The Silence Before the Storm: Prayers, Trumpets, and the God Who Is Not Finished

well we're in the book of revelation if you brought your bible turn to that book of revelation i've been hearing from so many that this book has been rarely heard some have said they've grown up in the church and have not studied the book of revelation and yet this book promises a blessing to those who read these words and keep them revelation 1 3 right at the beginning tells us blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it for the time is near we will be blessed to understand this book even greater now some have not studied this book because it can get confusing there are so many signs and symbols and metaphors and

images and numbers and you might wonder what do these things mean for the first century reader they would have better understood these things for they had a great knowledge of the scriptures they understood this apocalyptic writing comparing it to old testament books like ezekiel and daniel and i believe that all of us can study this book and get to know god greater to understand what the meaning of these things are and even if we don't fully understand what these things mean i want you to know that's okay because this book is not about you it's all about jesus in fact the author john tells us in the opening words he writes in revelation 1 1 he says the revelation of jesus christ that's what this book is all about it's all about jesus would you read

those first five words with me come on let's read it out loud together here we go the revelation of jesus christ it is the revelation it is singular it's the revelation all about who jesus is now jesus gave john the author a divine outline so that we could better understand this book in revelation 1 19 jesus tells john write therefore the things that you have seen those that are and those that are to take place after this that's the divine outline that's how the book of revelation is put together write down the things you see write down the things that are and write down the things that will take place after this now in revelation chapter one john writes down the things he sees now what does john see he sees

jesus and it's an incredible uh reality of who jesus is chapter one is awesome for it's all about jesus in fact john tells us when he sees jesus he falls down as though dead that's how great jesus is in revelation chapter two and three john writes down seven letters to seven churches these are the things that are these are the things that are taking place right now this is called the church age and we are living in that age these seven letters were actually written to seven real churches in the first century but how great is our god that he speaks to every church and every age this is the age of grace that god is giving every one of us an opportunity to be a part of

his plan that is the church and then in revelation chapter 4 we see a transitional phrase john writes after this after what after the church age after god has taken his church and first thessalonians 4 we're told when jesus returns the church will be caught up with him there's a term for this called the rapture it comes from the latin which means to be caught up jesus is going to take his church after this there will be a time on earth that the only ones left on earth are those who have not received the free gift of grace found in jesus to those who have rejected god who say i don't need jesus i don't want jesus they'll remain on earth and what we read in chapters 6 through 19 is this time of great tribulation before this great tribulation john the author is caught up in heaven and he

gets this vision of heaven where he sees these things take place what this time will be like that is yet to take place in revelation 4 he sees centered in heaven is a throne god is supreme he reigns he's completely sovereign the word sovereign means god is completely in control in chapter five we see a glimpse of a a scroll which appears to be the title deed to earth the enemy has run amok on the earth satan has destroyed the earth and who can take back the earth and we're told that this scroll had seven seals and we're told the lion and the lamb can that's jesus he can take back this title deed he's gonna restore all that's been wrong and he's going to do just that and starting in chapter 6 we see the opening of these seven seals it's the

beginning of god's perfect judgment on earth it's absolutely incredible charles dickens in a tale of two cities writes this it was the best of times and it was the worst of times how many of you feel like right now we're living in the worst of times we're we've been going through so much some of you are going through some difficult days right now you might be thinking it it couldn't get worse than than it's been going well i want you know it can get worse and it's going to get worse what we read in this tribulation are the most terrible times the earth is ever experienced and we'll see that today as we open up this seventh seal we're going to see seven new trumpets there's three sets of judgment the seven seals the seven trumpets and the

seven bulls and they they seem to grow in intensity as we see what this troubling time of judgment is upon the earth it's a time for people to turn to the lord to to to give their hearts to god and say i want to trust you you'll notice these sets of judgments comes in seven there are all sorts of sevens in the book of revelation the number seven means completion just as there are seven days that complete a week aren't you glad there aren't eight nine or ten days that you have to work there's seven days that make up a work week seven is the number of completion in revelation two and three we read seven letters to seven churches because it wasn't just intended for seven churches it was intended for the complete church it's intended for all of god's people

