Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

Transcription

1 What is up party people in the place to be? I hope you are having a great weekend. We are so glad that you are here with us. Like Dave said, we ve been in this series on Revelation. So, if you have your Bible with you, you can head over to Revelation 6 and 7. If you didn t bring one, there are a few in the seat backs in front of you. If you do not own one, please do not leave here without one. You can either take the one in the seat back, or you can stop by Connection Central on your way out this morning and if you have our church app, there s a Bible on that. Moral of the story we want you to have a Bible. So, don t leave here without one. Now, before we dive into Revelation chapters 6 and 7, let me ask you a question. Raise your hand if you love roller coasters. Anybody in here love roller coasters? You are my people! I love roller coasters. I love when one gets up to the top of the hill and the bottom drops out. I love feeling like my stomach is in my throat. I love the rattling back and forth. I even love the click, click, click, click, click all the way to the top of the hill. I m convinced that that s not necessary that s just for dramatic effect - click, click, click, click, click. A few weeks ago, my family and I went to Disney World. And, we have toddlers so our week was full of tea cups, and a small world, and crying. So much crying. So many tears. So, we re doing a kid kind of deal and it s a lot of fun living it through their eyes. But one night, my brother Jody and I decided to break away and do the Tower of Terror. Tower of Terror got to do the Tower of Terror. What it is it s one of those where they take you up really high and they let you see how high you are and then it just drops whooom! So, stomach in the throat. We re just laughing the whole time because we can t scream because we re guys. So, we just laugh to mask our fear. And so we re dropping and we re laughing the whole time. We get to see the TV screen with our picture our terrified faces. And then, as we are walking out, I see that one unfortunate soul did not enjoy the trip as much as the rest of us. And she had misplaced her $15.00 Mickey waffles on the floor she did not enjoy it. And it was like one of those slow motion scenes. I can see it coming but I can t stop Jody in time nooooo, boom. Steps right in it. Right in the whole deal. Nothing is more fun than roller coasters nothing is grosser than stepping in puke. That s what happened to Jody. What happens in this series on Revelation now in the first five chapters we ve been on the way up the hill, click, click, click, click, click. In chapter one, God invites John the apostle John into heaven. He gets this behind the scenes look at what it s like to be God, and how He hangs out, and who He hangs with awesome, going up the hill. And then in the next few chapters He s talking to the churches, encouraging some, reprimanding others, go up the hill. And for the last two weeks, we ve been party to seeing some worship services in heaven. We love worship here. We re excited about tonight. We d love Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

2 for you to come back at 6:30. But, there is nothing we can do here that will ever match what happens there. Worship in heaven is amazing, click, click, click, click, click. We are officially at the top of the hill right now. And in chapter 6 we are about to take a nose dive. The bottom is going to fall out of this whole book. We are going to see some really, really scary things. Some dark things. Some things that may even cause fear in us. And by the end of chapter 6 you may feel like that poor, unfortunate soul after the Tower of Terror sick to your stomach. But in chapter 7 the trip will pick us back up and we ll see a picture of Jesus that I think we can all really use right about now. There are a few things that we need to remind ourselves of as we dive back in to the Book of Revelation. Some things that Aaron has taught us so far. One of them is that the apostle John is now in heaven and he s getting a behind the scenes look at what God sees. It s just amazing. All of the colors, all the sounds, and all the imagery. And what John is doing is he is trying to force fit human language into what he sees to help us to understand, but it s very, very difficult. And so he uses things like similes and metaphors. He uses the word like as much as a teenage girl. He s trying his hardest, trying his hardest to make us understand but he often falls short. And so, we re going to see some more similes and metaphors. We re going to see some more imagery that will take a little explaining for us to understand. The second thing we need to be reminded of is that John is talking to a very specific group of people. His letter is for people in the First Century. And if you ve paid any attention at all in history class, the First Century is very different than how we live today. A lot has changed. And so some of the imagery that John uses would have made a lot of sense to his readers, but for us it can often be lost in translation. Here s our opportunity today. We have two choices. In chapter 6 and 7, we can either dive really deeply into the weeds, and get into the details, and try to figure out who these people are, and what they mean, and what it means for American politics in 2012 we could do that. Or, we could stay big picture. Try to stay on main points and what we can learn about Jesus through chapter 6 and 7. So quick poll. Raise your hand if you re really into the weeds you want to get into the details and possibly get a little weird. We ve got a couple of weird people right here. Raise your hand if you re up for staying big picture you want to learn about Jesus and understand what this passage really means. Good, good because that s the only sermon I wrote. I could have been in trouble. So, here we go Revelation chapter 6 and 7. Let s start in verse one. Hang on. Hang on. This is going to be a lot of fun. Here we go. Revelation 6 we re going to read verses 1 8 as a big chunk and then we re going to go back and break it down and try to explain what we see. Here we go. Revelation 6:1 8 says this, Now I watched when the Lamb that s Jesus, opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, Come! And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer. When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, Come! And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword. When He opened the third seal Jesus, I heard the third living creature say, Come! And I looked, and behold, a black Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 2

