High calling of high praise

The word turn with me to Revelation the Revelation

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5. My computer is demanding A

passcode will not do my finger here.

I don't know what's going on. There we go.

All right. I was had the the joy yesterday

of speaking at a conference in Newton with APEPT.

It's a network of churches and so forth and led by Doctor Dell

Bittner. And I don't know if any of you

know Dell, but he's a great guy. I love Dell and just got a just

a great history in God. He's a wealth of knowledge and

history and had a good time with them.

But I ended up speaking on some of the things we've been talking

about here this morning. And so I'm just going to

continue in that vein. What I want to do this morning

is I want to, you know, sometimes you're not just

teaching the word. There's there's times for

teaching the word, preaching, addressing cultural issues, that

that is an appropriate thing. And there's times we do that.

But there's other times we want to equip the Saints.

And part of that is providing a grid work, you know, framing

things out so people understand what's going on.

And what I mean is specifically about what Josh was just talking

about when he did transition. He was talking about high praise

and how when we we ascend the hill of the Lord is one of the

phrases used in scripture. It's an interesting phrase.

We ascend the hill of the Lord and from there we begin to do

Kingdom business and say, well, you know, pastors, that really

scriptural. Well, I'm hoping to convince you

this morning that it is. So I want to, I want us to

understand what happens in worship and I want to under, I

want us to understand what I believe is somewhat of a unique

assignment for us as a church. It's certainly not unique in all

the earth, but I think that God deposits different callings

within a region and everybody has their part.

I was just texting a pastor in town here this morning.

Tell them I'm praying for you. And, and I believe God's raised

them up and I was praying for their church that God's going to

use them. And I'm, I'm excited they're in

the city because they have a part to play.

We have a part to play. But you and I are responsible to

steward our part. And part of that is our worship

that there's, there's, there are different reasons for worship.

You know, we, we worship Jesus because he's worthy.

And if that's the only reason we worship, we could do that from

not just now till Jesus comes, but well after we for eternity,

we'll worship him because of his great worth.

And that's reason enough. But the fact is there are other

reasons that we worship Jesus. There is there We also worship

them for ourself. You know, we declare God's worth

to him and because he is worthy, but God is not insecure.

It's not that he needs to hear that.

You know, God wasn't wringing his hands last night saying, oh,

I'm feeling a little insecure. I looked down at the United

States and there's such chaos. I, I really hope Heartland

affirms who I am so I can be firm in my identity and fill my

job description for another week.

That's not going on in the heart of God.

God is very secure in who he is, but we worship him because he's

worthy. And it does create an, an

environment where God enthrones himself.

And that's, that's where we really want to go this morning.

But we also worship for ourselves.

We need to recalibrate things for ourselves.

You know, there is a, a false narrative continually that the

enemy is seeking to impose upon us.

And I use that word very carefully.

Narrative, you know, there's, there's narrators who impose a

narrative. And so you know that that idea

of a narrator is the voice off stage that interprets what's

going on stage. And there are voices that are

seeking to interpret the happenings in your life, some

good and some bad. There's the voice of the Lord.

There are angelic voices. Often I think when the Lord

speaking to us, it's really angels.

But that's it for another day. There, there, there.

There's a reason they're called messengers.

And so there's the voice of heaven seeking to interpret, and

much of that we get from the word.

That's why we need to be in the word, because we can interpret

incorrectly what's going on around us.

And the enemy has a vested interest in getting you to

misinterpret what's going on in your life.

So there's a narrator that's trying to create a narrative, an

interpretation, a perception of what's going on in your life.

And they're the the enemy is a very real narrator that is

continually trying to infuse the circumstances in your life with

meaning. According to his narrative, the

conclusions he wants to bring you to because you're believing

will determine your behaving. And if he can get you to

conclude the wrong things, perceive the wrong things,

misinterpret things, he can get you to act wrongly and it

literally becomes a self fulfilling prophecy because you

will act according to what you believe and it will become a

reality. If you believe the wrong things,

you're going to behave in a wrong way and your behaviour

will produce fruit in your life. Your present circumstances are

often the result of your belief systems, good and bad.

And so, and I'm not talking about us creating our own world,

I'm talking about us engaging with the spiritual realm.

And when we believe lies will live out as though those lies

were true and overtime they will become true because we

accommodate them. Does that make sense?

And so worship is one of the the combatants against that one.

It's one of those tools. God's given us weapons to combat

that because in worship we get things into clarity.

