Revelation: Worship, Unity, and Next Steps in Faith

Bible Reading:
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1. Matthew 24:14: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."
2. Revelation 22:17: "The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let the one who hears say, 'Come!' Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life."
3. Revelation 1:10-20: "On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: 'Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.' I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: 'Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.'"
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Observation Questions:
1. What is the significance of the gospel being preached to all nations as mentioned in Matthew 24:14?
2. In Revelation 22:17, who are the Spirit and the bride and what is their invitation?
3. What are the seven stars and the seven golden lampstands mentioned in Revelation 1:10-20?

Interpretation Questions:
1. How does the preaching of the gospel to all nations relate to the end times as described in Matthew 24:14?
2. What does the invitation in Revelation 22:17 suggest about the nature of salvation and who it is available to?
3. How does the description of the son of man in Revelation 1:10-20 reveal the nature and authority of Jesus?

Application Questions:
1. How can you contribute to the preaching of the gospel to all nations in your daily life?
2. In what ways can you respond to the invitation of the Spirit and the bride in Revelation 22:17 in your personal life?
3. How does the description of Jesus in Revelation 1:10-20 impact your understanding of His authority and how does it influence your relationship with Him?
4. Can you think of a specific person in your life who has not yet accepted the invitation to come to Jesus? How can you extend this invitation to them this week?
5. What is one way you can demonstrate reverence and worship to Jesus in your daily life, similar to the act of falling before the throne described in Revelation?

Day 1: Revealing Jesus Through Prophecy

The book of Revelation is not merely a forecast of future events, but a revelation of Jesus Christ to His church. This revelation should lead us to a deeper worship and adoration of Jesus, recognizing His power and glory. ([12:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9QtGFxBVH4&t=750s))

Bible Passage: Revelation 1:1 - "The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John."

Reflection: How can you deepen your understanding of Jesus through the book of Revelation? What specific aspects of His power and glory can you meditate on today?

Day 2: The Global Mission of the Gospel

The diverse crowd standing before the throne of God in Revelation represents the importance of missions and reaching out to different nations. This serves as a reminder of our calling to spread the gospel to all nations. ([22:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9QtGFxBVH4&t=1338s))

Bible Passage: Matthew 28:19 - "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

Reflection: How can you participate in the global mission of the gospel? Can you think of a specific way to reach out to a different nation or culture with the love of Jesus today?

Day 3: Jesus, Our Hope in Suffering

Jesus is the one who determines the duration of suffering, not the devil. This provides hope and encouragement that our trials will come to an end and there is a reward for remaining faithful, even in the face of death. ([34:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9QtGFxBVH4&t=2081s))

Bible Passage: 1 Peter 5:10 - "And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast."

Reflection: How can you lean on Jesus during times of suffering? Can you think of a specific trial you are facing and how you can trust Jesus in the midst of it?

Day 4: Taking the Next Steps in Faith

Taking the next steps after praying a prayer on Sunday morning is crucial. This includes reaching out to the church for support in their spiritual journey and scheduling water baptism. This shows the importance of not just hearing the word, but also acting on it. ([45:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9QtGFxBVH4&t=2697s))

Bible Passage: James 1:22 - "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says."

Reflection: What specific next step can you take in your faith journey today? How can you move from merely hearing the word to acting on it?

Day 5: The Mystery of Revelation

The book of Revelation is difficult to grasp and lacks a chronological order. This serves as a reminder that our focus should not be on deciphering the mysteries of the end times but on preaching the gospel to the whole world. ([56:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9QtGFxBVH4&t=3368s))

Bible Passage: 2 Timothy 4:2 - "Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction."

Reflection: How can you shift your focus from trying to understand the mysteries of Revelation to preaching the gospel? Can you think of a specific way to share the gospel with someone today?

Hallelujah! Well, good morning, CLC. Good morning. It's good to see every one of you here today. I love the worship set today. I leaned over to my wife and I said, "If we had just a few Nigerian ladies down in front, I would dance with them." It just felt like that kind of a service to me.

But it's good to see all of you here today, although it may be a sad day because we have come to the end of our walk through the New Testament. This is the final day. And some of you are probably sad to see it come. How many of you enjoyed it so much that it's kind of sad to see us have to move to something else? Thank you.

