HOLY, HOLY, HOLY - Priscilla Shirer

Well, good morning, family. It's a pleasure to be here with you on this morning and to celebrate Jesus with you and to be amongst the body of Christ. I know not just in this room, but globally, as was mentioned, what a treat to know that we are all different and distinct, different time zones, different cultures, different languages, different ways of life. And yet what we have in common is Jesus. Amen. So I think for a few moments this morning, I'll just talk about Jesus, if that's all right. I know you've been standing for a moment in this room, but before you sit down, can I just read a couple of verses of scripture to you? I go to the kind of church where every now and then when the scripture is read, folks just stand up for the hearing of God's word. It reminds you that you are hearing from the King of Kings, that this is not just a book, it is God speaking. I want to read Revelation chapter four. After these things, I looked, John says, a door was standing open in the heavens. The first verse which I heard was like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me and the voice said, come up here. Immediately, verse two, I was in the spirit and behold, there was a throne standing in the heavens and someone was sitting down on the throne. He who was sitting down on the throne was like a jasper stone, a sardius in appearance. There was a rainbow around the throne like an emerald in appearance and around the throne there were 24 thrones. And upon those thrones, I saw 24 elders sitting clothed in white garments, golden crowns on their head. Verse eight, there were four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, all full of eyes around and within. And day and night they did not cease to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty

who was and is and is to come. Verse nine, the living creatures gave glory and honor and thanks to the one who was sitting down on the throne, to the one who lives forever and ever. And the 24 elders, they fell down before him who sits on the throne. They worship the one who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns down before the throne saying, worthy are you, our God, to receive glory and honor and power for you have created all things and because of your will, they exist and they were created. Father, we say in advance, holy are you, God, to receive glory and honor and power and authority. We worship you, Father. And it is in the name of Jesus, the name at which every knee bows, the name at which every tongue will confess, the name at which demons tremble. At the name of Jesus, we say, amen and amen. You may take your seats. It was nearly three decades ago now that I can remember being at a little small retreat that was happening for a group of women that were gathering together just to have a little conference, but more like a retreat. There were just 40 of us in the room yesterday here for your women's conference. This entire room was filled with women hungry for the word of God, including myself and to worship together. And I recall this one three decades ago, much smaller little room at a hotel, 40 of us sitting there. I was in my my late teens, early 20s, and there was a woman that was sharing her testimony. Her name was Dori. I was in my early 20s. She had to be in her 60s as she was sharing this testimony, and everybody was riveted by her testimony. We were all sitting on the edge of our seat in full anticipation to see what it was that Dori was going to say to us.

Miss Dori, I called her because she was sharing a riveting story about the way she grew up. She grew up in a contrary situation that was difficult for her and her entire family to navigate. She was devastated by the treatment that she and her younger sister received at the hands of her mother, who treated them with basically neglect. She was disregarded. She was in fact not only neglected but in many cases abused. She shared the reality that her mother really didn't love the two of them, didn't want to have the two of them, her and her little sister, and treated them as such. So for long hours during the day this mother would lock the two children into a closet so she wouldn't have to be bothered by them. Dory remembers being a very, very little girl and sitting there with her two-year-old sister for hour after hour. She said on some occasion those hours she would realize through the crack in the wall that she could tell that night had come, the sun had gone down, and then the sun would come back up. That was her only way of knowing they had actually been left all night long by this mother. She remembers trying to figure out how she was going to eat, how she was going to feed her little sister. Then she says she recalls one day after many years of living that way that her mother came home on one Sunday and said I'm gonna take you girls on a drive. She says she remembered the warmth in her heart because she thought finally her mother was expressing a little bit of love to the two of them. They were going on a Sunday afternoon drive. They got in the car, they went on a very long drive that took them down a long winding driveway when they ended up at their destination at a big building. She didn't know what it was. They walked up the stairs. Mom rang the doorbell of this big building and she said she didn't know until she actually turned around and saw that her mother had actually already gotten into the car, was ready to drive off before anybody had even answered the door, and when the door did open someone introduced themselves to the little girls and told them that they were at an orphanage. That was the last day they saw their mother. They had been dropped off at an orphanage where there

