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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Good evening, thank you so much for coming to steadfast. If you need a bulletin, just lift up your hand nice and high. One of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin. We're on verse 9 of Proverbs 31 for the kiddos. And then on the inside we have our service soul winning times, our church stats. Please make sure you're submitting that into our soul winning captains and lieutenants. Also on the right, please be prayer for our expecting ladies. We have our next commission's trip coming up next week, so please be in prayer for that. Also ladies Christmas party, December 8th, it's nursing's only preferred. We have the Christmas caroling on the 11th. We'll just be meeting probably around like 6 o'clock and going out that evening for some caroling. Also the 16th is the children's Christmas music recital. We have the 24th cook off for cookies and then the 31st is our New Year's Eve party on the back is our list of prayer requests. We've been continuing to pray for brother Cameron for his leg. We've been praying for brother Wallach, his daughter and niece. We've been praying for Ms. Cooley's stepdad. We've been praying for brother Oz, his brother. Also Ms. Naim's grandmother. Brother Caputo for a job. We've been praying for brother Goodwin, his mother-in-law. And also if you've been in prayer for one of our newest members, Ms. Priscilla for her health and eye issues. So that's pretty much all we have as far as on our prayer list. Let's just say a quick word of prayer as a church family for those that are mentioned here. Thank you Heavenly Father for this evening. Thank you so much for our ladies who are expecting. I pray that you be with them during this pregnancy. Please help their children's development. I pray that you give them a timely birth. I pray that you'd please bless our church family that has health issues, that's struggling, especially with chronic issues. Not just our church family but also our friends and family that we also care about. Please give them favor for their health. And I pray that you'd also give favor to our church members for their jobs and for their lives. I pray that you'd also help our new babies and that their health would also be given unto them. And I just thank you so much for our church. I pray that you'd bless this time of thanksgiving. That we'd be thankful for all that you've given us and for your son and for this building and for our church and for our opportunity to have services evening. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to sing our Psalm of the Week, Psalm 146. Psalm 146. If you can use the special handouts, that makes it a lot easier or you could use your Bible. Psalm 146. Psalm 146. Everybody sing it out together. Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. While I live will I praise the Lord, I will sing praises unto my God, while I have any being. But not your trust in princes, nor in the Son of Man, in whom there is no help. Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. His breath goeth forth, he returned to earth. In that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord. The Lord is God. Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. Which made heaven and earth the sea, and all that there is which keep in truth forever. Which executive judgment for the oprahs which give in food to the hungry, the Lord who sent the prisoners. Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. The Lord of Men, in the eyes of the blind, the Lord raiseth them that are bound down. The Lord loveth the righteous, the Lord reserveth the strangers, he who the Father sends them to know. Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. But the way of the wicked he turned him upside down. The Lord shall reign forever, even by God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. Great singing everybody. Now as the offering plates are passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Revelation Chapter 3. Revelation Chapter 3, the Bible reads, And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write, These things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know thy works, that thou hast a name, that thou livest and art dead. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die. For I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth. I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. For thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly, hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out. And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou art cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and of need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father God, we thank you for Revelation chapter 3 and for the entire book of Revelation. I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your Spirit. Help him to expound this chapter to us. And Lord, help us to pay attention to tonight's verse-by-verse Bible study so that we may walk away having learned something new as a result of the preaching of your Word. We love you and in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. We're in Revelation chapter 3 and this is three more of the seven churches that are being addressed specifically in the book of Revelation. As we start chapter 3, we are addressing a new church. It says, And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write, These things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, I know thy works, that thou hast a name, that thou livest, and art dead. And this is kind of interesting that already in the first century we can see the fragility of churches. And what I mean by that is how a church can go through some dramatic life cycles in a very short period of time. At one point, this church had a name that it lived, meaning that it was doing great works, it's thriving, a lot of spiritual life is pumping through this church, and it's already gone to a cycle where it's now dead. And if you think about it, this is not that far removed from when the church would have even been established or even started. And I think that some people just don't realize how fragile churches can be and how churches can go through dramatic changes in short periods of time. And most of the time, churches don't seem to last much more than a generation if they even are lucky enough to go through an entire generation. You see, a lot of churches today that are thriving and going well are kind of new churches, and a lot of churches that have a history of, oh, we've been here for 150 years. A lot of times they're kind of a dead church, even though they may have a lot of people, a lot of institutional programs, they might have a lot of money. But according to the Bible, just because you have a name that you live doesn't mean you're actually thriving or doing well. Keep your finger here. Go to 1 Timothy 5 for just a second. I want to show you the Bible kind of bringing up this idea of being dead. What does it mean to be dead? And I grew up in a non-denominational church. It was kind of a charismatic church. And I remember our pastor would often talk about other churches being dead. And the way that it kind of was explained in the sermon and kind of the way that I perceived it was basically just the worship service. Like, in the worship service, if you have the drums and everybody's running up and down the aisles and screaming and yelling, it's an alive church. And if you go to some of these more fundamental Baptist churches, they're just kind of singing the hymn, and they're just like, you know, Jesus is alive. And it just kind of seems dead, man. You know, it's not really party, and it's not really live. You know, sometimes people have this definition when they talk about going to a party or going to a restaurant or going to an event where if it's not a lot of noise and a lot of people, it's kind of dead, where if, you know, it has a lot of people and everybody's all excited, then it just seems alive. And there is, to some degree, you know, some truth to the idea that a church can have a little bit more spirit, a little bit more zeal to them, maybe a little bit more energy than other churches, and it's nice to be around other people that are kind of energetic and passionate and zealous and things like that. But when we're talking about the distinction between being alive and being dead, it's not really what the Bible's alluding to. Look at chapter 5, and we're going to be bringing up kind of a context of widows, but it says in verse number 5, Now she that is a widow in deed and desolate trusteth in God and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day, but she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. So the Bible kind of gives us an idea of what it would be like for a person to be dead, spiritually speaking. It's not saying that she's dead physically. It's saying that she's dead spiritually. What makes her dead spiritually? She's not doing anything spiritual, right? She's living in pleasure. So if we were to look at a church today and say, here's a church that has a name that it lives, but it's dead, what would be a possible interpretation of that? What would be an example of that? It'd be a church where they're not doing anything spiritual. And frankly speaking, that's the vast majority of these non-denominational churches today where they might look really alive, but man, they are spiritually dead. Meaning what? That they're not really praying, they're not really serving God, they're not actually reading the Bible, they're not actually preaching the Bible, they're not actually going out and preaching the gospel. There's not really any spiritual activity. That