Revelation: A Message to Philadelphia

How we doing? Oh, that's terrible.

Are you happy to be here?

Okay, how we doing, guys?

That's like a 6 out of 10, I think. I don't know.

I guess we'd have to deal with that, huh? Hey, we are, so we're at

West Island, as you know. So next week we will not be here. Appreciate your

perseverance, as we're going to talk about today.

And being here, I know it's a hall, but this is where God has opened the doors for us today.

So we're here to worship Him. If you have not been here before, my name is Tobin,

and I'm one of the pastors here. And we have been going through the book of Revelation.

We've been following kind of a, there's a purpose to our sermons. We've been talking about the church

and the people of God all fall. We've been talking about what does it mean to be the church,

and how do we interact with each other? How do we have hope in the midst of hopeless times?

What does it look like? And so we've gone to this place, and we've come to this sermon series on

the seven churches in the book of Revelation, which is the last book of the Bible. And one of

the things that's key in this is just that you realize that sometimes even as Christians, if

you're here and you're not a Christ follower yet, we're really glad you're here. You're going to

see some insight today. You're probably going to think we're very weird, and we are. But ask

questions of the people who brought you, and that's a great thing. So welcome to the family.

Anyway, but when we come to the book of Revelation, sometimes, and I talk fast, so I'm trying to

slow down just a little. We talk about the end times and Jesus coming and people being

lifted up in the air and Armageddon and all these really bad things. And sometimes we lose

the focus of what the book is really about. The book is really about Christ. The book is really

about Jesus, right? So sometimes we forget that. And I think that I forget that sometimes.

So when you read, we hope that you read and you're thinking about not so much what's going

to happen in the end, but who Christ is. And more importantly, as who he is, how should

I be? Because sometimes I think we look at Christ, but we don't change. We don't ask questions.

We don't, we just stay the same. But what we want to do in the passages as we come to God's

words is we want to look at Christ and see, wow. Okay, so what does he want me to do with

this? And how can he change me? We've been looking at the seven churches. I put a map

up here in the back. And basically this is what it looked like. So this is Turkey. And

Paul is stranded on Patmos. It's a prison island. It's not a nice place to be. In about

90 AD, Jesus comes to him and takes him in a vision to heaven and tells him to write these

stories, these messages to these churches that he's watching. And it's really clear that

he's watching these churches. And so that is actually, that's the Roman mail route. And

so if you want to know how the Roman army and the country sent mail, this is, this was that

route that was sent through there. So later we went to Ephesus first and we looked at

Smyrna, then we looked at Pergamum, we looked at Thyatira, we looked at Sardis, we looked

and today we look at Philadelphia. And what we're going to see is out of all of these things

that only two of them actually had nothing wrong with them. The letters start off with Jesus

introducing himself, which is, which is key. Really, we can just read the first verses

and you're going to know what the whole passage is about. Because again, he wants us to look

at him to realize who he is. And as we realize who he is, that should change us and to affect

us and to change how we see things here. And Jesus is writing this letter to these churches

and what he's trying to do is he's trying to prepare them for massive persecution. There's

going to be incredible persecution happening under Emperor Trajan. So it's just starting

to kick off right now, but pretty soon Christians everywhere are going to be persecuted. It's

going to be a terrible, they're going to experience persecution from the culture, they're going to

experience persecution from the Jews, they're going to experience persecution massively from

the Romans. And so Jesus is trying to help them and encourage them in this, this time of

aloneness and difficulty. And so we get to this church at Philadelphia, which was a very

interesting church. It's, it's the smallest churches that he's written to. It's, it's the

youngest church. Philadelphia was a city that's, its name means brother love or brotherly love. In

Greek it actually just means brother love. Someone who loves their brother. And it was founded about

130 BC by the king of Pergamum, who was up there in that chain letter. And he had such a strong

affection for his brother. He, he named it that I love my brother. I'm going to name the city after

him. It's about 30 east, 30 miles southeast of the church, the city we talked about last week,