were 65 other girls and Miss Dory described at the retreat to us that day that really the neglect and abuse they suffered over those years at the orphanage was worse than what they had experienced at home. One thing led to another year after year. They were never adopted from that orphanage and so they ended up aging out, going into foster care. More trouble and more trouble and more trouble. One situation after another and as Miss Dory was giving this testimony all of us were riveted at the realities of what she had faced and she shared how some college students from a neighboring university had come to share Christ with the orphans and that is how she came to know Jesus Christ as Savior and just the story and testimony of her life. It was gripping, endearing in its devastation. When we had a lunch break that day there was a little book table outside. I remember going and grabbing Miss Dory's book. I don't even know if it's still in print. It's called The Girl Nobody Loved. I grabbed that book, grabbed my box lunch for the day. I sat in the corner of the room of that little retreat and I opened up that book and I started reading Miss Dory's story right then and there. The details in the book were even more devastating than what Miss Dory had shared when she was giving her testimony. I couldn't believe it. I remember my body kind of quivering in sadness. I remember tears welling up in my eyes and spilling over onto my cheeks and then I recall seeing a shadow coming over me and looking up and realizing that Miss Dory had walked over to me. She must have seen that I was reading her book. There she was standing in front of me and she leaned over to me, a young girl, 21 years old maybe. She put her hands on my shoulder and she said, sweet girl, as she wiped a tear from my eye, she said, don't you cry for me because God was with me the whole time. She said, I can't describe or I don't know why in his sovereignty he allowed me to be in that situation for that long but I do know as I look back on it that he was there. That he wove together a web of events that led me even to this day and she said, I want to tell you something. I'll never forget it. She said, I remember sitting in that closet and I wouldn't have been able to describe what was happening then. I was so young but she said, now in hindsight I have a

little picture of what it was God was doing because she said, I'd be sitting there in the dark and somehow I just remember looking upward in the darkness of that closet and seeing something like a window that seemed to open up where I just had an awareness of God's presence, God's nearness. I wouldn't have been able to put a fingerprint on what it was. I just knew that his presence was there, that he would never leave me nor forsake me. I knew that even though I felt unloved and unseen that there was somebody who had their eyes on me, who knew my story, who wouldn't let it end this way. I knew that God was near and no Knowing that he was near is what made all the difference. John, in the book of Revelation, has something of a door that has been opened up to him. He has been made aware that God is near. And John needs to know this because when we meet him in Revelation chapter four, the entire book of Revelation, John is like Dory in a situation that he would not have preferred to be in. When we meet him in Revelation, y'all, John is now 80 years old. This is the same John that would have walked with Jesus, that gave us the gospel, where he chronicled the experiences that he'd had with Jesus, walking with him and talking with him, a mountaintop experience, so to speak, where he had been with Jesus when Jesus had caused deaf ears to hear and blind folks to see and the lame to walk. He was there when the dead was raised. He got to experience Jesus teaching and preaching

with an authority and a supernatural weight that the likes of which would draw multitudes of people to hang on every word that Jesus said. There was such an awe in every word that Jesus spoke. I want you to think about how you would feel if Jesus were your Bible study teacher. John says, I was there. I experienced it for myself. I saw the woman who pressed through the crowd to be able to reach out and touch Jesus at the hem of his garment. I watched power leave Jesus and come into her life and change the trajectory of her entire experience. John had seen it with his own eyes. He'd heard it with his own ears. He had experienced walking with Jesus, but when we meet him in Revelation, his experience has completely been changed. He has been exiled now to an island called Patmos, which is like a penal colony that was reserved for criminals or enemies of the state, those that Rome had decided to send away. 10 miles off of the coast of Asia Minor, in the Aegean Sea was Patmos, and Patmos was like a rock quarry, hard things all around him, the Mediterranean sun beating down on him. Everywhere he looked, there were just hard things, rocks, stones, boulders everywhere, no respite, no reprieve from the heat of the day.

