Revelation: Thyatira
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
My name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here if you will grab a Bible and go to the Book of Revelation it's the last book of the Bible it's on page 595 if you have one of these blue Bibles that's in the this the I don't know the Rack in front of you sorry um just couldn't find the word uh we are working through the Book of Revelation which is a letter the whole book is a letter written to churches in uh Asia which would be modern day turkey and uh there are sections of the of this entire book that's a letter that are specific addresses to different churches it was written to the.
Church in a time of distress in a time of persecution and in a time of difficulty and we find that it is helpful for us in the time that we're in as we study through this that we might gain encouragement and be emboldened to endure and to pursue faithfulness just as these churches were called to so if you will we're going to looking at the address to thota and it's in uh Revelation 2 starting in verse 18 and to the angel of the Church in thyra write the words of the Son of.
God who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished Bronze in the beginning of each of his addresses to each of these churches Jesus references some description of himself from the first chapter of the Book of Revelation and this is a reference this eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze is a reference to uh chapter 1 in verses 14 15 and 16 it's a description of what Jesus looked like when he showed up to speak to uh John John sees him and immediately Falls over John says like I was dead just killed over and it's actually not just a description of.
Jesus here but this description is very similar to the description of who ends up being referred to to as the man in linen from Daniel in the Book of Daniel which is another apoc apocalyptic book from the Old Testament there's a man in linen who shows up who has a very similar description in Daniel chapter 10 I would encourage you to go read it but it seems as if Jesus shows up and interacts with Daniel then he shows up here and interacts with John and he is proclaiming what is going on that's what he's referring back to this picture and he refers to himself here as the Son of.
God it's the only place in the Book of Revelation where he is called the son of God and he's going to directly quote Psalm 2 later in this address to thyra and in Psalm 2 it's a Psalm about the Son of God so we will we will look at that a little more as we get to that section in this letter but Jesus is writing to this Church and he says this verse 19 I know your Works your love and faith and service and patient endurance and that your latter Works exceed the.
First y'all that that's great listen to that I know your works I mean I see you I see you I know what you're doing you were love and faith and service and patient endurance and that your latter Works exceed the first we could spend the whole morning just looking at that and considering how blessed it would be to be a Church where that's a a fair description of what is going on and our hope would be that we'd be a Church like that that we would have works that we would have love and faith and service and patient endurance and that we would continue to grow and develop in service and works it doesn't stop.
There but it's a wonderful uh encouragement and acknowledgement of what this Church is doing and so he then goes to to verse 20 but I have this against you that you tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetes and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to Idols so he says you're doing this great I have this against you and he's going to call them to repentance uh I do think it's helpful.
For us to see that this is one of the ways that we can be confused about how things work that we can look at our own lives or we can look at the Ministries in the churches around us and the people around us and say well look at how good the ministry is therefore God must be cosigning all the things they're doing that you could look in your own life and go well I know I've got this sin I've got the struggle.
But I just LED one of my co-workers to Christ so God must not care this must be fine and I just think this is helpful that he can look at this Church and so say this is great but this isn't and that he would be continually doing that with us as well that he would be looking and going yeah no this this area of your life is good but this is the area I want to talk to you about where I can call you into repentance where I call you into Joy would he call us to himself as we'll.
See later now if you're unfamiliar with the Old Testament you might just think that Jezebel is just a lady who's in this Church and that's her name he called her out by name that's highly unlikely that her name was actually Jezebel what he's doing is referring to a figure from the Old Testament and her name was Jezebel that's how we know that's who he's referring to she's in second king a First Kings chapter 16-2 and she is welln there's so much packed into.
When he calls her Jezebel that it's startling to them it'd be like if he wrote a letter to us if I said hey Jesus wrote us a letter we're going to read it and it says well done I'm so proud of y'all y'all are doing great you're multiplying groups you have like 75 people who volunteer in Kid City not at one time but overtime I don't know if y'all know that we have like 75 people that volunteer in Kid City and we need like 125.
So if you're not one of those consider this your invitation to begin serving in Kid City but he writes and says you're doing great I have one thing against you you have your group coaching system overseen by Hitler we would be startled he would have packed in a lot of information I especially would be startled because I oversee our group coaching system but he's packed in so much when he refers to her as Jezebel what he's doing is Jezebel was the the queen she was married to King Ahab and she was uh there's a there's a word theologians ed.