Sardis. And as you walk into it, it was basically this huge valley and the valley elevated and it was

really fertile ground. And you're walking into it and the city actually is up on a hill above this

valley. And around the back of the valley are these volcanoes. And these volcanoes would erupt every

once in a while. And because of that, the land was incredibly fertile. I mean, it was like some of the

richest land in the area. And so what do you do when you have rich land? You grow grapes. And so their,

their main export was grapes. And they, they partied a lot. They, they exported wine. The god they

worship was Bacchus. He's the god of party. And so, but what, what we don't realize, and we got to keep

in touch here, is that when the king of Pergamum placed his city here, the Greeks placed his city

here, its main purpose, its only purpose was to be a missionary city. I mean, it was established as a

missionary city. Not for Christianity, but for the Greeks. And so the Greeks were looking at this part of

the land and they said, well, how do we influence this land? He says, well, let's bring our culture into the

land. And so he establishes this city as a missionary city in the hopes is as the Greeks

live there and the people live there, that the people are going to look at them and go, wow, Greeks

are really cool. Why don't we be like they are? And what we are told by historians is that the, the,

the city is so successful that within a hundred years, everybody around them forgets their mother

tongue. One hundred years. Everybody forgets their mother tongue and everybody starts speaking Greek.

So it's kind of like Texas sends me to Hong Kong and I'm here to be the ambassador for Texas.

And I do such a good job at Watermark and everything else. Everybody starts thinking Texan,

speaking Texan, acting Texan, which would not be a bad thing, right? And, and then within a hundred

years, all of Hong Kong is, is Texan, which could be a really cool thing. And that's what this,

this, that's what happened in this city. The downside to the city was there was earthquakes. I mean,

there were a lot of earthquakes. I mean, the city was destroyed and rebuilt and destroyed and rebuilt.

And, and some historians tell us that when you walk through the city that you would feel these

tremors. And the minute you felt a tremor, everybody would just drop whatever they were doing and they

would just run out. I mean, literally this historian was saying, he's talking to people, a tremor hits.

It's kind of like living in the Bay Area, maybe, or San Francisco or something like that. And you get hit by a

tremor and your first reaction is just to get out. And so everybody would get out. And so when you came to visit the

city, what you saw is people ran in, they ran out, they ran in, they ran out. I mean, this was, this was a

continual thing. People had no security. They had no safety. They just dropped everything and they ran out.

The city walls were cracked and the city walls were supposed to be the strongest part of the city. And

so there was no defense. The city was, was pretty weak. It was just a drunk city that was an ambassador

that did its job really well. And even the wealthy people, they slept outside the city.

I mean, no one actually slept in their homes because they were worried about the homes collapsing

as they were sleeping. And so it was this place that was, it was just unsecure. But it was

prosperous. But it was unsecure. And historians tell us that there's probably 50,000 to 100,000

people who live there. So it's 50,000 to 100,000 people. It was on a trade route. And what we know

about the church is there are about 30 people in the church. So there's 50,000 people up to 100,000

people. And there are 30 people in this small, young church that was placed in the middle of

it. And it's the only church that Jesus looks at it and says, I know what you're doing. You're amazing.

And so what I want to look today really briefly, because we're going to end in communion, because I feel

like it flows well. I want to look at really quickly, what did they do? I mean, what did they do that

Jesus praised them for? I want to look at what did Jesus promise them after they did it? Because you're

going to see that he's promised them four or five things. And actually, these promises are true to us

also as God's people, if we do the things that they did. So what they did, what Jesus promised them,

and then finally, I want to look at just basically, how can we do it also? How do we get the power to

do that? How do we get the chance to do that? Does that make sense? And what they did, what Jesus

promised them, how can we do that, and then communion. So that's where we're going. Okay, so what I want to do

is just look really quickly, and I probably could camp all here on verse seven. If you've got your

bulletin, open that up. Jesus introduces himself, and look at how he introduces himself.

To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write,

he who is holy,

pause.

