Heaven: God’s Throne Room - Revelation: The Apocalypse

You're listening to the rogue with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

We need to hear this.

Some of you in this room need to know the redemptive faithfulness of God.

This is not like stuff.

He redeems you.

He's faithful to you.

And I don't care if you've been through a divorce.

You may have been addicted to cocaine.

You may have a bottle that you've got stuck somewhere at your desk because you're a secret alcoholic.

Redempted faithless.

God loves you.

Today, Pastor Steve continues his series on the book of Revelation.

At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.

We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

Tonight I want to do something a little different than usual.

I want to make a few comments about a difficult two weeks that we've been through in our nation and in our world.

A lot of people have been asking questions about it.

I felt like it was the right time to deal with it briefly.

There's so much that could be said, and if the anointing of God comes, then we might not even get into the book of Revelation tonight.

But it's been a tough couple weeks in the life of our nation.

Last week on Tuesday, a black man is shot four times by a white policeman, caught on video in Baton Rouge, and the black community is stirred.

On the same week, Wednesday night in St.

Paul, a young black man is shot by a police officer again, caught on video.

Then on Thursday night, many cities host very peaceful protests.

Then a black man acts as a sniper, shoots five white police officers.

And now the white community is angry.

On Friday in the South, three more incidents where white policemen were shot at.

This week in Nisse, France, on Bastille Day, a young Muslim man rents a refrigerator truck and runs over 84 people, I think injuring twice that many.

In the name of Allah, and ISIL claims responsibility.

We've had a difficult week or two.

It's been a difficult summer.

It's been a very hot summer racially.

And it seems like what's happening is because of the lack of clear, concise voices, we politicize these things.

Both parties do.

And the tension is front and center to the degree that there is a growing animosity and hatred and anger and tension that in my lifetime I've felt it.

I grew up in the South, so I have felt that before for sure.

I remember when we integrated schools in 1970 in South Carolina, and I was going into the seventh grade.

It was it we drove into the middle school where I was going, and uh there were white uh parents with signs and stuff as we came in.

And many of my friends that I'd gone to school with in sixth grade then moved on to private schools because they didn't want to mix the races.

And I believe our school went from one black boy in sixth grade with us to 45% black and 55% white, and fights were breaking out all the time.

But we figured it out.

We figured it out, we worked it out, and the tension subsided, and each year it got better.

But here we are again, and so we've got this racial and worldview divide that still haunts us.

I want to say this though.

You know, we when you think about all of the the terrorist attacks that have happened across the country, I mean it's only about one percent.

It's less than one percent of all Muslims that would strap a bomb under their body and go blow themselves up in the name of Allah.

It's less than one percent of the black community that would go out and shoot a white police officer.

It's less than one percent of white policemen who would take out their anger and vengeance on a black man and maybe beat him or even shoot him.

And yet that's where the narrative goes, right?

That's where the narrative goes with this less than 1%.

And politicians are jumping on it, everybody's trying to use it to their advantage.

MSNBC has their solutions.

ABC News has their solutions, Fox News has their solutions, and the devil loves it.

The demons of this earth love this situation because they mean it for evil and for division to steal, kill, and destroy.

And what Jesus said still stands that I came that you might have life and might have it abundantly.

And that there is a greater narrative going on that we need to remember.

I want to give you four things.

Here's what I know from God's word.

Here's four things I know from God's word.

And we I don't have an app on it, so you just have to write them down if you're interested, because I wrote this about an hour and a half ago.

Number one, every person from every nation and tribe are created by God with dignity, beauty, and a purpose.

I don't have my cell phone with me right now, but when we were prayer, uh the boiler room prayer before the service here, the pre-service prayer, we looked it up.

And the only thing that gives you the color, the skin color you have is melanin, a pigment.

And God ordained certain people to have a black pigment, and other people to have a white pigment, and some to have a reddish pigment.

And people like me, I don't know what my pigment is, but I definitely suntan and I mean sunburn before I suntan every time, even if I spray myself with that suntan stuff.

But God made every nation and every tribe, and I've been to 27 nations of the world, and their food's better than ours.

