Spiritual Health Check

And, we're going to turn to the word of god now.

So if you bought a Bible with you, do please turn to Revelation chapter 1. If not, the words will appear on the screen behind me. We're beginning a new series this morning, and we're gonna be looking mainly at the letters to the 7 churches in the book of Revelation, but we're beginning with this introduction in chapter 1 and those words that we've sung. We're lifted straight out of that, this glorious chapter. And so I'm gonna invite Ruth Divain up, and she's gonna read Revelation 1 to us.

And then Pete will come and please. That passage to us. Thanks. So Revelation 1, The revelation from 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 everything he saw. That is the word of god and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the 1 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. John, to the 7 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 7 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.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 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 are men. Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him. And those who pierced him and all people on earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be our men? I am the alpha and the omega says the lord god, who is, who was and who is to come the almighty.

I John, your brother, and companion in the suffering and kingdom, and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the lord's day, I was in the spirit and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet which said, write on a scroll what you see and send it to the 7 churches to ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamom, Faratira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Leodicea. I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned, I saw 7 golden lampstands and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man. He was dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash round his chest.

The hair on his head was white like wool as white as snow and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronzing bronze glowing in furnace and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand, he held 7 stars and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.

And then he placed his right hand on me and said, don't be afraid. I am the first and the last. I am the living 1. I was dead And now look, I'm alive forever and ever and I hold the keys of death and hades. Right.

Therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. The mystery of the 7 stars that you saw in my right hand and of the 7 golden lamp stands is this. The 7 stars are the angels of the 7 churches and the 7 lampstands are the 7 churches. Thank you. My name is Pete Woodcock.

I'm 1 of the elders of the church here and if you're visiting or new, then my greetings to you as well and those online as well if you're just tuning in. As Tom said, we're just starting a new series in the 7 letters of Jesus to the 7 churches So we've got 7 weeks for though this is the eighth week because this is the introduction. Let me pray. Father help us now. Please, we can, we can read these amazing words and still be proud.

We can still resist. We have the ability to do that at the moment. And so we ask you please help us to hear these things with a humble heart and then father surely we may learn something. So by your spirit help us in Jesus' name, our, ma'am. Now the younger people, in fact, the younger you are, you're you're more likely to know the answer to this.

And the older you are, the more likely you are not to know the answer to this. But I wanna ask this question, what is the big, the really big thing on social media at the moment? What is the big thing on social media? Don't shout it out. With all the wars, with all the atrocities that are going on, the disasters, the personal hurts, all of the things that are going on in the world, what is the thing that has gone viral?

Absolutely all the way around the world. We're talking millions I mean, no exaggeration. Millions upon millions upon millions upon millions upon millions of people that have seen this thing that have, passed it on to other people to see on their, smartphones. What is the great thing that's gone viral? Here's a picture of it.

It should come up. There it is. Isn't it beautiful? It's, it's Muudeng. Muudeng, the the little baby pygmy hippo.

There are pygmy hip they're hippos and there are pygmy hippos and She's a baby Pigpigney hippo all the way from Thailand. She literally has had millions of views, and now you're seeing her. On TikTok alone, 1 of the videos of her, and there are many videos of her, 1 of the videos has had 37000000 likes. So and then there's other platforms. She's bigger than Taylor Swift and better looking.

And like Taylor Swift, she has her own, makeup. See the little pink, bit around her mouth. There's a whole makeup firm now, and it's called Muudang makeup. So you can look like her if you want to. She's number 1.

Number 2 is pesto. There he is. He's a baby. Believe it or not. He's a baby, penguin.

And he's like 3 times bigger than his parents that are feeding him all the time. Mudang, pesto, they're lovely. You can turn that off. They're they're lovely. They're they're they're absolutely innocent, they're fun, they're beautiful, We should, I think, thank god for these because they give us a little escapist moment of joy.

They we can escape the violence and we can escape the reality and the madness and the pain of the world. And I'm all for that distraction to some degree. They're they're they're beautiful little things sent by god, and we should praise god for them. But we actually do need to come away from those distractions. We can't have our life just full of those types of videos and pictures and distractions.