That word means holy.

It means sacred. It means pure. It means set apart. It means

different. It means unlike all others. It means

separated from sin. It means not like

Tobin. It means morally

perfect. It means Jesus

has no cracks.

Throughout the Bible, holiness is

the chief attribute that describes

God and Christ, and it's always that

attribute that's put on front of the adjectives

that also describe him. So he's

holy just, and he's holy kind, and he's

holy peaceful. It just

exemplifies who he is. The idea

is that as Jesus says, this is who I am,

we should be thinking,

can I devote myself to him?

Is he worthy of my devotion?

He is holy.

It means that he won't lead us into error.

It means that we can

follow him. It means that

Christ is unchanging.

How many things that you know are unchanging

in this world today?

And Christ starts

this letter out to this church of

in the middle of 100,000

people.

And he says, this is what I want you to cling to.

This is what I want you to know.

He goes on and he goes,

who is true.

And the word is true. It means no error.

It means there's nothing wrong found

in him. It means that he's 100% reliable.

It means he's trustworthy.

It means that he's not fake.

I remember when I first went to China,

I was 89, and I was

in my city, and I was walking through there,

and I got my sunglasses.

I was there all summer, and I was looking at these little stalls,

right, and I saw this

pair of Ray-Bans, and it was amazing.

So I didn't have them. It was 89.

I couldn't, no one was going to come back

from the States or anything. And so how much is this?

And the guy says, it's like five U.S. dollars.

I'm like,

what a deal!

And so I bought it,

and I wore it around, and I thought,

wow, I really like these, and people

thought I was cool, right? And they looked cool,

and they were really good. And then one day, I'm looking at

myself in the mirror, and I see

Ray Bun.

And I'm like,

Ray Bun?

Maybe it scratched

off somehow, or something like that.

They're a counterfeit.

I didn't know they had

counterfeit things in China in 89.

I just assumed,

whenever they saw you buy, and it's real,

and it's good, and so, hey, I'm going to wear

my Ray Buns, and I'm going to be proud about it,

because they're real Ray Buns.

They're authentic.

But you know what happened after that? Seriously, what happened

after that was, I learned how to say certain

words.

I learned how to ask, hey, is this fake?

Or is this real?

Shijada, shijanda.

Shijanda.

What do they say? Every time you say that,

it's janda. Oh, they get so offended.

No, no, it's not fake.

It's real. It's janda.

Shijanda is pure. It's true.

And here

he's saying that Jesus

is janda.

He's genuine.

That he never changes.

What if we lived in a culture

where nothing was genuine?

What if we lived in a culture

where everything was

80% genuine?

Jesus says that he is 100%

true.

That we can trust him with everything.

That he upholds everything.

He protects everything.

He's true,

and you can give your life

to him.

He's holy.

He's true.

Look what he says next

about himself.

He says,

he holds the keys

of David.

And this is a special passage.

This whole story

is deep

in Old Testament

history.

And this is a story

that comes out of

Isaiah 22.

And basically what was happening,

I'm going to briefly

share it.

I don't want to waste a lot.

Well, I don't want to just

take up time.

But the Jewish people

were by themselves.

They were in the land.

The Assyrian army was coming

through,

and they were just

destroying everything.

And one night,

the Assyrian army,

50,000 people camp outside

the Jewish gates,

and everybody's panicking.

Everything's going to be

destroyed.

And God does this miracle

through the prophet,

and all the army

is decimated.

They're dead.

And the people walk out,

and they go,

wow,

look what we did.

We did this all.

I mean,

within an instant,

within a twinkle of eye,

they forgot that God

was sovereign

and in control

of their life.

And so what God says

is he comes in

and he takes these keys away,

the keys of the stewardship

of his kingdom,

and he gives them

to this guy

who's very faithful.

He gives the keys

to Christ.

And so when he says

the keys of David,

what he means is that

Jesus is in control

of everything.

Jesus is in control

of everything.

He has the keys.

Whoever has the keys

can open.

