SPEAKER_00: I want to welcome you to the First Baptist Church of El Doredo Sermon Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Taylor Guerin, the senior pastor here.
SPEAKER_00: All throughout this fall, we're in a series through the Book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly a book that can feel intimidating, certainly a book that at times can be misunderstood.
SPEAKER_00: What we believe is that it is a book that is meant to be read by Christians and meant to provide great encouragement, both for the future but also for today.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you are encouraged by the series this fall.
SPEAKER_00: If there's anything we can do for you, specifically any way we can pray for you, don't hesitate to reach out.
SPEAKER_00: Go to our website and click the Connect with Us page.
SPEAKER_00: We'd love to hear from you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see you soon.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation chapter 2, beginning in verse 18, the church at Thyatira.
SPEAKER_00: The church at Thyatira.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to read these words now.
SPEAKER_00: And to the angel of the church at Thyatira, write, the words of the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
SPEAKER_00: I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
SPEAKER_00: But I have this against you that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
SPEAKER_00: I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, I will throw her onto a sick bed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her works.
SPEAKER_00: And I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.
SPEAKER_00: But to the rest of you at Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who do not who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any burden.
SPEAKER_00: Only hold fast to what you have until I come.
SPEAKER_00: The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with the rod of iron as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father, and I will give him the morning star.
SPEAKER_00: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, by your spirit, would you move mightily in our midst in this time?
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, teach us, transform us.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, would you speak in Christ's name?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Really, two things this morning we want to see.
SPEAKER_00: Point number one is this days are numbered for the church of compromise.
SPEAKER_00: The days are numbered for the church of compromise.
SPEAKER_00: And number two is this that the days never cease for the church of faithful endurance.
SPEAKER_00: The days never cease for the church of faithful endurance.
SPEAKER_00: But to begin, the days are numbered for the church of compromise.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me again at verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: To the angel of the church in Thyatira, write the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like a flame of fire, whose feet are like burnished bronze.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, where is what is Thyatira, this little bitty town?
SPEAKER_00: We've been looking at towns like Ephesus, 250,000 people, a large city.
SPEAKER_00: Even Smyrna last week, a hundred thousand people, a very large city, a metropolis.
SPEAKER_00: You think of Ephesus with uh the harbor, the highways that intersect there.
SPEAKER_00: And then you've got this little place, Thyatira, between 10 and 20,000 people.
SPEAKER_00: It's a little bitty.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly compared to Ephesus, to Smyrna.
SPEAKER_00: It's just this little bitty place.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, here's what's interesting: this little place, in fact, the smallest of the seven cities that we'll see throughout early Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: The smallest of these seven cities receives the longest letter.
SPEAKER_00: Again, the smallest city receives the longest letter.
SPEAKER_00: And from the start, we saw last week and the week before who is writing this.
SPEAKER_00: It is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And the author gives us a little biographical information at the beginning of each letter, and it's very clear at the beginning here in verse 18 that Jesus means business in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: You read these words again, the words of the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is who I am.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wants us to know the words of the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire, and feet are like burnished bronze, the eyes glowing with the flames of fire, the feet with bronze.
SPEAKER_00: You have the picture of feet that can stomp and trample down.
SPEAKER_00: This is someone today who means business.
SPEAKER_00: This little bitty church, a population of 10,000, and this small series of house churches within this small town.
SPEAKER_00: And yet Jesus is coming, and Jesus means business.
SPEAKER_00: Now we see verse 19, and we're very proud of this church in a lot of ways.
SPEAKER_00: A lot like we saw in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: Before Jesus talked about some of the difficult things going on, he first gave a series of commendations.
SPEAKER_00: I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
SPEAKER_00: This is a church that's doing a lot of good things.
SPEAKER_00: This is a church that should be commended for what they're doing.
SPEAKER_00: I know your works, your love, your faith, your endurance.
SPEAKER_00: This is a church that, much like Smyrna, much like any of these churches, walks through persecution.
SPEAKER_00: These are hard days for the church.
SPEAKER_00: We talked last week about the trade guilds and wanting to be a part of the economy, and sometimes that would mean making compromises in some areas of your faith.
SPEAKER_00: And yet many in the church are unwilling to compromise.
SPEAKER_00: Many of these churches within the church are working hard and doing great.
SPEAKER_00: And he even says this your latter works exceed the first.
SPEAKER_00: Even this idea, you are growing in works, you are growing in what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: But verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: But I have this against you.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same kind of turn we saw in Ephesus here in verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: But I have this against you.