And it might be sad also once we get into today because you may be disappointed with the clothes, because I am not a prophecy buff. It is not my forte. It's not something that I particularly enjoy teaching because I don't feel like I have a good handle on it myself.

And I wondered for the first five weeks, I was wondering why in the world did they choose me to teach on the book of Revelation? And this week, I remembered, it just popped in my head, when I was part of a denomination, we would gather every year for a conference, but we also had a business session where we would elect different officers of the denomination.

And none of us, I don't know how it was where you grew up, but none of us, the preachers that I hung around with, none of us wanted those jobs. It was just stuff that had to be done, but nobody was looking forward to it. And so after a while, the guys that I hung around with, we decided and we started looking around the room on the day of the elections to see if any of our friends had not come.

And if they were absent, we voted them into every single office that we could possibly vote them into. And so today, I mean this week, it dawned on me, that's what happened. I don't know where I was, but I was not in the room where Pastor Brent and Pastor Carlton and all of those guys voted on who was going to teach the book of Revelation.

So I'm having a little fun with you right now, but that's not far from the truth, because I'll tell you why. I have met a number of men of God that I definitely respect and appreciate and heard them teach from Revelation and realized that they disagreed with each other in ways that you can't gloss over.

I mean, there's some things where it's either right or wrong. There's no way you can compromise it. An easy example of that, for instance, is that some people teach that the church will be caught away to be with the Lord in what they call a pre-trib rapture. Before the great tribulation happens, God's going to take the church away to heaven.

And then other preachers teach from the book of Revelation using those same scriptures, in fact, and they teach what is called a mid-trib rapture. In other words, they believe the church will experience three and a half years of tribulation and then be caught away with the Lord into heaven.

And then there is that third view that some of them hold using the same book of Revelation, same scriptures, and yet they teach that it is a post-tribulation rapture, meaning the church will go through all seven years of the great tribulation before we are caught away to be with the Lord.

Now, you can't say that they're all right because those are opposing viewpoints from the book of Revelation. And quite frankly, I don't buy into any of those viewpoints. I'm a pan-tribulationist, which means I think it's all going to pan out in the end.

But seriously, I'm having a little fun, but seriously, this is what I do know, and this is not for fun. Matthew chapter 24 and verse 14 is probably my number one prophecy scripture where Jesus said, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then, everybody say then, then the end will come."

If then the end will come, that must mean that before then, the end did not come yet. And so, the truth is, our job is not to decipher the mysteries of 666, but our job is to preach the gospel to the whole world. And when we've done our role, when we've done our part and reached the nations, then Jesus comes back.

But so much of Revelation, we don't even have time to go into it. So much of it is about the future. If you've ever studied it, you probably got that much out of it. And if you're going to just start trying to predict the future, let's face it, that's just an invitation for mistakes galore.

In my ministry over the last 50 years, I have heard preachers teach the identity of the Antichrist, for instance. And for a number of years, when I was a younger minister, I was hearing that Mr. Gorbachev from Russia was going to be the Antichrist. But obviously, that's not the case.

And then there were others about that same time that said Gaddafi was going to be the Antichrist. And he's been dead for several years, so I know he's not going to be the one. And then after him, there was Saddam Hussein that some taught. He's the Antichrist. And obviously, he's been in the ground for quite some time now. That's not the one.

And most of all, there were a number of United States presidents who were predicted and preached to be the Antichrist. Primarily, if it was a Democrat, it was the Republicans who said they were Antichrist. If it was a Republican in office, they said he was the Antichrist. You know, the Democrats said that.

So all of those cannot be right, that's for sure. And I will tell you this, once I knew that this was my assignment, I've spent a lot of time the last couple of weeks. And even after going over the content of the book of Revelation, it can still be difficult to know what Revelation is all about.

I've got to be honest with you. Some visions that John had are explained for us. I know, for instance, that the Lamb is Jesus. I got that one down, okay? And the dragon, I feel pretty strongly about that too. I think the dragon has got to be Satan, the devil.

But the others in those visions, the other future tense things that he's talked about, most of them, it's just a lot of question marks. And I'm saying it about me, but the truth is, I think it's true of just about everybody that's tried to make those predictions and understandings.

In fact, if you run into somebody that tells you that they've got the book of Revelation down pat and know what every bit of it is about, I would probably run the other direction from them, okay?

