REVELATION SERIES // Coming Back to What Matters Most and Holding On When It’s Hard (Rev 2:1-11)

day. Like I said, my goodness, all of

you newbies, welcome to to Frontier. Um,

we're in the book of Revelation. We've

had a couple weeks hiatus with some

wonderful things going on with the kids

led Sunday and and we were out of town

in Mexico doing a wedding, which was a

privilege and an honor and beautiful.

Uh, but I um often like to tell you

about um just little stories of activity

in my life and uh it's generally going

to revolve around my kids. This story

doesn't. This revolves around something

at the gym because on any given week,

the only thing that the only people I

see other than you all is uh my children

and whoever happens to make eye contact

with me at the gym while I try not to

talk to anyone with keeping my head down

and and it's it's amazing to me

culturally they they say like

Scandinavians, we have a couple in the

front row, but the joke is is like um

you you know you know someone's having a

good day, you know, if a Norwegian makes

eye contact with you when they walk

Um I I am an extrovert. So I didn't

realize that till I was about 25 years

old that that was my heritage. It came

from and uh but but I've I've noticed

more and more um you know when we go to

public spaces we got headphones in heads

down on our phones and uh no more so

than at the gym. I'm always like that.

I'm at the gym and I'm getting stuff

done at the gym. I don't Is anyone else

like that? Like I've got like I've got

stuff to do while I work out. It's like

the stuff that like I need to get my

brain flowing whether it some days it's

admin, some days it's brainstorming, but

like I have absolutely no interest in

interacting and engaging with anyone at

the gym. And so so like uh um you know

but but what I love is that um

particularly people over 70 just never

got that memo that we that things have

shifted. And so most of the people I

talk to at the gym are over 70 years

old. And and this this occurrence was a

man and a cane that could hardly walk

and he's coming in there and like with

no shame just like coming in figuring

out machines. I had kind of had one eye

on him again no eye contact earlier in

the workout and uh and I'm noticing him

just like you know he's had to he has to

get this whole thing set up just for him

to get in because again he's he's just

working on mobility. He's not doing

strength training. And uh and so he he

comes, you know, confidently like this

is a guy that's like, you know, could

care less about anything, you know,

going on, which is my dream. I can't

wait till I get to that moment. My

preaching is going to start getting real

weird when I have that like I don't care

what you think moment. Uh I feel like it

comes out enough, especially on

sleepless nights, but just imagine like

no filter all the time. I don't know.

But he he just saw me um doing push-ups

like cuz here's the thing is like for

the lack of engagement like if I see all

the machines filled up I'm just going to

move on to like free weights and

push-ups because I would rather not have

to talk to anybody and and then and so

I'm literally just doing push-ups with

some weights. You ever do that? Like

just so you don't have to like bend your

wrists against the ground or whatever

else. So he's asking me like why am I

he's like want to engage with me about

like my my why I'm doing that. And so

I'm telling him and uh and again I take

my headphones off to do that because he

doesn't care that I can't hear him. He

makes me take my headphones off. And so

we have this little and you know his

last thing is like it's a good form good

form there. And and I go oh thank you

sir and uh and and and I didn't know

what to say. I I I wanted to be like

well and good luck to you and

your form is hopeless and I'm just proud

that you're here. I didn't know what to

say. Um, but I realized I had come in, I

don't know if I'd had a bad day. I just

felt like I was in a kind of a funk. I

had, in fact, during my workout, I was

having good interactions. I I recall I

was I was messaging Megan about

something with the turf. It was looking

beautiful. That was really encouraging.

Something was happening. Uh, Merritt, we

were engaging about like the set or

something like that. Just really

positive stuff. But I realized something

shifted in my spirit when I had a human

engagement, you know, face to face with

someone, a stranger.

My whole demeanor, I walked out as I as

I left, I said hi to him again.

Something like, you know, you have a

good workout

with your cane and I whatever else

you're going to do. and and I walk out

and I could feel my whole my entire

being shifted because of just a real

human engagement.

There was also a great song that came on

my playlist right at the right time that

helps too, right? You know, get those

endorphins rolling. What's my point? Um

there are there are exchanges of life

that we sell ourselves shorts by. We

sell ourselves short constantly by lack

of engagement. Some of the things that

happen here on a Sunday morning, I can

have the worst message in the world. You

might hate every single worship song. I

mean, that's never going to happen

fully, but let's say it does. One

engagement with another person that

carries the presence of God may shift

your entire month.

And we we are constantly siphoning

ourselves off from life. But what

happens when we become the people

engaging in a world that's just

desperate? People are desperate to take

their headphones off, put their phones

down, and engage with you.

This morning, I want you to engage with

the word of God. And I want you to ask

the Lord to do a couple things. We're

going to have two things. Return to him.

