The Revelation 8:2-3 | Episode # 1052

October 21, 2025

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

The Revelation 8:2-3

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.

Now, I want you to read this because I want you to think about this. It says, and I saw the seven angels who stand before God and to them were given seven trumpets.

Now,

this is an important concept, but it's not super important. It's just an idea that I want you to get.

Okay?

God made man in his image and likeness, but he created man a little less than the angels.

Okay?

He made us lower than the angels, and yet he set us above them because we have a nature that's God's nature,

and the angels don't have that nature.

Anybody who says, well, now somebody. Somebody died and they got their wings. They ain't getting no wings, okay?

Not getting wings.

Perfect body. Yes. That's glorification at the end. No wings. It's different between us and the angels.

Angels. Angels are not made in the image and likeness of God. They. We confound them.

We're amazing to them.

Why?

How can something that's made in the image of God be broken and then be made alive again be made right with him.

Right?

It's amazing. We're an amazement to the angels.

The angels were here before us,

okay? They're part of the original creation. We're a part of God reforming the earth when the earth became null and void or formless and void. In chapter one, verse two of.

Of. Of.

Of Genesis says that the. That the. The heavens and the earth became formless and void and that the Spirit of God brooded over the deep.

All right?

We also know that God says he did not make the heavens and the earth formless and void.

So something happened.

And we know from other passages of scripture that there was a battle in heaven and that Satan was kicked out of heaven.

That happened before we existed,

okay? That happened before us. And he took a third of the angels with him.

All right?

I believe that Satan and the angels were over God's Creation.

And when Satan fell,

there was an aspect of God's creation that could not be. There was an aspect of God's character made in God's creation that could not be identified.

And what was that aspect?

Well, that aspect of God's nature is his grace.

The angels could not receive that grace. They had rejected it.

And so God's creation was not complete.

It was not good.

Why?

Because it revealed his divine nature, his holiness, his beauty, his wonder,

his magnanimity, all the great things that he is. But it did not identify with his grace and mercy. And so when the angels fell,

God reformed the earth. And that's why we get the two accounts of creation.

You get Adonai saying things, and then you get the Lord God or Jehovah doing things.

Okay, so what is that? The Father says it, the Son does it. The Father says it, the Son does it by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Make sense?

All right.

Once man was made,

who was over creation?

Man.

Man was made over creation. We were in charge of creation, okay?

Adam was placed in charge of creation.

He was placed over it,

all right?

Knowing God, knowing that man would. What would fall.

So the. The. The plan of God to reveal himself moved from the angelic to humanity.

Okay?

Humanity is now over the story of God's work in his creation, especially in regard to his grace and mercy.

All right?

Horns in the Bible represent God's movement,

okay? In the Old Testament, they blew the horn to move the move the children of Israel in the wilderness and out of Egypt. They're a picture of.

Of man being prepared by God to move.

Are you following me?

Man is the one who is doing God, and he's doing it powerfully.

All right?

So you got the shofar being blown, and it's being blown so many times. And God's God is, you know, we've been through it in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and now in Deuteronomy, we've seen where the shofar is blown and God says,

move. And that's what we do.

Now when we get to the tribulation,

man's not in charge of the show anymore.

Okay?

From Genesis to Revelation, chapter three,

man's the one who is the.

The driver of God's plan and his. His work in the world and primarily through the God, man, Jesus Christ, 100% man. 100% God. God into the flesh, Emmanuel. God with us,

okay?

But also through us,

his followers.

He's the light of the world. He says, now you're the light of the world.

I'm all authority in Heaven and all earth's been given to me. Therefore you go and do these things.

I'm in charge.

I give you the commission.

I'm in charge. I give you the light,

life.

Those whom the Father give me, I give them eternal life.

I'm the light of the world.

You're the light of the world,

all right.

When the church is taken out,

there is evangelism on the earth through the 144,000.

But the work of God has been moved from the hand of man to the work of God. And the work of God through his angels,

okay?

Man's no longer in charge.

The God man is taking back his creation. He's taking back control of his creation. You know, when Jesus is hanging on the tree, he could have called down a legion of angels.

