We've come to feast on His Word and so please meet me in your
Bibles in Revelation Chapter 9. Revelation Chapter 9.
It could be said that an effective cheat teacher knows
and recognizes when repetition is necessary in order to firmly
establish truths in the minds of learners.
And I say that because it could be that you've realized that
some of these introductions in our study of revelation are
similar. And I'm here to tell you that's
intentional because the aim in that is after hearing over and
over again the structure of this book, it would be so ingrained
in your memory as you hear about the layout and the overarching
theme so that it would become almost second nature.
With that being said, we are still examining God's final
program of judgement for the last days and we are looking at
3 Series of judgements, each consisting of seven acts, 7
events, and we've already completed the first set.
We already looked at the seal judgements.
The scroll has been completely opened by the hands of Christ,
and now we find ourselves in the midst of the trumpet judgements.
And if you were here 2 weeks ago, you recall that we looked
at what happened after the four trumpets were sounded, and we
are ready to see the final three.
But before John is given insight into the last three trumpet
blasts, there is a strange and interesting interruption.
It's in the last verse of chapter 8.
Look at Revelation 813 for a moment.
Then I looked and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice
as it flew directly overhead. Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell
on the earth at the blast of the other trumpets the three angels
are about to blow. You know this well.
Woes are common expressions in the Scriptures to represent it,
to signify and call out condemnation or judgement.
And double woes are not uncommon either.
When you see whoa whoa, it's because there is an emphasis.
But a triple woe like what we find here in this verse is rare.
Now, we might think the message of this verse is that there is
an extreme emphasis, but in actuality, its main purpose is
to assign each woe to each of the remaining trumpet blasts.
That's what we're going to find in this new chapter.
A woe for the last three trumpets.
Now here's the question that came to mind immediately.
Why do the last three trumpets receive this ominous recognition
instead of the first four? And the answer is very clear
when you compare both. You see, when we looked at the
1st 4 trumpets, we saw that they triggered devastation upon
nature. 1/3 of this part of the earth, 1/3 of the rivers, 1/3 of
this. It was all about the Earth, the
planet. Now, as we come to the last
three trumpet alarms, we're going to see that they will set
into motion judgement and torment against people directly.
Humans will now be targeted not indirectly, but directly.
So this is very sobering. And these events, particularly
set off by the 5th trumpet, are so severe that they might be
understood as hell on earth. Actually, an appropriate title
for this passage of Scripture that we're about to read is Five
Months of Hell. And I'm sure you're going to see
it as we read Revelation 9, verse one, down to verse 6.
Let's do that together. And the 5th Angel blew his
trumpet, and I saw a * falling from heaven to earth.
And he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the
shaft rose smoke, like the smoke of a great furnace, And the sun
and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.
Then from the smoke came locust on the earth, and they were
given power like the power of scorpions of the earth.
They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green
plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the
seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torment
them for five months, but not to kill them.
And their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it
stings someone. And in no day in those days,
people will seek death and will not find it.
They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
Father, we realize immediately that we need your wisdom.
And Lord, I am very aware that I need your help in delivering
this. Every preacher, oh God, that is
honest, recognizes the need of your help.
And Lord, every listener who understands their knee will say,
Open my heart, help me to hear what you have to say.
So Lord, just take over and have your way in the service.
Lord, especially now as we unpack your word, we give you
glory for your help. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
There are many ways that one can approach this nightmarish scene.
So many details, so many mysteries, so many questions.
But as I was reading over this passage over and over again
throughout this past week, certain words began to surface,
Certain words began to be highlighted.
And I want to show you what I mean.
Look back at verse one in the second part.
And he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
Look at the second part of verse 3.
And they were given power, like the power of scorpions of the
earth. Look at verse four.
In the beginning they were told not to harm the grass of the
earth or any green plant or any tree.
Finally, look at verse 5. They were allowed to torment
them for five months. It is so easy to get caught up
by this horrific set of details and this ghastly imagery, but
woven through it all is the language of God's sovereignty.
Do you see it? I see it.
Revelation teaches us many things, but one of the things
that it continually reaffirms is the extent of God's authority
both in the realm that we see and the one that we cannot
perceive. And what we have here before us
is a reminder that the Lord's governance extends to realities
that we often forget He has mastery over.
