The Lion and the Lamb: The Only One Worthy to Open the Scroll

pray and the church said amen amen while you're having a seat may i give you a warm welcome to journey church my name is keith i'm the lead pastor here and i also want to welcome those watching online from around the world you know we're uh one church with people all over the world and it is awesome can you all say hello to those online give a clap a shout out we're so glad that we get to spend some time together in the book of revelation it is an incredible book that god gave to his people to prepare us not to scare us but that we would be blessed because this book is all about jesus in fact in the first five words of the book of revelation we see its whole purpose it is the revelation of jesus

christ some call this book revelations but it has a singular focus jesus christ and as we read this book we see that this that jesus changes everything the author of this book is john and he gets a divine outline from jesus we're told in revelation 1 19 here's the outline of the book right therefore the things that you have seen those that are and those that are to take place after this in revelation chapter 1 john does just that he writes down the things that he sees he's given this great revelation of jesus and he gives us this incredible glimpse of the greatness of jesus it's so great that john falls down as though dead as he writes down these things that he

sees then in revelation chapter 2 and 3 john writes down the things that are there are seven letters to seven churches from jesus this was to the first century church and to every church in every age and we are living in that time right now these are the things that are and jesus has a message for the church and then john is told to do this to write down the things that are to take place after this after what after the church age after god has given an opportunity for all people to receive the free gift of grace and then in revelation chapter 4 it starts off with this phrase after this

and revelation 4 5 and every chapter thereafter we see these are the things that take place after this in revelation chapter 4 john is caught up in heaven he gets this remarkable revelation of how great heaven is the central theme in heaven is a throne and we see the majesty of god on his throne and it's in this place that we pick up today in revelation chapter five it's a continuation of chapter four john is on this journey in heaven we get a glimpse of where the church is what will happen when jesus returns we will be caught up with jesus we'll get heaven and we pick up in this place today in revelation chapter

5. now i want you to know that heaven is a real place it's not a state of mind it's not something made up it's a place that we should look forward to jesus himself says in john chapter 14 verse 2. he says in my father's house are many rooms if it were not so would i have told you that i go to prepare a place for you this is a real place and jesus wants you to be there he says if i go and prepare a place for you i will come again and will take you to myself that where i am you may be also my friends heaven will be better than we think see hollywood cannot do justice on how great heaven will actually be heaven is a real place

but there's a real enemy of god that wants to stop you from getting there satan is an adversary of god satan was evicted from heaven so it's no wonder that satan lies to us and what heaven is actually like he wants you to have a small view of heaven if you have a small view of heaven you have an inaccurate view of god so satan will do whatever it takes to lie to you so that you miss the greatness of god paul while he was in prison writes a letter to the church in philippi and as he writes to the philippian people he says in philippians 1 21 he says for me to live is christ paul is telling us that if you live your life do it for jesus christ there's no life like the one for christ but then he goes on to say this and to

die is gain if you have jesus death is a game because you get heaven you get to be with jesus this is something you should look forward to so as we jump in here to this uh continuation of chapter four we're going to continue to see more of what heaven is like here we go john chapter 5 verse 1. then i saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back sealed with seven seals the one on the throne is god the father john writes in revelation chapter four that this god is majestic he is mysterious he is mighty he

describes him as two gems jasper this crystal clear stone and carnelian this ruby red image of redemption with a rainbow with the appearance of emerald around the throne and here now he sees in revelation 5 in the hand of god the father a scroll now there's something significant about this scroll a scroll in the days of this writing was a book they didn't have books that were bound like we have today you would write on papyrus and it would be rolled up and you'd you'd have in their wisdom and knowledge but it's in this place this scroll is sealed and this is significant in the roman culture of the days of this writing if you wanted to send an intentional letter to a reader you would melt some wax which would seal the scroll and then you would take the