3 horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine! When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, Come! And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth. So, I told you this is going to get weird. It s going to get a little confusing. But, it s why we re going to dive in and try to explain a few of these things. In chapter 5 we left off when a scroll had been presented. Written on back and forth, the scroll has some information. And there were seven seals on the scroll. Now, seals in that day were not meant to prevent people from reading it but more to say, This is who it is from. The seals indicate who this is from. So, kings would have a seal and they would seal a scroll and that way you would know who was giving you this information. Now, we have a scroll with seven seals and Jesus is the only One who can open those seals. This is from God. In the first image, we see a rider on a white horse. And in John s imagery he s describing to us the idea of military conquest. Military conquest. The first four seals represent the destructive forces that have and will continue to tear down the earth around us. Number one is military conquest. Now from the days when nations began there has always been feuding. Neighboring nations, for differing reasons, have been in fights. Sometimes the reasons may have been philosophical. Other times the reasons may have been differing religions. And then there are other times when a political or a military leader would say, I want more, so I m going to get more. I want to expand my borders. I want to have a larger territory. So I m going to make my power and my influence greater by invading other countries. The white horse with a bow would have reminded the Roman readers of their neighbors to the east the Parthians. The Parthians rode white horses and wore white outfits and wore masks that looked like locust and they were skilled archers. They were high level warriors who would ride their horses into battle and shoot their arrows at the same time. That is not warfare 101. That is some advanced level stuff right there. And so Jesus opens the first seal and John describes this white horse that represents military conquest. Which leads to our second horse, it s red. That horse represents war and bloodshed. The rider on that horse was cast with the responsibility of removing the peace. So he was the instigator. He picked fights. So you have neighboring countries and if they re at peace then no one is going to fight. So the red horse shows up and now he s removing the peace from those nations so that they will war and conquest can happen. If you ve been around human beings for very long you know it doesn t take long for people to get riled up. I was reading this article here found it on Twitter yesterday. I just want to read it to you. This is from the Ohio State University campus police. Just listen to this incident. A male student reported assault Tuesday after getting in a physical confrontation with another male student at Jurassic Tower. The fight occurred after the second student made a vulgar comment about Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 3

4 the smell of the first student s pizza rolls. To which he responded with a vulgar comment about the smell of the second student s Chinese food. It gets better. Next, student two asked student one if he was making fun of his country. Get this. Both students involved are from China. Student two said that student one responded with a statement which means let s fight in Chinese. Student one denied the statement and said that what he said actually means fruit in Chinese. Got to come up with a better line, my man. Not good. No one s buying that. No criminal charges are being filed but both made it clear that they did not like each other. That is very clear. Thank you, that is A+ journalism right there. It doesn t take much for us to get in fights. The red horse shows up I m not saying that this incident was the red horse s fault. That might have been some immaturity. But, pizza rolls, Chinese food where are you from, your mom is this it doesn t take much for us to get in fights. And that s the red horse s job. For the white horse to accomplish conquest, the red horse has to show up and remove the peace. And there is war and there is bloodshed. The next seal the third seal is the logical outcome of the first two. The rider is on a black horse and he s carrying scales with him. And the scales would have measured things, whether it is food, or products, or money whatever it is they would measure things. So the black horse represents famine and economic collapse. So first, you have someone in the mode of conquest, then they start a war and history tells us that the natural outcome of war is what? Economic collapse. Because it s expensive to go to war. And it takes money. So those at home are hit the hardest. Now, the price that was being called out from heaven was a denarius for a quart of wheat and a denarius for three quarts of barley. And for us, that can get lost in translation but here s what that means. A denarius was what one person would earn in a day. That would be their day s wage. And a quart of wheat would have been a day s food. And so that represents inflation. Now, all they can make in a day went straight into their mouths. There was no savings account, there was no home. And then you ll notice this small little detail that comes out. It says don t harm the oil and the wine. If you had to guess, who do you think was consuming the most oil and wine at home well it was the rich. The rich weren t affected by the war, it was the poor. The people who could afford it the least were hit the hardest. Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 4

