The word turn with me to Revelation the Revelation
chapter 5. My computer is demanding A
passcode will not do my finger here.
I don't know what's going on. There we go.
All right. I was had the the joy yesterday
of speaking at a conference in Newton with APEPT.
It's a network of churches and so forth and led by Doctor Dell
Bittner. And I don't know if any of you
know Dell, but he's a great guy. I love Dell and just got a just
a great history in God. He's a wealth of knowledge and
history and had a good time with them.
But I ended up speaking on some of the things we've been talking
about here this morning. And so I'm just going to
continue in that vein. What I want to do this morning
is I want to, you know, sometimes you're not just
teaching the word. There's there's times for
teaching the word, preaching, addressing cultural issues, that
that is an appropriate thing. And there's times we do that.
But there's other times we want to equip the Saints.
And part of that is providing a grid work, you know, framing
things out so people understand what's going on.
And what I mean is specifically about what Josh was just talking
about when he did transition. He was talking about high praise
and how when we we ascend the hill of the Lord is one of the
phrases used in scripture. It's an interesting phrase.
We ascend the hill of the Lord and from there we begin to do
Kingdom business and say, well, you know, pastors, that really
scriptural. Well, I'm hoping to convince you
this morning that it is. So I want to, I want us to
understand what happens in worship and I want to under, I
want us to understand what I believe is somewhat of a unique
assignment for us as a church. It's certainly not unique in all
the earth, but I think that God deposits different callings
within a region and everybody has their part.
I was just texting a pastor in town here this morning.
Tell them I'm praying for you. And, and I believe God's raised
them up and I was praying for their church that God's going to
use them. And I'm, I'm excited they're in
the city because they have a part to play.
We have a part to play. But you and I are responsible to
steward our part. And part of that is our worship
that there's, there's, there are different reasons for worship.
You know, we, we worship Jesus because he's worthy.
And if that's the only reason we worship, we could do that from
not just now till Jesus comes, but well after we for eternity,
we'll worship him because of his great worth.
And that's reason enough. But the fact is there are other
reasons that we worship Jesus. There is there We also worship
them for ourself. You know, we declare God's worth
to him and because he is worthy, but God is not insecure.
It's not that he needs to hear that.
You know, God wasn't wringing his hands last night saying, oh,
I'm feeling a little insecure. I looked down at the United
States and there's such chaos. I, I really hope Heartland
affirms who I am so I can be firm in my identity and fill my
job description for another week.
That's not going on in the heart of God.
God is very secure in who he is, but we worship him because he's
worthy. And it does create an, an
environment where God enthrones himself.
And that's, that's where we really want to go this morning.
But we also worship for ourselves.
We need to recalibrate things for ourselves.
You know, there is a, a false narrative continually that the
enemy is seeking to impose upon us.
And I use that word very carefully.
Narrative, you know, there's, there's narrators who impose a
narrative. And so you know that that idea
of a narrator is the voice off stage that interprets what's
going on stage. And there are voices that are
seeking to interpret the happenings in your life, some
good and some bad. There's the voice of the Lord.
There are angelic voices. Often I think when the Lord
speaking to us, it's really angels.
But that's it for another day. There, there, there.
There's a reason they're called messengers.
And so there's the voice of heaven seeking to interpret, and
much of that we get from the word.
That's why we need to be in the word, because we can interpret
incorrectly what's going on around us.
And the enemy has a vested interest in getting you to
misinterpret what's going on in your life.
So there's a narrator that's trying to create a narrative, an
interpretation, a perception of what's going on in your life.
And they're the the enemy is a very real narrator that is
continually trying to infuse the circumstances in your life with
meaning. According to his narrative, the
conclusions he wants to bring you to because you're believing
will determine your behaving. And if he can get you to
conclude the wrong things, perceive the wrong things,
misinterpret things, he can get you to act wrongly and it
literally becomes a self fulfilling prophecy because you
will act according to what you believe and it will become a
reality. If you believe the wrong things,
you're going to behave in a wrong way and your behaviour
will produce fruit in your life. Your present circumstances are
often the result of your belief systems, good and bad.
And so, and I'm not talking about us creating our own world,
I'm talking about us engaging with the spiritual realm.
And when we believe lies will live out as though those lies
were true and overtime they will become true because we
accommodate them. Does that make sense?
And so worship is one of the the combatants against that one.
It's one of those tools. God's given us weapons to combat
that because in worship we get things into clarity.
