Standing In Humility

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Turn your Bibles to Revelation chapter 3, and we will move on from that.

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

You didn't have to say my age.

Appreciate that.

I'll remember that.

Okay.

We're finishing up this series on the seven letters.

And again, we combine Sardis and Laodicea.

Laodicea would be the last.

And right here, sandwiched between them is Philadelphia.

So if chronology is important to you, I know this is messing you up a little bit, but we'll make it through it.

And then we'll start next week for a few weeks focusing on that baby that Dave talked about and having just a Christmas mini-series and just looking forward to that.

How about the church?

Does it look beautiful?

Man.

Amen.

I'd get in trouble if I talked about who did it, but anyhow, it does look beautiful in here.

I love the spirit.

And many people walk in and said, Yes, Christmas is here.

So, Revelation chapter 3.

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

I want you to look at verse 7 and 8 as we start.

And it says, and to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write these things.

It says, He who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens.

Let's pray together.

Father, we love you.

And we thank you for the opportunity we have to share your book of truth this morning.

I pray that you would touch our hearts and help us, God, to take in exactly what you have for us.

And Lord, I pray that you would rebuke any work of the enemy.

Lord, just help for a few moments our attentions, our minds, our hearts to be aligned.

And Lord, we be thankful and grateful in Jesus' name.

Amen.

The first point this morning is this the master of the doors.

We saw there in verse 7 and 8, letter A, was this that Jesus carries the keys.

He is the key carrier.

A quick description of the key holder in Revelation 3 says that he is holy and he is true.

He that is holy.

You wouldn't want someone to have your keys that you didn't trust.

Amen.

The holder of these is described by holiness.

The word is hagios, and it is worthy of veneration, incomparable in morality, without fault.

He is holy, the one that holds the keys.

It is one of our highest words to express what's really hard for us to express.

To say that he is holy.

Another word that you see in scripture in praising him is when we say the word hallelujah.

It's a word with utterance that we try hard to express the worthiness of the recipient, but we don't have another word.

We're just giving a hallelujah to reach the height of his character.

He is holy.

By the way, in Revelation, if you flipped a chapter, you'd see the song of heaven that says, it says that 24-7, throughout heaven it is always uttered, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

He is holy.

We have a God that is worthy, church, of holding the keys.

It says he's holy, but then it says he is the truth.

We live, I think, in a time where the world is in desperation, in pursuit of truth.

People are looking for that one thing, that one meaning, that mystery to tell them, to express the meaning of it all.

And he says it's right here, the one holding the keys, John 14, 6.

He said, I am the way and I am the truth.

He's the truth.

He's not a prophet or a teller, he himself is the origin of truth.

He says, I am the truth.

He's not a measure of the truth, he is the truth.

To find Jesus is to find your purpose and your purpose for this life and eternal life because he has the keys.

Many wander this earth lost.

You ever lost your keys?

I have, and I tell you, I have once, as far as I can tell, as an adult, and there's people like Mr.

Russell who won't let me forget it.

I lost my keys.

I brought them today to show you I have my keys.

But this was funny the other night, I've lost my keys, and since I've bought an Apple Air tag, which on your phone tells you where your keys are.

Well, the other night I was here in church and I had my keys, but my Apple AirTag had fallen out of its pouch.

And I was like, that is crazy.

This thing is supposed to be there to tell me where my keys are, and I'm looking at my phone and it's saying my keys are at the Dollar General.

So listen, it's not foolproof, right?

You can lose your keys, you can lose your air tag.

But I want to tell you, Jesus is the one in this scripture here who is worthy to hold the keys.

He's worthy.

Jesus cannot lose the keys that he holds.

The word is clise, and that was the power to open and shut.

The key indicates governmental authority.

It says there, if you go back to the scripture, he who has the key of David.

That's a picture of the governmental authority of the prophecy that was given before the New Testament of the one that would come as the son of David.

He's laying claim to that.

And you can see that prophecy unfold.

If you want to go back in scripture, Isaiah 22, 22 talks about it.

Psalms 89, verse 4 talks about it.

