This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is Day 5 of our Look Together Through Revelation, Chapter 7, and let me
begin today by reading the verses we're going to focus on, verses 13 to 17. Then
one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes, who are they, and where did
they come from? " I answered, "Sir, you know.

" And he said, "They are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation.
They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His
temple.

And He who sits on the throne will spread His tent over them. They will never
hunger. Never again will they thirst.

The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the
center of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of
living water.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. " What powerful verses, what
powerful promises. We're going to see these promises repeated again at the book
of Revelation.

God wants to make sure we get it. We've been talking this week about security
that you and I can have through the trust that we have in God in daily life,
trust that God is in control, trust that God is working out His plan through
human history, trust that God's greatest concern is our salvation and the
salvation of the people that we meet. And here's a fourth way that you and I can
trust God.

Trust that the Lord will not fail us. He will not fail us. He does not fail even
these who went through the great tribulation.

Their robes symbolically are washed in the blood of the Lamb. They don't come
out red. They come out white.

They come out pure because that's what Jesus' blood does. It purifies us. This
tribulation that they have gone through does not take away their faith in Jesus
Christ.

In fact, the very opposite happens. It centers them on who He really is. Now
people ask who exactly are these people, this great multitude of believers?

Who exactly are we talking about? And it's not described for us exactly in these
verses. What is described for us more exactly is God's promises to them and
we're going to see later in the book of Revelation to all of us as believers.

God's promise that never will they hunger and never will they thirst. That's
what it means to spend eternity with Him. We come out of a great tribulation.

They came out of a great tribulation to never hunger or thirst. God's promise
that the sun will not beat upon them nor any scorching heat. They come out of
this tribulation to this place of blessing with Him.

And as they do this, this group, the Bible tells us very clearly that they're
going to spend eternity serving Him. Now this group, it seems like a specific
group that went through a greater tribulation, a greater martyrdom than some of
us might have to face. But they are like us in that way.

We all look forward to the joy of serving Him forever in heaven. Many people
ask, well, what will we do if I'm going to serve God in heaven? What am I going
to do?

I mean, everybody who needs to be saved has already been saved. They're already
there. So what do I do in heaven?

Do I just play a harp for all of eternity? Well, many people think that would
not be heaven. That would be hell for me because I do not like the harp.

I do not like the boredom of just listening to harp music all day long. Well,
two things. First, if that's what God asks you to do in heaven, guess what?

You're going to enjoy it. But secondly, that's not all that God has to do in
heaven. Oh, it's incredible what He has to do.

He's going to create a new heaven and a new earth. And in this new heaven and
new earth, there's going to be thousands of ways to serve Him by serving others,
by taking care of what He's created, by enjoying Him and what He's created, by
worshiping Him before His throne. We could go on and on and on.

Serving God for all of eternity is going to be the greatest joy you can imagine.
I don't know why it is, but sometimes we paint the picture on this world that
serving God is somehow boring. It's a duty.

It's something I have to do. Could you imagine just beginning to get a taste of
what it's going to be like in heaven, the joy of serving Him, the overflowing
joy, and then applying that to your life today? You don't have to wait till you
get to heaven to enjoy the joys of heaven.

You don't have to wait till you get to heaven and are in God's presence there to
enjoy the joy of being in His presence now. And you do not have to wait until
you get to heaven and enjoy serving Him, overflowing joy for all eternity, to
enjoy serving Him now. If you've been serving Him just out of duty, there's no
joy in it.

Let the joy come into it. And one of the ways to let the joy in is to remember
what's said in verse 17. One of my favorite verses in the entire book of
Revelation is verse 17.

I love this verse. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their
shepherd. The Lord Jesus Christ is my shepherd for all eternity.

The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. Psalm 23, that Psalm that so many of
us love, we're going to experience that for all of eternity. The Lamb at the
center of the throne, the one who is God, the one who is in power, He will be
their shepherd.

That's what I look forward to. But that's also what I experience today. The Lord
is my shepherd even now and He shepherds me all the way into and through
eternity.

God will not fail us. If I want a security-building trust, it's the trust that
God will not fail us. He has a hope.

He has a future for you no matter what happens on this earth. Now, He's honest
with us. He tells us there are going to be some tough times on this earth.

Christians will go through persecution. Christians will face suffering. There's
going to be a time of tribulation in the end as this world winds down, but He's
also honest with us when He says that is not the end of the story.

The end of the story is the Lamb. The Lamb at the center of the throne will be
their shepherd. The end of the story is we're all there together before that
throne and there's no more pain.

There's no more suffering. He will lead them to springs of living water and God
will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Those promises are why somebody on
our research team wrote about this chapter, "Given God's promises, I am ready
for revelation anytime.

" Let's talk to Him. Jesus, thank You for the way that You wrote this book to
us. You revealed it so that we could see the truth.

And thank You for bringing us back to the throne. When we look at all those
tragedies that are going to come upon this earth, we can feel helpless. And if
we're not careful, we can feel hopeless.

But Jesus, when we come back to the throne and we see the plan that You have,
when we see that You're in control no matter what, we have real hope. When we
see that You'll never fail us, we have real hope. We have hope that no matter
what, we're going to be with You forever as we trusted in You.

We have hope that we are in Your hands. We have hope that the Lamb at the center
of the throne, as that Lamb, You are willing to be our shepherd, not just now,
but for all eternity. And we thank You for that.

Help us, Jesus. Help us to begin to learn to follow You now, knowing that as we
learn to follow You now as our shepherd, we are learning something that will
extend all the way into and through eternity. Jesus, thank You for being my
shepherd.

Thank You for being my trust. Help me to live life in the security, not of some
false hope that I've built up in my mind, but in the security of who You really
are and all that You've really promised. And I ask this, Jesus, in Your name.

Amen. Next week, as we continue this study together, we're going to get back to
what's happening on earth, the seven trumpets of God's judgment.