Hope That Ignites Your Heart – Part 2

While we're faithful to the Word and faithful to do the work and faithful to warn, we want to be faithful to keep watching.

He's coming. People say, you know, I want to go to hell because all my friends are there. We're going to have a party. And all your friends may be in hell, but you'll never see them because it's dark. One of the worst parts of suffering is at night when everything is dark and there's nothing to distract you from the pain and the agony and the hopelessness and the fear and the memories. And when you go to hell, it's dark and there's nothing to distract you from your physical torments and the spiritual torments and the memories and the pain and total darkness. Heaven is a place where there's no more nights.

There's no darkness at all. Hell is a place where you're all alone. It's like solitary confinement. Heaven is a place where the kings of nations bring their glory into it and God's children gather together and we worship Him and we have fellowship with Him. Hell is described as a place of fire, which would be intense thirst, dissatisfaction, always feeling you were created for something but you never get it, always hungry for something and you're never satisfied. Heaven is described as a place where there's a river of life that flows continuously that brings healing. Worst of all, hell is a place that's totally devoid of God's presence. So you're created by God and for God and you're completely separated from Him. And heaven is a place where you'll see God's face and you'll never be separated from Him. He puts His name on your forehead and leads you into your heavenly home and you'll live with Him forever.

So do the work seriously. So who are you going to share the gospel with? There's a thought in the last verse of chapter 21. It says, It says, When you come to the cross and you receive Christ by faith, your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

But there's another book. And everybody who's ever born into the human race, the name is recorded there. And Jesus died for the whole world, so could it be that He died for the whole world and everybody in the world who's ever born into the human race is saved? But if they don't come to the cross and claim that salvation, when they step into eternity, their name is blotted out, erased from the book. That's a solemn thought. I get to heaven and they open up the book and they see my name.

Is underneath going to be a blank space? Because I didn't share the gospel with somebody who was saved, but they never knew it and they didn't accept it and they didn't claim it and so their name was blotted out. We do the work seriously. We don't want anybody to go to hell.

And we do it confidently. In verse 16, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. You have the full authority of the Son of God.

There's no one with higher authority in the whole universe. You're His ambassador. People say you have to earn the right to share the gospel with somebody.

No, you don't. He earned the right. He gives you the right. You go and share the gospel. And maybe you won't do it right. Maybe somebody will be offended. Maybe somebody will ask you a question you can't answer.

You just keep on doing it because we do it dependently. In the next verse, it says, The Spirit and the bride say, Come, let whoever is thirsty come. When you share the gospel, you're not alone.

The Holy Spirit is in you and drawing that person to Jesus. I love the story about the woman at the gas pump. Didn't you love that? And when he's just pumping gas and says you must go in to get your payment or something, he goes in and he finds this Muslim woman who for 40 years has been having dreams about Jesus.

And isn't it amazing? And we can just say for 40 years, where are all these other people that should have been sharing the gospel? But thank God Tom showed up.

Finally. It took you a long time, Tom, but shows up. And when he shared the gospel, it's just like she just fell off of a tree. She was so right because the Spirit was working in her and working through Tom. And it was a thing that Tom and the Spirit did together and she was born again.

Do you see? And so sometimes we don't know who the Spirit's been working in, right? So you just share the gospel with everybody.

You'll come across somebody once in a while. You know, the disciples fished all night and they pulled up the net and there was no fish and then Jesus said throw it on the other. He told them where to go fish. So just ask him.

Ask him every morning. Give him an opportunity today to draw somebody to Jesus. To tell somebody about the cross.

To tell somebody the gospel. Just pray it. Go through your day with your eyes open, looking for those opportunities. And you take them. And if it doesn't seem to work, then you just pray and you go on to the next person. Just keep fishing, you know?

You can do it with confidence. And I love, this was sort of my takeaway from this passage. But the fact that he calls himself the bright morning star. And I'm told it's darkest before dawn.