And so as you and I approach this at face value, reading it
may be terrifying. It may cause us to be curious.
But when you meditate on it, I trust that you will be
strengthened in your faith and who God is and what He is
capable of. I have one goal today before we
break bread in reading and expounding on these verses.
Just one simple mission that you and I would see just how big God
is the guy that you love, the guy that you sing to, the guy
that you trust in for your daily needs.
I want to show you today through this passage that He is
incredibly majestic. There is not one corner of the
universe that he does not have jurisdiction over.
He is so strong. He is so powerful, He is so
mighty. And we get a snapshot of it
right here. And so today we're going to look
at 3 domains that our God has authority over, 3 realities that
he governs that we often miss or don't really give him credit for
or recognize his presence in three of them.
And the first one is this God's sovereignty over the underworld.
God's sovereignty over the underworld.
Look back here again at verse one and verse 2.
When this 5th Angel blew his trumpet, John saw something
immediately, a star. He says I saw a * falling from
heaven to the earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of
the bottomless pit. We've seen stars falling in our
study of revelation, have we not?
We remember during the seal judgements, and particularly the
6th one, how there were many stars that had fallen as a fig
tree would dispense figs when it is shaken.
And not too long ago in the trumpet judgments, we saw on the
3rd trumpet that there was a great star that fell from
heaven, and it fell on 1/3 of the rivers and springs of water.
And so now we come to this text and we almost anticipate that
this is just another cosmic disturbance.
But we quickly learned that this is no ordinary star.
In fact, this is not a real star.
This is not a literal mass from the sky falling into the earth.
It's a person and that's not us making this interpretation on
our own. John tells us, look at the
language. It has personal like qualities.
He started, he saw a * falling from the heaven to earth and he,
he, oh, he, he was given what a responsibility.
He was given the key and he was called to action.
He was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
So what we have here is a person that fell from heaven.
Now we know that this person is not a human.
This person is from another realm, from a heavenly realm
because it fell again from heaven.
Now here's what's interesting. We see in the scriptures that
angels are referred to more than once as what stars, especially
in Job 38 verse 7. So now the question follows.
This is an Angel, an angelic being that fell from heaven?
Is it a good Angel? Is it a bad Angel?
Is it the chief of demonic angels?
Is it Satan? Because Satan, we're told in
more than one place in the Bible, fell from heaven?
Well, some would say it has to be a good Angel because no way
would the Lord give a key to a bad Angel to open up this shaft
to a bottomless pit. Other would say, no, it has to
be a bad Angel. It has to be a fallen Angel
because he's fallen. Let's not spend our energy here.
This is the point that I want to drive into our hearts.
This Angel was given a key by God for a day.
He's borrowing one of God's keys, and this key opens the
door to what is known as the bottomless pit.
Bottomless pit. This is important in the Book of
Revelation, in all the New Testament, the bottomless pit in
the original word, it's actually one word.
It's the word where we get abyss from.
It appears a total of nine times in the New Testament, seven of
those nine times. Where do you think Revelation?
And when you collect all the references to this abyss, this
bottomless pit, you learn what its function is.
It represents a deep, dark, very real spiritual prison house for
fallen angels. Do you remember what happened
when Jesus arrived to the Gadarenes and there was a very
tormented soul who is filled with thousands of demons in
Christ unusually asked the name of this demon and here's a
reference for you in Luke 8 verse 30.
I'll read it. Jesus then asked him what is
your name? And he said legion, for many
demons had entered him, verse 31.
And they begged him not to command them to depart into the
abyss. Whatever you do, son of God, do
not bring us to the abyss. Scripture teaches us that from
the time of the fall, God has assigned certain demonic beings
to a gloomy darkness, to be chained everlastingly until the
final judgment and their verdict is made.
Peter shares us in second Peter. Jude shares us in his short
epistle. There are actual demonic beings
who are in this very moment apprehended, incarcerated, and
kept from freely roaming on the earth.
Now, there's a whole other category of demons who have been
running loose on this earth since the beginning of time.
But there's a whole different group of fallen angels that have
not seen the light of day that have been kept and will be kept
until that final day except for what we find here.
Do you understand what's happening here?
