We anticipate the coming Kingdom. Myriads shall worship with all Creation as the Lord brings the completion on His Purpose. (Revelation 5:4-11)

Speaker: Thomas Schaller, Gary Groenewold
Date: 2026-06-21
Time: Sun 11:00am
Sermon #13147

P. Gary Groenewold –

It’s great to have the band behind you here. It’s a great feeling. Okay. Is Jayden Tanksley in the chapel? You got to stand up, buddy. Are they doing the special music? Jayden? Jayden? This guy, no, you can stay there. You can come up if you want to. He loves the stage I guess. Come on up. 

 

Look at him. Look at this guy. We love this guy. Come on up. It’s Father’s Day. This will bless his Father. It’s Father’s Day. Okay. So, I came to the early service, and P. Schaller did the introduction. And I’m like looking around, looking at all the people. P. Schaller started to speak and our eyes caught each other. I was like that. He didn’t do anything. I did that again. He didn’t do anything. 

 

This is a blessing for you, Cedric. He didn’t do anything. And finally he does this to me. He goes. He pointed. Listen to P. Schaller. That’s what he told me today. I’m like, okay. I guess I will. You taught him well, Cedric. I just thought I’d tell you, okay. That’s Jayden Tanksley. He knows how to listen to the Word. He gets great grades in school, and he’s going to sing a solo today for the special music, so get ready for that. His dad is proud of him today. Every day. 

 

I’m doing an introduction. It’s an example of like thinking about how we’re going to listen to the Word of God. I want to sit in a closer row in service than P. Chris Moore. Really, like change your seat. That’s what I was thinking in my heart. I want to sit up front in this Convention. I want to fight for the front seat, because maybe that shows an attitude of my heart. I’m just saying, that’s just what I thought of you sitting there. You’re always like, he’s always up front. He really purposes to do that. 

 

So, it’s Father’s Day. You can turn in your Bibles to Romans 12. I’ve been thinking on this, Father’s Day, so it’s a Father’s Day message. I want to speak about trucks, right? Trucks are good for Father’s Day. I want to speak about shaving cream, okay. Shaving cream. And about meat. Those three. That’s kind of a guy thing right there. Those three things. 

 

Romans 12:1-2, this word “mercies” here is not maybe the traditional form of the word mercies that you think of, where you don’t get what you deserve. You don’t get your punishment for your sins. This mercies is used in the New Testament maybe four or five times. This drawing to God through his love. This is how God draws us. 

 

It’s like Jeremiah 31:3. His lovingkindness draws us. There’s another thing about services at Convention. Think about your volition. I want to make choices in my life. This is how it actually happens. It’s by this lovingkindness of God drawing us to himself. It’s like a pleasure. There’s no duty. We were wired to be drawn by this love. That’s the way that we were really wired by God. This is how he motivates us. To forfeit and to be conformed to the world as it says later. It’s like you’re forfeiting being drawn by love. That’s what happens. That’s the first thing. Drawn.

 

It’s going to be a pleasurable experience. It’s going to benefit you so much. This is what God says. That’s the first thing Satan, he lied to Adam and Eve about this process. There’s a loving relationship happening between Adam and Eve and their Father, their Creator, and he lies about that. Life is simple when we reduce it down to this. Okay. 

 

So, and then what do you do? You do what is foolish or you shouldn’t do. You present. What else am I going to do? You present my – I can preserve it if I want to. I can keep it. It’s mine. You have a choice. But when you are drawn by love, you offer your life to God. And it’s this living sacrifice. What’s important about that is it’s continual. It’s growing. It’s a living sacrifice. There’s so many benefits. Okay.

 

What happens is – do you remember when Christ was at the well? This is my meat example for fathers. This is what happens when you’re drawn. You’re offering your life and you have meat that other people don’t know of. They don’t know of. 

 

I eat breakfast every – I love a good breakfast. This morning we had guests, and I was serving, helping out, and as I’m going out the door, I forgot to eat breakfast! I was helping, and when you offer, you do things that you normally wouldn’t do. It sounds foolish to me in a normal morning, but you offer your life as a living sacrifice. You got meat to eat that other people don’t know of…this is how we escape the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. That’s what happened. We’re living in this love.