Psalms 89:4

Gabriel repeated it at the birth of Jesus in Luke 1.32 that this son that would become from David that would hold the government upon his shoulders.

Jesus holds the keys.

The Bible says in Luke 1.32 in Revelation or in Revelation 1.18, Jesus holds the keys to hell and death.

Jesus is the key holder.

Church, he holds the keys to this life and the next.

And I don't know what door is before you, and we're going to talk about that in a minute.

But the one who holds the keys that opens and shuts the doors, I submit to you, is Jesus Christ.

Letter B is just that.

Jesus controls the door.

The word door is an interesting expression in Scripture.

It's found 263 times in the Bible, some version of it.

And here's just a few.

In John 10, 9, Jesus is called the door of salvation.

In Matthew 24, 33, he is the door of the second coming of Christ.

In Revelation 3.20, you hear me often say, he said, Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

In Psalms 84, 10, we're told the psalmist would rather be the doorkeeper in the house of God than anything in any other place.

Matthew 7, 7, 8 speaks of answered prayers being as an open door or a door of opportunity.

God works opportunity through open and closed doors.

It said there that he set forth.

That word is dididome, and that word set forth means to bestow or to cause something or to arrange something.

It pleases God often because of who he is to de didome.

That is set forth.

It pleases God because of who he is to open opportunities, to open a door.

And I've prayed and counseled with people for many, many years with this idea that God works through open and closed doors.

God will open a door, God will close a door, and when God opens a door, I believe we should step through it by faith without hesitation.

That's how we've practiced in our marriage and ministry.

God opens and closes doors.

Let me give you a couple of examples.

I want you to turn to Acts.

We see this drawn out in scriptures.

Acts chapter 12.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

If you want to turn there and you want to hold that and look at Acts chapter 16 as well, we're going to go through just a couple of spaces.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

But in Acts chapter 12, verse 5, we pick up, and Peter has been imprisoned.

Acts 12:5

Peter was therefore kept in prison.

12 5.

But look at this, constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.

And when Herod was about to bring him out that night, Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers, and the guards before the door were keeping the prison.

Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shine shone in the prison, and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, Arise quickly.

And his chains fell off his hands, and the angel said to him, Gird yourself and tie on your sandals.

And so he did, and he said to him, Put on your garment and follow me.

So he went out and followed him, and did not know what was done by the angel was real.

But though he thought he was seeing a vision, when they were past the first and second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord.

And then they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.

We see Peter there with God.

He was imprisoned because of his stance.

And God sent an angel and opened doors.

Look at Acts chapter 16.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

I want you to see verse 6 through 10.

This is about being so close to the voice of the Holy Spirit and listening to guidance and direction.

And before we're finished today, I've got a question for some folks to be hearing.

Maybe you're here and you say, Pastor, I really need to see God's pattern in my life for an open door.

God needs to either open or close a door for me.

Might be in business, might be in my family, but Pastor, I really am seeking God.

I want to see a door.

Well, look at what happens.

Now, when they had gone through Fergia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden, listen, forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.

After that, they had come to Messiah.

They tried to go in all these names.

So passing by, they came down to Troaz, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night.

A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, come over to Macedonia and help us.

Now, after he had seen the vision, after immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.

God was using a vision, he was speaking to him through the Holy Spirit.

Well, go on further down in Acts chapter 60.

If you go on throughout the chapter, and we don't have time to go through all of it, but verse 16, all the way through the end of 30, what happens?

It continues to be a back and forth of open and closed doors.

Paul and Silas share the gospel with a woman named Lydia, an open door.

She gets saved.

They go after that and they cast out a demon, which is an open door for somebody of healing.

And then immediately they're sent to prison for casting out the demon, a closed door.

They go into prison and they're sitting in prison singing hymns together, praising God.

And God sends an earthquake, opens up, guess what?

The prison door.

And they didn't run off because they saw the jailer over there crying because he was scared.

So they offer him the plan of salvation.

The jailer gets saved.

They go to his family, they get saved.

And then the magistrates of the town hear about it and they open the door and say, You don't have to be here anymore.

