Intro / Review:
The First Four Trumpets: (Super)Natural Disasters.(Rev 8:6-13)
The 1ST Trumpet: VEGETATION burned (Rev 8:7)
The 2ND Trumpet: Water to BLOOD (Rev 8:8-9)
The 3RD Trumpet: Water to POISON (Rev 8:10-11)
The 4TH Trumpet: Lights are DIMMED (Rev 8:12-13)
God's Judgment is a Controlled Action, Not an Emotional Reaction.
- God's Judgment is Fueled by our PRAYERS (Rev 8:3-5)
- God's Judgment is DELIBERATE and PRECISE. (Rev 8:7-12)
- God's Judgment is Preceded by WARNING (Rev 8:13)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:04-01:08
Open up your Bibles with me please to Revelation 8.
01:10-01:18
Revelation 8, we are going through the book of Revelation, verse by verse.
01:21-01:31
And to get you caught up while we are turning there, the title of our series is "Coming Soon." The end of the world.
01:33-01:44
John, the apostle in chapters 4 and 5 in Revelation, was taken to heaven, and he was taken forward in time, and John saw God sitting on his throne.
01:44-01:50
And he saw in God's right hand the title deed to the earth.
01:52-01:58
And the question was posed, Who's worthy to take the scroll and break its seals?
01:58-02:04
In other words, the question was, who's worthy to reclaim the earth back?
02:04-02:05
Back from who?
02:05-02:07
Back from Satan.
02:07-02:08
Back from sin.
02:09-02:10
Back from evil.
02:11-02:15
Back from the fallenness in which we live.
02:17-02:26
The Bible says that Jesus Christ, the Lamb, stepped forward and He took the scroll because He and He alone is worthy and reclaim the earth back from the enemy.
02:26-02:28
And thunderous worship resulted.
02:30-02:44
In chapter 6, the Lamb opens the scroll, and every time He breaks one of the seals, it unleashes a manifestation of God's judgment on the earth.
02:45-02:47
That's what we saw in Revelation 6.
02:48-02:59
Peace turns into war, which brought famine, which eventually 25% of the earth's population was killed - will be killed.
03:01-03:04
We read it in the past tense, but these are future events.
03:06-03:14
People who come to Christ during the tribulation but will be killed for their faith cry out to God to avenge them.
03:16-03:17
And He tells them to wait on His timing.
03:18-03:21
And at the end of chapter 6, we saw the whole earth is shaken.
03:22-03:23
Worldwide earthquake.
03:23-03:28
God grabs the globe and shakes it like a baby would shake a rattle.
03:31-03:32
The sky is darkened.
03:33-03:35
Meteors pummel the earth.
03:37-03:41
And at this point, the unsaved realize that these are judgments from God.
03:43-03:49
And they cry out at the end of chapter 6, they cry out, "The day of the wrath of the Lamb has come!
03:49-03:53
Who can stand?" That's what chapter 7 is.
03:53-04:00
Chapter 7 is an interjection answering that question, "Who can stand?" Who can stand when God's judgment comes down on the earth?
04:01-04:18
And the answer is this, God is going to seal 144,000 Jews, and He's going to use them for global evangelism because John also saw people from every tribe, nation, tongue, all over the globe standing before the Lord, worshiping Him.
04:21-04:34
These judgments that we're looking at in Revelation are going to get increasingly more astonishing with everyone released.
04:34-04:42
I heard people comment when we went through Revelation 6, they said, "You could have heard a pin drop in here." And I'm looking at people's faces when we were just going through the text.
04:43-04:54
I saw faces. People were just like, "Wow, that's what's coming?" I would say it's about to get a lot worse.
04:56-05:05
Now, we've seen the six seals broken and there's really no description of the judgment coming from the seventh seal.
05:07-05:15
But the seven trumpets - we're going to look at four of them today - the seven trumpet judgments seem to come forth from the seventh seal.
05:17-05:19
We'll see that again with the bowl judgments.
