REVELATION SERIES: ”Significance” // How to Be Faithful With Little Strength (Rev 3:1-13)

children what it looks like to go low

and let their kids see them in their

process and give credit to the Lord for

every good thing that they see.

I'm not saying you're just a hot mess.

She's reinterpreting doing girl math

right now in the front row.

just realized I got to have to I'm going

to have to find three or four more

positive uh applications for my wife

during my message right now on the spot

just so I can make it through Mother's

Day. That was supposed to be a

compliment. She's twisting it. All

right. That's her that's her humility.

That's her humility right there. That's

just operating it. In all seriousness,

what one of my kids even uh acknowledged

recently and that it was a slight at me

I think. you know, at least myself, I

don't know if other men are like this in

the room, we we tend to tr we try so

hard to put on the the the facade of

what we need to be for others, the

strength for others. And I I find that

that that a true mother is is able to to

to to take on the reality no matter how

strong she is, she's able to give glory

to God's work in her life. Any strength

she has, she gives him glory. She shows

you how the strength that she carries

isn't hers.

That's that's the dynamic that I want us

to remember today that God is giving us.

He's he's exposing two churches here.

We're in the book of Revelation and

we're going to look at two churches. One

that gets like the strongest praise and

one that gets the strongest rebuke. One

that is absolutely the furthest away and

one that is the furthest on target. And

the key is weakness. The key is faith

that is only made relevant because it

knows that it has no power of itself. So

the first church they see they have all

the best reputations. They look amazing

on the outside and they're dead inside

and the call is wake up. The second

church looks weak, is weak,

but is given the strongest, most

admirable

word of faith on them because they know

that they're weak and he's made strong.

And I say my one of my weakest areas of

my spiritual maturity is I still try to

strive my way to put on an affront in my

Christian life. The women in my life

show me the power in their weakness.

That might be for more than just me

today. It's certainly for the mothers

and it's for every single one of us.

Now, how many of you have a mom or a

mother finger, a mother figure in your

life that was a truth teller?

Like

they love you and because they love you,

they can say things to you that no one

else can say to you.

We chuckle because it's like it's it's

not always comfortable,

but but oftenimes it's it's

lifechanging. Um, I I'm not going to

call out any anyone majorly, but I had a

one of my favorite moments last week at

the baptism. Is Jeff here today? Jeff

was helping us baptize some wonderful

young men. And uh, my favorite moment I

don't see Jeff. Maybe he's not here. Um,

but he he was he was getting I forget

which one of the of the brothers was was

the first one. And he was he, you know,

handed off to him to do the the the

honors. And he can't speak because he's

so overcome with emotion.

and you know theologically the father,

son, and holy spirit baptizing you. That

that never came out of his mouth because

he couldn't speak. And I go, I don't

even know theologically if they got

baptized because he couldn't do it

right.

I'm just kidding. It's not about the

words. It's not about the words. Uh but

it was my favorite moment because

because

um not just because it's emotional but

because underneath it all there's a

there's a story of his life being

written and then there's this momentum

where the shifts that he's part of his

story which I won't I won't do take take

it all but uh his mother was taken from

him far too young and he had a gr

grandmother whose truthtelling ability

is still reverberating in his life and

when when I got to know him the Her

words have marked him so profoundly that

he's literally living out today some of

the words that were spoken over him

years ago. Now, how many of you, if you

would be honest, there are words today

that you're living out because

of a mother or a grandmother,

her words, her prayers,

and and this is this is the heart of

God. There's power in these words. And

what I want us to look at, I I want I'm

going to read you a prophetic word today

that is kind of a trutht teller to me.

The idea here is it's going to offend

some of you and it's it's going to

comfort others of you. The this is

because and I'm I'm doing this to

preface the revelation today because it

confronts one of the deepest lies of our

culture. What I'm about to read, it's a

post that uh that a worship leader that

I that I tend to get a lot from because

he doesn't hold punches and he's willing

to be misunderstood.

The significance

we think we are supposed to live out

even as Christians to be extraordinary.