And when I get to heaven, I want to be sitting with the Japanese contingent.

I want sushi at the feast of the Lord.

Number two, every person from every tribe and nation was created by God for love.

Every person longs for love.

Every baby longs for love.

Every little toddler, whether they're in an orphanage or their parents have been killed in a war and they've been abandoned in a tent somewhere, longs for love.

I know that's true.

Number three, every person should be given the opportunity to experience God's love through a verbal, clear, concise explanation in their own heart language and visually see what that looks like.

I believe that's what the church is called to do.

That's why I wore this tonight.

That's what the Springs Initiative is all about.

Is that when we go into the poor sections of Colorado Springs like we did last Saturday and like we did in June, when we did it that time, we went in there and we painted houses to show God's love in a in a visible way.

And then as those people gathered, and as we had the opportunity with the host family, we shared Christ.

We shared the love of Christ.

Every person on the globe should have the opportunity to hear a clear, concise explanation of who Jesus Christ is in their heart language, and they should be able to visually see what the love of God looks like through the church.

Fourthly, there will be a day, this is exciting, there will be a day in the book we're studying right now, Revelation chapter 7, where every tongue and every tribe and every nation is going to come to the throne of Christ and confess him as Lord.

Revelation 7 · chapter mention

So if you've got issues with that, you've got a little bit of time, but you better get over it.

Because you're gonna be side by side with Native Americans, Asians, Hispanics, blacks, um, Europeans, and we're gonna be worshiping the Lord, and we're not gonna care.

We're not gonna take a tally on how much pigment different people's skin has.

We're gonna just love the Lord every day together, and that's where we're headed, and we're and we're a family.

And take it from me.

When I go to these other nations, I sometimes I don't know where I'm going.

Maybe I know a pastor, a church, or an organization I'm gonna speak for or do something with them.

They open up their homes.

And it's like their family, I've never met them before.

We eat their food in their living room.

Most of the time we're sitting on a floor with a table in the middle, and it's just like I'm right here.

Because they love Jesus, they love God's word, they're filled with the Holy Spirit, they're walking in the power of Spirit, and it's like, yeah, there's this linguistic barrier, yes, there's this cultural world view barrier, but really we're family.

And it's a picture of what's gonna happen in the last days when God brings us all together.

And so with this bloodshed and this hate and this violence, we're observing men and women who don't know the love of God.

And they've never experienced the grace of God, and maybe in many cases, they never came from a loving family where they saw it visually before their eyes that God really does love them and he cares about them and he has grace for them.

Maybe they've never heard a verbal explanation of a personal, vital, dynamic, growing relationship with Jesus Christ, and they're carrying the narrative.

And I'm here to say there's a greater, there's a greater storyline going on.

And that is it's the church.

And it's the people of the church.

It's us, wholehearted disciples, who God calls to make a difference and to make an impact.

And never has there been a time where as we see, and we talked about this, you know, as we go through Revelation, I'll cover it more later, but 2 Thessalonians 2 speaks of the last days and that there is going to be a lifting of the restrainer.

And I've shared before that that restrainer, I believe, is governmental and spiritual in nature.

So the Spirit of God, there's gonna be a timing where the Spirit of God, do you realize the Spirit of God works as a wall even in our nation?

There's a lot more going on in the fourth dimension than we know about, but it's not the right timing yet.

But there's gonna come a day with the unleashing of the great tribulation period where that restrainer is gonna be lifted.

And what we see is what does it say in Scripture, Matthew 24?

Jesus says it's birth pangs.

So we're experiencing birth pangs.

And I believe that the church has equal, and then as the days go on, greater power than the powers of the demonic forces that are being raised up.

And so, men and women, if you will let God fill you, if you will let God empower you, there's more available Holy Spirit, love, and power than ever before in the history of the church.

When I look at worship music, when I look at spiritual gifts, and I remember 25 years ago looking back, I mean, if you were, you know, if you were considered a charismatic or something in the circles that I ran with, you were like in a cult.

