The Lord Who Hears and Acts

*The sermon manuscript below was generated from the recording by AI…

When I was a, a child, I loved drama. Liked productions, doing school productions and things like that. Absolutely loved it. I was always the first one queuing up to take part in the school production.

Now, if you, if you go to a good drama, my children have done homeschool dramas almost every year for quite a while. Uh, if you go to a good drama, one of the things that is often quite striking, if you have eyes to pay attention to it, is the way the drama transitions from scene to scene. And you can tell the difference between a really well done play versus a really bad play often by the transitions. It, it, it would be really awkward if, at the end of the first scene, all of a sudden someone stood up and said, “Sorry, one minute. We just need to change some stuff around to get to the next scene.” And then a bunch of people came out and moved some things around. And then they said, “Okay, we’re gonna do scene 2 now.” And then started scene two, and they did that at every transition. I- it would make for a very unenjoyable experience, wouldn’t it?

Well, in, in the Book of Revelation, we have similarly transitions that take place. You get a vision, and then there’s a transition into another scene, into another vision, telling a different story or telling the same story in a different way. But these transitions enable us to fluidly move from one vision to another vision, and often they, they overlap, as this one does here.

And here, we get a transition from, if you remember, the 7 seals that we looked at, through to the 7 trumpets. And the closing of one, as the 7th seal is broken, leads us directly into the beginning of the next vision, which is the 7 trumpets.

But the wonderful thing about transitions, even in dramas, is that the transition itself tells part of the story, doesn’t it? It’s true of movies, it’s true of books, and it’s true of the Book of Revelation. These little transitions which you might be tempted to sort of just skip over, actually are very important and communicate very important truth to us. And this one is very much the same. It’s not just a filler, you know, as though John was like, “Oh, how am I gonna, how am I gonna transition from s- from the seals to the trumpets?” No, no. I- i- it’s almost like a hinge. You know, a door in your house is very unhelpful if it doesn’t have a hinge on it, right? I mean, it still works, but it’s nowhere near as effective as if it’s got some really good hinges. And hinges do what? They both open and close, and the same is true of this transition here. It closes out the previous section and opens up the next one.

And as we look at this transition, I wanna just show you 2 glorious truths that come out of it. Firstly, the Lord’s sovereignty, the Lord’s sovereignty in God’s judgments. The Lord’s sovereignty in God’s judgments.

Now, you might be tempted to say, “Logan-” you’re starting to sound a little bit like a broken record, because we’ve heard about the Lord’s sovereignty a few times in the Book of Revelation already. And I would reply with the words of Paul in Philippians 3, “It is of, it’s no trouble for me to remind you.” It is no trouble for me to remind you. And the words of Peter, “I remind you again.” Why? Well, because the sovereignty of the Lord, A, is one of the sort of big themes of the Book of Revelation that comes up over and over and over again, and B, something we consistently lose sight of, and C, is probably one of the most helpful doctrines in all of theology, the sovereignty of the Lord.

And here we see the Lord’s sovereignty over his judgments. You see that the church’s comfort, your comfort, our comfort, is intimately tied, intimately connected, and this is what the early church needed to know, is intimately connected with your comfort and your solace as you face tribulation, difficulty, persecution, and pain. And it’s all over this passage, and we can highlight that by asking a few questions.

In verse one of our chapter, who opens the 7th seal? The lamb, right? It’s the lamb, and we talked about last week the fact, or the week before, that the seal opener is he who is sovereign over everything, and he’s sovereign over history. It’s one of the big stress points in chapter 6. But the lamb, God is the one opening the seal.

The, the second question we can ask is in verse 2, who gives the trumpets to the angels? “I saw the 7 angels who were standing before God, and 7 trumpets were given to them.” Now, that’s, it’s the Lord, I hope you know. It’s the Lord who gives these trumpets to the angels.

And in verse 3, who causes the angel to stand before God? Now, it’s not as easily seen in English, but if you read, it says, “And another angel came and stood.” It’s actually in the passive voice. An angel was caused to stand before the altar. Now, who caused him to stand there? Well, it wasn’t John. John didn’t say, “Hey, angel, can you go stand in front of the altar?” No, this is heaven, right? Who’s the only one giving commanders- commands in heaven? It’s the Lord. And so, the Lord causes this angel to stand there.

And in verse 4, who ga- gives him the incense? He’s given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints. Again, it’s coming from the Lord to be offered on the altar.