It's like, you know, when you are a, I was on a Zoom call the

other day and something said on my Zoom, I don't know how to use

this stuff. I could just get on there.

I see the face and there's my little face, but something said

on there, sometimes things will happen.

I'll wave my hand, little balloons will fly up.

That's just, you know, what is that?

I don't know how to change that. It's off right now because I was

talking and there was no balloons.

But now the, the background is really out of focus.

It kind of looks cool. You know, I didn't do that.

If you're on a Zoom call with me, that wasn't me.

I don't know how that happened, but the reason I bring that up

like pastor, that was squirrel. No, I've I'm going somewhere

with this that when we we bring into focus the Lord and his

narration, everything else kind of fades into the background.

Those other narratives, those other belief systems, those

other storylines that the enemy's trying to impose on us

and reinterpret our circumstance makes sense.

So worship is we are getting him into clarity again.

We're doing it for ourselves. We're worshipping to reprogram

and recalibrate and bring into focus so everything else fades

to the background. And that's a really good reason

to worship. We could worship for a couple

thousand years just on that one. But there's a third reason we

worship and that is and, and I thought it was interesting what

Josh said. Josh said pressing the will of

the Lord, because often this phrase will come to me.

So this morning I just thought, I'm going to look that up.

What what does that really mean? Because I'll say it, I kind of

had an idea, but it's pressing the crown rights of King Jesus.

We press the crown rights and pressing the Crown rights is a,

is a, it's a phrase from Commonwealth.

It's a phrase from kingdoms where there there are legalities

in which the those authorized with authority from the crown

will go and press the Crown rights.

Some of that often will that'll come up in the idea of property.

And so they're in going and seizing property or exercising

the crown rights over property. And that'll preach because

there's a property called Iowa. We want to see the crown rights

of King Jesus enforced. The earth is the Lords and the

fullness thereof. And so in worship, we catch the

heart of the Lord and we press his crown rights into situations

in our life. And so that's there's a there's

a warfare element to worship that we must be aware of.

And if all, if there's that old saying, if all you have is a

hammer, you treat everything like a man nail.

If the only way that you see worship is one way, then you've

got you have this one hit wonder where you're going to try to

treat everything like they're the same situation.

And there are times where we need to pick up high praise and

begin to wield the authority, the crown rights of King Jesus

and impose his will into situations.

And so that's what we want to talk about this morning.

Now let me do it. Little, little background

because I haven't been in this pulpit for two weeks.

It's been, it was 3 weeks ago, man.

Someone said, hey, Pastor Avery, really biting at the bit to get

back in the pulpit. Well, I didn't preach a lot this

week. I just didn't get to preach from

here. But I want to, I want to kind of

do a little bit of review to get us back up to speed because what

we've been talking about are two things.

We've been talking about the Psalms, Psalms 2 and Psalm 149.

Both of those, those bookend Psalms are talking about God

dealing with the nations. And this is very, very, very

relevant to us right now. We're living in a unique time in

history where there is global chaos and God is calling the

church to step to the forefront and begin to press his crown

rights into national affairs, not just in our nation, but in

other nations. But both of them come into play

that that the real hope of the United States of America is not

the White House, it's God's house and it's not the executive

office. It's the church stepping into

and pressing the crown rights of King Jesus.

And so we see in Psalm chapter 2, David is incredulous and he

Psalms 2 · chapter mention

says, why do the why do the heathen rage?

Why do the kings of this earth imagine a vain thing?

Why, why do they, the kings, the nations, the peoples and the the

other one I think was nobles. Why they what they're doing is

they rage and they say, let us throw off the yoke of the Lord

and his anointed one. In other words, we're not going

to, we're not going to come under God's rules, God's edicts,

God's laws, God's ethical ideas. We're going to, we're going to

throw those off and we're going to do our own thing.

And David, David's incredulous how, why would they do this?

And then he gives God's response.

This is Psalm 2. And he says he who sits in the

heavens laughs. And sometimes you and I, we need

to get in God's presence so we can see from God's perspective

how he's dealing with these things, because we can be from

an earthly perspective and wringing our hands while he who

sits in the heavens looks down and laughs.

And then he says he holds them in derision.

Derision means to mock them. He puts them in a tight place

they can't get out of and he he mocks them in their rebellion.

These kings of the earth that are trying to rule and to, you

know, to rebel against God. Now we need to understand that

this Psalm was first. There's there's really three

applications for this Psalm. And if we jump to the obvious

New Testament one, we will miss the other two and some very

valuable things that God has for us in Psalm chapter 2.

