Intro/Outro: Welcome to Garden Church Podcast. We're in a series in the book of Revelation. We're gonna spend the next 26 weeks doing a deep dive into both how to read and how to interpret this amazing book. Enjoy.
Darren Rouanzoin: Hey, Dan. There we are. The caffeinated early birds, the one that, are victorious, in the great tribulation. Hey, this is week 11 of our revelation series. Have you enjoyed it so far?
Yeah, for 11 weeks, I've invited you to see and hear from the deepest reality And that is God on his throne room. For 11 weeks, we've invited you to see the world through the lens of what revelation provides. The lens of a crucified slain lamb who is victorious. For 11 weeks, a lot has happened in our lives. A lot has happened in the world and in our nation, we've seen wildfires and wars, hurricanes, earthquakes, social tensions, political campaigns and national elections.
We have an opportunity to choose. Do we live with a view of scripture in light of current events or do we choose to live and see the world through the lens of a slain lamb? So some of us in our church are grieving Tuesday's results. Some of us are celebrating Tuesday's results, but wherever you find yourselves, we're gonna put Jesus right at the center. That's what we're committed to.
So can we pray? We submit to you, Lord Jesus Christ. You are our Messiah, which means king. You are our savior, which means we can't earn our way anywhere. And you, Lord, are the one true God and we put our hope in you.
And we pray for our nation as we keep seeing shifts every 4 years. We pray for our nation to glorify you Jesus. And we pray that, you'd allow us to come under your lordship and unify under that in Jesus name. Amen. Alright.
If you've missed the last 11 weeks, I'm apologize. I'm so glad you're here. But we really are following a book that has some really interesting stuff going on. And I just say that because each week it's gonna get more and more interesting as we dive into the text. Last week, we read Revelation chapter 6.
Jesus opens the scroll and there is this monstrous unveiling of what life looks like apart from God, apart from God's desires and dreams and design. It's described as the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse. These are destructive forces that are released into the world. They bring chaos, conquest, war, economic injustice, famine, death, and they plague God's creation as we choose to live outside of his will and way of, the way of the lamb. At first look, we might see Revelation 6 in a vision that looks more fitting for a Marvel movie, than scripture, but this is precisely what apocalyptic literature is designed to do.
It's designed to expand our imagination for what is really going on in the world. It reveals the things behind the thing we see. Our spiritual world, our physical world is the result of spiritual war. There is a spiritual war going on behind the structures of reality, and we live under these things. So when we see empires and governments and tech companies and streaming platforms and human institutions with godlike powers, they are not innocent bystanders of neutral territory.
They are tools used by the dragon and the dragon we will come to see is Satan. Our role as followers in this divine cosmic battle is to be followers of Jesus that are grounded in heaven. We are firmly placed on earth while grounded in heaven. And from that perspective, we pray. We work for God's kingdom to come, and we go into this chaotic world of war as part of God's rescue plan and strategy for liberating all those who are held captive by the dragon's will.
So the 6th seal reveals this final judgment. Part of the great tribulation that's happening on earth. And chapter 6 ends with this question in verse 17. So if you have a Bible, would you just hold it out. Let me just actually hold it up, not just out.
Look at it's getting 8 Wait, come on. Let me see 8 AM. Oh 8 AM, you are crushing it. Crushing the serpent's head with bringing your physical Bibles. I got pastor jokes for days.
So here we go. Revelation 6 17, it ends with this question, seal 6, the 6th seal that's released has this cosmic judgment that takes place. And it ends with for the great day of their wrath has come and who can withstand it. It ends with this question. And the question is really 2, is who's gonna make it through the great tribulation and how do they make it through the great tribulation?
This is the question chapter 6 leaves us with That chapter 7 answers. So I'm gonna read chapter 7 all of us together. And let me just say, when we read the word of God, let's just not move for a moment. I I was thinking about how to train people that are new to faith, how to train people who have taken scripture lightly. If all we do as a church is worship and read the scripture publicly, and I don't talk about it.
