Holiness over Worldliness

Revelation chapter 2, we're going to be looking at the next church and our walk through Revelation

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

as we're going through this section now and the letters to the seven churches and all

the various issues that were going on in these churches.

And we're coming now to the church in Thyatira.

And what's interesting about this church, a lot's interesting about this church, but

it's interesting that Jesus writes his longest letter to the most insignificant town in Asia

Minor.

Thyatira was not an important city at all.

It was the least important of all the cities in Asia Minor.

It was a city full of tradespeople who were part of these trade guilds.

And so Jesus writes this really long letter to them because from the outside they looked

like a pretty good church.

Just kind of depending on which day of the week you happen to look at them, they were

a church that had a serious issue and they were ignoring it.

It's kind of like something that we do sometimes.

I've done this a number of times myself where you get that, you go in your car, you crank

it up and you see check engine lights on, but you're driving and what do you think?

Well, nothing sounds too bad, right?

Like, I don't hear any problem with it.

I'm not noticing a difference in the drive.

So it must not be that bad after all, right?

And so what do you do?

You just ignore it for a while and you think, ah, if it was something serious the car would

be clunking or something, I would break down.

But it's not.

So we just ignore it and we allow it to persist.

But what happens is when we do that and we're actually just allowing that issue to persist

is we're allowing the issue to become worse, right?

And that eventually leads to disaster.

Like you could end up dropping your transmission or something like that.

All sorts of things can go wrong.

But there's an issue and if you know there's an issue, you've got to take care of the issue.

You can't just put it off and act like it's not a big deal because when you do that, it

gives birth to other issues and it can ultimately destroy.

And that's what was happening in Thyatira.

They had this known issue in their church and it was like the warning light in the car,

like, hey, check your engine.

God was sending them this warning light saying, hey, check the church.

Make sure you're walking in accordance with the truth.

Make sure you're not drifting from the gospel.

But they had this issue in their church where they began to tolerate sin.

If you remember last week when we were looking at Pergamum, their big issue is that they

had started to compromise on the word of God and they started to compromise and allow sin

into their church.

Well, Thyatira, they were not only compromising, but they were tolerating sin in their church.

They were acting like it was not a big deal.

They were no longer dedicated to pursuing holiness.

It's a good thing we don't do that anymore, right?

I mean, you look at the church today and everyone in the church today is 100% committed to being

holy as God is holy, right?

That's our main goal, right?

No.

I mean, we're not very different from them at all, are we?

That's the thing that gets me about these letters when you read them.

You're like, oh, well, this was first century.

What does this have to say to me?

A whole lot, actually.

Because I would say today in the church, people neglect holiness just as much as they did

in Thyatira.

I don't think most church people today who come on a Sunday, who come on a Wednesday,

are thinking my main goal in life is to imitate Christ and to be holy as God is holy.

And I do that through relying on the Holy Spirit, walking in step with the Holy Spirit,

sticking close to Christ in His gospel.

We're just going about our day-to-day lives and saying maybe holiness will happen to me,

but it's not something I have to actively pursue.

Well, there you go.

That was the mindset there in Thyatira.

And so I was thinking about this and I was wondering, well, if we're not doing this,

what would prompt us to do this?

What would actually be the spark that lights the fire in the church today that would cause

us to take holiness seriously and pursue holiness as God calls us to do?

And so I want you to look there at verse 19 as we begin here.

Verse 19, Jesus says to this church, I know your works, your love and faith and service

and patient endurance and that your latter works exceed that of the first.

You see, that's a good thing to say about Thyatira, isn't it?

It's a really good thing to say.

Thyatira had even greater works and service than Ephesus.

You remember Ephesus?

They were known for their works and service.

Well, Thyatira had that same works, those same services, and they had the love that

Ephesus was lacking.

Not only that, but did you notice Jesus said that they had the same type of patient endurance

that he said Smyrna had and Pergamum had.

To all onlookers, Thyatira appeared to be a church full of holy people.