It's like, you know, when you are a, I was on a Zoom call the
other day and something said on my Zoom, I don't know how to use
this stuff. I could just get on there.
I see the face and there's my little face, but something said
on there, sometimes things will happen.
I'll wave my hand, little balloons will fly up.
That's just, you know, what is that?
I don't know how to change that. It's off right now because I was
talking and there was no balloons.
But now the, the background is really out of focus.
It kind of looks cool. You know, I didn't do that.
If you're on a Zoom call with me, that wasn't me.
I don't know how that happened, but the reason I bring that up
like pastor, that was squirrel. No, I've I'm going somewhere
with this that when we we bring into focus the Lord and his
narration, everything else kind of fades into the background.
Those other narratives, those other belief systems, those
other storylines that the enemy's trying to impose on us
and reinterpret our circumstance makes sense.
So worship is we are getting him into clarity again.
We're doing it for ourselves. We're worshipping to reprogram
and recalibrate and bring into focus so everything else fades
to the background. And that's a really good reason
to worship. We could worship for a couple
thousand years just on that one. But there's a third reason we
worship and that is and, and I thought it was interesting what
Josh said. Josh said pressing the will of
the Lord, because often this phrase will come to me.
So this morning I just thought, I'm going to look that up.
What what does that really mean? Because I'll say it, I kind of
had an idea, but it's pressing the crown rights of King Jesus.
We press the crown rights and pressing the Crown rights is a,
is a, it's a phrase from Commonwealth.
It's a phrase from kingdoms where there there are legalities
in which the those authorized with authority from the crown
will go and press the Crown rights.
Some of that often will that'll come up in the idea of property.
And so they're in going and seizing property or exercising
the crown rights over property. And that'll preach because
there's a property called Iowa. We want to see the crown rights
of King Jesus enforced. The earth is the Lords and the
fullness thereof. And so in worship, we catch the
heart of the Lord and we press his crown rights into situations
in our life. And so that's there's a there's
a warfare element to worship that we must be aware of.
And if all, if there's that old saying, if all you have is a
hammer, you treat everything like a man nail.
If the only way that you see worship is one way, then you've
got you have this one hit wonder where you're going to try to
treat everything like they're the same situation.
And there are times where we need to pick up high praise and
begin to wield the authority, the crown rights of King Jesus
and impose his will into situations.
And so that's what we want to talk about this morning.
Now let me do it. Little, little background
because I haven't been in this pulpit for two weeks.
It's been, it was 3 weeks ago, man.
Someone said, hey, Pastor Avery, really biting at the bit to get
back in the pulpit. Well, I didn't preach a lot this
week. I just didn't get to preach from
here. But I want to, I want to kind of
do a little bit of review to get us back up to speed because what
we've been talking about are two things.
We've been talking about the Psalms, Psalms 2 and Psalm 149.
Both of those, those bookend Psalms are talking about God
dealing with the nations. And this is very, very, very
relevant to us right now. We're living in a unique time in
history where there is global chaos and God is calling the
church to step to the forefront and begin to press his crown
rights into national affairs, not just in our nation, but in
other nations. But both of them come into play
that that the real hope of the United States of America is not
the White House, it's God's house and it's not the executive
office. It's the church stepping into
and pressing the crown rights of King Jesus.
And so we see in Psalm chapter 2, David is incredulous and he
says, why do the why do the heathen rage?
Why do the kings of this earth imagine a vain thing?
Why, why do they, the kings, the nations, the peoples and the the
other one I think was nobles. Why they what they're doing is
they rage and they say, let us throw off the yoke of the Lord
and his anointed one. In other words, we're not going
to, we're not going to come under God's rules, God's edicts,
God's laws, God's ethical ideas. We're going to, we're going to
throw those off and we're going to do our own thing.
And David, David's incredulous how, why would they do this?
And then he gives God's response.
This is Psalm 2. And he says he who sits in the
heavens laughs. And sometimes you and I, we need
to get in God's presence so we can see from God's perspective
how he's dealing with these things, because we can be from
an earthly perspective and wringing our hands while he who
sits in the heavens looks down and laughs.
And then he says he holds them in derision.
Derision means to mock them. He puts them in a tight place
they can't get out of and he he mocks them in their rebellion.
These kings of the earth that are trying to rule and to, you
know, to rebel against God. Now we need to understand that
this Psalm was first. There's there's really three
applications for this Psalm. And if we jump to the obvious
New Testament one, we will miss the other two and some very
valuable things that God has for us in Psalm chapter 2.
