This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, this is Pastor Tom and I want to welcome you to Day 1 of our look together
through Revelation chapter 9. Revelation 9-1 begins by saying, "And the fifth
angel sounded his trumpet. " Now even as I read that, if you were just starting
a study of the book of Revelation chapter 9, you would be totally lost right
now.

And I'm very aware that even though you may have been with us through this
entire study, you might feel a little bit lost right now. We're right in the
middle of these signs that are just so overwhelming to us, these signs of
destruction of the earth and these signs of God's wrath and judgment coming upon
us. We've seen the signs of the seals that are being opened and now we're in the
midst of these trumpets being opened and then we're going to go to the bowls
that are being poured out.

And as the fifth angel sounds his trumpet, before we even get into this this
week, let me remind you of where we are because the book of Revelation, it's a
story. It is a revelation that is given to John of a story of what God is going
to do. And if you forget where you are in the story, you lose the message.

If all you focus on is the fifth angel and trumpet and what did the trumpet look
like and what kind of an angel was this, you lose the message. So let's just
take a moment here before we begin to look at the sounding of these trumpets
this week to remind ourselves of where we are in the book of Revelation. Let me
remind you first of all of just three overall overarching directions throughout
the book of Revelation.

The purpose of the book of Revelation is hope. The attitude in the book of
Revelation is worship. And the story of the book of Revelation is God giving his
inheritance to his people.

When you remember that, then you're able to understand this book as you walk
through it. And God clearly tells us that this is the truth of the book of
Revelation. First, the purpose of this book is hope.

If you read the book and it causes fear and you're a believer in Christ,
something is wrong. It's written to cause hope in our lives. Now I know these
are fearful events, but these are events that judge the evil that's in this
world.

These are events that judge all that's against God in this world. These are
events that judge a world that is heading away from the worship of God. And
they're going to lead to the gaining of an inheritance.

That's why there is hope in this. Now down through the ages, the greater the
church has been persecuted, the more it turned to the book of Revelation as a
sign of hope. And the greater the church has been in a place of comfort in this
world, the less they've turned to the book of Revelation as a sign of hope.

When we think, when we fool ourselves into thinking this world's an okay place,
we don't need the, we think we don't need the hope of the book of Revelation.
But the truth is, even though this world may seem like a comfortable place to
you today, deep down you know it isn't. Deep down you know it's not what's
satisfied or can satisfy you in the future.

Deep down you know you need this hope that only God can give for all eternity.
And the purpose of the book of Revelation is to reveal that hope. The attitude
of Revelation is worship.

We've come back to that again and again and we'll come to it again and again as
we go through this book. The book began by telling us that it's all about the
Church of God worshiping Him and before we even began into these signs, we saw
this incredible worship experience, worship service we were invited to in heaven
and got to see what was happening there. And that is the attitude I've got to
carry throughout this book, that I am in worship, holy, holy, holy.

I am in worship of a holy God and in appreciation for who He is. Worship is
ascribing worth to something, it is recognizing what is really worth something
in this world. When I see God for who He really is, His worth, then I can see, I
can see the perspective I need on this book of Revelation.

And the book of Revelation, the story is God giving His inheritance to His
people. This world is passing away, but not just so that this world can pass
away. Yes, God is judging evil, but it's also so that He can create a new heaven
and a new earth so that this inheritance can come about that He has promised and
that He will fulfill.

Now with that in mind, the purpose is hope, the attitude is worship, the story
is God giving His inheritance to His people. Here is where we are in the story.
We began in Revelation chapter 1 with a picture of Jesus and who He is, and He
is at the center.

He is the main character of this story all throughout. Don't miss Jesus in every
chapter of the book of Revelation. We began in chapter 1 with this picture of
Jesus and then in chapter 2 and 3, we heard Jesus' messages to the church.

And now that we're in chapters 7, 8, and 9 and we're seeing God putting judgment
upon this world, I want to take you back to chapter 2 and 3 and remind you that
in Jesus' messages to the church, He is telling the church that the church first
of all is going to face judgment because they have not been following Him. The
Bible tells us that judgment begins with the household of God. Now God is not
going to judge us as followers of Christ with an eternity separate from Him.