SPEAKER_00: He says this, that you tolerate.
SPEAKER_00: That you tolerate, you tolerate that woman Jezebel.
SPEAKER_00: That you tolerate that woman, Jezebel.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, think about that word tolerate.
SPEAKER_00: So in this moment here, we're not dealing necessarily with something that is being celebrated, uh, something that is being just uh put up on the platform uh for everyone to see and celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, it's simply something that's just being tolerated.
SPEAKER_00: You're just allowing it to even be present.
SPEAKER_00: You're tolerating who?
SPEAKER_00: That woman, Jezebel.
SPEAKER_00: Now, who in the world is this?
SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, it is a woman here in the church, likely someone who has placed herself in some kind of self-appointed leadership position.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it's probably the case that her name isn't actually Jezebel.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know who it is or what her name is.
SPEAKER_00: We don't even fully know the specifics of what she's teaching, though we'll see generalities in a minute.
SPEAKER_00: But it's interesting that John, as he's writing, really uh through the Holy Spirit, Jesus' words here, calls her this woman who is Jezebel.
SPEAKER_00: Calling her this, because we read in 1 Kings, about a thousand years before this is written, we see the story of a woman named Jezebel.
SPEAKER_00: There was a king in Israel named Ahab.
SPEAKER_00: Way back in 1 Kings, we see in uh verses 30 and 31 that Ahab is a horrific king.
SPEAKER_00: He is the worst of the worst kings in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting the words that are said, verse 31, as if it had been a light thing for him, for Ahab to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nabot.
SPEAKER_00: Says this as if it would have been a light thing for him to lead Israel into sin on his own by walking in the ways of his ancestors, as if that weren't enough.
SPEAKER_00: The text says this he took for his wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbal, king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him.
SPEAKER_00: So what did Ahab do?
SPEAKER_00: He joined with this wife Jezebel, and this wife Jezebel, along with Ahab, led the people, the people of God, by the way, away from God and towards the worship of Baal.
SPEAKER_00: They tore down places of worship for Yahweh and put up places of worship for Baal.
SPEAKER_00: Jezebel helped lead the charge in this, and what Jezebel loved to do for Israel, for the people of God, is see how much I can lead them away from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: How can I get them involved in any and every other sinful practice?
SPEAKER_00: This is who Jezebel was, and what John wants us to see here in verse 20, this is who this Jezebel is today.
SPEAKER_00: What is she doing?
SPEAKER_00: Number one, it's this who calls herself a prophetess.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's interesting language, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Who calls herself a prophetess?
SPEAKER_00: Notice he doesn't say who is a prophetess.
SPEAKER_00: This is a self-appointed prophetess.
SPEAKER_00: This is someone who has gone around saying, I have received a special revelation.
SPEAKER_00: I have received a word from God.
SPEAKER_00: Did he speak this to you?
SPEAKER_00: No, he didn't.
SPEAKER_00: He chose me.
SPEAKER_00: He spoke these words to me.
SPEAKER_00: He saw me.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I alone worthy of this word.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you this word.
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you, church family, beware when people try to tell you that they have received a special word of God that's only to them and to you.
SPEAKER_00: I I remember and laughed about the pastor who once said someone came up to him after he had preached.
SPEAKER_00: After a service, someone came up to him and said, Pastor, the Lord has given me a special word.
SPEAKER_00: He's given me a special word, and he just he's got something he wants me to tell you.
SPEAKER_00: And the pastor had his Bible in hand, and he he held the Bible up and looked at this man and he said, That's that's fantastic.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad to hear it.
SPEAKER_00: Give me chapter and verse, I'll follow along as you say it.
SPEAKER_00: I like what he's getting at.
SPEAKER_00: Like the hymn says, What more can he say than to you he has said?
SPEAKER_00: We've got the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: We have the special revelation of God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that that the you and I have both had Holy Spirit convictions, Holy Spirit uh a nudge that the we're we're we're we're thinking about the will of God and the Spirit nudges us in a direction or speaks to us in a certain direction.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that God does not speak and move in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: What I am saying that when God speaks and moves in our lives, hold it up against Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Does it fall in line with this?
SPEAKER_00: And I can promise you this if it does not fall in line with this word, that word is not from God.
SPEAKER_00: If Jezebel had spent, you know, maybe 30 seconds comparing her message with this message, she would have found out quickly it is not in line with the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I do imagine actually Jezebel knew this full well.