even god the holy spirit is described as the seven spirits means god is completely the spirit of god the complete presence of god is found in the holy spirit and you can have that in jesus as we come to these sevens today we're going to see god's complete judgment upon the earth and all people that remain we're living in an age of justice justice seems to be a catch phrase if someone does something wrong we want them to pay a penalty we want them to be judged for it we live in the age of information that if we we have an agenda or an idea we want the world to know what we think that we wouldn't we want justice to happen i believe one of the reasons that we want justice so badly in our hearts is because we're made in god's image it's what god wants it's who god is god is

completely perfect which means that god is completely just the old testament prophet micah tells us in chapter six verse eight here's what god wants for you he has told you o man what is good and what does the lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your god that's what god wants from you he wants you to love justice because he's a just god but we also read here that you're to walk with god that's a term used throughout the scriptures it means to live life with god when you wake up you want what god wants what does god want for you well his mercies are new every morning what does god want for you to know that you're made with a purpose what does god want for you to love what he loves

to hate what he hates and we have a god of justice he he wants you to to take care of the orphans and the widows he he wants you to protect the poor in fact all of the problems that we have in this world today are result of sin and god wants you to care about what he cares about the whole reason racism exists and the racial problems that we have in our nation today is because there is injustice but what micah teaches us is that if you have justice without god it's not the fullness of god's justice so we've got to see here in revelation what the fullness of god's complete justice looks like and some of us want justice yet the reality is if you really think about this

if god is just and you're to be held accountable for who you actually are you do not want all of god's justice god knows everything you've ever done everything you've ever said every thought that's scary yet we have a god of grace and i need you to hear me today because if you're unsaved you can know with a confident unshakeable hope that you're forgiven of every sin you can have the hope of eternal life you can know with confidence that when your heart stops beating you get to be present with god forever and god's going to give you every you can have that today because our god wanted to make a way for you he became a man jesus is 100 percent god

and 100 percent man and he did what no man has ever done before he lived a sinless life and yet he died on the cross he did not deserve death so why did he die on the cross he chose to die on the cross he died on the cross for the penalty of your sin he took the wrath of god upon himself so that you wouldn't have to experience the wrath of god that by believing in him you're made righteous you're not held to your sin you're held to what jesus has done for you this is the gospel which is called the good news that by believing in jesus a just god gives you the free gift of grace and so as we come to this book of revelation we want to keep that in mind our god is the fullness of grace and

truth and he wants you to experience him he wants you to respond to him and you can do just that today we come to revelation chapter eight where the seventh seal is open and we'll see the start of seven trumpets let's dive right into revelation chapter eight starting with verse one when the lamb who's the lamb well my friends if you're new to church it's always safe to shout jesus and when you say jesus at church you've got to shout it when the lamb who's the lamb that's right when he opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about half an hour

i'm not going to be silent for a half an hour but you could see how awkward that would be silence is something many of us are unfamiliar with we're told up to this point in the book of revelation there is much praise in heaven we're told of instruments we're told of singing we're told of angels that are mighty with loud voices we're told of the church that john sees in revelation chapter four he he sees the church in heaven he sees myriad and myriad of angel armies of angels he sees four living creatures that cry holy holy holy and that we're told of the judgment six seals opened up and god's judgment comes out in torment his wrath upon the earth and then we come to revelation chapter eight right after this

intermission period in chapter seven where 144 000 are sealed do you remember who the 144 000 are come on the jewish people 144 000 jewish people are sealed by god they become evangelists on the earth and then john says he sees countless people during this great tribulation that will give their lives to jesus that's god's grace that even in the most troubling times he gives you an opportunity to look to him to trust him to know that you can have hope and then we come to chapter eight and the seventh seal is open and there is silence there are so many areas in the book of john that he just doesn't explain and so sometimes scholars have differing views we have to study what does this actually mean so many believe that this is the silence before the great storm