Or, you could ask in verse 6, who, who do the angels wait for? It’s a striking picture. The angels are given trumpets, and in verse 6, they stand there with their trumpets and they’re prepared to blow them. Now, what are they waiting on? Why don’t they blow them? Well, they’re waiting on the command of their king, right? They’re waiting on the sovereign command of the Lord to do it.

But th- the other question you can ask yourself is, well, who is this all done to and for? Have a look at verse 2. “I saw the angels who stand before God.” And then, have a look at verse 3, at the end of it. They’re standing, all the saints, before the throne. Who’s God? Verse 4, the throne of God, right? It’s this picture that everything is coming from God, and being returned to God, and done for God. It’s the picture of a sovereign Lord in his throne room, with all authority, controlling everything that takes place.

Now, that shouldn’t surprise us, should us? Because that’s exactly what happens in kings’ throne rooms all the time. When a king is seated upon his throne, the, the squires and the knights don’t do as they please, do they? They don’t come and go as they please. “Oh, I didn’t feel like coming to your presence today, oh king.” No, they go, they beckon, they leave in accordance with the sovereign will of the king alone. And the same is true in heaven. And we’re giving, being given a picture in this transition of the fact that everything that’s coming, these trumpets, the next 8 chapters, all of it is under the sovereignty of the Lord.

And it’s a reminder for us, isn’t it, that it’s the same today, that everything is in his control. Nothing’s by surprise, nothing’s by accident. As Psalm 115 verse 3 tells us, “The Lord is in the heavens, and he does as he pleases.” He doesn’t do as other people please.

Now, you might not like what he does, you might look at your life and think to yourself, “Well, this is a pretty bad plan,” but no one asked you for your opinion because it’s as the Lord pleases. Not as Logan pleases, not as sovereign kings please, not as presidents please, but as the Lord pleases. He who sits in the heavens laughs, and he does as he wills, right? Or you can think of the Book of Isaiah, where over and over and over again, we’re told, “I, the Lord, am God. I sit in heaven, and I do as I please.” It starts about chapter 42 and it recurs about 7 or 8 times through to the end of the book.

And this was reminded to me with fresh vigor as I went to the Open Home Foundation and preached there on Monday, th- they had had a staff member die, l- tragically. Mm-mm, that was sad. A staff member that had been with the team for a very long time, ran a particular program that was very hard to find people to run, and so they were grieving. They had just had a funeral about 2 weeks earlier. And I said to them, “You know, the only reason you’re alive today and she’s not is because of the sovereign will of God. You know, why was it her and not you?” Now, that’s a thought, isn’t it? Why are you here today? Why are you sitting in this church service? Why did a bus not hit you this week? Because the Lord sovereignly ordained that you would live for another Sunday, that you would gather for another church service.

And I think this comforts us, doesn’t it? In the face of wars in Iran, in the Middle East, in the face of rumors of wars, we might be tempted to get worried. But Brothers and sisters, do you realize that not a missile lands without the sovereign will of God? Not one bullet strikes anywhere without God saying it will hit there. Everything happens in accordance with God. God was not caught off guard when war broke out. He didn’t all of a sudden go into, like, panic mode, “What are we gonna do about the war in Iran?” It was ordained from the foundation of the world.

And that should comfort us, because it means someone’s in control, brothers and sisters. You see, if there’s one square inch of creation that is not under the sovereign decree of God, there is 0 comfort or assurance for any believer. Because if there is just one square inch out of the control of God, then you have no hope that that square inch is not in your life. And it would mean there’s someone bigger and more powerful than God.

And so, this comforts us as we hear of the wars going around, but I think it also, it also rebukes us and reproves us for how quick we are to murmur and complain with what happens in our lives, doesn’t it? I mean, think about Israel in the wilderness. The Lord led them freely out of Egypt, and he sovereignly led them into the pain of the wilderness. And what did they do? 5 minutes later, they’re complaining, 5 minutes later, it feels like, when you’re reading through the narrative, they’re, they’re murmuring because we had cucumbers in Egypt. We had meat pots. We had fish. We had all of the comforts of this world, which of course we all know is nonsense. They murmured and complained.