I don't give you my ideas and what I've prepared to preach if we just read scripture together. It's enough for us to gather. So let's honor the word, but I wanna just give you a little bit of framework before we jump into the text. Chapter 7 is gonna give you 2 visions. These are not the same visions.
They're 2 separate visions. One happens before seal 6, and one is gonna happen sometime in the future. 1 reveals a present pressure and one reveals a future reward. Chapter 7 reveals 2 separate visions, but they belong together. Chapter 7 explains chapter 6 in more depth.
It provides a larger background for what's actually happening. It's like a flash back in time, and then it's a flash forward. It's kinda like a Christopher Nolan film. If you've ever seen any of his films, the first vision reveals how the faithful servants of God make it through the great tribulation. The second vision tells us what the reward will be for those who persevere through the great tribulation.
So here's a breakdown if you're gonna take notes. This is what happens. So chapter 7 gives us a flashback. Here's how we get to, chapter 6, seal 6. And then vision 2, the second half of chapter 7 is gonna point you into the future.
Okay? So that's what's going on so you can see this in in in lieu of of what we're gonna read. So let me read this text together. Revelation chapter 7. After this, I saw 4 angels standing at the 4 corners of the earth holding back the 4 winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.
Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, circle east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the 4 angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea. Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the forehead of the servants of our God. Then I heard the number of those who were sealed. I heard the number of those who were sealed.
144,000 from the all the tribes of Israel. From the tribe of Judah, 12,000 were sealed. From the tribe of Reuben, 12,000 were sealed or 12,000. From the tribe of Gad, 12,000 from the tribe of Asher, 12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh, 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon, 12,000 from the tribe of Levi, 12,000 from the tribe of Issachar, 12,000 From the tribe of, Zebulun, 12,000. From the tribe of Joseph, 12,000 and from the tribe of Benjamin, 12,000.
Now there's a second vision. After this, I looked. So he heard a vision and then he looked. And there before me was a great multitude that no one could count. From every nation, tribe, people and language standing before the throne, before the lamb.
They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders of the 4 living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and they worship God saying, amen. Praising glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever.
Amen. Then one of the elders asked me, these in the white robes, who are they and where they come from? I answered, sir, you know. And he said, these are they who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.
Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. Never again will they hunger. Never again will they thirst. The sun will not be down on them nor any scorching heat for the lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd.
He will lead them to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from their eye. The word of the Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Just pause for a moment. Such beautiful text, isn't it?
I love preaching through Revelation. Such an important book for our time. It's such an important book for what it means to be a disciple of Jesus today. This is a fascinating vision, 2 visions. And remember as we interpret what's going on, for us to understand this book, we don't think about what we read next or even what we see next in the text.
What we're looking at what John sees next And we see this same back and forth where he hears something and it's a way, a certain way, and then he see something and it's a different thing. So he hears the Lion of Judah and he sees a lamb who was slain. He hears about a great number of of people, 144,000 and then he sees a great multitude. There's a there's a structure to the words that are being used that help us interpret what's going on. So this first vision is present pressure.
Revelation chapter 7 verses 1 through 8 is what happened before the seal 6 is released on earth. It's what happens before and it says, after this, I saw 4 angels standing in the 4 corners the earth holding back the 4 winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land. This is a direct reference from Zechariah, but it is in reference to the 4 horsemen. So this is what happens before the chaos unfolds. God does something in history.
God does something to his people to preserve them through the pressure they're gonna face or the tribulation. So the first vision reveals to us how the faithful servants of God make it through the tribulation. He says, then I heard the number of those who are sealed 144,000. Now this is not to be taken literally. I know that there are cults like the Jehovah's Witnesses have taken this literally, which is a very depressing religion by the way.
I've studied it a lot. I love inviting those friends to come in and sit in my home and I argue them into Christianity because I've studied apologetics and I love using their version of the Bible and just go, when did Jehovah Jireh die? And they're like, he never died. And you're like, Revelation. Who's the alpha omega?