Psalms 2 · chapter mention

And what I mean is this it was originally written to king.

It was a encounter that King David had, OK, And it was

written about David. And when he says, As for me,

he's saying he's reiterating to you and I what he heard in a

throne room encounter with God. He heard God say this, As for

me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.

And that is he's he's saying that in response to the

rebellious kings of the earth saying we're not going to obey

God. And God's laughs cast him in

derision. And then he says to them,

listen, As for me, I've set my king on Zion on my holy hill.

And God is speaking to these kings through David.

And David is the king that he set there.

Now, why is that important for us?

Because you and I, we have a tendency to interpret this

solely as a messianic Psalm. And it is, OK, it's a messianic

Psalm. But it is first and foremost was

spoken of a human king named David.

And this is very important because there's also an

application for the Church of Jesus Christ who are seated with

him in heavenly places. And if we just reduce it to a

messianic Psalm, we reduce it to poetry about Jesus ministry

rather than realizing that God was enforcing the rule of this

earthly king and he was in, he's also enforcing the rule of his

heavenly king that sits on the seat of David in the heavenly

realms. And we are seated with him and

we have a role to play in this thing.

OK, so it says that God is going to cast them in derision.

Let's let's look there. I'm sorry, let's let's make sure

So you know I'm not making this up.

Turn with me. Chapter 2 of Psalm, the second

Psalm. And I want to tie this in with

what we've been talking about in Revelation.

So look what he says he look at verse four.

He sits in the heavens, laughs, he holds them in derision, Then

he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify of them in his

fear. He's saying in verse 6, this is

what he says to them. As for me, in other words, the

one who sits on the throne of the universe, the epicenter of

governmental rule for all the cosmos.

As for me, I've set my king in Zion on my holy hill, and he's

telling these, these kings of the earth.

Listen, you better come come to terms with this because that's

the one I've chosen. I will tell of the decree, David

said. So David saying what I heard in

this encounter, I'm going to tell you what I heard the Lord

said to me. David, you are my son today I've

begotten you. We were talking in the school

about how this idea of royal sonship is all through the

ancient world. OK, royal sonship.

Sonship was the idea that a king, an earthly king, was a

earthly representative of the God which they worshipped.

We know that was true and and so they were known as the son of

God. Pharaoh was known as the son of

Rah, their God Rah Caesar was known as the son of God and

eventually became the embodiment of God himself on earth.

And so this was an ancient idea that Jesus steps in and he is

the son of God who is the embodiment of God on planet

earth. He came to bring his Kingdom.

All of that is very important. And here's the thing, we can

look back at these people and say, oh, these ignorant,

unenlightened, superstitious people that thought these human

kings were the representative of the God they worshipped.

But be careful with that because it very well maybe well, it it's

not very well maybe it the fact is they understood the alliances

between the physical realm and the spiritual realm far beyond

what most evangelicals, modern Christians do that they're there

that the spiritual realm. There are rulers in the

spiritual realm that seek to make alliances and coalitions

with earthly rulers and then their will can be manifest

through those kingdoms. Are you tracking with me?

So when we talk about principalities, these

principalities, there's a reason that when Daniel was praying 21

days and on the 21st day of his fast, the Angel shows up a

little rough for where and says from the day you started

praying, I, I, I came to you, the Lord sent me to bring you

the message you were praying for, but I was held up in the

heavenlies by the Prince of Persia.

It's where Daniel was praying. He was in Persia and he was

having to battle this spiritual darkness.

The the hesitancy, the the delay was not on God's end, nor was it

on Daniel's end. Daniel was determined to pray

through God sent it the day he began to pray the delay, the

battle was in the heavenly realms.

And so when we see this ancient idea, it's that they were, they

had much more perception because they were nearer to the

inception of God's design, that God meant for heaven and earth

to function together. And so this counterfeit of these

people being in these alliances was what David was addressing

here. So God says through David, you

are my son, you are my earthly representative, I've adopted you

as a son, and you are my representative on the earth, the

Most High God, and you are to press my crown rights and I'm

going to rule through you and bring these kings under

subjection tracking with me. So that's what's going on here.

Now look at what he says. Ask of me, and I will make the

nation's your inherit, your heritage, and the ends of the

earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod

of iron, dash them in pieces like a Potter's vessel.

And then now David declares. This is David declaring to these

kings. Now therefore, O kings, be wise,

be warned. O rulers of the earth, serve the

Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the sun, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way.

