The Open Door

Thanks, Pastor Justin.

Good morning.

How is everybody?

Great.

Good.

Let's get some notes figured out here.

Um as Pastor Justin said, I'm Luke.

Hello to those who I have not met before.

Um, I've met a lot of you, and uh it's a joy to be back up here.

It is always a gift to be able to be in the pulpit and preaching.

Um first service was was good, smooth, so maybe you guys will get an upgrade.

I don't know.

I don't know if it's better or worse, but uh to God be the glory for whatever it is.

Um as Justin said, uh my wife Melissa and I have we've been here a while, serve as kids leaders, also serve as mission group leaders, and um it's just been a great joy.

The kids' ministry lately has really been flourishing with uh a lot of kids and a lot of nice new spaces.

So um that's been awesome to be a part of, a lot of new volunteers as well.

So that's been great.

Um, as Pastor Justin said, we're gonna be diving back into Revelation this morning, and we are going to be in chapter three.

So I want to give a little background um on this series, just a quick background as well as some context on where we're at.

But before I do that, I know Pastor Justin just prayed, but let me uh let me pray for us as well, and then we'll get started here.

Father, thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning.

Thank you for uh all the people that are here.

I pray that our hearts are postured towards you, Spirit, that you would move in a mighty, mighty way this morning, and that uh the gospel will be made much of, and the truth of the gospel and what it means for us and our lives would be evident and obvious.

I pray that the encouragement in this letter to the Church of Philadelphia would be an encouragement to our hearts.

And I pray most of all, uh, Lord, that you would increase, Lord, and I would decrease this morning, that we would just uh have our hearts and minds set and focused on you.

Just ask it all in your mighty name.

Amen.

All right, so um, real quick, a little bit of background and context on kind of where we're at and what we're what we're getting into this morning.

So, as I said, we're continuing through the seven letters of the to the seven seven churches in the book of Revelation.

And uh the just a reminder for those who maybe haven't seen it or have forgotten, um, and Justin already kind of mentioned it, but the author is John writing um to the seven churches out of inspiration from Christ himself.

Uh John was later in his life when he wrote these letters and was in captivity.

And the letters, as I said, are really an inspiration from Christ and his encouragement to these churches.

Uh so we've covered five churches up to this point this week.

We are going to be covering the Church of Philadelphia, not the church or of the city of Philadelphia with the Liberty Bell and that the Fresh Prince hails from.

Uh that is a different Philadelphia.

There's more Fresh Prince fans in the first service.

There's a lot of a lot of people happy about that.

Um, but no, so a little history though.

I did want to give a little history of the city of Philadelphia that we're covering here.

So it was established in 189 BC by a king of the name of Eumenis II.

He was from Pergamum.

So if Pergamum rings a bell, that's might be because we covered the church in Pergamum as one of the seven letters uh earlier in the sermon series.

That uh was where this king hailed from.

He established the city of Philadelphia and actually was named, the city was named uh for his brother, who would become his successor later in life.

And uh his brother's name was Adelus II, and his loyal his brother's loyalty uh nick had given him, because of his loyalty, he was given the nickname of Philadelphius, which literally means one who loves his brother.

So if you've ever heard of the city of Philadelphia in the U.S.

as the city of brotherly love, that's where that comes from.

A little history lesson for you, if if you're interested in that.

And uh what we know about some things we can take away about the the church in Philadelphia that he's writing to, uh a little bit smaller, a little bit um less recognized than some of the other churches that are written to in these letters.

Uh we see, and I'll give a little more context of that as we dive into the passage this morning, but we see that um the church was probably a little less significant in the eyes of the world, especially in the Roman Empire.

Um Jesus kind of calls that, calls out that they have little power.

Uh, and we'll get into that, like I said, as we work through the summary of the passage.

Well, one thing we do notice here as we dive, as we're gonna dive in back into it and kind of summarize our passage, is the tone of the letter and the tone of Christ and his message to the Church of Philadelphia.

