2026-03-17 Revelation 7-8 Wednesday Part 2

Today is the day you have.

Welcome to Today in the Word with Pastor Bob Larson,

of Calvary Chapel Caldwell.

Pastor Bob will be with us in just a few minutes,

but first we'd like to let you know

that Calvary Chapel is located on the corner of 10th

and Everett across from the library in downtown Caldwell.

We have two Sunday morning services at 9.30 and 11.30.

If you prefer Saturday nights,

we have a Saturday night service at 7 p.m.

We also have a midweek service Wednesday night at 7 p.m.

You can watch Today in the Word on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m.

on ABC channel 6.1.

Join us as we broadcast Calvary Chapel Caldwell's

Sunday morning church services.

Where Pastor Bob teaches you how to apply the truth

in your Bible to everyday experiences,

so that you might enjoy better life.

Verse 15, therefore they are before the throne of God

and serve him day and night in this temple.

Now these are those who got saved during the tribulation,

now we see them serving the Lord day and night in the temple.

And he who sits on the throne will dwell among them.

They shall neither hunger or thirst anymore,

and the sun shall not strike them nor any heat.

So that's what they experienced during the tribulation.

Verse 17, for the Lamb who was in the midst of the throne

will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of water.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

So these are those who got saved during the Great Tribulation period.

And again, God wants people to be saved,

doesn't want anybody to go through it.

And so as we read though, we start reading the crazy stuff next chapter.

We realize that God doesn't want anyone to experience his wrath.

But as we talked about before, people get to choose what they want to do.

And so God continually gives opportunity for people to repent.

And it's important for all of us to know, because sometimes,

if you've been a Christian for a while,

and then you maybe see someone on social media or on TV or something,

who's just doing wicked things and you think those people need to be judged.

And we're going through the book where you're like,

I hope they go through it.

But the reality is, right?

God wants us to pray for them.

God wants us to love them because God's heart, second Peter 3.9 is this.

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some count slackness.

In other words, God isn't going to, you know,

delay his judgment as you think delay.

His judgment is going to come.

But as long suffering towards this,

not willing that any should perish,

but that all should come to repentance.

So why is God waiting for His judgment to come?

Because He wants more people to get saved, right?

And one day, the last person who's going to get saved is going to get saved.

And then he's going to move on to the next phase, right?

Okay, Revelation 8, chapter 1.

If everybody was there,

when he opened the seventh seal,

there was silence for about a half an hour.

Now we talked about this on Sunday.

And, you know, a lot of commentaries think things there.

But, you know, I told you,

some people think there would be no women in heaven.

But I don't believe in that.

Not true, right?

So, because we know, why is this silence?

We talked about this on Sunday.

That I believe it's because God is in no hurry to bring His judgment on the wicked.

It doesn't bring God pleasure to judge the wicked,

but He's righteous, so He does judge.

Ezekiel 33 11 says,

say to them,

as I live says the Lord God,

I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked,

but that the wicked turn from His way and live.

So, God doesn't want people to make bad choices.

God wants all of us to make good choices.

Now, do we make bad choices sometimes?

Yes.

And do we think,

why did God give me free will?

Well, I have sometimes.

When I first got saved, I would ask my pastor,

why did God give me free will?

I make bad choices all the time.

I don't want free will.

It's like, well, that's part of it, Bob.

He wants you to freely choose to do what's right.

I'm like, it's so hard.

Can he just take it away?

Can he just make me be good?

Nope. You have to do that.

Now, you just think that through, right?

You just think through that.

God allows you to either want to be good and follow Him,

and love Him, or to be evil.

And you think, why do some people choose to be evil?

Well, God gives us all free will.

We don't know.

And the thing is, you don't know who's going to do what?

Like, in my family, you know, when I was, you know, young,

18 years old, and you have my family,

who in Bob's family is going to get saved and go to church?

And if you were to rank them,

I would have been the last one.

They would have said, Bob's never going to church, right?

But someone from church,

Kavry Chapel, shared the gospel with me,

invited me to church, and it changed my life.