His life would have been devastating and miserable, disappointing. He would have wondered how after walking with Jesus all that time, how after experiencing those mountaintop experiences that I'd had with Jesus, seeing the transfiguration, the glory of God fall on Jesus and hearing the Father say, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. How did I go from this to that? John is in the middle of hard things, and I would assume that in a group this size in this room and on the other side of the screen, wherever you are on the globe, you know exactly how John feels to go from this to that. Where you're trying to figure out how did my life end up like this? Where I feel like I'm on a rock quarry, basically everywhere I look, there are hard things of different sizes and different textures and different realities that I go in one place in my life and there's a hard thing there. And as soon as I deal with that one, I turn around and in the other direction, there's a hard thing there. And as soon as I deal with that one, I turn around and there's another one that I'm facing. In my family or in my finances or on my job or in my ministry or in my own health,

in the raising of my children, relational dynamics, hard things all around, John knows exactly how you feel. And in the midst of that closet, in the midst of that darkness, in the midst of that hardship, in the midst of that difficulty, John says in Revelation chapter four, verse two, I looked up and saw there was a door and the door seemed to be open to me, letting me know that I had access to heavenly places, letting me know that the presence of God, the power of God, the peace of God was with me even while I sat in the midst of hard things. Because sometimes y'all, he doesn't take you out of the hard stuff, he just meets you while you're in it. John says, I looked up and there was a door. Maybe the problem is we're not looking up. Maybe the problem is that we're looking, giving so much attention to what it is that we're facing, the hard stuff that is around us that is real and heartbreaking and hard to walk through. But if we would just pause, not just on Sunday morning, but if we would just pause in the regular rhythms of our Mondays and our Tuesdays and our relational dynamics on Wednesdays and our financial struggles on Thursdays and the diagnosis we receive. on Fridays and the realities that we're facing on a regular old Saturday. Maybe if we as believers in Jesus Christ would pause long enough to look up,

we would see there is a door that remains open in the heavens, giving us access and awareness to the nearness of the presence of God. John says, I looked up and when I did, it changed everything. I saw there was a door and the door was open. The reason why it matters to us, y'all, and it's so significant that John writes that the door is open is because just several verses earlier at the bottom of Revelation chapter three, there was a letter that is being written about the church of Laodicea. Here's what it says in Revelation chapter three, verse 20. Jesus says, I stand at the door and knock. I wish somebody would come and open up this door. He is writing about the church and he says, I'm standing on the outside of the church and I'm knocking on the door that they have closed, which means it's possible for us to be in here and him to be out there. It's possible as the church of Jesus Christ for us to be in here celebrating personalities or platitudes or programs and be without his presence. Lord, help us if we're in here, but Jesus is out there. Jesus says, I'm standing outside the door of my own church and I'm knocking on the door, which means they close the door through their indifference, through their rebellion, through their hard heartedness, through their stubbornness, through their apathy, they close the door. But even when we close the door to him, aren't we glad that he is so faithful that the door of heaven remains open to us? So I'm telling you that even if you have been faith less, even if you have closed the door through your rebellion or indifference, even if you have a child that is breaking your heart right now because they seem to be on the run from God, disinterested in the fact that he's standing at the door,

