Who Searches Hearts and Minds
Revelation • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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“To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.
We are going to dive back into the book of Revelation. We are going to look at the next 2 messages to the Churches. Again it is important to remember that these messages were from Jesus. And they are still very relevant for the teachings of the church today and not just the church but the society that we live in. I want to make one point before we continue. The institution of the church was set up by Jesus. The apostles carried it out and here and now centuries later we continue the movement. We are to be the light in the world.
When we look at a society on a large scale or even in our own individual lives , it is the Word of God and those that follow Jesus that are supposed to influence both our personal lives and the society. We are not to let the culture influence our lives or the church. However that is exactly what we have allowed to have happen. We are to stay to true to the Word of God. This does not mean that we are to be perfect, but as we covered in Ephesians , we are to remember we are sinners. In Romans Paul tells us that all have fallen short of the Lord, we are all sinners. Today we are going to cover some tough topics but incredible important topics for today’s age.
So as we look at these first few verses. We have to understand Pergamum first. It was a wealthy city, and it was famous for its university. The library was said to have over 200,000 volumes and manufactured it’s own parchment. It was also a city full of pagan cults. This was not the ideal place for devout Christian worship. Yet despite this they tried to stay faithful, and Antipas was martyred for the faith. So like many churches that are rebuked by Jesus, they are in wealthy areas, with lots of influence from other forces surrounding the church. It is the same similar situation that we find ourselves in today.
Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
Both churches that we are going to talk about suffered from sexual immorality. I am going to set that aside until the next church. One of the major problems in this church, is the very lesson that we need to learn today. They allowed the culture around them to influence their faith and worship. They comprised the Gospel of Jesus Christ because it was easier to live in this world when you comprise the Gospel. Jesus said
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
In this world you will have trouble. Jesus and apostles warn us numerous times throughout the Biblical record that we will run into suffering. We will run into persecution. Yet we are not supposed to move away from the Word of God. In fact we are to rejoice because Jesus has already overcome the world. Jesus is concerned about your sin, Jesus loves you. Jesus does not want you stuck in your sin. Furthermore it is not love to not help people escape the slavery of sin. Before I was following Jesus, I was doing just fine rationalizing and justifying my own sin. When I was looking for a church, when I was looking for people to disciple me, I did not want someone that was going to cheer me on as I kept living a sinful life. I wanted someone to tell me the truth. I did not want to read the Bible, and go to church and then have more questions because what was being taught was not what was in the Bible. There is one freeing power on this planet and it is Jesus.
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.
This is why you must continue the journey of following Jesus. Yes it can be a difficult world. Yet Jesus gives us hidden manna, Jesus sustains our journey. Jesus is the one who gives you purpose and hope.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
We are all weak people. We are all sinful people. We are also the people that Jesus chose to work through. It is through our weakness His power is so great. You can hear testimony and testimony about Jesus working through their lives.
“To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.
So here there was one thing they did well. They were doing more for Jesus than they were at the start of their faith. However just like the previous church they allowed the culture to influence their church
Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.
The moral fabric of the area and the church itself was eroding away. This is why the church is so important. If we look at the society around the moral fabric is eroding away at a very quick pace. Some churches and people are standing up and many are not. In order to tackle this , I want to break down into a couple of different buckets.
First off in terms of our children. This past week the Supreme Court of the United States heard a court case involving Montgomery County public schools. The school system was using LGBTQ books in class rooms that had 4-6 year old children. The school system informed parents that they could not opt their children out of hearing these books. People had to go and argue in front of the Supreme court that these are not the types of books being read to children. And there are plenty of people that are arguing for this. President Trump had to sign 2 different executive orders, one that are actually only two gender and another keeping males out of female sports. The highest offices which I am sure are quite busy had to take time to deal with these. This is where the moral fabric of our country is right now. Many people think it will not happen, but Montgomery county is about an hour and 15mins up the road.
