The Final Wedding

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Don Filcek; Revelation 19:6-10 The Final Wedding

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You're listening to the podcast of the Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. This week,
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Pastor Don Filsak preaches through his series, Thy Kingdom Come, taking us through the book of Revelation.
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Let's listen in. I'm Don Filsak, I'm the lead pastor here, and I just want to welcome you and ask for your forgiveness up front that we're having some technical difficulties.
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So, the screens aren't working, we're trying to get an overhead projector up here and running for the song so that Dave is not just giving us his debut solo concert.
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And so, that way we can sing along. But today's a great day to gather together with God's people and to praise him together, even in the midst of kind of some of the difficulties that we have in a facility that's not our own and things like that.
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But I'm really glad for you. I count it a blessing to be part of a church. Fundamentally, what it means to be a church is relationships, encouragement, accountability, and a place to invest in others.
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And I think of that, and I value that, and I delight in that, and I'm grateful for that opportunity each week.
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And all of those aspects of it are important, that we need relationships.
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We need more than just to come in and take in a slick service each week, right? We need more than just teaching from God's word each week, but we need, and God has designed us relationally, to need each other and to need accountability.
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I don't know about you, but I think without the church, I would stray. I would find myself wandering off. And maybe some of you have spent a season away from church, and you can vouch for that.
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You can say, yeah, in seasons of my life where I've been away from church, I found myself kind of straying and wandering and kind of feeling disconnected.
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And then also, you recognize that you've got something to offer here. You have gifts, abilities, talents that God has given you in order to invest in the body, and so we need all of that.
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And our core values at Recast are simply an acronym for our name. Some of you are aware of this, some of you aren't.
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But the R and the E in Recast stand for replicating, the C is for community, the A is for authenticity, the
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S is for simplicity, and the T is for truth. And certainly, last, but the thing that ties it all together in the end is truth.
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And again, that's an acronym, and that's where our name comes from. It's kind of a double meaning to our name, Recast as an acronym for our core values, but also it comes out of Luke chapter 5, where the disciples have been fishing all night.
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They were the professional fishermen. They hadn't caught anything all night. And so they were up taking in their nets for the morning, and Jesus says, hey, push out a little bit into deeper water and recast your nets to the other side.
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Well, they could have just easily laughed at him, but instead they obeyed him and did what he commanded, and they found themselves bringing in a hall of fish.
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And so that's the nature of the name Recast. That's where we're coming from. And the first core value is replicating.
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And it's a core value that comes straight from scriptures. So many times the Bible indicates for us that the main function of the people of God, and therefore the main purposes for us as individual followers of Jesus, is to replicate our passion and love for Jesus by making disciples.
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How many are familiar with that phrase, making disciples? You've heard that phrase before. And I think a lot of times when we hear the word making disciples, we think something about a church program or some kind of discipleship program.
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We sometimes use it as a verb, right? Have you ever heard the word disciple used as a verb? We disciple someone.
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Have you ever heard that? Raise your hand if you've heard it used as a verb. But the interesting thing is making disciples is something different than what we think of as the church programs.
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Making disciples is evangelism. Making disciples is connecting another person who was formerly disconnected.
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They didn't have someone they were following, and now they are following Jesus. That's what it means to make disciples.
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And our text this morning is going to show us an amazing analogy of an eternal celebration of God's people.
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And we're going to think about that in terms of evangelism here throughout the morning. A day is coming that is likened to a wedding for Jesus.
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It's an analogy of a wedding. And he will finally be pledged to his people, and his people will be pledged to him for eternity.
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And we will feast, and celebrate, and worship him forever, and ever, and ever.
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And in the midst of this text is a beautiful and sure statement. The text goes over the top to make sure that you and I recognize that this is
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God's very word, and it says this, that they are happy who are invited and called to this festival, this wedding, this celebration.
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And I would suggest to you that seeking to replicate our faith could simply be framed in the terms used in this text.
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Evangelism is simply inviting others to the feast, simply inviting others to the celebration.
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And who doesn't love a wedding reception, right? Is that a fun... You guys, raise your hand if you really like...
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I love going to wedding receptions. It's a lot of fun. Now, some of you are like, whatever, not so much.
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Well, maybe that's not your gig, but I love it. And we have the privilege of inviting our friends, and our family, and our neighbors to that kind of a celebration, that kind of a joyous occasion, but it will go on forever and ever.
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And we have a chance to invite friends, family, neighbors, co -workers, those around us.
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I mean, you could think of somebody in your life right now that you should be inviting to this celebration. And many have looked at evangelism as this scary academic thing, as if I have to have a
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PhD in order to share my faith. But evangelism is more like an invitation to a party. How much do you need to know to invite somebody to a party?
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Well, you need to know who's throwing it, and where it's going to be held, and that's about it, right? That's less like an academic pursuit, and more like an invitation to come along.
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We're on our way to an eternal celebration, to eternal joy. Do you want to bring others?
