NOV 12 2023 | The Seven Trumpets of Revelation S1E5 | The Two Witnesses

Sea Change Church · The Seven Trumpets of Revelation S1E5 · "The Two Witnesses" · November 12, 2023
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

We have one more week of the Book of Revelation after this, and you have your Bibles turn 'em to Revelation 11, one through 14. I'm gonna read through it this week. You're getting a live reading and uh, it's also in your notes as well, so we'll jump right in. I was given a read, like a measuring rod and was told, go measure the temple of God and the altar with the worshipers, but exclude the outer court.

Do not measure it because it's been given to the Gentiles. They'll trample on the holy city for 42 months and I will appoint my two witnesses and they will prophesy for 1,260 days and they'll be clothed in sackcloth. They are the two olive trees and the two lampstands, and they stand before the Lord of the Earth. If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies.

This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. They have power to shut up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time that they prophesy. And they have power to turn the water into blood to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want. Now, when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes from the abyss will attack them and overpower and kill them.

Their bodies will lie in the public square of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified for three and a half days. Someone, some from every people tribe, language nation, will gaze upon their city bodies and refuse them. Burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending gifts to each other because these two prophets had tormented those who were on the earth.

But after the three and a half days, the breath of life of God from God entered them and they stood up on their feet and terror struck those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, come up here. And they went up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies looked on at the very hour, there was a severe earthquake and a 10th of the city collapsed.

7,000 people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe has passed, and the third woe is coming soon. Well, uh, uh, good times, right? Good times. Somebody, some people are like, dude, I'm just so into this revelation. Other people are like, I'm so ready for that to be over.

I'm ready for a little gospel. Jesus just walking around the countryside. I'm a little ready for that myself. Um, it's kinda like a studying calculus every week. Uh, and this passage here, we're in that pause I talked about last week. There was a pause between the sixth trumpet and the seventh trumpet. And in that pause, two things happen.

You have, um, as we saw, uh, right here is these two witnesses, uh, come and, and arrive in the holy city, and it kind of foreshadows. One of the things you're gonna see in the main point, the first thing you're gonna see is that chapter 11, foreshadows the second woe, the rebuilding of the temple and the coming of the prophetic Witnesses.

This is a pause. This is something that's happening right before The seventh trumpet is blown, and I once again talked about those strategic pauses. This is a really important chapter because it alludes to the prophetic timing. It gives as much info about the tribulation, its timeline as almost any other scripture other than Daniel Chapter nine.

We're gonna look at Daniel chapter nine. We're gonna tie those together and look at how those work. And you can see how the timeline lines up. We're gonna do a couple things today. First of all, we're gonna break down that timeline. We're gonna look at this strategic pause. What is happening is what is called the second woe. Remember, an angel would come before the, uh, after the four first four trumpets were blown.

And the angel, uh, before the fifth trumpet was blown. An eagle came out and said, there's three woes coming. We spoke about one. We are in the second woe, and this is part of the second woe. When this is done, this passage is done. This seventh trumpet is gonna blow. That's next week, and you're gonna see that happen. But once again, what we're gonna look at today is the foreshadowing of the second woe, the rebuilding of the temple, and the coming of two prophetic witnesses.

Now, lemme tell you a few things. I believe there's a lot of symbolic things in the Book of Revelation, and there's some things that I believe, uh, have enough biblical evidence that you can say we're pretty sure, uh, this is not just symbolic, that this is something that's actually gonna happen. Lemme tell you from my study what I believe.

Now, you can go on the internet and find 12,000 other interpretations. I'm gonna tell you where I landed, um, and what I found. The first is this, I believe in a real seven year tribulation. I believe there's an actual seven year period where these things are going to happen. I believe that's a, a date set in time. We'll look at that based on Daniel chapter nine.

Daniel chapter nine lays that out. We'll get to that in a minute. Next thing I believe is that there's a real antichrist. There will be a person, a man who will come. It's not gonna be a woman, it's not gonna be a message, it's not gonna be an ideology. I believe there's a real person named the antichrist who will come and will proclaim himself as God and set himself up as God in the temple that will be rebuilt in is in Israel.