They followed God right into prison, a circumstance, and God led them right out of it.

I want you to know today God works through open and closed doors.

Your platform is right where you are, good or bad.

You see, Paul and Silas were in prison for a time, Peter was in prison for a time.

Your platform is right where you are in your situation, in your circumstances.

And so I want some people today to think on this question.

I'm wondering, Pastor, if a door needs to be opened or a door needs to be closed in my life.

Most commentators about this church in Revelation, the church of Philadelphia, most agree that this open door was about evangelism.

It was an open door to a small church who was, it says, God opened the door and no man could shut it.

And so this church of Philadelphia was having success evangelizing people.

And we're not told the details of the open door.

It may be that because of its great highway, if you looked at the map that we've shown week after week, Philadelphia sat in a place that had a highway that led straight to Asia.

And so it was a great maybe route to spreading the gospel.

It could mean that the Jews that it will talk about in scripture here, that the Jews that were called the synagogue of Satan, the Jews who were Jews by name but not Jews in practice, not true Jews, were being uh invaded by the heart of the gospel through these people, and there was a door that was opening.

Either way, we know this that the gospel was open and there was an open door.

The gospel is an affirming thing.

When Heather and I uh moved here to Alabama from Indiana, um, I had some dreams over the years in youth ministry, nine years in Connorsville, that God would just do certain things.

And some of them I never saw.

One of them was silly, but I hoped to see a hundred teenagers on a student night at in our youth group, and they got 97 once.

I was gonna shave my head and my eyebrows if they got to 100.

I was so happy they had 97.

I was good with 97, good with 98, 99 was okay.

Okay.

Um, but that didn't happen, and then God brought us here, and it was like a whirlwind real fast.

Like the first Wednesday we were here, we were told there were 12 students, and we got here, and Dave Roper and the King's home came with those 12 students, and there was like 50, and 12 of those students the first night got saved.

That was gospel affirmation.

We came the next Wednesday night, and we were told there's gonna be 12, there was 50.

The next Wednesday night, there was like 67, and 22 of those kids got saved, and I was like, wow, God is saving people after.

And then I was going after whatever doors were open.

We went to FCA, I went to Coosa Valley and did an assembly, we went to Cornerstone Christian School.

I talked for the football team at Chelsea, the football team at Vincent.

In a small period of time, there was over 125 salvations.

The gospel affirmation of an open door made me go, like, I don't know a lot of people in this town, but God is saving people.

We're where we should be.

It was so exciting.

The gospel is affirming, and so for this little church, God was opening a door.

Well, I want you to see point number two this morning, the ministry of the church.

The ministry of the church at Philadelphia.

Philadelphia was built by a man named Atticus Philadelphia.

He was from Pergamum.

It was 27 miles east of Sardis.

It was a prosperous city, one of the greatest highways of its time, and I already talked about that.

It was built as a missionary city, not for Christianity, but for Greek influence.

And it was the youngest and smallest city located in this narrow pass between two mountain ranges.

It stood as a literal doorway between Asia Minor and Asia.

And so we see this city with open doors.

It means something.

Letter A, I want you to see about this church, Philadelphia's personality.

It's personality.

Look at verse 8.

The second part of it, and then we're going to go to the first part of verse 10.

It says, For you, this is about the church, you have a little strength.

You've kept my word and have not denied my name.

Indeed, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not, but lie.

Indeed, I will make them come and worship before your feet and to know that I have loved you, because you have kept my command to persevere.

So just a little bit of her personality there.

It says it had a little strength.

It didn't say no strength, and it didn't say weak.

It says, you have little strength.

Heather was cooking and catering the front part of this week, and it was madness for a few days in my house.

And I was trying to do whatever I could to help, which is really not cook, right?

So I'm in there and I'm trying to find ways to help.

And she began to ask me if I could open up some cans.

And I'm doing this, and I'm like, okay, I found something I can do.

And I get in and I open a can.

And I get in and I open two cans and I start looking around at the cans.

I'm like, ooh.

And I'm like, mmm, I wonder if there's another job.

