Lord is good, isn't he? All the time, amen. You know, how many of you have your sermon notes? Okay, because today's a very special day, and no, I wasn't going to say that it's the beginning of football season, but it is. Football is here. How many are excited about that? All right, all right. Are the ones who just raised their hand gonna say, I'm not gonna miss a Sunday of worship this season? All right, amen! Okay, you know me, I love football. I love football. It's my favorite time of year. But we also want to make sure that you are well practiced when you enter glory, and the heavenly tabernacle will be open every single day. We'll be worshiping the Lord of hosts, amen? that's a beautiful thing. So turn in your Bibles to the book of Revelation and it's in your pew Bible it's 1191 in your pew Bible. But I encourage you to bring your own Bible each and every week for the next 11 weeks because today we embark on our journey through the book of Revelation. And just so you know, it's not Revelations, it's Revelation. It is a singular vision that God had given to the Apostle John in 95 AD. We'll talk more about that, but I love the book of Revelation. It was actually one of the first books that I have ever read in the Bible following Job. So I read Job, and then I went to Revelation. And you can imagine how that formulated my worldview. We're going to suffer, but God will win in the end. Amen? But then it led me to the Gospel of John because I was like, who wrote this book of Revelation? And all of these amazing images and characters and figures and symbols and numerology. And I thought to myself, wow, what is this all about? And then I went back to the Gospel of John. And I found the Lamb of God who was slain from the foundation of the world. And He is the one who takes away the sin of the world. And Pastor Jesse and I were speaking this morning about how Jesus is depicted in the book of Revelation. And from chapters 4 all the way to 18, He is the Lamb of God. But we'll see today that we will see Jesus with a new set of eyes in chapter 1. So Revelation chapter 1. And there are three things I want to say before we pray and then we launch into this study today. Number one. The book of Revelation is about the events leading up to and including the second coming of Jesus Christ. He has come a first time as a suffering servant. He is coming again as a conquering king. And the world needs to know that Jesus is coming again. Are you ready for Jesus to come? That's number one. Number two, a lot of folks who read the book of Revelation come away and say, I just can't understand it. There's just no way for me to get my arms around this. And so you kind of stay away from it. You'll read all the other books of the Bible. When you get to Revelation, it becomes kind of confusing to you. But we're going to learn in just a few minutes just how amazing The book of Revelation is, and I promise you, it will fuel your faith, it will mature your walk, and it will embolden your witness. And so the book of Revelation is, in fact, a book that should be read, should be adhered to, and we should study it. And that's why we're studying it today. The third thing I want to say before we pray is this, is that the book of Revelation 404 verses. 404 verses. 278 of them are references or allusions to scriptures in the Old Testament. 278, 68% of the verses in Revelation are all referencing back to the Old Testament. Marcus read some of it this morning in Daniel chapter 10. So this is what my assumption is, is that John the Revelator, John the apostle who wrote this book, fully expected his audience to know the Old Testament. to understand it. He rarely references when he's quoting or referring to an Old Testament scripture. It's not like in the Gospels when they say, as written in Isaiah or as written in Jeremiah or in the words of Zechariah. No. In fact, John assumes that we, the readers, will know our Old Testament, which is why I believe that many people struggle with the book of Revelation because they don't have a strong foundation in Old Testament theology. And so this is a book that is at the very end of the Bible, but is very much product of Old Testament theological prophecy that is coming to pass. And so today we embark on this journey together. Are y'all ready? Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we humbly come before your throne this morning understanding that you are the everlasting God. You are eternal. You are the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. You are King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You are immutable, unchangeable. You're the same today, yesterday, and forever. You are omnipotent, all-powerful. You are omnipresent. You are all-present. You are omniscient. You know all things. You are holy. You are glorious. You are loving. You are kind. You are gracious and merciful, mighty to save. Oh Lord, you are the creator and sustainer of everything that we see around us. You give us our very breath. Our days are in your hands. And so Father we humbly submit to you this morning as we break open this word from your book. Oh Lord illumine our hearts like never before. Give us understanding so that we might worship you more deeply that we might witness for our Savior Jesus Christ more boldly. and that we might grow deeper in our knowledge of the one who saved us and who will one day come again for us. And we pray this in the