It can be soul crushing. I one of the

hardest things of my life has been to

step into ministry

and then to underneath that not even

realizing this pressure of being

extraordinary. And when you don't live

up to whatever standard of extraordinary

has been put on you by yourself, by

others, by whatever

metric that you are constantly trying to

live under, when you don't live under

the extraordinary, this is when Jesus,

his voice is going to call you to a

quiet faithfulness and dependence. And

what I want to do today is to reinspire

you to the quiet, dependent faith that

doesn't need a platform, doesn't need a

stage.

So this is what this this man Andy

Square has said. Here's a prophetic word

for you. You are not special.

You are a regular person with a job and

a daily life. You are not a history

maker. You are you have a destiny, but

it's a regular one.

You will never be a household name. You

are not a revolution.

You do not hold the line. You won't win

the argument. You won't be in the

ministry. But if you find someday that

you are, don't count on being

successful.

You will find yourself living in the

middle of a temporary kingdom and you

will plant a garden. The garden you

plant will not be an idealized,

romanticized kind. It will be the kind

where your lack of a green thumb will

frustrate you for the first few years.

Where the reality of weeds and pests and

illconceived irrigation systems will

force you to surrender some of your

original assumptions about the universe.

You will be a beast and you will abound.

Make sure you know how to do both. You

will have one or two real friends. Let

them encourage you with candy bars and

Mountain Dew.

He's obviously living in the south

somewhere. That's disgusting. Some of

your days will be wonderful, but most of

them will be boring.

Never mind that. Never mind the boring

days. There is nothing like a boring day

for being alive and thanking God.

You will be met with the temptation to

long for the good old days.

Back when God used to show up and do

things,

don't you dare do it.

Don't be afraid of being in exile in a

strange season. Economic forces will

cause migration.

You may migrate. Blessed are you when

you no longer have any context for what

is happening.

Blessed are you when you are drowning in

the flood of critical analysis being

offered to you. Blessed are you when

every north star has vaporized.

Embrace the dryness of your heart.

Embrace your lack of words. Embrace the

lack of ecstasy and revelation.

Look at the birds. Take a walk. Go get

some work done. Have some kids. Don't go

into debt as much as possible.

As far as your salvation goes,

your devotion to God

counts for absolutely nothing.

I just want to say again, I did that's

not the scripture for today. That is

someone trying to figure out tensions of

the modern life. I'm not giving my

absolute theological approval to

everything he said. I'm saying that this

is the wrestle in our day.

Somehow that first line, you are not

special got me because

God tells every single person, every

single child that you're special in in

one way, shape, or form. There's plenty

of verses that can tell you how much God

loves you and thinks about you. For God

so loved the world that he died, that he

came, that he gave, right? And at the

same time, what is he getting at? I

think the way I receive that is

sometimes I need to know I'm not special

by the world's standard.

What kind of special is it that I'm

going after? That's the issue. I need to

let that dream of that kind of special

die and then just say, I'm not that.

I'm redefining everything that special

looks like. special looks like. I can

give thanks and know the living God on

my most boring days. I can wrestle with

my eternal destination and my place in

the world right now. Everything in this

is real life. And what I I just want to

bring out the tension today. We often

measure oursel by our successes or our

failures. Success or failure. Some of us

are living off our comparison of success

because we're doing okay in certain

areas and then we squash the areas that

we suck at. Others of us are are

completely bombarded by our failures and

how we're not measuring up. And and you

will you will be tempted in this life to

define yourself and build your identity

on your success or on your failure. You

will be miserable in both because the

only way you can have the identity that

Christ gives is to measure who you are

based on faithfulness. And that's why

we're going to talk about faithfulness.

We're not going to figure it all out

today. You're still going to go out

going like, "How do I really be

faithful?" And it's because this is your

entire life's pursuit

to pursue a life of enduring

simple

faith because you believe that this is

why this was written in the midst of the

Roman Empire and why this kingdom still

reigns and the Roman Empire is no more.

I get to eat pizzas on top of the Roman

ruins.

They are delicious.

Overpriced pieces of bread. This is

Mother's Day.

So, I'm going to try to connect it.

My wife has left the room, so I'll save

some more of my compliments for her till

when she gets back.

What if part of spiritual maturity is

realizing that you don't need to carry

the crushing pressure of becoming

extraordinary in the eyes of the world?