Jehovah Jireh, when did he die? It says it in Revelation chapter 1. Anyways, that's a freebie for all of those that love that stuff. It's not a literal things. A 144,000 from the tribe of Israel.
What's the significance of this number? The symbolism is more significant than the number. Now there we know that there are 12 tribes of Israel. We know that there are 12 apostles, 12 times 12 times a a 1000. There's all these things I could show you.
I don't have time to go into the depth of all this. I Like last week, I wrote 12 pages. We used 3a half. This week, I wrote 9 and we're using 3a half because there's so much rich history. Every time we dive into the text, there's so much old testament in each of these verses.
You can't possibly make it a 35, 45, minute sermon, but what I need you to understand is the symbolism significant. It's just a Hebrew way of saying it's a really big number. But the significance beyond the number is what John does with the 12 tribes. So John rearranges the traditional list of the 12 tribes found in the old testament. He starts with the tribe of Judah instead of the tribe of Reuben, and he is making a statement that the literal list doesn't matter anymore because the messiah comes from Judah.
And when the messiah comes, who's the messiah? Jesus. It changes the very essence of Israel. You need to hear this especially if you've been formed by another theology out there that wants to make a significance something significant about this. What John is doing with this list is saying we don't need to honor the exact exact literal list because Israel has changed.
The messiah has come and the messiah brings the fulfillment of Israel. Israel's purposes has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. It's gonna offend a lot of you. Israel is no longer bound by the tradition of the old testament. Israel's vocation and purpose is not replaced, but it has been, fulfilled in Christ.
And its boundaries are no are abolished. The nation of Israel was chosen to bless all the nations. When he does this in the book of of revelation, he is saying what was prophesied in Genesis chapter 12 verse 3 when God chose Abram and said to him, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you, Abram. And then in Genesis 22, when he says again to his promise that all nations will be blessed through his people, John sees and makes in his vision a 144,000 and all the tribes and he's saying that the new Israel are those who follow the lamb. And I can make this case all over the place throughout the old testament.
We are seeing that in revelation, Israel's purpose is fulfilled. What was the purpose of Israel? To reveal God to the world. Genesis chapter 12. Abraham will be a a nation that blesses all other nations.
Exodus chapter 19. God frees the, the people of Israel, brings them to mount Sinai and says, if you obey my covenant, then you will be for me a treasure possession, a holy nation, and a kingdom of priests to bless all other nations. They forgot their task. Jesus remembers their task. If you read the old testament, they are to be a light to the gentiles.
They excluded the gentiles, and then Jesus comes onto the scene, welcomes them in, and then the church is born and guess what? It's filled with gentiles. And we get to the end of the story in Revelation chapter 21, and the number 12 is everywhere. 12,000 stadia, 12, gates, and guess whose names are on the gates of the new Jerusalem. The tribes of Israel.
What do gates do? They encompass and enclose. Who is now included in the new Jerusalem? All of the nations and multitudes. Isn't that amazing?
We read over this and we miss what's going on. We wanna attach our political ideology to usher in the end times. End times already started folks. Don't worry. I'll answer that question today.
I know some of you have more questions from last week. We're gonna get into it. The point that John is making is that something happened in history that enabled people to make to get through the tribulation and has something to do with the entire old testament being fulfilled in Jesus. Now I'm gonna come back to what enables them to get through it in a second at the end. But let's keep going because I wanna get to vision number 2 and we're gonna come back to vision 1 just like a Christopher Nolan film.
Here we go. If you don't know who he is, you're missing out on probably one of the greatest greatest directors of all time. Like the movie Prestige, do you remember that movie? It starts at the end. Right?
And then it goes back and it shows you the tension of the 2 magicians and their their fame and both of them are hiding secrets. One of them is hiding this, this ridiculous secret and then it it starts with this this guy being convicted of murdering his competition and then it it gets to that point. You're like, okay, that's what happens and then it goes into the future just like Revelation chapter 7. Isn't that interesting? So there you go.
