SEVEN LETTERS | Week 5 | Sermon

But maybe you there. Maybe you're there right now, especially Christmas time. This time when we're supposed to be happy and celebrating the birth of Jesus and all that. And it's one of the biggest times of depression. Maybe you're struggling.

What we're going see today in the letter we're looking at in these seven letters written to these churches in the book of Revelation.

What we're gonna see today is this big idea that when life says hang up, hold on. When life says hang up, hold on.

What does that look like? Well, we're gonna be in Revelations chapter three and we're gonna be looking at this church in Philadelphia, not the one where the Eagles play, but it still is the city of brotherly love, not brotherly shove.

That's what Philadelphia means. It means the love of a brother, the king that named it was honoring his brother whom he loved. And what this city is, they're all in this Asia Minor, Asia area. This city is called the open door, the doorway. The Romanesque Greek culture

wanted to go in basically have their culture be pervasive.

Basically preach their culture into Asia. And this was the city that was the doorway to it where it sat. That's what it was called. This doorway to it that they wanted. And actually it was working. They were all the cities around them basically stopped speaking their native tongue. They all started speaking Greek and embracing this. And that was their mission. It was a pretty wealthy city. It was not in any threat of attack militarily.

It did sit on a volcanic area which made the soil very fertile. So they basically were able to grow good crops. Matter of fact, they had great grapes. So they were known for their awesome wine. So good economy, awesome wine, but the volcanic area made it prone to earthquakes. So basically it's Napa Valley is where they're living.

But as we're gonna see again, once again, it's a church that is actually being faithful. God in this letter has no complaint against them, only encouragement. And of these seven letters, there's only two churches

that he says that of. That's Smyrna and this one. The two that I'm preaching in the series. I gave all the bad ones to Daniel and Caleb so he can climb up ladders and stuff like that. And so what we're gonna see is it's interesting that the two churches that have no complaints, they're the faithful ones.

They're the two that are dealing with life being the hardest. Persecution, struggle, financial struggle, religious struggle, political strife, you know, literally life threatening struggle. And it's interesting.

And I think that's as we dive into this, the first thing to understand is if you think following Christ makes life easier, then you haven't been reading the Bible.

There is a call. There is a thing that if we're gonna be faithful, we're gonna go through tough times. But what we're gonna see here, it's not about where you're at. It's more about who you're with. And so what we're gonna is we're gonna walk through this passage little verse by verse.

And I think as we take it apart, if you just read it, you'd be like, I don't see how it says that we need to hold on. But how? How does that even work?

Because about two thirds of the way says, hold on. Hold on. But how and I think the answer is in the passage and I think there's three things we need to hold on to when we feel like hanging it up. The first one is we need to hold on to the person of Jesus and the power of God The person and power of the Lord.

So where does that come? Like, look at the first verse. It says, write this letter to the Angel of the Church in Philadelphia.

This message from the one who is holy and true, the one who has the key of David. What he opens, no one can close and what he closes, no one can open. So there's the introduction. And all these letters you've seen each week. There's in the introduction to the letter. There's always a description of who Jesus is. And if you dig in the specific description he gives actually is a clue as to how he's encouraging them. The way he's described

is one of the keys into what they need. What they need to do. If they're gonna hold on, what they needed to hold on is to who Jesus is and how is he described here? He's described as the one who is holy, the one who is true. He has the key to the city of David and the things he opens no one's can shut and the doors he shuts no one can open.

So what is that saying? That's saying who is Jesus, his person and his power? The person is it says he's holy and he's true. Holy stands for divinity. It means set apart, righteous, holy. It means he is God.

So that's that's first the the key thing that I think is new to us is when he says he's true. That's the part I think we need to understand. If we're gonna be able to hold on and be faithful even when life is frightful.

And so what does this true mean? It doesn't mean just like truths. It's not like he's the one that tells truths. What it means is he is true. He is truth. He actually says it himself in the gospel. I am the way, the truth, and the life.

And a lot of people say religions are all basically saying there's just one way to God, not according to Jesus. As the holy one, God, he says there is only one way, my way, because I am that way.

