Thank you, brother.

Well, friends, we’re going to be in Revelation chapter 8. I’m just going to jump back into Revelation.

Revelation chapter 8, verses 1 through 5.

It says, starting in verse 1, When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth. And there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. If ever the phrase, calm before the storm, I think would be fitting, it would be here. I think maybe we’re familiar with that in North Alabama. Kind of a tornado alley. Certainly kind of up here in the harvest area. You can kind of feel it, almost smell it, I think. It’s raining, and you know tornadoes are supposed to be coming. The weather looks, it just looks, and it feels different. It’s that calm before the storm. And there is this very peculiar silence. Very peculiar silence. Silence in heaven. And I think it’s significant because what we’ve been seeing the whole time in the heavenly vision is noise, is movement, it’s God, it’s Jesus, it’s angels praying, it’s elders singing, it’s flashes of light, it’s a sea of glass for a floor, and it’s big and it’s loud. And we come to this silence, this prolonged silence in heaven. What are we supposed to? What are we supposed to learn from the silence?

To recap, and I don’t know about you, but recapping what I’ve learned in Revelation is really helpful for me. It’s one of these things you can’t walk back through it enough times in your head. I think it helps it kind of soak in. You know, it’s like, what did we just do again? You know, I think that’s kind of the feeling when you’re dealing with apocalyptic literature. It’s like, okay, what, can you say that again? Like, help me sink that in. We looked at the Father and the Son in glory. Particularly, remember the Son. He took the, as a lamb, Jesus is represented as a wounded lamb. He takes the scroll. The scroll has the contents of the end of human history in it. Remember, John thinks no one’s worthy. The lamb’s worthy. Jesus takes the scroll and Jesus began one by one to break each seal. What were the seals? The seals were preliminary events. Each destructive in their own way to bring about the actual end. So the seals were the beginning of the end in which Jesus opens the letter and its contents are revealed. So we come to the seventh seal. We’ve done one through six. We come to the seventh seal. And remember, there was this parenthesis between the sixth and seventh seal. Remember, we had the two pictures. It was a picture of the church on earth suffering. Remember, we said the 12 tribes, the 12 by 12. It’s kind of that perfect number. It represents God’s people on earth suffering. But then we get the heavenly picture of it. And they are worshiping God and they’re safe and they’re wearing white robes. So it’s kind of this happy 30,000 foot view. Don’t forget, folks, this is what it looks like now on earth is bad. Here’s a picture of it in heaven. It’s going to be good someday. And now we’re back to the seventh seal. So we kind of. We’re going to resume the seventh seal. OK, and with the seventh seal, it’s not what you think it would be, because if one through six were famine and war and death and wild animals killing people and all this crazy stuff happening, you can have just enough bread to survive one day. You would think the seventh seal would really top it off. And the seventh seal actually doesn’t top it off at all in terms of, you know, being this crazy over the top happening. It’s nothing. We get silent. The seventh seal is simply a transition to the actual contents of the seven trumpets and seven bold judgments. That’s what the seventh seal does. So there’s no fireworks with the seventh. It brings about the contents of the letter with the seven trumpets and the seven bowls. That’s what’s going to happen. But when the seventh seal is broken, we get this calm. We get this reverent hush.

And it says for 30 minutes, half an hour, John sees all the heavenly hosts say nothing. And you have to ask, well, why?

Sometimes. Sometimes. The best thing to do. Is to say nothing at all.

Because no words will do for what you’re experiencing.

I remember years ago, a lady that had sang with me back when I was a worship pastor and I called from her husband and, you know, she got in a head on collision. A guy got in the wrong lane and head on collision. And in fact, she was she was pregnant with full term baby and go to the hospital and. You know, they’re forever. And I could look down the corridor and I could see the husband kind of fall on his knees. The doctor said, there’s nothing else we can do. And that was it. And what do you say in a moment like that? You say nothing because there’s nothing to say. Nothing to say. This is exceedingly so the case. There’s nothing for the heavenly host to say because in the sacred quietness, there is the realization. That God and the lamb are doing what only they can do. And what they’re going to do is like nothing that’s ever happened before. They’re going to pour out exceedingly terrible judgment on the earth and on the unbelieving nations. If you thought the seals were bad and the seals were bad. Wait for the trumpets in the bowls. The holy God of the universe and his perfect power. And his perfect timing will now disclose the end and will bring to an end that cosmic struggle between good and evil. That cosmic struggle between the seed of the woman and the serpent from the garden. And it’s cause when God in heaven acts, when God in heaven does what he says he’s going to do. It’s cause for fear and tremble, trembling the awesome power of the lamb. It’s here. This slain yet triumphant, this crucified yet gloriously resurrected Christ. He is going to act and he is going to bring unmentionable destruction upon the world.