Whoever has the keys

can shut.

Whoever has the keys

is in authority.

Whoever has the keys

can get things done.

He's sovereign.

It basically means

that Christ is in control.

He has authority.

He's over everything.

Nothing can open.

Nothing can shut.

Nothing can happen

without Christ

allowing it to happen.

A little later on

in Matthew,

he's going to send out

the disciples.

He's going to tell them,

go make fishers of men.

I want you to go out there.

But what does he say

before he sends the people out?

He says,

before you go out,

you need to know one thing.

All authority

is mine.

All authority

belongs to God.

And so whatever

happens to you,

whatever goes out there,

however things happen,

I'm in control.

I am the one who's holy.

I am the one who's true.

I am the one

who's not going to fail you.

So the question is,

do we believe this?

I know my British friends

would say it's not cricket

to ask questions

in the service.

Did I do it right?

I did.

But it is.

And we want to be a church

that asks questions.

And I want to ask questions a lot.

And sometimes I have people

come up to me and say,

hey, we're thinking about leaving

because you ask too many questions.

Literally.

But we want to be a church

that asks questions

because we don't want you

just to come

and to listen

and feel good about yourself

and then leave

and never look at God's word,

never look at who Jesus is,

never ask,

is there something I need to do

to change myself?

Am I like what Christ

wants me to be?

Because we all want

these blessings

in this scripture.

But sometimes we don't realize

how far away we are

from acting

in the way

that allows us

to receive these blessings.

So the question is this.

Do you believe him?

Do you believe that he's holy?

Do you believe that he's true

to his word?

He's never going to let you down.

Do you believe that he's in control?

He has the keys.

Everything happens.

There's nothing that can happen

that doesn't happen.

He's an authority.

It basically says he's holy.

He's true.

He's unstoppable.

He's unchanging.

He's sure.

Do we believe that?

I ask because I think

there are a lot of people

in Hong Kong

and maybe some people

in Watermark

who are trusting

in something else

besides Jesus.

I mean, it takes a lot of honesty

to say that.

But I think there's some of us

in here who are trusting

in something besides Christ,

and we've put our trust

in this thing

and we have to ask ourselves

the question about

whatever we're trusting in,

whether it's our health,

our ability,

our business smarts,

our education,

our family,

our connections,

whatever it is

that we're trusting in

besides Jesus,

we have to ask ourselves

the question about this thing.

Is that thing holy?

Is it true?

Is what you're trusting in right now

besides Christ

true?

100% true.

Janda.

Bushijada.

You can't say 88% true.

It's either janda

or is it false

or true.

And so what you're trusting in

is it holy?

Is it true?

Is it unstoppable?

Is it all powerful

that you're trusting in?

I mean,

do you trust in

whatever you're trusting in

more than Jesus

enough to lay down

your life for it?

Do you trust in it

more than Christ

to lay down

your kids' lives

for it?

There's a lot of people

in Hong Kong

and a lot of people,

I think,

in our churches

who've been kind of

vaccinated to Christianity.

I mean,

they've experienced it,

they see it,

but they don't really

understand who Christ is

and who he is

and what he does

and that he's holy

and that he's true

and that he has all authority

and he's unstoppable.

And so we kind of live

this partial Christianity.

And then when hard things happen,

when we have 100,000 people

against 30,

we kind of bail.

You know,

the last couple months

have been some of the

hardest months of my life.

I mean,

we've been in this situation here

and I love the settings here,

but it's just,

it's kind of an out-of-the-way place,

right?

And I've had people

come up to me and say,

hey,

we're not going to come

to the church anymore

as long as we meet

at West Island

because it's just not

convenient for us.

Inside,

I just,

I'm dying,

right?

Because we don't know

where God's kind of place is.

We don't know what door

he's opened up.

But I have to keep clinging.

Is he holy?

Is he true?

Does he have authority?

Is he in control

of all things?

Can we trust him?

I mean,

think about it.

When I say he has authority,

I mean he has authority.

