(Rev. 2:12-17) Pergamum: Hold On!

Does he see a group of people who have come to actively listen to what he has to say?

You didn't come to listen to me. You didn't come to listen to yourself saying those things are, okay. But you came to listen to God. And if we look at this word, we are going to hear and listen to what he has to say, let's Commit This Time To That.

Oh, Father. We are 8.

We had don't word and we approach through. Help us to listen. Self-esteem.

Not be distracted. Let your spirit through your word speak. Administer to us today. I pray in Christ's name. Amen. What do United States of America have something called the United States code? I don't know how many books it is. It's a lot. It's the statues the rules and regulations for running our country. There are fifty three titles to their so I'm assuming it's big. I don't know if each book is a title. I didn't look at it but Title 18. Is the federal criminal code. It lists all the things that you are not to do in this country. Each of these titles is broken into sections in section 1702 there. No, there's not to be a test on this but section 1702 says, it's a federal offense.

To read someone else's mail. Is a federal offense up to five years in prison. 2250 thousand-dollar fine. If you read someone else's mail

confession, I have done this.

I see some hands out there. I have opened a letter and looked at it and gone. What in the world is this about? And then I look and I realized this isn't mine. It wasn't addressed me. Lucky for me, there's an exception.

The exception is if it was delivered by mistake and accidentally opened you can hopefully get off of that. What's after you but we have had I've had that happen to me in the past. Now, this law applies to personal letters letters addressed to a person but you know, there's other kinds of letters. There's kind of things called open letters members, letters the editor of the newspaper when newspapers used to be a big thing. You see whole page letters the other doors, remember that? And you got to know that if you read this, you could see who wrote it. And you may be a thought I'm not going to read that because you know, it's just going to make you mad. Or maybe you saw another and all I'm on page with this guy, I'm going to read that but people would write letters to the editor and what was the purpose of that while they were usually trying to identify a problem? And then they would give their solution. That was the whole purpose of a letter to the editor, an open letter. An open letter is what the seven letters in the beginning of Revelations are. They're letters that identify problems and offer Solutions.

They were directed to a local church but they were meant to be read by everyone. It was not just only for them. It was for everyone to read and to understand. And right off the bat that can latest ask the questions. Why would God do this? God had a bunch of stuff you wanted to say, why didn't he just write it all out. Why seven letters to seven churches. Why would he do this while I don't claim to have the answer for that. But here's a couple thoughts. First of all, he wrote the seven churches, seven different problems, seven different. And I think the reason he want something, he wanted to show us is that we have common problems. No, he wrote to each church about one problem, but the fact that he wanted every Church to read these, I think he wanted them to understand every church had all the problems. Well, maybe it wasn't your made one but it was still something that you needed to think about and deal with. The fact that we would read all these is another answer to that we can learn from each other. We could destroy churches, can say oh that church has this problem. This is how God says they need to do. If that I can learn from that, we can do the same thing here. So not only did each church have all the problems, but there's value in seeing how they handle their problems. It can give us an idea how we can watch out for it and in our own lives, both personal and at a church level, Bring the relations chapter 12. This is the third letter that has been talked about. We're going this every 5th Sunday, so it's not in a row. It's going to take a year or so to get through this and we're talkin about verses 12 through 17 which is another one of the letters to have already been covered. To make her way through this letter, this open letter. That was meant not only for this church, but it was meant for us. It was meant for all churches. And to the angel. This is who it sent. The angel song who's that. Who is the angel? With the word? Angel beans, what messenger and means. But who is this angel that this letter is written to weathers? No concrete answer. There's a lot of people have a lot of different ideas. Some people think it's a literal Angel, you know, the harps and sit on the cloud. Well, you know, Angels, don't do that. But some people think this is a literal angel.