Remain in him so that you can become a

witness with him.

Become the people that just engage. I'm

not even talking. Don't even start with

awkward gospel conversations. Start with

just sharing life. The gospel will come

up. We're in a moment where culture is

desperate to figure out the meaning of

life. It will come up if you engage. If

you'll take your headphones out, put

your phone down, look for the brightness

in people's eyes. They're ready to

engage with you. Not just the over 70s.

I'm talking about the awkward Gen Z kids

that don't even know how to have

conversations. I'm just kidding. They're

they're really not that bad. I I the

more I get to know Jenzers, those of you

in the Jenzers, can you just, you know,

say hi.

>> Yeah, it's okay.

You're not as you're not as bad as we

millennials and Gen Xers made you out to

be. Yeah, they they really aren't. They

want to engage. And here this morning,

we're going to engage with the word of

God. Here's the thing. There is nowhere

left in society. And yet this is very

much a part of society where Sunday

morning all across the globe. There are

billions of people sitting under these

scriptures because they believe this is

an anchor and a standard for all of

life. You don't even have to understand

fully what's going on. This will draw

you into a way

and an eternity

that can take anything.

We're in a series on Revelation, one of

the most complicated, misunderstood

books. But it's not that complicated.

It's not about the end of the world.

Thank God because we are in a moment of

time. There was like a shooting last

night again, right, with president and

this and that. There's chaos everywhere.

There's wars everywhere. Who knows what

the flip's going on with AI?

Revelation is about how to live

faithfully in a world that feels like

it's completely coming apart. And why

we're studying it is so that we become a

people that don't come apart because you

can take my life, but you can't take my

soul because I have an eternal

perspective on the now that anchors me.

And so I can lay my life down for

something that's bigger than me. So

we've been seeing in Revelation who

Jesus really is. And today we hear what

he actually says to his church. There

are seven churches in the book of

Revelation. If you if you want a a

foundation of what the entire book is

about, understand simply why he's

speaking to seven churches that were

very specific, real churches that

actually existed. These words were to

them specifically and yet they were to

us as a broader church, which means it

gets really personal. Again, one

thought, return and remain. Don't lose

your love. Don't lose your soul. If

anything, we're talking about how to

reorder love and how costly faithfulness

is possible in a world that's completely

under pressure. Okay. So, where are we

going? Revelation two, Jesus is speaking

to two very different churches, Ephesus

and Smyrna. And the reality is is that

practically some of us have walked away

from Jesus. You wouldn't be sitting in

the room if you've been like, I'm, you

know, I hate God. I don't believe in any

of this. I'm not even open to any. I

understand if you're in the room, you

you know, you are listening in some way,

shape, or form. But some of us even in

the room, if we're honest, we've walked

away from intimacy, from closeness, from

a real love bound relationship. But

somewhere along the way, we've lost what

matters most. It's our love for him. And

our love for him isn't that it's gone.

It's that it's become functional instead

of relational.

We do that in other relationships if

we're honest, too.

There's a few marriages in the house.

We're celebrating 20 next month. 20

years.

You had to You had to pause. You had to

shut up. Stop. Okay. That's not the

point. The The point is this. The point

is this. Um,

how how many have been 20 years in and

more?

>> Yes. See, we're not alone. Yeah. And you

had to clap for that. Stop. That's not

the point. The The point is the The

point is this.

Look at those tw those people at 20 plus

years. If you were close to one of them,

just look at them. And I I want you to

know some of them have like the best

marriages. You want you want their

marriage, right? You want you you want a

Lisa and Dave mar. You want a Bob and

Sloan marriage, right? But I guarantee

you,

they're honest. There's been moments of

functionality.

See, Lisa tell you, she's ready right

here after church. You may need prayer.

You just may need a testimony from Lisa.

Dave won't tell you, but she will. Yeah.

You cannot have a long-standing

relationship without the issue of

functionality and relationally those

things at odds. That is the Christian

life. Will you be functional while

pursuing relational bandwidth all the

time? So, this isn't about falling away

like you're no longer a Christian. This

is about what kind of love relationship

do you really want and what do you have?

And our closest relationships will

prophesy to the relationship we have

with him. And and it's not that some of

us have fully walked away. It's the

functional versus relational. Others and

this is why there's two churches today.

Others there's a dynamic of just simply

face facing pressure.

Facing pressure.

Of course that can be work. It can be

relationships itself. We're tempted

though to compromise or just drift, a

quiet drift. And the question then

becomes in this passage underneath all

of it. How do you sustain a real

enduring love relationship with Jesus in

a world that's constantly pulling us

away? It's pulling us away for many

different reasons. You know what's going

on in your own life. But here's what I

want you to look at. What do you do when

following him actually starts to cost

you something?