We need to face reality at some point. We need to see a bigger vision than than Muudeng and pesto, some someone or something that can tackle the world's problems. We need to look up from our mobile phones and look for something that can beat evil, something that can give us such a vision that we might bring back innocence and joy and fun, not escapism, but a real victory in those areas. We need a vision that might cause us to be so taken up that we're prepared to suffer for that vision, and we're prepared to wait patiently for the fulfillment of that vision. We need something bigger than Mudeng and pesto.

However, beautiful they are. Now when a a secular liberal country wants to give a vision to the world, what does it do? When it's got the world stage, when it's got the world looking at it, what does a a secular liberal country do? Well, France did it? They had the whole world looking at them at this summer in the 2024 Olympic Games.

And their vision of a humanity was a group of drag queens that were surrounding or either side of a woman that looked like a drag queen. Here's the picture of it. That was their vision of humanity. And it went everywhere, millions saw it. There's a sort of parody of Jesus there of sort of religious pictures of Jesus going on.

Now, I want to ask you, is that the picture of humanity that can capture us that can give us hope that can deal with the issues. I mean, is that all that the great French revolution could produce? Are sort of people that are free to cross boundaries of dress and and think they're free. Is is that liberty equality and fraternity that the French revolution so wanted to bring in? Is that it?

Is that the vision? You can turn that off. Now today, we're in this Bible passage and we've just read it. And we're gonna hear from a cast away. He's cast away on this little rock.

It's a it's a Greek island, so it sounds nice, and it is a tourist destination now, but it wasn't back then in the first century. It's it's small, it's rocky, it's rugged, it has a harsh climate, you can't really grow anything on it. It has high steep cliffs, so you can't really get away from it. It was an island that the Romans in the first century when they just about didn't wanna kill someone a political prisoner or if they were a Roman Roman citizen and they couldn't kill them, they would put them severe punishment would be to send them to this island. And this is where John is verse 9 of our chapter.

I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in jesus was on the island of Patmos because of the word of god and the testimony of Jesus. So here's John on this island and he's already suffering He's already got a vision that he wanted the world to hear about, which is the testimony of the lord Jesus Christ and the word of God. And that has already caused suffering and patient endurance for him as he's on this island. And then it's from Patmos, this island that John receives this vision, even a greater vision than he's had before. It's a vision of the lord Jesus Christ.

It's a vision that's gonna change his life. And he's told to write to write down 7 letters that he's going to be dictated to that the lord Jesus Christ is gonna dictate to him and then to send those letters to these 7 7 churches. And he did that, and it went viral. Over over time from the first century to now, more people have seen those letters and read those letters than have seen Muudin. More more people have been influenced by those letters than they have than people have been by the drag queens.

And and let's be honest, Mudeng will be forgotten in a few years time, and the drag queens will be forgotten in a few years time. But these letters have gone over thousands of years of influence. The trouble is today in our country, more people have seen mooding than have read these letters. At this moment in time, more people have seen the drag queen and have the vision of, is that the new humanity than what we've got here? So we're going to open up these letters over the next, 7 or 8 weeks and, we're starting with an introduction to the letters here.

And here's my first point as we get into it. We actually have John's introduction to the letters that Jesus is gonna dictate to him. It it it's it's sort of you know, he's writing an introduction to the letters that are gonna come. John, of course, if you know, was was a was a disciple of Jesus. He's 1 of the first 12 that Jesus called to himself and he'd seen Jesus throughout his whole ministry.

You know, all of the things Jesus did, he'd seen him. And so this is John. And this is John, you know, doing a sort of an introduction to the letter. So look at verse 4, John, there he is. To the 7 churches in the province of Asia.

Grace and peace to you from him who is and was and who is to come and from the 7 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 the trouble with this passage, and and it's a big problem for preachers. It's got everything in it. For any preacher, but it's just 1 thing after the other that is glorious, glorious, glorious. And when you just read lists out, it it can get wearisome, but I just hope that doesn't quite happen.

And I try to whiz through it, but He's here's his list. And do you see in his in this little bit of the greeting? The whole triune god is there. This is a massive greeting. It's not just John, you know, wish you were here on Patmos.

Having a nice time. It's a Greek island after all. It it's not that or it's not even John. A guy, it's rough here. I thought it'd be a good holiday, but the buildings aren't even up.

