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[ Silence ] [MUSIC PLAYING] ♪ Shall ever lose his power ♪ ♪ Till all the realms of church and power ♪

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♪ Be saved to sing the Lord's ♪ ♪ Be saved to sing the Lord's ♪ [MUSIC] Till all the realms of judgement fall,

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Be saved through sins of old. At this time, I would like to present our pastor, Reverend Griffin. May we bow our heads. Lord God,

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I speak now to our hearts that we may have the strength that we need for our weaknesses. We may have the bright ray of hope to shine in dark places. Give us the word we need for this hour. In Jesus' name.

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Amen. The scripture which was just read, I want to lift up for our prayerful consideration Just these words. And around the throne was a rainbow that looked like an emerald.

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And round the throne was a rainbow. The subject of the message, "A rainbow round the throne." the throne. O joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to thee.

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I trace the rainbow through the rain, and feel the promise is not vain. That morn shall tearly speak. I trace the rainbow through the rain.

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One of the most beautiful scenes in the world of nature is a rainbow. It's usually identified with rain and storm clouds. In the Bible, rain and storm clouds are signs of trouble. I trace the rainbow through the rain.

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These words which I have quoted were written by George Matheson. George Matheson had a great deal of trouble as a young man. And what do you do when trouble comes? Do you give up, say it's no use to keep on?

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Or do you seek additional strength and in a measure chase a rainbow? George Matheson was engaged to be married, and to his surprise, he learned that he was soon to lose his eyesight. He went to his bride-to-be and suggested that they ought to break the engagement.

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He was hoping that she would refuse to accept this suggestion. But very much to his surprise and dismay, she agreed. It broke his heart. He grieved for many days, shut himself up in his room.

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But when the rain had ceased, the trouble was over, there was a rainbow in his sky, and he wrote, "Oh joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to thee. I trace the rainbow through the rain, and feel the promise is not made, that mourn shall tearly speak.

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I trace the rainbow through the rain. Here we have in the book of Revelation Another vision of a rainbow, John has dealt with the past, troubles that have been. He has dealt with the present, the difficulties that are being faced at that moment. And then he hears a voice saying, "Come up higher."

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And in a sense, he gets a heavenly vision. He has the privilege of stepping into heaven. He's given a glimpse of the future. He's been through a great deal of suffering, a great deal of difficulty, tribulation.

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Now as he looks, he sees a throne, a great white throne. And around the throne, a rainbow. The throne is encircled by this rainbow, which is beautiful to behold.

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The throne is a symbol of the rule of God. The fact that God rules in history. Not only does he rule in history, but he rules beyond history. Not only does he have

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power in this world while we are alive, but he has power in the world to come. And as young people, you may wonder, why should we have a text like this on Youth Day from the Book of Revelation?

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Here, John is concerned about the last things, that which is, so to speak, at the end of the road. And many of you are just getting started, just beginning. Why should you become concerned about the last things?

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Well, it's a good thing to be concerned about the last things because how you start will greatly determine how you end up. I saw a rainbow around the throne. A rainbow.

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A rainbow is a symbol of promise. It's a sign of new beginnings. It's a symbol of nature burning forth and renewing itself. The rainbow is a sign of spring, a sign of new creation, a sign of hope.

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When Noah's generation was destroyed by a flood, when the waters subsided, God gave Noah the rainbow sign, a sign of hope. God's pledge that he was still present and active. A rainbow in the storm clouds amid all of the troubles that surround us.

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To be sure, you have many troubles that surround you, troubles that surround all of us in our time. Troubles of poverty, of starvation, troubles of deprivation, disadvantages, troubles of being among the disinherited, victims of centuries of neglect. But in the midst of all of the difficulties, in the midst of all of the troubles that we face, there is a great white throne, and around the throne there is a rainbow.

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The rain may descend, the winds may blow, and the floods may come, but there is above it all a rainbow around the throne. And when we look up, we will see this rainbow around the throne, that there is always hope, and that there is one thing to keep in mind, my young friends, that is that righteousness

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rooms, that no matter what anyone may say, that in the end right will win. There is a rainbow round the throne. Now, the book of Revelation in the previous chapters has mentioned the fact that there is Satan's throne. To be sure, there is the rule of Rome. There is the rule of forces that are unrighteous. They are oft times, many times rather, they are strong in our world. Paul Tillich says that there are certain demonic forces that are at work, and these forces are seeking to keep us back.