doesn't mean that they couldn't pay it thriving in other ways though, right? Maybe they have a lot of kids programs and maybe they have a lot of people attending, but that doesn't make a church alive. What makes a church alive is the spiritual activity that's going on in the church. And I've been to plenty of churches where they're gaining new members, there's tons of money, lots of programs, they've got all the Christmas trees up, but it's dead because when you show up, you get no substance, they're not going to teach you any of the Bible, no one's really making any spiritual moves in their life. In fact, people are seeming to get more carnal every single month. They're not really getting more spiritual, they're not really dedicating themselves to the things of God. And so we have to be careful as a church that we don't measure our success as a church by carnal means, but rather by spiritual means. And we take notice of, okay, is the church a prayer church? Are we praying as a church? Are we caring for one another? Are we reading the Bible? Are we preaching the Bible? Are we growing? Are people making positive decisions in their life? Are we taking people that are living more worldly lives and now they're becoming more spiritual, like increasing church attendance, maybe dressing more godly, acting more godly. New people are going out soul winning. People who have never gone out soul winning are now going soul winning. We're bringing new people into the church, we're getting people baptized. These would be the metrics that we'd want to look at to really kind of identify what church is like, not to see how many people can raise their hands during the worship service and say, hey, yeah, hey, woo. And then people are like, oh, it's such an alive service. You know, I'd rather sing a really somber song and not necessarily anybody raising their hands but like taking their Christian life seriously rather than a bunch of people getting all excited over nothing because you can go to a secular concert today and get all excited and it has nothing to do with God. And so it's important that people realize that serving God is a spiritual task, not a carnal task, and sometimes we have to separate those two things. Now that's one way to kind of look at this. If you go back to Revelation chapter number 3, I want to read a little bit more in this text and kind of get maybe a bigger, another understanding of this. I think one way that a church could have a name that it lives and is dead is maybe it was doing great things in the past, being very spiritual, reaching people, but then they kind of started just growing to grow, not for spiritual sake. They kind of actually became more carnal, but as a result they had that name that they live but really they're kind of a dead church even though they might have a thriving congregation, a lot of people. There's another way you could look at this church though here in Sardis and I think this is probably the more accurate way to look at their scenario but it's more of a church that's actually smaller. And look what it says in verse 2. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent if therefore thou shalt not watch I will come on thee as a thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy. He that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. So if we kind of pay attention to these few verses we get a little idea of kind of what's going on in this church. Number 1, it says in verse 4 that there's only a few names in Sardis that notice something that have not defiled their garments. Kind of insinuating that there's really only a few people in this church that are kind of holdouts that are faithful Christians serving God in any kind of capacity. In verse 2 it also kind of gives us that idea because it says strengthen the things which remain. So there's only kind of like a small group of people that I would argue number 1 are even saved and number 2 that are even serving God in any capacity. Because first of all you actually have to be saved to even serve God. If you're not saved then you're not really serving God. And I think that we actually see this a lot in the world today where there are churches who maybe they're Baptist churches and they started out with a good pastor and they had a pretty good heritage but then that pastor passed away then his son took over or they brought in another guy then they brought in a few more people and really this church is just kind of deteriorated to a point where there's really almost just a handful of people that are actually saved and zealous for the things of God and that the rest of the church is just kind of fluff. It's just kind of a lot of people that aren't really there for the right reasons. And this happens for a lot of reasons. A church that stops exercising church discipline will have a lot of weeds grow in the church. They'll have a lot of people that just shouldn't be there that are just kind of still sticking around and they're kind of poisoning the well. Additionally, if the church kind of changes its method and isn't really preaching the gospel effectively isn't preaching salvation by faith very clearly you start getting even more people creeping in that aren't even saved sometimes. You have people that are kind of because you're not really being very sharp and we see this a lot in our society where there's a lot of Baptists today that are just kind of giving a generic answer about salvation. Oh, Jesus is salvation. Make sure you're on Team Jesus. Make sure that you know that you're saved by being on Team Jesus and it's just kind of getting vague. They'll kind of say both things. They'll say you've got to accept Him and trust Him and He's your Lord and you've got to repent and you've got to do good and you're saved. And you're just kind of like, what did you just say? He's kind of said it all. And then you meet people that go to some of these churches and they're actually saved but then you meet other people that go to the same church and they're not saved. I mean, any of us that have gone soloing you realize there are a lot of churches out there where it's a mixed bag. There are some people in this church that are saved and there are some people that are not. In fact, sometimes it's just the vast majority are not and there's just kind of a handful. There's just like this little remnant that are saved that are going to this church. And I think what God's trying to say is to the angel, to the pastor is, hey, instead of worrying about like maintaining this church's heritage or name, why don't you just go ahead and strengthen what you have? And I think that let's just be honest about it. There's probably a lot of churches out there that are running 100, 200, maybe even 500 people. But if all of a sudden they just started preaching what the Bible said, getting really sharp on salvation by faith alone, started exercising church discipline, their numbers might shrink dramatically. Like they might actually really only be running like 25 or 50 people. But instead of just being faithful to pastoring those 25 or 50 people the right way, they want to just kind of be this lukewarm pastor or this kind of hands off or just kind of everybody's pal and so that they can maintain this 200, 500 person church. And so what Christ is kind of reminding this church is like, hey, you guys are dead though. And as the pastor, it's better to just go ahead and strengthen the few things that remain than to pastor a whole bunch of goats, than to pastor a bunch of people that shouldn't be there and wasting other people's time and not really doing the things that you should. And I think that there's this pressure out there to run a big church. As a pastor, it's almost like maybe weightlifting or something when you go to the gym. It's like how much can you bench or how much can you squat? And it's like for pastors, it's like, well, how many people do you have? And it's kind of this pride thing that I think a lot of pastors or churches want to have. It's like, oh, well, we run this many people. And you go to those big churches a lot of people have pride in. We run 10,000. We run 30,000. And it's like, okay, well, what if we checked how many people are saved though that are going to church? What if we checked how many people go soul winning? How many of your 30,000 people go soul winning? Oh, zero? And you know there's churches out there that are running literally tens of thousands of people and no one goes out soul winning. So it's like why does it matter that you run 30,000 and have zero soul winners when there's a church running 30 and they have 15 soul winners? You know, according to Jesus, you know who was better? The 15. And so I think that sometimes people have the wrong mentality about church or like what makes a good church. And, you know, Jesus is the one that's reminding us in this chapter, what does it say? He's the one that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. You know, he's saying I'm the one that has the churches and the pastors in my hand. Like why do you care what the world thinks? You should only care what I think. And if they don't, what ends up happening? Well, he says I'll come on thee as a thief and thou shalt know what hour I will come on thee. So he's like, hey, if you don't do what I'm saying, I could just destroy you. I could just destroy you and your church and I think he's just trying to remind us like, look, Christ is in charge of our churches. Christ is the one that holds our churches together. Christ is the one that's protecting our church, guiding our church, loving our church. And when we don't realize he's the one in charge, sometimes it can allow you to run off course or care what other people think more or, you know, it