And what I mean is this it was originally written to king.
It was a encounter that King David had, OK, And it was
written about David. And when he says, As for me,
he's saying he's reiterating to you and I what he heard in a
throne room encounter with God. He heard God say this, As for
me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.
And that is he's he's saying that in response to the
rebellious kings of the earth saying we're not going to obey
God. And God's laughs cast him in
derision. And then he says to them,
listen, As for me, I've set my king on Zion on my holy hill.
And God is speaking to these kings through David.
And David is the king that he set there.
Now, why is that important for us?
Because you and I, we have a tendency to interpret this
solely as a messianic Psalm. And it is, OK, it's a messianic
Psalm. But it is first and foremost was
spoken of a human king named David.
And this is very important because there's also an
application for the Church of Jesus Christ who are seated with
him in heavenly places. And if we just reduce it to a
messianic Psalm, we reduce it to poetry about Jesus ministry
rather than realizing that God was enforcing the rule of this
earthly king and he was in, he's also enforcing the rule of his
heavenly king that sits on the seat of David in the heavenly
realms. And we are seated with him and
we have a role to play in this thing.
OK, so it says that God is going to cast them in derision.
Let's let's look there. I'm sorry, let's let's make sure
So you know I'm not making this up.
Turn with me. Chapter 2 of Psalm, the second
Psalm. And I want to tie this in with
what we've been talking about in Revelation.
So look what he says he look at verse four.
He sits in the heavens, laughs, he holds them in derision, Then
he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify of them in his
fear. He's saying in verse 6, this is
what he says to them. As for me, in other words, the
one who sits on the throne of the universe, the epicenter of
governmental rule for all the cosmos.
As for me, I've set my king in Zion on my holy hill, and he's
telling these, these kings of the earth.
Listen, you better come come to terms with this because that's
the one I've chosen. I will tell of the decree, David
said. So David saying what I heard in
this encounter, I'm going to tell you what I heard the Lord
said to me. David, you are my son today I've
begotten you. We were talking in the school
about how this idea of royal sonship is all through the
ancient world. OK, royal sonship.
Sonship was the idea that a king, an earthly king, was a
earthly representative of the God which they worshipped.
We know that was true and and so they were known as the son of
God. Pharaoh was known as the son of
Rah, their God Rah Caesar was known as the son of God and
eventually became the embodiment of God himself on earth.
And so this was an ancient idea that Jesus steps in and he is
the son of God who is the embodiment of God on planet
earth. He came to bring his Kingdom.
All of that is very important. And here's the thing, we can
look back at these people and say, oh, these ignorant,
unenlightened, superstitious people that thought these human
kings were the representative of the God they worshipped.
But be careful with that because it very well maybe well, it it's
not very well maybe it the fact is they understood the alliances
between the physical realm and the spiritual realm far beyond
what most evangelicals, modern Christians do that they're there
that the spiritual realm. There are rulers in the
spiritual realm that seek to make alliances and coalitions
with earthly rulers and then their will can be manifest
through those kingdoms. Are you tracking with me?
So when we talk about principalities, these
principalities, there's a reason that when Daniel was praying 21
days and on the 21st day of his fast, the Angel shows up a
little rough for where and says from the day you started
praying, I, I, I came to you, the Lord sent me to bring you
the message you were praying for, but I was held up in the
heavenlies by the Prince of Persia.
It's where Daniel was praying. He was in Persia and he was
having to battle this spiritual darkness.
The the hesitancy, the the delay was not on God's end, nor was it
on Daniel's end. Daniel was determined to pray
through God sent it the day he began to pray the delay, the
battle was in the heavenly realms.
And so when we see this ancient idea, it's that they were, they
had much more perception because they were nearer to the
inception of God's design, that God meant for heaven and earth
to function together. And so this counterfeit of these
people being in these alliances was what David was addressing
here. So God says through David, you
are my son, you are my earthly representative, I've adopted you
as a son, and you are my representative on the earth, the
Most High God, and you are to press my crown rights and I'm
going to rule through you and bring these kings under
subjection tracking with me. So that's what's going on here.
Now look at what he says. Ask of me, and I will make the
nation's your inherit, your heritage, and the ends of the
earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod
of iron, dash them in pieces like a Potter's vessel.
And then now David declares. This is David declaring to these
kings. Now therefore, O kings, be wise,
be warned. O rulers of the earth, serve the
Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the sun, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way.