would you be heartened today in knowing that even when we as humanity close the door, that he is faithful to make sure that the door of heaven remains open? The hound of heaven comes looking for us even when we're not looking for him. John says, the door is open. I looked up and I realized I had access to heaven, that the presence of God was still with me. And then I heard a voice and the voice said, come up here. It's the invitation of a lifetime. Would you brothers and sisters hear the Holy Spirit saying even now, come up here, that even while your feet are firmly planted in the realities of earth, the hard stuff of earth, that even in those moments we can always hear a whisper of the Holy Spirit giving us the invitation of a lifetime to come up here, which means as we talked about the women at the conference yesterday, we talked about the fact that as believers in Jesus Christ, we should always all be living in two places at the exact same time. Our feet firmly planted in the realities of earth, but our mind fixed on things eternal. That we're in two places at the exact same time. It's like the apostle Paul saying in Colossians chapter three, if then you've been raised up, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the father, set your mind on things above, not on things that are on the earth for you have died and your life is hidden in Christ with God. So as a daughter, as a son of the most high God, yeah, you on earth, but your mind, your eyes are fixed on Jesus.

John, he sees the open door. He's still on Patmos. Life is not what he would prefer, but he recognizes he has access to heaven. The nearness of God, the presence of God makes all the difference. He wants to know, wants us to know this morning that just in case Patmos has been so hard for you for me, just in case this Sunday morning meets you at a time in your life where your heart is broken actually because of grief, loss, betrayal, hardship. If you faced so many difficult things lately that honestly it's kind of dulled you, it's made you a little bit. may be hard-hearted or you feel that you're unable to actually get a glimpse of this door because sometimes y'all life is so difficult, Patmos is so hard that sometimes you don't even know how to pray. You'd like to pray but you can't even find the words. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Where you just feel a little dull in your relationship with God and you're having a hard time detecting the nearness of God, the fingerprints of God. You can't quite trace his hand and you can't quite hear his voice and you maybe feel discouraged on this Sunday morning. John says to us today, I want you to just allow me to hold your hand for just a few more moments because if you can't make out the door to heaven, hold my hand for just a few moments because I'm gonna take you to the door. Because if you will let me take your hand for just a few moments and take you to this door to show you what's on the other side of the door, if you'll let me show you what's on the other side of the door, it's gonna change the course of your life. John says come with me for just a few moments. Verse 2, he says I looked on the other side of the door and the very first thing I saw was a throne. He says behold there is a throne and the throne was set in the heavens. Despite the devastating realities around him, despite the difficulty that he's facing, despite the overwhelm that you may feel,

despite the insurmountable realities of life that seem to be overwhelming, John says pause for a moment and come with me and look on the other side of this door because when you do you're gonna see the reality that there is a throne and the throne is set. It is unmovable. It is unchangeable. It is untouchable. It is unbothered. It is unaffected. There is no coup that is powerful enough to overthrow it. There is no person that is influential enough to usurp it. There is no dictator that is forceful enough to seize it. John says look, behold there is a throne and the throne is not affected by what has affected you. The throne is unmoved, unchanged, and undisputed. The throne remains on the other side of this door. There is a central feature in the book of Revelations that he wants us to wrap our mind around and it's the throne. The book of Revelation can be overwhelming for us. There are so many nuances and symbols and things we can't quite make out and we try to understand and this might be one of the books of the Bible that as your pastor on the podcast that he has wonderfully created takes you through each book of the Bible. It's important that we have guidance for books of the Bible that we don't understand names we can't pronounce. Books like Leviticus that we can't get through and Revelation is one of those where there are so many nuances that it can be intimidating to us. John says even if you can't get all the nuances and details and dynamics of the book of Revelation there is one thing that I don't want you to miss because it's mentioned dozens of times throughout the book of Revelation. Thirteen times in this one chapter alone John keeps saying there is a throne. He keeps saying if you can't get nothing else out of this would you remember there's a throne. Would you remember there is a seat of authority. There is an ultimate seat of power. There is a seat of sovereignty that is not moved, not shifted, does not change even though your reality does. And I don't know about y'all but I'm so glad in the unstable always changing realities of earth that there is a throne that has not been shaken and it has not been moved. John says there is a throne and he looks up and he sees this throne that is seated in the heavens where the sovereign Lord remains. And so he says that the reason why this matters is