For his wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all take refuge in him.

And originally this was David Speaking of himself and saying,

hey, surrender on the front end. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,

and you perish in the way. But we know it's a messianic

Psalm of Jesus. But you and I, there are, there

are, this is a template by which God operates in the earth that

applies to the New Testament. We're enthroned with him.

And so God expects us to be involved in this process of God

enforcing his will on the earth through prayer and through

worship. Worship is a key part of this.

It's not just us getting in our prayer closet and praying alone,

and it's not even just a corporate prayer meeting.

There is a, an environment in which when we begin to worship

him that literally he enthroned himself in our worship.

Psalm 22 says, and, and the context we've talked about this

before, but this is crucial. So we're just going to kind of

reiterate some things this morning because I'm trying to

kind of frame this up for us so that we understand what we're

partaking of. Psalm 22 where it says you

enthrone yourself in the praise of Israel.

It literally means to be seated, but when God sits down, it's a

throne. There's a Japanese version of

that verse that says whenever God's people prays, they carry a

chair in which God sits upon. So in a very real sense, worship

is a chair that we all commit to.

Hey, let's grab the chair this morning.

Let's put it on our shoulders and let's bring it into the

sanctuary and let's set it down and let's welcome.

Lord, we invite you to sit upon the throne.

Because when you see you're seated now, Lord, we invite you

to begin to extend your scepter and change circumstances.

And it's got to be beyond just our own lives, OK?

It's not Lord, I'm struggling with this change that

circumstance. That's fine.

That's good. God really does care about you

as an individual. But there's something higher

he's called us to, and that is corporate worship for corporate

intercession to deal with regional and national and

international issues. And that is that is the the

privilege of all the Saints, the honor of all the Saints we're

going to see in Psalm 149 turn there.

So this is this is the second Psalm.

He introduces this in this praise manual, this hymnal of

the people of Israel. And, and again, I want to

reiterate this, this is very, very important that these hymns

were not just poetry that creative people wrote.

They are literally the records of the psalmist seers that

recorded went through scribes, their encounters, not just so

that we can look back and think, oh, that's neat that they got to

encounter those things. It's so that they would leave

the trail for you and I so that you and I could enter into the

same. This is the honor of all the

Saints. This isn't just for the special

few. We are enthroned with Him in

heavenly places and God wants us to ascend the hill of the Lord

and be brought into those encounters.

Because in those encounters you will receive things that you

need, that without them your life will not work as God

intended. If all that we have is our human

learning, we be in trouble. If if all we have is what we we

can study ourselves into, we're in trouble.

We need something beyond our human wisdom.

We need the Intel of heaven that God breaks in and gives us

directives. We need the mind of Christ.

And when we have that, then things change.

And so these are the, if you read the Psalms, you have to

come to the conclusion they're either just pretty poetry or

these are supernatural encounters of the seers, the

psalmists. David was called a prophet,

Asaph was a prophet. Scripture says one of the

authors of the Psalms and these prophets, the Old Testament

criteria for being a prophet. You'll see this phrase.

Yeah. He stood in the counsel of the

Lord COUNCIL. Standing in the counsel of the

Lord, many scholars believe, was the criteria.

That was the qualification to be a prophet.

And all of us as a new covenant people are, are invited to stand

in the counsel of the Lord as the ecclesia.

It's a very similar word and very similar idea when you look

at what the the Old Testament lays out.

It's not that God needs counsel, COUNSEL, but God is a team

player. He really does like to share his

authority. It's an amazing thing.

It's one of the most intriguing things to me about God that he

includes us. He does not need us.

In fact, like a father who wants to have his son working with

him. Hey, son, let's work on the car.

And now you know that it's going to take three times as long to

fix what you're going to fix because you got the little guy

over there and he's dropping things and he's using the wrong

right. You're trying to bring him

along. But God is good with that.

He could get there a lot faster on his own.

But he said no, Come on. Why don't you go work with me

today? When I worked at Teen Challenge,

we would have Randy, you remember this having wake up and

that meant you had to show up really early and wake all the

guys up and and you'd walk down the dorm.

All right, guys, get up. Come on, we're going to go, you

know, and they'd have to go to then they'd go down.

You'd do Med call and all that stuff.

And when my boys were really little, they'd say, Dad, can I

go to work with you today? And they'd they're a little MIT

in my hand and they'd be telling these grown men get out of bed.

Come on, it's time to get up, man.