SPEAKER_00: She proclaimed herself to be a prophetess, and she is teaching and seducing my servants, drawing them away to do what?
SPEAKER_00: To number one, to practice sexual immorality, number two, and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, to practice sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_00: Again, we don't know the specifics of what this prophetess is teaching.
SPEAKER_00: It may be something very in line with what we talked about two weeks ago and the Nicolaitans, this group of people who are uh proclaiming that if we are free in Christ, then we are free to live however we want.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't this good news that Christ loves us and Christ will forgive us of everything?
SPEAKER_00: So let's give him something to forgive us for.
SPEAKER_00: That was their mindset.
SPEAKER_00: We can do whatever we want.
SPEAKER_00: Uh by the way, that's not what this word calls us to.
SPEAKER_00: It may be that she looks out at the culture of the day and tells believers in the congregation it's okay to compromise.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay to look like the world and live like the world.
SPEAKER_00: Come here on your Sunday morning and give God your best, and it's quite all right to live how the world lives.
SPEAKER_00: Not only to practice sexual immorality, but to eat food offered to idols, as food would be given to these foreign gods one night.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the next day, you might consider having that food for lunch.
SPEAKER_00: Is that okay to eat?
SPEAKER_00: We talked about this in Romans 14.
SPEAKER_00: There were different ideas and different uh levels maybe of Christian freedom as someone thinks about that.
SPEAKER_00: But here we see it in a context very clearly that it was not to be done in this context, and yet here is this prophetess, this Jezebel, calling people away towards sexual immorality and to eat the food sacrificed to idols.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I've got a question though for us before we even really get into the text.
SPEAKER_00: Why is God so concerned with this?
SPEAKER_00: And here's why I asked the question.
SPEAKER_00: Because I look at this, and you've got God coming, eyes like fire, feet like bronze to trample down.
SPEAKER_00: He clearly means business.
SPEAKER_00: He he's really ready to call this woman out regarding how she's teaching and leading these people astray.
SPEAKER_00: But why is he so concerned with a little bitty house church in a little bitty town?
SPEAKER_00: If I were telling John to write a letter, I wouldn't waste my time on Thyatira, uh, a little house church again in a little town of 10,000.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I'd write a second letter to Ephesus, a town of 250,000.
SPEAKER_00: There's an influential town, there's a town that can make a difference.
SPEAKER_00: If we get the church at Ephesus rolling in a big way, imagine the impact we have in Ephesus, where the highways go out, the waterways, the harbor, get the message out.
SPEAKER_00: I would write a second letter to them.
SPEAKER_00: But why worry about Thyatiro?
SPEAKER_00: Why worry about this little bitty town?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, they've compromised, and there's a few that are following after this woman, but what impact are they going to make anyway in this little town?
SPEAKER_00: Here's why God is concerned.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why God takes this so seriously, because God takes sin seriously.
SPEAKER_00: And God doesn't worry about population size, God doesn't worry about influence in worldly terms, he just worries about the fact that there are people who are proclaiming my name and yet are just playing with sin.
SPEAKER_00: He takes it seriously.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to warn us all this morning if there's any part of your life where you're tempted to compartmentalize sin, and you're tempted to say, I can live for the glory of God, but I can just hold on to this sin and keep it here, and it's not hurting anybody, and it's not affecting anybody.
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: God will not find out your sin.
SPEAKER_00: God has found out your sin.
SPEAKER_00: He knows it, he takes it seriously.
SPEAKER_00: And you you can't be as effective for the glory of God as you desire while you are compartmentalizing that sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's not possible.
SPEAKER_00: And I think about the church today, and I'm convinced that uh Jezebel, I'm convinced someone like Ahab, I'm convinced these people still exist among us.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly, Jezebel was dead for a thousand years when this was written.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly it's been two thousand years since this was written, and yet still we see that we truly live in a culture of compromise.
SPEAKER_00: We live, I believe, in a church, Capital C church, the church, of compromise.
SPEAKER_00: And and I think we can look and see many ways this happens.
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh maybe you've heard the stat that the divorce rate within the church is virtually the same as outside the church.
SPEAKER_00: Now, they say it's at 50%.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'll tell you, I I've I've never seen one statistic that backs that up.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God that that within the church the divorce rate is the exact same as outside the church.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I have seen.
SPEAKER_00: One statistics I did see put it at 26% inside the church.
SPEAKER_00: Now, am I jumping for joy because it's not 50%?
SPEAKER_00: No, no, I'm really more in sorrow that one in four Christian marriages uh still ends in divorce.