I can't tell the woman I don't want to do this job.

It's the one thing that I can do.

And I'm on like can five, and I'm like, ooh, ooh.

Have you ever had sore forearms for a week?

I didn't tell her, but I'm still sore.

And I thought to myself, I got little strength.

I got little strength.

I don't have my dad.

My dad was, you know, my dad was a mechanic, and my dad's forearms are as big as his bicep.

And so it's massive.

And I got like these little puny, and I'm like, another one.

Okay, baby.

All right.

And I thought through that, like, there must be a better can opener.

There's gotta be something better than this.

I didn't want to give the job back, though.

You have little strength.

I thought about this little strength.

This term does not imply that the church at Philadelphia was weak, but real strength for the amount of who they were and strength applied properly.

Havner said this a little strength faithfully used means more than much strength flashly used.

Let me say that again.

A little strength faithfully used means more than much strength flashly used.

In 2 Corinthians 12, 7 through 10, we see the exchange when Paul says before God, he says, I have this weakness, will you remove this weakness from me?

I have this weakness, will you?

And he says, three times I asked God to remove this weakness, and he says that God responded there in 2 Corinthians 12 that my grace is sufficient for you.

In weakness my strength is made perfect.

God doesn't need anyone here to be strong, church.

I want you to be relieved to know that the Bible says, For when I am weak, then he is strong.

The personality of this church was resourced in its dependence on who is strong.

God is strong.

And they depended on him.

Little as they were, they depended on him for what he was.

Philadelphia was the church who was humble.

Raise your hand if you're humble.

Thank you, Luke.

I will never in my whole life forget the teenager who one time said to me and Heather, one of my favorite things about myself, which is a phrase I've never heard anybody say at that point.

One of my favorite things about myself is my humility.

And I thought, is this a joke?

Is this C.S.

Lewis said, if you really get into any kind of touch with God, you will, in fact, be humble, delightedly humble, feeling the infinite relief of having for once got rid of all the silly nonsense about your own dignity, which has made you restless and unhappy all your life.

If you really get into contact with God, if you're daily in contact with God, there won't be an option.

If you're really putting yourself in the presence of the Almighty Creator of all things, you see yourself for what you really are, and the Church of Philadelphia was seeing who they were, dependent upon the strength of God.

It is relieving to me to know that I don't have to be something.

You know, there's a lot of pressure today to be something.

And society is filled with pressures to climb to the mountain of somethingness.

And I want to tell you, it's relieving to know I just gotta make much of Jesus.

That's what our plight is to be.

You see, the Church of Philadelphia was humble.

James 4 6 says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Another scripture tells us to give preference to others.

It's humbling to set down our way.

It's humbling to set down our want.

But we're told throughout scripture, and we see here in Philadelphia, humility was a key of their personality.

Moses in Numbers 12, 3 was called the most humble man who ever lived.

If he was the most humble man that ever lived, I figured we could get a few pointers from what it was about Moses that made him so humble.

Because here was a man who was in charge of two million people.

You think if you were in charge of two million people, you might be tempted not to be humble.

Moses, a few things we find about him, number one, he repeatedly gives God credit for God's miracles.

He doesn't say, look at what I did, but what God did.

He listened to and obeyed God.

He acted for another thing Moses does over and over.

He acted and fought for the interest of those whom he served.

And he fought for the Israelites.

We see a passage where Moses' father-in-law makes a suggestion because he's overworked, and he says, You should delegate these tasks.

Moses doesn't get all upset and say, Do you know who I am?

I'm over two million people.

Father-in-law's always got advice.

He says, He's flexible.

Even though somebody's humble, are they flexible?

Will they take somebody else's cautions?

He didn't become impatient when the Israelites complained, and they complained often.

Moses doesn't become impatient about it.

That's his humility.

His sister and brother mock him for his choice of a wife.

And God sent his sister leprosy in the moment over it.

And Moses immediately began praying that God would take the leprosy from his sister.

Humility.

William Temple said humility is not thinking less of yourself or even having a low opinion of your own abilities.

He said, Humility is the freedom from being stuck on thinking of yourself one way or the other at all.