doesn't really matter to me as much how many people we have as the quality of people that we have. You know, it's better to have a high quality and low quantity than to have a high quantity and a really low quality. And look, I'm not against having a big church. Don't hear what I'm saying wrong. Big church, great, as long as you didn't compromise on the quality. And I think that some people, maybe they look at their church and they're struggling to grow and so what they have to do is they have to compromise on the quality of the church members to grow. But you know what, I don't want our church to ever become that way. I don't want to say, like, you know, if I would preach a little bit softer or I wouldn't preach certain sections of the Bible or I wouldn't be so irritating or I wouldn't call people out as much, then we might could grow a little bit more or more people would feel welcome here or people might like it a little bit better. And so what happens, though, is that starts deteriorating the quality of the members of the church. And you know what, this is Christ's flock. It's not for me to decide how to pastor. I'm supposed to pastor however he wants me to pastor and I believe that Christ wants the highest quality flock. He'd rather have purity in the church of God rather than just having a big number. And it's important as a pastor to notice, to strengthen the things, you know, what is the purpose of church? Does he say you're trying to reach new people? You know, church is to strengthen the people that are here, to try and edify the congregation, try to build up and to try and motivate those of us to keep going, keep fighting, keep striving for the things of God, to make them stronger. What would be the point of me going to the gym? What if I went to the gym and all I did was kind of look in the mirror? I'm not going to lift any weights. I'm just going to kind of look, yeah, all right, yeah. I'm going to walk around, maybe take a couple selfies, maybe film myself looking at myself while watching myself. And then I leave. It was like, what was the point? Isn't the whole point of going to the gym to actually work out a little bit and try to strengthen yourself some? Right? And so it's like, what's the point of coming to church if we don't get strengthened a little bit, if we don't get challenged a little bit, if we don't work out a little bit, right? And so it's important to put in a little bit of energy. Also, you know, strengthening yourself or being strengthened isn't necessarily always fun. You know, some people say this, I kind of agree. Leg day, especially working out, can be really difficult, really frustrating, and non-enjoyable while you're doing it. I actually like arm day. Like, I don't mind doing biceps and triceps and stuff. Like, I kind of find it fun to go to the gym and do that. But man, leg day can be a chore. In fact, sometimes I feel like I'm going to pass out by the end of the workout, and so it's just not necessarily as enjoyable. Similarly, if I were to learn anything, if I'm learning a foreign language, studying, reading, it's effort. It takes work. It's not necessarily enjoyable. Watching a movie, that's fun, right? I just lay back and just watch a movie. You know, church should also be a little bit uncomfortable and not necessarily fun. Like, there's a little bit of part of it that's learning and growing and strengthening, and so you shouldn't necessarily come to church to be entertained. You should come to church with the expectation that you're going to have to work out a little bit. You know, pay attention, think, use your brain, turn the pages. Like, we should be here trying to get better, not just showing up to be like, make me laugh or tell me a joke or tell me a cool story or whatever. You know, even if you didn't even get a cool story, what if you just, you can only learn? Or what if you don't even get any learning? You just, you have to do it again. You just have to memorize something that you already know. You have to relearn something that you already did. I mean, look, sometimes working out's like that, right? It's like, you've already done this exercise. You can already do it, but you know what? You have to do it again. And it's like, oh, that wasn't that much fun. But if you don't do it, what happens? You start to deteriorate, and you lose your strength, and so it's important to realize why we're even here. And it says, be watchful and strengthen the things which means that are ready to die. You know, you could interpret this a few different ways, but the reason why I'm kind of interpreted the way I do is based on the rest of the context is I think that he's trying to say, we need to strengthen the things here because if we don't, they're going to perish, right? So it's like, if I don't, if the pastor doesn't strengthen the few people that are serving God in his church, they could just pretty much just be done. And just basically they just die, they're done, there's nothing left. They kind of quit on the spiritual life because they need to be strengthened so they don't what? They don't die, right? If they strengthen themselves, they have the chance of what? Not dying. So I think in the context it's kind of alluding to the idea of them dying spiritually or maybe they're even just dying physically because they're just not serving God and God just punishes them with physical death. But ultimately, what's kind of being referenced here is the fact that they need to be strengthened lest they die. And we need to be strengthened lest we die, lest we perish, by the way. And frankly speaking, that's what literally happened with the children of the wilderness. If they didn't really follow God's commandments, if they were rebellious, God caused many of them to perish by the way and not to enter in the promised land because they weren't really serving God faithfully. And I think that sometimes we take it for granted that we're going to live to be 80 or 90 or 100 years old. And it's like, well, if you stop serving God, there's really no guarantee at all that you're going to have another day on this planet. I mean, how many passages talk about if the salt had lost its savor, it's good for nothing but to be cast out and be trodden underfoot of men? I mean, how many passages talk about the unfruitful vine being cut off and basically being destroyed? You know, we as God's people have to continue to be productive and actually serving the Lord if we want to have any kind of assurance that God will continue to allow us to thrive and survive and even be on this earth. What's the point of God having me on this earth? Is it to just watch TV until I die? Just play games until I die? Just work a secular job and just pay money to the government? Just pay taxes? Is that why God wants me to be here? Just pay taxes to Babylon? I mean, do they really need more money? Increase the GDP? Build a 401K that gets taken from me from insider trading? I mean, you know, what's the point? And God sometimes will look down at the children on earth that are His, and if they're not producing, He may just call you home early. And they need to be strengthened to keep fighting, to keep doing the work of God, lest they die. You know, He says, I have not found thy works perfect before God. He says, remember, He wants us to hold fast and repent, and notice this church has to make a change or they're going to be destroyed. We have some passages in the Bible that talk about how upon this rock will I build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it? That's not saying that every single church will never be destroyed, though. That's talking about in a general idea how the church is, and generally speaking, is not going to be destroyed. We're going to always have the church until Christ comes. I don't believe there will be ever a time where there's just zero church. We'll always have some church. But individual churches, they can be destroyed. And so it's important that, you know, hey, I like steadfast. That's an important name. And wouldn't it be sad when steadfast perished, right? Then it kind of had a name that it lived, but it's dead, right? In order for steadfast's name to live and to be accurate is the church has to be living and has to be thriving and doing the work of God. And sometimes we as a church, you know, we could even get so far off course that we have to make a big change. We have to change our mind or get right with God. And so it's important to have these reminders and self-reflection and make sure that we're always watching and paying attention and judging ourselves and making sure that we're worthy in His sight, that we're pleasing in His sight. Of course, those who are even going to a bad church, they're still going to heaven. You know, it's not just if you come to this church or you're going to heaven. If you're saved, you're going to heaven, right? This also tells me this, that even if you lived in an area where there's not a great church, you should still go to church. You know, He didn't say, hey, you guys that are saved going to this church, quit going to church. Nope. I believe you should just always go to church, even if it's Sardis Baptist Church, even if it's SBC, right? Even if it was a Southern Baptist Church, you know, it would be better than no church. And some people, they just act like they just can't go to any church. They're better than church, and they're these online trolls, have nothing to do with them. You know, these people are not the right kind of people to be around. I would way rather be with the person that's going to a lame church and talk to them than the people that are better than church. Oh, I'm better than every church in my area. I'm smarter than every pastor. You know, these people