They were a picture of holiness, but there was a big problem, as I said, in the church.

And you see it there in verse 20.

Notice what Jesus says to them.

But I have this against you, which is also, again, Jesus keeps saying this.

It's absolutely terrifying when Jesus says something like that to you, isn't it?

I mean, he's doing the little, I'm going to start off with a compliment and get him in

a good mood.

And he says, but I do have this one thing against you.

Notice what he says, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess

and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food,

sacrifice to idols.

Now odds are that this woman's name was not actually Jezebel, right?

We don't even know for sure if there actually was a woman who was being a prophetess or

if it was the spirit of something going on here.

But it's probably not her actual name.

It's a reference.

It's an illusion to something.

Anybody know?

Yeah, Jezebel in the Old Testament, right?

Yeah, Ahab and Jezebel.

So she was the foreign wife of King Ahab of Israel, and if you remember what she did,

because she was a foreigner and a pagan, she brought in all of her foreign pagan practices

into Israel.

And so she was introducing foreign religion and paganism.

They were building temples to false gods.

And so they ended up contaminating the worship of Israel and the religion of Israel and basically

ruining the lives of the people of Israel, all because something from the outside was

brought in and it was allowed to stay in and persist while there.

And so Jesus is saying that there might be a woman who is doing that here, or he could

be saying it's the spirit of Jezebel at work in the church of Thyatira.

What is he saying?

He's saying that the church in Thyatira has brought false teaching in from the outside,

false practices in from the outside, false pagan ideas, and they have brought them into

the church and they're being allowed to continue and persist in the church and no one is doing

anything about it.

Now here's the thing, right?

We're reading this together.

We're studying the Bible together.

Do you think if there was something going on in our church, like eating food, offered

to idols, and pagan practices, and persistent sexual immorality where all the church members

are involved in sexual immorality, do you think we would just turn a blind eye?

Do you think we would notice that?

Right?

It could be a little obvious.

So why weren't they doing anything about it?

Anybody know?

Okay.

That's a good suggestion.

Might have been common to them before they came to the faith.

Any other suggestions?

Yeah, exactly.

So how to deal with their trade guild.

All right.

So they were a city of people who were tradesmen, they all belonged to these trade guilds.

And basically what happened is all the people in the city belong to one of these trade guilds.

And what the trade guilds would do is they would gather together to celebrate these pagan

festivals and these worship these false gods and everything like that.

And when they got together for these gatherings, they would oftentimes eat food that was sacrificed

to idols.

Even as part of many of these festivals, they would engage in sexual immorality and all sorts

of different things like that.

And you would think the Christians will be like, I just can't do that.

I'm a Christian now.

That's not something I can do.

But yet they were doing it anyways.

Anybody know why?

Maybe our resident scholar again.

Yeah.

So they were put out of the guild.

So basically if they didn't do that, they would be put out of the guild and if they

got put out of the guild, they'd lose their job.

That was their livelihood.

And so I just want you to think about that for a second, right?

The guild was saying you have to participate because if you don't participate, you're out

of the guild.

Which means you're out of a job.

You're out of income.

You're going to be ostracized from society.

You're going to be a social outcast and we're all going to look down on you and you're not

going to be allowed to participate in absolutely anything.

And so the Christians there, they were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Christ tells me to do this, but the boss is telling me I've got to do this.

I've got a hard decision to make.

And this is something that a lot of Christians still deal with today.

Is it not?

I mean, I remember when I was working in a secular job, I would come up against things

all the time where it's like the company says to do this and it's okay to do this,

but this is what God calls me to do.

I've told this story before, but I've read the story of a man.

He was a salesman and he was working for a company and his boss told him, hey, we've

got a big client coming into town.

Here's what I want you to do.

I want you to meet him at the airport.

You're going to pick him up, take him to his hotel.

You're going to check him in.

Then you're going to go out on the town.

You're going to take him out for dinner, whatever restaurant he wants to go to.

