Beyond the Hype - The Revelation - Brad Powell - 9/12/21

[Music] of the man [Music] my [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] i see the king of glory [Music] coming from the clouds with fire the whole earth shakes [Applause] i see his love of mercy [Music] oh [Music] my [Music] oh [Music] uh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] selflessness [Music] we [Music] [Music] highest [Music] [Music] is [Music] show me [Music] is [Music] whoa [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] oh [Music] so let me see [Music] well hey northridge church online so thrilled that you chose to join us for this weekend so wherever you are in the world thanks for gathering together with us in jesus name and i just couldn't be more excited than than i am getting ready for this new ministry season but i i just since you've been invested so many of you if you're a guest welcome but so many of you have been invested all summer long god gave us great worship and great spiritual teaching and i just want to thank you for investing as a part of the northridge family so i wanted to come to you personally before this whole thing gets going here at northridge plymouth and and say thank you thank you for your commitment for your faithfulness for your generosity if you realize because of you we're able to show us love around the world sent a team to tennessee sending a team to nicaragua and we're seeing a hundred and twelve people baptized this weekend because of your faithfulness in helping us wake the world up to jesus so i'm glad you're here we're going to start a series a unique series on the revelation it's going to be fun from here on out but thank you for joining me love you appreciate you pray for you and now we get to worship together the team's ready the team's primed and we've got a gang here it's been a great weekend so let's worship the only one worthy of worship his name is jesus well hello everybody and welcome to northridge we want to thank you guys so much for being here we're happy that each and every one of you have made it today my name is addie and here at northridge we want to wake the world up to jesus we want to show them his love we want to tell them his truth and we want to involve them and actually just a week ago a team here from northridge they lived out that 16 word mission so beautifully and they went down to tennessee to help those flood victims and we just want to say thank you if that was you thank you for dropping your schedule and going down to serve and love them but right now our team is ready we're excited to worship with you guys so if you're able would you please stand and let's worship together [Music] we'll praise the lord northridge this is the day that the lord has made we're going to rejoice and be glad and anybody here ready to worship come on put your hands together [Music] but the miracle that i just can't [Music] i have a resurrection [Music] this is my testimony this is my testimony from day to day cause christ rewrote my story by jesus christ the righteousness i'm justified this is my testimony this is my testimony [Music] water [Music] we'll finish [Music] by jesus this is my testimony [Music] if i'm not done [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] this is my testimony [Music] this is my testimony [Music] find jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] celebrate with us [Music] well hello northridge [Music] it is so good to see you you're a sight for sore eyes thank you so much for being here if you're a guest welcome but for those of you live and on the hillside here at the plymouth campus man you're a beautiful site i also of course we have northridge gross seal and northridge brighton a big welcome to them we're so glad they're part of our whole ministry family and all of you who are online but this is an exciting weekend as we celebrate each other as we celebrate jesus and as we start an entirely new ministry season so it's just fun let's give jesus a big hand of expectation all right fantastic all right well i'm going to introduce you to a couple of people here in a minute and then we're going to go back to worship so if you want to find a seat great if you want to stand great however you want to be comfortable but for those of you who are part of northridge you would know that we're all about as addie said a moment ago waking the world up to jesus and the only way to do it is to show them his love and then tell them as truth and this ministry is all about showing his love here and around the world we had a group in tennessee helping with the traumatic results of the flood we have a group going to nicaragua soon to help celebrate the major impact we've made down there and and we have people being baptized here this weekend i mean it's just the love of jesus can change the world but we have a unique ministry you can do almost anything to show love and it can change lives but a couple years ago a bunch of our people said we'd like to turn running into ministry and we want to show love to those people who are lost in sex trafficking and help rescue them and they call their ministry love runs and i want to introduce you to veronica she's the lead and part of the team hey veronica good to see you hey team they're giving you a hand right now veronica tell us about how many years now you've been turning running into loving we're in our seventh season and in that time we've raised over 2.5 million dollars whoa 2.5 million dollars to invest and tell us where that goes so all of that money goes right back into the metro detroit area where we help to fund non-profits that are in the trenches combating human trafficking through rescue and restoration it's unbelievable and so if i've got this right i've done a bunch of marathons but it's been on netflix binging it's never been like what you're doing uh most of your runners they're just professional runners and all geared up for that normally well that's the thing i lovingly refer to us as the bad news fairs of running because every season about 85 percent of our team has no running background whatsoever wow so you would fit right in yeah yeah i could but i won't okay another thing uh see i found that love watches