For this the worst she was just awful she actively uh um attacked and assaulted the prophets of God actively fought against worship of God brought in prophets of Baal she at one point has 400 prophets of Baal she's oppressing the people of God and she's enticing them into idolatry and false worship it actually says in First Kings it says that there was no King like Ahab Who Sold himself to do evil the way that he did and then it says as his wife enticed him.
So Ahab was a terrible King Who Sold himself to do evil and his wife enticed him into it and so when he says that you have the prophetess Jezebel in your Church he's saying there's a lady in your Church who's enticing people to do evil now there are some who would think this is like a concept that Jezebel doesn't represent an actual person I I don't I don't read it that way I think I think that that's okay if that's kind of how someone takes it.
But it says who calls herself a prophetess which makes me think this is an actual they're tolerating that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess that there's actually a lady in this Church in this congregation who is claiming to speak on behalf of God and is saying it's okay to sin that's what she's doing you look and say what was she doing well she's enticing them seducing them just like Jezebel of the Old Testament into sin into false worship it says is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols and we spent some time talking about food sacrific to Idols last week.
Because these are the same two things that he talks to pergamum about they would have had in all these places if you had a job and you worked in a guild you would have a God over your guild and all these cities would have Gods over their cities and then you had the Roman gods and it was a whole Pantheon of gods and and what Spencer said last week was everybody was fine with Jesus as long as you played along with the rest of the gods they didn't mind.
Jesus being added to the pantheon it only became a problem when you said no Jesus Is God and none of these other ones are and we're not going to participate that messed up your livelihood that messed up your participation in Civic things in the city it caused you a lot of problems to not just eat the meat meet sacrifice to Idols not just participate in these sacrifices and she is somehow saying that this is okay there also at this time was a lot of sexual immorality and sexual sin that was practiced in Worship in temples and at festivals to these false gods many of them are fertility Gods many of them are are about blessing.
The crops and about rain and all these things and they would have these sexual practices that went along with it there was also cultural sexual practices that were perfectly fine in the Roman Empire that are not perfectly fine in the Bible and so for those people who were becoming Christians apparently we don't exactly know what Jezebel this lady this prophetess was telling them but she was stepping in somewhere and saying this thing that the Bible says is bad isn't actually bad that's.
Okay and I'm speaking on behalf of God and he says you shouldn't have tolerate her which means that we can't every time somebody writes a book has a TV show has a Church wears a suit says something clearly and nicely and helpfully in some ways is able to articulate an idea and claims to be holding a Bible while they do that we can't just go along with whatever they say we have to know the text and if they're undoing things the text says we should not tolerate it you can't just go.
Well he says she's a prophet says he's a prophet I don't know he's got a big Church we have to to know what is true and follow it so he's correcting her he says this verse 21 I gave her time to repent but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality behold I will throw her onto a sick bed and Those who commit adultery with her I will throw into Great Tribulation unless they repent of her works and I will strike her children dead and all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart and I will give to each of you according to your works.
So he says judgment's coming for her judgment's cominging for those who follow and practice with her and all the churches will see it and take and take warning now we might be a little uncomfortable with the idea of God specifically addressing and judging someone in the middle of their sin but y'all God is the judge and he will judge us eternally and sometimes he lets us wait until that moment when we Face Eternal judgment and other times he brings about judgment in life.
But God is the one who is able to author judgment whenever and however he sees fit now he says he's going to throw her on a sick bed which is a little bit of poetic justice he's saying she loves a bed she'll stay in one she'll suffer and be in bed and get what she's got coming to her then he say says I will throw her onto a sick bed and Those who commit adultery with her I will throw into Great Tribulation unless they repent of her works.
Now it's possible that she was doing some sort of weird cultish prophetes had a harm thing and was actually committing adultery with people we've seen that in a lot of places where someone sets up a cult claims to be a prophet they end up with seven wives or 10 wives or 120 wives or whatever it it's possible this is actual adultery but I think the way it says unless they repent of her Works she's going to be punished and unless they repent of her works I think it's more talking about the adultery of idolatry that they are participating with her in this adulterous approach to worshiping.
God and following God they're in the Church and they're committing adultery against Jesus that's the way Ezekiel talks about it the Old Testament has set precedent for this Ezekiel says for they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands with their Idols they have committed adultery meaning that the people of Israel and the people of Christ belong solely to God that we're meant to have our affection solely for him and when we commit a idolatry it is akin to committing adultery that we're giving our love to something or someone other than him.