 

This was the other example of shaving cream. How many people went passed a truck this morning or were passed by a truck on 95 or 695? Anybody notice a truck? Raise your hand. There were no trucks on the road? P. Veader did. How many people have seen a truck on the road? Has anybody ever seen a truck on the road before? Raise your hand. Okay. Those big 18 wheelers, whatever. 

 

I figured out today, if there’s 40,000 pounds of a…load on a truck, 12 ounces of shaving cream, the retail value if it’s just with shaving cream, it could be like around $400,000. You know, 3 to $500,000 depending on what type of shaving cream you have on that truck. Doesn’t Amazon say, “There’s a truck load more?” This is what happens when we listen to the Word of God. 

 

The Spirit world is attached to a word. You may see a truck go by and it’s just traffic to you. But there’s so much more in a word. There’s so much more than what’s in a truck. There’s so much more than what that word actually says. The Spirit is attached to it. 

 

Schaller said it this morning. We have to have imagination. What’s inside of that word? Can I unpack that word? We were talking this morning at breakfast. Oh, I just had breakfast. No, I had a carbohydrate. No, this list. Whole wheat. All the vitamins and minerals that you had in it. You could unpack that. You could unpack that. Did you just have bread or all the nutrition all the way down to the minerals and the vitamins in that bread.

 

That’s how we think of a word. There’s so much more to get from God in the spiritual world. Have an imagination as we listen to God this week, how much I can actually get from that word. There’s a truck load more inside that word. Okay. 

 

There’s meat, shaving cream, and a truck. So, I’m finished, right? Okay. But we present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. You have this. When our lives are like this, look at the beginning of the next verse. Be not conformed. Oh, I got authority. I actually know how that can happen in my life. Because I’m being controlled by love. As soon as you turn that love off that you’re wired for, none of this works.

 

We said this week, it’s just base love. It’s this incredible drawing power of God to ourselves. It’s exactly what you need. It’s not like don’t be conformed to the world. You’re enjoying this process of being so rich and having meat that other people don’t know of, and you’re so full. 

 

It says don’t be conformed. It’s really an obvious understanding. Be not conformed to the world is not a battle. It’s actually receiving love from God. Look what happens. We’re able to receive. Be transformed by the renewing, completely renewing our mind. The way we actually think. The part of our soul. It’s like the mind. It’s directing. It’s filling my conscious mind, what I think is right and wrong. My mind is receiving the Word. It changes that standard, what’s right and wrong. 

 

My self-conscious. It changes my identity. Hearing the Word and my mind is directing it over to my emotions saying be healed. My mind is receiving the Word of God. It speaks to my volition. It says choose that. Listen to your conscience. That’s what’s right. Make a decision with this. Our minds are being transformed. 

 

So, this is not a religious exercise. This is not something – it says in verse 1, this is what is pleasing to God. You know it’s a genuine, a genuine sacrifice. You know it’s accepted by God. You know you’re living in acceptance in the way that you’re supposed to live. That’s what happens. 

 

In Romans 12, if you want to find something, this is how it starts. And the middle of it is about unity and gifts, and the end is about the expression of the Holy Spirit making a manifestation of all the gifts operating in the Body of Jesus Christ. Giving us opportunities, opportunities in how to live with other people. Romans 12. It can be etched into our lives. That’s my Father’s Day introduction. Amen. Amen. 

*****

P. Schaller –

Would you all stand with me, please? Just stand up and praise God and say in your heart to God, I trust you, Lord. I trust you. Go ahead. Say it out loud. I trust you, Lord. Turn to your neighbor and just say, truck, shaving cream and meat! Okay. Turn to your neighbor. Do a 360. Truck, shaving cream, and meat. Praise God! Amen. Praise God! Pastor, good message Wednesday night.

 

Awesome. Praise God! Turn around. Go ahead, 360, and just say, what’s your name? How are you doing? God bless Franklin and April. Come on. Yes. Sebastian, thank you for everything. Sebastian, praise the Lord. Rachel. Yes. Halleluiah. Halleluiah. Praise the Lord. Chicago. P. Jack. Great to see you. Wow. Awesome. Praise God. What a good week we will have. Praise God. Yeah. Amen. You may be seated. 