But your job is to get him nice and drunk and then you're going to start sweet talking

him.

You're going to take him to whatever strip club he wants to go to or however many strip

clubs he wants to go to and you're going to wine him and dine him and then you make the

sale and we're going to get the sale and you call it a day.

And the Christian said, well, hey, listen, I can pick him up.

I'll check him in.

We'll go out to eat together, but I can't go get drunk and I certainly can't go to those

strip clubs.

So I just, I can't do that.

I'm a Christian.

I follow Christ.

And his boss literally said to him, I don't care who you follow on Sundays.

Every other day of the week, you will do what I tell you to do or I will find someone who

will.

There you go.

Exactly.

This is what many Christians face today.

Get vaccinated or lose your job.

There you go.

I mean, it's a very real situation that we deal with as Christians today.

And this man was thinking, well, my wife doesn't work.

This is how we pay our mortgage.

This is how we pay our bills.

If we lose this job, we lose everything.

And so you have the option, am I going to be obedient to Christ or am I going to listen

to what the secular world says?

And I know this is a situation where it's easy for us to be in here and go, well, obviously

you follow Christ, but you, if you've been in that situation, it's a lot harder.

Is it not?

And many of you have.

This is what we face.

And it's not even just at our jobs.

It's what we face with societal pressure and cultural pressure, as Mr. McKinney just said,

hey, get vaccinated or lose your job.

Hey, your church has to abide by these new rules that we implement during COVID or else

we'll shut you down.

And then you're thinking, okay, well, this is what God tells me to do.

And this is what the world's telling me to do.

And I feel like I'm going to lose either way.

And we start stressing and we worry about this and we tend to forget that our God is

sovereign and can do all things, right?

That he takes care of his people, that he watches out for us.

It amazes me how many times we come into church and we'll sing songs like, I surrender all.

Come in on Sunday, I surrender all, lay it down.

We talk about laying our lives at the feet of the cross.

I'll follow you anywhere.

God is all powerful.

He can do all things.

And then we leave here and we go to work on Monday and the boss is telling us something.

We go, God, I don't know what you're going to do about this one.

This might be too hard for you.

It's too hard for me.

And we tend to doubt what God can do.

And I guess what gets me even more is how I think almost everyone in here, and we've

talked about this on another night.

I think everyone in here would say that if it came down to it, I would be willing to

die for Christ, right?

I think we'd all say that.

We all imagine that situation.

The gunman comes in and I'm like, okay, if I'm going to die for Jesus, let it be now.

I'm not going to denounce him.

They put a gun to my head.

I'm going to just stay true to Christ.

I'm going to remain faithful to the end.

We all say that we would be willing to die for Christ.

What amazes me is how few of us are actually willing to live for Christ.

Right?

It's one thing to say that you're willing to die for Christ, but are you willing to actually

live for Him?

Because oftentimes that's a lot harder, isn't it?

It's a lot harder to live for Christ when you're facing that pressure.

And you're facing the government, and you're facing culture, and you're facing society,

and you're facing all the unbelievers all over social media who are picking on you and talking

down to you and making fun of you, and they want you to conform, and they want you to

bring these things into your faith.

It's a lot harder then to take your stand and say, no matter what, I'm going to remain

true to Christ.

I'm going to remain faithful to Him.

And that's exactly what they were facing in Thyatira, but unfortunately for them, they

were neglecting holiness.

They weren't striving for it.

They were giving in, and it's because they had adopted the teachings of this prophetess,

possibly named Jezebel, probably not, because she was teaching basically the same thing

as the Nicolaitans.

Y'all remember the Nicolaitans from last week who were basically saying, hey, you're

making up a dilemma that doesn't exist.

You're manufacturing a problem.

You don't have to say, I believe in Jesus, and I can reject these things.

You can have it all.

You can believe in Jesus and participate in sexual immorality.

You can believe in Jesus and go live in sin all throughout the week.

