The Church of Smyrna - A Crushed Fragrance - Revelation: The Apocalypse

You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

God knows our style.

God notices even what other people don't notice.

He notices what you're going through.

He says, here, I know your work, I know your tribulation, and I know your poverty.

And then he makes an entry statement that you are rich.

So when Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy, God is building something into your character.

He's building something into you through suffering that can't be gained any other way.

Today, Pastor Steve continues his series on the Book of Revelation.

At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

For more information on The Road, visit the Road.org.

We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

Well, listen, if you're uh if you're new with us tonight or you've never been here before and you're just checking us out, we're in the book of Revelation.

So if you have your Bibles, we're finally back after three weeks' hiatus.

Um we're studying the most controversial book in the Bible, the book of Revelation.

And um we are in this journey with Revelation in that the very first part uh that we talked about earlier over the last few months has been the glory of the triumphant Christ.

And if there's one thing that we can say from the book of Revelation, is that the the revelation of the of the reigning and ruling Christ is the main theme.

And underneath that, under that rubric, is this idea that God has called us to endure hardship as an overcomer through the reigning and ruling Christ.

Where we are right now, though, is chapters two and three.

We've just started into Revelation chapter two.

And Revelation chapter two and three is about the seven churches, the seven churches in Asia Minor.

These were real churches.

And there's three parts to how we look at this.

The first is the idea of the local context that that church was going through.

And the first church was the church in Ephesus.

Tonight we're talking about the church in Smyrna.

These were real churches, uh, men and women.

And I've been approached on several occasions to lead tours into Asia Minor and to follow the book of Revelation.

And maybe someday we will do that.

I just don't feel like I've got time for it right now, but you can go to the ruins of the city, some of which still exist, most of which do not, but you can see in many cases where the actual church building was at that time.

So there is a local context every time we study one of the seven churches.

We're gonna look at the local context of Smyrna, the church in Smyrna.

But then there's a translocal context.

There's an international, there's a universal purpose that John told us about the church in Ephesus or the church in Smyrna or the church in Laodicea.

In other words, these seven churches are like all churches of all time.

The struggles they go through, we go through.

The struggles that made that church what it is are the struggles that make the American church or the African church or the Russian church what it is.

It's interesting that in all our studies of all the different seven churches in chapters two and three, it never talks about the programs of the church.

It talks about the heart of the church.

I don't think God is over enamored with any of our programs.

What God is interested in is the heart of the church, the vision of his glory flowing through that local community of believers.

It's interesting too, I'll say this, that it's always a church of a city.

Do you realize that there's a church of Colorado Springs?

Now there's like, I think there's like three, last my last count, which was years ago, there were like three, over 300 churches in Colorado Springs.

Can you believe that from God's vantage point, it's the church of Colorado Springs?

That he loves the church of Colorado Springs?

Now it may have the label Episcopal, it may have the label Pentecostal, it may have the label Bible, but God loves the church of Colorado Springs.

And there's something about the Church of Colorado Springs that's unique to this church that is nowhere else.

It might have been that because we were teaching on the church in Smyrna, that God showed up two weeks ago in that gathering when we were here together, three weeks ago.

Because if you remember, because I'm just now, it's not in my notes.

Okay, I'm kind of putting this together.

That message, which was extemporaneous, if you recall, part of it dealt with the church of Colorado Springs.

So there is a local meaning, there's a translocal meaning, and then there's a personal meaning, men and women, that God's got a message for each of you.

He's got something to say to each of you tonight.

He's gonna have something to say to you next week when we go into the next church.

And so as we study these seven churches, the way, the style, the theme of John is this: there's always a critique or a criticism, and then there's always a commendation.

So he commends them for something, he criticizes them for something else, but in this church and in one other church, there will be no criticism tonight.

The Lord is so excited and so glorified through the church in Smyrna.

So we are in Revelation 2, verse 8.

Revelation 2:8

Let's start there.

And to the angel of the church in Smyrna, right?

These things say the first and the last, who was dead and came to life.

