Worship That Re‑Orders The World

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God. From every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. And the four living creatures said, amen. And the elders fell down and worshiped. This is the word of God. Thank you, Victor. for reading that, and thank you for being here. Welcome to Thrive. It's good to have you here. We're in our third week of this series called Hope That Outlasts Empires. Did you notice some of the pictures in that video? Any chance you might know what empire some of those were? They, pardon, Roman, Ottoman Empire, the Greek Empire, Egyptian Empire, what? The British Empire. All of them as well thought they were going to last forever. Ironic, they're all ruins, right? All ruins. Sorry, I know. I know. Hey, we're going to pick on all empires in this series if you noticed. So we are in this series and It's called Revelation, the book, not Revelations. I know a lot of people say that, but it's only one revelation. And the center of the revelation is this chapter, chapter five that Victor read. It is the revelation of the Lamb on the throne. Worthy alone is the Lamb. It's fascinating. So, I brought up last Sunday that the seven churches that we looked through, we kind of just focused mainly on Laodicea, but all seven churches, these little tiny churches, probably this size or smaller actually, in a city of a hundred thousand. So as if we would be the only Christian fellowship in the entire area of Estero. And that, in the entire Roman Empire, that these little seven churches in Asia Minor were facing really a pummeling, you might say, from the Roman Empire, not... physical torture or abuse, although a few of the churches faced persecution. But it was mainly just the whole propaganda machine of talking about how Rome was the end all, be all, the beginning and the end, the ultimate, and the empire that was gonna last forever, and you need to buy into it, you need to succumb to it, you need to serve it, and you need to deify it, in fact, the Roman emperors were considered gods, All of this going on, and some of the groups were feeling weak and, well, uninfluential. Those, it seems, that Jesus Christ praises. And those who seem to be doing well and thrilled with it, like Laodicea, those he really chastises. It's fascinating. how that works out. And Revelation asserts not just Rome, but every incarnation before Rome, from the Tower of Babel to the Egyptian pyramids, from the Alexander the Great and the Greeks, the Persians, every one of them, those kingdoms who thought they were going to last forever and be the end-all and be-all, they all fall. They're all fall-en. They're all beastly in one form or another. And the book of Revelation says they're all little puppets with a dragon behind it, telling those empires what to do. And you have only two options throughout the book of Revelation, really. Only two options actually in the Bible. The way of the dragon or the way of the lamb. Are you going to be lamb-like? or be dictated by the dragon. That's your options. Now Jesus calls them in his ministry the broad way that leads to death or the narrow way that leads to life. Or the book of Proverbs talks about the way of the fool and the way of the wise. But there's always just two. There might seem to be hundreds. And Revelation says you're either going to be lamb-like or you're going to be dragon dictated. There is no such thing as another way. The book doesn't really talk about elephants or donkeys or eagles or any other animal. Not even the lion. Do you realize that only once in the entire book is a lion brought up, the l...