Another problem that you don't even think about until you experience it is the book of Revelation is not given in chronological order. And for people like me that want things to be in order, that makes it difficult. But Jesus in Revelation was born in chapter 12. He is exalted in chapter 5 before he was even born.

And he was walking among the churches in chapter 1 before he had been born or exalted. There's no order, there's no rhyme or reason with it. And there's two other characteristics of Revelation that set it apart from all the rest of the New Testament, but also make the interpretation and understanding difficult.

First of all, it's the only book of its genre. Most all of the New Testament is history or letter. Even as we've gone through, as you recall that, Pastor Carlton taught us from the Gospels, the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Those are history books.

Pastor Brent taught us from the book of Acts. That's another history book about the history of the early church. And then we started talking about the epistles. We talked about the Pauline epistles. And then we talked about the general epistles.

And so here we are today and Revelation is sent as a letter like the epistles with a traditional greeting. And there are direct messages to the recipients, the seven churches that we'll talk about today. And then the close of Revelation, the send-off. We have all of those as direct messages.

But the bulk of the epistle or the book of Revelation is a record of John's vivid—and I'd probably put that in all caps if you're taking notes—his vivid symbolic visions. I mean, John talked to us about golden bowls that he saw. And he talked about a white horse. And he talked about a black horse. And then he talked about a red horse. And then he even talked about a green horse.

He talked about the beast. And he talked about the elders. And he talked about the living beings. And he talked about trumpets. I mean, there is no book of the New Testament that feels like the book of Revelation. It just doesn't fit in our thinking.

And then the second thing that is so different is that Jesus directly addresses the readers. In the book of Revelation, the Gospels record what Jesus taught. When we went through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we were looking at red letters, what Jesus taught his people.

And the epistles that we've been on the last few weeks draw applications from his teachings. But it's only in the book of Revelation that Jesus himself speaks directly to the churches. So all of this is different. And difference is not bad, but it does make it difficult to interpret sometimes.

And so I started studying, you know, how is John—what makes him qualified to write the book of Revelation? And the last chapter of the Gospel of John, which was the same man, written by the man who wrote Revelation, Jesus speaks to Peter there in those last few verses and basically told him how he would die.

He said, "You know, right now you can do what you want, but there's coming a day when someone's going to dress you and they're going to lead you out and take you to be killed." And then after Jesus had spoken those words to Peter—good old Peter, you know, open mouth, insert foot always—and so he looked over and he saw the Apostle John.

And he said, "Well, what about him, Lord? If I'm going to have to die for you, what about him?" And Jesus said, "Peter, what difference does it make? You follow me." And it doesn't matter what happens to John.

And so the rumor spread among the community of believers that John would never die. But that's not what Jesus said at all. He only said, "If I want him to live until I return, what is that to you?" So John did not live until the second coming. Can we all agree on that? He didn't live until the second coming, but as the youngest of the 12 disciples, he did become the last to die in spite of the fact that Rome made several attempts to kill him.

One of them that I read about as I was trying to make some sense out of all of this is that they put him in a cauldron of oil and boiled him in oil. And instead of killing him, he popped his head up above the top of the cauldron and continued to preach.

One of the versions of that that I read—because this is not, obviously it's not in Scripture, this is historical stuff—and one of the articles that I read said that that happened. He was boiled in oil in the Colosseum of Rome. And that everybody present, when he did not die, but he lived and he continued to preach to him, everyone in the Colosseum converted to Christianity. That's what the story goes at any rate. Pretty amazing stuff.

But they didn't want John to continue to spread the Gospel, so they shipped him off to an island in the Aegean Sea, not Hawaii. And you wouldn't ever be mixed up with being Hawaii because it was a barren, rocky place called Patmos.

And on Patmos Island, it had been chosen by Rome as a place to banish criminals. And so they felt like, "We put him there, at least we've contained the damage that he can do. You know, there's nobody else on that island except prisoners, and so we ought to be able to get by."

But no, because there on Patmos Island, John received even more that he wanted to share with the church. Let's start there. Revelation chapter 1, starting at verse 10. It says, "and send it to the seven churches in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, not the one in Pennsylvania, and Laodicea."

Those seven churches are the foundation that John starts with, that that's who he's writing to. He wants this letter to be delivered to each one of those seven churches, which are all in Turkey, by the way, if I didn't say that already.