SPEAKER_00: Now, uh obviously I place nuance here as our Savior talks about matters of infidelity.
SPEAKER_00: Paul talks about matters of abandonment.
SPEAKER_00: There's nuance, but uh, by and large, the fact that one in four Christian marriages, a picture of the gospel in Christ and his church ends in divorce.
SPEAKER_00: I looked at a uh Pew research poll from 2025.
SPEAKER_00: The amount of Christians, you and I both know how these polls work.
SPEAKER_00: You just have to check a box that you're Christian.
SPEAKER_00: That can mean a number of things.
SPEAKER_00: We know that.
SPEAKER_00: But it was asked as a Christian, do you believe pornography is morally wrong?
SPEAKER_00: It is a moral wrong.
SPEAKER_00: The amount of Christians who believe that it was morally wrong, 62%.
SPEAKER_00: That tells me something that there are 38% of Christians out there who have some view that seems a little off from what scripture says.
SPEAKER_00: I keep going.
SPEAKER_00: I look at two top ten denominations in our nation.
SPEAKER_00: I won't name names, but two top ten denominations.
SPEAKER_00: Here's one.
SPEAKER_00: This is not me just making something up.
SPEAKER_00: This is what you get when you look at their doctrinal statement on their website.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the definition of marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Within the church, we affirm marriage as a sacred lifelong covenant that brings two people of faith, an adult man and woman of consenting age, or two adult persons of consenting age into union with one another.
SPEAKER_00: Here's another top ten denomination in our nation.
SPEAKER_00: According to the 223rd General Assembly, standing in the conviction that all people are created in the image of God and that the gospel of Jesus Christ is good news for all people, I like it up to this point.
SPEAKER_00: The General Assembly affirms its commitment to the full welcome, acceptance, and inclusion of transgender people, people who identify as gender non-binary, and people of all gender identities within the full life of the church and the world.
SPEAKER_00: Top ten denomination in our nation.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about the church's love.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about the way in which the church cares for anyone and everyone who walks through these doors and outside the doors.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about the way we show the love of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about an affirmation by the church in doctrinal statements.
SPEAKER_00: These two top ten denominations have fallen short of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you might say this morning, Taylor, you're really picking on other denominations as if Baptists have gotten it all perfect.
SPEAKER_00: And if we had the time this morning, uh, and we we can I'm happy to have time with you in the future to sit down with you.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've got a few hours, we can talk through all the ways Baptists have come woefully short in so many categories, certainly in compromise as we think about compromise with culture and the world and sexual immorality, just all over the place.
SPEAKER_00: I continue now.
SPEAKER_00: In January of 2026, another Pew research poll.
SPEAKER_00: 74% of evangelical Protestants believe that abortion should be illegal in all or most instances.
SPEAKER_00: There's a little, about a 2% variable there, but 24% of evangelical Christians wrote that they believe that abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: We continue as we think about the music that comes to us, the movies, the shows, or think about this.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the algorithm that's present on your phone right now.
SPEAKER_00: What tries to fight for our attention, what the culture tries to throw at us.
SPEAKER_00: It seems that everywhere, compromise in the church is just knocking on our door.
SPEAKER_00: With the people of God, compromise seems to be knocking at our door.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm convinced of this that we we compromise when really when two things happen.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, we compromise when we uh fail to guard our heart, when we fail to To guard our heart.
SPEAKER_00: Believer, here's what you're called to do.
SPEAKER_00: And nothing short of this, here's what you're called to do.
SPEAKER_00: You are called to make war against sin.
SPEAKER_00: In your own life, you're called to make war on sin.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you find it, wherever you find it, at whatever level you find it.
SPEAKER_00: We don't look at something and say, that's no big deal.
SPEAKER_00: We don't look at something and say, hey, at least I'm not struggling as much as that person or that group.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: We find sin in our lives and we make war against it.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember Matthew chapter 5, 29 through 30?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount, is talking about this that if your eye causes you to sin, here's the seriousness Jesus takes.
SPEAKER_00: That if your eye causes you to sin, what does he say?
SPEAKER_00: He said, hey, just you know, try to look somewhere else for a season or you know, go get them next time, champ.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you can do it.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: If your eye causes you to sin, what does he say?
SPEAKER_00: Pluck it out.
SPEAKER_00: If your hand is leading you into sin, what does he say?
SPEAKER_00: Cut it off.
