JUL 10 2022 | Seven: A Study of the Book of Revelation S1E6 | The Great Multitude in White Robes

Sea Change Church · JUL 10 2022 | The Great Multitude in White Robes
Revelation 7:9-17
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

to help out in children's ministries and be Joshua and do the teaching there about God's victory in us So led by God's word and spirit if I can be an encouragement in any way please reach out Okay? Thanks so much And now more importantly the reading of God's word and because I'm a grandpa I'm going to slip on grandpa glasses Today's scripture readings from Revelation chapter 7 verses 9 through 17 After this I looked and before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation and tribe and people and language standing before the throne and before the Lamb They were wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands and they cried out with a loud voice Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshipped God saying Amen Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever Amen Then one of the elders asked me These in white robes who are they and where did they come from?

And I answered Sir, you know And he said These are they who have come out of the great tribulation They've washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb 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 Never again will they hunger Never again will they thirst The sun will not beat down on them nor any scorching heat For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd He will lead them to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes This is the word of the Lord Thanks be to God I have a man I have a man I have a man I have a man I have a man I have a man I have a man o' I have a man �낣 a man �낣 Thank you.

Thank you. I am not grandpa, so just FYI. Jim actually knew Abraham, the patriarch. So if you want, it was awesome. You can seriously, it's amazing. And the days walking behind Christ, actually knowing Jesus was amazing. So it's just a bit of an incredible patriarch in the faith, Jim. A couple things that are happening you want to know. Hey, if you got Spotify, we're on Spotify now.

That's so cool. I was sitting with my daughter and she's just like, are you on Spotify? And I'm like, no. She's like, you want me to get you on Spotify? I'm like, yes. And so we're on Spotify. She has taken all the sermons from this year and edited them down to just the scripture reading in the sermon. And we're also going to have a music channel as well.

We're going to start putting some of our best songs. And we're going to be writing our own songs this summer. I'm pushing. And this fall. So you can find us on Spotify. Check it out. Really easy to hear the sermons. So La Jolla Christian Fellowship on Spotify. Check that out. Excited about that. And we are in episode six of Revelation. And so this is our second drop of a sermon series on Revelation.

It's going to probably take about four, probably three different years to get through it. And as you know, kind of like Netflix, we drop a sermon series in a curriculum. So every year in January, we do the Proverbs. And then we go into Genesis. And then we have a gospel series. And you can follow these series. So this is our second series of Revelation.

And we'll be moving into the third series next year around this time as we get to the trumpets. We weren't able to get to the trumpets. But we are in the seals. And so we're going to be continuing on that this week and next week as well. And one of the things that's interesting, this is the first time besides last year that I've preached Revelation.

I want to say there is a acute level of spiritual warfare that happens when you preach Revelation that is different, I've experienced, than any other passages that I preach unless I'm preaching on salvation. If I preach about being a nice person, if I preach about the gifts of the Spirit, things like that, you don't get the same amount of pushback.

And so I've had a ton of pushback. And it's funny because it's actually kind of difficult to preach as well. There's so many rabbit trails. And like I said, when I start looking at Revelation, I go to a lot of different websites. And you can spend the rest of your life going down rabbit trails on YouTube. And I usually press pause or stop or delete or get rid of the page as soon as they say, if anybody tells you different than this, then they are wrong.

So all of a sudden, they're the high prophet and they know everything. I just got a book. It was called The Lamb Wins. A friend handed it to me. He goes, I've been listening to your Revelation series. And what I like is you're focusing on the essentials. And that is what we want to do when we look at Revelation. Tell you the truth, I don't care who the Antichrist ends up being.

I'm going to live the same way no matter who it is. There is all of this different thoughts and people want to know all the things that I think are non-essential. What I think Revelation tells us is Jesus is being revealed. That is what Revelation is about. Jesus is revealed. The Lamb of God is revealed. And God is being revealed. The other thing that is revealed is how you should live.

