Intro/Outro: Welcome to Garden Church podcast. We're in part two of a series on the book of Revelation. We're doing a deep dive into how to read and interpret this amazing amazing book. Enjoy.
Darren Rouanzoin: Good morning, church. Hey, the 8AM was such a beautiful service. God's tenderness was moving so powerfully throughout the whole time so, it was amazing to hear what what it felt like a choir in the room today at 10AM. There's a lot of singing going on. I'm grateful that you brought that.
As I was worshiping, I had both my boys nearby and, man I'm like trembling this morning. This is weird. I I had a thought come into my head, that my life has been marked by like this long obedience in the same direction and moments Like this faithful journey of following Jesus in and out of hardship and then in the ordinary places and then my life has been deeply marked in moments where God's revealed himself. Mostly around the people of God. I've had encounters outside of the church obviously but when you come to the house of God you should expect God.
And I was I was worshiping, I couldn't get the idea of maybe any single moms in our service here that might have needs. And so I brought baskets this morning, because I feel like God's God has a special place for, I'll say Jesus has a special place for single moms. Are there any single moms in the room? Just raised your hand. Yeah.
Are there any more? Couple. So here's what we're gonna do as a 10:00 service. We're gonna pass this these baskets. We're just gonna put cash in.
And at the end of the service, you're out there or if you're online listening and you wanna come over here, we're gonna give the cash to the single moms today. No questions asked. Okay? As a reminder of God's provision over your life. I know what it's like to be in a house with a mom, a single mom.
And I didn't know my senior year in high school that she ate hot dogs because she couldn't afford eggs. And it it grieves my soul to think about the burden that we carry as a community without being vulnerable. So here's the deal, if you have need, we're gonna We wanna be a church that covers the needs but for today, based on the word that the Lord brought to me, I know our elders would agree, let's go. If your rent is paid and you have more than enough, just throw cash. I don't know what the ushers are gonna do because we don't do this anymore.
So Kevin, you know what to do. Lead usher for fifteen years, sixteen years, let's go. So just go ahead and do that. But I got a couple more things. Can we do that?
As you put cash in and then collect it, we'll we'll we'll take care of needs. Thank you church. Thanks for showing up today. Just a side note, when the presence of God shows up, there's almost always an act of extravagant generosity. Look at the old testament, sacrificed to build the tabernacle and temple, the glory of the Lord shows up.
New testament, holy spirit, Pentecost comes, there are no need among them. It's a defining characteristic when God shows up in the house of God. I'm just gonna take some risk and I'm shaking so until I feel peace, I'll go into preaching and you're It doesn't matter because I'm in charge. I wanna Would you stand if you are call You are a pastor, a vocational minister, a missionary or you're like stepping into a new season where you feel called into that? Would you just stand?
I wanna pray over you right now. Stand up everyone in here. Yeah. And just stay stay standing for a second. Couple more.
Feel called to serve the Lord right now in a unique way that's gonna require change. So could you just extend your hand to these people real quick? We're gonna ask God's favor and blessing. I just wanna speak over you. Just close your eyes for a moment.
Some of you need to hear this that you've been called by God. And I think someone's come here wanting to have this moment. Who was that? Raise your hand. You needed to hear.
Would you just let me know that, yeah, it's you. You wanted to be called out today for a call to a reminder of your calling. I see you in the back. So I just wanna let you know that the the service stopped to just reiterate the fact you've been called by the Lord. So Lord we just bless the ministers.
We pray against the attack of the enemy in their homes, in their bodies, in health. We pray for financial provision. We pray that they would do it unto you. Not for platforms or fame or ministry that defines their identity but that they would be servants of the Lord. I pray as they get more and more successful ministry they get lower and lower.
Lord would you release saints in this church, ministers from this house to plant churches, to go to the nations, to the ends of the earth carrying the the commission that you've given us Jesus Christ. We bless these ministers, we bless these missionaries and pastors in the name of the father and son and holy spirit. Amen. Hey church. Peace is coming back.
Less jittery. It's not caffeine. So glad you're here. Can I just wait a little bit more and feel it out? I really want to see, the dreams of my heart become reality.
I wanna see the glory of the Lord. I really I wanna see revival. I wanna see awakening. I wanna see disciples that are anchored and rooted that can withstand the storms of culture. And I I I think it's a requirement for what's coming is a hopeful expectation to dream again and to build not our own ministries.