Come on, guys, they're little. One day I took my little boy,

one of my little boys, I don't even remember which one, but he

was walking with me and saying, and the Lord said, that's how I

want you to be. I want every day.

Do you get up, say, Dad, can I go to work with you today?

That my tiny little voice and my little MIT in his big old hand

and I'm bossing things around in the earth.

So I got a big dad. And so God invites us to go to

work with him. It's an amazing thing.

He can get it done a whole lot faster without us, but he set up

a system that he will not do it without us and we cannot do it

without him. And this partnership between

heaven and earth is crucial. So Psalm 149, let's look at it.

Oh my goodness, it's quarter tail praise the Lord sing to the

Lord a new song that's a prophetic song.

It literally in the Hebrew, it's a song that's never been heard

that in the moment you hit you hit pay dirt and you begin to

release the now of God, the heart of God, his praise in the

assembly that Septuagint translates that ekklesia of the

God and let Israel be glad in his maker.

Let the children of Zion rejoice in their king.

This theme of Zion you keep seeing come up and there's in

the New Testament, Zion is the Kingdom.

It's the seat of God's governmental rule.

Let them praise him with dancing, making melody with him

to him with tambourine and lyre. Listen to what he's saying here.

This is not just this casual, you know, kind of half mast, you

know, Lord, we thank you. We're talking full body worship.

We're, we're talking using our body as a weapon and an

instrument to glorify him, though that stuff matters to the

Lord because it's you engaging your whole heart.

We, we and some of you are more reserved than others.

You know, I, I don't dance before the Lord as much as I

used to because I, I just can't get the air I used to.

And then when I stop, my body keeps doing it for a few seconds

like, well, that was embarrassing.

I know that ally's down there. Too much information, pastor,

too much information. I always I I got.

I need to put a camera on ally when I preach and then go back

and look at the the time mark and oh, I should never say that

again because of Ally's response.

Anyway, I digress. So but the fact is we need to

use our bodies as instruments of worship.

That really does matter to the Lord.

A matter of fact it there's a reason the psalmist said they

dancing he he crowns the humble with salvation because it's

humbling. I wasn't a good dancer, but you

know when I was out in the world man.

So anyways, I digress. So let let them praise him with

dancing for the Lord takes pleasure in his people.

He adorns the humble with salvation.

Now look at this verse 6. Let the high praise.

This is what Josh was talking about.

Let the high praise of God be in their throats and A2 edged sword

in their hand. We know that the sword of the

Lord is the word of God and we wield it.

A sword is not. He's not talking about using it

to cut bread or you know, do work on your house.

A sword is a weapon of warfare where we release the word of the

Lord to move things in the environment.

And there's a dynamic of the high praise that we enter into

when that happens. And so this, this is a warfare

mindset when we enter into worship, Worship is not always

warfare, but there are times it is.

And it's we catch the catch the heart of the Lord and we begin

to make these declarations that really do matter in the earth,

that God begins to move things and shift things.

And we need to develop a sensitivity in these this

environment when we're worshipping, that we hit those

those platforms of authority. We're going to begin to release

things over our families, over our children, over our

grandchildren, over our nation, over the governmental structure,

over our city, that we begin to release the word of the Lord

because it carries power. And we are subjecting the enemy

to the truth of God and pressing the crown rights of King Jesus

over those situations. And things have to move.

And so it's very, very important for us to understand this.

Otherwise we treat everything like it's an intimacy moment.

And then intimacy is foundational.

I'm, I'm not in any way minimizing that.

I'm just saying that there's other elements to this thing

that we need to be aware of. So what does he say?

What what is the purpose? Verse 7, to execute vengeance on

the nation's. And it is fascinating.

He mentions the same four groups of people he talked about in

Psalm 2. So in Psalm 2 he says they're

rebelling and they're saying I'm not going to submit to God's

rule. And in chapter 149, the second

of the last Psalm, he shows that you and I have a part to play

when he brings them into subjection.

What is that part? To execute vengeance on the

nation's punishment, on the people's, to bind their kings

with chains and their nobles with federal of iron.

To execute upon them the judgment written.

This is the honor for all his godly ones praise the Lord and

primarily what we're dealing with are those spiritual

realities those rulers and principalities and powers.

But there is a place where God will he will hem in a world

ruler. He'll muzzle them and turn them.

We talked about it a few weeks ago, Hall Hitler, when he came

out of his meeting with Chamberlain, he he confided in

his counselors and he was frustrated.

