Have you ever had something that you was so valuable like you thought it was going to change your life Like something you save up your money for you prepare you this is going to change everything When Meredith and I were hit and married for probably three or four or five months I began working on her because I knew something was coming out that I was going to want to purchase and that we were going to need to purchase at the Time was gonna be a lot of money to us But I remember ordering the first generation video iPod the week they came out y'all remember these things y'all remember Just laughing I wish this one worked very well This one I tried out the stereo jack doesn't work anymore. Just one earbud will come out But I'm this thing I mean I was looking through it like you talk about like memories I was going through the videos. I got the whole first season of the office on this thing I mean Lindsey Killeen was looking through earlier. She's like chad your playlists.
It's this music You actually listen to this I get it's 2005 right here. I remember a marathon I would watch lost we didn't have tell we didn't have cable where we lived and so I would we got the subscription on iTunes We're automatically download the new episode and I put it on the iPod And like we'd go home and we put the earbuds in we'd each get one ear and we sit there and we watch lost But if you don't remember how like a life changing this thing was like this was amazing and now we have Like these things that's much bigger that screen is what's crazy is I was doing a podcast earlier this week I was talking about broadcast television and especially like like niche oriented broadcast television that The example they're talking about like outdoor shows that how 10 years ago all the providers of these television shows had to spend tens of thousands of dollars Because it kept saying everyone's going to high definition Everybody's buying these big flat screen HD TVs and so you need to up your video quality to get ready for this is gonna change everything And now most people are consuming all content on a cell phone Like it's changes like things become obsolete my mom And obsolete's different. You know something's obsolete. There's a couple different reasons We might keep obsolete technology around you might keep it around because of just nostalgia I was very happy to find my old iPod this week It was in a box in my garage and had sat there since I cleaned out a vehicle I had traded in I forgot It was I was when I plugged it in and it got power started working I was really excited because I want to see how the nostalgia side of it also sometimes we keep things out of necessity And this day and age where so much of our life is electronic We found that the things that are mechanical have the ability to last a lot longer than things used to I mean how many of y'all are a tour tool people or mechanical people?
I mean I've got I've got tools that are 60 70 years old and they can still work All you do is a little bit of grease and a new belt that video iPod man that input Jack's gone I'm sure the battery is like starting to swell it's like I'm gonna blow up because I turned it on today Sometimes we keep things that are that are obsolete though out of necessity my mom still has a VCR Because she has a lot of VHS tapes and she's scared. She's not gonna watch her VHS tapes You know that nobody makes VCR's anymore like they're not made I couldn't mom found that out a few years ago She bought like four of them and put them in a closet She'd be good for VCR's like the next 20 years like one below just go get another one We keep things that are obsolete out of necessity and out of nostalgia, but sooner or later We realize that so many things that we thought were valuable so many things that we thought were absolutely essential for our world Become obsolete. They end up becoming irrelevant in our life because something significantly better It's come along as better functions has better portability It has better worth these things that we used to think were valuable these things that were once new Have now become irrelevant in our life That's we're gonna talk about this morning. So second to last Sunday in Revelation and we're gonna talk about what does it mean for things that move into irrelevance so open up your Bibles also in the my found out life There's a message in the scriptures in there if you want to follow along right there But Revelation chapter 21.
I will start offering verses 1 through 4 This is what it says then I saw a new heaven and newer for the old heaven the old earth had disappeared The sea was also gone and I saw the holy city the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven like a bride Beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne saying look God's home is now among his people He will live with them and they will be his people God himself will be with them He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there'll be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain all of these things are gone forever So much in this passage is a contrast between new and old and our life the contrast between new or old But in scripture we find is that this this idea of new is different for us You know, I knew this thing had been coming out. It's why I was begging marriage though Let me spend a month and a half rent on buying one. I was actually doing a lot of video work back I found I justified it.
Y'all done it before right justified something You found a better way to say I want this but I knew about it. I mean everybody all the Apple back then all the Apple blogs were talking about people were excited about it The fifth version of iTunes had just come out and they actually had native podcasting abilities built inside of it We were aware of it. We didn't possess it yet in scripture when we see it talk about newness like that It's it's not this way. It's things that we're not aware of yet Things that we're not anticipating or expecting because nothing like it has ever existed before So these worship songs that we've read in Revelation this summer talks about this Then I heard a new song.
