Douglas Campbell's sermon 'Partners in Tribulation' delves into Revelation 1:4-9, focusing on verse 9, where John describes himself as a partner in tribulation, the kingdom, and patient endurance. Campbell highlights the significance of believers being adopted as God's children, emphasizing the profound transformation from being sinners to being righteous through Christ's sacrifice. He explores the concept of tribulation as a normal part of Christian life, drawing historical parallels and cautioning against becoming complacent due to a lack of persecution. Campbell underscores the importance of recognizing our identity in God's kingdom, which is not of this world, and encourages steadfast endurance through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. He illustrates how tribulation can lead to spiritual growth and spread the gospel, as seen in John's exile to Patmos, where he continued to proclaim Christ despite persecution. Campbell calls believers to prepare for future challenges by deepening their faith and reliance on God's sovereignty, reminding them that their ultimate home is with God, beyond earthly trials.

If you would turn with me to Revelation chapter 1. This morning I'm going to read verses 4 through 9. And this morning looking specifically at verse 9. Revelation chapter 1 starting at verse 4. The word of God says, John to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are born or who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of kings on earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us a kingdom, priest to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him even so amen I am the Alpha and the Omega says the Lord God who is and who was and who is to come the Almighty I John your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we again come to you declaring how great thou art, that you alone are worthy of all praise.

You alone are the Almighty. You alone are holy. Father, as we examine ourselves, Father, we have to come to the conclusion that though you are holy and you are good, Left to ourselves we are not. And Father, as we come before You and we see Your greatness and we see Your holiness, Father, we would cry out, have mercy on us sinners Father. Yeah Father, our hope is in Christ your son Whom though we have corrupt flesh, he didn't.

Though we sin, he did not. Though we deserve wrath, he did not. And He went to the cross and took the wrath of those who would love Him upon Himself. And Father, for this reason this morning we come to you, and we plead for your mercy and we plead for your grace. Father, we plead that you would give us understanding, that your Holy Spirit would give us an understanding that even our corrupt minds could not comprehend.

Father, left to ourselves, we are ignorant and we are blind. So Father, this morning we we throw ourselves to you. We cry out that we need you. Would you draw us close? Would you make us to be more like You?

Would You help us, Father, to not only understand but to apply that Your name might be glorified through all the earth? And Father, as this morning we pondered in Sunday school, that we would bring glory even to the angels who would watch, and they would continue to cry out, look what God has done. Father, for Your glory, we ask in Christ's name, Amen. Amen. Well, this morning, as we come to verse nine, I like to read what's previous to remind us and again, bring us some context forward.

But let's look here at verse 9. Again we see a transition in the beginning. We saw a transition from looking to the past and then last week or the week before looking towards the future of what Christ will do in the soon coming future. And now we see a transition of John telling us or giving us an introduction to the things that are to come in the letter that God has used him in writing to the church. And here's what it says, it says, I, John, your brother, and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus was on the island called Patmos on account of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

The first thing that John lays out before us or or even a reminder is he lays out that he is, if you're in Christ, he is a brother. He lays out or reminds us again that if you're in Christ, that you're not only redeemed, you're not only forgiven, You're not only credited with the righteousness of Christ, but you are even further adopted into the family of God. That God is your Father. That you are His son. Now you're not the son, you're not a God, but He adopts you into His family.

It's not just the judge that declares you guiltless, and it's not even the judge that declares you righteous and sends you on your way, but it's the judge that declares you guiltless and righteous and says, you're my son. Again, if a judge was to, if we understood our sinfulness, if I understood rightly my sinfulness, and a judge was to declare me guiltless, that would be so amazing. It would be unable to be able to be comprehended, because I know my sin quite well and though my wife would be too nice to say it I would hope I I think she's seen enough of me that she would agree he's Her husband's definitely not a perfect guy, and my children have seen the same, and they would probably, hopefully, and I'm sure, they would be nice to me. But their dad is a sinful man. Their dad had to come to them at times and apologize.

My wife has had to have her husband come and apologize to her. Why? Because he's still tricked by this flesh a lot. I still need Christ's work in me. I still need to be more like my Savior and my King.

Now if that's all he did was just declared me guiltless, that would be amazing. But just because you are guiltless, so understand this rightly, and I don't want to take a lot of time here, but just because you are forgiven does not mean that you're worthy of eternal reward. It doesn't mean that you're worthy of heaven. And if all that happened on the cross was that Christ paid for your sin, if that's all that happened in salvation, you could go free, but that's all. But Christ, or God, and His goodness goes even farther than that.