God is permitting an Angel to open the door for the worst of
the worst demons, for the vilest spiritual criminals who have
harassed humanity in unspeakable ways, to freely roam on the
earth and do as they please, to an extent for almost half a
year. This is terrifying and
rightfully so, and this background shows us here that
God is doing this as an act of judgement.
God is doing this because He wants to let them be His agents
of chastisement and judgement. Notice the description of the
smoke in verse 2. Can you see it with me?
It says here. Then in verse 2 he opened the
shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like
the smoke of a great furnace. That expression smoke arising
like the smoke of a great furnace in relation to the
judgement of people, only appears in one other place in
all of the Bible. Can anybody guess where Sodom
and Gomorrah, after Sodom and Gomorrah, experience God's
wrath, fire and brimson falling from heaven.
We're told there that Abraham looked upon the land and he saw
smoke arising like the smoke of a furnace.
And that's almost repeated here word for word.
Why? It foreshadows something
devastating. It shows here that there is
going to be a severe manifestation of God's holy
justice like the world has never really seen.
And as you look at this, you think to yourself, is there any
hope? I mean, what?
What do you make of this? Well, again, read between the
lines. Don't focus on the demons.
Focus on the one who has authority over the underworld.
He's able to keep them back, and He's able to loosen them.
And I want you to see what's going to happen upon Christ's
return at the end of Revelation. Go to chapter 20 Revelation and
notice that immediately after Christ returns bodily and places
his feet on the Mount of Olives, and he deals with the enemies of
God's people. 01 of his first priorities before he establishes
his millennial reign is what you see in Revelation 20 verse 2.
And he sees the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil
and Satan, and bound him for 1000 years, and threw him into
the what, Pitt the abyss, the very same word, and shut it and
sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nation's
any longer until the 1000 years were ended.
After that, he must be released for a little while.
There's a day coming when the chief of demons, the Prince of
all that is dark and wicked, the head of all demonic operations,
will be arrested. There's a warrant for his arrest
and he will be imprisoned for a literal 1000 years before the
new heavens and the new earth commences.
This world is going to experience a length of time free
from any satanic temptation, devilish oppression, possession,
and even deception. That day is coming.
What I just read to you is not a description of heaven because at
the end of the verses we just read, it says he's going to be
released again. This is speaking about when
Jesus returns, He is going to set up his reign.
And one of the glories of his physical reign on the earth is
he's going to take Satan and all his minions and launch them into
the pit for 1000 years. And the redeemed and even those
who remain who are unbelievers who will live in that reign are
going to know a world that has never been without demonic
presence. Now here's why this is
important. Those who don't believe that
this is all future and that this is literal have to interpret
this in another way. So many who don't hold to the
futurist interpretation of the Book of Revelation will say what
we just read there about the 1000 years and Satan being put
into a pit. That's all figurative and it's
speaking about today. It's speaking about how Satan
has been bound. 1000 years is just a symbolic number.
Satan has been bound since Jesus Christ died on the cross.
To which I respond, how is he doing all of this while bound?
All this chaos, all the increase of evil, This is him bound.
I don't want to see what he's like when he's set free.
So this is this is a dilemma. You either take all this again
spiritually, or you acknowledge that there is a glorious future
ahead, not just for the Church, but the entire world as it sits
under the governance of the precious Prince of Peace, Jesus
Christ of Nazareth. But he has control over that pit
now and he has a divine purpose behind it.
So the first thing I want you to understand is hell, which is
another thing I don't want to confuse you.
This underworld, this abyss is not ruled by Satan.
I know, I know. People get the theology from
cartoons where Satan sits on this throne and he's in hell and
he can belch out as many demons as he wants.
This Angel was given a key from God to let loose, and God has
many keys, as we're going to find out.
The second thing that we see sovereignty at play here at work
here is very close to the first. God's sovereignty over demons,
Not just the place, but these persons like the star we read
about. What locus?
There are no ordinary locusts. They are locusts because again,
in the Old Testament, locusts were one of God's most
devastating acts of judgement. They would devour all of your
resources within a short span of time.
We see it in prophetic literature.
We see it literally taking place in actual manifestations of
God's wrath. Locust, locust, locust.
So again, the student of the Old Testament in the Scripture says
this is not good locust. But then you read on and you
see. These aren't bugs.
