselves a question, well, why is there evil in the

world? Listen, I want to let you know that anytime you decide to

live backwards, you're gonna encounter eviobl anytime you live backwards, you're gonna encounter

evil. Now most people are like, what does he mean by that?

Well, if you take the word live and turn it backwards, it's evil.

So anytime we live opposing to God's plan, to God's design, we

are in an evil place. And so the enemy of our soul because he

designs or desires to not go with the plan of God evil. And so

these two beasts show up in chapter thirteen. And in chapter thirteen, the

first beast he rises out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads,

representing a powerful, blasphemous kingdom, opposing God, opposing God's purpose, opposing

God's plan. And this beast worships the Dragon. This beast is connected to

the Dragon. This beast is a part of what the dragon is doing,

the fallen Angel. And so then there's a second beast who emerges from the

earth with two horns like a lamb and speaks like a dragon. So he's

very deceptive, lulls us in into a place of sleep or solitude. But

this beast urges people to follow the first beast, who urges everyone to follow

the Dragon. I want to let you know that we have to be woke.

We can't afford to be sleeping as believers. There is a battle at

hand, and it is going on while we're sitting here this morning, it

was going on. It was so great on Independence Day to be able to

celebrate the independence of our country. But at the same time, while we're

celebrating the independence of our country, there are wars going on while we're having

hot dogs and hamburgers. That are war's going on in this world. And

the same way that there are physical wars going on, there's a spiritual war

going on in this world, and we cannot be lulled asleep. Sometimes we

only acknowledge that the war is going on when it comes to our doorstep,

when someone in our family is sick, when in our family is going through

a trial or a situation, or we are physically going through something, or

we are feeling the battle or feeling oppressed in some area of our life.

I want to let you know that battle is always existing, though it may

not be at your doorstep. It may be at your neighbor's doorsteps, it

may be at your friend's doorstep, it may be at another brother or sister's

doorstep, and they are battling right now. And that's why we can't afford

to be law assleep. We can't be afford to be sleeping when the battle

is going on. We have to be equipped. Well, what does equipping

mean? Yes, Jesus has won the battle, but though there the battle

has been won, there's still these after effects, shock waves. I love

in a church that used to always call out this call, they would say,

Hell lost another one. Know what I'm talking about? Uh huh,

I'm so glad that Hell is losing another one. But we don't want to

give up any. We don't want to give up any for the Kingdom of

God. Hell is losing some every day. But guess what we're going for

all and so we can't afford to be asleep? Well, how do we

combat that? How do we comeback? These two beasts that are symbolic of

and we talk about this is one is political dominance reign. The other one

represents the spiritual safety net where we feel safe, kind of cozy and casual,

where we have not we're just having good old church right, And we've

been lulled asleep. But I don't want us to fall asleep, because the

Bible tells us in Ephesians six, verse ten and starts this way, finally,

be strong in the Lord, and in the power, and in his

mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so you can stand against

the devil's schemes. I want to let you know if there are schemes that

the devil are setting up. He wants to try to trap us, because

his time is already up. He realizes that, like listen, I'm defeated.

But if I can just capture a few, if I can catch a

fuel along the way, and so we can't afford to be sleeping. So

we have to put on the full armor of God. And it says,

for we stuggle. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against

rulers, against the authorities, against powers of this dark world, and against

the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. There are things operating behind

the scene. You don't know why your boss so evil. You don't know

why they act the way that they act. There's some schemes. It's not

even them, they're just being There's schemes behind the scene to throw you off,

to get you off course. But guess what. Therefore, put on

the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes,

you will be able to stay in your ground. And after you have done

everything to stand stand firm, then it's hard. I wanna let you know.

If you thought then that is going to be easy, you sign up

for the wrong club. They got memberships at the why And I'm telling you

it's just a monthly rape. Okay. But if you want to be a

Christian, you are going to have to fight. But the fight is different.

You don't have to get an artillery. You don't have to get an

armor, a physical armor. It's spiritual armor that the Lord wants us to

have to be able to battle the evil one. And we know what those

weapons are. So here though the weapons. I love this right here,

the Bible says, stand firm then with the belt of truth bubbled around your

waist, with the breastplate of righteousness and place, and your feet fitted with

the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace, the Gospel of Peace.

We're not trying to take people out. We're trying to take the devil out.