If you lifted your hands in church, people either thought you were trying to act like you're Superman, or you're a part of that cult group of those Pentecostals and stuff.

And all those walls have been breaking down for years.

God's doing something really powerful in our day.

And he's doing it in churches.

And uh God loves races, God loves the dignity of every person.

And let's not forget that our nation legalized and institutionalized greed and hatred and violence for over a hundred years through chattel slavery.

And I don't know what that's like because I'm white.

I don't know.

I know that my family were slave owners.

My North Carolina family were slave owners, my South Carolina family were slave owners.

They had enough capital, they had enough of a large enough farm that they were slave owners.

I've never known, I've actually never explained, no, I shouldn't say that.

When I was in high school, I had a motorcycle, and I like to pop wheelies on that motorcycle, and I often did it barefooted with no shirt on.

I did wear shorts and stuff, but I was in the middle of moving down a street in a wheelie in my Honda 100, um, XL 100, you know, enduro.

Cool, it was a pretty cool bite.

And going down the road, and here comes Mr.

Policeman driving down the road.

He said, What are you doing?

And I that's the only time I can remember ever being truly fearful of a cop.

But for black young men and even black women, there's a tremendous fear that's been built up over generations, rightly or wrongly, uh, with white policemen.

And so there is, from our history, we gotta be honest and realize that what we have today came from somewhere.

And so we have to reach out in a deeper, more profound way at the road and as a church.

Jesus said this in John 17.

I do not pray, and this is his last great prayer before he goes to the cross.

Jesus prophesies of the church that he and the Father want to see.

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, speaking of the church, that they all may be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.

And the glory which you gave me, I have given them, that they may be one, just as we are one in them, and you in me, and they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.

And so the heart of the Father is for a unified love in the church that cascades out into the world where people see it and they experience it and they weep.

Because it's not gonna come from politicians and it's not gonna come from economists, it comes only from the church, and only through Jesus' disciples who are wholehearted.

And so, and so it's gonna be so supernatural that it's gonna break the power of demons, it's gonna break the power of darkness.

That's our role.

That's the narrative that we need to start praying for for our city.

We can't do it all across America.

We can pray for the church and we can pray for pastors, but this is our watch, and this is our city.

And so I'm so proud of you guys here with the Springs Initiative.

About 140 of us in the two that we did went out there, and each time that man and that woman in those houses that we went to, they just wept because they couldn't believe we were doing it for nothing.

There's gotta be some kind of a, you know, string attached.

And then we came in the love of Christ and we paid for it, and we put leather to the ground and paintbrushes in our hand, and in some cases a chainsaw in our arms, and we cleaned out those lots, and we painted those houses, because that's what the world needs to see.

And that's what God's called us to do is to love with a unity of love that's supernatural.

You know, I was thinking about it today during prayer, how in 1 Corinthians 13 Paul says, it doesn't matter how good you can preach, it doesn't matter how good you can prophesy, it doesn't matter if you have faith that can move mountains or bodies that can be healed, if it's done without love, it's meaningless.

And so our first call, church, as the road, is to love people.

Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.

Isn't that exciting?

So there's a day coming when blacks and whites are gonna be loving each other.

Where Christians and Muslims are gonna love each other, where Native Americans and those who historically their forefathers persecuted them will be loving each other.

Where Japanese and Koreans who hate each other will be loving each other.

Where all over Asia, where there's been all the memories of Vietnam and the memories of World War II, those different tribes and nations and ethnic groups are gonna come together because Jesus is gonna do it.

That's why we plant churches, that's why we do evangelism, that's why we send money, that's why we care about our missionaries, and that's why we're here.

That's part of the reason the road's been been raised up, because we're we're speaking of a road less traveled.

It's a narrow way.

Broad is the way to destruction, narrow is the way to salvation.

So at the road, let me close with this.

Three things.

Let's take every opportunity God gives us to be involved with different races in our community.

Let's take every opportunity, you as an individual and me as a pastor, every opportunity God gives us to be involved with different races as God raises up, it has to be God opening doors to love, to worship, and to work together.

And if you ask me, what does that mean?

I say, I don't know.