You know, it's not that. It's it's a greeting in the in the name of the triune god. God, the father, look grace and peace to you, from him who is and was and is to come. What a greeting? Grace of god.

Grace means undeserved favor. All the undeserved favor John is saying from the eternal god, past present future, all of the undeserved favor grace be poured upon you. They may be something that you know that you live in, that lives in you. And then the peace of god, from this eternal god who was and is and is to be, that you would know a deep seated peace that passes all understanding that even though there's wars and violence around you, there's something steadfast in your heart that there's this peace, this shallon, this eternal God the father. God the spirit, look, he says.

And from the 7 spirits before his throne, now it doesn't mean there's 7 spirits. The number 7, and particularly in the book of Revelation means complete, you know, perfect. There's not 7 holy spirits. There's 1 holy spirit. And if you go back to, Isaiah chapter 11, you see that there are 7 aspects of the holy spirit named there that will actually be upon the lord Jesus Christ.

He's called the spirit of the lord. This is this is the holy spirit. This is none other than the third person of the blessed trinity. You know, grace and peace from from God the father. But the 7 spirit.

And then when you when you read, Isaiah, he's the spirit of wisdom and understanding and the spirit of counsel and the spirit of might and the spirit of knowledge and the spirit that brings a fear of the lord. So that we understand that that that what we are that we're just a creature and he's the lord and and there's a sense of wow. He's the he's the creator. He's he's this spirit of wisdom and understanding. And if we're gonna navigate this world, if we're gonna understand the violence and the stuff that goes on in our own hearts in our own lives and on the broader, you know, a scene of the world.

If we're gonna understand this, we need none other than the 7 spirit spirits in us. The Holy Spirit to navigate. This is just his greeting, by the way. Then god, the sun look at verse 5, and there's 3 things here. It's 1 thing after the other, John.

You know, it's almost give us a break, but no. Look, verse 5. And from Jesus, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth, 3 titles for god the sun. The faithful witness. He's a faithful 1.

He's the 1 that's faithful to god, the father, faithful. Witness. The word witness is the word martyr. He's the 1 that was so about truth, so about the love of god, so faithful to the love of god. He was crucified for it.

A faithful martyr. Firstborn from among the dead. He's the pioneer. He's he's the resurrection and the life. He's the 1 that died and rose again.

I mean, that's something just worth looking at. And if you're a skeptic, just look at the resurrection of Jesus. If he rose from the dead, he's the only 1 to have done it, And he's the pioneer. He's the firstborn. But also that that title firstborn is a title.

It's like, you know, he's the preeminent 1, in the Bible. He's the most important 1. He's the 1 that's pioneered, gone through death, risen again, but he's the important 1. And then in in Romans chapter 8 in the bible, we're told that he's the firstborn among the brothers, many brothers and sisters. So he's the firstborn because there's gonna be a whole load that that are gonna come through death and no life of god.

Right? He's the conqueror. Of death. Don't we need that stuff if we're gonna be committed to a message that can change the world? We need to know that the the 1 that we're speaking about has conquered the very thing that destroys everything, death.

And then look, he's the ruler of the kings of the earth ultimate power. The kings think they're ruling, and he laughs, says in the Bible. He uses stuff. He's the ruler of the kings. They think they're in charge.

They think they're gonna set up their kingdom and they do for a few years and then down they go. Yeah? And he's the ruler of all the kings 1 day We'll be able to sit back and see just how he used the evil kings and the good kings, and he weaved something together for his overall plan. It's hard to see it at the moment, but 1 day we'll see the tapestry that Jesus has sown. Now all of this sends John into a praise session.

Right. This by the way, this is still his introduction. We haven't even got to this is his introduction to Jesus. Yeah? This is his prologue and he sort of goes into praise.

Look at it, to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood. It suddenly comes, stands back and say, not only is he this, but he loves us. This 1 loves us, and we know how much he loves us. Because he's taken people like us, people like me, says John, on the island of Patmos, just little me on a little island of really no significance. He's washed me in his blood.

He's given his life for me. And then look at verse 6, and has made us a kingdom and priests to serve his god and father to him be glory and power forever and ever our men. He's so taken up. Not only has he loved us, absolutely loved us this 1. He's washed us, proved his love, but he's actually made us kingdom of priests.

