REVELATION SERIES // Hymns of the Apocalypse: When Life Feels Uncertain (Rev 4)

All right, good morning. Uh,

good to see everyone.

How's the coffee? A lot of you holding

some cups.

Hope you're on your seventh or eighth

cup by now like like I would be. I'm

just trying to hold off till after

service or I would have been a little

extra shaky. Just want to give a huge

shout. We had another big week this week

with uh wonderful like vendor shoot and

there's so many people that are pouring

into just getting this space ready for

all of our ventures and then this

morning with the coffee giving you a

first taste of what we're hoping to

expand into a full-time coffee shop in

the coming weeks and months. Um there's

just so many things and we're pulling

all this off with a part-time staff and

volunteers and just a lot of the blood,

sweat, and tears of you guys in the

room. So, thank you for investing your

time, your finances, your emotion, your

love, your gifts, and uh it's a really

big deal. And and uh I had the gift this

week to leave. Those of you that like

quite a few of you travel like once or

twice a month. I just curious. No one no

one travels once or twice a month

anymore. What kind of world are we

living in? Yeah,

we live in we we live in paradise. Why

would we leave? Well, I I did a Tuesday

through Friday night. Um, we had

obviously we've had a lot of things

going on. We had anniversary, we had

birthdays, but my oldest, Finn, 16, had

his 16th birthday this month. And so,

this past week after we got over and

passed the anniversary in the gala, I

took him uh to the place that any 16

year old would ever want to go. And I'm

sure you can guess it. Sandusky, Ohio.

That wasn't on the tip of your lips.

that that is where a place called Cedar

Point which uh has has the grandest and

uh filing into the grandeur of God and I

feel like if if you care about

thrillseeking the grandeur of Cedar

Point is really a a powerful powerful

thing especially to a 16-year-old for a

for a grown 44 year old man though

however uh triggers a couple things uh

it triggers um nausea uh motion sickness

um the fear of uh not being in control

and the uh the inability to put on a

straight face and impress your son who

no longer can be impressed by you. Uh I

did however want to just recommend those

of you that are still trying to keep up

with your children in things that

involve motion sickness. I don't know

what maybe you fish, may maybe you drive

in the mountains. I I once um we did a

wedding, Gabby and Yseph. I don't know

if you remember this, Tiffany. And uh we

were staying with Clark and Tiffany and

uh you know hours before the wedding,

Clark, as he does, is like, "Oh, let's

go for a drive in the mountains and go

hiking." And I go, "Yeah, that sounds

like a great idea. Let's do what Clark

wants to do when I'm trying to prepare

for the" And then so he drives, I'm sick

within 5 seconds. Um, 15 minutes after

I'm on my back, the wedding starts in a

half an hour and all I want to do is

vomit in someone's face and I'm not sure

this is going to work out. I say all

that to say I get motion sickness very

easily. However, we do have doctors in

the house. J, I would recommend him.

although he's currently overseas and

there's this thing called um like a

nausea patch that you just put on the

back like of your behind your ear. Um

that thing just saved my life and uh I

was able to impress my son. But but

here's the thing. Um all day backtoback

rides. Every single roller coaster was

bigger than like everyone we've been on

here in Southern California. Uh

petrifying. It was one of those

thrillseeking the tension of control and

not being in control.

But the bonding moment was beautiful. I

I say all that just to give you a little

picture. Here's here's what I started

thinking about though. It got me

thinking about how roller coasters are

just a pretty good picture of life in

some ways. I'm a pastor. I'm supposed to

make an analogy of everything I do in

life.

But I was just reminded how I crave

certainty. In my younger days, not as

much because I had a lot of certainty. I

had I had elements of of uh I wasn't

worried about the econom. I had I didn't

have an going like uh real of telling me

all the bad horrible things that were

going on in the world and how fragile

and uncertain things were. So then I

just craved adventure. We all still

crave adventure. We actually all crave

certainty and uncertainty. But if you're

like me, as we get older, I mostly think

about I I crave certainty.

Like uncertainty is like, do I put like

bananas or blueberries in my protein

shake today? That's that's the adventure

some days.