There is only truth, which is me. I don't come to give you some truths to give you a way to have some kind of good life. It's not some self help religious plan that you could just have a better life. He's saying, I'm the only way because I literally am truth, because I am life.

And if we miss that, what that means to be true, we just think of him as guy, hey, this guy comes, he gives us some good advice, and then that gives us a good life. That's not what he's saying at all. He's saying, I'm giving you life I died to give you. I am life itself. I am true.

I am true. And so what does that mean in the context of how do we hold on? If we understand that, we understand that what he's trying to say is in this world, there's a way of the world. There's an enemy. There's just the way the world thinks.

The Bible says there's a way that seems right to man, but at the end, it leads to death. That means there's ways that seem to make sense. But he's saying that's not true. That's a lie. I am true. So you need to understand that. Anytime you're faithful but life seems to be even harder,

you need to trust that you're actually going the way of truth. You're trusting the truth because when we don't, we buy into lies. And how does that lie work? First, we listen to lies about God.

Well, this isn't working. So apparently God doesn't have the power. He can't do this. I gotta make it work myself. And when you try to make it work yourself, well, then there must be something wrong with me. We start to buy into lies about ourselves.

Then we just fall for all the lies. And we and then we can even do that as Christians. We come to church and we say we believe in Jesus. We do. We believe in his his his power. But we disconnect from everything else because we just actually don't trust him now. And we end up with this struggle.

But do you believe it? The first thing we ought to hold on is do you believe that he is holy? He is the Lord God Almighty and he is true. And what lies are you believing about God or yourself

that's making you fall for the lies that this will be safe? Because here's one of the lies they would be tempted to fall for. When he describes his power, he says he is the one who has the key to David. He's the one that what he opens, no one can close. And what he closes, no one can open.

Well, a few verses later, you're gonna see they're being attacked by this synagogue of Satan. It's basically organized evil, pushed them out. The Jews don't want them in the synagogue. That means they're no longer protection of being an allowed religion in the Roman Empire.

So now they're an unauthorized religion, which opens them up to persecution and even be put to death. And they're getting attacked. What they're being told is, you're on the outside.

God doesn't love you. You're just some weirdos. You're not this. Life doesn't work that way. They're gonna be threatened. And what he's saying is I don't understand.

Here's what's true. They're saying that they're the open door. They have the open door. They're the ones on the inside and you've been locked out of the synagogue.

But what they don't understand is I got the keys to the kingdom, the keys to the city of David. He's talking about the new Jerusalem. He's talking about eternal life. He's talking about life right now. He goes, I hold the key. And what I open, no one can shut. And what I shut, no one can open. Meaning, I'm in control.

And that's gonna be a lie. It's gonna be really tempting to see why do I feel like I'm on the outside when God says, no, you're not. You're on the inside. You're on the inside.

You need to understand that. Do you know that? Because that leads to the second thing. Because a of okay. I get it. I I believe that Jesus is the holy, true one who is in control. I believe that. Okay. Well, then if you believe that, will you then obey that?

Meaning, will you trust him? Because that's the second thing you gotta hold on to. I think these next two are the ones I think we struggle with the most. I believe that. I believe he's the Almighty God and he died for my sins and Christmas and Easter and all of that.

But the second thing is you got to hold on to his purpose and his plan. And what I mean purpose and plan? Purpose is God has a purpose for us as a whole, as the body of Christ, as the church. And then each individual

has a part of that purpose. That's our plan. God's plan for you is how are you gonna be involved in his purpose? We have to hold on to that, especially when it's tough. The reason he's telling them that you obey. Look what he says in verse eight.

I know all the things you do, and I've opened the door for you that no one can close. You have little strength, yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me.

And he goes, look, I will force those who belong to Satan synagogue. That's the Jews that forced them out. Those liars who say they're Jews but are not to come and bow down at your feet. They will acknowledge that you are the ones I love. Now that seems like he's promising. They'll be defeated. They'll fall down in embarrassment. It's saying something deeper than that.

So what is he saying? He's saying, hey, you need to listen who I am. I'm holy. I am God. I am true. And I have the power and I'm in control despite what life looks like to you.