But but I think if we say to the Lord, God, we're we are open, Lord, guide us.

Guide us to other churches, guide us to other ministries that are different than ours so that we can break down walls and we can show God's love in practical ways, we will.

Number two, let's keep doing our springs initiative and get better and better at it.

Wouldn't it be cool if we had 500 doing the Springs Initiative in one day?

And we painted 10 houses in one day, and a school.

Maybe two schools and ten houses, I don't know.

But but wouldn't that be neat?

And so it wouldn't just be us, it'd be other churches involved with us, and we and it would be really cool if it was an Hispanic church, it's a black church, or us and other churches, and we do it together.

And then thirdly, let's intentionally pray for wisdom in how we might bring love and unity between races in Colorado Springs.

So let's just pray about it.

Let's let's seek the Lord.

God, what do you want us to do?

We want to be a part of the kingdom solution and not a part of the haters and And the debaters and the fighters.

Let's be lovers.

I'm going to be speaking at Chapel Hills Church tomorrow morning.

And my message is that love unifies.

A great unifier is love.

Unified families are families that love each other.

Unified churches are churches that love each other.

Unified athletic teams are teams that love each other.

And unified cities are cities where we say we're not going to leave any room for those that are going to bring hatred and prejudice into our city.

And we're going to, this is our watch, this is our city, and we want it to look as close as we can to the kingdom of God as possible.

All right.

Thanks you guys.

Well, turn in your Bibles if you have them with you or your app or whatever you use to Revelation.

And we're coming into a real exciting time.

And I'm going to work through.

We might not get through all this tonight because of that message that I just gave.

But hey, I wanted to let you know that Marcus Mayer, the guy, you know, he's not very good.

Struggles with his worship a lot.

Has decided and has, he and his beautiful wife are here with us tonight.

And he's going to be our new worship pastor.

And he's going to do it.

He's right over here.

So we're excited about that.

So you guys go up and greet him afterwards.

We've only been praying for two years for you, Marcus and Rachel.

So we're glad you're here and your lovely family of seven kids.

And multiracial.

And it's really cool.

Is it Ethiopia?

Ethiopian, yeah.

These two girls are soccer stars.

They're training right now, maybe for the national team.

So we're excited about that too.

Really cool.

Okay, in Revelation, in Revelation 119, we have this picture of the outline of the book of Revelation.

I've shared this with you before, I'll share it again.

Section 1, he says in Revelation 119, the things which you have seen, and that's a vision of Christ in chapter 1.

So remember, John is probably in a cave on the island of Patmos, this volcanic island, the Aegean Sea, and he sees Jesus, and that's the thing right there, the present tense reality.

Then it says, in the things which are.

And so then in Revelation 2 and 3, which we've been in now for three months, we're looking at the seven churches.

Those were real churches in real time, and the chronological order in which they are given to us as we went through the seven churches was the male route there in Asia Minor.

Well, now, starting tonight, we move into section three, which is the things which will take place.

So now we're starting to move into future stuff.

The end times scenario as given to John through the apocalypse from Jesus Christ, chapters four through 22.

So we are, it's pretty it's pretty cool, and this is really important for us even tonight with what I just shared, and that is this that you know you really have two realities.

And one reality is the reality that you can see, and the other reality is the unseen.

So there is a third-dimensional, three-dimensional world that we live in where we, you know, eat Burger King and drink coke and watch our weight.

Okay, that we eat our hamburgers and then we look in the mirror.

Nobody does that, I'm sure.

I'm just talking about me.

You know, whatever.

But but then there's a fourth dimension, a fourth-dimensional world, which is happening right here, kind of the same way like radio and TV waves are floating in here.

So if we had an antenna and you had an FM radio, you could pick up stuff, you know, you but you can't see it.

And so and so if you you've got your app out right now, and the only problem with everybody having an app and all with the road app is that you know you're also texting your friends and stuff.

So you you can do that.

So that's that's a picture, uh kind of electronically, scientifically, as it were, and informationally, of how it works.

But there's demons and angels there, guys.