Uh that tone is is very much one of praise and encouragement, of recognition to what the church in Philadelphia is doing.

And it's very unlike last week, uh the last week's and the previous letter to the church in Sardis.

So if you were here last week for Pastor Jordan's message, um he did a great job, and it was uh really quite different.

Uh the tone is very challenging from the last letter.

Uh really a call to action for that church to wake up.

So less of an encouragement for them doing a good job and patiently enduring, like we see we'll see this morning in the Church of Philadelphia, and much more of a challenge for them to turn things around.

And so uh we actually see in this tone as well, for there's an earlier church, the second letter that we covered, uh the church in Smyrna.

It's a very similar kind of tone to that, if you recall that letter, uh, which was also kind of a letter of encouragement.

So I want to spend some time as we get started here working through uh verse by verse the passage that was just read.

Um thanks to Brandy for doing that.

Uh, to kind of get us rooted in the scripture, get us rooted in what uh Christ has for us in these words this morning, so we can examine that uh and so we can see that encouraging tone that I've described for um ourselves.

So as we jump back in, and if you're you're tracking along with us in the app for taking notes, this is where we'll start to get into those highlighted portions in the app if you want to take notes there.

And so we're dive right in.

I'm gonna dive right back into verse seven where we start.

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, right, the words of the Holy One, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.

So right out of the out of the at the start of the letter, we see in verse seven, uh the way I would summarize that is Jesus is the Holy One, the true one, and he has the key of David.

So for those of us who follow Christ, who are in Christ, this shouldn't be new news to us.

This should be something we we know, and it would be something also that the church in Philadelphia knew.

From what we can see uh in Christ and how he encourages the Church of Philadelphia and how they patiently endured and stayed true to the word, uh, that this is something they would know.

But I think it's worth mentioning that Jesus starts out here, and that the call out that he is the holy one, the true one, and has the key of David is a truth that is worth reiterating over and over and over again.

It is an encouragement that needs to be heard and reminded.

Uh, those who are hearing it need to be reminded of.

And he's encouraging the Church of Philadelphia with this truth.

As we jump into verse eight, he says, I know your works.

Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut.

I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

So in verse eight, the way I would summarize that is that Jesus sees his children and recognizes when his people are faithful.

Church, what an encouragement this is.

What an encouragement that it is to know that Christ sees our faithfulness.

When we are faithful, he recognizes that.

And just as he does in the Church of Philadelphia, and I won't call it the church in Philly, I promise.

I was, I've been, I've been teetering on the edge of calling it Philly out of out of uh I won't I won't go there.

Um feels feels wrong.

But he sees the church and he sees the faithfulness of the church in Philadelphia.

And although he recognizes that there's little power, that there's some weakness there, um, and we see that that kind of reflects what I had talked about in the description of the church of Philadelphia earlier, um, that he still recognizes his children when we are faithful.

So as we jump into verse 9, behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not but lie.

Behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet.

They will learn that I have loved you.

So the way I would describe this is that there are consequences for the unfaithful.

So the same God who encourages and blesses is a God of discipline and wrath.

He also recognizes those who rebel, recognizes those who are against him.

And we can't have one without the other.

So we need to remember that.

Just like he sees our faithfulness, he also sees his enemies and he sees their rebellion.

So we're going to go ahead and jump to a couple verses here, verse 10 through 12.

Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.

I am coming soon.

Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.

The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.

Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heav out of heaven, in my own new name.

So the way I would summarize these few verses is that Jesus is coming soon, and the faithful will be rewarded.

So we see a shift here where Jesus shifts the focus to eternity and the eternal rewards for those who are faithful and follow him and stay true to his word.

Not only rewards in glory, not only rewards in heaven, but also the reward of Jesus Himself and Jesus coming back.

And then at the end here in verse 13, we'll go ahead and read this final verse in our letter this morning.

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

The way I would summarize that verse is that this message is for all to hear.

It's for everyone.

