I don't know if you've ever owned or had one of those 3D magic eye books.
Tim's going to throw a picture up for me.
I don't know if you remember when these first came out.
Some of you won't because you were probably born afterwards.
But I remember when these first came out and you get given the book
and there was just this peer pressure to act like you could see the picture.
And so everyone's passing around the book at school and you're looking at it going,
yeah, I can see the boat.
That's it over here, right?
Yeah, I mean in the middle.
That's where it is.
That's the boat, right?
And you're looking at it and everyone's going, it's simple.
Just look.
Look again.
Just fuzzy your eyes.
And I'm like, how do you fuzzy your eyes?
What kind of an instruction is that?
And so some people are just glancing at it going, yeah, it's no worries.
But when you first look at it, it's just this mess.
It's like, that's not anything, surely.
It's just a mess and they're making it up to make me look stupid.
You're waiting for one day.
Everyone's going to turn around and go, there's no pictures.
We know that you were pretending when you said you could saw the boat.
It looks like a mess.
And to see what's in there, you have to actually train your eyes to look past that first bit.
To go beyond your first glance, you need to look properly and see what is really there.
Now, this book of Revelation that we've been studying to the first century church, this letter, it's a pastoral one.
The bishop reminded us last week.
It's encouraging in many ways.
It's challenging in many ways.
But more than anything else, it's enlightening.
Because this book of Revelation, what it does is it trains the hearts and eyes of Christians so that they have right perspective.
It gives them the ability to see beyond their circumstance, to not be overwhelmed by what's happening today or next week or next month, and to see into eternity.
This book is designed to enable them to understand more fully the significance of Jesus' death and resurrection.
And tonight, we drop into chapter 12 of Revelation, which is almost like a snapshot of the whole book wrapped up in one chapter.
Chapters 12, 13 and 14 kind of sit together.
And they are really a summary of what Revelation is about without all the detail that comes in other bit.
And even though this snapshot that we get is a little bit creative and maybe a little bit confusing, it is a snapshot of history and eternity.
And it's showing us that things are not how they seem, that things are not how they look at first glance.
The pain and the struggle that the churches were facing, the pain and the struggle and the suffering that we face as Christians now is real and even normal.
But it's not the whole picture.
When we follow Jesus.
And so to give John this perspective, to give us this perspective, God gives John another vision.
Have a look with me at verse 1 and 2.
A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven.
A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and the crown of 12 stars on her head.
She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
So first up, we've got this woman wearing the sun.
This woman is representative of Israel, of God's people.
That's what the 12 stars is about.
It's pointing us back to the 12 tribes in the Old Testament.
And she's in pain and she's about to give birth.
And there's this sense of expectation that something is going to come out of Israel.
Something is going to come out of God's people.
The next bit, verse 3.
So John sees this dragon, this enormous red dragon with horns and crowns and heads.
And verse 9 tells us that this dragon is Satan.
This is the devil.
His horns and his crowns tell us that Satan wants the power and the influence and the authority of God.
That's his desire.
And we know in this vision that Satan is sitting, waiting, wanting to devour the child that will come out of God's people.
Wanting to devour whatever it is that God's people will produce.
And we see what that is in verse 5.
She, the woman, gave birth to a son, a male child who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.
And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
So a child is born.
He's male.
He will rule.
And we know that he won't just be any male child who will rule.
This will be the saviour.
The fact that he will rule the nations with an iron scepter, that points us back to a special kind of king.
That Israel is waiting for a king in the line of David.
This baby, this child is Jesus.
And we're told in the vision that he is snatched up to God before Satan can devour him.
He is placed on his throne and the woman flees off into the desert to be taken care of by God.
And then the last bit of this vision in verse 7.
So Satan pursues the child.
He's waiting there to devour him.
But he misses his opportunity because Jesus is snatched up to heaven and onto the throne.
And instead he is cast out by the angels and hurled down to the earth.
Okay, deep breath.
Seems simple enough, right?
So we've got God's people.
Jesus is being born.
Satan is against them.
Satan misses his opportunity.
Jesus goes onto his throne.
Satan gets hurled down.
You with me so far?
I know there's a bit of weirdness.
So we've got to understand when we read things like this in God's word that this is a prophetic vision.
Which means it's not precise.
We can't necessarily connect every bit of this vision to specific details in history.
Even though it's obviously talking about some real things that did actually happen in history.
There's kind of links and connections we can make in this vision.