name of Jesus the name above every name. Amen, amen. So in Revelation, I want us to read here. I've got lots of slides, so we're going to go through this. And here's my encouragement. If you are not on our weekly emails, you want to get on them. You want to go onto our website. You want to subscribe to the emails, because all of the slides will be given every single week after the sermon, OK? And then how many of you saw that you have free work for next week? Did you all see that in your sermon notes? You have pre-work. And what is your pre-work? To read Revelation 2 and 3, okay? These are the seven letters to the seven churches. And then for each church, to identify Christ's names, titles, commendations, rebuke, counsel, and rewards. Okay? How many of you love doing pre-work? All right. I'm sure some of you will not do it, but that's okay. Because then when you come and say, Randy, I don't understand, I'll say, well, you didn't study. Okay, that's how it's gonna work. All right, so number one, Revelation 1. Okay, so let me go ahead and read verses one through three here. The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Let me pause right there. This book is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Don't miss that. The first five words of the book will establish the baseline of your understanding going forward. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw. That is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. And then here's our memory verse for the week. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it because the time is near. So let's pause right there. We have seen the prologue here identify that Jesus is the one that is being revealed. Now what does it mean, revelation? The Greek word is apocalypsis, apocalypsis. The English word that we get from that is what? apocalypse. So if you've ever heard anybody saying the apocalypse, this is what it means. It means to reveal, to make known, to disclose, to bring out in the open, to unveil, The beauty of Revelation is that it is an open book. It is an understandable book. And yet so many people paradoxically would say, I can't understand it. It's interesting to me that the very name of the book says you can understand it. And my prayer is that over the next several months, you and I will come to a deeper understanding of this book. Secondly, the author. You can see in verse 4 he says, John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia. We know that John is the author here, he is the apostle. Now it's interesting, John Since he wrote this in about 95 A.D., most scholars would say that he wrote this in 95 A.D. It was clearly the last book written in the Bible. Okay? It was always part of the canon, but it was the last book written. John, many scholars believe that John was probably in his late teens when he was first called by Jesus Christ, which means John's probably in his late 80s, maybe even his early 90s when he is writing this. And it's interesting, at the end of John, Peter actually asked Jesus, well, what about him? Pointing to John, what's your plan for him? And what does Jesus say? What does it matter to you what plans I may have for him? And I believe that Jesus had on his mind, I have a plan for John to write the capstone of my eternal word, the book of Revelation, when he said that. Interestingly, okay? And so John is the writer. He wrote it about 95 AD. And look at what it says here. Here's the transmission. It says, God gave him, that is Jesus. So God gave Jesus. revelation. Jesus himself passed it on to the angel who then gave it to his servant John. And then of course John is to then communicate this revelation that he is going to receive to the seven churches. And so that's the transmission. It starts with God the Father, goes to the Son, goes through an angel to the servant John the Apostle, and then to the seven churches. And then of course we see here the seven Beatitudes. Look at verse 3 again. It says, Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and also take it to heart. Internalize it. Make it fill in your life. You see? Understand that this really means that we are to embrace this book and to read it for understanding. And so, there are seven Beatitudes in Revelation. And again, these will be given to you, but Revelation 1-3, we just read it here. There's also Revelation 14-3, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. And then verse 15 of chapter 16, blessed is he who stays awake. The next one is Revelation 19, 9. Blessed is, and I'm having a hard time seeing because my eyes water constantly. There it is. OK. Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the lamb. The next one is blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The next one is, blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. And then Revelation 22, 14, many of you are familiar with this verse of scripture, blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. So there are seven times when the writer says that it is blessed for these people to do these various things. Seven is an important number. We'll talk about that when we get to the seven churches. Okay. So with that, I want us to now talk about four schools of interpretation and then five rules for interpreting the book of Revelation. The first one is the Preterist school. Now, if you've ever been in a Revelation study, you've probably heard of these four schools. I'll walk