The White Knight

How do you imagine the white rider?

• The white horse in this passage probably depicts Christ as the returning warrior Messiah King.
• Do we sometimes just imagine Jesus coming back being all nice on a white horse and taking us back to heaven?
• Revelation 19 v 11-21
• When Jesus comes riding on His horse His name won't even be visible but we will still know it is Him.
• As we know God works in much different ways to us. He doesn't use the Superman model to save the world by swooping and saving us all.
• God makes a sacrifice, which we can choose to accept the forgiveness that comes from Jesus' death on the cross or others choose to ignore this. Then God sends tonnes of warning signs in the way of many years of missionaries and then end times warnings. Then we arrive at this point where Jesus is back and he is taking His followers but no prisoners.
• It is much more like a white knight who is willing to sacrifice anything for the people and His King (Father).
• The picture we see of the rider (Jesus) has many different features.

1. Blazing Eyes of Fire - eyes which can penetrate anything which means He can see us right into our very core and soul. This is so He can judge us fairly.
2. The Name - this name is secret which only He knows, this adds to the power and authority of God.
3. White Robe Dipped in Blood - this is either blood from the battle or the blood of His sacrifice and cantonment for our sin.

• Jesus brings salvation and judgment. 
• By this point the world has already chosen which side they want to be on. God's or the world.
• 2 Timothy 4 v 7 - "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."
• God wants us to stand our ground until Jesus returns, to fight the good fight and not to be corrupted by the devil and his army.
• Do we just focus on the superhero moment when Jesus and forget to fight the good fight now?

The Faith Of A Father

 Do you want faith like a father?

• John 4 v 46-54
• But what is faith – Dictionary Definition - Complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
• In this case and in the bible it is complete trust and confidence in God.
• Love is a father’s natural reaction towards his children.
• The noble man in the story loves his child so much he is compelled by love to act in faith.
• The man walked over 20 miles to meet Jesus; this is over 6 hour walk. He was willing to done anything to save his sons life. In those days walking was regular but 20 miles was still a fare way.
• This man is willing to do anything to save his son – lose respect, lose dignity and lose his job all by going to Jesus.
• He was a noble man; he had legal authority over Jesus as he was part of Herod’s serving officers. Even so he begged Jesus and called Him Lord. This guy could have just made Jesus heal his son because he had authority over Jesus but because saw who Jesus was – LORD. He gave Jesus respect and reverence.
• The man was desperate and begging because he loved his son. All of what he did that day was out of the ordinary. He did it all because of love.
• Do we give Jesus the respect and reverence he deserves?
• We are created beings who God has put love in. He created us with some of his love for others. Some of the fathers love that God has for everyone.
• Is our faith compelled by a love for God?
• Our Faith grows most when we believe before the miracle happens, than when we believe after the miracle happens.
• Do we wait for a miraculous sign before we believe?
• Jesus’s first response to the man is – “Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?”
• Jesus sees a faith in the man but knows he won’t fully believe until he sees Jesus heal his son.
• The man pleads again - “Lord, please come now before my little boy dies.”
• He acknowledges Jesus as Lord again. He is desperate and it is the love that is fuelling his plea.
• So Jesus sees an opportunity for the boy to be healed and the father’s faith to grow. Jesus tells him to go and the boy will be healed. The father has to have faith before he sees the miracle.
• Do we ever wait around until god gives us a sign?
• Actually what God wants us to do is to step out in faith.
• John 20 v 29 - “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
• Jesus is talking to Thomas who doubted the resurrection. Yet we will be more blessed because we believe in a God we can’t see. But we can see Him at work in many people’s lives.
• What do you need to be faithful and trust God with?
• Our response to when God speaks should be obedience.
• Are we always obedient to God?
• The noble man not only believed Jesus could heal; he also obeyed Jesus by returning home and therefore demonstrating his faith in Jesus.
• It isn’t enough for us to just say Jesus can take care of our problems. We need to act as if he can!
• When we pray for a need or a problem we need to live as though Jesus can do what he says.
• The noble man had to put his faith fully in Jesus because he had no evidence his son was healed, until he was met on the road by his servant. But the man set out with faith in something that he could not see. His son was 20 miles away. Yet the boy healed at the exact time Jesus said the words – Your son will live.
• Hebrews 11 v 1 – “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
• The noble man hoped Jesus would heal his son and put his faith in what he could not see at first.
• Because of the Noble man’s faith his and the miraculous sign the whole household believed in Jesus.
• His faith was contagious.
• What is our response to the faithfulness of God?
• The Noble man’s faith grew…
• He believed enough to ask Jesus to heal his son.
• He believed Jesus’ assurance that his son would live.
• He and his whole household believed.
• So let’s be inspired by the father’s faith. The love that compelled his faith, Jesus response to his faith and the father’s response to Jesus’s faithfulness.
• The challenge is to allow our faith to be compelled by love, to be ready for Jesus’ response to our faith and to respond and act to the faithfulness of God.
• 

Responding to God

How do you respond to God?