A- and sometimes we need to be reminded of the words of the writer to the Hebrews in chapter 12 verse 15, where he says, “Beware lest an unbelieving root of bitterness come up in your heart.” And you know, he’s referencing the wilderness wandering. We must be very careful, brothers and sisters, that when we face the sufferings and tragedies of this world, the pain, the difficulties, the tribulation, we must be very careful lest we give into a spirit of bitterness. Like a root, it grows up within and it almost always begins with complaining. “Why has the Lord done this to me?” If the Lord’s done it, it must be good, because the Father of Lights only gives good gifts, right?

So, the sovereignty of God reproves us for murmuring at the things that happen to us in the world. I think the other thing it does is it rebukes us for our lack of trust. Does the Lord not know what he’s doing? Maybe you sit here today in this present situation and you sit and you think. Maybe you’ve got something foreboding in your life, something weighing upon you, and you’re tempted to think to yourself, “Well, I don’t even know if God’s doing something good,” a-and you mistrust Him.

This passage, this passage rebukes us and calls us to trust a good and loving God who is sovereign over everything, who is often doing things we don’t expect. Who, through the judgments of verse 6 onwards, the trumpets, the judgments that we’ll see, is doing a million things.

Brothers and sisters, the Lord is sovereign over everything that takes place, and this is seen especially in His judgments upon the world. Who can rise up and say, “God, you shall not judge me”? It’s striking, isn’t it, that the unbelievers of the world who shake their fist at God today and say, “Ah, God. What kind of judgments? I don’t care what God thinks about” Who will say that in the face of God? Who will say that in the presence of the Lamb? No one, for His judgments are sovereign.

And so, we see the Lord’s sovereignty in this section.

But the, the flip side of that, and it’s quite striking, is that in the face of this intense sovereignty of the Lord, in all of His judgments, we see the church’s role. The church’s role in the judgments of God. We see the flip. We see, on one hand, God’s sovereignty over all things, and on the other hand, the necessity of the church’s ministry of prayer.

You know, maybe you’ve heard people say, I- I’ve heard this on panels, question and answer panels many times, on- online, but also in youth group panels when I’ve done q- question and answer times, “If God’s sovereign, why pray?” Oh, ’cause God’s doing everything anyway.

And yet here, as we’re faced with the absolute sovereignty of God, one of the central themes in this transition is the prayers of the Church of Jesus Christ.

And so, have a look at what’s going on in verse 3. “Another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censor, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censor, which was filled with” The prayers of the saints and the incense that have been mingled together. “And he filled it with fire from the altar, and he threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.”

What’s going on here? Well, what we’re being told is that the prayers of God’s people are intimately connected with the sovereign judgments of God upon the world. Or, or to say it differently, it is the prayers of the church mentioned in verse 4 that causes the judgments of verse 7 onwards.

Now, it’s very, very important that you pause for half a second and consider what that means, because we can talk about cause different ways. When we say that the prayers are causing judgment to come, we don’t mean it’s what’s called an effectual call, in the sense that God can’t do judgment, the trumpets aren’t possible unless the church prays because God is somehow, uh, reliant upon our prayers as though He’s hamstrung without them. No, that’s not what we mean.

What we mean is it is the means. It is the means of bringing about the judgment of God. And, and we can illustrate this easily when we think about salvation. Paul can say, “The gospel is the power of God unto salvation.” Correct? So, people are saved through the preaching of what? The gospel. But who does the work of salvation? Well, God. The gospel doesn’t save people, God saves people. But He uses the gospel in order to bring people to salvation. Correct? And so, it’s a both/and. God is the one doing the salvation through the means of the preaching of the gospel, and the same is true in the picture we’re being shown here. God is the one that sovereignly brings judgments upon the world, and He uses the means of prayer in order to bring about His judgments upon the world.

Now, why is that significant? Why is that significant? Well, to answer that, we need to be a little bit like an investigative reporter. Now, if you ever had to do one of those assignments in school where they’re like, “Right, we want you to be a reporter and write a report,” you were always told to ask certain questions, right? There were those typical questions, what, why, who, when, how, those investigative type of questions. We’ve gotta use that here.

So, so what, what is prayer? As we think about prayer, it’s easy to use these words, right? But what is prayer? It says that they’ve taken the prayers of the saints. Well, what is prayer? Well, prayer, simply put, is a petition to a divine being. Now, lots of people pray. It’s not just Christians that pray, right? Hindus pray and Buddhists pray. All sorts of people pray. Prayer is a making known of your petitions to a divine being or to a deity or to a power.