So we don't know who's going to do what.

But we do know that God's giving people time to repent.

And so here we see this silence,

because God is not in hurry to pour out His judgment.

He says of verse two.

And I saw seven angels who stand before God,

and to them were given seven trumpets.

Then another angel, having a gold sensor,

came and stood at the altar.

He was given much incense that he should burn,

that he should burn off for it with the prayers of all the saints

upon the golden altar, which was before the throne.

And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints,

ascended before God from the angel's hand.

So here we see, and we read about in verse three,

the prayer of all the saints.

Now, when we think about our prayers,

I don't know what you guys think about prayers,

but there are different forms of prayer,

and I think that's important for people to understand,

because when we get to heaven, this is a big deal.

The prayers of the saints, we read about it here in chapter eight,

and there's different forms of prayer.

One of them is worship.

And I don't know if people realize this,

but praise, adoration, expressing our love towards the Lord

in worship, right?

That is a form of prayer.

Remember when Jesus came to Mary and Martha's home,

and Mary sat at the feet of Jesus,

and Martha was busy cooking and cleaning,

and preparing the food, and she said there in Luke 10, 39,

she said, and she had a sister called Mary,

who also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.

So here's Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus,

and Martha told Jesus, hey, tell Mary to get up and get to work.

She was sitting there worshiping you.

What's wrong with her, right?

And remember what Jesus said?

Oh, you're right.

Get up, woman.

Now what did he say?

And Luke 10, 42.

Jesus said to her, but one thing is needed,

and Mary has chosen that good part,

which will not be taken away from her, right?

So it's important to do good works.

The Bible says that.

But just as important is to spend time worshiping the Lord.

Right? And when we sing these songs at church,

and we're not just like fill in time

because the pastor can't talk long enough.

He can't.

He could go for hours, right?

But we only go for one hour because we know the attention span

of the average Americans like seven minutes.

So we're pushing it already anyway.

But the reality is that it's important to sit at the feet of Jesus

and spend time worshiping God, right?

And that's why it's a policy here at our church.

If you're a Sunday school teacher, you know,

the children's ministry overseers are like,

did you go to church this week, right?

Because we don't want people just to come to church

and work all the time and never worship Jesus.

So the children's ministry, it's policy.

They're told all the time.

Look, if you teach here, you have to go to church once a week, right?

And same with everyone who works here, our staff,

I just asked our assistant pastor Dennis today,

hey, you guys going to church?

You and Sean, and you guys sitting in services, right?

Because that's part of the requirements to serve at Cambridge Apple.

That we don't want you to come here and just be a slave for Jesus.

We want you to serve.

But we also want you to come in worship.

We want you to seek Him.

So important, right?

And it's percent that worship is the highest form of prayer.

When you think about spontaneously communicating,

your thankfulness, your gratitude, your love towards God, right?

That that is a form of prayer.

And it's a form of prayer where we're not necessarily saying,

give me, remember, in Acts 16, verse 25,

remember Paul and Silas, they were in prison?

And it says, but at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying

and singing hymns to God.

So they were praying and singing hymns, right?

And here's what happens.

When you are worshiping, it takes your mind off of all your fears

and off yourself and all the focus off yourself.

And it moves my focus onto God, right?

And as I begin to focus on God, my problems get smaller.

But when I focus on myself and my problems, they get bigger, right?

And so many people think, you know, prayer as only a petition, right?

Just asking God for something.

But there are multiple forms of prayer.

And worship is one of those forms of prayer, right?

As we're praying, you know, whatever we're singing, you know,

I surrender, right?

That's an old worship song.

And we're singing, I surrender.

It's a prayer, right?

We're singing, God, I surrender my life to you.

And we're not saying, God, give me, we're saying, God, I give, right?

Or, you know, we're saying, I worship you or whatever.

We're worshiping God.

And the highest form of prayer is worship, communicating, gratitude,

thankfulness, appreciation.

Now, the other form of prayer that many people are very clear about is petition, right?