So Christ in his glory gives his title of first and the last, the Alpha Nomega, which peppers all the way through chapter 1.

He was dead.

He came back to life.

He's speaking to John, who's probably in a cave.

You can go to the cave of the apocalypse, the cave of the revelation of John on the island of Patmos today.

It's there.

They believe that's where he had the vision, the revelation, the apocalypse of Jesus Christ.

And he's writing now to Smyrna, and Smyrna comes from the word myrrh.

And myrrh was used in embalming the dead.

And so what they did with myrrh, men and women, is they took that substance, that gooey substance of myrrh, a spice, and you know what they did?

They crushed it.

They crushed it.

And when that myrrh was crushed, it emanated a beautiful fragrance.

And it was so stunning and it was so extreme that they used it in embalming and they used it over dead bodies to cover up the decaying flesh of the dead person.

And it's a beautiful symbol of what's happening in the church in Smyrna here in the first century.

They are a church, they are a people being crushed by the Romans.

Being crushed by the Roman government, being crushed by the Jewish synagogue in Smyrna, but their fragrance in their crushing is beautiful.

Do you realize that there can be a crushing in your life that can bring forth a fragrance of beauty to those around you by how you handle your crushing?

And so the fragrance coming forth from Smyrna is of a people being crushed.

No city in Asia Minor was more devoted and loyal to Rome than the city of Smyrna and their commitment to emperor worship.

When the Roman general Sulla and his ill-clad army cried out for clothing and food, the Smyrnians came and took care of them.

And as a result, the Emperor Tiberius in A.D.

26 gave them a huge new temple.

So since the beginning of the century leading up to the coming of Christ, Smyrna had been committed to Rome.

Considered the most beautiful city in all of Asia.

Alexander had built it hundreds of years before because of the beauty, called the crown of Asia.

It was the center of science and medicine.

Deeply loyal to the Caesars of Rome.

The temple of Zeus and Aphroditus was there.

Under Domitian, if you recall, if you haven't forgotten in the four weeks since we've been in Rome, Domitius is the emperor.

It was capital punishment.

Listen now, it was capital punishment if you did not worship the emperor.

And the way this was done was there was a festival.

And at that festival, what they would do is they were given manna.

And so this manna, this spice, was thrown onto an image of Domitian in emperor worship, and in so doing, they received a certificate.

It was capital punishment.

That was just once a year.

It was capital punishment if you were seen not doing that.

No other city so enforced the worship of Domitian like Smyrna.

So here's this church, probably not very big, a small church, devoted to the Lord, knowing that idolatry was wrong, knowing that it was sinful, and having to make a choice about what they're going to do.

Now, some of you know that this week we had, how many of you are familiar with the story of Saeed Abedini, who's been in prison in Iran?

Most of you here, because you've been a part of our ministry.

You may have been following it on Facebook and even in the national media.

And he was released three months ago under the Obama administration with an exchange with some terrorists, and it was very controversial.

But Saeed's sister, Zizi, was in our home for the last few days.

She's close friends with Anna.

And so a number of you guys came over to our house and heard her share.

But we were sitting around with Zizi, and she's she didn't come to America since she was 23.

And so all she knew was Iran.

And by the way, I kept saying Iran, and she kept saying Iran.

And I go, okay, you're the expert.

So now I'm saying it right finally.

So everybody, say it together.

One, two, three, Iran.

That's how you say it.

Not Iran.

Georgia boys go, Iran.

But it's Iran.

But she was sharing about how she got saved and how Saeed gave his life to the Lord as the first one in the family.

And what kind of pressure he was under there in Iran in that state, his life was constantly threatened.

And then his sister came to know the Lord, and his mom came to know the Lord, and his dad came to the Lord, and this little Armenian church became an Iranian church, Iranian, Iranian church.

And then the iron heel of the Iranian government was always upon this little fellowship.

And so that's like Smyrna.

That's what Smyrna's been under.

Folks, I believe it's coming here.

Prepare yourself.

Be ready.

Persecution is rising.

It's rising in our schools.

It's rising in our government.

It's rising in different pockets.