because there is so much that is shifting and changing in life you need to know that there is an anchor that remains behind the door. That there is indeed a throne to the first century believers that John would have originally been writing this letter. The reason why it mattered so much is because they were in a Roman culture that was completely anti-Christ and the Emperor had so much power, so much influence, had even convinced people to worship him the Emperor as God. Everything about the entire culture was antithetical to living in the way that honored Christ. And I don't know if you've noticed or not but that culture sounds a lot like ours. Where everything around us no matter what part of the world you live in, is increasingly anti-Christ. Because y'all, back in the day, even if people weren't Christians, even if people didn't attend church, even if people weren't sure they believed in Jesus being the Messiah, they at least respected if you did. They at least respected that the morals, the tenets of scriptures were at least a good way to live. So they respected you if you honored the Bible, but not anymore. Now, if you're deciding to follow Jesus, if you're deciding to stand firmly on the promises of God, if you're deciding, as for me and my house, what we gonna do is we gonna serve the Lord. If you decided to honor him, you will increasingly be antithetical to the entire system of the culture in which we live. The people in the first century knew exactly how that felt,

to have a seat of power that was antithetical to biblical, to Christ-like principles. John says to them the same thing he says to us, they're not in charge, he is. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. There is a throne, and it has not been moved or shaken. There is a throne, and it is above every throne. It is above all earthly thrones. It is above all powers. It is above all human authorities. It is above all seats of influence. It is above all presidents, above all administrations, above all monarchs, above all kings, above all governmental systems, above all institutions, above all establishments. There is a throne. The throne has not been replaced. It has not been moved. It has not been diminished in power, and it is also not unoccupied. Because John says, John says, I saw a throne, and there was somebody sitting on the throne.

Because what good is a throne that ain't nobody sitting on? John says, when I looked up through the door, there was not just a seat of power, there was somebody sitting in the seat of power. There was somebody in the ultimate seat of sovereignty and authority, meaning that nothing in his oversight, nothing in his peer view was happening outside of his ultimate control, that he was aware, that he sees, that he knows about your patness, that there is nothing that you're facing, nothing that you've been through, no reality that we've experienced that has shocked us. It has not shocked him. He is above all, and over all, and seated in complete sovereign control on the throne. And the reason why this matters is because if you really believe it, like if we believe in the sovereign sitting power of the Almighty God, it changes the way you live. It allows you to do what Psalm 46.10 says, be still, cease to strive, chill out, and know that I am God. Amen. Thank you, Lord. In the ancient Near East, this timeframe of the Bible, kings didn't sit. When there was a war, when there was a battle in full motion, kings did not sit, they stood.

They stood and they paced and they walked and they watched. They wanted to have oversight. They wanted to be conveying strategy. They wanted to have military strategists that were constantly coming to them. They wanted to be the leaders of the nation. They wanted to be the ones constantly coming to them. They stood up while the battle was in motion. The only time a king sat down is once the battle had already been won, to convey to everybody around them that the victory had been secured. John says, look, because when you look through the door, you will not just see that there is a throne, and you will not just see that there is a savior. He is not pacing or walking. He is sitting down on the throne to make sure you know that the battle has already been won. Which means you are not just fighting or you are not at all fighting for victory. You are fighting from victory. The battle's already been secured. You're already on the winning side. John says, look, he's sitting on the throne. He is your sovereign ruler. But John says, that's not all I saw. It didn't just change me and transform me and help me to be still and remember that he is God. It reminds us that he is God. When our child has left home and has broken our heart. Or when our marriage has slowly dissolved. Or when the financial downturn has brought our family or our business to its knees. Or when the doctor's diagnosis has shocked you and shifted the course of your life.