But we all we all want two things. We

want to feel safe, but we also want to

feel alive.

And we crave the certainty, but we also

crave uncertainty. And the tension of

that, somehow we're trying to hold both

together at the same time. Why do we

crave certainty, though? And that's what

we're going to talk about. Revelation 4

is going to hit us in the mouth with

with our inability to find a solution to

our heart's cravings. We crave certainty

because it's it's the human need for

stability. Without it, life would fall

apart. Without some level of it, people

become what? Fearful, anxious,

overwhelmed. And I could quote you the

stats that I did previously, but we

already know the stats. You know, a

child needs to know their parents are

going to come home. An employee needs to

have confidence that the paychecks

actually going to show up in their bank

account. And and as citizens, we need

confidence that the laws and

institutions u are stable.

We have a lot of debate about what that

even looks like today. And that's where

a lot of political debate is coming

from. What does it look like to have a

stable certain society and what does

that even supposed to look like? Where

does justice come in? But all of this is

is is enveloped in the issue of

certainty and uncertainty. It's not

merely that something bad might happen.

It's just the idea of unpredictability.

And when your certainty disappears, your

anxiety will always rise. However,

uncertainty is still very very important

because without it, you become bored.

I hate being bored. I probably being

bored more than anything else in this

entire world. And there are certain

things that if I have to do them, they

bore me. And it's like putting salt in

my eyeballs.

Spreadsheets are like salt in my

eyeballs.

Putting my laundry away salt in my

eyeballs. It's why it sits on my chair

beside my closet because taking it two

feet would be so painful. Put it away.

It's why when I get back from the trip,

my bag does not get unpacked until my

wife has asked me six to eight times and

then threatened me.

I made it in my mind. It's boring. I

can't do something for five seconds. But

even if you're a person that puts your

clothes away, you still crave adventure.

And we hate boredom because when life is

mechanical and predictable, it's dead.

And so these things look like this.

everyone, you know, no one wants to eat

the same thing for forever

except a few of you and right I mean I

don't I don't even want to be invi if

you eat the same thing every day. I have

a rotation and it can be a pretty

monotonous thing. No one wants to eat

the same thing every day. You fall in

love partly because of the mystery of

discovery of another human being.

Our vacations are because we crave

uncertainty

and every single child craves the

uncertainty of exploration and adventure

and joy that comes. So the point is is

there's the human soul needs the

challenge and discovery of holding life

in its certainties and uncertainties and

tension. And the problem is is that they

fight each other constantly because

you'll see people complain when life is

chaotic.

We complain when life is chaotic and

then we complain again when it's boring.

We want new challenges. We want stable

jobs. We want adventure, but we want a

stable

health insurance plan and relationship.

Some of you women are thinking, you

single women, it's like, he's pretty

cute.

Does he have a job?

He's super fun,

but can he pay the rent?

That's all we're talking about here.

Certainty and uncertainty. You want both

is my point. And we do this in every

part of life.

We need the certainty. We need the

uncertainty. But at the end of the day,

here's where we're going to get to the

scripture and not just a stupid talk

about certainty and uncertainty and

roller coasters.

John who wrote the book of Revelation,

he's going to give us a picture in

Revelation uh 4. And it's of a throne

room. Super bizarre. Why a throne room?

Because before God explains anything

about the future and gets into this

apocalyptic stuff, he's going to show us

and we're going to see a hymn of the

apocalypse.

The hymn of the apocalypse is all about

revealing the throne. Because in the

throne, we're going to see the Christian

answer to uncertainty is never going to

be control. It's always going to be

worship.

Worship is the gateway to everything

your soul craves. Because in worship,

you discover your issues of trust,

surrender, and meaning. So, Revelation

4, our big idea as we go into it. When

life feels uncertain, Jesus is going to

invite every single one of us today to

simply, this is probably my most common

application out of scripture. Lift up

your eyes. Lift up your eyes to the

throne that we'll see in Revelation 4.

Step into his presence. Number two, step

into his presence through the open door.