Some of you, even right now, know that if you took any kind of a strong stand for the Lord, it'd be maybe the end of your career in something, right?

I mean, that was unheard of 40 years ago, but that's where things are going.

And Satan's on the move.

And Satan's on the move in churches.

And Satan's on the move in culture.

And he's moving.

And he always has.

And like I look at some of, I mean, I hurt my knee skiing.

You know, and I and I look at some of the stuff that is happening in our family, the whole family, an extended family.

And then I listen to Zizzy share.

And I go, man, I don't know anything about the kind of life that so many believers have to live around the world.

Well, the Smyrnian church is under that iron heel of Rome.

I know your works, your tribulation and poverty, but you are rich.

And I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and they're not, but they're of the synagogue of Satan.

Now listen, folks, God knows our suffering.

God notices even what other people don't notice.

He notices what you're going through.

He says here, I know your works, I know your tribulation, and I know your poverty.

And then he makes an interesting statement, but you are rich.

And so what Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy, God is building something into your character.

He's building something into you through suffering that can't be gained any other way.

And I believe that we can take our circumstances that bring suffering in our life, you guys, and we can turn that around, and we can actually gain wisdom through it.

That instead of cursing God, we bless God, and so blessing God, he notices you.

You know, God knows your name.

I love that beautiful passage of young Samuel, you know, in the temple there.

And Eli and all his sons and their undisciplined sons.

And he's got this little kid named Samuel, whose mom had cried out for him to be born, and when he was born, she dedicated the Lord, and he goes to the temple, and then one day the Lord comes and says, Samuel.

He calls out his name.

One time I was in Japan and with my roommate, we were sitting around one night, and I don't know, I was in a kooky mood, which is like most of the time.

And uh we were always doing practical jokes, and um so my roommate was a guy named Sam.

His name was Sam.

I don't know if it was Samuel or not, but it was Sam, he's a Hawaiian guy.

And and so I said, Samuel.

He goes, What?

I didn't see anything.

He goes, What are you talking about, man?

What?

Samuel.

What?

And we went back and forth for a while.

But but God called out to Samuel.

He called his name, he calls your name.

Men and women, he calls your name.

The Lord knows your name.

He does.

Denny, the Lord knows your name.

He knows who you are.

Robert, the Lord knows your name.

And he was a part of the naming of you through your parents.

He knows your name and he's got a call on your life.

He also knows our suffering, guys.

He knows what you're going through.

And some of you have been through tremendous suffering.

Some of it because of your own mistakes, probably most of it for most of us, but a lot of it because Satan wants to take you out.

Demons want to ruin your family and ruin your life.

Listen, the Christian life is not for the passive.

The Christian life is not for those who acquiesce to struggles or run.

The Christian life, to be a wholehearted disciple, is to face adversity and to actually walk straight into it.

And these folks in Smyrna are doing that.

And then it's just an unbelievable statement here.

I know the blasphemy of those who say they're Jews, they're not Jews.

Interesting statement.

They're not Jews.

They say they're Jews, they're ethnically Jews, their bloodline is Jewish.

They're not Jews.

They're of the synagogue of Satan.

And so what was happening is to the Jews at that time in Smyrna, it was more important to be a Roman Jew than to be a Jehovah's Jew.

And so the Jews, yes, they were ethnically Jews, were siding with Rome.

Which says to me, from the context of the passage and what we know in history is that they must have been a part of the idolatry of emperor worship.

So they were not being persecuted.

The Christians, who many of them were former Jews.

See, the reason the Jews had a hard time with the first century church called the Way was because most of them were former Jews.

Now we might say today completed Jews or Messianic Jews, but they came from that synagogue.

So they had been a part of that synagogue, and then they had gotten saved, and in so getting saved, they had made a choice not to be a part of emperor worship.

And so the Lord Jesus in your Bible, if you've got one of those Bibles that has black and red, like I do, this is in the red, right?

Because Jesus is saying this to John.

John's writing down what Jesus is saying to him in the vision.

You could arguably say that the only book in the Bible written by Jesus is the book of Revelation.