tv love sits on couches love eats too so that's kind of my ministry but uh it's great to have you guys here during the course of this ministry season right now during this service you guys are going to actually be running right yes we've got a race weekend a few weeks away so we want to get all of those miles in so we'll be out heading out for a training run right here momentarily yeah when they told me you guys wanted to run during the service i said they'll do anything to avoid sitting and listening to my talk so i understand what that's like so there's been a lot of life change give us one story of life change that you've seen through love runs i think the coolest thing for this ministry is how it's come full circle so we're to the point now where we have trafficking survivors who are now training for half marathons and fundraising on behalf of love runs we've woke the world up to jesus we've showed them his love and now we've involved them and for them to believe in this ministry so much that they want to fundraise for it and to show others his love it's amazing that's great well i'm really proud of you all you guys get to running give them a big hand everybody thank you we'll see you we'll check in on you later okay all right that's great when you really do show his love not just talk about it but show his love and when you really do tell his truth life change happens and that's what we get to experience today through 112 people getting baptized this weekend and we're going to experience that right now so excited for each one of these being baptized and i want you know here at northridge we're so different about everything but we worship during baptism because we have to worship the god who makes salvation and life change possible we have to worship the god who leads people to live a life of obedience and so we're going to worship god and celebrate while these are being baptized you can whistle you can clap you can do flips if you can do it just don't break your neck doing it but let's celebrate jesus and celebrate life change right now to your feet and help us worship our unrivaled our unmatched god come on put your hands together let's celebrate those as they come come on [Music] everything that is [Music] [Music] our salvation was established in disney what compares to his glory to the greatness of his reign everything has been everything that is let's go his word is [Music] is is [Music] everything [Music] everything [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] come on to magnify the lord with me and let us exalt his name together [Music] [Music] god of creation there at the start before the beginning of time [Music] with no point of reference you spoke to the dark and fleshed out the wonder of light and as you speak a hundred billion galaxies are born in the vapor of your breath the planets [Music] [Music] i can see your heart and everything [Music] if creation seemed to praise [Music] god of your promise you don't speak in vain no syllable empty or void [Music] for once you have spoken all nature and science follow the sound of your voice [Music] creatures catch your breath [Music] nature's [Music] is [Music] still obeys [Music] will jesus [Music] we'll lie [Music] yes we will [Music] [Applause] we lie exists to lift you [Music] [Music] again million times you chase down my heart through all of my failure and pride thank you jesus [Music] on the hill you created the light of the world abandoned in darkness to die and as you speak failures disappear [Music] where you lost your life so i could find it here if [Music] is [Music] every precious [Music] [Music] like you would again 100 [Music] you're the one who never leaves the one behind thank you jesus for not leaving us behind thank you so much [Music] come on while we're out here in this beautiful atmosphere all over the park won't you lift your hands in the air we're in creation let's worship and ascribe glory to him and we sing how how great how great [Music] is our god everybody leave your voice and sing it see how great how great [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] how great is [Music] is name of our name [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] me how great he is [Music] [Music] sing with me how great he is [Music] lift your voice and help us sing this one more time sing how great [Music] [Music] i'm hearing another song that says oh praise the name we will oh foreign [Music] second corinthians 5 17 says therefore if anyone is in christ they are a new creation that the old has passed that the new has come and this is what we got to witness this is what we celebrate so one last time from the front to the back as loud as you can can you declare that god is worthy today there's no one like him there's no one more amazing [Music] well northridge church how are we doing today come on you look good we got a little cloud cover it's a beautiful day and we couldn't be more excited that you're here for the kickoff of our fall series and to be honest it's an exciting time around our church we've got a lot of new events and ministries that are kicking off this week in the the next few weeks but it all starts this thursday night this thursday i want to encourage you clear your calendars change your plans whatever you got to do this thursday we're having a church-wide worship night and it's going to be amazing it's going to be a chance for us to worship together to pray and to center our hearts on what god wants to do in and through us in this upcoming year and so there is child care available if you need child care if you could head to northridgechurch.com and let us know register your child so that we can plan appropriately that'd be great the last thing we're going to do before pastor brad comes out and teaches today is that we're going to worship through giving and so in just a moment there will be some instructions on the different ways that you can give but hear our heart on this if you're new to northridge or you're a guest with us we don't want anything from you our hope is that today you experience the love and the kindness and the goodness of god in this place the church family would you pray with me heavenly father we love you we