The night is always darkest right before dawn. And it's in that darkness that the morning star appears. And when the morning star appears in the sky, it's the promise there's a new day coming. And as our world gets darker and darker, and as your life gets more and more confused, and things are swirling around, and the wicked seem to be triumphing, and evil seems to be coming out on top, and we can't make sense of things, and it gets darker and darker, Jesus says, I am the bright morning star. And Jesus is our hope of a new day. So be faithful to the work.

Do it expectantly, seriously, confidently, dependently. And I just think as we issue those invitations, do you know someone who's running on empty? They're just so empty on the inside. And you offer them the living water. And the person who's always looking for truth, always looking for something and never finding it, you offer them the bread of life.

And to the person who is addicted, bound by habits, underneath a heavy load of guilt and sin, you offer them the Savior, the bondage breaker. And the one who's been abused and abandoned and attacked, you offer them a comforter. Jesus can redeem any situation.

He's our shield and our protector. The one who's consumed with panic disorders and fears, offer them the prince of peace. The one who's terrified by a diagnosis of terminal illness, offer them the great physician, Jehovah Raphy. And the one who is grieving over the loss of a loved one, offer them the resurrection and the life.

Just give them Jesus. I believe. In fact, I just told somebody who's not saved and she's been in so many different religions. And I just looked at her and I said, I believe you're looking for Jesus. And God loves you. And I think he's brought me into your life to tell you that. And she's very warm, very friendly, but to my knowledge, I don't know if she's been to the cross yet, but I'm praying for her.

She's one on my list. So we're faithful to do the work, faithful to the word, faithful to warn. And I'm going to tuck this in because it's right here, okay? Verse 18, I'll warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city which are described in this book. And I think it's not just revelation, but I think it's this whole book.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd rather err on the side of being wrong and thinking it's the whole book than think it's just revelation and he meant the whole book, okay? So there's a warning. Take this book very seriously. Handle it very carefully. I told you about the Russian pastor that lifted it up and kissed it and handed it back to me and he didn't speak English, but I knew what he was saying.

Don't put your book on the floor, Ann. You have reverence for it. Respect it. I think it also means when we're breaking it down to share it, we want to be faithful to the text. We don't want to manipulate it, to read into it, to put words into God's mouth. We want God to speak through it and we want to be faithful stewards who do our best to be a workman who does not need to be ashamed, who rightly divides the word of truth. Be very careful, but we want to handle this book. It's God's word.

We want to handle it with integrity, being faithful to the text. So be faithful to warn people, and I think it's warning people not only to handle this book rightly, but warning them that there is a hell, that there is a judgment to come. People don't want to hear about judgment. And God keeps warning us in this country, and there are a lot of Christian leaders, they won't speak out and name it for what it is because nobody wants to hear about judgment. They want to hear about a God who loves us and cares for us and shows up for us, and God is those things. But he's also a God that warns us that judgment is coming. And we've had warnings in 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina and these record-breaking fires and floods and snowstorms and economic meltdown, and now it's going soaring up, but you know it's going to come down and all sorts of things now that are happening, the polarization of our society and the division in our races, and it's just amazing, and God's warning us. So be faithful to warn people to pass it along, okay?

In a loving way and in a caring way, but in a truthful way. And so while we're faithful to the word and faithful to do the work and faithful to warn, we want to be faithful to keep watching. He's coming. Verse 20, He says, He who testifies to these things says, Yes, I'm coming soon.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. He's coming. And Jesus said in Matthew 24 again and again, He says, Keep watch because you don't know what day or hour I'm coming, but you know something? I think you can know the generation.

He said you could. So we may not know the day or the hour, but we can know when the time is drawing near, when it's right at the door. So keep watching, and you watch, read your newspaper, get the news online, however you get your news, learn the signs of the times, what Jesus said in Matthew 24 and the other parts of scripture, and you match them up, and you start watching for the signs, and you read the scripture and let God's Spirit speak to you, and you keep watch. So don't get distracted by busyness, and don't get lulled into laziness, and don't be tempted by worldliness, and don't be paralyzed by fearfulness, and don't get dejected and depressed by wickedness. Look forward with hope as you look heavenward because you have a place that's been prepared for you, perfect, permanent, a light's left on for you. And stay faithful in the time that's left on earth, faithful to His word, faithful to do the work, faithful to warn people, faithful to keep watching, because He's coming. He's coming. There is a new day coming.