To build churches that know Jesus. I think one thing I wanna say is as this service has grown in particular, this is not about what's happening at Garden. This is Jesus. It's not about protecting a brand Garden Church. It's about Jesus and his church.
This is about his ministry. So we will see when we honor him, his whole ministry which will be the proclamation of the gospel. It will be salvations, prodigals coming home. It will be setting captives free, healing the sick, announcing the good news to the poor. This is his ministry and we will be a church about Jesus.
We will build it for him and to him for the rest of eternity. And so I want to invite you to steward what God's doing because he's gonna release something in SoCal. It's already released. It's happening. I can't I read every single week these incredible stories of what God's doing.
Do you know gen z is like turning the tide on the church in America and in The UK. Gen Z will lead a new generation into coming into faith. Are there How many of you are gen Let's have all the gen z stand up. There's a lot of you. Alright.
Stay standing. Stay standing. There's a lot of y'all. Alright. Stay standing.
I wanna pray and I wanna speak to you for a moment. Okay? Would you hold your hands out and receive a blessing from me? Don't look at those with platforms. Alright?
Look at saints of old. Look at the faithfulness of those who have been doing it for seventy and eighty years. Set your eyes to Jesus and let him lead you to the place he's gonna lead. Don't let anyone look down at you because you're young. Set an example in your youth, in the way you speak, in the way you love, in the conduct of your life.
I wanna say someone in here has a hard heart. There's some circumstances in your life that made it hard. The Lord is peeling away the layers of the pain and he's softening your heart. He's gonna reveal himself to you this week. I believe that with all my heart.
That your heart is getting soft and even as I speak. The Lord wants to keep your heart soft as you minister to him at a young age. So Father would you just release gen z into the wilderness, into the wild as faithful servants of you Jesus. I pray for power from the Holy Spirit to proclaim the gospel with words and with their life. I pray for anointing God to have courage to evangelize, to prophesy God, to welcome in strangers and the outsiders, that they would have courageous imagination to minister before you.
I pray that their faith, they would never have to come back to. That what they have now will be a foundation for the rest of their life. May they be a generation that doesn't backslide, and they end well as faithful servants, and we bless them as a as a generation that you need millennials and gen x and boomers and every generation in between, the great generation. We need all of them walking together and I pray for you gen z to to raise up my kid's generation, the alphas. Be their brothers and sisters and teach them the way you've learned in Jesus name.
Amen. Amen. Alright. Yeah. Alright.
You good? I feel a lot better. It's like it's like, I walk into a dark room and I'm just touching things and I'm like, oh, there's the door. Okay. I'll walk through it now.
Some Somehow, there's a sense when in my life where I learned to trust, I have to obey the holy spirit. I don't know exactly what he's doing all the time and who knows if that was from him. But at the very least, some single moms are being blessed, Some missionaries and pastors are being prayed for and gen z you're seeing get to work. Let's go. Alright?
Let's go. Revelation 14. Let's go. We ain't got time to mess around. Alright?
Revelation 14, we're in the book of Revelation. Last week we ended with heaven's final sermon verses six through 20. We heard angels are declaring the eternal gospel announcing Babylon's fall, warning of the coming judgment that we will be harvested. The call for the churches to endure. The chapter ends, there's a great harvest, one side grain, one side grapes that get trampled.
It's like Jesus in Matthew 25, one side sheep, one side goats. What John gives us is a vision of those who endure, the people who look like the lamb. In a world that's ruled by beasts, systems of power and fear and compromise, what does it look like to become, to belong to the lamb? Revelation fourteen and fifteen which we're gonna look out today, reveals seven defining characteristics of those who stand with the lamb at the end of time. That's what I wanna teach today.
But before that, I have a confession to make. Can I be vulnerable for a moment? I've been struggling all week with what I said last week. This is why James says not many should become teachers because you you allow the word of God to go into your soul and it messes you up. It reveals hypocrisy.
It reveals the places that you need to grow. And as a pastor, I was wrestling with some stuff. I said last week that in the end, it's not about what you know. It's not about the church activity you participated in. It's who you are becoming.
And at the end time harvest, grain and grapes, sheep and goats, If you zoom out the story of your life is a story of formation. You are becoming someone. You see revelation is not about as much what's coming as much as it is about who you are becoming right now. So the call was to become like the lamb. To be formed in the image of the lamb.
To be faithful, marked with mercy and truth. To a call to be convinced that he is the way. And all week long, I was wrestling with that statement. Because if I could be honest, I struggle. I struggle.