 

So, P. Jack, you want to have the group with your family stand up? Everybody from Elgin, Illinois. Great to have you folks. Great to have you. Thank you for coming. It’s an honor. It’s an honor. How about folks from India that came in. You want to all stand up. You’re from India. Great. Very good. We’ll have a great week by God’s grace.

 

Turn with me to Revelation 5. We’ve been teaching this for a couple months and plan to go through the whole book. We have a little bit of a hiatus because Convention and also some traveling to Finland and other places, too. So, but we’ll get back to it. 

 

I want to thank P. Gary a lot for his ministry to people and his gifts, too. He has what I call – this is a good side point. We’ll have a good time as pastors this week, but we can say a pastor’s life of prayer, a pastor’s life in the Word, and then thirdly spiritual direction. The counsel of spiritual direction. 

 

This happens in our life in the pulpit. It happens in church life. Wherever you go in the world, there’s basically two things in a church service that are predominant. They are singing and preaching. That means worship, singing, and worship. I love it. It’s the best part. I love it. It’s so good. The worship in church. Very important. And then the Word and preaching. And then the preaching of the Word that gives my life spiritual direction. Very important. 

 

Gary shared that from Romans 12 and saying that the mind renewed gives me a hunger for God, desire for God. God orientation. Also, listening to God. Listening. Here’s a side point. This is still a big subject and we’ll touch on it this morning. But we’ll probably go back there. But then listening. This is a very interesting point. 

 

Actually, we better read the Scripture because that’s primary. So, go to Chapter 5:4, John is in heaven and there’s the title deed to the earth, and nobody is able to take the book, look on the book, or open the seals. I wept much.

 

This is what happens in life, basically in any story. There’s like five elements. I won’t go over it, but I just want you to see something. In a child’s life, you have the growth and development. You have a crisis. You have a victory. You have a finality here. 

 

There’s a finality as you could say, a child’s graduation from preschool. A child’s graduation in high school. College. Or a career. Or having a family. Crises in life are normal. This is the pattern in the Bible. We have the beginning is very good. We have our troubles. We have our enemies. And we have character building. Character building is happening in the story called life. 

 

You are being changed. You may be going negative or you may be going in a good direction. You may be walking with God. You may not be walking with God or you walk with God a little bit but then not that much, and there’s not that much character being built in you.

 

So, we see Christ coming into the world. We see the same thing happening to him. We can put the cross here where he has his big trial, but he has the character. He has the nature of God in him. He has faith in God. And he goes through that and then he’s highly exalted. It’s final. It’s ended. He did it. He’s at the right hand of God. He overcame. 

 

But this isn’t about preschool or high school or your career or your family. This is about the essence of the whole universe. This is about God redeeming mankind and bringing the kingdom of heaven on the earth. For what is on the earth today? It is the kingdom of darkness. It is evil. It is deception. It is broken hearts. It is disease. It’s death. It’s betrayal. It’s lying. It’s stealing and destroying. 

 

But then life is actually good. It’s not that good all the time. It’s sometimes very good, sometimes not, and then ultimately we know that there is death. But somehow, in our hearts, we go, no, no, no. There’s got to be more. There’s got to be more. 

 

John is in heaven, and there’s a drama being played out in heaven. And he’s watching and he’s weeping cuz he knows it should be better. Somebody should do something about it. Somebody should open the seven seals. Somebody needs to take charge. Somebody has to answer the problem. Somebody has to overcome. 

 

So, here we are, Chapter 5, and I’ll try to keep my comments to the end. Vs. 5-8. When I read that, I always think of Our Father. “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” That prayer went into a bowl. We’re anticipating the coming kingdom. Not on the earth as it was in Jesus’ name. That was the kingdom of God is here. 

 

He said with my finger I cast out devils. No doubt the kingdom of God has come nigh unto you. But we’re looking for the kingdom of God to be on the earth, like the glory of God will cover the earth like the waters cover the sea. When is that day coming? Yes, good answer. Thank you. It’s so true. Amen. 