And he turned around then to see the seven golden candlesticks, and among them the risen Lord Jesus himself. John said, "You getting the picture? I mean, this is a pretty awesome vision that he's having of Jesus."

And he said, "I understand that. I understand that." Although I think I would have fallen backwards instead of forwards. But he said, "And then he instructed John, verse 19, Write down what you have seen, both the things that are now happening."

So keep this now. He was writing some things that were happening 2000 years ago when John was alive on Patmos, and the things that will happen. He's writing about some things that are still continuing to be happening from that 2000 period of history.

And he said, "The seven gold lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches." And there seems to be unanimous understanding in Bible scholars, I guess you would say, as to what those seven angels are.

And I know this is going to be hard for you to imagine, but the seven angels are the seven pastors of those churches. They don't look like an angel and neither does Brent, you know. But if you all want to call us Angel Jerry or Angel Brent, go right ahead, I guess.

And then not only were there the seven angels or the seven pastors of the churches, but seven lampstands, he said, are the seven churches. So that much is fairly understandable.

And to be honest with you, for the first few weeks after I knew this was my assignment, I thought, I'm just going to teach the first two or three chapters of Revelation about those seven churches, because I think you can understand that relatively easily.

That Jesus gave John a message for seven churches in Turkey, and those seven churches represent all churches. I think there's agreement on this amongst Bible scholars from the last 2,000 years.

And so here's what I'm getting at. You could actually, if we wanted to take the time, and maybe Pastor Brent will do that sometime, we can study those seven churches and compare them to our church.

And we could determine which one of the seven is like CLC, or maybe which more than one, maybe two or three churches that would resemble CLC. And not only can you do that for our church as a whole, but you could do that for yourself as an individual.

If you want to spend that time researching those seven churches, you could actually determine, you know, I think I'm like the church at hopefully Philadelphia. That was the best of all of them. But whatever church you came up with, that's a possibility.

But I'm only going to mention two of them today. And the only reason I'm even mentioning two of the seven is because I really sensed that these two are here in the room. We're represented by someone in the room.

Of the seven, one of them, he said, John said, is about to undergo suffering, the church at Smyrna. And I feel like I'm talking to someone either online or in the room that maybe you are in a season of suffering right now.

And this is what the angels, this is what the message to them was. "Don't be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The devil will throw some of you into prison to test you." That's the first thing you need to understand. If you are going through some suffering, it's only a test. It's only a test.

Okay. And then secondly, he says, "You will suffer for 10 days." And you might want to put hallelujah in your notes beside that because what that tells me, two things that that tells me. First of all, Jesus is the one who determines how long you're going to suffer. The devil doesn't have control over that. Jesus has control over how long you are going to be in this season.

And what's even better than that is the fact that he knows it's going to be 10 days tells me there is a limit to the suffering. You're not always going to—it's not always going to be this way. That's how the devil talks to you, that you're always going to suffer.

But Jesus is saying, "No, it's for a specific period of time. And that's all you're just in a season and it's going to end. You're not going to die. You're going to make it." So somebody needs to hear that today and say, "I can make it through anything as long as I know how long it's going to last. I can make it through."

Okay. He said, "If you remain faithful, even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life." There's a reward for that church and for those individuals.

And another one of the churches is Faithful Philadelphia. I said, it's the best of all the churches. But notice what is spoken, what John received for Philadelphia. He said, "I know all the things you do and I have opened a door for you that no one can close." Well, that's a good word.

And then he said, this is the part I want you to notice. "You have little strength." I'm talking to someone in the room or online today. I believe that has little strength and you've probably beaten yourself over the head in the past and felt like, "I don't have great strength. I'm not this. I'm not that. I'm just just this little whatever."

No, no, no, no, no. If you have little strength, it goes on to say, "yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me." A little strength is all Jesus needs. That's all he's looking for.

And so if you were faithful with the little that you have, there's a reward coming to you. And so I'm talking to somebody that can say, "I've got the little that I need in order to overcome."

Now, the other five churches were faltering in their loyalty. We're not going to spend any time with them at all. But the Lord warns the churches that he is a righteous judge and he knows their deeds.

So he calls those faltering churches in each case, he calls on them to repent and he makes an encouraging promise to each one of them as well. And then after two chapters, chapters two and chapter three of seven churches that he's talked about, then John is whisked away into heaven to witness what must take place after these things.