And you know that. And you have done what you're supposed to do. And you have obeyed the word. You've stayed on track. You have this open door, and you've walked through the open door. That open door is not just the idea of salvation. He's starting to do a comparison of what does the world say the city of Philadelphia is. And he's saying, this is what I, the word of God, the truth of God, the true one is saying who you are as the church in Philadelphia.

They're saying they're the open door to Asia with this this this culture, Greek culture. You, I've opened the door. Philadelphia is the open door for the gospel to go into Asia, and you guys have walked through that door.

When he says you're weak, but you've obeyed, what he's saying is you have continued to move forward. When he says hold on in the next verse, that hold on doesn't mean like white knuckle it and just do it because a lot of I'm barely holding on. And a of times when we struggle as Christians and we're barely holding on, we back away from the purpose and plan of God in our life. That's the first thing we let go of.

And we just try to white knuckle it. And he's saying, no. You guys didn't do that. As it got harder,

you still leaned into the purpose. You leaned into the plan. You leaned into the gospel. And when it says they will come and bow, he's saying, and guess what? At some point, some of those people that have been evil and treating you bad are going to bend their knee to Christ.

You're going to point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus, even when the world doesn't even when you're not in political power, even when you want to say when you lose the culture, when you lose all that, you're going to live this way you're going to understand that you leaned into my purpose for you.

Do you do that? Because what I've seen over and over, what I did when I left Biola was I did what a lot of us do. I was trying to be faithful. It didn't seem to work. So I back off. Now when I came home, I kept going to church, but I didn't get involved.

I didn't lean into the what is the purpose? Because I have so many people go, well, I'm coming to church. I love Jesus. I'm just trying to figure out his plan for my life. What's my purpose in life? You don't have to figure that out mystically. It's already told to us in scripture. Every one of us, if you're a follower of Christ, here is your purpose. To bring glory to God

by pointing people to Jesus, by loving them like Jesus, by living a life of obedience to God where you know, you grow, and you go.

Now that's our words of summing up what the whole commandments in the New Testament say about what we're supposed to be as the church. We're supposed to be the body of Christ. We know Christ. We come to know him personally, but we continue to. That's why we come and profess him and worship publicly. So my whole thing is when life gets hard, do you get erratic at coming to church or when life gets easy? When you start having fun, do you make it a commitment to say, I'm gonna be here every week,

not just when it fits me? Because this isn't a cafeteria where you just come get your own personal little spiritual journey. That's the lie that this culture teaches. American culture has a lot of good things to it, I think. But rugged individualism

combined with being the Church don't mix. We bring rugged individualism into our faith, which means my faith is just a personal thing. It's all about my personal journey. I like to come here for the teaching. I'll sing if I don't want. I'll do that. But you don't actually engage. You just attend a church. You're not being the church.

You won't engage. That's a lie from the pit of hell.

And then that same lie with that when you just attend. The other thing is when it gets hard to really do what God to know, to grow, to go, to come to church, to be faithful, to be here. But also to grow in community where you need others in your life. You need people to challenge you and be there for you.

And then you're supposed to go live intentionally. That's the go part of the gospel. And go live intentionally. Intentionally take what God has given me and use it in my life to propel the gospel forward. My time, my talent, my testimony, share my faith. And then my treasure, your money.

But what I've noticed, the lie of the world is I can be very personal about my faith. Personal is always about taking in.

But our faith is personal, but it was never meant to be private. That's why these letters are written to the messengers, the angel at these churches. That doesn't mean actually it means the head elder, the teaching pastor.

They were written to him to share with the body of Christ. It didn't say write these to the Christians that attend some of the congregations that live in the area of Philadelphia. It's to an actual Church body. We are called

to be a community and a body of Christ. You are called the God's his plan is people. And he said he died and he loves the Church, the body of Christ, the bride of Christ. That is us individually. But it's only really counts when it's us collectively. We don't think that way in our culture.

So when someone like me gets up and challenges, hey, get involved. You need to get in a small group. You need to serve.