I struggle and I react in anger. I default to anxiety. I escape into habits to cope with the pressures I feel. I've been formed by my past trauma. I've been shaped by stress.
I've been, trained in scarcity, by fear of failure. I have a fear of not being accepted. I have a fear of not being enough. So, my identity is simply a mixed bag. One side, God's beloved and favorite.
The other side, insecure, anxious and unsure. I live where my heart is torn between Zion and Babylon. Between the lamb and the beast. Because the world wants me to be formed in its image to mark me with its characteristics. So I look for success and purpose and meaning outside of Jesus.
I have to prove that I belong. So they brand me. They make me prove myself instead of accept who I already am. So I wrestle with this text. All week long, I'm trying to make myself stand at the end of time.
And all this week, I'm trying to convince myself that I gotta change. I gotta get it right. I gotta live up to what I'm preaching because one day I'm gonna be judged. Does anyone else strive? Does anyone say, here trying to prove that they're worthy to sit in church?
Anyone else hearing hearing the scripture week after week and you look, you say, I don't measure up. And then I realized this morning, as I confess this in my prayer walk. All of this is coming from the lies of the beast. The beast from the earth in particular. The religious propaganda that deceives the world to believing all the wrong things.
It's alive and well here. Jesus doesn't make me prove anything. He names me. He marks me with grace. He doesn't hand me a label that's a number.
He gives me a new nature. He doesn't wait for me to be perfect. He forms me in the fire of my life. He gives me a spirit so I don't have to do it alone. Right.
Yes. And I believe Jesus is forming not just me, you. Yeah. And that's why you're here. Through your wounds, through your waiting, through your worship.
He's forming you. He's crafting you into his work of art and you can't just take his work and make it your own. He's already done it and he is doing it. How? Through the cross.
Through the blood. So today, I just wanna talk about what it means to be part of the lamb's people. Not just what we believe, but what we become. Not just what we know, but how we live. Because the lamb is forming a people and I wanna be one of them and I hope you do too.
Can I pray? Yes. Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy. Holy Spirit pour yourself out in great measure that we would receive from you what we need today be our living bread. Our manna.
May we feast on your word. Jesus, the great deliverer. Deliver us from the evil lies of the zeitgeist, the religious propaganda of the moment. Let us be free in you and would you anoint this talk for 10AM? For the community that's here in Jesus name.
Amen. Revelation 14 verse one. Here we go. You got your bible? Straw them up.
Let me see them. Don't throw them. You hold them. Might hit someone. Let's go youth.
Let me see the youth. Let's go. Who's taking notes? I I see you. Careful.
Better take good notes. I might read them out loud. Just kidding. Don't do that. Don't do that.
Verse one, then I looked and there before me was the lamb standing on Mount Zion with him 144,000 who had his name who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like a roar of rushing water and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of a harpist playing their harps. They sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.
These are those who did not defile themselves with women for they remain virgins. They follow the lamb wherever he goes. They purchased. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as a first fruits to God and the lamb. No lie was found in their mouths.
They are blameless. The word of the Lord. So this is a text that starts off, what will be a sandwich. So this section is the people of God, the lamb, the lamb's people followed by what we talked about last week, the the angels preaching in the last harvest. And then chapters 15 verses one through four has a It goes back to this image.
So we'll we'll end there. We're gonna look at the lamb's people. But the question I wanna start off by answering is who are the 144,000? It's a question I get a lot when people study this book. They wanna know.
There's a cult called Jehovah's Witnesses that take this literally. And only the j w's. There's like a certain number that were accepted as the 144,000. That's a lie. So let me just bring this into perspective.
We are first introduced to this number in Revelation chapter seven. So let's go to Revelation seven. I need to hear some amens. Chapter seven. We're gonna get into the word of God.
Here we go. Seven. So we're introduced to this and by summary, chapter seven is kind of a an interlude between chapters five, six and eight, nine, ten, eleven. Chapter seven is answering the question, who can withstand the chaos coming? The seals are open and there's war and famine, the four horsemen of apocalypse.
And then, it's trumpets blowing and it's like chaos and death and famine and economic injustice. And the answer is God sealed his people. And the seal is the the holy spirit. Right? And in chapter seven, John's hears about a He has two pictures and it's the same image from different angles.
He hears about a 44,000 and then he lists off the tribes of Israel. And then he goes on and he looks at the 44,000 in verse nine and he sees a great multitude. It says, from every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and before the lamb. And he says before this, a great multitude no one could count. So is it a specific number or is it a multitude you can't count?