He says, for all the churches, and for all that have an ear to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Although this truth is directed at the church in Philadelphia, the truth of him being the true one, the holy one, and the truth about recognizing those who patiently endure and are faithful, is for all to hear.

And it's meant to be heard by all of us.

So as we summarize all these verses and we work through, and as now that we've kind of rooted into the scripture of the morning that we're covering here, that leads us to kind of what our main idea is and our main focus is for this morning.

And that's this though we have little power, faith in Christ opens the door to a supernatural ally that empowers us to patiently endure the trials of this world and promises us eternal glory with the King of Kings.

And so Jesus' message to the church in Philadelphia is a message of praise and recognition.

Like I said, it's encouraging.

He's recognizing how the church has stayed true to the to his word and the good they have done.

And he sees fit to remind them of who he is so they can continue to stay rooted there.

And he encourages them and reminds them of what their faith in him means.

And as believers, if you if you're someone here this morning that has put your faith in Christ and you are following Christ, I think you all and we all can recognize that following Christ at times can be a challenge.

There are seasons when we are on fire for the Lord, where we are rooted in his truths, where we are pursuing him diligently, where we are disciplined in that and we feel close to him.

And there's other times where we feel quite distant.

Where maybe we doubt, we have struggles, we feel like we're not close to the Lord.

And I think all of us have experienced that in our story to some extent.

Or maybe you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus.

Maybe you haven't put your faith in Christ.

Maybe you doubt who Christ is.

Maybe you think it's uh just a story, or he's, you know, he was just a prophet, or you have doubts about the person of Jesus and who he did in his gospel and what the cross means and what it means for you.

No matter where you're at in that spectrum, I think we we all can recognize that as a people, as human beings, that we reject the truth of the gospel to different degrees, day to day, week to week, and how we express that unbelief and the the and the true power of the gospel and what it means for us kind of comes out in different ways.

And so I want to cover some of that this morning.

I want to dive into how we express unbelief and the truth of the gospel and what the gospel means for us as people.

The first way I think that we we reject or express unbelief in the gospel is that we believe there are other ways to open the door.

So we see Christ in his first statement that he is the holy one, the true one who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.

That's very clear.

He opens and shuts the door.

No one else does.

But I think we oftentimes think that there are other ways to open that door he speaks of.

And there's a couple different, a few different ways that I think we do this.

First of all, I think that some of us just straight up don't think that Jesus is the only way.

We believe there's other means by which to open the door.

In other words, we deny, we might deny Jesus altogether.

We might not think that his gospel is true.

Um I also think as people sometimes, even if we don't say it, uh there's for those who unbel are in unbelief as especially, um, we think that we can they think that they can save themselves.

They think that they have the ability and their power, that they're so powerful and mighty and and in control of their lives that they think that by good works, by working hard, they can they can save themselves.

Another way I think that we believe there are other ways to open the door is that um some believe that Jesus is the way.

Somehow we believe and have put our faith in Christ.

We claim that the gospel is enough, but the way we live our life on a day-to-day basis is not necessarily a reflection of that.

That oftentimes we strive and we work hard to try to do things to earn God's favor, that we think that we have to do something in our own power, whether it be, you know, being a good person or serving others or whatever it might be, we believe that we have to do something to earn the favor of God.

And as believers, I think even if we put our faith in the gospel, I think there are times and seasons where we live our life in a way that our belief in the gospel is actually uh what we claim, and we might not deny it with our lips, but we sure do with our actions.

So I know I've had I've had seasons of doubt where I will work um to fix things that I'm struggling with all my own, and that's my first inclination is to run to my abilities to to change things, to get things right, to make myself feel better, to you know, solve the struggles I might have in my marriage and uh my parenthood and ministry and my relationships with friends and neighbors, whatever that might be.

Even though I'm claiming the gospel with my lips.

Another way that I think we think that there are other ways to open the door, simply put, is that I think there's some people that just don't believe they need saved.