signet ring while the wax was still warm and you would press it upon the the wax and it would seal the letter and it would only be open for its intended reader now if there was something really important they would seal it twice now the only time something would be sealed seven times is if it's a will and it's intended for a particular person you'd bring forth seven witnesses each of the seven witnesses excuse me would put their signet ring on the seal and then when the person would open the will all seven witnesses would have to be present well the hebrew culture which is the jewish culture they too would have scrolls that would be sealed a scroll would be sealed when it went to a title

or a deed to a property now in in the in the scriptures god protected his people that if they ever lost their property they would be given an opportunity to have it redeemed or given back if you lost your property because of poor finances or you had a family member who needed help or maybe the land was taken by force god always gave an opportunity for that property to be redeemed we see this over and over in the scriptures in fact jeremiah the prophet gets this revelation in chapter 32 when he's told to buy property from his cousin now he's told to buy the very property that god told him babylon is going to take but he's told to put this property in a deed to seal it and put it away and at just the right time this property is

going to be redeemed we see this over and over now scrolls normally only are written on the inside the only time a scroll is written on the inside and the back side is on a title deed on the inside you would have a list of the property or the assets and then on the outside you would have the requirements to get back the property what was owed what needed to be done how you can get this property redeemed and so we see in the right hand of god the father a scroll seeming to symbolize this title this deed something really important over and over in the book of revelation we're reminded of the hundreds of old testament references in the old testament book of daniel the prophet writes this but you daniel shut up the words and seal the book

until the time of the end many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase daniel's given this vision of the end times that people will be going to and fro and that knowledge shall increase doesn't that sound a lot like today we're living in the information age people are going to and fro and you can get any knowledge you want at any time you just have to say hey alexa or hey siri or hey google oh my siri just yeah you know what that just said my siri said wow awkward i'll tell you what's awkward we're living in an age where you can get any information at any time we think that all of a sudden since we have information at our fingertips that

somehow we're living in an important time but daniel says this is the time of the end he later writes in the same chapter 12 verse 8 he says i heard but i did not understand then i said oh my lord what shall be the outcome of these things he said go your way daniel for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end now we have in revelation chapter 5 a scroll written in such a time at the end now what is the end daniel called it the 70 weeks the prophets of old used to refer to this as the day of the lord it's god's judgment upon those who reject his grace it's for those who rebel against god in this information age and say i have no

need for god there will be a great tribulation period of seven years we'll read this in revelation chapter 6 through 19 and as as we see here god the father holding the scroll with seven seals we're going to see why these things are happening that god has the title deed to earth now why would god have the title deed to earth why would this be the will here why is this significant well what we see here is at the beginning of the bible god made the earth and said it is good and then he made mankind in his image both male and female but by genesis chapter 3 by the third chapter of the bible man rebelled against god sin entered the story and a curse came upon the earth

it was satan that came and tempted adam and eve and they gave in to the temptation and ever since then we've witnessed the depravity of sin the curse has come upon the world the reason we have to pull weeds in the summer is because of sin the reason that we have diseases and viruses a pandemic that would shut down the world is because of sin so we see since genesis chapter 3 until this coming end time we see that sin has been the curse upon the earth in fact we see satan he rules on this earth he's called the prince of the air he's called by paul the god of this age lowercase g we see that he rules and he reigns on

this earth and he tempts us and he tries us as mankind gave into sin we see that this world is a representation of the enemy of god jesus when he came to this earth went into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights he was led by the spirit and satan came and tempted him three times on the third temptation we see in matthew chapter 4 verse 8 again the devil took jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and satan said to jesus all these i will give to you if you will fall down and worship me satan knew full well that jesus could come and redeem that which is wrong

restore that which is broken jesus came to take back what is rightfully his and satan comes before all the kingdoms of this earth it's like going to the top of pilot butte and looking out over central oregon and you can imagine if if i brought you up there and i said i'm gonna give you all this it's yours you would look at me and say you're crazy that's not yours to give you can't give me that because it's not yours but jesus does not debate that with satan he does not say you can't give this rather jesus refutes satan by saying it is written and he quotes from the first of the ten commandments you shall worship the lord god alone so what satan wanted was jesus to fast