That on the cross, as He took the wrath and punishment for your sin, your sin was imputed into His account, and His righteousness was then also imputed into your account. I'm sure you've heard many times of the great exchange. His righteousness and your sin switches accounts, and God can reward you eternally in heaven, not only because you're forgiven, but because your account contains the righteousness of His perfect Son. That's why it's reward. That's why it's beyond your comprehension.

So he goes farther. God doesn't only forgive you, He credits you with what you didn't do. He credits you with the perfect righteousness of Christ. And if He only did those two things, we could sing for all of eternity of His greatness. But as the TV salesman, the sham-wow guy says, it doesn't stop there.

It doesn't stop there. But then he also says, calls you son, calls you daughter, adopts you into his family. John is reminding us of this in his introductory statement. John is saying not that we're biological brothers, but we're both adopted into the kingdom. We both have the same father.

We both are brothers with our Savior and our King. We're both brothers of each other. And even inside of this room, if you're in Christ, you're not just my friend. You're my brother and you're my sister. You're of a family that should be actually tighter than biological family.

Why? Because we are preparing to spend eternity with each other. Amen? It's, it's, I think it was Mark Lowry. I don't want to be too much of a comedian, but he talks about loving people and liking people, and he says there's a big difference.

He says he has, you know, relatives. He has an uncle that he loves him, but he doesn't necessarily like him. And he said, if you want me to illustrate what I mean, he said, I will go to his funeral and I will even cry, but I'm not going on vacation with him. But I would tell you as my family, I will go on vacation with you. Why?

Because our bond is tighter. Our bond is stronger. We're bonded in Christ. And though you may do a hundred different things that annoy me, I'm sure I do a hundred different things that annoy Jake, probably to almost tears when I'm not around, and probably two tears. But I love Him, and He can put up with me, and we can go on vacation, and I believe that's the same with all of you.

Amen? We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are fellow partakers. We're partakers of what Christ has done. We have, we're partakers in His forgiveness.

We're partakers in His righteousness. We're partakers in His family. We're reminded in Ephesians 1-5, it says, He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will. He lays out before us in Scripture that even before time began, if you are in Christ, he already determined that He was going to adopt you into his family as sons through Jesus Christ. Understand, when we come to the text, we can think of it maybe in a secular way.

When they landed on the moon, what did they say? That's one small step for man, but one giant leap for mankind. It is commonly understood that man means male and female. Mankind means all of us. And there are times where in English it's a translational or language issue, but to understand it rightly, We could read this that he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons or daughters Through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will Now oftentimes when I talk about when I lead someone through Premarital counseling or or I talk about men to their wives and I remind often that yes this is your wife but she is a daughter of the King.

See you better treat her well. Amen. John reminds us, we're brothers and sisters, we're fellow partakers, and the amazing thing that God has done for us. Next, let me read it again, I John your brother, partner in the tribulation. So this is where I want to go this morning, that we are partners in the tribulation.

And what does this mean? It's not necessarily talking about end times, though we find that in the end times that there's tribulation. But this Greek word that's used here means, it just means an oppressive state of physical, mental, social, or economic adversity. It means you're going to go through hard times. Fellow partakers of trying times in this physical life.

John understood this to be normal. And in fact, if you look all throughout history, this was completely normal of all believers. The only time that I can think of in history that it wasn't normal was when though it was normal and it's what caused it and we see this so often in the text that through tribulation through persecution What oftentimes happens is the remnant or the people of God will flee, they will scatter. And in those fleeing and scattering, they develop new areas, they share the message of Christ, and the true Christianity spreads. It's propagated.

It's preached and shared, and it's going to the world and proclaiming the gospel. It occurs. Sometimes, you and I, or I have looked back in my life and I've seen certain things that happened. There was a time where I worked at a factory and I couldn't stand the job, but it paid well. And I got comfortable in that paying well.

And through different circumstances, partially because of my sin and my love for catching fish was more deeper than my love for going to a factory. At some point, I had to quit that job. Not because I choose to, but because if I don't choose this option, then they will tell me what I will do. I will quit this job. It was devastating.

This job pays well. There's something really strange about young men, at least in me. When I was between the ages of 18 and 30, I pretty much thought if everything didn't go as planned that, well, I blew it. I messed up this life. All right, that's not true.