Zechariah chapter two, verse 13, kind of a prophetic verse that looks forward to God’s great power. It says, be silent, all flesh. Wow. Because before the Lord, that’s why you’re before the Lord. And he has roused himself in his holy dwelling. Job, you remember Job, he went through so much suffering and Job thought he would ask a few questions.

Job comes to this understanding. I’m a small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. So friends, when you’re in a situation like this, you’re going to ask a few questions. When you and I encounter the one true living God, we realize no one is like him in the heavenly places. No one can stop what he is doing and what he is doing is awesome because he is an awesome God. There’s a sense of reverence when we, as small and feeble and finite as we are, come to grips with the true and living God and the lamb.

Just as this, this, this vision. This vision that John got was word stopping 2000 years ago when he got it. I want to say to you, this vision, this prophecy should be just as word stopping for you and I 2000 years later because it’s the same God on the throne and the same God that showed John. This is what I’m going to do. He’s still on the throne. And guess what? He’s still going to do it.

But I’m afraid that you and I not just. As sin tainted people, but even as 21st century Christians, we’ve lost our ability to silently dwell upon the awesome majesty and power of God. I’m afraid we’ve lost in the 21st century what the word reverence means. And in losing, I think what reverence is, we lose the power and application of this verse.

As I’m imagining, like one of us gets to go up into this vision that John’s in, you know, and we’re like there and you’re four and a half minutes deep into this 30 minute silence. And it’s like, I wonder if that used bicycle I’m selling on Marketplace has got any more hits. I wonder if anyone has said anything to me or anything of interest to me in my social media feed. Yeah, I wonder what’s going on. Going on in the world that I need to look at. I wonder if I’ve mixed missed a text message. And I think what happens is you and I are so we’re so habitual in our love for mundane, common things. We don’t even know how to stop 30 minutes. Goodness gracious. Must less five minutes to just sit and be quiet before an awesome, holy God. It’s one more. Off color comedy that maybe I shouldn’t be watching. It’s one more silly, trendy video. It’s one more fashionable trend I’m keeping up with. And I think we are, in the words of a sociologist, amusing ourselves to death. We’re literally amusing ourselves to death. And if you think that’s your opinion of the 21st century, what is my opinion of the 21st century? But it’s not uncommon, right? Ecclesiastes said there’s nothing new under the sun. People can always. Find mundane things to fill their time with. I want to go back with you to Genesis chapter 19. And this is when the angels are telling Lot that they’re getting ready to destroy Solomon and Gomorrah with fire. Then the men, that’s the angels, said to Lot, have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place. For we are about to destroy this place because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord. And the Lord has sent us to destroy it. So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, Up, get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city. But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting. They so loved the wickedness of the place. They were so drunk on fun, entertainment and pleasure. They couldn’t hear God’s man say, be serious. Don’t you understand? Don’t you understand you’re getting ready to die?

Matthew Henry says, Thus many who are warned of the misery and danger they are in by sin make a light matter of it and think their ministers do but jest with them. Such will perish with their blood upon their own heads.

Friends, the enemy’s greatest trick is not to make us hostile to the gospel, hostile to the sacredness of God. It’s to just make us hostile to the gospel. It’s to just make us kind of careless about it. Kind of careless about it. And if you ever go to the zoo,