track his purpose jesus you don't need to go to the cross jesus you don't need to be betrayed by your friends jesus you don't need to be beaten you don't need to be whipped i'll go ahead and give you all this earth that i've been ruling for so long and all you have to do is worship me we talked about the significance of worship last week in revelation chapter four worship means to ascribe worth and satan saying just give me worth give me the value i want you to worship me and i'll go ahead and give you this now we we don't have to wait we will do this right now this transaction but there is only one worthy of worship and john tells us in revelation 5 2

and i saw a mighty angel everyone say mighty angel mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the scroll and to break its seals i love this glimpse because so many of us have a distorted dinky view of eternity we think that angels are small we think that they're cute we think they're like little a naked baby cherubs up in heaven with these little wings flapping around we've got a warped view of heaven and therefore we have a warped view of what angels are like but john tells us in chapter 5 verse 2 angels are mighty and they have this loud voice that they proclaim to all creation and the question was asked

who is worthy to open the scroll it's not who is able is not who is strong enough it's not who is smart enough is not who is popular enough it's who is worthy who is the one that can fulfill the requirements to redeem this deed to get back to this property and in verse 3 and 4 we're told and no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it and i began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it so who is worthy to open the scroll no one who's able to defeat satan

who's able to conquer sin who's able to reverse the curse as we look out we consider the millions upon millions of angels there's got to be one maybe michael or gabriel who's the goat of all angels the greatest of all time come on someone's got to be worthy enough maybe one of the saints of old maybe abraham the father of faith maybe enoch who walked with god maybe david he defeated goliath maybe he could do it maybe daniel who can do it jacob who wrestled with god who was called israel and no one was found worthy no one so here you have sealed up the title

deed of earth up satan has control and john when he sees this is hopeless he hurts and so he tells us that i began to weep loudly he is sobbing he is hurting all of the sin of the world the weight is on his shoulders as he sees these things his tears represent the pain of all people this is what happens with sin there's a consequence it's painful it hurts we all have cried crying is a result of pain of hurt john is gripped by the reality of this

hopelessness as he considers what sin can do sin leads to death and the whole reason we cry is because of sin you know when a baby comes into the world they cry you know why they cry they just left the comfort of the womb all of a sudden now they're exposed to the world and they start crying because they say i want to go back in there i don't want to deal with this world people are mean they're cruel it's cold you gotta grow up and work and pay bills pay taxes it's terrible the babies start crying because they don't want to experience that and then what happens our whole lives were hurt in one way or another you're hurt when your parents get divorced

you're hurt when somebody abuses you you're hurt in a relationship you're hurt in your own heart you're hurt because people are mean and the weight of this reality upon the world comes upon john and he weeps deeply as he sees what sin will do it separates us from god racism is because of sin child abuse is because of sin all of the brokenness of this world every war that's ever been fought is because of sin and this weight is so great that there's no one that could overcome satan all of the pain you've ever had in your heart whether it's a child or as an adult or every abuse that you've ever been through every hurtful word that was ever said you the weight of that is so great

and we see this in his wailing there's a lack of hope at the end this is it some people have that right now you look at the world right now and there's much fear there's uncertainties there's hurt politically we see it with health care people are afraid they're full of fear there's worry about what's going to happen to the economy you want to show where people are at with the economy just raise the gas prices it gets people talking what's happening what's going to happen next and people are full of uncertainty and we're not sure who can save us

we've got children protesting on on the street corners of regarding climate change saying something's wrong in this world can't the government save this and there there is a problem in this world but it's because of sin the government can't fix this and it's in this wailing this weeping that john says in chapter 5 verse 5 and one of the elders said to me the word elder means a leader and it represents god's people and someone steps forward and tells john weep no more behold the lion of the tribe of judah the root of david has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals hope breaks forth