you know that calm before storm you you watch the news anchor in florida on this bright blue sky day with not even a breeze in the air and then they they warn you that the hurricane is coming and you think where's the hurricane well they have technology today to look off the shores and to see that a thousand miles off the shore there's a great hurricane coming and so they they warn you that these winds will be severe it will be serious there's going to be an interruption a disruption and this is the silence before the storm it's the calm before the storm why silence we can look at earthly examples if you go to a a courtroom

and you come before a judge when the judge enters the room you you stand up and you're silent now if you're being prosecuted for something you can't argue with the judge you can't interrupt the judge if you do you're kicked out of the courtroom if you if you argue with the judge long enough you'll be penalized now somehow we have a small view of god and we forget he is a great judge we should be in awe of who god is and there seems to be some serious silence in heaven everyone's quiet the church the angels the living creatures they're silent for our god is a great judge the old testament prophets and

tell us in zephaniah 1 7 be silent before the sovereign lord for the day of the lord is near habakkuk 2 20 the lord is in his holy temple let all the earth be silent before him sometimes the greatest response in life is silence you don't need the answer you do not need to make a loud noise in an age of distraction and hurry and noises that are vying for our attention everywhere we go to be silent is to be still before god and for some of us that's scary we live in an age that even when you're alone you still have something speaking to you

a screen a radio you have something going after your attention so that you wouldn't be still and reflect on what's happening in life it is good to be still silence seems to be the endangered species of our soul if there was one spiritual discipline we could all work on it would be silence this seems to be some sort of sabbath which means rest before the great storm if you don't get a sabbath you'll be depleted you'll miss the opportunity to reflect to see who god is and here we have a great silence this seventh seal is opened and before we get to the trumpets we're told in verse two then i saw

seven angels who stand before god and seven trumpets were given to them so before these trumpets are executed we're gonna see another angel in addition to these seven look at verse three and another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden sensor this is the same altar that we read about in revelation chapter 5 that has the prayers of the saints it's the same altar we read about in chapter 6 where those who are martyred for the faith came before god to to pray that there would be retribution or vengeance or justice on those who took their lives we're told of this altar there was a golden censor that's a bull and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints

rose before god and from the hand of the angel so we have this silence and now we have this supplication which means to surrender to god that's what prayer is you're surrendering your will to be you're surrendering your will and you're asking god's will to be done so we go from peace in heaven to this picture of prayer and we see that much symbolism here incense symbolizes purity that god purifies now when we as sinful people pray to god how can a holy god receive our prayers where our prayers seem to be mixed with this incense so now our our prayers are pure before god they're mixed in this bowl they seem to be experienced just as you can't control incense in a room they seem to be spreading in heaven what are these prayers it's the prayers of the saints now who are the saints

the bible teaches us that when you've received jesus as the lord and savior of your life you're a saint this is hard for some of us because maybe you grew up in a catholic tradition and you're told who saints are they've got to be approved by the pope and many others and they've got to jump through the hoops and be dead for so long and perform so many miracles then you become a saint well the bible actually says when you believe in jesus you become a saint you might look like an ain't but you're a saint you might feel like an ant but the bible says you're a saint because the word saint means set apart so once you believe in jesus you're set apart you're no longer part of this world you're part of god's family you're part of his kingdom and now you want what he wants these are the prayers of the saints that have come before god

in revelation 6 10 those who have been killed because of their faith they cried out with a loud voice they're petitioning god through prayer oh sovereign lord holy and true how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth these are passionate pleas that are coming before god if you read in between the lines here it's implying that they've been praying this it's what so many of us pray god how long are you going to tolerate evil on earth how long will you let these things happen how long before you right this wrong and sometimes it can seem like we're praying and we don't see the answer of prayer we don't feel the answer prayer we don't know how god's working and what revelation 8 teaches us is that when you pray

nothing you've prayed is wasted it's being stored up in heaven and we gotta know at just the right time god's gonna do what only god can do your prayers are heard they are seen they are experienced in heaven and your prayers believe it or not might be answered in a way differently than you thought they would be answered because your prayers might be realized by a god that's so great that he's gonna do far beyond all that you could ask or think this is good news for us today that we should be persistent in prayer like jesus teaches in luke 18. when we see there's injustice like the widow that goes before the wicked judge and she she repeatedly asks oh this is good news that the judge gives in and gives her what she asks for and

