The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 3: Pergamum – Conquering Conformity

Episode Date: March 15, 2020

As a believer that lives IN the world, we must wage war against being OF the world.

All right, all right. Well, hey, welcome to the Church 1122. Man, whether you're gathered at one of our campuses across the city or maybe you're watching us online, it is an opportunity and an honor to be able to gather around God's Word with you. I'd imagine that this week there's probably more than normal some folks that are joining us around TV screens in their living rooms, maybe just a little extra precaution for the coronavirus. And, man, I'd say this, wherever you're at, whether you're going to gather at a camp. campus or gathered in a living room or a dorm room around a computer, man, we just want to say thank you for taking time to study God's word with us. And before we dig in to the text,

I think it would be wise of us to take a moment to just encourage one another and how the church should be reacting to all the information that's out there right now about the coronavirus. I'm not a doctor, so I'm not going to pretend to be one, but I are a preacher. And so let me just encourage us for a second, man, I want to encourage us with two things as the church. As the church 1122, first of all, I'd remind us of this. Romans chapter 13 says to the church, it says this, let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except for from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Very practically speaking, our church is taking our cues from our local and state government. Pastor Jobi and our

leadership team. They've been on the phone with the mayor and the sheriff, and we're seeking and asking wise counsel, and the whole reason we're doing that is because we want to submit to the authority that God has given us. The opening and closing of our campuses will be led by the information from the experts. And as individuals, I'd encourage us to do the same thing. As Christians, as believers, we should be the model in our culture and in our city of submitting to government and medical officials and for praying for those in those leadership roles. Secondly, I'd want to encourage us in this. In Romans chapter 8, we're all over Romans for a second,

but I want to encourage us that even in the midst of all this fear, may we lean in and trust the truth of God's word. Romans 8 says this to us. It reminds us that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present or things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything in all creation, including disease, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. I would encourage us with this church, fear is a weapon of our enemy.

Truth says nothing can separate us from the love of God. And as believers, we are encouraged and we are, the spirit within us is reminding us in the midst of fear and anxiety we have the answer. Not an answer to get on Facebook and beat people down with, but just a hope and a joy and a peace that we would trust in Jesus over fear. And one last encouragement before we dig into our text is this. Ephesians chapter 4, it says this, very strong words,

the Lord is at hand, meaning the Lord is with us. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made. known to God. And the peace, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. I love that Paul says there's nothing to be anxious about. That would be a lie. But Paul says when anxiety rises, this is what we do with it. We take it to Jesus because he is the one that has the peace that surpasses even our understanding. So I thought maybe before we dig into God's word,

it would be wise across all of our campuses and even all of our online church go. And, this weekend. Let me just stop and let's just pray in this moment. Will you pray with me? Maybe just give you a few moments, a few seconds there to just rest your soul before the Lord. O sovereign king, Jesus, your word says nothing in all creation can separate us from your love. So Lord, I pray that perfect love, your love would cast out all of our fear. What I pray for the gatherings at our campuses, I pray for all the people. that are watching this online on a tablet or phone or an Apple TV, Lord, they would just rest in this truth.

You are king and sovereign over everything. And so Lord, we pray and we beg you, Father, to bring healing to every single one who's sick. God, to those who have lost someone from the coronavirus, would you comfort their family and only the way the Holy Spirit can? Would you give our world leaders and doctors? Would you give them wisdom? and would you protect us from the attacks of the enemy?

Lord, we know that we live in a broken world that is full of sin and bad things happen. Disease is not a design that you put in the Garden of Eden. It is a brokenness of the system. And so, Lord, would you, King Jesus, please come soon and redeem us and rescue us. And Lord, may we in this season, may we point to you in our lives. May we make much of you in our conversations. and Lord, may we lay our head down at night trusting that you are king even when we're sleeping. We love you.

It's your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, let's get to work. We're going to dig in, grab your Bible, let's go to Revelation chapter 2. We are in the third week of a series called To the Church. And, man, I think as you get into Revelation's chapter 2, I would just say this. I'm encouraged and reminded as we gather across.

campuses and maybe even our homes. And I'm reminded that we are a part of a movement of God. And that movement's move and nothing can come against them. I'm reminded of the blessing of technology that even as our world is a little bit disorganized and a little bit upside down right now that because of the power of technology that God's given us, we're able to keep up and stay in step and reading in God's word and preparing ourselves for Easter in this Lent season. So with that being said, verse 12 of Revelation chapter 2 says this, and to the angel of the church in Pergamum, right.

The words of him who has a sharp two-edged sword. Pastor Jobi last week said this, it stuck with me. He said to each church, Jesus shows up, and it's the same Jesus because Jesus doesn't change. If it's the same Jesus each time, but each one of the seven churches, Jesus reveals himself uniquely to the church. and he is exactly what they need. So when he shows up at Pergamum, Jesus shows up for a little chat, and he brings his broadsword. I don't know, we're going to get into this, figure out what's going on,

but Hebrews 4 talks about the sword of God like this. It says, for the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and the spirit of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart and no creature is hidden from his sight. And we are all naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. So Jesus shows up with that kind of tenacity to the church in Pergam,

and he shows up with a sword. And Jesus is about to do some work. He says, let's sit down, let's have a conversation. And it's going to involve him bringing his broadsword, and he's going to call some people in the church, just like Hebrew said, to give account. We are all exposed in front of him. This is like Jesus saying, hashtag, here comes the boom, right? And so it goes on, verse 13.

