Weeping May Endure But Joy Cometh — Shane Idleman

I'm going to preach today. And that's what I'm going to do at the second service now because I just don't feel any desire to preach what I preached at the first. It's very similar, but a lot of differences in there.

The title this morning was Where Are the Weepers? We'll keep it consistent with this morning, but again, this morning I'm going verse by verse through chapter 5 at the second service where earlier today I did not.

John's Vision of the Throne Room and the Scroll

And so it's John. Of course, we know if you've been coming the last few months that he had a message to the churches, seven different churches. To me, that number seven represents completion, perfection.

It's a message to all the different churches. And then we saw a glimpse into the throne room, chapter 4. And now we get into chapter 5. And then pretty soon, we're going to get into what a lot of you have been referring to as when are we getting into the good stuff.

Well, in case you missed it, we've been in the good stuff. The bowl judgments, the sills are broken, the trumpet judgments, all those things are coming on. What does it mean to us today? Is there a parallel?

I'm going to discuss all that in the weeks to come. But right now, John is looking. It's like a vision. And he said, I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll. And what I'm going to do, I'm going to read 1 -5, and now I'm going to read 6 -10, and now I'm going to read 11 -14 because I think it's so important to see God's Word up there, to internalize it, and to let us speak profoundly and boldly.

I think the Word of God is our only resource for truth. I would encourage you not to watch too many YouTube videos and podcasts. Get your face buried in the Word of God. And let that begin to answer a lot of the questions that are out there.

And so John saw in the right hand and always the right hand is a position of authority and power in the Bible. The right hand of God. I'll lift you up with the right hand. And he sat on the throne and he had a scroll.

So he's holding a scroll written on the inside. And the scroll was sealed with seven seals. Now a scroll back in John's day would be something that a runner would carry. And I don't know if you were aware or not, but FedEx is fairly new.

United States Postal Service. And so the king would often roll up a scroll or a message. Jeremiah wrote his message. All of them would write in a scroll. Parchment with ink. And he would roll it up. And this is how they would get the message out to people.

So important. You would want to see what is the king saying? What's the next decree? What's the next rule? Like in Haman and Esther. And when the king decreed and that scroll went out and that word went out.

It's such an important... John is wanting what is on this scroll? I would like to know that, wouldn't you? What is God saying? What is on this scroll? And then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice.

And you'll see that beautiful balance in the Bible from time to time between meekness and strength and with just being soft and gentle with having a loud type of call to it. Many of the prophetic voices were loud.

You know, lift up your voice like a trumpet, Jeremiah or Isaiah. Lift up your voice like a trumpet and warn the people of their sin. It's a loud... So this we see is a strong angel. So ultimately, I don't think He looked like the rock, but there was a strength to Him.

A strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll? Not only open it, but who can loose the seals? So God sealed it for a certain time. And actually, we're going to see that those seals release the judgments of God.

So who's worthy? Basically, whoever opens it is also going to set those judgments in motion. Who is worthy to do that? So the angel cried out and the call went everywhere. And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll.

So the call went out and they're waiting for someone to come up and say, I'm worthy. Let me have it. I can open it. And so there was nothing. And so John, what did he do? It's underlined there for you.

So he wept much. And that's what the first service I talked about. Where are the weepers? He wept much. And why did he weep? Because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or to even look at it.

But one of the elders said to me, do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals. So John began to weep. And it says much.

It gives a meaning there that it could have been a significant amount of time. And he was contemplating why nobody can open this. We're not going to be able to see what God has to say. And again, as I already mentioned earlier on the next slide, I talk about the right hand.

The right hand equals honor. Jesus has equal status to the Father. Did you know that? Most Christians do. Many don't. Some cults obviously do not think that Jesus was equal to God. He was lower. He was a created being.

And they teach that. And that's where we get our word heresy or heretical. That just means a self-willed opinion that opposes the truth. And it's heretical. Jesus has equal status to the Father. There are many different verses.

There are some you can look at if you want more information on that. But no one had merit. No one had the qualifications to open the scroll and to pronounce judgment. That's what He's going to do. Only Jesus.

Jesus as the Lamb and the Lion

Here's the interesting thing about Jesus. Everyone talks about Jesus. People that aren't Christians, like, oh man, He was a cool guy. I love what He had to say. He just loved people. You know, you Christians need to get back to just loving people like Jesus did.

