Seven | Introduction - Revelation 1 | August 9

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Lord, I just pray that as we open up your word and receive from it this morning,

as you speak, that we would be found listening.

We're going to read and encounter some passages today and over the next several

weeks in these chapters about that constantly end with, hear,

he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

So I pray that our ears would be attentive to what you have for us,

that our hearts would be open for you to speak, to challenge us, to encourage us,

that we would be those who overcome, who endure.

Who press in and praise you and worship you and serve you until you come or until we see you again.

I pray that these words, even though they're often thought of as too difficult to understand.

I pray that they would meet us right here and now where we need them,

and that as always you would be glorified as we are transformed into the likeness

of your Son from one glory to the next.

Lord, I pray that you would do this transforming power today in us.

As we encounter the glorified Jesus, to whom belong all power and glory and honor and praise. Amen.

So I've actually been thinking about this for a while, several months now.

And I talked about it with a friend of mine who had also kind of just recently,

those months ago, gotten back from Israel. And was Israel maybe in Turkey.

He was definitely in Turkey because he went to Ephesus. And all of these churches

in Revelation are in Turkey.

And we were talking about that and our opportunity years and years ago for kids

to visit Ephesus and what an impact that was.

So I've been thinking about this for a while and last week David shared a little

bit from one of the churches, the church in Smyrna or Sardis I think and it

kind of solidified in my mind that this is, now is the time.

I think God often works like that in me.

He'll seed an idea that's confirmed over time.

And this one, I think, is about to bud. So I wanted to jump on it as the moment

is ripe to mix all the gardening metaphors together. That won't make sense.

But I want us to take a look just at the first three chapters of Revelation.

We're not going to go into all the weird stuff that happens in the 20 other chapters.

Maybe we'll save that for another time. but I want us to look at.

The word of the Lord to these churches, and also as we'll see in a minute,

as he speaks, these are not just for these representative churches alone.

They're for believers in the church across time, for all time.

So let me read just a little bit of what Jenny has already read,

starting in verse 1. This is a revelation from Jesus Christ,

which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.

He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw.

That is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

So this is the revelation or apocalypse or revealing of mysteries,

if you will. This is kind of what revelation means.

That was given to John, but it's actually the revealing of Jesus.

And it says that he sent his angel to his servant John. We'll find out in a

little bit that that angel is also Jesus.

So Jesus comes to John to share his testimony. This is the revelation of Jesus Christ.

John is only the messenger, but these words are from the glorified Jesus,

the Jesus that is full of power.

And we'll get to see a description of him just in a few minutes.

We keep reading. It says, blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this

prophecy. I hope means that we are blessed this morning.

And blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it,

because the time is near.

This is the only book in the entirety of the Bible, and if I'm wrong,

somebody correct me, but I'm pretty sure this is the only book in the entirety

of the Bible that pronounces a blessing over those who would read it.

Not just those who would read it, but those who would hear it and those who

would receive it and those who would take it to heart.

This command to listen is easy to overlook as we get into the different letters to the churches.

They always end with the same phrase, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

And across all of the translations, these kind of come across as a request for

if you are so inclined to listen to the words.

But actually, as Jesus is speaking here and the words that are used,

it is this urgent command that translates more as in the way of anyone who has

an ear must listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.

So it's less of a request and more of a command that we must listen to these words.

And again, this is written not just, it hasn't addressed the churches yet.

So this is written to whoever would come across these words.

So this is for us this morning, that we would hear and we would listen and that

we would walk and obey all of the words that are written in this book,

but especially as we talk about it, these first three chapters.

If we hear these words, if we can hear them, we must listen, we must obey.

I'm going to skip down just a little bit because before we get to the greetings,

it says in verse 9, I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and

kingdom and patient endurance that are in ours in Christ Jesus was on the island

of Patmos because of the word of God and testimony of Jesus.

On the Lord's day, I was in the spirit and I heard behind me a loud voice like

a trumpet, which said, write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven

churches, Ephesus and Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea.

I'm doing the you guys.

And he turned around to see the voice of him who was speaking.

Before we get to that, this is John, the Apostle John, disciple of Jesus,

who was entrusted with Mary, the mother of Jesus, at his crucifixion.

The apostle, the only apostle who we know didn't die a martyr's death.