He says, I know where you dwell where Satan's throne is. Jesus says, I know where you live. You live at Satan's throne. Pergamum was a few things about Pergamum would be useful for us to know. It was about 10 miles from the Aegean coast. It was up on this hill. In fact, it was kind of this hilled city, terrace city. It was beautiful.

and from the top of the kind of the palisade there, you could look out 10, 15 miles down to the coast and you could see the entire coast. This city was beautiful. This city was well placed. In fact, because it was up on a hill, it was often hard to conquer. And because it was hard to conquer, if and when it was conquered for about four or five hundred years, the conquering nation, Rome or Alexander the grade, whoever came in, for like a half a century, would come in and make this city their capital,

city or make this city one of their governing cities. So it's a, it's a city of great history. It was a custodian of both ancient Greek and common Roman worship and lifestyle. And Jesus says it was where Satan's throne was. And Pergamum earned that nickname for several reasons. One, dating back to their, to their Greek history, they had an 800-foot statue of Zeus, the conqueror. It was built into the hill so as you came up into the city, you were automatically reminded that the city was founded under this ancient Greek worship. Not only that, but it had a temple to Asclepios, the Savior, with a servant symbols all around it.

Now here's the deal. The moment you read a human was called a Savior with serpent symbols, if you've got any church or biblical background, you're like, I think something's off there. So they're worshiping this guy, and this temple to him was like a model, it was like the kind of, it was a hospital, if you will. And the problem was is to get healing. or to get help, you had to be a worshipper of this false God.

And not only that, but there's also, it was the administrative center of Rome for Asia. And because of that, imperial worship, emperor worship was like an all-time high because if you wanted to keep your job in the city, you had to worship Caesar. So you had these people worshipping Zeus, and you had these people worshipping at the temple of healing, and you had these people worshiping Caesar and over and over again, these people, it's just a Satan's throne. so much paganism tossed into one bucket and shooken up. And Jesus says to the church in this city, I know where you dwell.

Now, I love the word that Jesus uses. I'm a little nerd out for a second, and I hope you'll nerd out with me. If not, where are you going to go? So the Greek word here is different than the normal word. The word used for dwell. I know where you stay. I know where you live in. The normal word is parochian, which means like temporarily stay.

oftentimes Paul would use that word to say, I know where you temporarily stay, as in to say, remember, we're all sojourners, we're all heading to heaven. John would use this word, parochian, it's just commonly used Greek word that means you're temporarily living somewhere, but as a believer, we're heading to heaven. Jesus here uses the word catoikis, which means permanently live. He uses the permanent word. He goes, I know where you permanently live. what Jesus is saying to the church in Pergamum is,

you have put down roots in a city where Satan's throne is. And I'm proud of you. Like Jesus is looking at the church and going, you are waging war on darkness. You have permanently moved in to Satan's castle. You have permanently moved in to Satan's throne room. He is commending them. He's applauding them.

He's proud of them. They've been waging war. They're pushing back darkness. This is important to us. It's a reminder to us that the church, in regards to culture, the church is to be a conquering church, not an escaping church. Let me say that again a different way. To be a Christian and to live as Christ lived is to be a conquering Christian, that we would conquer culture, that we'd push back to darkness. To be a Christian is not to live a life of escapism.

We have the most important and most dangerous message for all of humanity, and it would be such a wimpy and cowardless thing to do to go and hide with our message that people are dying and going to hell, and only Jesus can save them. So the church in Pergamum, they moved to Satan's throne, and Jesus is going, good job. Jesus is today, the words for us today is this church, plant yourselves and take ground. Push back the darkness. Don't accept culture. Don't placate the brokenness of this world. Don't simply just try to hold whatever cultural ground we have. We are ambassadors of the kingdom of God sent to declare everything we see.

Everything, every nook and cranny of this world, every profession of this world, every part of this world. We have been sent as God's ambassadors to say, that's God's, that's God's, your God's, your God's, that's God's. everything is God's and gods alone. We have been sent to this world. We've been redeemed in this world to wage war on the darkness. Jesus is going, good job, church. Way to move in. Yet, yet even where Satan reigns, you hold fast in my name. You did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipus, my faithful witness who was killed among you where Satan dwells. I don't know if you know this, but the word for witness and martyr in the Greek is the same word. Like in the Greek, when they began to talk about being a martyr or a witness, it was just the same word. If you were

