Revelation 1:1-3 (Introduction to Revelation, Jeff Kliewer)

Jesus' name, amen. Jesus is coming soon. The first reason I think that Jesus is coming soon is that the nation of Israel has been re-established as a nation. Stop and consider how significant that is for a minute.

This nation that God called into existence thousands of years ago began early on in exile in Egypt. And once God's prosperity and blessing was upon that nation, the Egyptians were threatened. And so the pharaoh of the time began to throw the baby boys into the Nile River, attempting to annihilate Jewish people.

When they came back into the promised land, it wasn't too long before they were overrun by the Assyrians who conquered and destroyed. And the accounts of what they did to the Jewish people are truly horrifying to read about.

After the Assyrians came the Babylonians who carried them off into exile. And then the Babylonians were conquered by the Persians. And when the Persians had control of the world, their desire was to kill all of the Jews.

And so Haman devised a wicked plot to destroy. But God came in and rescued them by his mighty deliverance. They eventually came back into the promised land. But by the year 70 AD, the Romans came through and destroyed Jerusalem and destroyed the second temple.

And by the year 135, the Jews were completely expelled from the land of Israel, forbidden to go there by the Roman Empire. They ended up in all parts of northern Europe and eastern Europe and in Spain and in northern Africa in exile, in diaspora, spread out away from the promised land.

And time and again in the places where they landed, they were persecuted and expelled. In 1290, the English expelled all Jewish people from the country. In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. And Spain expelled all Jewish people from their country.

Italy would follow suit and Portugal. And in virtually every country, Jewish people at one point were expelled from the land. The horrors of World War II were not an aberration, but were the culmination of the persecution of Jewish people.

And we dare even speak of what happened in the 1940s. Eight million Jewish people rounded up and killed on account of their ethnicity, of being Jewish. And yet by God's mighty hand, a nation which did not exist from the diaspora until May 14, 1948, this nation was brought back into the promised land and given the land that they once held and were promised in Genesis 12, 1 to 3.

Think of that. What a miracle that is, that the Jewish people are back in the promised land. That's the first reason that after all these thousands of years, and remember, to God that's like a day. A day is like 1 ,000 years.

Now they are back in the promised land. And all of the prophetic timetable is set to unfold. The second biggest reason that I think Jesus is coming soon is the downhill slide of morality in this country.

And around the world.

We were told in Matthew 24 that as in the days of Noah, so it will be before the coming of the Son of Man. And this downward slide from the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s until now has gone at breakneck speed, unimaginable to many generations that preceded ours.

And yet, it's just what I've grown up with since 1977. It's just been the normal. And it's only gotten worse and worse. Can you imagine? The United Methodist Church this week is talking about splitting.

And what is the issue? More than half of the American United Methodists believe that clergy who are openly practicing homosexuals should be ordained to serve in the ministry in the United Methodist Church.

And the profaning of marriage has become commonplace. In fact, those who disagree with that on biblical grounds are a small minority in this country at this time. And Obergefell was only 2015. Here we are in 2020.

It is moving at breakneck speed away from the morality that the Bible has taught us. The third reason that I think that Jesus is coming soon is the birth pangs of earthquakes and wars and rumors of war, Iranian aggression, kingdom rising up against kingdom, World War II, not just localized war, but the entire globe brought into war, World War I, World War II, and the rumors, but not without the rest of the good news.

In Matthew 24, when we hear of these birth pangs that indicate the coming of the Lord, we're also told that the gospel will go to every ethnic group, to the entire world, to every nation. And in this generation, we have seen as wars and oppression of Christians have increased, so has the gospel sprung forward.

The 20th century, the bloodiest century in the history of Christianity. More Christian martyrs in the 20th century than ever before, than in all the centuries prior. Put together, Andrew Brunson imprisoned in Turkey, the Iranian revolution that made Iran a Muslim nation.

Meanwhile, God is now awakening a church in Iran, hundreds of thousands of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the midst of the most intense persecution this world has ever seen. There is, in China, a house church movement.