jesus reminds us how much greater will god give to you but then he asks us this question when the son of man returns which jesus will will he find faith on earth are you praying for justice are you doing what micah 6 8 said or are you are you wanting to be more like god because you're made in his image he loves you and he has a great plan for your life as these prayers go up we see that these prayers are going to make a difference do you know that your prayers could be answered long after you're gone this is so important that you know this that when you die you actually don't die you really start living you're now actually in heaven and i want you to know this that some of you are at church today because your grandmother was praying for you she may not be here today but her prayers are being answered

and some of us need to have the faith like the saints of old and say i'm going to pray even though i don't know how god's gonna do it even though i don't know when god's gonna do it i know that god is god and he can do anything just like he did it with the thief on the cross it might be the last second it might look like the last moment when satan looks like he is just one jesus steps forward and he's the god of surprises and so we see these prayers offered up like like david the young man prayed before he was king he said let my prayers be counted as incense before you and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice let our prayers rise up like incense here's what happens next it's curious this angel verse 5 took the bull the sensor and filled it with fire what's the fire

it's god your prayers combined with god changes everything we're told in both the old and new testament our god is a consuming fire so this angel takes our prayers filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth and there were peels of thunder and rumblings and flashes of lightning and an earthquake something serious happens when god gets a hold of your prayer we see a great impact this is called a theophany that that god uses something we can experience to experience god it's what we see throughout the old testament when god reveals himself as he did in the days of old when the israelites were on a journey from slavery to freedom he he he he meets with them look at exodus 19 16 on the morning of

the third day there were thunders lightning and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast so that all the people in the camp trembled so we see these prayers being answered that god is going to bring about judgment on the earth that these prayers are going to be answered there will be justice and it will be intense this is the beginning of this great storm known as the great tribulation we're told of a trumpet in exodus 19 is this the same as the trumpets we read about in revelation chapter eight well throughout the bible you see trumpets they're not the same trumpets but trumpets have frequently used by god's people these trumpets actually aren't the trumpets like we might think about they're actually horns that are carved out

called shofars these shofars would be horns that would be blown and they had a whole variety of uses this shofar is from a friend that picked it up for me in israel now these shofars would be blown as a a call to war a call to action the shofar the trumpet would be blown if an enemy was coming it would warn people the trumpet would be blown if someone notable died as a time of grieving the shofar would be blown when when it was a new season or celebration at the time of a new moon at the time of yom kippur the day of atonement remembering that god forgives us of our sin the trumpet blast would go forth we see that trumpets are used throughout the bible in the book of judges it was actually used as a weapon to confuse the enemy

if you surround an enemy and you blow the trumpets and there was great confusion and the enemy killed one another we see throughout the book of revelation a parallel between the story in revelation to the story in exodus and joshua in the story in exodus and joshua we read of god's people who are slaves in egypt in the book of revelation we're reminded that humankind is a slave to sin in the book of exodus we're told of pharaoh who oppresses god's people in the book of revelation we're told of satan that oppresses humankind in the book of exodus we're told that god provides a deliverer to save his people from slavery named moses in the book of revelation we're told of

a great deliverer that would save all of his people named jesus we're told in the book of exodus of these plagues that come upon pharaoh for his stubborn heart for refusing to trust god and in the book of revelation we're told of these judgments for people to turn to god and we see so many these symbols by the time you get to the book of joshua moses has now died and there's a new leader his name in hebrew is yeshua we have it translated in english as joshua it's the same name of jesus jesus in the hebrew is yeshua it simply means lord savior yeshua takes over joshua of god's people the israelites to take them into a land that god's promised

god reminds us in the book of revelation this place you're living in right now is not your home just as the israelites wandered in the wilderness so we are wandering until we're at the place that god has promised you're not to get too comfortable you're not to go back to slavery you're not to look back and say well it was better in the old days you look forward to the land that god has promised now you might have to go through some enemies you might have to get through something before you get there for joshua one of the the first uh one of the first walls he had to break through was the city of jericho the jericho were full of pagan people but they had a large fortified wall that surrounded the city archaeologists have dug up the walls of