So we go into the future. Revelation chapter 7 verse 9. This happens after the great judgment of c of chapter 6. The second vision tells us what the reward will be for those who persevere through the, the great tribulation. It's the end.
It's so beautiful. Never again wait and he who sits on the throne will shelter them in his presence. Never again will they hunger. Never again will they thirst. The sun will not be down on them nor any scorching heat for the lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd.
He will lead them to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. This is our promise. Anyone need to hear that today? That this is the story of how it ends. This is our story of how things will end.
Our story has a happy ending. Your story has a happy ending in Christ. We are the way it ends. The future promise that we can hold onto is that we are in the presence of God. All suffering is removed and we live under the intimate connection and care of the lamb of God as our shepherd.
Jesus shepherds us for all of eternity. That is really good news. So the question though, this is where we get this idea is these are they who have come out of the great tribulation. So the question is, what is the great tribulation? And what many of you have asked me from last week's sermon is, when does the great tribulation take place?
Have you thought about that? For those of us that have been formed in Christian tradition, maybe you're you're new to church and you're like, these are all new words to me. God bless you. Let me just keep you in this. Great.
But for those of us like me that have terrible baggage that we come from, a theology that terrified us for a 7 year literal tribulation, thinking that it's gonna be, you know, begin with the coming of the white writer and the 4 apocalypse and these are a series of events. And last week I said that's not what's gonna happen and that probably messed some of you up, which is fine. But I wanna answer this question. I wanna answer this question. Revelation 714 says, these are they who have come out of the great tribulation.
Now the problem with our reading of this is we don't read Greek. We take our best translation. In this case, it's n I v, but it doesn't actually say these are, the ones who have come out. What it says is these are the ones who come out, not have come out. It's translated who are coming out.
It's a perfect present tense verb. It's they they are coming out of tribulation. So what John is saying, it implies that something was happening in 96 AD when this was written, and there's something happening even right now. So the word that is translated tribulation in the Greek, we've already seen this a few times in the book of Revelation. It means, pressure or crushing pressure, and when John puts the word great pressure in there, it's mega pressure.
So when who these who are coming out of the mega pressure that experience. So what is John referring to? Well, he's referring to what happens when the kingdoms clash, when God's kingdom clashes against the kingdoms of the world. When did that begin? Well, the great tribulation is what takes place when God's kingdom collides with the kingdom of the world, and so in John's mind, it started when Jesus came into the world.
We'll see this later on in a couple of chapters. The great tribulation began on Christmas Eve. So this is what Daryl Johnson says. King Herod, one of the most brilliant political leaders of ancient times and one of the most ruthless, heard of the birth of a child destined to be king of the Jews. He was threatened by the coming to this baby Jesus, by the coming to this baby Jesus, that he had made every male child in the vicinity of Bethlehem who is 2 years or older, old or younger, excuse me, murdered.
This is historical. We know this. In John's mind, the tribulation, the great tribulation began with the birth life ministry, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus of Nazareth. It began with Pentecost with the outpouring of the holy spirit who is the personal embodiment of the kingdom of God. The great tribulation has been going on since Jesus came into the world and it continues on today.
The tribulation represents the experience that the church has as it faces spiritual and physical opposition for its faith in Christ. The tribulation isn't limited to the end time period. It's still characterized in the future as there'll be future struggles and pressures that we will endure as the world falls apart because they walk away from God, but the emphasis is that we are currently in tribulation and as always, the church is refined and strengthened through tribulation. Now it's gonna be news to some of you so let that sink in. It's so clear according to the old testament that the end times began when the coming of the holy spirit fell on the church in acts according to Joel.
We see this all over the place. So these two scenes in Revelation chapter 7 are given to help us make it through the great tribulation, to help us persevere, to not give into the pressure that is all around us and compromise, but rather remain faithful and obedient. So some of you don't feel any pressure, so you're like when is the pressure coming? And the reason you don't feel any pressure is because you don't follow Jesus's way. Let that sink in for a little bit.