It starts out speaking to the churches. That was our first series last year where it reveals how do you live. No matter when the Antichrist comes, no matter if we're in the tribulation, you can make a solid argument you're in the tribulation right now. I'm just saying you could make a very solid argument. You're post-Israel. You've got the inflation thing going on.

You've got the wars going on. People killing each other. It says that the red horse will cause people to start killing each other. Because the scripture tells us that Satan does not have the power of life and death. Satan can't kill anybody. I don't know if you can find a scripture that says Satan can kill somebody. He can't. We are made in the image of God that we have the power of life and death in us.

You can birth a child. You can bring life into the world through your decision. And you can also choose to kill someone. You see that right now. Murder is out of control, especially in the inner cities. But you see this all over. You can make an incredible argument that we are in the tribulation. I'm not going to make that argument. Because it doesn't matter to me if we're in the tribulation or not.

What matters to me is how I'm going to live and am I going to have a focus as I live. You have your notes in front of you. And what we're going to see right now is they pause as we get to this episode 6. In Revelation chapter 7, we have this pause of the breaking of the seals. We have this incredible pause. And so you have all these seals that are being broken.

You have 1 through 6. And then we have a pause. And in the midst of that pause, we see, as I said last week, the souls underneath the altar were people that had died during Revelation. And then we also have a great multitude that comes out of the tribulation. And they are ones that have been saved. As we look at the Revelation essentials, this is the first thing I want to say to you.

If you are fearful about the end times, which many people are, I think that's not the position we want to have as believers. We don't live in fear, right? It says perfect love, the scripture says, cast out what? All fear. So what position should we have in the midst of tribulation? Look, even if you're not in the tribulation right now, I don't think we are, but nonetheless, I could be wrong.

Even if we are, how are we supposed to live in the midst of that? What is your perspective? Do you read the headlines and everything's horrible? Look what's happening. Look at this. And you live with this negative attitude that is being driven more by the spirit of the world and the message of the world or by the gospel. Being informed by the gospel.

Letting God lead you and interacting with scripture. Let's interact with scripture right now. What Romans says in Romans 8, 16, this is not in your notes, I added it this, I think, last night. Romans 8, 15, and 16 says this. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, right? So if you're in fear of, we're in Revelation, as I read Revelation, I don't, I never read, I hear this a lot.

I never read Revelation because it terrifies me. It's like, it's too scary, right? That is, means, according to this, if you're living in fear, you're a slave. You don't want to be a slave to fear. We do want to be a slave to, the Bible says, righteousness. And that's one of the things that's revealed in Revelation, especially to the churches, the seven churches.

God says to them, live righteously or I'm going to take your candle away, right? They're going to take your lampstand away is what he says. He says, you haven't had a spirit of fear that returns you to fear, but you receive the spirit of sonship. And that's an overarching term meaning daughters and sons of God. That no matter where we are in the tribulation or in the history of mankind, you are a son and daughter of God.

Do you live like it? Do you live, do you wake up in the morning with a perspective that I am a child of God and I live according to that? By whom we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. So as we look at this passage here in Revelation, as we look at this great multitude, we're going to be talking today about focus.

We're going to see what is the multitude focused on? Because we learned a lot last week from the great witnesses, the 144,000 witnesses. What was one of the things we learned? That they were witnesses, right? That they actually shared the love of God. That they shared their faith. The multitude that we see today in this scripture, in this passage, are there because of the 144,000 witnesses and maybe other Christians as well that were living or will be living during the tribulation?

They were witnesses. Do you share and are you a witness? So the first thing we see is this focus. We see a pause in the breaking of the seals and we see a focus on revelation and on the goodness of God. Let me say something about focus because this is what we learned from the 144. We're going to get the three practical steps that are going to work for your life immediately that we see in the life, excuse me, not of the 144, but of the great multitude.

But the first thing has to do with focus. Let me just say, if you want to write this down in your notes, I think this is in your notes or you want to circle it. The direction of your life is largely directed by your focus. It might not be in your notes. If you can't find it on the front page, it means you need to write it down. I do tend to spend Saturday adding to the notes.