I mean,

the reason you haven't

gotten that bonus yet

is because Christ

hasn't opened that door

for that bonus.

The reason you're not

married yet

is because Christ knows

that you're not ready for it

and he hasn't opened

the door to marriage.

The reason

you haven't had kids yet,

the passage says

he's holy,

he's true,

he's in complete authority,

he controls everything.

Because God hasn't opened

that door for you yet.

The reason some of us

aren't healthy

and we're fighting cancer

and sickness

because Christ

has something to teach us

and he wants to do

something amazing

in our lives.

And unless we understand

that he's true,

that he's holy

and he has authority

above all things,

when the hard things happen,

when things go on,

we're going to bail,

we're going to run out,

we're going to give up

because it's not worth it,

it's not worth it

because it's changing.

But Jesus tells us

at the very beginning,

I'm with you.

I'm unchanging.

I'm for you.

I'm true.

No matter what happens

in your life,

I have all authority.

There's nothing

that can happen to you

if you're my child

that I'm not allowing

to happen.

Do we believe that?

He goes on,

he says,

this is what they did,

verse 8.

He says,

in the midst of all

these struggles,

in the midst of the persecution,

I mean,

you think about it,

they're a young church,

they're a small church,

they're surrounded

by a culture

and the culture's purpose

is to change them, right?

Philadelphia's purpose

is to change the people

who enter into it.

So if you go into Philadelphia,

the purpose of Philadelphia

is to make you Greek.

And so this little church

of 30 people

is in the middle of it

and they're fighting

all these things

and do you think

it must have been hard?

I mean,

it says the doors

to the synagogues

were shut.

They were kicked

out of the synagogues.

It says the doors

to the businesses

were shut

because they weren't

saying a little creed

to Caesar,

they couldn't be

business people.

It says the doors

to the Roman culture

were shut

because they weren't

willing to worship Caesar

and do all the bowing

and all those things.

And Jesus watches them

and he says,

I know,

I see.

And even though

you're small in number

and even though

you have a little strength

and even though

you have just a little,

little influence

in this culture

and all these doors

are shutting against you

because you kept

my word.

Because you were people

that hung on to my word,

because you didn't act

like the culture,

the idea is

they didn't act

like the culture

around them.

They were in the middle

of a culture

that was trying

to change them.

There's 30 of them

against 100,000.

They didn't change.

They stuck to the word

instead of becoming worldly.

I mean,

they didn't allow

Philadelphia to influence them.

They stuck to God's word

and instead of changing them,

they tried to change

the culture around them.

They were bound to God.

They obeyed scripture.

This was a whole church

that followed God's word

and trusted him.

How about us?

How about us?

How about us?

Are we following

God's word today?

Do we know

God's word today?

Are we acting more

like the world around us

than God's world?

If someone were to

follow us around

and our thoughts

and our actions,

what would they suggest?

Worldly word.

How would they put us

in what category?

And Jesus looks

at this small little church

that was clinging

to the word of God

and said,

we're not going to change.

We're going to be

just like God wants us to be.

The second thing

he commends them for

is he basically says,

they kept to his word

and they did not deny his name.

The idea is

they didn't give up

their faith.

They didn't give up

their testimony.

I mean,

there was 30 people

against 50,000

or 100,000 people.

The culture is

totally against them.

I mean,

you think it would have been

hard going to work?

What do you think?

I think it probably

would have been hard

just going through the market

trying to buy stuff

because everybody

knew who you were

because you weren't

dressing like them,

you weren't acting like them,

you were living out

a life that was

counter to them.

I think that they

probably faced

a lot of work difficulties

and a lot of persecution.

They were probably

ridiculed by their neighbors

all the time,

but they refused

to look and live

like the people around them.

you know what's going on to me?

How about us?

How are we doing?

I mean,

are we acting

and looking

and speaking

and spending

and using our money

and our time

any differently

than the people around us?

When the people around us

look at us,

do they see something different?

Do they see Jesus?