For his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all take refuge in him.
And originally this was David Speaking of himself and saying,
hey, surrender on the front end. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,
and you perish in the way. But we know it's a messianic
Psalm of Jesus. But you and I, there are, there
are, this is a template by which God operates in the earth that
applies to the New Testament. We're enthroned with him.
And so God expects us to be involved in this process of God
enforcing his will on the earth through prayer and through
worship. Worship is a key part of this.
It's not just us getting in our prayer closet and praying alone,
and it's not even just a corporate prayer meeting.
There is a, an environment in which when we begin to worship
him that literally he enthroned himself in our worship.
Psalm 22 says, and, and the context we've talked about this
before, but this is crucial. So we're just going to kind of
reiterate some things this morning because I'm trying to
kind of frame this up for us so that we understand what we're
partaking of. Psalm 22 where it says you
enthrone yourself in the praise of Israel.
It literally means to be seated, but when God sits down, it's a
throne. There's a Japanese version of
that verse that says whenever God's people prays, they carry a
chair in which God sits upon. So in a very real sense, worship
is a chair that we all commit to.
Hey, let's grab the chair this morning.
Let's put it on our shoulders and let's bring it into the
sanctuary and let's set it down and let's welcome.
Lord, we invite you to sit upon the throne.
Because when you see you're seated now, Lord, we invite you
to begin to extend your scepter and change circumstances.
And it's got to be beyond just our own lives, OK?
It's not Lord, I'm struggling with this change that
circumstance. That's fine.
That's good. God really does care about you
as an individual. But there's something higher
he's called us to, and that is corporate worship for corporate
intercession to deal with regional and national and
international issues. And that is that is the the
privilege of all the Saints, the honor of all the Saints we're
going to see in Psalm 149 turn there.
So this is this is the second Psalm.
He introduces this in this praise manual, this hymnal of
the people of Israel. And, and again, I want to
reiterate this, this is very, very important that these hymns
were not just poetry that creative people wrote.
They are literally the records of the psalmist seers that
recorded went through scribes, their encounters, not just so
that we can look back and think, oh, that's neat that they got to
encounter those things. It's so that they would leave
the trail for you and I so that you and I could enter into the
same. This is the honor of all the
Saints. This isn't just for the special
few. We are enthroned with Him in
heavenly places and God wants us to ascend the hill of the Lord
and be brought into those encounters.
Because in those encounters you will receive things that you
need, that without them your life will not work as God
intended. If all that we have is our human
learning, we be in trouble. If if all we have is what we we
can study ourselves into, we're in trouble.
We need something beyond our human wisdom.
We need the Intel of heaven that God breaks in and gives us
directives. We need the mind of Christ.
And when we have that, then things change.
And so these are the, if you read the Psalms, you have to
come to the conclusion they're either just pretty poetry or
these are supernatural encounters of the seers, the
psalmists. David was called a prophet,
Asaph was a prophet. Scripture says one of the
authors of the Psalms and these prophets, the Old Testament
criteria for being a prophet. You'll see this phrase.
Yeah. He stood in the counsel of the
Lord COUNCIL. Standing in the counsel of the
Lord, many scholars believe, was the criteria.
That was the qualification to be a prophet.
And all of us as a new covenant people are, are invited to stand
in the counsel of the Lord as the ecclesia.
It's a very similar word and very similar idea when you look
at what the the Old Testament lays out.
It's not that God needs counsel, COUNSEL, but God is a team
player. He really does like to share his
authority. It's an amazing thing.
It's one of the most intriguing things to me about God that he
includes us. He does not need us.
In fact, like a father who wants to have his son working with
him. Hey, son, let's work on the car.
And now you know that it's going to take three times as long to
fix what you're going to fix because you got the little guy
over there and he's dropping things and he's using the wrong
right. You're trying to bring him
along. But God is good with that.
He could get there a lot faster on his own.
But he said no, Come on. Why don't you go work with me
today? When I worked at Teen Challenge,
we would have Randy, you remember this having wake up and
that meant you had to show up really early and wake all the
guys up and and you'd walk down the dorm.
All right, guys, get up. Come on, we're going to go, you
know, and they'd have to go to then they'd go down.
You'd do Med call and all that stuff.
And when my boys were really little, they'd say, Dad, can I
go to work with you today? And they'd they're a little MIT
in my hand and they'd be telling these grown men get out of bed.
Come on, it's time to get up, man.