There's just uh a level of self-righteousness in people that we I think all of us have some of that to some degree, but for those who deny the gospel altogether, maybe don't even recognize that the gospel should be considered.

And they don't think they need to be saved.

They think they're good, they think inherently they're they're not sinful, as the Bible tells us that we are, and they think that they have the ability to open the door on their own, or frankly, there's not a door that needs to be opened.

Another way that I think we express unbelief and the truths that we see this morning is that we treat faith as a sprint.

So, as I kind of mentioned earlier, we you know, as believers, we go through these seasons of of being really on fire for the Lord.

Maybe we're hot and cold.

And that's understandable.

Uh but I think one of the challenges and the way we treat faith as a sprint is we want all these quick wins and gains.

We don't want to, we don't want to wait.

We don't want to patiently wait for things.

We kind of treat Jesus like a vending machine.

So I mentioned this in the first service.

I uh back when I worked in an office, we had a vending machine.

I don't know how many people in here have wrestled with vending machines in the past.

I also don't know how many people actually work in an office anymore in here.

I feel like I've been working from home for 10 years.

Um it's been 10 months, I think.

Uh but I I joked this morning, I don't know if anybody else has been working from home like that.

Um but when you work from home with a six, four, and two-year-old, I think every day counts as a week.

Um so yeah, pray for me in that.

Uh but yeah, we used to have this vending machine, and I would you there were a couple dangers of it.

One, obviously the the kind of standard things getting stuck, challenges of vending machines, right?

But the whole point of a vending machine, you put your money in, you punch in the numbers, and you want your item like that, right?

And it's usually nice, convenient food that's not at all healthy for you.

Um I don't think I've ever seen fruit in a vending machine.

Maybe I'm sure they have them somewhere.

Uh the other, the other trap of our vending machine has had like a, I swear the tr the door on it was 30 pounds and spring loaded.

Why, why, I don't know.

So it can just capture your arm like a bear trap.

Um it's not enjoyable.

But I think we, you know, those kind of modern conveniences and modern technologies that we have uh are just small examples.

But all throughout our culture, there's all kinds of examples of how we don't have to wait for anything.

And I think we treat Jesus and I think we uh treat like our relationship with God as something that we make requests and we want to get it as quick as we can.

We want to we're leaf as quick as we can.

Um anybody make any prime Amazon Amazon Prime Day impulse buys this week?

Don't shake your head.

I know you did.

You really didn't?

None.

Man, that's not like you.

Yeah.

How is that?

I'm not a weirdo.

You're setting me up to really seem like a weirdo when I talk about this.

Um so I did.

Uh a bunch of people raised their hand in the first service.

I feel like everybody here is uh not not as much of a weirdo as I am.

But I so I impulse bought a drone.

Yeah, I'm that guy.

I'm a child.

I I buy myself toys.

Um but it's funny, I the reason I bring up Amazon is is it's just such an example of how we've been so spoiled to be impatient, right?

Like the two-day shipping, if you're a Prime member, just ruins all other shipping for you, right?

Like, if you think I don't know how long ago Prime came into existence, I'm trying to think, it's been probably what, five years or something like that.

Um I remember when like all e-commerce purchases, like it was not uncommon for five to seven-day shipping, right?

You're like, I'm gonna order something, it'll be here in a week, it's all good, I can wait.

And now, like Amazon, by exceeding our expectations consistently, just has ruined us on that.

Um, you know, like I ordered the drone and I was really excited about it because, again, it's it's a toy, let's be honest.

Even though I was like, I'm, you know, it's got a camera on it, I'll use it to take family photos when we travel and get really cool sunset shots, and and then, you know, uh three days later when it comes, I'm zooming it around by my kids' heads in the backyard.

And um, yeah, probably not the safest way to fly it, but I was getting overly confident in my ability to do it.

But yeah, so I I put that in and it was actually gonna be like four days of shipping.

It was like, you know, two days, get it by Thursday or whatever.

And it said uh shipping will come on Saturday.