Because it's a vision of Jesus, Jesus telling him what to say, Jesus giving the vision.

And in this case, this is straight from Jesus' mouth.

He calls these Jews a synagogue of Satan.

So God knows our works and our tribulation, our poverty.

James said it this way.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

But let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

There's no other endeavor in the human existence and in the human journey scripturally that says through this, if you'll press through, if you'll not cut and run, if you'll press in to suffering, if you'll come out of the other end and let God lead you, that you'll be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

I wish it said, if you would just go to church every week, especially on Saturday night, tithe all your money to the church so that it is bountiful with all the produce and share your faith with three people a week and leave one of them to the Lord, you'll be perfect and lacking in nothing.

Doesn't say that.

It actually says that you'll go through various trials and that the trials are actually there for the testing of your faith to produce patience that it might have its perfect work, that we might be perfect, complete, lacking nothing.

I don't like that verse.

But if it's true, if it's true, then you that are married probably need to look at your spouse a little differently sometimes.

If you're in a job and you've got a demonized boss, by the way, it's i I think it's a prerequisite to leadership.

If you haven't had a demonized boss, There's one in your future.

I promise you.

Or you look at those family reunions, and Uncle Bob shows up.

And you're eating fried chicken in the back, and he said, and he just starts ripping you because you go to church and you're a believer.

Or you lost a job because you're a Jesus follower.

Or you lost your friends because you decided to be pure before marriage.

Count it all joy.

Because what God's doing deep down inside is He's making you complete.

It's the only way in Scripture that tells us that we become perfect, complete, and lacking nothing but through suffering.

So count it all joy.

And some of you come out of the just horrendous backgrounds.

You've been abused almost since the day you can remember sexually and emotionally and physically.

What's that about?

Is it demonic?

Absolutely, it's demonic.

Did God intend in his perfect will for you to go through that?

No, I don't believe so.

But here's the deal.

In this fallen world in which we're subject to the pressures that come our way, God can actually perfect you if you'll let him, if you'll receive his power to deal with it.

Because I don't know about you, but we've all been through stuff in our life where we don't have the capacity to do it anymore.

I can't take that.

I can't handle that.

And the Lord says, with me all things are possible.

And what he's doing is he's pressing you into this mold that looks like Jesus.

And the Smyrnians are experiencing that.

Peter said this: After you've suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself, here it is again, perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

The church in Smyrna is suffering, listen, for doing the right thing, not doing the wrong thing.

If you're suffering for doing the wrong thing, then confess that.

You know, repent of that.

But these guys are suffering for doing the right thing, and they didn't have to suffer if they did the wrong thing.

Because it'd be easier to acquiesce.

It would be easier to go with the crowd.

It'd be easier to just jump in the stream and just flow down.

And when I took that little bit of what they call manna, Roman manna, and I threw it on that image of Domitian.

It didn't mean anything to me.

I'm not worshiping.

I just threw it on there and got my certificate.

And when the authorities start coming door to door, I can show them my certificate and we're cool.

And yet, for those in Smyrna, listen, that was something that they had to decide based on their conscience.

And so, men and women, we have a conscience.

God has given us a spirit-filled conscience.

And so I was telling my D group of young men today in our D group that I can't talk to any one of them about some of the gray areas of scripture where there's no, it doesn't say whether it's right or wrong.

And I said, you guys, as you grow in maturity, you've got to learn to listen to your conscience.

Okay, so I drink beer.

I like beer.

I think beer, I like special craft beer.

Now, course is terrible, but I like beer.

Okay, but if I came from an alcoholic background, or if my dad had been an alcoholic and that tendency was in my family, my conscience wouldn't be clear by drinking alcohol.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

But for me, it's fine.

The point is, everybody has to deal with their own conscience about what they determine to be right and wrong.

And so, in that, and you know, here's what's the easiest thing to do in the Christian faith is to put a blanket statement that this is all bad and this is all good based on that denomination or that pastor or whatever.

And what that does is it rids us of the faculty of seeking the kingdom first in our own life.