He said for the first time I didn't obey the voice and even

told Chamberlain in the meeting, he said, I don't know why I'm

giving you what you want. And we look back at that meeting

as an abject failure. And there's good reason too.

But there were some things that the Lord did secure in that

because of the prayers of the Saints, and it gave Britain a

little bit of time to build up their armament.

And although that was Chamberlain was suckered into a

deal and believed he'd secured peace when he hadn't, God used

that. And Hitler went against the

voice that he said he had followed since childhood.

There was a demonic counselor living within him and that would

violate the counsel of his his advisors and, and he'd win again

and again. And they were, they were just so

intrigued by how does this guy have this military brilliance

that goes counter intuitive to what we always tell them.

And it was the prayers of the Saints that begin to put a

harness in his mouth and steer him in the way that God wanted

him to go. And you and I need to pray for

world leaders, pray for our king, pray for our president,

pray for the kings of the earth. And we need to catch the word of

the Lord and get what God is saying and then begin to pray

that stuff. Because the real seat of power

in the universe is the throne room.

And the church in heaven, it's God's throne room.

And on earth, it's the Church of Jesus Christ.

And if we abdicate our role, things will veer off contrary to

what God wants. And so we need to understand the

high and exalted position that he's given us, not in an

arrogant sense, but with great humility that Lord, don't let us

shirk this responsibility. We are going to steer this thing

in prayer and our president needs our prayer.

Nathan, as a prophet of God, made a mistake and gave his king

this council. Do whatever's in your heart, God

be with you. And then the Lord corrected the

prophet Nathan and he had to circle back around and say,

actually, that was me. This is the word of the Lord.

And we we're not called to endorse everything any

candidate, any president says because we're we're above that.

We are speaking from heaven. And so we need to speak into

those things, the word of the Lord.

And there are times where on earthly president will make bad

decisions and we need to steer them.

And so the prayers are not just to get people in and out of

office. The prayers are to shepherd them

while they're there. This is an hour for Daniels,

those who hear the word of the Lord and speak into the halls of

power. Even if you don't have direct

access, spiritually speaking, we can pray in these things.

Amen. OK, I say all that, turn to

Revelation 5 and we're just going to go on into the second

server. I'm just kidding.

I really would like to Revelation chapter 5.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

So we talked about this two weeks ago, but I want it.

I want it again. I want to stress this that there

is in chapter 3, the final church that John has a message

for the Church of Laodicea. What does he say right at the

end, verse 19, chapter 3, To those, those whom I love, I

reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent.

So he's dealing with their hearts.

And then he says this, this famous verse, Behold, I stand

and at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and

opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me.

So there's a feast on the other side of this invitation.

There's a door that you and I control.

He descends and he comes to us. And he says, listen, I'm

knocking on your heart. I want to deal with some things.

And when you feel the dealings of God, there is the promise in

this verse of a feast of revelation that God has for you.

If we respond, the famous painting of this, we've all seen

it where Jesus is at the wooden door.

And if you look at that picture, there's no handle, no lock on

the outside. All the mechanism is on the

interior, because you and I control that door.

It's the door of intimacy. We must respond to Him.

But there's another door. The next passage, Revelation 4.

After this, I looked and behold, a door standing open in heaven.

And so there are these two doors.

There's the door on our heart that you and I have to respond

to. And this is the door of

intimacy. And God wants to develop that

intimacy with us. But here's what we need to

catch, that there's more than mere intimacy.

It's not just about you getting saved and getting close to

Jesus. That is awesome.

Again, we could worship for eternity just on that one thing.

But He's not merely come to fellowship with you.

He wants you to come up and ascend the hill of the Lord.

And from there He wants you to rule and reign with Him.

And that isn't a someday thing. It's a right now thing.

And we do it through intercession and worship,

prophetic intercessory worship. And so this other door is

already open. Now the fact is, if we don't

open the first door, we're never going to be entrusted with the

second door. If we don't lay that groundwork

and develop an intimate relationship with the Lord, then

you'll never begin to step into the things that God wants you to

do in the earth, that God has given you authority.

You are seated in heavenly places with him.

We are whatsoever we bind on earth to be bound in heaven,

whatsoever we loose on earth to be loosed in heaven.

And so we're we're called to operate with the Lord in these

matters, but we have to have that groundwork of intimacy.

And so listen to what he says here in chapter 3.

He says I will come in and eat with him and he with me.