5 So, we have the white horse of conquest, the red horse of war and bloodshed, and the black horse of famine and economic collapse. And the final horse is the pale horse or it can even be described as a green horse. Maybe you ve seen someone with a bad case of stomach flu or they have something going on with them and they turn pale or almost a greenish color. And all you want to do is get as far away from them as possible. But they re your kids, and you re their dad, and so you re supposed to help. The fourth horse is the horse of disease and death. Disease and death. So when you can t afford the necessary food or medicines then what happens? You get sick and you die. So, here are these four horsemen who show up and wreak havoc on our world. Now, it s important to realize that, as we read, with each and every one of these horses God is still in control. And that may seem surprising to us. It seems like Jesus opens the seal and is surprised himself as to what was coming, like a jack-in-the-box here comes a white horse, red horse, black horse, and pale horse. But in fact, as you read the account God is actually the One calling the shots. He is limiting the influence of the evil that shows up. And so He tells the white horse it cannot really do anything until He says, come. He opens the seal and the living creature says, come. So they don t even show up on the scene unless God allows it. For the white horse, Jesus provides the crown of authority. Without that crown, he could do nothing. For the red horse, He gives the sword. For the black horse, He calls the prices from heaven. The black horse isn t deciding that. And to the green horse He only gives him a quarter of the earth to influence. So, yes evil exits. And, yes, it is present in our world. But God tells us that there is balance. He is the One in control. He has things under wraps. He tells them what they are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to do. God is still in control. A lot of times when we read about these four horsemen or this account in Revelation, we often think that this is some sign of the apocalypse. This is something to look out for in the future and this will be how we know that the world is ending. But in reality, what John is describing in these first four seals is describing our history. This is us. As human beings, as mankind this has been our story. It s been a story of conquest, and war, and economic collapse, and death. That s us. That s what we do. The Biblical commentator, Darrell Johnson, says God s wrath is actually less about Him hurling thunderbolts at us and more of Him taking His hands off of the wheel and telling us that if we want to play god have at it. We want to be in control, we think we have this figured out, we think we are greater than God, He tells us to have at it, it s all ours. And the natural outcome will be conquest, and war, economic collapse, and death. That s what happens when man is in control. This is not just on a national level, this is not just global affairs, this is more like my life. As a naturally selfish person, I want more than what I have, I want what he has. And, I ve been taught from a very early age that the only way of getting that is conquest. I m going to take it from him the white horse. And then the red horse shows up in my life when I think that cooperation isn t going to do it, it has to be competition and conquest I m going to take it from him. And then, all of a sudden, I have luxuries and abundance, instead of necessities and scarcities. I have all of the things that I didn t really need but Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 5

6 nothing that I really did the black horse. And then, I m surprised when my emotional, and spiritual, and even physical health fails. This is my story. This is your story. This is the story of sin in us. This is our history. But, God is still in control. Let s move on to the fifth seal. It s in verses It says this, When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before You will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. So, Jesus opens the fifth seal and John is able to see an altar. An altar would have been a table where they made sacrifices. Now, why would people be living under a table? That just seems odd. It s really symbolic. It means that the martyrs were sacrifices for Jesus. They were sacrificing their lives, literally their breath, their next day. They sacrificed that for Jesus. And in the Old Testament when they would have killed an animal the blood would have pooled underneath the altar and that s where these martyrs live. And they have this very reasonable question. A question you and I might ask. They ask, How long, God? They lost their lives and it was unjust. They felt the wrath of conquest, war, economic collapse, and death. That was them, they suffered those. How long before God makes this right? How long before God makes their death not for nothing? And God tells them that He is in control hold on, wait. He gives them white robes and comforts them. And for us, when we think of martyrs who have lost their lives for their faith, we usually have to imagine this far off place, a distant country where religious persecution is real, and it is today. There are more people dying for their faith today than there were in this First Century. That s very, very real. But for John s readers, this would have been extremely personal. This would have been their co-worker, their fellow church member. It would have been their mom, their dad, their son, or their spouse. So now, they know that they are being taken care of they are in the presence of God who is in control. Now let s finish out this sixth seal. Here s what it says in verses 12 17, When He opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood notice the likes like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand? The sixth seal is opened and here we see the end of the world. This is the destruction of all creation, the sky is rolled up like a scroll, and the stars fall, and all of the mountains, and the islands, and everything that we can see, and touch, and feel is now gone. Destroyed. And everyone is affected by the sixth seal. Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 6