are usually just trolls, and we should have nothing to do with them. We don't want to be around them whatsoever. And even if we have a little crowd, even if our church was really small, hey, we can still strengthen the things that remain, and we can hold fast to the end, can't we? And it doesn't matter if the world is all dying, going to hell. We can be faithful, and we can do what's right. And of course, if you're saved, he's not going to blot your name out of the Book of Life. And I love this, that he's going to confess your name before his father and before his angels. So apparently, and in some way, and I don't know what this looks like, but in some fashion, Christ is literally going to name you to his father as basically, you know, it almost makes me feel like, and I could be wrong here, but it could be almost like the great white throne judgment where it's like when it gets to a saved person's turn, instead of going through their list of sins, it's like Jesus is like, I got him. And then when it goes to the person's son saved, it's like, oh, now, you know, we got to like hear what's going on with this person, right? But it's like you go to a saved person, and it's like Christ is going to confess your name. Or maybe you could just, it's not necessarily in reference to that. Maybe it's just in reference to the fact that when we talk about when we sin on earth, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he's going to say, hey, he's mine. He's of our fold. You know, put that on my account, kind of like the Apostle Paul does with Onesimus, and, you know, he's basically willing to confess our name and to intercede for us. But I believe that Jesus Christ is literally interceding for us in heaven, now and in the future, and that's one of the blessings of being saved, is having him to be our intercessor. Verse 7, it says, And under the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that at the key of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth, and no man openeth, I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it, for thou has a little strength, and has kept my word, and has not denied my name. Now, you kind of notice that the way that Jesus Christ describes himself in each one of these opening passages kind of corresponds to the chapter. In the previous chapter with Sardis, he's reminding them, hey, I'm the one that's in control and in charge of these churches and pastors, and that reminder is kind of exemplified in the fact that he's saying, if you guys don't repent, you know, I might come upon you as a thief and you might get destroyed because of the fact that you don't recognize I'm the one in charge. I'm the one that has the keys. I'm the one that is the leader of this pack. In verse 7, he's telling them, hey, I'm true, I'm the one that at the key of David, and I can open things that no one else can open, and I can shut things that no one else can shut. You know, think about this in a little bit further in the book of Revelation when we get there. There's a scroll that has seals on it, and it says no one can open this, but then who can open it? Jesus can. Jesus is the one that can open those seals that are on those scrolls, and so according to the text, Jesus Christ has the ability to open and close things that no one else can open and close. And, you know, I know I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but think about what he actually opens. He opens like a guy to go forth in the earth to conquer, and no one can stop this guy, and it opens like plagues and death and all kinds of different things. So when it's talking about Jesus Christ opening things, it's not just this like metaphor only or this spiritual significance only. It's like real things that are happening on the earth. So when Christ opens doors and closes doors, many times what he's talking about is real things on earth. Real events. Here's an example. How about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thrown in the fiery furnace? That's something where Christ is allowing them to go through that door unharmed, yet the captains of the guard or basically the soldiers, they're thrown in there and they're destroyed, right? That's crazy. That cannot make sense physically. How could two guys be thrown in the exact same fire and one's perfectly fine and the other one's not, and they're both human physical beings. It's not like one's special and the other one's not. It's that God can somehow supersede the laws of physics and the laws of our universe however he sees fit whenever he wants to do it, and he can do things that are unimaginable, and I think that we have to sometimes recognize that we live in a world that God can supersede physical reality whenever and however he wants. So instead of getting caught in walking by sight, we should walk by faith, because a lot of times we limit ourselves because we think that's humanly impossible. But wait a minute. God's not bound by finite capabilities. He can do things that are unimaginable. You can walk up to the Red Sea and he can just part it, and you can just walk on dry ground. Think about the fact that it's just even dry. How does that work? How is the ground dry that's been in water for all that long? It would be like mush or some kind of softness, but they're able to just walk right on down on dry ground. I mean, this is the type of miracles that only God can do, and it's not like God stopped performing miracles in the world. He, I believe, still does them today and can do them, and he can open all kinds of doors in your life and close all kinds of doors in your life at will. And so it's important to recognize that we should be right with God, because I want God to open the right doors for me and to close the wrong doors for me. And he even did this in the Apostle Paul's life. You know, in the Apostle Paul's life, there was times where he says, like, hey, the Holy Spirit's forbidding us to go into Asia. He's just basically just closing that door. And then at other times, he kind of opens a door to take him to Rome when it's arguably physically impossible. I mean, you have 42 guys swearing that they're... I think it's 40 or 42 guys swearing that they're going to kill Paul. They're not going to eat or drink until they kill Paul, and you have all these Jews coming after him, and he's going to law. But then God somehow works it and orchestrates it and takes them all the way to Rome. Think about all the natural disasters he has to avoid. He's on this ship, and then there's all this... The captain won't listen to him. He goes against common sense, and he's saying, hey, look, this is a bad time to travel, and he just does it anyways. They get caught in this horrible storm. They're not even eating for days. But what happens? God still delivers them through that storm. They crash on this random island, and there's all this barbarous people. Those barbarous people could have just killed them. The soldiers wanted to actually kill the prisoners, lest they escape because they didn't want to die. God's getting them through that prisoner. God's getting them through the barbarous people. Then he's preparing a fire, and a snake comes out and gets on Paul's hand, and then he just shakes the beast off of his hand. I mean, you read through the Bible, and it's like the apostle Paul's life is just miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle. And look, I believe that God still does these type of things for his people and opens all kinds of doors and closes all kinds of doors when you're following his will. You say, well, that's the apostle Paul, right? And couldn't some people have this attitude? Well, if I was an apostle, then things would work out for me. But wait a minute. Who is this addressed to? This is addressed to the church at Philadelphia, meaning that God is still capable of opening doors supernaturally for people that are not apostles and closing doors supernaturally for people that are not apostles. And I believe he's writing this to them to also remind us that God can supernaturally open doors for Steadfast Baptist Church, and he can close doors supernaturally for Steadfast Baptist Church, and for you in your personal life, he can open and close doors however he wants and however he sees fit, and it's important to recognize that. He's the one that does this, and he's telling us about himself. I do this. Why? Because in verse 8, I know thy works built. I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. So he's like, look, I'm the one that does this, and let me tell you about an instance where I'm doing this for you. Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. So notice a couple things here. He's going to open this door. What is the door that he's opening for the church of Philadelphia? He's opening a door where they go through, and they experience no tribulation. Now, this is kind of incredible, but why is he doing that for them? Well, look at verse 10. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation. So this church apparently suffered a lot of tribulation at some point in their church history, maybe in the beginning of their church history, and because of the fact that they were so faithful, and they kept the word through that difficult period of time, he says, I'm going to reward you by the next big temptation you guys don't even have to go through. And I think that sometimes we don't realize how things can change so quickly. And, you know, think about COVID. I mean, all of a sudden, it was like the world's just having fun, and it seems like everything's going normal, and the economy's good, and then COVID just comes out of nowhere, and it was just like, bam, everything's changed for the worst. But then even since then, you know, there was times during that where it was pretty dark. Times since then, it's gotten a lot better. And I know some people, they thought like, man, if I don't get this COVID shot, I'm going to get fired, and no one's going to hire me, and I'm not going to have a job, and all these things. And now look how that's changed, where even the military. The military was letting soldiers go if they wouldn't get the COVID shot. Now the military is begging for those people to come back. Oh, how the tables turn, you know, and they want that individual to come back. And, you know, sometimes we just don't realize how quick things can change. And Steadfast Baptist Church, we've gone through a couple periods that I would say were some pretty intense tribulation periods, some pretty intense temptation periods. But do we really know if God wasn't saying, well, you know what, you guys made it through, and I know you're pretty like worn out, you're pretty tired of having to move around everywhere, but maybe I'm going to open a door to where when the rest of the world goes through a horrible spell of temptation, you guys are fine. And it's like you went through all this horrible tribulation at that point in time because you're not going to have to go through the next one, which is going to even be worse, where everybody's going to have to go through it. And, you know, our church has been through a lot, like a ton. But let's just be practical about a few things. You know, we've lost a lot of banking relationships. We've lost buildings, you know, that we were renting. We've lost people. We've had a lot of just kind of like heat. Every single entry in Google is negative. Like, you know, it's like if you type my name or you type steadfast, every, it's just like the top result negative, all the way to the top ten, and then like the next page. And I'm like, you guys can't do anymore. Like you've already conquered the top 50 results or whatever. Like nobody goes past the top page's results anyways. So like there's no more to conquer. We've already lost all the bank relationships we were probably going to lose. We can't do any credit card processing. This is done, okay. We can't, like there's all these different things. But at the same time, you can't do that to us anymore. Like it's already happened, right. And what would happen though if all of a sudden in America, now every church is losing all its banking relationships and losing all of its credit card processing and getting kicked out of all the buildings that they have and getting all this heat and getting all the negative reviews. Like we would be immune to it. We're like, okay, that already happened, sorry. And it's like the whole rest of the world is just like melting and all the other churches are going through intense persecution and happen to suffer all these things. And we're just like, this is great, this is fine. Bring it on. Why? Because you already kind of went through that, didn't you? You've already experienced it and we're positioned now where we can handle a lot of things that a lot of people couldn't. And I'm not saying that that happened. Maybe we're going to have even worse persecution. Maybe, you know, we'll actually have the church get bombed or something. I don't know. God willing that doesn't happen, right. And we'll just meet here anyways. But I'm just saying that, you know, I don't know the future and you don't know the future. But notice what he said is they have a little strength, right. He says, for thou hast a little strength. But, you know, even if you feel like I'm just kind of barely hanging on, Pastor Shelley, we'll just do it again for the next day. Just do it again the next day. Because you never know how things may change and then all of a sudden you're like, I'm so glad that I hung on. And a lot of times people, they get frustrated because they feel like the situation they're in is forever. Like maybe at your job things aren't going well or you don't like it. But don't just like quit or just like torch the career that you have because you don't enjoy it. Just hang on a little bit longer. You know, with Jacob, all of a sudden he got all the flocks. With Joseph, he's in prison. But, you know what, he kept being faithful there and then all of a sudden now he's the second in charge of the whole country. And, yay, arguably the whole world. And, you know, sometimes at your job, all of a sudden it gets bought by a new company. Your boss is fired and now all of a sudden you're promoted. Or maybe you get fired and then a company that you weren't even thinking about hires you and you get a better job. Like you never know how circumstances can change and could change dramatically. But just hang on. You know, maybe, you know, with a child you're struggling. There's a child and it's like they're really hard, they're really difficult. You're going through a hard phase with them and you feel like you have a little strength. But it's like just keep fighting, just keep encouraging that child. And then who knows, maybe all of a sudden they're going to just turn into a great child. And maybe that child that was really hard when they were young, they're going to be a great teenager. You know, worry for the kids that are great and they're about to become a teenager. You're like, oh no, the storm, the calm before the storm, right? Maybe, you know, sometimes people, like their marriage is not going great and they just have a little strength. Okay, well just keep hanging on because maybe the tide will turn. And, you know, I've had personal family members and people that I've known where their marriage literally seemed like it was hanging on by a thread, if that. And like they're even like vocalizing like I don't even love you, I've never loved you and just like separated, having nothing to do with each other. But they just somehow hung on or circumstances changed and now all of a sudden they're great, totally restored, love each other, we've always loved each other. And it's like sometimes people, they get so emotional, they think like their current state of being is just how it's always been, right? Like I hate you right now because I've always hated you, but that's not true. Or like I love you so I've always loved you, that's probably not true either. But it's just like sometimes things just change like this. And I think the reminder here with the Philadelphia church is hey, okay, you have a little strength, just keep doing the right thing though. Just keep on the right path and God may just open a door for you and your circumstances could change just like that and you may be now the one sitting atop while everybody else is struggling, while everybody else is going through these problems. And you know, verse 11 is really important. He said, Behold, I come quickly, hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. You know, it's kind of interesting, He said, Behold, I come quickly. You know, 2,000 years seems like a while. Who feels like that seems like a while, right? He's like, this doesn't really make sense. How is it saying that Christ comes quickly? But here's another thing. Doesn't it just seem like the last five years or the last few years went by like that? And you ask older people when their kids grow up, it's like, man, I feel like my kids grew up like that. And people that are really old and even ready to die, sometimes they'll be like 80, 90 and they'll say like, I feel like my life went by like that. And I think that sometimes we just don't realize how fast life is. And what Christ is trying to say is like, just hold on, because pretty soon you're about to die. Like you don't even realize how quick life just goes and then all of a sudden it's just like over and you're thinking, man, I wish I had hung on. I wish I had just ridden this thing out. I wish I had just stuck with Christ. And behold, you know, I come quickly, hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Meaning you are holding on, you had that crown. If you'd just hold on just a little bit longer, you know, you would have been there. You would have broke the record. You would have gotten whatever, you know, you would have gotten that prize, that reward that there's so many Christians that just can't hang on. And you got to think like in the scope of eternity, what's 80 years? It's nothing. Behold, I come quickly. We're not talking a thousand years. We're not talking 10,000 years. We're talking quick. And we're not even promised to live 80 years old, 90 years old. We don't realize how fast our lives are going to just shoot by. Raising children is going to shoot by. Being in church is going to shoot by. I mean, just the years sometimes, sometimes life just speeds up. And so I think that that's what he's trying to remind us of is even the fragility of life itself. And notice when you are a great Christian, if you overcome, notice this verse 12. I'll make him a pillow in the temple of my God and he shall go out no more. I think that some of the best Christians in the millennial reign will probably just be near Christ and never leave. Like they're just going to be a part of wherever he's at in the New Jerusalem and whatever section that he's ruling of the earth and you're just going to be with Christ forever. You're never going to leave. You're never going to go out. You know, there's a great reward to being faithful. You know, there's a great reward to being a good Christian. Some are going to sit at his right hand and some are going to sit at his left hand. Some are going to be ruling and reigning near Christ. You know, when we see the visions in heaven in the book of Revelation, it's not just God that we see. We see 24 elders. We see other people. We see other messengers. We see other angels and other men and other people