Go to verse 7 of Revelation 9. In appearance, the locusts were
like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were what looked
like crowns of gold. Their faces were like human
faces, their hair like woman's hair, and their teeth like
lion's teeth. They had breastplates like
breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like
the noise of many Chariots with horses rushing into battle.
They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to
hurt people for five months is in their tails.
They have as a king over them the Angel of the bottomless pit.
His name is in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is
called Apoleon. What do we make of this?
Number one, I don't think it's helpful to try to explain every
single detail and what could be the specific meaning behind it.
Here's what you take from this. This grotesque description of
these beings is meant to reflect the hideousness and the twisted
nature of these beings. This is clearly demonic, and
these demonic creatures are again, by very nature so vile,
so despicable, totally wicked, that their physical description
reflects that distortion. I don't know if you visualize
this description, if it looks strange, if it looks ugly.
It's meant to be because these are again angels that have
betrayed the living God and have chosen even to their own eternal
doom to resist Him and to fight against His purposes to this
very moment. So when you see this, you're
supposed to almost cringe and shrink back like this is almost
like these are like monsters. They are monsters and though you
don't want to pluck every single detail though you can, there is
obviously an importance behind these things.
If there is one thing to take from it is that they are
extremely powerful. Look again at some of these
things. Teeth like lion's teeth.
Breastplates of iron wings that sound like Chariots rushing into
battle, tales that sting like scorpions.
And above that they have a king. So there's, there's rank,
there's order, there's, there's strategy.
In the Kingdom of Darkness, as much as they cause chaos,
they're very much sophisticated. And this this fact that they
have a king also is extra validation that they are not
locusts, real locusts. You know why?
Because in Proverbs 30, verse 27, Proverbs 3027 says locusts
have no king. It's a very interesting
observation. In the book of Proverbs.
There's a spiritual lesson behind that.
But these locusts, they have a king.
And John says he has a name. And for some reason John wants
to give us the name in Hebrew and in Greek.
And I'll tell you this, it's not so that John can show us that he
knows multiple languages. Both of these names in their
meaning, represent destruction, represent devastation.
But why Hebrew and Greek? To show that the influence of
this demonic being, this Prince of demons, affects the whole
world, Jew and Gentile. His impact is global.
There's nothing outside of his reach in terms of his venom and
his plans and his deception and his destruction.
So you read this in isolation and you step back and you think,
this is, this is horrible. What chance does humanity have
against these forces? What can you do to resist them?
How can this earth, how can the people of God even fight against
these invisible beings that are so obviously destructive and
powerful? And though they are clearly so
able to wipe out humanity in an instant, they can only go so
far. And what we just heard and
learned earlier, that's the point.
Again, if you just chop off 7 down to verse 11 and put it
somewhere, you would think this is who we're up against.
But you have to read what we read earlier.
This is something for you and I to understand, and I'll tell you
why in a moment. But look at what they can't do.
Come back to verse 4. They were told not to harm the
grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree.
So they could not go so far in their attempt to damage
anything. They could not kill anybody,
though they were able to kill. They can only harm, and they
couldn't touch a single plant, a single tree, a single blade of
grass. Let me talk about specific
authority, but not just what they could unleash in terms of
their power, but the duration of it.
You can go one second beyond five months.
And my favorite, these demonic beings, though they they drool
at the thought of being able to devour those who are creating
God's image, could only harm those who did not have the seal
of God on their foreheads. The people of God were
untouchable and this is something again for you and I to
reflect on because there is a growing fascination with a
demonic and Christendom today. There are entire ministries that
are being built on the mistaken idea that genuine born again,
spirit filled Christians are in need of deliverance from demons
possessing them. In order for that kind of a
message to become convincing, these kind of teachers will over
and over again highlight and focus on the extent of the power
of demonic beings, so much so that they entertain very strange
concepts of behavioral patterns that have to be associated with
these demonic influences. Do you, do you arrive late all
the time for work or for church? There's got to be a demon.
Are you sleep all the time? It's probably the demon.
Are you impatient? It's a demon.
Demon. Every, everything's a demon.
Everything's a demon. And why is that presented?
Because it calls for everybody to need deliverance, then it
brings in business, it brings in followers, it brings in
supporters. And no doubt we should never in
arrogance minimize what these creatures are able to do.