SPEAKER_00: Be done with it, be rid of it.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of war you and I make on sin.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the the John Owen quote, be killing sin or it will be killing you.
SPEAKER_00: That is just the truth of life and truth of sin.
SPEAKER_00: That there will come a day where you move from this, you move from saying, I have my sin, to saying, my sin has me.
SPEAKER_00: My sin has devoured me.
SPEAKER_00: I love this uh story from Tertullian, this third century church father, tells a story in a book of his called On Idolatry.
SPEAKER_00: How about that title for a book?
SPEAKER_00: On Idolatry.
SPEAKER_00: We know what that book's about.
SPEAKER_00: And he tells this story in it of a man he came into contact with, and this man made his living.
SPEAKER_00: His livelihood, he was a Christian man, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: His livelihood was found by carving, creating, and selling idols.
SPEAKER_00: This Christian man carved, created, and then sold idols so that non-Christians could worship.
SPEAKER_00: This is how he made his living.
SPEAKER_00: And Tertullian called him out on it, and the man, trying to defend his sin, looked back at Tertullian and said, Well, a man must make a living, a man must live, to which Tertullian responded, Must he?
SPEAKER_00: Like, really?
SPEAKER_00: So if the options are uh make a living or honor the Lord, you've gone with make a living.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you've chosen.
SPEAKER_00: That you've chosen this compromise, and you've let this compromise come into your life.
SPEAKER_00: And as Christians, we are called to make war on sin anywhere and everywhere we find it.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, for you and for me, here is our application following this sermon.
SPEAKER_00: You find the sin in your life today and make war against it.
SPEAKER_00: Find out what it will take to rid yourself of it, to put accountability in place, to cut it out of your life, to bring someone in your life that can hold you accountable and walk with you through that.
SPEAKER_00: That is your homework today.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, today and every day for the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Your homework, my homework, be killing sin so that it won't be killing us.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm also convinced we compromise when we fail to guard our home.
SPEAKER_00: When we fail to guard our home?
SPEAKER_00: Are we guarding what has been entrusted to us?
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to any parents, grandparents, but I'm not just talking to parents that have kids in the home.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking to anyone, any spiritual leader who makes disciples, a spiritual parent.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking to you now.
SPEAKER_00: Are you guarding what has been entrusted to you?
SPEAKER_00: Because let me just say it very bluntly, and it this sounds uh like a nightmare sentence.
SPEAKER_00: This sounds like a scary sentence, and by the way, it is, but let me just say it exactly how I see it and exactly how it is.
SPEAKER_00: Satan wants your children.
SPEAKER_00: I know that's scary, but it's just true.
SPEAKER_00: Satan wants your children.
SPEAKER_00: This culture wants your children.
SPEAKER_00: And and what they want to do is, parents, if you've got children in the home, if you're a disciple maker, if you're a spiritual disciple maker, what what what the evil one wants to do is infiltrate your home and draw your child away from the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: That that's that's his goal, that's his desire in uh life.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he wants.
SPEAKER_00: Are you guarding what has been entrusted to you?
SPEAKER_00: Are you the protector in your home?
SPEAKER_00: Are you the shepherd in your home?
SPEAKER_00: Are you leading well in your home so that the evil one doesn't have a foothold?
SPEAKER_00: I think about this device here in my hand, this this phone here.
SPEAKER_00: And I think two things about it.
SPEAKER_00: Number one is it is the most amazing thing I think we've ever come up with.
SPEAKER_00: I say we.
SPEAKER_00: I had zero to do with it.
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't know where to start.
SPEAKER_00: It's the most amazing thing someone came up with.
SPEAKER_00: I I think about the computing power that exists in the palm of my hand right now, you know, 45 years ago, that that would have taken up, you know, uh uh probably a room this size or or bigger of just uh compute.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know how to talk about this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not smart enough.
SPEAKER_00: What it's capable of, the way it connects us to the world, the way at the press of a button I can talk to someone on the other side of the globe, it is unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00: Side one, it's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Side two, it is the most dangerous thing we've ever come up with.
SPEAKER_00: It is the most terrifying instrument that you can hold in your hand if you are not careful.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes parents will ask, When does my child need to get one of these phones?
SPEAKER_00: When does my child need to have this device?
SPEAKER_00: And now, first of all, they may be asking, when does my child need to have a device that can make calls?
SPEAKER_00: I can call them, they can call me.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's one conversation because there's a there's good old flip phones that can do that.
