Focus

REVELATION 17 v 1-18

Do we sometimes sell our selves short because of distractions?

• This image of the great prostitute represent the evil super power of the world often referred to as Babylon. In John's day it represents the Roman Empire because they were the super power in the world. 
• They had many gods and the blood of Christian martyrs on their hands. They were trying to seduce the bride of Christ.
• Some of the characteristics of a prostitute are reflected in the evil nations of the world, some these are - seductiveness of the government system using immoral ways to gain its own pleasure, prosperity and advantage. 
• The prostitute is out to lure away the bride of Christ from Jesus our groom. The great prostitute didn't die when the Roman Empire did; the spirit of it lives on in whatever makes us sell ourselves short for God.
• There are many things which the spirit of the prostitute will appear in to distract us and lure us away. I think they fall into two different categories: the cages which hold us back and the temptation of something sweeter.
• THE CAGES - these can be anything which holds us back. This is because the devil doesn't want us to go on the adventure with God. Here are some cages...
• Guilt - Peter was stopped by the cage of guilt after he denied Jesus, but Jesus restores him. (Matthew 26 v 69-75 and John 21 v 15-25)
• Failure - Paul could have been easily stopped and slowed down by failure, in one day he was ship wrecked and bitten by a snake. (acts 28 v 1-10)
• Assumptions - Abraham put a limit on what God could do. (Genesis 15 v 1-6)
• There are just three cages there are several others which hold us back from the adventure with God.
• THE TEMPTATIONS - these are the old school temptation technique the devil and the spirit of the prostitute use.
• Genesis 3 v 1-5 - "¹ Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

 ² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

 ⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”"

• The devil uses this technique from day one by seducing us and tempting us away from the life God has for us. 
• We end up selling ourselves short sometimes because are tempted and/or held back.
• But there is the simple and yet great hope that God takes us as we are. 
• Let’s keep our eyes fixed upon God and give it our all no matter what.
• What are you focusing on?
• Focus is key to break the out of the cage or break a bad habit of a life time.
• Will you break out of the cage?
• Will you break a bad habit of a life time?
• All so we can live our lives to the full for God.

The Seven Bowls Part 5

REVELATION 16 v 10-21

Is people’s refusal to repent the end of them?

• There are people around each of us who refuse to repent because of pride, selfishness, self-righteousness, etc...
• These people need Jesus and His love just as much as anyone else, but what if they haven’t accepted it by the time the bowl judgments happen?
• Here is a process which people go through, it is just a question of at what point do the heed the warning signs and turn to God.
• Exodus 8 v 12-14 - "¹² After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the LORD about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh. ¹³ And the LORD did what Moses asked. The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields. ¹⁴ They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them. ¹⁵ But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said."
• Pharaoh was about to change heart but then he hardened it again. Pharaoh choice was not the same of a non-believer today but it is the same process. 
• People's hearts begin to soften when hard times come or someone impacts their life with love, but something else happens which distracts them and takes them back to square 1.
• With Pharaoh it was plagues stopping each time which turned his heart hard again. But it took till catastrophic destruction was brought the land till he changed his heart.
• Exodus 12 v 29-32 - "²⁹ At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. ³⁰ Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. ³¹ During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested. ³² Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.”"
• Pharaoh's final warning changed his heart and he let the people go but even then his heart hardened again.
• Do we ever wait till the last moment or warning?
• People are never sure if people or God in this case will follow through with the threats and warnings. For Pharaoh this was a dangerous place to be with his thought.
• Pharaoh changes his mind again and God destroys him and his men in the sea after Moses and the people have crossed it. 
• We all know hard hearted people who have been tarnished by a church or may be just hate church because they have already formed an opinion about it. 
• We can't just change their opinion by telling what they should believe; we should show them what our beliefs mean to us through word and deed.
• In Revelation the warning signs have been and gone, now is the final destruction. I don't want the people I love and know to be in the hindsight position where they have refused to repent.
• How can you be what you believe, through word and deed?
• What opportunities do you have to overflow the love of God from our lives?
• If you think - well I'm not full of the love of God, and then ask God to increase your desire for Him and your love for Him.
• How can God use you to impact people who refuse to repent?