You know what? Honor God with your money so we can get the mission going faster because God's gonna use it in a powerful way. All you hear is that dude wants something from me, and I don't have to do that. I do whatever I want. How dare you get involved in my personal life? That's my job.

My job is to be the messenger at the church at Rock Point and say, here's what God's word says and here's what we need to learn from it and be encouraged by. Do you personally engage in that purpose by the plan? What God has given you? How has he gifted you? What time?

And some of you but I did it, and it doesn't work. It's hard. When it's hard, what he's told me, that's the best time to lean into it. Because what we're saying is if I can't do what God's asked me to do just because it got hard, that means I really don't believe in the power of Christ. And I don't trust

I don't really trust that he means the best for me. But they were. They were leaning into it. I hear it all the time. Somebody's busy. You know, I can't go to home group. My life's hard right now. I'm really struggling.

So why would I go to the place that God called me to go to where people can bear up my burdens and help me and encourage me and even challenge me if I need it? Why would I go there when I'm all alone and I'm struggling? I can't serve right now. Life's just chaos. Trying to figure life out.

So I can't do the very thing God gave me a supernatural spiritual gift to do to actually push the gospel of all eternity forward in saving peoples all of eternity and bearing up the burden and being there for someone another for for that. That's that's not as important as the fact that my job is hard.

You see, here's the problem. Rugged individualism makes us very selfish, self centered Christians.

It's the same with our money. We need to give more than God needs our money. Giving keeps us from being absorbed by consumerism and materialism. And it shows that I do trust God more than a paycheck.

But if we don't understand that, if we don't lean hold on to that, then the words about, oh, Jesus is holy divine. All these songs we sing, he's the king of kings and Lord of lords. He has all the power. He has all this. Yeah, you do. But I'm not gonna trust your plan at all. You know how ridiculous that sounds?

Could you imagine if you got hit by a random cannonball? I mean, that sounds stupid, but say someone fired off a cannon and it clipped you and you're like, gaping cannonball wound.

And people, your neighbors wanna come, your friends, let's come help you, let's call an ambulance, take you off, no, no. I just wanna be left alone right now. This hurts, I'll be fine. I'll just use some Neosporin.

All around the edges of the cannonball wound. And plus I just don't just leave me out of this, leave me alone. I don't wanna go to the doctor. They're gonna ask for my money. It's gonna cost money

and then take the time. I was like, You would be like, thank you. You thank the people that got you there. You thank the doctors. You don't worry about the cost. You know why? Because you have a freaking cannonball wound.

We have cannonball wounds in our soul. We have darkness and hurt. Stuff that's within us that we caused ourselves. Stuff that we live in a fallen world where people hurt us, people fail us. We have things. We have church hurt. We have people do stuff. And the answer isn't to run away from the help. The answer is to run towards the plan.

But if you are afraid of doing that, it's because you're listening to the lies of this world and you've mixed the world with the word, which is what next week's church is all about. And I do not want the people of Rock Point to be the church at Laodicea. Because God says, I spit that from my mouth.

And you miss out on the blessing. So the idea is, hey, am I holding on to the person in power? And because that personal power, I see the love of Christ. So I'm gonna trust the purpose and the plan.

Or do I listen to the lies? And these lies try to take God and make him not able to do something. You start to not really believe. Because if God really is who he said he is, then trusting him with these things we won't trust him with shouldn't be hard. So you're listening like that he just can't do that.

It's interesting. I've been to Jerusalem several times. And when the Muslims kinda took it over the city a million years ago, they knew that

the Bible and stuff taught that when Jesus, he ascended to heaven from Mount Of Olives and he would come back and then he would go through the East Gate. And you can see the East Gate from the Mount Of Olives and and that's where he was gonna go. So their way of saying, oh, we don't want Jesus to come back and reclaim his kingdom. So so they said, we're gonna stop him. So I got a picture of the East Gate, kind of a close-up of it. There's the East Gate. Well, where's the doors?

