Prophets not Hermits (Revelation 10) | Pastor Jake Sweetman

In this sermon, we continue our series through the book of Revelation, “The Wonderful World of the Apocalypse,” by slowing down in Revelation 10 to see what it means for the church to live as a prophetic people in a chaotic world.

Drawing from Revelation 10:1–11, we explore:

• The meaning of “apokalupsis” (Revelation 1:1) as an unveiling of spiritual reality
• The mighty angel with pillars of fire and echoes of God’s presence in Exodus 13:21–22 and Exodus 14:19–24
• The opened scroll first seen in Revelation 5:1–7, now handed to John as a picture of the church’s participation in God’s redemptive plan
• How the judgments of Revelation 8–9 and the lack of repentance in Revelation 9:20–21 contrast with the repentance of the nations in Revelation 11:13
• The call to be “a kingdom and priests” (Revelation 1:5–6; 5:9–10) and a prophetic community, not spiritual hermits (Revelation 10:11)

We consider how the wilderness is not proof of God’s absence but the very place of His presence and formation (Deuteronomy 8:2–5; Hosea 2:14–15), and how the pillar of fire imagery reminds us that God is with His people in every age.

Key themes include:

• Judgment plus the church’s witness leading to repentance (Romans 2:4; Revelation 11:3–6, 11–13)
• The Spirit-empowered prophetic vocation of all believers (Numbers 11:29; Joel 2:28–29; Acts 2:16–21)
• The call to embody the gospel as a “well-lit sign” pointing to King Jesus and His kingdom (Matthew 5:14–16; 2 Corinthians 5:17–20)
• The sweetness and bitterness of God’s word as John eats the scroll (Revelation 10:9–10; cf. Ezekiel 2:8–3:3; Jeremiah 15:16)
• The mystery of God brought to completion in Christ (Revelation 10:7; Ephesians 1:9–10; Colossians 1:26–27)

We also look at how Paul and John refuse to let exile or imprisonment shrink their calling (Ephesians 4:1; Philippians 1:12–14; Revelation 1:9), and how faithfulness in ordinary obedience often precedes God’s “suddenly” moments of breakthrough (Galatians 6:9; 1 Corinthians 3:6–9).

This message is a pastoral summons to come out of hiding—whether behind pain, failure, success, or comfort—and to “go again” in prophetic obedience to Jesus (Isaiah 6:8; Romans 12:1–2), trusting that God is with us in the wilderness and intends to use His church to bear witness to many peoples, nations, languages, and kings (Revelation 10:11; Revelation 7:9–10).

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:31

We are going through the book of Revelation right now in a series called The Wonderful World of the Apocalypse, which has just been an absolute joy. The word apocalypse comes from the Greek word apocalypsis. Do you want to try saying that word when we say apocalypsis? That word also translates into revelation. It literally means an unveiling. And that's what revelation is. It is an unveiling of a spiritual reality so that you and I may see things as they really are, not just as they appear to be on the earth around us, and so that we can respond to that unveiling in the way that God has called us to live as his church. So I'm very excited to dive into the scriptures today. Why don't you high-five your neighbors? I'm really glad I'm sitting next to you. Go ahead and grab your seat. Open your Bibles with me to the book of Revelation, chapter 10. Thank you, worship team. We love you guys. Y'all are awesome. Aren't they great? Lead us so faithfully every single week. Very, very grateful, not just for them, but all of our team, kids, production, greeting, hospitality, the muscle team, the venue team who do all the heavy lifting. Just we are so, so blessed. And to all those new members that we're welcoming in, welcome, welcome, welcome. So, so glad to have you in the family. I love this church. Do you love this church? I just love it. I love it so much. I've devoted my whole life to seeing this community thrive, and uh God has been so, so faithful. We're in Revelation 10, beginning in verse 1. We're gonna read a whole chapter of the Bible right now. So if you didn't get your Bible reading in this week, good news you're about to get in a good portion. Here we go. It says, Then I, the I there is the Apostle John who wrote Revelation. I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud with a rainbow above his head, his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars. He was holding a little scroll which lay open in his hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. When he shouted, the voice of the seven thunder, you guys see how much closer I just needed to get, because I took my glasses off. When he shouted, but there's a speck of dust on here, and it's gonna drive me nuts the whole sermon if I don't take care of it. When he shouted, the voices of the seven thunders spoke. And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven say, Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down. Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven, and he swore by him who lives forever and ever. That is God, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, the sea and all that is in it. This is what the angel said, There will be no more delay. But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets. Everyone say the prophets. Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me once more Go take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land. So I went to the angel, just picture little John right now, going to this colossal angel, and I asked him to give me the little scroll. He said, Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey. I took the little scroll from the angel's hand and I ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. Then I was told, You must prophesy. Everyone say, Prophesy. You must prophesy again. Oh, I love that. Everyone say again about many peoples or two many peoples, nations, languages, and kings. The title of the sermon today is Prophets Not Hermits. Prophets not hermits. In my last sermon just a couple of weeks ago, uh, we stood at one of the most sobering moments in all of Revelation, at the end of chapter nine, where after experiencing all of the chaos that stems as a result of human sin and idolatry, all of the destruction that the world is experiencing, we see on the tail end of that the horrifying result that humanity just still does not repent. They still do not turn after plague, after plague, after judgment, after judgment. They still don't change their mind about how they're living. That's the end of chapter nine. And then we looked ahead to the end of chapter 11, where something dramatically shifts, where people are repenting in mass. The nations are responding to God. And we asked, what is the difference between these two moments? And the answer that the text gives us is the difference is the church. The church bearing witness to Jesus is what changes the equation. Judgment alone, that is the consequences of sin alone, does not lead people to repentance. But judgment plus the church bearing witness to Jesus does lead people to repentance, which raises the obvious question: what does that witness actually look like? And to answer that question, Revelation slows the narrative down with a deliberate, carefully described, unhurried interlude that is chapter 10. I want you to think, if you can remember back to the pace of chapters 8 and 9, trumpets, judgments, fire, destruction, blood, locusts with lion's teeth. The narrative takes no breaths. It's almost dizzying as you read it, and that is intentional. The text is supposed to do something to you. It's meant to disorient you, to make you feel the chaos of this wilderness age in your body and in your bones. And then as chapter 10 opens, everything just slows way down. One scene, one colossal angel who takes up the entirety of the frame, described in extraordinary detail. The vision slows down and invites you to look carefully. See, this is what Revelation does in the midst of its interludes. When the narrative sprints, you're meant to feel that chaos. Not really having time to pay particular attention to any one detail. But when it slows, you are meant to pay attention because something clarifying is about to happen. And the clarity of this slower moment has to do with the identity and the mission of the church. That amid the chaos of the wilderness where we feel the heat of the dragon's breath, this moment in chapter 10 invites you to pause and consider if those conditions are influencing you or are you influencing them? In other words, is the world happening to you or are you, as the missional people of God, happening to the world? This is the word of the Lord from this text to us today. Has the world made you a hermit? Or are you allowing the word of God to ignite you as a prophet? Now I don't want you to imagine a hermit as strictly a guy, a doomsday prepper, hiding out in a bunker in Arkansas somewhere, waiting for the end. You see, what I've found is that hermits can actually hide in all kinds of ways. You can be a parent today hiding behind your kids. You can be a professional hiding behind your career, you can be a student hiding behind your youth. You can be a public figure hiding behind the need to maintain public approval. You can be a devoted churchgoer hiding behind a really good church attendance record. You can be a Bible teacher hiding behind your Bible knowledge. The bunker is just one way to hide. Many Christian hermits live in plain sight. And Revelation refuses to allow us to imagine the church as a hideout. One scholar said that Revelation conceives of the church not just as a kingdom of priests, but as a community of prophets. We are a prophetic people. That is our identity. Now that doesn't mean that you walk around saying, Thus saith the Lord all the time. To be a prophetic person means that your life is a well-lit sign that points people to the king and his coming kingdom. And I want to emphasize the well-lit part. Some of you might think, well, I'm a sign, I'm pointing people to Jesus, but the lights surrounding your sign have grown quite dim. You're like a freeway exit sign on the 110 at night. That's not what it is to be prophetic. You want to be like one of those big freeway exit signs with all the reflective material, like on the 405 as you cross over the border into Orange County with like the mile-long exit. That's what you want to really be pointing people to Jesus. Yeah? We are prophets, not hermits. So when we come to the Lord's table each week and we proclaim that creation is being renewed and humanity is being reconciled through the sacrifice of Christ, that's us being prophetic people, not hermit people. When we sing and shout for joy in worship, that's us being prophets, not hermits. When we choose to plant, to be discipled, to multiply, to fill this region with