You're going to see here in Revelation

4, John talks about the open door. Many

of us think that worship opens the door.

like if I just worship, if I get down on

my face, if I go to the prayer room, if

I have a long enough quiet time, we so

beautifully our team led us into like

give him something that costs you. You

don't earn anything by giving him

something that cost you. You participate

in the work of Jesus when you give him

something that cost you. What you give

him means nothing in terms of what you

get. The door is not closed. And your

worship doesn't open any spiritual door.

Your worship won't open the doors for

your for your job, for your career, for

your children, for anything. Your

worship doesn't do anything for you.

The door is already open.

That's a big deal. Worship.

Worship brings you into a place where

you can access the door that's already

open.

So, lift up your eyes, step into the

presence of the door that's already

open, and lay down the you've been

trying to carry yourselves. That's

what's happening this morning. So,

Revelation 4 verse one, I'm going to

read it and as I read it, this is caked

in imagery that none of us understand.

So, I'm going to just give you a little

commentary

and we'll get through it together. Fair.

Okay. Doesn't matter if you think it's

fair or not. I don't know why I said

that. Revelation 4:1. After this, I

Revelation 4:1

looked and behold a door standing open

in heaven. Again, the door's already

open. He doesn't force his way in. He's

invited. And the first voice which I had

heard speaking to me like a trumpet

said, "Come up here." For seven weeks

we've been looking at the churches here

on earth. Now Jesus says, "Lift up your

eyes." Verse two. At once I was in the

spirit. John said, "Behold, a throne

stood in heaven with one seated on the

throne." Notice what he sees first. He

doesn't see Rome, the biggest kingdom

and the political power of the day. He

doesn't see his problems. He doesn't see

persecution. He simply sees a throne.

The most important thing in heaven is

not what is happening.

It's what does the throne represent?

Who's reigning on it?

Verse three. And he who sat there had

the appearance of jasper and carnelon.

What the mean? And around the throne was

a rainbow that had the appearance of an

emerald. This is obviously imagery. And

John is struggling to describe God

directly.

So what he's doing is he reaches for

images like beauty and brilliance and

glory and surrounding the throne is this

beautiful rainbow a reminder of his

covenant promise

of his mercy of his faithfulness. All

these things are supposed to come to the

forefront when you see all these things.

Next verses around the throne were 24

thrones.

More imagery. The people of God gathered

around the throne. That's what you need

to understand. And from the throne came

flashes of lightning, rumblings, and

peels of thunder. So God is not only

loving, he's holy, majestic, and

powerful. It's meant to show his

authority, his power. Next verse. Before

the throne, you see, we're burning seven

torches of fire. That's the fullness of

God's spirit.

And before the throne, there was, as it

were, a sea of glass, like crystal.

In the ancient world, the sea represents

chaos and danger. And so before God's

throne, you see the seas calm like

glass. And what feels chaotic to us is

not chaotic to him.

Final few verses. Around the throne,

four living creatures, a lion, an ox, a

man and eagle.

This is the strongest, the wisest, and

the swiftest of all creation. And and

all of creation is sitting there around

the throne. And you day and night they

never cease this hymn.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God

Almighty who was and is and is to come.

The past, the present, the future.

He's over it all. And he's sitting on

this throne, seeing it all, over it all,

in it all.

The 24 elders fall down before him and

they cast their crowns before the

throne. What does that mean?

We'll come back to them in a moment.

Those crowns, they're very important.

But first, I want to see Revelation

Revelation 4:11

4:11.

Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to

receive glory, honor, power.

I feel like I'm talking about this a lot

of late.

Humanity seems desperate to say why you

and I can be worthy. Scripture seems

very unconcerned about whether you and I

are worthy and very concerned about you

understanding how worthy he is.

Worthy are you, oh Lord God, to receive

glory, honor, and power. This is the of

the chapter.

If he's worthy, maybe I don't have to

be.

Everything in the throne room is moving

towards one reality, his worth.

He's worthy. So, what does that mean for

us? What does that mean for you and me?

It means that when life feels uncertain,

it gives us three invitations out of

this passage. In the midst of our

uncertainty, lift your eyes,

step into his presence. The door's open.