So you get a beefed up version of the notes. It also gives you something to do and not be bored. So you can write extra things down. Or you can just search like where's Waldo through the notes when I say it's in the notes and it's actually not. And sometimes I just do that to mess with you. It's a joke. I don't do that to mess with you. We good? We good today?

All right. Let's go. So the first thing is focus. We're going to see that this 144,000 have a focus. They have a focus on the Lamb. They have a focus on salvation belonging to their God. They have this incredible focus that they see. I want to say that the direction of your life is largely directed by your focus. It is difficult to move anywhere in your life where you are not focused.

If your focus is on fear, if your focus is on the political party you don't like, if your focus is on how horrible your neighbor is or your spouse or your child or whoever else, if you're focused on that, whatever you are focused on, you are going to head in that direction. Right? In this passage, we see the great multitude before the throne of God with an intentional focus.

They're focused on the Lamb. He's the center of all that they do. They're focused on God. So my first thing is where's your focus? One of the things I love about this passage, go to the end of the passage, verse 17. It says, for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their what? Will be their shepherd. They're still being shepherded in heaven.

That's pretty awesome. Still being shepherded in heaven. Heaven's going to be boring. Not if God is your tour guide. Not if Jesus is your tour guide. Trust me. Heaven's not boring. By the way, there's no time, so you're not going to be bored because boredom has to do with time. And so it says, he will lead them to what? Springs of living water and God will wipe away the tears from their eyes.

There will be no more mass shootings in heaven. There will be no more suicidal ideation in heaven. There will be no more racial strife in heaven. There will be no more you put whatever you want to put in the headline will be there. And so one of the things, it doesn't mean that we don't see those things, but everything you see happening in this world has to be through the lens of hope.

It has to be through the focus. So you can see all those things that are happening in the world. But if you don't take the lens of Jesus and the lens of a future hope to see through those, you will be overwhelmed. The world is overwhelming. A 14-year-old said to me on the way back from camp yesterday. I picked her up. She went to Forrest's home. She said, Dad, is the world ending?

I said, well, yeah, eventually. Yeah, it's ending. Is it ending now? I have no idea. But I said, it doesn't matter if it's ending or not ending. Where's our focus? You see, there has to be this focus. So that we can look through when we see God through the focus. Henry Melville, he's an 18th century preacher, wrote this. There's a quote. It's a refreshing thing to look away for a moment from the strife and the uncharitableness of human systems and conclusions.

Let me say that again. It is a refreshing thing to look away for a moment from the strife and uncharitableness of human systems and conclusions. The more you focus on all the problems in the world, the more you will be enmeshed in the problems of the world. Where is your focus? Like I said, with the multitude here, they're in front of the throne, right?

They're in front of the throne. We see them in verse 15. There they are before the throne of God. And they serve him day and night in their temple. There might be a lot going on, but they have a focus. If you want to focus on headlines, if you want to focus on all the negative things, on the end of the world, on the war in Ukraine. There's a lot more going on in the world than the war in Ukraine.

But we tend to pick four to six things. The media has a hard time picking what they want to focus on, especially when multiple things are happening. But they pick these things. And then everyone should be focused on these things. And there's a million other things that are super important in the world. Rape culture in India. You don't hear about that.

Things that are happening in Myanmar or Miramar. Not Miramar. That's right up there. That's his top gun up there. Things happening around the world. You know, it's interesting. That all, there is this focus. And the world says, look at this. The world is full of fear. The world is full of anger. You know, Jesus said these things must happen. And when they happen, I want you to look them through this focus.

That your redemption is drawing near. Now, let's just quickly get into this passage. One of the things that we see after Melville's statement about what you're focusing on and looking away from those systems is there was a fruit that these great multitude in verse nine are the fruits of tribulation. I've said over and over again that God uses tribulation.