What is revelation? There's all kinds of angels to do all kind but is this one of those Scituate? Look carefully at the content of the letter is directed to the angel as much as it is to the church. And so to say that this is a literal Angel. Well, these are men's situations men's problems. Probably doesn't really apply to a literal angel. Some people think what these are just human Messengers. When John was instructed to write this. Define Messengers to take this to the different churches. Well, once again, why would the angel? The messenger. Be the one that has to bear the consequences of letter kind of doesn't make sense. Another view and I kind of like this one actually, it's the church leader, it's the leader of the church. And by the fact it's addressed to him and applies not only to him but it applies to the whole church at all. One letter addressed to him, but it has to do to everybody. You've gotten the letters in the mail, right to the household of you've gotten them. Well, it's everyone in the house just directed to one person and I think that's maybe who they understand, it's kind of a problem. Nowhere else in scripture is the leader of a church referred to as an angel. But an angels of messenger, is not our pastor, a messenger, a messenger to us. I think I like that definition. It's the leader of the church but it goes on to include everyone in the church. It's over at 12 says into the angel of the church in pergamum. Well, let's talk about pergamon from then it. What is pergamon pergamon? This is City. Habakkuk chapter 1 verse 11. We have the instructions given to John. It said write a book and what you see and send it to the seven churches in that list them. But once again it's it's not seven separate letters, it says write a book. So this is already at one time. It was meant to be passed around and there's seven of them. In a few, we had a map up here on that big screen. I was too. Uninspired to try to make screens for you today. But if you could see a big thing of like the turkey area part of the world and you would go to the first city listed here, the Second City, the third or is when you got done, you'd have a circle. It makes a circle. If you do men order, it's like it's a postal route. Here's the letter. Let's go deliver it. And you go from church to church church and it kind of makes a circle. The origin of the Church of pergamum. We don't have that in scripture. We don't know where that church, how it was founded or when it was founded but it's one of the seven. And once again this ask herself a question why the seven why did God chose these particular seven churches? They're not the only ones. They're not the biggest one. Some of these Seven Cities are very small, you do not really significant cities but I like to suggest that the reason he chose has the city's is because they had their particular problems. That if he addressed would be good information for all the rest of them, they were good examples, their particular strengths and their particular weaknesses, were things that we're going to be applicable to all the rest of the people. So that's probably why they did that couple details about pergament is good to understand what's going on here. Well, it was a significant City in the area. It was a city of learning. They had a library of 200,000 Scrolls. It was the second biggest library in the world at that time. Where was the biggest library? What's the most famous? Alexandria heard of that. One is down in Egypt. This this rivaled that I don't know how many they books. I'm sorry Scrolls they had, but pergamon was the second biggest library in the world. In fact, the king of Egypt was not happy. Because pergamon tried to steal The Librarian from the Alexandria library and they wasn't happy. So what he do, he outlawed the sale of a Prius which is what they made the Scrolls to pergament so they could expand their Library. Well, pergamon refine. The artist parchment. Pergamon is known for parchment. That's an animal skin thing to make scrolls out of, they didn't create it, but they perfected it. And so they could continue to build their library and they really prided themselves on their knowledge. It'd be kind of similar to a university town. Do not use diversity towns. Have a different kind of fuel to them. Kind of does a lot of its experience that. And that's what we're given was she was the center of learning. It was also a center of worship. They had a big day at forming temples. The first one was to Athena, Athena was the goddess of wisdom and warfare. They had a big Temple for her. They had at Temple for this guy. Asklepios are you, maybe not heard of this clip? Yes, but he's the god of Medicine. The god of medicine. Now even today, maybe you have seen a symbol for medicine to staff with a snake around and never seen that. That's the rod of asclepius that was his rod and that is even carried over today. And attacked the word scalpel comes from a square POS. Because part of that, they way they treated him is that he would cut things and then if that's not what a scalpel does. So and you've heard of Hippocrates hypocrite goals, he was considered the first man of medicine, while in pergamon. There's a guy named Galen And he was born and raised to studied in pergamon and he was like number two in the world for medicine. So it was a center of medicine and the and the worship that went along with that then there was another goddamn the anesis. He's the god of wine. A pleasure, God of festivity, even called the god of wild frenzy. I'm not sure what that's all about that. It got a wild frenzy and then they had to the Gaya Temple De Jesus and he was the god of sky and thunder. He was the Supreme deity. Eye Center of work. Disrupt Brigham and wise. There's one other type of worship. They were the center of. They were the first to build a temple to the emperor. It was actually a worship when Augustus was the first emperor of Rome. They actually build a temple just for him and his subsequent years when a came on the scene, they don't temples to them and people were required to offer sacrifices to the emperor. So it was a center in a lot of reasons. A Center for Learning a language for worship and even the worship of a man, The Interpreter. These details describe the culture and the society. This church lived in culture and society that just loved human. Wisdom thought they were so smart. And also worshipped a lot of things, but not God, not the god of the universe.