you know, if you have young kids, you probably go quite a bit. It’s kind of the same experience, but whatever. When you’re a kid, you can kind of do the same thing over and over again. It’s fun. But it’s always fun to go to the lion, right? Because it’s a lion. And it’s kind of cool to stand there and see the lion. The cartoon’s not on TV. It’s right there. And you look at that lion and you realize that lion has got some muscles. Man, and that lion has paws like the size of my head. And that lion has that like majestic mane flowing. And if you’re lucky, you know, he like sees a goat or something off in the way and he’s roaring at it. And, you know, you can see those, you know, massive teeth coming out of his head. And all of a sudden you get a real sense. When you take the time to look at the thing of the might and the power of the lion. And then after you do that, you’re real glad real quick that there’s a fence in between you and that lion, don’t you? You take that lion real serious and you’re real glad that there’s a fence there. Friends, in the same way, when you and I are not distracted by the folly and the small musings of the world, and we look upon the one truth. Through God in his holy habitation, we realize real quick. Oh, that is not a God to be trifled with. And I am so glad the cross of Christ stands between us. It draws you in to say, wow, God, I see you for who you are. I’m sobered by your holiness. I’m sobered by your power. And I’m grateful for the cross by which you have not killed me, but you have saved me. It’s Isaiah’s experience. He sees God in the temple. He knows he should be destroyed. He says, well, I’m a man of unclean lips. But just at the moment when he knows he should be destroyed, God cleans him, God forgives him, God purifies him, and it readies him to go and serve with a proper mindset of the God who is there, who is holy, who is awesome and who is powerful and who will deal with the wicked. Church, I want to say to you, I want to say to us, let us live before the God who is there, who is sacred, who is holy, who deserves all reverence, right? Jesus. If not your homeboy, God is not like the man upstairs, the long beard. He’s the holy living God of the universe who will return in his son, Jesus, to destroy the wicked and save his people. And you and I only see that and then go and live for that God when we’re mindful of God as he is. Live before this God in holiness and righteousness and expel whatever it is in your life that haunts you. If that hampers you in that endeavor. I don’t know. I’m not just here to pick on TV and media, but if that hampers you in your endeavor, if you’re a doom scroller, right? And I’m a doom scroller, just one more like silly video. Like, why am I watching this person like cat in there? Like, like doing a flip or whatever. I think we just like wasting burning time, like lowering my mind, lowering the things that I think are valuable that I spend myself, I’m like, I’ve got to get rid of those things and create the space in my life where God is God and I’m living for that God. I’m not distracted by the things that pass away. Happy meal, Jesus. This verse, I think, blasts a hole in happy meal, Jesus. Like, let me just think on Jesus as little bit as I can. Let me consider what it means to live holy before God as little as I can, you know, because I’m busy. That’s why the happy meal exists, right? That’s why the drive-thru exists, because we are all so important and busy. I need to get it and go as quick as I can and get back to me. I need to get back to me. Friends, there is no getting back to me when I have encountered this God. There’s just this God, and He’s the center of my universe. Do we feel that in our bones? Do we have a sense of the sacredness of the Holy One in the heavenly places this silence begs us to? Do we? Do we? The silence calls us to reverence. Secondly, the silence calls us to prayer. The silence calls us to prayer.

Chapter 8, verse 2, it says, Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and when he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand of the angel.

So you have in this verse these seven angels who we’ve not seen before. This is their first time on the scene. These seven angels, and they are equipped with trumpets. And what you now will see, starting next week with these trumpets, is these angels will one by one blow their trumpet, and that will unleash a new form of destruction upon the earth. Again, specifically destruction, devastation, suffering upon non-believers. That’s the kind of the catastrophes that we will see. But I want you to notice what’s happening. Between the angels being armed with the trumpet and the trumpets actually blowing. There’s a little gap here. These little verses are really, really important.

They don’t just pick them up and blow them. We’re shown another angel. There’s this other angel doing something. And this other angel is offering up incense. Now, what was incense? Incense, if you look in the Old Testament, God prescribes a certain mix of these spices and these ingredients. And it was this very sacred mixture. And that was to be offered with offerings for sin on the Day of Atonement. Priests would offer incense day and night. It was a special blend of extremely fragrant offering to the Lord. And it accompanied sacrifices for sin. That’s what it was. It was a way just to offer up an acceptable, pleasing aroma to the Lord. Even when we look in Psalm 141, excuse me, verse one, the psalmist says, O Lord, I call upon you, hasten to me, give ear to my voice when I call to you. Let my prayer be counted as incense before you and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. So David, David wants the prayers that he prays, OK, to be as accepted and thought well of as the people in the Old Testament would offer up their offerings and the fragrant offering to please God, to forgive their sins so they could be found acceptable in God’s sight again. In other words, David’s saying, let what I’m praying please you, God. Let it be a good thing to you when I’m praying. Let it be a fragrant, aromatic aroma to you. And that’s the very same idea carried into Revelation. We’re told that this angel is given much incense. OK, and what he’s doing with much incense is he’s offering it with the prayers. Notice of all the saints. It doesn’t say some of the saints. It doesn’t say the elite saints. It doesn’t say saints. Saints who’ve been to a special school of prayer and are like really good at it. It says that the angel is offering up much incense with all the prayers of the saints. See what’s happening then. What serves as the catalyst for the angels getting the trumpets and what’s causing them to actually blow the trumpets to bring about God’s desired end of his people saved and the wicked destroyed and ushering in a new heaven. What is it that’s causing it to happen?