I never heard this before. There's something so good something so big that we cannot anticipate what it is like We also got old things You know for us we think of old things are the things that we simply just gonna throw in a box or like this thing existed for years in the console My wide-f 150 it probably sat in there untouched for five six years Which is there forgotten about but I could find it again if I wanted to but all the scripture is a different thing to it's a very specific idea of old It's just former it's the things that used to be it's the things that passed away in Revelation whenever this comes up It's it's talking about evil in the way that it used to be it's weird because this this idea of old actually means this de-exists Like think about what does it mean for something to not exist anymore? Not to not be a memory But to not have power not have to not have existence What's so cool is the only other place in scripture that this idea of old or former is used in the gospels and it's the stories of healing that Jesus brings out In ways when Jesus healed a man of leprosy and the leprosy had gone away Where he restored sight or people who were crippled? This is not a word of just describing age.
This is a word describing healing So word describes what happens when Jesus comes into places when his presence comes into places and it evacuates the things that are not holy So in johnson I saw that the former earth the old earth had passed away It's a word about what happens when Jesus gets involved in a personal level It brings a completely different spin on the idea of new and old to us doesn't it? We also read he says new I see the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven It's like a bride adorned in all of its glory John is trying to describe something here It's taking a couple of different ways to do it He says he sees this city a place of life a place of relationships a place of dwelling a place of culture all these things He sees it coming down out of the heavens and it's dressed like a bride is prepared It's about anticipation and excitement. It's there for a specific purpose. It's this thing coming from God prepared for us But also simultaneously prepared for him coming to us It takes it something so big it takes John two different images to describe it, but that's different No, we kind of always thought that this would be us going somewhere else, right?
We read in scripture. This is God preparing a place for us by eradicating What is unholy by eradicating what causes pain by eradicating what causes hurt and what causes every single thing bad in our lives And he eradicates it by his presence completely and fully coming to us we continue that story in verse 5 And this is what it says this is one of the two times that God himself is speaking in revelation This is what we read and the one sitting on the throne said look I am making everything new Then he said to me write this down for what I tell you is trustworthy and true and he also said it's finished I'm alpha and omega the beginning and end do all who are thirsty I will get freely from the springs of the water of life and all who are victorious will inherit all these blessings And I will be their God and they will be my children Finding out more and more and more about about what does this place look like and what is going on here? Because we realize the most important thing here is the world is different now in the world is different permanently Because God is here not because of something that we have done But completely because of the things that he alone can do he said I'm making this place my home If you've been around found you for any length of time, you know We have this obsession with John 1 14 the word became flesh and made his home among us and we've seen his glory the glory fathers One and only son is the same exact thing as this idea of the Old Testament of the tabernacle in presence of God Where God's fully revealed and all throughout scripture the story is this reality is coming a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger And a little bit more people having access to we find out that in the end the fullness and the entirety of the presence of God is Available to every single person there were no longer no longer be places that are more holy another place is a holy Because the whole world is in folded with the presence and the truth of who God is There's all there completely available and accessible by every one of us and because his presence is fully available There will be things that just simply can't be there God being here is the center of this passage and God being here is the center of the way that we understand what this place will look like what Eternity will look like This makes us think about the why makes us think about the where when we started this series a few weeks ago We talked about how so many of us come to revelation with assumptions of doom and gloom and destruction What we see instead is this is really about the holiness of God and what happens when the holiness of God is in a place You know in God destroying or sending away the things that characterize this world in the past Or is this about his presence? It's about him saying I'm going to come fully to you and my presence can fully take care of everything It's in this complete fullness Combined with the grace of who Jesus is that empowers us in this life now as we anticipate the world to come And where the presence of God is is where all things that are hurtful or gone John says the sea is no more all throughout this this this story of revelation We found out that that the sea this place in the Hebrew faith They believe that where all chaos came from everything was hurtful or painful or evil came from this place That's gone that's no more.
It's not as like the bad things are locked up and it's really secure as no They're just not there anymore. They're de-existing because God is here This makes me think right now like what do I need to be gone in my life? What are the new things I need to be gone? What are the old things that need to be gone?
What are the things that I need to fade from being? What what what has been affecting me? What's been affecting you for your life? What is his driven you to the place not only where you make bad decisions, but we make broken decisions sometimes Where our coping mechanisms might not be the healthiest thing?
They cause us to continue to do broken things or unhealthy things. What what's causing us anguish in life? What's it mean for those things to fade away? How sin affected our life?