They forget He's also a judge. That's why A .W. Tozer said, I love Him because He is my Savior, but I fear Him because He is my judge. So we see Jesus as the Lamb, and we see Jesus as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

Equally distributing both roles. And it's interesting, He had to become the Lamb. The perfect sacrifice shed for the sins of the world. And then because of that, now He can be the conquering Savior. Because He's pronouncing the judgments on those who rejected His sacrifice.

So you rejected Me as Lamb, you're going to have to listen to Me as Lion. Both are fulfilled in Him. And again, back to the strong angel with the loud voice. And we see the desperate need for strength.

The desperate need for strength in our homes. The desperate need for strength in our school districts, hello? In governmental offices. And in the church. The desperate need for strength. Not arrogance.

Not bench pressing 400 pounds. We are called to be meek. Did you know that? But many of us confuse it with the word weak. Meekness is what? You have the strength, but it's harnessed. That's why Jesus was meek.

They use this word, oh, meek Jesus. Yeah, but that doesn't mean weak. Hello? He can wipe you out, but He's deciding not to. That's meek. Anybody that can wipe you out, but decides not to, is what? Weak.

I'm sorry, meek. That was a close call, huh? Like when Jesus said, oh, don't worry about it. I can call down ten legions of angels. I can wipe out the entire Roman army with just a word. And I often wonder that.

Think about that. Of course, we don't know the answer, and it would go maybe against God's sovereignty, so obviously, it probably couldn't happen. But if He said, hey, hold on, this guy just spit on me, and they're beating me.

Father, change of plans. Wipe these guys out. But there is some variety there because He said not My will, but Your will be done. Not what I want. Jesus was in perfect harmony with the Father. It's a great reminder for us this morning, this last one, maybe some of you need to hear.

Who is worthy will take away your worry. He is worthy. Nobody is worthy. Who can open the scroll of God and communicate the judgment of God and actually execute that judgment? It would be like saying, I don't know if California doesn't do it much anymore, but Death Row.

Who can pronounce judgment on someone and then actually pull the electrical circuit there for the electric chair, say, for example? Who can pronounce both the sentence and the judgment? And I know this gets tricky for people, because how can an all-loving God do that?

But remember, that's just one attribute. The Bible says He is love, but it also says He is holy, He is right, He is just. All the attributes of God. So when a person breaks His commandment, and now they go to court, and now they're guilty, that justice has to be served, or he's really not a just God.

What about if he just said, you know what, just let him go? That's not a just God. A just God condemns and gives them the punishment. But then God's mercy and grace says He paid the price. Here's the cross.

Repent of your sin and believe, and you'll be pardoned. Oh, they forget about that part of God, don't they? Oh, how can an angry, mean God do this? Oh, I love v. 5. But one of the elders said to me, do not weep.

Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, He has prevailed. Remember that. He's not going to prevail. It's not He might prevail. Oh, I sure hope He prevails. He has already prevailed.

That's why you hear this a lot. You know, we fight from a position of victory. He's already won the battle. And then a lot of people say, well, if He's already won the battle, why am I losing? If I'm dead to sin, why is it still alive in me?

Paul goes on to say in Romans, whatever you choose to obey becomes your master. So yes, we fight from a position of victory. I've given this analogy before, so I don't want to go into a lot of detail, but you're up here, we're up here as believers, we've won.

But there's little minions that try to pull me down. Little demonic devils that try to get me off course and knock me off course. And they try to get me out of my place of victory and bring me down to my place of defeat.

And so yes, you're fighting from a position of victory, but you gotta fight. You gotta hold the line. You gotta shoot back. You gotta block the fiery darts. You gotta put on the weapons of your warfare.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider robbery to be equal with God, but He made Himself of no reputation and He humbled Himself and He became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name. And at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord. So He's Lord of my life.

He's already won. I can walk in the victory, but the old Shane is still calling my name. Oh, come on, let me talk to some real believers here. The battle is not easy, is it? Somebody told me, man, I have to battle every day.

Every day? I wish it was every day. For me, it's every hour. Every minute. The flesh is never satisfied, is it? If one In-N-Out burger is good, I bet three taste really good. Can anyone just have one donut?

