WEBVTT 00:54.592 --> 00:56.401 [UNKNOWN]: Thank you. 01:01.591 --> 01:06.315 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, Revelation 3 is where we're at today so go ahead and open there in your Bibles as we study. 01:06.716 --> 01:21.148 [SPEAKER_00]: The sixth letter to the Churches in Revelation, the Churches in Asia, minor that Jesus is writing to, through the Apostle John, he's in prison right now on the island of Patmos, but he sends these letters on behalf of Jesus to these churches. 01:21.188 --> 01:23.110 [SPEAKER_00]: This one is to the Church in Philadelphia. 01:23.210 --> 01:26.853 [SPEAKER_00]: So we'll read this path together and then we're gonna study it a little bit. 01:27.394 --> 01:28.154 [SPEAKER_00]: It starts in verse 7. 01:28.975 --> 01:32.938 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, write this letter to the angel of the church in Philadelphia. 01:33.479 --> 01:36.742 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the message from the one who is holy and true. 01:37.262 --> 01:41.386 [SPEAKER_00]: The one who has the key of David, what he opens, no one can close. 01:41.846 --> 01:44.268 [SPEAKER_00]: And what he closes, no one can open. 01:44.889 --> 01:46.570 [SPEAKER_00]: I know all the things you do. 01:47.070 --> 01:50.714 [SPEAKER_00]: And I have opened a door for you that no one can close. 01:51.314 --> 01:52.154 [SPEAKER_00]: You have little strength. 01:52.655 --> 01:55.056 [SPEAKER_00]: Yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me. 01:55.136 --> 01:58.878 [SPEAKER_00]: Look, I will force those who belong to Satan's synagogue. 01:59.218 --> 02:03.900 [SPEAKER_00]: Those alias who say they are Jews, but are not, to come and bow down at your feet. 02:04.520 --> 02:07.582 [SPEAKER_00]: They will acknowledge that you are the ones I love. 02:08.142 --> 02:10.243 [SPEAKER_00]: Because you have obeyed my command to persevere. 02:10.263 --> 02:16.286 [SPEAKER_00]: 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. 02:16.926 --> 02:17.707 [SPEAKER_00]: I am coming soon. 02:17.767 --> 02:22.290 [SPEAKER_00]: Hold on to what you have so that no one will take away your crown. 02:23.091 --> 02:27.034 [SPEAKER_00]: All who are victorious will become pillars in a temple of my God. 02:27.454 --> 02:28.815 [SPEAKER_00]: And they will never have to leave it. 02:29.376 --> 02:37.943 [SPEAKER_00]: And I will write on them the name of my God and they will be citizens in the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God. 02:38.483 --> 02:40.405 [SPEAKER_00]: And I will also write on them my new name. 02:41.165 --> 02:49.518 [SPEAKER_00]: anyone with ears to hear must listen to the spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches before we dive more into this book. 02:49.538 --> 02:50.580 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk to the author. 02:50.600 --> 02:51.542 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's just bow our heads. 02:51.562 --> 02:52.183 [SPEAKER_00]: Heavenly Father, 02:53.290 --> 03:05.878 [SPEAKER_00]: We are so grateful for the letters that you sent to these churches and then preserved miraculously over 2,000 years so that we can read their mail and see what you sent to them and the learned from it today. 03:06.178 --> 03:12.282 [SPEAKER_00]: And God, I pray that you would help each of us individually through your Holy Spirit to interpret and apply these words to our lives. 03:12.962 --> 03:14.322 [SPEAKER_00]: What do you want to teach us, God? 03:14.342 --> 03:22.064 [SPEAKER_00]: What do you want us to walk out of here with that's going to make a difference and how we live and how we think and the things we say and what we do tomorrow? 03:22.624 --> 03:39.108 [SPEAKER_00]: Help us to be people that live out our faith, not only on Sundays, but every single day of the week God give us that shot in the arm that we need today spiritually, so that we can go into the rest of the week facing it, full on with a boldness and a confidence in the faith that we have in you and the hope that we have in you. 03:43.338 --> 03:50.600 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, this letter to the church in Philadelphia makes me wonder, what comes to your mind when you think of Philadelphia? 03:50.620 --> 03:51.940 [SPEAKER_00]: What's the first thing that comes to mind? 03:53.741 --> 03:55.021 [SPEAKER_00]: Brotherly love, very good. 03:55.061 --> 03:56.522 [SPEAKER_00]: That's the spiritual answer. 03:56.842 --> 03:58.462 [SPEAKER_00]: What comes to my mind is cream cheese. 03:59.143 --> 04:01.263 [SPEAKER_00]: So first service got it right. 04:01.283 --> 04:02.884 [SPEAKER_00]: They yelled out bagels and cream cheese. 04:02.904 --> 04:06.725 [SPEAKER_00]: As soon as I said to Philadelphia, but we got a more spiritual crowd second service. 04:06.745 --> 04:07.285 [SPEAKER_00]: We all knew that. 04:08.272 --> 04:12.056 [SPEAKER_00]: So, brotherly love is technically the right answer, you're correct. 04:12.336 --> 04:14.918 [SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, we have a city in the U.S. called Philadelphia. 04:14.938 --> 04:16.640 [SPEAKER_00]: It's called the city of brotherly love. 04:17.401 --> 04:25.748 [SPEAKER_00]: And you may not know why it was called that, but back in the 1600s, when William Penn founded the city of Philadelphia, the whole purpose. 04:26.469 --> 04:32.051 [SPEAKER_00]: was that that would be a city in the new world that would have absolute religious tolerance. 04:32.671 --> 04:54.000 [SPEAKER_00]: He was a Quaker who had faced severe persecution back in England, and when he came over to the new world, and he helped establish Pennsylvania, and then the city of Philadelphia, his whole goal was, can we just all get along, can we just have a place where Quakers and Jews and men and knights and Catholics and Protestants and all of these people can all live together, even though we worship differently. 04:54.827 --> 04:58.891 [SPEAKER_00]: And so he chose as the name for that city, Philadelphia, because it means brotherly love. 04:58.911 --> 05:06.199 [SPEAKER_00]: And he loved the idea that's behind it, that's expressed in this letter to Philadelphia, of why can't we just get along. 05:06.559 --> 05:16.569 [SPEAKER_00]: Ironically, actually, the situation for Philadelphia, ancient Philadelphia, was completely opposite of what he was going for, but I don't want to get ahead of myself too much there. 05:17.450 --> 05:30.154 [SPEAKER_00]: Ancient Philadelphia, which is where he got the name of the modern city from, was founded in the second century, by a king and humanness, the second of Purgumum, or by his brother Adelis, the second. 05:30.174 --> 05:35.436 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, these two brothers were both prominent influential people, a king and humanness, to be in the more prominent of the two. 05:35.916 --> 05:39.477 [SPEAKER_00]: And one of them, or both of them, founded the ancient city of Philadelphia. 05:39.677 --> 05:44.879 [SPEAKER_00]: What was known about these two brothers, well known, is that they had an incredible bond. 05:45.579 --> 05:46.540 [SPEAKER_00]: They like each other. 05:46.580 --> 05:52.384 [SPEAKER_00]: And in particular, Adela is the younger of the two was really, really loyal to his older brother. 05:52.724 --> 05:58.389 [SPEAKER_00]: And so they called this city Philadelphia or the city of brotherly love because of this bond that they had. 05:58.929 --> 06:03.793 [SPEAKER_00]: But the reason why they created this city was actually something completely different. 06:04.873 --> 06:30.668 [SPEAKER_00]: The reason they created this city was because the Roman Empire had recently acquired a lot of territory in Asia Minor and they did not want to govern it themselves And so they were basically handing it over to Purgumum to oversee, but Purgumum was about to have this big problem because all of these areas in the east of Asia Minor were kind of like tribal warring factions with their own languages and culture and territories And so Philadelphia was meant to be a mission city 06:31.428 --> 06:36.314 [SPEAKER_00]: but not a Christian mission city, it was a mission city for Hellenism. 06:36.875 --> 06:41.320 [SPEAKER_00]: Hellenism is the spread of Greek culture and language and thought and philosophy throughout the ancient world. 06:41.561 --> 06:47.888 [SPEAKER_00]: And at this time, most of your noble people and your rulers thought that the Greek ways were higher ways. 06:48.449 --> 06:49.770 [SPEAKER_00]: They were better ways. 06:50.150 --> 06:53.671 [SPEAKER_00]: The Greek language was so efficient and specific and precise. 06:53.991 --> 06:58.633 [SPEAKER_00]: And the Greek thought and philosophy and government strategy was so effective and efficient. 06:58.653 --> 07:13.760 [SPEAKER_00]: They wanted to spread not all but many of the Greek ideas and philosophy and they thought was, if you could spread these higher, more enlightened ways throughout your territory, all the different factions and tribes and group of people would sort of unite along those ways of thinking. 07:14.180 --> 07:16.862 [SPEAKER_00]: and around that language, and you'd have less division. 07:17.222 --> 07:18.704 [SPEAKER_00]: You'd have less infighting. 