Under persecution, there is a pastor who just recently was arrested. His name is Wang Yi. Mike Pompeo said, I am alarmed that Pastor Wang Yi, leader of Chengdao's early reign house church, was tried in secret and sentenced to nine years in prison on trumped up charges.

Even Time magazine, a secular organization, has this article in today's online magazine. Prison sentence for pastor shows China feels threatened by the spread of Christianity, experts say. And so the third reason that I'm convinced that Jesus is coming soon is that the gospel is running around the world like never before.

The gospel taking root in China.

Can you imagine?

In India, all throughout the world, for the first time in history, the church is arising. Some say as much as 10 of China already, 100 million of the billion. This has never happened before, and yet it's in the midst of the harshest persecution of Christians the world has ever seen.

They imprisoned Wang Yi for preaching the gospel. And they didn't even have a public trial because there was no evidence of any of the charges that were levied against him. A couple of years ago, they imprisoned Andrew Brunson.

And we stopped in service and prayed for his release. And after some time, he was released. And he ended up in the White House praying for the president. So let's just pause right now and pray for Pastor Wang Yi in China.

And then we'll continue into the book of Revelation. God, we want to come to you now and pray for our brother, Pastor Wang Yi, imprisoned in China. We pray for him in the name of Jesus that you would release him just like you release Peter supernaturally to come forth from prison and continue preaching the good news.

I think of how John Bunyan was imprisoned and yet wrote the Pilgrim's Progress while he was there. I pray for Pastor Wang Yi that while he is imprisoned, he would be a light, that he would write, that he would witness to fellow prisoners.

We pray that you would protect him and his family, guard his heart. And we pray, Lord God, that you would bring him out speedily, put pressure on that government. And release him in Jesus' name, we pray.

Amen.

The book of Revelation. You guys ready for it? The book of Revelation deserves our devoted study. And why does it? Because Jesus is coming soon. Jesus is coming soon. Turn with me to Revelation chapter 1.

Today, we'll only take three verses. And if we continue at this pace, it'll take about six years to get through the book. We'll go slowly in the early chapters. There's so much rich Christology and such a revelation of Jesus Christ.

As we move through the judgment chapters, we'll probably take a bit larger of a chunk of scripture each time. But here at the beginning, we're just going to soak in the words of scripture. Let's read them.

Today, it's just Revelation 1 .1 through 1 .3. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant, John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy. And blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. Jesus is coming soon. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place.

The things that must soon take place are future. And yet, they are revealed to us. What does the word revelation mean? In the Greek, the word is apocalypsis. So you've heard of apocalypse, or apocalypse now, or the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

The word apocalypsis means unveiling or uncovering. Imagine something that's covered and hidden from view, a .k .a. the future. People don't know the future, suddenly has been unveiled. It's God's will that there are some things about the future that we are to know now, in the present.

We as Christians having the word of God can know things that the world does not know. And this is the nature of revelation. It's not meant to conceal things from us. The book of Revelation is not meant to be scary and mysterious.

It's not something that you're to keep at arm's length, but you're to bring it in and open your eyes and see. It is an uncovering, an unveiling. It is an apocalypsis, a revelation of Jesus Christ. We are to love it, to enjoy seeing it, and to study it devotedly.

God gave this to him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. So what I thought in this first sermon I would do is begin by defining some terms, giving some biblical context for the interpretive grid that we're using to follow along here.

I think it's the biblical one. There is some disagreement in terms of how to interpret this book. And it's a little harder because it's apocalyptic literature. It's not the same as a narrative or some form of epistle.

Maybe it is a little bit more ambiguous at points. So there are genuine Christians who disagree on some of these things. But I want to show you the angle that I'm taking. I think that the thesis of this book is Revelation 119.

Turn with me there. John is told, write, therefore, the things that you have seen, those that are, and those that are to take place after this. I think the book of Revelation unfolds in three parts. The things that you have seen.

In Revelation 1, John sees Jesus.

Think about that.

It is a revelation of him, a final glimpse of the Savior recorded for us in Scripture. That's the things that are seen. Revelation 2 and 3 are the things that are. The church age and Jesus's estimation of the churches, his assessment of us to guide us during these days of the church age.