that have done things for the Lord. We see angels going and pouring out vile judgments and stuff like that. Now, I don't know if those are angelic creatures or if those are the new happy preachers getting back. No, I'm just kidding. Right? I don't know if that's us just being like, yeah, I'm ready. You know, here we go, have some locust from hell, buddy. It's like, I mean, wouldn't that be the coolest job? Like, you would be so excited. And albeit, it's a negative thing that you're doing, but it's just like, there's going to be really cool jobs to serve God. You know, in the short little time that we're here, you know, we should do as much as we can. Notice he's going to write a few things, and he writes upon the name of my God, number one. Number two, in the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name. So you actually get three things written down at a minimum. You have the name of God, you have New Jerusalem, and then you have a new name of Christ that's written upon you. This kind of reminds me of later in the book of Revelation, towards the end, it's going to talk about how we're going to have the Father's name. And, you know, again, another reference to the Trinity, where we're going to have literally the name of the Father, and we're going to have the new name of Christ. We're going to have two different names representing the two different persons within the Holy Trinity. And it's really interesting about this New Jerusalem, which is in heaven, and then it comes down. When does New Jerusalem come down? This is after the millennial reign. So in Revelation chapter 21 and chapter 22, it's talking about the new heaven and the new earth, and the new Jerusalem is going to come down out of heaven, and they're going to have God the Father's name, and we're going to see his face, is what the Bible says. And so, you know, it's really interesting, you know, what he's talking about here, and he's trying to remind us, like, these things are going to happen one day, and they're going to have a permanency to them. So it's important to be faithful. Look at what it says in verse 13. He that hath an ear, let him hear the Spirit saith unto the churches. Verse 14. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would, thou art cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth, because I'll say as I am rich, and increased with goods, and am need of nothing, and knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, that counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke, and chase, and be zealous therefore, and repent. Now, he's talking to the last church here, the church of Laodicea, and, you know, some, I haven't really addressed this, just because I don't think that our church really is affected with this much, but there is kind of this idea out there called dispensationalism, where they talk about these churches being like church ages, and these like phases of history that everybody's going through, and a lot of them will try to say that we are in this last one, this Laodicean church age, and really it's just an attempt to excuse why they're lame. It's kind of my opinion, but frankly speaking, I don't see how anybody could ever get to those conclusions based on what we've read through the text so far, nor do we see the generation before this quote Laodicean age being like Philadelphia. What does that even mean? It's bizarre. I believe that we see these churches existing today. I think that there's churches that are like Philadelphia today, and churches like Sardis today, and churches that are like Ephesus today, and there's churches like Laodicea here today, and that any church could really transition to any of these phases at any point in time. And it's not talking about these generalized historical periods of time, but rather it's talking about these churches at a specific time, and how any church could be similar to them, or go through similar phases, or trials, or temptations. And so we should all take heed, and of course I do believe a church could be like Laodicea here. What does that mean? It means that they're not cold or hot. Now, you would kind of argue, or you could see, how maybe Sardis is kind of cold, isn't it? And Philadelphia is kind of hot. And it seems like to me, that's kind of maybe one way to look at this, is Sardis is really cold, and Philadelphia is kind of hot, but this Laodicean church is just really in the middle, and it's really kind of confusing. And I think, you know, from a perspective of the author here, he's kind of addressing the pastor each time, right? He's kind of addressing the angel. So I think what's important, you know, say, why would you want a church to be cold? Well, I think that the benefit here, though, is that it's a mentality that we're talking about. It's a mentality that we're talking about in the Laodicean church. And the pastor of the Sardis church, he has the cold mentality in the sense that he recognizes, look, my church is kind of dead, and I really only have a few people, and he's trying to be provoked by God. Well, you know what? Just go ahead and still strengthen what you've got, and still, you know, do right, and repent, right? Get back to being hot. And then there's obviously nothing wrong with being a hot church, right? Being the Philadelphia church and doing the right things, and you've been doing good, and I know you have a little strength, but just keep saying hot, keep doing the right thing. Here's the problem with the Laodicean church. They don't realize that they're not a hot church. They don't realize that they have problems, do they? And in fact, he says in verse 17, because thou sayest, I am rich, and increase with goods, and have need of nothing. Talk about pride. I have need of nothing? And he says, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked? They're actually kind of cold. They're actually a cold church, but think that they're hot. So, you know, when we talk about a lukewarm church, it almost seems like the Bible describes a lukewarm church as it is a cold church. It just thinks it's a hot church. So the cold church is a cold church that knows it's a cold church. The hot church is a hot church, and it's great, right? And this lukewarm church is kind of like a really, got a lot of problems, really bad, but they think that they're actually really good, don't they? There's kind of this bad mentality, and so it's like you can't figure out is it cold or hot, right? Which one is it? And, you know, you take this expression with coffee, for some reason they sell hot coffee and cold coffee, and they just don't sell lukewarm coffee. I've never found this place, and most people pretty much all find it gross, right? They like it in these extremes. And apparently God also prefers churches to kind of be an extreme, and I think a part of it is just accepting reality, accepting reality of where you're at. It's okay if you're cold as long as you recognize that you're cold. It's okay if you're hot as long as you recognize you're hot, and then in both cases that you're striving for being better, doing right. And notice what he describes himself as. He says in verse 14, These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. What is Christ saying about himself? I'm a reliable witness. Whatever I say about you is accurate, okay? And I think that's important because what do they think? We're good, but what is Christ saying? But you're not. And I think sometimes we could look at a church, and the leadership and everybody, oh, we're good, but you know what? The reliable witness, the faithful witness, the true witness, he's saying you're not. And you say, well, what do you mean? Well, where's your soul winning? Where's your baptisms? Where's the people that are making spiritual decisions in your church? We can actually look at the Bible and measure a church and see how good they are, and notice Christ is saying objectively that they're poor, blind, and naked in verse 18. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich. Apparently they're not getting anybody saved, are they? They're not getting any gold tried in the fire. They're not actually doing any works that are spiritual. And what I think is interesting here, Christ is not saying that it's wrong to desire riches. What kind of riches, though? Spiritual riches. Notice he says that thou mayest be rich. So is Christ saying that it's wrong to have an attitude of striving to be rich? No. He's saying this in a spiritual context, though, right? Is he saying be rich physically? No, because that church is rich physically. And I would grant that everything that those people said about themselves was carnally true. I think that that church literally was filled with money. They're not just completely delusional, right? They're just carnal. They're looking at their bank account and they're saying, we have money overflowing. We have so much money. We have so many goods. We don't need anything. Our church is good. But you know what that church needed? It needed a spiritual injection. And I think there's also a lot of churches in America and a lot of churches in this world that, carnally speaking, they're great. They have an amazing building. They have no debt. They have tons of extra cash in the bank. They have the best sound system. They have the best sound equipment. They have the best chairs. I mean, carnally speaking, you couldn't even add. It's like, do you guys need a piano? No, we got it. We got 20. We've got everything you could ever want. We got all the people. We have ushers and we have security and we have guns and we have cameras and we have lights and we have music. We have it all! But you know what they don't have? They don't have people going out and preaching the gospel. They don't