That's already been settled. He's already passed from death into life. He's not
going to judge us with taking away our adoption.

That's already been settled. He's adopted us through His Spirit, but He does
judge us by discipline. And in chapter 2 and 3, you see often these words of
discipline to the church.

Judgment began with the household of God. And then we saw in Revelation chapter
4 and 5, two awesome chapters on worship, the glory of God and the reality of
heaven. And then we came back to earth and we began to look at these seven seals
and these seven trumpets.

We've already looked at all seven of the seals. These are the beginning of
judgment. Some believe that these seven seals have been with us from the time of
Jesus, that that's what this is expressing.

Others that they represent the start of a seven-year period of tribulation at
the end of this world, whatever it's a time of final conflict. And I've said to
you that I think it's a start of this seven years of tribulation of trouble at
the end of this world. These seven seals are the beginning of this conflict, of
this final conflict.

But even in the seals, you see good and bad together. You see that God is
working even in the midst of this time of tribulation. We're going to focus on
that a bit this week.

And then we began last week looking at the seven trumpets, the time of
devastation, of undeniable judgment. First on the earth, we looked at that last
week. And then this week, we're going to look at God's judgment upon people.

This is a time of final destruction. Those are going to be followed by seven
bowls, the final and authoritative judgment, the final wrath that's poured out
upon the earth. So right now, in a sense, we're in the middle of these three
sevens, the seven seals, the seven trumpets.

We're going to start with the fifth trumpet this week. It is good to remind
ourselves right in the middle that God is the judge and we are not. As human
beings, we're tempted.

We're tempted to think, and we get this message in our culture all the time,
that I can't believe in a God who would judge mankind. We're tempted to think I
want a God who is all good. Well, think about this with me for a minute.

A God who is good will deal with evil. I can't imagine a good God who doesn't
deal with evil. And when we say I don't believe in a God who would judge
mankind, we really mean I don't believe in a God who would judge me and the evil
that's in my life because we want him to judge a Hitler.

We want him to judge a Stalin. We want him to judge that kind of evil. We just
don't want him to judge our kind of evil.

But the truth of the matter is, one day God will judge evil. And instead of
playing armchair quarterback with God, God who has a love deeper than I'll ever
comprehend, a grace greater than I'll ever be able to touch, instead of
pretending that I can somehow be God, I need to drop the pretense that I'm God
and accept the fact, accept the fact that there's evil in me and that I need his
grace to escape this judgment. And then that grace has been given to me in Jesus
Christ.

As you and I read what's going to be poured upon this earth at the end of time,
it's a reminder that this earth is not what I want to hold on to. It is passing
away. And as John said in his letters, also its lusts.

But the one who holds on to who God is, that is eternal. The grace of God in
Jesus Christ means that we do not face an eternity of judgment of separation
from God. It means we face an eternity of reconciliation, of relationship, of
closeness to him in Jesus Christ.

Let's tell him how much we appreciate his love for us. Our Father, thank you for
your love. Thank you for your grace.

You know us. You see our hearts. We're human beings.

We tend to want to figure it out for ourselves. And when we read of these times
of judgment, we wish they didn't have to happen. But God, you even more grieve
that this has to happen.

We know that. But you will judge evil. And God, you will reward faith, a heart
that's turned to you.

God, in your judgment of evil, you allowed your son to suffer on the cross so we
would not have to face that judgment, that separation from you. And we thank you
for that. We do not know all that Jesus had to face.

As we read what happens in the book of Revelation, the pictures are terrible to
us at times. But we know that what he faced for us, it was even more terrible
than these pictures. All the evil, all the sin taken upon him, thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Father, for your love for us. And we pray that we would read the book
of Revelation, hear what you're going to do with an attitude of appreciation
that you are a good God whose goodness is going to prevail through all eternity.
We thank you for who you are.

In your name, we pray, Jesus. Amen. Tomorrow, we're going to begin to see the
spiritual depth of meaning behind these judgments as we look at the fifth
trumpet.