I think the the hardest thing I actually

hate the application when people go

like, "Oh yeah, we don't live in the

persecution. Well, look what's happening

in all the different parts of the world.

Look what's happening in Nigeria and

Iran and all these things." Yeah. You

know, you know what happens when I talk

to missionaries on the ground in in

those places that are that are the

hardest physically with real

persecution? They say, "We have it

easy."

They have it easy because they can't be

lulled to sleep because the battle is so

visceral and real.

We are not the ones that should be

envied. In fact, the Christians I find

across the globe do not envy you in

America. They do not envy your lives

that have no overt physical persecution.

Why? Because they know.

They know. If you don't have physical

persecution, you can be lulled to sleep

and your relationship become becomes

functional instead of relational. Try

try having a functional relationship

with the Lord when you're being beaten

and running for your life and

everything's been taken from you,

right? I actually think we need to

switch the narrative. Not like, oh, poor

easy us Americans.

Not like, "Oh, we're so blessed with our

with our beautiful buildings and our

smoke machines."

How about maybe maybe

we need to be looking across the globe

and going, longing

for environments that are actually

easier while being harder. It's not

about wishing that on anyone. It's not

about asking for death.

It's about facing pressure. And Jesus's

answer, whether you're you're quietly

walking away or you're facing overt

pressure. His answer to both of those

things, he confronts it with something

hopeful. And he says, "Return to me and

remain in me. Return to my love. Remain

faithful under pressure." And he goes,

"So that you can become the kind of

people who live as a witness in a world

that desperately needs it. So that not

for yourself. So that you can kill the

self. So that you can kill the desires

and the things that actually hold you

back from a a life of meaning and

purpose that will never satisfy you when

your self is at the center. Because no

one wants to live a life where they get

to the end of it and go, I just crushed

it for me and I can take nothing with

me.

So here's the big idea today. Enduring

love, costly love is expensive.

and he's forming a people. Jesus is to

love him deeply and then to remain

faithful no matter the cost. There are

still costs here. There's there's a cost

to being successful because it can lull

you to sleep.

And much of the thing that we have to

look in the face is how is your success,

your desire for success, your pursuit of

success lulling you to sleep to the kind

of love relationship that will endure no

matter the cost. That's what he's doing.

So here's here's where we're going and

then we're going to get into the

scripture right now. These seven

churches, we're going to look at two,

Ephesus and Smyrna today. Seven is the

number of completeness in scripture.

It's not just them then. It's us now.

And you need to see Jesus is going to

say if Jesus walked into our church,

here's what I want you to see. If he

walked in here and spoke directly to us

like he's speaking to them, what would

he affirm and what would he confront? So

in every church, he's looking to affirm

them if there's anything to affirm and

to confront them if there's anything to

confront. So, I want you to take the

posture. If Jesus walked into the room

in this church, Frontier Church,

Pasadena, California, 2026, what will he

affirm and what will he confront? And he

will affirm some things and he will

confront some things.

What will be the church that'll listen?

So, Revelation 2 1-7,

put that up on the screen. Verse verse

one, let me read. To the [clears throat]

angel of the church in Ephesus,

right? Angel likely refers to a

messenger or leader of the church. This

is a real world. So it's real world,

real community happening. The words of

him who hold the seven stars in his

right hand who walks among the seven

golden lampstands. So Jesus is he's not

distant. He holds his leaders and walks

among his churches. He's present,

active, and involved. You need to see

that. Verse two, I know your works. This

is important because he sees everything.

Nothing is hidden but both good, bad,

everything in between. your toil and

your patient endurance. So he's

acknowledging that they're resilient

church. They're not passive. They're

committed here in Ephesus. You cannot

bear with those who are evil. Tested

those who call themselves apostles and

found them to be false.

So they have a strong discernment. This

church, they care about the truth and

they don't just accept every idea, they

test it. And Jesus is acknowledging them

for that. I know you verse three. I know

you are enduring patiently and bearing

up for my name's sake. So they're

suffering for their faith and they're

holding on. And he says, "And you've not

grown weary." It's amazing.

Verse four, but I have this against you.

So there's a sobering shift. You have

abandoned the love that you had at

first.

First church of the seven churches

that's represented

first confrontation.

Not an accidental loss abandoned. They

haven't lost their activity. They've

lost their affection.

In many ways they're doing the right

things and he gives them credit for

that. He compliments them. But the love

that fueled everything is gone.

We can do that in a lot of ways.

Some of us are doing that in our

marriage. We're still going towards the

right things. We're still doing the

right things. We're still having date

nights. We're going to therapy.

We're not gossiping behind our spouse's

back.