He shakes the tree as a form of grace. God is winning people back. He's also, he's judging sin, right? So he's judging sin. But at the same time, he's opening a door through the tribulation that people might come to know him. I want to say again that this is one of the best times ever to share Jesus. This is one of the best seasons. It's separate of what you are being told that no one wants to hear about it.

When someone has spent all night up because they can't sleep because of anxiety, some of you have had that, or they have depression and they can't get out of bed, and the systems of the world and the sexual revolution and all the things that they've gone for and the drugs and everything else no longer works and they're being overwhelmed and all they think about is I want to kill myself, which my counselor this week said, as I went to some counseling, Carrie and I went to some counseling, which was awesome.

And she said, I've had more people in the last month that are dealing with suicidal thoughts than I've ever had in my life. When people are at that place, and there's many people at that place, they are ready for something else and they're ready for hope. Do not let the world tell you that no one wants to talk about God. I want to say this is one of the best times to be a witness.

And God uses tribulation to shake the tree. The great multitude is a larger number than the 144,000. So we'll look at that right now. Go to verse 9. After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count. From every nation, tribe, people, and language, and they were standing before the throne of God. I love that they're from every tribe, nation, and language.

I don't know how all that happens when 2,000 years ago you had tribes that never heard about Jesus. God has grace, and there's a lot of thought about that. Pastor Jim is a church historian. You can ask Jim the difficult questions on gotanswers.com over there with Jim. But we see that somebody, and you know what I think it should say today? From every Uber car, from every cubicle, from every seat in the arena, someone will know Jesus.

This says multiple, but I think if you were to take it contextually, that it would say that there was an opportunity to win people to Jesus in tribulation. The worse the world gets, the easier it is to win people to Jesus. You have to understand that. You have to understand that when people are struggling, they look for answers. It isn't like it gets really bad, and they're like, let's just keep making it bad.

Everybody, even people that believe completely opposite of what you believe, maybe they have a secular religion or whatever it is, we all know, we can all agree on one thing. Things aren't going well. We can all, we might have different answers, but everyone knows that things are not going well. So we see them there. You see this great multitude or a product of the work of salvation.

Here's the cool thing. In that verse right there, verse 9, they come from, let's go to verse 10 actually, if I may. Sorry, I want to go down to verse 13. One of the elders asked him in the white robe, who are these, you can put in great multitude there, and where did they come from? He answered, sir, I don't know. And he said, these are the ones who have come where?

Where have they come from? Out of the great tribulation. Now that's key in this verse here. Why is that key? Because they turn tribulation into salvation. Okay, hear that. That the 144,000, and hopefully you, because remember, the 144,000 are just a prototype of what God's already called us to be. I showed last week that every element, except being perhaps Jewish and being in the end times, every element of their life is something that we already possess as Christians, right?

And so they were able to take, even in the midst, now this group of people were actually in the tribulation. So whether it's a thousand years from now, whether we're in it right now, they were in it. They turned tribulation into others' salvation. Quick question, how do you do with your tribulation? How's tribulation? When tribulation comes into your life, is it woe is me?

Do you become the center of your own focus? The world's horrible, so I'm horrible. Like, not you're a bad person, but like, it's doing bad, and so I can't enjoy life anymore. I hear that a lot these days. Like, everything's horrible. How can I enjoy myself? Like, I'm not saying enjoy yourself, but enjoy God. And so they turned tribulation into salvation.

The best time to share with people is when there is tribulation. I guess you just need to speak. I talk about my mom a lot, because I'm a big fan of my mom. Okay? She's a big fan. Big fan. And she's my best fan. So if I never need encouragement, there was a tweet that was this week that was going viral, that went viral on Twitter. I was just trolling around on Twitter, and it said, if you're struggling in life, call your mom.

And I thought, that is true, right? You know what I mean? Because my mom is just thumbs up. I'm like, mom, I messed up at everything in life. I'm horrible. No, you're the best guy in the world. And so if you spend time with my mom, you will spend time with somebody who shares Christ always. She's always sharing Christ. I'll go to buy a suit, and I just have to tell my mom as we go in.