Man, more, more flesh, lust, pride, and it's down here, it's the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and pride of life. And all of those things are trying to entice me and you. So yes, He's won the battle.

But you can't be a lazy Christian and sit down and take the ammunition out of your gun and go sip margaritas on the beach of Hawaii. It's warfare, it's spiritual warfare. So remember, God's got this. He said, hey, don't worry, don't weep.

God has got this. The light can shine brighter in the darker moments. And so this was a very dark moment for John. He wept, and he sees a vision, and I believe he's weeping. There's nobody worthy. And have you ever felt like that?

There's nobody worthy. Look at what's going on in our culture. Look at what's going on in our nation. It's incredible. And I ended up watching The Sound of Freedom last night, and I came home just stunned.

Me and my wife didn't even talk the way home, or my daughter. It's like how much darkness is in this world? God, wipe them out. I felt like the disciples. Jesus, can we call down fire? And then I want to read to you 6 -10, and let's talk about it.

The Slain Lamb and the Worship of Heaven

And so I looked. I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne, wait a minute, He was already looking. He was already looking. Correct? And now we can do the next slide. Verses 6 -10. And I looked, if we have them.

I might have told them to take it out because of the other sermon. Praise God for flexibility. So just listen. How's this? Listen. Okay, I think we did take it out because I didn't have it the first. And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne, and of the four living creatures, in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain.

So John sees this lamb looking up. He has this vision as though it had been slain. What does it look like? Possibly blood on it. Possibly broken. Possibly marred. We don't know, but he can tell that it's been slain, and it has seven horns and seven eyes.

Don't worry, he's not getting weird. Seven horns is seven, the number of completion. Perfect authority. Perfect rule and reign. Seven eyes, perfect sight. All discerning, omnipresent, omnipotent, all powerful.

Everywhere, this lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. And then that lamb came, and he took the scroll out of the right hand, and he took it, and he had taken the scroll. As soon as he took that scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, and each having a harp and a golden bowl of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

And they sang a new song saying, you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seal. Is that interesting? A new song came out from among them. They sang a new song. So be careful of criticizing new songs.

Do you know there are still churches out there? They're still out there. The old hymns are the only way, the only truth, the only life, nobody comes to the Father except through the old hymns. And I love the old hymns.

But remember, the old hymns used to be new hymns, yep. Charles Wesley would write a hymn, just published, 1782. Hey, now we sing this old hymn, but in 1782, it was a brand new song. And they sang that new song.

You are worthy, you are worthy, and only you are worthy to take and open its seal. And a genuine new song from the Lord should be theologically correct. It should line up with Scripture. But there's nothing wrong with the next generation pouring out their heart to God and singing in a way that God moves in their own heart.

So they sang this new song. They said, you were slain and you've redeemed us by your blood. Every tribe and tongue and people and nation have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on earth.

That would take probably a whole sermon, but biblically speaking, and I don't know exactly how it works, levels in heaven, what's heaven like? What's all this about? Is this talking about the millennial time?

But the Bible promises that there is some type of spiritual authority. He makes us kings, lower K, and priests, meaning interceding or relationship with God, and we shall reign on the earth. So is that a new heaven, a new earth?

And that's why a lot of people, and if you listen to my podcast with Sam Storms, he talks about his view of the millennial, which is different than the current dispensational view of the millennial, but it seems like there's a lot of Scriptures that the only way they can come to fulfillment is with a millennial reign.

And we'll get into that as we go into the book of Revelation. And many of you know, I've shared this before, I'm open, I'm open to, I've got my thoughts on it. I can see how certain things will play out, but I'm open to God changing those views on non-essentials.

Biblical Unity, Essential Truth, and Spiritual Warfare

So let's talk about this for a minute. And he said, I looked, okay, so he's already having a vision. I mean, a vision, he sees this vision from God. He sees the lamb, he sees the scroll, right? That appears, or maybe people say he was taken up to heaven and saw this.

Let's just, who knows exactly? It's funny when you read commentaries. You know, I'll open four different commentaries and they all have four different points. Like, well, who's right? And see, that's why a non-essentials, you just, okay, this could have happened.

This could have happened. Maybe I see it this way. And that's where we have to exercise grace and humility. All, is there a lot of scriptures about unity? Well, it wouldn't be too hard if we agreed about everything, correct?