Maybe some of you, you haven't you

haven't lost a been toiling away in LA

for 10 years, 15 years, 30 years.

you are here with a word from the Lord

and you've continued to be faithful

and you've lost something of the love,

the closeness in the midst of it. Like

if you're real honest, when the noise is

put aside,

there's something that's fractured, the

fuel's gone.

And he says in verse 5, remember

therefore where you have fallen. There's

a fall. He's not He is not

making this seem like a small deal, but

it's not in the behavior.

He rarely cares about your behaviors.

Your behaviors reveal your heart. He's

exposing the heart.

And he so he says the solution, repent.

Repent and do what you did at first.

Repent isn't this is a great example of

repentance. If if you've been told to

repent your whole life and and you don't

think and you think that the word repent

means just feel real miserable and sorry

and shameful,

that is never how Jesus frames repent.

Repent is to turn and do what you did at

first

or turn and follow me for the first

time. That's repentance is

repent.

If not, I will come to you and remove

your lampstand from its place. What does

that mean? That's imagery that if you

don't know the Revelation or you haven't

read it in forever or you've never read

it, the lampstand represents the

church's witness and the church's

identity. You can keep doing church and

lose what makes you a church

unless you repent. So the stone the the

tone is completely invitational. He's

not just condemning them for the sake of

condemnation. He's saying here's the

invitation. Turn. Verse six. Yet this

you have you hate the works of the

niclatians. So I'll tell you about them

in a moment. He's specifically calling

out hypocrites and the false teachers.

And he goes, I also hate them. He's not

talking about them personally. He's

talking about what they represent. So

they had they had bad theology and they

have they think they have moral clarity,

these people. But the reality is the

Ephesians are going after them. And he's

saying, "You're going after the right

things. You're resisting compromise."

But something deeper is still missing.

Final verse, he who has an ear, let him

hear what the spirit says to the

churches. And so what's interesting is

every church gets this in Revelation. He

who has an ear, let him hear what his

spirit says to the churches. You're

meant to hear what he says to all the

churches. And it was circled among the

churches then. And it's been circled

among the churches for 2,000 years since

then. It's for them and it's for us.

To the one who conquers,

I will grant to eat of the tree of life

in the paradise of God. So the one who

conquers are the faithful, the ones who

overcome, who hold on. And he's

referring back to the language of

Genesis, beginning and end, alpha and

omega. This is the last book in the

Bible, referring back to the first book.

It's putting the whole story into simple

context. And it's saying what was lost

in the beginning, which was what?

Intimacy with God.

True life. It's being restored through

those who remain faithful.

That's what he's getting at. So, this is

a church doing almost everything right.

And at the same time, Jesus says,

"You've lost what matters most." I think

this is a word for us because frontier,

you're doing so much right. The thing

that can take us out is the heart issue.

If you've lost your first love, and we

have to go back to this over and over

and over, you can go back to it first

with him and then in the in the places

he's called you in your intimate

relationships, your callings, your

purposes, your professions, where he's

placed you. You have to look at this

constantly because you can be functional

instead of relational. And Jesus says,

do not compromise.

So here's the context again. Ephesus,

major city. It wasn't Rome. It was more

like if if if New York City is Rome,

Ephesus is London.

I would say LA, but LA is not like

anything else I've ever seen. It's just

Ephesus was wealthy, influential. You've

heard the the temple of Artemis. That's

one of the seven wonders of the world

that was there

second only to Rome in influence. So,

it's thriving. It's impressive and it's

super influential. A very powerful city.

So, they got a lot of things right in

Ephesus. hard work, perseverance, clear

on their doctrine. They rejected false

teaching. They didn't just have belief.

They they always looked at fruit, life,

and witness. It actually says that they

they cared about the witness. They cared

about what your life looked like, not

that you just said nice words. It was a

big deal. Now, these nicatians, why did

they why did he specifically call out

some people?

Well, here's the thing. These niclats,

they had this really weird sexual

compromising dynamic in their in their

society that they were bringing into the

church in Ephesus. So they taught there

was this thing called grace. But grace

meant that you could have permission to

do some things. You could indulge.

So indulgence once you indulge, you

couldn't have mastery over over your sin

until you indulged in it. So they'd be

like, "So you struggle with food? You

should get as fat as you want and then

and then master it.

Struggle with sex,

you should do as much as you want so

that you can master it.

It's twisting it. So they compromise

through contextualization.

And it's really easy to think that we

don't do the same thing today.

The idea is that they believe that God's

going to forgive you anyway. And so you

need to actually explore like your your

life of of darkness so that you can

overcome it.

So what that looked like, they were

practicing in in in participating in the

kinds of temple worship that included

sex with prostitutes.