07:19.124 --> 07:19.964 [SPEAKER_00]: So that's what they did. 07:20.505 --> 07:26.970 [SPEAKER_00]: They founded Philadelphia to be one of these sort of missionary cities to help unite the area. 07:27.350 --> 07:29.732 [SPEAKER_00]: It was meant to be the gateway to the east. 07:30.272 --> 07:33.855 [SPEAKER_00]: Just like this city was at one time the gateway to the west. 07:34.396 --> 07:35.957 [SPEAKER_00]: Philadelphia was at the crossroads. 07:36.437 --> 07:44.300 [SPEAKER_00]: of all the major cities in Asia Minor and the coast heading out into the northeast territory of Asia Minor. 07:44.320 --> 07:52.482 [SPEAKER_00]: It was the doorway to the east for Greek thoughts to turn divided subjects into loyal subjects. 07:53.162 --> 07:54.583 [SPEAKER_00]: And it basically worked. 07:55.504 --> 08:06.926 [SPEAKER_00]: they were able to unify and before long, most of the local languages and dialects and culture started to die off and everyone united around the Greek sort of thought and culture it worked. 08:07.426 --> 08:16.508 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, the surrounding area of Philadelphia was a hotbed of volcanic activity, which made the soil perfect for growing grapes and producing wine. 08:17.088 --> 08:22.349 [SPEAKER_00]: And Philadelphia before long became known as a producer of some of the best wine in the world. 08:22.369 --> 08:24.210 [SPEAKER_00]: They would export it, they made a lot of money from it. 08:25.109 --> 08:34.417 [SPEAKER_00]: The city became wealthy, they were on their way up to becoming one of the more prominent cities like some of the others we've already talked about in these seven churches of revelation. 08:35.098 --> 08:36.599 [SPEAKER_00]: They became very religious. 08:36.619 --> 08:48.870 [SPEAKER_00]: There was a strong Jewish population there that had a synagogue, and there were also a lot of other people that were non-Jews that adopted the Greek God Dionysus to be their God. 08:48.950 --> 08:49.811 [SPEAKER_00]: He's the God of wine. 08:50.712 --> 09:06.831 [SPEAKER_00]: So the patron deity of most of the people in the city ended up being Dionysus and they were so enamored with this God and worshiped him and connected him with the success of the city because they're the place that produces all the great wine that they built temples to him everywhere. 09:07.452 --> 09:19.829 [SPEAKER_00]: There were so many temples all over the city of Philadelphia, but the surrounding region started to call this place little Athens, because Athens is full of temples and everywhere you looked in Philadelphia, there was a temple usually to Dionysus. 09:20.289 --> 09:23.954 [SPEAKER_00]: It seemed like a very thriving city, a city that was constantly improving, 09:24.871 --> 09:26.492 [SPEAKER_00]: but then tragedy struck. 09:26.632 --> 09:37.941 [SPEAKER_00]: In 87th team, a big earthquake hit the city, and if that wasn't bad enough, the aftershocks of that earthquake continue year after year after year. 09:38.802 --> 09:47.649 [SPEAKER_00]: The tremors, you never knew when they were happening, but they caused most of the people in the city to move outside the city walls and end up in the surrounding hillside, living in tents. 09:48.660 --> 09:57.823 [SPEAKER_00]: Eventually, there'd be enough of a period of calm that they would come back inside and take up residents in the city again, but before along another tremor would send them running for the hills again. 09:58.924 --> 10:08.587 [SPEAKER_00]: Emperor Tiberius eventually stepped in and provided some financial support as well as a complete exemption from Imperial taxes so that the city could rebuild. 10:08.847 --> 10:11.688 [SPEAKER_00]: But this left a huge mark on this city. 10:12.269 --> 10:16.090 [SPEAKER_00]: The fact that if they were walking through the city and a tremor might hit, 10:16.530 --> 10:30.819 [SPEAKER_00]: all of these beautiful buildings with their grand columns and the incredible temples that were built everywhere and the narrow streets as you walk among these big stone buildings at any moment a tremor could hit and those pillars could fall and the buildings could fall on top of you and killing. 10:31.400 --> 10:40.285 [SPEAKER_00]: So for a long time this really traumatized this city before eventually the tremors subsided and they were able to rebuild, but it left a big mark on this city. 10:40.706 --> 10:43.808 [SPEAKER_00]: Now because the people were so grateful to Emperor Tyverius, 10:45.054 --> 10:51.800 [SPEAKER_00]: After his support, they decided to rename the city from Philadelphia to our translation would be new city of season. 10:52.321 --> 10:54.443 [SPEAKER_00]: So they got a new name, new city of season. 10:54.783 --> 11:01.149 [SPEAKER_00]: And then after a while there was a new emperor and so they renamed the city again to follow the new emperor and show their love for him and they called it Flavia. 11:01.569 --> 11:05.193 [SPEAKER_00]: So this is the city that's had a few different interesting things in its history. 11:05.233 --> 11:06.874 [SPEAKER_00]: Number one, they're the doorway to the east. 11:07.655 --> 11:21.512 [SPEAKER_00]: Number two, they've got shaky foundations and buildings that are crumbling, are at least they did, and they have this changing identity that over the last several decades has gone through name after name after name as they've had allegiance to the different leaders. 11:22.313 --> 11:24.296 [SPEAKER_00]: And now Jesus writes a letter to this church. 11:25.280 --> 11:35.803 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's a letter that is somewhat unique because, out of, there are only two letters of the seven, that are just all positive and there's really nothing negative to say it's all encouragement, no reviews. 11:36.383 --> 11:44.625 [SPEAKER_00]: Which means if there were ever a church for us to try to emulate this church in Philadelphia, we wanna learn from them, but they did have a big problem. 11:45.165 --> 11:56.171 [SPEAKER_00]: And the big problem is that they've faced some intense persecution, not only from the Gentile people that lived in the city, which is most people, but also from the strong Jewish population. 11:56.531 --> 11:59.113 [SPEAKER_00]: And verse 9 kind of gives us the snapshot of this. 11:59.153 --> 12:09.178 [SPEAKER_00]: It says, look, I will force those who belong to Satan's synagogue, those liars who say they're Jews, but they are not to come down and bow at your feet. 12:15.075 --> 12:29.746 [SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of meaning packed into these statements, because we can learn what the problems were, based not only on what Jesus says and what he implies by his words, but also based on the historical information we know about what was taking place in this city from outside the Bible. 12:30.306 --> 12:37.690 [SPEAKER_00]: See at this time, around 95 AD, Jewish people were given exemptions from emperorship in the Roman Empire. 12:38.291 --> 12:47.656 [SPEAKER_00]: This happened because, you know, for centuries, there was this conflict between Jewish people and whatever, nation was over them, and when it became the Roman Empire, there were some revolts that happened. 12:47.936 --> 12:50.058 [SPEAKER_00]: And they sort of reached this agreement where, 12:50.837 --> 12:59.039 [SPEAKER_00]: where the Roman Empire would not enforce emperor worship on the Jewish people and the Jewish people would stay good loyal subjects and not revolt against the Roman Empire. 12:59.740 --> 13:02.300 [SPEAKER_00]: And so that was the benefit that they enjoyed. 13:02.900 --> 13:08.142 [SPEAKER_00]: As Jewish people, they did not have to participate in any of the pagan rituals or any of that kind of stuff. 13:08.162 --> 13:11.243 [SPEAKER_00]: They had this big exemption that they got to have. 13:11.963 --> 13:23.006 [SPEAKER_00]: But for the Christians, if they could be seen in many of these Christians were former Jews, if they could be seen as still sort of under that umbrella, it would also exempt them from the Emperor worship. 13:23.427 --> 13:27.368 [SPEAKER_00]: So it was really good, especially if you were a Jewish person that grew up your whole life in the synagogue. 13:27.968 --> 13:29.729 [SPEAKER_00]: You're hearing about the coming of the Messiah. 13:29.749 --> 13:31.951 [SPEAKER_00]: You're hearing Isaiah red in this synagogue. 13:31.971 --> 13:34.612 [SPEAKER_00]: You're hearing your leaders pray about the coming of the Messiah. 13:34.812 --> 13:37.434 [SPEAKER_00]: And then all of a sudden, somebody comes to and says, he's here. 13:37.514 --> 13:38.055 [SPEAKER_00]: He came. 13:38.115 --> 13:38.855 [SPEAKER_00]: He did all these things. 13:38.875 --> 13:39.916 [SPEAKER_00]: He checks all the boxes. 13:40.256 --> 13:42.177 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the Messiah you've been waiting for. 13:42.537 --> 13:45.720 [SPEAKER_00]: From their perspective, this is not a replacement for Judaism. 13:46.520 --> 13:47.982 [SPEAKER_00]: This is not Judaism 2.0. 13:48.182 --> 13:50.464 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the fulfillment of Judaism. 13:50.905 --> 13:53.067 [SPEAKER_00]: This is what we've been talking about this whole time. 13:53.107 --> 13:55.089 [SPEAKER_00]: This is just the thing that we said was going to happen. 13:55.129 --> 13:55.790 [SPEAKER_00]: Now it's happened. 