• Revelation 19 v 1-10
• Praise is a heartfelt response to God from those who love Him.
• The closer we are to God the more we want to praise Him.
• But what if we don't truly desire God right now? Then we need to ask God to increase a desire for Him in us.
• Our praise of God should flow out of us as a realisation of who he is and how much he loves us.
• The people singing praise to God in passage are the great multitude who have been persecuted.
• They are worshipping and praising to respond to what God has done about the prostitute which he has destroyed.
• We all respond to God differently.
• David, who was seen as a key worship leader in Israel's history, responded to God in many different ways.
• 2 Samuel 8 v 1 - "¹ In the course of time, David defeated the Philistines and subdued them, and he took Metheg Ammah from the control of the Philistines."
• 2 Samuel 8 v 11-12 - "¹¹ King David dedicated these articles to the LORD, as he had done with the silver and gold from all the nations he had subdued: ¹² Edom and Moab, the Ammonites and the Philistines, and Amalek. He also dedicated the plunder taken from Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah."
• When David had victory he gave all he won to God because he knew that God had brought him victory. David worships God in the victories as we see here and in the Psalms.
• Psalm 118 v 15-16 - "¹⁵ Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: “The LORD’s right hand has done mighty things! ¹⁶ The LORD’s right hand is lifted high; the LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!”"
• David worshipped God at the other end of the scale when Saul was oppressing him and trying to kill him.
• 1 Samuel 23 v 9-11 - "⁹ When David learned that Saul was plotting against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod.” ¹⁰ David said, “LORD, God of Israel, your servant has heard definitely that Saul plans to come to Keilah and destroy the town on account of me. ¹¹ Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me to him? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? LORD, God of Israel, tell your servant.”"
• David turned to God in this time of trouble but he didn't just use God as a 999 call he responded and turned to God in most situations. 
• Psalm 16 v 1-4 - "¹ Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge. ² I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” ³ I say of the holy people who are in the land, “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.” ⁴ Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips."
• David turns to God in this time because nothing else is stable.
• David responds to the faithfulness of God by giving God the glory and worshipping Him.
• How do we respond to God?

Crumbling

REVELATION 18 v 1-24

Do we remain strong as evil crumbles?

• John uses Babylon as a metaphor for the evil world.
• Everything that tries to block God's purposes will come to an end.
• This evil was rife in John's time as the merchants would exploit people’s sinful pleasures, such as - greed, money and power. Today’s society and business world is the same.
• God was bringing destruction to this evil world, we as Christian are in the middle of this evil world and when God has finished with it we will be the last ones standing because everything else has crumbled.
• We are all human and we all sin, sometimes we are tempted by evil desires. But what happens when the evil is destroyed and one desire has hold of us?
• Do we fight it off? Or do we allow it to drag us down with it?
• King David was consumed by one certain evil desire which led to much worse things.
• 2 Samuel 11v 1-5 - "¹ In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. ² One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, ³ and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” ⁴ Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. ⁵ The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”"
• David's heart attitude was wrong because he was not following God's plans and purposes, he had not gone to war to represent God and fight for the King (God).
• Then David goes somewhere he know he can see stuff he shouldn't, I don't believe David only saw the bath house for that first or it was his first time on his roof. His motives were wrong.
• David has been sucked in by an evil desire and now there are consequences which he either opens up about or covers up.
• 2 Samuel 11 v 14-17 - "¹⁴ In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. ¹⁵ In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.” ¹⁶ So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. ¹⁷ When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died."
• David tried to get Uriah to sleep with his wife Bathsheba to make it look like the pregnancy was his baby. But Uriah didn't.
• So David organised his murder, a major cover up.
• David was never at first wanting to kill people but from one evil desire comes another.
• If we focus on not sinning, we will end up sinning. But if we focus on God and His heart then we will do His purposes for our lives.
• I don't believe it is about putting lots of barriers in place to prevent sin, but it is a matter of changing our heart and desires. God has to play a key part in this change in partnership with our willingness to change.
• Thankfully for David he was challenged by Nathan who gave David an opportunity to repent. 
• What if the evil around David crumbled would he have been pulled in or would he have resisted?
• God wants to destroy evil because of the problems it causes.
• If we like David for the most of his life expect this event and a few others, live righteously we won't pulled down by the evil as it crumbles as God destroys it. 
• We all make mistakes and yet God still wants to use us just as he used David in many mighty ways.
• Let’s ask God for a greater desire for Him and our desire for other things will decrease.