He sure could have. But why? Because he's the commander of the Lord's host. When he met Joshua outside the gates of Jericho,

he, Joshua said, on whose side are you on? He said, I'm not on anybody's side. I'm on my own side.

He's the commander of the Lord's host. He is the one who is over the angels.

He rules over them.

And so from. From. From the man being made in the garden,

formed out of the dust of the ground, body breathed into him, the breath of the life spirit, becoming a living being, a living soul. When he's made, though, when those things are made,

when that happens,

man is no longer in charge.

We're no longer in charge.

But we do have a role to play.

And there's something that is a role to play. Here it says, and I saw the seven angels who were standing before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Seven is the number of completion.

When we see that number seven, I believe that's all the angelic host,

okay? And I saw seven angels who stand before God. And to them was given seven trumpets.

Then another angel having a golden censer.

Do y' all know what a censer is?

It's kind of like a little bow, little bowl thing.

It's golden, though, okay? So it's royal.

He has a golden censer. And. And he could. And he came and stood at the altar.

All right?

Now the angels are carrying this out,

but it has an important aspect that's human.

He says he was given much incense that he should offer it with. He should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

All right?

Now, don't you hear me? You know, when we have the altar.

Call.

There'S a reason why we do that.

Okay.

When we have worship on Sunday morning. That's why we made these altars,

man. They look beautiful, don't they?

They're fabulous.

When we made these altars, we did not make them for their beauty. Even though they're finely crafted altars, we made them so that a person would have a place to come and kneel before God and deal with their issues.

Before God. A place of prayer.

Okay.

Jesus said,

my father's house will be a house of prayer. That's what they represent. They represent humbling yourself before God.

And by the way, why don't we do it twice?

If you'll notice, we have two altar calls. We have an altar call during the offering, what we call the offering,

and then we have an altar call at the end of the service. Well, we do that because we're working through the temple and the tabernacle.

We're going through the process of going from outside the temple or the tabernacle outside the wall, all the way into the presence of God.

All right, when you come in,

how many gates are there to come in?

Well, at the temple, but I'm talking about. There's 12 around the outside of the temple, but there's only one gate to enter into the.

Enter into the courtyard of the Gentiles.

Okay.

There's one gate at the tabernacle. One way in.

Why?

I am the way, the truth and the life. No man goes to the through the Father, but by me, one way in.

How are we supposed to come in that gate,

huh? We supposed to come in that gate crying?

No.

It says, enters gates with thanksgiving, enters courts with praise. So that's why we always start off with something that's upbeat. Worship.

Why?

Because we're supposed to enter in his thanksgiving.

I,

when we come in,

we wash at the lavern. We're cleansed at the labor. And that's the Holy Spirit washing you as you sing.

As we sing. We. We're washed by the Holy Spirit. What is he washing the world off? He's getting the world off of us.

Okay?

He's getting your heart focused on him. That's why we sing.

All right?

That's why it moves from celebratory to very personal.

That's why the first song can be third person, but the final song needs to be first person before we have the altar call.

All right?

Once you do that, once you're clean, once all the. You. You prepare to make your sacrifice.

And there's a sacrifice,

there's the altar outside the temple. Where the sacrifices were done.

All right?

You go, well, what are we sacrificing?

Us?

We're living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. Your life, your body,

all of you, is a sacrifice to God.

So a lot of people think, well, that's when we take up the offering. Well, we don't take up an offering.

Why?

You gotta come forward to give it. You gotta move toward God. You gotta move toward him. That's why we only have it right here.

Okay?

There's a reason for it,

all right?

There's a reason why the altar's open there, because you need to lay things at the altar, you need to place things at the altar that have been problems for you, been issues for you.

That's what that altar call's about.

All right?

Once you have the altar call, I can enter into the temple or I can enter into the tabernacle. And there's. There's the showbread, which is. Which is the word of God.

And there's the. There's a menorah, which is a picture of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit shining on the mano, on the showbread. So we can. We can go enter in like David, and we can eat of the bread of life.