Most common form where we're just saying, God help me.

God, I need this.

God, I need that.

God, fix my wife.

Fixed my husband.

Fixed my kids.

Fixed my boss, right?

Everyone knows about that kind of prayer.

And that is, you know, that's a legitimate prayer.

Philippians 4.6 says, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,

let your request be made known to God.

So God wants us to come to Him in prayer and ask Him for whatever we need.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

But unfortunately, there's a segment of the body of Christ where the only time they pray is when they need stuff, right?

I mean, it's probably include people who don't go to church very much and they don't worship,

and all they pray is just me, me, me, right?

And we need to pray for ourselves.

The Bible tells us, too.

But for some, their prayer life is only about themselves, right?

And a lot of people, the only part of their prayer life is just petition.

But we know the Bible teaches that there's worship, petition.

And then there's also a third form of prayer, which is intercession.

And that is when you begin to pray for other people.

Remember the Apostle Paul prayed in Colossians 1-9.

I do not cease to pray for you.

And to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,

that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work,

and increasing in the knowledge of God.

So Paul's praying for those at the church there in Colossi.

And so this is intercession prayer.

Maybe you've heard people say that, like, we have prayer groups here at church,

and sometimes the people in the prayer group, like,

what do you want to come into our intercessory prayer group?

And you're like, well, I don't know, it sounds scary.

I don't think I can do that.

It just means to pray for other people, right?

And so Jesus said that we should be praying for other people.

You know, Jesus said there in Luke 10, too.

He said, the harvest is truly great, but the laborers are few.

In other words, there's a lot of people that need to get saved,

and the people preaching to them and leading them into the kingdom are few.

And therefore, he's telling the church,

therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest.

So we should be praying.

Lord, send people out to preach.

Now, some of you are thinking, well, we got you, Pastor Bob.

What else do we need to pray for?

Well, I'm very limited, right?

I mean, only here Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, right?

And we're only on TV, on Sundays only, and radio, and social media.

But we should be praying, Lord, to send out people to show the gospel.

And so praying for the needs of others is a great form of prayer.

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray,

it has all three of these aspects.

Worship, petition, and intercession.

It begins with worship.

Luke 11, too, where Jesus taught them to pray.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, right?

So worshiping, right?

And then Luke 11, too, intercession moves into its worship,

then intercession.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And then it moves into petition.

Luke 11, three.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins.

For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil ones.

So we should be praying for ourselves.

We should be praying, Lord, help me not to give into temptation.

Help me to forgive people.

Lord, help me to forgive me in my sins.

All we should be praying those things.

And then back to worship in Matthew 6, 13, the last part of it.

For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen.

So sometimes we come to church and we're seeing about God's greatness.

And you think, why do we sing these worship songs?

Well, it's a form of prayer.

We're singing our hearts to God.

Now, you might come to church sometimes and think,

well, I don't like that song.

Well, we're going to be worshiping throughout heaven.

And so I think it's good for us as we think about prayer.

Jesus' model for prayer, worshiping, intercession, petition, worship.

It's just a good model, right?

So we're going to stop there for about a time.

Thank you for joining us for today in the worth.

We'd like to share with you a couple of things that are going on here at Calvary Chapel.

Calvary Chapel called will invite you to our Community Easter Service Saturday,

April 4th at 7 p.m. and Sunday, April 5th at 9.30 and 11.30 a.m.

This special service will feature the musical drama.

This is love, pre-enacting to death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Everyone is invited to this community event that features a bounce house,

face painting, candy for the kids,

free pizza before the Saturday service and a barbecue after each Sunday service.

Free lattes and Italian sodas for all first-time visitors.

For more information, visit us at CalvaryCaldwell.com.

Calvary Chapel Caldwell would like to invite you to our Saturday night service at 7 p.m.

This is an alternative for those who cannot make it to our Sunday morning services.

Like us on Facebook at Calvary Chapel Caldwell or check out our website at CalvaryCaldwell.com.

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You have made.