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You want to just look at others and say, come along with me, because this is going to be awesome. And we're going to see that throughout the remainder of the book of Revelation, is a spelling out and a bringing forward of that which is glorious in our eternal destination.
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So let's look in and read. We're going to be in Revelation chapter 19, verses 6 through 10.
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So if you have a Bible or a device that you can navigate to a Bible and follow along, we're going to be again,
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Revelation chapter 19, verses 6 through 10. If you don't have a
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Bible, please raise your hand, and we can get one of those to you. We'd love everybody to have a copy of God's word. And so follow along.
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This is God's very word to us, Recast Church. Then I heard, remember this is
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John the Apostle speaking. He's receiving these visions. Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder crying out, hallelujah, for the
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Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory. For the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready.
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It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
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And the angel said to me, write this. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb.
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And he said to me, these are the true words of God. Then I fell down at his feet and worshiped him.
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But he said to me, you must not do that. I'm a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus.
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Worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
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Let's pray as Dave comes to lead us in worship this morning. Father, I want to thank you so much for the opportunity that we have to gather together on this holiday weekend and praise you, to lift you up, to exalt in who you are.
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Father, it's a glorious thing that we get a chance to gather together as your people each week. That we get an opportunity to sing praises before your throne.
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And I thank you that there is a day coming when we will be made right, we will be made pure, we will stand before you clothed in the righteousness of your son.
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And we look forward to that celebration that will never end. And Father, I ask that you would be moving in our hearts even this morning to lead us to those who need to hear from you, to lead us to those who need that relationship with you and are hungry for it.
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Father, we look forward to that day where we will praise you and exalt in you, in your presence.
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But for today, I pray that this worship would be sufficient for boosting us, encouraging us, and ultimately that you would receive it as praise.
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We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks a lot today for leading us in worship.
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And a special thanks to Eric for getting stuff set up so that we could actually sing along. So I'm grateful for Eric down front here who did all that.
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I encourage you to get comfortable during the message. If at any time you need to get up and stretch out, I recognize that those chairs are not the most comfortable in the world.
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And so really, you're not going to distract me at all if you need to get back up there and stretch your back out, whatever it takes to kind of keep your focus on God's word rather than the discomfort of the chair.
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And then there's more coffee, juice, and donuts while supplies last. Again, take advantage of those as well.
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Last week, oh, and also keep your Bibles open to Revelation 19, verses 6 through 10.
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That's going to be kind of the outline. We're going to keep referencing that and looking into that. We didn't just read that just kind of for fun at the beginning, but that's the text that we're going to be kind of just taking apart chunk by chunk and thinking through.
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Last week, we saw a song of praise and celebration to God for salvation, for his power, a song of thanks for his glorious truth and his righteousness.
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But now our text this morning, John has granted another scene of praise, and it's a little bit distinct from the one before.
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The same multitude in our text is the same multitude that sang last week to us all of those hallelujahs.
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But this time, they're not praising him for the past and what he's done, but they're now praising him for what he is going to do from our vantage point in the future.
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And John hears a lot of loud sounds throughout his visions in heaven. I don't know if you've noticed that, but as we've gone through the book of Revelation, we're all the way up to really close to wrapping up this book, and there's been a lot of loud sounds.
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Have you noticed that, that the worship of heaven is kind of rowdy and raucous, and there's a lot going on. This is a loud shouting like a huge waterfall.
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How many of you have been to Niagara Falls before? Is it pretty loud? You can hear it, and especially as you get closer, it's just thundering.
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And then equally, another illustration of the sound that he hears from these voices in heaven are like mighty peals of thunder.
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You ever been woke up in the middle of a thunderstorm, and it's like, and it just kind of shakes the house? I mean, like that one must have been close.
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But that's what these voices sound like to John's ears as he's having this vision.
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The praise of God, I want to point out, in heaven is not a tame and civil experience.
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Now, I would suggest to you that we've subdued it in our Western culture through hymns and melody and demure and meditative approaches, but this shouting of a multitude might sound more like a football stadium on any college campus during a home field touchdown.
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That's the imagery. I mean, have any of you ever been close to, in a football game, like in one of the college towns, and you're like outside of the stadium when a touchdown is scored, and you can hear that?
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I mean, it sounds like thunder. It sounds like a waterfall. It sounds like this rushing of voices is the imagery that we have here of the praise that is going on in heaven.
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And I would suggest to you that many of us in this room have responded with that type of volume at a football, a baseball, some kind of a sporting event, or something to that effect.
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Many of us have responded that way. And it's because that overflow of delight and joy is a natural human response when something that we like happens, happens.
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Right? When something like that occurs, we often are moved to some kind of an outburst.
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So my curiosity, and again, I recognize that there's different personalities in the room, and some of you have probably not shouted anything, right?
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And then others of you are shouting all the time, and it's like your natural, it's like, use your indoor voice, right?
