FOUNDRYcast

What is at the center of your life?

One of the easiest ways to find is to look at two things. Your bank account and your schedule. You have probably heard this befoe, but where I think the illustration falls apart (and actually begins to make even more sense) is how few of us actually do a good job keeping up with these two things. We might sit down occasionally, but many people live a life that relies more on overdraft protection and the inevitable "I'll be a few minutes late" text when we forget something is scheduled.

Our center point is all out of whack.

And that is what John is communicating to us this week. Or rather, he is communicating that throughout all time, God has been a stable center point, and few people have decided to rely on him in this way. The story is vivid and fantastical and communicates such a point to us.

Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven, and the same voice I had heard before spoke to me like a trumpet blast. The voice said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this." 2 And instantly I was in the Spirit,[a] and I saw a throne in heaven and someone sitting on it. 3 The one sitting on the throne was as brilliant as gemstones—like jasper and carnelian. And the glow of an emerald circled his throne like a rainbow. 4 Twenty-four thrones surrounded him, and twenty-four elders sat on them. They were all clothed in white and had gold crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning and the rumble of thunder. And in front of the throne were seven torches with burning flames. This is the sevenfold Spirit[b] of God. 6 In front of the throne was a shiny sea of glass, sparkling like crystal.

In the center and around the throne were four living beings, each covered with eyes, front and back. 7 The first of these living beings was like a lion; the second was like an ox; the third had a human face; and the fourth was like an eagle in flight. 8 Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered all over with eyes, inside and out. Day after day and night after night they keep on saying,

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty— the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come." 9 Whenever the living beings give glory and honor and thanks to the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever), 10 the twenty-four elders fall down and worship the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever). And they lay their crowns before the throne and say,

11 "You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased." Revelation 4

God has a strong place in the center of all the world. And regardless of the turmoil that is temporarily taking place, he has everything handled. At the beginning of John's vision of Revelation, we don't see terror or tragedy, we see worship and truth. To understand and live into this, we need to de-center ourselves and re-center towards God.

Each week, Jack and Chad get together to have a follow-up conversation about the previous weeks sermon. We are jumping off into our conversation about Revelation 1:4-8

• Mad Max references. Multiple
• jack has pages of questions. pages
• Even more mad max references.
• And even more.
• The title of the sermon.
• why Chad was absolutely terrified of Revelation and how Chad challenged that fear.
• If we don/t have a universal end we have to make up our own story to the end.
• where true power comes from and what it looks like.
• Is Jesus a reverse zombie?
• Why God doesn't whisper in our ear and make us feel bad.

I'm excited about kicking off this series on Revelation. I think it is one of the least read and most misunderstood books of scripture. If you missed my video on my wild Revelation story and why I think the book matters, check it out on our Facebook.

In short, Revelation matters because it is part of scripture. We get the beginning and the end, and we don't talk nearly enough about the end. We let folk tales and Pinterest give us a theological view of the book, but many of us have never read it. Revelation has the ability to speak DEEPLY into our lives today, just as it has for thousands of years. We just need to read it and apply it.

We start off this week with the beginning of the book, the visionary experience John had with Jesus.

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4 This letter is from John to the seven churches in the province of Asia.a]">[a]

Grace and peace to you from the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come; from the sevenfold Spiritb]">[b] before his throne; 5 and from Jesus Christ. He is the faithful witness to these things, the first to rise from the dead, and the ruler of all the kings of the world.

All glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us. 6 He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.

7 Look! He comes with the clouds of heaven. And everyone will see him— even those who pierced him. And all the nations of the world will mourn for him. Yes! Amen!

8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,"c]">[c] says the Lord God. "I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One."

Revelation 1:4-8

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We immediately jump into a wild experience, full of details that confuse us. But we also jump into a letter written by a disciple who has spent roughly 60 years living on the earth after Jesus rose from the dead, and who was very familiar with the Old Testament, and very familiar with what the Christian life looked like in a world that wasn't wild about Christianity. And that is where we will begin…

Worship gets a little iffy. We have a hard time defining it. For some folks, it means singing out loud in front of random friends and strangers. (#allthenopes). Other people might just use it as a generic term for "church".

So what is really going on when we worship? Is there a bigger point to this besides loud music and awkward public singing?

Yep.

And we are going to talk about why worship matters by looking at a few passages of scripture and begin building a bigger vision of the role of worship in the life of God's people.

It all starts when humans first realize things are a little crazy.

Adam had sexual relations with his wife again, and she gave birth to another son. She named him Seth, for she said, "God has granted me another son in place of Abel, whom Cain killed." 26 When Seth grew up, he had a son and named him Enosh. At that time people first began to worship the Lord by name. Genesis 4:25-26.

At the end of the story of Cain and Abel and when humans started causing violence and chaos, we get a little addition. We circle back to the story of Adam and Eve and their attempts to have a new son. But we also get a fun little detail. The first instance of worship in scripture. At the end of the story of the decline of civility and normality, people begin to recognize God for who He is.

What's the deal with the Devil?

We touched on that a little this past Sunday, but we want to get a little bigger of a look. So Chad sits down with JR Forasteros, a pastor at Catalyst Rowlett in Dallas. He is the author of Empathy for the Devil, a fantastic look at the motivation behind antagonists in scripture.

So we dig into the Biblical identity for the Devil/Satan, what a timeline for his fall from grace, and how that changes the way we interact with Jesus.

LINKS - Chapters from Empathy outcuts on Matthew 4:1-11 part 1, and part 2.

What does it mean to really belong?

This week, Chad shares a message from 1 Peter 2:9-10. It's about what it means to be chosen by God and how it offers us a belonging wildly different from that of the world.

What does it mean to be good? What does it mean to be dependable?

While those questions sound like the start of a job interview, they are also questions each of us asks in our own hearts. We ask them of others, we ask them of ourselves as we internalize our relationships, we project them onto the people who can guide us or simply create a better way forward.

In essence, it all comes back to the idea of faithfulness. A hope we each project upon the future with the ability to affect our present.

In truth, any idea of a faithful relationship is wrapped up in the whole of time. The past supports faithfulness, the present is about continuing faithful actions, and faithfulness is ultimately defined in future security. Whoever the person, and whatever the situation. These all come into play.

This Sunday, we look towards a big celebration in scripture and a big celebration in our life as a church. We find out scriptural center in a story of celebration and faithfulness. It is wrapped up nice and neat with a specific verse.

"He is good! His faithful love endures forever!" 2 Chronicles 5:13 and 2 Chronicles 7:2

Between these two verses is a great realization of faithfulness and the beauty of holy vision. We will use this story to examine what it means to be faithful people.