Yes. A 44,000 is symbolic. Alright? 12 times 12. 12 tribes of Israel, the old testament, the old covenant, and the covenant people of the old testament.
12 apostles, the new covenant. It's representing the people of God in the old and new covenants. 12 times 12 times 12 times a thousand. A thousand in Hebrew meant a number you can't count. A vast whole complete number.
So this is a symbol of complete redeemed people of God throughout history. The great multitude is showing you the universal scope of salvation. So as Eugene Peterson says, the numbers are not statistics but symbols. The reality is vast, beyond calculation and gathered and gathered from the ends of the earth. So then there's a question.
Is it the ethnic Jews or something else? And this is what is really important for a lot of people when they study this book. Now let me just say, verses four through eight, John lists the 12 tribes of Israel. But if you're paying attention to the old testament, what you need to know, you can just circle this, is John doesn't use the actual 12 tribes in order. He reorders it on purpose.
He doesn't start with the tribe of Reuben, which is the first tribe, the firstborn. He starts with Judah, which is where the Messiah comes from. And then he doesn't include the tribe of Dan, is always associated with apostasy and idolatry. He includes Manasseh, suggesting a redefinition of identity. So in other words, the restructured, reconstructed list signals a new Israel, redefined around the Messiah Jesus.
Darrell Johnson says something has happened in the coming of the Messiah that changes the nature of Israel. The traditional tribal boundaries transformed. Israel's mission is fulfilled in Christ and being fulfilled in gathering all the people of God. Now, me just say this is for a few of us that are taking notes. This is not replacement theology, it's fulfillment theology.
This is a whole other conversation which we'll get into later. The church doesn't just replace Israel, it fulfills ace Israel's vocation. Right? So, Abraham is called, Israel's calling is to bless all the nations. Right?
And this is fulfilled through the redeemed people of the lamb. How do we know this? Well, the boundaries of Israel are expanded, not erased and it includes every nation according to Revelation. When you get to Revelation 21, check this out. This is so beautiful.
There's a new Jerusalem with city gates and over each gate, there's 12 gates. Over each gate has a tribe of Israel. In other words, the nations walk through the gates of Israel healed and welcomed. Isn't that amazing? So this means the people of God are now defined not by ethnicity but by our allegiance to the lamb.
A 44,000 symbolize the complete redeemed multi ethnic people of God sealed and secured in Christ for all time. How we doing church? Amen? Messing some of you up. It's gonna get crazy.
Here we go. Now how do you know if you're a part of the one hundred forty four thousand? Right? So if you're j w, you're knocking on doors, passing out tracks, trying to talk about the watchtower. That's a cult.
But if you're a follower of Jesus, that's for somebody that needs to hear that. Some of you have family members in j w, you need to pray they get rescued from the cult. Right? Amen. We need to save.
I I used to welcome those brothers and sisters into into my house every single week. Alex got so tired of it. And they just they kept adding on to the elders that would come. Because I loved apologetics. I'm like, give me your bible.
I'll use that to counter argue everything. When did Jehovah Jireh die? He didn't. Let's go to Revelation. The one who is the alpha and omega.
Who's alpha and omega? Jehovah Jireh. The one that was died and came back to life. When did alpha and omega die? In Jesus.
How you doing church? I'm awake. Let's go. That was just for me. Someone's like, I needed that one right there.
Just use their their translation just to feed them with their own word. Here we go. Here's what I wanna do. Seven defining attributes from Revelation fourteen and fifteen that define the lamb's people. Mark number one, let's go through these real quick.
Mark number one, they are marked by his name. Revelation 14, let's go back there. It says, standing on Mount Zion with him a 44,000 who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads. So they're sealed, holy spirit. They have the name of Jesus, the lamb, and the father.
Trinitarian name and empowerment for the people of God. Isn't that beautiful? The beast marks with a number. The lamb seals you with his name. This isn't decorative.
This is identity and purpose. Right? But it's deeper than that. Remember, we don't read Revelation with the newspaper. We read it with the lens of the old testament.
Over 500 references to the old testament in this book. Would you go to Exodus 34? You ready for a quick detour? Thank you, Natalie. I'm with you.
You and I all by Let's go. You guys get to benefit from our our dialogue. So, this idea of carrying the name. Right? So, in the old testament, Yahweh reveals his name to Moses.