This immorality isn’t just about LGBTQ issues. The average age that a boy will be exposed to pornography is 10 years old. As a child boys are exposed to this evil, and many girls are exposed at similar ages. Our jobs as the adults in the room is simple, we have to protect our children. We are not to let false teachings enter the schools, we are not to let the world expose our children to this kind of adult content. These things are simple truths. It is not difficult and frankly I can’t understand why it i needs debate. Yet kids are exposed to all kinds of craziness. And for the teenagers that are here today. Until you are an adult, you are a child. Your parents gets to decide what is best for you. Especially as a teenager, I get it. You are discovering the world, and think that you know better than your parents. Please understand, you actually don’t know better. There will be a day at some point in your 20s when you call your parents or grand parents, and thank them for looking out for you.
Men, we have to become people of integrity. It is that simple. The rates of adultery, the rates of addiction to pornography are through the roof and even in the church they are quite high. This type of content literally changes your brain chemistry. It alters the way that you think and it is easier to access than ever. It prevents you from becoming the person that God has meant for you to be. For the men, it keeps you from stepping into the spiritual leadership role you are meant for. For the women, it opens you to a world of dangers. For all of us it comprises our faith, our self confidence, and leads only to destruction.
One more note about immorality. one, whatever you identify as, immorality according to the Bible is immorality. I mean this in the way that one is not worse than the other. They are all healed by Jesus, they are all paid for by Jesus.
Now , how do we address this when it hits close to home, and maybe in our own. Maybe in our own families. I get this is question quite often. First , if anyone needs to talk, I am here to talk or I can just listen. I do empathize with anyone going through this. The teachings of the world in terms of morality could not be further from the Bible right now. I also recognize that while it is difficult for me to talk about these things up here, it is not the same as having a loved one in this situation. I am not here to judge anyone, that is God’s job and not mine. I have heard way to many amazing stories about Jesus transforming someone’s life to ever give up on anyone.
That would be my first piece of advice, we must keep praying for people and we must not ever give up on anyone. When I am talking about standing up for Biblical values, when I teach against other ideologies, it is about the dangers of those ideologies. For example: I find it incredibly sad that anyone reduces their identity to their sexual preference. If you have never heard this, let me tell you , you are much more than that. God looks at the heart of a person, you are bigger than that, you are bigger than sin. So never give up and never stop praying.
Second, you may need to have a tough awkward conversation. First that conversation needs to be covered in prayer, and the Holy Spirit will give you the words to say. The conversation needs to be a lot of listening. Now one issue that I have run into over the years is that particular with people from people living an alternative lifestyle is that they do not want to explain everything. It is accept or not, and you are left with that. More prayer is needed, but we must be able to sit down and have an honest and vulnerable conversation. In the Gospel records, Jesus asks something like 307 questions, we need to take a lesson from Jesus and ask lots of questions.
One issue is that those converations are not able to happen. Without the unifying power of Jesus Christ. We have reverted to tribalism. When they hear that Jesus came from Nazareth, they said can anything good come from there. This is not love. Love is being able to have those conversations.
Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’
We are to hold on until Jesus returns. But please understand your function in all of this. It is the easy way out to think the moral fabric of society is someone else’s problem. It is easy to think that someone more qualified will take care of the problem. That isn’t the call of the church. The call of the church is to follow the Word of God. the call of the church is to be there for people looking for Jesus. We are to help people escape the slavery of sin not cheer them on through the broad road of destruction.
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Let us end with this, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. What does the Holy Spirit call you to do? Do not quench the spirit, do not ignore the call of God on your life.
we do not exist in a vacuum. We believe ,teach and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We stand on the shoulders of the believers who stayed true to the word of God. Many were big impacts on history, Martin Luther, C.S. Lewis , Billy Graham. There were far more whose names you and I do not know but God knows their names. And we will meet them all one day. We stay true to Jesus not because it is easy but because He is our Lord and Savior. This church has been here for a very long time as have many others. Our collective goal should be that this church is here long after we are called home. So that the next generation has somewhere to call their church home and truly learn the way of Jesus
Let us pray