That would be great. So you don't have

to be famous. You don't have to be super

impressive. You don't have to have your

influence go into some sort of

catastrophic hemisphere. You don't have

to build some sort of giant personal

destiny narrative. My gosh, how many

time like let's let's just sit and go to

a retreat where some sort of quasi

spiritual secular business leader is

going to tell you how to build a story

arc for your personal destiny.

The reason why that's dangerous is

because 90% of what they do is going to

be really, really, really, really,

really, really good. And it's never

going to connect to enduring faith

in the way of Jesus. It's going to leave

a gaping hole for that. And if you don't

make that connection, you are going to

ultimately go back to successes or

failures every single time. Mother's Day

exposes this beautifully. So much of

what holds families together happens

quietly.

We can't think of mothers without the

people that do the unseen, the ordinary,

the repetitive, the often unnoticed.

And some of the most important work in

the world is that. But you can become

miserable in the ordinary or you can

find it holy. And that is the issue of

our lives. Does any of this matter? Does

God see me? Am I failing? These are the

questions every single one of us have.

Some of you had mothers who modeled this

kind of faithful endurance unbelievably

well. Others of you are grieving the

loss of never having someone like this

to mother you. Some have never had the

the opportunity to even grieve a mother

because not in your life. Some of you

are carrying the weight of having

prodical children as mothers and the

only prayer you have is that that one

would come home or come back to the Lord

or whatever it is. Some of you are just

exhausted and trying to, you know, when

can I get my next nap or break.

Some of you mothers just asked your

husband to just take the kids and leave

me alone today, please. We had a couple

of those Mother's Days. Am I all right,

babe? I'll go to my mom's house. Wait, I

can't do that. It's Mother's Day.

So, here's why these churches in

Revelation matter. There's two churches

we look at today. Sardis and

Philadelphia. Sardis, the first one,

they have a great outward reputation.

Inwardly, they're absolutely dead. Is

that you today?

On the outside, you're holding it all

together. Inside, if you're if you were

going to be honest, there's a death

happening. Then there's Philadelphia,

the city of brotherly love. Little

strength,

massive faithful endurance. One of the

only two churches that gets no rebuke,

not told to repent in any way, shape, or

form. And maybe one of the deepest lies

in our modern culture, especially here

in LA, is that your life only matters

If it's got a stage, if it's visible, if

there's something impressive, if you can

tell a great story about your life and

Jesus keeps honoring something else.

When we talk about what we say renewing

the beauty of Jesus on the frontiers of

modern culture, what are we talking

about? We are talking about this quiet

faithfulness. We renew the beauty of

Jesus in the quiet, in the faithful, in

dependence on God, in enduring through

our weakness, in letting people see us

in our brokenness. We're people who keep

showing up. We keep loving and keep

trusting. And then the few of us that

get a platform, we have a foundation

that can't be crushed by the weight of

this world. And we're status and

notoriety and the attention of the

moment isn't going to enslave us to

another god and another kingdom. That's

what we're trying to go after. We don't

do it perfectly, but that's what

renewing the beauty is. Not so that we

can fill stadiums for our own name, but

so that we can be the quiet faithful

people that if someone gives us a stage,

it doesn't crush us.

So some of us, will I remain faithful?

That's the question. whatever strength

or weakness that I have.

Well, the world when I'm gone think I'm

amazing, extraordinary, special in some

way.

Very few of us I I had this moment this

week. I I have a bunch of birthdays in

our family

and uh man, I had a couple I had a

traumatic week. I didn't even realize

it.

I started the week I was trying to I was

behind on writing my my daughters their

birthday letters. Try to write them a

letter every year. Then I realized I had

missed like a lot. Like I had written

them, but I don't think I had recorded

them or journaled about them. And then I

just cried for like an hour. I missed

all these opportunities on their

birthdays to go back and look at it. And

I'll never be able to journal on their

birthday, you know, day again. And I was

like feeling so heavy and how fast it's

all going and all these things. And then

uh and then I was trying At one of the

dinners, I was trying to I was thinking

about this. I'm going like, "Oh, I can't

even think of my my great-grandfather's

names."

And I look and I'm looking around. I'm

going like,

"My kids grandkids aren't going to know

my name.

Talk about a talk about a hit of

unspeess."

I'm looking and then I started looking

at these kids. I'm like, "You're not

even going to tell your grandkids about

me?" Like I'm having this internal

dialogue like nothing.

