The Revelation 15:6 | Episode # 1114

January 22, 2026

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

The Revelation 15:6

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.

And out of the temple came seven angels. I always. In your mind, whenever you see the word angel, I want you in your mind to always kind of put messengers, okay? Because the word angelos means messenger, okay? And so they're not just beings. They're beings with purpose. They're beings with consequence, okay? And their consequence is usually something that they are either doing or proclaiming about God. This makes sense to you? All right, so it says. It says, out of the temple came seven. Seven is the number of completion. It's not the number of perfection, okay? Even though, generally speaking, you probably could use perfection. But I always want to make sure that you understand it's completion, because completion is beyond perfection, okay? Completion is. Completion is the fullness of things to its very end. I might be perfect in the moment and not perf later. Complete means I am complete all the way to the end. Does that make sense to you? That's a Greek idea, and it's a very important idea. So when I'm reading and I read seven, I always think complete, okay? Whatever's about to happen is going to be the completion of that thing, especially when you're reading it in Scripture. And then when I read angelos, I always think messenger of God, okay? And so whatever God's going to do when the angels show up, well, it's from God. And when it's seven of them, it's the complete work of God in this whatever's going to happen here, okay? And so he says. He says, and out of the temple came seven angels having seven plagues. All right, now, you know, I always try to make sure I tie things together for you in Scripture. And even today, I was with somebody who works for me, and she asked a question about church and why things are this way. And I always. If you ever ask me a question about why things work the way they do, I always will take you to scripture. Then we'll go through scripture and figure out, you know, the overarching story, and then I can take that truth and measure it up to whatever your issue is. And then the issue become the truth, enlightens the issue. Does that make sense to you? And the overarching story of scripture starts in Genesis. Man falls. Man always after in sin, slides toward total depravity and total destruction. God has a plan for that. God usually uses a human being as part of that plan. Almost exclusively in Scripture, he uses a human being as a part of that plan. That human being in the Bible is Abraham. And then from Abraham, you have the picture God's people being enslaved by the world. God delivering them out of that slavery in Egypt through the Red Sea, which is a picture of baptism by the blood of the Lamb, out into the wilderness, where they begin the process of being sanctified. That sanctification process involves meeting with God, preferably going up on the mountaintop and meeting with him yourself. Okay? Not going through a human body. And that's where their problem was. Why do churches operate this way where the pastor is the arbiter of all truth? Because a lot of churches never, ever leave the wilderness. They stay at the foot of the mountain and say, you go up and tell us what God said, okay? And that's just not scriptural. In the Bible, it is called the rebellion, okay? And the rebellion's not about the golden calf. Did y' all know that the rebellion is about I brought you out here to meet with me on the mountain, and you rebelled against that plan. That is what God considers the great rebellion of scripture, the rebellion against his plan of him having communal relationship with us. But the ultimate end goal is not for us to be delivered out of Egypt. It's not for us to have the Ten Commandments and have the word of God from on top of the mountain. The ultimate story of scripture is for God to bring us to a place where we were supposed to be in Adam, meaning complete and perfect before him with all the power of the holy spir Spirit and all the purpose of God in our lives. And that means to go into the promised land and take the promises of God. All right? That is the overarching story of the Old Testament, right? That is the story of the Old Testament and how that plays itself out over and over again. You start getting into the books of the law, through the books of history, and through the prophets. And what is it? It's the story of man not doing what God's told him to do. And not living out that overarching story. And then finally you have Jesus, who is the fulfillment of that story, right? He is the lamb. He's the blood on the altar. He goes to the Jordan river for baptism to fulfill all righteous, not that he has to. And all of a sudden you begin to see these stories over and over and over again. They play themselves out in scripture. The scripture is the story of God bringing us to a place where we can have a relationship with him, where humanity can have a relationship with Him. And that's the overarching story of the Bible. Well, in order for there to be a need for that story, there has to be a consequence for not that story. Does that make sense? Why do I need a hero if there's not a calamity to deal with? Right? Why do I need Jesus if there isn't hell? Why do I need Jesus if there's not judgment? There's no need for Him. There's no need for Him. So, and I say this over and over again, but one of the things about growing in your relationship with God is becoming comfortable with the very core innate things that he is. Does that make sense? There has to become a comfortability in your. Listen, you're never ever going to really understand the Holy Spirit teaching and guiding you until there is a, you know, an assurance and a comfortability with the nature of God. Does that make sense to you? I mean, you're never, ever going to be really close and intimate with your spouse until you know your spouse. You know what I'm saying? And sometimes you'll find people who never ever get to know each other and, and, and they'll bail out of a marriage, like in the first three or four months because it's obvious we're never going to know each other. Somebody