Verse 21, the one who conquers, I will grant with him, grant to

him to sit on my throne as I conquered and sat down with my

Father on his throne. He was an ear.

Let him hear what the Spirit would say to the churches.

So as we develop that intimacy with them, then we're taken into

the throne. I mean, listen what it says or

one after this, I looked and behold, a door standing open in

heaven. He didn't see that door.

He it it was it was once he was he delivered the message about

the personal door that all of a sudden, behold, he saw a door in

heaven. And there was a voice saying,

come up here and I will show you what must take place after this.

That word must is an interesting word day.

It's DEI day. That's what the that's how you

spell it in the Greek and transliteration to be necessary,

to be unavoidably determined by prior circumstances, something

understood with the contingency. What follows is, is the

revelation of a necessity. So when John hears this, he

says, the Lord said, come up here and I will show you what

must soon take place. And what transpires after that

is the revelation of something that is a necessity that God

needs to release on the earth. OK, The activity and order of

events laid out in John's experience reveal throne room

protocol to instruct us. We said, again, it's not just

the events that we read about and oh, this is end time

affairs. This is neat.

No, there are there are traces of throne room protocol that we

must not rush over because when we understand the order of these

events, when we understand what's going on here, you and I

can enter into the same. There is a protocol to these

types of matters. If you want to operate in what

God's called you to, We need to be very sensitive to how God has

laid things out. So look at chapter 5.

Then I saw in the right hand of so John.

Verse 3 chapters he delivers to the seven churches.

Chapter 4, he's invited to the upper.

He's invited to go into the a throne room encounter.

He begins to describe all that he's seeing around and then

chapter 5, then I saw so there's again and again you'll see

behold and then behold and then and those words are the triggers

to show when the scene changes. It's like John, suddenly there's

a reason that God has the then there because these things were

inaccessible prior. And you and I need to take very

careful attention to this because there are certain things

that must be in place before we can next move into the then.

Does that make sense? So there's certain things you've

got to fulfill the criteria to trigger the then.

And so John then sees this scroll in the Lord's hand

written with, within and on the back sealed with 7 seals.

And I saw mighty Angel proclaiming with a loud voice

who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals.

And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to

open the scroll or look into it. There have been several songs as

of late written out of this passage that we tend to like

around here. And I would propose to you,

there's a reason we like those because it's speaking to a deep

sense of what we're called to. I'm talking about the cross, the

body of Christ. There's a reason that these

songs are being written right now because they're crucial at

these these pivotal moments in human history where there are

the battles for the Thrones of the earth.

God has to have a praying, worshipping bride that can

release his edicts and what we what was in his hand.

And the rest of the book bears this out.

It was a scroll with 7 seals. And what that scroll contained

were God's judgment against all opposition to his purposes on

the earth. Think about that.

Set aside all your eschatology for a moment and realize that

there Psalm 149 says we carry out the sentence written against

them. Psalm 2 talks about the edicts

and Revelation 5 says there's a scroll in God's hand.

God the most the the all powerful being, he who sat on

the throne had a scroll. It was his purposes.

He told he he he communicated through an Angel to John.

These are the things that must take place, but yet they were in

his hand and they had to be opened.

And John begins to wail because no one was found worthy in

heaven and earth or under the earth.

There was this eruption in John, this grief.

We've got to release God's purposes in the earth.

We've got to release God's purposes in the earth.

You look at the massacre happening in some of the African

nations right now with Christians and there needs to be

an eruption. God, we've got to release your

purposes in the earth. We've got to when we look at

what what's happening in our school system and them catering

to the the a mental illness and encouraging children to, you

know, side with these misconceptions about themselves

and surgically alter their bodies.

There needs to be something within us and in great grief

that says God, we've got to release your purposes in the

earth. We've got to release your

purposes in the earth. And here's the thing that that

that scroll was not released until John began to weep, and

then the Lamb stepped forward. And I would propose to you that

it's the tears of the Saints that released the Gears of War

in Heaven that causes God to begin to unreleased his

purposes. And he cannot entrust that level

of authority to a people who will not be broken with tears.

If we're not willing to cry over these things, then he cannot

release to us the authority to deal with them.

This, this level of authority and this what God wants to do

must be wielded by a hand connected to a broken heart that

we have compassion and we're broken for the brokenness of

humanity. Go ahead and stand.