and in the weeping john is interrupted in his pain and he's reminded there is one who is worthy to break the seven seals there is one who is great enough because he's conquered the devil he's conquered death he defeated sin he never sinned he took sin upon his own life he is the lion of the tribe of judah he is the root of david now just think about this a lion lions are great this gets us back to the first book of the bible genesis in chapter 49 we're told that judah who's one of the twelve sons of israel he receives the blessing of the family israel passes the blessing to israel or to judah judah simply means praise it's a wonderful word jesus is the line of

the tribe of praise and genesis 49 verse 9 judah is a lion's cub from the prey my son you have gone up he stooped down he crouched as a lion and a lioness who dares rouse him this is an imagery of the messiah who would go up to a lion in the jungle and go up and just start petting him no one doesn't matter if the lion's asleep it doesn't matter how cute that lion is you wouldn't go up and rouse that lion it's never been done a lion is great a lion is mighty and in genesis 49 verse 10 we see the scepter that means the rule shall not depart from judah nor the ruler staff from

between his feet until the tribute comes to him and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples so we see a messiah the great king the one that rules will come from the family of the tribe of judah this is fulfilled in jesus when we're told that he is the lion of the tribe of judah the root of david david was the second king of israel the greatest king that's ever lived isaiah prophesied in chapter 11 verse 1 that shall come forth a shoot from the stump of jesse and a branch from is his roots shall bear fruit jesse was the father of david isaiah is saying the messiah will come from the family lineage of david now we go to the book of matthew in the book of luke we can trace back jesus family lineage

and heritage to the family of david to the tribe of judah in isaiah 11 verse 2 we see that with the messiah the spear the lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom the spirit of understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the lord a sevenfold description of the spirit seven is complete the messiah will have the complete presence of the holy spirit and so we see with this line of the tribe of judah the root of david we go on to see in revelation 5 verse 6 john wants to see the lion of the tribe of judah and between the throne john says and the four living creatures and among the elders i saw a lamb

standing as though it had been slain with seven horns and with seven eyes which are the seven spirits of god sent out into all the earth so john's told about a lion but he sees a lamb and not just any lamb in the greek the word lamb here literally is pet lamb it's a cute little lamb it's not intimidating at all no one is afraid of a lamb a lamb is something you can go rouse a lamb is something you can go approach and john when he turns to sea the lion actually sees a lamb this is so important for us to see here because of what jesus has done for us years ago i was at an auction for a school and there was auction off

different items where you can bid on these different things that people within the school had had prepared or raised for it be it art or actual items and one of the items at this auction was a lamb the meat of a lamb and a big burly cowboy gets up to describe this particular lamb and why it's important and has value i mean this guy was big and had skin tight wranglers with cowboy boots and a buttoned-up shirt tucked into his jean wranglers and he gets up to explain this lamb says my daughter has been raising this lamb the last few years this is a precious lamb this is an important lamb to her mary raised this lamb her name wasn't married but he did say this lamb went with her everywhere she went

and as he's telling this story i think all of our heartstrings are like why would you kill this lamb and he's saying this this lamb has value because it's precious it was a pet but it's going to provide for you this special meat but here john sees something so significant this lamb this little you lamb is slain now normally if a lamb is slain they're on the ground dead but this lamb is standing for the lamb was slain but is now alive so as we look at this picture here jesus is the slain lamb that's alive jesus is referred in the book of revelation 30 times as the lamb john the baptist in chapter 1 verse 29

of the book of john says behold the lamb of god he sees jesus and says he's the one who takes away the sins of the world he's the one that would would be the atonement the sacrifice for our sins he who was without sin would take our sins on the cross and this is no ordinary lamb john describes this lamb in verse 6 and says this this lamb that was slain had seven horns with seven eyes which are the seven spirits of god sent out into all the earth have you ever seen a lamb with seven horns this is a strange lamb throughout the book of revelation we see the significance of signs and symbols