Look, mom, this is funny. Yesterday, we were hanging out. I said, mom, I got to go get this thing. Can we just not share Jesus while I'm getting the suit? Can we just? She goes, suit's more important than people coming to know Jesus? I'm like, no, I didn't say that, mom. Can we just get the timing? Can we wait until I actually go to the register and then release the house, okay?

Just like 38 in length. I'm trying to get my length measured, and she's in Hebrews, you know what I mean, talking to the guy. And she's just like Ka with the eyes, you know what I mean, from Jungle Book, you know. She just gets him in there, you know. I'm 90. I'm going to do what I want. That's the nice thing about being 90, right? I'm going to say what I want.

No one cares. I'm old. I'm going to say what I want. I'm 90. By the way, if you 75 plus, say what you want. Everyone expects you to be able to say what you want. Ah, they're just 75, whatever. So just start sharing Jesus, so whatever. Just saying. They turn tribulation into salvation. It's your life about your own personal tribulation. Everyone's a victim.

Everyone's a victim today. There's celebrity and victim. I don't know if you know that in internet culture. My daughters show me that a lot of times. There's a celebrity and victim. Oh, this is the other. They call it a thirst trap. You put up there, I feel so ugly today. I look ugly. And then what do you get? You get 100 like, no, you're amazing. You're the best person.

And then people are just crying and reading. I understand. I feel bad for them that they have to do that in order to get validated. But they're just crying out. How do you turn? What do you do with your tribulation? You turn your tribulation, your personal tribulation, into salvation. Now, I want to say not only the salvation of others, but your personal salvation.

When you have an issue, what do you do with that? Do you just wallow? Do you go into guilt, sorrow? You have all these tools. Or do you turn that into salvation? This is one of the things that they learn here as the three things. We're going to say three things and we're done. We're going to send you home. One of the things is that they understood, number one, if you turn your notes over, they understood that salvation belonged to God.

It says that in verse 10. So this is one of the practical steps you're going to take home. You're going to have a better week this week because you're going to live like the great multitude. You're going to have a great week this week because you're going to take your focus off your tribulation. You're going to take your focus off your whoever, your neighbor that's bugging you, or off Putin, or off your least favorite political person in America, or off all the violence that is happening.

You're going to take your focus off that and you're going to blur it with a focus of Christ. You're going to see it's going to be blurred, but you're going to see Jesus first. And then you can engage those things with a different perspective. So the first thing is they understood that salvation belonged to God. The second thing you're going to see is they washed their own robes.

That's interesting. They didn't take it to Jesus the dry cleaner. It says they washed their own robes. So there's a sense of personal responsibility in salvation. Now this is a big discussion and argument about, you know, how much is on us and how much is on God. We'll talk about that in a second. And number three, God and the Lamb were at the center of everything they did.

God and the Lamb were at the center of everything they did. So last week we talked about the 144, that you were like the 144. Other than you're probably, unless you're a Jew, we have a couple of them in here that are friends of mine, that actually if we're in the tribulation, they could be one of the 144. If you're not Jewish, you can't. But other than that, God has called us to be like them.

How are we supposed to be like the great multitude? Let's look. They understood. Verse 10. And they cried out in a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. One of the reasons we know that Jesus is equal with God is because the Lamb is Jesus. They're on the same throne. They are being worshiped together. If anybody ever says that Jesus is a son of God, but he's not the same as God and God is better and bigger than Jesus, it is not true.

Look into Revelation. The Lamb is Jesus. He sits on the throne with God and they're in the centrality of heaven. The elders, the great multitude, everyone worships and you have an equality there of God and the son, which is Jesus. So you see the equality there. There's a little systematic theology for you. It says they cried out in a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God.

I want to say that your salvation from your tribulation, let's just talk about your tribulation. I'm not talking about your salvific, are you going to heaven or not? That belongs to God too. Your salvation from whatever issue you're having, you're in debt, you, I don't know. We all got problems, right? Everyone has a problem at some point. Some problems are good.