Even Michael the Archangel would not directly rebuke Satan.
He called the Lord to rebuke him.
So there has to be a level of respect in that sense.
But I want to present to you the focus of the Christian that
although these are again, very mighty creatures, they are not
mightier than God. They are not.
They can't even take a step without his permission.
They can't choose their weaponry.
They can't go as long as they want to.
They can't even use one of their hideous fingers or their teeth
to cut the grass. They're restricted.
They're held back because there's a sovereign force
greater than these beings. In fact, if all of hell came
against one soul hidden in Christ, they would not succeed.
If Abaddon, a Napoleon himself, towered above the weakest and
feeblest of all Christians, though filled with the Holy
Spirit, he would not be able to do anything.
Do you understand what we have in Christ?
Do you understand the, the, the, the package of our salvation
includes that if we are sealed, yes, this is a specific seal for
a specific group of people in a specific amount of time in a
specific period of time, but it's no different for us seal of
the Holy Spirit. So add on top of this the the,
the teaching of being delivered by demons to the concept of
Christians being cursed by demons, that there's people
there casting curses and casting spells.
Where do you get the idea that a Christian filled with the Holy
Spirit can be cursed? Where do you get the idea that
an innocent believer who went to some vacation and grabbed some
souvenirs from a foreign land brought it and you just invited
devils to take over your house? Is it that easy?
Is our salvation that week? Is our walk with Christ in the
Spirit so vulnerable? I was reading the Psalms the
other day. I'm going through psalms in my
personal reading. I stumbled upon a verse I want
to share with you. Listen to this in Psalm one O 9
verse 28. Psalm one O 9, verse 28.
David says let them curse, but you will bless.
Let them curse but you will bless.
Is that what you believe? Are you not in a greater
covenant than that of Moses and the Israelites who did not know
that there was someone and a whole group of people really
hoping and planning to curse them as they traverse through
the wilderness? They didn't even know what was
happening, and God turned every curse into a blessing.
Is it any less under the blood of Jesus Christ?
Demons are real. Their power is real.
There is real possession. There is real oppression.
There is a real need for people to actually be delivered from
demons. But if you're in Christ, you are
untouchable. You are untouchable.
It's true in the tribulation period, it's true today.
And be careful who you listen to people's personal stories.
Do not trump over scripture. Be careful of that.
Satan is a deceiver and I'm unfortunately seeing many
people, especially the younger generation, gobbling up this
teaching for many reasons. But I find this in my Bible that
you can have the worst of the worst demons unleashed upon the
earth, and those who are sealed by God will not be harmed.
That's your inheritance too, because God is sovereign over
demons. Lastly, God as you know, is
sovereign over death. Come with me here.
In verse 5, we read the word torment appearing 3 times, like
the torment they're inflicting upon the masses is so intense
that look what the masses will choose to do, at least attempt
to do in verse 6. And in those days, people will
seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death
will flee from them. So this will be so overwhelming
that that most people, if not all of them, who have been
struck by these demons, will attempt suicide, will try to
kill themselves, would in in relief try to kill one another.
And there's going to be a strange phenomenon during these
five months. No matter what you do, nobody's
able to die. It's really a miracle.
And it's going to only confirm further that the source of the
suffering in these five months is supernatural.
This is something strange. Now, as you look at this, you
might be wondering, why would God allow this?
And one might say, well, it's because God doesn't want to give
them an easy escape. He doesn't want to offer them
immediate relief. I don't think that's God's heart
behind it because this pursuit of death, would that lead to
actual relief? No, only to greater torment,
because Jesus said if you die in your sins, you will perish.
So this this was for five months.
But there is an eternal torment for the wicked.
And if these people had access to the cessation of their life
at will, then you're talking about most of the world plunging
themselves into hell in a matter of months.
Do you know what I see here? Hopefully you agree with me.
I see grace. That's what I see.
God withheld death. He closed that door.
It was not accessible. But why?
Because this population had already seen so many things, had
received so many warnings, had perceived and experienced so
many disasters, and evidently they have not yet called upon
the Lord. They're not sealed by Him.
And so the Lord now takes it to another level.
He actually has a woe attached to this trumpet blast in order
for this people to wake up. Some people get saved through
preachers and there are other people who get saved through
pain and that is God's intention here, that they would finally
realize this is not normal, this is not humane.