I mean, there is true liberty equality and fraternity, isn't there? This is the revolutionary 1. This is the 1 that can take people like you and me and make us kings and priests to serve none other than god, the father. Verse 7, look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him and even those who pierced him, and all peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be amen?

1 day, Every eye will see him when he returns. And there'll be some mourning because people have been so taken up with distractions. And false views of humanity. They've missed him. And even those that were against him and peace, they see him as this glorious lord, every eye will see him.

And then verses 9 and 10, I John, your brother and companion in the suffering and the kingdom and patient endurance that Araz in Jesus was on the isle of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony Jesus on the lord's day I was in the spirit and I heard a voice behind me, a loud voice. I I I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet. There he is on this island. It's the lord's day. Sunday, and suddenly a voice says something.

A voice speaks, and it gets his attention. It's a trumpet, and he has to ask what's going on here. There's a trumpet and it's the voice of 1 that you get in verse 8. I am the alpha and the amiga, the a zed of everything. I am the a zed of everything.

The trumpet has blown, and it's striking and it pulls him out of his day dream and he turns around. So there's the first point. That's John's postscript for the letters to come. Are you ready for another list? Right.

Here's my second point. A closer look at the 1 who wrote the letters then. You get that in verses 12 to 18. Another round of glorious list. And I I have to say honestly, you you really could, and I'm not kidding you, you could give at least sort of 2 Bible references to every 1 of this list, at least and it would it would be a brilliant study, but we're not gonna do that.

Look at verse 12. This voice just trumpet a blow, and I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned, saw 7 golden lampstands. So the trumpet had blown got his attention. The voice had spoken.

You know, I am the alpha and the omega. Whoa. Let's turn around. I don't know how slow the turning was. He might have been like really nervous because that was a trumpet blast.

He turns around and at first he doesn't quite look up. He sees the lampstands. 7 lampstands. They're the church. We'll come to that in a minute.

And at first, his attention's just drawn to them, but that doesn't hold his attention for too long. Because something more wonderful is there than the church. See, the church isn't wonderful without the lord Jesus Christ. That's why I can't really understand, you know, people who say they fight for something the church. I'm gonna I'm gonna stay in this denomination and fight for the church.

Well, if Jesus isn't there as a waste of time, your vision's wrong. So he he he then saw Christ in the middle of these lampstands. Now you've got to remember, this is John. He'd he'd known the lord Jesus Christ. He'd walked with him for 3 years.

He'd known all about him. And now there's this transformed Jesus. He says, I saw someone like the son of man. Now get this. Someone like the son of man.

In other words, when he first looked He saw a human, a human being, but a glorious human being. Someone that absolutely he saw his humanness This was a human, but he's an exalted human. This is a vision of the leader of a new humanity. That's a better vision than a drag queen, isn't it? Of people that are parrying, parroting women, men pretending to look like a sort of over made up woman, what a strange idea that is?

To grab our attention. What a strange liberty that is? Weird, but here is a glorious human like the son of man. If you go back to Daniel, in the old testament, we read this about the son of man. Let me just read it.

This is Daniel now having a vision. In my vision at night, I looked and there before me was 1 like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the ancient of days picture of god. He approached the ancient of days and was led into his presence. Now this is a picture of what Jesus has done on the cross and he's rising again and ascending to god I think with his own blood, he's bringing it to the ancient of days.

He's coming in the clouds to god the father and presenting the sacrifice. And then in verse 14 of Daniel 70 says, He was then given authority and glory and sovereign power. All nations and people of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away and his kingdom is 1 that will never be destroyed. Here is the god man, the man god.

Here is a new humanity. Here's a leader of a new nation of people from all over the world, not just people that look alike and speak the same and like the same things. But here is a ruler, a new humanity. This is a picture that he turns around and this is the vision that that can actually so take us up that we're prepared to suffer for and wait patiently for. Its fulfillment.

Then verse 14, the second half dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet with a golden sash around his chest. The whole idea of a robe going down, that's dignity, you know, you were you were rich, you were you were an important person to have a robe that came down to your feet. The whole idea of the golden sash again, we could show you verse after verse is a picture of the priests in the old testament, the high priest that would come before god and go into the holy of holies. So he's wearing this this band and 1 of the duties of of the high priest was, in the old testament was to look after the golden lampstand, the menorah that was in the holy place and his job every day was to make sure there was enough oil in it so it was burning was to trim the wicks and to clean off the soot. And so here's a picture of the lord Jesus Christ, this new human leader in his glorious humanity, the god man.