Or when death has stolen the picture of what you thought your future would be. Or when your unmet dreams or unmet realities make you simmer with a low-grade discontent and sadness. He says, see your savior who's sitting on the throne. Orchestrating, planning, allowing, restraining, sustaining. He is your sovereign ruler. He's sitting on the throne. And John says in verse 2 and 3, when I looked and saw that he was sitting on the throne. I also noticed that there was something around the throne. John says, I don't want you to just know what was on the throne. I want you to know what was around it. He says, he was sitting on the throne like a jasper stone. That's an uncut diamond. A sardius which is like a ruby red in appearance. And there was a rainbow around the throne. Jerry and I have been married 27 years. We have three boys. And our three boys are big old men now. They're big and they all keep coming back home. Somebody come help me feed these people. 23 years old, just turned 22 year old. And then our surprise baby is 17 years old. His name is Jude. Jackson, Jerry Jr. and Jude. I told the women yesterday that we named him Jude on purpose. Because we don't know how he got here. And that's as close to revelation as I could get. Because it is finished. That was the end of the line right there, Jude. And these three boys, grown men now, but when they were younger, one of their calling cards, all three of them with me and with their dad,

is that they were lovey-dovey boys. They liked to hug. They would come to us, particularly when they were getting a little bit sleepy or tired. They would ram their head into my chest. They'd want me to wrap my arms around them. They'd jump in the bed with us. They were all cuddly. That's what they enjoyed doing. And I would hug them. They would hug me back. And when I'd hug them every single time in their young years, every single time I'd wrap them up tight in my arms or their dad did, every hug was designed to communicate to them, I love you and I've got your back. Well, as they've gotten older, those of you that have teenage boys in particular, I'm sure girls as well, they go through these stages where they don't really want you to touch them. I mean, they're not really jumping in the bed anymore, trying to cuddle. That's not the thing they want to do. And then, you know, they might give you a hug, but it's this little raggedy pat that they give you on your shoulder, you know. They're not really into it like they used to be into it. I hear that they come back around in later years in life. I can see that with my sons now. They're coming back around now, hugging me a little bit more securely. But there were those years where they were kind of like, Mom, you know, don't touch me too long. And, you know, even then, I would still gather them up in my arms and I'd hug them real tight because I'm still saying the same thing. I love you and I've got your back.

Whether or not you are hugging me is not relevant. I'm hugging you because I'm saying I love you and I've got your back, regardless of what your response is. Millennia before Revelation, chapter 4. Millennia before. God gave humanity a hug. It was in Genesis, chapter 9, when rebellion had so saturated the entire earth that the earth needed to be destroyed by a flood. And for 40 days and 40 nights, the sky opened up and the rain fell and flooded the entire earth. Everyone would have been destroyed except through one man's obedience named Noah and the ark that he built, mankind, was preserved. And after 40 days and 40 nights, God's wrath was assuaged and the sky shut up and the rain stopped falling. And as the water began to descend and decrease, God painted a rain. across the sky. It was a hug to humanity. It wasn't just about water, the rainbow wasn't just about water, it was about a new covenant being instituted with humanity. He was hugging them to say I love you and I've got your back. From this point forward I will deal with you according to the covenant of grace. Mercy will always triumph over judgment. My patience, my loving kindness, I will be slow to anger. Is anybody grateful? And I will be great in loving kindness. My mercy will endure forever. Here we are all these years later and John looks up and he says behold behind the door I saw not only that there was a throne and I saw not only that he was on the throne but I saw above the throne that the rainbow remained a sign of his mercy and a sign of his grace and a sign of his goodness. That he keeps his covenant from one generation to the next