05:19-05:24
No seventh trumpet, but the seven bowls seem to come from the seventh trumpet.
05:25-05:28
So we had a short respite from the judgments.
05:29-05:31
That's what chapter 7 was all about.
05:31-05:38
A little break, a little pause in the action, but now it's back to the business of God's wrath.
05:39-05:40
Look at verse 1.
05:40-05:49
It says, "When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
05:51-05:54
Keep in mind at this point, the noise that John would have heard.
05:54-05:59
Remember, he was describing the worship, and the worship was loud.
05:59-06:07
He heard angels and elders and redeemed people from all over the world stand.
06:07-06:08
He said, "I couldn't even count them.
06:08-06:13
There were so many people crying out in worship!" And it was so loud.
06:14-06:19
And now, silence.
06:21-06:24
The lamb breaks that last seal.
06:53-06:55
For a half hour, that was it.
06:58-06:58
For a half hour.
07:01-07:06
In fact, this is the only time in the book of Revelation you see any silence.
07:07-07:08
What's going on here?
07:09-07:22
I think as humans, and the redeemed, and the angels, I think as they witnessed the first six seals being opened, coming on the earth.
07:24-07:35
As horrifying as the sixth one was, I think what's happening here is I think when He broke that seventh seal, I think everyone was just in complete awe of what was about to happen.
07:35-07:38
He breaks that seal and it's just...
07:47-07:52
All of heaven is just awestruck at what God is about to do.
07:53-07:54
Look at verse 2.
07:55-08:06
He says, "Then I saw the seven angels who stood before God, and seven trumpets were given to them." Trumpets are mentioned often in Scripture.
08:06-08:07
They're used in various ways.
08:07-08:11
In fact, rapture, 1 Thessalonians 4.16, a trumpet is blown.
08:12-08:16
A trumpet was blown to call the Israelite tribes to camp.
08:16-08:18
and just so many different ways trumpets are used.
08:18-08:23
But here, these trumpets that we'll see in Revelation 8 and 9 are associated with God's judgment.
08:25-08:28
So these angels, these seven angels, it says they stood before God.
08:29-08:33
Apparently had some special place of position in heaven.
08:34-08:43
It says they were given seven trumpets and they were waiting for the opportunity to blow those trumpets.
08:45-08:58
Verse 3 says, "And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of the saints on the golden altar before the throne.
09:00-09:13
And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand of the angel." So this angel comes and he stands at the heavenly altar of incense.
09:14-09:21
This angel is sort of in a priestly role, in that he's presenting the prayers of God's people before God.
09:21-09:23
We're going to talk about him in a minute.
09:25-09:27
Look at verse 5.
09:29-09:33
It says, "Then..." You get this picture? He presents the prayers of the people to God.
09:33-09:41
Verse 5, "Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth.
09:41-09:46
and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.
09:49-09:50
So the silence is broken.
09:53-10:01
This censer, this instrument that was just used to offer the prayers of God's people to God is now turned into a weapon.
10:03-10:08
As it's filled with fire, and He throws it to the earth.
10:10-10:15
During that half hour of silence, if there was any thought, like, maybe God's done.
10:16-10:21
Maybe that sixth seal was just it.
10:21-10:23
And maybe God is done now.
10:23-10:26
If there was any thought of that, that's quickly corrected.
10:27-10:41
Because this censer filled with fire thrown to the earth results - you see it in your text - thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and another massive earthquake as we saw in chapter 6.
10:42-10:52
So in your outline, that was the kick-off of the first four trumpets.
10:54-10:56
Supernatural disasters.
10:59-11:01
Supernatural disasters.
11:03-11:11
Verse 6, "Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets compared to blow them." Write this down.
11:11-11:15
The first trumpet - vegetation burned.
11:18-11:21
You're going to see again, the judgments are going to get worse and worse and worse.
11:22-11:23
Here's the first one.
11:23-11:24
Vegetation burned.
11:24-11:25
Look at verse 7.
11:25-11:31
"The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire mixed with blood.