And my great-grandfathers fought in

wars. Like there's there's like plaques

for some of them. And I don't even know

their name.

That's not a slight on them or even on

me. That's a reality

where you cannot depend on the

specialness of your physical work in

this world. The only thing that'll

matter is your faith.

And will you keep trying to appear

strong or will you become the kind of

person who actually depends

on God? So h here's what we're going

after today. Dependency on God

verse the idol of self-sufficiency.

The world will always try to make you

self-sufficient. See everything through

the lens of self.

I can strive to this and I'm going to do

it through my successes or my failures.

So I want to do two things. I want us to

wake up to spiritual deadness even if

it's just seed form in our life. And

secondly, I want us to learn to depend

on God's power rather than our own. So

here's the church of Sardis. It says,

I'm not going to read the whole passage

for time's sake. Listen to the sharpness

of Jesus's words here. And to the angel

of the church in Sardis, write the words

of him who has the seven spirits of God

on the seven stars. I know your works.

You have the reputation of being alive,

but you're dead. Wake up. Strengthen

what remains and is about to die. For I

have not found your works complete in

the sight of my God. Remember then what

you received and heard. Keep it and

repent. Yet you still have a few names

in Sardis. People who have not soiled

their garments. The one who conquers

will be clothed thus in white garments.

That's uh verse 1 to5 of Revelation 3.

If you're just joining us in this

series, Revelation is a much

misunderstood book. But we're in a

section right now where the Apostle John

has been in prison on an island and he's

writing right now to seven churches that

have have those letters were circulated

and they've been circulated since that

time. and they represent specific

churches with specific details of what

they should and shouldn't do, but they

have been circulated to the broader

church for all time because they

represent in in a way maybe like the

seven core things that every follower of

Jesus needs to put before themselves in

order for us to say what does it look

like for a church to be healthy and on

fire.

The danger in Sardis was this. Number

one, the danger of a dead and

comfortable faith.

dead and comfortable faith. The problem

of a dead and comfortable faith always

goes back to identity. We talk about

identity constantly. Again, they had an

identity issue from either their past

success or their present failure.

There's two versions of this that I just

want to go after for a moment. Here's

how what it looks like. You either live

off your past achievements

or you're trapped by your present

failures. Past achievements, present

failures. And then both of them

ultimately what we'll see is it's the

same mistake. And that mistake is is

that you don't actually look to God for

your future. God's future isn't a part

of your future if you're honest. You

look to your achievements or your

failures. So, how do we do that? How do

we first look at our past achievements?

Couple ways.

We coast on a former life. Coasting on a

former life. This is probably like the

clearest and most direct application

here. These are the kinds of people

maybe you can relate in some way, shape,

or form. You had years where you were

just so spiritually on fire.

I mean, your quiet time was anytime.

You were at every conference. You

worshiped down here on your face because

not because you were the most holy, but

you were the most hungry.

By the way, you guys are all welcome up

front. I'm lonely up here on Sundays,

and you're welcome to show me how hungry

you are.

I'm serious, though. I I I I would love

that. Uh these are people that that are

still looking back how obedient they

were in key areas. Some of you it's it's

you've sacrificed so much and and that

has built maybe like a great family, a

great business, a great ministry, a

great reputation for yourself. You've

been really involved in the church past

or present or wherever and you've had

all these stories of encounters with

God, but if you're honest, that's become

a substitute for your present reality.

It's like you've kind of inherited some

kind of momentum in your life and you've

you've got this respectability in the

spiritual world, but if you're honest,

you're numb.

You're you're looking backwards and

you're saying like, "Those were the good

old days."

There's nothing wrong with looking back

at the good old days.

Some of you are doing this at 35, 40,

45.

There's life right in front of you. Are

you living numb or are you looking

backwards? Are you comfortable with what

you've accomplished? Have you assumed it

kind of like your your intimacy with God

from yesterday is somehow going to

sustain you in the life to come?

That's where children just are like the

biggest gift because they could care

less what you did outside their memory

bank which is two seconds long.