You think it's gonna happen sometime because you're living comfortably as you confess Jesus as lord and live the way of the world. But those of us that recognize the world we live in is contested by the devil, we live differently and there's all sorts of pressure mounting. Real disciples of Jesus face pressure every single day. Pressure to conform, pressure to give in, pressure to gratify our flesh, pressure from Satan as he's empowered in more and more creative ways to reject God's will. He's empowered a group mindset that normalizes acts of disobedience, that takes our identities and disembodies them, and primarily defines them through through sexual preference or desire rather than created order and obedience.
The pressure we live in will be felt when you live closer and closer to the way of Jesus. Pressure is not some scary thing like we're gonna stand before a tribunal and be tried as a Christian in our context by an anti Christian government. Some of you think that. No. The pressure most likely that you face is that you're checking out from the roles and responsibilities you have as a Christian in your marriage, in your workplace, and as a parent, and you'd rather give into the pressure or push the pressure away by just checking out through social media, being a passive man in a world that needs strong masculine faith, and and you're seeing Jesus followers, neglect their responsibilities and live empowered by the holy spirit to no longer give in to these ways.
Are you with me on this? The great tribulation is here. Don't look for some other time. If you're single, it's not compromising for sexual gratification or defining yourselves by relationships. Same if you're married by the way.
If you're married, it's not it's not indulging in things that are outside of a covenantal faithfulness. It's choosing to live in that covenant. As parents, we live in this pressure right now that's creating all sorts of anxiety. How are we gonna parent our kids in this growing and divided world that's teaching lies and deception to our children? We live without fear, without press wouldn't recognize that pressure is all around us, but there is a way forward.
We can make it through the tribulation. How? Podcasts, parenting conferences, you know, accountability apps, voting our people into power. It's not gonna be the solution long long term. It's just a pendulum when we know it.
Right? We're not gonna usher in greater end times. We're already here. How are you gonna make it? Well, that's what the first vision reveals.
Go back to the first vision chapter 7 verse 3. You guys good? Yeah. How I just need to say this. Did you say this is so good?
Is that what I Okay, great. Like so that makes me feel great. It's been so it's been so wonderful to hear how alive our church is coming through just the word of God. Like, when do people get pumped around a a series through the Bible, like Revelation? I'm like, I'm gonna do this with the book of Leviticus in the future.
I'm just gonna you're gonna be like you're like, I just want more Leviticus because it's so good and you just like, we can do this with all the books of the bible. I was making the case recently of how, like, all the stuff we're seeing in culture. I'm like, oh, it's so simple. It's just a reaction to Genesis 1 and 2. Like, it's not that it's everything we see happening in the progressive culture that we see is just a rejection of Genesis 1 and 2.
And and like saying things in a way that make people think they're just affirming the dignity of human rap, but they're just rejecting humanity or affirming creation and they're rejecting stewardship of creation. Like there's so many way. I'm like, this is just the rejection of God's created order. It's not scary. It's not hard.
It's just that's what's happening. We know that people will deceive themselves. That's why we need to have our minds filled with the the word of God. So Revelation chapter 7 verse 3 says, do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our god. This is I don't have time to get into the depth, but I want you to verse 2.
I wasn't planning to go to verse 2 first. It says, then I saw another angel coming up from the east having the seal of the living God. So if you were to go back into Ezekiel chapter 9, this story has already been played out in Ezekiel 9. God tells an angel before the destruction of Babylon that there's a remnant in Israel that have a seal. They've been marked by God and the angel goes and marks.
That story in Ezekiel 9 has also already been told in Exodus chapter 12 when the Passover lamb is sacrificed and there's a seal on the door of all those who have come under the path, the blood of the lamb. So this is a continuation of something that's going on. Now that's that's very interesting, but also I love this. It says the angel came from the east. Now we don't have time to go there, but it There's a vision in Ezekiel chapter 10 where the the the the glory of God departs from the temple.