and numbers the number seven is complete horns represent authority when you see an animal with the horn it has authority the greater the horns the greater the authority we see animals fight together to see which one is stronger they they buck their horns together to see which one will stand and this lamb has seven horns this lamb has full authority complete authority this lamb has all power and all strength this lamb has seven eyes eyes represent perception and knowledge wisdom this lamb is infinite in knowledge perception and this lamb has the seven spirits of god this is so significant that this represents the presence of god himself the holy spirit

that when you have jesus you have the holy spirit so we see this lamb is is perfect in power this lamb is perfect in knowledge this lamb is perfect in the presence of god and so we see this lamb is the one worthy to take the scroll because this lamb did what needed to be done this lamb took our sin this lamb died so that we can live this lamb is the lion of the tribe of judah you see this lamb is not the lion or the lamb this is the lion and the lamb and when the church gets too far off of who jesus is we miss the real jesus jesus is the lion he is strength he has all authority he is the king of all kings and he is the lamb that laid down his life that served not to be served

but gave his life up for a ransom but if we get too far over and we only see jesus as the lion then the church will become religious legalistic it'll be all about rules it'll be all about what you have to do or can't do but if we get too far on this side and the church is all about the lamb it'll be all about grace it'll be all about do what feels good do what you want to do we're just going to be who who we want to be and all of a sudden it's all about grace but jesus is the fullness of grace and truth he's the lion and the lamb he's the one that when he needs to flip tables over he will make his own whip and flip the tables over he's the one that will invite a child forward and say you've got to be like this child to enter the kingdom of

heaven he's the one that liberates women and he's the one to confront religious men he's the one that's willing to do what needs to be done he'll keep his mouth shut to show you what meekness is like it's strength under control he's the lion and the lamb and he was willing to do what needed to be done so that we would get back what is rightfully ours which god made which is the earth's he has the title deed he is what in hebrew is called goel the kinsman redeemer he's the only one worthy to pay the price he sees the debt and he pays it on your behalf in romans chapter 6 we read for the wages of sin is death if you continue to sin it will lead to death physically it will lead to death emotionally it will lead to death relationally it will lead to death

spiritually jesus took our debt he took the wages of our sin anything you've done anything you've said anything you thought jesus said i'll take it it's now mine and what does he give you in return a free gift of god which is eternal life in christ jesus our lord he took our wages and he gave us his grace oh this is a great god we see clearly in heaven he will have the signs of being slaughtered so it was that he paid the price on the cross it takes us back to exodus chapter 12 when the israelites were enslaved in egypt it symbolizes our sins we are all slaves to sin and the last of the plagues jesus

promised his people if you would slain a lamb if a lamb would be slaughtered just take the blood of that slain lamb and put it on the doorpost of your home and the spirit of death will pass over your home because of the blood of the lamb you will live and so we see in the book of revelation for all eternity if you want to live you need the blood of the lamb and in revelation 5 verse 7 this lion and lamb and he went and he took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne and when he had taken the scroll the four living creatures which we learned about in revelation 4. if you missed that go back and watch the message listed a message at a minimum go read revelation 4.

these creatures are spectacular the four living creatures and the 24 elders which represent god's people they fell down before the lamb each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints so the response in heaven because jesus can take the scroll is worship which we'll see in just a moment and there's no ordinary worship this is full sensory worship there's going to be music so we're going to hear this there's going to be incense so we're going to smell this this this will be a full experience of worship in heaven but i need you to see what we read here is greater than many of us imagine we will each have harps in heaven this this is symbolic of musical instruments

this is a good thing because even if your tone death right now in heaven you're gonna make a great noise to god this is awesome you all the musical instruments you ever wanted to play one day you're gonna do it for the right reasons for the glory of god what we see in here are these incense which represent our prayers no prayer is overlooked by god on this side of heaven you have such a limited view sometimes you think you've been overlooked by god or god didn't hear you or that prayer wasn't answered one day you're going to see that god's been collecting your prayers and it's a sweet aroma i don't know about you but there's some things we read in revelation that don't excite us because we only think of it in terms of what we've experienced on earth i think of incense like that in a hippie story you know where they have incense and you think oh this is like a musky