adore you we worship you we're so grateful that you have changed our lives that you've taken our sin you've taken our shame you've taken our disgrace and you've brought us to new life in you that you've redeemed us and rescued us and so because of that we worship you today because of that god we ask that your truth would be made alive in our hearts and our minds in your name we pray amen you may be seated [Music] wasn't that awe inspiring when that exciting man it's truly what we live for the jesus who can change our lives and the lives of those we love and of our world and it's why we gather but just before we get into our conversation for this weekend which begins our whole ministry season i want to check back in with love runs and make sure they're running there they are look at that they're running away give them some encouragement way to go guys proud of you it's fantastic and they're going to actually make the full sweep around and hopefully join us for our last worship moment together if you're a guest welcome if you're a regular attender part of northridge church whether in person or online welcome i i am so excited about this new ministry season i you just need to know and it's hard for you to know all that goes into it we just don't throw things together i mean we have been praying for a significant amount of time we've been pursuing what god would want for northridge church and our part of the world at this time and and we feel like he's given us very very clear direction but very often i don't share with you the the community of believers at northridge and guests what our goals are and i just feel like right here at the beginning it's important for me to share with you what we're going to be focusing on what our goals are moving into this new ministry season and then that will help you to understand why i'm beginning with the series i'm beginning with and what we're going through and so you you need to know we have goals and we have a focus that we're set on and it's going to be kind of synthesized into four clear statements and the first is this we want to help you and all people to discover and rediscover the real jesus and his real truth and that's a really important statement because we live in a world who uses the name jesus a lot some use it in detrimental ways and some use it in positive ways and even sing but but the truth is the jesus they're talking about and the jesus they're worshiping is not the real jesus who lived and walked and gave us his word we're living in a world that has confused jesus or reinvented jesus according to their own personal desires they've they've manufactured in the name of jesus a god that suits their desires that fits their agenda that wants what they want that will do for them what they want him to do and that's not jesus at all jesus doesn't want to become for me what i design him to be jesus wants me to surrender my agenda and my life to become what he's designed for me to be we need to know the real jesus and his truth we live in a world that has reinvented jesus according to their own personal truth and you hear this a lot and it's so celebrated i'm telling you my truth this is my truth and i'm going to tell you it's okay for you to have your truth that's okay but it's not okay for you to think that you can define who jesus is and his truth it's not for us to define truth it's for us to make our truth his truth and that's when we experience freedom and his promises in our lives we live in a world that has reinvented jesus according to their own cultural views and cultural values and issues of morality and that's not how it works if we're going to fulfill our mission we have to fix this in our own lives we have to wake up to the real jesus and his real truth and then we can wake others up to him so it's our goal this year to discover and rediscover the real jesus and his real truth it's also our goal and focus this year to refuel the passion and commitment of believers for and to the real jesus for those of us who are already followers of jesus we want to refuel you reimpassion you help drive you to a deeper more full commitment to the real jesus and it's so easy to start out in any relationship on fire with passion and on fire with commitment and then even though you stay in the relationship and do the same things to lose the passion and to lose the commitment just to exist and that's how it is so often with god we're going to discover the church of ephesus in the revelation and they they did everything right as a church it seemed but they lost their passion and commitment for jesus and he said i hold this against you is our focus in this new ministry season to reach unbelievers those who have yet discovered what it is to follow jesus to reach unbelievers for the real jesus and his undiluted truth so often churches and christians know that the world despises the absolute truth of jesus we live in a world that wants their own truth doesn't want to accept that god has given us an absolute truth and so what they do is they kind of water down and change around the edges the truth so that they can reach people for jesus but when you reach people for a jesus based upon something other than his truth you're not reaching them for jesus at all it's his truth that sets people free not our version of it and so we want to help people to find jesus not based upon our watered down culturally approved politically correct version of truth but according to his real truth and finally it's our focus this ministry season to lay down a solid foundation for rebuilding and building his church in this very different post-pandemic world the world has changed in the last two years how people experience the world and look at the world has changed though jesus doesn't change though his truth is always relevant and always absolute the way we reach them what they need from us changes and we need to lay that foundation down i'll give you an example the series that we're going to begin this whole ministry season with is a series based upon a book of the bible that i have never done in all of my years of ministry on the weekend the revelation and so you're going well why now because we live in a different world now people