And that's only because they couldn't kill him.

We have the accounts of all of the apostles who were hanged.

They were crucified. They were thrown off the temple mount.

Tradition says that John was boiled alive in hot oil.

And either no harm came to him or he still survived. And so what they did is

they exiled him to the island of Patmos, which is a tiny island.

There's not really, I don't think, any permanent inhabitants on there today, but you can go and visit.

It's just off the coast of Turkey.

And so they exiled him to this labor camp because they couldn't kill him.

And from there, Jesus appears to him and reveals this testimony to him.

And the seven churches that we're going to talk about kind of form this ring

of trade routes in central Turkey.

In some ways, they are going to be representative churches.

And we'll talk about this, that all the things that are ever wrong with the

church can be found in five of these letters.

Some people think of them as age of churches. I'm not going to take that stance as much.

But to me, it doesn't escape me that these are probably the closest churches

to where John was in this moment.

So the Spirit lays upon John a message, not just each individual letter,

but this entire book, copies of this entire book were sent to every single church

that were near him, at least the major cities.

And he writes to them, and for them this message was prepared.

And again, this is all one letter.

He says, John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia.

He addresses it to all of them.

The clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him,

and all peoples on earth will mourn because of him, so shall it be. Amen.

He pronounces, I am the Alpha and Omega, says the Lord God, who is and was and,

is to come, the Almighty God.

This book was one long letter that was sent to all of these churches.

A copy was sent to all of these churches.

And so every church didn't just read the letter that was addressed to them,

the few verses, but they read all of the letters to all of the churches,

and they read all of the things to come.

So even though when we talk about a specific church that is addressed,

these were meant for all of the churches to read and obey, and not just that individual church.

And they are meant for us to read and obey.

Every church was commanded to hear this message. And what we're going to see is.

In every of the seven short letters within this long letter is a formula that takes place.

There is a pattern that is used in these seven short letters.

He starts by addressing the name of the city to the angel, to the church in

Ephesus, to the angel of the church in Smyrna.

He does it for the seven letters. He starts out with the name of the city,

and then he goes into a specific attribute of the Messiah.

We're going to read some of those attributes or a long version of the attribute,

just a second in chapter one.

Then he's going to bring a specific praise. He's going to mention,

I know, that I know this about you. So he's going to give them a praise.

Interestingly enough, there are two churches that don't receive any praise.

So we should pay attention when there's a break in this pattern.

He's going to follow that praise. He starts with praise and then he's going

to follow that by a judgment.

So he's going to say, yet I have this against you. Also interesting,

two of the churches don't have judgments.

So we need to pay attention to that. He's going to follow that judgment by encouragement.

He's inventing the compliment sandwich here.

Praise, judgment, encouragement. He's going to make a promise to the overcomer.

And he's going to end with that pattern. He who has ears to hear,

let him hear. Or more specifically, if you have the ear, you must obey these words.

So I have a pattern for us as well this morning.

As we think about not just what these first three chapters are about,

but what the entirety of the book of Revelation is about. It's about these three things.

That Jesus is Lord, that he's building his church, and that I,

or we, am awaiting his return.

That Jesus is Lord, above all, it's about him. He's building his church,

and that we are actively awaiting his return.

This is what the book of Revelation is about. this is what these three chapters is about.

So let me go on to read the rest of this chapter.

I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me, and when I turned,

I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstand was someone like the Son of.

Man, dressed in a robe, reaching down to his feet, with a golden sash around his chest.

The hair of his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were

like blazing fire. This is sort of a picture of the transfiguration,

a clothed and blinding light. His feet were like bronze, glowing in a furnace.

His voice was like the sound of rushing waters.

In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp double-edged sword.

His face was like the sun shining in all of its brilliance. And when I saw him,

I fell at his feet as though dead.

Then he placed his right hand on me and said, Do not be afraid.

I am the first and the last.

I am the living one. I was dead, and now look, I am alive forever and ever.

And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

Write therefore what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.

The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this.

The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands

are the seven churches. And then he's going to launch into his letters to each

church. But for today, we're going to stop at that verse.

We encounter in this, remember the pattern, Jesus is Lord.

We encounter in this first chapter of Revelation, the glorified Jesus who is

filled with power, who is filled with light, who is clothed in majesty,

who upon seeing him causes John to fall down on his face.