Right now, I'm in a space where all my problems are good problems, right? They get all these problems, but they're like a result of managing some blessing. I've had bad problems and it's around the corner, right? I'm not going to focus on that, but life's hard. Now, the moment, somebody said, how you doing? I said, I had a bunch of stuff going on, super stressed, but I'm like, all my stress is like good stress.

I'm like trying to figure out good blessings and how to deal with it and that's a good place to be. I don't think I'm going to be there forever. But what we understand is when you get into a difficult place, salvation belongs to the Lord, right? Salvation belongs to the Lord. It doesn't belong to you. When you witness, when you share Christ, now let's talk about salvific, witnessing to others, you don't have to win them to Jesus.

It's not your goal to win them to Jesus. Keith, could you stop that? Thanks, buddy. I know. I know. I appreciate it. Thank you. So, one of the things that we see is that salvation belongs to our God. And I want to show this scripture out of Romans 10, 15. Because it talks about as we share Christ with people, that it's not up to you to win them over.

Salvation belongs to God, but we have to share. Let's go to Romans 10, 15. And then can they call, how then can they, that's the people in the world, call on the one whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone who will preach? And how can they preach unless they are sent?

As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news. That should be you. You will make a decision if that is you. You will be able to share the message that someone's tribulation can turn into their salvation. But are you a witness? Or is the only thing that matters to you is your problem? Where you are, if you have that job, when you're going to get that wife, when you're going to get that husband, your kids' issues, your kids' problems, all those things.

And that's never working out to a salvific change. And are you sharing Christ? They understood that salvation belongs to God. If people get saved, it's up to God. But we can partner with God because blessed, you want blessing? Blessed are the feet, beautiful are the feet, and blessed are the feet of those that share the good news. So one, they understood that salvation belonged to their God.

Number two, they washed their own robes. This is really, really interesting. Verse 13 and 14. These in white robes, who are they? Where did they come from? And I answered, sir, you know. And he said, these are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them what? White in the blood of the lamb. I don't know if you've ever cut some tri-tip this week.

Get this white shirt and that tri-tip. It ain't going to turn white. It's going to turn red. But at Christ's blood, see, we are saved. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Righteousness belongs to Jesus. But yet, they washed their robes. Now, I think that's really interesting. I don't, I can't tell you, is it all God, why we're saved? Presbyterians and Calvinists, and not all Presbyterians, but many Calvinists, and there was this one's going around.

Many believe in this doctrine that God chose who was saved, and you can't do anything about it, and a certain amount of people are saved, and it's all up to God. I think there's a lot of Scripture that says that, that can point to that. I think you can back that argument up. There's a lot of Scripture, though, that puts, kind of serves into our court a little bit, that we have the ability to follow God.

I said last week that you can do nothing in works to accept Jesus. I mean, excuse me, not to accept Jesus, but to go to heaven. You can't work your way into heaven. But you can work your way out of heaven. I believe that. I believe that, like we saw with this, with these churches, he says, if you do these unrighteous things, if you do these sexually, the sexual things that are unrighteous, if you do all, you know, follow false idols and false ideologies, I'm going to remove your lampstand.

There's enough warnings in the Scripture that I'm going to be like, I'm going to be aware of that. I'm not just going to live in this like, hey, I'm good. It's all good. I don't want to live in that faith. There's a balance, because then at that point, we have to live in this faith. But what we do know, it's this, that they made a decision for righteousness.

They made a decision to say, I got dirty, soiled robes. Now, remember, in the churches, one of the churches, their robes were soiled. I think it was Smyrna. It sounds like a soiled robe, doesn't it? Smyrna. I got Smyrna up all over me. So, they... You good? Isn't that a fun word to say? Smyrna. I'm probably wrong. It probably isn't Smyrna. But they had these soiled robes, and they didn't want to continue to have soiled robes.