Whatever you're carrying, whatever

burden, cast your crown. Lay down your

burdens. Whatever weight, whatever

responsibilities,

throw them down at his feet. The

Christian answer to uncertainty is never

going to be control. Is always going to

be worship. So, three points today.

First point, lift your eyes.

lift your eyes above your circumstances.

So again, these first few verses are

talking about how again the churches

that we've looked at, it's all about

looking at their hearts, looking inward.

Now, you know, some of them have had

suffering. They've had compromise.

They've been spiritually asleep. Some of

them are very self-sufficient. A few of

them are doing a great job. But before

Jesus goes on, and you're going to see

later in Revelation, you're going to get

all the fun things like beasts and

Babylon and judgment and the end of

history. Before you get concerned about

all of that and start emailing me all of

your opinions about what all that means,

I simply want us to get John's vision of

heaven itself. After this, I looked and

behold a door standing open. Again,

the throne appears over and over. I

think 40 times in Revelation is the

throne. Why? Because the central

question is not what's gonna happen.

It's it's always about

Who's in charge while all this is

happening?

Who's on the throne in the midst of the

chaos?

Jesus promised trouble, chaos,

persecution, all kinds of stuff.

The issue isn't

how do we get rid of all these bad

things and just live an easy life. The

issue is always who's on the throne, who

is worthy,

and who is reigning while it happens. He

He wants answers, and you and I want

answers. And it's almost as if we can

come to him with our with our wants and

we can give it to him. And John shows us

what we're going to get when we come in

worship and we want something from him.

He wants explanations. And instead of an

explanation, God gives him a new

perspective. Come up here, John, and let

me show you reality.

And reality starts with who's in charge,

who sits on the throne. Now, we have

cute little slogans for this. I grew up

in the Bible belt and and the one that

comes to mind for me is like,

you know, Lord Jesus still sits on the

throne.

And you know what? I took that for

granted. That was just like a nicity.

It happens to be gospel truth. And I

just thought it was like a nice thing

that you said when you don't know what

to say.

Sometimes the things we say when we

don't need know what to say, when

they're rooted in scripture, it may be

exactly what you need.

And then you see around the throne of

rainbow takes us back to Noah, the

covenant, the mercy, the faithfulness.

And even in a book about judgment, you

see that God's mercy is surrounding his

ru his rule, his reign, his throne, his

kingdom. Everything is about his mercy

in the midst of it. Judgment is never a

bad thing when God comes in because he

sets all things right. And the book of

Revelation is about bringing everything

alpha, omega, beginning and end from

Genesis to Revelation and showing you

that he still sits on the throne and he

is one day going to make all things

right. He has somehow chosen to use

those of us who worship in response to

his invitation to use us in partnership

to bring about his will and his

purposes. We access this way of life

through worship.

I just want to remind us today that the

thing that you're craving most is to be

a worshshiper that lives out their

god-given destiny as sons and daughters

of this king who is worthy. Those of us

that are trying to earn our worth, it

will never satisfy and it will never any

value because he doesn't need your

worth.

He wants your worship because when you

give him your worship. You realize whose

image you were created in.

And you continue to carry his presence,

his love, his life, his mercy, his

judgment, not yours. It will completely

recalibrate your heart. It will convict

you. It will keep you humble. And it

will position you. position you over and

over again. So, how do we apply this

first point? Most of us spend our lives,

we look horizontally. We're looking at

headlines and finances and spreadsheets

and politics and children and fears and

roller coasters. I don't know. Whatever

you're looking at, Revelation 4 is

sitting here going like, "Would you just

get above the chaos and the noise and

your circumstances? Let me show you a

new vision of reality and let me when

life feels chaotic, let me allow you to

look above it so you can look out.

interpret your circumstances in a

different lens. I I'm I do not do this

well. I am not preaching from telling

you like just do it like me. Do it

please. Do it please. Not like me. I

lose a lot of sleep because I don't do

this. But I'm not giving up. I'm

contending and I'm fighting for this

standard.

This standard means it's like what is

keeping you up at night? That's the

question. Because at the core it's like

you're still fighting for control.

You're worried about your legacy. You're

worried about your relationships.