7 Earlier in the study of Revelation we discussed that many of the numbers in Revelation are symbolic. And the number seven represents completion or totality. Now, if you ll notice here how many people groups does John describe as affected by the sixth seal? Well he says the great ones, the generals, the rich, the powerful, and everyone slave and free that s seven. He s saying, everyone. No one is exempt from the sixth seal. And do you see who he described there? The generals, and the rich ones, and the powerful. He says the people who right now if you were to ask all people who is in control we would probably say these people. We would say the politicians, the CEOs, the athletes, the millionaires, the artists all the people that we glorify here on earth. But, no. We have such limited perspective. God brings us up to His seat He shows us what He sees. Those people are not in control, He is. And they are so terrified when God shows up that they are asking mountains and rocks to fall on them to take them out because they can t handle being in the presence of God. In fact, they ask this really great question who can stand? If the rich can t stand, if the most powerful can t stand, if the one who are in control can t stand then who can possibly stand when Jesus shows up? Great question we re going to answer it in a little bit. Right now, we need to take a pause on our progression here in Revelation and ask this great question that I think most of us, at one point or another, have asked. If God is in control, then why are things so bad? Have you ever asked that? If God is in control like He seems to be in every one of these seals, if He s the One limiting things, if He s the One calling the shots, then why is everything so bad? If you watch the news, or see the violence on TV, or watched the show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo you know this must be the end of the world. There is no other explanation for that television show. Things are falling apart. You haven t seen that show? Google it. Actually don t it s just not worth it. Things are bad. So, how can I reconcile a God who is in control and the way I see the world? How can I reconcile a God who is in control and my personal pain? How can I put those two together? A few weeks ago I got an from a young lady looking for help. She invited one of her friends here on a Sunday morning and it happened to be the sermon on The Politics of Jesus. And Aaron had this really great line about how God can rule the universe with His feet up basically meaning it s not hard for God to be God. God is in control. God created this place, He was not sitting on the edge of His seat waiting for the polls to come in on Tuesday, He wasn t nervous about it. God is God. He is in control. He s got His feet up. It s not hard for Him. But, depending upon the lens through which you see the world that can either be extremely comforting or confounding. Now, if you ve given your life to God and you are in on Jesus, and you love Him, and you trust Him to do the right thing at all times that s greatly comforting, a God who loves me, a God who cares for me. He is in control I can find peace and rest in that. On the flip side, if you re someone who is not sure how they feel about God of maybe you re just out on God then that idea of God being in control can be really frustrating. Because you see what s on the news, you see what s in your friends lives, you can feel it yourself how can God be in control? Why would a gigantic storm hit a city of millions of people and wipe them out? Why would that happen? And why would dictators like Stalin and Hitler ever be allowed to rise to power? Why would that happen? And why would that accident happen because of that drunk driver? Why would I lose my job, and why do I hurt so badly if God is in control? Really, when we ask that question, we want to know something else. Yeah, we like to know that God is in control but if He s in control does He care? Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 7