All right, And so because of this, we can get stuck, though it may be a good situation, God will use different circumstances to get us to do what He has planned for us to do. And that might be to move. That might be to go somewhere else. I think what is normal though in our culture at this point is our culture has fallen so far away from Christianity, I think that God has plenty for you to do right where you're at. Though he may be calling you to move.

But, I'm sorry I'm jumping around a lot, but this is what we have seen in history. That persecution and tribulation comes so strong that the people of God oftentimes flee. We understand that that much has to do with the founding of our country. That much, not all, but much of it was those who desired to know God, the reformers, and those who were experiencing an extreme amount of persecution and tribulation, found what in this new country that was discovered, they found opportunity that we might flee this oppression and we might worship God freely somewhere else. Now they understood that life was probably going to be harder.

It wasn't easy to develop a new land. It's not easy to go somewhere where there isn't stores and Walmarts and all these things and to build and to survive. There are many shows or books and different things that speak of the hardness of that. And what stood out to me in one thing that I watched is they were trying to simulate this, and they would have families come, and husband and wife, and they would try to simulate what it would be like to be one of these pioneers. And every few months, they would evaluate, and they would see what they got and winter is approaching and they come to the house to evaluate and they see wood stacked everywhere.

And I'm like, that is a lot of wood. And if you've ever heard some of my whining, crying stories about wood, you'll know that I know a little bit about wood. It was a lot of wood. And like, they're doing really well. And the experts come in and they say well it looks like you'll probably die in February you don't have enough wood it was very hard but look let me let me tell you rightly they understood how hard it was going to be.

But to truly and freely worship the one true God of the Bible was worth it. It was completely worth it. It was completely worth it. And with the development of America, we found what seems to be an anomaly in the timeline of all of history. And that anomaly is this, is that because they fled, we enjoyed a few hundred years of no persecution.

And you and I have only known no persecution. While we join freely this morning, our brothers and sisters around the world are gathering together and they don't know if they're going to go home alive. Life isn't the same. It's very hard. Now on the opposite of that, and I've shared many, many times, there's a blessing of prosperity.

There's a blessing of no persecution, but tied with that is a deep, I can't think of the word for it, a deep warning, A deep cliff, a deep fall. It seems that you and I, though we still carry our flesh around with us, when we experience too much easy, our flesh tends to get control. Our flesh tends to cause us to want more. It's never easy enough. It's the same way we are inundated with entertainment and all these things.

And yet, the more we have, the more we desire, the more we need to tie this with other events in history like the the fall of Rome and and different tactics that that evil men will use to control their people. They evil men when they want to enslave a people, they will try to keep them busy with anything other than what they should be doing. And no doubt our culture if we are inundated with entertainment, we will pay no attention to what's happening around us. Brothers and sisters, tribulation is normal. No tribulation is abnormal.

It's an anomaly. No tribulation, typically, though it's God's will, It greatly weakens the church. It allows us to be distracted and pulled so many different ways. But John, as he writes, he understands that it's normal. In fact, so normal that he tells you, brother and fellow partaker, in the tribulation.

He assumes his readers are in the tribulation. And though We know that he writes this to churches of his time. He also, we know that God uses this. It is the scripture. It is for the church of all time.

It assumes that we're in tribulation. I would transition from this to say, as I've said many times, there is tribulation coming. And it's going to be very hard. It's going to be very severe. The church in specifically America, but all throughout the world, the rest, a lot, most of the world is already experiencing tribulation, but the church in America will experience a very hard tribulation very soon.

And why do I say that? It's not because I'm a prophet, because the Bible says this is what we're to expect. But let me help you to understand it better. This tribulation, I don't believe, is going to be one of just the bad people are attacking the church. And we see that a little bit, that some people shoot up churches, some people want to burn down churches and these things, but I don't think this is the main tribulation.

The main tribulation is going to come from those who would look at those who trust the Bible, who follow the Bible, who have their faith in the one true God of the Bible, and they will label you as fundamentalists. And they will say you're extremists. And they will cheer as the government put you to death. They will cheer as the government persecutes. Why do I say that?

Because this is the pattern of history. The mainstream religion has almost always cheered the spilling of the blood of the saints. We look even into the Old Testament. And what is the accusation of the religious leaders of the Old Testament, you keep spilling the blood of the prophets. And then we look to the New Testament, the Pharisees and the Thaadjusses.

You, your forefathers spilled the blood of the prophets and you crucified The Son of God. This isn't abnormal. To believe and obey the Scripture is a remnant. It's not the majority. It's never been the majority.