have anybody preaching a real sermon. And they're actually miserable. And according to the Bible, they're naked. Meaning that if all these people died and went to heaven, they would be the guy that's like in 1 Corinthians 3 that all he laid up was wood, hay, and stubble and it burned and he suffered loss and he had nothing. It was like, hey, what did you produce for Christ? Nothing. Isn't it sad that there's literally churches out there where the whole church and the people are going and they've earned zero for God? That's a scary thing. That would be a frightening thing to think like you lived your whole life going to church and hey, I gave them lots of money and they have lots of money and whatever. And then I have nothing though. Literally, I'm naked in the context of rewards in heaven because I didn't serve God whatsoever in my life. And wouldn't that be a pretty big problem? And couldn't you see how that would be really, really frustrating from a God's perspective to have somebody... I mean, imagine, it's the judgment seat of Christ and this guy's walking in like, oh yeah, I'm ready to be judged. And he's naked. And he's got nothing. He can't do anything. He's just a total loser. It's like that's really frustrating. Now the guy that didn't do anything and knows he didn't do anything, he's just kind of like, yeah, do we have to judge? Or the guy that did a lot and he's excited. He's actually rejoicing, like sweet payday. But the guy that thinks he's great when he's not, that is the most frustrating person. Whether you talk about it at your company, whether you talk about a sports team, I mean, imagine some guy talking trash about how amazing he is when his team lost and is the worst and he produced nothing. You're the worst guy. He didn't produce well but admits it. It's like, okay, you know. And then the guy that was great, it's like, okay, he's great, you know. But the person that's just in the middle is just so frustrating. And you know, we as God's people, we need to be careful that we don't think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. I think that's the huge lesson here is like we better make sure that when we judge ourselves, we're judging ourselves with righteous judgment and according to Christ's judgment. And frankly speaking, we should just not really ever have a high view of ourselves and not try to look and think how wonderful we are. I mean, notice he's saying that we're supposed to anoint our eyes with eye salve that thou mayest see. For some reason, they just can't see. They just can't see it. They just don't understand it. They don't have spiritual eyes. It doesn't seem like they've been using the Bible much to really look at themselves through the lens of scripture. And he's like saying, you guys need to check your eyes. You don't have 20-20 vision here. And Christ is reminding them, hey, I love you guys though but I'm going to rebuke you. This is a pretty clear rebuke. I mean, to say that you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked, that was a pretty strong rebuke. I mean, imagine it's like, hey, Christ showed up today. He's going to give us a message. Or imagine, hey, guys, we got a letter from Paul. It's the seven churches. And you're reading, it's like Ephesus and Smyrna and Pergamos and Thyatira and Sardis. And then you get to Philadelphia and you're like, oh, man, I can't wait to hear what's about us. You're like, oh. There was a literal church in Laodicea where a literal man of God read Paul's letter out to the church. How would you feel if we had the apostle of the day write us a letter and we read? Here's Christ giving us our report card as a church. We are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. That would be pretty humbling, wouldn't it? And he's saying that was the rebuke that he gave. But notice why. Because he loved them. He doesn't want them to be that way. He doesn't want them to be in that condition. He doesn't want them to be in that situation. You know, if you loved your coworker, if your coworker's going to go present himself with a vase and he was dressed sloppily or not even dressed at all and hadn't done a good job, you'd be like, dude, put on your uniform. You're trying to like, hey, you need to present yourself better before the boss. You're going to get fired. And Christ is going to present us to God the Father. And he doesn't want us to be miserable and poor and blind and naked. Sometimes we need to rebuke. And we need to be zealous. We need to be zealous to be right. Not zealous, oh, I'm so glad that I'm already right. No, we should be zealous to get right and to change, you know, come to church to change, not to get a pat on the back of how good you are already. Verse 20. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and sat down with my Father in his throne. He that hath in the ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Now, again, verse 20, pretty common verse. A lot of people know it pretty well. And often I usually hear this in like a salvation context. But that's really just not what the context of this chapter is at all. You know, and again, I understand like people use this now. It's like, oh, Christ is knocking at your door. You just have to let him in. But the problem is that language is just so obscure that it really is meaningless. Because what the heck does it mean to let Christ into the door of your heart? You know, the Bible says to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. So I think that we should just use the language the Bible uses and avoid analogies that don't add anything. I've knocked on a lot of doors and people say, to be saved you have to accept Christ in your heart. And I say, what does that mean, though? And then you'll get like 20 different responses of what that actually means. Because it's a meaningless statement by itself. So you have to use other words to explain it. It's like, well, let's drop the meaningless statement and let's just use the words that actually explain what we mean. Right? Because you'll say, ah, accept Christ in your heart. What does that mean, repent of your sins? Well, why didn't you just say that to start off, right? Or it's like, accept him in your heart. What does that mean? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, well, just say that. Right? Let's drop the phrase that's meaningless and let's use the words that mean something. You have to open the door of your heart to Christ. What does that mean? It just has no real meaning. It's not really tangible. It doesn't really picture anything. And so, you know, I don't believe that we should use this. Now, it does mean something, though. I'm not saying that we shouldn't use this phrase or talk about it, but not in the context of salvation because it doesn't really benefit a lot. What is it talking about? It's just talking about having fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And I believe what he's trying to say is he wants to have fellowship with us, but we have to allow him to have fellowship with us. And this previous church isn't really doing much. A lot of the churches are kind of struggling in this area. And I would even argue, you know, Christ every morning is wanting to sit down with you and to hang out with you, but the problem is you're just not opening the Bible. You want to sit down and talk with Jesus? It's right here. And you say, well, how do I talk? Pray. You pray to him, and he talks to you. This is how you have the two-way communication with Jesus Christ. But a lot of people just have no relationship with Jesus Christ. You hear this a lot. Oh, I have a relationship with Jesus Christ. What does that mean to you? And it's not that they're actually reading the Bible. And here's the thing. They're deceiving themselves. If you're not reading the Bible, you don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ. And relationship's not even found in the Bible. I'm not against that word. But a lot of times the Bible talks about having fellowship with Christ. We have fellowship with Christ through the Scripture. That's how we hang out with him. That's how we get to know him. That's how we find out what he's like. That's how you can truly appreciate and love Jesus Christ is by sitting down, reading the Bible, memorizing the Bible, singing the Bible, thinking about the Bible. And then, of course, he wants us to pray to him, too. He doesn't want it to just be a monologue. He wants it to be a dialogue. And anybody who has been a Christian for a period of time that does this, you pray and then you read the Bible or you hear a sermon or you hear a verse and it answers that prayer. You've been thinking about something, wanting to know something, and you're praying, you're asking God for help, for advice, for wisdom. And then, you know what? The Holy Spirit reminds you of a verse that actually gives you that wisdom, that answer. It helps you along that way. But, you know, he's not going to communicate to you when you're not doing it. Right? Hey, I'm there. I'm ready. And think about how many people in this world that are Christians today. They need a certain advice in their life, and it's literally in their hand, but they just won't open this and read it. They're wondering how to succeed in life or have a better marriage or have better kids or know what the will of God is for their life. It's like, go out and preach the gospel. It wasn't that hard. But, you know, instead of just opening this up, I mean, they had the answer right there, but they just don't want it, do they? They get confused, and Christ is saying, hey, I'm there. I'm ready to hang out with you. I'm ready to talk to you. Jesus Christ, in his ministry, one of the main things he did was just simply sit down with his disciples and talk to them. But what did he often do? If you kind of like pay attention to the language of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, what does it often say? He would sit down and what? Teach his disciples, wouldn't he? And how many times do we have the opportunity to just literally sit down with Jesus and let him teach us the Bible, but we just won't do it. We're just not reading it. Like, I remember being challenged with this in my mind. I'm thinking, like, if I could go in the past and go to any part of the Bible, it's like, where would you go? And it's like, for me, I was like, I just want to walk with Jesus. But it's like, I have that opportunity. I could literally sit down and let Jesus talk to me through the scripture. And what do you think Jesus was talking about? You know what Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John is? Jesus opening his mouth and talking to his disciples. Say, what were the best things that Jesus said to his disciples? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Like, you can literally sit down and have Jesus Christ talk to you, tell you the most important things he was ever going to tell his disciples in private. Many of the times when you read some of these long portions of scripture, it's what Jesus was telling his disciples in private. It's like he gave the parable to the public, and then he's like, hey, let me give you the explanation. Or he's like, hey, this is a private prayer that I was praying to God the Father, and instead of just praying it privately, I prayed it out loud in John chapter 17, just so you could hear what I'm thinking, communicating, and feeling. And it's like, people want this other kind of relationship with Jesus. This is what people want to do. Hey, Jesus, can I get a red Ferrari? Yeah, man, no problem. That's not the Jesus of the Bible. It's like the Jesus of the Bible wants you to sit here and read the scripture, and study it, and then pray according to his will. Pray for things like more labors in his harvest. Pray for strength that's going to come through the tribulations and trials of standing on the rock, standing on the Word of God. Praying for our daily bread and blessing the Lord. And this is what the Christian life really is. Many people don't want to do that. Now, there's a reward here that's kind of attached to this. We overcome, we get to what? We get to sit with him in his throne even as he overcame and is set down with his Father in his throne. And you can either do one of two things. You can just believe that the thousands of times in the Bible where it talks about God the Father having a body and a throne and being in heaven as him having a body and a throne and being in heaven. Or you could just be like a troll and just hit this metaphor button every single time in the Bible. But I'm like, I just don't get it. What is the metaphor of Jesus sitting next to his Father in his throne, and what's the metaphor of me sitting with Jesus in his throne? And just because I'm simple-minded, sometimes I was always thinking, well, how do two people sit in a throne? But that's just because you didn't realize it's a big throne. If it's a really, really big throne, multiple people could sit on it. And it's saying just like the Father is set there and Christ is sitting next to him, we too could have the opportunity to literally sit next to Christ in his throne. What a privilege. What an honor. And I don't think this is like a metaphor. He's not going to hand out certificates like, you're sitting me with your throne metaphorically. I think you're going to literally get to sit with Jesus in his throne. What an incredible privilege. What an incredible honor. You know, Jesus Christ is described in John 1, verse 18 as having seen the Father and also being in the bosom of the Father. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. And you know what, just like Abraham's bosom is his chest and not a special compartment in hell, I also believe that God the Father's bosom is his chest and not a magical, mystical, metaphorical place. And that the Father literally holds the Son and loves the Son and they have a real relationship. And, you know, what a great privilege and honor it would be to sit literally with God in his throne. You know, that's incredible for a sinner such as I to have the ability to just be in heaven at all, let alone someone is going to get the privilege and honor of literally sitting with Christ in his throne. Of course, this is for the people that are going to, you know, be faithful and serve God and hold fast. You know, there's great rewards to be had to serve God. Let us take our Christianity seriously and let us be excited about the throne of God. Go one more place, go to Psalm chapter 93, go to Psalm 93. You know, God wants us while we're here on this earth to live by faith and that's what really gives him a lot of honor and glory is that we can be excited about sitting with him on his throne when we have no idea what that means. Whereas if we were all capable of just right now just looking at the Father in heaven and seated on his throne, everybody would be like, well, I want that. Michael Jordan would want that. Wayne Gretzky would want that. Tiger Woods would want that. Donald Trump would want that. He looks perfect, folks. Noah deserves it more than I do. I'm going to sit there. I know. I mean, literally, everybody wants that. You would be crazy to not want that. But you know what? People today, they're only striving for the crowns that they can see, the corruptible crowns, because they live by sight. Otherwise, everybody is striving for it. Those of us, though, that can see through faith, how crazy are we when we're not striving for that? When we do know that that's the reality, when we do know that that's an opportunity, when we do know that that's on the table and yet we don't strive for it, Christ wants us that have faith to actually live out that faith and to walk that faith and desire that crown, desire that honor, desire that privilege, and to realize there really is a throne. Don't let liars out there try to tell you everything's metaphorical. There really is a heaven. There really is a Father. There really is a throne. And these things are forever. It says in Psalm 93, verse 1, The Lord reigneth. He is clothed with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself. The world also established that it cannot be moved. Thy throne is established of old. Thou art from everlasting. Christ's throne is from old. It's always been from the period of creation until now. And we should believe that by faith. And I'm excited about going to heaven, seeing the Father, seeing his throne. You know, there's so many people that doubt, don't believe that, and don't see it. But those of us that do know, let us live lives that appear like we know. Let us not be hypocrites. Let people see our faith through our works. Let them see our faith through our actions. Let them say, man, those people really are convinced that they're going to go to heaven. Those people really are convinced that they're going to stand before God. Those people really are convinced that it's important not to lie and steal and cheat. Those people really think it is important to preach the gospel to people. Those people think it really is important to pray with people so that they get saved when you go out soul winning. Those people actually think that these things matter. And, you know what, nuts to the naysayer. Who cares what they think, because they're wrong. I mean, did you not read with me? We read about seven churches, and even of the saved Christians that are just barely removed from Christ, not even removed from the apostles, many of them are doubting. Many of them are falling away. Many of them aren't striving to the end. And if they aren't, how much more of the world today? Don't be discouraged by the naysayer and the quitter and by the people that won't hold fast, but rather be encouraged by those that will and be encouraged by Christ's words and sit down with Jesus every single day and remind yourself, this is a relationship I'm going to have forever. And I'm excited to sit with him in his throne. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for giving us your son and this opportunity to be a son of God. I pray that we wouldn't live by sight, but rather we'd live by faith. I pray that we'd have an excitement and a zeal to do what's right and to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. I pray that this church would continually strive to be hot and zealous and care about the first works and that as long as it possibly can, that it would be a pleasing church in your sight. And I pray that you would help motivate every individual in here not to be distracted by what other people are doing, but rather motivate themselves to have a relationship with Jesus Christ and to overcome unto the very end because we know it will be over very quickly. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, in closing, let's go to song number 187. Song number 187. Jesus Loves Me, song number 187. Christ, sing it out first. Jesus loves me this I know For the Bible tells me so Little ones to him belong They are weak but he is strong Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me The Bible tells me so Jesus loves me He who died Heaven's gate to open wide He will watch away my sin Let his little child come in Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me The Bible tells me so Jesus loves me He will stay close beside me All the way Thou hast pled and died for me I will henceforth live for thee Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me The Bible tells me so Alright, great singing everybody. You were all the best. You