And not just the sin that we have committed but also the ways that others have sinned against us and how that has affected our life Or just the way this world and its brokenness has affected our life What does it mean for Jesus to come because of his presence for all of those things to fade away? This we read is happening right now. So we read is happening an eternity. That's what we read That's this is how Jesus is forming eternity And it's not anywhere else it's right here because God made this world for us He made us for this world and he made this to be the perfect place for us to be and in the end in eternity He's not taking us away from the perfect place.
He's saying no I'm just going to make it absolutely perfect in a way that never has been before You have grace now you understand grace and you've lived through grace and grace has affected you That's just the best place for you to be And God says this is trustworthy and true He's providing stability because he is stable and he's can take care of this from the beginning of time to the end of time There's no place where he cannot be and there's no thing that he cannot redeem and fix It's as though he's saying to us I'm giving you complete full access to me for all of eternity and every single thing that you've needed and every single thing that I've desired for you can be completely given to you right now Because all that is broken has gone away is fade away. He speaks about how this will be available to all of those who thirst for him In Scripture we find this picture of thirst for God all throughout the Bible Kind of vocabulary of revelation has been the Old Testament we read about in the Psalms But how those who thirst Jesus themselves in the beatitudes bless her those who hunger and thirst for righteousness This is an interesting thing because for us the thirst means that we have to take responsibility for it Means we have to recognize there's something that we need You know in many ways thirst is a synonym in scripture for willful spiritual growth It's us Realizing our own emotional and our spiritual emptiness and how that drives us to the grace of Jesus the grace He offers us in this life and the grace that offers us in the next life It's a way that it empowers us to receive his complete blessings That we're thirsting for him But also he closes with this that all who are victorious want to hear it their blessings as the children of God Let's think of what does it mean to be victorious means we've won something right to be victorious necessitates that there has been a struggle That's thing you can't be a victor if you haven't been to battle a Victor is not a passive follower of Jesus Christ a victor is an active follower of Jesus Christ Be victorious means to win in the face of obstacles to overcome or prevail It means to surpass in ability if we look throughout scripture this idea of being victorious that this is a win or lose concept Genius himself in John 16 said I have overcome the world I'm stronger than the things that have brought you down And I've taken care of that for you You can't be a victor if you haven't been to battle and this is not about like a one-time concept is one time struggle But this is us realizing that when we accept Jesus we come into that life is world that we realize we're gonna have an everyday skirmish with sin They were gonna have to fight it It's going to be there and we're gonna have to realize it's power over us But realize because of Jesus our power over sin that daily battle to take this step by step day by day We can't be a victor if we haven't been to battle The revelation shows us this idea of sin is different We where we've moved past this concept of all it is like a do not disturb list from God So to said sin is the works of evil that's been trying to deceive us has been trying to confuse us It's been that thing that whispers in our ear that tells us that you're not good enough It caused us to react in broken ways and unholy ways Sin is that those things that has been distort the truth of Jesus is from us That we are in a daily skirmish with this reality. So I'm in the population And about confusion, but Jesus says I have overcome the world. I have been a victor in this place And in the end I'm coming and all of these things will fade away from existence They will no longer be relevant because something much better Something absolutely and completely new is coming.
I'm giving that to you The big question I've been asking myself all week long is the question I'll ask you right now What do you need to be irrelevant in your life now? What have been those secret whispers that have been stopping you from full life? The secret whispers that have been keeping you from being completely who Jesus made you to be the secret whispers that have made you Stop doing things that have allowed anxiety to pour over you Those places that they try to distort the fact that God loves you tremendously and deeply and wants great things for you What do we need to become irrelevant and our life right now? Jesus we pray that you open our eyes You open our eyes for us to see the complete truth of who you are to show us these things in a way that Allows us to begin living in this world right now as we live in this place right now We're also living in a hopeful anticipation of what is to come God to for us to know that the final story is not you taking us away from someplace, but you coming to us And that's been the story of scripture that you are always coming to us God allow that be to be the truth That guides us that you are coming to us that you are coming to me And we're up for able this room right now For you to speak truth to every one of these hearts and minds in here God's beginning eradicating years of doubt and confusion and distortion for us to have a queer picture of you Who you are and how you have?
How we pray for you to give us new things new things as we anticipate the day in which all things are new Jesus, thank you for loving us. Thank you for providing us away to your father. God. Thank you for providing us away home You're name we pray