the presence of Jesus, that's choosing to be prophets, not hermits. When you go out this week and approach your work as a representative and ambassador of Jesus Christ, that's being a prophet and not a hermit. No matter how unseen you may feel in that process, it is a decision to show up as a prophetic person, not a person who is content to hide. See, I just want to bring your understanding, your attention to the to the person who received this text, who received this vision in the first place. The apostle John was not sitting comfortably at a desk as he receives the apocalypse and as he writes the apocalypse. No, he's in exile on an island called Patmos. He's isolated from the churches that he loves, he's cut off from the world that he's trying to reach. By any reasonable measure, John is sidelined. And yet, into that exile, the apocalypse of Jesus Christ appears. And at the midway point of that unveiling here in chapter 10, where the disparity between heaven and earth is fully in view, John is given a fresh commission, prophesy to many peoples, nations, languages, and kings, which is Revelation's way of saying the whole world. Just picture that a man with nothing but a pen and some parchment and a population of who knows how many on a tiny island in the midst of the Aegean Sea is commissioned here by God to speak to nations. That's the situation into which chapter 10 arrives. And it's worth reminding us of that little bit of context because I believe that John's prophetic vocation is actually a microcosm of the church's same circumstances. I think that it points to the mentality that many of us even have about ourselves, feeling small, feeling peripheral, wondering what difference we could possibly make in a world that seems to be on fire. Revelation 10 has something to say about that mentality and about that feeling. Let's unpack it together. Going back to verse 1, John says, I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud with a rainbow above his head, his face like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars. If you were to read Revelation in one sitting, what you'd notice immediately here is that the details of this angel's appearance, they link very closely to how God and Jesus are described earlier in the book of Revelation. And the point of that is not that the angel is the Father or the angel is the Son. The point of the shared imagery is that the angel is intimately connected to the unveiling of God's plan for humanity. That's why he hands John the scroll. This is the same scroll, or at least a related scroll, to the one that we saw back in Revelation chapter 5. Remember when Jesus comes to the throne of God and receives the scroll from the Father's hand. Now that scroll is in the hands of a mighty angel who hands it to John, who tells it to the church. See, in a sense, chapter 10 is setting us up to look inside the scroll itself. To look in, to peer in at God's plan. Everything until now in Revelation has offered a heavenly perspective on the state of the church and the state of the world in contrast to the throne room of God. But now that the scroll has been opened, the seven seals broken open by the Lamb, now John and the church are invited to perceive God's plan to overcome the chaos. And that plan intimately involves us as a prophetic people who carry God's presence. The detail that we see in the angel that most powerfully reorients us towards that fact is the angel's legs, which John says are like pillars of fire. Just put yourself in John's shoes for a moment. You're having this vision, and you see an angel whose head reaches into the heavens and whose feet are planted firmly on the land and on the sea, and his legs are made of these gigantic pillars of fire. Well, you know your Bible, and that imagery of fiery pillars immediately takes you back to a place in the Old Testament. Where does that take you? That takes you back to the Exodus story, where God, through a pillar of fire, leads Israel out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, through the wilderness, and ultimately into the promised land. For 40 years, Israel followed that fire through the desert as God delivered them from their enemies. And here in the wilderness of this new exodus, the fiery pillars reappear. And so we should just pause here and go, okay, why is that? Why does God appear in this way? Is it just meant to remind you that you're in the wilderness? Well, I actually think it's meant to do quite a bit more than that. You see, chapters eight and nine, with all of the chaotic imagery, reminded us that we are in the wilderness just fine. So by the time we arrive at chapter 10, we don't need that reminder of where we are. What we do need to be reminded of is who is with us in the wilderness. And so, to that end, down come the fiery pillars in the form of angelic might. And we are reminded that the presence of Almighty God is with us as we make our way through this wilderness age. That's the first thing that the apocalypse zooms you in on as the pace slows down. He wants you to see the supremely merciful and mighty God is with you as you track through the wilderness. He is with us. When the diagnosis comes, he is with us. When the divorce happens, he is with us. As we build his church, he's with us. As you use your gifts, he's with us. In your low moments, he's with us. As we multiply, he's with us. You see, people often