Come on, guys, they're little. One day I took my little boy,
one of my little boys, I don't even remember which one, but he
was walking with me and saying, and the Lord said, that's how I
want you to be. I want every day.
Do you get up, say, Dad, can I go to work with you today?
That my tiny little voice and my little MIT in his big old hand
and I'm bossing things around in the earth.
So I got a big dad. And so God invites us to go to
work with him. It's an amazing thing.
He can get it done a whole lot faster without us, but he set up
a system that he will not do it without us and we cannot do it
without him. And this partnership between
heaven and earth is crucial. So Psalm 149, let's look at it.
Oh my goodness, it's quarter tail praise the Lord sing to the
Lord a new song that's a prophetic song.
It literally in the Hebrew, it's a song that's never been heard
that in the moment you hit you hit pay dirt and you begin to
release the now of God, the heart of God, his praise in the
assembly that Septuagint translates that ekklesia of the
God and let Israel be glad in his maker.
Let the children of Zion rejoice in their king.
This theme of Zion you keep seeing come up and there's in
the New Testament, Zion is the Kingdom.
It's the seat of God's governmental rule.
Let them praise him with dancing, making melody with him
to him with tambourine and lyre. Listen to what he's saying here.
This is not just this casual, you know, kind of half mast, you
know, Lord, we thank you. We're talking full body worship.
We're, we're talking using our body as a weapon and an
instrument to glorify him, though that stuff matters to the
Lord because it's you engaging your whole heart.
We, we and some of you are more reserved than others.
You know, I, I don't dance before the Lord as much as I
used to because I, I just can't get the air I used to.
And then when I stop, my body keeps doing it for a few seconds
like, well, that was embarrassing.
I know that ally's down there. Too much information, pastor,
too much information. I always I I got.
I need to put a camera on ally when I preach and then go back
and look at the the time mark and oh, I should never say that
again because of Ally's response.
Anyway, I digress. So but the fact is we need to
use our bodies as instruments of worship.
That really does matter to the Lord.
A matter of fact it there's a reason the psalmist said they
dancing he he crowns the humble with salvation because it's
humbling. I wasn't a good dancer, but you
know when I was out in the world man.
So anyways, I digress. So let let them praise him with
dancing for the Lord takes pleasure in his people.
He adorns the humble with salvation.
Now look at this verse 6. Let the high praise.
This is what Josh was talking about.
Let the high praise of God be in their throats and A2 edged sword
in their hand. We know that the sword of the
Lord is the word of God and we wield it.
A sword is not. He's not talking about using it
to cut bread or you know, do work on your house.
A sword is a weapon of warfare where we release the word of the
Lord to move things in the environment.
And there's a dynamic of the high praise that we enter into
when that happens. And so this, this is a warfare
mindset when we enter into worship, Worship is not always
warfare, but there are times it is.
And it's we catch the catch the heart of the Lord and we begin
to make these declarations that really do matter in the earth,
that God begins to move things and shift things.
And we need to develop a sensitivity in these this
environment when we're worshipping, that we hit those
those platforms of authority. We're going to begin to release
things over our families, over our children, over our
grandchildren, over our nation, over the governmental structure,
over our city, that we begin to release the word of the Lord
because it carries power. And we are subjecting the enemy
to the truth of God and pressing the crown rights of King Jesus
over those situations. And things have to move.
And so it's very, very important for us to understand this.
Otherwise we treat everything like it's an intimacy moment.
And then intimacy is foundational.
I'm, I'm not in any way minimizing that.
I'm just saying that there's other elements to this thing
that we need to be aware of. So what does he say?
What what is the purpose? Verse 7, to execute vengeance on
the nation's. And it is fascinating.
He mentions the same four groups of people he talked about in
Psalm 2. So in Psalm 2 he says they're
rebelling and they're saying I'm not going to submit to God's
rule. And in chapter 149, the second
of the last Psalm, he shows that you and I have a part to play
when he brings them into subjection.
What is that part? To execute vengeance on the
nation's punishment, on the people's, to bind their kings
with chains and their nobles with federal of iron.
To execute upon them the judgment written.
This is the honor for all his godly ones praise the Lord and
primarily what we're dealing with are those spiritual
realities those rulers and principalities and powers.
But there is a place where God will he will hem in a world
ruler. He'll muzzle them and turn them.
We talked about it a few weeks ago, Hall Hitler, when he came
out of his meeting with Chamberlain, he he confided in
his counselors and he was frustrated.