How do I know? Because Jesus said so. We have the hope of a new day coming, and for those of us who are tired and weary, sometimes beaten down and bruised, wounded, suffering in all sorts of different ways, there's a new day coming, and we can have hope of a new day coming as we look forward through prophecy and praise and patience, prostrating ourselves before Jesus. Was there something in that Revelation 1 that God said to you?

Are you in exile on Patmos? Have you ever fallen at the feet of Jesus as though dead, silent and still, just available for Him to use? And we can have the hope of a new day as we look inward. And that was a pretty long marathon of a message, but we swallowed the camera, and we saw that maybe we need to repent of busyness and fearfulness, political correctness and permissiveness, prayerlessness, timidness, pridefulness, whatever else it was that God convicted you of that night, unforgiveness, bitterness, resentments, anger, jealousy, envy.

Did you have ears to hear what the Spirit was saying so that you can repent of your sin, return to the things you did at first, living by His principles and claiming His promises? And we can have hope as we look upward. I was thrilled myself as we were given that glimpse into the throne room of Heaven, God's official office, and we see Jesus seated on the throne, absolutely supreme as the Lord, and absolutely sufficient as the Lamb who was slain who walks over and takes that scroll, asserts His right to rule, worthy as the Lamb who was slain, that it move you to worship Him, give Him the glory.

Live your life every moment knowing that in the end any sacrifice or cost is going to be worth it, because Jesus is worth it. In that dark and dreadful passage, we looked earthward, and the shining light in all of the darkness and the obscenity and the anger and the judgment is the fact that Jesus takes charge. He sees that scroll, He's unsealing it, and He will bring judgment on earth to purge the world of its rebellion.

He's coming. I believe any moment we're going to hear the trumpet sound, any moment we're going to be caught up in the air to meet Him, and the sky is going to unfold and that white horse will appear, and the rider who's named Faithful and True, and he's going to speak a word and all of his enemies will drop dead. That moment when you see Him face to face, what will you wish you had done differently? Five minutes before you see Jesus, what regrets will you have? And you can join me in thanking Him that He hasn't come yet, so you have time to set it right.

Set it out. Live your life with no regrets, or at least as few as possible from this moment forward. Praise God, this world is not all there is. We can have hope as we look homeward, focused on heaven, faithful on earth, knowing that Jesus is with us, He lives in us in the person of His Holy Spirit. He's going to continue giving us opportunities to share the gospel and bring as many people with us to heaven as we possibly can, and one day we're going to see the light, and He's going to be standing at that pearly gate, His arms outstretched, Oh, welcome, welcome, I love you, I'm so glad you've come home, and we're going to live forever with Him. Is there somebody who's come to your mind, somebody you want to tell, maybe you don't want to tell them about hell, but would you tell them about heaven? How they can know for sure that heaven can be their home, that their name can be recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life so there's no mistake.

When they get up there, they're going to be accepted. So I don't know what God has said to you. Maybe in Revelation 22, maybe from Ephesians chapter 1, about how to pray for others in your church, but if you've had an encounter with a living God, if He has leaned out of heaven, can you imagine the God that poured out the judgment we studied, God, tender, loving, leaning out of heaven to speak to you, to comfort you, to encourage you, to convict you, to help manage the details of your life? If He's leaned out of heaven, spoken to you, you've heard His voice, and maybe it's been a conviction, maybe it's been an encouragement, but whatever it is, and you would just in a fresh way surrender to Him, make your life available for His use in the time that's left, you would say, please, dear God, use me for your glory. Use me to increase the population of heaven. And if that's your prayer and that's your decision, He has spoken to you and called you, and I don't want you to do this just in emotion, but if He has showed up and spoken to you and put something on your heart, and you're going to yield completely to Him, what's come to my mind is the church was begun with 12 disciples, minus Judas plus Paul, who surrendered like this and changed the world.