[snorts]

And uh so you you'd have seemingly

committed

church leaders that would they would

take their lives in the church very

seriously. They would go into these

temples, sleep with whoever they wanted,

and then they use this theology to

justify it. Not just like, oh, I made a

mistake. More like, oh, I'm doing this

in a theologically sound way to to

address

my heaviness and my sin because it's

only if I take this to the full degree

that I can then master it. And then they

would say, God will forgive and this is

how you overcome your desire by

indulging in it. So, in other words,

they so they wrap their own

self-indulgences in a spiritual

language. And we think we don't do that.

We do it. And this is how we do it. We

say we're just being realistic in the

modern world.

And I'm just going to call out the the

mo the most prevalent. And I'm not

thinking of anyone in the room. I'm just

calling out the most natural way that we

parallel this in the modern day is uh

those people that that are trying to

follow Jesus. They call themselves

believers. And and and let's say you

sleep together before marriage. you live

together to test compatibility or

because it's super expensive

or you normalize your porn addiction

because it's just a struggle.

Culturally, you can you can look at

cohabitation

and and we have statistics that show

that it it always weakens long-term

marriages.

The Institute of Family Studies and

others show that couples who cohabitate

before engagement have higher rates of

divorce, lower marital satisfaction than

those who don't.

Another widely found sighting from the

National Center for Family and Marriage

found cohabitating before marriage is

associated with about 10 to 30% higher

risk of divorce depending on timing and

demographics.

I say all that because you can real

quick, just like they actually did in

Ephesus, turn their

commitment to sound doctrine into a

religious weight.

And some of you grew up in church

cultures where the church was more about

telling you what you can't do than who

you are.

Well, the the inversion is we don't

address the cancer in our souls.

And the cancer in our souls goes, look

at our culture and the data is catching

up. When you build a relationship on

testing and convenience instead of

covenant, it doesn't make it stronger.

It makes it more fragile. So Jesus and

the standard that he's saying about

covenant and marriage isn't about

keeping you from something. It's about

preparing you and strengthening you. If

you start to understand that every

real rule that's of Jesus's heart isn't

to keep you from something, but to move

you towards something better. Not to

limit your freedom, but to actually set

you free. Because what he's saying is is

the overindulgence on your freedoms are

actually going to enslave you.

And if we can be a church that doesn't

just see someone coming in the door and

the first thing we tell them is their

sin and instead we invite them into a

way where they encounter the love of

Jesus and in that we walk with them in

process because man I've seen people

where they got called out for living

with each other. I'm like they aren't

even I'm not even sure they're

Christians yet and you Christians are

telling them that they suck and that

they can't live together. What insanity

are we doing?

How about you let them encounter the

love of God where they're sitting with

you at your dinner table saying, "How

did you get such a great marriage and

you tell them the story and you make

their hearts burn for something that

they haven't tasted. That's how that's

how you set you don't compromise. You

don't shy away from it, but you you we

should still you should you might be

there's probably people in the room that

are just like, "Oh, should I now do I

have to be like self-conscious now that

I brought my girlfriend?" No. No.

It's not the point.

You're welcome here however you live

your life.

We're going after something where we're

saying, "I'm willing to limit my

freedoms because I realized that when I

tried when I tried to set the terms on

my own,

I always found myself enslaved.

Only Jesus has set me free."

This is just one example.

you can do this great and some of us can

look at like look how great a job I did

on that

and then completely completely miss

God's heart for the rest of it.

So here's the here's the thing. Biblical

faithfulness is never about restrictive

rules. It's always about freedom.

Everything Jesus calls you to say no to

will always be setting you free. Always.

The real problem,

back to the real problem, is you've left

your first love. Not lost theology, not

lost activity, but you've lost devotion.

You've lost priority, and you've lost

intimacy. So, how does that happen

today?

Again, how does this this happen? It

never happens all at once. It's not

through some dramatic rebellion for most

of us. It's usually slowly, quietly,

through formation that we don't even

notice. And it shows up, I think, in in

four ways. The four ways look typically

like this. distraction, performance,

control, and a religious spirit.

Distraction, performance, control, and a

religious spirit. Distraction is

constantly having input, no silence,

no presence. We're always connected to

something, and we're rarely

giving our attention to the living God.

Performance usually looks like becoming

ultra productive,

completely fixated on my productivity.

We start doing things even in the church

for God and instead we can't just be

with him and others.

Control then becomes the third thing. In

control I trust my own ability to manage

my life more than I trust God.

I stay busy and if I'm busy I'm in

charge and I'm in charge. I'm safe until

I realize I'm not.

And then the religious spirit creeps in.

And the religious spirit always becomes

critical. It always looks to the left

and the right. It always sharply

overcriticizes

everything else.