The fact that this is plaguing the globe, the fact that we're
trying to die and we can't die. This has to be God.
God forgive me, I repent, I call upon you, rescue me.
There's an interesting passage in Job that confirms what I am
conveying to you in Job 38. And this is where I'm ending
verse Job 33. Rather verse 14.
It says for God speaks in one way and in two, though man does
not perceive it. For God speaks in one way and in
two, though man does not perceive it.
And what are the ways that he speaks to man, though man does
not immediately understand that it's God trying to get their
attention. Well, here's one of them.
Look at verse 19 of Job 33. Man is also rebuked with pain on
his bed and with continual strife in his bones, so that his
life loathes bread and his appetite.
The choice is food. His flesh is so wasted away that
it cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen stick out.
His soul draws near to the pit, and his life to those who bring
death. For what purpose?
Verse 29 Behold, God does all these things twice, three times
with a man to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may
be lighted with the light of life.
There are some people who are lying in hospital beds today
because God is speaking to them. There are people who have had
life altering accidents because God is speaking to them.
You might be sitting here today and you receive the diagnosis.
You don't know God. Could it be that He's speaking
to you? I'm not saying every sickness is
a message from God. I'm just saying it's a
possibility. And one of the reasons why the
Lord allows us is because God understands something you and I
often forget. These bodies are temporary.
This life is short. There is something coming more
real than whatever you know here.
Eternity. Eternity.
And God, in His mercy, though you may even have cursed them
because of the pain in your life, knows that that pain is
temporary and it's worth experiencing it if you call upon
Him to be saved. God speaks in many ways.
He doesn't just speak through sermons.
This is His primary way, His word.
But there are other means that He gets man's attention,
especially those who are extra stubborn.
What you find with the 5th trumpet is a generation that are
extremely stiff necked. And So what does God do in His
sovereignty? Well, He's sovereign over the
underworld and He's sovereign over the demons, and He's
sovereign over death. And He unlocks it and He lets
them loose and He allows them to torment people for five months
for the sole purpose of them crying out for salvation and be
kept for eternity. That's what's happening here.
And here's the point I want to end with.
If God can postpone death, as we saw for the purpose of a wicked
people to have a chance to repent, what does that power
mean for those who already belonged to Him?
I want to speak to the believer and say remember the truth of
this verse. When you are fearful dads,
husbands of leaving your wife or children behind prematurely.
Cling to this promise and God's sovereignty over death.
When you receive the phone call that you dreaded your whole life
and a doctor gives you that report and it confirmed what you
feared. If you are regularly haunted by
the possibility of accidents, or maybe you you get threats from
unstable people, and we're seeing that more and more
happening here. You want to talk about more
manifestations of demonic activity?
It's happening in our culture, is it not?
Don't lose sight of God's sovereignty.
Your King and mine not only has the key to the abyss.
Back in Revelation One, we learned that He has the key to
death. And in his perfect wisdom and in
his wonderful grace, God considers every factor of your
life and mine. He knows just the right time and
the right means to open that door called death and to say,
son, daughter, it's time to walk through.
That's the hope that we have. The same one that has the power
to withhold death from the wicked.
He knows when to suspend it from your life, and He knows when
it's time for you to walk in and through it.
So what do you have to fear? Our God is sovereign over
everything. Our God is sovereign over the
underworld, the abyss, the demons who are there, the demons
that will be released, and even death itself has to submit to
God's will. And you and I get to live in
that reality every single day. Why?
Because of what Jesus Christ has done for us, that's why.
One more reason to celebrate this bread and this cup.
We have such a great salvation because of Him.
Lord, we thank You for this time.
We are spellbound by Your sovereignty and we choose to
pause as we are ready to feast on these elements.
What a redemption we have. What a salvation we have.
What promises are these? Thank you for the seal of the
Holy Spirit. Thank you that we are immortal
until you say so. Thank you that we are stronger
and more resilient because of Christ our Savior.
Thank you in a very unpredictable world where it
seems like demons are more loosened than at any time that
we can remember before. We are safe in Christ.
Our children are safe in Christ, our homes, our finances, our
bodies. Our ministries, they're safe in
Christ. We give you all thanks now as we
meditate on these things in Jesus name, Amen and Amen.