You don't have to pick and choose.

You can have it all.

And they believed it.

And so they started saying, okay, we're going to live like this.

We're going to be completely indistinguishable from the world.

We'll say we love Jesus and believe in Him, but we're going to live just like the world

does all throughout the week.

She was basically saying the exact same thing, the prosperity preachers preach today, right?

You can have it all.

The world is your oyster.

Nothing is held back from you.

Everything is yours.

You just have to name it and claim it.

What she was actually doing is basically the same thing that the prosperity preachers do

when they identify a need or a felt need or some sort of weakness and then they exploit

it.

She was saying, hey, you don't want to lose your jobs.

I understand that.

That's tough.

You don't have to.

Just do what they want you to do because you can do that and be a Christian.

Same thing that the prosperity preachers do, right?

They'll say, hey, you want to be healthy?

You want to be wealthy?

I know you're struggling.

I know you're poor.

I know your health is in decline.

I know that the doctor has said this is incurable and you're going to die.

Doesn't have to be that way.

All you have to do is give to my ministry and God will bless you a hundredfold, thousandfold.

Give me 10.

There you go.

Yeah, give me 10.

God will give you a hundred.

You identify weakness.

You identify a need and then you exploit it.

That's exactly what was going on here.

They stopped taking holiness seriously, but I want you to understand something is when

Christians tolerate sin and we neglect holiness, we end up living double lives.

That's exactly what you see with many teenagers today.

This was my story growing up.

When I was in the church, we were there every Sunday, every Wednesday.

I was always in church.

When I used to get bored during the preacher's sermons, I would open a Bible and I would

just start reading just to keep myself awake.

I was in church and when I was at church, people thought, oh, he's just a good little

kid.

Look at him.

He's in church.

He's all dressed up in his little Sunday best.

Then I'd leave there and I'd go and live in sin.

I didn't see any problem with it.

A lot of our teenagers do that today, too.

They have a lot of parents fooled where they're like, oh, I know what to say.

I know how to smile.

I know how to act.

I know what to do.

I can play the part of a Christian.

I'm a good actor.

Then you go and live like the world.

You live in sin.

Many Christians do this, too.

We were kind of talking about this in gospel groups last week where you can be one person

at church, but then you're out in the world during the week and you're a totally different

person.

You talk one way in church.

You talk a totally different way when you're around other people.

You talk one way at church.

You go to work and you're like you would never even recognize that person.

It's like, that's the same guy that I was talking to at church yesterday.

You start living double lives and it's because we have neglected holiness and we're not

striving for it.

We think there's no big deal between living these fractured lives.

The problem is Jesus actually says in his word in John 17, 16 that as followers we are

not of the world just as he is not of the world.

We're supposed to be in the world, but not of the world.

Christians are supposed to be distinguishable from the world.

It's a big problem if we end up looking just like the rest of the world.

We do want to get in the culture.

We want to make a difference in the culture, but Christians should be distinguishable from

the world because we should be holy as God is holy.

So often we just return to our sin, do we not?

I mean it's sad too because it breaks my heart to see people who would claim the name of

Jesus, who would say they love Jesus, and then they go and indulge in the very sins that

made the death of Christ necessary.

How can we do that?

I mean you see people who say, I love Jesus.

I was baptized at this age.

I've been a member of that church.

I've re-dedicated my life.

I did all this.

I love Jesus.

And the very sins that nailed him to the cross and caused him to cry out in anguish, caused

us to cry out in pleasure.

And that's the state of the church today.

It's disheartening.

And these people are fooling themselves into thinking that they're actually Christians.

There are legitimately people who believe this who think that all they have to do is say,

I believe in Jesus.

Say I love Jesus.

Know that you've been baptized and all this kind of stuff.

It doesn't matter how you live.

But unfortunately the Bible says in 1 John that the person who continues in sin after

coming to a knowledge of the truth is not actually a Christian.

They're a liar.

They have deceived themselves.