jericho and they found these walls were some 14 feet thick not even a strong military could get through this fortified wall but god says he's able he's able to bring judgment upon those who who refuse him on the pagan people that worship false gods and so the lord told joshua here's what i want you to do i want you to march around this city one time one time a day for six days and then god tells joshua and in the book of uh in the book of joshua chapter six verse four he tells him take seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horn before the ark and on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times and the priests shall blow the trumpets seven means what completion god's going to bring complete judgment on the city

of jericho what an army can't do god can do in just a moment that when you trust in him and his word he says all you got to have is seven priests with seven horns and so we see some symbolism in the book of revelation we now see seven trumpets that will bring about judgment much like the judgment we see with jericho but this will be much greater upon all the earth let's look at these judgments in chapter eight verse six now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them we're going to look at six of these trumpets today the first angel blew his trumpet and there followed hail fire mixed with blood and these were thrown upon the earth and a third of the earth was burned up a third of the trees were burned up and all the green grass was burned up let me pause with this

for just a moment this is the first of judgments for the seven trumpets a third of the earth is going to catch on fire and be burned up you might look at something like this and say that's so spectacular i'm not sure how that can happen well i think in our lifetime we've seen enough examples to see how quickly these things can happen does anyone remember last summer when the whole west coast was on fire california oregon washington canada was on fire before that do you remember before the the covid virus before this pandemic in january when all the news was on australia because it appeared that the whole nation was on fire when there's such big burnings like this what happens is in a state like our own there becomes a state of emergency

where not even the government officials can control this fire you cannot send enough firemen into to prevent or to stop this fire we see that what takes years to grow decades even hundreds of years to grow is gone in just minutes and in this first trumpet we see that the earth will be burned in just a trumpet's blast then in verse 8 the second angel blew his trumpet and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood this is reminiscent of the plagues when when moses turned the the nile into blood and we're told a third of the living creatures of the sea died and a

third of the ships were destroyed now what's interesting about this text today in the world in which we live in i'm not sure many of us understand how important ships are to our economy cargoes when a ship gets stuck in a canal how that makes such international news all of your amazon orders stuck on a ship see so many of us with just a click of a button we get something on our porch the next day and it just came it's just magic we didn't know where it came from it's like when i was a kid you go to the grocery store and where does milk come from it comes from the grocery store i didn't know there were actually cows giving us milk right as a single kid raised by a single mom i didn't know vegetables were raised on a farm i just thought the grocery store

came up with these things right well if a third of the ships today were gone it would destroy our economy some scholars believe these are military ships that the might of man are sunk in just a moment and this is important for us to reflect the gravity of what's taking place last week i read in the the the news about a ship off the shores of louisiana that flipped upside down it was a great big ship that they would use for oil tankers huge football field size and it flipped upside down and tragically lives were lost and it reminded me that we think some things are great like a ship is huge it could be gone in a moment and so it happens at judgment that what we put our trust in is gone in just a moment here the third

angel verse 10 blew his trumpet and a great star fell from heaven some believe this is a meteor blazing like a torch and it fell and a third of the rivers on and on the springs of water the name of the star is warmwood which translated as bitter and a third of the waters became warm wood and many people died from the water because it had been bitter first the land then the sea now the fresh water the fourth angel blew his trumpet and a third of the sun was struck in a third of the moon and a third of the stars so that a third of their light might be darkened and a third of the day might be kept from shining and likewise a third of the night with the land the sea the fresh water and now even the sky there's so many mysteries when it comes to science

and we see god bringing forth this judgment in the second seals through the trumpets in a terrible way upon the earth there are many people today that love what they see in the environment and what we see with the environment is it can be taken away from us in just a moment we see that god is the ultimate one sovereign over all things even over the things in which we see and through these judgments i need you to see this for our own sake as well that sometimes we put security in the wrong things sometimes we think something will last forever and then we lose that loved one or we we lose that forest or we lose that place or we lose that relationship and what we see in judgment is the one thing that matters most is our relationship with god and it's through this judgment that god