11:32-11:42
And these were thrown upon the earth, and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all of the green grass was burned up.
11:45-11:46
Mark that down, a third.
11:46-11:47
You're going to see that a lot in this chapter.
11:48-11:48
A third.
11:50-11:52
But this is absolutely terrifying.
11:54-11:57
Nothing compares to this.
11:58-11:59
So what's going on here?
11:59-12:12
My best understanding of this is that earthquake that we had just read about triggered volcanic activity, resulting in these other things.
12:13-12:18
The reason I say that, did you see it says, "Hail and fire mixed with blood." Like what's the blood?
12:19-12:20
Whose blood?
12:21-12:22
The Bible doesn't say.
12:24-12:33
I personally believe that those people who were killed during the sixth seal, remember rocks, mountains fall on us, hide us from the wrath of the Lamb.
12:33-12:37
and the people who were killed during the sixth seal, I believe this is their blood.
12:38-12:51
I believe that somehow, their blood mixed with the water vapor, and with all of this volcanic activity, it became hail raining down.
12:53-12:54
Again, the text doesn't say.
12:54-12:59
I'm just trying to imagine, based on what the text does say, where this blood might have come from.
12:59-13:00
I don't know.
13:02-13:12
How horrifying would it be to look out your window and see that your property is being destroyed by hail and fire and blood.
13:15-13:25
The result, we do know for sure, is a third of the earth and a third of the trees and all of the green grass are burned up.
13:27-13:29
I mean, think of the fallout from this.
13:31-13:32
the destruction of the crops.
13:34-13:35
What that would do to food supply.
13:35-13:37
What that would do to prices of food.
13:39-13:40
Death of animals.
13:40-13:42
Think of wood for construction.
13:44-13:45
It's going to get worse.
13:45-13:46
Look at the second trumpet.
13:47-13:48
Draw this down. Water to blood.
13:49-13:51
So we have vegetation burned.
13:51-13:52
Secondly, water to blood.
13:54-14:05
Verses 8 and 9 says, "The second angel blew his trumpet and something like a great mountain burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood.
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A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
14:13-14:13
Water to blood.
14:13-14:25
He said he saw something like a great mountain, a giant meteor, an asteroid, but it was on fire, possibly burning up from entering into Earth's atmosphere.
14:27-14:28
He says it was launched into the sea.
14:28-14:30
We don't know which sea.
14:30-14:33
he didn't specify, but again that's not really the point.
14:35-14:40
The point isn't geographically where it landed, the point is the fallout that resulted.
14:42-14:45
Waters are turned to blood, killing a third of the sea life.
14:47-14:50
Like, well what's the big deal there, I don't even like to go to the ocean.
14:50-14:53
Well, it's a big deal because sea life serves as the bottom of the food chain.
14:56-14:59
This will probably cause a major food chain reaction.
15:00-15:03
It also says that a third of the ships were destroyed.
15:04-15:09
Is this from the waves that resulted from this object hitting the sea?
15:09-15:17
I don't know, but somehow, this also destroyed the ships resulting in an economic chain reaction.
15:20-15:21
That's the second trumpet.
15:23-15:24
It's not over yet.
15:25-15:37
Verse 10, "The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.
15:37-15:39
The name of the star is Wormwood.
15:40-15:58
A third of the waters became Wormwood, and many people died from the water because it had been made bitter." And the third trumpet, jot this down, "water to poison." the previous projectile from the second trumpet, it seemed to remain intact when it hit the sea.
15:58-15:59
Did you see that?
15:59-16:14
But this fiery object, apparently when it was coming down from the sky, it seemed to disintegrate and spread out because it was hitting areas of water all over the earth.
16:16-16:17
It has the name Wormwood.
16:20-16:21
Who named it? I don't know.
16:21-16:23
How did y'all know its name?
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I don't know.
16:24-16:30
I'd really like to remind you as we go through Revelation, John's not explaining as much as he's describing.
16:32-16:33
Right?