He said for the first time I didn't obey the voice and even
told Chamberlain in the meeting, he said, I don't know why I'm
giving you what you want. And we look back at that meeting
as an abject failure. And there's good reason too.
But there were some things that the Lord did secure in that
because of the prayers of the Saints, and it gave Britain a
little bit of time to build up their armament.
And although that was Chamberlain was suckered into a
deal and believed he'd secured peace when he hadn't, God used
that. And Hitler went against the
voice that he said he had followed since childhood.
There was a demonic counselor living within him and that would
violate the counsel of his his advisors and, and he'd win again
and again. And they were, they were just so
intrigued by how does this guy have this military brilliance
that goes counter intuitive to what we always tell them.
And it was the prayers of the Saints that begin to put a
harness in his mouth and steer him in the way that God wanted
him to go. And you and I need to pray for
world leaders, pray for our king, pray for our president,
pray for the kings of the earth. And we need to catch the word of
the Lord and get what God is saying and then begin to pray
that stuff. Because the real seat of power
in the universe is the throne room.
And the church in heaven, it's God's throne room.
And on earth, it's the Church of Jesus Christ.
And if we abdicate our role, things will veer off contrary to
what God wants. And so we need to understand the
high and exalted position that he's given us, not in an
arrogant sense, but with great humility that Lord, don't let us
shirk this responsibility. We are going to steer this thing
in prayer and our president needs our prayer.
Nathan, as a prophet of God, made a mistake and gave his king
this council. Do whatever's in your heart, God
be with you. And then the Lord corrected the
prophet Nathan and he had to circle back around and say,
actually, that was me. This is the word of the Lord.
And we we're not called to endorse everything any
candidate, any president says because we're we're above that.
We are speaking from heaven. And so we need to speak into
those things, the word of the Lord.
And there are times where on earthly president will make bad
decisions and we need to steer them.
And so the prayers are not just to get people in and out of
office. The prayers are to shepherd them
while they're there. This is an hour for Daniels,
those who hear the word of the Lord and speak into the halls of
power. Even if you don't have direct
access, spiritually speaking, we can pray in these things.
Amen. OK, I say all that, turn to
Revelation 5 and we're just going to go on into the second
server. I'm just kidding.
I really would like to Revelation chapter 5.
So we talked about this two weeks ago, but I want it.
I want it again. I want to stress this that there
is in chapter 3, the final church that John has a message
for the Church of Laodicea. What does he say right at the
end, verse 19, chapter 3, To those, those whom I love, I
reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent.
So he's dealing with their hearts.
And then he says this, this famous verse, Behold, I stand
and at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and
opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me.
So there's a feast on the other side of this invitation.
There's a door that you and I control.
He descends and he comes to us. And he says, listen, I'm
knocking on your heart. I want to deal with some things.
And when you feel the dealings of God, there is the promise in
this verse of a feast of revelation that God has for you.
If we respond, the famous painting of this, we've all seen
it where Jesus is at the wooden door.
And if you look at that picture, there's no handle, no lock on
the outside. All the mechanism is on the
interior, because you and I control that door.
It's the door of intimacy. We must respond to Him.
But there's another door. The next passage, Revelation 4.
After this, I looked and behold, a door standing open in heaven.
And so there are these two doors.
There's the door on our heart that you and I have to respond
to. And this is the door of
intimacy. And God wants to develop that
intimacy with us. But here's what we need to
catch, that there's more than mere intimacy.
It's not just about you getting saved and getting close to
Jesus. That is awesome.
Again, we could worship for eternity just on that one thing.
But He's not merely come to fellowship with you.
He wants you to come up and ascend the hill of the Lord.
And from there He wants you to rule and reign with Him.
And that isn't a someday thing. It's a right now thing.
And we do it through intercession and worship,
prophetic intercessory worship. And so this other door is
already open. Now the fact is, if we don't
open the first door, we're never going to be entrusted with the
second door. If we don't lay that groundwork
and develop an intimate relationship with the Lord, then
you'll never begin to step into the things that God wants you to
do in the earth, that God has given you authority.
You are seated in heavenly places with him.
We are whatsoever we bind on earth to be bound in heaven,
whatsoever we loose on earth to be loosed in heaven.
And so we're we're called to operate with the Lord in these
matters, but we have to have that groundwork of intimacy.
And so listen to what he says here in chapter 3.
He says I will come in and eat with him and he with me.