Once we've eaten of the bread of life and the Holy Spirit's revealed that to us, we can go in to the holy of Holies. No longer is there. No longer is there a curtain in the way.

That curtain's been split from the top to the bottom. You have access to the holy of holies. You can go into the presence of God. And that's why we go with the altar the last time, because you go in to the presence of God and his holy altar right in his throne room.

That's why we do what we.

Now.

At that throne room,

you at that place, when people are broken, when people are. People are humbled, when people are. Are excited about the revelation of God that's given to them,

you go and you speak to God about those things.

A lot of times people think prayer is some kind of ritual.

Prayer is not a ritual,

okay?

If it is a ritual for you, you are functioning in the lowest form of prayer.

Did y' all hear me?

The lowest form of prayer is you sending God a message and not listening for a return message.

Okay?

When you ritualize prayer, we are bringing these prayers before you. Oh, holy God,

please do something for us,

okay?

And then you leave wondering if God even heard you right?

That's like sending them.

It's like the call em, all that we have Right.

It's the lowest form of communication that we have, is an important form of communication. Sure. You get the information.

Can you text back?

No.

If you text back, it'll say, stop.

I don't even know who sends that text back. But somebody text, stop.

Don't text back.

I need to talk to that person. I don't know who it is. Renee, do you know who it is?

It's a machine.

Say, be careful.

Okay.

Machines are in charge of the column. Is that what she's saying? Is that what Renee just said? All right. Anyway,

that's the lowest form of communication. Second form of communication is conversation,

regular conversation.

You talk, they talk, you talk, they talk.

All right?

The highest form of communication is communion.

It's where you not only talk, but you know each other.

You know you. You not only can hear their voice, you can hear their words, but you also know the character, the nature. You know their. Their intricacies. You understand them because you.

You can see them.

Okay?

Conversation like that is 90% physical, 10% verbal.

Okay?

God wants you to send him a message. If that's all you can do,

God would love for you to sit down and counsel with him.

But ultimately, he wants you to have communion with him. He wants you to tabernacle with Him. He wants you to meet with him on a regular basis.

All right?

When we meet with him,

we share the desires of our heart.

And those are meaningful to God because He made you for purpose and reason.

Are you with me?

I'm going somewhere with this.

He made you for purpose and reason.

There's a reason why.

That's why he says he gives us the desires of our heart.

Now, those desires are his perfect and pleasing will.

That's a part of who you are. But they come from you.

Make sense.

They come from who you are.

Meaning that when you tell God what you're struggling with,

what's hurting,

what's difficult about it,

they come from you. You tell him what you want,

what your heart desires,

they come from you.

But they're made holy by God and His will.

He wants you to commune with him so that you can begin to. As you explore who you are in his kingdom,

in his family,

he can begin to show you who you really were made to be,

how you can actually be fulfilled,

how you can be full,

how you can get past shame and how you can get past condemnation,

how you can get past worry and fear and doubt.

He wants to teach you those things.

And when he teaches you those things,

your spirit communes with him in ways you don't even know.

Okay.

In fact, the Bible says that your spirit speaks to God in a language,

in a mystery of a way that you don't know.

So your spirit, which is a part of who you are,

knows.

So when you pray, you go, well, did I say that prayer right? Yeah, you did.

You spoke it from your soul in your physical body, and your spirit said the right things to God.

Okay, all right.

So I say it in my physical body.

I need to represent what I'm doing in my physical body. We always want that, right?

We want to be able to do something, to know we're okay.

That's why when you first get.

When you're. When you're first converted,

right,

we call it in modern American Christian culture, when you're saved and you are, but not completely okay. When you're converted,

after you're justified,

when that happens, what do we tell you to do?

Be baptized. Why does that wash your sins away?

Now, you've already been washed in the blood.

Sin's been washed away. Why do we get baptized? Well, it's a public profession of faith.

It's where we tell the world that we're born again and we walk through the path that symbolizes being dead to sin and alive in Christ.

Why we do it.

What? Baptism's for you to tell the world that you're born again.

That's why when. When the Ethiopian eunuch came across the water, he said, what's to keep me from being baptized? The answer is nothing.