 

So, vs. 9. Never been sung before. Never been heard before in heaven. This is a song never before. Christ was born in Bethlehem. The angels came and sang. The shepherds saw and heard the angels. It says the angels returned to heaven. I love that verse. And the angels they came to the earth. They sang, “Peace on earth, goodwill to men.” Go and see the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes. And then they went back to heaven and they are there today. And in heaven, at this point in time, when we are raptured, we will be there. 

 

There are so many myriads and myriads of people from every language and people group. Every nation. Vs. 9-11. In the Greek, that’s not there. Those numbers are not there, but the word, myriads. Myriads. Huge number. You cannot number it. It’s probably billions of people that are singing together and it’s never been sung before. They’re going to say, Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the branch of David. The Lamb of God with seven horns.

 

We looked it up this morning about lambs having horns. I’ve got some papers here on it, but I’ll paraphrase it for you. A lamb born, it doesn’t have horns. It’s got two bumps here like for the development of the horns. And some species have horns when they’re male. Some male and female. Some the horns grow as they grow into adulthood. 

 

But they don’t have seven. But Christ has. He’s a lamb but he has horns and he has seven of them. Now, when you look in the Bible, the meaning of horns, we have Jericho. The Jewish people blew seven rams’ horns and the walls came down in Jericho. It speaks of power. Jesus has power. It’s seven. Perfect number. Perfect power to do anything and everything. 

 

But it’s also coupled with eyes and I like that word, eyes. It has a lot of meaning to it. I’ll write it down for us here. Eyes. We have knowledge, perception. I think of cameras in our technical world that are eyes in our parking lot and in our rooms and in our building. On an airplane, you can see the global map where the plane is in the air. When it’s landing, you can see it through the camera. You can see it as a passenger. You can go on that program and see it as a passenger as the plane is coming down and landing. It has eyes. 

 

But Christ’s eyes are everywhere. They are eyes that are perfect and they are eyes very importantly on your life. He knows you. He understands us. He pities us. He knows our frame that we are made of dust. 

 

But these eyes that he has are more than just knowledge. They are beyond our knowledge as people. We have two eyes and actually in the Bible, there are some old men that are blind. But while they are blind, they are actually not that blind. Jacob is an example. 

 

He has twelve sons. On his deathbed, they come one by one and he prophesies about them as a tribe. And the description he has for each son is the description of the tribe that they would become. Like Judah would be the lawgiver. And Jacob said that. The scepter would not leave them. David was from Judah and the tribe, the seed of David becomes the Messiah. And in Revelation, Christ is in heaven as the Lamb but he’s also the seed of David, branch of David, and also the Lion of the tribe of Judah. 

 

So, this blind man actually has eyes. I want to share with you that. I want to write down this word “imagination.” P. Gary mentioned it. I read it from Eugene Peterson in his book called, “Working the Angles” which I recommend for pastors to meditate on it. He calls it the contemplative exegesis. 

 

He talks about reading our Bible, but not just to get knowledge. But reading our Bible to see. To imagine what is it saying. Just like when we read Revelation 5, and we’re seeing and all of creation it says in the text that every living animal on the earth even the things in the sea and that sounds like fish to me, they’re all saying like in an impersonating way that creation is impersonated, wanting and desiring the kingdom of God. Wanting the glory of God. 

 

Like the animals and the insect and fish and every living thing is crying out with us in heaven as we sing and say that he is worthy. He has received blessing and riches and wisdom and power and strength. There’s seven words there. We are singing it and creation is singing it with us. We are anticipating the kingdom. 

 

So, what does this mean to us now? Today? And that goes back to this part here. This one. The ministry. What is the ministry? Basically, it is that we would have the character built in us as we make small decisions oftentimes with our friends. You think about it. Who are your friends? It’s very important. That will determine conversation. That will determine orientation. That will determine small decisions. Small decisions become thoughts and thoughts become action and action becomes habits, and my habits will determine for me my life. So, I need a ministry.

 

Why do you think the disciples were hanging out with Jesus a lot? Cuz they had a calling and they knew who he was in a degree. They were receiving from him and they were participating with him. And actually to be very frank and biblical, they were at times shocked. Amazed. He commands the wind and the sea. Who is he? He raises the dead, Luke 7. He’s not afraid of the Pharisees. He’s right there. Discerning with his eyes. 