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But there is another throne. This is the great white throne. It's God's throne. It's the symbol of his righteousness. It is the symbol of the fact that in the midst of all that is happening, there is the rule of God. That means there is the rule of goodness.

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There is the rule of truth. There is the rule of love. And this is more powerful than Satan's rule. A rainbow around the throne.

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Now, this rainbow is a symbol of the eternal promise that God gives to his people. In other words, God says to you and to me, as you begin life, that there is this promise And if you link up with me, if you are a companion of righteousness, that if somehow it is your decision to do right, and it's your decision to be honest, to be truthful, to be identified

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with the good, the true, and the beautiful, that somehow if you are linked up with the the rule of righteousness that there is eternal hope and that there is nothing in this world or beyond this world that can ultimately destroy you. This is God's promise that there is fulfillment.

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It's a sign of the rainbow around the throne. Now this is revealed in the righteousness of God. Make no mistake about it. Right will win. Right may not be the most popular thing. It may not be the easiest thing to do. In fact, it may be the most unpopular, it may be the hardest, the most painful thing for us to do, but the person who does what he knows is right in his own heart of hearts,

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whose life is ruled by the righteousness of God that is set forth in the example given us by Jesus Christ that that person in the end will triumph over all wrong. Now it's possible for a time to get away by lying, stealing, and cheating, but in the end it will not win.

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There was a football team in one of the popular schools of the Southwest that had a very good team and a winning team, but they disobeyed some of the rules. And because they disobeyed some of the rules for recruiting, they were eliminated from consideration. There are certain rules that ought to be followed. There are rules that are somehow written into the moral universe.

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There are certain things that have to do with righteousness that God has somehow written into the very life of every human being. And that this is to be followed. It's not just what we do, but it's the way that we do it.

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Those who have kindness and concern for others, no matter what happens, the promise of God is theirs. There is a rainbow round the throne. There is trouble, there are storm clouds, but in the midst of all of it is a rainbow

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round the throne. The Lord puts it this way, truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne, But that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dimmer loam stands the Almighty God our Father, keeping watch above His own.

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There is no final defeat for the person who is committed to truth and righteousness. When we see a rainbow, we only see a part of it most of the time, just a part of that rainbow because it gets broken when it comes down to the horizon. We can only see a part of it. But here we see a rainbow that makes a complete circle. It's a rainbow around the throne.

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There is no end to it. And this is a symbol not only of promise, which means that if you do right There's no end to your experience of the promises of God in this life. There's no end. That somehow if your life is really linked up with the eternal, if it's linked up with

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not something that just passes away, not the fleeting fame of this world, and much of the fame of this world is very fleeting. I was on one college campus the other day and they had a football team, a basketball team that was in the midst of a winning streak. And the coach came in while I was eating lunch and everybody was saying, "Oh, here's the coach."

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And he was being rushed off to a meeting to address the group because he was winning. Everybody loves a winner. But I went to another college a few days later and the coach was losing and they were saying we've got to let him go. Because he's had a season and he has only won one game out of the entire season and we've got to let him go.

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Well, that's the way fame is in this life. If you're a boxer and you're winning and you're strong, you have fame, but that's physical. And you can't keep that. You get old. And the same boxer that had all of that physical strength soon finds that he is slower now.

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now. His timing is off and he loses a fight or two and he is no longer the great winner that he was and that passes away. And Jim Brown said in an address some time ago when he was a winner as one of the best athletes on the football team, he said if I had to choose whether or not to be an outstanding football player or to really get a good education, he said I would choose getting

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a good education because that will outlast being a great football player. What I'm really saying, my young friends, is to somehow be sure that you have something that will outlast many of the temporary things of this world. And this is what John sees here in the rainbow around the throne, a sign of God's presence, His promise.

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His promise outlasts everything else. When everything else has passed away, the earth has passed away and all of the things And all of the things we are accustomed to, he sees beyond all of this, a rainbow around the throne.

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Now this is also a sign of God's judgment. of the one who is pure, the one who is holy, the one who is without fault, is judgment. Make no mistake about it, that this is the one who will have the first word and the last It's really not only knowing who you are, but knowing that there is a judgment that

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we must face, and that in this judgment, that there is the presence of one who has the power to determine in the end our destiny. And this rainbow around the throne is a symbol of that which is refreshing, a symbol of that which is fruitful, a symbol of the kind of life that is a blessing.