SPEAKER_00: But oftentimes what we're asking is when do I open them up to a smartphone that can do more than just make a call, that uh can open them up maybe to a world of social media and and these things because their friends are starting to get on this, or this group at school is, you know, they need it for these purposes, and they ask, when is that possible?
SPEAKER_00: I've got I've got kind of two ways to answer.
SPEAKER_00: And the first one's very easy.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I I love this first one, uh, because did you know this that when we look at so many of these uh these apps, if you think about uh Instagram and Snapchat and TikTok, do you know that these apps specifically, for you to sign up for those, you have to check a box that says you are 13 years of age or older.
SPEAKER_00: You have to check a box that that says I am 13 years of age or older.
SPEAKER_00: So, parents, here's the best news in the world.
SPEAKER_00: If your 11-year-old wants that Instagram or Snapchat on their phone, all you have to do is tell them, I we're just not, I'm just not allowed.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh don't blame me, but I mean it's just you know, before 13 we can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: Now at 13 it gets a lot harder, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: When your child is asking about these things, I I I I by the way, I'm not gonna give a firm answer, and I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_00: But I do have this answer that it if a child lives under your roof and has a device, if if that does not have some type of parental oversight, parental accountability, parental control mechanism on it, if that does not have some parental oversight on it, let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: You are not uh you are not simply opening your home to the evil one, you are begging the evil one to come in.
SPEAKER_00: Begging him.
SPEAKER_00: I mean that with my whole heart.
SPEAKER_00: You're begging him to come in.
SPEAKER_00: If you are not giving oversight over that thing.
SPEAKER_00: I I I worked many years in student ministry, and the old statistic as we think about pornography specifically, is that uh nine out of ten young men, by the way, this affects uh young women at a high level as well, but but the statistics on young men that nine out of ten young men will be at least exposed, either accidentally or intentionally, exposed to pornography by the time they turn 18.
SPEAKER_00: Sadly, the average age of uh first exposure, it depends on what study you look at.
SPEAKER_00: Um one says around 11.7, so let's say 12 years old.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it could be even earlier, depends on the study, the average age of first exposure, but nine out of ten young men will at least be exposed to pornography before they graduate high school.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I've also told parents this I worked in student ministry uh for many years.
SPEAKER_00: Not one time in my life have I met the 10th.
SPEAKER_00: Not one time have I met the 10th.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who he is.
SPEAKER_00: I I've met the nine, and they've come to me broken and tired and addicted, and they want out of this and they want nothing to do with it, but they feel like they can't be released from this, and their lives are simply falling apart, and the brokenness of sexual immorality and what's possible when we're not guarding our home.
SPEAKER_00: It is so sad to see.
SPEAKER_00: And parents, if your children are in the home, and and if you're telling yourself that that I don't have to worry because my child is the one who's gonna be okay.
SPEAKER_00: My child is the one that has wants to have nothing to do with any of that.
SPEAKER_00: My child doesn't even have interest in anything like that.
SPEAKER_00: I just beg of you to drop on your knees every night and pray to God you're right.
SPEAKER_00: Pray to God you're right.
SPEAKER_00: But you are playing a dangerous game, a dangerous game where I'll tell you the statistics are not in your favor.
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to the men for just a second.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, this is a word for the women as well.
SPEAKER_00: I I'm just a man and I know men and just want to talk to men for a second.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, men, I just want to call you to something.
SPEAKER_00: Be the watchman at the gate of your home.
SPEAKER_00: That's what God's called you to.
SPEAKER_00: Be the warrior and the soldier in your home.
SPEAKER_00: Be tired at the end of the day because you're working on behalf of your home.
SPEAKER_00: Be the type of man that stands in the gap at your home and you say this that if Satan's gonna come after my home, he's got to come through me.
SPEAKER_00: And by the power of the Holy Spirit, he's not coming through me.
SPEAKER_00: So every man in the room, if there are children in your home, if there's children not in your home, by the way, be the watchman at the walls of your home and guard your home deeply.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you're called to do.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I know you in the room.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you're able to do.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you're qualified, and God equips you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God for that.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: As we return to this so-called prophetess Jezebel, verse 21 says, I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, can we just talk about the mercy of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: This woman, Jezebel, who has led a church into sexual immorality, what does God say?
SPEAKER_00: I gave her time to repent.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that likely means is that there are likely some in the terms of Matthew chapter 18, that some leaders of the church came to this woman and told her to repent and stop this teaching, and she said, I will not do it.
SPEAKER_00: I will not stop doing what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 22, behold, I will throw her onto a sick bed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead, the offspring of her teaching.