mistakenly read the events that Revelation describes through the lens of God's absence. As if the whole point of the narrative has something to do with God leaving the world behind as a failed project. But in actual fact, the point has far more to do with God's presence, with heaven breaking in and healing taking hold in the world. And the way that that healing happens is through the vessel of the church. See, this matters because by the time you reach this point in the story, the temptation is to think incorrectly about the wilderness as a place of divine abandonment. When in actual fact, it is a place of divine accompaniment. God with his church in the midst of hardship, empowering them to do the kinds of good works that overcome evil and that speak about, that prophesy of the coming kingdom. Please do not let your reality of the wilderness overwhelm or overshadow the greater point that God is with you. He is here in your life, here in our midst. Not just to comfort you. Yes, he comes to comfort, but he also comes to empower. See, in the original Exodus story, it was exactly the same that as God brought Israel into the wilderness, his plan for them is that they would be a priestly people who mediated the presence of God out to the remaining nations of the world. And Moses, in his foresight, saw the way that that would be possible. And so he prayed this prayer. He said, Would that all the Lord's people be prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them all? Moses understood that a priestly people, that is a devoted people, the way they reach the world is that they are also a prophetic people. A people empowered by the Spirit. That's God's aim in giving you the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes into your life not just so that you can feel some tinglies on your skin when you lift your hands in worship. The Holy Spirit comes into your life because he wants to empower you for the mission of the Father. That's the reason. The first Israelite who we see receive the Spirit of God in the Old Testament is a man named Bezalel. It says that he was anointed to make artistic designs for the building of the tabernacle, the house of God. Oftentimes that that point will get connoted with the fact that the spirit is to inspire creativity. And I agree, the spirit is to activate our creativity. But the larger point there is that the spirit comes to empower you to build God's house. That's what that story is really about. And that's how we see the thread of being a spirit-filled person uh woven all throughout the narrative of the scripture as it comes to fruition in the New Testament. God pours out his spirit upon sons and daughters that they may build his church through a prophetic lifestyle that reveals and establishes the culture of God's kingdom on the earth through lives of servanthood, lives of generosity, lives of creativity, lives of faith in God for the impossible. What we are being confronted with in this image of Revelation 10 is that God is calling us away from the instinct of the flesh to recluse and to hide and to bunker down and into the impulse of the spirit to take our stand as prophetic missionaries to a world that is on fire. And we must do that because anything less than that is to ignore the purpose for God being in your life in the first place. See, many Christians they live so frustrated, not because they don't know their purpose, but because they haven't yielded to it. They are Christian hermits who are hiding in plain sight. And the impulse of the spirit in them is crying out to bear witness to Jesus. But they suppress it. So they feel frustrated in their Christianity and they can't figure out why. Friends, we are in the midst of an Exodus project. Recognize, Christian, where you are in God's plan, in God's redemptive plan for human history, and have a mindset that is calling people to freedom. Because that's what God has on offer to the world. And he's entrusted his church to proclaim that. And don't expect that to be easy. Like, don't expect that to be without bumps and obstacles. Expect the enemy to be in pursuit. Expect the journey to be eventful. But persevere. Because we are living in a time where people around us are looking to Christianity as the answer for their pain more than they have in the last few generations. For a long time, our culture was promised that if they abandoned God, they'd finally be free. But people are waking up and discovering that the promises of a godless world are actually empty. They're seeing the consequences of the faithlessness that chapters eight and nine describe, which means that we have to be a Revelation 10 people, a community of God's prophets, ready to meet the moment with the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look at verses 6 and 7. The angel swore by God there will be no more delay. But when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished just as he announced to his servants the prophets. There's two things that are significant for us here. First, there is an announcement that there will be no more delay in the fulfillment of God's redemptive plan. And with that, we are reminded that because of Jesus, because of the death of Jesus, the burial, the resurrection, the ascension of Jesus, we are living in the last days. The last days are not something that we're just waiting for, waiting to come. The last days are something we've been