Sound familiar. Don't like any other culture you've been exposed to. We're so smart. We even got to make machines think for us now. Do you know the oai? I guess. so anyway, what John goes on to describe the source of each to the angel in the Church of pergamum. We talked about the angel, we've talked about program and who writes it. The one who has the sharp two-edged sword says this, That was mentioned in the reading that bad this morning.

All of the seven letters, have an introduction like this, something that it identify who the writer is. But they're all come from chapter 1, verses 12 through 16. And we're not going to read this whole thing. I just give me a little bit of it, but this is a passage, if I meditate on and I think about it literally gives me chills That I turned to see the voice and who was speaking with me and having turned. I saw seven golden lamp stands in the middle of the lamp stands. I saw one like a son of man and then it goes on to give us a description. Carlton rhobh. Girded with his chest with the golden sash. It goes on gets physical descriptions. This is Jesus. This is what? The vision of John was what Jesus look like. What in an H? And down in 416. It says in his right hand he held Seven Stars. The Seven Stars from later on. It says that the Seven Stars are the seven angels of the churches. I like I love that. God's hole in the church in his hand. I love that that picture but it back and forth 16th and out of his mouth, came a sharp two-edged sword so it's her potassium each How to interpret the image, he has the sharp two-edged store. Let me throw a couple of verses at should we like to use the Bible to describe the Bible? Ephesians, 6:17 take the sword of the spirit. Which is the word of God, the tie between the word and the sword Hebrews 4:12, for the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. Once again, the tie between the word and the sword Here in Revelation 1 16 again. It talks about The tie between The Sword and the mouth, the source of it. So, the sharp sword is the word of God. This is the sword, the word of God, that whatever form is in. Whether written like what we have or spoken,

it's the word of God.

Let me ask a rhetorical question but just to make us think about it. Does the word have power. Does the word I was World created, the guy never know chemistry. You know the bubbling cauldrons and the tubes and stuff. Do you have a Lego set or just got a Lego set of the pumpkin? I think, I don't know. Did God ever like know he spoke? He spoke. How did Jesus do miracles?

Bespoke. Become an attitude. You know, one of my favorite descriptions of this is in Revelations chapter 19. The power of the word.

And in Revelations chapter 19. Starting at verse 11. And I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he who sat on it is called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he judges and wages War. This is talking about the second coming of Jesus to the Earth. And I'm going to skip down a few verses. It gives him more physical descriptions of and what's another passage read it slowly read it carefully meditate on it. This is Jesus.

He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood. In his name is called the word of God again. First 14 and the armies, which are in heaven clothed, in fine, linen, white and clean. We're following him on white horses and who is that?

Those who are in heaven, those who have died and they're already. There are coming back with him on the second coming. We are the armies. I hope you like horses, you're going to be riding a white horse.

First, 15 from his mouth comes a sharp sword. Once again, this thing is mouth in the store, so that with it, he may strike down the Nations. And he will rule them with a rod of iron and then it goes on and talks about what he does. So you're the army. You're writing your white horse. Your clothes, done talks about how your clothes, what's your weapon?

You don't have one. What kind of army doesn't have a weapon? But who's leading the army? Jesus is. And how does he win the battle? With the sword of his mouth. He just says it and it happens. So does the word have power? Amen. He doesn't need us in any puny weapons because he has his word The word. Alone, defeats the enemy. His word is an instrument of power strength, and the judgment. No, after all that, we're going to finally come to the message. We see who it's to. We see. Who wrote it and now we're going to get to the Mets actual message.

And its inverse 13.

I'm in Revelation and just be even better.

He says in verse 13, there's the message. I know where you dwell. I know where you dwell. I know your situation.

I know your backstory.

Just knowing the backstory sometimes. Make something more real more vibrant. I think it does you can appreciate the result sometimes better if you know the backstory.