 

How many eyes did he have? Well, we read in the book of John chapter 1, that he said Nathaniel, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. What was Nathaniel doing under the fig tree? Nobody knows. But there’s an episode in the Chosen about it. I watched that one time and I was fascinated. Nathan was under distress and under the fig tree and crying out to God and seeking God. Nobody saw him. He was alone under the fig tree. And then when he meets Jesus, Jesus said I saw you under the fig tree. 

 

God sees your prayers. God knows what you’re doing in the darkness, in the light, in your depression or your fear or our shame like we heard this morning. Yes. I liked P. Gary saying God draws us with his omniscience. He knows everything, Psalm 139. He draws us with his knowledge, his eyes. He knows everything. He draws us with his power, his horns. He draws us with his heart of compassion and his cry on the cross. “Forgive them; they know not what they do.” 

 

He draws us by our pastor. Do you have a pastor? What kind of pastor is he? Is he a man that has these three things. I have to admit that I have my times where I struggle with this, and I would like to be #3. More available or able to give spiritual direction to people so that as they go through this thing called life, and they have a crisis or temptation or a failure or an attack from the devil, they are able to get through it and become like Christ. Cuz Christ didn’t give up. He didn’t quit. He didn’t say I’m not going to do this. I’m not going to do this. No, he didn’t. 

 

He had laser sharp focus and so do you. You are called to have eyes. And to have your eye on something. Eyes, plural, on something bigger than what you might think is important. Wow. That introduces a totally new direction in the message, but we can’t do it. We can only just touch on it. 

 

This is it, 1 Corinthians 8:2. I have to give them a few seconds. Vs. 2. Now, we have a great illustration for this. I’m so excited about the illustration. It comes out of Eugene Peterson’s book, “Working the Angles.” The title of the chapter is Contemplative Exegesis. Exegesis is the linguistic skill of taking out of the text from the original languages what it’s actually saying. Eisegesis is reading into it what it’s not saying. Exegesis is taking out of it what it is saying. 

 

And there’s a whole field of science and study and scholarship that is very advanced and very capable with very smart people and very good people. But there’s a danger in life in general. And that is, I think I know. Okay. I think I know. But be careful, because as you are knowing – here it is. Here’s the illustration. 

 

“Herman Melville’s novel, “White Jacket” when sailors take sick with severe stomach pains. This is on a 19th century, this is on a ship in the 19th century with sailors on a ship and one of them gets appendicitis. 

 

So, there is a surgeon on the ship. The ship’s surgeon and he diagnoses appendicitis. So, he gets his shipmates around. They get the guy on the table. And now, there’s an operating table and this is really a serious surgery with probably no anesthetics and 19th century medicine. But it can be done. You can take the appendix out. I saw it in a museum one time. One doctor did it in 58 seconds. He opened the guy up, took the appendix out, and sewed him back up. Wow. 

 

This guy didn’t have that fortune. The deck hand is laid out on the operating table and prepared for surgery. The doctor goes to work. Makes his cuts with precision on the way to excising the diseased organ. Points out interesting anatomical details to the sailors that are standing around the table. They’d never seen the inside of an abdomen before. The doctor is absorbed in his work, obviously very good at it. 

 

All in all, it’s very impressive performance and the sailor’s watching become silent. The doctor is very excited about the whole thing. But the poor patient by the time he’s been sewn up has been dead a long time on the table. 

 

And he says in this commentary, this is what we do as people. We study something, we have a lot of knowledge, we get fascinated by it, we get drawn into it, and the patient is dead. 

 

What did I miss? And he says this about theology. He said there are theologians but the patients dead on the table. The church is dead. There are no disciples. There is no evangelism. There is no prayer meeting. There is no joy or happiness in the fellowship. The patient is dead. But we’re cutting up the Bible in pieces. Very good at it and very capable. But what did we lose? Maybe we all know this. 

 

Raising a family is not easy and it takes more than the book, reading books about raising a family. You might read some books and do it by what the books say, but your family may be destroyed. Your career, you might be very good at it, but do you have any friends? Our church, we might be very good at it, but do we have life? Have we forgotten about forgiveness? Do we have prayer? Do we have worship? Do we have the Word of God speaking to our hearts? Is any character being built up in us when we are having bad times? 