And I was just like felt so wronged by that, right?

I'm like, really?

I gotta wait until Saturday to get this man toy that I just bought.

Um and then it came in two days, and I was really excited.

Again, they exceed my expectations, so it just keeps fanning the flame of my impatience.

Same with if you've ever had a two day shipping come in one day, right?

How exciting is that when it just shows up on your door?

I don't know how Amazon does it.

Um, probably witchcraft or something.

It's it's insane how quickly they can give you things.

Um, but we're not accustomed to waiting, we don't like.

Waiting.

Like, think about being in the information age, how quickly you can look up something.

Um, you know, in seconds, you can find out the most random facts on your phone.

And so we continue, I think, just continue to get um our expectations continue to be I need something and I need it now.

And if you do want to wait for something, if you want to practice patience, I would recommend going to King's Island on a Saturday right now.

Because all like all the COVID restrictions and all that in terms of uh capacity, I think has gone out the window because man, we were there yesterday, and waiting 30 minutes to watch your kid go around in circles on a swing is a test of patience for sure.

Um but yeah, so anyway, all that to say, I I think we we kind of treat faith, we're trained to treat things as a sprint because our life is such a sprint.

Our day-to-day activities are so focused on speed and not waiting and getting what we want right now, right here, uh, with very little to no waiting.

And frankly, that doesn't really align um with the teaching of the Bible.

If you look at all these stories in the Bible, one after another, there's all kinds of stories where people are waiting on the Lord.

And we'll get more into that a little bit later in the application phase of the sermon.

But uh, our next way that we express unbelief, and and this is kind of related to the patience thing, but I think it's more about our focus and our vision, is our focus is too short-sighted.

So some of us view ourselves as maybe too small.

Um, maybe we think we're too small to contribute to the mission that God has put us on and to grow his kingdom and make disciples.

Uh, much like the church in Philadelphia, where we see in the letter that they are referred to as having little power, maybe we struggle.

I think we struggle with that sometimes.

We think, like, what difference can I make?

Because our focus is too much on ourselves and too short-sighted to focus on ourselves and not on who Christ is.

Another way we're short-sighted, I think um, similar to what I just talked about with patients, everything we're shooting for, aiming for, and trying to accomplish is all about the here and now.

It's all about, you know, how might I fix this struggle?

How might I feel better from this illness?

How might I relieve this pain?

How might I um get something or have what's in it for me right here, right now, and in the season I'm in and the thing I'm doing.

And we lose sight of the eternal weight and the eternal kind of focus that we're called to of what we're doing and following Jesus and what the mission of making disciples and growing his kingdom, the weight of that and the focus of that, and the payoff of that for ourselves and for those we are discipling.

It's eternal.

Eternal, forever, not just about this week, this month, next month, this year.

We have to live our life, like we just don't live our lives with thoughts of what eternity looks like.

That doesn't even really cross our minds.

And in this, we may reject the gospel or ignore Jesus altogether.

And I think some of the rejection of the gospel has to do with our focus being too short-sighted.

Because we we don't even comprehend or think about the fact, like this weighty decision of following Jesus and what it means for eternity for us, we might not even get to the mindset of eternity.

So why would people that are out of that mindset even consider needing a savior?

With the reward being a reward, as we see here, being eternal.

So, with all this expression of unbelief, where where do where does Jesus come in?

And how does the gospel, how does the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross and the truth of who he is as being the true one, the only one who can open that door?

How does that expression, how does he save us from that expression of unbelief?

That gets us into our gospel conviction.

So this is our gospel conviction for this morning.

When sin entered in, the door to communion with God was shut.

But God, in his abundant grace, sent Jesus to open the door, and only he has the power to do so.

So when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, and once God created Adam and Eve to be in perfect communion with him, and they rebelled in the garden, our door to communion with God was slammed shut.

And so we need a savior, we need the true one, the holy one, to open the door to communion with God back up, to save us from ourselves and our sin.