Amen. And the Body of Christ has to be in a place where

we are taking down the devil's territory, anything that he sets up, tearing

it down. Why, because we have authority God has given us to the

authority in the earth. So though there's a battle behind the scenes, we

can't afford not to participate. You have to participate. We have to be

praying, we have to be on assignment on tasks because God has assigned us

to do so. The Bible goes on to say it says, in addition

to this, take up the shield of faith. We gotta have hope.

We gotta believe that no matter what's going on, that God is still victorious

over it all. I know you looked at the news last night and it

looks rough, But guess what, He's still victorious over it all. We

still have theory in Jesus. That's the good news. And then it goes

on it says, with which you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil

one. He's throwing darks at you, he's throwing darts at your kids.

He's throwing darts in our community. He's throwing darts at our world. But

guess what, We're victorious. And then it says, take the helmet of

salundation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

When everything else fails, the word of God sinds. It's a firm foundation.

We can rest on the word of God and then nobody who goes on

to say and pray in the spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of

prayers and requests. We need to be a praying people, praying not just

sometimes, not just over food. Some of us love to prayer over the

mill. Have an uncle would always be like, I got this one,

but don't call a prayer for somebody in the hospital. That's not then you

want to call because he might be like, Lord, bless those buns,

and I mean, Lord, he'll heal this person and the Yeah, we'll

eat the rose later, okay, Right, So the reality is that we've

got to be people of prayer, praying at all times with all types of

prayers. There's all supplication, all opportunities to pray, but we need to

pray in the spirit. God, teach me to pray. Show me how

to pray for your people. Show me how not to only think about myself

when I pray, not just me and my kids in mind, but Lord,

God, yours your kingdom, your power, Let it show up,

let it come. We got to be a praying people with this in mind.

Be alert and always keep on praying. For all of the Lord's people.

Revelations is a call to be alert, Be alert, be alert in

our communities because any power that's in control that tries to operate without God is

going to not be successful. There's been so many calls for our politics to

fix the world. Can't fix the world. This is God's world. Only

God can fix this world. Even the Church we can go and do good

things, but if we do it without God, we're doing nothing. We

must be empowered by God. We must be connected to God, and the

spirit of God leads us to do the things that brings the world together.

We need God like never before. Well, there's hope for the redeemed,

even in chapter thirteen, in the face of such overwhelming evil, these beaster

are there. But in Revelations thirteen ten it offers a call to perseverance in

faith. If anyone is taken captive, to captivity goals, if anyone is

to be slain with the sword, with the sword must be must he be

slain? Here is a call for the endurance of faith of the saints.

This verse encourage us to remain stead, knowing that God sees our struggle and

will ultimately bring justice. He sees our struggle, and he will speak,

he will answer. I know sometimes you're like, God, just come on,

come on through with this, but just persevere, hold on. When

I was a kid, the worst thing for me was to remain patient.

We would eat dinner. My grandmother would make dinner and we'd eat, and

I'd be like, can I some dessert? Now? She was like,

she would always say this term, and to this day, I probably I've

adopted it. Let your food settle, well, isn't ice cream more food?

And so it was kind of one of those things of being patient.

Patience is hard to have because Lord, God, just fix this now,

fix this world, now, fix this situation. Now, fix this circumstance

now. But I want to let you know, and the waiting is the

blessing. Think about God's people who suffered so long in Egypt. But guess

what. The time came and the time went, and when they came out,

they came out in victory. I want to let you know the time

will come when you will come out of this situation in victory. Victory is

yours through Jesus. Chapter fourteen, twelve and thirteen are hard, man.

There's a whole lot of evil there's a whole lot of stuff going on that

It's like, man, you got this dragon, you got the beasts,

you got this this woman who is being pursued by the beast, and you

got all the creation that is in the mix of all of this. We're

being pursued. But we have victory through Christ. But in chapter fourteen comes

hope. There comes a hope in fourteen. In chapter fourteen we start to

see the triumph of the Lamb and its followers. There's hope in fourteen because

we understand that in fourteen that Jesus, the King, the Lord, the

Messiah is there, and this is a time of worship and consecration and declaration

for the people of God to be able to say, hey, this is

what we've been waiting for. And they're talking about one hundred and forty four

thousand standing on the mountain Sion the Lamb who is Jesus. We know that

Jesus is the Lamb of God, with one hundred and forty four thousand who

had his name and their father's name written on their foreheads. The angels are

declaring the fall of Babylon, the fall of the Evil One, the fall

of the enemy, and all that worship this beast. This is a time

of correction, if you would, a time where everything comes into order,

where the king and its people are in a time of worship. It's so

in contrast to this world often because we're always battling. Even in the time

of worship. Sometimes it's hard to worship because when we go to worship,

we thinking about all the stuff that's going on in our lives and in our

world, and so we have to press in and worship to push through what

we're thinking and what we're dealing with. The biggest battle that you'll ever face