 

Church is not for the good times only. It’s for the trials. It’s to deal with the enemy who wants to destroy our lives and have us develop bad habits with bad people or people that are not helping me in my faith. People that will steal from me or take away from me. How about my potential, my desires, my faith? 

 

And look at, listen to this. When you live by faith, you will get some eyes. You will. You’ll get some eyes. I get it. I get it. Other people don’t get it. I get it. I know what’s – I got a little bit of an idea. And maybe also I have the danger – we all have – of pride. Pride it says blinds us. I lose my eyes. 

 

The day when I think I know may be the very day when I’m missing the whole point. The patient is dead on the table. There is no vision. There is no faith. There is no joy. There is no Christ that we’re running after. And we know Christ in our lives. 

 

Look at the Apostle Paul. A prisoner, an amazing amount of trouble in his whole life. Beaten, accused, called a false apostle. Church is divided over his personality and his character, lies and slander and the whole thing. What does he teach us? 

 

Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say rejoice. How does it happen? These three things. I need somebody, #3. I need somebody to give me some spiritual direction. I’m serious about it. In need a brother and I feel that there are brothers. Some of our brothers have been awesome in doing that in our trials, in our fellowship. 

 

Whenever I call P. Scibelli, he’s got a Bible verse for me. He has something to say that’s edifying and encouraging. When I talk to P. Gary, when I talk to Zane and I talk to Avery and I talk to the brothers and I’m encouraged in the office and P. Steve and I love P. Ramir. He called me up the other day and just said, I want to encourage you and build you up. And I hear you. Thank you so much. It’s so edifying and so important. 

 

And then when the spiritual direction might be, you know, I feel like quitting. This happened to me over the last months. And I knew what it was because that’s not God and I know that. Why am I in the mess that I am in? Why are people saying such bad things about me or about us? What have we done wrong? What is it really? What is the essence of it? What is the whole thing all about? Where is it going? What does it mean? 

 

Do you know what you need in those times? Eyes. You need to see. Imaginative eyes, meaning I see the kingdom. I see what the world is. I know what Sodom and Gomorrah is. I know what a lie is. I know when somebody is trying to seduce me. I know what a lie is. I can discern. 

 

You and I can discern and recognize. Am I getting into quicksand or am I standing on a rock higher than myself. The finished work is a rock higher than ourselves. The finished work says, Neither do I accuse you. Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. 

 

But how can you overcome the devil? It must be by the Word of God. You decide to live by the Word of God, but you can’t. it’s got to be contemplative exegesis. It’s got to be meditation on what the Bible is saying. God did not send us in the world so we would be divided. He sent us into the world that we would be as one with each other as he is with God, Christ is with God.

 

That oneness is amongst us. That’s why people have come here from India and Chicago and Kyrgyzstan and so on, because we have a oneness in the Spirit. it’s #3. We receive spiritual direction in the Bible college. We receive spiritual direction in a small rap session. 

 

When you leave a little talk where the pastor says a word or a brother or sister or a youth leader says something and puts his hand on you and just says, you know, I’m with you. I’ve seen it happen over and very small little encounters that come from the Holy Spirit to a young man or a young woman and they are saying in their hearts, I want to be with him. 

 

When I was in college, I remember there were two guys and I remember I was thinking which one do I – I want to be with him because he had joy. The other guy was sour. He was baptized in vinegar. This guy was sweet. This guy didn’t care about me. This guy cared about me. This guy gave spiritual direction without him even knowing it. 

 

He was Spirit-filled and edifying to be around. And I wanted to follow him. If I’m going to be a Christian, I want to be the kind that’s like that guy. There is joy in that house. There is peace in that house. There are words in that house. There are good decisions that you can make in that house. And then you develop and grow as a result. 

 

Okay. Let’s say the patient is dead and I get all occupied with his intestines. And I was looking at things and I got involved and occupied and analyzed and journaled it and the whole thing. But the patient is dead. What should I do? Learn something. I need other eyes, Lord. I just saw this, this way, but I need something more. 

