Introduction:
Armageddon
- The prelude HYMN . (Rev 19:1-10)
- The RETURN of the King. (Rev 19:11-16)
- The VICTORY of the King. (Rev 19:17-21)
Isaiah 63:3
2 Chronicles 20:15
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:03
Open up your Bibles to Revelation chapter 19.
00:03-00:08
The bowls have been poured out, and judgment on earth is finished.
00:09-00:13
We also had a two-chapter focus on Babylon's destruction.
00:13-00:20
And we moved from the funeral on earth in Revelation 18 to the party in heaven, which is Revelation 19.
00:21-00:23
If you're taking some notes, I want you to jot some things down.
00:23-00:31
Today we're talking about Armageddon, the battle at Har-Megiddo, the hills of Megiddo, which we call Armageddon.
00:31-00:35
Revelation 19 is one of the greatest chapters in the whole Bible.
00:35-00:38
Let's look first of all at the prelude hymn.
00:38-00:52
"After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven crying out, 'Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God!
00:52-00:55
For His judgments are true and just!
00:55-01:31
for He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of His servants.' Once more they cried out, 'Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever!' And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God, who was seated on the throne, saying, 'Amen! Hallelujah!' And from the throne came a voice saying, 'Praise our God, all you His servants, "You who fear Him, small and great." That is actually the voice of Jesus right there.
01:31-01:32
We know from Psalm 22.
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Verse 6, "Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters, and like the sound of many peals of thunder, crying out, 'Hallelujah!' For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
01:48-01:56
Let us rejoice and exalt and give Him glory, For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and the bride has made herself ready.
01:56-02:01
It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure.
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For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
02:06-02:09
And the angel said to me, 'Write this.
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Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.' And he said to me, 'These are the true words of God.' Then I fell down at his feet to worship him.
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But he said to me, 'You must not do that.
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I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus.
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Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.'" This is the prelude hymn.
02:32-02:34
And to what shall we compare this?
02:34-02:42
It's almost like, if you'll pardon the analogy, it's almost like if you're a sports fan, when the boxer goes to the ring to music, right?
02:42-02:43
Why does he do that?
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To pump himself up and to pump the crowd up.
02:46-02:56
Or you think, "When the Steelers take the field, there's music." Or, "When the Penguins hit the ice, there's music." Well, this isn't just music for the sake of pumping up the crowd.
02:57-02:59
This is the crowd being pumped up to worship.
03:00-03:09
And appropriately, I'm sure you saw four times in these verses the word "Hallelujah." You know, this word "Hallelujah" shows up 22 times in the book of Psalms.
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And this is the only place in the entire New Testament the word "Hallelujah" is used.
03:14-03:16
And I think there's a reason for that.
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I think because the events that we're going to talk about in just a minute, there's no other word that could capture the awesomeness of this event that's about to come.
03:26-03:29
You remember we studied the word "Hallelujah" a few weeks ago.
03:29-03:30
Do you remember what that means?
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If you remember, shout it out.
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I hear some murmuring.
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That's not confident shouting out.
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All right, I'll remind you.
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"Hallelujah." That's okay, I only remember it because I've written it down here.
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"Hallelujah" means everybody, praise the Lord!
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It's a command to the congregation.
03:47-03:53
"Hey, all of you people, listen, let's together praise the Lord." That's what "Hallelujah" means.
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It's like a command.
03:55-04:03
"Hey, everyone, let's worship!" And that's why I love verse 4 where it says, "Amen, hallelujah." That's another word we learned the meaning.
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Who remembers what the word "amen" means?
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Shout it out.
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Oh, we got some people more confident about that one.
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That was more recent, wasn't it?
04:11-04:41
Amen means so be it or to put it in more modern vernacular amen means yes Yes So you get to verse 4 and literally it is yes Everyone praise the Lord They're pretty fired up. You know, I've talked to people over the years. They've said Pastor Jeff I have business on this is on sound too bad Heaven sounds pretty boring. Yeah, just stand out singing all the time and and I'm gonna tell you pastor Heaven just sounds pretty boring.