That's tough.

Humility's evil nemesis, pride.

All you have to do is look to Proverbs and you find everything you need to know really about pride.

Proverbs 11, 2 says, When pride comes, disgrace comes.

Proverbs 13, 10 says, by pride comes strife.

The reason for your fightings and tensions in life.

Pride.

Says this, that seven things God hates.

And number one on the list, a proud look.

Proverbs 16, 18, everybody knows that pride comes before destruction.

And Proverbs 29, 23 says, pride brings a person love.

You see, this church at Philadelphia had a heart of humility.

I want to focus in on letter B.

The church is Philadelphia's perseverance.

He said, Because you have kept my command to persevere.

Because you've kept this command to persevere.

The Christians in Philadelphia, again, were persecuted by Jewish people.

It says there in the verse, in between verse 9, it says, the synagogue of Satan, the Jewish people who were lying about their Jewishness.

And I remember, if you recall, seeing this, the same verbiage at the church of Smyrna.

They were called the same thing, except at the church of Smyrna, they infiltrated the church and they were in the church.

Here, they are just in the city and they are being persecuted by it as outliers.

But it made me think about something throughout Smyrna and here in Philadelphia, it proves something.

You can say you're part of the church.

You can say you're a Jewish person in truth, but and you can say you're part of church, but you're not church by heredity.

If I ask some of you here, how many you got long lines of family that have been in church?

You got grandmas who've taught Sunday school, you've got church.

I want to tell you, that is fantastic.

You are not church because they were involved in church.

You're not church today because of attendance.

We find that by the church at Smyrna, the infiltration of the Jewish people who were not true Jews.

They were involved in church.

That doesn't mean that you're a Christian.

By checking a block of attendance, there's a huge distinction in profession of Jesus Christ and possession of Jesus Christ.

Bible says in Matthew 7, 13 and 14, enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many will go by it.

He says, go by the narrow gate, and it's a difficult way.

It leads to life, but there are a few that find the narrow gate.

I thought about that narrow gate and that broad way.

How many of you here have a CDL?

Benji, get a list together.

We got a lot of drive.

I've seen hands go to buses, any bus driver's license.

Tractor trailers.

Alright, I've driven all of these at one time or another, uh, only by practice, not by legality, the type A license.

And those are the hardest to me.

So I've driven a bus, driven down narrow streets with buses, I've driven CDLB licensed trucks and had to back trucks up.

Taking the cake is any truck that has a trailer attached to it.

Am I right?

Anybody had to do this?

You we are taught to drive in reverse a regular vehicle means everything is opposite, right?

Well, when you have a trailer attached to a truck, it's opposite of opposite, which messes up my brain.

Does it mess up yours?

Okay.

Well, one day, I don't remember what the circumstances were, but Heather wanted a new shower for the house, and she's like, um, I need you to go to Home Depot, whatever, and we work this out.

And I drive to Home Depot, I borrowed a truck, I get there, the truck is not big enough, like a pickup truck.

I'm gonna carry a shower back home in this thing.

Just me.

That's all I need.

And I get there, and the guy's like, that's not gonna work.

So I go back towards home and I'm calling people to church.

I find someone who's got a trailer.

Now, at this point, I have no business with a trailer, okay, but I figured I'm a man, I can figure this out.

So I got the trailer, I got it on, and apparently I find out that there is a right way to do this, and there's a wrong way, okay?

So I get the shower hooked up, and I'm telling you, it took me 30 minutes at Home Depot to back this thing into a little skinny, narrow opening so that we could get a tub.

I'm like, I could have carried the tub out here in all this time and just dropped it in, but no, I gotta back it up, and I'm figuring out the opposite of opposite.

And anyway, this guy's just very patient with me.

I'm like, I must look just terrible driving this for the last 30 minutes.

Please, I'm like, can you just bring a forklift, something, put it in here?

Anyway, I get the thing loaded, I'm headed back home, and there are some narrow streets where we live, and I take a turn on a narrow street, and I'm getting close to the house.