We see in Ezekiel, when Ezekiel encounters the living God, he falls down as if dead.

And time and time again, in the book of Ezekiel, it says that the Lord lifted

him up. And here in John, we see as well that John had to be physically lifted

up because he encountered the glorified Jesus.

This is the Jesus that we pray to.

This is the Jesus that we sing to. This is the Jesus that we are supposed to believe in.

So why is it that we act so casually before him so often?

Why is it that we are overcome with fear in our daily lives?

Why is it that we are already defeated?

This is the victorious Jesus.

He promises victory to the letters

because he has already achieved the victory. Victory is in his hands.

This is the Jesus who holds the seven stars of the churches,

the lampstands of the churches.

This is the Jesus who breathes out stars, it says in the book of Psalms.

This is the glorified Jesus. He's the star holder. He's the star breather.

This is the Jesus we come to as we sing and as we pray.

Each letter that we encounter from here on out will mention a characteristic of the glorified Jesus.

All of them are pieces of this whole that we just read.

He introduces the entirety of Jesus, obviously not the entirety because he's

too great to fit in a single book or a paragraph.

But we will be reminded for each church a specific characteristic of this Jesus

we just read, the glorified Jesus that is particularly applicable to their situation.

But again, every church was supposed to read every letter. So they are time

and time again getting this fuller picture of who Jesus is, full of power,

clothed in majesty, deserving of honor and praise and glory.

This is the glorified Jesus.

And even though we'll see him in just a few chapters as the slain lamb,

chapter 5, right now he stands in power amongst his churches because Jesus is Lord.

What we'll see throughout these letters time and time again as well is that

Jesus is the one who sees the ultimate truth, the ultimate reality of what's happening.

We'll encounter a letter where Jesus will speak to them, you believe that you

are poor, but in fact, you are rich.

So in that instance, in this particular letter, the truth of how they view themselves,

is poor, but Jesus comes in and speaks more accurately the truth that is actually there.

Each one encouraging us and challenging us that we evaluate incorrectly.

That Jesus tells us in the gospels not to judge.

And then he proceeds to instruct us on how to judge because he knows that we're gonna get it wrong.

He knows that we're gonna evaluate based on human standards.

As he told Samuel when he was crowning

David as king, don't look at the physical person. I see the heart.

We get it wrong. We are weak.

We believe these lies too quickly, that we are poor, that we are weak,

that no one loves or cares for you, that you are a screw-up,

that you might as well just move

on and start over again with new people before they can see who you really are.

Maybe it will work out next time. They tell us these lies, you'll always be

alone. You'll never get it right.

You're not good enough, and we believe this lie.

But Jesus sees the truth.

There's a couple Old Testament stories that I've been reminded of as I've been

reading through Samuel and Kings and Judges.

David, there's this moment where he's on the run from Absalom,

right? His son, and he crosses over outside of Israel.

And as he crosses, there's this descendant of Saul, Shimei, who is hurling insults

at him. This is 2 Samuel 16.

And his faithful followers, his mighty men are like, let me go and kill this dude. What is he doing?

And David tells him, you don't know if the Lord has put it in his mouth to curse me.

So David, in that moment, trusts the message of the Lord, even if it comes from an unlikely source.

And now this was not the message of the Lord.

But David trusts the way God sees it.

We see another one, a king, and I'll have to find it as I read through Chronicles

again in a few weeks, but...

There is a king in Judah, I think it's Judah, maybe it's Israel,

who is facing God's wrath, God's judgment through foreign armies.

As they do, they forget God, they turn from him, they seek their own way,

they worship the Baals, and God brings judgment on them, often through the form of other armies.

And God brings a word through this foreign king that God has given you into my hands. Don't fight.

And they didn't receive the word of God. They trusted in their own way.

They didn't seek the Lord either.

And they fought anyway, and it led to his death.

The Lord gives us words. Sometimes they are from unlikely sources.

Sometimes they are words that we are not prepared for.

It says in the New Testament, right, that God prophesied through the high priests

that it's better for one man to die than for many to die.

He prophesied and he used the words of another high priest to say that if this

message is from God, who can be against it?

We can't stop it if it's from God. God sees things differently and he uses circumstances

differently than we tend to judge when we're just staring at face value.