About light bulbs. Who invented the light bulb.

thank you, Thomas, Edison invent it but he made one that would last and when he presented this, it was a big deal. People were amazed, they marveled at it. We should still Marvel at it. We don't have to watch TV in the dark, you know, it's light bulbs are pretty great. Is there a backstory to this? when they went through his lab papers, they found that he had tried three over three thousand different materials before he came up with the light bulb. He didn't give up think of the years of effort. Does that make you appreciate the fact that he made a Light bulb even better. I think it does. So what's the backstory here? When he says, I know where you dwell, what's the backstory? The backstory, is this church lived in a very anti-god culture. Hollyville anti-god. I know where you dwell, where Satan's Throne is. Oh my goodness. What a description where Satan's Throne is. Once again. There's some several possible meanings to this. What what can we apply to that? Well, some people would like to think of the Zeus Temple Zeus was a supreme god and this is quite a temple they had built for him historians say it's one of the greatest works of Hellenistic art. The type of art was involved in the building of this Temple. And Zeus was worshipped. Listen to this list of things that he was worshipped for his protection. Being the guardian of travel. Dino Liberator freenas people. He was the force and the preserver of the universe. Wow, he was considered a savior. Think about those definitions, they applied to him. Well, there is that could possibly mean that we're Satan's Throne. Is this guy asked limpios? It was a center of Medicine. what he was the God but Galen there and it was a big it was the the Mayo Clinic of the day. People came here. To be healed and ask left, the office was considered the savior. Because he could save people. It was much as much religious, as it was physical member, the images of snake on the staff historians. Tell us that in this Temple. Of asklepios that snakes all over the place. And people would go in there and lay down. Hoping that they would be have physical contact with a snake that they thought that by a snake and they were not in the mistakes. They didn't have rattlesnakes and their or whatever, but they thought that they in touch by a snake would kill them. Religious as much as physical. I didn't we already talked about this concept of a worship. Why did you? And some of the Emperor's actually, required people to address them with titles. And those titles meant Lord and God they considered themselves. God

Well, for any, or all of these reasons, this is a place where Satan's Throne is. A place where his presence is very powerful.

It's not really referring to a structure or an actual throne but it's a presence in the power that is very anti. Got back that you live here among all. This is the backstory Is the backstory to these people. Backstory to what result? I know where you dwell where Satan's Throne is and you hold fast my name and did not deny my faith. The backstory is even though you live in this horrible place with all this stuff that's wrong. You continue to hold up my name. Name did not get it.

I suggest this concept of hole is the keypad is a key Concept. In this whole passage is hold later. It's holding on holding on. Let's talk about holy for I can hear Concepts. About hope. Pacifically how and why do you hold onto things holding on takes a conscious effort. It's something you have to think about. We have in our house. A real me, call the Patriotic room. I'll let you figure that one out, okay? It's called the Patriotic room and it happens to be the place where there's a piece of furniture chair. And I will go sit there. If like, we're going to watch TV or something and I will it's from time to time warner in there with my cup of coffee and set it down on my little thing, next to the couch and then I'll sit down and then I'll take my little call to car coffee, put on my lap and I'm holding it. Now, what do you suppose happens from time to time?

Jeff Jeff. You're going to sleep. And I told you go to sleep, but you're going to sleep, holding a cup of coffee.

That would not end well. What if that would not end well? I can't consciously hold that unless I'm awake and I'm thinking about it. So the hold something needs to be a conscious effort. It's got to be intent intent. That is carried out.

The next song. How how do you hold something? Consider how you hold a baby?

Play Eric support the head taller than you don't have arms bent around behind your very careful. Right? How you hold the baby, you know, other than moving a baby from this position, your shoulder, you know, depending on the rage, how convoluted that can be, you know, there's a way to hold a baby.

Consider how you hold a bag of potatoes.

It's kind of flopping around, not a big deal. Is there a difference course? There's a difference. There's an appropriate way to hold something technically. Holding a baby. Like you hold a sack of potatoes are still holding, right? But is it holding in a way that's going to give you some, you know Commendation know there's an appropriate way to hole. Is to be conscious. Inappropriate. That's the that part of it but why the score of the why would you hold on to something? Will you hold onto things of value?

In our house, sometimes we have to move something move, something you have to hold it. Whenever I move something in our house, I'm very careful.