Revelation chapter four and verse one says. So I think that's the—I think that's where the rapture of the church takes place. I just don't know if it's pre, mid, post or pan, but I do believe it is the rapture that takes place.

So begins a long series of prophetic visions for the churches, which include—we'll just go through this relatively quickly—those visions include a lamb. Everybody knows that the lamb is Jesus, is the lamb. He's also the lion, whoever said that. But that's because of he's Jesus.

But a lamb breaks seven seals that are holding an old book shut. Each time a seal is broken, it triggers an event on earth, some of which are catastrophic. That's Revelation chapters four, five, six, and seven.

And then there are seven angels that blow seven trumpets and each trumpet blast brings a plague on the earth in Revelation chapters eight, nine, ten, and eleven. And then the next vision was a great dragon, which is Satan. Yes. And two beasts, which the scholars usually say is the Antichrist and the false prophet.

The only problem is unless we're a false prophet, we don't know which the Antichrist is going to be. So they make war against a certain woman. And I'm of the opinion and most scholars are that that woman is Israel and the saints are God's people. That's Revelation chapters twelve, thirteen, and fourteen.

Then there are seven angels that pour out seven bowls and each bowl brings another plague on the earth in Revelation chapters fifteen and sixteen. And then the vision that John receives is a lamb that overcomes the wicked city of Babylon, a dragon, and the beast. And then brings about a final judgment day in Revelation chapters seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, and twenty.

And finally, we get to the end with a vision of a new heaven and a new earth that appear where God and the lamb dwell with people in harmony forever. Revelation chapters twenty-one and twenty-two.

So we just went through the whole book of Revelation and most of us don't know any more now than we did before we came into the room today. You know, it's—I don't—I don't feel bad. First of all, I always want to be honest with you. If I don't know, if I don't understand, I don't understand.

Okay, and I think most people, if they'll be honest, have difficulty understanding the book of Revelation. And so with all of those difficulties, keep in mind more importantly than any of your difficulty interpreting is this is a inspired of God book of the Bible.

Okay, the Holy Spirit spoke to John to record these things, reveal these things. So there must be something that we're supposed to do with it. I don't think we can just toss it aside.

And so what my question is, in fact, in sermon planning, that was one of the questions. One of the pastors said, "What are we supposed to do with this?" And I feel like I understand two things at least. I'm not going to venture beyond those two, but I think there's two things that we're supposed to do with Revelation.

And the first one is that Revelation is given to us to come to Jesus and invite others to come to him too. I think you have Revelation in your Bible because God wants every one of us to turn to Jesus. And he wants us to help other people come to Jesus.

And here's what I base it on Revelation chapter twenty-two. "The spirit and the bride say, come, let anyone who hears this say, come, let anyone who is thirsty come, let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life. He who is a faithful witness to all these things says, yes, I am coming soon. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's holy people."

So over and over and over, I think I counted four times, John says, "Come, come." The spirit's saying, "Come." The bride's saying, "Come." Let the one that's thirsty say, "Come." We're all saying, "Come, come."

And I'm saying today that if you are not saved, if you're not walking in fellowship with the Lord Jesus, I've got a word from God for you today that you need to come to Jesus. Don't say, "Well, nobody can understand." No, you can understand, come. You can understand he's saying, "Come." He's inviting you, come.

With what's happening in Israel right now, what you've been watching on your television for the last two weeks, I don't think this is any time to play games with God. I don't think this is any time to be putting things off or, you know, I think right now, if you don't know the Lord and the fullness of his spirit, if you don't know Jesus like that, here's the word from God for you. Come, come, come.

Don't wait. Come. Now is the day of salvation. That's what the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians. He didn't say this hour is the time. He didn't say today is the day of salvation. He said now. Don't put it off even for the rest of the day. It's now.

And so I'm going to obey that. Before I do anything else, I'm going to make an altar call right here right now for anybody that needs to hear now, come. So let's all close our eyes. I'm giving you this opportunity.

I don't want anybody to feel embarrassed or ashamed, but if you're here and you'd be honest while no one's looking around, if you'd just be honest with yourself and say, "You know what, I don't know that I am ready for Jesus to come. I don't know that I am walking closely with him. I'm not in fellowship with him the way I want to be. I've neglected some things. I've missed out."

