Beholding God's Majesty: A Call to Worship
Devotional
Sermon Summary
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1. "So I have the privilege of preaching on Revelation 4 this morning, which is, let's be honest, one of the coolest chapters of the whole Bible. So I know it was a great personal sacrifice for Ryan to give this one up. I'm really grateful to get to do this. We had the disaster relief trip last week, so it's kind of back and forth whether this would happen. I was like, oh man, like once I started reading in here, I was like, I really don't want to do a different chapter because this is such an amazing passage of Scripture." [00:00:26] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
2. "We are constantly going to be weighing symbolic meaning against what we expect events to literally look like. And for me personally, it helps to kind of like let go of the idea that we're not going to be able to see what's going to happen next. And let the process happen. Like if something seems a bit different than you're expecting, that's cool. You just kind of let it go. You read the text, you let the text kind of wash over you, you pray, and you let God speak." [00:09:36] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
3. "So I think every time we open this book, we need to come with open hands. We need to come ready to have our minds changed, ready to have our minds lined up with Scripture. There's a lot of stuff that I heard growing up that's actually not consistent with what the Scripture says. And it helps me to let go so that God can kind of line this stuff up." [00:10:14] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
4. "So there's 24 thrones, and on those 24 thrones sat 24 elders who were dressed in white with golden crowns on their heads. Flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder came from the throne. Seven fiery torches were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Now, we've got more meaning here. Thunder and lightning, thankfully, don't need a lot of explanation. Thunder and lightning always represent power." [00:16:57] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
5. "The four living creatures never stop giving glory to God. And as they're giving glory, the 24 elders are worshiping. The 24 elders fall down, they take their golden crowns and they cast them before the throne. Now, one of the interpretations that you read is that the four living creatures are representative of all of creation. That's why they have the different faces. There's man and there's lion and there's man and there's man. There's ox and there's a bird. So all have created order, not just the people, but everything." [00:28:12] (43 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
6. "Creation never stops worshiping God. You can look outside, the sky is right there proclaiming his glory right now. Tonight, the stars will be up there singing his praise. As often as creation is worshiping God, we worship God. We want to call all these things together. We want to consider the guy writing it down. We want to consider the apostle John. We want to consider what he would have known or what he would have seen and what this would have made him think about." [00:28:49] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
7. "The fire, the smoke, the thunder, and lightning would have brought to mind God's power and might like Mount Sinai. The four living creatures would have brought to mind Ezekiel and what God said through Ezekiel. The 24 thrones and the 24 elders would have immediately brought back the worship in the temple. I thought it was interesting that the elders had thrones and they had crowns. Normally, we think, well, God should get all the glory. God should get all the authority, but he gives glory and gives authority." [00:29:36] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
8. "If there's one thing that you could take away from this, I want it to be what that throne room looks like. I want us as a church to spend time thinking about that. We can work it into our prayers. We can worship, work it into our personal devotions. We can remember that God sits on the throne. We can remember he sits surrounded by 24 elders. That he's surrounded by these four living creatures that day and night they worship him. It never stops." [00:31:07] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
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2. "We are constantly going to be weighing symbolic meaning against what we expect events to literally look like. And for me personally, it helps to kind of like let go of the idea that we're not going to be able to see what's going to happen next. And let the process happen. Like if something seems a bit different than you're expecting, that's cool. You just kind of let it go. You read the text, you let the text kind of wash over you, you pray, and you let God speak." [00:09:36] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
3. "So I think every time we open this book, we need to come with open hands. We need to come ready to have our minds changed, ready to have our minds lined up with Scripture. There's a lot of stuff that I heard growing up that's actually not consistent with what the Scripture says. And it helps me to let go so that God can kind of line this stuff up." [00:10:14] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
4. "So there's 24 thrones, and on those 24 thrones sat 24 elders who were dressed in white with golden crowns on their heads. Flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder came from the throne. Seven fiery torches were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Now, we've got more meaning here. Thunder and lightning, thankfully, don't need a lot of explanation. Thunder and lightning always represent power." [00:16:57] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
5. "The four living creatures never stop giving glory to God. And as they're giving glory, the 24 elders are worshiping. The 24 elders fall down, they take their golden crowns and they cast them before the throne. Now, one of the interpretations that you read is that the four living creatures are representative of all of creation. That's why they have the different faces. There's man and there's lion and there's man and there's man. There's ox and there's a bird. So all have created order, not just the people, but everything." [00:28:12] (43 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
6. "Creation never stops worshiping God. You can look outside, the sky is right there proclaiming his glory right now. Tonight, the stars will be up there singing his praise. As often as creation is worshiping God, we worship God. We want to call all these things together. We want to consider the guy writing it down. We want to consider the apostle John. We want to consider what he would have known or what he would have seen and what this would have made him think about." [00:28:49] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
7. "The fire, the smoke, the thunder, and lightning would have brought to mind God's power and might like Mount Sinai. The four living creatures would have brought to mind Ezekiel and what God said through Ezekiel. The 24 thrones and the 24 elders would have immediately brought back the worship in the temple. I thought it was interesting that the elders had thrones and they had crowns. Normally, we think, well, God should get all the glory. God should get all the authority, but he gives glory and gives authority." [00:29:36] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
8. "If there's one thing that you could take away from this, I want it to be what that throne room looks like. I want us as a church to spend time thinking about that. We can work it into our prayers. We can worship, work it into our personal devotions. We can remember that God sits on the throne. We can remember he sits surrounded by 24 elders. That he's surrounded by these four living creatures that day and night they worship him. It never stops." [00:31:07] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
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