He watches the ark of the covenant which was a symbol for the presence of God just get kind of carried out out of the holy of holies. And guess where it exits? Which gate? The gate of the east. And where does it come back?
From the east. It's so good. Right? Okay. That was for me.
The key for this whole passage, the key for surviving this great tribulation that was, that is, and still is going until he comes back is this single word seal, and the word means signet or mark. And it's connected by the way to the phrase that's gonna be used for the mark of the beast. And so the question is, do you have the seal of God or the mark of the beast? Do you have the seal of the lamb or the mark of the beast? Are you team lamb or team dragon?
The seal according to this is a and according to Ezekiel and according to Exodus is something that protects God's people. Something about the seal in Revelation 7 protects his people and empowers them to stand in the coming wrath that's gonna unfold. What is the seal? So John's using this word steel, but to better understand the word, we need to look at the how the word is used throughout scripture. So the apostle Paul uses this all over the place.
How do we live in the world that is coming with greater tribulation and judgment? What will enable us to be faithful to the way of the lamb as the world falls apart, as the pressure mounts. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13. It says this. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth.
The gospel of your salvation when you believed, you were marked in him with a seal. The promise of the holy spirit who is the deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of his glory. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30. Do not grieve the holy spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verse 21.
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. It's God who does the work. It's God who makes you stand firm. It's God who makes you resist the pressure. It's God who enables you to not compromise.
He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his spirit in our hearts as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come. The seal is the holy spirit. John says that the seal comes from God, through God, by God, and is God. The seal is the tangible presence and the undeniable power of God in your life. As the kingdoms clash, as we are safe and secure, as the world does what it does, we don't become more secure through our works.
We don't become more secure through the podcast in our activity or our capacity for discipline. We do it through the power of God that's within us. Is this good news? Yes. Yes.
It's great news. And that pressure by the way, I missed the whole section. That pressure that you feel is there because, the pressure designs wants you to conform, wants you to give in, wants you to look like the world, and the way you don't conform is by, abiding in the presence of God, staying in his holy spirit, allowing his holy spirit to empower you. It's the holy spirit that empowers us to live with our eternity secure. When the world crashes in, we don't compromise even in the face of death.
The holy spirit is at this, gives us unrestricted access to Jesus. Unrestricted intimacy with Jesus who is at the center of the universe. So many of us live our lives without his presence. We don't know how to turn to God for intimacy. Instead, we turn to comforts to deal with the absence we have in our heart.
We haven't learned to go to Jesus. Go to the the father to receive from the holy spirit for the things that are aches in our souls. Instead, we turn to food. We turn to entertainment. We turn to each other.
We turn to sexuality. We turn to checking out because that's all we've been taught by the the dragon's will. Is this landing? Have you been sealed with the holy spirit? How do you know?
How are you so sure? I prayed a prayer a long time ago. Is that really the only way? Have you learned to draw from the source of life for all of your life? You go to marriage books for and podcast to fix your marriage.
Have you gone to the God who created marriage? Have you drawn from his source? His resource to strengthen the and empower your marriage for the men that were at the men's event on Friday which was amazing by the way. Have you gone to the father for your identity? To affirm that little boy that was never initiated by his earthly father to be initiated now by the heavenly father.
Have you learned to draw from, live into, and be empowered by the holy spirit for your identity? Or you're just defining it based on culture, based on the metrics of success in the world that make you feel better when you win and succeed or when you ate your diet the right way this week? Have you allowed the source of your well-being to come from hallowed be his name? This is this is only empowered by the presence of God in your life. The thing that's true and this is what's interesting is I've assumed so much because I've been preaching the same things for 16 years.