And finally, chapter 4 to the end are the things that must take place after this. In other words, these are future things, a revelation of things to come. So here's where we study eschatology, the study of last things.

And that's what we see in chapter 1, verse 1. The main bulk of this book is a revelation of future things. There are some who disagree with that and say that the preterist view would say all of these things in Revelation have already been fulfilled.

Or the historicist view would say that throughout the history of the church, you see all of these things happening. But I think it's much better to say, like we see in verse 1, these are still things that are future, things that must soon take place.

So what happens? The first thing that will occur on the prophetic timetable is the rapture of the church. Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. We're just going to read verses 13 to 18 really quick.

Because we need to understand the context of what God has already taught us before we get to the book of Revelation. So that when we harmonize scripture with scripture, we come to a good systematic theology.

It all fits together as one system. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 13 to 18. Here you will see the rapture of the church, the catching up, the snatching up of the church to be with Christ. Verse 13. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, a .k .a. they're dead, that you may not grieve as others who have no hope.

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

In other words, don't worry about your dead loved ones who were Christians and they died before Jesus came back. Because we're not going without them. We're not going ahead of them. But what will happen?

The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be raptured.

That's the word in Greek. We'll be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord always. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. And so that's what I want to do to you.

Encourage you that those who have fallen asleep in Christ will be raptured with us, we with them, following in their train to meet the Lord in the air. He is coming back for his church, the rapture of the church.

The word is harpagesometha. If anybody can tell me that word and pronounce it properly, that's a lot of bonus points. But it just means we'll be caught up, snatched. The actual word is like a thief coming and obtaining something, snatching, catching away, seizing.

So the church, those who are waiting for Christ, will one day be snatched. We will be seized. That is the rapture. And that could happen at any moment. The theological word for this is imminence. It's imminent.

It's any moment, at any point in time. The church is always ready. There's nothing that has to happen first, but God could snatch us up at any moment. How do we know that? Well, 1 Thessalonians 5, 1 and 2 says, concerning the times and seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.

For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. Peter said the same thing in chapter 3, verses 1 to 10. He said, listen, don't worry when people begin to mock you and scoff at you as Christians, saying, hey, where is the promise of his coming?

You Christians always talk about a second coming. It's been thousands of years now. But don't worry, because to God, one day is like 1 ,000 years. And 1 ,000 years is like a day. God is patient with you, wanting to bring in you, to bring in the full number.

And then he says in verse 10, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief, like a thief, when no one expects. This can happen at any moment. After the rapture of the church, we have the events called the tribulation.

These are the future things that we see in Revelation chapter 4 through 19. The things to come. The word tribulation means a period of distress. And it's described in the Bible as unlike anything the world has already seen.

So it makes World War II look like small potatoes. There's a movie out called 1917 about World War I. The coming distress, the tribulation, makes that look like small potatoes. A time of distress like the world cannot imagine.

And when you begin to read Revelation 4 through 19, you see angels bringing devastation on Earth, the breaking of seven seals. And with each seal, there is something. There's a seal broken in heaven, and something breaks out on Earth, whether it's war or famine or disease, a third of the population killed in one judgment.

And just when you think you're to the last one, the seventh one, the seventh one only opens up seven trumpets of judgment. And just when you think the last trumpet has sounded, the seventh trumpet opens up seven bowls of wrath.

We are talking about the utter devastation of the Earth. And so I say, it's not only wrathful, it's unmissable. And this is why I believe that the rapture of the church will happen before the tribulation.

Because the coming of Christ is described over and over again as imminent, and we're told that people will be marrying and giving in marriage, and eating and drinking and being married. And then, like a thief in the night, the rapture happens.

I don't know how to read Revelation 4 to 19 and find people marrying and giving in marriage, going on as if everything is usual. Rather, what I see is a people who have been utterly crushed, and they're hiding in caves, and they're gnawing their tongues.

But the rapture has already rescued the church from wrath. So what these last seven years of tribulation are, are the beginning of wrath. And we're told in 1 Peter, we're told that God has not, I'm sorry, it was in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, God has not destined us for wrath.