Okay?

Why?

Because he'd heard the word. He believed it. He was converted. He believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Time to be baptized, right?

All right.

Why don't we take the cup and the bread?

They used to believe because they were speaking Latin and nobody knew Latin. I've told you all the hocus pocus, whole thing, right? Hocus pocus. This is the body.

All right?

They thought it was a magic trick. So when they went around and anytime they needed a little bit of magic,

the priest said, hocus pocus, and that bread became the body of Christ. So they just hocus pocus you too, you know, hocus pocus.

All right, all right.

That's where that came from.

All right.

It's interesting. I brought that up tonight. Anyway,

that's where that came from. That's where that idea came from.

But the bread doesn't become the body of Christ.

In its substance.

It is symbolic of the body of Christ,

Okay?

It's symbolic of eating of his flesh and drinking. We've been in this. In John 6, right?

By the way we've been. John 7 Sunday. I know, it's a miracle. It's taken several months to get through John 6, but we're going to be in John 7 Sunday, when Jesus said, unless you eat of my flesh, which means you intake my word and drink of my blood,

which means you receive my spirit. Receive the. The Holy Spirit. Unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, there's no life in you.

Okay?

Why?

Because unless you have Jesus, you don't have life.

All right, why do we do that? To be symbolic, to remind you Jesus said,

eat my flesh. Drink my blood.

Eat of me.

I'll fill you up.

Drink of me. I'm the goodness.

Okay?

Take me in. It's a physical act with a spiritual purpose.

Right?

We all want those things.

We want to do those things. How many of y' all feel like just something neat goes on when you take the Lord's Supper?

Well, I don't feel that way as much because I'm trying to remember the right words to say and making sure I take the bread first and then the cup.

I have done the cup and then the bread.

Okay?

Just letting you all know, all right?

Proves the infallibility of man.

All right? And so, so we, We. We study that. You think through it. You, you, you. In your heart, you begin. You want your physical. You want to physically represent what's going on in the spiritual.

Well, coming to the altar. I. All the words for worship in the Old Testament deal with a physical activity.

Shouting, clapping,

dancing,

prostrating,

lifting your hands up in the air. All these words represent worship. New Testament word, prostrate,

fall on your knees, fall on your face before God.

Okay?

So we want you to physically engage in worship.

Why?

Because we don't want it just to be your. Your. Your soul. We want your body to engage God in worship.

Makes sense.

When I do that,

I commune with him and my heart communes with his heart.

And so your prayers are special to God.

Your prayers are important to God.

He is keeping them.

He's holding on to them.

He's like your mother when you brought on home those stupid pictures that you colored.

She acted like they were just absolutely beautiful.

Am I right?

She put them on the. Hung them all over the refrigerator. Don't know why it was refrigerator, but hung on the refrigerator,

right?

Oh, how beautiful these are. It was. Sorry. Really sorry. You couldn't even keep in the lines. They were terrible.

Okay?

But they were beautiful to her.

Why?

Because they were special.

They're special to God. Look, your prayers are not perfect but they're special to God. Desire of your heart's not perfect, but it's special to God that communion is not perfect.

It's special to God though.

Now your prayers are special and they move God to action.

God acts on your prayers.

They move him to action.

Now when we get to the end times,

your prayers have a huge importance.

Why?

Because he is. He is separating that which is unholy to that which is holy, that which is unrighteous to that which is righteous,

that which is life to that which is death.

Okay?

He is. He is separating those and what initiates it.

Even though we're no longer the driver of God's plan on the earth anymore, Jesus is in the holy angels.

Okay?

Even though we're not the driver of God's plan anymore,

were not the culmination of his plan anymore.

Your prayers bring about the action.

How do I know that?

Well, the angel brought the censer.

It says he came and stood at the altar.

This is halfway through verse three. He was given much incense and he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

All right.

Your prayers at the end are offered to God so that there'll be a culmination of God's kingdom brought about on the earth.

Your spirit is praying for you to be the kingdom and for God's kingdom to be in you.

Your spirit is speaking to God all the time 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.