So, you know, like when you go and and you open up a porn, you look into porn and stuff, you're inviting demons into your heart.

You're inviting demons into your house.

Not good, very bad, but you can't see that.

So what's happening in Revelation chapter 4 is we, John is invited into this open door, into the invisible world, into the fourth-dimensional world, and if anybody has kids here that are, say, eight and above, and some of your kids are smarter, so it might be four and above, they're gonna say, What is heaven like?

Revelation 4 · chapter mention

You know, what's heaven like?

And you're like, uh, well, Grandma Bess is there.

She's really happy.

Uh and somebody might say, well, you know, clouds and harps and as no biblical, you know, uh support for that.

But anyway, that's kind of what people say.

Like, it's gonna be, doesn't that sound awful to you, by the way?

I mean, I don't want to go there.

I can't even play harmonica.

I remember I got a harmonica once and I tried to play when the saints go marching in.

And it gave you all the little ways to do that.

And so I think I did it for a solid two hours and I never picked it up again.

But I don't want to be, you know, with harps on clouds.

Actually, the Bible has a lot to say about heaven, but the greatest and the most significant and the most explicit image we have of heaven is right here, what we're gonna look at for the next few weeks, Revelation 4 and 5.

So you can say to your kids, um, hey, there really is a heaven, and it really is, we really see it in the Bible, and you should read Revelation 4 and 5 to them, and then hopefully after this sermon, you'll know all their answers to all the there's 24 thrones, and there's elders, and there's crowns, and creatures with eyes.

Well, we're getting to that.

But in the other one is, you know, 2 Corinthians 12, where actually Paul says he was lifted into the third heaven.

And there's been a proliferation of books over the last probably decade of people saying they died and they and they saw Jesus.

And have you seen that picture that that girl scrawled of Jesus?

I mean, it's beautiful.

I mean, it's it's phenomenal, and it seems like it's it was real.

I mean, I uh who am I to say it's not?

But this is actually John going in and he and he's actually writing it down.

So he's showing us, and so here's what I want to call it.

I want to call it, listen to this.

It's the earthly vantage point of changing the world.

Let me say that again.

What we're about to study is the earthly vantage point that changes the world.

You're actually gonna go, we're gonna go into heaven, we're gonna see Jesus in heaven, we're gonna see these 24 elders in heaven worshiping before the Lord, but it's actually a vantage point for what happens on earth.

Because 15 times in the book of, in the chapter, Revelation 4, the word throne is used.

And so we're gonna see the sovereignty and the majesty and the omnipotence of God on his throne during the time of Domitian.

So this is 90 AD, and the church is on the run.

We're here worshiping with, we've got security here, but in every sort of factor that you might factor in about fear and violence, we're safe here.

We are.

But we're talking about a church that has gone, had to go underground all over Asia Minor.

They're on the run.

John's the last of the apostles.

He's been boiled in oil by the emperor and lived.

He's now on a volcanic island in exile, totally separated from all his friends and his church.

They're feeding Christians to lions in Rome.

And in our picture here, Jesus is on the throne.

He's not going, oh man, I don't know what I did.

I got this thing going.

It's out of control now.

I mean, Father, what do we do?

Holy Spirit, why aren't you doing more?

You know, it's like they're not having a heavenly debate.

He's on the throne.

Everybody's worshiping him.

In the most majestic, the most powerful, the most awesome worship service the world has ever known.

So, chapter 4, verse 1.

After these things, meta tauta, in the Greek, meta tauta.

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

And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet.

Can you imagine that?

Like a voice, like a trumpet, speaking with me, saying, Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place meta tauta after this.

Now, the reason I'm saying meta tauta is because after these things.

This is a verse, and I am a pre-tribulation rapture guy.

Okay, I believe we're going to be raptured out before the great tribulation.

And this is a verse, this phraseology here has been used by some pre-trib millennialists, pre-trib pre-millennialists, to show that this is the rapture of the church, the picture of the rapture of the church.

John Wolver, the preeminent theologian and dispensational scholar, former president of Dallas Theological Seminary, writes in his commentary on Revelation, which is one of the commentaries I'm using, says this quote, it is clear from the context that this is not an explicit reference to the rapture of the church.