Well, what’s the difference between Christian prayer and other peoples’ prayer? What, what is Christian prayer? What makes it Christian? The, the major difference between Christian prayer and every other prayer on the face of the planet is that Christian prayer distinctly is a response to God’s grace, whereas prayer in every other religion is what you might call a power move. So, I’ve done A, to put your arm behind your back, therefore, please provide, please do this.

So, a great example, biblically, is Molech. If you need something from Molech, you sacrifice one of your children. So, you sacrifice a child. “I’ve now made you owe me something, because I’ve sacrificed my child. Now, here is my request.” Christianity is the polar opposite. We recognize God has done everything, and then we come to him and ask. You might say that’s completely counterintuitive. Well, that Of course it is. You’re not God. Us humans function completely different.

But you could illustrate it with your children, couldn’t you? Your children don’t come and ask you for food because they’ve earned it. I mean, think about the youngest baby. Did the youngest baby earn to get its milk from its mother? The mother has given it life and done everything to care for it, and all the baby ever does is cries and ask for more. I mean, what, what entitlement? No. This is a relationship of grace, isn’t it? Of love. And so, the mother bestows more favor upon it, and this is what happens in the Christian life, but infinitely more so. God bestows by grace.

And so, what is prayer? It’s a, it’s a response to God’s grace and coming to Him for more grace and favor. But what’s the content of this prayer? Okay. Prayer is coming to the divine. What’s the content of the prayer they pray for? ‘Cause all we’re told is that they’re the prayers. Well, I think we get a hint if we go backwards into Chapter 6. We remember this is a transition, right? So it’s connected to what went before, and it’s connected in particular to the seals of Chapter 6.

Now, do you remember the cry of the saints in Chapter 6? Have, have a look at verse 10. “O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will” What? Judge. “How long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” What is this cry for? We talked about it. It’s a cry for justice. It’s a cry for judgment. It’s a cry that God would make things right in the earth. That’s the content of their prayers, but it’s not only that, and this is really important to see, because it’s not just the prayers of the saints of Chapter 6, because Chapter 6 was focused on the persecuted church, right? But notice whose prayers they are in verse 3. The prayers of who? All. All the saints. It’s the prayer of the smallest saint alive through to the oldest saint dead. It’s the prayer of every saint that’s ever been cried in the face of injustice, in the face of pain, in the face of tribulation.

The content of this prayer is a prayer for God to move in this earth, to do something in the face of wickedness, to do something in the face of evil. It’s, it’s the request for God to intervene, isn’t it? And we know this, don’t we? May- maybe our need is different, but, but we know this. When we face difficulties and pain in our life, w- what does our heart, what does our inner heart immediately cry out? “God, do something. Do something. Act. Help.” Sometimes, aren’t we tempted to cry out, “Are you even there? I’m praying, but I’m not seeing. I’m praying, but I’m not hearing an answer. Help me.” It’s the prayer for God to step into action.

But notice, notice how this prayer is offered. It’s the third question: How is this prayer offered? It’s really important, and it’s captured in the work of this individual angel. You might call him a, a priestly angel. He functions a little bit like what an Old Testament priest would function like. So, this angel is made to stand at the altar with a golden censer. This is what happened in the temple in the Old Testament. And he was given incense to offer with the censer. Now, you know what incense offering is, but children, incense offering, you had a metal dish, and you lit it and it burnt and it smelled nice, and it was to be a beautiful aroma for people to smell, but especially for God to smell, and to say, “Ah, my people.”

And so, here, he’s given an incense to offer with the prayers of the saints, and then he stands and he burns it and he ra- and the smoke rises up before God, and then he pours out the censer in judgment.

Now, what is this? It’s the work of a priest. Now, what are we being given the picture of? Well, we’re being given the picture of the high priestly ministry of Christ, who s- who we’re told intercedes on our behalf. It’s like in that hymn we sing, “He ever lives to plead for me.” He stands in the presence of God, praying for his people.

This is why the mixture with the prayers is lots of incense. What’s being mingled with the prayers of the saints? Well, it’s the prayers of Jesus Christ. You see, what we’re get- getting given a picture here of is the way that prayer works. You see, prayer is, is not just you speaking and God hearing. It’s too simplistic, because you realize all of your prayer is tainted by your sin and is not worthy in the presence of God. So, how is it made acceptable? By 2 important facets. 1, your prayer is offered through Jesus Christ, the high priest. And the prayer is offered by the Holy Spirit’s ministry.

