This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome back to our look at Revelation chapter 4, day 5 today, of our look
through this awesome chapter of scripture. We've been looking at the throne, the
throne room of God, together experiencing all that John saw in that moment of
the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian and the rainbow encircling this throne
and the sea of glass and the 24 elders and now, as if there's any way that it
could, it gets even bigger. In verses 9 to 11, listen to what happens.

Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on
the throne and who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him
who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They lay
their crowns before the throne and they say, "You are worthy, our Lord and God.
You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things
and by your will they were created and have their being.

" What a picture. Let's just walk through this together. Let's just get this
picture together of what happens in this worship of God before the throne.

First it says, "All the living creatures give God the glory. " Now think about
this for just a moment, these living creatures, the representation of what we
talked about yesterday, these living creatures. There is also all of God's
living creatures from all of eternity, for all of eternity worshiping him,
millions, billions going out from this throne in one sense and at the center you
have these 24 elders closer to the throne and for all of us, I believe, they are
falling down in worship.

I believe they represent all of us as believers and as they fall down, as they
get to their knees and worship before God, as they prostrate themselves, lay out
flat before God, they do something that is awesomely significant. They take the
gold crowns that are on their head and they put them before the throne. You may
have heard the term, "We're going to cast our crowns before God.

" These are the verses where that comes from. The picture of the 24 elders is a
picture of you and I and what we're going to do. They are representing what all
of us will do.

The 24 elders do it here, I believe we will all do it one day. We will take the
crowns that God has put on our head and we'll cast them before him in praise and
honor because all glory and honor is due to him. Now there are many ideas of
what kind of crowns God is going to put on our head for all of eternity.

There are certain ones that we are sure of because the Bible tells us about
these crowns. 1 Corinthians 9 verse 25 says, "Everyone who competes for a prize
is tempered in all things. " Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we
live for an imperishable crown.

What are these imperishable crowns? There's at least four of them that the New
Testament tells us about. The crown of righteousness, the crown of joy, the
crown of glory, the crown of life.

The crown of righteousness over in 2 Timothy 4, "There is in store for me," Paul
says, "a crown of righteousness. " Righteousness, right relationship with God,
right relationship with others that results in right living in my life.
Everything is made right.

God's made me right before him, not based on my own effort or energy or power or
good works, but based on who Jesus is. And that crown of his forgiveness, that
crown of me being a new creation in Jesus Christ, it is put on my head and I
have it. I enjoy it for all of eternity, the crown of righteousness.

There's also the crown of joy. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul says, "For what is our
hope, our joy, or the crown which we will all glory in in the presence of our
Lord Jesus Christ when he comes? Is it not you?

" The crown of joy for Paul was all those that he'd helped come to a
relationship with Jesus Christ. The joy of standing together in heaven with
others who have a relationship with God because of some influence, some word,
some witness that you've given. People in your family, people in your business,
people who are your friends, people who might live a hundred years after you,
but who have read something of your life or read something that you said or
heard something of what you did.

What a joy. The crown of joy. And then there's the crown of glory.

Peter talked about this. He said, "When the chief shepherd appears, you will
receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. The glory of God's goodness
in your life, the glory of God's grace in your life lived out for all of
eternity.

" And then James, in James 1 verse 12, talks about the crown of life. "Blessed,"
he says, "is the man who perseveres under trial. Because when he stood the test,
he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

" This crown of eternal life, this crown of abundant life. These are the crowns
that God gives to us that we will enjoy in reward for all of eternity. These are
the things that come to us as a reward because of God's love for us and grace
that's been shown us in Jesus Christ.

Just think of this with me. Here we are standing in heaven, and we have this
crown. And this crown represents God's glory that he's put into my life, the joy
of what has happened and is going to extend all into eternity in my life, the
righteousness that God has put upon my life.

This crown represents the life that God's given me and his son. And then there
comes this moment, this awesomely significant, extremely important moment. When
I take the crown, and I take it off my head, and I give back this crown in honor
and glory, I give it to the one who is willing to wear a crown of thorns for me.

We get the crown of glory, we get the crown of righteousness, we get the crown
of joy because he wore a crown of thorns because he suffered for me. There won't
be a moment's hesitation. There won't be an instant when I think, "I'm going to
keep this crown on my head.

I deserve it somehow. I'm not going to honor him with this crown. It's my crown.

" No. Every heart, every life, every one of our moments goes to this one moment
in life where I get to honor him for all that he has done for me. In that
moment, you and I recognize the glory of who Jesus Christ really is.

That all of these crowns, all of these rewards that I am going to experience for
all of eternity, they're just because he loves me. They're just because he gave
himself for me. They're just because he suffered.

They're just because he took my sin upon his life on the cross. They're just
because he became a man and lived his life for me. He died on a cross for me.

He was entombed for three days, and then he was resurrected for me. That's why.
So listen again to what they say.

As they lay these crowns representing all of us before God, they say, they sing,
"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power for you
created all things and by your will they were created and they have their being.
You are worthy. " The first readers of this in the first century lived in a day
when the Caesar was said to be God.

And when the Caesar came through a town, the people would come out and throw
garlands, throw flowers before him, and they would say that Caesar is worthy
because he was recognized as God. He was recognized as the one who gave them all
the blessings that they had in their lives. Out of the crown of Caesar came all
of their blessings.

But here in this throne room, we recognize who is really worthy. It is God
himself on the throne. This is where we're all going to end up.

So why don't I do it today? Why don't I recognize that he is the one who is
worthy of all the glory today? You see, as I walk through my life on this
planet, it's pretty easy sometimes to take the glory to myself and to think
somehow that it's something about me or to reflect the glory on some other and
to think somehow it's about them.

Now when you give all the glory to God, it's not just one of those simple
sentences that sometimes you hear somebody say. You say, "Oh, thank you. You did
a great job when you sang that song," or "You shared that truth," or "You did a
great job in that business," or a football player, "Wow, you did a great job
catching that pass.

" And they say, "Well, all the glory goes to God. " There's one sense in which
we're trying to do the right thing there. But it's not our words that are so
important in that moment.

What's really important is your heart. Whether you say it to someone else or
not--in fact, saying it sometimes can make them feel funny like they shouldn't
have thanked you. Whether you say it to someone else or not, it's what's going
on in your heart.

Is your pride growing or is your humility growing? Are you increasing or is He
increasing in your life who He is? You see, this experience at the throne room,
"You are worthy, O God.

I'm going to lay my crowns before Him. " It's an experience where I realize and
put in perspective who I really am. I'm a creation of God.

He created all things, me too. But I'm also a child of God. I'm a child of God
through what He did for me in Jesus Christ.

And I'm going to experience His reward for eternity as a child of God. You are
worthy. You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.

Let's give Him that glory and honor and power in our hearts right now. And I
want to encourage you just to pray this simple prayer, this prayer from
Revelation chapter 4. Just say to God in your heart, "Father, You are worthy.

You are worthy to receive glory. You are worthy to receive honor. You are worthy
to receive power.

For You created all things. And by Your will, they were created and have their
being. Help me to live my life today in that attitude.

You are worthy. " In Jesus' name, I pray, amen. Next week, we'll be looking at
chapter 5 together.

We're going to continue to gather our attendance at this worship experience in
heaven.