The Seven Bowls Part 4

REVELATION 16 v 1-9

Do we regularly acknowledge who God is?

The bowl judgments are God's final and complete judgments on the earth. There are many similarities between the bowl and trumpet judgments, but there are three main differences.

1)  The bowl judgments are complete whereas the trumpet judgments are partial.

2)  The trumpet judgments still give unbelievers an opportunity to repent but the bowl judgments don not.

3)  Mankind is indirectly affected by the trumpet judgments; the bowl judgments directly affect the whole of mankind and directly attacked by the bowl judgments.

In Jewish culture there was a superstition about magical bowls of either curse or blessings. The bowls in Revelation would have been seen as bowls of curse. Not all Jews believed this but John probably knew about it so he doesn't believe in magical bowls but to get the message to Jews and gentiles Jesus tells John the image of a bowls which these judgements come from. Just as the trumpets represent a warning sign of the final judgment.

As each of these bowls is poured out more and more destruction gets poured out upon the world. Each bowl destroys another thing - Bowl 1 affects the people with sores on their bodies, Bowl 2 turns the see to blood, Bowl 3 the rivers and springs turn to blood and Bowl 4 intensifies the sun so it starts to burn people and the land. Each angel that pours a bowl but they first glorify God and verbalise some of His characteristics. They glorify God just as they are about to pour out His judgment on the earth. One of the angels doesn't do it begrudgingly; they all do it with the right attitude. They know God is righteous and just, they recognise Him as being these things.

We may sometimes not fully understand God and why He does things in certain ways but all I know is that He will always do the right thing in the right way even if we don't think it’s right.

Do we acknowledge God for who he is even when the times are tough or we don't understand what is going on? Embrace the mystery of God and glorify Him with our lives!

The Seven Bowls Part 3

REVELATION 16 v 1-9

Are we ever consumed by one end of the scale?

Do we sometimes become too judging and become judge for some people? Do we see God's love as just salvation and nice things Jesus said and not the other bits? I believe God is judge and father, loving and judging. The picture of God as father is one of the powerful in the bible because it encompasses all a father should be and all the characteristics of God fall under the role and title of father. A father loves but when he sees his children going to do something wrong he warns them and then tells them off, but he does not reject them - he forgives them. That is just one small aspect of God as father. Do we sometimes become too judgmental? Do we sometimes not discipline and correct people because we are so wrapped up in the nicety, nice love?

The reason I talk about this things is because the third angel talks about God's judgment being just in His judgments. God has challenged people all through the bible but He has also encouraged and built up many people. God judged many different cities and people and each time God had given second chances to the people. God doesn't call us to be judges but sometimes we automatically become one as we see someone different in the street or meet someone who clashes with us (not in fashion... but maybe). Matthew 7 v 1-2 - "¹ Do not judge, or you too will be judged. ² For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." These two verses speak of the principle of not judging others. God is the one true judge. God doesn't just judge he truly loves His people.

Paul the loved the churches he was writing too and he challenged them because he loved them. He didn't just say "all you are doing is very nice" even if they were going tragically wrong. Galatians 4 v 8-11 - "⁸ Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. ⁹ But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? ¹⁰ You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! ¹¹ I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you." Love is not letting people fall flat on their face and not get back up because we thought it wouldn't be loving to challenge or be accountable with them. Paul heart was still soft as God had melted it years previous, Paul loved the people and he didn't want them to stumble in the same issue again. 

"We need to speak truth in love to people, not what people want to hear wrapped in cotton wool."

If we say God use me, are we ready for God to use us and for God to grow us? I believe God will grow us through - inspiration, encouragement and challenge. Joseph was inspired with his dreams that God gave him, then he had many years of challenge and was humbled greatly and he was finally encouraged by the dreams becoming reality.

God wants us to love others but sometimes we get wrapped up in what we think of others instead of how God sees them. Do you want to love people in a way which grows them?