So, what happens is every time you pray, your prayer ascends by the work of S- the Spirit into heaven and comes through Christ and is offered by Christ to the Father, and so we see that prayer is an incredibly Trinitarian action.

Now, I know this is heavy and you might think it’s a bit overwhelming, “I just talked to God,” and that’s true. But brothers and sisters, things like this will enliven your prayer. When you fall down upon your knees, don’t just think, “I’m speaking out loud and God is listening.” Remind yourself, “The prayer I’m about to utter is not worthy for God. It’s not a worthy gift.” It’s as though you’re a child trying to give a father dirt. Yet, by God’s grace, the Holy Spirit takes my prayer, brings it into heaven, and the Son offers it to the Father on my behalf, which means the Father always accepts it. He always listens, and he always acts. Why? Because by the ministry of Christ, your prayer is made in accordance with the Spirit, who knows the mind of God, Romans 8.

And so, this prayer is offered in a way that it’s always heard and always actioned, and that’s very important, because what we’re being shown is what? That the judgment, sovereign judgments of God, his actions, and the prayers of the saints are intimately connected together.

And so, then we ask the last question, well, what’s achieved by this? Now the, the, the saints pray. All throughout redemptive history, all the way back to the, the blood of Abel that cries out for justice from the field in Genesis. All the wa- all the way to Zechariah who died between the alter and the curtain, and all the way through to today in the persecuted church, and you and your heartache and pain. Every cry is gathered before the throne and God does what? He acts. He brings judgments upon this world. He brings justice and those actions are going to be pictured for us in verse 7 onwards, and Lord willing, we’ll consider them next week, unless Jesus comes back first.

This is really important, brothers and sisters, and let me illustrate why. Well, we look at the situation in Iran, right? And we’re tempted to think to ourselves, America’s doing stuff, Israel’s doing stuff, Iran’s doing stuff, all these different important people are doing things, and yet what if we’re interpreting the situation completely wrong? What if what’s happening in Iran now is in response to the prayer of one little saint? Did you think about that before? The Lord always hears and He always acts.

Maybe it’s in response to the prayer of a 17-year-old. Her, her name’s Aida. Aida, I’m probably gonna say it wrong, but Najafloo. In 2025, she was arrested for celebrating Christmas and praying, and she was sentenced to prison for 17 years in Iran. Then she fell off her bed. I’m not sure how she fell off her bed, we’re not told, but she fell off her bed and fractured one of her spinal, um, vertebrates. And they took her to hospital, but you know, got kind of tired of having her in hospital so they just didn’t bother with the treatment and just put her back in prison again.

And then, uh, br- brothers and sisters, don’t treat this trivially. This is your sister. Your eternal sister, suffering in prison for 17 years now, from the year 2025 onwards. Do you think she has cried out to God for justice? For help? What if the war on Iran is in order to redeem and save and keep safe Aina, Aida? You’re one person. But how many voices do you think have cried out in Iran for justice because they have suffered by their blood at the hands of Islam? And how many, how many churches in the West have prayed for the persecuted church?

Brothers and sisters, don’t, don’t, don’t take for granted that God is doing infinitely more than you could ever imagine in everything that happens in this world. Don’t downplay the reality of your prayers. We can be tempted, can’t we, to end up treating prayer so with such small lenses that it becomes just something like a, a meditation only.

Brothers and sisters, prayer moves mountains. Prayer flattens nations and sets prisoners free. Don’t downplay what God will do through your prayers.

Now, God works by His will and not ours. You know, sometimes people say, “Be careful what you pray for,” and there’s an element of truth to that. Because the Lord doesn’t, doesn’t do as you want. He hears your prayer and He acts, but He acts according to His perfect plan, and sometimes His perfect plan may be very different than yours. I don’t know if you’ve ever had the experience where you’ve been praying for something for a season and then the Lord acts, and He acts in a way that you kind of didn’t really like. And you feel, “Well, that’s not quite the way I wanted patience. It’s not quite, quite the way I wanted to deal with my anger problem. Lord, uh, I asked that I might grow in faith and love and everything,” the hymn says. Do you remember the reply that John Newton writes down? God replies and He says to John Newton in this, in the hymn, “I brought you pain because that’s how I answer the prayer.”

Brothers and sisters, pray. Pray and expect God to act. It’s like one commentator put it really beautifully. He said, “God here teaches us that true prayer is not a mere exercise of holy affection, or an expression of dependence, or a means of preparation for receiving a blessing as some would teach, but it’s a real and mighty power in the world.” Or as the book that, uh, Elder Matthew and I are working on together says, we haven’t got to this part yet, says, “Prayer moves the hand that moves the world.”