And so it's not just like well I'm a Christian and I'm sinning here and it's not that big a deal I know I broke some rules but it's like no your heart is going Wayward to love something else when you have someone you belong to this is a bigger issue but he's going to bring judgment on those who have participated with him and then he says I will kill her children now it's possible those are her real actual children I think it is more likely it is those who have begun to follow this idea that this idea is going to die out that her her pursuit of this and those who are following her.
Where this idea has multiplied is going to he's he's going to have it die out and potentially have people actually die and all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart and that I give to each according to your works I want to highlight that and I will give to each according give to each of you according to your works the the Bible is very clear about that that we will be judged according to our works that will be judged according to our Deeds.
Jesus says this in Matthew 16 he says that he'll he'll repay us you'll get recompense according to your Deeds according to your work Romans says this second Corinthians says this Peter says this James says this this is true that what we do matters but there there's a way for us to mistakenly read this text and act as if what we do is the operative thing in Salvation that it's the thing that rescues us or fails to rescue us that either we're good or we're bad that either we've done the works or we haven't done the works.
But that's not the operative thing in this passage and even when Peter talks about this this is not how he talks about it this is what he says when we read First Peter 1 because I think he says it so clearly and if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's Deeds okay he's a father he judges impartially according to your Deeds what you do what you have done what you haven't done the things that were good that you did the things that you should have done that you didn't do the things that you should not have done that you did do he's looking at your deeds.
And if you aren't uncomfortable you don't have a good gauge on your Deeds just throwing that out there if this doesn't give you some pause and some consideration about how you spend your time and how you spend your money and how you spend your life and what you care about then maybe you don't have a good gauge on what your life looks like or has looked like over time conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your Exile that we should consider the fact that he looks at our works he looks at our deeds and we should have some fear that you.
When you set your budget should should operate in fear when you consider your time and what you care about and what you devote yourself to you should operate in some level of fear knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers not with perishable things such as silver or gold Ransom is buying someone out of slavery but with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot why does he look at our Deeds why why do we care about our Deeds.
Because we already belong to him if you belong to Jesus you've already been ransomed your sins's already been paid for your debts already been covered it is not if I'm good enough I might get Jesus it is because he's already claimed me and made me his through the work of the cross through forgiveness and hope now I want to operate in fear trusting him following him living life towards him and you'll see that In this passage in Revelation cuz he says this unless they repent of her works and he says I am he who searches mind and heart those give us some very clear handles.
For understanding how this him judging us by our Deeds works you he says unless they repent he doesn't say because they've already done this meaning that you had a shot and you're awful Jesus doesn't show up y'all if y'all don't know Jesus I need you to know this about him he doesn't show up and say hey real quick I've come to Earth and I'm gathering the good people who hasn't commit sexual sin who hasn't committed idolatry who hasn't loved something other than me who are the good people raise your hands good little boys and girls.
And then those people raise their hand he goes good y'all can come with me that's not how it works the reason part of the reason that's not how it works is that no one would raise their hand a Liars would but they'd be immediately disqualified nobody qualifies it's not because they've sinned it's because they won't repent it's not because they've sinned it's because they won't repent he says unless they repent meaning that they can turn to him and ask for forgiveness and he'll Grant it.
Because he's already paid the debt with his blood he even says this about Jezebel he says I gave her time to repent but she refused uses to repent of her sexual immorality I gave her time and she refuses I held out repentance for her if Jesus came to me and said that Church over there has a jezebel and she's teaching she says she's a prophet she's not she's lying about me she's teaching them to commit sexual sin you know what I'd say get her and there's a moment where.
Jesus would look and say no she has time to repent not yet I'm trying to get her but but not like you're talking about not judgment I'm trying to get her to come back to me I'm holding out repentance so that she might have life and forgiveness and Praise Jesus that in our lives there's a moment where he says no I'm giving them time to repent Oh Praise Jesus that he's looked at me and not come in and just brought the hammer down.
Because I'm wicked but he said no I'm giving him time to repent and he holds out repentance and that's the operative thing here and that's why it matters that he says he searches heart and mind and judges our works I can judge Works without having to see heart and mind you can judge Works without having to see heart and mind he judges our works as he sees our heart and mind meaning he judges our works accurately because there is a way to do Works where our heart and our mind are not in love not in love towards.