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If you've ever thought that, you're going to see just how wrong that statement is this month.
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But for now, I want you to notice in this passage what heaven is compared to.
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Look at verse 9.
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It's the marriage supper of the Lamb.
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Heaven is compared to a wedding reception.
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And we can't miss the significance of this.
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You see, in Jewish culture in these days, here's how a marriage went down or a wedding went down.
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Now catch this.
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A Jewish wedding in these days was usually arranged.
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The couple gets betrothed or engaged as a price is paid for the bride.
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Then the man goes away to prepare a place for them and comes back unexpectedly to take his bride.
05:29-05:33
Then there's a week-long party paid for by the father of the groom.
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And then the couple stays together forever.
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You see the parallel in the Bible.
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You see the wedding supper of the Lamb, the marriage supper of the Lamb.
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Jesus too has a wedding that's been arranged by His Father.
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And He bought the bride with His own blood, and then He went back to heaven to prepare a place, right? John 14.
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And He's going to return unexpectedly to take His bride as the rapture.
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We've talked about that.
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And then, what's left? It's the long party.
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And in this case, it is eternity long, paid for by the father of the groom, where the bride and the groom are going to be together forever.
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By virtue of my position, I've been to more weddings than most people.
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And if anybody wants to challenge that, you're like, "I'm a DJ!" Okay, maybe, maybe.
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I'm just saying, more weddings than most people, all right?
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And I've been to more wedding receptions than most people.
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And I can honestly tell you, after 23 years of pastoral ministry, something I've never seen.
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I've never seen someone bored at a wedding reception.
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I've just never seen it.
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I'm not saying it's impossible.
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I'm not saying maybe it doesn't happen and I'm just not noticing.
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I'm just saying, and I don't know if people watch, I like to watch what people are doing.
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Every wedding reception I've been to, it's laughter and joy and dancing, And it just seems like people just don't want it to end because we're with people that we love so much and we're enjoying this time together so much.
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And the Bible says heaven's like that.
07:12-07:13
Heaven's like a wedding reception.
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So if you think heaven's going to be boring, I'd encourage you to take another look.
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It's going to be awesome.
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And then John sees what every believer in Jesus Christ has been anticipating, the return, The return of the King, just as He promised.
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Now this return, this second coming, is different than the rapture.
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The second coming is different than the rapture.
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The rapture takes place before the seven-year tribulation.
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This second coming takes place at the end of the seven-year tribulation.
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And in the rapture, Jesus comes for His saints.
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And you're going to see in this passage, in the second coming, Jesus comes with His saints.
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We're going to talk about that.
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But this is a different event.
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In the rapture, Jesus comes to deliver His people.
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In the second coming, Jesus comes to judge those who've refused Him.
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So, number two on your outline, let's talk about the return of the King.
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Verses 11-13, "Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse!
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The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.
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His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems.
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And He has a name written that no one knows but Himself.
08:30-08:39
He is clothed in a robe, dipped in blood, and the name by which He is called is the Word of God." Again, John saw heaven open up.
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John saw heaven open up in chapter 4, verse 1, and heaven opened up in chapter 4 to let John see in.
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Heaven opens up in Revelation 19 to let Jesus come out.
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Interestingly, where it says Jesus has a robe that's dipped in blood, maybe you're like me, as soon as you hear "Jesus" and "blood," your mind starts to think, "Oh, the blood of redemption, right?
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The blood of Christ. We are bought with the precious blood of Christ." And that's obviously what this blood refers to.
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And actually, it doesn't.
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Because at this point, this isn't Jesus' blood at all that's being talked about.
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This is actually the blood of His enemies.
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Like, "Well, how do you know that?" Because this comes from Isaiah 63.
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Do we have that verse we can put up on the screen?
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Isaiah 63, "I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me, I trod them in my anger, and trampled them in my wrath.
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Their lifeblood splattered on my garments and stained all my apparel." The first time that Jesus came, He wore a crown of thorns.
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The second time Jesus comes, He's going to be crowned with many crowns.