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People will tell you that from time to time. Or I've got feelings, too. Stop yelling at me, and you're explaining what you had for breakfast.
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I don't know. But why do we quench that passion and fire when it comes to the worship of God?
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Ask yourself that. And maybe you're not. Maybe you're like, I'm just, I am myself, and I am worshiping the way that God has intended me to, and I'm still a little bit more meditative, and I'm a little bit more quiet.
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But ask yourself this. Is there any reservation in you when it comes to worshiping
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God, with your whole self, with the way that he's made you? And I would suggest to you that a major part of all of that is wrapped up in cultural expectations, and some of us have the cultural expectations that God doesn't want us to get too excited.
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Like, we've kind of missed the part of Revelation here where everybody's excited, and everybody's rejoicing, and everybody's shouting his praises, and they're excited, and they're enthusiastic about who
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God is, and sometimes we can miss that. We tend to think maybe in our Western culture he wants us to be measured, and thoughtful, and quiet, and kind, and respectful.
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King David didn't get that memo in the Old Testament. I don't know if you noticed that. He didn't get the memo that you have to be quiet, and subdued, and calm in worship.
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I'm not saying that there's never a time for quiet reflection or respectful meditation, but I am suggesting that many people will need to enroll in Heavenly Worship 101 when they get there so that they can take part in what's going on, because it's gonna be foreign to some of us.
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The kinds of stuff that are going on in heaven are foreign to some of us. We've seen a lot of images of the worship going on in heaven so far in the book of Revelation, and quiet and subdued does not match any of them so far.
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And once again, the multitude is shouting, and what they're shouting is this word that we talked about extensively last week, and if you weren't here, you can get on the website and look, or you can podcast that, but on our website, there's a teaching tab.
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You can get there and you can see last week's message, but I talked extensively about the word hallelujah. A two -part word, hallelujah, meaning a command to praise, and yah, the
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J -A -H being a shortened form of the name of God himself, Yahweh. And so to praise
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God is the initial, again, shout that we see, and one thing I didn't mention in last week's sermon that I think is beneficial for us to think of in terms of what's going on in heaven, and it's the simple fact that in the midst of the gathering of God's people, we are shouting a command to each other.
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Did you get that last week? We are commanding something of each other. We are shouting to everybody, hallelujah, everybody.
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Praise God, that's what we're saying. We tell each other in no uncertain terms and command one another to praise
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Yahweh. Why would we shout this to each other in heaven? Why are these voices surrounding the throne of God in the midst of heaven, why are they telling one another to praise
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God? I believe there are two main things driving this command that we shout to one another.
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Number one is that once we encounter God, we want everyone to worship him.
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We're in awe of him, and we just want everybody to see him as he is. Once we see his salvation, once we see his glory, his power, his justice, his truth in all of his judgments, we want everyone to see him as we have seen him.
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I believe this is an overflow, like an automatic response of a human in love with God who's been redeemed by him in his presence.
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I think it's a pretty automatic response to say, just everybody praise him, everybody always praise him. But the second,
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I believe that we need to remind each other to praise him. Now, I think some of this is straight up for our benefit.
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Not necessarily in heaven do they need this reminder, but certainly here on earth, we need the gathering of God's people.
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We need other voices reminding us what our existence and what our life is all about.
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And when we come together in gatherings like this and we sing in our services, we're not just filling time or just meeting some cultural expectation.
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Well, you go to church, you're supposed to sing some songs, so we decided to put some of those in here. That's one of the benefits that I have as a church planter, is we started this thing from the beginning, and I mean, why do we do the things that we do?
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Why am I up here opening the word and preaching? And we had a thoughtful process about everything that we do because we started from scratch.
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We didn't have anything. It was a group of just a handful of couples that started Recast in a basement seven years ago.
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And we didn't have to do anything. Do you recognize that? Well, so why do we sing? Why do we do these kinds of things?
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And we believe that we need to remind each other each week to praise and worship
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God. We are intentionally reminding ourselves when we sing at church that we need to praise the
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Almighty. And I think you recognize that throughout the week, that can take a back burner to the other busy things that crowd out your life.
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Would you agree with me on that? Now, those busy things, by the way, I've said this multiple times, those busy things can become worship if you're mindful of God, but I don't know if you're like me, but forgetfulness,
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I would suggest to you, is my greatest enemy in my walk with God. It's forgetfulness. It's forgetting that God is there with me on Monday morning, that He's there with me when traffic is jammed and there's construction on 994 and I gotta get somewhere in a hurry.
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You know what I'm saying? And that's what I'm talking about is that you can turn those thoughts to God as long as you're mindful of Him, as long as you're thinking about Him, as long as you're turning your attention to Him.
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And I mentioned just even, there've been a couple of times this week that have really been great and beneficial for me. There's been at least two or three times where my wife has said to me, hallelujah, right?
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It's been a good reminder to me to kind of go, I was getting a little bit bent out of shape or frustrated about something or kind of just going blah, you know, something's,
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I can't believe this happened, are you serious? And she's like, and who are we praising again today?