is giving the whole world an opportunity to turn to him to trust him we've seen four of the seven trumpets and we turned to an additional three plagues then i looked and i heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead whoa whoa whoa to those who dwell on earth at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow before the last three trumpets john hears a flying eagle and this is no ordinary eagle it begins to speak whoa whoa whoa some translations have here an angel instead of the word eagle it comes from

the greek word angelos it literally is as a vulture that looks like an eagle and more than likely it points to one of the four living creatures in revelation chapter four do you remember those living creatures if you're new to this book go read this chapter it's absolutely wonderful there's these four creatures each with six wings with eyes everywhere in the front and the back and they can see everything they have insight and which each of these four living creatures they have a different face one had the face of a lion another had the face of an ox another had the face of a man and the fourth had the face of what an eagle this could be that creature that cried holy holy holy in a set of three which means perfection god is completely holy now we see a

complete judgment of woes upon the earth whoa whoa whoa the the phrase woe the word woe is a call of grief it's often associated to the old testament prophets that would come to a people who are living in sin who refuse to follow the one true god and the prophets of old would they would simply come and they would say woe to you people and they would tell you two things if you turn to the lord here's what's going to happen restoration if you refuse there's going to be destruction exile death we see the prophet isaiah when he comes before god his only thing he could say is woe is me i am a man of unclean lips he

recognized who he is before the almighty god jesus pronounced woes frequently in matthew 23 there's what's referred to as the seven woes and jesus is speaking to the religious hypocrites says this is no religion at all woe to you that look like you're religious but you're not and now we have this profession that what's to come is serious you have a chance to turn to god or you have a chance to experience the consequence of being apart from god and so we will witness in the next chapter here we go chapter nine we'll cover two of the final three trumpet blasts and the fifth angel blew his trumpet and i saw a star falling from heaven to earth and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit and from the shaft

rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft then the smoke came locust on the earth and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth they were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree but only those people who do not have the seal of god on their foreheads if you missed that previous message about what the seal is you can go back in and look secured by god they were allowed to torment them for five months but not kill them and the torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone and in those days people will seek death and will not find it they will long to die but death will flee from them so on this fifth trumpet we see a transition from

judgment on the earth to judgment on people and it's an absolutely fascinating picture as we look through the lens of symbolism preachers and teachers try to associate the times and revelation to the times in which we live in and we we try to speculate who this is or how these things are going to work about in our lives but i i want to remind you this book is the revelation of jesus christ it reminds us that god is sovereign he's completely in control and as this judgment comes upon the earth it will be terrible that without jesus suffering has no purpose people will hurt and they will want to die and they will be unsuccessful they will take pills but they won't be able to die they'll try to jump off cliffs or bridges and they'll

be unsuccessful in death they'll try to remove themselves from the pain but they won't be able to and there's nothing greater than suffering without purpose it's awful because in the scriptures it tells us that when we have jesus none of your suffering none of your pain is in vain all that you've been through will be used by god to study this further you can go read romans chapter five go read second corinthians chapter one we're told we can rejoice in suffering why can a christian rejoice in suffering because suffering produces perseverance it makes you stronger perseverance produces character it makes you who god wants you to be and finally perseverance produces hope and hope does not

disappoint us here's why this is what paul the author says of romans god's love is being poured into our hearts that while you're suffering you're reminded this isn't the end this is not the promised land god's called me to something greater so if i'm suffering i remember that god's not finished with me yet i'm just getting closer so to live i'm going to live for christ to die is gain i get to be with christ so we start to understand that god has purpose and stuff these people are suffering what is god doing he's trying to draw people to himself that if you suffer turn to god he's going to give you strength nehemiah said the joy of the lord is my strength doesn't mean you won't go through something it just means you now have purpose through something it means now you have a god to turn to to trust in