You know what they did? Well, if he's supposed to go through the East Gate, we're gonna wall it. Then there's a wall in the way. And then they knew that a Jew, like, if if you show up is you're not supposed to be around a dead body, makes you unclean. So then you can't go into the temple. So he's gonna go into the temple and claim his right, his divinity and God. It's like, we'll bury that's a graveyard, an

Arab Muslim graveyard. They buried all their war dead and everything right in front. Like, now you have to walk through a graveyard and get past the wall to get through. That's gonna stop him. And you think when Jesus comes back, you think he's up in heaven and he looked at it he's like, oh, no. They figured it out.

They knew I was coming that way. Why did I tell them how I was gonna show up? Coulda shoulda kept the plan secret. They put a graveyard of dead bodies and a wall in my way. Oh my. What oh, what will I do? Y'all know he can fly. Right?

Plus if he doesn't wanna walk around dead bodies, can go, now they're not dead bodies anymore. He could hate Kool Aid that wall if he wanted to. The disciples were alone in the room after he was crucified.

Doors locked, no way in, and then he was just there. He could actually do like that Spider Man thing where he moves so fast or flash or whoever it was. Yeah. And he could walk through a wall by making his atoms move that he just jiggles around it. Jesus could do that.

They thought that would stop him. But here's the thing. You think, wow, they're so stupid. Okay. What's the wall in the graveyard that's in front of you being able to trust God? Because he says where he guides, he provides. You have the holy spirit power in you. So what are you saying? It can't be done.

Where are you saying, oh, no. There's a wall there. There's a graveyard there.

If you really do believe in the person and power of Jesus, you will hold on to his purpose and his plan and understand that that's number one. But see, when we listen to the lie of individualism, where we get caught up in thinking the purpose and plan is, oh, pastor, what I'm just trying to figure out my my my my

purpose in life. I go, it's no go go. It's it's this. No. No. I get that. That's the church thing. But what I really mean is I wanna be married or my marriage is rough or what job should I have or should I quit this job? You realize those are secondary details. God does care about them. You can talk to him about it.

But everything you do there needs to be focused on whatever I do here, how I manage this the best is how well am I stewarding this purpose. But we flip it. This becomes what I'm important. That's a secondary.

And that is the opposite of what this faithful church is doing.

And I think the biggest hang up on doing that is we say we believe in the person or we hear the purpose of the land, but we think there's a problem and we just have a trust issue. And I think that comes to we have to engage in this last one.

We have to hold on to the perspective and the promises of God. Verse 10, he says, Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world.

I'm coming soon. So first he's talking about this great time of testing. Now, a lot of people just a little teaching moment because I know you're interested in the rest of the book of Revelation. He's referencing

both a time of testing that was gonna happen in this time, but as a prophetic word, there's also he's referencing to the rest of the book of Revelation. Book of Revelation is wrapping up time. Jesus coming soon, like he said, and what's gonna happen is there's gonna be this seven year period of this called this great tribulation where God's pouring out his wrath. He's wrapping up time dealing with Israel doing all these things.

And he's saying, I'm gonna protect you from that.

Now there's a lot of people go, well, Pat, if you're really into this, you're like, so what does this church teach? Are you a pre tribulational rapture, mid tribulational or post? That means they believe that these protective things that he says is, okay, there's this thing called the rapture. The church is gonna disappear. I'm not even gonna have you go through it. So it feels like the church will do, you know, the left behind series, you just will be gone. That's one theory is that's how we'll be protected. Other theory say mid because if you read the great tribulation, actually, world gets better at first because that's how the antichrist fools everybody, makes life easier.

Seems like there's peace. So the first half, we're there. Then when it gets fed, peace out. And then there's those that believe it's post tribuli. Like, we go through the whole thing. And I'll be like, I don't want that. I'll go, which way does it work? How do I know? He's like, we're looking at the wrong thing.

Doesn't matter. What was the promise? I will protect you. Who cares about the path? We do. It's like, well, that one path seems scary. I don't even wanna be around it. Well, then if that's your problem, then then you you I I go read Psalms 23, the shepherd's psalm. Everyone loves it. It's so encouraging.

