The Revelation 1:4-5 | Episode #1006

August 18, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

The Revelation 1:4-5

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

If you would like to revisit today’s Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. 

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life.

Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years.

I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life.

I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up.

His word to you and allow you.

To see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today in Jesus name.

John to the seven churches which are in Asia. Grace and peace.

Now, I want you to hear me.

I want you to hear me. First, you get God's grace, which is receiving that which you don't deserve.

And when you walk in that grace,

you get the power of his rest.

Okay? The Promised Land experience, We're talking about that in the morning. In our morning Bible study. Been going through Genesis,

Exodus, Leviticus. Now we're in numbers in Deuteronomy. That's a picture of entering, of going from God's creation, the fall,

all the way to God, delivering his people from sin and bondage and taking them to life.

All right? And that life is in where?

The Promised Land,

the promises of God.

All right?

And whenever you read the word grace and peace, he is saying to you, listen, I'm giving you my grace so that you can walk with me to my rest or my place of peace.

Now, that doesn't mean that things are not gonna be or everything's gonna be wonderful.

It's not the Sound of Music, by the way. I didn't go on that tour. But the Sound of Music in Austria.

It's not that.

In fact, the Promised Land has got, what, giants in it. Do you have to fight the giants?

Yeah, you gotta fight the giants.

Is it easy to take giants?

No, we got to walk around it six days in a row, and then the last day, we got to do it seven times to take Jericho. It's not easy.

It's not easy to walk with God in His promises. But let me tell you something. You got to walk with him or you're never going to have his promises and you never, ever going to have his rest.

When he says grace and peace to you, what he's saying is, I want you to know this.

I want you to know God's grace, and I want you to know what it is to experience his peace.

Are you willing to do that?

Are you willing to walk with him in experience? He says grace to you and peace from him who is and was and who is to come.

All right, you go, well, who is that?

Well, a lot of people would answer, well, that's God. No, it's not God.

It is God. He is God because he's one of the three.

All right? But that is Jesus,

okay? And he's giving you a clear indication. He's not only giving you a title, that is a New Testament title, who was and is and is to come. He's given you his Old Testament title also, which was the beginning of the deliverance of God's people.

And where did that take place on. It took place on that mountaintop, Right? That mountaintop where. Where Moses saw the burning bush, right? And when he saw the burning bush, he saw that it wasn't consumed.

He saw that something amazing was going.

I want you to hear me. Follow me. And he investigated the amazing thing that God was doing.

That's important.

He investigated the thing that God was doing because most things, when they burned, they're what consumed. This burned, and there was no consumption.

All right? So he went up and he investigated that. And what culminated from that is God's deliverance of his people from slavery and bondage from. From the death of this world.

All right? When he got on top of that mountain,

the angel of the Lord spoke to him. Anytime you read the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, that is Jesus.

Not an angel of the Lord. That's an angel. The angel of the Lord in the Old Testament is Jesus.

The Bible says the angel of the Lord was in the bush that was burning. And the angel of the Lord said, take off your shoes, for where you stand is holy ground.

And he told Moses his plan for him. And Moses, like all good Christians, came up with good reasons why he could not do what God would want him to do.

Okay?

I mean, it's the solid,

most predictable part of the Christian life. God tells you to do something, and you try to figure out how you're not gonna do it. And let me tell you something.

You've been doing it since you were one or two years old, okay? You started walking. Mama, started saying why you should do something, and in your own mind, you came up with why you shouldn't, right?

You've been doing it for a long, long time. And why should you not do it with God? And that's exactly what Moses did as a very, very, very, very young man of 80 years old,

okay? He Kept telling God what he couldn't do.

And one of the things he said is, I don't even know who to tell them you are.

And God said to him,

well, Jesus said to him from the burning bush, tell them that I am sent you.

He said, I am.

That I am.

Tell them I am sent you. And you go, well, that's not. He was.

He is, and he ever shall be. It absolutely is. Because the word I am in the Hebrew means I existed before,

I exist now, and I ever shall exist.

I exist.

Okay?

So even right here, we're tying it off to the most important story of the Old Testament that leads us to Jesus,

which is the story of God's delivering his people from bondage to his promises.