going to share your faith, you were dying to yourself, and you may literally die, like to share your faith. Declaring the name and kingdom of Jesus was very, very dangerous in the first century. And I think in our day and age, it's going to be dangerous to us too. It is a dangerous thing. It might be dangerous to your career. It might be dangerous to your comfort. It might be dangerous to your comfort, it might be dangerous to your desires to begin to live in a way that says, for Christ to be glorified, I will pick up my cross daily. And Jesus is saying, man, you stood firm, even when my witness who declared my name was murdered, martyred because of his witness. I love, this is a fierce encouragement of Jesus. Like he is fiercely encouraging his church. He's saying, that a boy, you held

fast church in Pergamum, you stood and you were standing firm. Even in the face of death, you stood toe to toe with culture. You stood toe to toe to toe with the government. You stood toe to toe to death. You stood toe to toe to death. You stood toe to toe with the enemy and you didn't give up. You didn't give in. The church of Pergammon was on the front lines. It was standing and fighting for the gospel. And as I began to read and pray over this passage, I began to think this. I think this encouragement would be right for me. to give to you. As one of your pastors has been given to serve and to love you, I think it is true that this church,

we are storming the castle and attacking the throne of the enemy. I think this church is sharing the gospel with other local churches. We're partnering with churches around the world, one global church, and we are pushing back darkness. One of my highest privileges I have as a pastor being given to serve this place is to sit and to see and to hear the stories that God is doing in. you and through you. Church 1122, I think you should be encouraged. You are holding fast in the name of Jesus, even in a shifting and changing culture as it grows harder and harder to do this.

Here's what I mean. Church, I see these things and I want to commend you for fighting and pushing back darkness. Church, you are gathering in homes and coffee shops every week to lean into God's Word and pray together. You're like, Pastor, that's just called discipleship. No, that's called pushing back darkness. Declaring the word, the Lord, praying over people, begging for healing, that's pushing back darkness. Some of you, you're in the locker room at the gym or the golf club and you're honoring God and others with your language.

Church, you are giving generously to the work of the gospel through the one initiative. Church, you are sending to the nations. You are being sent to the nation. Some of you, by God's grace, are going to go on a short-term mission trip this year, fall in love, move back only to go forever. Church, you are waging war against gossip in your friendships. I am even hearing rumors of some quitting social media because of the amount of gossip. You're waging war on Facebook.

All right, I'm just kidding. You're waging war. You're engaging freedom, but you're not overindulging. Church, you're not creating a stumbling brock for others. Church, I have even begun to hear that some of us Baptists have found that a cold beer is delightful. and yet you enjoy the sweet things of God and you never lose your sobriety to hear from the Spirit. And in regards to sexual morality, man, I am proud of you. Many of you are single and you are saving yourself for the day you say hi too.

Many of you were married before, but you're not letting that we were married before be an excuse to run after sexual morality. Some of you are really close to getting married and you refuse to let the lie of culture that we're married in our heart lead you down a path that God did not design for you. I'm so proud. I've heard of so many stories of our church meeting Jesus and realizing the sexual past that not honor God repenting and running after purity. I've sat down and cried and wept with many of you who have found yourself with same-sex attraction and going, this is not God's plan for me.

And so the only thing I can do is keep going to God over and over and over again and going, God, only you get to define me. Only you get to dissatisfy me. men, I cannot tell you the number of men in this church who are married and they only long for the pleasure of their bride. That is countercultural. Women, I am so proud of the men, the women of this church who are completely wrapped up in the love of your husband. And I get it. Most of your husbands are borderline losers, including me, but you love them.

Parents, you're raising up missionaries. You're sending them to your schools. You're sending them across the street. you're sending them to the community clubhouse, you're sending them the boys and girls club, you're sending them, you are raising them up so that they would go to the nations one day. I mean, I'm telling you,

I personally know 1122ers that are going to strip joints and pointing to people to the love of Jesus, using breweries to host Bible studies, leveraging your life savings to plant orphanage, going into your offices every single week and refusing to cheat to get ahead. I know 1122ers

that are doing stuff crazier than serving in Uganda, they're serving on HOAs and PTAs for the sake of declaring the gospel. 1122, please, please keep pushing back darkness. Please keep attacking the throne of Satan. We are not meant to merely exist. We are meant to be warriors crushing the kingdom of darkness with the love of Jesus. And when I read the letter to Pergam, I think, I think he might, Jesus might be talking about us. We are waging war on the enemy.

We are pushing back darkness. darkness. And I continue to read. He says, I know where you dwell. It's on the front lines. It's where I put you. It's where I designed you. Verse 14, but. Now I'm not going to lie. Most butts in the Bible are pretty nice, right? For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life. Almost every butt in the Bible is awesome. This one's not. Verse 14, but I have a few things against you. Jesus commends them. He celebrates him. He cheers for him. He goes, but we got to talk about a few things. You have some there, some support a word, circle that, we'll come back to it.

You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balam, who talked to Balak, to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel. So they may eat food, sacrifice to idols, and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold to the teachings of the Nicolations. That word some, that's important. You have some there who hold. To be fair, it was not everyone. Like the church and purgroom, most of them were waging war against their sin.