But it does have this part. Even though I walk through the what? Valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? For thou art with me. It didn't say,

since you're with me, you will walk me around to the valley of the shadow of death. It says we will go through scary times. We'll go through. The key part of that passage is not the valley of the shadow of death. The key part is you're holding Jesus's hand. We need to understand that perspective of his promises.

His promise is I will protect you no matter where you're at. A lot of us, we sit there and we look at the world's way. We listen to lie. Like, if I was gonna trust God with my time, my money, and serve, and really be the church, and really think of gospel oriented, and think from God's point of view of what my purpose and plan is, well then you know what? I don't have enough money. I don't have enough time. I have this. And you're afraid to step out and you think that's holding you back because you're not seeing from God's point of view. God's point of view says, I will take care of you. You have everything you need if you just go where I want you to go.

He said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. That what he meant was anything you need, well, you'll get. But what is you have to do first? Seek ye first the kingdom of God. And be that scary. Yeah. That's what faith is.

And that's how you build character. That's what in the book of Romans, Paul said it best. He says, hey. Consider it a joy when you stop for problems. He's talking to a church. He's saying problems for what? Not their own stupidity. Problems because you're actually obeying me. He goes because when you go through that, he goes that endurance

will produce character. You'll become more like Christ. More like Christ. That character will actually help you see from God's point of view. Cause you'll get to the other side and say, hey, I got blessed in a very different way than I thought. And because I have that character, he says that character will produce a lasting hope because then you'll know God does love you. You know that you can trust him more than the lies of the world. You don't have to worry about juggling your own life and making yourself get enough money. You'll just trust God and you'll have this hope that will never end because God loves you so much.

And that's actually what he goes on to say for the rest of the promise here.

He says, because you obeyed, I'm gonna keep you from that time of testing. So hold on to what you have. It's like longevity living on a prayer. You gotta hold on to what you got so that no one will take away your crown. Crown isn't he's not talking about salvation. He's talking about the blessing

that you're gonna get on the other side of faithfulness. The and you know what that blessing is? It's what you really crave in your soul anyways. That all the money, the time, all the perfect jobs, is never gonna give you.

He says, All who are victorious will become pillars in the temple of my God and they will never have to leave it. Eternal life. I will write on them a name

of my God and they will be citizens in the city of my God. Then do Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God and I will write them a new name. He's talking about, I'm gonna give you a new name. You're gonna have this new name. He's comparing it to the city again. Because when the city did get destroyed several times by earthquakes,

emperors came back and rebuilt it. And every time an emperor rebuilt it to thank them, they renamed the city in his honor. So he's saying they kept getting a new name when they're saved because, yeah, gonna that's gonna happen, but eventually it's gonna go away. The city doesn't exist anymore.

But he goes, I'm gonna give you a new name, my name, and you're gonna live in all of eternity with this blessing. God's perspective is we gotta look from the perspective of eternity versus temporary.

We also need to look at his promises from the perspective of time and how God works in time. If he is the holy almighty one who is true life, he is the great I am,

meaning not I am this and this and this. When Jesus is told us that the I am, that's an English version to try to translate this Greek thing, ego, I mean, which means I am period. When we say I am, you're like, okay. You are what? You're supposed to follow something. Jesus has described God as I am exclamation point.

That's it.

Means I am all that was, all that is, all that ever will exist. I am the first. I'm the last. I'm everything in the middle. I am life. I am the way. I'm the truth. I am time. I I I'm the one that invented time. I'm not even he's outside of time. Time doesn't control him. He created time. He's in before, out, inside, upside down, backwards, forwards, everywhere.

He knows all is all is can be all. He is the great I am. God has a perspective that when he makes a promise to us, we think about a person that makes a promise to us. If they love us and know us and trust us, they're going on a great educated guess that you're gonna be okay.

And we think that's what God's saying. He's not promising from a point of view from what I think I know you're gonna be okay. In God's world, the way he's outside of time, like time is like this to God. This is the thing that will blow your mind. Time is like this. Here's the beginning. Here's the end.

So when he says, this is where it's ending, he's not saying, hey. I know pretty good we've gotten this far because he's in the middle of it. I'm pretty sure it's gonna end this way like we say. He's like, I already know the ending because I'm already there. You understand a God of the universe is already there.