So the church is rescued from the wrath, but in these beginnings of wrath, there is also mercy. It's also a merciful time. You see Christians being saved, people coming to faith during those years of judgment, a last opportunity to come.

And most of those will seal their testimony.

In their own blood of martyrdom.

So there's a period of mercy, because here in the last seven years, people are still able to be saved. And finally, you find in Revelation 4 to 19 in the tribulation that it's very Israel-centric. We began this sermon talking about how Israel didn't exist as a nation.

But suddenly, in Revelation 4 to 19, you have no more references to the church. And time and time again, you have references to Israel, the 144 ,000 witnesses, 12 ,000 from each tribe, the Jewish witnesses killed in Jerusalem.

Again and again, Israel is at the center. And so we talk about the millennium. After this tribulation will be the great and glorious return of King Jesus, who places his foot on the Mount of Olives, and he begins to reign on Earth.

And for 1 ,000 years, that's the millennium, Christ reigns on Earth. And he fulfills the promises that God had made to his people. In Isaiah 11 and 12, where the lion will lay down next to the lamb, that will happen on Earth for 1 ,000 years.

And a little child playing with a snake without fear of being bitten for 1 ,000 years as Christ reigns here from his throne in Jerusalem. This view that I'm espousing to you is called premillennialism.

Another big word.

If you can quote that, that's good. But there are other views. There's a view of amillennialism, on negating, saying that there's not going to be a literal millennium, but this is just all figurative language.

And then there's a view called postmillennialism, that the millennium will be 1 ,000 years. That's better and better, and then Christ comes. So the postmillennial view is that things get better as the church makes things right.

The kingdom is established on Earth, and the church makes things better and better, being the salt and light of the world. There was a lot of hope in that when this country was first born among the Puritans, a new continent, new opportunities to bring in the kingdom of God.

The millennial reign of Christ is here. And then the world wars happened. And so premillennialism has regained popularity, as I think it justly deserves. I will openly say the premillennial view is very pessimistic.

We don't have a lot of hope that this world will get better and better in order to usher in the king. Rather, the church will hold on as a remnant people in the midst of apostasy, clinging to Christ, and our rescue will be Him coming to help us, not us setting up a throne for Him.

You see the difference? We're looking for 1 ,000 year reign of Christ, but it's Him that can set it up. We need Him to come. And so we longingly look for Him as things get worse and worse. That's the premillennial view.

I think it's very biblical. And I would say that the key text to prove it or to establish premillennialism versus amill or postmill is Daniel chapter nine, verses 24 to 27. Daniel was given a vision of things to come.

And he was told that 77s, that's 70 times seven, and we're talking about years. So 490 years are decreed for your people. Who are your people? That's Israel. To do what? To finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, all of these things.

And then we're told that as this timetable unfolds, after 69 sevens, first seven sevens, 49 years, for the moat to be rebuilt and the city to be rebuilt as they come out of captivity, until Messiah is cut off, 62 more sevens, for a total of 483 years.

I know this is a lot of math. Just follow me for just a second. After 483 years, Messiah will be cut off. That happened in 30 or 33 AD, depending on which scholar you read. In 444 BC, King Artaxerxes gave the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.

And so the timetable began. And 483 years from that timetable beginning until Messiah was cut off at Calvary is the exact prophecy that Daniel gave. 483 years to the day using the Jewish calendar. And so it brings us to the question, where is the last seven?

Because it's 70 times seven until everything is wrapped up. We're missing the last seven, the final seven year period. And I'll say to you that Revelation answers that question perfectly. The last seven years is described in the book of Revelation.

So there's a gap from the crucifixion of Christ. A church age ensues where Israel is kind of in time out. And then he resumes that with the rapture of the church. And for seven years, God deals again with his people Israel.

And he fulfills every promise to give them a land that stretches all the way to the Euphrates. Every promise of peace on earth will be fulfilled literally in the millennium. So that's why I believe in premillennialism because of Daniel 9, 24 to 27.

Daniel's 70th week, his last seven year period needs to be fulfilled. And I think it will be. After that, there's a great white throne judgment where unbelievers are brought before the great white throne and finally an eternal state.