through them quickly. The Preterist view literally says that the book of Revelation was basically completed All the activities of it were completed before 70 AD. Now, 70 A.D. was an important date in Israelite history. It was overrun by the Romans. The temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. by Titus of Rome. And so they believe that revelation completed by 70 A.D. This school has very few adherents any longer because clearly John is writing after this period. The premise of the Fretterist viewpoint is that John had to write before the destruction of Jerusalem. The historicist view is the second one, and it basically says that all of the events that are recorded in Revelation happened throughout history. They'll point to the French Revolution. They'll point to the First and Second World Wars. They'll point to other major world events. Unfortunately, this view also breaks down significantly. because it's just hard to pinpoint all of this. And by the way, if you read verse 3 again, John continues to say this is a prophecy, that things must soon take place, that it is of the time of the end. Marcus read that in Daniel as well. The third view is a spiritualist view. This is a group of people who want to allegorize revelation. Revelation really is not physical events or actual historical events that will happen. It is just an allegory teaching us spiritual truths that there is light and there is darkness, there is good and there is evil, etc., and that ultimately good wins out. But that, of course, was brought on by origin in the fourth century AD. And again, it is hard to put our arms around it because it's clear that there are specific events being related to. And then finally, there's the futurist view. And this is the view that I hold and what we'll be walking through. Basically, the futurist view says that there are that most of the events of Revelation are still future. They're still in yours and my future. And so we're going to look at it from a futurist perspective as we walk through. The five rules of interpretation. The first one is, And I continue to preach this. Context, context, context. And genre, okay? Genre, the type of writing, okay? Is it historical? Is it prophetical? Is it literal? Is it a didactic teaching? Is it poetry? Is it a doxology, for example? Look at the context in the genre and let that inform you as to the author's intent. The second one is to keep the consecutive order of Revelation. You're going to find when we get to chapter 12, I diverge from most mainstream evangelical interpretations of Revelation chapter 12. But the problem that they have that I don't have is that I'm maintaining the consecutive order of Revelation. They do not. They take the male child to be Jesus and they go all the way back to the first century. That's not what John is laying out here for us. It's all still future. So who is the male child? We'll let you find out when we get to Revelation 12 in 2025. OK, so and then thirdly, Literal meaning first. Always take the words literally unless it is intended, specifically intended to be figurative. And then fourthly, let the Bible be its own interpreter. I'm convinced. and we're gonna learn this in the first chapter here. I'm convinced that most people don't feel like they can understand Revelation because they do not take the clues from the text to tell them exactly what things mean. Jesus actually does give John indication as to two of those symbols in the very first chapter, and we'll learn those in a few minutes. And then finally, do not add to or take away from Scripture. That's the key to life. Don't add or take away. Now, most evangelical Christians will say, well, I don't add to the scripture. Oh, yes, you do. We all bring our biases and our presuppositions into a text, and we insert words or themes or ideas or principles, and it will lead us down a very bad path. Do not add to or take away from this book. It is a warning that Jesus gives at the end of the book in Revelation 22. So with that as our boilerplate, okay, now we're going to continue reading. Verse 4. John to the seven churches in the province of Asia, grace and peace to you from him who is and who was and who is to come. and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Now let's pause right there. In the book of Revelation you're going to see multiple references to the Trinity and we have our first one right here. Do you notice what he says here? From him who is and who was and who is to come. This is of course God the Father. Okay, God the Father, who is, who was, and who is to come. It's also referenced in Revelation 4.8. And then secondly, the seven spirits before the throne. Now some of you may have a text message or a text note down at the bottom of your Bible that says the sevenfold. Spirit sevenfold spirit this of course is a reference to the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit because seven means completeness and perfection it is the sevenfold Spirit of God before the throne of God and then thirdly you see the third person of the Trinity Jesus Christ Jesus Christ. Now why is Jesus listed third? Generally when you list the Trinity you see the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Here it lists the Father, the Spirit, and then the Son. The best reference, the best explanation I can give is that because they're getting ready, John's getting ready to say a lot more about Jesus. And