It’s prayer. It’s prayer. It’s God’s people asking for it. It’s God’s people saying, Lord, let your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven. And then it’s God doing it. That little verse. Should give you insight into just how effective the prayers of God’s people. People are directed at God for God’s glory. Answer. Very. Very effective.

Prayers are stored up here on the golden altar until the time for their divine answer to be felt for the judgment of God to come. So I want to say to you, do you think your prayers are of little power? You read this verse and repent. Know that God hears every prayer and he means to act on every prayer that aims at his honor, that aims at his glory, that aims at Jesus being made much of. And that’s true for prayers that are related to your present circumstance as much as it is these futuristic forward-looking prayers for end times, right? Because you and I pray both, Lord, help me overcome this sin. Lord, help my children grow up in godliness. And we pray, Jesus, come quickly. Come quickly, because that’s in the Bible. Like I’m praying for God to be God of my now. And I’m praying for God to be God of a hundred years from now. And God acts on both, which means I should pray both.

Believe that when you pray, God hears and God loves to answer those prayers. It’s a faith issue. James tells us twice in the beginning, James says, you know, let him ask with faith, not doubting. If you doubt when you ask, you’re like, you know, tossed on the waves of the sea. That person shouldn’t suspect he’s going to get anything from God. And then at the end of James in chapter five, it says the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick. And then, of course, we go to the Lord, the Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter seven. And Jesus is plainly ask and it will be given to you. Seek, you will find. Knock and it will be opened. Open. Understand, then, it’s never a lack of care or power on God’s part. It’s always a spiritual carelessness and apathy on ours.

God, if he isn’t at work in one’s life, it isn’t because he isn’t willing. It’s because you haven’t asked. You say, well, I don’t feel like he’s working. Well, that’s a whole other issue. How you feel. How you feel. Timing and methods, God’s timing and methods are always, aren’t they, at great variance with our own. That doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not you should believe God is going to answer the prayers you ask when those prayers are for his honor and glory. You may pray something like, Lord, use me in a big way. Use me in a big way. And it’s like, all right, I want you to adopt three kids. I didn’t mean in that way. I was hoping for a different kind of big way. You know, you pray, Lord, heal me. And it’s like, well, not today, not this year. It’s like, well, that’s not what I meant when I prayed, heal me. Lord, I want to be holy. Well, that’s going to take 15 different kind of trials to get you there. No, that’s not what I meant, Lord. You understand, if you’re after God in your prayers, you will get him and you will get your prayers answered. If you’re after something from God in your prayers, you will get nothing. So the tone of every prayer, the tone of every good prayer, certainly the tone of all the prayers on this golden altar that we’re looking at, always have in view, always have expectation of God being seen as great and Jesus magnified and being okay with God’s timing and God’s way for answering those prayers. So prayer, hope I’m not busting your bubble. I guess I am. I hope I’m busting your bubble. Prayer does not give you what you want. Unless what you want are God and his will to come to pass in your present and in your future. Those are the only things worth praying for.

If prayer is a means by which we can call down the God of the universe for things kingdom related, and yet we don’t do it, I want to say to you, we don’t actually long for God presently and we don’t long for God in our future. We’re otherwise satisfied. We’re otherwise occupied. If I really wanted God to show up in my present, I would pray, Lord, save my neighbor across the street. I see him every day. Lord, my children, I don’t want them to grow up and be swept away with a godless generation. Lord, increase my faith today that I would obey you and live for you. Lord, save my sin sick nation. Lord, heal me of spiritual laziness. Lord, I want unity and love in my local church. I want. I want discipleship to thrive. Lord, I want Christ’s return. I’m praying for that because you told me to pray for Christ’s return. Lord, I want to see evil destroyed forever for your glory. We don’t pray for it because we’re fine if we don’t get it.