13:56.091 --> 14:00.315 [SPEAKER_00]: We believe my synagogue leaders are going to be just as excited as me about this, right? 14:01.216 --> 14:01.677 [SPEAKER_00]: And they weren't. 14:02.518 --> 14:04.999 [SPEAKER_00]: And as synagogue leaders, we're not all that excited about the Messiah. 14:05.460 --> 14:08.181 [SPEAKER_00]: It changed their whole paradigm, and they were not willing to go along with it. 14:08.441 --> 14:18.888 [SPEAKER_00]: And so what happened is in many cases, throughout Asia, minor and throughout the world at that time, if you were a Jewish person who came to Christ, your own Jewish leaders turned on you. 14:19.988 --> 14:27.473 [SPEAKER_00]: And these were people who you listened to and learned from and prayed with and worshiped with, and looked up to and respected. 14:28.414 --> 14:35.316 [SPEAKER_00]: And now because you're believing the thing they said you're supposed to eagerly hope for an anticipate, they've turned against you. 14:36.216 --> 14:51.021 [SPEAKER_00]: And so the Jewish leaders, we can surmise, were basically slandering and kicking people out of the Jewish synagogue and out of the Jewish community where they no longer got the protection against Emperor worship and the pressures of the government. 14:51.041 --> 14:54.782 [SPEAKER_00]: They were no longer under the umbrella of exemption that they would have had before. 14:55.580 --> 14:58.563 [SPEAKER_00]: And of course, they were pressured and slanted in all sorts of other ways. 14:59.043 --> 15:02.206 [SPEAKER_00]: The word that's used for liars here is actually the word blaspheme. 15:02.826 --> 15:06.390 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's not that they lied about being Jews and weren't really Jews. 15:06.490 --> 15:07.931 [SPEAKER_00]: Although it could kind of read that way. 15:07.951 --> 15:11.915 [SPEAKER_00]: But actually what it refers to is the blaspheme they were doing against the Christians. 15:12.455 --> 15:19.639 [SPEAKER_00]: So the Jewish leaders were blaspheming the Christians and slandering them so that they would get hurt in different ways. 15:19.680 --> 15:20.760 [SPEAKER_00]: They would lose their jobs. 15:20.820 --> 15:22.461 [SPEAKER_00]: They would have trouble with the government. 15:22.501 --> 15:24.743 [SPEAKER_00]: They were shunned by the Jewish community. 15:24.763 --> 15:28.325 [SPEAKER_00]: They were excluded from the people who had sort of the... 15:28.685 --> 15:31.227 [SPEAKER_00]: The corner on the market of established religion. 15:31.978 --> 15:40.125 [SPEAKER_00]: as far as worshiping the God of the Bible and the Christians were kicked out of that and turned on, which must have been incredibly difficult for them. 15:40.565 --> 15:48.632 [SPEAKER_00]: You've heard us mention polycarp a few times in this series and polycarp is someone who was killed because of the slander of Jewish leaders. 15:49.273 --> 15:51.635 [SPEAKER_00]: So this could have really serious consequences for you. 15:51.975 --> 15:52.516 [SPEAKER_00]: Socially, 15:53.424 --> 16:00.526 [SPEAKER_00]: with your family structure, economically, and even getting arrested or hurt, beaten or killed. 16:01.206 --> 16:04.047 [SPEAKER_00]: Because of the slander of people who were against you. 16:04.347 --> 16:09.308 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, I'm very careful anytime I talk about this, to say Jewish leaders, because I'm not trying to say Jewish people. 16:09.328 --> 16:11.249 [SPEAKER_00]: We don't know that all the Jewish people felt this way. 16:11.289 --> 16:15.410 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, a lot of the Jewish people were the ones that were coming to Christ and trusting in the Messiah. 16:15.430 --> 16:21.932 [SPEAKER_00]: So it's just the leaders of the Jewish synagogue that we know were causing these kinds of problems. 16:22.472 --> 16:29.458 [SPEAKER_00]: And it might explain why it was such a big deal and why Jesus includes in this letter, the words that He does about them. 16:29.979 --> 16:34.823 [SPEAKER_00]: And the affirmation that He gives them, if you look at verse eight, He says, I know all the things you do. 16:35.824 --> 16:40.348 [SPEAKER_00]: And I have opened a door for you that no one can close. 16:40.868 --> 16:41.829 [SPEAKER_00]: You have little strength. 16:42.450 --> 16:46.733 [SPEAKER_00]: Yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me. 16:47.454 --> 16:48.275 [SPEAKER_00]: You have little strength. 16:49.139 --> 16:50.800 [SPEAKER_00]: You're not a powerful group of people. 16:50.820 --> 16:52.061 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have a lot of influence. 16:52.622 --> 16:53.562 [SPEAKER_00]: There's not much you can do. 16:53.582 --> 17:01.168 [SPEAKER_00]: The influential people as far as the community of the Bible and a God would go was the Jewish community and they were the ones that were kicking them out. 17:01.188 --> 17:03.790 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, Jesus says that they belong to the synagogue of Satan. 17:04.370 --> 17:06.031 [SPEAKER_00]: which is some pretty harsh words. 17:06.492 --> 17:09.774 [SPEAKER_00]: But here Jesus has just given encouragement to this church. 17:10.215 --> 17:12.977 [SPEAKER_00]: He sees that they've done good things they will bat his word. 17:13.377 --> 17:14.858 [SPEAKER_00]: He knows all the works that they've done. 17:15.219 --> 17:21.323 [SPEAKER_00]: Other churches, he told them, you need to start going back and doing the good things that you were doing at first, because you're sort of slack and off here as a church. 17:21.624 --> 17:22.945 [SPEAKER_00]: But he tells them, I know the things you do. 17:23.045 --> 17:24.726 [SPEAKER_00]: I've got no notes on that. 17:25.046 --> 17:25.767 [SPEAKER_00]: You're doing a good job. 17:25.787 --> 17:26.588 [SPEAKER_00]: You're obeying me. 17:26.688 --> 17:31.752 [SPEAKER_00]: You have not denied me and the temptation to deny him would have been so strong. 17:32.660 --> 17:35.283 [SPEAKER_00]: Because all they had to do was say, you know what, never mind. 17:35.423 --> 17:37.486 [SPEAKER_00]: I was wrong about the Messiah, never mind. 17:37.566 --> 17:38.807 [SPEAKER_00]: I want back into this synagogue. 17:39.108 --> 17:40.669 [SPEAKER_00]: I want to be back with my family and friends. 17:40.689 --> 17:43.333 [SPEAKER_00]: I want to be back under the protection of that Jewish community. 17:43.793 --> 17:47.077 [SPEAKER_00]: I want to be back under that exemption from the pressure of the government. 17:47.277 --> 17:48.719 [SPEAKER_00]: I want to be a part of that group again. 17:48.759 --> 17:49.940 [SPEAKER_00]: That in crowd again. 17:50.750 --> 17:54.872 [SPEAKER_00]: that they were excluded from, but they would not reject Jesus. 17:55.772 --> 17:58.153 [SPEAKER_00]: Even with all that persecution, even with all that temptation. 17:58.173 --> 18:00.474 [SPEAKER_00]: So Jesus has such kind words for them. 18:00.514 --> 18:07.817 [SPEAKER_00]: The Jewish leaders had closed the door on them and had slandered them, making it such a difficult place to serve God faithfully. 18:07.837 --> 18:10.618 [SPEAKER_00]: And probably some of us can relate to that in more ways than others. 18:12.015 --> 18:16.396 [SPEAKER_00]: You might be able to relate to someone shunning you because you follow Jesus. 18:17.116 --> 18:20.777 [SPEAKER_00]: You might be able to relate to your family turning their back on you because you've followed Jesus. 18:20.817 --> 18:27.479 [SPEAKER_00]: There are people here who that's their situation or friends who have turned away from them because they want nothing to do with you because you've decided to follow Jesus in your life. 18:27.739 --> 18:30.680 [SPEAKER_00]: And all of the implications that has for how you live. 18:31.380 --> 18:42.510 [SPEAKER_00]: There may be people here who have struggled because at work, a coworker or a boss has actually hurt your career because of your stand for Christ and the things you do or the things that you are not willing to do. 18:43.411 --> 18:47.255 [SPEAKER_00]: But man it cuts deeper when it's people that you thought you could trust. 18:47.335 --> 18:51.279 [SPEAKER_00]: People that you respected, people who you viewed as men of God. 18:52.175 --> 19:00.921 [SPEAKER_00]: Who as soon as you believe in the Messiah that you thought they were telling you to anticipate turn on you and persecute you and slander you and criticize you and ridicule you, ridicule you. 19:01.441 --> 19:03.423 [SPEAKER_00]: It just cuts deeper. 19:03.883 --> 19:09.867 [SPEAKER_00]: People that you thought were good, godly people who now you find are totally against you. 19:09.947 --> 19:13.850 [SPEAKER_00]: So Jesus gives them this encouragement and acknowledges their perseverance. 19:14.990 --> 19:17.872 [SPEAKER_00]: But then he draws their attention back to him right away. 19:18.512 --> 19:22.134 [SPEAKER_00]: He knows what they're going through, but he wants them to focus on him. 19:22.154 --> 19:23.955 [SPEAKER_00]: Look what he says right at the beginning of verse seven. 19:24.355 --> 19:29.618 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, this is the message from the one who is holy and true. 19:30.258 --> 19:38.623 [SPEAKER_00]: The one who has the key of David, what he opens, no one can close and what he closes, no one can open. 19:39.509 --> 19:47.192 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, in each of these letters to the churches, Jesus uses a unique descriptor for himself and Ephesus, he's the one who walks among the golden lampstands. 