You. The Bible says that we see in a mirror dimly, but God sees all things perfectly

clear, and he knows how they all come together.

Another church will presume too much. They will say, Jesus will say to them

that you believe you are rich, but in fact, you are poor. So it's not just the one way.

We don't just get it wrong when we believe that we are weak,

we are poor, we're not good enough, but we also presume too much.

That's a way of thinking of sin in some ways, that it's our prideful presumption.

So he'll tell them, you think you're rich, but you're poor. And there is a temptation

here as we read these words to let them come to our minds as we think about them for other people.

I know someone like that. I know someone like the Ephesians.

I know someone like the Smyrneans or whatever you say. I know someone like that.

But Jesus removes that barrier as well and says, this is for you and for all who hear my words.

These letters are a mirror for us, just as they were a mirror for these churches.

These letters should not be, therefore, a measuring stick by which we measure

others, but they should be an evaluation. They should be a mirror in which we

look in to measure ourselves against the image of Christ.

Because that's the only thing worth measuring ourselves against, not with others.

The failures and successes of these first century churches are not so different

from the failures of the church today. They're not so different from us today.

Where they failed, we can fail.

Where they succeeded, we can succeed. The ultimate lesson is about asking,

what does God want me to learn from each of these churches?

How can understanding the victories and challenges make me more like Christ?

Because that is his highest goal.

Don't ask him, who do I know that's like those in Ephesus? Ask, am I like the Ephesians?

Where they failed, we can fail. So ask, am I like them? In what ways am I like

them? Learn from every church.

Jesus will challenge our perceptions of ourselves and of the church.

And then we're going to let God define the motives. We're going to let Jesus

define the motives and direction of the church and of every one of us individual

believers based on these.

Jesus is Lord. Jesus knows your works. He says to five of the seven churches,

I know your works. I see your deeds. What you are doing has not escaped me.

You can't ask as they did in the Old Testament time and time again,

who is God that he knows? Who is God that he sees? that he cares.

He cares. He is concerned with what we do.

Jesus is not only concerned with what we know and what we believe,

he is concerned with what we do.

If we think about the word discipleship and what discipleship is,

becoming more like Christ.

I think the Bible points to a pattern, a direction of how it takes place within us.

And it's okay to disagree, but that we think, we believe, and then we do.

And so the Bible constantly tells us to renew the way that we think,

to change the way that we think, to think God's thoughts instead of our thoughts.

And as we think that, it turns into belief. We begin to believe it.

This is why it's so important for us to memorize scripture and to have it in

our hearts so that we believe the truth of how God sees it rather than our faulty view of judging it.

And as we believe that belief is only true as it affects what we do.

So it's this flow, this order of discipleship. So Jesus is looking for our efforts,

not to prove anything, not to earn our salvation, but for our efforts in his

kingdom to increase over time.

He'll say that to one of the churches, that he's looking for increasing faithfulness,

increasing fruitfulness.

He's looking for us to serve him more and more until we see him.

This pattern of belief, this order of discipleship.

I want to quickly just end this section about Jesus is Lord by talking about this.

We're going to encounter here in these letters, something we don't like to think about.

In five of these letters, we're going to encounter things that Jesus hates,

that God hates. And we think about God is perfect. Jesus is sinless. He can't hate.

Hate is not necessarily with regard to God a sin.

Let's say not necessarily. Sin, hate is not a sin with regard to God.

What we're talking about here are there are abhorrible practices within the

church that are destroying his people.

And so he is against it because he loves his people and he wants them to prosper. He wants them to thrive.

And so these things that bring division, that bring heartache,

he hates because he wants good for his people.

The things are false teaching, misrepresenting scripture, elevating tradition,

idolatry, sexual immorality, apathy. These are things that are destroying his

people whom he has created and he loves.

And so he rejects these things and he wants us. He doesn't want them for us. He wants more for us.

Jesus is Lord. The second idea and the pattern of this is that he is building his church.

Jesus is Lord. He is building his church.

And as we see in these letters, especially in a few of them,

Satan vehemently opposes the church.

Satan works from outside the church. Satan works from inside the church.

Satan uses people to dissuade and discourage God's people.