And as I take a turn on this narrow street, I look over to my left and I go, huh, that's crazy.

It looks like there's a shower riding its way through my neighbor's lawn.

Ah, it is.

It came off, the trailer came off the hitch and was riding through my neighbor's fence.

Now, luckily, I'm strong enough that I got over there and fixed the situation.

Nobody knew the worst for it.

But I remembered those openings and those narrow drives, and I thought about that.

I make sure now when I put a trailer on that it's locked in, good and tight.

They can come off.

But I thought about those narrow roads, and narrow roads with lots of cargo aren't a good match.

Narrow roads with lots and lots of cargo are not easy.

And the Bible says that the narrow way, few will find it.

And I want to tell you, if you're dragging a lot of this world stuff behind you down a road that is narrow, meant for a single-minded laser focus, it might be really hard to make it down that narrow road.

The reason why the broad road is so easy is because it's really wide and it can fit all that stuff.

Matthew 7, 22 and 23 is a tremendously scary scripture that says, Many will one day say, Lord, Lord, and he will look at them and say, Depart from me.

I never knew you.

There are people that think that they're on this road.

These people that Matthew calls out says they were doing ministry in the name of the Lord, casting out demons in the name of the Lord.

They were doing the work of the Lord.

There's people in churches.

The false Jews did not like the message of genuine Christianity in Philadelphia because the message of genuine Christianity was a one-way street message.

There is one way.

Much like at Smyrna.

So it meant for the church at Philadelphia that they would lack in wealth, they would lack in opportunity for occupation, they would be socially ostracized.

So the church at Philadelphia persevered.

And it had a reputation of being faithful amidst all of these struggles.

And I think they might have taken on a quote like this: I can't change the world for all people, but I can change the world for one person.

And making a difference for one person, church, is no small thing.

They had little strength, but they were faithful with what they had.

Philadelphia kept doing what they could do.

They were not focused on being massive or being mighty.

They were focused on the ministry that they could do.

I've said this a lot, but CCW is a product of the passions of its people.

The ministry that is happening right here is because of the passions of the people that are here.

God opens a door and people say yes or they say no to a door.

And there are passionate people that are here that have been willing to persevere.

And for some of you, I'm so thankful, I got thinking about this.

There's people here that for year after year after year you have persevered in your walk with God.

And you've seen and you know if you've been in church long enough, or you might be here today, and this could be similar to your story.

But people walk away from it.

They just have seasons where they get hurt or something happens and they walk away from it.

And they can walk away from it for years, but there are people here.

You've continued and you've continued.

And there's been struggles, and nobody's perfect, so we always have tensions and all this stuff, but you've continued and you've persevered and year after year.

For some, I thought there's some in here that it's been decades.

Decade after decade after decade, and you're still showing up.

Thank God for the testimonies of people like that.

When I see people like that and I see, and there's older, listen to me, I love you.

We're all in different stages.

Benji put my stage out there, but there's people in here white hair, and you've been going, and you've been faithful, and I'm so encouraged.

We just had a sweet dear lady that passed in her 90s, and she just came right through the door, and I was so encouraged to see her face and just continuing with it.

So keep laboring, keep going.

What can we place to their spirit?

What was it?

Well, look back at verse number eight.

What kept them in this?

It says, I know your works.

I've set a door before you, no one can shut.

You have a little strength.

Here's the secret.

You've kept my word.

The secret to the strength of the humble church that kept going year after year, decade after decade.

The secret they kept the word.

They kept it.

The word kept is Tareo.

And here's what it means: to fortress.

They kept it.

To fortress implies a full military line.

They fortressed the word of God.

They made it so important to prevent any possibility of loss.

You've heard a scripture like this about sin.

Thy word have I hidden my heart, that I might not sin against thee.

I've hidden the word of God so that it's there.

I've fortressed it.

And that was the secret to the humility of this church.

When I was at Tennessee Temple, I became a prayer group leader, which is a really neat Christian service.

It was really kind of my first opportunities to try to share devotions or even anything of the Word of God.

And I began looking for just different and fun ways to meet together and make it more fun than just what I had experienced, which was okay.