Here he is as the high priest in the the midst of his his lampstands and he's inspecting and caring and washing and applying oil of the Holy Spirit. So that the lamps would burn bright. Verse 14, his hair on his head was white like wool as white as snow in his eyes were blazing fire. Anyone that's got white hair is important. Yeah?

Bold heads. No way. Yeah? White hair important. Yeah?

It means you've got old. You're aged. You're like a nice fine wine. You're not like 1 of these young things with dark hair that thinks it's fresh, but tastes of nothing. Right?

Sorry. Forgive me. Sorry, Tom. In realizing so No. No.

No. No. No. Well, I I worried you didn't. That's why I said it.

No. It's it's a picture of the ancient of days, 1 with all the wisdom. That's the picture in the Bible. Someone that's lived, someone that knows, someone that isn't just making up stuff, but they really understand history. That's the picture.

And the white of snow is the the idea of purity. And the eyes of fire, fire always has has something to do with judgment. You know, the burning up of that which is dross and rubbish. And the eyes of Jesus are searching and penetrating and cleansing the world of all its filth and lies and and he's able to see through things and understand what's going on burning through the grass to see that which is pure and good. And then verse 15, his feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing water, again fire there, bronze, feet.

In other words, they've gone through the refiners fire. These are this is someone who knows what it is to face up to the refining purity of the living god. He stands there, strong. These these these refined bronze feet can stamp out anything. Remember they didn't have steel back then.

So it's bronze is the is the thing. And there's like a sound of many waters. I mean, Patmos is a little island. And apparently it's extremely noisy because around the cliffs, the the sea is smashing smashing it all the time. And here he's John on his little island with the roar of the sea, but there's a bigger roar.

The roar of a voice sound of many waters above all the chaos of the sea and above all the chaos of the world is this voice that can speak clearly into the chaos. Verse 16, in his right hand, he held 7 stars and coming out of his mouth was a sharp double edged sword, 7 stars. I think they are the leaders. They're the same as the angels. They're the leaders.

It just means messengers of the of the churches. And so in other words, he's got the 7 stars in his hands. He's he's got he's got the whole church in his hand. Yeah? And out of his mouth is double edged sword.

It's his words are his weapon. His truth is sharp. I think when you read Jesus, you just see that. Probably we have such a pansy idea of Jesus. When you see his words, they're sharp there.

They cut to the marrow. Spurgeon says, if you're gonna read god's word, you can't really read it without getting cut. We're gonna get cut. It will hurt a bit. But like a surgeon's knife, I wanna cut away the rot and it hurts sometimes and it hurts our pride.

It's sharp, but it's there for our good. It's a surgeon's knife. Very sharp. Very pure. Look at verse 16, second half.

His face was like the sun shining at all its brilliance. It's such a glorious picture of a new humanity, this new god man, the leader of a new group. Verse 17, when I saw him says John, I fell at his feet as though dead. And then he placed his right hand on me and said, do not be afraid. I'm the first and the last.

John's just overwhelmed with awe at this vision. The beauty of this new god man, this new humanity is so gorgeous But he he just has to fall down. It's very hard even just to pass it on. You know, like, you know, Muudeng, you know, Drew was showing it to me as I was driving along. Here it is.

Have a look at that. I think if she showed me this Jesus, I would have crashed. But look, you know, he's glorious. This is the 1 that John knew for 3 years. This is the 1 that John saw executed on a cross, risen again.

Glorious. It's at that moment, I think, John really understands the miracle of the incarnation, that Jesus should shield his glory and his authority when he walked this earth is extraordinary miracle. Everything Jesus did in the gospels was a miracle of holding back his glory. He falls on his face. Spurgeon says, bless position.

We are never so much alive as when we are dead at his feet. What an amazingly wise statement? When our pride is gone, when we see that the world isn't all about me and my little world, but there's a bigger vision. Spurgeon said, better be dead than alive anywhere else. Absolutely.