Do they see Jesus?

You know one of the

number one complaints

I get from people

who aren't Christ followers yet

when I talk to them

and I try to talk to

a lot of people every week

because I just want to get

to know people

and things like that.

The number one complaint

usually

is that the people

who they know

who are Christians

or say they're Christians

in their workplace

look no differently

than they are.

They use the same language.

They betray people

in the office

just like non-believers do.

They fornicate

just like the non-believers do.

Married and singles.

They act exactly like it.

The number one complaint

I get from people

when I talk to them

about Christ

and what it means

to be a believer

is that when the Christians

they look in their life

they look no different.

You know the number one

complaint I get to people

when I invite them to church?

I'm not making this up.

The number one complaint

they say to me

is the church is no different

than what I do already.

It's loud.

It's noisy.

It's flashy.

It's high impact.

High tech.

A lot of different things.

All these things

I experience

when I go to conferences

and other things like that

and there's nothing in it for me

because it's already

and he said

quite frankly

the world does it

much better

than the church does it.

The church thinks

it's doing really well

in high tech

but it's really not

because the world

can do it a lot better.

And they say

I don't want to come to church

because it's no different

than my everyday life.

And Jesus looks at

this small little church

that's surrounded

by all these things

and he said

well done.

You hung on to the word.

You hung on to my testimony.

You kept the faith

and because of those things

he says in verses 10, 11, and 12

he says

I'm going to open these doors.

I'm going to give you

these opportunities.

I'm going to give you

these things happen to you

and almost always

in scripture

when a door is open

what it means is

God has given us

an opportunity

to influence people

and culture

with the gospel.

Whenever Christ

opens a door

it means that

he's wanting us

to walk through it

and share the gospel

with people.

I mean scripture

also says

that when God

opens doors

it means that

blessings come through

to us.

So there's this

two sense focus.

Because they were faithful

because they were true

God opens these doors

and they have even more

of an opportunity

to share.

I wonder how big

the church was

after 10 years.

I don't think

it was just 30 people

because the life

that they were living

and the words

they were sharing

and the actions

that they were doing

were so much different

than the world around them

that it had to

attract people

in the midst

of a chaos

and chaotic world.

Jesus says

I'm the one

who opens the doors

I have the keys.

Who has the keys?

Jesus.

I went to a conference

many years ago

huge mega church

and we were there

and we were watching

these guys talk

and it was

it was

it was

it was very impressive

it was

it was a congregation

about

they had a sanctuary

of about 25,000 people.

And one after another

for about four days

guys got up and said

okay do a church

this is what you gotta do.

You gotta have a big venue

you gotta have a lot

of parking spaces

you gotta have

really cool colored carpet

you gotta have

relevant music

you gotta look

really different

you gotta be looking

just like the world

but make it

Christianized a little

and if you can do that

then God's gonna

open the doors

and things will happen

people will come to Christ

right?

And I'm sitting there

and I'm just sitting there

and go wow

and I'm just

and I look over

about day two

and there's this young guy

I got to know

and he's from

he's from Ireland

he's from this small country

church in Ireland

and I think

and he was

he was looking

pretty depressed

I said dude

what's going on

he goes

I'll never be able

to do any of those things

I mean

I'll be thankful

that I get 30 people

in my church on Sunday

I'm not gonna be able

to have all the programs

I'm not gonna have

all the bells and whistles

I'm not gonna

I'm gonna be the only one

they're doing it

I mean

we don't even have

a parking place

we have this small

little church

and he said

if all the things

they say are true

then this is what

it takes to grow a church

then I'm never

gonna be able

to do that

I'm never gonna be able

to open the doors

but who opens the doors?

Who?

Christ, right?