So, how do we do this?

What do we do going forward?

How do we apply this to our life?

How do we apply the truth of this gospel conviction of who Jesus is and what he's done and what it means for us?

How do we apply that going forward?

I've got a few ways for us this morning of how we can do that.

The first, in our gospel practice, is to hold fast to truth.

So we see in this letter encouragement about the Church of Philadelphia and how they have stayed true to the word.

And I want to read this passage from Hebrews 10 as an encouragement, hopefully as an encouragement to us.

It's verse 23 in chapter 10 of Hebrews.

Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering.

For he who promised is faithful.

Church, you've been called, we've been called to a higher calling, a cosmic battle that is eternal ramification.

So hold fast to that mission that you have been called to, and the truth of who Jesus is and his gospel that drives it.

We have to stay centered on Jesus and who he is.

Just as the church in Philadelphia is encouraged, or the encouragement they are given, and the recognition that Christ sees them and sees that they have patiently endured and stayed true to the word, we need to strive for the same thing.

How do we stay centered on Jesus?

First of all, we need to renew our minds.

Renew our mind daily to focus on Christ and His truth.

If we're not seeing His truth, if we're not meditating on His Word, if we're not studying His Word, if we're not getting to know Him, it's gonna be very hard to stay rooted in the truth of who He is.

You can do this on your own.

You can read God's Word on your own together with brothers and sisters around you.

I'd even even recommend getting a study.

A couple brothers of mine from here, and a couple from Mission Group and some others have recently gotten into the study of a study of James.

Um, and it's been such an encouragement.

And it's been great because you get that one-on-one like that solo time by yourself in the study, digging in deep, really getting deeper into God's word, and then coming together as well.

And we need to seek that instruction.

We need to not be so proud that we think we've got it all figured out.

We need to seek to be edified in God's word and to be constantly seeking growth and instruction from his word.

And Sacred Mission offers a lot of opportunities for this.

If you haven't checked it out, I would I would encourage you to do so.

Uh, between mission groups, which is our our kind of a core of what we do here, to be surrounding yourself with other people who are seeking to be instructed and to stay rooted in truth of the word and what the gospel means for our lives.

Uh there's also classes and our connect months between when mission groups, we kind of have terms of commission groups, uh, mission groups, and between those, we have these connect months with opportunities for classes, whether it's gospel classes, um, class about what sacred mission is all about.

So I'd encourage us to do that.

And in those seasons where we feel like we're we're struggling and we're battling, and and maybe we feel persecuted about the truth that we believe, we need to take that persecution in context.

Just as we see here in the word that Jesus sees his church, he sees his people.

We should be encouraged and take the persecution and the challenges and context to know that that enduring through that, keeping his word, holding fast to truth is what Jesus says will empower us to patiently endure.

That he recognizes that and that he sees it, and that he says, He alone is the power, that his word and his truth is the power that will push us forward to patiently endure through those trials and through those struggles.

And we have to be diligent to not let the struggle pull us away.

And community can really help with that.

Sometimes we drift and we don't even know we're drifting.

It's helpful to have God's people around us to recognize that we're drifting, to say, hey brother, I notice you seem to be struggling.

What is it?

How can I help?

You know, I've got a brother that has said to me before, like, what is it about the gospel that we're struggling to believe here when we're having a hard time with whatever it is we're struggling with?

Another way I think we can move forward.

Excuse me, dry throat, two uh sermons dry your throat up.

But another way we can move forward is in believing the gospel and with the gospel empowering us is to train for endurance.

Talked about how we treat faith as a sprint.

It's really not a sprint.

We need to treat our faith and this mission we're on more like a marathon.

If you've ever run any distance, you'll know you can't train for a sprint and run an endurance race.

It just doesn't work.

If you're out in your backyard doing wind sprints and then you try to go run the flying pig, it's not gonna work out well for you.

Although there is a guy I worked with that didn't train at all and ran the flying pig.

It doesn't make any sense.