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And it's, I mean, how many of you need someone like that in your life? Now, I didn't necessarily, how many of you know I wasn't probably like super giddy like right at the point of contact there, but there was a good reminder and we need that, right?
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That's what we're gathered together to do this morning is to remind ourselves, who is it that we're praising again? Who is it that we're living for today?
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Who is it that we're gonna live for throughout this week? Who is it that we are praising? I need this.
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I don't know, if for nothing more than for me, I'm glad you're here because I get something by this reminder each and every week that we need to praise the
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Almighty. And those in heaven in verse six, call out to everyone to praise Yahweh because the
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Lord, that is the King, our God, the Almighty, the one who possesses all power, why are they praising
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Him? Because He reigns. He rules over all.
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And a day is coming when He will not just be in control of all things, but He will be recognized as in control of all things.
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I would suggest to you that God is in control of all things now. But there's a day coming where He will be recognized by all for that.
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It's a glorious day when finally everyone goes, oh yeah, we see it now. Now we've got it.
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Now we behold you with our eyes where we've beheld you by faith and trust in your word and the things you've revealed and tracing the hand of God in our past, but now to see with our eyes.
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How many of you look forward to that day, that glorious day, when you will see with your eyes what you have trusted by faith now?
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And I believe you'll be changed in His presence without sin.
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Man, that's a beautiful thought. The praise goes on in verse seven, with further commands from the multitude to themselves.
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The multitude, the gathering of God's people commanding themselves to do something. They say, let us rejoice, let us exalt and let us give
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Him glory. They're talking to themselves, but they're talking to themselves and reminding themselves what to do.
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I need to do this throughout the week. Don, rejoice. Don, exalt.
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Don, give Him the glory. And you fill in your own names there or your family there or your business there or whatever you have that you have some semblance of influence in and say, let us praise
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God. Let us rejoice. Let us exalt in Him. Let us give Him the glory, right?
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We need that conversation with ourselves. In heaven, there's this ongoing conversation among the saints, this constantly saying, let's do this.
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Let's do this. Let's glorify Him above all else. Once again, it's interesting that they're shouting to themselves as a reminder to rejoice.
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I don't believe that there's any fear that someone in the crowd is gonna stop praising God so they have to keep talking, kind of like a rah -rah, you know, kind of get everybody worked up into a frenzy because man, we're afraid somebody might stop rejoicing.
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I think we are in heaven shouting these things kind of out of a stunned awe and wonder in the presence of the
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Almighty. I think many of these things that are being shouted here in the presence of God in heaven are shouted for our benefit here in Matawan, Michigan this morning, that we would read these things, that we would take them on, that we would recognize the worship that we're going to so that we would practice now, so that we would begin praising
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Him where we live today. We need this reminder to rejoice, to exalt, and to give Him the glory.
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And the way that those words of praise work together, rejoice, exalt, and give Him glory, the way those three work together is powerful.
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Now, it's interesting, when you look up rejoice, you get exalt as a synonym. When you look up exalt, you get rejoicing as a synonym.
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So they're very common in similar words. They are so closely related that they're nearly repetitive and in their repetition are trying to drive home a point.
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And they intentionally highlight the peace, joy, and elation, exuberance that is truly heartfelt by those who are in His eternal presence.
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To rejoice or to exalt simply means to show or to feel elation. And the final command is to give
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Him the glory. And when taken together, these shouts from heaven to rejoice, exalt, and give
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Him glory, they highlight what I perceive to be a paradox of life for every single one of us.
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I believe every single human currently experiences this paradox between rejoicing, exalting, and giving
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Him glory. So I would suggest to you, we're all seeking joy. We're all seeking peace.
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We're all seeking something truly of worth. And the world tells us where to find it.
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The world tells us that we will find exaltation and rejoicing in pleasing who?
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And glorifying who? Ourselves. Man, is that the message of this world around us today.
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It's a consistent message by the world system. How are you gonna get happy? How are you gonna get true joy?
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And look out for number one. Take care of yourself first. I mean, nobody's gonna take care of you quite like you can take care of yourself.
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So man, it's all on your shoulders to make yourself happy and to get it all for you.
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If you just do more for yourself, just work harder at finding your own peace, work harder at finding your own joy, then things would go great and then you will have true joy and happiness.
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The world will tell you the greatest love of all is learning to love yourself.
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Or was that Whitney Houston? I don't know, who was it that taught us that? Too soon? I don't know, sorry guys.
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Some of you are singing it now. You're gonna have it stuck in your head. And the only way to get it out, you know what they say, the only way to get a song that's stuck in your head out, listen to the whole thing.
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That's what they say, I don't know. But rejoicing, exalting, and giving the glory to God go hand in hand, right?
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The world will tell you that taking the glory for yourself will give you joy, but that is false. Giving glory to God is what leads to your greatest rejoicing, your greatest elation, your greatest happiness is bound up in your worship of God.