There's some things in our house. I very, very careful. There's some things to my house, I won't move its honey. You move that cuz I don't want to be the one responsible for breaking it. So, why do I hold instead just stacking it up or throwing a box or something across true. Because his has value, and whether its Financial value sentimental value, were the factor to replace, both doesn't matter. It has value.

one reason we hold on, it has value another reason we hold on stuff that benefits us You can walk into a house. Beautiful stairway, beautiful handrail, Scott, carving, nice finish. It's a thing of Art. But if you don't, hold on to it, is it going to benefit, you know, you're going to hold on to it? Because there's benefit to you hanging on to it, your safety. I mean you've ever walked the kid in a crowd or across the street. Where do you do you hold your hand? Why there's a benefit? It was a benefit to hanging onto your money. What's that benefit? You can care for yourself, non message. Yes, you need to be at my leisure, but you should just have some level. Hang on, to your, hang on, to your, hang on, to your money. So to Reese's to hold on something, it's a value and then it benefits us. And if it's a these basic concepts that we've been talkin about here for a minute about holding on apply to everything that you might hold on.

Today, is it applied to things of God?

specifically, his name and his

Ourselves, a few questions here. Do we really end?

and his

we really a dinner.

Subway. Do we have a plan, a conscious effort? An intent. To hang on to his name and his faith.

And you might say what Jeff hold on to what? well, I sure would suggest that his name and his faith or summed up in his word Words, tell us who he is and what he has done for us. There are things that we need to think about. I think this church really understood Psalm, 19 7 through 11

My intent was to go there and read some of those forces. But see I'm new at this. It's already 17 after the hour and I don't have time to read those 5 versus right now. Change laugh. East vs cheddar Dalal. The testimony precepts and Commandments. And then it says, this is this, what it is? It's perfect, it's whole, it's pure. And what does it does for us? It opens my eyes against me, safety. It's all the things that show us the benefit of God's word and then verse 11 says, I have decided to hold on to that. So, if you want a little passage that let helps us remember the value, the benefit of God's word. Psalm 19 is a good passage to go to. This is what this church was doing, right? This is what they were doing, right? They were getting caught commendation. For doing is holding on to his name. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? Turn the sound simple to hang on to, what is so obviously of value and benefit.

I heard about that. but what's hard about that is It's going to be.

let's continue reading and I know where you dwell where Satan's Throne is he hold fast money, and you did not deny my faith raatein, ye go fight, even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my teeth, the one who was killed among you, where Satan dwells here is the opposition. This guy named Antipas. It says my witness. You know, another way to translate that word witness is Martyr. He was my marger. He was killed among you. You saw it. It was something that you were aware of.

The opposition that Antipas fell was not enough to have him deny the Lord and he was killed because of it. We don't have any details about this historically. And tradition says that he was burned alive. For refusing to worship the emperor.

But the threat of death did not cause and to let go. The people here did not witness that. And it did not cause they continued.

Christian suffering in the world today, we're aware of situations. And we sorrow.

And we appreciate their Stan, but I hope whenever we see her here, think about that. We ask ourselves questions. And obviously, you know where I'm going to this. What would we do?

Bite of any situation. That is.

All the letters we move what they're doing right to what you're doing wrong. And what we're going to see is some people are decide to hold on to something different. Let's continue read your enforcer 14th but I have a few things against you because you hair at have some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Bay, like to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and commit acts of immorality.