And you care more about being right than

than being a person of love.

And we can feel this to all. I mean,

can't you feel this to some degree,

every single one of us? There's there's

these things that are pulling on us.

And yeah,

good job following the podcasts that

have made us more efficient, informed,

and morally serious. Give yourself a

pat.

I do the same thing.

But are you alive with love?

I've I've quoted this probably more

times than it's helpful, but John Mark

wrote a book called The Ruthless

Elimination of Hurry. And in it, it

says, "Hurry is the great enemy of

spiritual life in our day."

Hurry. Why? Because love requires

attention.

And attention is always the first thing

we lose. So, we build our whole life

around Jesus.

And then we slowly lose our love for

him.

And the warning to the church, you can

keep doing church frontier. We can keep

doing church and lose the very thing

that makes us a church. And the hope is

this. Jesus never says start over. He

says return.

He never he never completely obliterates

the good work you are doing. He says

return. Return to what? Not your better

habits, not more discipline. Return to

love, presence, and him.

Because at the center of whatever the

reason is that we're drifting, it's not

just it's not just our bad habits. It's

because we're placing our trust in

something else.

We distract ourselves because silence

feels uncomfortable.

I end up performing because I want to

feel some measure of worthiness.

I control things because to be honest,

surrendering feels risky.

And I always find myself being critical

because it's always easier than being

vulnerable.

Always, isn't it?

But the life that you and I are trying

to build through control,

that's the place Jesus want wants to

meet us. And it's the life that he's

offering. And he gives us this promise.

Here's the promise that we need to walk

away with. The promise is this. To the

one who overcomes, I give the right to

eat from the tree of life.

in the paradise of God. And again, he's

using the language of Eden because it

has intimacy, the fullness of life, and

it's what our souls were created for and

we're hungry for still today as they

were in the garden. Not more

stimulation, not some kind of success,

not control. It's the actual life of

attention and presence of God. And he's

saying to us, Jesus is saying to us, if

you keep going the way that you're

going, you're going to lose what matters

most. But if you return, you don't just

get the love back, you actually get life

itself.

That's what he's saying.

If you want your life back, this is the

way to get your life back.

So before we get to the church of Smyrna

real quick, because I have to like do

that in five minutes. Ephesus is all

about how you lose love. This second

church of Smyrna is all about what it

looks like to remain faithful when it

costs you everything. So the last few

verses in 8 through 11 go like this. And

to the angel of the church in Smyrna,

right? Again, a real message to a real

church. The words of the first and the

last who died and came to life. He

introduces himself differently here,

doesn't he? To a suffering church. He

reminds them, "I was dead and now I'm

alive." Jesus will meet you exactly

where you're at. You never have to take

my word for it. You don't have to say

this Christian know how I feel because I

probably don't have any flipping clue. I

can't even speak into most of the things

that you guys are going through. I can

simply point you to the one

who's the author of life and is still

the solution to the life that you crave.

He says, "I've already gone through

death and I've overcome it." Verse nine,

I know your tribulation and your

poverty.

And then he and then it's like, are you

is he talking about being rich? There's

like a reversal where he looks at the

poor on the outside and then he looks at

God's economy and the spiritually rich

and he says, "And the slander of those

who say they are Jews and are not." So

he's being he's talking about how

there's false accusation,

misrepresentation,

all kinds of pressures religiously and

socially. And he says you, but there's a

synagogue of Satan, he says, which means

there's super strong language. Jesus

never shies away from strong language.

He's going, even if it looks religious,

there's still an opposition to God. And

then verse 10, he says this, "Do not

fear what you are about to suffer."

You cannot have the gospel

without a promise of suffering. You

cannot have a promise of salvation and

eternal life without the promise of

suffering.

And so many of us in America have been

told that we suck because our lives are

so easy.

But the global church is telling you,

"Your suffering is lulling you to sleep.

Wake up."

And Jesus never says he'll remove the

suffering. He says, "Don't be afraid of

it.

The devil is about to throw some of you

into prison." He says, "There's a real

battle behind what they're facing. It's

not random. There's real pressure, real

refinement." And he says, "So that you

may be tested." [snorts]

Again, that's not a punishment. It's a

journey of forming them.

He cares more about what he forms in and

through you than what happens to you.

and for 10 days you'll have tribulation.

This is likely symbolic here. Limited,

not forever. He's he's essentially

saying there's going to be limited

seasons of your life that you are

literally going through the most

atrocious, horrible sufferings,

but be faithful unto death. This is the

call. Not comfort, not escape, but

faithfulness, even if it costs you

everything. And then he says, 'I'll give

you a crown of life.