Does that make sense?

So when we talk about at the road building whole-hearted disciples or developing whole-hearted men and women, what we're talking about is developing them.

And what we're developing is a heart to hear from God.

That's what these kids were saying up here.

They're starting to hear from God.

And what they need is confirmation as young people to confirm that they're hearing from God.

And that one young man, you know, he felt like he was hearing from the Lord that he was to be in youth, some kind of youth leadership or youth ministry.

And then Daniel walks up and says, I feel like God's saying you should be in youth leadership or youth ministry.

What does that do to his faith to believe in the future the voice of God?

But listen, guys, you don't hear the voice of God if you don't seek God.

And so the problem with the American church today is that we've kind of got it all mapped out, right?

I call it the flattening down of the gospel.

We've trivialized everything.

And so this is right and this is wrong, and you know, like it or lump it.

I believe that God speaks today.

And I believe he speaks to individuals and he speaks to you.

And so as you, how well, how do you do that?

You do that by honing, listening to the voice of the Lord, by being in Scripture on a regular basis, talking to the Lord, praying to the Lord, taking everything to the Lord.

You hear what I'm saying?

And so as you do that, God speaks.

And so the the Smyrnians were getting crushed for doing the right thing.

Why is that important?

Because it's one thing to be crushed because you're an idiot.

All right?

And by the way, everybody here is an idiot sometimes, okay?

Right.

But if you probably guys have heard me talk about the two-knock and the one-knock method.

So if we were lined up and there's an overhang that's at five foot two, it has to be around there for me.

And I see the guy in front of me come up and whack his forehead on the overhang, and I'm right behind him, and he's bleeding across his forehead and goes, ow! That hurt.

And then I just walk right into the same overhang, wow, bam, that's called the two-knock method.

Those of you that are not idiots, you look at that and you go, maybe I should duck.

So we can learn from each other or not learn from each other.

But the reality is this that for these guys, they were doing the right thing.

And instead of doing the right thing, they were suffering.

And there may be a day coming when you're gonna be living next door to someone, and that person's taking a stand for the Lord, and they come to take him away.

Because he's more bold than you are.

And you have to make a choice.

Am I gonna live in calm and comfort and lie my way through this thing, or am I gonna be a Jesus follower?

And it's what the true Christians, the confessing church, alongside Dietrich Bonhoeffer, had to make that decision in the 1930s and 40s as the Nazis came to take the Jews away.

And the Smyrnians are doing the right thing.

And so that's why he says, you are rich.

You're rich.

Because I'm your treasure.

Men and women, you're rich when Jesus is your only treasure.

You know that?

You're rich when he's your treasure.

I know the blasphemy by those who say they're Jews and are not, but they're of the synagogue of Satan.

What a shocking statement.

This is, it's interesting.

The Jews and the Romans in Smyrna, five things they accused the Christians of at that time.

Let me give you what those were.

Number one, they accused them of cannibalism.

They accused the church of cannibalism because of communion.

This is my body broken for you.

Eat my body, drink my blood.

So the church in Smyrna was being accused of cannibalism.

Number two, they were being accused of immorality because they gave each other a holy kiss.

I kid you not.

So we don't do the holy kiss thing here, okay?

Not because of immorality, but because we just don't do that.

You can do that with your wife.

Give her a holy kiss every morning when you wake up.

Number three, that the church was breaking up homes.

And the reason that was believed was because many times a man or a woman who got saved, there was an agreement in the home, and it was breaking up homes.

Fourthly, they were accused of atheism because they rejected the pantheon.

Isn't this interesting?

They rejected the pantheon of the deities of Rome for one God, so they were called atheist.

And then fifthly, and now listen to this one carefully.

I saved it for last.

National disloyalty and rebellion.

National disloyalty and rebellion because they did not worship the emperor.

And listen, they believed that their citizenship was in heaven more than in Rome.

The reason I saved it for last is because this is hugely important in America.

I love America.

I love the freedoms we have in America.

I've been to over 30 nations of the world, and that's why I appreciate America more than ever because of what I've seen around the world.