No one who has actually come to faith will make a practice, a continual practice of sinning.

It's self deception and it's all over our world today.

And so Jezebel was seducing these Christians in Thyatira and they did what so many others

do, right?

You see we look at her and we say, well she's entirely to blame.

And she does have a portion of the blame.

Does she not?

But here's what we need to understand.

You can't be tempted by something that you don't actually want.

If you were trying to get me to do something and you said, I've got season tickets to the

Gamecocks, I'm not doing it.

I'll do the opposite of what you want me to do in that situation.

I'm not going to be tempted by that because I can't stand the Gamecocks, okay?

So I don't have any desire for season tickets.

You're not going to get me with that.

What if you said, I've got season tickets to Clemson.

All right, now we can talk.

What do you need me to do?

I'm free, you know?

Let's have a conversation.

You know, I make a lie to that but at the same time we need to understand what happens

when we fall into sin as we immediately look for someone to blame, don't we?

Anyone but us.

It's not me.

It might have been a mistake but I was tempted.

What's the favorite one we go to?

Who made me do it?

The devil made me do it.

Come on.

The devil can't make you do anything, okay?

He's not all-powerful like God.

He's a deceiver.

He's a tempter.

He's a master fisherman.

That's basically all he is.

He just baits the hook, throws it out there.

He says, I just got to wait because I know what their favorite bait is.

I know what's going to cause them to jump.

I know what's going to cause them to walk away from faithfulness and holiness and truth

and compromise on those beliefs and indulge in sin.

I know exactly what they want so I just have to throw it out there, wait for them to take

the bait.

It is not the devil's fault that you sin.

It is not the person who tempted you to fall.

It's not their fault if you sin.

We sin because why, Joseph?

We want to.

And that's something no one in church wants to admit today.

They always want someone to blame.

Never look inward.

The reality is we sin because we want to.

That's what Paul said.

Yeah.

Yeah, one of the best sections, Romans 7 is one of the best section on indwelling sin

and fighting it where Paul says, the things I don't want to do, those are the things I

do and the things I want to do.

I don't do those things.

And then he says, wretched man am I?

We look at our lives and we go, I know I shouldn't be doing those things, but you know, it's

a condition.

It's genetics.

I've inherited it.

It's a disease.

She made me do it.

You should have seen what she was wearing.

The devil made me do it.

We point the finger at everyone else because we don't want to look inward and say, the

reality is I have a sinful heart and still desire sin even though it nailed Jesus to

the cross.

So I want you to see how serious this problem is.

Notice what Jesus says in verses 21 to 23.

He says of Jezebel, I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.

Behold, I will throw her onto a sick bed and those who commit adultery with her, I will

throw into great tribulation unless they repent of their works and I will strike their children

dead.

I will strike her children dead and all the churches will know that I am he who searches

mind and heart.

Now I want to pause right there because I want you to see something that Jesus is saying

here.

He will not tolerate people who perpetuates sin or tolerates sin.

He is long suffering.

Is he not?

He is patient.

He, I mean, he abides with us through so much, but he says I gave her time to repent.

And she has refused.

There's a serious warning in there, is there not?

Because everybody on earth takes this life for granted, don't they?

Especially you look at younger generations, I mean kids, teenagers, even young people

like Joseph.

Not Joseph particularly, no, no, no, never Joseph, but those his age.

And they think I'm going to live forever, right?

That's the mindset of every teenager.

That's why they do so many dumb things all the time.

I'm going to live forever.

When God says there is a set time period that you have to repent.

When that time period runs out, there are no second chances.

We don't know what that time period is, do we?

Nobody knows the length of their life.

We could die today on the way home.

We don't know.

God says I have given you a set period of time in which you have time to repent.

I have sent people among you.

You have heard the name of Jesus.

You have heard the gospel.

You know what is true.

Repent now because there are no second chances.

That's what he did with Jezebel here.

So she was going to face judgment.