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That's where you actually arrive and achieve what you were created to be. Where, what is your wheelhouse, what is your sweet spot?
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Your sweet spot is when you are delighting in God. How do I know that?
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Because you're created in his image. You were created, you're a broken mirror that when you are reflecting correctly, the pieces are being put back together in your life by Christ, and as the pieces are being put back together, you're reflecting him more and more, better and better each day.
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And the more that you're offering him worship, the more you're reflecting back his image, not your own. Your greatest joy is gonna be found when in the day, in those moments where when my wife is saying, hallelujah, when
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I'm getting ready to get bent out of shape, and I'm getting ready to go off on my own because what, something's infringed on my sovereignty, my will, my desire, and instead it's like, no, no, no, no, wait a minute.
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You're operating like a broken mirror shattered on the floor, and what it means to take those moments each day is to put another piece back in the mirror and turn it to God and say, we're gonna rejoice in you and thank you for this moment to worship you.
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And that's where joy and elation comes. And the reason that those in heaven are so full of joy is that a celebration is beginning in their midst.
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We see that in the text. It's the beginning of a celebration that's never going to end, and they've all been invited to a wedding.
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Now, we all need some help with this illustration because we've probably either forgotten to see it as an illustration. So we talk about being the bride of Christ and we don't recognize that we're not exactly a bride here, bros, but what is going on here in the text is a metaphor, it's an image, and maybe we've lost that because we've heard it so much that it's kind of like dead in the back of our minds or we've just flat out misunderstood it to begin with.
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I don't know about the other guys in this room, but I'm not getting married to any dude even if it's Jesus, okay? Anybody with me on that?
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Anybody that that illustration has ever just kind of not settled well with you? Like, for real,
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I'm being serious. I mean, it really has been like a wrestling match for me. Kind of go, yeah, I'm the bride of Christ. I mean, what do
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I have to wear? You know, it's like, I mean, this is not cool. And so I would suggest to you, and I'm being serious here,
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I would suggest to you many guys have easily and quickly skipped over this passage about being the bride of Christ and have lost the illustration for the power that is found in it.
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Because we haven't asked the question, married like what? Like what aspects of marriage are a component?
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What is God driving for when he uses Christ as a husband and the church as the bride?
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What are the aspects of wedding, what are the aspects of marriage that he is trying to tie into or even has created to illustrate that?
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And if we don't get those aspects right, then we're gonna be off and just kind of misunderstanding the whole thing.
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The fact of the matter is, Jesus in our text is not having a wedding. It's a metaphor, folks.
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He's not having a wedding. We are not gonna all dress up in lacy white dresses and walk down the aisle and make googly eyes at Jesus while he stands there with a cheesy grin, sweaty palms, and goes,
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I don't really know what I'm getting into. Okay, not like the regular wedding, okay? It's not quite like that.
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Is that what John's getting at in the text? I don't think so. Is that what Paul was talking about when he speaks of marriage as a symbol of Christ in the church?
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No, not at all. But I would suggest to you, at least these three, and I might miss a couple here, and there might be some theologians out there who have come up with five or 10 or whatever, but these are three very significant parts of the tradition of God -given marriage,
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God -given wedding, all of this designed by God in order to illustrate the nature of our relationship with Jesus for eternity.
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Three aspects of that. The first is very important, fundamental. It is the covenantal relationship that he wants to tie together in our understanding.
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Jesus enters into a till death do us part kind of relationship with his church, and you know what's beautiful that we're gonna see here in the text in just a moment?
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There will be no more death. Think that through. He's gonna say to his church, till death do us part, and by the way, ain't nobody dying.
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Nobody's gonna die. It is an eternal kind of relationship, of connection that will go on for eternity.
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This marriage of Jesus and his people is just another way of highlighting the commitment that Jesus has to his people. Of course, in our modern era of divorce, we have trashed this illustration.
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We have made it cheap. We've made it hard to grasp. The eternal nature of this covenant and this solid commitment that he's using in marriage has been broken in our culture.
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Would you agree with me on that? Praise God that Jesus keeps his promises.
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Only in as much as we can trust him can we trust this promise, and I would suggest to you, you can go to the bank on that one.
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The first aspect is this covenant. He created marriage to illustrate his relationship with his church and his salvation.
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The second thing, the groom provides for the bride. It's fundamental to the understanding in the
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Old Testament culture and the New Testament culture, something that's a little bit missed for us here in our modern times, but in many ancient cultures and even some modern cultures throughout the world, the groom begins to assume financial responsibility for the bride before the wedding even takes place, before the wedding even takes place.
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In Jewish cultures, there was about a one -year period of betrothal in which the two were considered married.
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That was in Old Testament times, even carried forward into Jesus's times. They were two, the two were considered married,
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Mary and Joseph. It was said that he was gonna divorce her quietly. They weren't even married yet, and he was gonna divorce her because the betrothal period was already set, and they basically were committed to one another, and he was already providing for her.