I believe in a rebuilt temple that they're actually going to rebuild the actual temple, a, a, a model of it, a a form of it, uh, that is very similar to the original temple, and it will be built in Jerusalem. So those are some things that we see there. And I believe finally that there is a resurrection of believers. I don't believe the rapture and the resurrection are separate.

I believe that the rapture and the resurrection are one thing, and when Jesus comes back, there will be a resurrection of people. Now, some people believe that there's a rapture of a bunch of Christians, and then there's a resurrection. I've always been taught to believe that those are one, ultimately that's up to Jesus. And it is something that is, you know, not that we don't have to believe one way or another, like the blood of Jesus, Jesus and the things I talked to Stephanie about today.

So we're gonna jump right into this. We're gonna go to verse one, and I'm gonna talk about this temple. We're gonna get right into the rebuilding of the temple. Go to verse one, and we're gonna talk about the measuring the temple of God. Verse one. I was given a read like a measuring rod and was told, go and measure the temple of God and the altar with its worshipers, but exclude the outer court and do not measure it because it has been given to the Gentiles.

Now, why do I believe that the temple has to be rebuilt? I think we see that in Daniel chapter nine, and every time there has been a restoration of Israel and it has finally gotten its land back, the actual temple has been rebuilt. There was two temples that were rebuilt. It was torn down finally by the Romans after Jesus died.

And I believe that it is, it makes sense that a third temple will be built on the exact same site. You may be asking yourself, how is that gonna happen? Well, right now there's a huge group of jealous, uh, of zealous, not jealous, zealous Jews who live in Israel and around the world that are preparing to rebuild the temple. There is a group called Return to the Mount, which is a group.

Uh, eight of them were arrested, uh, in 2022 because about every Passover they tried to sneak onto the Temple Mount and, uh, sacrifice a goat. Now, why is that problematic? Because currently the temple mount, the entire temple mount, the Jews don't own it. Now Israel owns the whole area, but it has been given to, uh, the Muslims.

And so at the top at the, you go to the top of Jerusalem where the temple used to be, you're gonna find the dome of the rock and um, and also a mosque that you're gonna see there. And so you're gonna have a mosque and the temple mount. And so it is owned by the, the, uh, by Islam. You're not even allowed to pray if you're a Jew right now.

Now, when I was in Israel recently, I took my daughter to show her something really interesting in the old city. There's a picture of a menorah here, you'll see this menorah. This menorah is the menorah that has been prepared to be put back in the temple. It sits in the old city. And we, they didn't show it to us on this trip, and I, I knew where it was, and I, they were eating and I told my daughter, Hey, I wanna show you this.

You have to see this, uh, menorah that is in the old, you know, the old city because they are prepared that when the temple is rebuilt, then this menorah will be placed there. They actually have everything prepared in warehouses, in storage, uh, all the prefab to build the temple now. And so that's just another reason why it might happen.

The other thing that has to happen in order to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and have the Jews own it, is Israel has to become a nation. Well, that happened in 1948. So that is a really important timing as you look at this. So I believe that the temple will be rebuilt and you're gonna ask yourself, how is that gonna happen?

Uh, that is just gonna be crazy if they try to rebuild the temple, they take it away from the Muslims. And how is that going to happen? Well, let me ask you the same question. How was Nehemiah going to get a decree from the king of Babylon? Who were their enemies that took them into to exile to go and rebuild the temple? How was that gonna happen? That is just as farfetched as an idea as right now the Muslim world coming together and saying, let's give Israel part of the Temple Mount and let's be in agreement with them when they do that.

That actually happened three times in the Old Testament. You have art ex exes, uh, you have Cyrus and Darius all made decrees from the medial Persian empire or Babylon as to send someone back to rebuild the temple. Now that is amazing that a foreign nation would do that, and I think it's happened three times before. I think it's gonna happen again.

So you see that menorah slide. Let's talk then. So that's the reason I believe that we're, they're actually gonna have a temple that's gonna be re rebuilt. Now, how do we know it's gonna be a seven year period? Well, one of the things that we see is, um, and that this will be rebuilt and there will be an actual temple there, and there'll be a time when the antichrist comes is because Jesus said it would happen in Matthew chapter 24.

Jesus says that when you see the abomination of desolation, then you will know that the end has come. The that means that, that the a figure will come say that they are God and sacrifice or do some abominable thing in the temple of God. They will, they will, they will desecrate the temple, which means the temple has to be there for them to come do something like that.