19:47.833 --> 19:51.334 [SPEAKER_00]: To Smyrna, he's the first and the last who is dead, but is now alive. 19:51.374 --> 19:55.296 [SPEAKER_00]: To Purgumum, he's the one with a two with a sharp two-edged sword. 19:56.154 --> 20:03.340 [SPEAKER_00]: To Fiatira, he has the eyes of fire and the feet of bronze to start us here as the sevenfold spirit of God. 20:03.620 --> 20:12.567 [SPEAKER_00]: And to fill it up here, he is the one who is holy and true, the one who is the key of David, what he opens, no one can close, and what he closes, no one can open. 20:13.048 --> 20:16.851 [SPEAKER_00]: Now we can't understand this without learning about Elijah Kim. 20:17.892 --> 20:19.773 [SPEAKER_00]: Elijah Kim, you all know Elijah Kim, right? 20:19.813 --> 20:22.315 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, just in case you don't, let me fill you in. 20:25.839 --> 20:32.501 [SPEAKER_00]: And Isaiah got this message from God where God said, you know, the Palacid Administrator, he's not doing a good job, he's corrupt. 20:33.001 --> 20:37.302 [SPEAKER_00]: I want to allow him to be the Palacid Administrator instead, and this is a big job. 20:37.342 --> 20:41.063 [SPEAKER_00]: This was second only to the King himself, which was King has a guy at the time. 20:41.523 --> 20:46.724 [SPEAKER_00]: And here's what God tells Isaiah about a lie of him and this job he's gonna have as Palacid Administrator. 20:46.764 --> 20:51.566 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, I will give him the key to the house of David. 20:52.146 --> 20:52.926 [SPEAKER_00]: Does that sound familiar? 20:53.948 --> 20:56.930 [SPEAKER_00]: The key to the house of David, the highest position in the royal court. 20:57.150 --> 21:00.173 [SPEAKER_00]: When he opens doors, no one will be able to close them. 21:00.753 --> 21:04.836 [SPEAKER_00]: When he closes doors, no one will be able to open them. 21:05.117 --> 21:05.817 [SPEAKER_00]: What's going on here? 21:06.578 --> 21:12.002 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the image of delegated authority, a lot of delegated authority. 21:12.442 --> 21:27.847 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, someone has been given the master key to all the doors, and they have all the authority, the Palace Administrator, could go throughout the whole country, but especially the Palace Compound, where all the important stuff happened, where all the important meetings happened, and that person could say, this door is shut to you. 21:28.687 --> 21:29.487 [SPEAKER_00]: You're not allowed in there. 21:29.687 --> 21:31.348 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't get to be a part of this council meeting. 21:31.368 --> 21:32.588 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't get to be a part of this committee. 21:32.808 --> 21:35.049 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't get to have a voice in what happens here. 21:35.784 --> 21:38.905 [SPEAKER_00]: They could also open the doors and say, no, no, you actually, you get to speak into this. 21:38.925 --> 21:39.826 [SPEAKER_00]: You get to be a part of this. 21:39.846 --> 21:42.247 [SPEAKER_00]: You get to be involved in this important meeting that's happening. 21:42.607 --> 21:44.487 [SPEAKER_00]: The Palace Administrator control all those things. 21:44.728 --> 21:45.588 [SPEAKER_00]: He could open the doors. 21:45.608 --> 21:46.428 [SPEAKER_00]: He could close the doors. 21:46.528 --> 21:54.151 [SPEAKER_00]: No one could override that decision except for the King, which is the same thing that Jesus keeps telling us about him and these letters. 21:54.932 --> 21:58.133 [SPEAKER_00]: He keeps saying, all authority of the nation has been given to me. 21:58.877 --> 22:01.277 [SPEAKER_00]: All authority on earth, all authority over all people. 22:01.297 --> 22:03.538 [SPEAKER_00]: And here Jesus says, look, I've got the master key. 22:03.898 --> 22:09.339 [SPEAKER_00]: I can open any door, I can include anybody I want to, I can exclude anybody I want to, I have all authority here. 22:09.599 --> 22:17.340 [SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus is telling these people who have had the door slammed shut in their face that he's the one with the master key. 22:17.920 --> 22:24.142 [SPEAKER_00]: He's the one with the authority to say who gets into the community of God and who is not part of the community of God. 22:24.442 --> 22:26.062 [SPEAKER_00]: The Jewish leaders said the Christians were out. 22:27.148 --> 22:29.149 [SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus says, hey, those leaders, they aren't my people. 22:30.110 --> 22:33.132 [SPEAKER_00]: They're actually part of the synagogue of Satan. 22:34.173 --> 22:35.173 [SPEAKER_00]: The synagogue of Satan. 22:36.014 --> 22:36.294 [SPEAKER_00]: Wow. 22:37.455 --> 22:47.422 [SPEAKER_00]: These were Jewish leaders who claimed to follow God, who read the Torah every week, who tried to follow the law, who tried to lead the people to follow what God said in the ultimate. 22:47.442 --> 22:48.863 [SPEAKER_00]: How could they be part of the synagogue of Satan? 22:48.883 --> 22:49.243 [SPEAKER_00]: Here's how. 22:50.247 --> 22:53.049 [SPEAKER_00]: for decades they had been telling people about the coming of the Messiah. 22:53.409 --> 22:55.470 [SPEAKER_00]: That's what they were hoping for, waiting for. 22:55.490 --> 22:57.531 [SPEAKER_00]: They read the Old Testament prophecies. 22:57.551 --> 22:59.072 [SPEAKER_00]: This was the hope that was on the horizon. 22:59.092 --> 23:00.893 [SPEAKER_00]: And then when the Messiah appears, they don't believe him. 23:01.474 --> 23:01.934 [SPEAKER_00]: They don't trust him. 23:01.954 --> 23:04.856 [SPEAKER_00]: They don't believe it could actually be real, even though all the evidence is right in front of them. 23:05.276 --> 23:09.198 [SPEAKER_00]: And so by rejecting the Messiah, they were actually doing the work of Satan. 23:09.699 --> 23:18.004 [SPEAKER_00]: And now not only that, it wasn't just that they didn't believe, but if you wanted to believe okay, it was, we don't believe in because we don't believe, if you believe we are gonna persecute you. 23:18.688 --> 23:31.541 [SPEAKER_00]: And so they were literally doing Satan's work out of the synagogue and they turned what should have been a launching pad for belief in Jesus into a place of persecution for the Christians. 23:32.943 --> 23:39.850 [SPEAKER_00]: What do you think it was like for these Christians and the struggling church to get this letter from Jesus? 23:41.024 --> 23:46.687 [SPEAKER_00]: They know that John has been around for decades and Asia Minor teaching at these churches and encouraging them equipping them. 23:46.707 --> 23:48.388 [SPEAKER_00]: So they have this relationship with John. 23:48.408 --> 23:49.068 [SPEAKER_00]: They trust John. 23:49.668 --> 23:52.530 [SPEAKER_00]: If John says Jesus showed up and gave a message, we believe it. 23:52.990 --> 23:53.650 [SPEAKER_00]: John's legit. 23:54.270 --> 23:56.832 [SPEAKER_00]: And we also know that he's in prison on the island of Patton, must write now. 23:56.872 --> 23:59.673 [SPEAKER_00]: So all of a sudden this message just shows up and says everybody gather. 23:59.913 --> 24:00.994 [SPEAKER_00]: Everybody in the city come together. 24:01.014 --> 24:06.476 [SPEAKER_00]: We got this message from John and he said it's from Jesus and they read it and they get this affirmation that's in it. 24:06.496 --> 24:07.357 [SPEAKER_00]: What do you think it was like? 24:08.165 --> 24:14.147 [SPEAKER_00]: to get this affirmation with all day we're going through and all the struggle and all the suffering and all the persecution. 24:14.487 --> 24:27.530 [SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever been at a job and someone like a coworker or even a boss kept criticizing your work and then like a higher level person or the CEO one day shows up and says you were actually right and you were doing a great job. 24:27.550 --> 24:28.651 [SPEAKER_00]: Anybody ever experienced something like that? 24:29.091 --> 24:31.251 [SPEAKER_00]: How validating that is, how vindicating that is? 24:31.271 --> 24:33.272 [SPEAKER_00]: Or have you ever been part of a school project? 24:33.832 --> 24:42.598 [SPEAKER_00]: where you were with a bunch of other students and you were working on something and all the other students were criticizing what you did and then you get up and you present the whole thing and class and the teacher goes, but the best part was what you did. 24:43.559 --> 24:44.880 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like validating, think about it. 24:45.000 --> 24:48.682 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like that times a thousand for this church to get this message. 24:48.882 --> 24:53.005 [SPEAKER_00]: And as they read these words of Jesus who says, you are right, keep going, be faithful. 24:53.205 --> 24:55.347 [SPEAKER_00]: Those Jewish leaders, they're wrong and what they're doing. 24:55.367 --> 25:00.871 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, they're part of a single, I would say, I have to imagine that it was such a relief for them to get these words, they probably all cry. 25:01.831 --> 25:02.332 [SPEAKER_00]: Don't you think? 