They were killing their sin before it killed them. Most of them were pushing back darkness. But some of them were in bed with sin. Some of them were claiming Jesus, but living a life that denied the lordship of Jesus. You know if he's not Lord, he's not Savior. That's not an either or opportunity. Jesus declared himself to be Lord and Savior. He's Lord of all, or he's not Lord.

at all. And it may have been small. I mean, there were some who were bending God's word for their personal comfort and pleasure. It may have been small, but a little bit of sin in the camp is too much. A little bit of sin in your heart is too much. It's destructive. It put Jesus on the cross. It killed him, and it will kill you. It may have been small and number, but it was serious and damage. It was so serious that Jesus shows up and he says, I'm coming with a broad sword. I'm going to cut out the cancer. I'm going to cut out the toxicity of sin. Now, one of the sources of this rebellion was the Nicolations. And dude, these guys, they hacked Jesus off. You know how I know? Seven letters three times Jesus says, sword, Nicolations, I'm going to take

them out. You better get them out of here before I get him out of here three times. He did not like them. Now, once again, I'm going to try to not nerd out, but I don't know how not to, so just go with me for a second. The teaching of the Nicolations was this. It's a theological term called Antonomianism. Can you say that with me? Antinomianism. There you go. We're learning big words tonight.

It really means anti-law. The teaching boils down to this. Like saying this, nothing is wrong in using your Christ-given freedom to conform to the world's standards of sex, power, and comfort. Antinomianism would teach that Jesus has forgiven your sin. now you can live however you want. It's anti-law. Jesus came to fulfill a law, so now there is no law. You can say, I love Jesus, make him your Savior, but he's not your Lord.

That doesn't work. Here's what breaks my heart, and I love America. Love it, love it. One of my favorite countries in the world, top one, two, and three. I love America. Most, if not all of Americans, many, if not most Americans who are culturally Christian. They're Christian, but they don't love Jesus. They just kind of grew up in it.

Most of them could never quote Nicolation doctrine. In fact, most of us couldn't before tonight. Now, we're like, I know that. I mean, who'd I know that? But most Americans who are culturally Christian couldn't quote Nicolation doctrine, but so many have tried to marry and combined Americanism, the lifelong pursuit of happiness with Christianity dying to yourself. And for so long culturally, we have tried to marry those things

that now we find ourselves practically Nicolation and doctrine. that many of our cultural Christians are trying to love Jesus and conform to the world standards for sex, sobriety, consumerism, and self-pleasure. It breaks my heart. It breaks Jesus's heart. He says, I hate it so much. I'm going to show up with a sword and I'm going to cut that out of my church because I don't want it infecting my church. I mean, no wonder these guys hacked Jesus off. I mean, Jesus has got to be looking at him going, I did not die for your sins so you can live like hell is one. Have you ever thought about that?

To be anti-nominism, to be anti-laws, like Jesus, thank you for dying for my sins. Now I'm going to live like hell is one and do whatever I want. Now the other false teaching is going to take a little more work. It's the other false teaching. It was a guy named Balam. We're going to have to kind of dive into the Old Testament for a little bit. Numbers chapter 22 through 31.

I'm not going to go verse by verse through this, but I'd give you, and I encourage you this week while everything is closed to just sit through and read all of those verses and read that text. And there's this history of Balaam. And I'm just going to encourage us a little bit. I'm going to kind of just cliff note this a little bit so that we can understand what Jesus is saying. So the context in numbers is Israel, they'd unsprung out of Egypt, right? They were slaves.

They're no longer slaves. But now they're not quite in the promised land. God had promised them a home. They're on the way to the home. The issue of Canaan where they're going the promised land is some people, live there. And so God told Israel, you just go do the things I tell you to do, and people either leave or if they fight wars against you, you'll just conquer them. God's like, this land is yours. I'm going to give it to you. So the Moabites were some of the folks that lived up in the promised

land, and they were in the way, they were occupying the land that God had promised to his people. And so as Israel, the nation comes closer and closer, the Moabite king, his name is Balik, He grew scared and he started searching for help. He realized these guys, they're just kind of knocking out nation after nation. And Balak's like, I'm not next. So he heard of this prophet named Balam. And so he sent for him to curse Israel. Now, it is crazy what fear will do to people.

Just think about this for a second. Balak, who's the king of Moed, who's the enemy of Israel, Israel is God's people. So Balak's like, I got an idea. I'll go get one of God's prophets. maybe he will come curse God's people for me. Now that'll make a bit of sense, but a lot of times when fear strikes us, we come up with all kind of crazy plans to try to manipulate the situation. So he sends for Balak, or he sends for Balem two different times.

Both times, Balem asks God. God says no. For whatever reason, Balam says, I'm going to go check it out anyway. And if you remember, if you're like a Bible nerd, do you remember the story in numbers where Balam's riding on a donkey and the angel of the Lord is going to kill Balam? But the donkey goes, whoa. It's like straight Shrek before Shrek. Shrek stole it from the Bible. And the donkey literally talks to Balaam. Says, what are you doing? And Bailom is, I don't know. So Bailam shows up in Moab and the king says to Bailam, all right, I've got everything you need. I got the fire. I've got bulls and lambs. I want you to make a sacrifice. And then I want you to curse God's people. Three different times this happens. Every single time, they set the altar up. They set the sacrifice up. The king of Moab says, hey, Bailam, do your thing. Balem steps up every single time, Balim goes, God bless Israel.