But we need to be careful how hard or how closely we do that.
I mean, you've got a woman and a dragon or a serpent clashing.
Which points us back to the Garden of Eden when you had a woman tempted by a serpent.
And listen to these words when God pronounces judgment on the serpent back in Genesis 3.
He says,
I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers.
He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.
It's pointing us maybe to something that we are already warned about.
The woman being taken off into the desert to be protected for the 1,200 days reminds us of God rescuing his people out of Egypt.
Taking them out into the desert.
The book of Exodus talks about them being carried on eagle's wings just like the woman is.
And then at the same time, this vision could almost connect to the situation of the early church when they were reading this book.
The dragon is the emperor Domitian who is persecuting the Christians fiercely.
He's killing them left, right and centre.
And they are at his whim, it seems.
So there's things that we can connect through history that kind of are part of this vision.
But the focus is really in a tiny little bit of detail that comes in the middle of it.
The focus of this encounter between Jesus and the woman and the dragon is Jesus' life itself.
That's the bit we need to hone in on.
His temptation in the wilderness, his death at the hands of the Roman authorities.
In this passage, Jesus' life is summarised in 21 words.
Basically, he's born and then he goes to heaven and sits on the throne.
Those words are shorthand for the most significant event in human and created history ever.
See, what this vision is telling us is that Jesus' life itself,
his life growing up, his obedience to his father,
his life, his death and resurrection,
Jesus' life was the battle between Satan and Jesus.
It's not something in the future.
It's not something that happens out there in the heavens and we can't see it.
The battle took place on earth when Jesus came.
His death and his resurrection were the means by which Satan gets beaten.
And we see that because Satan gets hurled down.
Even as the angels are the ones kicking him out of heaven,
it's actually the blood of the lamb that overcame Satan.
It's Jesus' life, Jesus' death and Jesus' resurrection
that actually win the battle against Satan.
This great and wondrous sign that John gets shown is Jesus.
In all its weirdness and wonderfulness,
this chapter is a gospel chapter.
God is opening John's eyes to look at Jesus and Jesus' victory.
God is showing John that Jesus is sitting on his throne now.
And at the same time, Satan is wallowing in defeat now.
And it gets really clear for us because God gives us a clear interpretation
with a voice from heaven in verse 10.
I heard a loud voice in heaven say,
Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Christ for the accuser of our brothers
who accuses them before our God day and night has been hurled down.
They overcame him by the blood of the lamb
and by the word of their testimony.
They did not love their lives so much as to shrink back from death.
Now salvation has come.
This vision is pointing to an event that happened a few decades
before the early church would have heard about in this letter.
This letter is pointing to an event that happened thousands of years
before we opened it up tonight.
This is a past tense verse.
It says salvation is here now.
The kingdom is here now.
Jesus sits on the throne reigning in authority now.
Satan's been defeated.
The death and resurrection of Jesus have won the battle.
Satan has lost.
Forgiveness is available.
And yet, is that how it looked and felt for the early church reading this book?
I mean, we know that the churches were being persecuted.
When we read the letters in the first chapters,
we know they were facing opposition.
They were suffering.
We know that people are dying daily for calling Jesus their Lord
and for refusing to bow to the pressure of the Roman emperor.
Does it feel like salvation has come in your life?
Does it feel like Jesus sits on his throne in your situation?
I mean, the tension is hinted at in verse 11.
Did you catch it?
They overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.
They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
Satan was overcome, but they still died.
The victory was won, but they still died.
Even with the victory of Jesus, even having been washed in the blood of the lamb,
even being forgiven, they still died.
Many of them violently.
And yet, we get this verse.
We get this voice from heaven that says,
they were victorious in their deaths.
The kingdom of God,
the salvation that is talked about in this verse,
is not what we sometimes think it should be.
It's better.
A couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to go on holidays,
just for a few days, to visit my sister in Dubbo.
It was a trip with a particular milestone that made me a very proud dad.
We mapped out when you've got to do five hours driving with a two and a half year old.
You really have to pick when you're going to stop,
how you're going to do it, when he's going to sleep,
what's an appropriate amount of drugs to put it.
No, I'm just joking.
Just how are you going to get from A to B without losing your mind and smacking your child inappropriately.
And this, for us, involved McDonald's,
because McDonald's has good food for me, it has good play equipment for him.
And the milestone was that our first pit stop,
my son came out with the word Maccas.