And so one of the things I'm going to, what I'm gonna, uh, posit to you and that I have believed is the, you won't know that the seven year tribulation has begun until there's a decree to rebuild the temple. So Jesus says that, that the antichrist will come and set himself up in this temple in Matthew 24 and will have this abomination of desolation.

Now, Paul also spoke when Paul was speaking, uh, in, in the Book of Acts, um, spoke and said that there was also going to be an antichrist that would come to the temple. And so not only Jesus, but also Paul spoke of this and that that would happen. As we, we look at that happening and we look at a real seven year period, where do we get that from?

Well, comes a book of Daniel in Daniel chapter nine. And so in the 1980s there was a Christian band called the 70 sevens. And uh, this is their picture right there. It was awesome to have really good Christian music that wasn't just worship music when I was growing up undercover. A lot of this was coming outta Calvary Chapel. And I have a secret desire to set up a record label, not plan to set up a record label at our church and have Christian bands go out.

I'm talking to a lot of hip hop artists right now. I won't go any further. Uh, but I, you know, I'm not gonna be Rick Rubin, you know, I'm not gonna sign run DMC, but there was these bands called the 70 sevens. And I, I didn't really know what the 70 sevens were. Uh, and so I began, you know, um, I didn't really understand until I started looking at the Bible that the 70 sevens comes out of a prophecy in the book of Daniel and it talks about a prophetic timing.

Now, if you can put up Daniel chapter nine right now, 25 through 27, I'm gonna take you there and look, you can rabbit hole this on YouTube for hours and it's kind of cool and fun. I'm gonna make it super easy. What does a 70 sevens mean? Well, the 70 sevens are described in, in the book of Daniel as 77 year periods that simple, 77 year periods, okay?

Based on the Babylonian calendar, just gonna throw that wrench in there, not on our calendar, on the Babylonian calendar. And as we read Daniel 9 25 through 27, I wanna take you back into Daniel and lay out the prophetic timing of this scripture. It says in Daniel, and you'll see it on the screen, it's not in your notes. Know and understand this from the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the anointed one, the ruler comes, there'll be seven sevens and 62 sevens.

Okay? So that, lemme just tell you what that verse means because that's gonna be a head that's gonna spin, that's gonna spin you for sure. It basically is a set of years that it says Jesus, the Messiah's gonna show up after the decree goes out to rebuild the temple. I talked about those decrees. There's a timeline slide that's gonna go up right now, and you're gonna see this here just a second right now.

So what I just showed you in Daniel chapter nine, there are 69 sevens. If you add up what I just said, if you would go back to Daniel, we're doing, we're doing a little seminary work today. No one understand this from the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the anointed one, the ruler comes, there will be seven sevens and 62 sevens.

So what's 62 and seven? 62 and seven, you have the number 69. Back to the timeline if you would, you have 69. Well, it says there's gonna be seven seven sevens, right? We're missing a seven. You understood that we're missing a seven. So we, we believe that from the time that one of the, um, Persian kings, and it's, it's argued that once again, I told you there was three of 'em made a decree.

I believe it's the one that was over Nebuchadnezzar, over, um, excuse me over Daniel, that from the time that decree went out to go back for, for Nehemiah to go back and rebuild the temple from that decree, the moment of that decree, the time started moving and you had 483 years according to the Babylonian year calendar until Jesus would come.

Now you can go do the calculus on YouTube with all that, but I'm just basically telling you that it says in Daniel chapter nine that there are 69 groupings of seven years from the moment the decree went out until, until Jesus would come. Now you're gonna see, um, that, that you see that in that first part there. So this is decreed. So you're missing now a seven.

Where'd that seven go? That seven is the seven year tribulation. And the question is, when is that seven year tribulation gonna happen? Well, what it shows is there is a thing called the time of the Gentiles. So you see the 69 sevens happened after the decree that went forth in Nehemiah's. Time is the one I believe Jesus comes.

And then you have the time of the Gentiles. Now let's go back to that 9 25. That, that Daniel 9 25, the time of the Gentiles is believed to be shown in Daniel 9 26. After the 62 sevens, the anointed one will be put to death and will have nothing. And then it says right here in the middle of that, the people of the ruler who will come, will destroy the city in the sanctuary in the end will come like a flood.