So if you hold that, that's fine.

It's cool.

I understand it.

But what they're saying is because of the location in the book of Revelation.

So here's the church is used 19 times in the first three chapters of Revelation.

Then it's never used again until chapter 19.

And so that's part of the basis, not the total basis, but it's part of the basis for the view that as the great tribulation period comes, which we're going to see, Revelation 6.

You guys get this?

Revelation 6, we're going to start to see the seals, we're going to start to see tremendous onslaught of demons and satanic power across the globe, like the world has never seen before.

And so, as in the days of Noah, is what Jesus said.

And so, again, that picture of Noah entering the ark, and even Jesus used the ark as a picture of the church, lifted out of the flood, never going through the great tribulation, as it were, of the flood, Noah's family, because of the timing of the Lord with Noah building the ark.

And so we could go on on that.

The other is also with the issue of Lot and Abraham and the coming of the great tremendous fire and brimstone that came upon Sodom and Gomorrah.

Again, God coming, couldn't find but ten righteous, couldn't even find ten righteous, and then Lot and his family are pulled out, and the tribulation came, and we could go on with several illustrations.

But this is not it.

Let me just say that.

I don't believe that this is speaking of the rapture of the church.

Now I've said this before, and I'll emphasize it again that I don't really care that much about people's eschatological views.

It doesn't bother me.

I'm comfortable with with all of them as long as we believe that Jesus is coming back and he's going to take his church home.

I'm a pan-millennialist in the end.

It's all going to pan out in the end.

So, but so I say this pray we don't go through the Greg Tribulation, but prepare as if we will.

Right?

So pray that we won't, but prepare as if we will.

Because there's certainly enough references to the saints going through persecution in chapters 4 through 18 that I can understand a pre-mid, a post-trib.

I understand all the different points.

And it's not something, it's actually nothing to argue about, in my opinion.

So if you want to come and argue with me, it's fine, but I won't say anything.

I'll just go, it's a really good point.

I agree with you.

After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.

Verse 2.

Immediately I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

That's the point.

Everything else we're going to study here tonight and next week, it's not an empty throne.

Jesus is not, actually, this is the Father.

We're going to get into Jesus when we get into Revelation chapter 5.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

This is actually the Father on the throne.

Jesus is the Lamb that was slain.

It's talking about in chapter 5.

But the Father's on the throne, and he's not up for re-election every four years.

And there's no Congress and there's no Senate.

Hillary's not there.

Trump's not there, okay?

God the Father's on the throne, and he is sitting on the throne, and the focus of all of heaven is the throne.

Hello?

This is really important.

Because he's on that throne, he's not leaving that throne, and he's still on that throne, and that's the reality of the fourth dimension right now.

And that means that every time we come to worship together and we come in this sanctuary and we close our eyes and we raise our hands and we give our heart to Jesus in worship, we're lining ourselves up with what's happening in heaven.

I'll talk more about that next week.

This is God's living room.

So if I come into your living room, I don't know where to sit because I don't know where papa's seat is or mama's seat.

I don't know where the dog sits.

You know, I don't know what to do.

I'm never fully comfortable in your living room, but I'm comfortable in my living room because I should say my wife's comfortable in her living room when I come in because I sit wherever she tells me to.

But when we come into the living room, I know where my seat is, and I have my seat, and we make that living room comfortable for the Holt family.

Right?

We have total control of our living room.

This is God's living room.

And he's in total control of his living room.

He's in control, but he has allowed us to have a co-reigning sphere on the earth, and he's also cast Satan to the earth.

This is his throne, this is his home on this earth, and you're in constant battle here, right?

It's a constant battle.

No battle in heaven.

Don't need a sword, don't need a 38, don't need a cool 380 like I have.

Don't have to have any of that because you're comfortable because God's in control and he's on the throne.

Isn't that good news?

That's happening right now.

That's what's happening in the heavenly realm, and he's and he's working out his plan.

And this is a central point of the book of Revelation.

Don't miss this.