And basically, that is all he says when we're driving in the car now.
He's just looking for the next Maccas that he can stop at.
And I'm very proud because those of you who know me will know that McDonald's is a passion of mine.
But the funny thing is, we went to McDonald's multiple times and he didn't eat food once.
He's not interested.
I tried to give him hash brown.
He's like, no, just give me my mushy Wheat Bix or whatever.
And so he thinks Maccas is just about Playland.
And look, Playland is great.
But because he has this limited understanding,
he doesn't realise the goodness that he's on offer behind the counter at McDonald's,
he's sold himself short and settled for less.
And look, we have this limited understanding when it comes to the glorious future that God is preparing for us.
And we need to be careful that when we dream about the kingdom of God,
when we hope for our future,
when we imagine what he will do and what good he will bring in our life,
that we don't pull the kingdom back in and make it small and less impressive than it actually is.
The kingdom of God is victorious.
But we mustn't let our understanding of what that looks like be limited by our own sinful imagination.
This verse, verse 10, that salvation has come, that the kingdom has come,
was true for those Christians suffering 2,000 years ago.
And it's true for Christians around the world today facing persecution in Iraq and Syria.
And it's true for Christians today in Chatswood.
Facing temptation and depression and failing in their battle with sin.
We are both citizens of heaven and residents of earth.
Our names are immovably etched into the book of life.
God is preparing a place for us in glory.
And yet right now we live in a fallen and limited and pain-filled world.
This is the reality of the kingdom now.
It's there in verse 12.
Therefore, because salvation has come, because the kingdom has come,
because Christ sits on the throne,
therefore rejoice you heavens and you who dwell in them.
That's us.
But woe to the earth and the sea,
because the devil has gone down to you.
He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short.
Woe to you who live on the earth.
That's us.
When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth,
he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.
The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle
so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert,
where she would be taken care of for a time, times, and half a time,
out of the serpent's reach.
The woman is rescued, but there is an ominous warning in verse 17.
Then the dragon was enraged at the woman
and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring,
those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
That's us.
Because we live in both heaven and earth,
because we are citizens of heaven,
because we are guaranteed our place,
because we belong to that kingdom that is not of this world,
we experience both the joy that is declared for heaven
and the woe that is declared for earth.
Sadness and depression are not alternatives to joy in the Christian life.
We will experience both.
I mean, did you catch it there?
In verse 17, we are at war in our day-to-day life.
Satan is our enemy.
He is a wounded enemy,
but he will do anything to share the pain that he experiences with us.
There was a football game yesterday.
I've been very restrained.
We're 15 minutes in and I haven't mentioned it yet.
There was a football game yesterday
and there are some notable absences from church tonight.
But there was a football game yesterday
between the Sydney Swans and the Hawthorne Hawks.
You all know that I support a couple of teams
and whoever's playing the Swans.
Now, I could have gotten up to gloat tonight.
I could have intentionally, you know,
modelled my wardrobe on brown and gold.
Would have been tough.
But I could have intentionally dressed that way.
And you can imagine the pain that that would have caused for certain people.
Like I said, the Smiths particularly may have had to take a week off to recover afterwards
because of the damage to the relationship.
Waving that pain back in their face
would have been just exacerbating what they were already feeling.
And what we need to understand is that
Satan is a defeated enemy.
And every time he sees somebody who bears the name of Jesus,
it's like we wave the jersey in front of his face to remind him that he lost.
He is antagonised by people who love Jesus in their day-to-day life.
He is enraged every time you make a decision to treasure Jesus
above the things in the world.
He desperately wants to cover up that light of salvation that dwells in us.
He wants to damage our lives with pain and sin and temptation,
so much so that our love for Jesus will be diluted
or maybe even extinguished.
The war with Satan will not go forever.
Satan is defeated and the times, time and half a time,
the 1260 days, that's three and a half,
which in Revelation speak means a limited time.
Satan has not been sent down here with just open slather.
He knows that his time is short.
But until Jesus returns, we are at war.
And war is not easy.
If nothing else, reading this should make us ready
for what we will face in life.
If you're a follower of Jesus,
you must expect that life will throw things at you
that make it hard to treasure Jesus,
that make it hard to put him first.
One of our core values as a church is humble authenticity.
It's about being real and being honest with each other.
It's about not putting on pretense.
This passage has just reminded us,
maybe told us,
that every one of us who loves Jesus is at war with Satan.