But the Bible never tells me to seek first America.

It tells me to seek first the kingdom of God.

And so our allegiance is first the cross.

The reason I say that is because sometimes when I hear some preachers, especially on TV, I get the feeling that the Bible is somehow wrapped up in the American flag, and it ain't, guys.

It's not.

And we're a greedy nation.

We're an injust nation.

By the way, I think we're one of the least greedy.

But I say that because all nations are, but don't forget that.

Don't put your hope in America.

Put your hope in Jesus.

Because there is stuff happening in our nation that may call us to a choice that we will have to make.

So I love our nation.

Don't hear me say anything other than that.

But understand, we love Jesus more.

And Jesus sometimes is going to call you to do the right thing, and the right thing may be persecution for you because you made that choice.

Right?

Everything got really quiet when I said that.

He says of the Jews that they're a synagogue of Satan.

It's one of the most powerfully damning statements in all of Scripture.

He calls the Jews a Smyrna of the synagogue of Satan.

Now listen, folks, don't miss this.

A Jew can be a Jew physically and ethnically, but not spiritually.

The true spiritual Jews are the ones who worship the Messiah Jesus.

Paul affirmed this in Romans.

For he at Romans 2, 28 and 29, for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is he circum, nor is circumcision that which is outward of the flesh.

But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from man, but from God.

And so, and so you and I are spiritual Jews.

Every one of you here are spiritual Jews.

You are followers of the Messiah, Jesus.

Do not fear any of those things which you're about to suffer.

Church, the greatest weapon of Satan is fear.

The battle in Smyrna is the age-old battle that every one of us in this room fight.

It is the battle of fear.

Satan is constantly accusing you in order to create fear.

He's the accuser of the brethren.

He accuses us day and night.

And in my case, he does it best at night.

2 a.m.

2 a.m.

to 4 a.m.

Deadly time for me.

Not a good time.

That's why I keep melatonin right next to the side of the bed.

I'm serious.

Because for me, it seems like 2 to 4 a.m., I get bombarded with negativity, and everything that's going wrong just comes to haunt me sometimes at night.

And I'm learning and growing to fight that and battle that through reminding myself of all the beautiful and wonderful things that are in Christ and all the blessings that are in Christ.

The Bible says, fear not or do not be afraid over 100 times.

I am with you, follows, fear not 16 times.

When we put our faith fully in Christ, now don't miss this, when we put our faith fully in Christ, expect fear to follow.

When you put your faith fully in Christ, expect fear to follow.

Because you become a target at that point for the enemy, and he puts a bullseye over your heart to begin to attack you in the arena of fear.

And Jesus notices that, even in the Smyrnian church, this fear is Satan's greatest work.

But Jesus said this, these things I've spoken to you, that in me you may have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation.

Be of good cheer.

I have overcome the world.

Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days.

Now we don't know if that's if that's prophetic or proverbial or metaphorically or if it was literally ten days.

We don't know.

Be faithful until death.

And I will give you the crown of life, the Stephanos, the crown of life.

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

He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.

So many women, what he's saying here is finish well.

Finish well.

You're gonna go through persecution.

You're gonna go through difficulties.

You're gonna be ripped off.

People are gonna betray you.

People you trusted in, who you feasted with, who you had into your home, who you trusted and you love, they're gonna stab you in the back.

You're gonna get betrayed.

It's part and parcel with the Christian life.

And he says, be an overcomer if you have ears to hear.

And it looks to me like everybody has an ear in here.

At least one.

He's saying, look, if you have ears to hear, I know you have ears, but do you have ears to hear?

Because one of the biggest struggles in our life is to listen.

Two ears, one mouth.

Two ears, one mouth.

To listen and to hear what God's saying.

And he's writing to them, and he's saying, if you'll have ears to hear, you can be an overcomer.

You can overcome anything that God allows the enemy to work in your life, and you can come forth with a victorious life as those struggles come.

Let me give you four things that I think destroy our walk with God.

This is based on counseling, being a pastor and a missionary.