are wrestling with different things now and i believe there's nothing they need more than to hear the revelation from jesus christ has given to us and so we're going to go after it and we're going to get into the deep end of the ocean on this thing it's going to be exciting the revelation here's the truth that i want you to see and this is the opening conversation and just so you know my series are usually like yeah four weeks maybe six weeks sometimes eight weeks you know not very often longer than that this is going to be a 12 week series on the revelation and that sounds like a lot but there are 22 chapters and i could spend about a week on every verse in all of those 22 chapters so you're going to have to pray for me we're going to wrestle through trying to get it done but the revelation here's the truth the revelation is true and vital to experiencing god's blessing and that's what we're looking for we're looking for our in our own lives it's why people reject his truth for their truth they're looking for blessing they're just never going to find it that way what we want for the people we love and for our world is to experience god's blessing that's what we want but if we're ever going to experience god's blessing we have to understand that the revelation is true and vital to it i've been doing a series for the first half of this year in my own personal life on the book of proverbs and one proverb just kept jumping out at me about this it's proverbs chapter 29 and verse 18 and this is what it says where there is no revelation people cast off restraint but blessed that's what we're looking for that's what we want from god but blessed is the one who heeds revelations instruction wisdom's instruction man that's a powerful proverb revelation is speaking of a word from god the truth from god the absolute truth that that is real and can be counted on and it's saying when you live in a world or when you live a life where there is no revelation when you don't listen to it hear it look to it live it heed it you cast off restraint that's what's happening in our world today our world is casting off restraint you wonder what's going on with the spiraling immorality with the the change of views and beliefs that are so crazy in our world you wonder what's happening it all boils down to this where there is no revelation where people aren't looking to and living god's revelation god's word to us they cast off restraints but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom's instruction and that's what the revelation is about look at how the revelation opens in chapter one verses one through three the revelation from jesus christ those are the first five words what is it it's a revelation from jesus christ we have his revelation we have his truth we can know what he's doing and why he's doing it the revelation from jesus christ which god gave to 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 that's the revelation the word of god and the testimony of jesus christ and here's the truth 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 we're living in a world that is casting off all restraints and the reason is simple they are missing or dismissing the revelation of jesus and its life-changing importance they're living contrary to god's word according to their own truth our world paints a picture of jesus that puts him outside of scripture as if he would agree more with their their cultural values and their political beliefs than with the word of god itself our world tends to forget or rewrite the past and then totally dismiss any concept of the future they live always and only for now and the pleasure of the moment and they forget the idea of eternity but the revelation from jesus christ tells us not only is he and was he but he is to come too many of us are sacrificing our entire lives on the altar of the immediate we're we're flowing in the current of our cultures casting off restraint values and can i just tell you if you're not purposely and intentionally swimming against the current of our culture you're floating in it with them we need to see jesus the revelation gives us jesus and the picture of jesus and what he's really really like but if we don't live it where there is no revelation the people cast off restraint blessed are those who give heed to wisdom's instruction it's vitally important for true believers to know that though the world uses the name jesus in negative ways and positive ways though a lot of people talk about jesus and sing to jesus and look like jesus churches and jesus people you need to know that whenever they deviate from who he really is and what he really said whenever they try to explain it away into their own version of their own truth that jesus is fake and made up and worthless and we need to fix it so this year we're going to turn to and seek to teach the revelation it's the one new testament book that can help us determine what's fact versus fiction about what's happening now and what's to come the revelation is god's exclamation mark on the future of all people believers and unbelievers alike and i'm going to right now betray every principle of good communication i'm not going to keep you in suspense i'm going to tell you the end of the story do you want to know in fact this way you never have to come back i'm going to tell you how the revelation ends are you ready i'm going to tell you now how the revelation ends are you ready i know we live in a weird world filled with crazy people we're part of the crazy i know we live in a world that is godless anti-god i know it looks like they're winning and the world is lost but the revelation of jesus christ comes to us and here's the end of the story you ready you ready you ready jesus wins and hey if jesus wins why would we live for a fake jesus who can't win when we could live for the real jesus who's always going to win why would we devote our lives to pursuing pleasure in the moment when we can make choices that matter for him for eternity why wouldn't we live even if we're suffering even if we're hurting even if we're doubting even if we're confused even if the whole world seems to be against us why would we live for anything other than the one who wins we