Oh, I agree too, I agree too. You too, agree too? Yeah. The timing of the rapture, women in leadership, the gifts of the spirit, the plurality of elders, church governments. Hey, we all agree, man, this is easy.

But nope. So when that iron hits the iron, and the sparks fly, and we begin to grow in spiritual maturity because of that disunity. So here's the thing, biblical unity is fighting for unity in the midst of disunity.

It's disagreeing on non-essentials, but agreeing that we all serve one God and putting those differences behind us. That's unity. Now, when it comes to essentials, I can't compromise the essentials in order to be united with you.

Hey, let's just all come together. You can have the cross. Man, that's pretty hard, but you have the cross. Give us universalism. What's universalism? Everyone's saved in the end. And Jesus was a good teacher and a prophet, but not the Son of God.

Give us that, and we'll give you this. Like, okay, well, yeah, let's just all come together. See, that's why you can never have a true unity of all religions, because somebody's right and somebody's wrong.

You can all be wrong, but you can't all be right. And so that's where, oh, there's so much disunity in the church. Actually, the disunity often is on the essentials. And I have to be divided from you if you're divided from God on the essentials.

We can go to lunch. You can be my neighbor. We can be friends. We can go golfing. We can do things together. We can talk about God, my beliefs, but I can't come and worship God and act as if we're all on the same page.

And that's why many churches are being compromised, and the Spirit of God is not in them. You cannot hang a rainbow flag on your church and expect the living God to move powerfully and profoundly. But brother, we're all about unity.

No, you're about perversion. You're about sexual sin, and you have to repent of that. You have to repent. See, once you repent, now you're on God's side. Now you can be united. So there's many Christians that are in disunity with God.

Because unity in the Bible is unity of the faith, unity of the truth. Not unity for the sake of unity. And I used to get letters. They would call it ecumenical movements. You know, hey, as a pastor, would you like to come to this worship event?

You know, we've got an imam. For Muslim, we've got a Roman Catholic priest. I don't remember what else. Buddha, something like that. We're just gonna all come together, and I don't know if the language is funny.

You know, they word those things where it's like, you know, just all come together, have community, have a conversation. Like, BS. Right? I don't know. Let's edit that. I don't know if I can. Sometimes my old self flies out of there.

But isn't that true? That's just a bunch of garbage. It's tweaking words. And I believe that has something to do with when Paul said, you know, let this mind be in you. Not that one, but when he's talked about the whole armor of God and withstanding the wiles of the devils, the tricks of the devils, putting on the whole armor of God, casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

That's what those things are. They're high things. They're principalities that are twisting Scriptures and getting us all convoluted and polluted. And taking those thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ under the authority of Scripture.

You want to beat the demonic realm? Take the thoughts captive. Take, no, that's not true. That's not true. That's not true. That's not true, Lord. That's not true. And you take those thoughts captive and you bring it back to the Word.

Eventually, you resist the enemy, he will flee. Does he ever plant thoughts in your mind that aren't good, aren't godly, they're not productive? That's not a lie. Oh, if I talk to my spouse that way, I'm going to get in trouble.

That's a lie, the enemy. Just stop by the store and get a 12-pack on your way home and relax. That's a lie. And you take these thoughts captive and you bring them in under subjection. And that's how you change your mindset.

I know sometimes it's a real hard struggle, but do you know that struggle can become easier? It has less of a grip on you as you're changing those thoughts. And there's a big science out there. There's books written now.

I've talked about it, I think first, about 10 years ago, it's called The Study of Neuroplasticity. How your brain can actually change. So thought patterns and habits and things, you can actually change those Huh, I read that somewhere.

Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And the more you're putting God's Word in, the more all these other things will be pushed out. Or, the more you're putting in other things, the more God's Word will be pushed out.

And that's why many people live in confusion and doubt and fear. Yes, they have God's Word way back here, but not on the forefront, and their thoughts are not being taken captive. I share with the First Service, there's an app, and I went on, tried to unsubscribe about three times, I got to get off of this thing.

But about a year ago, we were sent this letter. Download this app if you'd like to know what's going on in your neighborhood. That sounds pretty cool. No, it's nothing but burglaries and car thefts and shootings and this, and watch out for this guy, look at this little, like this inundating you, like right around here.