You're worried about that weward child.

You're worried about that final grade.

What What is it that is that is

literally plaguing you? You feel

disqualified.

Everyone in your sphere, your family is

like depending on you and you don't know

what to do. You don't know what to give

them. You're feeling isolated, alone.

You've made decisions. You're in this

city. You don't even know why you're

here anymore.

If if we can't be honest, we don't

understand what John is doing.

John is taking the weight of world

history and the most holy thing

imaginable.

And God is giving him a vision of how to

see everything with his perspective.

The idea here, don't interpret through

your circumstances.

What's consuming your attention then?

When you put your phone down and stop

scrolling for five minutes, what's going

through your mind?

When you take a shower,

take a deep breath,

when your phone dies, and you can't

distract yourself for five minutes, what

is it that plagues you? What is it

that's weighing you? Where do you need a

heavenly perspective? Where do you need

a problem to feel bigger than God? When

God is saying, is exposing. If God isn't

bigger than your problems,

you haven't encountered the living God.

The goal is not certainty.

I want certainty.

The only certainty he's offering is the

certainty of what he's sitting on. And

that is the throne of all power and

authority. So why do bad things happen?

Why doesn't he take care of it all?

I have two answers to that. The first

answer is I don't know.

When he doesn't do what I want him to

do, I don't like it.

But what am I doing when I tell God that

he should have done something

differently? I'm I'm telling him

basically that that I have a higher

moral ground than God himself and that

there couldn't possibly be a reason why

he didn't do what I think he should have

done.

Now, we can joke about that if the

circumstance is, you know, like you

shouldn't have let me get in that car

accident. That was really expensive.

No one was hurt, but you shouldn't have

let me do that anyway. I didn't want to

spend my money on that. Well, that's

that's nice. But what about when I'm

talking about the people being

slaughtered in Nigeria or Iran or

wherever?

Where are you in that, God? And how does

that sit in your plan? And if you're all

powerful and all holy and all generous

and all kind, why are you allowing those

things to happen? And the answer is the

same answer we see in scripture. God

doesn't give you the answer that you

want. He gives you a fresh perspective.

Is it possible that if he's really God,

he might see things, be doing things

that I don't understand? There's also

this dynamic that we live in a world

where he has somehow decided that he's

going to bring about his purposes only

in partnership with those that he made

in his own image that worship him.

That's the thing that messes me up is

because it's often often I just go like

it seems like he's just waiting on us to

bring about the fullness of what he

already wants to happen. It's it's as if

the door is open and there's all this

possibility to bring about the solutions

to broken homes and families and cities

and nations. And what is he doing? He's

begging us to understand what he's

already given us. The door is already

open and we're begging him to open the

door as if like I don't want to have

responsibility to do anything. I just

want you to solve everything, God.

And he's like the door is open. I'm on

the throne and I'm giving you my mantle

to go out and bring about justice in the

injustices.

So, I don't know why he's not doing

everything. I just know that I haven't

fully stepped into the invitation. And

if we can all just take personal

responsibility, how are you stepping

into the invitation and how are you not?

How are you wrapped up in your own brain

of how you're seeing your your your

chaos and your circumstances? And where

do you need to like John maybe get into

the throne room of heaven a little bit

see from his perspective and then live

it out. So point one is all about the

throne. Point two we're going to see

here all about entering the presence

and that's yeah verses 5 to8. One of the

most overlooked details here is is is

how the chapter begins. It starts with

the door is open. He doesn't force it.

He doesn't earn access. He's invited to

come up here. John come up here and see.

Back in Revelation 3, it says, "Behold,

I stand at the door and knock." This is

an ongoing image that Jesus is trying to

give him. What's happening here is now

the door is not a closed door. It's not

locked. It's open. And the invitation is

the gospel. It's not just forgiveness.

It's access the access to him and it's

open.

I spent I have talked with so many

people and the cry of their heart is I

just don't feel close with God. I want

to know him.

At the end of of Jesus's ministry and

when Jesus kept talking about going

away, do you know what the thing that

the disciples cried out for? All in one

unison, they go, "If you're leaving

Jesus, show us the father."