And then verse 17 b, look at the look at the beauty of this. Because this isn't just, a massive dictator with all power. Look, then he placed his right hand. What was he holding in his right hand? Well, the 7 stars, which are the leaders of the churches, I think.

So so this is a message not just not not just for John. This is a message for for the 7 stars for the leaders of the churches. Then he placed his right hand on me and said do not be afraid. The compassionate touch of the lord Jesus Christ. You read the gospels and you're always seeing that compassionate touch.

He touches the leper, the outcast. The wayward woman. He's always touching. The outcast to bring them in. Don't be afraid.

Fear me in the sense of running away from me, but don't be afraid of me. I'm the living 1. I hold the keys of Death and Hades. Yeah? Satan doesn't.

Jesus went down into the prison of Death and Hades and stole the Keys and He's not giving them back. To Satan, he has the keys of death, life and death. That's the vision that John sees on his little island of Patmos. That's the vision that he sees when he's on his own. It's not all it's not this isn't a schofield, you know, going off on an island, looking at himself and moaning about people that didn't like him.

This is something altogether different. This is someone who humbles himself before this Jesus. Okay. My third point then, to whom is the letter written. Whom is the letter?

Well, we've already seen this, but you get it in verses 19 and 20. As I say, we've already seen it is through the 7 churches and they're described as lampstands. Now, the lampstand is really only important because it holds the light. There's no nothing in and of itself. And as I say, if the church loses Jesus, it's just a lampstand with no light.

As most would just, you know, take it down to, you know, antiques roadshow and see how much it's worth as it's flog it off. The church doesn't produce the light. It's Jesus in the church. But having said that, if the light is in the lamp, it makes the lamp glorious, doesn't it? That the church is just a glorious thing that this divine human, this perfect humanity is ruling and walking amongst the church.

He says at the end of Matthew's gospel that I will surely be with you always to the very end of the age. He makes no, he makes that promise to no other group. Whatever great and glorious groups there are in the world, this is what he makes the promise to. I'll be amongst the lampstands. Trimming the wicks, putting in the oil, making sure it burns, warning it, encouraging it, cleaning it.

Letting my light shine. This is to the 7 churches, and again, 7 is a complete number. And therefore, I take it that those letters to the churches that we're gonna look are letters to cornerstone. Jesus comes to cornerstone through these letters. Here's a number of things we should do then.

We will be blessed if we read them and put them into practice. We will be blessed. There's a promise. There's a promise of blessing. Look at verse 3 of the chapter, Blessed is the 1 who reads the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and take heart what is written in it because the time is near.

Bless. The word blessed is an island word. It it actually comes from Cyprus. It it it means that you can be on the island of Cyprus and have everything you want. There's you don't need to go off the parameters of the island.

That's where the word blessed comes from. And it means that you have everything you need, everything that's gonna cause you to survive. Bless is the 1 who reads these words. So Cornerstone Church, we gotta be serious about this. Because it's this 1 I've just described badly because there's so much more to say who's coming to us as a church, and he's gonna speak 7 letters.

7 letters. And we need to hear it and listen to it because without him, we're not a church. Without a vision of him, there's no point to us. We're just a sort of social club. Doing sort of nice things and putting on meals on Sundays.

Without him, it's not really Christianity. Without him, we're just a candlestick. But there's another thing here. What does the world need? Does it need more drag queens?

Seriously? Does it need parodies of humans What does it need? Does it need more mood dings, beautiful as they are? Doesn't it need this message? Doesn't it need this message?

This savior, won't this make us bigger and grander? Won't this give us patient endurance? Won't this light the lamp? Won't this cause us to be alive? That this is the 1 who loves us and is leading us.

And 1 day we'll see him as he is. And every eye will behold him. And as he came in the clouds to the ancient of days, he'd come in the clouds back to us, and we'll say, Wanda, thank you grace and peace of God that you would enlighten me, me to see who you are and give my life for you. Or could it be? But when he comes back, we're straining as it says in Revelation that the rocks to fall on us and to hide us from his face.

Because we've given our lives to drag queens or to things that are pretend making us at liberty. The church I want to say when it sees the lord Jesus Christ is the answer to the French revolution. There is liberty, equality, and fraternity. In the church of Christ. That's the new humanity that we should be pushing and shouting about and singing about.