living in since the day that Jesus went to that cross. And God is bringing his plan of new creation to pass through the mystery of the gospel, the triumph of the Lamb and His followers. And we're meant to feel the urgency of that. You see, the reminder that we're in the last days is not an invitation for you to break out your charts and graphs and start predicting the end. That's not what it's about. It's a way of bringing you into urgency as a follower of Jesus, that you would walk into your workplace even this week and go, actually, yes, the times do matter. There is a purpose that God has for me that I am an agent, an ambassador of the kingdom of God that God wants to use to bring redemptive life to those that I work alongside. God wants you to be like Jeremiah, who, no matter all of the experiences that he had, he said, I cannot keep silent about the word of God. For when I try to hold it in, it's like fire shut up in my bones. And some of you have that feeling of fire shut up in your bones, and that is that frustration of suppressing the impulse of the spirit rather than following the impulse of the spirit into the mission of God to be a redemptive agent in the city and in this world. The second thing that these verses show us is that the triumphant plan of God is something that God has announced to his servants, the prophets, and therefore it's connected to our prophetic vocation. That's why God announces it to us. That word announce comes from the same Greek word from which we get gospel. The essence of the announcement is the gospel, the good news of God's ironic victory over sin and death and devil. How through the loving, self-sacrificial servanthood of the Lamb and his followers. And you may ask, how is it that loving self-sacrifice could ever truly, really be victorious over evil? I mean, isn't that the temptation as people who live in the world to adopt the practices of the world? Isn't it more successful to claw our way to the top, to make much of ourselves, to preserve our lives by holding on to them? But that's not the way of Jesus. And that's not how true fruitfulness works. Fruitfulness comes from From Christ'likeness. And the way of Christ is the way of the seed to plant. To die to self, to put down roots, to have staying power, especially when storms come. To bless others, even while you are weathering hardship. To bear the fruit of Christ-like character so that other people can share in that same life. To steward the resources, just like Pastor James encouraged us, to steward the resources God has put in our hands for the glory of God's name, to live prophetic lives through loving, self-sacrificial servanthood. And as we serve faithfully, here's what I found out about God. As we serve faithfully, as we do the day-in, day out gardening work of planting, watering, pruning, growing, bearing fruit, as we serve faithfully, God is faithful to bring suddenly moments upon us as his people. Moments of breakthrough, moments of radical fruitfulness, moments of multiplication. As I was writing the sermon, I was reminded of the story of the missionary couple who went to Thailand to do missionary work off the coast of Thailand in a small village there. And for 15 years, could you imagine this? For 15 years, they did not see one single convert come to Christ in that village. Not one person gave their lives to Jesus in 15 years of hard work. But then one day God brought a suddenly moment upon them. You see, even though they weren't able to bring people to the kingdom of God during those 15 years, they were able to build all of these really beautiful friendships. And so on the 15th year at Christmas time, they decided, let's invite all of the villagers to go up a nearby mountain with us and to celebrate Christmas with us. And so they got all the villagers on board, and Christmas came. They all went up the mountain to celebrate Christmas. And while they were on the mountain that night, a tsunami came and wiped out the entirety of their village below. They came down the next morning after spending the night on the mountain and they saw the destruction of their village. But you know what? They didn't feel despair. They felt joy because they recognized, if not for the invitation of the missionaries to go up the mountain, it wouldn't have just been their homes that were destroyed. It would have been their lives that were lost. And on that suddenly day, in that suddenly moment, every single one in the village gave their lives to Jesus Christ because they recognized the sovereign hand of God who had saved them from certain death. When you and I are faithful, God will bring suddenly moments upon our church. I got a text even just this last week that a friend of mine is in heaven praying for you, and I feel like God is bringing a suddenly moment upon cathedral. And I want to stand in faith and say, Yes, amen. God is bringing a suddenly moment, not just upon our church corporately, but upon our lives individually. Those who have been sowing and reaping and living faithfully in the ways of Jesus, God is bringing suddenly breakthrough into our midst. See, we can begin to think that that walking in the way of Jesus, in the character of Jesus, is not the best way to flourish. That we must preserve ourselves, but the mystery, which is the word that the text uses to describe God's gospel mission, the mystery is that it actually happens the opposite