Right? Exodus three. And then he reveals his name again in Exodus 34. And it comes at this climatic moment where the Israelites are about to go into the promised land and God's like, you just go in but my presence isn't gonna go with you. Moses like, time out.
We don't want the land. We want your presence. We'd rather be in the wilderness with you than in the promised land without you. Say that to America. So God loves this dialogue and he reveals his glory and his name.
And in this passage, you have the name of God. I want you to pay attention. This is the most quoted verse in the entire bible. Right? So it's within itself.
This is Yahweh speaking. It says, then the Lord came Verse five of chapter 34. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses proclaiming, the Lord, the Lord. Said it three times, Lord.
The compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. Okay. So it says the Lord five times in that verse. In other words, this is really important. This is the name of God.
What is his name? Well, he gives us five characteristics. God defines himself. He is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, steadfast love, and faithfulness. If you are to to describe how God wants to reveal himself, he reveals himself with these characteristics and attributes.
And this becomes a defining moment for Israel. So when you get the 10 commandments and it says, don't take the Lord's name in vain, it doesn't mean you stub your toe, don't say Jesus Christ. That's not what it means. It's saying as people formed in his identity and vocation, live amongst yourselves that reflect the character and nature of Yahweh. Which is what?
Compassionate, slow to anger, steadfast love, gracious and faithful. This is what we're called to be together. So when we live amongst ourselves, is God really here? Is there a steadfast love for each other? Or are you easily offended by a tweet or a x post or whatever it's called?
Is there a slow patient temperance to the anger that bubbles up? Because God is slow. So the invitation is to live formed by his name. So when we pray in the name of Jesus, it's not some marker or a scam that helps us move him and wield him to do what we wanna do like twist his arm. I use his name.
No. We're praying in the character of Jesus. You see? This is what the people of God are marked by the characteristics of God. And then it goes on in verse chapter 14 verse five.
There's this little section at the end. Chapter 14 verse five. It says, no lie was found in their mouths. They are blameless. This is what?
A description of the lamb. Revelation 14 verse five, there's no lie. They don't speak the native tongue of Babylon. They don't speak the native tongue of Satan who's been coming to kill, steal, and destroy. Who's been lying from the beginning.
They speak the language of Jesus. Beal, GK Beal in his commentary says, their blamelessness reflects their Christ likeness, mirroring the lamb who is without deceit. As Eugene Peterson says, in a world of lies they are truth tellers. They live a life that harmonizes with the truth of God. Are you with me church?
Yes. Marked by the name and character. So this is a character. What will it look like to be part of the people of God throughout all time to live in the name of God? Marked by his name.
You with me? Number two, verse chapter 14 verse 34 it says, they were purchased from among mankind and offered as a first fruits to God and the lamb. Verse four, they were purchased. They are not their own. Probably the most important thing I can say for our generation, for our consumer Southern California culture is that you have been purchased.
You have been bought. Revelation five verse nine says, you are worthy because you were slain and with your blood you purchased for God people from every tribe. Jesus has ransomed your soul with his life. First Corinthians six nineteen says, you are not your own your own. You are bought at a price.
This is worship language. In other words, you belong to Jesus. Your life is not your own. Your car is not your own. Your job is not your own.
Your intellect is not your own. Your relationships are not your own. Everything that is who you are, that you have access to is put on the altar as his. This is not a time where we live for our dreams. Right?
Culture says, live for yourself. Jesus invites you to surrender all things back to him. I I was trying to understand how to teach this and I was thinking about a time when, of what it looks like to have holy fear and reverence. You know, holy fear, that's kinda these are very religious words, but let me give you an illustration that's not very religious. When my my youngest son was two and Ezra was about five or six, we got to spend a week at a beach house on Balboa Island on the water.
It was an all white beach house inside and out. Very nice house, not designed for two and five year olds. So holy reverence. I like placed We we ended up buying a bunch of extra towels to put on everything. And I mean everything.
The chairs were cloth white. The sofa was white. The floor was white. Everything was white. And you know kids are professional mess makers.
Parents, let me just give you peace. This is what they're created for. They're designed to make messes. Don't be anxious about it. This is what they're good at.
And if this is your home, if you come to my home, you're you leave your shoes at the door, one of our dogs is gonna eat it. Right? You don't We don't have coasters. Don't ask. Yes.
Put it on the table. It doesn't matter. Right? Just chill. We got kids.
We live with professional mess makers and two dogs. Now, at that home, I lived every moment that the kids were awake with a holy reverence. This is not our own. I need to present this white house back to the owner. This is your life.