so he is going to talk about the Spirit, go to Jesus, and then continue talking about who Jesus is, because it is, after all, the revelation of Jesus Christ. And so it is God the Son. And look at what it says there. in verse 5, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. There are three titles given to Jesus in that very verse. You know, there are lots of names and titles given to Jesus Christ in this book, and I'm going to just list them all out for us, and then I will read them. But basically, these are just 18, whoops, I'm sorry, 18 titles for Jesus that I'm listing here. Look at what they are. The faithful witness. We just read it. The faithful witness. The second one is the firstborn from the dead. The ruler of the kings of the earth. The first and the last. The living one. The son of God or the son of man. The amen. The word amen. Whenever you say amen, you're basically saying I agree. I agree. He is the reliable witness, the amen, the faithful and true witness. He is the ruler of God's creation. He is, in fact, the lion of the tribe of Judah. He is the root of David, the greatest king in Israelite history. He is the Lamb of God. The word lamb or the reference to lamb is mentioned 19 times in the book of Revelation. faithful and true, the Word of God, and then my favorite, King of kings and Lord of lords. And then he refers to himself as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, and the bright morning star. And so Jesus Christ is referred to in all of these ways, the most prolific way is as the Lamb, interestingly. And we'll look at that as we go. So let's keep reading. To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood, He loved us and freed us by His blood. There's only one way into a right relationship with God the Father, and it is through the shed blood of the Son. Forgiveness doesn't come in any other way but through the blood of Christ. and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve His God and Father. To Him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen. The kingdom and priests reference takes us all the way back to Exodus 19, God's call of Israel. at the foot of Mount Sinai. It is also repeated in 1 Peter 2 where Peter himself says you are a holy people, a royal priesthood, a kingdom of priests. John articulates this as well. He is referring to the church of Jesus Christ. And then in verse 7 it says this, and these are two quotes from the Old Testament. The first one being from Daniel chapter 7 verse 13. The second one from Zechariah chapter 12 verse 10. Look, He is coming with the clouds. This is Daniel speaking. He is coming with the clouds. And every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him. And all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be. Amen. And then verse 8 says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. And so again, John is establishing who is the Almighty God. It is the Trinitarian Godhead with Jesus Christ as the one who is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. then we get into finally verse 9 where John then introduces himself to his audience. He says, I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus was on the Isle of Patmos because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord's Day, The Lord's Day here is a reference to Sunday, the day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was in the Spirit, it says, and I heard before behind me a loud voice like a trumpet which said, And then we have red letters. This is Jesus speaking. Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. These are the seven churches. And so as you see up on the screen here, we have the seven churches. They are in Asia Minor, or what's modern day Western Turkey. Western Turkey, these are seven literal churches that existed during John's day in 95 AD. And John is writing this revelation to these seven churches. And Jesus will, of course, address each one of these seven churches in chapters 2 and 3. But John is to give the entire revelation to them all, all seven of the churches. And so John here is in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. The Lord begins to give him a vision of the future. He gives him this sense of understanding what God's culminating plan for humanity is. ultimately that's what we want to know. What is the end from the beginning? How do we come to a right relationship with Jesus, live out our lives in anticipation for the second coming of Christ? And that is what the purpose of this particular letter is all about. And so John writes to these seven churches. He's exiled, by the way, on the Isle of Patmos. Do you see it there? He's exiled on the Isle of Patmos, which is, of course, an island that is known for its limestone. And so John, in his late 80s, is a slave. He is a prisoner of the Roman government, and he is breaking up rock and hauling it as he is on the Isle of Patmos. He's been exiled by the Roman emperor at the time, Domitian. And of course, John, in his old age, then gets this vision from God to write it down and to send it to the seven churches. And so from the Isle of Patmos, he records this vision, and then he sends it to these seven churches that are almost like a mail route. If you begin at the bottom left-hand side, and then you work your way all the way around. This is essentially seven churches in modern-day Western Turkey. And then let's continue reading. Look at what