So you know I'm going to quit. I, I was, I was thinking about

this again and years ago when we were in the old building, there

was a young man that I don't know who he was, but he, he said

he, he was passing through, came to a Saturday night service,

enjoyed it, came up to me after the service and he shared

something with me. He said, I go to Joel and Linda

Budds Church in Tulsa. At the time I didn't know Joel

and Linda, but I, I knew of them.

And he said, he said, our pastors, Joel and Linda shared

something with me, but I feel like I need to share with you

before I leave. And I don't know if it was Joel

that had this vision or if it was someone that had spoken at

their church, but they were talking about how the Lord in

this vision, the Lord invited them into this little sphere of

a room and there were two chairs in it.

And the Lord took one of the chairs in it and invited whoever

had this vision to sit next to him.

And he closed the door and there was it was like a sphere.

And there was this window on the front.

And they it right outside was the the world spinning.

And he said the Lord just began to weep as he watched the world

and he wept over the world. And then he just joined the Lord

and they wept over the world as the world turns and just they,

they sat. And he said it went on for quite

some time, like, you know, an hour, 2 hours, they just swept

over the world. And all of a sudden the Lord

looked at him and reached over and opened a door that prior to

that he didn't know was there, opened it.

And then they climbed through. The Lord invited him to follow.

And they were in this massive room, and in this room was like

a library. There were maps, reconnaissance

maps and and computer screens with reconnaissance.

And it was the strategy room of Heaven.

And the message of the vision was this.

Only those who are willing to weep over the world are granted

access to the strategy room of Heaven.

Listen, there is a there are scrolls right now.

There are edicts already written.

There are there are things that are in the hand of God that he

longs to release upon the earth. But there is a royal protocol to

this thing that he does not just do it on his own.

He's looking for the the the invitation from the earth.

He's looking for a people who will ascend the hill of the Lord

and in worship catch the heart of God and weep over the world.

And God longs to release some of those things right now.

But he's got to find those people.

He's looking for those who will be broken for the things of this

world. Even for our families.

There is something about travail.

It's one thing to pray for your kids, your spouse, your parents.

It's one thing to pray for them. It's another thing when there's

a brokenness and you enter into that place of travail, that

weeping things begin to move because you've caught the heart

of God. So Father, this morning, Lord, I

ask God that you would. Lord, I ask that you would grant

us travail. Lord, roll out the weapon of

travail in this hour. Man, I feel that I have been

praying that for us for 20 years now, but I feel like God wants

to roll out the cannons of travail.

Just put your heart hands out to the Lord, and if you can pray

this, I want you to do so. Lord, we present ourselves

before you. Lord, we're asking God that you

receive our hearts as your habitation.

Lord, we open the door, come in. But Lord, we want to come up.

Lord, it's not good enough for you just to merely enter the

door of our heart. And we're so grateful, Lord, but

God, we want to fulfill your purposes, Lord.

Give us tears to cry for this hour, Lord.

Lord, find in US a people through whom you can enforce

your will, through whom you can press the crown rights of King

Jesus on the properties of planet earth in Jesus name.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Lord.

Thank you, Lord, thank you Lord, I just want to encourage you,

take that this morning. Reach out and grab that.

There's an impartation for those with the faith to grab it that

we're presenting ourselves saying, God, I'm asking you to

begin to break my heart for these things.

Lord, bring us into a higher plane of prayer, a higher place

where we can begin to see your purposes established in the

earth. I'm going to ask the prayer team

to come forward and stand across the front.

If you need prayer this morning, you may just want to come and

kneel and pray about. Just allow the Lord to do a work

in your heart. But I want to encourage you what

I just felt. Don't.

I don't know what you felt, but don't just kind of move off this

thing. God is wanting to give us

something. He's wanting to impart.

I'm telling you, the eyes of the Lord are looking to and fro for

those He can entrust with his heart, his burden.

Not just his mind, but his heart.

His mind without his heart often makes for harsh reactions to

others, but his heart with his mind will cut through things if

you need to. If you need prayer this morning,

the altars are open. If you need to get right with

the Lord this morning, if you're saying, man, I need to, I need

to surrender, refresh. It might be something you've

done before. It might be something you've

never done, but you're saying I want to surrender to Jesus.

I want you to raise your hand. We want to pray for you this

morning. Everyone of us have had to do

that at some time. You're saying I want to

surrender to Jesus. I want to get right with God

this morning. Want to make sure I see your

hand this morning. We want to give you that

opportunity that you're going to step over the line saying, God,

I'm signing up. I want to walk with you.

All right, listen, the altars are open if you need prayer.

God bless you. I love you.

Have a great week.