shouldn't jesus wins listen to these two verses in the opening chapter of the revelation chapter 1 verses 7 and 8 look he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him every eye past present and future that has ever lived will see him even those who crucified him who pierced him and all the people on earth will mourn because of him why will they mourn because they lived without his revelation when he shows up and wins they're going to know they chose wrong so shall it be amen i am the alpha the beginning and the omega the end says the lord god who is now who was and who is to come and these two words you need to know the world's not the almighty i'm the almighty that's the book of the revelation right there but there's a problem see you know there's no reason to go on with the series if that's it okay yeah the problem is with us you see the problem is that the revelation has been distorted and diminished and damaged by human hype people love going to the revelation and make it say what they want it to say put the lens of their truth the lens of their understanding the lens of their politics the lens of their ideas of justice right over it and make it say what they want they hype it up and it's ruining everything and i want to give you some examples just a couple i could spend weeks on the examples but i'll just give you a couple there's a guy named william miller you've probably never heard of him but he said something that i think probably all of you have heard somewhere along the way about the revelation he said quote desolating earthquakes sweeping fires distressing poverty political profligacy private bankruptcy and widespread immorality which abound in these last days obviously indicate the lord is returning immediately i mean it's like it's a minute away dude i mean immediately you don't even have to live for him sell everything you have put on a white robe stand on a hill baby because he's coming back now that's what he said and there are people saying that now william miller said this oh by the way valid point he said it in 1843. this is not a new thing hyping out the revelation in fact back in the early days of my inner ministry just before i came to pastor this church family over 30 years ago the rage in christianity was a little booklet which was sent to thousands upon thousands of churches and pastors around the country and they were preaching it and they were teaching it and the title of the booklet was 88 reasons why the rapture will be in 1988. 88 reasons why jesus is coming back for his church in 1988 it was a hyper sensationalized treatise that based upon current events and a bunch of other stuff numerology and calculating this and calculating that you had to be a rocket scientist to understand what they were trying to say and and they all determined that jesus was coming back between a september 11th and september 13th of 1988. well i stand here before you on september 12th 2021 and those people are still waiting for that thing to happen right there they were wrong and yeah i didn't understand half of what they were saying you'd read that you'd go these people are brilliant they're just stupid because i could tell them right away there were pastors preaching it churches do i mean it was crazy and i said i have a problem with this because i don't understand the math of what they're talking about but here's what i understand jesus said you can't know the time or the hour and this one thing i know whenever they're predicting it he's not coming back then that's the way that is they were wrong and it's happening today and i'm warning you it's happening today people today i mean people wonderful people even people we know around us maybe some of you here are making similar hyped-up claims in the wake of the pandemic do you know and this is crazy some are even trying to assert that the vaccine is the mark of the beast now i don't care what you think about the vaccine personally that's personal issue i get it everybody different places that's okay i have mine you have used that's great but i can tell you this with 100 certainty it's not the vaccine first of all do they put it in your forehead or your hand that's where they say the mark of the beast is going stupid and besides that we're not even sure it is a mark on the forehead or the hand why because the symbol of scripture when it talked about jesus name or the antichrist name on your forehead was always meaning your thoughts will show who you follow and the hand your actions will show who you follow there will be people whose thoughts and actions are of the antichrist there will be people whose thoughts and actions are following jesus here's the question which one are we following it needs to be jesus and i just need you to know that all this crazy hype about the revelation all this man-made mixing up of it it has tragic results they're hurting the world in the name of jesus do you realize when people mess with the revelation like that it turns people away rather than towards god's word i mean when people say crazy stuff as absolutely vaccines the beast and next time it's no it's donald trump's the antichrist no no it's biden that's the end of no no it's that brad powell at northridge church he's the antichrist we're sure that now it's like oh my gosh all these things you know what people go they go the word of god must be absolutely wrong it turns people away from god's word it makes god's word appear to lack credibility seems to validate the great lie that you can't trust it i am here to tell you you can trust god's word you just can't trust what some crazy people do with it we need to be careful listen to deuteronomy 18 22 god warns us if what a prophet proclaims in the name of the lord does not take place or come true that is a message the lord hasn't spoken the prophet has spoken presumptuously don't be afraid of him another tragic result of really mishandling the revelation is that it produces the spirit of apathy among believers apathy it creates apathy towards jesus coming oh he's never going to come anyway it creates apathy for our need to be ready and faithfully living for him because it's not real anyway it's like it's like the boy who cried wolf if every