smell i don't really like this is this what our prayers are going to be like in heaven not at all everything will be better in heaven the point here is there's an aroma that what you do on this side of heaven is noticed and when you think your prayers aren't being answered they're actually being collected just like what psalm says about your tears your tears are collected in heaven there's no tear that's overlooked by god none every tear is known by a god every tear drop i learned this this week when i was studying this text that if you look at a tear under a magnifying glass do you know what it looks like a bunch of crosses yeah you google it yourself we're in the information age look google it i had to

google it myself i heard another preacher say it so i googled it and you know what you see are these little crosses your tears point us to the cross of jesus christ his death represents every single tear that's ever i don't know what the appropriate verb is there cried jesus sees you he knows you and everything will be used for worship in heaven worship will be better than you think what we'll see what we'll hear what will what will smell as we look to god because jesus takes the scroll and is going to do what needs to be done and it says in verse 9 and they sang a new song not a hill song not a hymn song it's going to be a new song saying worthy are you to take the scroll and to

open its seals for you were slain and by your blood you ransom the people for god from every tribe and language and people and nation and you have made them a kingdom and priest to our god and they shall reign on the earth oh i hope you hear the depth of the doctrine of this song when we sing in heaven it will have this wonderful depth about who god is and what he's done and you will respond to this you will respond to the greatness of god you will respond to the greatness of jesus you will recognize that what he's done is restored all that is wrong all of the racist issues on this side of heaven is a sin problem and jesus is the only solution

he is the gospel he is the good news and what he's done is one day all of this will be restored by jesus and as we see this song being sung in verse 11 then i looked everyone said looked i looked you should be looking for god then i looked and i heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels remember these are mighty angels i heard the voice of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands this is a phrase that means they are uncountable there are so many angels in the old testament our gods described as the lord of hosts meaning the lord of armies he's the lord of angels armies i looked and there was armies of angels saying with a loud

voice worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive glory to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing this sounds a lot like the song we saw in revelation chapter 4. angels armies massive choruses singing with a loud voice worthy are you of power of wealth we could take all the money of the world and our god is more valuable we could take all the songs that have ever been sung and our god is greater and the angels sing this song worthy and i heard verse 13 every creature would you please let your imagination go here every creature

say that with me every creature every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them same to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever my friend's singing is so important one day we'll get into heaven and we have all these different images of what heaven will be like please don't let someone on this side of heaven distract you from the greatness of what it will actually be like i know we try to console each other and comfort one another at funerals of loved ones someone likes golf and we say things

like oh they're golfing in heaven right now golfing that's the best we can do [Music] just last week i was talking with someone about surfing in heaven i'll tell you this it will be greater than any experience on this side of heaven please hear me loud and clearly on this in heaven the worship songs are every creature at the same time every bird the eagle the ostrich every swimming thing in the sea could you imagine a whale worshiping go there this is in revelation 5.

every flap of every wing every hoof every lip every cry every call every shout will declare to him who sits on the throne to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever it will be bigger and better we will be so wowed in heaven you'll forget the word golf you'll forget any pleasure on this side of heaven and you will see what you were made for verse 14 the four living creatures when they hear this chorus of every creature the four living creatures said say it with me just one word amen that means so be it that was awesome that's true that was a good song and the elders fell down and

worship see the center throne of heaven we we like to make it about us what will heaven be like what will i like to do what will make me satisfied in heaven you won't care because it's not about you you'll just be so glad you got in [Music] i got in not because of you but because the one on the throne join us in song here's your instrument you smell that isn't that great oh heaven will be a great place and god's going to restore everything but on this side of heaven i got to ask you in this moment if you have tears just just even metaphorically in your life if you have pain in your life if you have fears if you have uncertainties if if you have some pain maybe from your childhood maybe something you're going through presently i need you to know this that jesus loves you so much he did