Why is that? They were craving the fact

that they saw that Jesus had access and

relationship, closeness to God more than

anything or anyone they've ever seen.

And what they wanted most was not to be

able to do more miracles. They weren't

asking for more money. They weren't

asking for more influence. They did all

those things in their teenage immaturity

things along the way. But what they did

at that last moment where he's talking

about death and going on, show us the

father. They're saying like, I have got

to understand what this means. How do

you have access? How do you have

relationship? How do you have closeness

to the presence of God? How do you walk

with his spirit? How does everything you

do manifest this way of life where there

doesn't seem to be any distance between

you and him? Where you're constantly

feeling like you're walking with him,

listening to him, and living it out.

What is this? And they say, here's the

thing. They did not put this just on

Jesus. Well, this is just because you're

the son of God. That's what you and I

do. We look at Jesus. He can't be our

standard. He's Jesus.

And the disciples realized their entire

ministry training with Jesus was to show

them everything he had access to.

They had access to,

but they can't figure it out fully. And

that's our life pursuit. How do we get

this kind of access?

What does John find there?

The presence of God, the door is open.

It's a place of presence. And here's the

thing. There's this I don't have time to

go into it, but it's phenomenal. The

ancient the ancients had this concept of

going to God, the the Jews especially.

And it was always difficult,

treacherous. And the hero of the story

was one who would like go through all

this process to get to God.

They were deeply be offended at John.

Why? Look how easy it was. John's just

like he's going to like go back into

this spiritual trance and he's just

going to invite me up into the throne

room and sit on Daddy God's lap.

And you charismatics love that so much.

Every day I just sit on my daddy God's

lap

and we just enjoy. And you know what?

That's biblical right here.

It's a major shift. It's also offensive.

We can cheapen it. We can we can we can

humanize it to a degree that it's not as

holy as it was here. I get that. But for

the moment, let's just appreciate that's

actually 100% biblical. There's always

tension, but this is this is the

biblical basis for sitting on Daddy

God's lap.

throne room of heaven. And it and here's

and here's what it means though. It

means that every idea that you have to

strive and work

towards access

is denied

deep offense

the Jews would have in this

because where is the grinding

to get there? And then how do how do you

have a hero?

And what this is showing us is we

already have a hero. His name is Jesus

Christ.

And John is not the hero of this story.

And neither are you and neither.

And that's good news

because in the midst of all this,

whatever you feel

of distance to God is not what he's

inviting you to. The presence of God is

not supposed to be difficult to access.

this prayer and these hymns and these

songs are are showing us a different

story to live by. It's it's singing a

song about an open door, about a spirit

that's present, about an invitation

that's available, a question that isn't

about where God is far. It's that he's

right here and he's near and he wants

you and he wants you to enter in. He

wants you to pray because when you pray

and when you worship, the access isn't

just that the door opens. It's that you

realize that you're right there at the

open door and you can step in.

And that's why worship matters because

in worship when you when you enter in

whether you're entering in in silence

and song and meditation and communion

whatever it is that you're doing in

worship

that is posturing yourself

and being available. John had to just

simply be available to the presence of

God.

The number one thing you and I can do is

eliminate distraction in our lives and

be available.

The is keeping us from the life of

fullness walking in his presence is that

we're not available.

I want to be, but if I'm honest, there's

just too many things that I live with

with distraction that are keeping me

from the open door.

That is probably the most beautiful,

encouraging, depressing reality

of worship.

The encouragement, it's not hard.

You don't have to earn it.

It's depressing. You're probably going

to live too distracted to enjoy it very

often.

And that's the sober.

I just want us to be a people that live

with that sobering reality.

It's not hard.

Will I live?

Eliminating raction

convinced that if I can be a

worshshiper,

I've got access to the living God who

sits on the throne. And there's not a

single thing that can come at my life.

There's not a single piece of bad news

that can uproot

the fact Jesus Christ got out of that

grave. He sits on the throne over life

and death. He is the alpha and omega,

beginning and the end. And anything I

carry of anxiety, fear

sits under the reality that he is God

eternal and he has adopted me as his son

and that I can face any circumstance

with utter conviction that all of

eternity rests in his blood and his life

and his word

and that anything that I'm carrying

that takes me away from that utter joy

and privilege

is a lie that I'm living

that's already been paid for. And I

simply need to step into the open door,

cast down my crown.