So that is talking about the antichrist, it talks about Jesus dying. And then it says that the people of the ruler who will come that rist will try to destroy the city and they will begin destruction. Go back to the timeline, if you would. And that is called the time of the Gentiles. The when the time of the Gentiles comes to its fulfillment, the antichrist shows up.

Now, I would say you could argue right now that the time of the Gentiles, I would say it's, it's kind of getting fulfilled in my opinion. If you look around and, and you look at what's happening, but people have said that for all, there has not been one grouping of Christians since Jesus died on the cross that didn't believe that they were in the tribulation.

At some point during that time, antichrist comes and then you have this seven year tribulation that you find that. So we see that. So the three decrees real quickly were from Cyrus, Darius and Artis Xerxes. And so you see that that decree, one of those decrees went out there, 67 groups, 483 years, the total time, if you add seven years to that 490 years, you have the time of the Gentiles, which I believe we're in right now.

And the antichrist will come and you will see the tribulation. When the antichrist comes, I believe that you'll have a decree again. There'll be another decree to rebuild the temple. We'll talk about how we can see that happening. Alright? Next thing we're gonna see is that the court of the Gentiles really interesting is excluded.

Why exclude the court of the Gentiles? And why is that important? Go to verse two, but exclude the outer court. Now, this is John measuring right with his, with his measuring stick. Exclude the outer court and do not measure it because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. There's a three D picture of the temple that I wanna show you.

The original temple. You're gonna see that I am working you hard today, Al and I appreciate that. And I know we're in in seminary class today. We had to do it. So there it is. This is the opening to when you start going to temple. The Holy Holies is in here originally, this part out here, it's called the Court of Gentiles. Gentiles can come hang out, they try to do business, they hang out, can't go in here.

All right? You have the court of the women, you have the court of, of of sacrifice right here. You go further and further the holy place. And then you have the Holy of Holies where only the um, the high priest can go into that place. So leave that up if you would. He was told to go measure the temple. We believe that in this prophe he's measuring the actual temple that will be built, that we see prophesied that is ready to be built.

And he's told not to measure this place. Well, why would he be told not to measure that place? I believe that when the antichrist comes, he will bring a solution to the Israeli Arab conflict around the world. Now, why do I have this idea? 19 2002, I was at a revival in England and I was driving and I was in a car and I got a taxi and there was an Arab driver and I told him who I was.

And we were talking about faith and, and I, we were talking about the Jews and faith, and he goes, we need to love the Jews. This is Arab guys a Muslim. And I said, okay, that's outta pocket. That's a little different than I normally hear. I guess why? He goes, because we have the same father, we're related, we're brothers from Abraham.

If somebody can come in and convince the Arab world and the Jews that they're actually not enemies, that they're brothers, that makes sense to me. And then to form a treaty between the two to say, you know what? They deserve a place on the temple Mount. It says that the antichrist will come, he'll come as a man of peace and he will bring peace.

It looks like he will bring peace to the world. When that happens, if you see, and I would say especially right now with what's going on in the Middle East, and this could, this could be another blip on the, the radar, and we could just go on again for how, however knows how long that's happened many, many times. But if we come out of this and someone come rises up and says, I want to bring unity between the nations of Islam and Israel, and I want to give some area of the temple mount back to the Jews, I would imagine it's on at that point, I would imagine it's on.

Now why don't the Israel just take it over right now? Why don't they just go up, use their military and take the temple mount over? Because the majority of Jews, especially the ones in the government, are not religious Jews. It's the quote radicals. The Hasidic Jews are the ones that are wanting to, to have sacrifice up on the temple.

And so that has not happened. If you'll show the picture of the temple mount right there with the goat, with the dome on it. The other picture, when you take the measuring line out, so this is the top of Israel right here, this, I'm sorry, Israel, Jerusalem. If you take the, um, the original measurements and you put the, and you and you exclude the court of the Gentiles, according to Chuck Smith, who I listened to yesterday, he said, it'll fit right here, right there.

Now it's also believed that this is actually not the, the, this is the Al Alaska mosque and that's the dome of the rock. It, this is supposedly on the place where it, where Abraham's sacrifice was gunning to sacrifice Isaac. That's what happened on Mount Mariah here. It's Mount Mariah, the Temple Mount. So from this place, it is actually believed that it might've been here.