I think he's just I think that's not actually a measure of who he is.

Well, maybe it's a measure of him just being a liar, because I don't think he actually ran it.

Um he just showed up one day and said that.

Hey, we ran the flying pig this weekend.

I'm like, I didn't know you were training for that.

He's like, Oh, I didn't train for it.

I'm like, what?

I was like, the half or the fool?

He's like, the fool.

He's like, yeah, man, it was it was alright.

I'm like, how are you walking around?

I ran a couple half marathons, and after the first one I did, it's probably good that you can't talk to my wife Melissa, she's not here to this service, but I was a I was a sad excuse of a man for a few days after that.

There's a lot a lot of whining going on.

But we have to train for endurance.

We have to train to be able to endure.

And in 1 Timothy uh chapter 4, verse 7 through 10.

I want to read that scripture as an encouragement to us.

This is what it has to say.

Have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths.

Rather, train yourself for godliness.

For while while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.

For to this end we toil and strive because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially to those who believe.

So we have to train our ways and godliness, and we have to train ourselves because it has benefit for this life and all of eternity.

We have to practice patience.

As I said earlier, the Bible is full of waiting.

If you look at the Old Testament, especially, there are so many stories of when God's people say, God, I need this, God, I want this, and God said, Okay, yes and amen, but you'll get it on my timing, you'll get it when I say so.

And people wait and wait and wait.

And we have to remember that God does not exist within the constraints of time that we do.

This day, hour, minute, second, that kind of calendar we live in, God exists outside of that.

And so we can't put our time constraints on him.

I love what Charles Spurgeon has to say in his book Treasury of David about waiting on the Lord and the fruit that can come from it.

This is what he says.

If the Lord Jehovah makes us wait, let us do so with our whole hearts.

For blessed are all they that wait for him.

He is worth waiting for.

The waiting itself is beneficial to us.

It tries faith, exercises patience, trains submission, and endears the blessing when it comes.

The Lord's people have always been a waiting people.

And if we are continuing on that mission that we see from God's people, then we should expect to wait.

And we need to learn endurance and patience to do that.

And while we're doing that in some practical ways, pray through that waiting.

Pray for a changed mindset so that you might be more patient.

Pray for calm.

Pray for focus on Jesus while you're waiting.

And pray for fruit to come while we're waiting.

Be diligent about praying for God to work in your life when you find yourself in seasons of waiting and enduring, that you might patiently endure, like we see the church in Philadelphia patiently enduring here.

I wouldn't have had that slip off if I kept calling it the Church of Philly.

Just calling that up.

And if you're looking for other ways to do that, I kind of mentioned a minute ago, but surround yourself with God's people, to be reminded of God's truth and to be reminded of what it means to patiently endure.

This letter is addressed to the church in Philadelphia.

It's not addressed to one person in the church of Philadelphia.

And so this praise that we see from Jesus when he is talking about how he is recognizing that they have patiently endured and stayed true to the word, this is something they've done together.

And we should seek to do the same.

We should seek to have more depth in our relationships, to surround ourselves with other brothers and sisters to patiently endure together so that we might encourage one another, stay rooted in the word together, correct one another, be accountable to one another.

And again, mission groups is a great way to do this.

We've got eight of those around the city, the northern part of Cincinnati.

So I'd encourage you to look into that if you have not already.

And as I said, we just need to continue to study the word.

I mentioned that earlier.

But we can train for endurance by seeing those examples in the Old Testament and the New Testament, seeing even Christ Himself, his example of patiently enduring, how he patiently endured the struggles and the challenges and the temptations that came his way for us, so that he might make his way to the cross and make that ultimate sacrifice for us.

The last way I think we can express or uh put this into practice, kind of conquer that expression of unbelief or work towards that, is that we need to remember the reward.

So we see in this letter that there's a reward for those who patiently endure.

Staying faithful, holding fast to truth, enduring those trials, being patient through it all is tough work.

That is not easy.