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When he had provided, when the groom provided an established means to care for his betroth, the wedding commenced by communication to the family for her to get prepared.
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Often, he would send a linen gown for her to dress in, and he would announce that he was on his way.
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A parade would ensue from his house to her house, and then the party would begin, and the party could last weeks.
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Some say a cheap wedding was a week, and a good one was two or three weeks. It's a party, okay?
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I don't know what kind of work got done in a culture like that, but how many of you know that in a culture without TV, without internet, without any real significant forms of entertainment,
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I mean, I think entertainment might be like building a chair for fun on the side, and maybe selling it or something to get some grain to feed your family.
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I don't know, but what would you do for entertainment? I mean, how many of you think that a wedding would be a pretty big deal in a culture like that where,
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I mean, all you knew was basically hard labor and trying to feed yourself, and you get invited to a wedding and get free food?
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Free food, what? Are you serious? Wine? We don't get wine that often, you know?
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It's like, and good food. Like, this is a celebration. It's a glorious and beautiful thing.
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And so that's the way that a wedding would go, and often he would be the one to provide her, I mentioned, with the fine clothes for the celebration, and that's a lot of history, but it makes sense of verse eight when you see it.
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Look at verse eight with me. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is, again, an illustration of the righteous deeds of the saints.
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She has received her announcement here in our text that her groom is coming for her, and she has clothed herself with the clothes he has provided for her.
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In the illustration of the church and Christ, the fine clothes of bright and pure linen are symbolic of the righteous deeds of the saints.
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How have we clothed ourselves for the wedding? We have been given righteous deeds to put on.
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Paul says it this way in more of a command form in two different passages, Philippians 2, 12 through 13. If you're taking notes, you can jot that down, read it later.
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I'm gonna just read it for you here. Philippians 2, 12 through 13. Don't need to turn there. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
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For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
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You got some work to do. Who's doing the work? God's doing the work.
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Further, Paul says in Ephesians 2, 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.
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Why have you been brought into Christ Jesus? Why have you been recreated? Why do you have new life in Christ? For good works, the text says.
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Which, those good works, which God prepared beforehand that you should walk in them.
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Wow, mind -bending stuff there, right? You have good works to do each day.
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Would you agree with me? How many of you know that you're faced with some good to accomplish each day, and God has laid those out, and he's put those in your path, and then through his strength as you're walking with him, you have the opportunity to do good if you are in Christ.
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He's got that purpose for you. If you've been recreated in him, you've been recreated for the purpose of doing good works.
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Not done good works, so now you can be recreated in him, recreated unto good works.
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Is that making sense? It's very important that we get that straight. God has given us good works to do for his glory.
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We work, but we work with the strength he provides, and we do the works he does in and through us. Wow. It's a beautiful thing to consider that all who are his will stand before him clothed in the righteous deeds that he has given to us.
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Guys, not standing before him with some frilly wedding dress, but the robust, sacrificial, tough deeds of obedience that he has given us to walk in.
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That's a pretty cool thing. There's a manly calling in that. There's a robust calling in that, that we could easily just skip over and miss because guess what, we're thinking about a wedding gown.
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It's more than a wedding gown. It is about the deeds, and women, too. I mean,
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I'm talking to the guys because it's a hangup for us, but for you women, too. I mean, you have, you know, you're not standing up in,
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I mean, some girls, and I knew a girl in college who said she was married to Jesus at Bible College, and it was like, that was her way of saying
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I'm not dating anybody, but she was like, I'm married to Jesus, and I just will be your friend. But that was my best impression.
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Sorry, Dana, if you're listening. But you know who you are. But I think you kind of,
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I don't remember where I was going with that. That was just kind of like, oh, ladies, it's for you, too. That was the point. I mean, I can talk to the guys because it's an issue, and it's a hangup for us, and the thought of standing, you know, walking the aisle with a dress on, that's awkward, but the cool thing is for all of us, everybody in the room, we have been created for good works, and he's giving them to us to accomplish.
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The last aspect of the wedding that God uses as an illustration for his people is the celebration. The celebratory nature of a wedding, the celebratory nature of a marriage is a glorious, beautiful thing, and he's bringing that to bear on the life of the church.
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Verse nine is even sealed with a solemn declaration that these are the true words of God. Look at verse nine with me.
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Go ahead and put your heads down in the text for a second. And the angel said to me, write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb, and he said to me, these are the true words of God, as if to say, pay special attention to verse nine.
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And then what is verse nine telling us? That those who are called into the marriage feast of the lamb will be blessed.
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They will certainly be happy.
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They certainly will be happy. What kind of perspective do you have of the presence of God? We all have varying levels of enthusiasm about eternity.
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On one end of the spectrum, I would say, is those who see it as just better than hell, right?
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What is eternity like with God better than hell? It isn't burning forever, but it might just be singing the same chorus over and over and over again for eternity, which is subtly better than flames, right?
