This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to Day 4 of our Look Together Through Revelation, Chapter 7. This is our
view from heaven of these events that are happening on earth, this destruction
that's unfolding on earth. God's giving us a sort of a spiritual breather, a
perspective this week, and we've looked at three different groups, and these
groups are giving us some truths that you and I can build our security on.

We looked at four angels that reminded us that God is in control. We look at
144,000 Jewish believers that reminded us that God is at work through human
history. And now today we're going to look together at a multitude of believers
in heaven.

Revelation chapter 7, verses 9 to 12, let me read those verses for you. After
this, I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could
count every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and
in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm
branches in their hands.

And they cried out in a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on
the throne and to the Lamb. " And all the angels were standing around the throne
and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their
faces before the throne and worshiped God saying, "Amen, praise and glory and
wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and
ever.

Amen. " This picture of what's happening in heaven, this great multitude of
those who've come to know Jesus Christ from every nation, tribe, people, and
language. This reminds us of a very powerful truth about who God is and what
God's doing in this world.

I need to trust that God's in control. I need to trust that God's at work in
human history, but I need to trust a third thing. I need to trust that God's
greatest concern is our salvation.

His greatest concern is bringing more people to know Him so that we can spend
eternity with Him. He has no greater concern than that. That is why He patiently
waits and allows evil in this world, allows us to suffer in this world so that
more people can come to Him.

That's why He's going to allow the world to go through this at the end of time
so that more can come to Him. God's greatest concern is our salvation. That is
why He sent His only Son to a cross, to suffer death there, to give His life
there, to take our sins upon Himself there.

He has no greater concern from beginning to end. The control of God and the plan
of God in human history is seen pointing in one direction, and that is this
concern, this heart for our salvation. This picture of salvation is very
powerful in these verses.

And I love the picture. I love what happens in heaven. Here this multitude,
every nation, tribe, and language, just imagine being with them there.

You're going to be with them there. And we're all standing and we're worshiping
the Lamb who's on the throne, we're worshiping the God who has saved us. And as
we worship, the Bible says they're holding palm branches in their hands, and
they're talking about salvation.

Now you can't help but be reminded of a picture when you see palm branches and
Jesus and people shouting out. You can't help but be reminded of the picture of
Jesus walking into Jerusalem the week that He's going to give His life for us.
At the beginning of that week, He walks in, you remember?

And the people are waving the palm branches and they're shouting, "Hosanna,
Hosanna," which means literally, "Save us, save now, save us, save now," begging
for salvation from Jesus. And here we have a very different picture. We have
people who have been saved by Him, surrounding Him on His throne, holding these
palm branches, rejoicing in who He is, and now they're saying, "Salvation
belongs to our God.

" You see the difference? When Jesus marched into Jerusalem, the people were
begging, they were pleading, "Save us. " They were hoping against hope for
something they thought might not happen.

But here in heaven, the people of God, and just imagine it, every language,
you're hearing this in every language, and probably understanding it in every
language in heaven, every tribe, every nation, you're looking around and seeing
people from all of human history, from every human culture, and they're all
saying together, "Salvation belongs to our God. " Not we wish that it could
happen, we hope against hope that it could happen, no, we know that it has
happened. It belongs to our God, He has accomplished it, and we celebrate it
here together in His presence forever.

God's greatest concern is our salvation, and He is going to accomplish that
concern. That's what His work is all about in human history. That's what His
work is all about in your life, in your history.

That's what His work is all about in the history of every person you're going to
meet today. Oh, they think it's about something else, them being this success,
or them having this failure, or them gaining this material good, or them making
up for this thing that their family did in the past, or whatever their plan for
history is. But that's not God's plan.

God's plan for human history, God's plan for your history, God's plan for the
history of every person you're going to meet today is salvation. He wants to
bring us back to Him, and He wants us to enjoy that relationship with Him for
all of history. And as we enjoy that relationship with Him, we're going to say,
we're going to pray together this prayer that's in verse 12.

He's repeating again this prayer that we looked at earlier in the book of
Revelation, these seven qualities, but I want to go back to it. The prayer,
amen, and then these seven qualities, one, praise, two, glory, three, wisdom,
four, thanks, five, honor, six, power, and seven, strength. All of those be to
our God.

I don't want you to miss these. If you and I are going to have the right
perspective as we look at the seven seals and the seven trumpets and the seven
bowls, then you've got to live it in light of these seven responses to the
salvation of God. Now we get more interested in the seals and the trumpets and
the bowls because we don't understand them.

We're trying to figure them out, but if you're going to understand them, you've
got to live it in light of these responses to the salvation of our God. So as
you live your day to day, let me just remind you of these seven things. These
belong to our God.

How are you going to live these out in your life today? How are you going to
live out praise in your life today? Even right now in your mind, God, I praise
you for who you are.

Praise is a lot of things. One of the things it is that it focuses on is
thanking God for who he is, a patient God, a loving God, a gracious God. Praise,
glory, you live it in light of his glory, the greatness of who God is, greater
than any problem you're facing, greater than any victory you've ever had,
greater than your entire life and the life of every person you're going to meet,
greater than the life of every person who's ever lived on this planet.

That's the glory of God. You live in light of that. Wisdom, it belongs to God.

Are you looking to God for wisdom or are you looking just to yourself or to
somebody else? Live life in light of that truth. Thanks, that belongs to God.

Thanking God for the circumstances of your life. Oh, you're probably like me,
you can easily find things to not thank God for, to grumble about, but the truth
of the matter is every day of my life there are a thousand things to thank him
for. Am I going to live my life in the light of my grumbling or in the light of
my thanksgiving?

And honor, that belongs to God. Am I giving him honor today? Am I thinking about
him today or am I too rushed, so rushed I don't have time to think?

The fact that you're listening to this, listening to drive time devotions today
says something about the desire you have to honor him, honor him through the
day. It belongs to God. Power belongs to God.

We think power belongs to us, it doesn't. It belongs to God, ultimate power to
us. We think if we can make ourselves feel more powerful, we'll feel better
about ourselves, we never will.

The only way to feel joyful about who you are is to recognize you live in life
in light of the power of God, the power he wants to put into your life, to be
the person he's made you to be. You live that today. And then strength.

Where are you going to find the strength to say yes to the things you need to
say yes to today? Where are you going to find the strength to say no to the
temptations that you need to say no to today? Strength belongs to our God.

Not just now, but this verse reminds us forever and ever. So as we walk through
the signs and the trumpets and the bowls, don't forget these seven responses to
who God is. In fact, let's just pray them back to God right now.

God, we just repeat this prayer to you. It is all for you. Salvation belongs to
you, our God.

You are the one who sits on the throne. It belongs to the Lamb, to Jesus Christ.
And so we say to you, our Father, that praise and glory and wisdom and thanks
and honor and power and strength, they are to you forever and ever.

And so let that be seen in my life today. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Make sure you join us for day five of our look through this chapter. We're going
to look tomorrow at some of the greatest promises in all the book of Revelation.