25:03.144 --> 25:04.444 [SPEAKER_00]: They must have cried tears of joy. 25:04.504 --> 25:08.986 [SPEAKER_00]: Wow, our savior is validating in affirming what we are going through. 25:09.006 --> 25:16.909 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you pay close attention throughout these letters, you know that most of the letters to the churches are basically a compliment sandwich. 25:17.369 --> 25:18.549 [SPEAKER_00]: You know the compliment sandwich, right? 25:19.430 --> 25:20.730 [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, you're doing a great job. 25:20.910 --> 25:22.371 [SPEAKER_00]: Really appreciate all the work you've done around here. 25:22.411 --> 25:23.071 [SPEAKER_00]: It's fantastic. 25:23.762 --> 25:24.923 [SPEAKER_00]: Got a list of things you need to do better. 25:25.163 --> 25:26.304 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, got a girl in this area. 25:26.324 --> 25:27.104 [SPEAKER_00]: This wasn't so good. 25:27.124 --> 25:28.545 [SPEAKER_00]: I would like to see this happen differently. 25:28.565 --> 25:31.107 [SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, all in all great job, really like what you're going to keep going. 25:31.367 --> 25:32.328 [SPEAKER_00]: That's the compliment sandwich. 25:32.648 --> 25:33.449 [SPEAKER_00]: You say something good. 25:33.769 --> 25:36.130 [SPEAKER_00]: You give them the bad news, and then you say something good. 25:36.431 --> 25:38.432 [SPEAKER_00]: Most of the letters to the churches have followed that format. 25:38.772 --> 25:40.433 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus shows up and says, I know all your works. 25:41.234 --> 25:42.395 [SPEAKER_00]: I know all the good that you do. 25:43.418 --> 25:45.160 [SPEAKER_00]: But I have this complaint against you, right? 25:45.180 --> 25:46.521 [SPEAKER_00]: Many drops the hammer. 25:46.921 --> 25:52.066 [SPEAKER_00]: And then at the end of it, there's usually a little bit of hope, a little bit, you know, a persevere have years to listen in here. 25:52.206 --> 25:53.127 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not over for you. 25:53.708 --> 25:56.110 [SPEAKER_00]: None of the churches got the message of its over for you. 25:56.991 --> 26:00.254 [SPEAKER_00]: But to this church in Philadelphia, there's no review. 26:01.475 --> 26:03.296 [SPEAKER_00]: There's no overarching sense. 26:03.336 --> 26:04.477 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not that they were perfect. 26:05.037 --> 26:08.919 [SPEAKER_00]: But there's no systemic sin that's marked by and this church, they're doing good things. 26:09.659 --> 26:11.460 [SPEAKER_00]: They don't have, they haven't compromised. 26:11.720 --> 26:14.562 [SPEAKER_00]: There's not this contingent of false teaching that they've allowed in the church. 26:14.602 --> 26:17.623 [SPEAKER_00]: None of the issues of the other churches are what they are facing here. 26:17.823 --> 26:18.264 [SPEAKER_00]: And so, 26:19.365 --> 26:23.707 [SPEAKER_00]: There's no major point of rebuke or correction. 26:24.607 --> 26:31.469 [SPEAKER_00]: There's no re-direction that needs to happen, which I'll be honest with you, makes it a little bit more difficult to preach because it's easy when we can go, well, there's your problem. 26:31.489 --> 26:32.790 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's all poke at that. 26:33.510 --> 26:34.831 [SPEAKER_00]: Here's the thing we need to watch out for. 26:34.871 --> 26:36.131 [SPEAKER_00]: Here's the thing that we're doing wrong. 26:36.851 --> 26:37.872 [SPEAKER_00]: That's not the case here. 26:38.452 --> 26:44.114 [SPEAKER_00]: So Philadelphia is just an awesome letter of, wow, this is good, faithfulness, keep going. 26:45.319 --> 26:46.360 [SPEAKER_00]: So then what do we learn from it? 26:46.941 --> 26:48.082 [SPEAKER_00]: What do we take away from it? 26:48.122 --> 26:49.623 [SPEAKER_00]: How do we emulate this church? 26:50.244 --> 26:54.668 [SPEAKER_00]: There are probably a dozen messages that could be preached out of this letter to go in a variety of different directions. 26:54.688 --> 26:58.953 [SPEAKER_00]: But here's what I wanna focus on our attention on for the rest of the time we have together. 26:59.853 --> 27:03.877 [SPEAKER_00]: This letter actually teaches us three important truths about Jesus. 27:04.897 --> 27:17.594 [SPEAKER_00]: And out of goal as followers of Jesus is to get close to Him, to know Him better, to understand Him better, to live every day walking a little bit close with Him, so that He and His Holy Spirit can guide our thoughts, and our lives, and we can become more like Him. 27:17.614 --> 27:19.977 [SPEAKER_00]: We're trying to emulate Him in our lives. 27:20.758 --> 27:24.419 [SPEAKER_00]: And as we do that, one of the best ways to do that is to read his word and learn about him. 27:24.439 --> 27:32.061 [SPEAKER_00]: And so this letter teaches us three things about Jesus that help us understand him better and help us respond to him better in our lives. 27:32.081 --> 27:33.902 [SPEAKER_00]: So that's what we're going to do for the rest of our time. 27:33.922 --> 27:39.424 [SPEAKER_00]: We're just going to look at three things, three truths about Jesus that may be very encouraging for you. 27:40.024 --> 27:43.705 [SPEAKER_00]: The first one is that Jesus is the true gatekeeper. 27:44.874 --> 27:45.894 [SPEAKER_00]: He's the true gatekeeper. 27:46.194 --> 27:57.557 [SPEAKER_00]: Gatekeeping is kind of a buzzword for people that, you know, they get access to something, and they turn around and close the door and they try to keep out certain people, they exclude people from what they wanna do, only let in certain people, they're the gatekeepers. 27:58.177 --> 27:59.717 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's what the Jewish leaders were doing. 27:59.757 --> 28:13.241 [SPEAKER_00]: They were the gatekeepers to this covenant Jewish community that enjoyed a lot of protections, and a lot of established social relationships and networking and probably business opportunities and the Jewish leaders were gatekeeping the Christians 28:15.521 --> 28:20.523 [SPEAKER_00]: which is very hurtful, and I'll bet a lot of us can relate to that too, in lots of different ways. 28:20.783 --> 28:24.164 [SPEAKER_00]: We get kept out of things, sometimes it's because of our faith, sometimes we don't even know why. 28:24.804 --> 28:28.145 [SPEAKER_00]: But we just get excluded, we get left out of things, and that hurts a lot. 28:28.665 --> 28:36.507 [SPEAKER_00]: And what was happening is these Jewish leaders, they were blaspheming and slandering the Christians saying all sorts of horrible things about them. 28:36.707 --> 28:40.348 [SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus is the true gatekeeper, which is why he says, I have the key of David. 28:41.195 --> 28:42.157 [SPEAKER_00]: I get to open the doors. 28:42.558 --> 28:43.339 [SPEAKER_00]: I get to close them. 28:43.659 --> 28:45.743 [SPEAKER_00]: They may be telling you the door is closed for you. 28:46.324 --> 28:47.546 [SPEAKER_00]: The door is actually closed on them. 28:47.887 --> 28:49.129 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm the one that gets to the side. 28:49.289 --> 28:52.615 [SPEAKER_00]: And this is why Jesus says earlier in his ministry, I'm the way. 28:53.511 --> 28:55.732 [SPEAKER_00]: No one comes to the Father, but through me, I am the door. 28:55.972 --> 29:02.495 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, I'm the door, I'm the good shepherd that lets in the sheep and keeps out the wolves and the robbers and the Christians and Philadelphia. 29:02.755 --> 29:05.516 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure they were tired, which is why they got this letter. 29:05.536 --> 29:07.057 [SPEAKER_00]: They were tired of being persecuted. 29:07.257 --> 29:08.518 [SPEAKER_00]: They were tired of being excluded. 29:08.538 --> 29:11.339 [SPEAKER_00]: They were tired of the gossip and the things that were said about them. 29:11.559 --> 29:15.741 [SPEAKER_00]: And the words of those Jewish leaders must have weighed heavy on their minds. 29:16.501 --> 29:21.346 [SPEAKER_00]: and been hard to hear over and over again, even through the grapevine as people would talk about them. 29:21.426 --> 29:25.450 [SPEAKER_00]: Their neighbors that used to be their friends now, we're told you can't associate with them. 29:26.912 --> 29:29.995 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's why I asked the question I did before the message even began. 29:30.135 --> 29:33.378 [SPEAKER_00]: Who's opinion matters most to you? 29:33.559 --> 29:34.480 [SPEAKER_00]: Who's words? 29:35.692 --> 29:37.493 [SPEAKER_00]: way the heaviest in your minds. 29:37.513 --> 29:41.574 [SPEAKER_00]: See the words of people can have such an outsized influence on us. 29:42.255 --> 29:44.475 [SPEAKER_00]: But they just take up space in our heads. 