He does it in like a stanza, of course, but God bless Israel. And the king loses his mind. I mean, he has spent lots of money. He has set up several times this altar. He sees Israel getting closer. He loses his mind. And he says, come on, Balam, why do you keep blessing them? And functionally, Balim says this.

I can't go beyond the word of the Lord. Balim says, I'm a prophet, but I cannot curse the things that God is blessed. The way we say it around here is no one can give you what God hasn't given you and no one can take from you what God has given to you. Balem says, look, here's the deal. I can't curse what God's blessed and I can't bless what God's curse. God has blessed Israel. I can't curse them.

Now, if you're like me, you read through like Numbers 22, 23, 24, you're like, I don't really get it. That does not seem like a bad teaching. like Balaam seems to be saying God is sovereign and if God wants to bless the people who am I to question what God does it seems like a really good teaching. Bealem says the enemy cannot curse God's work. God has blessed

the church, the enemy cannot curse the church. But if you flip over to Numbers 25 all of a sudden things like the will start falling off the nation of Israel. The next time we in chapter 25 of numbers we find Israel and they are sleeping with these Moabite women and then we find them they're eating sats

sacrifices that have been made to idols, and then by the end of number 25, they're bowing down and worshiping false gods. And all of a sudden, because of their own sin, not because anybody cursed them, but because of their own individual sin, they found themselves in the middle of a plague that came as a consequence of their sin, and 24,000 Israelites die. Here's what happened. You got to fast forward to Numbers 31, and Moses says this, behold these, and he's talking about these Moabite women. These Moabite women had been sent out. These Moabite women, by Balaam's advice,

caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor. And so the plague came in the congregation among the congregation of the Lord. So Balaam said, look, here's a deal, man. You can't curse what God's blessed. And he's going to leave. And on his way out, he offers some advice to the king of Moab. He says, look, you cannot curse what God's blessed.

but if those that God have blessed begin to use their own freedom to sin, then their sin will bring consequences. And the consequences is that they will no longer be sitting under the blessing of God. And then Balaam, he kind of spells it out. He goes, man, let me just give you two easy ways you could trick those Israelites. He was these two ways to distract God's people that just distract them from God. He says, the first one is this, sexual immorality. Isn't it crazy how?

things change? Because sex doesn't sell anymore. It used to. That was sarcasm. He didn't quite pick on it. He says sexual immorality, man. He's like, bro, those cats, man, they've been out in the wilderness, man, they rugged, they stink, their women stink. Everybody stinks. Everybody stinks. They've been walking around. He goes, now, Israelites, Balams said, the Israelites know that God designed sex for one man and one woman inside the confines of marriage. That is God's plan for sex. The Israelites know that. They also know that the to bow down to a false idol. They know that sin will destroy them, but if you seduce them and tempt them, then they'll

take one step at a time away from God. So Balaam tells the king, just send out the Moabite virgins and have them go out there and flirt a little bit. Have them go out there and maybe just take a long lunch with a secretary and see what happens. And ultimately, what happens is this long conversation, leads to something and all of a sudden Israelite finds itself, the Bible says literally

hoaring itself to Moab. DeBalem tells them, look, they're not going to just bow down to your idols. You know, but if you send a few temptations out there, they may just turn away from their God for one night to remember. And then one night would become more nights, become more nights.

Balem says, says, seduce them, and they will leave their God's blessing for temporary pleasure. When we engage sex outside of God's design, we are looking at God. This is what happens. When you engage sex outside of God's design, so anything outside of one man and one woman in the confines of marriage, that's pre-marital, post-marital, a marital, right? That's whether you've been married, are married, that's whether you're looking at it, reading about, I mean, there's anything outside of a man, a woman, inside the confines of marriage.

In that moment, what we are functionally doing is saying, I am willing to trade eternal joy in a relationship and intimacy with Jesus. And I'm willing to lay that aside for temporary pleasure. And it always has consequences. What started as flirting, what started as kind of just these pretty girls coming out from the Moabite camp, led to the death and destruction of 24,000 people in Israel. He says the first thing is sexual morality. He says the second thing that you could trick the Israelites up with is this, their comfort. He says, they are discontent. they've been traveling for years.

They don't have a home yet. So why don't you just invite them to your barbecue? You know, they're hungry. And when you begin to feed their flesh and literally comfort their physical desires over time, they will choose their physical comfort at the expense of a relationship with God. Now, here's the thing. They were eating food to a false God, to a wooden statue. The food was not wrong.

but what they began to do is long for the comfort of the food more than they long for the comfort of their true God. Now, let's be honest, these things are still trapping us today. A little more house is not a bad thing. A little better job is not a bad thing. A little better friendship is not a bad thing. A little better beer is not a bad thing. A little better good fried chicken with Dr. Pepper Brian Sweet tea is not a bad thing. Collegreens are of the Lord's blessing.