Like, oh my goodness, do I even need to know what's going on? And I would look, and like some of this, oh, we're by Costco, we're by, oh, this is like the whole valley. Okay, that's pretty, I thought it was just my street for a minute there.

Like, this is a pretty bad area, we gotta move. But then like many of you on Facebook, you know, if you follow AV News, or what's the one where I stopped like years ago, it's about, you're hooked up to the system that the ambulances get in the fire department.

And you know, yeah. Okay, lots of things, scanning, yeah, AV scan. So all that's like, triggers, right? Like, look at all the shootings, look at all the stabbings. Oh my goodness, and you're not in God's Word?

Yeah, you're gonna be pretty scared. And then the guys who get convicted, man, go, but pastor, we need to know what's going on. Sure, but you don't need to be stupid about it. You need to be wise. I don't think we are created to know about what's going on everywhere.

For how many years did we not know what was going on in Texas and Florida and Tennessee and every murder, every rape, every child. And now we're inundating ourselves with things that 99 .9 of the time don't affect us.

And we get all worked up for no reason. And then I like verse eight too. The four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb. And that's again, we see Jesus as the sacrificial Savior, and we also see Him as the final judge.

The Prayers of the Saints and Direct Access to God

Golden bowls full of incense. Isn't this amazing? So he sees these golden bowls. I mean, they could have been huge. And they were full of incense, which it could have been this powdery things, but incense is often coming up, right?

The smoke or the fragrance of the incense. And that is coming up. And he says, these are the prayers of the saints. That's incredible. The prayers of the saints, your prayers are in the throne room of God, according to Revelation 5.

And God hears the prayers of His people. The old saints knew about the secret place of the sacred. And it's interesting, the prayers of the saints, the prayers of the saints, maybe a point of clarification.

Any former Roman Catholics in here? I think there'll be a lot more, come on. Myself as well as an altar boy. And quick history lesson, because actually I got asked this last week. This word Catholic was in the Bible, and somebody had questions.

The church was called the Catholic church for the first three, 400 years of church history. Catholic means universal, the universal church. And then later on as the church grew in power and influence, the Roman empire bought into it and created the papacy.

That's why it became the Roman Catholic church. And all kinds of perversions came in there, from Mary worship to the saints. Why would you pray to a saint? That's not anywhere in the Bible. That's actually blasphemous.

You never go to a super Christian hero to get to God, because that super hero Christian has fallen and flawed. You go directly to God, because when Jesus said it is finished, tetelestai, it's done, it's completed.

The veil in the temple was rent, torn top to bottom, gaining direct access to the Father. That we minimize the point, we minimize the power of the cross. You don't go to purgatory and be purged of your sins.

What Jesus did is not a half done project, it's a finally done project. If that's bad English, but it makes sense, I hope. So that's why, but they still pray, people still pray to saints. And they'll say, hey, pray to saint whatever.

And you'll even see one of the things that Jim Caviezel, strong Catholic, still has a little rosary in his hand during interviews I see. And that was that rosary, pray to Mary. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

And we would do that, and we were praying to Mary. Nowhere in Scripture, nowhere in Scripture is that even encouraged. Is she an incredible woman? Absolutely. Bringing the Messiah into the world, mind explosion, but I don't even think she would want you praying to her.

I don't even know if she's aware of what's going on in her. She's in heaven, and so the saints, the reason I say this, saints, and after Mother Teresa became a saint, sainthood, because they did so many wonderful things.

And I don't, if they just wanted to recognize someone for their effort, and I understand that, okay. But now they're praying to saints, saints are glorified, and you've got even little statues to saints.

The Bible, here's where it's also wrong. The Bible refers to all Christians as, did you know that? All Christians are saints. Saints sin, but they're not sinners. Cleanse you hearts, you sinners, and you double mind it.

Verse is about the unsaved coming to know the Lord. But if you do a cursory study, saints of God, written to the saints in Ephesus, the saints are believers, because it actually comes from the word, I believe, don't quote me on this, sanctified.

It just came to me, so I'm hoping it's right. We'll take it later. Right? It has to do with something like that, I'm sure, right? Because sanctified, and they are pure, and they're holy now, they are a saint because of what Jesus did on the cross, and they believe in Him.