Let me tell you four things that I think are some of the biggest things that destroy our walk with God.

Number one is we dry up.

There is, some of you, men and women, haven't been in the Word in weeks.

Some of you may not have opened the Word in months.

Now you're here tonight.

That's fantastic, and that's definitely a step in the right direction.

But are you regularly in God's Word?

If you're not in God's Word, you will dry up.

And so if you dry up, you start having all kinds of vain imaginations.

Hello?

Anybody know what I'm talking about?

Man, if you are not renewing your mind regularly in the inerrant, infallible, two-edged sword of God's word, you'll dry up.

That's number one.

Number two, drift back.

Dry up, number one.

Number two, drift back.

You start to fall back into old sinful habits.

If we're drying up, we always drift back.

And so the things that, I mean, you know, you remember, and all of this is true, you know, when you first got saved, you're so fired up and you're so excited, and you're kind of on this kind of adrenaline rush, kind of a spiritual adrenaline rush.

Well, that stops after a while because you're mature enough not to run just on your emotions.

But if you're not spending time in God's Word and you start to dry up, you'll start to drift back into old habit patterns.

And I've seen so many believers, I'm talking about really solid, in some cases, pastors and leaders, who start to drift.

They drift back into bad stuff.

Number three, disappointments.

Disappointments.

Everybody here has disappointments.

We all have disappointments.

We have things that we thought were going this way, and it's disappointing.

It's what we do with our disappointments that determines our future.

It's what we do with our disappointments that determines our destiny.

And too many people blame God instead of growing in God through their disappointments.

And then fourthly, and I think three and four really are tied together, destructive relationships.

Destructive relationships.

No blood-stained allies.

I know a man right now that is going through something.

If you heard his name, you'd know his name.

He's famous all over the country.

And I have inside information through relatives in the family that this guy is getting ripped.

And I mean, he is he is experiencing huge disappointments in his life right now.

He has no control.

This has nothing to do with him.

This is being done to him.

He hasn't done anything wrong.

Matter of fact, what he's done so far, as far as I can tell, is absolutely godly and right in all of his actions.

And he's going through a tremendous amount of pressure and he has no blood-stained allies.

He needs men in his life to come alongside and give him hope.

He needs men in his life to come alongside and say, you can make it, and we're going to stand with you.

We're going to hang with you.

We're going to be your brothers through this.

And so what happens, though, is that so many of our Christian friends abandon us and we go to our secular friends, and those become eventually destructive relationships.

But the Bible says in Romans 8, for your sake we're killed all day long.

We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So rather, listen, rather than dry up, drink up.

Rather than dry up, drink up.

Drink God's word.

Start each day in God's word, men and women.

Be in God's word.

Conclude the day.

Be in God's word.

If you have a spouse, you've never done this, try doing it together.

But be in God's word.

So number one, rather than dry up, drink up.

Number two, rather than drift back, drive forward.

In other words, it's to me, it's always been like a river.

And because I like to fly fish, I'm sometimes in some really fast rivers.

And um, and you, you know, you kind of have to lock yourself down when you're casting and everything, because you're in the middle of this river.

And I'm telling you, if I relax, boom, I'm down the river.

Because I have.

And it's and it's not that fun.

Especially when your waders are filling up with water and you're about 10 feet deep and you're coming into a waterfall with a fish on the other line.

This actually happened in Estes Park.

I have to tell you that story sometime.

But but if you to drift, if you the only counter to drifting back is you've got to drive up.

You've got to be moving.

And so we drive forward while dealing with problem areas and facing the issues with courage.

Number three, rather than wallow in our disappointments, start to believe that God causes all things to work together for good.

And then lastly, rather than destructive relationships, nurture blood-stained allies in your life.

And that's for you women too.

That you would have blood-stained allies that would stand with you.

Not just friends, allies.

Shoulder to shoulder allies.

Those that will battle with you and don't cut and run when it gets hard.

Smyrna, myrrh, crushed.

And in their crushing came forth a fragrant aroma.

May we be a church at the road that as we go through crushings, we might be a fragrant aroma to the Lord.

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