I think it comes out perfectly because it's the first part of the end time scenario, and that's we've got to constantly remember in chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, chapter 8.

We go all the way through to chapter 22.

He's still on the throne.

At the end of the book, he's still on the throne.

Halfway through the book, almost halfway, about a third of the way through, every tribe and nation is at the throne.

But it's always the throne.

That's exciting.

So in the midst of our 21st century life, we have abortion around the world killing millions, a war with ISIL killing thousands, terrorists killing hundreds, new epidemics breaking out annually.

This is the birth pangs of the Lord.

The Lord is preparing the earth for his coming.

He's allowing the enemy greater power, and he's empowering his saints with anointing from the Spirit of God for signs and wonders.

We are seeing more healings around the world than ever before.

More churches are being planted around the world than ever before.

And it seems like we're planting more churches in communist countries.

It's like the more shut down, the most closed the nations are, the more open they are to the gospel.

And the freer nations like Europe are dying.

They're just dying.

I know it sounds really, I don't know, sort of weird, but I almost thought I'd pray.

God, just make them all communists.

Seriously, there was more when we were smuggling Bibles into Hungary in 1980, there was more gospel going on in Hungary in 1980 than there is today under democratic government.

Man, that doesn't sound right to say, does it?

But the reality is that you see, I think that's what God does.

He squeezes us to cause us to lean into him for everything that we have under pressure.

Because we kind of don't do so well with being on our own.

So this is the true reality of what God's doing.

Jesus is on the throne, he's seated on the throne in the center of heaven, and he is in control.

This is the true reality.

This is the true picture of a sovereign God who is in control, and guess what?

Even his plans are being carried out.

God reigns.

God is reigning.

God is in control.

The past two weeks, I've been experiencing a personal revival.

I woke up one morning and I just, I don't know what it was, but I just woke up and I just said, I want to love you today, Lord, with all my heart.

Well, yeah, you're supposed to.

You're a professional Christian.

Your pastor's supposed to always say that, you know.

No, I don't, and I don't.

But it was a sovereign work of God where he just kind of entered the room, and he just can't get over that first great commandment of loving God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

So I'm gonna preach on tomorrow at Chapel Hills.

You see, that's the definition of revival.

The definition of revival, and there's a lot of them.

I mean, Winky Prattney's had a definition of revival, Leonard Ravenhill's had a definition of revival, John Wimber had a definition of revival, Chuck Swindles had a definition.

There's so many definitions of revival, but really all that revival is, is a reviving of loving God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

I mean, in other words, loving God with everything and really starting to love God.

Awakening is when you start to love your neighbors yourself.

You see, so revival is reviving something that was once alive, and awakening is waking up something that's been asleep.

And so God's been doing that.

And he who sat there was like a jasper and a Sardis stone in appearance, and there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald.

See, God loves color.

He loves all color.

Whether it's in the sky or on your skin, he loves color.

He could have picked a lot of ways to give us a promise that he would never flood the earth again, but he gave us a colorful, beautiful rainbow.

Don't let other groups steal the rainbow.

It was God's idea, it's his promise, and you know what I mean?

It means faithfulness.

It means he's faithful.

Jasper, in chapter 21, we read that it's clear as crystal.

This is not the opaque stone we're familiar with, but probably it was a diamond.

Sardis stone, listen, Sardis is blood red.

Sardis is blood red.

With a rainbow all the way around the throne, the throne is brilliant with this blood red shining out.

So you got a rainbow and this blood red shining out.

Remember Jesus at his transfiguration?

He shines like the sun, and his garments are white as snow.

His appearance is like lightning.

This beautiful, powerful light, uninhibited by earth, perfect.

Guess what red represents?

Red represents redemption.

Red always symbolizes redemption.

The blood of the Lamb.

Red represents redemption.

The rainbow represents what?

It represents faithfulness.

Faithful redemption.

We need to hear this.

Some of you in this room need to know the redemptive faithfulness of God.

This is not light stuff.

He redeems you and He's faithful to you.