And although we don't always see it and recognize it, we have to remember that what we are struggling with pales in comparison to the weight of glory.

And 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 17, it says this for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

2 Corinthians 4:17

Beyond all comparison.

You can't compare the weight of glory and what we're being prepared for in this life and the mission we're on.

And so we also, and you know, and for the reward, we see that eternal weight.

And we see also that in this passage that God to the that we see that God's wrath and what I had talked about earlier, how the God of blessing and encouragement is also the God of discipline and wrath.

We also see here that the Church of Philadelphia will be protected from the eternal wrath of God by trusting in Jesus, staying true to his word.

And that only he can open the door to that.

And in verse 10-11, we see that keeping Jesus' word, which has led to the open door, has subjected those who didn't to his wrath, that there's kind of two rewards.

We see that open door as a reward.

Um, but as I kind of mentioned earlier, we also see so that the joys and the eternal benefit of what we're going to see in glory for being patient and enduring and putting our faith in Jesus.

We also see that Jesus in verse 11 says, I'm coming soon.

Hold fast what you have so that no one may seize your crown.

Just stop and think about that for a minute.

Especially with the hot mess that is 2020.

This year has been just nuts.

But think about how much sweeter it seems.

It was sweet already, but how sweet it seems to be with Jesus Himself.

That he says, I'm coming soon.

Hold fast.

Stay true to the mission.

I will be there.

That's a promise.

And you see that he promises the Church of Philadelphia that he will make them a pillar in the temple of God.

So if we the church make up that temple, those who have put their faith in Christ make up that temple, Jesus is our cornerstone.

So we must anchor to him as the cornerstone.

And he says, in this eternal weight that we were talking about, that eternal focus, the eternal reward that we need to remember, he says, we shall never, that the church of Philadelphia says to them, shall never, never shall he go out of it.

Never.

And so we remember that Jesus is the true one.

He is holy.

He is above everything else.

And our promise is that if we hold true to his word, trust in him, trust in what he has done for us to redeem us from our sin.

When he died on the cross and conquered the grave, if we trust in him, we can have eternal, we will have eternal communion with him as our reward.

And so we need to remember that reward as we strive, as we struggle, that is how it ends, and how we are, what we are fighting against and struggling with and enduring through, that that is the reward.

And so as I wrap up here, you know, we may, I said it earlier, we may, as people, there are times when we feel beat up, we feel like we can't have the power to do what we need to do, what we're called to.

Maybe you just feel beaten down and like you have little power.

Just like the church in Philadelphia, you know, Jesus mentions that you are of little power.

But just as they are able to patiently endure by the power of Jesus and staying true to his word and his truths, we can be encouraged that in doing that, just as he sees the church in Philadelphia, he sees us as well.

That he recognizes faithfulness, that he has promises that we can trust in and believe.

And so we hold fast to the truth of the gospel and his word.

If we're in Christ, if you are not in Christ this morning, if you have not put your faith in who Jesus is and what he has done for all of mankind, then I would hope that you can repent and believe and understand that we've all fallen short.

But it's not about what we can do and can't do and our ability to open the door ourselves.

It's about what Jesus has done.

Jesus, the true one, the holy one.

That only he has opened the door, only he can open and shut the door, and he has for those who believe.

So we have to believe in that true one, the holy one.

I pray that this is an encouragement to you this morning, that the church in Philadelphia, as they were encouraged, hopefully by the letter and Jesus' words for them, that we can be encouraged to go forth, empowered by him, to patiently endure as we work on mission as citizens of his kingdom.

For those of us who are in Christ as members of his kingdom, that we can make disciples, strive towards finishing that mission that he's called us to.

And until we are called and to continue to strive towards that mission, till we are called home to glory with him, or until, as he says, he comes back and returns, as he says he will.

I pray that's an encouragement for you all this morning.

I pray that Christ would be your truth that you anchor to, and I pray that we can come together to patiently endure, as the church in Philadelphia did.

Let me pray.