29:44.495 --> 29:51.098 [SPEAKER_00]: And there's probably stuff that someone has said to you years ago that still pops in your head every now and then. 29:51.698 --> 29:52.178 [SPEAKER_00]: Isn't that true? 29:52.999 --> 30:00.542 [SPEAKER_00]: Aren't there things, criticisms, passive aggressive comments, statements, judgmental things that still weigh heavy on you? 30:01.497 --> 30:07.441 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think as a part of understanding that Jesus is the true gatekeeper, we have to also understand that He's the only one who's opinion matters. 30:08.281 --> 30:12.904 [SPEAKER_00]: At the end of the day, it's what Jesus says about you that really counts. 30:13.585 --> 30:26.433 [SPEAKER_00]: Not what other people say, not what other people who try to exclude you from things, not what other people do because they don't like to fact that you trust in Jesus or don't like the fact that you don't participate in certain activities or fill in the blank for whatever thing is affecting you. 30:26.673 --> 30:28.454 [SPEAKER_00]: It's Jesus words that matter most. 30:29.790 --> 30:34.894 [SPEAKER_00]: People will say, you're not good enough, people will say, you're weird because of what you believe, people will say, wow, that's really different. 30:34.914 --> 30:35.334 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't like that. 30:35.575 --> 30:37.716 [SPEAKER_00]: People will say, I can't believe you would be against that thing. 30:37.816 --> 30:39.698 [SPEAKER_00]: Everyone should just be okay with whatever that is. 30:40.859 --> 30:42.620 [SPEAKER_00]: And yet we will be different from the world. 30:43.120 --> 30:48.825 [SPEAKER_00]: And whatever they say about us, it's Jesus opinion that has to matter most. 30:49.706 --> 30:51.147 [SPEAKER_00]: And for some of us, this is a real struggle. 30:52.099 --> 30:54.221 [SPEAKER_00]: because we have a record player in our minds. 30:54.941 --> 30:56.102 [SPEAKER_00]: That just seems like it's on repeat. 30:56.762 --> 30:58.704 [SPEAKER_00]: Anybody willing to be honest and say, yep, I've got that record player. 30:59.164 --> 31:04.468 [SPEAKER_00]: Of the things that just go through my mind, of the things that people have said to me, and you've got to remember it's Jesus opinion that really matters. 31:04.488 --> 31:08.671 [SPEAKER_00]: He's the one that really controls the doors and the entrance to God's community. 31:09.632 --> 31:12.353 [SPEAKER_00]: And whether or not you have value, what does Jesus say about you? 31:12.414 --> 31:15.496 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says that if you've trusted his salvation, you are his child. 31:16.399 --> 31:19.080 [SPEAKER_00]: That's a great position of honor and of privilege. 31:19.300 --> 31:20.680 [SPEAKER_00]: He says that you are his friend. 31:20.720 --> 31:26.182 [SPEAKER_00]: He says that you are holy in God's eyes, not because you are perfect or anything you've done, but because of him. 31:26.922 --> 31:28.523 [SPEAKER_00]: You have a home in heaven. 31:28.843 --> 31:31.343 [SPEAKER_00]: You have a God who will work all things out for good. 31:31.643 --> 31:33.344 [SPEAKER_00]: You have a God who loves justice. 31:33.864 --> 31:35.125 [SPEAKER_00]: And we'll bring it one day. 31:35.185 --> 31:37.506 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to worry about that personally. 31:37.706 --> 31:39.126 [SPEAKER_00]: You have a spiritual gift. 31:39.206 --> 31:42.908 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, maybe multiple spiritual gifts that he wants you to be able to use. 31:42.968 --> 31:45.068 [SPEAKER_00]: He says that you are needed in his church. 31:45.348 --> 31:47.469 [SPEAKER_00]: He wants you involved in his community. 31:47.709 --> 31:49.310 [SPEAKER_00]: You have a purpose to fulfill. 31:49.710 --> 31:54.032 [SPEAKER_00]: You have an identity in Jesus that is greater than any identity you could have on this earth. 31:55.252 --> 32:02.335 [SPEAKER_00]: And so no matter what other people say about you or what they try to exclude you from, none of that should matter compared to your Savior. 32:03.328 --> 32:06.510 [SPEAKER_00]: and what He says about you, and what He's allowed you into. 32:07.650 --> 32:09.431 [SPEAKER_00]: It needs to put all those other things in perspective. 32:10.992 --> 32:17.676 [SPEAKER_00]: The stuff that continues to go on living, rent, free in our minds, that continues over and over again, and fills our thoughts so often. 32:17.716 --> 32:21.558 [SPEAKER_00]: And if that's not you and everything's roses, then you can just forget everything I'm saying right now. 32:22.298 --> 32:31.503 [SPEAKER_00]: But if you can relate at all to some of those criticism of those exclusions, those exceptions, whatever they are, even if they aren't exactly what this church was dealing with, the principle stands, what Jesus says matters more. 32:33.248 --> 32:36.310 [SPEAKER_00]: And so you may need to take some of these statements that Jesus says about you. 32:36.330 --> 32:37.891 [SPEAKER_00]: Go look them up in the Bible later today. 32:38.372 --> 32:41.074 [SPEAKER_00]: Try them out or some artwork or something and stick them up in your home. 32:42.194 --> 32:46.698 [SPEAKER_00]: So that your mind is more filled with what Jesus says about you than what other people say about you. 32:47.618 --> 32:55.104 [SPEAKER_00]: So that your mind is more filled with what Jesus has opened the door for you to be a part of than what other people may have excluded you from. 32:56.137 --> 32:57.317 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the real gatekeeper. 32:57.897 --> 33:01.578 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the one who's opinion matters, most number two. 33:02.499 --> 33:04.079 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus meets us where we're at. 33:05.379 --> 33:07.100 [SPEAKER_00]: He meets us where we're at. 33:07.160 --> 33:12.561 [SPEAKER_00]: We have learned as we've talked about these churches, how each one was unique and different. 33:12.601 --> 33:21.223 [SPEAKER_00]: And yet, as Jesus writes to them, he is very intentional to let them know with his words, how intimately he knows their unique situation. 33:21.843 --> 33:22.724 [SPEAKER_00]: and their context. 33:23.424 --> 33:28.327 [SPEAKER_00]: Each of them is so specific and so targeted that it's very clear. 33:28.367 --> 33:29.488 [SPEAKER_00]: He understands their history. 33:29.708 --> 33:30.568 [SPEAKER_00]: He knows their context. 33:30.769 --> 33:32.249 [SPEAKER_00]: He knows what's going on in their life right now. 33:32.450 --> 33:38.473 [SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, what else would you expect from a Savior that says, hey, I know when a bird hits the ground. 33:39.514 --> 33:40.635 [SPEAKER_00]: And I find no of that. 33:41.255 --> 33:42.936 [SPEAKER_00]: And I care about you way more than the birds. 33:43.216 --> 33:43.817 [SPEAKER_00]: I care about you. 33:43.957 --> 33:45.998 [SPEAKER_00]: He says more than a whole flock of birds. 33:46.658 --> 33:49.100 [SPEAKER_00]: Then you better believe I know the details of what's going on in your life. 33:50.431 --> 33:53.433 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, I know so much about you that I know every hair on your head. 33:54.333 --> 33:55.634 [SPEAKER_00]: That's how much he knows you. 33:55.654 --> 33:57.055 [SPEAKER_00]: That's how much he cares about you. 33:57.095 --> 33:58.576 [SPEAKER_00]: He meets us where we're at. 33:58.616 --> 34:01.518 [SPEAKER_00]: Think about how he talks to this city here in Philadelphia. 34:01.538 --> 34:03.619 [SPEAKER_00]: He talks to these believers and he says, hey, you're a city? 34:04.179 --> 34:04.520 [SPEAKER_00]: I get it. 34:04.700 --> 34:07.622 [SPEAKER_00]: Your city is known for being the open door to Hellenism. 34:07.822 --> 34:10.143 [SPEAKER_00]: But you feel like you've had a door slam shut in your face. 34:10.363 --> 34:10.964 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, guess what? 34:11.304 --> 34:12.465 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm the one who opens doors. 34:13.405 --> 34:19.028 [SPEAKER_00]: All of that is a coded message, tell him, I see you, I get you, I know it's going on, I see where you're at right now. 34:19.348 --> 34:38.678 [SPEAKER_00]: He tells these people who city has been rocked by earthquakes in the past and all the foundations of the building have been crumbled in the pillars fall down and he's once grand temples end up having to either be laying in rubble or rebuilt eventually because of everything crumbling down and he says to them, you will be pillars in the temple of my God, oh and by the way, you'll never have to leave. 34:39.830 --> 34:44.414 [SPEAKER_00]: because he knows there's a period of time where in this city they all had to move and get out of it. 34:44.594 --> 34:45.655 [SPEAKER_00]: He understands their history. 34:45.675 --> 34:46.596 [SPEAKER_00]: He knows what's going on. 34:46.936 --> 34:51.440 [SPEAKER_00]: Can you imagine getting this letter and be like, oh, he knows, he knows everything. 34:51.941 --> 34:53.322 [SPEAKER_00]: He knows all that we've been through. 34:53.943 --> 34:55.504 [SPEAKER_00]: How encouraging that must have been. 34:55.664 --> 34:57.786 [SPEAKER_00]: He knows that this city's been renamed multiple times. 34:57.806 --> 35:02.991 [SPEAKER_00]: He tells them, I will write on you the name of my God and you will be citizens of the city of my God. 35:04.549 --> 35:11.812 [SPEAKER_00]: Because this city where you're at, the one that keeps changing identities based on who happens to be in charge at the time, God's really in charge. 