Now if the Jews find out that it might've been here and they set up the temple right here, all of a sudden you have a temple back again in the right place in both of them. There you have them together. Now, let's go back to the, to the scripture again, if we would, and look at this, what happens after, um, after this happens? Because what we find is that the antichrist will make a deal with the Israelites and then he will break the deal.

He'll take over and set himself up as king, ruler, whatever in the temple. If you don't think that Satan is just lusting after being worshiped in the temple of God on Mount Mariah, on the place where the Jews of worship, you, you know, you probably don't know your biblical, you know your biblical history too well. He would be excited. And uh, you know, o overjoyed to do that.

It says, um, I put this, the prophet Daniel told us, the antichrist will break his covenant with the Jewish people bringing sacrifices and offerings to an end. The antichrist will defile the temple by setting something abominable there. Now look, go, go back up. If you would, back to real quick, back to Daniel nine, you're probably gonna have to listen to this a few times.

I listened to like five different sermons about this, like 10 times each this week. Like it takes a little bit of work. Uh, it's like calculus and I totally understand that. I wanna go back to Daniel. Go back to Daniel. Um, and it says in verse 27, if you would, he, that's the antichrist will confirm a covenant. That's the agreement I'm talking about with Israel with many for one seven.

And in the middle of the seven, he'll put an end to the sacrifice and the offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation until that the end that is decreed is poured out upon him. So that is what we see there. Uh, the scripture where Paul told us the antichrist would sit in the temple as God is second Thessalonians two, three and four.

In second Thessalonians two, that's a mouthful. In second Thessalonians two, three, and four, Paul tells us that the antichrist will sit in the temple. Not only did Jesus tell us, Paul tells us, and this is why I believe there's a lot of script scriptural evidence that that will happen. Now let's talk about these witnesses. We got two witnesses here, verse three.

In the midst of all this, I will point my two witnesses and they will prophesy for 1,260 days. That's about three and a half years clothed in sackcloth. So they're gonna be in mourning and there's three and a half years where they're going to prophesy. It's the second three and a half years of the, of the last seven. It's the second half. And God is gonna send them as pushback.

They're gonna be pushing back with what, with testimony, with the word of their testimony. Now, there's a lot of different thoughts, and once again, if you wanna spend 39 hours on YouTube, you can go look at who these witnesses are. The, the majority, the lion's share, think one of 'em is Elijah somehow being sent back in some form.

Either comes from heaven or he's a person that's here that has the spirit of Elijah in him, but they believe it is Elijah. Um, and that comes from, um, because as we look at what they're able to do, so go back to the scripture in Revelation. If you would talk about the two wi witnesses in verse three, actually go to verse five.

Rev, uh, in revelation there, if anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them will die. They have power to shut up the heavens so that it'll not rain during the time they were prophesying. Stop right there. That is like in Elijah's bag. Like if Eli Elijah was a golfer and he had a driver shutting up the heavens was his driver.

Um, that's just something he did. So that looks like it's gonna be Elijah. And then we go on and it kind of looks, sounds, starts sounding like Moses, right? Uh, if you continue on, um, it says in verse, I keep going between Daniel and Revelation. Uh, it says in verse six, they have the power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want plagues water in the blood.

Who does that sound like? Sounds like Moses. So, so while I have a different thought, I, it's hard to argue that it is somehow either the spirit of Moses or somebody that that is them and, and, um, Ezekiel that are, that are there Elijah, excuse me, not not Ezekiel, Elijah. So that's the first thing is either Elijah and Moses, some people think it's Elijah and Enoch, you can look who Enoch was.

He was the really godly man that was taken up into heaven without dying. I think that's kind of a rough, uh, you know, a bit of a reach. Some people believe it's Elijah and John the Baptist because right before this, in last week's sermon, as we went in, in chapter nine, after he eats the little scroll, which is part of the pause, after he eats the little scroll, it says, now you must go out and what testify.

So there's a good shot. A lot of people believe it's Elijah and John the Baptist, that they are there and they're testifying in the city. They're testifying in that city, uh, that you see. And then other people will believe that it's the Old Testament prophets, two contemporary believers. Um, I'm not sure it matters that much who they are.