He's not just hoping this will happen. He's not got something in the works. He's not hang on. He's not like calling customer service. He's not any of that stuff. What he declares, what he opens can't be shut, and what he shuts can't be open. That's the God that we low and worship.

So why are you so afraid to trust him when he made a promise? And even though it looks bad, it doesn't matter because he already declared where it's ending if you trust him.

So if you can't trust him, you're listening to a lie. You're looking at a lie. You're caught in the ways one of the ways of the world, not the ways of the word. And there are certain things that the world says that this is the way to go, this is the way to live, that will never jive with the way of the word.

And we're living in a culture that so many churches are like, wow. We don't wanna offend people. How do we make this fit? Maybe God didn't mean this. Maybe it looks like that.

I just about wanted to stop being a Christian there for a minute, but I persevered and held on. So frustrating.

Because the enemy knows if he gets you to do that, you can come to church all you want. And you'll never wear that crown of blessing. You'll never get it. You won't lean into his purpose. You won't give. You won't serve. You won't allow God to use your life, your time, your money to transform life for all of eternity.

You'll just want to know more doctrine, have the right political beliefs, argue certain things, get mad at non Christians because they're so bad.

What if we actually just looked at our lives, this world, from the perspective of God, from his promises with his perspective. That's where you get the hope. That's where you hold on. That's what it's all about.

But like I said, the only way you can do that is if you're gonna hold on, you gotta let go of some stuff that you're carrying. And then you gotta reach up and grab Jesus' hand. You gotta be willing to trust because there I was sitting in Arizona. I went back and you know what? Life did get easier.

Went to ASU, was free. Got a job that paid pretty well. Got that government money and got to spend it on whatever I want. I was living at home. My mom cooked great food. Only thing I had to do was mow the lawn and clean the pool because dad says, not paying for that if my son's gonna live here. So

something about hard is good. And and, you know, I was running around with my old friends, you know, it was fun. Found a church that had great young adults group flirting with girls. That was good. Thought there was some potential there.

And then I'm sitting there after that, been there for like five months at home. And I'm sitting with a TV tray, the old school time. And and and and I'm I'm eating a steak and potatoes my mom made so good. My dad's sitting next to me and we're watching a baseball game together. Life is good.

I'm like, this is so good. Mom, meatloaf. You know, kind of a that's how good it is right now. And and as we're sitting there, my dad I'll turn side so you can see what it looked like. He just all a sudden throws his knife and fork down, clink on the plate and turns and looks at me like

just looks right at me. And I'm like and he's squinting. You know, he had one fake eye and one real eye squint with the real eye look. The fake eye sometimes was looking somewhere else, kinda creepy.

Sometimes it was the other way around. The fake eye was looking at me and the real eye was looking somewhere else. But he stared at me, like, in light of my eyes. He's like, is he looking into my soul? He's like, what is and I'm like,

what? And he goes, what are you doing here? No. I had to church it up. He put one more word in there. What the h e double hockey sticks are you doing here? And and I go, I'm eating a steak with my dad and watching a baseball game. Life is good. And he goes, you know, you're not stupid, son. You know that's not what I mean.

You know I love you being here. When you moved away and went it was hard because we were friends. We're close. Your mom. It's awesome having you back. I love hanging out, watching sports, doing stuff together. But I also know that God has a call and a purpose on us. And the way you're wired, what you were going after

was you were committed to using what God had given you to the fullest. And now it just seems like you're just floating.

I see you going to church, but are you serving? Are you involved? Do you give? I was more faithful in giving as a poor college student that had two jobs when I was at at Biola than I was with all the money I was making living at home.

And he goes, it seems like something's not hitting on all cylinders here. And I go, well, you know, it's funny you should say that because my old mentor called me, a guy I'd served with,

and he had went to California when I left. He'd been my youth pastor. And I went out and helped him. He was about forty five minutes from my school and done some interning with him. And he goes, he just called me and heard I was back home kinda doing nothing. And he said, you need to come out here. I need a guy to be at this this high level. Basically, he's gonna become a middle school director part time. He goes, it doesn't pay a lot. It's part time. But at least you can go to school.