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The first time Jesus came, He rode into Jerusalem in humility on a donkey.
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The second time Jesus comes, He's riding a white horse.
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That's victory! That's triumph!
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The first time Jesus came, wicked men passed sentence on Him and condemned Him.
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The second time Jesus comes, Jesus passes sentence and condemns wicked men.
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The first time Jesus came, He was the suffering servant, but the second time He's coming as the warrior king, the first time Jesus came, it was to be a Savior.
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And the second time, it's to be a judge.
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I'd like to remind you, if you're sitting here today and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I need to remind you that you're going to encounter Jesus Christ.
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And you can either encounter Him today as a lamb, or you can encounter Him later as a lie.
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V. 14 says, "In the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following Him on a white horse." So the armies of heaven are coming with Jesus.
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Who are the armies of heaven?
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It's God's people. It's the saints.
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It's going to be some of us coming with Jesus.
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We're going to talk about this army here in a minute.
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It's God's people following behind Jesus.
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Verse 15 and 16.
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It says, "From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.
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He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
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On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, 'King of kings and Lord of lords.' The nations will be struck down at Armageddon.
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The rest of the unredeemed all over the earth who did not assemble for this fight, They're going to face the sheep and the goat judgment that Jesus talked about in Matthew 25.
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A couple of things I want to point out, interesting about this passage here, it says in verse 15, "He will rule them with a rod of iron." That's interesting, that word for "rule" literally in the Greek, the best way we could translate it in a word that we would understand would be the word "shepherdize" or "pastor." That this is saying Jesus will lovingly pastor the world, His people.
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He will. During His millennium kingdom, He will pastor the world, but it will be with a rod of iron.
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It says His robe and His thigh, there's a name written.
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What people said, "It's a tattoo." Or is it a banner that's hanging over Him, like some kind of a sash, that while He's sitting on a horse, it's sort of hanging over His chest and draped over His leg? I don't know.
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That's not really the important part of that, is it?
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What's important is the name that's written on it.
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The name written is "King of Kings and Lord of Lords." Take every king who's ever lived, they have a king, and his name is Jesus Christ.
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You take every lord, everyone that's had authority and power over people, they have a lord, and his name is Jesus Christ.
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This is the third name, explicitly, third name that's given in this passage.
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Verse 12 was the mysterious name.
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A name no one knows but Himself.
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Verse 13 was the Word of God.
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Verse 16, "King of kings, Lord of lords." Let's talk about these for a second.
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The first name, the mysterious name, speaks to His deity.
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He has a name written that no one knows but Himself.
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My understanding is that name is written on the crowns because it seems to be associated with the crowns.
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I don't know, that's just how I take the text.
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But somebody's like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, what's that name?" It says, "No one knows but Jesus." So we could guess until He returns, and it would mean nothing.
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But here's what it does speak to. It speaks to His deity.
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Because here's the point.
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Even all the names that we do know of Jesus, and we know a lot of names, right?
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The Bible gives us a lot of names and titles for Jesus.
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Even all of that does not exhaust everything that He is.
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Every name the Bible gives of Jesus, even all of those names, They don't totally describe His fullness.
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The first name speaks to His deity, the second name, the Word of God, speaks to His power.
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Think about what the Bible says about the Word of God.
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The Word of God. Everything the Bible says about that, think about that.
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The Bible says the Word of God created everything.
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The Bible says the Word of God became flesh.
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The Bible says it his power. The third name, King of kings, Lord of lords, that speaks to his authority.
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Again he's not just a king, he's not just a lord, he is at the absolute top of the heap.
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Matthew chapter 28, Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." All authority. And some people want Jesus as their savior, but not their lord. And that's not an option. Because receiving Jesus Christ means receiving him for who he is. Yes, he He is the Savior of the world. Yes, He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
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Yes, that's absolutely true.
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But, at the same time, He is King of kings and He is Lord of lords.
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And you need to get to that place where you don't just say, "He's King of kings and Lord of lords." You say, "He's my King. He's my Lord. He has authority over me." Rejecting His authority, well, that's a losing battle. Hence, Revelation 19.