35:12.373 --> 35:13.953 [SPEAKER_00]: And you get to be a part of his city forever. 35:14.413 --> 35:15.454 [SPEAKER_00]: And you'll never have to leave. 35:16.094 --> 35:18.495 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, that city name is gonna be written on you. 35:19.075 --> 35:23.497 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a permanent thing you get to be a part of, you get to be pillars there. 35:24.898 --> 35:33.102 [SPEAKER_00]: I think one of the coolest things we learn about Jesus from this letter is just how intimately he knows us because he cares about us. 35:34.033 --> 35:37.915 [SPEAKER_00]: And if you care that way for them, I'm telling you, he cares that way about you. 35:38.855 --> 35:40.656 [SPEAKER_00]: He knows what's going on in your life right now. 35:41.236 --> 35:42.837 [SPEAKER_00]: He knows the struggle that you're facing. 35:43.137 --> 35:44.817 [SPEAKER_00]: He knows the stuff that's going on in your head. 35:45.077 --> 35:50.980 [SPEAKER_00]: He knows the stuff with your family, with your job, with your friends, with your house, with your cars. 35:51.000 --> 35:51.880 [SPEAKER_00]: He knows all that stuff. 35:53.261 --> 35:54.381 [SPEAKER_00]: And he hasn't forgotten about you. 35:55.322 --> 36:03.245 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think his message to you would be the same as his message was to the people in Philadelphia, which is the third thing we learn about Jesus. 36:04.077 --> 36:09.234 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus rewards those who sacrifice for him. 36:10.730 --> 36:13.412 [SPEAKER_00]: He rewards those who sacrifice for them. 36:13.592 --> 36:20.096 [SPEAKER_00]: Or we could say he rewards those who persevere, but that perseverance necessitates sacrifice. 36:20.136 --> 36:20.896 [SPEAKER_00]: Look at verse 10. 36:21.496 --> 36:30.842 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, because you have obeyed my command to persevere, and that's through great sacrifice, through great persecution and suffering and giving things up to be able to persevere. 36:31.202 --> 36:37.486 [SPEAKER_00]: I will protect you from the time of great testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world. 36:38.225 --> 36:40.507 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't exactly know what kind of testing he's talking about. 36:40.527 --> 36:41.307 [SPEAKER_00]: They're different theories. 36:41.327 --> 36:47.372 [SPEAKER_00]: You could be talking about a generic time of testing, something specific in their lifetime, or something later, that's really not the point. 36:47.932 --> 36:57.880 [SPEAKER_00]: The point is, Jesus says, I'm gonna give you a reprieve of break from that because of how well you have already done in person varying through this suffering that you have experienced. 36:58.240 --> 37:00.002 [SPEAKER_00]: They suffered a lot, they sacrificed a lot. 37:00.382 --> 37:15.074 [SPEAKER_00]: loss of relationships, loss of financial stability, loss of respect, loss of influence, loss of family, loss of opportunities that they probably would have had otherwise, but they were willing to give it up to be faithful to Jesus and Jesus says, not only do I know your situation intimately. 37:15.555 --> 37:21.339 [SPEAKER_00]: I see everything about you, I know your history, I know what you're going through, and by the way, you will be rewarded for this. 37:22.357 --> 37:27.241 [SPEAKER_00]: You will be rewarded in this sense because you're not gonna have to go through all the testing some other people gonna have to go through. 37:27.782 --> 37:33.287 [SPEAKER_00]: And then in the next verse, he says verse 11, I am coming soon, and remember soon is relative to God, right? 37:33.307 --> 37:36.230 [SPEAKER_00]: A day is like a thousand years, so soon could mean a lot of things. 37:36.950 --> 37:44.537 [SPEAKER_00]: But I am coming soon, hold on to what you have so that no one will take away your crown. 37:46.119 --> 37:47.520 [SPEAKER_00]: When you think of a crown, 37:48.689 --> 37:52.290 [SPEAKER_00]: that Jesus is going to give you, what picture pops into your head? 37:53.351 --> 37:53.911 [SPEAKER_00]: A crown. 37:54.931 --> 38:01.614 [SPEAKER_00]: Is it gold with jewels or maybe silver or very or Nate lots of intricate carvings all over it? 38:02.434 --> 38:04.335 [SPEAKER_00]: That's not the word that's used for crown here. 38:04.375 --> 38:07.516 [SPEAKER_00]: That's the word die of them, which is used elsewhere in scripture, but this is a different word. 38:07.556 --> 38:15.379 [SPEAKER_00]: It's defonos, which refers to the type of crown that would be placed on the head of an athlete after they won a really long race. 38:16.079 --> 38:25.106 [SPEAKER_00]: A marathon runner finishes the marathon, gets in first place, they don't get a gold metal back then, they get a crown, but it's not a crown of gold and jewels or anything like that. 38:25.446 --> 38:29.910 [SPEAKER_00]: It's actually a crown of branches, laurel branches or olive branches, things like that. 38:30.290 --> 38:40.078 [SPEAKER_00]: It would be woven together to make the kind of crown that you see in artwork or movies or things like that that would go on the head to say this person was victorious. 38:40.758 --> 38:51.485 [SPEAKER_00]: They persevered, they struggled with whatever it was they needed to do to get through to the end of that race or the end of that wrestling match or whatever it was they were participating in and they were victorious they succeeded in the end. 38:51.925 --> 39:00.450 [SPEAKER_00]: That crown by the way could also be given to a member of the city who was an especially good citizen usually who sacrificed in some way to help the city. 39:00.711 --> 39:04.193 [SPEAKER_00]: And so you might have someone who recognized that the city had a big water problem. 39:05.030 --> 39:10.434 [SPEAKER_00]: and they paid the money to have all of the wells dug to solve the water problem. 39:10.454 --> 39:12.676 [SPEAKER_00]: We're the trenches to take care of the irrigation. 39:13.096 --> 39:22.483 [SPEAKER_00]: You had in some cases people who donated a lot of money to have like a road put in that would allow the travelers to come through or the trade car to come through and allow the economy to thrive. 39:22.923 --> 39:31.849 [SPEAKER_00]: And so if someone sacrificed a lot to improve the city, they would often be honored in a special ceremony in a Stefano, so crown of branches would be put on their head. 39:32.049 --> 39:35.071 [SPEAKER_00]: And this was the way of showing everyone this person is special. 39:35.391 --> 39:41.294 [SPEAKER_00]: They did something great, or they persevered, or they were victorious, or they sacrificed a lot to help everybody else. 39:42.495 --> 39:43.636 [SPEAKER_00]: That's the word for crown. 39:44.758 --> 39:47.760 [SPEAKER_00]: that Jesus says is waiting for those who stay faithful. 39:47.780 --> 39:49.322 [SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of crowns talked about in Scripture. 39:49.702 --> 39:54.085 [SPEAKER_00]: There's a crown of glory, a crown of life, a crown of righteousness, a crown of rejoicing. 39:55.146 --> 40:03.433 [SPEAKER_00]: And these are all rewards that the Bible says are waiting for those who remain faithful, who persevere, who do this things that God wants them to do. 40:03.933 --> 40:05.715 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, I've got good things in store for you. 40:06.365 --> 40:07.785 [SPEAKER_00]: I've got great rewards coming free. 40:07.845 --> 40:11.246 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna reward those who persevere and who sacrifice for me. 40:11.606 --> 40:13.087 [SPEAKER_00]: You may not experience it right now. 40:13.367 --> 40:15.788 [SPEAKER_00]: You may not feel the reward right now as much as you want. 40:16.868 --> 40:18.268 [SPEAKER_00]: But good things are coming. 40:19.369 --> 40:24.610 [SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of hard to think about that in some ways because we wanna say, well, we don't do this to get something. 40:25.470 --> 40:27.271 [SPEAKER_00]: We do this because it's the right thing to do and that's true. 40:28.311 --> 40:31.632 [SPEAKER_00]: But also Jesus says, yeah, but there is a reward coming for you. 40:32.427 --> 40:43.252 [SPEAKER_00]: And then we will see later on in Revelation, how there's a certain point where there's 24 elders sitting around the throne, they've got these crowns, these defyments on their heads, and they're all gonna put them at Jesus' feet and say, actually, these all belong to you. 40:44.753 --> 40:46.534 [SPEAKER_00]: This is what you deserve, Jesus. 40:47.915 --> 40:56.059 [SPEAKER_00]: I wanna encourage you to walk out of here, thinking about the letter to Philadelphia as a way to draw closer to your savior. 40:56.872 --> 41:03.257 [SPEAKER_00]: a way to understand him may be a little bit better, to recognize that he is the gatekeeper. 41:04.098 --> 41:10.183 [SPEAKER_00]: He is the one who controls who's in and who's out and he is the one who controls what really matters and is said about you. 41:10.644 --> 41:11.805 [SPEAKER_00]: It's his opinion that matters. 