8 It may be that He s in control but maybe He s really bad at it. Or maybe He s in control but He s just a big jerk. Because, it s evident to me in my life that He does not care. Because, hurricanes are unfair. And joblessness is unfair. And infidelity, unfair. And miscarriages are unfair. And Cancer is unfair. And my pain is unfair. So, if He s in control does He care? You just don t know. It seems evident in these seals that He was the One allowing evil. Why would He do that if He s in control? And if you ll hang with me until chapter 7, I think the Bible has a very clear answer on that. If you ll join me in chapter 7, in verses 9 and 10 our perspective changes and John is welcomed back to heaven to see this next cool scene. Revelation 7, verses 9 and 10. It says, After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! So, we are welcomed up to this worship service believe it or not there is still worship happening in heaven. And it s described as this great multitude, a great multitude from everywhere. So that means from Indianapolis, New York, Paris, Tokyo. It means English speaking, and French speaking, and Swahili speaking. It means people with white skin, and brown skin, and yellow skin. It means that heaven the great multitude may not look like me all the time. In fact, it s probably not going to. So, if you have a problem with a particular ethnicity, maybe you make jokes about the way some people look or stereotypes as to who your neighbor is and why you re always in the way with them there s going to be a really big wake up call for you when you get to heaven. Because, not everybody is going to look like you. And not everybody is going to speak English. And not everybody is going to live in the suburbs. It s going to be different very different. And it s possible that the neighbor who annoys you next door he might be there too. And then it s going to get really weird. Heaven is everyone everyone. All of God s creatures. They show up and they have this incredible worship service. They are wearing white which represents victory. And they have palm branches which also represent victory. These are the victorious few. These are the ones who can stand. They show up because they get this one truth salvation belongs to our God. Our God. Salvation alone belongs to our God. And that s something that we wrestle with a ton don t we? That salvation alone belongs to our God. We are a people of choices, we love drive thrus with a thousand options, we love to customize our phones, and our cars, and our homes. We love to be able to choose from a myriad of options. The multitude here says no there is only one choice. Salvation belongs to our God. That s how they get admission into this worship service. They understand that. They accepted Jesus, the Lamb, as their personal Lord and Savior and that s why they are able to show up. Each week we take a pause in the service to take communion. And it s our opportunity to stop, to slow down which is not one of our strengths. And we get to say, Jesus, salvation belongs to You. It s not going to be my good deeds that get me into heaven. It s not going to be my correct choice of five or six different options that will get me into heaven. It s going to be through You alone. We take the bread and the juice and they represent His body and His blood. And we say, Salvation alone belongs to our God. And so, since we are talking about it here in this passage we re going to take a pause on the sermon and we re going to take a moment to take communion together. And then after we re done, we ll finish out chapter seven. It, I promise you, will be the best part of my week to Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 8

9 read this with you guys. It s going to be awesome. But for now, let s take a pause and remember that salvation alone belongs to Our God. Let me pray then I ll invite the ushers. God, this is an incredible moment. The multitude got it right. Even in a fallen world around them, they understood that salvation alone belongs to You. And today, we understand that the world is falling apart around us, but we know that salvation alone belongs to You. We love You. We thank You for Your Son. In His name we pray. Ushers, will you come and then we will finish the sermon up I love that opportunity every week to see what s really important when the world is trying to convince us what it s all about we say no. This is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Salvation alone belongs to Him. We are officially at the bottom of the hill. This is it. And now we re going to be picked back up. Chapter 7, verses 13 14, Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come? I said to him, Sir, you know. And he said to me, These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. I love this. They re in a worship service and John s standing there and he s trying to take it all in. And one of the elders comes over to him and whispers, Hey, John. Do you know what s going on here? It s way too important for me to let this pass by you. You have to understand who these people are. And he goes on to explain that these are the people coming out of the Great Tribulation. Tribulation is a word that in the Greek really just means pressure. The pressure. They felt the pressure, you have felt the pressure. The pressure to make enough money, the pressure to meet expectations, the pressure to be like your brother, the pressure to get the grade, the pressure to get into college, the pressure. And they had felt the pressure of the white horse because someone wanted what they had. And they had felt the pressure of the red horse because the peace had been removed from their lives. They had felt the pressure of the black horse, not knowing where their next meal was going to come from, and they felt the pressure of the pale horse because they had watched their loved ones die, and they had lost their own lives, they had felt the pressure. But notice what they do. Notice what they do. They sing. Now would any of us have blamed them if they were complaining, or moping, or being a little frustrated about this whole deal? I don t think any of us would have held that against them. But when they were in the presence of God that past pain disappeared. They knew that this was what it was all about. They sang in spite of their suffering. Now most of us, in our times of our pain, and our times of frustration, and our times of suffering singing is not our natural reaction. We don t bust out into song. That s not we do. I might sit around and vent, I might call up my friend and say, Can you believe all of these things that are going on with me? But singing would not be my natural reaction. But they sang in the midst of their suffering. Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 9