and so we continue this in verse 7 and they had the appearance in appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle these creatures are weird on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold their faces were like human faces their hair were like women's hair their teeth were like lions teeth they had breast place like their breast plates of iron and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots and horses rushing into battle they have tails like the sting of scorpions and their power to hurt people for five months in their tails imagine this torment day after day week after week for five months and they have as them king over the angel of the bottomless pit his name in hebrew is abaddon and in greek he is called apollyon it literally means destroyer their leader's name is destroyer and the first woe has passed behold

two woes are still to come some want to speculate well this this must be russia or or china or india or all of them together the these are the world events that we're trying to calculate together but what we read here in the book of revelation is this is a spiritual battle this is demonic and the closer you get to jesus the more you start to have a revelation of things that you did not see before but with the help of the holy spirit you start to understand the spiritual war will culminate during this great tribulation we will see things that we've never seen before well we won't because the church will be gone the world will see things we the world is never seen before so we come to the sixth trumpet today that's all we have

time for then the sixth angel blew his trumpet and i heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before god saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet released the four angels who were bound at the great river euphrates so the four angels who'd been prepared for the hour the day the month and the year were released to kill a third of mankind you know what's most precious in god's eyes humankind god loves the earth because he made it and it's good but what does god care about even more you but now we see the judgment on even humankind a third of them wiped away the number of mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand and i heard their number and this is how i saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them they wore

breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur and the heads of the horses were like lion's heads and the fire and the smoke and the sulfur came out of their mouths and by these three plagues a third of mankind was killed by the fire and the smoke and the sulfur coming out of their mouths for the power of the horses and their mouths and their tails for their tails are like serpents with the heads and by means of them they wound whoa whoa whoa we could try to speculate all day long this must be a certain type of helicopter and this must be this particular nation going against the rest of the world we we can try all day to come up with our own conclusions but i'll tell you what god wants most from you for you to know him so that you don't

have to go through this that's why god gave us the book of revelation to see the revelation of who jesus is and we come to the conclusion of the last two verses and and john the author tells us that the whole purpose is to turn to god now the word repent has a really bad rap because so many people have abused it the word repent means to change your thinking it's a wonderful word in the bible it means you were going your way but to repent means to turn to god's ways and god is so gracious he's a loving father that embraces you he kisses you he celebrates you and welcomes you into his family there's nothing greater than repenting but look what happens the rest of mankind two-thirds that are left over who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of their works of their hands nor give up worshipping

demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood which cannot see or hear or walk they're terrible gods nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts god's purpose through all of these plagues is to turn hearts towards him remember that was the the ten plagues in exodus every time god gave pharaoh an opportunity to do what was right every single time and every single time pharaoh chose his ways instead of god's ways now my friends god gives us the same opportunities if you read this list carefully the enemy's ways have not changed you look back in history it might look different but jesus calls

satan the father of lies his native native tongue is lying john 10 10 jesus says this thief comes to steal kill and destroy and he'll use the same methods every single time he wants you to worship anything but god and when you worship the things of earth it will trap you like a snare you murder james tells us the only reason we murder is because we don't have what we want instead of going to god who says ask and it will be given to you we try to take it into our own hands so we do sorcery the word sorcery here could be translated to magic arts and some you say i would i would never do those things well it comes in the same form in the in the greek is pharmacea

is is through medicine i'm not anti-medicine this isn't an anti-vac sermon i'm here to tell you that we have relied far too much on the things of this world than god you want to know the devil is a liar why do you think heroin hooks somebody the first time you don't have to do it two three four times heroin will get you and it gets you for life the devil wants to destroy those that will do great things for god so satan tries to hook us on these sorceries and it comes in all sorts of forms i see it in our city i've watched this city change right in front of my eyes pot shops go up everywhere and then i hear christians argue about the medicinal benefits of pot way more than they argue about the benefits of heaven through the gift of jesus christ i don't mean any judgment upon you i

mean for us to be passionate about the right things i see the cross uses a symbol of healing for marijuana shops when the finished work of jesus christ is the only thing that will heal our hearts it just it makes me sick on the day before easter i went to barnes and noble i wanted to uh get my kids some things for for the celebration of jesus this day we celebrate and i was going around barnes noble and i saw the demonic everywhere i saw on on on the how to things a shelf of you know like what to do things you know how to make things and do things there was that one book right there that is targeting kids and pre-teens a beginner's guide to wiccan and it came with trinkets and it came with necklaces and i was sick and that i would go towards the kids section i see a book on satanism and