way. Fruitfulness comes from costly. I just want to say if your life is not costly that it's not truly beautiful. Without generosity. You're not free. You're just self-important. Self-preserving life is the self-defeating life. True beauty comes from giving your life away. That's what it means to be protected. Michael, you can come yet. The angel said to me, Take it, take the scroll, and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey. So I took the little scroll from the angel's hand and I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour, and I was told you must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings. More than anything else, this chapter is about the formation of John as a prophet. Just like Ezekiel in the Old Testament was told to eat the scroll of God's word, so also John here is told to do exactly the same. This is about prophetic commissioning. Not just of John, but as we'll see in chapter 11 next week, of the whole church. Like that there is no degree of separation between what God says and how I live. That there's no delay in between when God says it and when I obey it. And that must be true of you and I as the church, also. The prophetic identity of the church is not a hat that we put on and take off. It's not a switch that we turn on and turn off. No, we are meant to consume the message. To let it become a part of us. Which means that before the church can proclaim the word of God, the word of God must become a part of us. That's why being planted in a church is so vital where we hear the word of God preached, where we consume the gospel at the Lord's table, and our minds are filled with the message of the kingdom, and our hearts are filled with the essence of the kingdom, and our hands they do the work of the kingdom. And together God is forming us into a prophetic people who bear witness to a world in the wilderness. I came across this line this week from one scholar. He said, The wilderness is the necessary no man's land where Yahweh can fashion a new nation into his likeness. This is where God does business with your soul. God uses the wilderness to form his people into prophetic people to make your life testify to his power and grace. As Paul said in Ephesians 4:1, as a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling that you have received. The irony of that verse is that Paul wrote Ephesians from a prison. And yet, Ephesians, I don't know if you've read it recently, it overflows with a vision of the church as a prophetic people whose lives testify not to the earth but also to the heavens. Just as John wrote as an exile, so Paul wrote as a prisoner, and neither man was willing to let their circumstances shrink their prophetic calling. Paul goes so far as to reframe his imprisonment entirely. He says, I'm not a prisoner of Rome, I'm a prisoner for the Lord. Jesus will use my imprisonment for his glory. And I want you to do the same. I want you to let your life be worthy of the calling that you have received in Jesus Christ, just like the angel said to John, it's time to prophesy again. For some of you, that one word is the whole reason God brought you to church today. In the midst of your hardship, with whatever your previous experience looked like, with whatever it cost you, God says, go again. God says, prophesy again. God says, today is the day to go again. And don't you shrink the vision this time. Don't you be convincing yourself, just because you tried it once before, now you're gonna muster up the courage to go again, but you're gonna do it less than. No, God says, all the world, all the nations, the peoples, the languages, the tribes, the tongue, that's the vision. Do not shrink the vision just because you've experienced some prior failure or hardship in your going again. Lift up your eyes and see that the God who calls you is still the God who has his eyes on the nations. And it will cost you. To live for the truth will cost you. That's why the book is bitter, sweet. To become a friend of heaven will make you an enemy of hell. And the enemy's number one weapon is intimidation. He will lie to you, he will accuse you, he will confront you with fear and doubt, all to intimidate you from taking up your prophetic mantle, which is your birthright through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do not listen to that voice. Look again to the fiery pillar of God's presence coming down from heaven, communicating, I am with you in this wilderness to empower you to be my prophetic people. We are prophets, not hermits, and we do not hide. All throughout the scripture, when enemy armies come, it's never an invitation to hide, it's always an invitation to prophesy. I think of the prophet Elisha, who one day he was surrounded by the armies of Aram, and his servant begins to panic. And Elisha did not take the servant into the house, they did not barricade the door. You know what Elisha did? He prayed that his servant would have an unveiling, that he would have an apocalypse, that he would see what Elisha saw. And so when Elisha prayed that prayer, the servant says, Look, master, I see the hills filled with horses and chariots of fire. And the vision that he got is that the army that surrounded them was actually surrounded by heaven's armies because God does not call you to hide, God calls you to live your life as a prophetic person, bearing witness to the grace and the power of God. I