And so my question is, when Jesus issues this warning and he says this is how serious this

issue is.

And these are the consequences of continuing to tolerate sin and abiding sin and reject

holiness.

What would it be that would actually prompt someone to take holiness more seriously and

pursue holiness?

Look at how he ended verse 23.

It's the part that we didn't read.

He says, and I will give to each of you according to your works.

This letter is full of terrifying things.

Is it not?

I will give to each of you according to your works.

Jesus says that on judgment day there will be a repaying.

And those who persisted in sin, and tolerated sin, and refused to repent, they will reap

what they have sown.

You see I think what he's wanting us to understand here is that we need to strive to live holistically

holistically holy lives because Jesus will repay us according to our works.

And here's what I think.

I think this is important in light of what we've already talked about with how we live

fragmented lives.

This is who I am on Sunday, but this is who I am on Monday and Tuesday.

But here I am back on Wednesday.

Now I go Thursday, Friday, Saturday, back on Sunday.

And we live these fragmented lives of who we are and how we talk and how we act and

treat others all sorts of ways, whether we're in church or out of church.

And I worry that for most Christians when they hear verse 23 and they see Jesus say,

I'm going to repay according to your works, they go, oh thank the Lord, that could have

been bad.

Not going to have been bad, but I'm good.

And why do they think they're good?

Possibly.

Don't believe in works based salvation.

That would be one reason.

I think though that when they read works, they're going to think of something else.

I think they're going to go, I'm good because I was at church this past Sunday.

I've been a member of George's Creek Baptist Church since I was born.

Born in the Baptist tree.

And baptized in it later.

I've been in church my whole life.

I know the Bible.

I can tell you most of the books of the Bible.

I can quote some scripture for you.

I serve in the church.

I do all these.

So I am good.

I don't have to worry about it.

And let me tell you, here's my concern.

Is I think for some reason, I don't know what it is, but for whatever reason, Christians

tend to think God is only going to judge them based on what they do on Sundays and Wednesdays.

I think that's the mindset of most people who would call themselves Christians today.

They don't think about any of the other days of the week.

They think about Sunday and Wednesday.

Maybe a lot of people don't think about Wednesday, but at least Sunday.

And they think, when God looks at my life, He's only going to look at the Sundays.

And He'll see that I went to church most of the time.

Not all the time, but most of the time I was there.

And I even brought my own Bible.

And I was singing when we were singing the songs.

And I prayed when we were praying.

I even volunteered to pray one time.

I've done these things in church and for whatever reason, we think that God is only going to

look at Sundays.

I don't want you to notice what Jesus says here to negate that idea.

Look at verse 18 to begin with.

He says, into the angel of the church and Thyatira write, the words of the Son of God, who has

eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are burnished bronze.

You see Jesus saying, nothing is hidden at all from His sight.

He has the eyes that are all seen, these eyes of flames.

And then He even says down there in verse 23, I think it is, He says that He searches

mind and heart.

Nothing is hidden from Jesus.

He knows all.

Your darkest secrets, Jesus knows them.

The things that you do on Sunday, not only does Jesus see those, but He knows your motivation

behind those things.

He knows what's in your heart while you're doing those things.

Your biggest secrets that you've managed to keep hidden from your friends and your family

all these years, Jesus knows about those.

He's all knowing and then He has these feet of burnished bronze, which is power.

It symbolizes His power, His authority, His strength.

He's saying He has the ability to execute judgment and execute it rightly because He

knows things perfectly.

And one of the things Thyatira was most known for was their bronze works.

And so Jesus is saying, oh, you think you've got some nice bronze?

Look at my feet.

I'm the one who has the true power.

I will execute this judgment.

And so you can even think of it like this.

I've heard it said before that the judgment of Christ is so pure that even those who will

spend in eternity in hell would eventually have to say, He was right.

I deserve to be here.

That could get you a little overwhelmed, right?

That's a lot to take in.

And so I want us to find comfort in these last few verses.