What could God do with a room filled with disciples who know so much more than they did? And we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit also, and the full canon of scripture. So God, here we are, and we stand before you. Look on us. Look on your children. Look on your sons and daughters. Look into our hearts. Look into our minds. Look into our lives. And Lord, I'll speak for myself. I'm not much.

Not much training, not much energy, not much time, not much money, but I'm here to tell you, God, you can have it all. I give you my sin by name. I give you the hard feelings, the wounds that tend to reopen and get restarted into unforgiveness and bitterness.

I'm going to let you think about it for a while. You do yours. And we bring these to the cross as our gift to you. You died for us.

You died for that sin, to take it away. So we give it to you. And we give you our hearts and how we feel in our minds and what we think in our ears and what we listen to in our hands and what we do in our feet and where we go, and we just lay down our bodies as living sacrifices. What we're asking is that we would feel your hand on our shoulder, that we'd know your presence in our lives. Whether we feel your presence or not, we know it because you've told us you'll never leave us nor forsake us.

And we're asking God, if you can use somebody like me, I'm available. I want to live my life from today until I see you face to face for your glory. I want to enter into heaven with an abundant entrance.

I would like, can I be selfish? I want more than one crown to lay at your feet. I want as many crowns as I can gather to have as much as I can to give you for what you've done for me. And eternity will be too brief to worship you and while I worship to work for you in eternity and to serve you all my days. So thank you for right now giving me opportunity on earth to be faithful, faithful to your words where we know you, to your work where we make you known.

Warning people this is true and it makes an eternal difference. And to keep on watching because any moment we're going to have our face turned to sight, we're going to see you face to face. So Lord we offer you ourselves right now.

Me, myself, I, I'm the gift that I bring and I wish it was more. I wish I had more than one life to give but I have this one and I give it to you. And for each of us Lord and as much as we know that's our prayer, that you would take our lives and use us for your glory. And we make this prayer and this decision and this commitment in Jesus name and for his glory. Father we make this commitment now in the name of God the Father who loved us so much you brought us into existence because you wanted us to know you in a personal, permanent, passionate relationship.

You loved us so much that you just gave us Jesus. In the name of God the Son Jesus who got up from Heaven's throne and when his Father sent him came down and went all the way to the cross to shed his blood to take away my sin. Open Heaven for me. And in the name of the dear Holy Spirit Jesus living inside of me who will never leave me nor forsake me. So in the name of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit that we make this commitment. And now unto the one who is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the throne with exceeding glory. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Now here's Ann with this final word. We know Jesus is coming soon. He just hasn't arrived yet. Hope wakes us up and keeps us awake in light of the vision of his glory.

Be faithful to watch, faithful to his word, faithful to worship, to work, to witness, to warn. The vision of his glory gives hope to the hopeless. All those who are depressed by the smallness of their lives and the greatness of their problems. All those who are deluded by their own importance and by their own insignificance. All those who are discouraged by the majority of the godless and by the minority of the godly. All those who are distressed by evil actions and by evil alliances.

All those who are defeated by life and defeated by death. Do you know hope? Do you really believe in Jesus who is our hope? If so, would you buy into what you believe by claiming the hope of the vision of his glory as your own? Then living your life in the light of it. My prayer is that this vision of his glory ignites your heart with passionate anticipation challenging you to live faithfully every day, every hour, every moment in the light of the imminent return of the one who alone is worthy as the Son of Man, the Son of God, the Everlasting Father, the Lamb who is slain, the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings, the only hope of the world, to the glory of God. Living in the Light is a weekly study in God's Word with teacher and author Ann Graham Lotz. Learn to listen to his voice. Then start making the choice to keep on going and believing and trusting who God is. Go to anngramlotz.org. Take advantage of the many helpful free resources to get you started. Join us again for Living in the Light.