Even as we look into the Old Testament, we look at the Israelites as God's chosen people. Even within that group, there's the remnant, suggesting that even this group, though God calls them as chosen people, within this group a majority most of the time didn't know Him at all. Yet there were those whom God drew. There were those who stood for the word of God. There were those who stood up even when the culture was going the other direction.

Even when the culture was hurling insults. Even when the culture was swinging their swords. They stood up and they proclaimed the Word of God. And brothers and sisters, if that is you, if you are the remnant, if you are the elect, you can expect tribulation. Amen?

That's not a great thing to think about, but it's what we see through history, and it's what the Bible promises. Next, let's read that verse again. I John your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom. So he adds, he's our partner in the tribulation and now he goes on to something way better to think about than tribulation. And He's our partner in the Kingdom of God, the domain ruled by God as the sovereign King.

We find in John 15, 18-19, where Jesus tells us, And it makes sense of the tribulation when we pair these. It says, if the world hates you know that it hated me Before it hated you if you are of the world the world would love you as its own But because you are not of the world, but I choose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." Brothers and sisters, you are members of the kingdom of God. You may have a shack down here on earth, but it is not your home. We just sang that when when He calls us home. We will say, how great thou art.

This isn't your home. And I would tell you if it's not your home, don't treat it as such. Our mind should be constantly on the understanding and the rightly knowing that our kingdom is not of this world. That one day I will be home And it will be nothing like this. I've been in the habit and I've been sharing often that I am reaching an age where this world, I don't like it.

I don't like what goes on here. I don't like to hear about people raping other people and seeing how people behave and seeing how they act and watching the things that go on here. I don't want this to be my home. I don't like it. I'm here because God has put me here.

I'm here because God has told me to love my family and to teach them. I'm here because God has called me to glorify Him. And when God is done with that, I'm looking forward to getting out of here. Amen. There were times when I was younger that, and well some of you have had the privilege of going, but there was times when I was younger, I would go to with a group to Los Angeles and go out on the beach and share the gospel and that was such a blessing.

But I can tell you while I was there, I saw things and I experienced things that said, I would just want to be home I'm ready to go home The same is true if we realize who we are We realize that our kingdom is not here. If we see this world rightly for what it is, it has no attractiveness. Now I will, I love God's creation. I love what He has done, But I don't like what man has done. The sin of man has corrupted it.

And one day God will fix it, He will put it back, He will make things right, and when He has done that, this will be a great place to be. But right now it's not. You are of another kingdom. Next, let's read this again. I John your brother and partner in the tribulation, the kingdom and the kingdom, and the patient endurance that are in Jesus.

Next we come to he is a partner in the patient endurance. This Greek word can be is translated in my dictionary or my yeah it's translated as steadfast endurance it's the power to withstand hardship or stress especially the inward fortitude necessary if you're in Christ you can expect tribulation if you're in Christ you can you know that your kingdom is not here. And if you're in Christ, when we face that tribulation, we can understand rightly that He gives you the power to withstand, the power to endure, the power, and this is tied with, the power to remain faithful. I believe it was Cory Tenboom that, and I'm gonna butcher it pretty badly, but paraphrased, she lived, oh back, I should have planned this out before I told you a story, but she lived back in the time of Anne Frank when the persecution, and they knew that persecution was very real, and there may be a time where she has to die for her faith in Christ. And in a conversation with her father, she said, I'm afraid that when that time comes, I won't be able to do that.

I won't have the ability to stand for Christ." And his response to her was, is when you go for a train ride, when do you get a ticket to get on the train? It's right before. He said, if you trust in Christ, you can trust that if that time comes, He will give you the ability in that hour. As we find in other parts of the text, We know that those who are genuinely saved endure to the end. How do they endure to the end?

Their King gives them the endurance. The Holy Spirit empowers them to endure. And friends, if you're in Christ, you're a partner with John in the steadfast endurance. If you're truly in Christ, you will stay faithful. You will endure.

So this morning, and I know that we've already taken quite a bit of time, with this understanding I want to look at the second half of this verse. At least 14 times in Revelation we're called to endure. We're called to remain faithful. And John, though he addresses this this way, He tells us also where he's at and what's going on to show us that John is doing is he is enduring. In Revelation 1 9 again, I John your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and patient endurance that are in Jesus.