I'm getting on a whole gluttony trip here, but all those things, this comfort, this desire to be comfortable in itself. None of those things we long for are bad, but what happens is over time, we long and we long and we long and we get the next job, we get the next girlfriend, we get the next boyfriend, we get the next truck, we get the next thing, and what we find is that the old golf clubs work, the new golf clubs work, but somewhere in the midst of all of the things, the materialism, all the comfort we have found, we're still. empty. The idol of comfort is us looking at a perfectly fulfilling, amazing God and go, I am capable of fulfilling myself because, God, you are simply not enough. I promise you, from my own personal experience, idolizing comfort will leave you where you started.

Empty and wanting a little bit more. Now here's the thing. I'm just going to be completely honest. In our day in our culture, I have to attack this criticism. The time is, temptation or the criticism is to read the book of numbers and go, come on Stone, it was just a one-night stand, they just went to a barbecue, but to begin that argument, to say it was just sex, it was just against the body, it was just a little food for the belly, to begin to do that, you have to disregard their actions as something else other than sin. They were very clear in what God had called them to do and created them do. They had spent years in the desert being fulfilled by manna, every day. They never wanted or longed for anything because God was good enough to give them everything.

And then all of a sudden, when they had an opportunity to run after something else besides God, they ran after something else besides God. That's sin. In a nutshell, sin is when we run after anything else besides God himself. They disobeyed God. They broke his commandments. They destroyed their relationship with them. And in their sin, just like we learned in Genesis, and just like we see throughout the whole Bible, Their sin brought death and brokenness. Here's what God is about. God is about His kingdom. The gospel is an invitation for us to be in the kingdom of Jesus, to know Jesus, to love Jesus, to be co-heirs with Jesus himself.

And sin is about breaking that relationship and tearing it apart and shattering it. Church, sin is destructive. A hookup culture is destructive. it will tear apart your relationships. A comfort-seeking lifestyle was a big deal in Israel. It was a big deal in Pergamum, and it is a big deal today in the church of 1122. I'm not standing up here going,

this message of being better than. It's the gospel, it's the message of the Bible that says sex outside of God's designs will always be destructive. I don't think it'll feel that way up front, based on my experience with my wife. Sex is kind of awesome. but I think

I think what feels awesome up front leads to bondage now inside the confines of marriage fire in a fireplace burns and it warms the whole house fire in the woods destroys the whole thing feeding your comfort at the expense of a relationship with Jesus will always leave you empty

I just said it a second and go a little more is not wrong the problem is when we take our attention off of everything, because Jesus has gone to the cross and secured and redeemed everything we need for godliness. When we take our attention off of him and begin to run after the fleeting things of the world, all of a sudden we find ourselves just back to empty. Satan doesn't have any, he doesn't have any new tricks. The same thing that Satan came at Pergamum with, I think he would come with the same tricks for the Church 1122. I think he

would show up and go, it's not a big deal. It's just a little flirting. It's not a big deal. You're married in your hearts. It's not a big deal. Everybody else is doing it. It's not a big deal. It's just one more bedroom. It's just one year newer on your car. It's just one more job switch that you can finally find that title you were looking for. It's just one more, one more, one more. And I think that Jesus would look at us and say, good job 1122. Keep pushing back the, the, the, the, darkness, keep fighting against the kingdom of Satan, but be careful. There are some amongst us that are beginning to long more for the things of the flesh and the things of the kingdom.

And now, in his kindness, Jesus, with that declaration that sin in the camp, a little bit of sin in the camp is no good. In his kindness, he says these next words, therefore repent. Romans tells us it's the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. The only other option of leading us to repentance and cutting out sin is to leave us to sin and let it take root. It is the kindness of God to lead us to repentance. It's his love for us to go, that thing is not what I created and saved you for. To look at us and go, just a little more, just a little more will never satisfy.

He says, therefore repent. Repent just means this. It means to turn from. means you're heading in this direction and you want to head this direction. It does not mean you are going this way and you run back to Jesus. Jesus didn't go anywhere. What it means is this. You are waging war either with Jesus against your sin or you're waging war with your sin against Jesus.

There is no fine print. There is no gray area. Either we are on team Jesus and like our hands are on his hands and he's just wielding that broadsword, cutting sin out of our life. from like, we love you, Jesus, cut it out. Or we're going, Jesus, we have chosen the things of the world, we've chosen sexual morality, we've chosen comfort, we have our own idols.

And when you begin to say we have our own idols, even though it's a slippery slope to get there, what you are functionally saying is Jesus, you're not enough, I don't need you. So Jesus in his kindness says, therefore repent. He says, I'm so proud of you. You're in the middle of the Satan's throne, and you're pushing back the darkness.

I love you. I'm so proud of you. But don't let sin creep into the camp. If so, when it does repent. And I love it. He says this. If not, Jesus gives us a multiple choice question here, A or B. If not, I will come to you soon and I will war against them with a sword of my mouth.