day you're saying something's going to happen now and it doesn't happen people are going to stop listening and i one of my fears for the church in christianity these days is that so many of us are just apathetic it doesn't matter but it does matter we need to know his real truth look at what peter said in second peter chapter three verses three through four first of all you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come scoffing and following their own evil desires they will say where is this coming he promised ever since our fathers died everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation sure he's coming i get it do you realize the revelation was written to people who felt that way we're suffering sure he's coming we're suffering where's the promise people who follow him are dying where's the promise where's the hope all we're doing is experiencing grief and they were at the end of their rope and jesus came down and said i know right now it looks like the enemy is winning but i am telling you i am the one who is who was and who is to come and in the end i will make right what's wrong and i will make wrong wrong and there'll be judgment and in the end i'll win he gave us this book for hope and we need to rediscover the hope when you mess with the revelation it leads people into contradictions with scripture it causes people to live in a way that literally contradicts scripture that's what happened in 1988 churches were saying he's coming in 1988 but the bible said you can't know the time or the hour they were living in contradiction and many of us are living in contradiction to what god has made clear it happened to the early disciples look at acts chapter 1 verses 6 and 7. so when they met together they asked him lord are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to israel he'd already told them no i don't know only god knows right now and what you need to be is witnesses and they said but lord are you going to come and restore god it's like and many of us keep praying for things he's already told us that we have to wait on and he said to them it's not for you to know the times or the dates the father has set by his own authority when we mess with the revelation and we follow our own truth instead of his we're living in contradiction to the only thing that can give us freedom his truth let's not do it another tragic result is that when you mess with and hype up the revelation it leads to a misplaced focus and i believe too many christians and too many churches ours included at times has a misplaced focus which is why i just told you what my new focus is i want to get back to the real jesus and to his real truth i want to refuel our first love passion for him and our commitment to him because we begin focusing on the wrong things we begin focusing on current events and crazy speculations rather than on jesus we need to always remember the first five words that the book of the revelation opens with what are the first five words the revelation from jesus christ it is supposed to get us focusing on him and our hope in him not on some fantasy science fiction which only frustrates and confuses and divides us listen to acts chapter 1 verses 7 through 12 jesus said to them it's not for you to know the times or the dates the father has set by his own authority but this is what you can know he said i want you to receive the power of the holy spirit and when you do you'll be my witnesses you won't be telling people about what the mark of the beast is you won't be telling people about what the dragon with the seven heads and the ten horns are and you won't be telling people about that you already you know what you'll be doing you'll have the fullness of the spirit and you'll be my witnesses and he said this and then he was taken up before their eyes and they were looking intently into the sky as he was going when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them men of galilee they said why do you stand here looking into the sky didn't jesus already tell you what to do he told you to go to jerusalem wait for the spirit and then be his witnesses in the whole world why are you looking up in the sky and then he gave them this assurance this same jesus who told you to be witnesses who's been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven and then they got it and they returned to jerusalem they said okay we just want the spirit and we'll be witnesses and that's what they did so here's the application i want to give you and then we're going to worship in order to experience the blessings of jesus revelation we have to get beyond the hype we have to get beyond the hype we must faithfully seek to correctly understand the revelation that's what we need to do faithfully seek to correctly understand it not make it fit our view and our lens but correctly understand what he gave and i'm gonna tell you when i announced it i knew it was gonna happen when i announced that i was doing the revelation oh my gosh there was this fear yeah he's doing the revelation so excited doing the revelation this is awesome doing the revelation and i knew here's what people were hoping that i would teach the revelation exactly how you wanted to be taught whatever you view is that's what you're hoping and here's what's going to happen i'm not going to more than likely in the minute i do you're going to go well that's not the revelation that's not my truth and at the end this is a dangerous proposal at the end it might be my family and i sitting here going through the revelation because you know i'm not telling everybody what they want to hear but i'm going to tell you this i would rather be here with three people fully committed to the real jesus and his real truth than with 20 000 people who were worshiping a fake jesus it's just the way it is we have to faithfully correctly understand it look at revelation 1 3 blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who actually hear it second timothy 2 15 tells us how we can correctly understand it do your best to present yourself to god as one approved a workman who does not need to be ashamed who correctly handles the word of truth i i need to be honest with you right here on the front end