Um, we just know that God said he is gonna send two witnesses. And lemme give you something that, uh, I read that I really, I think this was in David, David Guzzi, and he had this, and I thought it wasn't a a, a bad thought. If you look at in Revelation, it says, when he sends the witnesses, go to verse, um, three 11 verse three.

I will appoint my two witnesses. He'll prophesy for 200, 1260 days. That's half the length of that tribulation. They are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands. Where have we heard lamp stands? It has to do with the churches, right? Remember early in the scripture here in Revelation, there were churches that were called the lampstands and there were two churches, Smirna and Philadelphia that were called to, that were not called to repent.

Remember, of the seven churches, five are like, you need to repent of this. You're letting you know sexual morality, you're having all these things happening, you need to repent. But two of them, he doesn't call them to repent. There is a belief that a lot of the church will go into apostasy. We're seeing that in San Diego right now.

Churches are believing certain things that are apostasy to the word of God, and only two of the five are represented. Now, it is possible to believe that this witness is the church on the earth. Now, how do they both of 'em get killed in the city and get raised again? Um, some people, that is the argument for the rapture, the, the rapture, which is separate than a resurrection.

I don't believe that personally. But some people believe that during the tribulation, the church will get raptured out. Uh, and so when that actually hap when they say that that happens, they believe that this is the church. And then when they get raised up that that will happen. And then there'll be a resurrection after that.

I actually believe, for me personally, this is the most plausible argument, not the rapture component, but that the church is meant to be a witness in the world during the tribulation. I have never, and people get really angry about the timing of when you're, you know, God, the resurrection's gonna happen. Please don't be spiritually mature enough to divide the church on that con on that controversy.

I do not personally believe that the church is getting raptured up at the beginning. I personally don't. It wasn't the way I, maybe because of the way I was raised and who I sat under, but I do believe that the church is going to be a part of the tribulation. And the reason being is 'cause they're gonna be the people that continue to testify.

And as God triss, he brings people back to him. He wants his best players in the game at the moment. People might repent. Now he doesn't need them, but I believe that they are. So I actually personally believe, and you can go do the research on yourself, on your own, that this is the church and these are the churches, um, that are prophesying in that time.

So I told you why the court of the Gentiles was excluded and who the two witnesses are. Now we're done with seminary, right? And I gotta tell you, I was praying it up this week 'cause trying To keep all that in your head. Woo. You know, man, goodness. And there's Elijah and Nina. It's like, Lillian, Lucy, why did they name my daughters that there's all these names and whatever.

And I just thought, go as slow as possible. Now I wanna give you something you can take home. 'cause I keep asking the Lord, this is what I'm passionate about. Um, what God has to say to the flock that I lead. Um, what does God wanna say to you? And, and, and pulling some really practical things out so you can go home with a lot of biblical information.

Ooh, the temple Mount. The court of the Gentiles. But if you don't walk outta here with something that's gonna change your Tuesday, I don't think I, I I, I did the, the assignment that God put me on, couple ones is this. First one is to take measure of the temple of your life. Go to verse one and two. I was given a read like a measuring rod.

I was told to go and measure the temple of God and the altar with its worshipers, but exclude the outer court. Do not measure it because it's been given to the Gentiles who is the temple of God today. It's us. We are the temple of God. And I wanna say it's so important that we regularly take measure of our lives. And there's some courtyards in your life that need to be excluded, that you have not excluded.

And every day as we sit before the Lord, we wanna say to the Lord, holy Spirit, can you gimme the measuring, Rob? Because God has other things he wants to expand in your life. He has resources and he has measurements of joy and hope and purity and holiness and care for others and generosity and, you know, orphan ministry. And he has these me and he's like, I, he's got all these measuring rods.

So they used to have a cubit, I believe six or seven cubits would, would be a cubit is from here to here. It's supposed, you know, about about 18 inches normally, but it's supposed to go from your elbow to the top of your hand. And seven of those, I believe it's seven, would be one of these rods that you're given. And that's how they, you know, they didn't have the Stanley measuring tools back then or the laser measures.

And so they would have a whole bunch of 'em. They'd lay 'em end to end, or they would just keep flipping it like that. I believe that God has all these measuring rods for some of you, and you just have never picked him up. And he's like, I want you to take measure. There's things in your business, there's things in your life. There's, there's something. I know right now my relationship with my mom, uh, is I've taken Fridays and I just said, you know, Friday says, mom day, I'm gonna go hang with my mom.