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And how can, in the midst of all of the difficulties, how can one live such a life that it can see a ray of hope and assurance in a rainbow sign? Well, it's the kind of joy that is mentioned by George Matheson when he says, "Oh joy that seekest me through pain,

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I cannot close my heart to thee. I trace the rainbow through the rain and feel the promise is not vain, that mourn shall tear us.

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You know when you think about joy, most people think about having a good time and feeling good for a moment, and they say that's joy.

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But that's not what joy is. That's not what's real joy. Joy is having a kind of relationship to the eternal, that no matter what happens,

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you keep that relationship. And that means that sometimes you feel good, and sometimes you don't feel good. It means that sometimes you may have tears in your eyes,

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and sometimes you have a smile on your face, but that you have a relationship with the eternal. That means that sometimes if you love, that sometimes you'll have a smile on your face

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when you love, and there's sometimes when you'll be pierced in your heart when you love. but you're gonna keep on loving. That's real joy.

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It's that kind of relationship, that it's being so put together, so wrapped up and related to God that nothing can separate you from him.

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And that's what God represents in his creative power, because you see, when you look at how he puts everything together, you see what this joy is in that rainbow sign.

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That's what John was talking about. He said, "I saw a rainbow around the throne." He said, "I saw 24 elders, "and they were seated on smaller thrones

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"around the great white throne, "and they had crowns on their heads. "They were seated around that circle, And these 12, these 24 elders represent the 12 patriarchs and the 12 apostles, all of the faithful.

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The question I want to ask you is whether or not you are represented, you find yourself in your own heart of hearts, represented in that faithful, faithful to truth, faithful to righteousness, faithful to love. So that's what John is talking about here, a question we ask all of us, we must ask all of us, whether we are listed in that number. And for those who are believers in Jesus Christ, we are there. This is a symbol of all of the faithful servants of God.

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And this group is around the throne. And then there are four living beings, one with the face of a lion, another with the face of an ox, another with the face of a man, a human being,

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and another with the face of an eagle. And these represent God's creative power. The lion, the king of the forest, the king of all beasts. The ox, the leader of all domesticated animals, the patient one who works.

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Man, the chief of all intelligent beings. Man, the climax of God's creation. And then the eagle, the chief of the fowl of the air. So the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, the domesticated animal, God's highest creation. But all of them are parts of God's creation, and all of them are gathered around the throne,

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and they are singing one song, glory and honor be unto him that is upon the throne. Glory and honor and thanksgiving. That's the word.

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Glory, honor, thanks be to God. That's the word. Somehow as we look up and we see the rainbow around the throne, that somehow the hope in our lives

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And our response to that rainbow is that somehow we can join with the elders and the four beasts who sing a song of thanksgiving, saying glory and honor unto God. And how do we honor this God that is the ruler of all history and who rules beyond history? by having our lives so related to him, that there is splendor in our lives, not just for ourselves, but for him.

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Glory and honor and thanks, so that as we begin each day, we can say, "Thanks be to God." Thanks be to God, not only for parents, but thank God for the gift of this day. And worthy are you, O Lord, and only you are worthy to receive the honor and the glory that should be given to the supreme being in this world. "A rainbow paints me to God that there is a rainbow around the throne."

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"A rainbow of hope." "A rainbow, a symbol of God's judgment." "A rainbow, yes, a symbol of his presence and his power." "Somehow, no matter what may happen, though sometimes we find ourselves down in the dumps,"

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Though sometimes there are storm clouds that gather, and the storm clouds would blind our vision, but after a while there is a light that pierces that darkness, and there is a rainbow around the throne. That there is hope whenever you set out on the journey and purpose in your life, in your heart of hearts, that you are going to follow the direction of Jesus Christ. That there is, at the end of the way, there is a rainbow around the throne.

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to comfort you, to give you the blessed assurance that God never leaves his children alone. And to do that, you have to be in the Spirit. It's easy, it's easy just to say that. But John saw this, he had a vision of something beyond this world because somehow he said, He said, "I was caught up in the Spirit, and when I was caught up in the Spirit, I saw something that others didn't see."

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And so you, when you are filled with the Spirit of God, the Spirit of love, the Spirit of kindness, the Spirit of mercy, you'll be able to see something in life that many others won't see. You'll see a rainbow. You'll see a sign of hope. You'll see a sign of love. You'll see a sign of God's presence and his power. And when you see that throne do like the elders and the four beasts, the four living creatures that were gathered around.

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