is a battle of your mind. That's where it goes. We're always fighting

in the mind. I'm trying to think the right thing, but Lord,

I get caught up on this thing. Have you ever been reading a scripture

and then you just kind of like zone out ever praying and just zone out

because the enemy wants to take away the things that are going to empower us

to fight this battle. But in chapter fourteen, we see in verse six

it introduces this proclamation that the Gospel is preached to every nation. Fear God

and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship

him who made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and the springs

of water. This message of hope assures us that despite the presence of evil,

God's message of salvation and judgment will be given to all humanity. There's

hope for all humanity. When I looked out the windows, and when I

walked the streets of Indianapolis, I kept thinking about this. Hope doesn't look

hopeful. But I can't be drawn to the things that I see, because

if I just see and believe everything that I see, that I forget the

hope that is eternal, the eternal hope that's only found in what Christ did

for us. Well, how do we get there? How do we get

to that place where we fall before the King in worship with all of this

behind us, all of the devastation, all of these other things that we've

been dealing with behind us. Well, it's a daily battle. It's a

daily walk, it's a daily fight that we must go through. But we're

reminded back in chapter twelve, one verse that sticks out to me and is

highlighted. Verse eleven says this, they triumphed over him, who is him?

The evil one? Well, how do you beat the evil one.

We're gonna put on the full armor of God, right, But then there's

something else, there's another responsibility that we have. They triumphed over him by

the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. What is

your testimony today? What is your testimony today? What can you say about

your life? The biggest testimony I have is that Jesus found me where I

was. I was a mess, I was unfit. I could not save

myself, but Jesus saved me. And the same blood that was shed on

cavalry reached me. That that same blood connects me to the Kingdom of God.

That Jesus loved me so much, And I used to love this when

I was a kid. It always drew me in that if he only had

to die for one, and ef I was the one, he would have

died for me. But I'm so glad he didn't shed his blood for one,

but he shed his wad blood for all. For God so loved the

world that he gave us only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him will

not perish but have everlasting life. That's everybody. If you will believe,

whoever would believe in him, you can have everlasting life. There's hope in

Jesus. I don't know about you, but that's what I think the world

needs right now is hope. It's devastated by everything that we see, but

the hope, like never before, the world's needs. But I want to

let you know, friends, brothers, sisters, We've always had hope.

Don't forget your hope. Don't forget your hope. Jesus is your hope.

If everything else faves, if everything else goes away, Jesus is your hope.

He said what he will do, and he did what he will say,

and he will complete the work that has been starting in you, in

your life, in the world, in this community of faith, he will

finish it. We have hope, and it's brighter than the perfect day.

I want to let you know that he is our hope. If you lost

hope, come back to Jesus. He's waiting with open arms. This morning,

we've looked at Revelations twelve through fourteen, and it gives us so much

insight to this battle that's behind the scenes and in this calm room. This

morning. Is hard to imagined that there's a war waging because there's no sound,

there's no artillery, there's nothing happening in the sound realm in this room.

But I want to let you know that not only is he the evil

one in a battle, but so are we, And I want to let

you know we are in a place of authority because we can wage war against

the evil one. So what does that look like? We're taking everything back?

Everything he tries to claim. We're taking it back. We're taking families

back, We're taking territory back, We're taking our homes back, We're taking

everything back. Why are we taking it back? Because it was hours from

the get go, it was never kids, So we're taking it back.

So when I was a kid and we were in church, we used to

sing this song and I really didn't understand it right when we first started singing

it. But then there was one day I was on the worship team.

You know, you ever get on the worst team, you don't really get

the song right, but then it one day the light goes off and it

makes sense to you and the song went like this. I didn't plan to

sing this, but I'm gonna do it anyway. It saying, well,

we're going into the end and me's camp and we're going now take bad bloody

stove me, take by, Take back bloody stove, me, take by,

take back bloody stove from me. We go into the year and me

he's camp and and we're going now take bad bloody stoff from me. He's

under my feet, he's under my feet, he's under my feet, he's

under my feet, and there ain't no devil in the world. All go

and walk over me. Now, if I was testy, I would say,

now it's your term to sagnatic. I'm not gonna do that to you

this morning. But what I want to build in you is a confidence that

though we read a revelation and it makes us nervous, I want to let

you know you are already victorious through the blood of Jesus, that you have

already won that