Verse 21, the one who conquers, I will grant with him, grant to
him to sit on my throne as I conquered and sat down with my
Father on his throne. He was an ear.
Let him hear what the Spirit would say to the churches.
So as we develop that intimacy with them, then we're taken into
the throne. I mean, listen what it says or
one after this, I looked and behold, a door standing open in
heaven. He didn't see that door.
He it it was it was once he was he delivered the message about
the personal door that all of a sudden, behold, he saw a door in
heaven. And there was a voice saying,
come up here and I will show you what must take place after this.
That word must is an interesting word day.
It's DEI day. That's what the that's how you
spell it in the Greek and transliteration to be necessary,
to be unavoidably determined by prior circumstances, something
understood with the contingency. What follows is, is the
revelation of a necessity. So when John hears this, he
says, the Lord said, come up here and I will show you what
must soon take place. And what transpires after that
is the revelation of something that is a necessity that God
needs to release on the earth. OK, The activity and order of
events laid out in John's experience reveal throne room
protocol to instruct us. We said, again, it's not just
the events that we read about and oh, this is end time
affairs. This is neat.
No, there are there are traces of throne room protocol that we
must not rush over because when we understand the order of these
events, when we understand what's going on here, you and I
can enter into the same. There is a protocol to these
types of matters. If you want to operate in what
God's called you to, We need to be very sensitive to how God has
laid things out. So look at chapter 5.
Then I saw in the right hand of so John.
Verse 3 chapters he delivers to the seven churches.
Chapter 4, he's invited to the upper.
He's invited to go into the a throne room encounter.
He begins to describe all that he's seeing around and then
chapter 5, then I saw so there's again and again you'll see
behold and then behold and then and those words are the triggers
to show when the scene changes. It's like John, suddenly there's
a reason that God has the then there because these things were
inaccessible prior. And you and I need to take very
careful attention to this because there are certain things
that must be in place before we can next move into the then.
Does that make sense? So there's certain things you've
got to fulfill the criteria to trigger the then.
And so John then sees this scroll in the Lord's hand
written with, within and on the back sealed with 7 seals.
And I saw mighty Angel proclaiming with a loud voice
who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals.
And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to
open the scroll or look into it. There have been several songs as
of late written out of this passage that we tend to like
around here. And I would propose to you,
there's a reason we like those because it's speaking to a deep
sense of what we're called to. I'm talking about the cross, the
body of Christ. There's a reason that these
songs are being written right now because they're crucial at
these these pivotal moments in human history where there are
the battles for the Thrones of the earth.
God has to have a praying, worshipping bride that can
release his edicts and what we what was in his hand.
And the rest of the book bears this out.
It was a scroll with 7 seals. And what that scroll contained
were God's judgment against all opposition to his purposes on
the earth. Think about that.
Set aside all your eschatology for a moment and realize that
there Psalm 149 says we carry out the sentence written against
them. Psalm 2 talks about the edicts
and Revelation 5 says there's a scroll in God's hand.
God the most the the all powerful being, he who sat on
the throne had a scroll. It was his purposes.
He told he he he communicated through an Angel to John.
These are the things that must take place, but yet they were in
his hand and they had to be opened.
And John begins to wail because no one was found worthy in
heaven and earth or under the earth.
There was this eruption in John, this grief.
We've got to release God's purposes in the earth.
You look at the massacre happening in some of the African
nations right now with Christians and there needs to be
an eruption. God, we've got to release your
purposes in the earth. We've got to when we look at
what what's happening in our school system and them catering
to the the a mental illness and encouraging children to, you
know, side with these misconceptions about themselves
and surgically alter their bodies.
There needs to be something within us and in great grief
that says God, we've got to release your purposes in the
earth. We've got to release your
purposes in the earth. And here's the thing that that
that scroll was not released until John began to weep, and
then the Lamb stepped forward. And I would propose to you that
it's the tears of the Saints that released the Gears of War
in Heaven that causes God to begin to unreleased his
purposes. And he cannot entrust that level
of authority to a people who will not be broken with tears.
If we're not willing to cry over these things, then he cannot
release to us the authority to deal with them.
This, this level of authority and this what God wants to do
must be wielded by a hand connected to a broken heart that
we have compassion and we're broken for the brokenness of
humanity. Go ahead and stand.
So you know I'm going to quit. I, I was, I was thinking about
this again and years ago when we were in the old building, there
was a young man that I don't know who he was, but he, he said
he, he was passing through, came to a Saturday night service,
enjoyed it, came up to me after the service and he shared
something with me. He said, I go to Joel and Linda
Budds Church in Tulsa. At the time I didn't know Joel
and Linda, but I, I knew of them.