It'd be hard, but I have an extra broom. You can just live at my house. And and and his wife worked a lot. They're busy. No one's making me food there.

And I'd have to work hard, live in this room, go to this place. I got struggling with that, daddy, because it'd be hard as I already tried doing that. I felt like I was trusting God and it wasn't working. And this seems even harder. And

you know and the one thing is I'm also you know at this big group is like that town. The problem with where it's a town is anybody that gets to my age when they get college, they leave.

So the prospects of finding a future wife, which I wanted to is gonna be pretty slim. So all this stuff just seems like it's pretty scary and hard to do. And my dad just looked me in the face. He said, son, that's the job.

And what he meant if you've been in this Church a long time, he's meant as a leader of men in combat. He said when you're at war, when you're a soldier, you committed to something. You're willing to give up your life for something. And when it gets hard, that's when you lean into the morn. That's the job.

That's what you agree. That's the job you're called to. And it's funny when you read what soldiers do. And if you've a soldier, thank you. I was raised by one that was faithful and he taught me so many spiritual principles through this. It's because what he says is when you're in combat, you can't say it's hard I quit. I mean, who does that? What army does that other than France in World War II?

It's like hard is when you're needed.

Hard is when you lean into it. Hard is the job. And he goes, Son I started reading the Bible. I go, The Bible describes us as the church more like soldiers. It sounds to me like what I did for a career. It sounds like we are called to sacrament. Jesus said, count the cost, take up your cross. Read the book of two Timothy three Corinthians. Read Corinthians with Paul. When he describes what he went through to bring them the gospel and he says, I celebrate. I have nothing but I've been given all things. I've been beaten. I've been in prison. I've been in that's a soldier talking.

My son says, You're looking for easy, but this is the job. But there's something wonderfully more beautiful on the other side of that. There is a hope on the other side of that. So what are you thinking? And I said, oh, man.

Know I think maybe I'll take him up on it. Because I was thinking about it. Now you just challenged me, dad, and got my face about it. He goes, good. I'll help you pack in the morning. He got me up at 6AM. I was out of there by lunch. Got my last meal for my mom. She packed me some for the road.

Alright. And then by that night, I was living back in California. I love my dad. I learned the art of a throat punch from him. Because I knew that when he challenged me, it wasn't what he wanted from me. He knew he was sacrificing by having me leave. It's what he wanted for me. That's what I want for us.

I would hope that if someday God wrote a letter to the church at Rock Point, we would be described the same way as the church of Philadelphia. Would you be described that way? Would you be willing when life says hang it up to just hold on?

But I don't see how it's gonna work. But God works in weird ways. He he knows what we need in the end. And when we try it did get hard. When I went back, it was difficult. It was hard. It was the hardest work. I was barely making. I was broke all the time. But now I'm here.

And the weirdest thing, that dinky little town is where I met my wife of thirty one years. God even threw that in for extra bonus even though the fact that she says I look like Steve Jobs. She also said, and you don't even have his money.

But she loves me. How about you? So, hey,

I wanna close Melo here. I just wanna close. I wanna give us one minute of silence. Just sit in the silence. And let the holy spirit talk to you in a still small voice. Do some business with him right now. What do you need to let it go of so you can hold on to these things? What do you need to let go of?

And we're gonna trust that hold on to his person and power, pick up and hold on to his purpose and his plan. And that's gonna take a step. You're gonna have to do action on that. And I think the thing that'll motivate you is whatever is stopping you, hold on to his perspective and his promise why you make that commitment.

One minute.

Lord, I just pray for everyone in this room that's been thinking for a minute that your spirit would continue to talk to us. Lord, my prayer is simple for all of us, me, everyone in this room, everyone watching online, that we would hear you, that we would see who you are, your person, see your power.

We would hold on to your your purpose and your plan. And Lord that we would do it through your perspective while holding on to your promises. So I just thank you for that. And I just pray this in the mighty holy name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Hey. I love you guys.

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