He says here, grace and peace to you from him who is,

who was and who is to come,

which means he is eternal,

okay?

He is that person or that which is eternal and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,

which means the revelation of God to his people by the Holy Spirit before his throne.

Remember, the word seven means complete.

And it's important that you get this because otherwise you're going to have the Holy Spirit being seven spirits. Okay?

All right,

now you go. Well, I don't love symbolism. We got to get symbolism here, because seven's not referring to the number of spirits. He is. Seven's referring to the completeness of that Holy Spirit.

Makes sense to you.

He says. He says,

and from Jesus Christ,

the faithful witness. The faithful witness of what?

Who? God is the firstborn from the dead,

meaning the firstborn of resurrection.

Okay?

The ruler over the kings of the earth.

All right,

these are important ideas that he's going to give you about Jesus Christ. First of all, Jesus Christ is the truth.

He's the faithful witness.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. What he's saying is, I am the truth,

faithful witness.

Now, many of you going, what about the dragon? I need the dragon. I thought we were getting the dragon tonight. Okay, well, the dragon's a long way off.

Remember, this is a story about what God is doing and his fullness of a plan. Now, let me tell you something.

It's not next week, because next week, we're gonna be having the Hometown Mission project. The week after that, we're gonna see Jesus, and we're gonna see him in a really, really neat way.

But right now, he says, first of all, he's the faithful witness. He's the truth.

He's the first form firstborn from the dead, which means he has the ultimate Power of the universe, which means he has the power to take that which does not exist and make it exist that which is dead and make it alive.

You followed me.

So he is.

He is the truth.

He is the power of resurrection.

And he is the sovereign over all things.

Now,

we don't understand that as much as maybe our European brethren do, maybe some places all over the world, because we have our constitution and we understand that we've been given by God certain unalienable rights.

But sovereignty or someone being the ruler of all things is an important principle.

The sovereignty of God, in fact, is the beginning point of your walk of salvation.

Okay, you first have to know that he is what Lord?

He is Lord of all.

Right?

You've got to place your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the sovereign over all things.

Make sense,

he says.

And the ruler of the kings of the earth to him who loved us.

Now, we can't pass by this. Okay,

can we pass by this? It's not 8 o' clock yet, right?

You don't have a clue. It's not 8 o' clock yet. All right?

He, He.

For those of you who are new here, Pastor Terry, whenever I ask what time it is, he always says 8:30. Okay? And we get started at 6. I know I can't be at 8:30 yet.

All right?

He says he is the ruler of the kings of the earth. He loves us.

The whole purpose of this book is because he loves you.

He wants you to know. I'm giving you this from a God who's the truth.

A God who has the power of resurrection.

A God who is the ruler of all things and who loves us.

He loves you.

He loves you.

He loves you. And you need to know that and walk in that.

He. God loves me. He is revealing.

Did I deserve to be revealed too?

No.

Can I come up here and come up with ways in which I didn't? You know, so many times I like, well, I just messed up. I've. I've just kind of passed my time.

Let me tell you something.

Every person I've ever dealt with, that's a Christian, a believer, they've always felt like they've messed up so bad, they've passed their time. Now that's really crazy and nuts when you're Talking to a 15 year old, am I right?

But they think that, right? And then I'll be talking to an 80 year old. Well, you know, God can't use me now. I'm decrepit and I'm dying, you know, And I'm sitting there going, that's all.

That's. That's not true.

That's not true. It's not over for you. It's never over for you if you're alive. It's not over for you.

You hadn't passed your time. When you pass your time, you'll stop breathing. Okay, then you're officially past your time. If you want me to say that at your funeral, I will.

He passed his time, okay? His time's over. He passed his time. I asked, Kathleen asked me every time I go to a funeral, how'd the funeral go? I say, they shall know for the dead, okay?

I made sure they was dead. That's the first thing I make sure to happen if I do your funeral is that you're dead, okay? Cause I don't want to put you in a cast.

But get to heaven and say I had not more time. And then I didn't handle that, okay?

That's what happened. You know,

the funeral is the end of it.

But until then, it's not over.

It's not over. You ain't passed your time to him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.

That's a powerful statement right there, is it not?

He said he washed us in his blood.

As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep.

You, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.