So who's Jesus coming against? Jesus says, repent or I'll come against you. Jesus is promising to come with the sword against those that are willing. What? They're in the church. This is a letter to the church. Jesus is saying there are people in the church who have been waging war against hell that have now just given up and they're just living habitually unrepentant, sinful lifestyles. His promise wasn't to come against the pagan culture of Pergamum. His promise was to come against the believers. Do you know what Balim was? He was a prophet of God. Do you know who Nicholas was? He was one of the early church deacons. The two her

Heres came from within the church. The sin was boiling up within the church. And Jesus says, look, if you're a sinner in the church, if you are showing up and playing church and then you're doing your own thing, Jesus is going, I'm coming for you. Why? Because he loves you that much. It's the love of Jesus to go, the sin in your life, I can't leave it there. Now, let me be clear.

The Bible is not teaching that the church is only for perfect people. You know how I know this? They gave me a microphone tonight. right and you look at the person next to you they ain't perfect people here get your phone out look at a little selfie they're definitely not perfect people here the church is it's not it's not that you've got to be perfect in fact the teaching the church is far from that we would teach there's only one person who is perfect and by his grace and by his stripes we are healed and all made righteous if you're struggling against sin you're on jesus's team you're fighting side by side with jesus but if you're

no longer struggling because you've simply just decided to engage sin, you are now bowing to idols. And bowing to idols, even though they're not wooden totem poles anymore, is a declaration of war against Jesus. And he loves you too much to let you war against the only thing that can give you life. So the Bible's not teaching. You've got to be perfect. The Bible is teaching this. You cannot receive the blessings of God and simultaneously live out rebellion against his commands. You can receive the blessings of God and simultaneously live out rebellion against his commands. You cannot worship God with your lips and worship another idol with your heart. The Bible is teaching this. It's His kindness that cuts out sin in our life.

The Bible is saying the only other option than cutting out sin is letting it take root and destroy you. The Bible is saying this, repentance is the daily act of a believer. either you're killing your sin or it's killing you. Here's what I know. I've been following Jesus for like three decades now. I know you're like, how you're doing the math? I was young. It happened, right?

And so did Jesus just save me? I've been following Jesus for like 30 years now. And here's what I know. Every single day, I have new things that go to the Lord and go, I didn't even know I was doing this against you, but your spirit has convicted me. Please forgive me and help me lay these things down. Jesus says, if you're running, if you're waging war,

If you're, if you just engage sin, he says, repent, let's wage war on sin together. Sometimes my wife and I fight. I know you're like, how's that? I don't know. You get to ask her. I think I'm very easy to live with it. I'm just kidding. Every now and then, we fight.

And what I have found about when we fight is sometimes it has to do with this. You're just stressed. If you're an any grand person, my wife's a one, that means there's a part. There's just like a hundred or failure. That's the only two options in life. I'm a seven. I don't even know what a test is. Test are boring.

I don't take them. I'm here for. for a good time in a party. So there are times in which my overbearing extrovertedness, raging extrovertedness, if you will, create stress. And sometimes in these stressful moments, we tend to disagree about things. And I found one of the greatest tactics

in being in a fight with my wife is to just ask, are you mad at me or at something? Because if you're mad at me, I'll join you, we'll be mad at me together. And if you're mad at something, I'll join you and we'll be mad at something. And if you're mad at someone else, I'll kill them. I mean, those are the options.

No problem. Here's what I've learned in my walk of Jesus. Jesus is mad at my sin always. He hates it. It put him on the cross. And for me to repent, what I am saying is, Jesus, I hate that sin too. And even though it's so enticing, let's kill it together. Verse 17.

He who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches and to the one who conquers. I love it. This is two times in two letters. Last week, Pastor Jobi talked about the conquering and the letter to Smyrna. And again, Jesus says, conquers. There's a theme. Jesus has given us this theme. It's conquer.

This is war language. Jesus says to the overcomer. He's reminding us of where we started. I know where you stay. Christianity is not about escapism. It's about pushing back the darkness and declaring the kingdom of God is advancing. Jesus over and over and over is, you're an overcomer. In Romans, he tells us this.

We're all, anyone who's a believer, you are more. than a conqueror. You are already, you already are fighting from victory. You don't want to fight for it. Jesus has said what? It is finished. And if it is finished, it counts for us. He says to the conquerors, the people overcome, to the believers. He says, I will give. He's going to give three things. The first thing he says is, I will give you some of the hidden manna. He's reminding, remember the story in Balaam? They grew tired of the manna that God had provided and began to run after the things of the world? Well, in this text, Jesus goes, no problem. I am going to give you everything. I'm going to sustain you. I'm going to fulfill you. Church, here's a promise. Just like God

sustained Israel, God will sustain us, the church, until Jesus returns. And when he returns, we won't need sustained anymore because we will be glorified in the presence of the glorified king. He's all we need. Even on the front lines of war, we don't need the comfort this world can offer. have the comfort of King Jesus. Jesus is everything we need. Second, he says, I'm going to give you a white stone. He goes, I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you some hidden manna. I'm going to sustain you. I'm going to fulfill you. And I'm also going to give you a white stone. Now, if I studied this week, I literally found 16 or 17 different things the commentator said the white stone meant. I thought maybe it meant like God gave Ryan Stone to the church 1122.