Why crowns?

Because those things that are weighing

you are when you try to be king and

you're not.

I just feel so strongly this morning.

There's just some crowns that need to be

cast down.

So, that's how we're going to end. And

then you go get some more coffee and you

can go home.

If you know, I feel like this is going

to be a team can start to come up. I

feel like there's going to be a little

progression. I just invite you to close

your eyes with me. Not because we're

going to embarrass anyone. I just want

you to have a moment of personal

responsibility.

I want you to envision the crowns that

you need to cast down. The burdens that

you're carrying that are still you

trying to be God when you're not. What

you're trying to control when you can't.

What you're trying to manipulate of your

circumstances and it's not working out.

Just one. What's the crown that you need

to throw down to today? When you know

what that is, I just want to invite you

to stand with me.

When you know what that is,

I just want you to stand. It's an act.

And you may not even feel like you can

throw it down. I just want you to stand

acknowledging that there are things

where you are keeping yourself on the

throne.

And he's his invitation is simply come

up and see. Come get a new perspective

on your circumstances.

Step into the open door.

Cast down that ground.

Holy Spirit, would you help us? Expose

our hearts.

Comfort our spirits.

Encourage us with the joy of our

salvation.

Some of us in the room have just they're

so convinced that this there are things

in life, processes of healing

that take a long haul. But there's a

perspective change that doesn't need to

be difficult. And your perspective

change is all momentary in a moment

where you can realize, I have been

living with my eyes fixated on my

problems. And Jesus is inviting me to

see reality with a fresh view, a fresh

lens, fresh heart, fresh love that I

didn't pay for because I'm not worthy to

see this way. He is.

Just want to read the scripture over us

one more time.

The hymn of the apocalypse.

It's twofold. Holy, holy, holy is the

Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is

to come. Worthy are you, our Lord and

God, to receive glory and honor and

power, for you created all things, and

by your will they existed and were

created.

Come Holy Spirit now.

Take our crowns.

Take our disappointments. Take our

failures. Take our striving.

Lift our eyes.

That's what Revelation is saying. Re

lift your eyes because there's a throne.

Step into his presence because there's

an open door.

Cast down your crowns because there's an

altar

and there's a cross and the work is

done.

This is the gospel.

The one that loved you and saw you from

the beginning of time still sees you and

knows you and wants to know you even

deeper. And it's not a difficult longw

withstanding journey that you have to

earn your worth.

It's one where we simply eliminate the

things that are keeping us from seeing

what is already before us. I repent,

Father, for the distractions of my life

that keep me

from a place of worship.

The other thing this passage did,

I don't know if you're like me, I grew

up thinking that this passage was just

about us singing holy, holy, holy

forever. And I'm like, that is boring.

That is not what this is about. This

isn't telling you what you're going to

do forever. It's telling you the posture

and your mindset of worship forever.

As he continues to breathe his life and

partner with you throughout all of

creation and all eternity, the song that

you are humming continually is his

holiness and his worth.

because there's much to do when you

realize his worth has been placed on

you.

Holy Spirit, come. Break strongholds,

break lies, encourage souls, and bring

joy in Jesus name. I feel some of you,

there's just this darkness and heaviness

today that just isn't going to stay.

Would you just step out of it? I think

some of us just need to step forward and

worship. If you need to come forward,

there's going to be a team that would

love to pray, honored to pray with you.

Some of you just need to step out into

the hallway. Step out into the aisle.

Step into something. Lay down the crown.

Allow your heart to taste a measure of

worship that maybe you've experienced

before. You need to do it again. Maybe

you've never experienced before. It's

the first time. It's a simple

invitation.

The door is open.

Lay down the weights. Lay down the

crowns.

Let the one who sits on the throne

encounter you. Lift up your eyes and

see. We pray this in Jesus mighty name.

Amen. Join this team as they lead us.

Welcome to come up for prayer.