generation. Which means that he is not just a sovereign ruler y'all, he is also a promise keeper. That he keeps his promises from one generation to the next generation. So here is God still giving a humanity a hug. That whether or not you hug him back is not relevant. He's hugging you to let you know my grace is sufficient. My mercy endures. That there is nothing that you've done, listen to me, there is nowhere that you've been, there is no path you've walked down, there is no relationship that you've chosen, there is no influence that you've allowed, there is no addiction that you've had, there's no shackles that have been on your life, there is nothing that you have done in your past, your present, or your future that can work you out of the never-ending grace and mercy of our great sovereign God. Because he is a promise keeper. And the rainbow is still a sign that his mercy endures. So if the pit you're in right now is a pit you dug for yourself. Because see I don't know your testimony, I could just tell you mine. That most of the time when I end up in a pit, I can look back and actually see where I took the spade and dug the pit for myself. Like I knew when I said the thing it was a pit. I knew when I made the post it was a pit. I knew when I communicated in that way, when I allowed that relationship, when I walked down that path, when I went on the first date. You already knew that you shouldn't have been there doing that, saying that, experiencing that, allowing that, and before you know it you looked up and you realize you are in a pit that is too deep for you to get yourself out of. John says right there in the pit look up. You're gonna see that there is a rainbow. Which means his arm is not too short that he cannot save. He will reach down in that pit and snap you up out of it and change the course of your life. His mercy endures forever. He is a sovereign ruler. He is a promise keeper. And John sees him behind the door and he sees living creatures all around the throne. He can't even fully describe what they look like. He's just trying to find words and phrases and images that the first century believers would have been able to to utilize to in some way get a handle to what it was he was seeing on the other side of this door because there were creatures and colors and experiences and nuances you can tell

as he's writing. He can't even fully describe what he's seeing. He says I don't know exactly what I saw but I know what I heard. That everything that had breath, everything that was able, everything that had opportunity to sing worship to the one who was sitting on the throne said holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. And those that had crowns on their head anything reputable to speak of in the presence of the sitting King the one over whom the rainbow remained they took off their crowns and laid them down at the feet of Jesus and said worthy are you God to receive glory and honor and power and authority, both now and forevermore. Praise God. And so I wonder today, if you have ever gotten a glimpse of the sitting king, I wonder today if there is anybody in this room or on the other side of the screen and you do not even know for sure that you've had a relationship with this king. I'm telling you, you cannot make it in life without a glimpse of this throne. This throne. Life's too hard, I'm telling you, unless you know somebody sitting on the throne, unless you know there is an anchor, unless you know there is one who is unmoving and unchanging, who is faithful and able to present you faultless before the throne with exceeding great joy, you won't make it. But John says today, you can get a glimpse of Jesus. It'll change your life. Will you bow your heads with me, please? Can I ask you if you have ever received Jesus Christ as your savior? If maybe this is the first day it's occurred to you that the rainbow remains, like it's still there.

Mercy triumphs over judgment. You are not too far gone to come into relationship with Jesus Christ. He invites you into relationship with himself today. And wherever you are, in any part of the world, but also any part of this room, if you are not sure that you have placed faith in Jesus Christ, and like John, you need a fresh view of Jesus. While every head is bowed and eyes are closed, would you please, if that's you, would you raise your hand and just wave it at me and look at me so that I know that's a decision you need to make today? Yes, brother. Anybody else? Yes, I see you. Anybody else? Yes. Yes. Yes, I see you all in the back of the room. Yes, ma'am. Yes, sis. Come on, who else? If your heart is burning on the inside of you, that's because God is calling you today. Anybody else? Holy are you, God? Yes, sir. Okay. There are hands that have gone up all over the room, and I'm sure there are many others of you in other rooms. You've raised your hand. You know that the Lord is calling you into relationship with himself. We are so grateful to stand with you in that choice today to come into the family of God.

The Bible says if you confess with your mouth and you believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, you will be saved. And so I'm just going to say a prayer. Y'all, there are no magic in the words. You are just confessing with your mouth for the purpose of believing in your heart. And I'm going to ask that we will pray this all together today as the body of Christ so that we can build an atmosphere of faith for those who may be praying it for the very first time. Is that all right? Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, I am a sinner in need of a Savior. And I believe that you are that Savior. So today, I place faith alone in Christ alone to remove my sins. Take up residence in me in the person of the Holy Spirit right now in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. Come on church, let's say amen. Amen. We're going to sing that hymn of the church,