I mentioned that this week was

traumatizing. Uh my son should have died

on Saturday, yesterday. Uh I'm going to

make light of it because it's easier

that way and I'd appreciate you laughing

in key moments, but I uh was dropping

him off

uh after his soccer game. We had just

gotten Chick-fil-A as a massive reward

for his mediocre performance. I'm just

kidding. They they they won the game

against the biggest team. Uh, and so we

we just got back. I was dropping him

off. I'm going to go get gas and then

I'm going to go to the gym. And then uh

I can then drive off. He then has to go

across the street. If you know, we live

on Hill Avenue, very busy street. He's

14 years old. 14. He rides electric

bikes in the dark without asking

everywhere. I've assumed he's learned

how to cross the street. I'm just

glancing in my rearview mirror. I see

him carrying several things, bending

down. I can't see why he's bending down.

And then I see him do this. I'm going

this way. Traffic's going this way and

this way. He's looking this way only.

Turns his back completely. And then he

kind of does one of these numbers while

I'm watching the car that's like 20 feet

in front of him at full speed. And I

yell. Well, of course, he can't hear me.

I don't know what I yell. Probably

something I can't repeat. And thought

that was the last I was going to see

Judah forever. It slammed on the brakes

and honked and and then he just like

frolked inside like it wasn't a big

deal.

I go get gas, calm down for a few

minutes, and then I say, "Jim can wait.

I need to go sit in front of his face

and however long it takes for him to

know that he should be dead."

And I I had no plan other than that. I

did find out that what happened is that

he had a little bouncy ball he found

somehow and he was just frolicking after

the bouncy ball.

14. What do they say about that

prefrontal cortex not being developed?

Yeah, I don't even think he has one. I

don't even know.

That's how quick children

let the children come unto me. And he

almost did for the rest of eternity.

But that's the kind of child that's not

going to care about me telling him about

all my spiritual exploits in the past.

He is in the moment. And that moment

could end at any minute. And I was just

connected to eternity right there of how

fleeting and fragile life is. Again, how

many times do we need to learn that

lesson? Always. I need to learn that

lesson always. Right?

So let my lesson be yours so that you

don't have to experience what almost

became like me watching my son die.

But let's just take the take hold of the

fragility of life and the sanctity that

despite the fact that my my my

inclination is like well now I I have to

keep him safe and I have to be a

helicopter parent and he can't go out on

his bike and he can't go out on the

street and I'm like I can't do any of

those things. He's 14 in four years he

goes out on his own and it was another

process of just letting go.

where and then I was like 18 months

after that I was driving a vehicle alone

I don't understand

going back to this

Sardis

yesterday's intimacy with God they

thought would sustain life with God now

and this is what happens when your

reputation outlives really reality in

general

this is this is the thing. We can't look

backwards. Our kids don't care. The

other thing that we do is we think we

can live off the past. We can't. The

other thing we do is we just go into

like despair like I can easily do off

nostalgia. What does that look like?

This connects deeply, I think, to both

what's happening here and to us today.

We we are people who often look back and

we feel heavy.

Some of us look back and we can kind of

boost ourselves up in confidence. So,

look, I mean, I might not be doing much

now, but I did. Or I can just ride off

of that. It's just not the season for me

to really engage or to go after things,

right? It's a survival season or a

building season or whatever you want to

call the season. But then there's

there's others of us, I'm I'm guilty of

this, where where that former hope and

dreams and life and activity. The fact

that I'm not living in that to the

fullness of what I once was now makes me

feel like incredibly heavy. Like my best

days are behind me instead of in front

of me. I'm not necessarily like super

rebellious about it. I'm just like

emotionally just kind of shutting down

over it if I'm if I'm honest about that.

Is that you?

Where are you emotionally with the

reality of your spiritual production?

This hits many of you when you're in

your somewhere in your middle-ageness.

Those of you that are younger, I want

you to look out for this and never let

this hold you hostage. Those of you that

are older, I want you to remind the

younger ones of your process and how you

wrestled with this reality. You cannot

live the Christian life over the long

haul and not deal with burnout,

discouragement, the reality and the

impact of former ministry leaders and

their positives and negatives and

everything in between. Exhaustion that

comes from just a life of trying and

striving and everything in between. Some

of us look at Sardis and and we're

pretending that they're alive. Others

are grieving

that you no longer feel alive. And we're

both stuck in the same place. And that

place is that we cannot see the hope of

God's future. We've lost our hope, the

seeds of hope.