I couldn't find that one. So I kept looking. There's a bunch of them. One of them is that probably my favorite one is that in ancient times they would vote and they would vote with a dark stone and a white stone and if you got the dark stone you were guilty if you got the white stone you were acquitted another thing the commentator said is there was this tablet of freedom that would be given away and this tablet of freedom was a white stone that declared you're free another commentator said back in ancient israel they would count up and do a census and determine how many people belong to israel and they have all these different colored stones and the white stones were referred to the Levites. And so it's maybe another way that Jesus is saying, I have made you to part of my royal priesthood. I'm not quite sure which one it is, but I know however different way you slice it, I think Jesus is saying this, you're his. He's paid the penalty for your sin. He's earned your freedom for you. You belong to Jesus because

he has counted you as his. So he says, I'm going to give you manna. I'm going to sustain. you and fulfill you. I'm going to make you belong. The third gift, he says, a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. You know, there's authority in a name. You know, when parents name their kids, it's the first act of authority you have over your child. And for some of you who don't spank, it was the last one. But it's the authority we have over children. It's a name. It's why when you give a nickname to someone, you're kind of exercising a little authority over them. And here's the thing that this culture wants to do.

It wants to give you a name. Our world wants to label you. It only labels us typically by our sin. This world wants to label you. But Jesus says, here's the deal. For the conqueror, for the one who repents, I get to name you. I don't care what this world has labeled you. Only Jesus has the authority to do that.

Church, I want to encourage you with this. The world cannot sustain you like the fullness of Jesus. Jesus. Repent and taste the hidden manner. The world cannot stain you beyond Jesus' ability to redeem you and declare you innocent. Repent and receive the white stone. This world cannot claim authority over you because Jesus alone has died for the right to name you. Receive the new name. As a believer, we live in this world, but we must wage war against being of this world. We overcome conforming to this culture by transforming it. We are not holding our ground against the kingdom of darkness.

The kingdom of heaven is forcefully advancing, and it takes forceful men and forceful women to lay a hold of it. You know how we're forceful? We see Jesus. We fall in love with him. We repent of our sin, and we just don't repent to kind of sit there and go, oh, the rescue boat is fun. We repent, and Jesus says, here's a sword.

Let's go fight hell. Let's go defeat the enemy. Let's go push back darkness. The reason that we stumble in the midst of war is because we begin to take our eyes off of Jesus. We live in this world and we begin to lose sight of the magnificent beauty of Jesus. So the enemy comes along with sex and comfort

and goes, isn't these awesome? Aren't these tempting? But every time we look back at Jesus, we go, no. The intimacy of sexual immorality fails to compare to the intimacy of one who died on a cross for me. The emptiness of kindness of God. comfort fails to compare to the glorious one of heaven who come and said, you are mine. So, church, we're going to respond tonight.

I'm praying that we taste and see the beauty of Jesus. I pray that we find that grace and forgiveness is in our repentance. And I pray that we rest our identity in him and that we wage war on hell. Hell is not waiting for us to get to the battle lines. It's coming at us. So let's push back darkness. Across all of our campuses, would you stand with me? We're going to respond in this way.

We're going to respond by singing. We're going to sing this song that says, I am who you declare I am. I'm looking at you, Jesus. You are beautiful. You get to name me. All of my past sin, I repent of it. Across all of our campuses and in our living rooms or wherever you're at,

some of you're going to want to kneel and repent and go, Lord, I have been waging war against you, and now I want to wage war with you. against the sin when you cut it out of my life. Dear Jesus, take your broad sword and cut the sin out. And then let me put my hands on your sword and let's push back darkness. Church, we're going to respond. I'm going to pray.

And when I say amen, we're going to come and pray and repent. And we're going to declare like everything we are. I am who you say I am. Church, let's pray. Lord, we love you and thank you for loving us. God, thank you so much that when you came to die on the cross, it was not to just save us and put us in a safe spot, but you proclaimed us yours. You said, put your hands with my hands on the sword and let's go push back darkness.

And Jesus, I personally repent. I hope to lead us all in repentance and saying so often the temptations of this world just come running at me and I take my eyes off your beauty and I put it on the temptations, but they're always leaving me empty and only you consistent. And so Jesus, I pray that as we repent, and I pray as we sing this song, that you and your spirit will go, I'm so proud of you, conqueror. Here's manna to sustain you. Go back to the battle lines.

I got your back. I pray as we repent, you would say, here's a white stone. I count you as mine. I have earned your freedom. I have declared you innocent. And I pray as we repent that you would give us a new name. even in this moment that your spirit would speak to us like we've never heard him before and declared to us our identity.

And in that King Jesus, would we walk out of here and out of all of our campuses and out of our living rooms realizing we are warriors? Not because of who I say I am, but because of who you say you are. King Jesus, may our worship be pleasing to your ears. May our repentance lead you to your ears. mercy and grace. It's in your name we pray. Amen.

Church, let's respond.