If that's you and you're here and you're ready today to come and invite Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, I want you just to raise your hand. No one's looking around except me because I want to see who I'm praying for.

Hands here. One, two, three, four. Four in that section. Five, six, seven, eight, nine in the back there. Ten, eleven. Over here in this right area. Twelve. My goodness. Thirteen. Fourteen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

This is more important than having a perfect understanding of Revelation. This is more important. And so those of you that raised your hand or even if you didn't raise your hand, I want us to pray a prayer right now to invite Jesus in to be the Lord of our lives.

I want you to say this. Say something like—you can use your own words—but something like this. Say, "Lord Jesus, thank you for getting my attention today. Thank you for making me aware that I need to come now. Thank you that I don't need to wait any longer. I need to surrender now.

And so I'm asking you to come into my heart. Wash me clean from every sin. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. I want to serve you for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name. Thank you for hearing my prayer, Lord. Thank you for forgiving my sins. In Jesus' name."

You know what? I say don't want to embarrass anybody and we're reluctant and have everybody close their eyes and bow their heads and all that sort of thing. But I think after you've asked Jesus to come into your life, I think that's something we ought to celebrate.

So if you prayed that prayer, would you stand up? Hold off on the applause. Hold off. If you prayed that prayer, I want you to stand up. I want you to be willing to say I'm standing up for Jesus now. He came into my life because of the prayer that I prayed.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Yes. Yes. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. I'm going to let you be seated because you probably need to get to your telephone. And I'm not going to stop this until we do everything we need to do.

And so I want you to pull out your cell phone and text the word LIFE, L-I-F-E, to 833-420-1244. Why do I need to do that, pastor? Because there's more to it than praying a prayer on Sunday morning. And we want to help you with every step.

We're going to be here for you, but we can't be here for you with every step unless we know who you are, unless we know who prayed. And so text the word LIFE to 833-420-1244, and we'll be in touch with you about your next step.

I can tell you about the next one is for you to be water baptized. And we can schedule that for as soon as next Sunday. But we want to get in touch with you. We want to help you walk through all of this.

So I'm proud of every one of you that you didn't wait. You didn't put it off. You said, "Come." Amen. Amen.

And then the second thing, I told you there's two things I think we're supposed to do with Revelation, and this is the second one. The second one is that Revelation is given for us to worship.

Now, I will tell you this. I didn't get this second one from any other teacher. I've never heard anybody else talk about that. But what I did for the last several weeks after I knew that somebody had voted me to teach this, I spent a lot of time looking at the book of Revelation, and I was floored with what I had not noticed before.

I think I had never really examined it in detail, and I just noticed worship on top of worship, on top of worship, on top of worship. And about that time, many of you know David and Nicole Binion. They're friends of ours. They've been to CLC, led worship numerous times, now pastors in Texas.

And I heard David, right about the time all this was going on, I heard David say that the Lord had awakened him in the night here. It's been a few years ago now, about the book of Revelation. And he said he wrote 17 songs from the book of Revelation.

17 songs. I didn't find 17 songs. I may have found more or less, I'm not sure. But what I did find was at least seven different passages in the book of Revelation where it's all about worship.

And so I want to share those seven passages with you. This will be in our app, our CLC app, so you can get it all. We may not have them all on the screen. I'm not sure about that.

But first of all, in Chapter 1, here's John speaking. He says, "All of you who stood just a minute ago, he's freed you from your sins by shedding his blood for us. He has made us a kingdom of priests for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever. Amen."

And then in Chapter 4, he said, "is the Lord God, the Almighty, the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come."

And still in Chapter 4, he said, "whenever the living beings give glory and honor and thanks to the one sitting on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down and worship the one sitting on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever. And they lay their crowns before the throne."

If you've ever studied this, this is so beautiful. Throughout the New Testament, it talks about crowns that you and I can win. We can win a crown of faithfulness. We can win a crown of soul winning. We can live, receive. I think there's about five different crowns that we can be awarded when we get to heaven.

And I'm looking forward to that. But you know what I'm looking forward to more than that is right after we get all of those crowns, we're going to lay them down. When we see Jesus, we say, "We don't need a crown. We got Jesus now."

And we rejoice over him who was and is and is to come. It said, "You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things. And they exist because you created what you pleased."