41:12.385 --> 41:16.368 [SPEAKER_00]: So allow his voice to be the loudest one in your head. 41:16.889 --> 41:23.975 [SPEAKER_00]: Allow what he says about you to drown out the criticisms and the exclusive comments and other things and allow him to be number one in your life. 41:25.103 --> 41:31.386 [SPEAKER_00]: So that he is the gatekeeper in your life and you don't allow someone else to take that position away from him. 41:31.407 --> 41:35.069 [SPEAKER_00]: I want you to see Jesus as the Savior that meets you where you're at. 41:35.849 --> 41:43.953 [SPEAKER_00]: That understands what you're wrestling with right now more than you can possibly imagine and he cares about it and he cares about you and he wants you to hold on. 41:44.154 --> 41:53.619 [SPEAKER_00]: He wants you to make good, godly, biblical, character-filled choices that reflect his goodness and not the temptations that you're experiencing because of the difficult time you're in. 41:54.513 --> 41:55.093 [SPEAKER_00]: He sees you. 41:55.113 --> 41:58.275 [SPEAKER_00]: He knows what you're dealing with, and he wants you to persevere. 41:59.396 --> 42:02.397 [SPEAKER_00]: And then the final thing is he rewards those who do it. 42:03.878 --> 42:08.320 [SPEAKER_00]: He has good things in store for those who will persevere to the end. 42:08.340 --> 42:13.523 [SPEAKER_00]: He has crowns an honor and glory that will be given to those who persevere. 42:14.716 --> 42:17.737 [SPEAKER_00]: And so, he gives us that offer as an encouragement. 42:17.757 --> 42:24.980 [SPEAKER_00]: It's say, hold on, keep going, deal with whatever the stuff is you're dealing with right now, and keep being faithful through all of it. 42:26.040 --> 42:28.541 [SPEAKER_00]: Paul said, I fought the good fight. 42:29.482 --> 42:30.362 [SPEAKER_00]: I finished the race. 42:31.162 --> 42:32.023 [SPEAKER_00]: I kept the faith. 42:33.263 --> 42:38.845 [SPEAKER_00]: That is what each one of us should have as our main goal at the end of our life. 42:39.786 --> 42:42.407 [SPEAKER_00]: I had the opportunity to reject Jesus in that instance, 42:44.683 --> 42:48.547 [SPEAKER_00]: I had the opportunity to give into that temptation, but I didn't do it. 42:49.628 --> 42:59.257 [SPEAKER_00]: I had the opportunity to go, and not that I was perfect in every instance, but had all these times where the world and Satan, and the enemy, and other people, kept trying to draw me away from my close relationship with Jesus. 42:59.918 --> 43:02.160 [SPEAKER_00]: But at the end of the day, I finished the race. 43:03.001 --> 43:06.244 [SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus puts that crown on your head and says, well done, good and faithful servant. 43:06.264 --> 43:07.185 [SPEAKER_00]: Isn't that what we're pursuing? 43:08.126 --> 43:08.967 [SPEAKER_00]: Isn't that what we're looking for? 43:10.009 --> 43:12.731 [SPEAKER_00]: So if that's the goal, here's why Jesus puts that in front of us. 43:12.831 --> 43:16.294 [SPEAKER_00]: If that's the goal, he wants that to always be in our minds. 43:17.134 --> 43:27.222 [SPEAKER_00]: Now the things other people say, now the things of the world, not the distractions, not even sports, not even a awful world cup loss. 43:28.892 --> 43:36.318 [SPEAKER_00]: He wants the primary thought that our minds to be the savior and the reward that he has in store for you if you will remain faithful. 43:36.338 --> 43:38.139 [SPEAKER_00]: This is not a threat about salvation heaven. 43:38.159 --> 43:40.541 [SPEAKER_00]: This is God's got rewards for you in the future. 43:40.601 --> 43:54.311 [SPEAKER_00]: If you will stay faithful, keep your eyes on the prize as you're making decisions tomorrow, as you're talking with your family, as you're interacting at work, as you're tempted to do something that you know would compromise your faith. 43:55.272 --> 43:56.252 [SPEAKER_00]: And there might be somebody here. 43:57.172 --> 43:59.774 [SPEAKER_00]: who doesn't have a relationship with Jesus right now. 44:00.254 --> 44:01.354 [SPEAKER_00]: You've never trusted in Him. 44:01.855 --> 44:04.856 [SPEAKER_00]: And so some of this may just seem foreign to you. 44:05.337 --> 44:10.220 [SPEAKER_00]: I want to encourage you to talk with one of us after the service today about what it means to follow Him. 44:10.680 --> 44:13.361 [SPEAKER_00]: In a nutshell, we teach that Jesus came to this earth. 44:13.822 --> 44:20.786 [SPEAKER_00]: He died a painful death on the cross of our public death, to pay for our sins so that we could have new life in Him. 44:21.326 --> 44:23.427 [SPEAKER_00]: He takes away our sin when we believe in Him. 44:23.827 --> 44:25.167 [SPEAKER_00]: He gives us His righteousness. 44:25.447 --> 44:27.648 [SPEAKER_00]: We get to be a part of God's family and God's kingdom. 44:27.668 --> 44:30.929 [SPEAKER_00]: That's why Jesus can say, I am the one who opens the door. 44:30.989 --> 44:31.749 [SPEAKER_00]: He did that for us. 44:32.149 --> 44:34.990 [SPEAKER_00]: He opened the door into the kingdom for us. 44:35.050 --> 44:38.711 [SPEAKER_00]: Just as he did for those believers in Philadelphia, he opens it for you too. 44:39.072 --> 44:41.112 [SPEAKER_00]: He wants you to experience that better life. 44:41.552 --> 44:42.273 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not perfect. 44:42.513 --> 44:43.693 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not without its struggles. 44:43.713 --> 44:49.395 [SPEAKER_00]: Don't let anybody tell you that it is all health and wealth and good things because it wasn't for the Christians in Philadelphia. 44:49.895 --> 44:52.958 [SPEAKER_00]: His message is not believing me and I'll make your life on this earth better. 44:53.539 --> 44:55.821 [SPEAKER_00]: His message is, believe in me, be faithful. 44:56.041 --> 44:58.824 [SPEAKER_00]: I've got a wonderful future in store for you in eternity. 44:59.465 --> 45:00.686 [SPEAKER_00]: That's what he wants from you. 45:01.046 --> 45:04.790 [SPEAKER_00]: And so if that's what you want from him, you need to confess your sins to him. 45:05.531 --> 45:11.055 [SPEAKER_00]: Turn from it, repent from it, and believe in what Jesus did for you, and if you have questions, you want to know more about that. 45:11.335 --> 45:15.337 [SPEAKER_00]: I want to see you after the service up here or talk to anybody that you see with a lander. 45:15.357 --> 45:22.122 [SPEAKER_00]: We would love to show you what it looks like to follow Jesus in what a difference knowing Him better can make in your life. 45:22.142 --> 45:24.443 [SPEAKER_00]: Would you all bow your heads and probe me right now? 45:26.305 --> 45:30.427 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, it's such a privilege to get to learn from you and to get to read these 45:32.252 --> 45:35.255 [SPEAKER_00]: and understand the bad things that you share, but also the good things. 45:36.255 --> 45:39.138 [SPEAKER_00]: And this letter is just full of positive encouragement. 45:40.059 --> 45:54.071 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure there are a lot of people here today that are encouraged by your words that were sent to this church 2,000 years ago, but today they just feel like they've been beaten down, they feel like they've been excluded, they feel like they've had people say things about them that are not true, they've been slandered in different ways. 45:54.972 --> 45:58.334 [SPEAKER_00]: And maybe some of it has to do with their faith, maybe not regardless. 45:59.248 --> 46:01.849 [SPEAKER_00]: what you say about us matters so much more. 46:02.470 --> 46:10.714 [SPEAKER_00]: So what I pray that you would help them right now in their minds, to shift away from thinking about what the world thinks and what other people think and to focus on what you think about them. 46:11.234 --> 46:13.135 [SPEAKER_00]: Because you say that we have value to you. 46:13.255 --> 46:16.837 [SPEAKER_00]: So much of value that you were willing to die on a cross for us. 46:17.357 --> 46:18.218 [SPEAKER_00]: You didn't have to do it. 46:18.798 --> 46:21.019 [SPEAKER_00]: But you did it because you love us and because you value us. 46:21.720 --> 46:23.941 [SPEAKER_00]: We don't have value because we're intrinsically valueable. 46:24.001 --> 46:26.062 [SPEAKER_00]: We have value because you give us value. 46:26.682 --> 46:27.623 [SPEAKER_00]: And you value us. 46:28.574 --> 46:32.697 [SPEAKER_00]: And so God, we're thankful for that new identity that you give us in Christ. 46:33.598 --> 46:38.681 [SPEAKER_00]: And then you challenge us to persevere through all the suffering, all the persecution, all the trials, all the temptations. 46:39.122 --> 46:57.135 [SPEAKER_00]: And my prayer God is that you will help us to take what we've learned today and implement it this week to do just that help us to be bold in our faith, help us to be diligent in our good works, help us to be sacrificial for you, help us to persevere and help us to represent you well everywhere we go this week, be not mission for you. 46:58.044 --> 47:00.605 [SPEAKER_00]: We thank you, Jesus, for what you did for us. 47:01.586 --> 47:10.350 [SPEAKER_00]: And God, we're gonna spend some time praising you now, for what you did when you conquered death, and you made this new relationship with you possible to that open door. 47:11.110 --> 47:14.532 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's in the precious name of Jesus that we all pray, amen.