it says there in verse 12. John turns around. It says, I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. Now, the first question I always ask when I come to something like this, I go, well, what are these seven golden lampstands? This is known as the keep reading principle. If you keep reading, you will learn what those seven golden lampstands are. And so that's what I would ask us to do. So it says seven golden lampstands. Let's put a note there. And among the lampstands was someone like a son of man. Who is that? Who is that? Well, in my Bible it has a little note that tells me to go all the way to Daniel chapter 7 verse 13. And we find that it's 1, like a son of man is referenced from there. And it says that he's dressed in a robe, reaching down to his feet with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool. white as snow and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. What a vision. Can you imagine being John the Apostle, receiving this vision, but then having an encounter with this being so splendidly and majestically clothed with the glory of God? Fascinating, because what Marcus read earlier from Daniel is an exact description of what we just read here in Revelation 1. John is helping his readers to see that that one described in Daniel is the same one who now stands here 500 years later in front of me. And he's the one who's giving me this revelation. Let's look at it quickly. The robe and the sash is that he is the great high priest. If you know anything about the Old Testament, Aaron was the first high priest in God's ordained structure of the Israelite community. And he wore a robe and a sash. It is a way for him to be the mediator between the people of Israel and a holy God. Well, since Jesus has come, He is our Great High Priest. He is the mediator between God and men, and so He wears a robe and a sash. He has white hair, and the white hair is that He is the wisdom of the ages and the purity of the ages. He has eyes blazing like fire. He is all-seeing. He is all-knowing. How many times in the Gospels do we see that Jesus picks up on or understands the thoughts of people? The Pharisees, the scribes, and the religious leaders, Jesus knew their thoughts, it would say, over and over and over again in His ministry. He knew their thoughts. He is all-seeing. He is all-knowing. Number four, his feet of bronze. He is the everlasting Lord. The bronze is refined by fire. Bronze does not break down like iron or clay. No, bronze stands in the fire. the voice of rushing waters. This implies that He is the eternal Word of God. Jesus, when He speaks, He speaks truth. He would say to His disciples, You trust in God? Trust also in Me. In My Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. But if I go, I go and I prepare a place for you so that when I come and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me so that you will always be with Me. You see, Jesus's word is true. And then when they asked him, they said, well, how do we know the way? He said, I am the way and the truth and the life. And no one comes to the father except by me. He is the eternal word of God. But then there's the double edged sword, the sword that comes out of his mouth. He is the great judge. He is the great judge. The Word of God is living and active, the Hebrews author would say, sharper than any double-edged sword, dividing joint from marrow, thoughts and intentions of the heart. We're all going to be judged. by what we do, by what we believe, by how we behave. Jesus is the ultimate judge. In John chapter 5, God the Father has given all judgment to the Son. Jesus is the judge of the universe. And finally, verse number 7, He has a face like the Son. He is the glory of Almighty God. The author of Hebrews in chapter 1, he says Jesus is the exact representation of the glory of God. Jesus is God in the flesh, loving a hurting world. Amen and hallelujah. Well, as John sees this vision, you can imagine, just like every other person in the Bible, when they encounter a vision like this, an angel or the Lord himself, as in John's case here, it says in verse 17, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Folks, I'm just going to say right now that I don't believe our current generation fully grasps the holiness of God. We are living as the people of Noah's day were living. We were doing what we thought was right in our own eyes. This world is living like they're the God. And God is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to repent and come to Him. But there's gonna come a day when it's too late. The door of the ark will be shut. and the judgment of the Lord will come. And we're going to learn in Revelation that God continues to reach out His merciful hand. And we will see over and over and over again some who will come into eternal glory and others who will outright reject the free offer of God's salvation. Our job as a church is to warn them, to love them, but to tell them that He is coming again. And I pray, this is my heart, I pray I don't make it through this series, I pray the Lord comes and gets us before then. Amen. I'm ready to go. If He takes me now, you'll all be going, what is going on here at Ashley River? Okay? But if you're still sitting here, you better get right with God, okay? The bottom line is, is that when we get to the place where John the Apostle, one of the holiest people on the pages of Scripture, he falls as dead