Not a royal crown, but a victor's

wreath. That's going back to this

Olympic language like the Olympic games

that were held in the cities all around

them. It's a reward of their endurance,

life itself. Final verse, he who has an

ear, let him hear what the spirit says

to the churches.

The one who conquers will not be hurt by

the second death. So this is the worst

thing that could happen to them,

physical death. And he goes, "That's not

actually the worst thing that could

happen to you. The second death, the

eternal separation from God, that's what

he says is the worst thing that could

happen to you. And that has no power

over you, those of you that are faithful

to me." That's the promise. So, this is

a church that has almost nothing.

They're poor. They've been persecuted.

They're suffering. And Jesus says

they're rich. He doesn't give this

church a single dose of correction.

just the promise that they're going to

suffer even more good news of the

gospel.

And Jesus doesn't tell them to escape.

He doesn't promise them there's a secret

rapture that's going to come and take

them away from all the tribulation.

He tells them to remain faithful.

So here's their reality. Violence,

imprisonment, execution.

This wasn't just theoretical. It was it

was all about their survival. There

there was this guy named Polycarp,

historical figure, who was who was

murdered. He he literally says, "86

years I've served Jesus. How can I deny

him now and then he's burned alive. This

happened there historically documented

in this city."

That's what faithfulness looks like when

it costs you everything. That's what the

church of Smyrna represents. That's what

history tells us they endured. And what

this looks like for us, what it looks

like for us is take a moment and look at

the pressures of your life.

Those of you in your workplace, if you

were being honest, where is integrity

going to cost you?

Those of you in relationships that you

feel the pressure to compromise in any

way, shape, or form.

Some of us feel misunderstood by our

families, mis misrepresented

in situations or business deals. You

feel constant pressure to perform, to

succeed, to provide, to survive.

And sadly, our lives look just as

anxious, just as burnout, just as

stretched thin and exhausted as the rest

of the world's.

But that's not the full story. And if

we're honest and you and if you if you

looked around the room, I could assure

you, you don't look like the rest of the

world. You have moments because we're

just as human as anyone else. And we're

never to hide our scars and our

shortcomings.

But you are a pe you are a people that

carry this this promise, this way of

life, and a different kind of life in

the midst of the chaos of the modern

world. And if you will simply keep

aligning when you fall down to this kind

of love, you will remain in it and

remain faithful to it, you will see that

in that is still the same invitation

that you had at first. Some of us today

just need to be reminded that that love

is still possible. That burning passion

with the Lord is still possible and it

will overflow to every area of your

life. Some of us have just gone dry.

We've been discouraged and the

transactional part of life has taken

over.

The pressures for each of us look

different, but there is something being

formed in every single one of us today.

I want you to sit for a moment with the

spirit of God and let him speak to you.

Every day we're being formed by the

pressure. Jesus calls these things

testing, not from him, but being used by

him. The question is, what is it forming

you into? What is it forming me into?

And he says, don't be afraid.

This isn't just a thing where he's

coming in and I'm going to fix

everything and promise you everything.

[snorts] The promise is don't let fear

shape you. Don't try to escape from

everything. Don't try to fix everything.

And if fear sounds like this, this is

this is what you want to look for. The

seeds of fear in our life that are real.

If I don't do this, if I don't keep this

up, I'm going to lose everything I've

invested my life for.

If I don't compromise in this area,

I'm going to fall behind.

Or if I don't if I don't control

this piece of my life,

everything's going to fall apart.

This is where it's saying that the fear

is the quiet place that's shaping us and

it's shaping our decisions. And it's

doing that more than you and I realize.

Faithfulness looks like this.

You tell the truth when it's going to

cost you. It's going to cost your

influence. It's going to cost you

relationships. It's going to cost you

business. It's going to cost you

provision. You stay when it would be

easier to walk away.

Some of you are some of you are in

situations where everyone's walking away

because you've been screwed by the

leader of the team or the leader of the

family or whatever it is. And some of

you, the Lord is saying, would you stay

when everyone else leaves

because your presence

is what many of the others that have

gotten the short end of the stick need.

And it's completely natural to look out

for yours.

But the people of God never look out for

themselves first. It's always for the

other because your eternity is secure.

Because you have hope in something

bigger and it shapes how you live in the

present.

Revelation is always about the future.

It's always about how the future reality

of the promised eternity that you've

been given because of the blood of Jesus

always shapes the decisions that you

make in the present. And you never make

them in the way that the rest of the

world does. You're never continually

living in the fear that swells up

because you have something to confront

it. Something that makes you do

irrational things that the rest of the

world thinks are insane.

You can stand up to someone that no one

else stands up to. You can stay longer

than others stay. You can be truthful in

a way that others can't be

because you're not looking for

recognition. You're not looking for

status.