i go to the coffee section i see another book and i just went to my wife and i was like i had no shame in just saying there's demonic stuff everywhere here she just looked at me said and you're surprised and i'm constantly surprised because i'll tell you why the enemy is working overtime jesus is coming soon and now we've got to awaken our hearts because so many people it's just a book it's just a book it's just a book it's a book that wants to capture your soul and the good news of god is wherever you are in your journey of faith god loves you oh you don't have to be born into the right family you don't have to look the right way god captured my heart i didn't grow up in the church i'm the last guy that should be preaching revelation to you

the enemy tried to destroy generationally my family he tried to do it through my dad he tried to do it generations down to come but thankfully somebody i don't even know who it is yeah i can't wait to get into heaven to find somebody must have been praying for me maybe a great-great-grandmother down the line because i got a hold of jesus and jesus changed everything and jesus can do the same thing for you okay there's listen we we all get trapped by the enemy in so many different ways for some of you it's a screen for some use pornography for for some of you it's it's something that doesn't seem so serious and so it's really easy to point at other people but remember matthew 23 jesus said woe to you so so we we identify and say

actually i'm the worst of sinners i'm saved by grace i just want you to be saved as well so today i just have to give you an invitation if you've never given your life to jesus please today is the day today is the day of salvation we don't know what tomorrow holds today's your day i want to invite the band up as i just talked to you for a moment this is between your heart and god's maybe we could just close our eyes for just a moment i just want to ask you in this moment of just taking god seriously in your heart have you surrendered your life to jesus thankfully our god did not make it complex you don't have to jump through the right hoops or do the right rituals you just have to believe in the right one i want to just ask you right now if you want this god who did what needed to be done so that you could be saved

he's yours i would love to pray with you and i'm just going to ask you to be bold right now if that's what you want would you slip up your hand and say i want jesus today i want to surrender my life to jesus you've got to be willing to take a stand today if you want jesus christ would you slip your hand up so i can see it i want to pray for you i want to celebrate with you [Music] if that's you right now [Music] you said this is it i'm done living life on my own you're not alone [Music] this is the day you say i give up god my life is yours

slip your hand up high so i could see him [Music] praise god amen i see you i want to pray for you you're going to need that boldness when you follow jesus it doesn't mean your life's going to be easy now you just have purpose and it's worth it anyone else want to be bold like this young man this is not meant to manipulate anyone i don't want you to do this because of emotions i want you to do this because this day you're saying i take jesus i don't want to pray with those who are making that decision even those watching online if you've made that decision wherever you are right now god can save you right

where you are you don't have to be a church to get saved just pray something like this in your heart it's just got to be sincere from your heart to god and from this moment forward you continue to pray prayer is just talking to god god loves it when you talk to him that's what prayer is you have to have the right words or eloquent words you just talk to god say something like this in your heart lord jesus i surrender my life forgive me of my sins i need you so today i trust in you from this day forward in jesus name just in this moment of seriousness and prayer i believe there's some of you you've prayed that prayer you know you're a christian you know you're saved but you're certainly not experiencing all that god has for you you're living in disobedience and that

comes in so many different forms it could have been the last year or 10 years or 30 years i want you to know today god is calling you to live for him so would you pray to god in your heart lord light of fire in your church i pray repentance is happening all over this room where people would be willing to give up the things that are holding them back from you that god we would run to you that we would see this world has nothing to offer compared to you so jesus awaken your church oh god i pray for our children that they will see a real relationship with you not religion god that they would pray i pray for a sincere relationship with you lord that life-giving relationship i prophesy that over your church that

there'll be a new generation rising up starting from this day forward and lord if you come tonight i pray it would start with us we love you lord jesus in your name we pray on so be an amen can we celebrate jesus today come on i'll tell you our god is alive he's working we've had today many people give their lives to jesus if that was you today would you let us know i'm gonna put a phone number