And so we go and we hang out and God is just showing me the measurement as he keeps laying that out of the, of the joy we can have, the relationship, we can have the, the how funny she is. She's hilarious. I mean, that's what I'm talking about. And so the first thing is take measure of your life. Take time. Take an hour. Put the categories of your life, your business, your personal life, your emotions.

Lay it all out and take time to measure. That takes time you ever measured before. For, for, for a project. It takes time first thing. So that's the first thing is take measure of the temple of your life. And then the final one I thought was probably that hit me the hardest was verse seven. Now, when they had finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss, we'll attack them.

We learned about that beast a few chapters ago. Overpower and kill them. The thing that stuck out to me was that word finish circle the word finished when they had finished their testimony. You know, one thing we're oftentimes not great at finishing and God has given us things that he's called us to finish. And a lot of times we just wanna move on to the next thing.

But you are not gonna be taken out of this world until it is finished. You know, Jesus used that word as well. He didn't, aren't you glad he didn't, you know, bounce out, uh, you know, in the, in Gethsemane. He finished it up and the Lord is calling some of us to finish. And the other thing is, while you're in the midst of finishing something that's really difficult, to not lose the glory of God in the modernity of it, meaning it can so often just be mundane and to experience God in that so that you might finish what God has put before you.

He has new assignments for you. But we always want the next assignment. If you think of a baseball analogy so often, I want to hit first. I want to hit cleanup. I want to, you know, finish the end of the lineup. You have nine batters. And it's like we're told in our society you need to bat ev every position of the lineup. And if you're not, you're not in God's will.

You're not in his purpose. You gotta go from one thing to the next thing to the next thing missing out all the time on what is actually happening in this moment and in this place. And so for some of you that don't want to finish something, God has started, I want to, I want to challenge you to lean back in and finish that thing.

It might be a vow for some of you. It might be some things that are really difficult. But God says finish. And the next thing I think finally is just, just to challenge you, that God does have a new thing for you, but he's not done with you yet. And and for some people, I wanna say, especially if you're older, um, it, as I've been talking to people, hopelessness is kind of creeping in, especially with our older generation, our seniors.

And sometimes, you know, our partners passed away or they're alone home alone and they've got, you know, maybe all the money in the world and all the time in the world. I would say that God has said to me, he's not finished with you. Do not see yourself as irrelevant. When God is finished with you, he will take you. Until then, you were on assignment and you were appointed.

I have appointed, it says my two witnesses. Hey, if anything, just just be an appointed witness for Christ. I was with my mom. I gotta finish one more mom story. I know we're done. Um, I was at Pete's and we were talking to this gentleman and I saw my mom look at him. I'm like, oh, here it comes. She's gonna talk to him. He's gonna talk. He had a really nice shirt on.

She said, he says, I love your shirt. You look great. And, and he, he's all thanks so much. He's amazing. And she goes, do you know Jesus? And I'm like, mom, that's a, that's a, that's a hard end. That's a hard in. He goes, he goes, amen. But she didn't hear, hear him. She goes, I didn't hear you. And I thought, oh mom, you're killing me. You're killing me.

Um, he goes, no, I, he goes, I said, amen. And uh, they ended up having this really good conversation. I said, my mom's 92 years old. Uh, but I'll tell you what, at 92 you say whatever you want. Pretty much I tell mom, just blame it on senility mom. Just say you're seen, you know, to do something, you know, scream or yell after, say what you wanna say.

They just scream or yell and they'll just let you off the hook. Um, you know, I'm not saying she's seen Nile, that's what I'm saying. I'm saying blame it on senility. Uh, but she is a witness and I wanna challenge you, and especially if you've been feeling hopeless. 'cause that can happen when you're 26 as well. Um, God loves you so much.

He loves you too much, not to partner with you in the testimony that he wants you to share. You know, sometimes you got, you know, you have this purpose. It's like a dance and we just wanna dance it alone. I think Jesus wants to, to dance with us, to run with us, to paint art with us. He wants to do all those things. He loves you so deeply.

And that's what I got from this message this week. Amen. Amen. Let's stand if you would. I wanna bless you.