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Doesn't sound too fun. Maybe a little better on the spectrum, then, is those who see eternity like floating on clouds.
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Probably a lot of rules and really boring people. And then there are many
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Christians who shun joy altogether and would just flat out spiritualize the whole thing and pretend that joy has nothing to do with it.
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These are the hyper -spiritual people who are, I'm gonna just see God and that's all that matters. If you listen to these people, you would wonder if joy has any place in God's plan for humanity at all, right?
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Just kinda like, well, I mean, we're gonna get to see God, that's it. But doesn't his word say something, in verse nine at least, about the eternal joy that he has for those who are his?
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And at the far end of the spectrum is, I believe, the truth. As far as you can take that spectrum towards joy and delight, that is the truth on this one.
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Many people will tell you that truth is always found in the balance, but not on this. Truth is at far one end of the spectrum on the delight and joy of his people.
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The truth is our utter and complete delight, joy and happiness. God will indeed be there, Jesus will indeed be our king, and we will praise him as humanity was made to praise him, with righteous relationships towards others, with painless and deathless existence.
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We will develop culture, art, music, sports, commerce, exploration, without sin, and without the impediments of time and corruption.
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There will be no decay, only holiness. There will be no sin, but only righteousness. There will be no limitations, but only possibilities.
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There will be no goodbyes, but only eternal greetings there. You will never wonder if you will ever see so -and -so again, fill in the blank.
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So I think you've had those goodbyes where you're like, I don't know where we see each other again, I don't know if we see each other again.
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No more of those, because everyone who is there will always be there, and God says this is his true word.
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Take verse nine to heart, you will be blessed to be invited into that eternal feast.
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You'll be glad to be there. At this declaration of the full weight and authority of God's heavy promises through this angel,
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John falls down and worships the messenger. I think he's just kind of caught up in the moment, and he's so in awe, and he's like, ah, just praise you for all of this.
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The angel rebukes him and says, dude, cut that out, don't worship me. You see, the good angels are fellow servants with the saints.
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Those who belong to God hold to the testimony of Jesus and ought to worship God alone, says this angel. And then his last phrase from the angel closes out with a powerful statement about our role that we'd miss if we don't understand it, if we don't study it.
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He tells John, for the testimony of Jesus is a spirit of prophecy. Doesn't that just warm your heart? Doesn't that sentence just kind of like, oh, that just drives it home, and you're like, no, probably not, because it's a little bit confusing at first glance.
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But the angel in context is saying something like this. Don't worship me, you have the same power
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I have. Everyone who bears testimony of Jesus is equivalent to a prophet. So what are you saying?
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I mean, the angel is there prophesying, telling him future things, telling him things that are gonna come to pass, giving him these visions, and John is in awe of the power of this angel to reveal what the future holds and to show him these things.
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And the angel says, dude, but you've got the words of life. You've got the testimony of Jesus Christ himself.
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You can bring his message to others. I don't see where you'd bow before me when you've got that.
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Whoa. The angel declares that John is not lower than him because John bears testimony to Jesus Christ himself, and so does everyone in this room who has been saved by the good news of Jesus, or so should everyone in this room who has been saved by the good news of Jesus.
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We are those who hold in our possession the words of life, the testimony of Jesus, the gospel, the good news that he came and loved us and died for us.
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So let me come back through the text and wrap this up with some applications. First, first application that we see in this text, and I would suggest to you at least what struck me.
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There may be others, and I always pray every Sunday morning and throughout the week that God would lay on your heart what you needed to hear and would bring out of this text for you what he desires, but these are some things that I can suggest to you he's kind of mentioned to me.
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The first is don't be afraid to get excited and rowdy in your praise to God. If you're afraid to look foolish, then how can you say you're not embarrassed?
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And if you're embarrassed, embarrassed of whom? I recognize our culture is okay with you jumping up and down and shouting at your
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TV or shouting at a football game or shouting at a whole host of other things and being enthusiastic and being excited.
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I have a confession. On the index finger of my right hand, right here, there's a scar.
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The scar represents a celebration of a touchdown of the University of Michigan Wolverines back in the late 90s.
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I jumped up and I scuffed my finger on the ceiling and totally bared the entire knuckle. I didn't have to have stitches.
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I probably, I might have should have. But a little testimony of I can get some excited about sports.
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Anybody else in the room kind of get occasionally a little rowdy about some sports? Fortunately, yesterday
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I didn't jump up at every touchdown because I would have all my knuckles. Well, most of them. That was a pretty good game.
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I'm just saying. But I recognize that we all express excitement and enthusiasm in a whole host of ways.
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But just consider whether or not you have a passionate and enthusiastic response in worship towards God. Take into account your personality.
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Maybe you never, maybe your voice never goes above, you know, whisper level, room level. And so what does it mean for you to exuberantly and enthusiastically and lavishly love
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God with the way that he's designed you? It doesn't mean that everybody has to shout. It doesn't mean everybody's up dancing in the aisles.