but in just a second. If you're here today, I'm going to ask this. Those that have made that decision today, that door has been standing open and you've just responded. You'll see something on the screen that you'll see a number you can text. You'll see online you can... It decided, email decided to growthtsc.nyc. If you hit decided to 51,000, text that. We will respond immediately, and there's a number of things that will begin to help with growth. But if you're here present, if you go over to exit seven at the end of the church, at the end of the service, there are people that will walk you through, get you a Bible, that'll take you to exit seven. Don't forget, email or text. But if you're here today, how many are right now, like Priscilla said, that are in a hard situation, and you need a throne on that thing right now? How many are there right now? Okay, raise your hand. Just say, I need a throne on that situation right now. I want us to sing this. I want us to sing the words of heaven of this song. I want you to get out of your seat.

I want us to pray for you right now, quickly. Get out of your seat, and I want you to make your way down here, and we're gonna begin to pray. Come on, sing this with me. Holy, holy, as they begin. Come on, you come, balcony, main floor. We're gonna begin to pray that a throne comes over that situation. Come on. ♪ Lord God almighty ♪ Early in the morning. Come on, sing it like a choir. ♪ Early in the morning ♪ ♪ Our song shall rise to thee ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty ♪ Let's sing that second verse, that second verse. Come on, let's bring it up. Come on, sing it with us. ♪ Blessed Trinity ♪ Come on, sing that second verse. Come on, holy, holy. ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ All the saints adoring ♪ ♪ Casting down their golden crowns of glory ♪ ♪ Round the vast sea ♪ ♪ Shepherds, shepherds, shepherds ♪ ♪ Falling down before thee ♪ ♪ We swear by thy holy name ♪ Come on, let's sing that third and first together.

Come on, let's sing it strong. Holy, holy. This is the verse I like. Though the darkness hide thee. Come on, church. Sing it with us now. ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪ Come on, say these words. Though the darkness. ♪ Though the darkness hide thee ♪ ♪ Holy I am, sin no man thy glory is ♪ ♪ There is none beside thee ♪ Lift that hand and say, only thou art holy. Tell it right now. ♪ Only thou art holy ♪ ♪ There is none beside thee ♪ ♪ Worthy in power, love and glory ♪ ♪ Love and glory ♪ The rocks, the rocks, the hard places. Let me just say this. Those rocks seem to hide thee, to hide him in those times, to hide him. But here's what I love about that song. When finally that declaration comes in verse three and you just go, though the darkness hide thee. Then you make the direction, only thou art holy. Only thou art holy. And what I love about that revelation four is this, is that when he gets called up, when he gets called to lift his eyes,

to see that door, that door. You know what the Bible says? It said, I heard the voice like a trumpet. It wasn't a whisper. Do you ever hear a trumpet all by itself? It's really annoying. And I have no doubt that it wasn't a jazz trumpeter. That was just a bugle that was saying, there is a door, there is a throne, there is a king, and there are promises that are gonna be kept. And thank God, thank God. Today, what we do today is. those rocky places, in those hard places, we not just see the door, we're gonna walk in and just say, God, I see a throne today. Come on, lift those hands for just a moment. Father, we're here at this altar. Cindy and I stand here. Our elders, our staff, we stand with them. The choir would be here, the band, the singers. We lift our hands saying, we need to see that throne in this hard place right now. We need to know there's a sovereign king on that throne right now. So, Father, we declare you are holy. That God, when they walk through, when John began to hear, hear, he heard those words, holy, holy, holy. So, Father, may this hymn today be the very thing that just reminds us that there is a throne, there is a God, there is a promise-keeping God. Every time we hear those words, whether it's the hymn, whether it's the holy, holy that we sing all the time, CC Winans, whatever, however, whatever form it comes in, when we hear those words, holy, holy, we'll lift our hands and say, there is a throne. There is a God that keeps his promises. And, Lord, we thank you that those words will remind us today. Those words will remind us today, and we thank you for it. In Jesus' name, in Jesus' name, and everybody said amen and amen.