You've got a real life based on eternal

life that brings an unshakable presence.

That's what you have access to. You

don't have to do it perfectly,

but would you return to that kind of

love and that kind of life today with me

for the sole purpose of seeing and

hearing

Jesus say to you into this church,

you've made it. You've endured. You've

been faithful.

All right, I got to close this team.

come up and I I want to give us some

places to just look at the deeper issue

and then put this into practice. Here's

here's the thing. Jesus is forming a

people who return. But the deeper issue

is this. Why do we lose the love? Why do

we avoid the cost? It's never because of

laziness. It's never because of just

fear of itself. It's always because we

try to secure things for ourself. We're

protecting and we're controlling. So the

gospel looks like this. The gospel says

you look at Jesus and I want every

single one of you close your eyes right

now as the team comes up. We still have

a couple of seconds. The gospel always

looks like this.

Jesus, would you look us in the face

right now and remind us of what you've

done. We look at you right now and we

thank you that you didn't protect

yourself. You didn't secure yourself.

You didn't just stay safe. You gave

yourself.

You gave yourself.

And you said because of what you've

given, we can live with the same risk,

the same faith. You entered suffering.

You endured the cross. You remained

faithful unto death. And now you stand

alive. You are the alpha and omega, the

beginning, the end, the first and the

last. And we stand here, the last book

of the gift of your holy scriptures to

us. And we say, "Make us this kind of

people

that can endure.

Make me the kind of person that I don't

have to prove myself. I don't have to

prove myself as a father, as a pastor,

as a son.

Just feel for the last minute. just

there's some of us that are protecting

ourselves and you want us you want to

lay down that drive to protect yourself.

So it's not not everyone at once. I'm

going to have us all stand in a moment.

But if protection there's going to be

protection or performance there's a two

core I think things that I notice in my

own life come up. If you're in the mode

of protection and you want to just stand

with me and ask the spirit of God to

touch that place and give you strength

and give you a fresh vision. If you're

in protection mode in some way, shape,

or form, would you stand with me right

now?

Those of you protecting yourself

and you want to surrender yourself to

the Lord, would you stand with me?

Be honest.

Thank you, God.

Thank you [music] for the power of

vulnerability in a community.

We're not better than the world.

Now, those of us that know that we're

really, if we're being honest, we try to

perform our way to God for God. Even

performance [music] is your root your

root struggle battle. I want you to

[music] stand with us.

Every single day of my life, I'm dealing

with protection and performance.

If you're able to say not that you're

even giving it to him, that you want to

give it to him, your performance and

your protection,

self-performance, self-p protection, we

want to give that to you right now in

Jesus name.

Here's

the prayer that we go into the week that

we would return to the [music] love of

Jesus,

relational over functional,

devoted instead of distracted, real.

And would you show us again how to

remain uncompromising,

not looking for an escape, never giving

in, just willing to stay in the testing,

in the pain, in the process, in the

suffering.

I want the rest of us to stand if you're

not already standing. And there's three

practices that I'd ask the team just to

put on the screen behind us. And I just

as we respond in worship and close, I

just want you to [music]

literally envision what your week is

going to look like. Saying yes

to this invitation from this passage

today.

The first just being a simple return

daily, a few moments every day. Where do

you need to put your phone down, your

agenda down, and just sit with him in a

way that if you're honest, you haven't

done it. You haven't done it. Where is

the daily devotion where you're going to

daily return to him? What does that

look? Simply rebuilding love through

presence and giving him your attention.

Second, name the pressure that your life

is carrying. Name it right now as we

respond in worship. The question is just

asking the Lord, where am I most [music]

tempted to compromise right now in my

life? Most tempted to compromise.

[music] And I want you to write it down.

Write it in your phone as you worship.

document it and then pray into it.

Resist it daily. That one area of

compromise.

Name the pressure

and then simply give one act, one act

that you can be faithful into something

in the opposite spirit. It's going to

cost you something, but it can be the

most simple thing in the world. It can

be simply doing the honest thing that

you know you need to speak up and do. It

can be the integrity thing. It can be it

can be going into something where where

someone else

is silent and you need to speak up. It

can be simply obeying him to reach out,

to reconcile, to forgive in a way that

you haven't. Train your soul [music] to

remain rooted in the midst of a world of

chaos and [music] distraction.

One act of faithfulness, naming the

pressure, returning daily. That is our

cry. Holy Spirit, would you come? Help

us as we return, as our hearts grew

cold. Help us as we remain as the

pressure shapes us

because we found the [music] life we're

looking for in you alone, Jesus. And we

know that you're found

continually on the other side of both.

Lead us, guide us, strengthen us, and

compel us out in Jesus mighty name.

Amen. Amen.

This team's