16:33-16:35
And we're just sort of standing beside him.
16:35-16:40
We're sort of looking over his shoulder at what he's describing.
16:41-16:42
So what is wormwood?
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Well, wormwood is a shrub.
16:45-16:47
It was used to make a toxic liqueur.
16:49-16:50
It's actually outlawed in a lot of countries.
16:51-16:54
It's mentioned in the Old Testament several times.
16:55-16:57
Sometimes associated with water.
16:58-16:59
But it's a poison.
17:01-17:06
Just as the second trumpet hit the seas, this affects the fresh water.
17:06-17:11
It says a third of the rivers and springs, and that would include wells.
17:12-17:13
My best understanding.
17:15-17:16
Poisoned.
17:18-17:22
While it's almost certain that the previous three trumpets resulted in human death.
17:23-17:25
This one is the first one that specifically mentions it.
17:27-17:28
Water to poison.
17:29-17:32
Look at the fourth angel.
17:33-17:51
Verse 12, "Blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise, the third of the night.
17:53-18:00
So the fourth trumpet, "Lights are dimmed." So the focus goes from what's happening on the earth to now what's happening in the skies.
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And after this past week we had, do I really have to sell anybody on the problems of a drastic temperature drop?
18:12-18:13
Do I have to explain that?
18:15-18:17
And honestly, that was nothing compared to what's coming.
18:19-18:20
a radical change in the weather.
18:22-18:31
And this certainly speaks to God's awesomeness that He can reach over to the thermostat on His wall and turn the temperature of the universe down 33%.
18:32-18:33
That's what He's going to do here.
18:34-18:35
Just going to turn it all down.
18:36-18:37
Just going to turn it down.
18:39-18:42
It's kind of funny, you know, because everybody talks about global warming, right?
18:43-18:44
Global warming, global warming.
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People aren't going to be talking about global warming here.
18:48-18:52
There's probably going to be a few people that are going to blame this on global warming somehow.
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Right? True or false?
18:56-18:59
Yeah, it's 33% colder because of global warming.
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People at this point should be worrying about global cooling.
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This is temporary because later, we're going to see when we get to chapter 16, later the Lord reaches over to the thermostat and turns the heat back up.
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Way up.
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and I'll show you who's in control of what's happening here.
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Look at verse 13.
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"Then I looked and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead.
19:33-19:47
'Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth at the blast of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow.'" Some of your Bibles say it's an eagle.
19:47-19:50
And some of your Bibles say it's an angel.
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So which is it?
19:54-19:55
Is it possibly both?
19:57-20:02
Do you remember the fourth living creature had the appearance of an eagle in flight?
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I'm not sure.
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But again, I'm not so hung up on the messenger as I am the message.
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going to be heard by everyone and he's going to be seen by everyone in church.
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You're gonna mark this because this is significant. Because if there's anybody at this point that is still foolish enough to think these are all just crazy natural disasters, despite everything else that they've seen and heard, that there's going to, I promise you, there's going to be some people at this time this is just very weird, you know, ecological conditions and and there's nothing to worry about.
20:46-20:48
That ship has sailed.
20:48-21:04
Because this angel is going to very clearly announce, "Listen, this is the Lord." He says, "Woe, woe, woe!" "Woe" is an expression for judgment and destruction.
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Those who dwell on the earth.
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That phrase comes up over and over and over in Revelation.
21:09-21:10
You're going to see it. Those who dwell on the earth.
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It always refers to unbelievers. Every time.
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People who don't know the Lord.
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And this angel, eagle, heavenly messenger, he gives a woe for each trumpet that's about to sound.
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It's going to get worse.
21:27-21:28
Could you imagine hearing that?
21:29-21:43
As bad as things are that we've read in chapter 8, with the waters affected, the vegetation burned up, people dying, and now it's gotten so crazy cold.
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God sends a messenger to say, "It's about to get bad." Well, you know, Revelation teaches us so much about heaven, so much about the church.
21:59-22:01
We saw in chapters 2 and 3.