Jesus not in devotion not in worship not in anything there's a I think there's like 10 or 15 movies that work like this where somebody places a bet they're going to go get the ugly girl and make her prom queen and they've made a bet they're going to do this and so they begin the movie begins with them like asking her out telling her she's pretty buying her flowers giving her chocolate taking her on dates now if we're just judging the works this guy likes that girl.
But we know about the BET and we know that's not really what's happening now at some point in the movie he does start liking her it's usually when she like lets her hair down and he's like I didn't know your hair could touch your shoulders girl like you know whatever and then he he finds out she's like a person which we were surprised too I didn't know she was a person and she's like a real person with a soul somewhere in the middle of the movie and you're like wow I didn't know that about girls.
And then so she he starts likeing her she finds out about the bet they break up and then the end of the movie is him telling her that he cares about her buying her flowers holding a boom box outside her house whatever and he's doing some of the same works that he did at the beginning but his heart's different and there's a way for us to do religious works because we love ourselves and there's a way for us to do religious works.
Because we love Jesus and we're loved by Jesus and that's why he says we get a chance to repent he sees our hearts and judges our works because you can do a lot of religious works and not love Jesus you'll get really tired of it and you'll be very frustrated but you can do it so he says this verse 24 but to the rest of you and thyra who do not hold this teaching who have not learned what some call the Deep things of Satan to you I say I do not lay on you any other burden only hold fast what you have until I come he says y'all shouldn't tolerate this.
But those of y'all who haven't run along in it I'm giving them time to repent there's a chance to repent there's judgment coming yeah hold on hold on to the Gospel hold on to what you believe now that phrasing who have not learned the Deep things of Satan is weird he doesn't explain what it's referring to uh I think it's talking about what Jezebel has been teaching and promoting either he's just referring to it as that but he says who some have called I think it's possible that she was giving some insid or knowledge she maybe had she was saying I know what Satan's really up to.
And so you could bring to her things and she would say no that's not a big deal because that's not how Satan works so you can sin here but it's not sin but she was teaching the Deep things of Satan so that they might avoid what Satan's doing I think it's possible that is that I think this letter is applicable and helpful to us because we live in a culture that has lost its mind when it comes to sex in the lifetime of some of the older Saints in this room culture has moved.
So far I talked to Miss Louise periodically and she she grew up on the tail end of World War II remembers moments from that we talk about rationing and those sort of things the cultural approach to sex and sexual immorality from that time to now I mean in in my lifetime it's like Whiplash it has moved so far I have a few quotes from Carl Truman I think he's he's thought a lot about this written a lot about this studied this in his book Strange New World he says it this way he says indeed it can seem as.
If things that almost everybody believed as unquestioned Orthodoxy and I love this phrase the day before yesterday are now regarded as heresies advocated only by the dangerous lunatic French the culture has moved so far that now a normal Christian sexual ethic isn't just that we're more moral than culture that's the way it used to be that culture might have thought we weren't fun but at least thought we were more moral it's moved past us now to where it's like like no y'all are crazy and that's harmful it's hurtful and regressive he says it this way a little further on talking about the sexual Revolution he says the sexual Revolution didn't just say let's expand the.
Boundaries it says let's get rid of all the boundaries altogether and then it's begun to require the positive repudiation of traditional sexual mores positive repudiation means that you have to actually now think that traditional sexual moras are bad we have to get rid of them begun to require it to where belief in or maintenance of such views which we would hold as Christians has come to be seen as ridiculous or even a sign of serious mental or moral deficiency we now live in a culture that considers our approach to sexual ethics as less moral and harmful.
Because our culture has moved so far of been told that everything's okay everything's open to us it'll bring joy it'll bring satisfaction it'll bring fulfillment it'll bring happiness y'all if it would have it would have already done it there's not much left for us to do and our culture is just saying well you just need more you need better you got to push in that direction and we have cultural pressure to move and if you want to find a Christian Prophet or prophetess who will tell you you that some sexual sin is not sexual sin you can find it you can find it there's whole denominations who have changed their stances on things that the.
Church has held for thousands of years I saw a clip of Reverend Brandon Robertson this past week wearing one of those collars which I'm just so thankful I'm not a part of a tradition where I have to wear a collar you guys our tradition used to wear ties I don't even do that but I like that collar he's wearing that and he says he says I don't have a lot of time to answer this question but in short no premarital sex isn't aent.