Now look at the second part. Was on the island called Patmos on account of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Now you might ask, well why is he on the island or on the island of Patmos. This island, I put a map in there I think, it's a small island in the Aegean Sea, that's in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea. It's off the coast of modern-day Turkey.

This island is barren. It's rocky. It's 10 miles long and less than 6 miles at its greatest point. In John's day, it would have been a criminal settlement guarded by Romans. And what I mean by that, instead of them building a prison, they take the criminals to this small island.

John is, before he goes there, he's a resident in Ephesus, they take the criminals to this small island, they drop them off, there are Roman soldiers there to just make sure they don't leave the island, and beyond that they're left to themselves. It's not like modern-day prison, They don't have weight sets and TVs and all those fun things. They're just taken there and they say, all right, get off the boat. Have fun. Rocky islands don't typically produce lots of food.

There's much hardship. There's no shelter. And on top of that, he's on this island. It almost sounds like a reality TV show, right? He's on this island with all the other criminals they don't want around the normal people.

Many of these criminals would die there. We understand traditionally that John survives, because as we go through scripture, we find often, what does the scripture tell us? To not forget those who are imprisoned. John survives because believers from Ephesus make regular trips to deliver him food and to deliver things that he would need. So I would ask you, why was John sent to Patmos?

Was it because he was just a multiple times speeder? No. John was sent to Patmos by the Roman Emperor Domitian. Domitian wanted to be considered, Unlike most of the other Roman emperors, he preferred to be considered a god and one of the people to worship him. In 86 AD, he built a temple to himself in Ephesus where John lived.

And finally, in 94 AD, John's defiance to worship him and his preaching of Christ reaches Domitian's ear and in turn he banishes the elderly John. John is very elderly at this point. He banishes him to Patmos. So here's an old man. John's already written all of the other books that he has written in the text besides revelation.

Here's an old man that simply won't worship the Roman emperor and keeps proclaiming Christ. He sends him to this island. It gives us new understanding, or should give us a deeper understanding of what is tribulation? What is persecution? Is it someone laughing at us because we have a Christian t-shirt?

Is it people arguing with us because we don't want them to murder their babies? This isn't persecution at all. John is left for dead. He's old enough, he probably can't even defend himself against the other criminals. He's not allowed to leave the island, he's banished there.

John is experiencing tribulation and as he writes to you this introduction, he considers you a partner with him in this. So John finds himself exiled to Patmos. Now there was a time in my life where I could have learned from John. There was a time in my life where I started to suffer things that I didn't think I should suffer. And I began to question God, like, God, I've done all these things.

Why am I here? Why is this happening? Why is this hard? Why all this? But we don't see John do that.

I guarantee you, John is like a million times the man that I am. After all, what is Scripture? In the Scripture, what is it? A title? The disciple Jesus loved.

Now if I could change history and I could get mentioned in the Bible, if there was anything that you could say about me, That's what I would want. Don't say anything else. Just say, Doug, the disciple that Jesus loved. He doesn't even have to put it in there. One day I'll hear him say it, and that's all I need.

John is blessed beyond almost anyone else in the text. He is the disciple Jesus loved. Now I would ask you, does that mean John has wealth, health, and prosperity? No, he's vanished to an island. Where is it going to be hard for him to even live?

How does John do this? Now, modern day Patmos is a little different. We can ship things more efficiently. There are people that live there now, it is civilized. It's not hugely civilized.

If I remember right, there's about 5, 000 people. But on that island, you can visit there. Their main source of income for their island is tourists, so they would appreciate it if you went there, I'm sure. You can see a barren island that has been civilized. But on that island is also, they're entitled the Caves of the Apocalypse, and it's traditionally understood that John received this revelation from God inside of, I can't remember if it's multiple caves or just this one cave.

And you can even visit this cave, and I don't know if that's where that happened, but it's very touristy, and That's what you got to do to get people to give you money, I guess. But we see that God used John, and I'm falling apart. I need to shake myself so I can re-catch y'all's attention. John's banished to this island. He can feel, he probably feels, you know, what is God doing in this?

But we don't see John question that. But what we do see is God used John greatly on this island. Amen. This morning we are still benefiting for John being on this island. For John going, if this is the way it happened, for John being in a cave, for God revealing his word to John.

Today we are blessed because of this. I'm reminded of in Psalms in Psalm 139 7 through 10 it says, where shall I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me wherever God has directed you wherever you find yourself God is still there God is still using you you are still part of his plan if you're in Christ God leads your footsteps.