The next chapter, Chapter 5, John said, "Then I looked again and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders. And they sang in a mighty chorus, 'Worthy is the lamb who was slaughtered to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.'"

See, it sounds like some of what we were singing here this morning. And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. And they sang, "Blessing and honor and glory and power belongs to the one sitting on the throne and to the lamb forever and ever."

And the four living beings said, "Amen." And the 24 elders fell down and worshiped the lamb. Hallelujah.

And then Chapter number 7, after this, John said, "Oh, I love this. He said, I saw a vast crowd, too great to count." He could count a hundred million angels. But he said, "The crowd that I saw here, I can't count them. I lost track. From every nation and tribe and people and language."

That's why we've got the flags. That's why we go in missions. That's why we are reaching nations. Every nation and tribe and people and language standing in front of the throne and before the lamb.

And they were shouting with a great roar. I look forward to that. "Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the lamb."

And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living beings. And they fell before the throne with their faces to the ground and worshiped God.

There's a lot of falling going on in heaven, folks. And they sang, "Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength belong to our God forever and ever. Amen."

And then you drop down to chapter 11. The 24 elders sitting on their thrones before God fell with their faces to the ground and worshiped him. And they said, "We give thanks to you, Lord God the Almighty, the one who is and who always was."

Chapter 15, they were singing a song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the lamb. "Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God the Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations. Who will not fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy."

I love what you said today about the flawless one. And he alone is flawless. "For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you for your righteous deeds have been revealed."

And then we drop to chapter 19. And after this, John said, "I heard what sounded like a vast crowd in heaven shouting, 'Praise the Lord. Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.'"

Then the 24 elders and the four living beings fell down and worshiped God who was sitting on the throne. They cried out, "Amen, praise the Lord."

And from the throne came a voice that said, "Praise our God, all his servants, all who fear him, from the least to the greatest."

Then I heard again what sounded like the shout of a vast crowd or a roar of mighty ocean waves or the crash of loud thunder. "Praise the Lord for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice and let us give honor to him."

Hallelujah. That's what I found just reading through Revelation. That's what I found. It's a place of worship. It's a time for us to worship.

And then I said two, maybe there's three things I've learned that it's for because I found out that I didn't know the name of the book. I've called all of my life, all 51 years of preaching, I've called it Revelation, the book of Revelation, the book of Revelation, Revelation.

Is that what you called it? That's not the name of the book. You know what the name of the book is? Revelation of Jesus Christ. It didn't hit you like it hit me.

It's like when you see him, when he is revealed to you, no wonder it's seven different chapters, seven different passages, because this is Jesus being revealed to his church.

And I think that's all we need to do now. We need to stand to our feet and worship God because Jesus has been revealed to us and in us. Amen.

And I don't care how long it goes. Let's just worship him because of what we've seen today, how it's been revealed today. Let's worship. Let's worship.

1. "Every nation and tribe and people and language standing in front of the throne and before the lamb. And they were shouting with a great roar. I look forward to that. Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the lamb." [01:14:55]

2. "And they fell before the throne with their faces to the ground and worshiped God. There's a lot of falling going on in heaven, folks. And they sang, Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength belong to our God forever and ever. Amen." [01:14:55]

3. "This is more important than having a perfect understanding of Revelation. This is more important." [01:06:30]

4. "Because there's more to it than praying a prayer on Sunday morning. And we want to help you with every step." [01:09:49]

5. "Revelation is given for us to worship... I just noticed worship on top of worship, on top of worship, on top of worship, on top of worship." [01:10:47]

6. "But you know what I'm looking forward to more than that is right after we get all of those crowns, we're going to lay them down. When we see Jesus, we say, we don't need a crown. We got Jesus now." [01:12:44]

7. "Revelation is given to us to come to Jesus and invite others to come to him, too." [01:02:18]

8. "You know what the name of the book is? Revelation of Jesus Christ. It didn't hit you like it hit me. It's like when you see him, when he is revealed to you, no wonder it's seven different chapters, seven different passages, because this is Jesus being revealed to his church." [01:17:22]

9. "I think it's true of just about everybody that's tried to make those predictions and understandings. In fact, if you run into somebody that tells you that they've got the book of Revelation down pat and know what every bit of it is about, I would probably run the other direction from them, okay?" [44:13]

10. "And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then, everybody say then, then the end will come." (source: [40:36])