Look at verses 24 and 25.

He says, but to the rest of you in Thyatira who do not hold to this teaching, who have

not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you

any other burden.

Only hold fast what you have until I come.

He's almost, it's almost like a reference to Matthew 11 where Jesus says that His burden

is light.

His yoke is easy.

He's saying, I'm not putting anything else on you.

Just walk in accordance with the truth.

Just reject sin.

Put it out of the church.

Don't tolerate sin in the church.

Don't compromise on core beliefs.

Just trust in me.

Come from sin and rely on me.

He's saying, you don't have to be perfect.

I'm not looking for perfection.

I'm just looking for perseverance, continuing in the faith.

We don't have to be perfect because Jesus was perfect for us.

He says, I've done the hard work.

You just have to keep on keeping on.

Keep pressing forward.

Keep persevering in the faith and notice the rewards that He offers those who remain faithful

in the last few verses.

Verse 26, the one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to Him I will give

authority over the nations and He will rule them with a rod of iron as earthen pots are

broken in pieces even as I myself received authority from my Father and I will give Him

the morning star.

He who has an ear, let Him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Now it's interesting here.

Remember what I told you at the beginning?

The Hayatira was the least important city in all of Asia Minor.

They didn't have any authority.

They didn't rule anything.

No one thought anything about them at all.

And Jesus says, you keep pressing forward.

You stay faithful to me and you're going to rule the nations with me.

They will get the right to take part in Christ's rule with Him.

He's giving them the significance and then He even says to them that they will have the

morning star.

Uh oh, what's that?

Yes, good job.

Where do we get that?

Where do we get that?

Okay, I love that.

Mr. McKinney said in the Bible.

Very good.

Yes.

Okay, where in the Bible?

It is in Revelation.

It's in Revelation chapter 22 in verse 16.

Revelation 22 · chapter mention

If you want to just look to the end of the book real quick.

Revelation chapter 22 verse 16.

Revelation 22:16

Bible says, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about the things for the churches.

I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.

It's interesting about this, I'm not going to go on a little side rant about it too much,

but when people hear the word morning star, who do they normally associate it with?

Satan.

Lucifer.

Yeah, Latin.

Yeah, so in Latin, the word Lucifer just means morning star.

So in the Hebrew, in Ezekiel, when it was saying morning star, Latin Vulgate said Lucifer

and that's how the devil got his name, even though it was just a mistranslating.

It's just they were translating morning star, which was Venus and so you end up with Latin

Lucifer and that's been the name of Satan ever since according to people, but not in

the Bible, his name is always just Satan.

So, but morning star, there was even a TV show they made about Satan, which is always

a good idea to do, a culture that we live in, and they would call him Lucifer morning

star, which is hilarious that they didn't do the research to realize they were saying

morning star, morning star.

I don't know why they didn't put in the work to do that, but they made it his last name.

But in scripture, Jesus is the bright morning star.

He is the one and he is promising us here, I will give you the morning star.

What is he saying?

You're going to come and rule with me and you will have the fullness of myself with

you, the fullness of the presence of Christ always.

And that sounds amazing, does it not?

I mean, you take time to just meditate on that tonight and think about how wonderful

it will be to be in the presence of Jesus forever and never lack any of his presence.

You will always have the fullness of it for all eternity.

He says, that is what is offered to you if you will just press forward and remain faithful

to me.

And so, that's what he's offering us here, church.

And so, we don't need to miss out on that great reward, do we?

We don't need to be like Thyatira and tolerate sin in the church or in our own lives.

We need to put it out of our lives.

We don't need to be living these double lives.

We don't need to be trying to look like the culture and act like the culture.

We are called to be holy as Christ is holy.

And so, we need to pursue holiness.

We need to strive for holiness.

And we need to rely on God's grace and God's mercy and the Holy Spirit to be able to remain

faithful through all of life's circumstances.

As Jesus says, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Michael, you're back with us.

What about giving us a word of wisdom?