is holding out. Okay, well, you can't have a relationship with God unless you actually know who he is. I've got to become comfortable that he's sovereign. I got to become comfortable that he's all places at all times. I got to become comfortable that he is the definition of the power of the universe. He. He functions in the full power of the universe. I have to become comfortable that he knows all things. He is in all things. When I become comfortable with those things, I got to become comfortable that he's holy and righteous. I gotta become comfortable that anything that's not of him is sin, which he hates. And, and, and the comfortability that people go hate. Yeah, God hates sin. He hates raw evil. He does. There's nothing good comes from it. Evil has consequence. And it's never good. Its consequence is never good. And so why shouldn't he hate that which destroys his creation? He should. Am I right? It's it. And he's. And he is always right. And so when I become comfortable with who he is, then when he begins to reveal himself, there becomes. There becomes a, you know, just an innate. Ah, okay. And there becomes a boldness that comes out of it because you begin to boldly do what God tells you to do. Because I'm comfortable with who he is. I know how he is. I know what he says. Now, are we ever going to be completely comfortable with God? No, no, no, no, no, no. But you. You. You definitely need to come. The core aspects of who he is and how he presents himself. Am I right? All right, so it says here they came out with seven plagues. And so I went down a rabbit trail there. When I think of plagues, what's the first thing I tie it to? Huh? Hello? Bueller. What story? Over to Egypt. Egypt. Okay. What were the plagues for? Remember, they were to get the children of Israel out of Egypt. Yes, but not all. Not all, no. Did they get the children of Israel out of Egypt? Yeah, but I want you to hear me. That wasn't the whole purpose. The whole purpose was, is that God was judging that which represented the world and its sin. So the ten plagues of Egypt were plagues where God says, this is evil, this is wrong. And you can tie them off to the major gods of Egypt. Each plague ties off to a major God that was worshiped by the Egyptians. And God each time says, I'm greater than that God, and that God's evil over, over, over again. Why? Because he's unveiling himself? Sure. Is he going to deliver his children out of Egypt by them? Absolutely. But it's more than that. And you. And by the way, you do need to realize that when you're all upset about how this is affecting you, it ain't all about you. You know, I. One of the. One of the most maturing things I ever figured out is 99% of the people I talk to don't care one whit about me. All they care about is themselves. And so anything they do about 99% of the time has everything to do with them and nothing to do with me. So quit worrying about what they think because they thinking about themselves. Did y' all realize that that was one of the most maturing thing I could figure out? I figured that out in my mid-20s. You know, the more I walked around, I realized everybody I talk to, all they care about is themselves. Because God was beginning to teach me to care about other people. And then I realized I'm caring about people that don't care about anybody else. And that kind of perturbed me with God, right? He goes, well, I love him, so you got to love them, right? And then you go, well, that don't make you feel any better. It does if you step back and go, God's what? Sovereign? That's right. He gets to say how it works. Too bad for you. Too bad for you. If you don't like it, too bad. There's a strong likelihood, if you don't like it, something's wrong with you. Mmm. That makes you even feel worse, don't it? But it's a great revelation to realize that everybody's selfish, isn't it? Huh? Really helpful. Great help. Great help. All right. It says they were. He brought out the seven plagues. Now that means he's going to completely judge the earth clothed in pure, bright linen. Notice there's a dichotomy. You've got the plagues. And notice the plagues come from the holiness of God. The plagues come from the holiness of God, it says. And having their chest girded in golden bands. Now this is important all the time. If it's. If the girding takes place around your waist, it's a work. You following me? If the girding goes around, you know, like the ladies, high waisted dresses, right. If the girding's around your chest, that is a picture of a finished work that is being completed. You're not doing a work. You are walking in the royalty and the power of what has already been done. Does that make sense? So when the Bible says, gird yourselves with what, and it says that several times in scripture, what he's talking about is, get ready for the work that God has for you. But these angels are not doing a work. I want you to notice they're not doing a work. They're doing the natural result of who God is. And the gold represents the royalty of God, which means that this activity is coming from the sovereignty of God. I'm going to tell you, that was one of the greatest theological understandings that I believe I ever God, and I probably sometimes even overemphasize it. But coming to the realization that God is God of all, that he is the sovereign of that which he created, it is by definition he is. It is the product of his labor and his will. Which it makes it His. And by the way, that's the beginning of our whole constitution, our whole form of life. God is sovereign over that which was the product of his will and his effort. So he gets to decide. And it's very helpful with everything in life. You go, some people can't go down a trail where they're trying to fight with God over his sovereignty and they never ever get okay with God being God. But you know, I realized that, you know, God is God and when he decides something, it is perfectly right, it's good and I can be okay with it and then I can walk in it a whole lot better when I'm not wrestling with him for who he quite clearly deserves to be. You know, quite clearly he deserves to be God. And so I should not wrestle with that sovereign idea. 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.