And then he goes on to describe how the Bible talks about it but he's not actually describing how the Bible talks about it because that's not how the Bible talks about it the Bible is very rigid when it comes to approach to sexuality and honestly all honest intellectual thinkers understand that people who aren't Christians look at the Bible and go yeah I know why y'all hold to those restrictive sexual views your stupid book tells you that the only people that you're going to.
See un trying to undo it are people who want to be in the Church but are trying to be a prophet or prophetess that's saying these things are okay now uh that's all over the place uh the Baylor which was a Baptist College is a Baptist College it's Affiliated kind of loosely they're not all Christians there and they but it's a Baptist School in their uh November 23rd uh 2023 last year they ran an article in their student paper called don't Ruth the ring it's.
Okay to have premarital sex yeah that's wicked and harmful in his book called losing our virtue David Wells describes worldliness this way and I think it's helpful he says it's the system of values in any given age which has at its Center our fallen human perspective which displaces God and His truth from the world and which makes sin look normal and righteousness seems strange it thus gives great plausibility to what is morally wrong and for that reason makes what is wrong seem normal y'all we live in a culture where we don't have temples set up to Gods the way that they did.
But we absolutely have gods that are held out to us in our culture that must be dis must be served sexually must be worshiped in this way way the God of self the God of personal freedom where nobody can tell me what I'm allowed to do with my body and who I am that I've got to look inside of myself and discover myself and that anybody who puts any restrictions on me is evil the God of Pleasure the whole point of life is to suck the juices out of it to make all of life.
So wonderful and pleasurable and so good and if you're wasting your time if you aren't and if you're facing any suffering you've got to get rid of it and you've got to get rid of those people and you've got to get rid of that stuff and anything that hinders you has got to be gotten rid of because we've got to worship this God this is why our culture is so committed to abortion because the gods of self and pleasure deserve sacrifice they demand sacrifice.
If we're going to have those we have to have this and the Bible teaches that sex is good it's a gift it's powerful and therefore has a lot of restrictions around it it's meant for a man and a woman Inside the confines of marriage you don't have to have sex to be a whole person it's just a blessing that's given to us you don't have to have it for fulfillment it's not at the level that we've placed it at but it is a good gift.
But there are restrictions around it because it's powerful not because it's bad I have power tools at my house I like them one day I hope to own a few more of them they make working much easier but I've never once plugged in a circular saw and handed it to my six-year-old and said have buddy and that's not because I think circular saws are bad just think he shouldn't be messing with them it's not in the right context and that's the way.
God treats sex and the invitation is to repentance and joy but we have a culture that worships it we have a culture that pushes us on it and I love that he uses the word you tolerate Jezebel because I think for all of us we need to consider how much our tolerance of sexual sin has shifted how much your tolerance of innuendo sexual jokes what you'll watch what you'll repeat what you'll read what you'll think about what you'll consider what you'll correct and not correct and people in your community group I think our tolerance has shifted and we've become much more tolerant of things that are wicked.
Because we're soaking in a culture that that has overblown all of this stuff and we also ought to take very seriously as we speak on behalf of the Lord in our community groups as Christians what we tell people is okay and not okay and what you look at someone and go well that's not that bad everybody does that as if you are a prophet or a prophetess who can step into the Scriptures and untie it when we ought to hold rigidly to what the Bible teaches about this.
Because it's good and it's for our good and it's for our hope and it's for our joy y we've been enticed we've been lied to we've been tempted and there's an opportunity for repentance he doesn't say if you've never failed here you're welcome he says you're welcome but you got to come you got to turn away from it he calls us to conquer if you're in the middle of sexual sin conquer walk forward in Repentance ask for help and then overcome it we've got to get rid of it.
But he says this the one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end to him I will will give authority over the Nations there's this invitation into repentance that he holds out for us because of the work of Jesus and then this call to walk in that in Victory we don't have to be slaves to sin that we get to conquer we get to hold on to what is good until the end and then he says something that I find to be absolutely insane to him I will give authority over the Nations and he will rule them with a r Rod of iron as.
When Earth and pots are broken in pieces even as I'm myself have received Authority from my father that Jesus looks and says that Christians who conquer and hold on and fight and repent and follow will rule the Nations I'm uncomfortable with that if he said I will rule the Nations and you'll get to be there buddy I'd be like that's great he says you'll rule the Nations just like I rule the Nations and he's referring he actually quotes Psalm 2 read some of Psalm 2 to you Psalm 2 starts off by saying the Nations rage and plot in vain that they hate.