It's told us that Satan is powerful and clever
and so we should assume that at any given point,
some of us in this room will not be feeling
all clappy and cheerful about following Jesus.
We should assume that in this room,
sometimes all of us will not be particularly excited
about following Jesus
because Satan is pressing on pressure points in our lives.
We might be struggling with doubt,
maybe even anger towards God,
maybe a sense of failure
as we continue to fall into sin.
Humble authenticity is being honest
about the fact that that's how we're feeling.
It means we don't have to turn up to church
and put on a show and say everything's great
and yeah, I had a fantastic quiet time this week.
It's okay to say I really struggled
to open my Bible this week
because the reality is
that will be all of us at some point
and all we do when we put on a show
and say everything's fine
is we project that expectation
and that pressure onto other people
and suddenly this isn't a safe place
to just be how I'm going anymore.
It's the place where everything
has to be fine all the time.
I've got to be honest with you,
for me personally,
I'm feeling weary as a Christian.
I'm finding it difficult
to open the Bible
and be refreshed at the moment.
I'm trying,
sometimes more than others,
but I'm feeling weary.
My Sundays are fairly epic.
I get to three,
three and a half services
and I have to pray sometimes
to ask God,
don't make me switch off in this.
Don't let me be cynical in this
because when I'm tired,
that's where I go.
When I'm tired,
I start looking down at other people.
I start judging other people.
I start thinking
they're not really as holy
as they're pretending to be right now.
Now,
Satan is powerful
and he's clever
and he will press your life
in whatever way he knows
you are vulnerable.
It might not be pride.
It's right for us
to recognise
that Satan is behind
the persecution
that our brothers
and sisters face
in Iraq and Syria
when there is a gun
pointed at them
saying follow Jesus
or give up on Jesus
or die.
But we need to also recognise
that Satan has more weapons
than just guns.
Satan's goal
isn't to kill you.
It's to make you
stop loving Jesus.
It's to make you doubt
that God loves you
and he doesn't necessarily
need a gun to do it.
He can drag you down
with temptation
by maybe giving you
the opportunity
to get something
that you really desire
that you know God
doesn't want for you.
He can distract you
from treasuring Jesus
with the lure of comfort
by giving you something
that's not bad in itself
but that will be
a distraction.
He might attack you
with envy.
He might give things
that you want
to the people around you
just so that you start
wondering whether or not
God loves you.
This is why
knowing our hope
is so important.
This is why
perspective matters.
This is why
we need to train
our eyes
to not just see
what's right in front
of us today
and tomorrow
and next week
and next year
and for the next 50 years.
God's kingdom
is not
about
this life.
and if you think
it is
if your hope
is for a good life
as a Christian
then you'll probably
be disappointed.
If your hope
in dark times
is that
it's going to get
better soon
and by soon
you mean in a week
or a month
or a year
that's not the hope
of the kingdom of God.
It's an understandable hope
it's not a wrong
thing to desire
but it's not the hope
of the kingdom of God.
It's not the hope
of scripture
it's not the victory
that is won
in Jesus' death
and resurrection.
For many of the Christians
reading this letter
in the first century
reading about
the victory of Christ
they would either
lose loved ones
or die themselves
under persecution.
For many of them
life didn't get better.
They suffered every day
until their life
was taken from them.
But ultimately
it did get better
because for them
death was not the end
it was the transition
into the better place
that God had prepared
for them.
It was the transition
into the fuller
version of God's kingdom
free from Satan's
opposition.
If our hope
in this life
if our hope
as Christians
is just about
being a bit more
comfortable
a bit less sick
a bit less poor
then we make
Satan's job
really easy.
God never
promises
comfort
never.
It is nowhere
in scripture
he never promises
comfort in this life
and yet somehow
it just has
crept in
and become part
of our subconscious
expectation
of what it means
to follow Jesus.
we're happy
to concede
we will suffer
as Christians
but what we mean
by that is
most of our life
will be okay
and there'll be
the odd struggle
to teach me
something.
and so when
that struggle
stretches out
for a year
or for five
years
or for 50
years
we don't know
what to do
with it
because we
have convinced
ourselves
that the kingdom
of God
is about
having a happy
retirement.
last week
we prayed
for our
sister Janine
and her
family
as she
began a round
of intensive
cancer treatment
and we
continue to
pray for her
and we
cry out
that God
would intervene
and that he
would heal
her
and that he
would restore
her
but what
we have
to grasp
is that
even if
she dies
even if
God calls
her home
because she
knows Jesus
she still
wins.