Your life is not your own. What you do with your time, what you do with your mind, what you do with your relationships, every word you speak, you will give an account for. It's not your word anymore. It's not your mouth anymore. It's not your body anymore.
It's not your dream. It's not your career. It's his. So live as though it's his. Are you with me?
Is that the the third mark? Let's keep going. I can I can go off on all these? It could have been a mini series. I tell you.
Yeah. 17. I got five more points. Here we go. Number three, they live as an offering to God.
It says, they were purchased from among mankind and offered as first fruits to God and the lamb. So their lives become worship. Their lives become a living sacrifice. This is Romans 12, or offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. They're not living for themselves.
They're now living everyday ordinary life in response to God. The lamb's people don't come to receive, they learn to simply give everything away as an act of worship. So the people of God that are standing with the lamb are ones who live a life of worship. How we doing? Mark number four.
This one's really interesting. I loved it. The There's a lot of theological views on this. It goes like three different directions in the scholarly world. I'm gonna present the most obvious.
The one that I believe is obviously consistent with what he's writing about. Verse four says, these are those who did not defile themselves with women for they remain virgins. Now, he's not saying literal men only are the people of God. Right? Because that would that would clearly say that there's a 44,000 are men.
Clearly, that's not the case. He's using this metaphor and this imagery of the people of God have remained faithful to the lamb alone, to Jesus alone. Because throughout the old testament, God will say to Israel, you have had an affair with false gods. Exodus 19, the way the Hebrew rabbis write about the Mount Sinai moment where God brings his covenant is a marriage ceremony where Yahweh marries Israel and we get that in the new testament where where the church is the the bride of Christ. So he's referring to something else.
It's symbolic. Sexual purity here represents spiritual fidelity. Richard Bachman, his commentary says virginity here is a symbolic is symbolic of a people not seduced by empire. So this theme will carry on for the rest of the book because what you'll see is the harlot of Babylon and those marked by the beast drink the wine of the harlot. And then those who have been saved as the bride of Christ for Jesus.
Are you with me? So it's this marriage metaphor which is always about intimacy. You see this is what I love like Jesus wants more. He doesn't want more activity. He wants more of your heart.
Right. So why should you be generous with your resources? Because it gives Jesus access to your heart. Right. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Right? Underneath the treasure is your heart. So as you begin to engage in the activities, he's wooing you towards love. He's wooing you towards intimacy. So when you wake up tomorrow because your heart is stirred from today.
The spirit's moving inside of you. Gen z. Wake up five minutes early. Open up some scripture and give Jesus a little bit of the morning through the word of God. Just give him five minutes.
Here's what's gonna happen. Do that every day for a week. You know what's gonna happen? You're gonna wanna give them more. You'll give them ten.
You'll go into thirty minutes and twenty. You'll go into an hour and that time will pass and it will become the greatest part of your day. Because when you set the table for the creator of the universe to come and dine and host with your soul, it becomes the source of the rest of your life. I promise you. Live for Jesus alone.
Stay faithful. Amen? Resist Babylon's Babylon's seduction and remain loyal to the lamb. Mark number five is very simple. It says they they follow the lamb wherever he goes.
When Jesus calls his disciples, what does he say? Follow me. Very complex. Right? He's like, do these 17 steps.
Read this. Memorize this. Come to all this activity. No. No.
You wanna know how to be successful with Jesus and and and and the way of Christianity? Just follow him. It's very I know this is this is really doctor Seuss like, you will get to where you need to go by just following Jesus. Do I choose this direction in school? Do I choose this direction in school?
Most of the time as you get older he'll say, yes. Because he's not so concerned about the outcome of events but the outcome of your being. Right? He's more interested in who you are becoming than what where you end up. Okay?
So so relax. I love the end of John's gospel because throughout the book of John there's this narrative storytelling of John and Peter competing as brothers of in the faith. Like, you know, the resurrection happens and you know, Peter takes off first and John gets there first though. And it's just telling you about like, oh, you know, John John got there first but Peter went in even though he was behind him. And then Peter denies Jesus and John you know, John's the only disciple that says it was Peter that did it.
You're like, no other other disciples say say he denied him. John's the only one that said I'm sorry. John's the only one that said he cut off his ear. That's what he said. So all of them include the denial but John's the only one that said, a disciple cut off his ear of the guard and John's like, it was Peter.
So you see this like rivalry. Right? And at the end, after Peter denies Jesus, Jesus restores him. Says, do you love me? Feed my sheep.