And he said, he said, our pastors, Joel and Linda shared
something with me, but I feel like I need to share with you
before I leave. And I don't know if it was Joel
that had this vision or if it was someone that had spoken at
their church, but they were talking about how the Lord in
this vision, the Lord invited them into this little sphere of
a room and there were two chairs in it.
And the Lord took one of the chairs in it and invited whoever
had this vision to sit next to him.
And he closed the door and there was it was like a sphere.
And there was this window on the front.
And they it right outside was the the world spinning.
And he said the Lord just began to weep as he watched the world
and he wept over the world. And then he just joined the Lord
and they wept over the world as the world turns and just they,
they sat. And he said it went on for quite
some time, like, you know, an hour, 2 hours, they just swept
over the world. And all of a sudden the Lord
looked at him and reached over and opened a door that prior to
that he didn't know was there, opened it.
And then they climbed through. The Lord invited him to follow.
And they were in this massive room, and in this room was like
a library. There were maps, reconnaissance
maps and and computer screens with reconnaissance.
And it was the strategy room of Heaven.
And the message of the vision was this.
Only those who are willing to weep over the world are granted
access to the strategy room of Heaven.
Listen, there is a there are scrolls right now.
There are edicts already written.
There are there are things that are in the hand of God that he
longs to release upon the earth. But there is a royal protocol to
this thing that he does not just do it on his own.
He's looking for the the the invitation from the earth.
He's looking for a people who will ascend the hill of the Lord
and in worship catch the heart of God and weep over the world.
And God longs to release some of those things right now.
But he's got to find those people.
He's looking for those who will be broken for the things of this
world. Even for our families.
There is something about travail.
It's one thing to pray for your kids, your spouse, your parents.
It's one thing to pray for them. It's another thing when there's
a brokenness and you enter into that place of travail, that
weeping things begin to move because you've caught the heart
of God. So Father, this morning, Lord, I
ask God that you would. Lord, I ask that you would grant
us travail. Lord, roll out the weapon of
travail in this hour. Man, I feel that I have been
praying that for us for 20 years now, but I feel like God wants
to roll out the cannons of travail.
Just put your heart hands out to the Lord, and if you can pray
this, I want you to do so. Lord, we present ourselves
before you. Lord, we're asking God that you
receive our hearts as your habitation.
Lord, we open the door, come in. But Lord, we want to come up.
Lord, it's not good enough for you just to merely enter the
door of our heart. And we're so grateful, Lord, but
God, we want to fulfill your purposes, Lord.
Give us tears to cry for this hour, Lord.
Lord, find in US a people through whom you can enforce
your will, through whom you can press the crown rights of King
Jesus on the properties of planet earth in Jesus name.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Lord.
Thank you, Lord, thank you Lord, I just want to encourage you,
take that this morning. Reach out and grab that.
There's an impartation for those with the faith to grab it that
we're presenting ourselves saying, God, I'm asking you to
begin to break my heart for these things.
Lord, bring us into a higher plane of prayer, a higher place
where we can begin to see your purposes established in the
earth. I'm going to ask the prayer team
to come forward and stand across the front.
If you need prayer this morning, you may just want to come and
kneel and pray about. Just allow the Lord to do a work
in your heart. But I want to encourage you what
I just felt. Don't.
I don't know what you felt, but don't just kind of move off this
thing. God is wanting to give us
something. He's wanting to impart.
I'm telling you, the eyes of the Lord are looking to and fro for
those He can entrust with his heart, his burden.
Not just his mind, but his heart.
His mind without his heart often makes for harsh reactions to
others, but his heart with his mind will cut through things if
you need to. If you need prayer this morning,
the altars are open. If you need to get right with
the Lord this morning, if you're saying, man, I need to, I need
to surrender, refresh. It might be something you've
done before. It might be something you've
never done, but you're saying I want to surrender to Jesus.
I want you to raise your hand. We want to pray for you this
morning. Everyone of us have had to do
that at some time. You're saying I want to
surrender to Jesus. I want to get right with God
this morning. Want to make sure I see your
hand this morning. We want to give you that
opportunity that you're going to step over the line saying, God,
I'm signing up. I want to walk with you.
All right, listen, the altars are open if you need prayer.
God bless you. I love you.
Have a great week.