It was quickly. Break this on the go through it and I do mean quickly. First Wallace's some It wasn't everybody and this church in Church. T'god. The concern was a headlight. Call did let go grab you something else. Why would God be so concerned? It was only a few minutes. Well, it's because he's well aware all can detect group in the future. It says hold onto I have a few things against you because some who hold the teaching of Balaam it's which their grip did it go one thing, grab something else so we can ask ourselves. Why would they do this? Why you hold on. Something that has Valley benefit. So what these people see of more value in more benefits than holding on to God. What was it that attracted them? Well, we could many things are going to about 1. And let me give you a few statements to Define this and imma use the word world. And these statements in the world is the culture Society, the way of thinking the ideologies statement, if you want to do things like the world. If you fit into the world, think the world has idea better than God, if you want the world over, please in God. if I want to incorporate some of the world hits your eye, this desire will cause you to let go of God and to grab hold of something else. This will result you in denying his name and his faith. How do I say this? Is the where he's going with this because he says the teaching of Balaam The Paylor. It's a big story. We don't have time to do it. We did this with a BF long time ago and took a lot of we did it one week or not. There's a lot to this story. Digest condensed version here goes, King. Balak was terrified of the Israelites, so he brought in a prophet Balaam to put a curse on them. Curse for cash Isa. I'll pay you to put a curse on these people and I'm says, I'll do it then it's all set up on the hill overlooking the Israelites and goes to curse him. And what happens, God intervenes and instead of giving a curse he gives him a blessing. This happens three times Finally. Alex has enough to know if you're out of here and as he was leaving. 811 Soda, Bay electric. I can't Corrupt him. I can't curse that you can.

What is it doesn't go specifically in scripture about a numbers 31? It kind of mentions that be kind of a backhanded fashion. How about taking that the teaching of Balaam Josephus? However, one of the historians writes quite a bit about it. Is that the plan is to entice them to join you. Entice them. Let them see that there's other plans, then God. Don't think they're a better plan. Convince them that they should join you. And then leave them to worship with you. To hold on to their gods. That was his plan and numbers. 25. Kind of tells us a little bit about that. The result of that, you don't have to turn here. First one talks about other people did that what happened in first two for the invited. The people to the sacrifices of their gods. And the people a bow down to their gods, referring to the Israelite people. So, Israel, join themselves to the bail of tea, or in the Lord, was angry against his real.

Balaam eruptum. It's hard to take the world into your life. Take the world into your former worship, and it will be corrupted. The verse goes on and says this will be a stumbling block. That works eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. The first thought maybe that you have of this is 1st Corinthians. Chapter 8 sided discussion, is it legal to eat to me? Should I eat to me? When is it okay to eat the meat? That's a whole discussion in 1st Corinthians and there's other messages that go there as well. I don't think that's what this is talking about it. All I think this is not. Can I hire should I, or when can I But it's it's it's more the idea when when did these people eat the meat offered to idols? At the celebrations. At the Heidel celebrations in the temples. And when did the people Engage The immorality? That was part of the immorality of worship. During the idol celebrations during the idol festivals. These people were joining in. To the worship. All of these idols and that's when they were eating the baby and that's when they were engaging in a morality. A word used often to describe the Church of pergamum is compromise. The compromise in church. To compromise to give up something to join the rest. We know the definition of compromised and that's what this church and the church were doing. They were adopting the world's way. It's terrible who would give up on God. And grab something else, but you know what happens? It happens. And it will they do, it can rationalize it. Bacon Clank. Good. Intentions to do this.

I'm holding on to God. I'm holding on real tight.

but, you know, Got your your way. Seems a little out of date. Long time ago. There might be a better way to do some of this stuff.

Let's let go. God, I'm hanging on tight. But, you know, there's some truth in here that are hard to understand. I can't wrap my head around some of this going to have a hard time. Just grab me for the people, so maybe we should just let that stuff call and not deal with it. Button. Go God. Call nandi. God. Man, the world's way seems to kind of work over there. They're having quote Success.

So instead of wwjd what would Jesus do, it's her some friends out there that seem to working. I'll let go.

God, I know how you want us to teach evangelize and grow your church. The man's got some pretty good strategies out there.

Adult.

Do this careful looks that you asked how many?

We can go down here to verse 15.

So you also have some who are in the same way, hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Basically the same, it's the same school of thought. It's the same thing, it's just that Baylen has a leak happened a long time ago. The nickel Asians were saying the same thing, but in the current think it's just the way letting us and it doesn't go the way it's always been. It's always going to be these people could think of the current examples of how this towards God, think this is serious for 16. Therefore repent or else I'm going to come quickly and I will make war against them with sort of my mouth. I think this is serious, obviously. Does to repent. Are you repent or? First of all, you got to know there's a problem.

And then you have to have the desire to change. And then you have to go to action to that desire. You have to renounce.

A cool at all the terrifying.

and once again, we can see

Make war against U-verse, the action of some God to have.

Why we watch what is around here?

