This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is day two of our look together through Revelation chapter seven. I'm glad
you're with us as we walk through these chapters that are in some ways difficult
to study, but they're also the reality about life. And I found when I get a hold
of reality, God's reality, instead of my reality, my escapist reality, my
pretending reality, when I get a hold of God's reality, then I can get a hold of
real hope.

And that's what I want. That's what I want in my life. That's what I want for
your life.

Not some false hope that is built on some false belief that everything's going
to be okay, or I'm never going to have to face a difficult situation, or God
would never allow me to have to face suffering in my life. If I build my hope on
something that is false, then my hope can be taken away. But if I build my hope
on what is real, the truth that no matter what I have to face in life, and we do
all face trials and suffering in this life, no matter what I have to face, God
not only will be with me, He will redeem that suffering all the way into
eternity.

When I build my hope on that kind of reality, I have a kind of hope that can
never be taken away. That's the kind of hope I want you to have. And that's why
we go into, in Revelation chapter seven, this view from heaven.

It's a view of hope. It's a view of trust in God. Revelation, we're going to see
as we walk through this book, it intersperses scenes from heaven and scenes on
earth.

As it does that, I want to just remind you, don't try to get the timeline
exactly how they fit together. Remember, time in heaven and time on earth are
different. And as we go back to heaven, it tends to jump around in the timeline.

We flash forward sometimes and flash back sometimes. And in looking at heaven,
if you try to fit it exactly into, well, what's happening on earth at that time,
time on earth and time in heaven are just two different things. The reason we're
going to look and see what's happening in heaven is not the timeline.

It's the perspective. It's seeing who God is and what God's about. And as you
see what's happening in heaven in Revelation chapter seven, we're going to look
these next few days together at three different groups, each of whom teach us
some powerful truths about God and who He is.

The first group is a group of angels. Revelation chapter seven, verses one to
three talks about this group. Listen to what it says.

After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding
back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or
on the sea or on any tree. And then I saw another angel coming up from the east,
having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four
angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea.

Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the
foreheads of the servants of our God. Now as we go through these verses, as we
look through these different groups, we're really going to be looking these next
few days at four security building trusts that you can have in your life. Four
specific ways you can trust God that will build a deep, deep security into your
life.

I see many people, talk to many people who have a trust in God, have a trust in
Jesus Christ, but many times it feels insecure, a circumstance in life, a false
teaching that someone throws their way, a situation that doesn't work out
exactly like they wanted it to. And all of a sudden it feels like God isn't
there. I can't trust him.

I want a deeper trust in my life, in your life. And these verses talk to us
about how to have that kind of trust. I want a no matter what happens kind of
trust.

Some people trust God when, when good things happen, they trust God. Some people
trust God if, God, if you'll only do this for me, then I'll trust you. It's sort
of like a deal.

Revelation is written to help you to trust God no matter what. And if I'm going
to trust God no matter what, I've got to understand what these verses are
saying. They're telling me why I can trust God no matter what.

Here is the first security building trust in this chapter. God is in control.
There we are.

We'll get back to it in the book of Revelation. God is in control. Hold on.

Don't finish yet, he's saying here. I want you to wait until I put a seal on the
forehead of some people before you do this. You see, these events that are
unfolding, it's not like a train wreck that God just sort of said, "Well, I'm
going to let it happen," and he doesn't know what's going to happen.

He's in control even in the midst of these events. With all that's happening, as
we read through Revelation chapter seven and eight and nine, God is in control
of the process. And when he needs to halt it for a minute because there's
something else that he needs to do, he stops it right there.

And when he needs to continue the process, he continues it right then. As you
and I read through this book of Revelation, we're going to see increasing chaos
on earth, but increasing control and increasing peace and increasing power and
increasing grace in heaven. That's what you see as you read through the book of
Revelation.

That's why what we talked about in the chapters five and six of Revelation are
so important. The attitude of worship is vital as we read this book. If you read
Revelation with a heart of worry, "I've got to figure it out so I won't be
worried.

I've got to get it all wired in so I know exactly what's going to happen and
then I won't worry," if you read Revelation with that attitude, you're going to
end up with more worry at the end than you started with. But if you read it with
an attitude of worship, "God, I can trust you. God, you are in control.

Look at how in control you are no matter what happens," then you end with an
attitude of worship and you end with a depth of security in your life. God is in
control. And here he says, "Don't harm the land or the sea.

Stop for a moment. I have something else I need to do first. " Here he is in
control of these angels.

These angels are the servants of God. Now, someone asked me, "Are these, they're
on the earth, are these like fallen angels or these demons that he's
controlling? " Well, he controls them too.

He controls everything. But no, these are the messengers of God. These are the
servants of God doing what God wants, doing his bidding.

He is in control of the servants of God. He's in control of the timing. That's
what I love about the picture of the book of Revelation.

God is in control of the timing of his plan. We don't always see it. I don't
always see it.

I don't like the timing of my life sometimes. I certainly don't like the timing
of the way things go in this world, but God is in control of it all. Now, when I
say that God is in control, part of that is that he has allowed evil in this
world for a time.

God does not desire for everything to happen that has happened. He does allow us
to have choice. And because he has allowed choice, evil does happen in this
world.

But even in the end, God's going to control that. Even in the end, God's going
to say, "The time has come to stop. All that have come to me are going to come
to me.

I've been patient long enough so that more could come. Now is the time to stop.
" Remember, as we're looking at this view from heaven in Revelation chapter 7,
that as these seals are open, these seals that go into trumpets that go into
bowls, it's all about the giving of an inheritance.

It's all about how God is letting this world pass away, and it won't pass away
easily, so that a new heaven and a new earth can be given as an inheritance to
his saints. And here in these verses, in these first three verses, he is taking
care of his saints. He's taking care of his chosen ones.

Now when I talk about the end times, when I talk about what's going to happen at
the end, and we're reminded that God is in control even there, I wonder about
your life today. What do you need to be reminded that God is in control of in
your life today? What you're facing today.

If God can be in control of this, he certainly is in control of what you're
facing. At one point, in what moment right now do you need to say to him, "God,
I trust you even with this, and I may not understand what is happening. I may
want it to happen differently, but I know I can trust you.

" Let's pray that prayer, that security building prayer right now. Just say to
him, "Jesus Christ, I thank you. I thank you that you are in control.

God is in control, and I can trust you. I can trust that in the end, you will
take any circumstance and use it for your glory. I can trust that in the end,
you will take any circumstance and use it to make me more like Christ because
you promised that you would.

I can trust that in the end, you will take any circumstance and you will
accomplish your justice in ways that are above and beyond what I can imagine,
and I can trust that in the end, you will take any circumstance, and you will
calm the pain and the fear. you will put peace and grace. God, you are in
control.

And although I may not feel that way right now, help me to trust that way. Help
me to live that way today. I ask this Jesus in your name.

Amen. Well, join us tomorrow. We're going to talk about the 144,000.