And, you know, for 16 years, we went from 3 people to whatever it is now. But for 14 years, we had around, you know, 2 to 300 adults in our gatherings and maybe went more during COVID or before COVID, but we lost a lot during COVID, for lots of political reasons, unfortunately, which is why I preach hard against politics. I know where your allegiance lies when you don't show up, when I don't endorse someone. Don't ask me to endorse. I endorse Jesus.
I have strong convictions about politics, but the pulpit is a place for Christ and Christ crucified. And when we build churches in the name of politics, we will divide over politics and we'll be judged by politics. So that's God now judging the church, handing us over to our idols. Our we don't have an idol. We have the living God.
Keep going. What I wanted to say is there are 2 undeniable realities that make garden church garden church. And this is an assumption that I carry. 1, is that we wholeheartedly read, teach, consume, believe, submit, and live the word of God. Number 2, we wholeheartedly believe that the holy spirit indwells within us to animate our being into our true identity, energize our being to live from the kingdom of God, liberates us us from the bondage of the world and the power of the enemy and empowers us to live as Jesus followers to continue the ministry of Jesus wherever we go in the same power of the holy spirit.
It's the holy spirit that marks our life. We believe heaven comes now and we live in this present age as the age to come. And what will make us get through the troubling tribulation, the mega pressure that's present is the presence of God. So here's the things that teachers, teach scripture teaches. Jesus, seals us in his presence.
When we turn to Jesus and when we confess him as Lord and savior, the bible teaches us that we are saved, but the bible also teaches us that we need be we need to be baptized and filled and filled ongoingly and empowered by his presence. It's not a one time experience. You're sealed once and for all, but you can have more. You can have more of the presence of God in your life, and what I want you to understand is the thing that will get you through this life and give you that future reward is more of him. And I guess the one thing I have to say other than giving you this teaching on Revelation 7 is do you want more of him?
Do you want to be sealed with his presence? Do you want more of the holy spirit in your life for everything, not for worship experiences, but for your life wherever you go? That people will be see as clearly as a mark on your forehead. This is a Jesus follower. Not because of a hat you wear or a sign on your lawn, but because of your presence that permeates justice, truth, righteousness, peace, joy, forgiveness, the reconciliation of all things in a person because you are filled with that being.
That's what he's looking for. Mirrors that reflect his glory into the world, through how they live. Are you with me? Do you wanna be sealed with his presence today? We're gonna do this.
We're gonna, we have oil that we consecrated to the Lord because the tradition in the church and even in, in old testament is that leaders of the community of God's people would anoint with oil as a symbol of being sealed by God, marked by God. We want you to have without a shadow of a doubt, the mark of God on your life. That I want everyone who comes to the garden to confess Jesus as lord today. To realign their lives back to the lord and savior Jesus Christ. To to confess Jesus as lord is to pledge your allegiance to him.
That's a more appropriate way of describing the new testament understanding of what it means to be a follower. It's that your allegiance is first to Christ. But second, I want you to receive more of the holy spirit. We've been praying for weeks in our prayer room. Holy Spirit, would you fill our church?
Do you want more of his presence? There's, I'm gonna give you some, some practical things that you could do to receive more. This is from 16 years of experience, but also I, this is all biblical. If you want more of God, number 1, you gotta desire and hunger for his presence. Promise so many of you are so satiated by the world.
You don't even know what it means to long for him to come. Maybe right now you're feeling an emotional experience because the word of God is is, you know, sifting you, moving in you. Have you ever humbled yourself before the lord and say, lord, I want more. Some of you need to get rid of all the things that are filling up the hunger places in your life and fast to starve the flesh in order to feast on the presence of God. But you gotta desire it.
Do you come here desiring God? I was talking to Amanda. She's like, I remember coming to the church in the beginning and every time I came on Sunday, it was like I was I had these butterflies. I was nervous because I I had this anticipation because I never grew up in a church where God could just do anything. Are you coming with the expectation that heaven's gonna touch earth earth this morning?