SPEAKER_00: And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.
SPEAKER_00: These are harsh words for the one who teaches what Jezebel teaches, who follows after Jezebel, and leads others to the sins of Jezebel.
SPEAKER_00: These are very harsh words.
SPEAKER_00: What does he say first again, verse 22?
SPEAKER_00: I will throw her onto a sick bed.
SPEAKER_00: It's the text really telling us that for this prophetess Jezebel, she made her life centered around the bed.
SPEAKER_00: Her life is centered around the bed.
SPEAKER_00: And so in this moment, Jesus says, if you want a bed, a bed is what you will get.
SPEAKER_00: The sick bed, the deathbed, the bed of destruction.
SPEAKER_00: That's the bed you will get, and you will be cast out and destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: Not only those who follow you, unless they repent.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus takes this kind of stuff seriously.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not new.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't believe me, look with me in Matthew 18, verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus talks about those who lead little children to sin, these little ones to sin.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever causes one of these little ones to believe in me to sin, one of these to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
SPEAKER_00: That's Jesus talking.
SPEAKER_00: That's how seriously he takes sin and those who lead others into sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so he tells this woman, this prophetess, you will go to the sickbed, and those who follow after you are descendants of you, follow your teaching, they will be utterly cast out and destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: This is how Jesus thinks of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're tempted to look at this sermon and say, this is a lot of bad news today, well, you're not wrong in that.
SPEAKER_00: It is a lot of bad news if we don't repent.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're tempted to say, you know, and even if you're a guest today and you say, this must be a church where the pastor just preaches angry.
SPEAKER_00: He just preaches angry.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you, uh I'm not preaching angry.
SPEAKER_00: I'm about to show you in just a minute, I'm preaching as happy as I could ever preach.
SPEAKER_00: And here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Because I love that little phrase in verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: At the very end, we're tempted to skim right over it, but look at it now.
SPEAKER_00: Those who commit adultery with her, they'll be thrown in the great tribulation.
SPEAKER_00: Here it is, unless they repent of her works.
SPEAKER_00: Unless they repent of her works.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance.
SPEAKER_00: To repent, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: Means this that if I'm walking this way in sin, I'm now turning my back on that sin, and I'm walking this way towards Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: To have something to repent of also means we need someone to repent to.
SPEAKER_00: To walk away from sin means we need someone who we can walk toward.
SPEAKER_00: I love the words of Helmut Teleko in Romans chapter, uh Luke chapter 15.
SPEAKER_00: There can be a homecoming.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because there is a home.
SPEAKER_00: There can be repentance because there's someone ready to welcome us home.
SPEAKER_00: I can't get over this one.
SPEAKER_00: 1 John 1 9, that if I confess my sin, if you confess your sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us all sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: So what is the story of the text today that you and I and the church at Thyatira, we have sinned greatly.
SPEAKER_00: We have compromised greatly.
SPEAKER_00: We have let sexual sin and any number of sins into our lives, into our church.
SPEAKER_00: We have sinned greatly.
SPEAKER_00: But also the story is this we can repent, and there is a Savior ready to forgive and welcome us home.
SPEAKER_00: That's the good news of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I get excited even on days when the text is very heavy.
SPEAKER_00: Because the heavier the sin, the more gracious I view my Savior.
SPEAKER_00: The more sin there is, the more I realize that His grace goes deeper still.
SPEAKER_00: I don't doubt this morning that there are many in this room who have just had lives turned upside down by any number of sins, but certainly sexual sin, that maybe you have lived or you are living just in the absolute pit of pornography, unable to set yourself free, unable to get out of the trap and the addiction and the brokenness that exists there.
SPEAKER_00: And you just feel like it is eating you alive, and here's why because it is, because it's just so painful, and you don't want to go back, but you do.
SPEAKER_00: And I look and I just see there is a savior here who wants nothing more than to just forgive you and welcome you home.
SPEAKER_00: And you make war on sin, bring accountability in your life for sin.
SPEAKER_00: But as far as the question, could the savior love me and use me?
SPEAKER_00: Is he ready to forgive me?
SPEAKER_00: That question's already been answered.
SPEAKER_00: I look across the room and have no doubt.
SPEAKER_00: Because there is no doubt, because the statistics tell me this clearly.
SPEAKER_00: That there are women in this room who have terminated pregnancies.
SPEAKER_00: And you look in your past and you just it's just been so hard.
SPEAKER_00: And where do we go from here?