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Those are the names of Jesus that are given, and I feel like I wouldn't have enough time in the world to fully explain how awesome all of this is.
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But look at verse 17. Let's talk about number 3, "The Victory of the King." Talk about the victory of the King.
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He says, "Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, 'Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and the riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.
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And I saw the beasts and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against Him who was sitting on the horse (that's Jesus) and His army (that's His people with Him).
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At this point, for the beasts, for the kings of the earth, for the unredeemed, we talked about this a little bit the last couple of weeks, there's no desire for salvation here.
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And there's no opportunity for salvation here.
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Understand, these assembled enemies of God, they have one thing that they're clinging to, and that is this.
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We've got to defeat Jesus Christ.
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We've got to take Him out.
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We've got to kill Him.
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We have to world together, united assault against Jesus.
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Just a reminder, if you're like, "Wait, why in the world would anybody think that's a good idea?" Do you remember the sixth bull back in chapter 16?
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The sixth bull, these demons that kind of looked like frogs, went and deceived all of these world leaders to gather together to fight against Jesus.
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These demons were like, "Look, you guys can do it.
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Look at your numbers. Look at your power.
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You got the beast. You got the false prophet.
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Have you seen this guy? Have you seen how awesome he is?
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And these demons are going to deceive the world into gathering together at Har Megiddo, the hills of Megiddo.
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He's going to gather everyone together.
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Like, "Look, we can win this. We can win this." But the angel cries out to the birds, first of all.
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Did you notice that? He cries out to the birds, "Hey, come and eat!" Like ringing the dinner bell.
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You know what's so interesting about this?
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The angel calls to the birds before the battle even starts, right?
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He's like, "Hey guys, you're going to want to fly here, because Ponderosa is about to open up before the battle." And that's showing you that victory is that certain.
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Like there's anybody that really was questioning, "I wonder who's going to win?" Like, yeah, right.
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But once again, we see that victory proclaimed ahead of time.
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You know, it's a bit ironic, isn't it?
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that these people refused the invite to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
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Now, you're going to attend the great supper of God.
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It's ironic, isn't it?
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So one way or the other, you are joining the Lord for supper.
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It can be at the wedding reception, or it can be in Armageddon as the main course.
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But you're joining God for supper.
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Kings and captains brought low.
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And that's really what's being highlighted here.
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These mighty people of the earth, these people that thought they were so awesome and so powerful, and that had the audacity to think they could show up and assault our Lord, and the angel's like, "Yeah, you know what you are?
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You're bird food. That's what you are." Look at verse 20, "And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet, who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image.
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These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur, and the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of Him who was sitting on the horse.
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And all the birds were gorged with their flesh." It's over before it even begins.
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The Antichrist, the beast, and the false prophet are immediately, the Bible says, thrown alive into the lake of fire.
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This is the first reference in the Bible to the lake of fire as such.
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What is the lake of fire? It's the final form of hell.
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And these two are the first two residents.
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Unlike Hades, which is the current place that we call hell, the lake of fire is not a temporary holding place.
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Because we're going to see that a thousand years later, when Satan is cast into the lake of fire, we'll see that in chapter 20, the beast and the false prophet are still there.
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And that's important, because some people teach in annihilationism, which means at some point the unredeemed are just going to cease to exist.
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But here's more proof of what the New Testament teaches over and over, "Hell is eternal." Hell is eternal.
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These men are thrown into the lake of fire, and again a thousand years later they're still there.
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But let's get back to this scene, the battle.
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Can you imagine the panic that sets in in the battle when the beast and the false prophet are leading the world into battle with Christ.
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And all of these people are sold out to the Antichrist, and they're sold out to the false prophet.
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And all these people show up, and they're ready to fight.
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And then suddenly, their leaders are gone.
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Could you imagine the panic? It's like, "We're going to take them!" Where in the world did our leaders go?
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Well, they were plucked and thrown into the lake of fire.
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And then the leaderless armies are going to be slaughtered by the sword that comes from the mouth of Jesus Christ.