They washed their robes, what? They made a decision to say, to go to Christ, and to wash. They did their own washing. They went to Jesus, and they washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, which I think means this. They went to Jesus and said, forgive me of my sins. Now, from that point, you're done, because then he can do all the work, right?

But it wasn't like they went to the dry cleaner and dropped him off and said, hey, return these back to my house at two. It was like they went and they actually did the work of repentance. Repentance is work. Repentance takes courage. Repentance takes humility. To repent, if you have treated your wife, men, in a way that is not honorable, that you need to repent to God first and then to her.

Or, Scripture says sometimes, go say you're sorry to that person and then come to the altar. Either way, it's going to work if you do both. Okay? To make a decision to say, to ask repentance. If you're walking in an addiction or whatever, we need to have repentance. This is how we wash our robes. And if you're going to be an effective witness, we've got to wash our robes.

Except sometimes, myself included, I don't mind the little, no one can see that stain. You know what I'm saying? I had this thing, okay, where if I had a dark shirt on and my hands were dirty sometimes, I would just wipe my shirt, my hand right here on my hair. Because no one can see it, right? You know what I'm saying? Like, aren't we that way with sin sometimes, right?

It's like, no one can see that. No one can see that little stain. I got a little barbecue sauce on my hand. Just right there. It's a little trick right there. You can't wear a white shirt and do it. Just right there. I'm just saying, you know, no one's going to see it. Look at that with their sin. They wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb. That has been sticking in my craw all week.

How much holiness do I want? It's up to you. How much holiness do you want? And I want to say that holiness never needs to be rationalized. Like, when you have a decision, and it's like, well, as soon as you're, like, into that camp, like, well, maybe if I did this or this, as soon as you're into that rationalization stage, it's probably not holiness.

Let's go to the last one here. So three. The first one is they understood salvation belonged to the God. Where is your salvation? Do you turn your tribulation into salvation? Others as well. Number two, they washed their own robes in the blood of the Lamb. And number three, God and the Lamb were at the center of everything they did. Verse 17. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd.

And he will lead them to the springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. I love that. Even in heaven, Jesus is the center of all that they do. It's not like I get to heaven and say, hey, I'm here. I'm going to go chill out over there. No, Jesus is the center. He is the centrality. He is the pole of everything they do.

He is the magnetic pull of all they do. He is the gravitational focus of everything that they circle around. They are constantly focused on the Lamb of God and God the Father in the center of the throne. And it says that he will be their shepherd. Who is your shepherd? A couple of shepherds. Jesus can be your shepherd. The world can be a shepherd.

Your emotions can be your shepherd. I encourage you. Validate your emotions. Do not let them shepherd you. You be their shepherd. They are just sheep. Right? Like you get a thought. I got a bunch of thoughts. I had a COVID about a month or so ago. And finally, I was like two years. I'm like, maybe I'm one of those people that can't get it. Right? You know what I mean?

I just want, I'm that guy. You know? And so I had the vid and I had the Rona. And one of the things I realized with the Rona, like, I don't know why, but there's like a spiritual component that comes with it. That just, you just get depressed and anxious. Like, it's weird. I don't know if you all experience that, but it's weird. It's like, all of a sudden, I'm like, I'm a horrible person.

And I thought, wait a second. It's probably just because I'm sick. I don't know. But you know what? I don't believe that. I'm not going to validate that thought. I'm going to look at it. I can take some time with God and say, God, am I a horrible person? He was going to say, yes, you're a sinner, but you're washed in the blood of Jesus. So actually, you're perfect in my eyes.

And he's just going to walk that balance as Christians. Right? But as I look at that, when God is calling me to what I'm going to be shepherded by, I'm not going to be shepherded by my emotions. I'm not going to be shepherded by Satan. I'm not going to be shepherded by my desires. Some people are just shepherded by their desires. The world tells you whatever you want is the centrality of how you should live your life.