 

You cannot figure this life out with two eyes. You can’t. You need – listen – the Messiah to speak to you every day. You need the Messiah who’s got horns and he can move a mountain. You need the Messiah for your wisdom. You will destroy things. 

 

Adam and Eve, they had a paradise. And what did they do with it? They threw it away. They lost it. That’s like us. We will throw away a family, throw away a church, throw away a school. We’ll throw away a mission. We’ll throw away the Gospel. We’ll throw away our Bible. We’ll throw away our friends. We’ll throw away our whole purpose in life, because that’s what Adam does. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. He thinks he knows. 

 

And in our age, we are living filled with information. Everybody’s watching podcasts and videos and learning all kinds of things, but the patient is dead. You’re blind. Where is your love? Can you keep a family together? Where is your love? Can you love the brethren? Where is your love? Where is your forgiveness? Where is your fervency? Where is Christ in your life? Where is Jesus in your life?

 

I’ve got to wrap it up, but I read this sentence. Our church looks like a chicken coop compared to a European cathedral. Actually, I kind of made it up, but I use the chicken coop part. I mean, I read some – I’m making it a little different. European Cathedral. Beautiful. Beautiful. I see it with my two eyes. I see it and then it’s empty. 

 

Then I go to a Greater Grace church and it looks like a chicken coop. But guess what? I see it. I see it. And when we say goodbye at the end of the Bible study, we tumble out on the street and say goodbye again. And then can I walk you to the train station? Ad we say goodbye again. And then we’re just looking again and say bye. See you. Bye. What do we see? We see life. We see Christ. We see love. We see joy. We see peace. 

 

This is what we’re trying to say that in the world you will learn a lot, know a lot, study a lot, be experts a lot and learn everything you can, but the patient is dead on the table. What do you got? What have you got? A vacation that is loneliness, a girlfriend that is cheap, an investment that goes upside down sometimes or maybe success. 

 

But what do you have when you meet God? What do you have? The world needs what we have. The world needs our passion and our love and our persuasion and our conviction and they need to come to our chicken coop and say like what’s going on here? 

 

I would never be in a place like this with these kind of people. But somehow, here I am. And I can see. I can see something. I see something. I see that God answers prayers. I see that God is for me, not against me. I see that my name is in the book of life. I see that I’m translated from the darkness into light. I see that I have a future. I do not yet know what I shall be, but I know when I see him, I shall be like him. I don’t know what is actually happening. But I know he said he’s coming. And a kingdom is coming on the earth like it is in heaven. 

 

Can you see it? I want to encourage you this morning just in this country kind of preaching that we’re doing. That what I am saying in your heart and think about it. It’s for me. It’s for me personally. I need spiritual direction in my life. I need somebody to come alongside me and say, you know, I’m with you, but I can see something. And I’m with you and I can help you. I can see something. And you can help me. And have somebody in your life, one or two people or more who you can talk to and help us as believers walk close with God in these days. 

 

God has something for you. Maybe some of you there might be something very great for you in the future. And maybe this week we could say to God, God, could you do a miracle for us? We would be so encouraged if we saw something miraculous happen for us this week. 

 

God, could you do something in our hearts that would stir up very much and lead us in faith, cuz there is nothing that pleases you more than for us to walk by faith. And we’re asking it by faith. 

 

Visit us, Lord, and pour it out and bless us. And give us the eyes to imagine and see the Rapture, the resurrection of our bodies out of the ground. Being with the angels in heaven soon. Seeing our sisters and brothers and relatives that have passed before us and go to a place called heaven that you have prepared for us. Give us eyes and an imagination to see. It’s better than anything else. Okay, that’s the end. Amen. Would you pray with me? Anybody feel like dancing? Okay. Here we go. Let’s say a prayer. (Prayer)

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Please enjoy these sermon notes from the messages preached at Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. These notes are provided to aid in your study and understanding of the Word. Note that these notes do not represent complete, word-for-word transcriptions. Also, they may contain omissions as well as some errors in spelling and structure, etc., as we attempt to provide them as soon as possible. Our hope is that these notes serve as a way to help you search and connect with messages on related subjects and passages. Thank you for your interest in the ministry of Greater Grace.