what needed to be done it's finished jesus declared on the cross it is finished once and for all and we are in that time that we can be prepared right now daniel says get ready the wicked will only increasingly get wicked but the righteous will have wisdom my friends be a bible student go read the bible go pray and even if you wonder i'm not sure god hears me one day you're going to see in heaven wow all those times i doubted all those times i wondered god did you hear me because it didn't seem like it he hears you maybe change your prayers to be more like these songs we see in revelation 5.

i don't know if you're like me but when i pray it's almost like i think of god like santa claus i give him a list of things that i want him to do and i say bless this god this must be your will too right [Music] and i have such a limited view so today i want to invite you to the throne today we're going to spend some time in communion both for those watching online in person if you grabbed one of these cups when you came in it's got juice and at the top of it it's got a wafer that represents bread i don't want to spend just a moment on this and invite you into the reality of what was done for you if you're at home right now would you just go to your kitchen and find two elements find something to drink and find something to eat could be a cup of wine or grape juice or apple juice

grab a cracker or a cookie or a piece of bread just going to take two simple items that jesus gave to us to remember who he is and what he's done and before you take it i want to give you an invitation today i want to start with the invitation to come to jesus there are some of you who feel more like john with the weight of sin in your life you don't know what to do with it maybe it's a broken relationship right now or broken marriage maybe it's loneliness depression maybe it's fear maybe you're stuck somewhere in your life i want to invite you to jesus today whether it's for the first time or you need to come home today here's the great news of jesus you're

never too young to give your life to jesus and it's never too late with jesus christ from this day forward choose jesus if you want to come to jesus today whether it's for the first time or maybe you wandered far from him would you just surrender your hand up to heaven right now would you just let god know hey i'm taking you seriously praise god anyone else praise god i see that yes amen praise god anyone else see i asked you to do that because from this day forward you've got to choose jesus god never asked you to carry the weight of worry john wept not because god told him to wept he wept because he bore the burden of sin you can't do it you're not god

so what you're doing right now when you throw your hand up you're shifting from worry to worship [Music] your eyes are off of you and on him it changes everything [Music] i know some of you have been praying prayers for months that have turned to years don't give up don't stop praying he still sits on the throne he's supreme he's sovereign and he's worthy of your heart john was on the island of patmos imprisoned when he writes this worship can happen in your pain worship can happen in your isolation you just have to worship the only one that's worthy which is jesus

so in just a moment we're going to sing a song as the band sings this song i want you to sing a song in your heart jesus on the night he was betrayed took two simple elements of the meal after giving thanks he broke the bread and said this is my body broken for you and then he took a cup of the meal and it was reserved he said this is a new covenant this is a commitment that god makes with you jesus blood shed for the forgiveness of your sins and then jesus said something very important he said do this in remembrance of me we do this not as a ritual or to be religious we do this to remember jesus christ so if you're a believer in jesus today and you want to do that you can if you're on a journey today and you're wondering what this is all about you do

not need to do this just observe and know this that god loves you he died for you in fact let me just pray and then we'll sing a song and i'm gonna have you do this at your own pace i know this is a little tricky someone noted today that this is coveted communion you've got rappers you've got to unpeel and get to but it may not be the most tasteful thing in the world but it's not about that it's a reminder of who jesus is he's the lion he's the lamb he was slain for our sins so that we could live pray with me lord i thank you for what you've done today in this moment as we remember you jesus we commit our lives to you if you want to give your life to jesus for the first time would you pray something like this in your heart lord

jesus i surrender my life to you forgive me of my sin i choose you in jesus name so be it amen so you could take this alone or with your family wherever you are you can stand up you can kneel down this is between you and the lord right now that you remember jesus right where you are remember he is worthy he is worthy [Music]