That's the
hope of the
kingdom.
The victory
of God
might not
look like
victory to
us
but that
just means
we need
victory
redefined.
We are
so focused
on the
here and
now
and God
has a
bigger vision
for us.
He has a
bigger hope
than just
your 60,
70,
80,
90 or
100 years
on this
earth.
The hope
that he
has for
you is
eternal.
The 3D
images that
I was talking
about before
are blurry
at best.
Even when
you train
your eyes
to see
whatever
sailboat
is supposed
to be in
the picture
it's still
hidden in
a mess
of colour
or pattern
and it's
blurry
at best.
Now that
you've
trained
your eyes
there's
just a
picture
in that
blurriness.
There's
a little
bit of
clarity
but there's
still
mess.
The
kingdom
of God
is real
and has
begun
but in
this life
we see
it through
a mess.
We see
it amidst
suffering
being followers
of Jesus
and being
forgiven
being part
of God's
kingdom
now brings
clarity
and hope
in the
mess
but it
doesn't
remove
the mess
altogether.
It will
when Jesus
comes back
but right
now the
hope of the
kingdom is
not the
removal of
mess but
it's
clarity
in the
mess.
victory.
The
centerpiece
of God's
victory
the
centerpiece
of God's
saving
work in
history
is the
cross.
It's the
humiliation
and mockery
of Jesus
as he is
murdered as
an innocent
man and
through that
event he
is crowned
the Lord
of all.
Victory in
the kingdom
of God is
very different
to the way
the world
around us
defines
victory.
What God
has for us
is good
and is
better but
we must
understand that
to a lot of
people it
won't look
good and
it won't
look better.
It will
involve pain
and suffering
and possibly
even death.
We need to
take this
idea of
comfort in
the Christian
life and
throw it
away.
We need
to get
rid of it
because it
is damaging
our ability
to see
our eternal
hope.
Because we're
so focused
on what's
here we're
missing what
is further
out.
We're missing
what is more
exciting.
We're missing
what is hiding
in the mess.
So long as
we allow
comfort to
shape our
hope then
we'll be
setting ourselves
up for
pain.
Because God
just doesn't
promise you
comfort in
this life.
He does
promise comfort
beyond your
wildest imagination
but he promises
it when he
returns.
And if you
are expecting
him to
give you
comfort now
you will
be disappointed.
Now don't
mishear me.
There's nothing
wrong with
comfort in
itself.
There's nothing
wrong with the
fact that you
live in a
house and that
you can feed
yourself and
those sort of
things but you
must understand
it's less than
what God wants
for you.
So if that is
your ambition
if that is your
hope in dark
times that you
can get back to
that sort of
life it's not
the kingdom.
And it's a
distraction from
what God is
doing.
The Christian
life now, the
kingdom of God
now is both
joy and woe.
It's not one or
the other.
We're at war with
Satan and yet
Christ is on the
throne.
It's done, he's
won the victory,
eternity is sure
and we have heaven
to look forward to.
But the key to
having joy and
woe rather than
just woe is
perspective.
The key is
training our eyes
to look past the
fuzziness of our
situation and our
circumstance and to
see what is
eternally true.
To see more than
what first appears.
The whole book of
Revelation is about
perspective.
We talked about
this when we're
looking at
Revelation 1.
It's like God
tears the curtains
of time back so
that John can see
into eternity.
He can see that
God is still winning,
that he is still
in control and
this book is
designed to lift
struggling Christians,
those struggling
with opposition and
those struggling
with apathy and
laziness, to lift
struggling Christians
above their
circumstance so
that they can see
a glorious and
better hope.
So that they can
see the victory
of the cross
already achieved
and so that they
can begin to run
with excitement
to the future
heaven that awaits
them.
It will still hurt
to follow Jesus.
There will still be
sorrow but when
our eyes are fixed
on heaven,
fixed on eternity,
we can endure any
suffering with joy.
It doesn't mean we
won't cry, it
doesn't mean it
won't be painful
but in our pain,
in our woe,
there will be joy.
I read a devotional
book called Taste
and See a couple
of years ago,
it's just a daily
little bit and one
thing that stuck with
me and has really
haunted me ever
since was the story
of a family of
missionaries.