Whatever you want. I want to say, saying no to yourself is really positive. You know? Saying no to yourself. I had a discussion. Let me see what time we are. We're almost done. I had a discussion with, well, I'm not going to say that, actually. So, sorry. People are like, well, I hate when you do that. Yeah, I know. So do I. I know. Right. I'll tell you afterwards, Joan.

You just come up. I'll tell you the secret. It's like the angel. You ask him, and he'll give you the secret knowledge. It says, in regard to being shepherded by the centrality of your focus, I love Isaiah 26.3. And when I was struggling with anxiety 10 years ago, I kept this passage in my head. It says, God, you will keep him. This is out of the English Standard Version.

It's not in your notes. You will keep him, her, in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. The mind that is set upon God, another way to say it, the mind that is set upon God will be kept in perfect peace because you trust in him. So, how's your mind? Is it in perfect peace? Scripture says if it's not in perfect peace, sometimes it takes a while to retrain your mind.

It doesn't happen immediately. It took me, I don't know, a year to keep training my mind and my soul to where I had victory over that anxiety. I had victory over it. By the way, you can have victory over anxiety. You can have victory over depression. Am I saying don't use some of the resources that are available? I'm not saying that. I'm saying you can have victory over those things.

You can have victory. It might be a struggle. It might be a fight. There is victory. Do not, you can't live in a place that there is no victory. But we see that the person whose mind is kept in perfect peace is a mind stayed on you. Where's your mind stayed? Once again, this passage about the great multitude, what's the whole point of today as I close?

The whole point of today is where are you focused? Is Jesus the focus of all that you do? Are you focusing on the centrality of him that salvation belongs to our God? If you change your focus, you will have so much more joy. You will have so much more contentment and you will begin to live a life that actually can turn tribulation into salvation.

Whether that's for you or for others. Amen? Let's stand. I want to bless you today. We have prayer. This little prayer thing comes up. We have a prayer team that's going to be here. They have been trained to pray for you with our special prayer training. If you want to pray for somebody else, you need to pray for healing. We've seen healings in the church and a whole bunch of stuff.

So come get prayer. Also, if you want to know more about our church, if you want to know about being baptized, being a member, whatever it would be, the next steps table is a great place. And then also, please get a taco. There was a taco outside. So before I bless you, even if you don't want a taco, go pretend that you buy a taco for someone else and then give them money because it's taking our kids to camp and we find that tons of kids make a decision to go to camp, for Jesus at camp.

And kids need to get out of La Jolla and Claremont for a week. Please get out of here for a week just to set your mind to get their minds stayed on God. So go give them as much money as you can, please. I'll just ask for the youth group. Take a taco or give a taco to a homeless guy on the way home or something, but do that. If you want to extend your hands, I want to bless you.

Lord Jesus, we bring your swath of blessing, Lord God. Let your rain down just in your own heart. Begin to focus now on Christ. Begin to focus on the Lamb of God at the center of the throne and meditate on that scripture. Change your focus. If you're focused, whatever you were focused on today, move that focus and back to the throne. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you.

He wants to add things unto you, but he's not going to do it in the wrong order. The focus of the Lamb, that I want the Lamb of God in my life. The Holy Spirit. Just ask the Holy Spirit to bless you. Spirit, bless. Pray for a blessing. You're worthy of the blessing because you are a child of God. Sons and daughters of God, I bless you with the sonship and being daughters of God.

I bless you with that. I want to bless you with peace and power this week and a brand new focus and humility that you wash your robes. Some of you need to wash your robes. You're putting that barbecue sauce in a spot where you think no one can see it. God's saying, I want washed robes. Wash them in my blood. Understand that salvation belongs to your God.

We bless you, Jesus. We bless these people. We send them out to now change this world and put their lenses on God. That everything they see, they're no longer discouraged, God, by all the things that are happening. But everything they see, they see through the power of God turning tribulation into salvation. And we send them out now as an army of your love and the consolation of your love.

In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Hey, get out of here. We love you. Go have a great week. We'll see you soon. Thank you.