God and they're trying to overthrow him and then it says God laughs at them which is comforting to me God's not shook he does not care that they are raging against him he holds them in derision and then it says this verse 7 Psalm 2 I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me you are my son okay so Jesus just said Son of God only time he says it in Revelation then he quotes this Psalm so he's the son.
Today I have begotten you ask of me and I will make the Nations your heritage and the ends of the Earth your possession you shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a Potter's vessel that's the exact quote that he just said you'll get to participate in this as well now therefore oh Kings be wise be warned o rulers of the earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way.
For his wrath is quickly kindled blessed are all those who take refuge in him Jesus says it's not just that y'all get to be there you're going to reign with me and I love the visual imagery he says he has a rod of iron a rod is what a Shepherd would have to defend against anything that would harm the Sheep they were made out of wood Jesus has one that's made out of iron meaning it's not broken and probably it hurts worse I think that's included as.
Well but you can't break it and then what is he fighting with his Rod of iron clay pots my sons I have a 9-year-old and a six-year-old they have us we play would you rather if you're not familiar with the game would you rather is you give someone two choices and you find out about them you give them weird scenarios and you say would you would you rather and they pick we do this like we're riding around the car and stuff stuff like would you rather live in outer space or at the bottom of the ocean Would You Rather Have Eyes in the back of your head or taste things with your fingers weird stuff.
That just is like okay my six-year-old hasn't quite grasped the game fully yet he likes playing but when he makes up his own they come out a lot like this would you rather I give you an entire pepperoni pizza or we hang you upside down and set you on fire I'm always like I'm going go with the pizza buddy every once in a while he's surprised really yeah is there something I don't know about the pizza like would you rather have a rod of iron or be a clay pot like this is this picture of the this the disparity between.
Jesus and his authority that he wields and the Nations is so drastic they don't stand a chance his authority is complete it's it's uncontested and there's a way for us to be in the middle of distress and the middle of our culture swirling around us and for us as Christians to look at each other and lament in fear and say we're losing we're losing losing and Jesus says no I'm holding a rod of iron and the nations are clay pots and one day you'll hold it with me we don't lose.
So hold fast the only way to lose brothers and sisters is to be standing unrepentant before the King when he comes walking in holding his Rod but the call to us now is a promise of coming judgment and rescue but the call to us now is of obedience and repentance that we would turn from this and that we would come and then he says this verse 28 and I will give him the Morning Star he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches which immediately makes us ask what is the Morning Star sounds great I'm sure.
If he's given it to us it'll be great but what is it you work through the Book of Revelation and all these promises that are made to the churches in the first few chapters we're going to see them show up at the end that's why we all every time we get to this section in this book we go let me show you where it shows up there's only a few that don't clearly show up in the end but Jesus says this Revelation 22: 16 I.
Jesus have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches I am the root and the descendant of David the Bright Morning Star Jesus says stop committing adultery stop running after sin stop thinking your sexual sin and your idolatry is okay and then he says you'll reign with me and I will give you myself that we get Jesus he's the prize do you hear how loving and gracious and intimate and joyfill this is that he says I'll give you the morning star and we work through the whole book of Revelation going what is that and at the end he goes it's me it's me you'll get me and y'all that's the.
Hope because there's nothing better than Jesus so may we repent and may we hold fast in the middle of a culture that is swamping us with calls to sexual sin calls to promiscuity calls to pornography and things that will steal Joy from us may we repent may we quit those Works may we hold fast to what is true may we make it to the end and may we get Jesus let's pray Jesus the opportunity to repent is held out to us.
Because of your work on the cross and the promise of a future hope with you where you Reign and we Reign because we belong to you and you belong to us as held out May your spirit move may we hear what the spirit says to the churches may your spirit move so that we would repent of sin so that we would hold fast to what is good and may we love you more than we love anything else so that the promise of getting you at the end fixes our eyes and holds us will you keep us.
Lord in Jesus name amen the band's going to come back up we're going to respond in worship to Jesus if you consider your Works before the Lord if you find yourself convicted of sin do not tell yourself I'll do better I'll make my work works good enough take your heart to Jesus and say I Repent forgive me give me Grace and may you Empower me to walk forward let's.