the revelation is a difficult book it demands careful hard work disciplined interpretation you can't add things to it like vaccines and joe biden or donald trump you can't you can't subtract things from it to make it fit what you want you can't make things absolute that aren't absolutely i've heard people talk about some of the crazy stuff in the revelation with such absolute black and white thing i go what did jesus himself come down and whisper in your ear and then i know that didn't happen because they're wrong we have to accept what the book makes clear and not give ourselves to what isn't clear here's what it makes clear jesus is coming again he will write the wrongs but we don't know the specifics the times the hours the names of the antichrist you see we need to trust god with the specifics and remain faithful while we wait for him for what he promised he's coming again so we're not going to spend 20 years examining the dragon the heads and the horns and figuring out what the crap that is we know ultimately what it is it's evil looking like they're winning but jesus comes and buries the dragon because he wins that's what we need to really know we need to get hope and encouragement and live for him if we're going to experience the blessings then we have to faithfully seek to read study and apply the revelation to our lives and that's what we're going to do i would encourage you to start reading through the revelation and just know you're going to go what what what you know what i do i'm i'm getting ready to give talks on this book you know what i do when i read it what what but we're going to work through it together revelation 1 3 and take heart take to heart what is written in it because the time is near finally if we're really going to get beyond the hype and experience god's blessings you know where there is no revelation people cast off restraints they miss all of god's blessings and everything they're looking for but those who take heed to god's wisdom experience it what do we have to do we have to do what's contrary in our culture we have to do what's not happening in our culture we have to faithfully seek to keep the door of our lives open to jesus we're living in a world where the only thing people are willing to keep the door of their lives open to are people who agree with them who believe their truth what they think their morals or lack of morals i mean look at the social media crap going on in this world and some of it is by us we're not open-doored people to jesus we're only open to the people who agree with us and when jesus doesn't agree with us we don't agree with him which is why we're casting off restraint it's a mess and i'm begging you i'm urging you i'm pleading with you to open the door of your lives to jesus revelation 3 20 is written to people who are already followers of jesus and it says here i am i stand at the door and knock and if anyone hears my voice and opens the door i'll come in and eat with that person and they with me but you know what jesus said you're my church and you've locked me out you're my people and you've locked me out and i'm begging you northridge family let's be people who stop locking jesus out and keep the door of our lives open to him he's the only one worth living for and there are some of you here right now in person or at our regionals or online and you've never experienced what it is to open your life to jesus and to experience a relationship with him that's life changing that's where it starts because if you're ever going to get hope you need to trust the one who wins the one who can redeem you and forgive you and make you new and so just before we go to worship would you bow with me in a word of prayer just for a moment and as we pray if you're hearing his knock and you want to open the door of your life to him take my words in this prayer and make them yours just say jesus i'm hearing your knock i know i need you i've sinned i'm guilty but you died on the cross for my sin and you rose again to give me new life and so i'm turning to you and putting my faith in you come into my life and change me in jesus name amen if you just prayed with me wherever you are experiencing this we'd love to share with you next steps that you can take and all you have to do is text us that's something that's universal wherever you are just text us one word the name of our church northridge and text us to this number 3 16 16. you can always remember because we're a 16 word mission church so we thought we'd be double 16 3 16 16 and we'll send you information but here's how we want to end i i want to encourage you please engage this series in the coming weeks every single week please engage it but right now i'm hoping that you'll engage with us as we end this service in worshiping the lord of lords and the king of kings some of our kids are going to join our worship team and lead us in worship but first let's celebrate the people who've been running the whole time i've been talking our love runs people are coming around the corner right there give them a hand encourage them here come our kids and now it's time for us to stand and worship the real jesus according to his real truth god bless you everybody [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] he's not against [Music] i'm me [Applause] is [Music] here we go [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] i go [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] wherever i go [Applause] well thank you so much for worshiping with us god bless you we love you we'll see you thursday for worship night [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and darkness tremble in your holy land every eye will see jesus yes [Music] is name [Applause] [Applause] ah [Music] with everything we will shout for your glory with everything with everything [Music] [Applause]

Channel: NorthRidge Church

Views: 2,942

Rating: 4.8857141 out of 5

Keywords: NorthRidge, NorthRidge Church, Plymouth MI, Michigan, Church in Michigan, Church in Plymouth MI, Brad Powell, Faith, Hope, Bible, God, Jesus, Love, Worship, Live Music, church live, Pete Wilson

Id: mMKQ3g6xf98

Length: 85min 44sec (5144 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021