SPEAKER_00: We go to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Where you're welcomed, and he calls you home.
SPEAKER_00: I'm certain there's marriages or individuals in this room that are living on the other side of infidelity.
SPEAKER_00: Marriages have been ripped apart.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're the uh the the guilty party, or maybe uh it has been done unto you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, but but you just wonder how can my life be rebuilt on the other side of this?
SPEAKER_00: And then there's Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Not that it's not a long road and a difficult road of trust being rebuilt, there's so much to it.
SPEAKER_00: But as far as there being a savior ready to welcome you and walk with you, he's there.
SPEAKER_00: And here's just the gospel once again.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want you to miss it this morning.
SPEAKER_00: That all of your sin, every sin, the sexual sin, every other sin.
SPEAKER_00: Christ Jesus took it upon himself.
SPEAKER_00: He became sin who knew no sin, took it upon himself, took it to the cross, died on the cross, don't miss it, took it to the grave, and early Sunday morning rose from the grave.
SPEAKER_00: And guess where he left your sexual sin?
SPEAKER_00: In the grave.
SPEAKER_00: In the sea of forgetfulness, and that is the truth of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: If I confess my sin, any sin, he is faithful and just to forgive me of my sin and cleanse me of all unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: If you are here this morning and you are guilty of sexual sin or any kind of compromise in your life, and hello, let me tell you, that's 100% of us.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is good news for you.
SPEAKER_00: If you woke up this morning and you checked and you do have a pulse, the gospel is good news for you.
SPEAKER_00: And you can leave here knowing there is forgiveness and there is grace for any and every sin, and there is a life where the Holy Spirit wants to lead me towards killing sin in my life, fleeing sin in my life, and running again and again towards the arms of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now that was point one of the sermon.
SPEAKER_00: And the clock tells me there's no point two.
SPEAKER_00: But if there were, it would be this days never cease for the church of faithful endurance.
SPEAKER_00: I just want the the point speaks for itself, but let's just read the text.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who do not, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, that there's John's words for these practices of Jezebel in this church, the deep things of Satan.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to know the deep thing, I don't want to know the shallow things.
SPEAKER_00: Don't want to know the deep things.
SPEAKER_00: To you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden, only hold fast what you have until I come.
SPEAKER_00: The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with an iron rod, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father, and I will give him the morning star.
SPEAKER_00: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
SPEAKER_00: There are two outcomes here.
SPEAKER_00: For the church of compromise, we already see the outcome.
SPEAKER_00: It's the sick bed, the deathbed.
SPEAKER_00: For the church of faithful endurance, what does Jesus say?
SPEAKER_00: I will give to him.
SPEAKER_00: I will give to the church.
SPEAKER_00: I will give to you the morning star.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what we're called to do.
SPEAKER_00: Don't trade eternity for 80.
SPEAKER_00: Don't trade the morning star for 80 or 90 years of just living the life culture calls you to live.
SPEAKER_00: Don't compromise.
SPEAKER_00: There's too much the Lord has for us.
SPEAKER_00: There's too much goodness that we miss out on.
SPEAKER_00: Sin is not just messing up, it's missing out.
SPEAKER_00: There's too much we miss out on when we take the world's ways instead of Jesus' way.
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus says is for the one who endures, even when culture comes to you, even when compromise comes to you and says, My way is better.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: The church that endures, the person that endures, here's what the truth is: I will give you the morning star.
SPEAKER_00: And all will be yours in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's the hope of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that you are a God who forgives.
SPEAKER_00: That you forgive the guilt of sin.
SPEAKER_00: You forgive us even of our deepest sins.
SPEAKER_00: And in you there is hope and there is life.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, I say thank you.
SPEAKER_00: If there's anyone now who needs to know for the first time that they can have a Savior, needs to know that they are forgiven, needs to come meet Jesus Christ personally, would today be the day?
SPEAKER_00: There's no sin that can't be forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: No one is past the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, if anybody were past the grace of God, I would be, and yet you even found me.
SPEAKER_00: Someone needs to join this church.
SPEAKER_00: Someone needs to talk about baptism.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it may be, Lord, would we respond in this moment?
SPEAKER_00: So maybe sometimes someone just needs to pray right where they're at and just do business with the Lord right where they're at.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they need to pray for help, for accountability, to make war on sin.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it may be, let us respond now.
SPEAKER_00: We all have a response to make now as we worship.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Would you stand now?
SPEAKER_00: I'll be down front as we worship.
SPEAKER_00: You are welcome to come.