Sometimes He leads it in in drawing us and causing us to go there, and sometimes because of our hard heads, He leads us in hardship. But wherever we find ourselves, if we're in Christ, God is there. So this morning as we look at the text, we see that we are partners with John in the tribulation. We're partners of the kingdom. We're partners of patient endurance.

And John answers for us the question, how do we endure the tribulation? Look what he says here, I was gonna put that verse back up. It says, I John your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus was on the island called Patmos on a... And so let me stop there. He was on the island called Patmos.

Why was he there? He tells us. On account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Why is he on the island? It's God's will.

This is where God has put me. Why else? Because He keeps proclaiming Christ. He keeps proclaiming the evidence. He keeps proclaiming why we must repent and turn to Christ.

Because there is no other way to God. There is no other way to find forgiveness. There is no other way to be forgiven for our sins. John can't worship two gods. Our God is a jealous God.

He alone deserves our praise. John can't worship the Emperor. Now, ironically, Christians believe we should submit to our civil authorities unless they cause us to sin, unless they ask us to worship them. So for the most part, Christians are the easiest people to get along with for any government, as long as they don't want them to sin. But we understand these battles aren't flesh and blood.

These battles are spiritual. These battles rage. So I would ask you this morning, where does this find you? Does it find you in easiness? Does it find you in no tribulation?

And though we can't really see much tribulation within our culture, we should be feeling some. Our culture is extremely polarized at the moment. If people aren't angry for how you live, if they're not offended by it, maybe it's because we're not any different than they are. I'm not saying we have any of the tribulation that we see most of the time throughout history, but friends there should be some tribulation. There should be some hardship.

I was reminded by a brother this last week. He said, Do you know the word nice isn't in the Bible? Have you considered that? Kind is, but that's not the same thing. Love is, but that's not the same thing.

Nice just means you're agreeable. And it's okay to be agreeable, but it can't come at the expense of the truth, or it's not kind at all. It's only nice. Amen? Do you have tribulation?

Are you suffering where you're at? Do you find that when you examine yourself, do you feel that you are on an island? Or as time goes forth, when tribulation does come in strength, how will we endure it? How will we endure it? We must understand and realize and constantly remind ourselves we're not of this kingdom.

This isn't our home. And secondly, and what we see here, finally what we see here in this text, do you know how John endures? He reminds himself that God is sovereign. God has me here. It's God who put me here.

And if He put me here, and I know Him and I love Him, it's for my good. If it's for my good, what am I complaining about? Do I want my bad? It's not easy, but it's for my good. Maybe that it's for my good that I might glorify my King.

Can you endure the tribulation? Can you endure the tribulation? Again, the Holy Spirit, Christ, God gives us the endurance. But we endure because we remember this isn't our kingdom and our God is sovereign and He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is the one true God of scripture and you're in His family.

Amen. There's no tribulation worth complaining about. And a hundred years, we will, with probably the angels, we will look back and we will be in adoration of, look what God did through me. Yep, I was on an island and I was maybe hiding and living in a cave and it was really hard and it wasn't comfortable and I was cold and I was almost freezing to death at times or overheating at other times, but you know what? God used me for His kingdom.

Amen? His kingdom and He brought us in. We can endure and we can have joy while we do it. Amen? Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you again for this day. Father, as we ponder your goodness, as we ponder the reprieve that your church in this new country has had for so many years. Father, we thank you for that rest. But God, help us not to become gluttonous in this rest. Help us to not transition from a time of worshiping you in freedom and proclaiming you in freedom to being lullabied to sleep because of that freedom.

Father, put within us the deepest desire to glorify You above all. Put within us the desire to be holy as You are holy, to be set apart, to live for your glory. Father, I pray that you would prepare my brothers and sisters that they would begin to understand that this is the time to cram for the test. To dig into your word, to draw near, to ponder your kingdom, to ponder what's to come, and to boldly proclaim that You are the one true God. Jesus Christ is your Son and there is no forgiveness apart from Him.

We would proclaim your word that says, as Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father but by me. Father, it's that statement that is so offensive to a pagan world. It's so offensive to the Gnostic world. It's so offensive to this Greek world that persecuted John that the only thing that could offend them is to say there wasn't lots of gods. And Father, we find ourselves in that same world.

We find that freedom of which we have enjoyed is drawing back to where it always goes. So Father, prepare my brothers, prepare my sisters. Help us to turn off entertainment. Help us to draw near to your word, that we might be prepared to glorify your name. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.