In Pergamum, it says that their church exists in the seat of Satan's influence

in the region that Satan has set up this beachhead, this stronghold.

He sees that Satan cares about these strategic places.

And we encounter Paul's words as he's planting churches. He stays in one church,

one area, one region, almost longer than any others. And he says that,

I have found that the gospel is moving here.

And he also says that there is great opposition, that the kingdom of God advances

not where there's absence of opposition, but when there is this opposition from the enemy.

And if Satan can't take your salvation, he will try and take you out of the

mission through distraction, through discouragement, through hardship,

through misplaced focus.

And that's what we see in these churches. But three of the churches,

He doesn't mention Satan at all.

Possibly because they've already been taken out. Satan's unconcerned because

they're already distracted enough, potentially.

Are we under attack or have we already left the battle? Does Satan have something to worry about here?

I would say the difficulty of the season we're in points to potentially,

yes, that we are on the cusp of something, God using us in great ways if we will press through.

Jesus is building his church and so he has victory in mind.

Every letter ends with a promise to the one who overcomes, to the one who endures.

Jesus wants his people to walk in victory over everything that hinders them,

over everything that holds them back, over everything that gets in the way of

their conformity into the image of Christ.

He wants conquerors in faith, conquerors in their relationship with him.

So he writes to Ephesus, I want you to overcome these affectionless and mechanical

ministry, these wrong motives. To Smyrna, he writes, I want you to overcome

these severe persecutions.

To Pergamum and Thyatira, he writes, I want you to overcome these false teachings,

this idolatry, this sexual immorality.

To Sardis, he writes, I want you to overcome lifeless spirituality.

I want you to overcome Philadelphia's slander and opposition.

I want you to come, let us see a lukewarmness.

He has in mind victory. And not only does it have it in mind,

but he tells us it's possible.

As I mentioned, two of these churches, Jesus pronounces no judgment over them.

Philadelphia and Smyrna receive no correction. What Jesus does is tell them to keep going.

Keep going. It is possible to live as a church that pleases God.

And because it's possible and because Jesus wants victory for us, he gives time for it.

Time to repent. Time to remember. Time to regain what was lost. Time to move forward.

We see in the Bible verses, I think in Isaiah and other places where it says

that God is not slow in judgment, right? He wants everyone to repent.

He wants none to perish. He's not slow as some would count slowness.

I just read a few weeks ago in 2 Samuel 14, where it's talking about bringing Absalom back.

And the words are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered. So we must die.

That's the end of all man. But God devises ways so that the banished are not left apart from him.

That God creates avenues of salvation.

He creates opportunities because his desire is that no one's life would end

in physical and spiritual death.

So he wants to draw all near to him.

Jesus gives time for his churches, for the bride to be ready.

Because Jesus loves his church and we should too.

Before the end of time, before the chapters that follow Revelation chapter 3,

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

before the future coming of all that it is, he speaks to his churches and says, get ready.

He makes his bride ready. In Revelation chapter 19, it says,

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. Jesus loves his church.

He loves his bride and he wants his bride to be ready.

And what he has in mind is that we would be conformed into the image of his

son. As it says in Romans chapter 8, those who he knew, he predestined and he

Romans 8 · chapter mention

chose to be conformed in the image and likeness of his son.

Jesus prioritizes conforming his people into his image because Jesus loves his church.

Not only does he love his church,

he also doesn't give up on his church. He never disowns these churches.

Some are in danger, but they are still his.

He wants to see them succeed. He wants to see us succeed. Jesus does not give up on his church.

In Psalm 119, as many of you may know, this is the longest chapter in the Bible,

and it is all about the Word of God.

And in the NLT, the first eight verses say this, Joyful are people of integrity

who follow the instruction of the Lord. Joyful are those who obey His laws and

search for Him with all their hearts.

They do not compromise with evil. They walk only in His paths.

You have charged us to keep your commands carefully.

Oh, that my actions would consistently reflect your decrees.

Then I will not be ashamed when I compare my life with your commands.

As I learn your righteous regulations, I thank you by living as I should.

I will obey your decrees. This is the verse that has never been lost on me.

The imploration, that's not a word.

Please don't give up on me.

Jesus has not given up on his church.

He has eternity in mind. He is building his church.

And so I am eagerly awaiting his return.