Do you love me? Feed my lambs. He's restored. And then he says, Jesus says to Peter, in your future you're gonna go where you don't wanna go. Referring to the way he's gonna die.
You're gonna die for me. Right? You're gonna you're gonna have a faith that goes to the end. And after he hears this moment Peter goes, well how does John go? It's so good.
He's like how is he gonna die? And Jesus just says, what is that to you? Follow me. Yeah. Yeah.
Can I just say in this cultural moment? Where where the culture says follow your heart. Jesus says follow me. Where the culture says like elevate your platform. He just says no no.
I don't need leaders. I need followers. I just follow. Just get close to Jesus and let him lead you down the path. You good?
Marker number six, we're doing good. Look at that. Revelation 15. So now we we get to the other side of the sandwich, the other bread. Mine's a meatball sub.
I don't know about you. That was my thing growing up. Footlong meatball sub, $5 at Subway. Anyone else anyone else wanna confess that sin? Yeah.
Okay. Yoga mat bread is what I hear like particles of yoga mat in the bread back in the day. Yeah. It doesn't matter. I'll eat all of the yoga mat.
Look it up. It's true. It smells good. I remember a side note, this is for fun. I remember traveling to England visiting my brother when he was in school in England.
I was eight nine eighteen years old, 19 years old. I was so poor and we couldn't afford like two meals a day. It was like two meals a day, like one big meal and that was it and but what we did what we finally schemed out was, there was Subway everywhere. So we're like, let's just go to the embassy. Embassy for us was the Subway.
And we're like, let's just get a $5 meatball sandwich and that provided all the nutrition we needed. It gave me gut problems for the rest of my life. Revelation 15, I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign. Seven angels with seven last plagues last because, with them God's wrath is completed. And I saw this this is so good.
K. I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. The sixth marker of the lamb's people is that they are victorious over the beast. Revelation fifteen two describes this beautiful image where the lamb's people are not victims to empire. They are victors over it.
They don't play the beast's game. They don't bow down to its pressure and propaganda and power. They overcome not through violence but through faithfulness. They don't give in to the beast's pressure and power. They resist the compromise.
They refuse to counterfeit and they overcome. This is so important for our moment brothers and sisters. The beasts of this world right now want you to be named by culture. Want you to receive an identity from culture. Want you to receive a victim mindset.
We just talked about the last four years. Can we go there? Can we just go in there? Yes. Some of you have been victims and you've been victimized.
But can I say, the culture wants you to live in that identity? Wants you to build your entire identity about what happened back then. Wants you to build your entire identity around that addiction that you're dealing with. Wants you to build around your entire All the trauma and never overcome through the power of the cross. We don't do it through our practice.
We don't do it through therapy. Yes. Therapy is gonna help you mature. It's gonna help you heal. Do that.
Do practices of course. But that's not how we get Victor. We get it through the cross. And we form an identity through the cross. So where I'm in worship at the 8AM and I'm thinking this lie in my head that I'm gonna be a father to my boys like I was fathered.
And like that just pops in. While we're in the house of God. Where does this lie come from? The beast. He wants me to sit sit in this cycle of shame.
This cycle of fear. This cycle of I don't know who I am. Therefore, the loudest voice in my head, the loudest voice that I've given in the world to speak over me is where I receive my identity and value. So what do I do with the lie? I replace it with truth.
I am not that and I will never be that. I am who God's created. And so I can walk into any room because I don't have to prove anything to anyone. Because my value is not what you think of me. Even though I would love to feel the amens and hallelujahs and it puffs me up.
No. Jesus gets me on my knees because it doesn't matter here. It's his house. And when it comes to the identity stuff, brothers and sisters, we are living in a trap. There is a trap and you've fallen in.
And you think by digging up everything without God's presence in the room, you're gonna get healed. Don't go to any room without his presence. Don't go to any past memory without his presence. Can I say this? This is for someone right now.
Don't go to any past memory without the presence of Jesus with you. Just let people know they don't have access to that space until the presence of God is with you on that journey. Because there are well intended people that lead you down the wrong path and you get trapped in that brokenness. Do you Anyone hearing this? You see what I see?
How do we overcome? Through the blood of the lamb. Who are you? You are recipients of grace. You don't get to do it through strength, you do it through his empowerment.
He enables you to do what you could never do in the first place. Anyone want that kind of faith? Then you're unstoppable. Then you're in Romans territory more than a conqueror. You with me?