And we when we sing these songs that we

did at the end of worship to let hope

arise, this is what these are the seeds

that we're trying to stand on and put

before us even when we don't feel like

it. We declare it, we say it, we sing it

because we are looking towards a future

reality that affects everything in the

present.

So it's not over. Some of you just need

to hear today like the embers of the

fire are still there. They're still

there. They just need fresh air to be

blown on them. Well, you just let the

breath of God, he gives the gift of

faith. Let him blow on those embers

again and let them erupt. When I when I

see these baptisms and I see these

stories of God working in people's

lives, it stirs up in some something in

me these embers of of trusting and

believing that the fires of renewal of

every single soul is possible.

And it's it's our natural inclination to

feel heavy behind

and to get so in our heads of what we're

doing or not doing, our successes and

failures crumble and us.

It's not over. God's not done. The

resurrection says it's not over.

And eternity prophesies to your present

reality. Here's the other version. Some

of us get trapped by our present

failures. And this is for you. Wake up.

Wake up.

You've tried to change and you've just

said, "This is just who I am. I'm just

too anxious, too angry. I'm too addicted

to whatever it is." You're emotionally

damaged. You're too compromised. You're

too far gone spiritually. Some of you

compare to the person next to you or in

front of you or in your small group

that's like, "I could never do that." So

you just kind of you've made a covenant

with yourself and the reality that

you're living in that this is just the

way it is. Or some of us

you're you're still trying to manage the

shame of a failed marriage or hidden sin

or pornography or burnout emotionally

that you don't want to come to terms

with that you feel like a failure and

shame and and how you are as a parent.

My wife's still not in here. You compare

to my beautiful wife and how perfectly

she does parenting.

It's on the recording. She'll go back

and listen. You know,

she's not perfect, but she's close.

Some of us have a secret depression that

we just can't shake.

And what this is telling us is, and what

we're going to see in the second church,

I have no time to do it. It's going to

be a very quick look.

is that your weakness is the key.

Seeing your weakness, confronting it,

and bringing it to him is what's going

to set you free.

The solution is to wake up to your

future with God. Not an identity rooted

in your past or your current condition,

but in your future union with Jesus.

That is what the gospel says. If this is

new to you today, that's completely

fine. I just want you to just be here,

be present, sit in the room, and just

observe and process. And if your soul

feels like communing with the living

God, would you just ask him the

question, is it possible

that the person of Jesus is real and

wants to know me? And all I can say is

the story of the resurrection isn't

silly. It's not a myth. It has the the

fullness of life and death and it

invites us into an eternal purpose where

this life cannot take anything from us

even through death. And that is why

Christians gave their lives for those

around them because they didn't hold

their lives as the end of the story.

Their physical lives were but a moment

on the eternal story that God was

writing that they were a part of. And if

you can tap into that again again today,

if you can remember the words of Father

God, but maybe it's not, maybe that's

hard for you. Maybe you need to remember

the words of your own mother or your

grandmother.

And I just want to invite us.

One of the deepest acts of faith that

you and I can step into is refusing to

believe that the current chapter of your

life is the final word.

I got to close this out. So here team,

can you start to come up so I can I can

do this.

I want us to remember the future. It's

the phrase we go after time and time

again. When we do that, what we're

saying is that Jesus does not define you

and I by our best moment or our worst

moment. It's only by the future that he

is bringing to you and I. That's how we

define our lives. So that every single

person, no matter how lost or broken

that they are, they can simply come to

Jesus and he says, "I have a future and

a hope for you. Not a cheap one, but a

costly one that I laid my life down

for." And you and I, whether we've

invested into them or we've done nothing

for them, we can speak with confidence,

not because of what we can give them,

but because of what he's given us. And

some of us need today just to be need to

be reminded again of what we carry. Some

of us need to just wake up. Wake up. If

Jesus is alive, there is not a single

thing going on in your life right now

that should keep you heavy.

Some of us need to repent for the

heaviness that we're carrying.

You're trying to carry something on your

back that Jesus already paid for.

I'm talking with you today. I've been

struggling with some heavy things. The

answer is not for him to just like rub

my back.

I need that sometimes.

What I need in these moments is a wakeup

call.