That’s a striking thought, isn’t it? D- d- do your private prayers, does your private prayer life, does my private prayer life, do our corporate prayers reflect this reality? Y- think about your prayers that you, that you offer, whether you’re driving along in your car or when you’re taking your time in your prayer closet in the morning. Th- what does it reflect about your view of prayer? Do we look like children playing blocks? You, you know, children playing blocks, right, setting blocks up and stuff, but they’re using TNT? Well, they’re holding some of the most explosive, powerful things in their hands and had no idea. They’re just playing blocks with it.

Well, our prayers can look like that, can’t they? By holding one of the most powerful things in the w- universe and we look like children playing with blocks. Brothers and sisters, I think, eh, this rebukes us for our prayerlessness, doesn’t it? I think God’s telling us he brings judgments on the world in response to the prayers of the world and the prayers of the church, and we don’t bother praying.

If I really believed that, what would my prayer life look like? I’d spend a lot more time praying than I would working, wouldn’t I? We praise the Lord for initiatives that seek to push back the bog that’s in this world. I rejoice when I see and hear of people laboring to fight against abortion and euthanasia and all these things. Praise the Lord, and we need more of it. But how much time do we spend seeking to pray that into reality?

It rebukes us for our prayerlessness. I think it encourages us, because brothers and sisters, the reality is the church is always powerless. But, you know, the church is never helpless. Never helpless. You can take away everything from the church, everything, every building, every right. You can persecute them from shore to shore and cast every single one of them in prison. But as long as there is one believer alive on this world, which Christ says there always will be, the church is never helpless. It may be powerless, but it’s never helpless because the Lord is on their side.

The same is true for you and I, and for RBC. We’re not alone. We may be insignificant, we may be weak, we may be overlooked by many, but the Lord is I mean, public schools like this, they just get money thrown at them, right, by the government. And we don’t get any of it. And we don’t need it, because the Lord is on our side.

It encourages us, doesn’t it, to pray big prayers. I mean, pray little prayers too. Pray big prayers. Pray for God to bring justice to all of the unborn children of this world, millions of them that get murdered every year. Pray that God would bring justice for all of the elderly that are butchered and the vulnerable that are butchered. The death rates of euthanasia in places like Canada, which are leading the charge, and Holland, may God bring justice. May God overthrow such wicked things. May God overthrow people butchering children through surgery. May God liberate captives and the persecuted church. Pray these things, but don’t just pray them arbitrarily. Pray them with expectant hope. Because God will hear your prayer, and He will act. It may not be today, it may not be for a thousand years, but He will act. That justice may wait till the end of days, but He will bring justice.

You know, brothers and sisters, that, that age-old question which I mentioned earlier, “Why pray if God’s sovereign?” is so misguided, because what it seems to- miss out on is the reality that it is the sovereignty of God that drives us to our knees. You see, the real question would be, “Why pray if God’s not sovereign?” Because if God’s not sovereign, He can’t do anything. But since God’s sovereign, prayer becomes entirely powerful- because God has promised to work through it.

And I am looking forward to eternity, you know, and I’ve said this before. One of my goals, if I can do this in the new heavens and the new earth, one of my goals is to go around the world and interview every single person there. Now, I’ve got all eternity, right? So I’m not gonna run out of time, and I can take as long as I want and enjoy good coffee with people. And I’m gonna go around, and I’m gonna interview every single believer, and I wanna write down their story. It’s gonna be a very large volume of works, and Ming’s gonna have to edit it for me. And I’m gonna go around, and I’m gonna interview every single person and hear what God’s done in their life.

And won’t be, and won’t it be amazing to sit down and say, “Oh, you were praying for that”? And yeah, we’ll sit down, and I’ll, I’ll speak to someone from the early 1800s, and I’ll go, “Oh, wait. Th- that thing you prayed for, that happened in my time.” And I’ll speak to someone else, and they’ll say, “Oh, that thing you and RBC prayed for, that happened in my time.” And we’ll see the connection of God’s church and God’s people upon their knees with the works of God in history. And what a day of rejoicing it will be.

Brothers and sisters, this is the gift of God and His sovereignty to us. Let us not neglect it. But instead, may God be pleased to hear and act in His sovereignty and for His majesty.

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