And I'd have seven to ten guys, and they'd come in my room every Thursday night at whatever lights out time was, and we would meet together for devotions.

Well, one night I came across the story of Diocletian's reign, where he was destroying Christians, and he had ordered that scriptures be burned and banished.

And so during that time, Christians that remained would meet secretly or underground, and they didn't have a copy of scriptures, and so they would meet together, and what would transpire in their meetings before prayer is they would go around and they would ask anybody who knew any scripture to quote the word of God.

Anybody.

And this is how their meetings began.

They would just quote the word of God.

So one Thursday night I turned out the lights.

Guys were like, what's going on?

And I began to tell them the story of Diocletian.

And I said, I want us just to start our group tonight by quoting any of God's word that you know.

And for 40 minutes, the quoting of God's word did not cease.

And for all of our craziness and all that went on in dorm life, there was a moment of the power of God that just struck me.

We didn't need a whole lot of bells and whistles.

We didn't need a whole lot of anything.

The secret to that moment was the power of God falling from the word of God.

It was a powerful moment.

It was the secret to the perseverance of the church at Philadelphia.

The secret was in the keep.

Are you a keeper of this book?

Are you keeping this faithfully?

I want to tell you, the Bible describes itself.

The psalmist says, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

We're told that this is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.

We're told in Psalms 19 that the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul, that it's more desirable than gold, that it's more precious than sweet honey.

Jeremiah 20, verse 9 says, His word was like a burning fire in my bones that I couldn't shut up.

Jeremiah 20:9

In Ephesians 5, we're cleansed by the water of the word.

It cleanses this heart, it washes me.

In Isaiah 55, we're told that the word of God will never, ever return void.

In Isaiah 40, verse 8, it says, The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

Isaiah 40:8

They kept the word.

They kept the word.

If you keep the pages of this book, church, the pages of this book will keep you.

You can start today.

Well, Philadelphia Letter C was given a promise.

They're given a promise.

Verse 10 because you have kept my command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial.

This is an interesting concept, so I want you to highlight it for the rest of this book that you will find in Revelation.

For the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole earth to test those who dwell on the earth.

Behold, I'm coming quickly.

Hold fast what you have, that no one take your crown.

The promise is a promise of relief.

You church, keep continuing.

CCW, continue.

Being what it is that you are with the strength that I've given you, humbly continuing.

Just keep continuing.

And he says, I will bring relief from the hour of trial.

And I want to tell you, there's people here that have studied this revelation book inside out, upside down, more than I have.

But I will tell you what I believe.

There are many ideas and doctrines, dogmas concerning the church and the great tribulation period that shall come upon the earth during the reign of the Antichrist.

Some teach that the church will go through the first half of the tribulation.

Some teach that the church will go through all the tribulation.

There's some people right now that believe we're in the tribulation.

And then there are some that preach that the church will be raptured before the appearing of the Antichrist, before the beginning of the tribulation.

That's where I lean, that's where I teach.

We can argue about it, and people will, till one day we're in heaven, and that's okay.

It's a tertiary thing.

They'll argue about the absence of the church, and after chapter 3, you may not see the church.

Revelation 14, they'll argue that's where the trumpet sounds.

Wherever you lean, the hour of the trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth is what Philadelphia's promised relief from.

They're promised relief because of their faithfulness.

And not just relief, but listen to this: a future, relief, and a reward.

Look at verse 12.

He says, He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.

Think about the personality of this church and what we're told of this church.

Little strength, much persecution, persevering, week after week, month after month, year after year, just continuing on, but really dealing with a lot.

And to them, and probably anyone in that church, if you asked them if they were a pillar, if they were doing something major, they would probably say, We're just doing what we can for God.

It's hard and lots of days are tough, and we're just trying to keep on in the fight.

And look at what's promised to them: an everlasting pillar.

As was custom, he will make them pillars in the spiritual temple of God, the New Jerusalem.

Philadelphia, those who struggled with being just little.

Just little here on earth.

But because they remained faithful, are you being faithful for what it is that God's given you?

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