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And obviously, Revelation teaches us about God's judgment.
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We witness God's judgment through going through a passage like this.
22:14-22:23
And again, we're looking over John's shoulder as he's sort of describing to us what he saw and what he heard.
22:25-22:36
But when we slow down, and I mean really take time to stop and look and think about What's happening here in the text?
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Really slow down.
22:40-22:46
Chapter 8 in Revelation teaches us something very important about the judgment of God.
22:48-22:59
And that is this, on your outline, God's judgment is a controlled action, not an emotional reaction.
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That's what we learn in Revelation 8.
23:06-23:09
God's judgment is a controlled action.
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Not an emotional reaction.
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And here's what I mean by that.
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Because parents, we often get this so wrong.
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But when we discipline our children, and I'm guilty of this, instead of saying, look, here's the parameters.
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If you do wrong, here is the discipline that's going to result.
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And we sort of lay it out, and we follow it.
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That's how we're supposed to discipline.
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But I'll be honest with you, wrongly, sinfully, don't discipline like that.
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A lot of times what I do, and if you're honest, I imagine you've done this before.
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We ignore our children's behavior, their bad behavior, until it gets to the point that we are so annoyed by it, that we strike them in anger.
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Or we scream at them.
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Or we do something like, we take their Nintendo and we break it over our knee and throw it in the garbage.
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Anybody ever had a reaction like that?
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You don't have to raise your hand.
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But instead of disciplining properly, We just get to the boiling point.
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And we're like, that's it!
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I've had enough!
24:38-24:43
Now, even when it's the right thing to discipline the kids, problem is we do it wrongly.
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We do it emotionally.
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We're not reacting to the wrong that's been done.
24:51-25:01
We are overreacting to our annoyance, to our anger, and shame on us to our inconvenience.
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And this is the point.
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God doesn't judge like that.
25:10-25:27
And you can't see these events of Revelation as God like, "You know what? I've had enough." And He starts cussing and swearing and throwing tables and smashing Nintendos and backhanding people in some crazed rage.
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God's not throwing a fit.
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He's not flying off the handle.
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And that's something Revelation 8 teaches us very clearly is all of this is completely under His perfect control.
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So there's three proofs of this from 8.
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I want you to jot these down.
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The first one is this, God's judgment is fueled by our prayers.
25:57-26:03
We saw in verses 3-5, remember the angel was offering the prayers and the incense before God.
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And then after he offered the prayers, he took that censer and filled it with fire and threw it to the earth.
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We've already talked about this.
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There's some extremely close connection between the prayers of God's people wrath. We saw it in chapter 6 verses 9 through 11. The fifth seal, the tribulation martyrs were crying out, "How long before you judge and avenge?" Now that's a prayer that's going to happen in the future, right? The fifth seal, tribulation, "How long, how long before you judge and avenge?" But church, do you We realize we have a lot of the same types of prayers happening now.
26:53-27:06
Every time there's a Muslim terrorist attack, and as a church we get together and we've done this, we get together and we pray, "God, how long are your people going to be killed by followers of a false god?
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How long are you going to let that happen, God?" Human trafficking.
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We pray, "God, how long are children and defenseless people going to be exploited and used?" What about abortion?
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Unless you've been completely unplugged the last couple of weeks, you've known the state of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Reproductive Health Act, which legalizes abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.
27:45-27:49
And it's paid for by taxpayers.
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And the announcement of this passing was followed by people cheering.
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Free abortion on demand!
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We can do it!
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Yes, we can.
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And we look at that, that's sick!
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That is sick!
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That people are celebrating this?
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People are cheering and singing over something like this?
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What's the matter with you?
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And we cry out, we're like, "God, how long are you going to sit in heaven and watch as babies are being slaughtered while people cheer in the street?
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How long is this going to happen, God?
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How long?
28:44-29:04
You know, when Jesus taught us to pray, first we address God, our Father in Heaven, then we praise Him for His holiness, "Hallowed be Your name." But do you remember the Lord's Prayer?