Hunger, desire. Number 2, so once you begin to desire and hunger, you you repent and surrender. I love what Charles Finney says. He says, the baptism of the holy spirit is not a luxury but a necessity. Do not be content until you are filled with the spirit of god which will empower you to live a victorious and holy life.
No one receives a spirit who does not ask for it, who does not earnestly desire it. Is only through persevering prayer and entire consecration that God pours out his spirit in fullness. So once you have this desire, you repent, you confess, you let go of the things that hinder the work of God in your life. Number 3, you ask God. You ask I'm gonna say passionately for God's presence and power to come upon you.
I've heard in charismatic circles. Oh, or actually, I've heard it in mostly non charismatic circles. God's a gentleman. The Holy Spirit's a gentleman. But I I read what happened to Paul.
He he got kicked off a horse and blinded. He was earnestly seeking god. He was threatening the church in the name of Yahweh. And Jesus as he's destroying Christians, he says, why did Jesus meets him and says, why are you persecuting me? He just didn't know.
And then god meets him. Changes the course of history. One person filled with the presence of God released on mission. Do you see the power of being sealed? It's not to get through it so you can get, you know, get to your little bible study on Monday night or your kids don't have to be bullied at school.
It's to live with the fire of God to change the world. Ask passionately for God's presence. And then the 4th thing is you gotta believe that God will do what he says. Jesus says, for those who believe streams of living water will flow through them. Are you thirsty?
Are you hungering for something? Maybe you haven't been satiated by the water of life. That is our God. Do you know you are sealed, or do you still lack fulfillment in the spirit of God? I've been filled.
I've been filled. I've been filled. I've been filled. I keep on being filled. I am satiated by the presence of God.
And then I go on a week and I realize I haven't surrendered. I have these things I confess it, and then he meets me again. I'm not talking about warm fuzzies. I'm not talking about emotional experiences. I'm talking about the presence of God undeniably in my life.
Do you have that confidence? Why not? It's in the bible. It's so clear. Believe that God is a God of his word.
Simon Ponsonby says, the holy spirit is not reluctant. It is we who are often too self reliant. Open your hands in your heart and ask in faith and he will fill you beyond what you dare imagine. And then when he begins to fill you, can I tell you what you need to do next to persevere? Obey his word and do what he says.
Live in constant alignment of god's word and pursue holiness. This will empower a life of the holy spirit. Should we pray? Let's stand up. Come holy spirit.
Would you open your hands and close your eyes? If you want to receive prayer for more of the Holy Spirit in your life, would you just come forward? I'm not gonna wait. We're just gonna move forward right in the front. If you want, one of our leaders to anoint you with oil and ask for his presence to mark your marriage, to mark your life, to to release the presence of God.
Just come forward. We want this is a Sunday we want to see God's presence poured out in greater measure. And if you come forward 1st just scoot all the way up because there's a lot There's a trail of people. Look at this. Come holy spirit.
Let's go. Father, would you just release your presence right now. We wanna be undignified in our response holy spirit. Pour out your spirit. Seal us for this great tribulation, Jesus.
We wanna be marked by you. Let's just hunger for him. Begin to cry out to lord in your own heart. We want more of you, Jesus. More of your holy spirit.
Release your holy spirit. Not by might, not by work, not by podcast, not by practice, not by hard work, God, by the power of your presence. Pour it out, Lord. Release your presence, Lord. Just open your hands.
Do those keep put that that the 4 5 things back up for me. Would you mind? Hunger for his presence. Just begin to speak out. Ask for him to fill you.
Desire his presence. Let's just begin to repent. This The things the Lord has put on your heart right now to release, just hand them back. There's no shame and condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. We just say, Lord, thank you for your forgiveness.
I recognize that this has been off. This is not what you desired in my life. Release it in Jesus name. There's no wasting time in false identities trying to conjure up a good response. The father meets you already on the road, wraps his arms around you and says my boy, my daughter be free, and now ref be filled.
Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit.
Intro/Outro: Thank you so much for listening. For more information, please visit us at garden. Church.