So the bottom line to this message to pergamon evaluate what you're doing. Is it dissolve the world? Or is it up God? If it's of the world you need to repent. Turn back. 417, he was here. Let him hear what the spirit says. Hey, listen to what I'm saying. And then it goes on to say, to him, over comes.

Overcoming is possible. Overcoming is possible and if you do overcome, you're going to get some things. I will give you the hidden Manna. I will give you a white stone. And a new name written on the stone, which no one but he receives it.

We're kind of skimming here in a little bit, but we got to get this wrapped up three things. First ones hidden manna. Second reference to food here. When was the first reference to food, food, offered Idols, instead of taking part in that food, take card. In this food, the man Through given from God, to sustain given to his people. Who is the bread of life? Jesus is the bread of life and he's physically hidden from this right now, but the power of His presence, still here, a white stone. I could have give you 20 different ideas of what they think this white stone is, but I like this one. A white stone was given to the winner of an athletic event. And it not only signifying that you one, but it was your ticket to the Celebration. Banquet at the end of the games. And it would write your name on it to make sure that you are identified as the one who had the right to go to the Celebration.

Festival. At the end of the game. They did that application. Do Isis Christians. The new knee once again. Not sure what all that might mean. But guess what? Folks? We were adopted. We were adopted into a family and I like to suggest that we parted that is a new name part of the new name to who he who overcomes.

These things can be yours. These things can be yours. Well, you know, we, we understand the value of this, we understand that we need to do it. But we need to be motivated. We got to have good motivation and I understand, just knowing the benefit of knowing the value of God's word. Is enough of a motivation but sometimes we need to even look for more motivations and this will be quick bite of your story to you, and then we'll be done.

Realistic realistic.

Captain. Steve was a air is an airline pilot he had.

But he's on YouTube and talks all things related to flying. One of his things he mentioned, I want to tell you at the end of the show about something that changed my life forever like interesting. And so he proceeded to tell this story and this came up because during the last military stuff that's been going on, over the Middle East shot down and they went in and rescue the pilot and it took a huge force of people and equipment to rescue him and he said he's heard from a pilot's from other countries. What length? And he said, I want to tell you story.

He learned how to fly in the Navy. And so he joined any, I'm not familiar with military stuff. Non-commissioned Officer school. Boot camp. And he said all the stories in it heard about drill sergeants were true. These people were ornery needs to speakable people. That's what he described it. And he said this one got him so the top he was really bad and we were ready to graduate and said, the graduation class was only a fraction of people that started this. It's so tough. But this drill sergeant said, I want to speak to guy. I need the mess hall and they go home and he's going to yell at us if we walked in that room.

Timberland. He stopped and he looked at us and he said, I just got something. I want to tell you guys, He says, years ago, I was in Vietnam.

I headed up a crew that rescued downed Pilots. and you said, On average. We lost two men. Every time we went after a pilot. And he says, here, I have all these 18, 19, 20 year old man, asking him to go out and rescue. Possibly, you Understanding that they're not all coming back. He said my challenge to you. Make sure you're worth it.

Make sure you're worth it for all the effort. That is going to be put out possibly in your behalf. Make sure that you're doing what you're doing to the level that you're worth it. In Captain Steve's of that changed my whole life. He applied that to all aspects of his life that's received from Pastor to church for a while, I would have loved to her and how he handled that. Folks. Part of their motivation for holding on to God. It's not only the benefit, not only knew the threat of

What can happen if we don't but he is worth it. He is worth it. So we've gone through this passage, I had to really fly to the end. I totally understand pastor. How the clock gets away from your pastor? I understand, I trust were listening. I trust, you heard something.

Did you hear that Scotch desire that we hang on? That there will be a temptation to let go.

And that Letting Go will lead to war with God. We don't want that but there is a reward for hanging on. Folks, let's do that. This dude has individuals. Let's do it. Is a church.

Let's keep our grip on him and his word. Let's pray.

You are worthy.

We owe you so much.

And we do understand the value, help us help us. Help us to hang on. To not let go.

And enjoy that that man on that Heavenly man that will sustain us.

Help us to hang on.

Until that man is no longer hitting but will be with him face-to-face.

Help us do that. I pray in Christ's name. Amen.