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What's the very first petition Jesus taught us to pray?
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Go ahead and shout it out if you think you know it.
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Your kingdom come, right?
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Your kingdom come.
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That's something Jesus taught us to pray.
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Again, top of the list, right?
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When you pray and when you ask God for things, the first thing you should ask God is for His kingdom to come, right?
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Now that's a prayer for something.
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God may your kingdom come.
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But that's also a prayer against many things.
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That's a prayer against false religion.
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That's a prayer against abortion.
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That's a prayer against corruption.
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That's a prayer against domestic violence.
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That's a prayer against pornography.
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That's a prayer against all of these things that would exalt themselves against the righteous kingdom of Jesus Christ.
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But I'll be honest with you, church.
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It's easy to get discouraged in prayer.
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Because we pray in faith, and we pray believing.
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But there's times that I've asked myself, are we even praying realistically?
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Are we?
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I'm just being honest.
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I remember one time at my old church, somebody was like, "We need to pray for peace on earth." And I'm like, "Why? It's not going to happen.
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Isn't that a dumb thing to say?
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Why pray for that? It's not going to happen.
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The Bible says it's not going to happen." And like, look, dumb or not, I'm just being honest.
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Why pray for peace on earth if God promises there's not going to be until Jesus Christ sets up His kingdom?
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In other words, if we know the world's going to be evil, why pray against any of these things?
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Why pray against abortion, right?
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We live in a fallen world; that's probably the stuff that's gonna happen.
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Why pray against it?
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Why pray against human trafficking?
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We live in a fallen world; that's just the way it's gonna be.
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Why pray against it?
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Why pray against any of these things?
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Why should we pray against any of these things?
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Here's why.
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Here's why.
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The prayers of God's people are fueling the fire of God's judgment.
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Every time you pray, and you'll never look at prayer the same way again if you really take verses 3 and 5 here and internalize them.
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Look at them again.
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Another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer He was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints in the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand of the angel.
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Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth.
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And there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake." Somehow, there is a direct connection between your prayers and God's judgment.
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So every time you pray against evil, against wickedness, every time you pray for peace, for righteousness, and you're tempted to think, "Why am I even praying for that?" Because it's probably not going to happen.
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You need to look at this text and you need to think, these prayers, every time I pray this, I'm throwing... it's like God has this giant gun, giant cannon and every time I pray I'm throwing another handful of gunpowder into that cannon.
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Every time I pray I'm throwing another round of ammunition into this cannon.
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Every time I pray I'm throwing another stick of dynamite into this weapon and at the perfect time God's going to pull the trigger and He's going to take the shot.
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Because there is some connection between the prayers of God's people and the righteous judgment of God.
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So keep praying.
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Fill that censer up.
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Fill that censer up with fire because the day is going to come.
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It matters.
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And I am so blessed to be a part of a church that prays this morning.
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I was with a whole bunch of people in the error room, praying before service, and I stopped and prayed with them.
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And then as I was walking back to my office, there was another group from the hospitality team praying in the meeting room.
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It's like everywhere you go, there's just a bunch of people praying.
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Awesome!
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That's the kind of church I want to be a part of.
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God's judgment is fueled by our prayers.
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Secondly, God's judgment is deliberate and precise.
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Again, how do we know God's not just flying off the handle?
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Well, our prayers are fueling this, our prayers are fueling this.
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Secondly, God's judgment is deliberate and precise.
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We saw that over and over and over and over.
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One third, one third, one third, one third.
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Why one third? Why one third?
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Why is only God like 33% of these things?
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Here's why.
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It shows that God's being deliberate and intentional.
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Far from flying off the handle, God's assault is going to be exact and calculated.
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At this point, God's like just this much.
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Not a hair less, not a hair more.
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It's going to be a third.
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His judgment is deliberate and precise.
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And then finally, God's judgment is always preceded by a warning.
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Again, this is how we know God's judgment a controlled action, not an emotional reaction, because once again, verse 13, that angel/eagle/heavenly messenger gives another warning.