Yes. Last thing. Oh, this is so beautiful. It says this verse, the rest of the verse two says, they held harps given them by God and they sang the song of God's servant Moses and of the lamb. Great and marvelous are your deeds Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways. King of nations, who will not fear you Lord and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you for your righteous acts have been revealed. So the lamb's people sing the song of the lamb.
They sing a new song. In Revelation 14 it says, they sing a new song that no one can sing unless they are 144,000. They sing the song of Moses and of the lamb. They are victors not because they fought but because they endured and their platform is the sea of glass and fire. They're singing on the sea of glass.
Now, know this because we've taught this a few months ago that the the throne of God is seen with the sea of glass which in the Hebrew consciousness is such a symbolic moment because the sea represents all of the chaos and destruction that's destroyed God a good and beautiful world. And seeing it as peaceful glass is saying God has subdued the chaos of the world. God has subdued everything that has been working against you since you were born. And standing as a 44,000 as God's redeemed people, you stand on the platform of the chaos that's come at you. The demonic attacks, the sickness, the loss of friendship, all of those things, you stand on that and on fire singing.
How's that church? You pray God teach me patience and it gives you Amos Wilde Roundsin. You're being formed into the character to steward his name that's already on your life because of the blood. And we come in here with a song and it's a new song but it's all old testament. It's so funny.
It's a new song but it's like 10 verses from the old testament. It's a new song and it's drenched in the word of God. It's a new song. It's not new imagination. It's old revelation for the moment.
It's a new song that's been baptized in Exodus, Isaiah and Psalms. You see, this is so important that as the people of God, we are in the word and the spirit. We are practicing formation and empowered in the charismatic environment where spirit lets you go free. As one theologian says, the spirit unfurls our energies. He invites his people not to sing songs about how God makes you feel warm and fuzzy.
This isn't about what you feel towards God. This is about who he is. His holiness, his character. And I wanna say, I noticed in our church there was a massive shift over the last sixteen, seventeen years of worship when we moved into this space. There was a shift we took internally.
We said this place is not for us to worship so that we can minister to each other in the power of the holy spirit. That's what we were doing for fourteen years. Creating an environment where the holy spirit would minister. I love that. We decided, no no no.
Are here as the people of God to minister to God. We're gonna change our worship so that we come to minister to him and that's what the lamb people lamb's people do. They come in having rehearsed all week long. So that when that court hits, we bring our very best. So that when the spirit of God moves in a moment, yes, I have cash ready for this moment.
You didn't know you needed cash. Now you know. You better get to the ATM before you come to church. Pastor's gonna call you out. You better take notes, youth.
Right? Am I I see the notes. You're going good. Who's got the best notes up here? Anyone?
Yeah. That's right. Oh, glory. Of course, she does. So here's the point.
The lamb's people do not sing out of vague inspiration. They sing to God using the words God has already given. The sea, once a symbol of chaos, is now the platform for worship. The lamb's people have a soundtrack. Can you hear it?
Do you know his song? Are you the kind of person that's being shaped by the empire of noise? Or have you been have you been formed by the worship of the lamb? I started off this sermon saying, I am a mixed bag. And I am.
One part beloved, one part fearful and reactive. I've been shaved by pressure, by trauma, by the need to prove myself. But the good news of revelation isn't just that the lamb wins. It's that he forms people now that look like him. The world wants to mark you with shame and insecurity and performance, but the lamb marks you with his mercy.
He names you out of love. He rewrites your story. He never demands perfection but he just makes you new. So what does it mean to be the lamb's people? It means letting Jesus undo all of the lies of your life.
It means refusing to let Babylon tell you who you are. It means standing on the sea of chaos now with worship in your heart and your mouth. Not because it's easy, but because grace is more real than your circumstance. It means remembering you've been purchased. That you have nothing to prove and all you have to do is follow the rabbi.
It means knowing that in the fire, in the pressure, in the wrestling, he's making artwork out of you. He's not making you a religious caricature. He's making you someone that reflects him into the world. So church, this is our moment. Culture's not gonna stop.
Pressure's not gonna stop. Fire's gonna keep going but the lamb is forming. So here's my prayer this morning. Jesus formed me. Rewrite my name.
Teach me your song. Make me yours. I wanna be one of the lamb's people. So fill me and seal me with your holy spirit. Amen?
Amen. Alright. Can we all stand? Let's go.
Intro/Outro: Thank you so much for listening. For more information, please visit us at garden.church.