It's beautiful.

We'll read about it. We'll spend time in it. A new heavens and a new earth, the new Jerusalem with gates of pearls where there is no more sin and every tear is wiped away. And the believer is there in increasing joy for all time while the unbelievers are cast away into everlasting fire.

And we are to lament that eternal conscious torment. So in Revelation 1 .1, these are the things that must soon take place. Notice also in 1 .1 and 1 .2 that there is a relay of this revelation. How many persons are involved?

God the Father hands off the revelation to God the Son who gives the revelation to an angel who gives the revelation to John who delivers it to the servants. That's us, the churches. The relay of this revelation, I think, first of all, proves that God exists as distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for all eternity.

The Father relays the information to His Son but it also communicates to us the importance of passing this blessing along, of sharing the revelation of Jesus Christ who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ even to all that He saw.

And so finally, we look at verse three and we see that there is a special blessing attached to reading these words and to hearing these words. One of the reasons I wanted to preach this is I just wanna be blessed.

I get to read to you the words of revelation and that's a blessing to me, but good news to you and blessed are those who hear. To sit and hear the book of Revelation will bring to you a special blessing.

I don't know what that means in terms of the particular blessing that God instills in believers when we hear these words, but it says this is the only book that has this blessing. Although I think all of Scripture brings this blessing and those who keep what is written in it.

For the time is near. Quickly, 10 reasons that I want you to be devoted to the study of this book. 10 reasons why this book is important. It's not so we can just know things and have information of things to come, but 10 practical things, reasons why you should devote yourself fully to the book of Revelation as we study it.

One, you will see the death of the world and as you see the world die, the worldliness in you will be put to death. Guys, we are unaware how tied to this world our hearts become. We have heart ties to the things of this earth.

We get a cell phone and it becomes an idol. We love a sports team until we begin to worship that team and it takes the place of God in our lives. How many heart ties do we have to the things of this earth?

They creep in on us. Calvin said our hearts are idol factories. We make idols out of everything, but when you read the book of Revelation, you see the death of the world and this leads to the death of your heart ties to the world.

Your worldliness dies when you read the book of Revelation. Number two, you see the unfolding of God's plan. This revelation tells us the things that must soon take place. There is no other God and one of the ways that you know that our God is the true God is that he says things that must take place.

He did this before Jesus came. He said that he must be born in Bethlehem, must be born to a virgin, must ride in on a donkey and he accomplished all of those things. Dying on the cross, he must rise from the dead and now we're being told these things must take place.

When you see fulfilled prophecy and all of these things beginning to happen, your trust in God's sovereign plan will be strengthened. Prophecy helps us to trust. We need to trust him more and so we need to read prophecy.

Number three, the escaping of wrath inspires thankfulness. There were 10 lepers and if you've never seen leprosy or pictures of it, it still exists to this day. Close to parts of Brazil on the border, there are lepers to this day in leper colonies where the flesh of a leper is rotting off of their body.

So racked are they with disease. Ears falling off, painful sores all the time. Jesus came to 10 lepers and he healed them all. And the story tells us that nine of those lepers went their way rejoicing but only one of them came back and said, thank you.

The book of Revelation shows us the wrath of God against sin and we are due that wrath. I deserve to be punished as any other sinner because I am a sinner. He has wrath towards sin but God has made a way of escape and I'm escaping this kind of wrath.

When I read about the wrath of God, it reminds me to be thankful, to live a life of gratitude, thankful for the salvation I have in Christ. Revelation shows us wrath but not without wrath escape. We escape this wrath.

God has not destined the church to endure wrath. But to be saved. It's good news and this good news is available to all. Maybe you're here today, you've never read the book of Revelation, you say, well, wait a minute, this is getting a little intense.

I've seen street preachers out there with signs, the end is near and you're scaring me right now. Listen, this is good news. There is a coming wrath because God is just but God is also loving, so loving that he gave his one and only son that if you would trust in him, you will be saved.

Saved means spared, preserved. You will escape this wrath. You will join him in heaven for all eternity. It is good news. Something to be thankful about. Number four, the certainty of victory steals our resolve to endure persecution.