heard the story recently of a Hindu village who heard the gospel, and a couple of families in that village gave their lives to Jesus Christ. They came to fate, but all their surrounding neighbors were not very happy about that decision. They said, You've given your life over to this God, and all of our gods, they're gonna come punish you now. Bad things are gonna happen to you. And you know what? Something bad did happen. One of those families or gave their lives to Christ, their young son got sick and he died. And all the neighbors they looked on and they were looking for despair. They were waiting to witness a faith that was incapable of holding up real suffering. You know what they saw? Yes, they saw mourning, but not without hope. What they saw were a people who had a newfound hope in resurrection power because the God they'd put their trust in is a God who knew his way out of the grave. And so those neighbors ended up coming to faith in Christ as well, not because of a good apologetic, not because of a good argument, but because of unshakable hope in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. That's to live your life as a prophet, not to hide behind tragedy. Some of you today, you're coming out of hiding from behind tragedy. You've been using your tragedies as an excuse to be on your back foot and to be disengaged from kingdom work. God is calling you out from hiding to step out into the light again, to be a prophetic people. I was down in Peru last year. My wife and I were hanging out with a pastor there overseas hundreds of churches across South America. He told me the story of a man named Moses, not the one in the Bible in the Bible, a different man named Moses, who was a missionary to a village in the outskirts of Peru, and he went into that village to preach the gospel to them. And they responded by stoning him almost to death. Gets taken out of the city, recovers. Sometime later he decides, I'm gonna go back. So he calls a cab, he asks the cab driver, Hell, take me into the city, Pampas. I want to go tell them about Jesus. The cab driver said, The last guy who tried that almost died. And Moses said, I know. He said, I want to go anyway. The cab driver said, I think I know somebody who can help you. And he took Moses to the mayor of that town. Moses said to the mayor, here's what I want to do. You know what the mayor did? He responded by giving Moses police protection, who took him into the town center where Moses preached the gospel. People came to Saving Faith and he planted a church that day in Pampas, Peru. That's what it is to be a prophet. Prophets go again, they don't hide behind prior failure. Some of you today, you're coming out from behind prior failure. Where you tried before and you weren't successful as an ambassador of the kingdom of God in your workplace. The word of the Lord to you today is it's time to go again, to come out of hiding from behind failure and say, God, here am I. Send me. God will meet you in that moment. It's gonna happen in just a couple of seconds as we get ready to stand and open our hearts to God. I'm believing that the Lord is going to meet you with fresh fire and faith to go again for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because the message of Revelation 10 is that chaos, wilderness are the perfect conditions for prophets. And I remind you again of where we began with the Apostle John. One man with a pen, some parchment paper, and a vision from God on an island, and yet more people have read the apocalypse than almost any other work on the planet today. In fact, the Bible is still the best-selling book of all time, which means that more people have read the words of a man on an island receiving a global vision from God in circumstances that did not connect. I don't know if you've ever felt this way. If what God says does not connect with what you see, that is not a time to go into hiding. That is a time to recognize that God is calling you to be a prophetic person to your industry, to your family, to this world, to this city. Los Angeles is not a thing to tolerate. This is a mission field to be loved. We are people sent of God. So no matter what you see, God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you ask or think in Jesus' mighty name. If you believe it, say amen. Stand up on your feet, give God praise. God is good. Yeah, worship team. You guys can come. Holy, holy, holy. I don't have time to butter you up anymore. If you want to come out of hiding, if you have been hiding behind something, if you're the parent who's been hiding behind the kids, if you're the professional who's been hiding behind the career, if you're the person who's been hiding behind past failure or pain, then you need to come and do business with God on this altar right now. I invite you to come out of your seat, make your way out of the aisle, come down to the altar, hands lifted, heart open, ask God to meet you, to speak to you, to minister to you in this moment. This would be a Kairos time, a moment of divine appointment where God comes to do a work on the inside of your heart that changes you, that marks you. Come with faith and expectation. Lord Jesus, we need you. We need you, we need you, we need you, we need you. Wherever we've been distracted, wherever our eyes, wherever our vision has been swayed to the right or left, Lord Jesus, center our attention, our vision once again.