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Don't get caught up in the messenger, again, get caught up in the message.
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Once again, God in His incredible grace and mercy is still reaching out to the unsaved.
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And God's warnings are never merely an announcement.
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It's not just a reminder.
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Oh, by the way, I'm judging, just in case you forgot.
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That's not what it is.
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God's warnings are a call to return to Him.
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That's what God's warnings are about.
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God has such a track record of this.
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The earth was so bad in the days of Noah, God says, "I'm going to wipe them all out and start over with you." It took Noah 120 years to build the ark, and what was he doing while he was building?
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He was preaching the gospel.
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Get on the ark. Get saved. God's going to judge the earth.
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You need to get on. You need to get on.
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Noah's message was, "You can escape the coming judgment." Same with Sodom and Gomorrah, Genesis 19.
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What's the message? "You can escape the coming judgment." Same with Jonah.
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Nineveh is going to be destroyed. What's the message?
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"You can escape the coming judgment." We read this in Nahum.
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Nineveh, again, what's the point of bringing the warning of judgment?
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You can escape the coming judgment.
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Jesus Christ Himself spoke about hell twice as much as He spoke about heaven.
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Why?
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Because Jesus' message every time He announced judgment was to say this, "You can escape the coming judgment." And as we go through Revelation, you see this is so much more than a description of God's wrath.
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This is a gracious invitation to say, "You can escape God's judgment." Because forgiveness of sin and new life are available today in Jesus Christ.
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See, that's the underlying tone here.
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And that's what you have to see behind every warning in God's Word.
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God is saying, "Yes, this is what's coming, but I don't want that for you." And we covered this last week.
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God must judge, but He would rather say.
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And I'd like to remind you that if you're a Christian, if you're a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, this world is the only taste of hell you will ever experience.
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But the opposite is true as well.
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You know, if you will not turn and receive Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin, this world is the only taste of heaven you're ever going to experience.
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So right now in heaven, there are seven angels standing before the throne of God.
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And they're waiting for the trumpets to be handed out.
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and they're going to blow them.
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But it's not too late today.
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I'd like you to bow your heads with me, please, as our worship team makes their way forward.
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Father, once again we turn to Your Word.
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Father, we thank You that You are not unleashing Your judgments on the earth You look like some crazed, exasperated father who's just had enough.
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But Father, Your judgments are so specific and exact and precise and measured.
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Father, first of all, I pray for those here today who don't know You.
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Father, I don't know what they're waiting for, but I know that they can't wait forever.
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If there's somebody here today, Father, who needs to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, I pray today's the day You wouldn't let them leave this place until they did business with You.
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Until they received that gift of eternal life that You've so graciously provided.
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Father, before we worship in song again, I do want to pray one more time, "Your kingdom come." Father, You know my foolishness.
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There have been times, whether it's foolishness or discouragement or maybe some weird mixture of the two.
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There's been times that I've wondered if it really matters, praying against the evils that we see in the world, just knowing that the world's full of lost and wicked, nasty, horrible people.
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Father, another look at your word tells us that these prayers absolutely matter.
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And these prayers are offered before you as a sweet aroma, and somehow these prayers are directly connected to your judgment.
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The righteous making all things correct that is yet to come.
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So Father, with my brothers and sisters here, we offer more prayers.
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for your kingdom to come, God, for your righteousness to reign, God, for things to be as you've always intended them to be.
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Your kingdom come.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Revelation 8
GROUP
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message? Which trumpet stood out to you and why?
What’s the significance of the judgments and “1/3”? Why didn’t God let these trumpets affect 100% of their respective regions?
What does Rev 8:3-5 tell you about your prayers? How should these verses affect the way you pray?
What purpose does the angel/eagle in Rev 8:13 serve? What does this tell you about God and His judgment?
BREAKOUT
Pray for unsaved family and friends. Pray specifically for an opportunity for you to invite them to HBC and/or share the Gospel with them.