Every promise in these three chapters points forward to the one who overcomes,

to the one who has ears, let him hear.

He promises reward to those who endure, to those who keep going,

to those who remain faithful.

No matter what personal failings we might have, no matter what we're struggling

with, no matter where you need to improve as a disciple of Jesus Christ,

no matter what charge he has against these churches, he wants you to see you succeed,

and he will help you find the way forward, and he will give you the strength to walk in it.

There is something concrete and tangible about the prize at the end of this

life, about the reward that is awaiting us, about eternity in the presence of God,

that escapes us in our finite minds on this earth.

But it is tangible and is real, so much so as we read last week in Philippians

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3, that it motivates,

us forward so that we forget what lies behind and we press on to receive and

take hold of that which Christ Jesus took hold of us.

We press on to take and reach the prize, to experience the power of his resurrection.

And for us, as we read these letters, for us to refuse to see what is ahead,

for us to refuse and discount the next 10,000 years, that is a detriment to us.

Jesus is eternally minded.

So let the coming of his kingdom motivate our faithfulness today.

Again, he ends, Jesus ends each of these seven letters with the same thing.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear. You must listen.

If we can hear, we must listen. If we listen, we must obey.

Every church receives this message, the entirety of it.

We are called as the church to live from every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Every church has a lesson for every believer. Jesus didn't say the Ephesians,

you must listen to this letter that I'm writing to the church in Ephesus.

He didn't say to the Smyrnians, you must listen to what Spirit says to the church in Smyrna.

He says to the seven churches, anyone who has a hear, let him hear what the

Spirit says to these churches. All of them, each of them.

We are commanded to hear the entirety, the fullness of God's revelation to us.

Not so that we can rank ourselves against others, not so that we can be discouraged,

so that we can learn and grow as disciples of Jesus.

Just like you need to do, just like I need to do, just like we need to do.

We are called to live by every word, to hear, to listen, and obey.

Might find yourself relating to one congregation more than another.

Each of you might disagree with which one you relate to most,

but there are words to be received from all of them.

There are warnings to be heeded from all of them. There's encouragement to drive

us forward from all of them, if we have ears to hear, that Jesus is Lord,

he is building his church, and so I am awaiting his return.

These descriptions of Christ are for you. These praises are for you.

These warnings and judgments are for you.

These exhortations are for you, and these promises are for you.

Read, hear, obey.

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy,

and blessed are those who hear it and take it to heart what is written in it,

because the time is near.

Hear he who has ears to hear let him hear what the Spirit has to say to these seven churches.

God, I pray that we would receive this morning.

You are Lord. You are the glorified Jesus full of power.

You are the risen Lamb who was slain but now lives forevermore.

You are the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning, and the end.

It is all about you. It is all for you. You hold all things together.

In you all things were made, and for you all things exist.

You deeply love your church. So much so that a metaphor you use from the Old

Testament to Revelation is that the church is your bride.

That you want to see your bride ready.

That you are preparing us for you. I pray that we would love your church.

I pray that we would love your people. I pray that our love wouldn't grow cold.

I pray that we would not be lukewarm. I pray that we would not.

Think ourselves too highly than we are and that we would not esteem ourselves

too lowly for you have made us a holy people.

I pray that we would receive these words in our hearing, in our reading,

and I pray that we would act, that we would do, and that we would be the church that is ready for you.

You are giving us time. You are giving us encouragement.

You are giving us the power of your Spirit in us.

The Jesus who walks among his churches, that you are walking,

just as it's said in Revelation, that you walked in the midst of these seven churches.

You are walking in our midst right now. You are here.

We don't have to have some...

Mountaintop experience to know that you are here. It is always good when we

do, and we thank you for it. We thank you for all the times that we encounter,

and experience your living spirit, Aaron, with us.

But you are here right now, Jesus.

You love this church. You love your people. You died for your people.

You died for all people, that everyone, as we read in 2 Samuel,

that you provide opportunities for all who have been banished, who all live in exile

in the kingdom of darkness, slaves to our own desires, to our own hearts,

to our own sins, to our own things that we can't get out of,

the patterns of behavior that we've been taught and that we've learned from

our experiences in life that have been destructive in our lives.

You provide opportunities for the exiles to come home. You bring us out,

you lead us through, and you walk us in.