Christ opens the doors

why does he open the doors?

because we're relevant

fun

really cool

and have all these things

and there's nothing

wrong with those things

but is that why

the doors get open?

here he says

the doors get open

because we're faithful

to his word

and we live lives

that are so different

than the world around us

that people look at that

and go

I want that

because I'm living

in this earthquake zone

my life is falling apart

and I need stability

I need strength

I need hope

I need something

to help me go through

you look in verse 9

through 11

he basically lays out

four things

and all these things

again

this is what Jesus

is gonna give this church

because of their faithfulness

because of their obedience

because of trusting them

he basically says

the first thing is that

all the enemies

all of our enemies

all the people that mocked us

all the people who've

given us a hard time

all these people who mock you

in your office

one day if you are faithful

one day Christ

will bring them before him

and it says

every knee in heaven

and on earth will bow

and every tongue

will confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord

and those people

are gonna know

that I love you

I mean sometimes

if we're lucky

we see it happen nowadays

when they have some tragedy

happening in their life

or something's going on

and it's wrong

and they go

hey I'm really sorry

for putting you down

but can you tell me

what this Jesus thing

is all about

but it might not happen

that way

but what Jesus says

to this church

and what he says to us

is that it will happen

if we're faithful

and we obey him

and follow him

he says if you do these things

later on he says

I'm gonna keep you

for this hour

of testing

that's gonna come over

all the earth

verse 10

he's talking about

the end times

when he says

to test those

who dwell on the earth

you can just put a circle

around dwell on the earth

whenever you see

those who dwell on the earth

it means those

who are not Christ's followers

and what this passage

is saying

is that one day

Christ is gonna come again

and there's gonna be

this massive turmoil

and upheaval

and it's not gonna be

nice whatsoever

and we're gonna see

Christ come down

because this is how

this book ends

and he says

because the church

is faithful

because you have been

obedient to my word

because you have not

changed and compromised

your testimony

because you've loved me

more than the things

around you

you're not gonna face

those things

you're not gonna face

the turmoil

you're not gonna face

the destruction

you're gonna get a pass

it's kind of like

when you're you know

yeah if you're a really

good student

I don't know

I never experienced this

but my senior year

in high school

for those who did

really good

they didn't have to

take their final exams

because the school

just felt like

well what's the need

because you've already

passed up to this point

and this is kind of

what he's saying

to this church

is that you've already

passed these things here

and so when this

really difficult time

comes

when this really hard

testing comes

you're not gonna have

to go through it

because you've already

done it

and I'm gonna pass you

verse 12 says

what Christ is gonna do

is he's gonna make

them strong

he's gonna make

them a pillar

and pillars

are always a symbol

of strength

so that whenever

a temple was built

they built this

strong pillar

and people

remember they lived

in this culture

where nothing was strong

they lived in this culture

where everything was changing

where everything was shaking

where everything was falling apart

and Christ says

because you love me

because you keep my word

because you keep my testimony

I'm going to strengthen you

I'm gonna make you strong

I don't know

if anybody in here

needs to be strong

but as I said before

these last couple months

have been probably

some of the hardest months

for me

and our family

as we struggle through things

and pray through things

and look at things

as a family

and as a church

and the venue

finances

all these things

we're praying through

and we're going

okay God

for some reason

these doors aren't opening

we don't know

what's going on

but we know

that you have the keys

are we gonna trust you

or are we not gonna trust you

and finally he says here

if you remain faithful

in verse 12

that Christ is gonna come

and Christ is gonna write

a new name on you

and whenever you see somebody

writing a new name on you

it means

it's a symbol of ownership

that Christ is gonna come in

and he's gonna say

you're mine

I own you

I protect you

I'm gonna take care of you

it was a sign of intimacy

it was a sign

of who you are

that whenever

a new name was written on you

it meant that you were owned

you were protected

you were loved

you were guaranteed

Kip was six years old

and for Christmas

we got him a Buzz Light year

it was interesting

because about

two months into it

I came into the room

and I was playing with him

we're goofing off