I need to repent to the hope that it's

not the end, that my past doesn't define

me, that my failures

are not my identity, and neither is my

success.

I want to invite you to put this into

practice. Challenge the way of Jesus.

Can we set our lives towards waking up

rejecting the numbness that we feel no

matter where it comes from? Rejecting

the idea that I can be something in my

self-sufficiency

that I have to do something in my own

strength.

I have to keep stepping forward and

learning what it looks like to say, God,

you're the God of the universe.

Maybe I'm trying to carry too much

today.

Second, my dependency on God needs to be

awakened in the midst of that. So bring

your weakness, your uncertainty, your

need for him. This is a daily act. Can

we like the beginning just say this day

doesn't need to be any more special than

I am. Can I find the holy place of

communing with the living God in the

mundane, trusting that those daily acts

of faith are going to be put in the bank

of eternity and he is going to use my

life regardless of whether my great

grandkids remember my name.

When you put your life

to the balance of eternity, everything

else gets put in its proper place.

I want to invite you today

if you need a fresh encounter

with looking at your life in the scope

of eternity today because your current

circumstances are weighing on you.

That's where I'm at. If that's where

you're at, I just want to invite you to

stand with me. If the current

circumstances in your life are weighing

on you and you need a fresh dose of

eternal hope, I just want you to stand

with me. Doesn't need to be everybody.

If that is a weight on you, I just want

you to stand with me.

And the prayer is that we would become a

people of faithful endurance. That we

would keep trusting, that we would keep

obeying, keep praying, keep giving our

little strength and our weakness to him.

I want to read the scripture to the

church of Philadelphia over you.

If I can even find it. There we go.

This is what he says to the church that

he gives no negative feedback. He says,

"I know your works, Philadelphia, and I

want I want you to hear this as if God

is speaking to you. I know your works.

Behold, I've set before you an open door

which no one is able to shut." These are

people that are predominantly Jewish

Christians that have been rejected by

their Jewish people and kicked out of

the synagogue. And he says, Before

you I have opened the door that no one

will be able to shut. I know that you've

but you have but little power and yet

you have kept my word and have not

denied my name.

He goes on and says because you've kept

my word about patient endurance. Hold

fast what you have.

This was not an impressive church by any

worldly standard. It was small. It had

pressures. [music] It had been rejected.

It was weak. And the promise was they're

alive. The most alive. [music] Why?

Because their weakness forced them to be

dependent. They had no option of

self-sufficiency. And we have so many

options of going after being

self-sufficient. And can you join me

today in your heaviness and say, "God, I

want to be that. I want to be that man

or woman that's completely dependent on

you.

I want to be about like that woman, like

that grandmother, like that mother that

reminded me of what true strength looks

like in the kingdom is going low. You

meeting us in the weakness.

Would you meet every single one of us in

the room?

No more facades, no more masking, no

more performing.

a patient, faithful endurance.

Keep trusting, keep obeying, keep

praying.

I want the rest of you just to join them

in standing if you're not already in

this team. I just want them to guide us

into this decree.

Let the seeds of hope of our eternal

future

completely crush

the work of darkness in our lives and

those around us.

We just ask for fresh eyes. Revelation,

I love the refrain. Those who have ears

to hear, eyes to see,

give us the eyes to see, ears to hear.

If you're so comfortable and not weirded

out, put your hands over your eyes. Put

your hands over your ears.

Don't look around. It's not for being

silly. It's just an act of saying,

"Jesus, give me fresh eyes. Give me

fresh ears. Not the ones that I earned,

the ones that you bought with your

blood.

Waken me up. Lift my spirits. Reject

passivity. Reject the heaviness." Some

of you need to grieve for certain

things. There is joy in grieving. There

is no shame. We break off shame right

here in Jesus name. We break off the

false name of specialness. You are not

special because of anything the world

gives, but you are absolutely the apple

of your father's eye. You are the one he

goes after. He's seen you from before

the beginning of time, and he wants you

in your mundess, not because you've

performed anything to him, but because

you're simply his child. You are special

to him, not special to the world. Would

you receive the joy of your salvation?

no performance just receiving and living

in that future reality right now. Let

that seed of hope arise in this body in

Jesus mighty name. Amen. Amen. I want to

invite