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And the birds, they gorge themselves.
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Jesus is coming back.
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And those who have rejected Him are going to meet a violent death.
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But that's really only the beginning of their problems.
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But His return will be glorious.
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There's one thing about this scene that was always a little strange to me.
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There's one thing in particular about this whole scene that I always thought, Okay, look, we've got the crowns and the horse, and we've got the sword from the mouth, and that's not the stuff that bothers me, because God is God and I am not, and He does what He wants, and He has the power to do what He wants, and that's not the thing that bothers me at all about this passage.
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But there is something that really has always sort of bothered me about this passage, and it's in verse 14. Look at verse 14 again.
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It says, "In the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following Him on white horses." And again, the armies of heaven, that's us, that's the saints.
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The Bible is so clear on that. Those are God's people coming with Jesus.
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Do you see why that bothered me? Do you see why that kind of bothered me?
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Why does Jesus have an army following?
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You see what I mean? He's Jesus!
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Why does He have an army following Him?
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I mean, they're not armed, right?
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I mean, He's got the sword, but He's the only one that shows up at this battle with a weapon, and we're not armed.
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The army's not armed. They're not even dressed for battle.
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They're not like wearing armor. They're wearing like robes.
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And I mean, you read the same passage I did. They didn't do anything.
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Because reality is, Jesus didn't really need them to do anything.
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So why are they/we, why are we even there?
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Does that bother anybody else? Has anybody else ever been kind of bothered by that?
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Or just me? Just me? Thanks for that. Just me?
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Alright, you are loved. Just go.
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But you know I thought about that a lot this week.
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Especially this week because I'm preaching this passage and there's this verse in here that's always bothered me.
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And I've really thought a lot about that.
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When it hit me about three days ago, why is the army with Jesus for this battle?
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And here it is, you ready?
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This is the reason.
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It's to show one more time, one last time, perhaps the greatest example of a truth that we see cover to cover in your Bible.
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And that truth is this, the battle belongs to the Lord.
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Here's what I mean by that.
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2 Chronicles 20, these are the days of King Jehoshaphat.
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Some of you might know him by his nickname, Jumping Jehoshaphat.
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So enemies surrounded Israel and the nation prayed and a prophet named Jehaziel reminded them of something that we all need to hear.
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And here it is.
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2 Chronicles 20 verse 15, "Thus says the Lord to you, 'Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours, but God's.'" And he says later in verse 17, in case anybody missed it, he said, "You will not need to fight." So I started flipping through the Bible when I realized, Man, this theme is everywhere!
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And this theme is right under our noses in some of the most well-known passages of the Bible.
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A couple of examples, one is, you remember when Moses was leading the Israelites out of Egypt and God led them to the Red Sea, and here comes the Egyptians, so the Israelites were like, "Okay, we got the sea here, and here come the Egyptians." You remember that story, Acts 14? You remember what Moses said?
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Moses said to them, "The Lord will fight for you." And the funny thing about that, for us maybe, not the Egyptians, but in verse 25, after God poured into the Red Sea, the Egyptians are like, "We're going to chase them!" They're after them in their chariots, and their chariot wheels get stuck in the mud.
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Do you remember what the Egyptians said?
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They're like, "It's like the Lord is fighting for the Israelites!" You see that with Joshua.
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He was charged to conquer the Promised Land, be strong and courageous.
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The Lord will be with you.
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And probably the story that is most famous with Joshua is Jericho, right?
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Do you know in its essence what the story of Jericho is about?
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It's about the power of God fighting on behalf of his people.
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They didn't knock the walls down.
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God did. The battle belongs to the Lord.
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And I thought, "Well, what about David and Goliath, right?
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How did David kill that giant?" Well, it wasn't because of Saul's armor.
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Didn't fit right, didn't wear it, didn't need it.
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I don't even think it was because of David's slingshot skills.
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David even said to him, "I'm coming after you in the name of the Lord." It's over and over and over in your Bibles.
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Deuteronomy 3, "The battle belongs to the Lord." Deuteronomy 20, "The Lord will fight for you." Joshua 23, "The Lord will fight your battles." Proverbs 20.