10 I feel like pain in our world, pain in our lives, can often be like when we get sick. I don t know if you are good at being sick, I am terrible at being sick. Anything less than 99%, I just sit still until I m better. I just cannot be sick. I m terrible at is. Especially if it s a sore throat. A sore throat is my own personal hell. I cannot do it. I hate it so much. And all I do is sit around and think about how much my throat hurts. I don t sit on the couch and say, Wow. Look at my elbow. My elbow is bending and moving check this out. Look at my elbow. No, I m just thinking about how bad my throat hurts. I don t sit there and think, Man. My circulatory system is just killing it right now. I don t have that thought. All I m thinking about is how badly my throat hurts and I want it gone. In our pain, in our season of suffering that s how we can feel isn t it? It s all we can see. It s all I can think about. It consumes me, and it even starts to identify me. It becomes what I m about. And these martyrs, these people who had died for the faith, these people who had felt the pressure now had the Presence of God in front of them and guess what the pain wasn t so bad after all. Their future was worth their struggling and suffering. So, we have the six seals and they have been revealed to us. And then it says this in verses 15 through 17 and this is what I am most excited to read with you guys today this is what it s all about, this is where it really picks up. The elder lays it out beautifully so I ll just get out of the way. Here s what it says, verses of chapter 7, Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will shelter them with His presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their Shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." Man, that s powerful stuff. So the elder comes along to John to say, Hey, look. These people had it really, really bad before they got here but not anymore. They don t have to worry anymore about where they re going to live because God has provided shelter for them. They don t have to worry about their next meal, or where they ll get a drink of water God has that. He s protecting them from any danger, it doesn t exist anymore. And then in a paradoxical turn, the Lamb becomes our Shepherd. Jesus pastors us and He leads us to the thing we need the most the living water. And He wipes every tear from our eyes. It can be said that God provides and Jesus pastors. So back to our original question. If God is in control does He even care? I think the resounding answer is yes! Yes, He cares so much. He is our Pastor and has led us to the living water. God is in control and He cares. That s the piece we miss the most. Some of you showed up this morning with some very real pain. There are things that go on in your world every week and you show up here just looking for something. We know because you tell us in our conversations, and you fill out communicate cards we know the pain is very real. And maybe today you need to know that God is in control and He cares. Three years ago, my wife and I had our first child. It was a really rough pregnancy for Trudy my wife. I felt like we went from conception to contractions she was in labor for seven months. It was really, really hard on her. And they tried to give her medicine to balance it all out, and I was in the corner not even knowing what to say. Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 10

11 Eventually, it was time to have the baby. So we show up at the hospital and we cannot wait to meet our little girl, and Trudy s doing a project for school so she s finishing up work in the delivery bed and I m eating a Chipotle burrito watching the play offs for some reason I really remember that burrito. So we re just doing our thing and it had not even once crossed my mind I knew it was kind of tough on Trudy but it had not really been my pain yet. And so I just thought here we go. Easy, peasy. We get a baby this is going to be awesome. Then, in the middle of the night, the monitor goes off. They had been monitoring the baby s heartbeat. And it had really taken a dive. It went really, dangerously low. And the nurses rushed into the room. I don t know if you ve ever been in a room when that happens, but it is terrifying. And a nurse is standing next to me and she s trying to explain everything that s going on and I m like, Don t talk to me tell her. She s the one who s hurting. Help her. And Trudy looked at me and she s got this oxygen mask on, and I can t do anything. I m just sitting in this chair and I can t help her my wife, I can t help her. I never felt more out of control in my entire life. And then I started praying because that s what you do in moments of stress. I m not very eloquent. I m just saying, God, please help them. Please help them. Please help them. And nothing was happening, they couldn t figure it out. And I went from asking God to telling God, God, You have to help them. I ve waited too long for this. They re mine. My baby, my wife. You cannot take them from me right now. You cannot do that. And eventually it probably took about five minutes but it felt like an eternity they figured it out and they settled everything down. And later that night I held my baby girl on my chest and I heard God loud and clear. He said, Jake, I m in control and I care. I care about your daughter. I care about you. I care about the people who are hurting. I care about cancer, I care about the suffering, I care so much. I don t know where you are but there s a really good chance that there is some pain in your world this morning. You have questions, you have doubts, and you re frustrated, you ve almost given up on God because it doesn t seem like He can get everything together. May I encourage you, maybe there s a perspective that you don t know. Maybe there s a world that we haven t seen, and maybe God is in control. The Bible never explains evil or says why it happens. It just says here are its bounds God is in control and He cares. So this morning, even if you are in a season of pain, I ask that you try singing. We are going to sing in the midst of our suffering. We re going to give it a shot and possibly, possibly by lifting your eyes to Jesus, by lifting your cares to Him, He may provide a perspective that you really need this morning. If you are hurting and you need somebody to talk to and pray with, we will be down front. We d love to hear from you, but first, we re going to sing and lift Jesus high. Let s pray. Hey, God. You are so much bigger, and smarter, and in control than we can ever fully recognize and right now we want to recognize that and we want to release our burdens, and our baggage, and our frustrations and let You have them. And even though it hurts and even though we feel out of control, You are still firmly on the throne. We love you, Jesus. Amen. Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 11