And I don't care if you've been through a divorce, you may have killed someone, you may have been addicted to cocaine, you may have gone through all kinds of prescription drug addictions.

You may have been involved in in uh and you may have STD today because of sexual promiscuity.

You may have a bottle that you've got stuck somewhere at your desk because you're uh a secret alcoholic.

Redemptive faithfulness.

God loves you.

And if you'll come to him, and if you'll confess yourself to him, if you'll give yourself to him, and if you'll reveal your shame and let him have it, the light, 2 Corinthians 4, the light of the gospel will shine in your darkness, and he'll set you free.

Take it from me.

He can set you free.

Around the throne were 24 thrones, and on the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting clothed on white robes, and they had crowns of gold on their heads, and from the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices.

Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God.

Every time I read this, I think about grandma's house.

I remember my grandma's house in South Carolina, right there by the train tracks and everything.

Beautiful, you know, country ranch house and everything, and I'd be upstairs, and then thunder and lightning would come.

And there were these big, these huge trees, these magnolia trees.

You guys know what magnolia trees are?

Big flowers on them, really beautiful, and you could smell the magnolias coming in the window, and then the thunder and the lightning, and then I remember one time the train came at the same time.

There was a whistle of the train, and it was this mixture of total excitement and fear.

You know what I'm talking about?

You ever had that kind of excitement and fear in a thunderstorm?

That's what I felt.

And so here's John, I think he sees it's lightning and thunder and these 24 thrones and these 24 elders.

This is like really weird.

Clothed with white robes, crowns of gold on their heads.

So I read a ton of commentaries this week.

And I don't agree with any of them.

It's like, who knows what this means?

So there it is.

We'll skip that part.

No, no.

I think the one that I agree with is that probably the 24 represents the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles, 24 coming together.

It actually speaks of the unity of the Word of God.

In other words, this is the last book.

This is the last book.

Genesis is the first, Revelation is the last, it's the closing of the canon, 66 books, and he's bringing together the Old Testament and the New Testament symbolically before us.

And even right now, there's 24 elders.

So I believe now, because they're missing one, John was in there.

I mean, he didn't go get on the throne, but he saw the thrones and he saw these elders, but they represented that.

And so when we go into heaven, when we see and experience heaven, which we will if we're Jesus' followers, we're gonna see the representation of the 12 tribes of Israel, and we're gonna see the representation of the apostles.

The coming together of the unity of God's word.

And the lightning and the thunder is a picture of God's coming righteousness upon the earth.

Think of that.

Think of that.

Every time you're in a thunderstorm, which we have, you know, in the mid-afternoon in Colorado, just think that's the coming righteousness of the Lord.

That's pretty cool.

You know, like when all your little kids come running and they're ah, because one of those breaks like right over your head here.

You know?

I don't know if y'all know that just up the road here, just above Monument, is the most lightning-struck place in the United States.

Right there.

It's called Greenland.

So you've seen the sign for Greenland when you're going I-25 North.

That area has more lightning strikes that hit the earth than any other place in the uh in the country.

So, righteousness of the Lord's, hey! He must have a special place in his heart for Colorado.

I just thought of that.

I mean, he's already striking the ground with the righteousness of the Lord here in Colorado.

And it's really close to Colorado Springs, so God does want to bring revival to our city.

Revelation 8 5, we read, Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth, and there were noises, thunderings and lightnings, and an earthquake.

Revelation 11, 19.

Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of his covenant was seen in the temple, and there were lightnings and noises and thunderings and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

Revelation 16, 18, and there were noises and thunderings and lightnings, and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth.

Man.

I mean, this is what's happening, folks.

This is where it's going.

And it's exciting.

Well, I have a lot more, but I'm gonna come to close it here because we want to worship the Lord, and we'll we'll pick it up next week.

But um, God's on the throne.

And even on Bastille Day in France, God was on the throne.

And when that young black man was shot four times in Baton Rouge, God was on the throne.

When those five police officers were gunned down in Dallas, God was on the throne.

Redemptive faithfulness.

He loves us for the church.

Let's this week, any opportunity God gives us to be as redemptive faithfulness, let's do it.

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