before the feet of Jesus in all his glory. What does Jesus do? He puts his right hand on him and says, do not be afraid. How many times have angels told humans, don't be afraid? I am the first and the last. I am the living one. I was dead and behold, I am alive forever and ever. Folks, don't miss that. I am alive forever and ever. And then he says, I hold the keys of death and Hades. There is only one who is truly sovereign over life and death, and it is the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is such a powerful truth for us to establish for ourselves. So John sees this vision of the one who became the Lamb of God who is now in his glory. You know, the book of Revelation is he was a lamb. He suffered and died, but he's coming back as a conquering king. And so we are in awe of this vision as John is. He comforts us with the words, don't be afraid. I am the one who's in charge here. Don't you worry. You're one of mine. we win we win and then he tells John the threefold outline of Revelation number one right there verse 19 right therefore what you have seen well what has John seen the vision of Jesus Christ in all his glory right what is What is now? And that's chapters 2 and 3, the church age, the seven churches that John is going to write to. That's what is now for John in the first century AD. And then he says the third is, now write what will take place later. And that's chapters 4 through 22. And so the natural revelation outline is given for us here in verse 19. Write it, let it take place, and it's order. You have seen me in chapter 1. You will address the seven churches in chapters 2 and 3. And then you will be ushered into heaven. And from there you will see what is going to take place after this. And then I remember I told you the Keep Reading Principle, the last verse of this first chapter, and then we'll close, is this. The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, if you were wondering what those seven stars are, Jesus tells him. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. Now, the word angel literally just means messenger, messenger. And many scholars would argue that these are the pastors of those seven churches. These are the messengers who will read these letters and the entire book. And then what are the lampstands? The lampstands are, in fact, the seven churches. So you see, Revelation is not hard to understand. You just keep reading. You look back? You look forward, and ultimately it all comes into clear vision. We see Jesus for who He is, the revelation of Jesus Christ. Who is He? He is a conquering King, and He is coming again. If you don't believe that, then you better check what this book has to say over the next 21 chapters. Because He is. He's coming. Amen? I hope that was a good start for us. You know, as I think about it, we have to go through a quick timeline. I apologize for the cough. Jesus, of course, was crucified and raised on the third day in the first century, 30 AD. And then, of course, we are currently in the Church Age. This is the Church Age. And this is when, you know, the church didn't exist before the cross, you see. And then there's going to come a time what's called a rapture, and we'll discuss this in more detail, the rapture of the church. And then there will be a period of time called the tribulation period, and it's seven years long, and it's based on Daniel's prophecy in chapter 9 of Daniel. You can go read that if you want this week. That week is divided into two, three and a half year periods of time, and during that seven-year tribulation on the earth, there are three sets of judgments. The seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls. After which, Jesus will come back, the battle of Armageddon will occur, the second coming of Jesus Christ will happen, then the Millennial Kingdom, a thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ on this earth. And then finally he will have the great white throne judgment, and that judgment will be the final judgment of all humankind. And then finally, we will enter into eternity. And so you see the layout here. From beginning to end, we're currently in the church age, we're waiting for the rapture, and we are waiting for that tribulation period, the final week of Daniel's 70-week prophecy. And we'll talk about that in more detail in a couple of weeks. But with that, that's what we're headed for. So as we march through the rest of Revelation, my encouragement to you is to do the pre-work. Read Revelation 2 and 3 this week. Read them many, many times. And record all of the things that Jesus is saying to each of the churches. And we will focus specifically on the church at Laodicea next week. So with that, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we love you. We thank you for your Word. We thank you for the book of Revelation. We thank you that you saw fit to give us a picture understanding of the end times and how it might fuel our faith and bolden our witness and grow us closer to the one we serve Jesus Christ in whose name we pray amen and amen please stand and if you have never trusted this Jesus I want you to feel free to respond this morning and you can come forward we're gonna sing this song it's called just as I am I come empty so as you stand and you sing you want to join this church you can come forward if you want to deal with where you are with God now's the time to do so and you come as we sing