and I looked at the feet

Kip had wrote his name

on the bottom of the feet

I said why did you do that

because this is mine

I want to take care of it

the passage says

that because the church

and God's people

love his word

and love their testimony

that God writes his name on you

did you know that

it means that he owns you

it means that he wants you

it means he desires you

it means that there's nothing

that's gonna happen to you

that he's not gonna allow to happen

it means that he cares for you

no matter what you're going through

right now

I know some of us in here

might not have

God's name written on us

but the truth is

you only have two names

you either have the world's name

or you have

not Kip

but Jesus

and he talks to this church

and he says

because you are faithful

because you are true

I'm gonna write my name on you

I'm gonna take care of you

I'm gonna protect you

I wanna end now

we're gonna do communion

but the question I keep asking

as I go through this

is well how did they do that

because I think

the goal

he says

you persevered

you persevered

you persevered

you hung in there

you stuck in there

you persevered

and I'm thinking

how in the heck

did they do that

I mean

if somebody puts a pack

of M&M's on my desk

and they say

don't eat it

I have a hard time

persevering

not eating the M&M's

let alone

living my life out

in front of

100,000 people

and there's only 30 of us

how do we do that

and the passage says

really simply

and it says

at the very beginning

you go back to

who Jesus is

what Jesus is

who is he

look at

I think I put in there

for your bulletin

did I put in your

your bulletin

and I don't have my

bulletin

but you have your bulletin

so you have a bulletin there

and it has the Bible verses

on it right

and what is the very first

Bible verse on the top

can I borrow yours

yeah

thank you

here's what he says

and we're looking at how

how do you do it

how do you walk with God

how do you persevere

how do you hang in there

when it gets really difficult

what do you do

how does it make it happen

this is what he says

Hebrews 12

2 and 3

looking to Jesus

the founder and perfecter

of our faith

who for the joy

that was set before him

he endured the cross

the word there

is hupo mano

I don't like using

a lot of Greek words

because ugh

but this is a very special word

mano means stay

hupo means extremely stay

sticky stay

it's like a Velcro wall

he stood there

he stuck to it

how do we persevere

God's people

how do we hang in there

the passage says

that the only way

we can do it

the only way

that we can manifest

his strength

is we realize

that Christ

already did it for us

in Hebrews

it says

Christ

stuck

to the cross

amidst all the pain

all the ridicule

all the suffering

all the trauma

he stuck to the cross

hyper stuck to the cross

because he loved you

and he loved the father

how do we

persevere

I can't give you

five steps to do it

because I think

that's man made

the only way

you're going to be able

to persevere

is the same way

this church persevered

and realizing

that we have a savior

Jesus

who's already

persevered for us

and as we realize

what he's already done

and by his perseverance

he's been given the keys

as we realize

what he's already done

he's already accomplished

those things

in faith

we come to him

and we say

God

I can't do that

I can't stick up

to the people

ridiculing me

in my office

I can't live

the way you've called me to

I don't know how

to do these things

this is too much pressure

and what the passage says

is Christ says

I've already done it for you

I've already done it

on the worst situation

the most difficult situation

the hardest situation

you're ever going to be in

I've already done it

on the cross

if you just trust me

if you just rest in me

if you believe in me

that I'm true

that I'm holy

and I'm in authority

if you surrender your life to me

I've already done those things for you

and I'm going to give you

the power to do those things

it doesn't mean

you're going to have to

not make hard choices

you are

and some of you already have

in big, big ways

but what it means

is the power

to make those choices

is available to you

because Christ

has already done it

and the question is

will you trust him

will you allow him

to change you

will you realize

that he's holy

will you realize

that he's true

will you realize

that he's in control

and authority

and you and I

have been struggling

with those things

for so long

we struggle every day

we're going to have to

repent every day

but the moment we forget

that we have a savior

who's already done it

we're going to try to work

and fabricate

and use our strengths

to do it

and we're always going to fail

but the gospel of grace

is the truth

that Christ

has already done it for you

and will you rest in that

and will you trust him

you and I

will you

and I

will you

and will you

see going in

time

andаюсь

will you

sorry

will you

and you

can you

see

things

like

oh

and I

will you

and I

will you