Friends, fervent prayer reveals a heart that will not be satisfied until it has God and God’s way. Let us. Let us ask for a greater desire and a greater faith that God would not satisfy us with anything but himself. And we would pray towards that in knowing he will answer. Prayerlessness always finds us out. And if prayer affects so much and it does, surely it pleases Satan that you and I pray so little. So little.

George Herbert, one of the greatest poets of all time. He’s very thick in a lot of his poetry. He has one poem called Prayer. I’m not going to read it, but I would encourage you to go read it sometime. And the prayer or the poem is just a bunch of bunch of descriptions of what prayer is. And he has one very famous line in there describing prayer. I love it. And he says, prayer reversed thunder, reverse thunder. Prayer. You can’t ignore thunder, can you? When you hear it. It cracks, explodes. Even sometimes you can feel it. If a storm’s overhead enough, it gets your attention. Yet prayer is this way in which we, in effect, reverse thunder and we definitely get God’s attention. God cannot ignore you when you pray. He sees it. He hears it. And he acts on it. It is reverse thunder. Or he says it is an engine against the almighty. That is to say, it is a way to get at God effectively. And you will certainly get a hold of him. Friends, if it’s so, let us pray. Let us pray. Pray for your children.

Pray for your children who grew up in a wicked generation. Pray for their salvation when they’re young. Pray that they would desire the things of God young. Pray. Husbands, for your wives. Wives, pray for your husbands. Parents with adult children, pray for your adult children and your grandchildren if you have them. Pray for your church. Pray for your nation. Pray for the president, even if you don’t like him. Pray for the end to come. Pray, pray, pray, pray. And it’s really amazing. In 2 Peter chapter 3, 2 Peter chapter 3, he says, All these things are thus to be dissolved. What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness waiting for? This brings it back to the amazing thing. Yes, God is sovereign. Yes, God’s in control. Yes, God’s plan is going to unravel exactly as he wants it to unravel. Yet, he has called you now to a work here, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. So, gripping this God and his sacredness and his holiness, being informed by that in the spirit, and then praying for it. Peter tells me, I’m hastening that. Let us pray. Nothing is so important in your life. Nothing is so important in my life that God should be getting a sliver, sometimes nothing, of communication from us daily.

I didn’t plan it this way because I’m not that thought through. But our Wednesday, our monthly prayer night is this Wednesday. I would love for us to all be there. Between Sunday mornings and our Bible studies and our nights of prayer, you want to guess which one is usually least attended?

Friends, we don’t pray because we don’t believe it’s important. We don’t believe it works. I want to invite you to read this verse and see how God loves to hear and calls us. I want us to pray, to pray. In verse 5, chapter 8, it says, Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar, and he threw it on the earth. And there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. And in the silence, in the silence, let us see God is a God who deserves our highest reverence. And he will bring about his end on the wicked in his timing. And it’s by grace and grace alone that you and I have been sealed so that we won’t experience that. But we’re called not to just sit back and say, whew, glad I’m not part of the wicked. No, we’re called to live in fear of the Lord. Live. Live holy lives before him. And we’re called to pray for these good things because God acts on his people’s prayer. Let us live in the fear of the Lord, praying to the Lord, trusting he will bring his perfect end for his glory. Let’s pray together.

Lord, we come to your word.

Usually not excited enough, not hungry enough.

But Lord, having come to it, we pray that you would give us,

Lord, just a spiritual appetite for it. Let us not ask how we can do the bare minimum. Let us not ask how we can have the things of God and have the things of the world. Let us ask how we can let go of self and the world completely, that Christ and Father, your glory would be all in all.

Lord, we pray for the fear of you.

We pray that we would long to live before the holy, righteous, powerful God who is.

Thank you that we can call you Father.

Thank you that you’ve spared us in your son, Jesus. Thank you that you have employed us in the great work of prayer. And let us not be found slack, Lord, in doing it, giving our whole selves to it, seeking you and your will. That’s our prayer over our souls, over our church, Lord. And it’s in Christ’s name that we pray.

Amen.