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Verse 22, "Do not say, 'I will recompense evil.' Wait for the Lord, and He will save you." The truth is, cover to cover in your Bible, all the way up to the very last battle of the Bible, here's the truth.
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The battle belongs to the Lord.
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Do you believe that?
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Then why are we so quick to take up our own battles in our own lives?
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Like at the workplace, you have an unfair boss.
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What do we say?
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"I'm going to file a grievance. I'm going to sue. I'm going to ruin them!" You're taking up your battle.
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Or you have that jerk co-worker.
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"I'm going to make sure that he gets fired." You're taking up your own battle.
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You have a family conflict because you've got hard-hearted people, or a prodigal child, or whatever, and you think, "You know what? I've had enough. I'm setting her straight." You're taking up your own battle.
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You have a neighbor who's made your life difficult, and you say, "That's it. I'm going to settle this.
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They are not going to win. I'm going to win this." You're taking up your own battle.
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You have a teacher or a professor that's making your school experience absolutely miserable, and you think, "You know what? He is not going to get away with this." You're fighting your own battle.
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We are so quick to defend ourselves. We're so quick to put people in their place.
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We're so quick to try to control the situation.
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We're so quick to try to control people.
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We're so quick to try to win our own battles.
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And a reminder for us from God's Word today is, "The battle is not yours." Oh, people might look like they're your enemies, and circumstances might look like your enemies, but the battle is not yours.
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The battle belongs to the Lord.
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And if you truly believe this, it's literally going to change every day of your life.
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Yeah, Jesus, He'll bring an army with Him.
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But it's to remind us again, the battle belongs to the Lord.
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I want to ask you, what battle are you fighting right now?
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What battle do you have in your life right now that you're fighting?
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You're fighting! You're fighting!
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Well, maybe it's time to get out of your fighting stance, and maybe, maybe it's time to get on your knees instead, and just pray this simple prayer, or something like this.
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Maybe you need to get on your knees and say, "God, I'm going to trust You to fight my battles." You promised to do it. You have the power to do it.
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God, let me get out of your way." That is why prayer is the most powerful weapon that we have.
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That's why 1 John 5, verse 4, "The victory that overcomes the world is..." what?
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Our faith.
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Because, here it is, you aren't leading the charge into battle, hoping that Jesus is following you.
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No, no, no.
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You're letting Jesus fight your battle.
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And like Armageddon, you're just following Him.
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And there's something we learned about Jesus today.
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He is quite good at winning battles.
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So why don't you let Him fight yours? Pray with me.
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Father in Heaven, a sermon that lasted 100,000 hours could not adequately capture the glory that is demonstrated in this passage describing the return of Jesus Christ.
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We've been going through this book of yours in Revelation since October.
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And this is like the thing that we are looking forward to, not just in reading it and studying it and preaching it.
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This is the thing we're looking forward to actually happening when you come to make everything right.
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Father, I pray today for myself and for my brothers and sisters here who might be battle-worn, who might be exhausted from so much fighting, have been trying so hard with no results to fight their own battles.
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I pray, God, that You would bring us to this truth that we see throughout Your Word.
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The battle belongs to the Lord.
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These are Your fights, God.
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You have the power.
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Only you can change hearts.
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Only you can sovereignly organize circumstances.
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Only you can do that.
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Father, I pray that we would be a people that fight our battles on our knees, trusting You to be the one who's going to give the victory.
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Father, I pray that we would get out of Your way.
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And as an act of faith, as an act of trust, we would allow You to do what You've told us You will do.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Revelation 19
GROUP
What was your big “take-away” from the passage / message?
What was the best wedding you have ever attended? What made it so good? With that in mind, why do you think Scripture compares heaven to a wedding reception (“the marriage supper of the Lamb”)?
Verse 15 - what does it mean that Jesus will rule (literally “pastor”) with a rod of iron?
What battle have YOU been fighting that you need to allow the Lord to fight for you?
BREAKOUT
Pray for one another!