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Everybody has to raise their hands in worship. But man, if that's your personality in other ways and in other areas, but man, you're too embarrassed to do that here, what is that about?
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And ask yourself that. Don't answer that to me. Talk with God about that. Say, why don't
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I sing out with my voice that God has given to me? When I can sing in the shower and I can sing in the radio and I can sing along to all the other songs, but I can't sing in the presence of God in the gathering of his people, what is that about?
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Get down to that. And I don't think the answer, by the way, is to try to manufacture it.
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The solution is to get to know him, to get to know him better, to recognize that all salvation, all power and all glory belongs to him.
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He is the one who reigns. He is the one who has set forth a plan to save his people from their sins.
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So first, don't be afraid to express yourself with your entirety in worship. The second,
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God has given you good works to walk in. He has you in a place, in a family, in a location, in a neighborhood, in a specific set of friendships, and even in a church to do good for his glory.
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To carry the analogy too far, consider that if you were to be clothed in the good that you have done with your life, would you wanna be seen in public with what you were left to wear?
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I carried the analogy too far, didn't I? We don't lack, though, and hear me carefully,
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I don't believe that we lack good to do. I think maybe we lack the will to do it.
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There's plenty of good that poses itself to us each and every day to keep us busy for a lifetime.
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Please don't hear me saying that you need to just now, now the application is to just go do good stuff. You need to love
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God and worship him with your actions, speech, and relationships. How will we do the good that he wants of us?
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Only by loving him for the salvation and grace he has given to us at the cross. And lastly, lastly as an application, ask yourself these two questions.
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Do I have confidence that I will be present at the wedding feast of the lamb? Do you have confidence that you'll be present at the wedding feast of the lamb?
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And then the second question is this, if you are confident you will be at the feast, who else are you inviting?
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On the first question, do you have confidence that you'll be present at the wedding feast of the lamb? Here's some other diagnostic questions.
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Have you acted on the knowledge that Jesus died on the cross for your sins? Have you come under his authority and recognized the wreck that you're making of your own life through pride, sin, and selfishness?
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And after coming face to face with your own messes, have you asked him to save you? I fear that many people think they're going to heaven because they believe that Jesus died on the cross, but even
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Satan believes. That Jesus died on the cross. You must bow your knee to Jesus in humility, apologize for your sins against God, and in humility ask him to save you, ask him to forgive you.
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You have to act on that knowledge. It's not enough to just know it, but you need to ask him to save you and come under his authority.
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Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb, so who are we inviting? Who are we blessing by that invitation?
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Who will you invite to hear the good news of Jesus? And some of you are like, I don't words well,
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I don't give good words, I don't speech well. And so you're kind of like, your words get kind of tied up a little bit when you get nervous or whatever, and you're like,
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I don't really know how to enter that conversation. And let me just suggest to you that early on in this church, we had no shame in inviting others here.
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Like, that's why there are people here. Because originally we were just five couples and we just kind of got rolling and we invited our friends, and we brought more people.
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And if that's all that you can do, if all you can do is bring somebody here with you, then I will share the gospel with them.
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There's no shame in that. Obviously, I would love it if everybody here was able to share the gospel in casual, routine conversations.
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And if you struggle with that, you can come and see me, and I'd love to walk through that with you. But even just invite them here would be great.
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We have this testimony of Jesus to carry to the world around us. It is a glorious invitation to an eternal party of human flourishing and delight.
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And God promises that we're gonna like it. So as we come to communion this morning, please take time during this next song to reflect on the death of Jesus Christ that has purchased your forgiveness.
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Jesus was willingly scourged and beaten, offering his body for you and me. And his blood flowed from his brow, his back, his hands, and his feet.
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And he who was sinless died, taking on himself our sin. So if you've asked
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Jesus to save you, then come to one of the tables as an act of thankfulness for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for you.
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Let's, this week, praise him enthusiastically, do good lovingly, and invite others to the feast joyfully.
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Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the promise of this feast that is to come, for the celebration, and for your eternal covenant with your people.
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Father, it's a glorious thing to see the celebration that is going to ensue, and that one day we will actually be a part of that because we are in Christ.
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We look forward to that day of righteousness, that day of justice, that day when all things will be made right, and all things will be made new, including us.
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And Father, as we come to the table this morning, and remember the body of Jesus Christ broken for us, and the blood that was shed for us, it's a reminder that we are not good people.
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We're not here as the kind of good ones that you saved out of the bad apples, and they were just, we only had some small spots.
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We're jacked up with no tires, the engine doesn't run if it even exists. And yet you are providing all of those components that we need to reflect you, and to run the way that we were intended and designed to run.
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So Father, I pray that this week you would do a work in our hearts in regard to the way that we worship you, the way that we talk to others around us, the good that we choose to do.
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Father, even begin with me. Help me to be a man who honors you and loves you, in the way that I live my life and the deeds that I do.