The other group who has not done that has to be called something different. They are sinners. So that's why we don't elevate saints, pray to saints, recognize saints, because we're all saints. And so what happens when you take a good thing, the Catholic universal church, God's word, and you marry it with Rome, and actually they bought the papacy.

They would put in popes who weren't even Christians, and you start to decree all these things that are not biblical. So that's why many Catholics, you say, are good people. Yes, many Catholics love the Lord.

I believe I ran into them. Look at Caviesel. I mean, look at, my goodness, and there's others out there, Hollywood actors, I can name and state. But they don't understand what Roman Catholicism as a whole has taught.

The only reason I do is I read a lot of church history. I read actual, the decrees of the papacy. Pope Innocent and what they decreed and all. And it's just a lot of that is anti-biblical, it's anti-God.

And you can, again, don't take my word for it, just go on their website. Go look at what they teach. And you tell me if Mary isn't somehow a co-redeemer, co-matrix, perpetual virginity. What does that mean?

She was always a virgin. Help me figure this one out. Yeah, brothers and sisters, Mary was married, but see, because they believed that corrupted her. See, in order to elevate her, she has to be a virgin.

So perpetual virginity, it's not taught, it's not biblical. The immaculate conception of Mary, she was conceived miraculously, just like Jesus was. See, elevating Mary. No, she was conceived just like all of us.

She was a sinner, but she had a holy sanctified seed within her because of the Holy Spirit. She was just the vessel. So not the bloodline did not go from Mary to Jesus. He was created by the Holy Spirit, put in the womb, so born of a virgin.

So fulfillment of prophecy could come to pass. So just a side history note, all I have is saints and sinners and just ad-libbed everything else in there. So double-check it, go to the Word. Go to Catholic websites, check out everything that I said.

Base it on Scripture. And you'll find that God's Word is true on all these issues. And my thing is, I don't have a beef. Like, I do not have a beef with Mormonism, Jehovah Witness, Roman Catholicism. I'm not here to upset anybody, but if you tell the truth, you've got to tell the truth.

It's hard for me to walk around and go, oh, shucks, I don't want to upset. I don't want to mention. My doctor goes to the Mormon church. My doctor, who might give me the wrong thing, right? He actually encouraged me not to get the jab, so that was a good thing.

And I haven't had medication or shots in years, which maybe I should, I don't know. My point was, love all groups of people, but I have to tell you, hey, there's a lot of things that aren't in the Bible that are actually wrong.

And what I found is people, they get upset, but they go and they look and they're like, oh man, he's right. Maybe I don't know the Lord. Maybe my church teaches this. And if it was just a Shane Eidelman up here, I would not say any of this stuff.

You know that, right? Without God's spirit in me, I'd just be a people pleaser. Rah, rah, rah, God is love. All religions are the same. Come underneath one banner, Mother Earth, Father God. Maybe you shouldn't say Father God.

Maybe he's transgender. Maybe, right? Did you know there's people saying that? Churches, have you seen those clips? I wish YouTube would explode. Facebook, I can't even watch it. They say God is transgender.

Jesus says these are blasphemous false prophets in our midst. And to say nothing is to say something. It has to be said. We have to speak the truth in love. And that's one of the things, you know, being filled with God's spirit, right?

You're gonna say something. But also, being filled with God's spirit means you know when to put on the brakes. And shut the, because a lot of us, we like to go off and people say, ah, I'm bold for the truth.

No, you're just arrogant. Be humble, broken, remove the plank from your eye. Listen to first service this morning, then talk to me. And then verse nine, and they sang a new song. You are worthy to take the scroll.

Worthy to take the scroll. And again, I've already mentioned this, but not being opposed to all new worship songs. Psalm 96, one says, oh, sing to the Lord a new song. New song. Why do I mention this?

Because legalism wipes out worship. I would like to meet a legalistic worshiper who is truly worshiping God and on fire for God. What do I mean by that? Legalism, right? Rules, rules. Nope, only the old hymns.

Don't raise your hands. Too high, this is okay. But don't go like this. Don't get too expressional. Don't cry at the altar. Don't emotional, emotions are bad. No, emotions are good and God-given, and some of you need to get a lot more emotional about what God has done in your heart.

Compassion, Weeping, and the Call to Intercession

We need the weepers. Where are the weepers? I don't know if I'll get through the rest of Revelation five, but when I shared that the first service, Revelation five, four really stood out. So I wept much.