I can't remember
exactly what
country they're
from and that
family was basically
rounded up and
forced to dig their
own grave before
they were going to
be executed for
doing Christian
ministry in this
country.
It was a father
and a mother and
three children.
So they dug their
own grave with the
soldiers standing
around, guns ready.
Just before they're
about to be killed,
the dad asked if
they could kneel and
pray first before
they were shot and
the soldiers allowed
them to kneel down
and pray and as
they began to pray,
the eldest son ran.
He jumped up and
just bolted off into
the bush and the
soldiers got very
aggressive and were
ready to go after
him and the dad
asked them not to
chase the son.
He said,
please allow me to
call him back.
And the dad said
to his son,
please come back.
It is better for
us to enter,
eternity together
today than for
you to live with
a regret of
fleeing from
faithfulness.
The question I
find myself asking
when I hear a
story like that is
how did he do
that?
If I was in the
situation with my
son, would I call
him back or would I
cheer and try and
slow down the
soldiers so that he
could get away?
How did he do
that?
And the answer is
perspective.
The answer is he
had trained his
eyes and his heart
to see more than
what was in front of
him.
He wasn't consumed
by the soldiers and
the guns and the
grave and the death
that he knew was
coming.
He had trained his
eyes and his heart to
see the cross first
and the victory
that was won on the
cross and the
sure hope he had
for heaven.
And so even in the
pain of anticipating
the death of his
children and his
wife, there was the
joy of knowing that
soon they would all
enjoy perfect eternity
with God.
the key to not
loving our lives
too much, to not
loving the things in
our lives too much,
is training our
eyes on the two
key moments in
eternity.
The two key moments
that stand either side
of us.
The first is the
victory of the cross,
the complete and
irreversible victory of
the cross which
enables you to be
forgiven and loved
and adopted and
which enabled Jesus
to ascend to his
throne where he
reigns forever.
And that first
point points toward
and guarantees the
second point.
We live here in the
middle.
You've got the cross
and the second point
is Jesus coming back.
It's the guarantee
that the king on the
throne will come and
gather up his
subjects.
He will bring the
comfort and the
joy and the
satisfaction.
He will remove the
pain and the
suffering and the
sickness and the
death.
He will fill us with
pleasure beyond our
wildest imagination
as we spend
eternity in the
presence of the
good and loving
and gracious
God.
The key is to
train your eyes to
see past today,
to see past this
week, this year,
to see the cross
and heaven.
those two things
bring joy into the
war that is raging.
John saw a great
and wondrous sign in
heaven.
He saw war and
pain and suffering
in this life,
but he saw his
risen Savior Jesus
on the throne and
he saw hope for the
day when it would
all be made right.
As you look at the
mess in your own
life now, as you
look at the world
around us, train
your eyes to see
the hope and
victory of Jesus.
Train your heart to
see Jesus because
in him and in his
kingdom there is joy
even in woe.
There is peace even
in uncertainty and
there is hope even
in death.
Train your eyes,
train your heart
and fix them on
Jesus.
Let's pray.
Father God, we
want to confess
that we are so
quick to desire
and settle for
less than you have
designed for us.
We want to
acknowledge that we
get overwhelmed by
our situation and
our circumstance.
Father, there are
many of us in this
room who right now
are dealing with
pain and doubt
and frustration
when it comes to
our lives following
you.
God, please lift
our eyes, train
our hearts to
focus on the
cross, to focus
on the victory
that you won in
Jesus.
Open our eyes to
see the hope that
awaits us, to
look forward with
anticipation, to
not love our lives
or things in our
lives because we
know that there
is something
better that you
have prepared for
us.
Give us the joy
and the peace and
the hope that you
promised that is
bigger than any
circumstance in our
life.
Give us the
humility and the
honesty to admit
when we're
struggling.
Give us the
love for one
another to
rejoice as we
overcome, as we
find joy.
Give us the love
for one another
that we might
struggle together,
that we might
bear with one
another.
Father God,
please imprint
Jesus on our
hearts and minds
so that we may
love you more
than anything
else, so that
we may live
wanting more
than anything
else to get
to that future
kingdom that
awaits us.
And we pray,
please come
soon.
Amen.
Let's continue in
prayer.
Almighty God
and merciful
Father, we
give you humble
and heartfelt
thanks for all
your goodness and
loving kindness to
us and to all
people.
We bless you for
our creation and
preservation and
all the blessings of
this life, but
above all for your
immeasurable love in
the redemption of