Maybe here in America, we're not being thrown in prison for preaching like this. Notice all around the world, when preaching becomes effective, persecution increases. Pastor Wang Yi was winning thousands to Christ and that's why he's in jail.

Andrew Brunson, same thing in Turkey. Our persecution might look different. You might be mocked by your family, you might be derided in the culture and maybe there's coming a day as fast as this train is moving where we will be imprisoned, who knows?

But when you read these words, it steals your resolve to say, we win. Christ wins and we're with him so we are not afraid. They can harm the body but they cannot touch the salvation we have in Christ.

Number five, compassion for the lost fuels urgency in evangelism. When you read these words and you see men gnawing their tongues and crying that the rocks would fall on them so that they could just die and they're tormented by these locusts for months, boils breaking out on their bodies, you have compassion and you say, let me reach them now to spare them from that.

You're a family member that you love. Have some boldness to share the gospel with that person. This book will help you to do that. Number six, the multitude of every tribe beckons us to the mission field.

We see Panta Taethne, every tribe, ethnic group around the world gathered before the throne worshiping the lamb. I think every missionary who's gone to the ends of the earth has spent some time in Revelation 4 and 5 and Revelation 7 and seen that image.

It calls us to go and reach the last tribes that remain. The splendor of his glory prompts us to pray for his coming. How does the book end? Even so, come Lord Jesus. It causes us to pray and to look for his coming.

Number eight, the program for Israel calls us to stand with Israel. When the United Nations and most of the world, especially every Arab country surrounding Israel is intent on destroying this country, it's Christians alone who are standing with them in these last days.

It's urgent that we do that. We thank the Lord for those who have stood up for Israel. Otherwise, the same thing that's happened for centuries will happen again. Another Holocaust, another attack on the Jewish people.

Number nine, the signs of the times quicken us to live wholly as we see the day approaching. When you see these signs, it makes you gird up your loins. It makes you strap on your armor to get ready because this time is short.

And finally, the exclusion of excuses mitigates our susceptibility to social justice values. Meaning, there's no excuses at the great white throne. There's no victim mentality there. The Bible clearly says that the Nicolaitans who are worshiping and teaching false doctrine were wrong.

There is truth and there's error. There's God and his justice. He's the judge, he's the king. It's not the private opinions of men. So the Bible corrects these things for us. So in closing, we're gonna receive this blessing.

And I'm gonna issue a special challenge to leaders in the church, which then extends to everybody as well. If you teach a community group, if you're an elder or a deacon, if you're a Sunday school teacher, or in any way lead a women's ministry Bible study, I challenge you to go online to courses .dts .edu.

There is a free online course at Dallas Seminary, courses .dts .edu, where you will be taught by Dr. Stanley Tussaint. I think my wife had Tussaint at one point. She said he was one of the best ones there.

And I watched this course, I've taken it myself. It's a seven or nine week online course where you just listen to a lecture and then answer some questions to go even deeper than what we're doing on Sunday morning.

Leaders, I want you to do that. And anybody else that's willing to take the challenge, go for it. I actually heard from one of our leaders this morning that he already finished it. And I just mentioned this a couple weeks ago.

So that was Rick, by the way. So I'm challenging you all to go as deep as you're willing to dive into the text of God's word. Amen, you guys willing to do this? Are you willing to study through this in 2020?

On your own.

Some of you might read it seven times this year. Others might read it once. But all of us can come and listen to the preaching of God's word. If you have to miss a Sunday, listen to the sermon on YouTube a couple days later.

Let's be devoted to this and receive this blessing. Let's pray. And worship team, you can come up. God, we thank you that you have given this blessing to those who read aloud and to those who hear the words of the prophecy of this book.

We ask, Lord God, that you would bless our church in all of the ways we talked about this morning, to strengthen us in our walk with you. We pray that you send forth your word and accomplish the purpose for which it is sent, as you say you will do in Isaiah 55.

Thank you for your word this morning. Strengthen us by it. And I pray for any that don't yet know you that they would call upon your name and be saved, in Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand and close with worship.