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"Here as in Heaven."
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Welcome to Garden Church Podcast. We're in a series in the book of Revelation. We're gonna spend the next 26 weeks doing a deep dive into both how to read and how to interpret this amazing book. Enjoy.
Darren:Alright. 10 AM. How we doing? Outside. How are you?
Darren:You didn't come to the 8 or the 12? Okay. We're glad you're here. Will you grab your bible? Let me see your bibles.
Darren:Hold up your bibles in your hands. Let's just show everyone. Look at more and more. Hey, let me see it one more time. I don't wanna Wow.
Darren:Okay. This side's winning. But 8 AM is winning too. So oh, just kidding. I'm gonna dive in.
Darren:We're in a series called Revelation. We're reading through the book. We're teaching through the scripture. So if you're new to us, go back the last several weeks. We've been kind of building this series along.
Darren:So we're in Revelation chapter 2 verse 8. I'm gonna read this and we're gonna jump into the text. I'll pray at some point when I feel the need, for his mercy and grace to empower the sermon. But right now, the word is enough. Let's go.
Darren:Revelation chapter 2, it's the end of your bibles. I see you moving. It's just right before, like, you know, the maps. So verse 8. To the angel of the church in Smyrna write, did you say gotta love the maps?
Darren:Is that That messed me up. To the angel of the church in Smyrna write, these are the words of him who is the first and the last, who died and came to life again. I know your afflictions and your poverty, yet you are rich. I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer.
Darren:I tell you the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for 10 days. Be faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor's crown. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death. The word of the Lord.
Darren:Thanks be to God. It's just a couple of verses today. Think we can manage? I'm already feeling it. Hey, I have 4 services to preach today.
Darren:And the beauty of that is I can just mess around with the text each time in my sermon. So you're getting a different version of this. But we're gonna start with context with Smyrna today. The question I'm gonna ask over and over again is how will you remain faithful under pressure? How will you remain faithful under pressure?
Darren:The the whole book of Revelation is about faithfulness to the lamb who is slain. In the midst of chaos of empire. And, I wrote this sermon primarily for this section right here. All my youth. What's up youth?
Darren:My 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th graders. So the rest of you, you're welcome to be here, but I'm a I'm a focus on you guys. Because as I think about the pressure we have as a society, I think about this crew more than anyone else. And the growing generation of Gen Z and and Gen Alpha. But I wanna start with context for this this sermon.
Darren:So the context of Smyrna is a different city than Ephesus, and that matters as we talk about the things that they're facing as a culture. Remember, this is written to a specific local church and where is Jesus in the church at the time? Right in the middle. Right among the churches. Right?
Darren:Okay. We'll give it 11 o'clock or 10 AM. I need you to wake up, right? Oh, you're looking at the you're looking at the slides. Okay, sorry.
Darren:Good slide, good slide. Don't get distracted by my work. Okay. Context, it's the birthplace of Homer and, he's a famous philosopher writer of ancient antiquity. And it's the place that Polycarp, the the martyr that I talked about a few weeks ago.
Darren:In his passion, he was a disciple of John, the apostle John, and he took over the church of Smyrna. It it was a significant city. It was an epicenter for Roman activity. It it's As as Ephesus was the epicenter for Artemis, Smyrna became the city that really They're saying was Rome first in all things. They worshiped Rome.
Darren:Everything about this city was about the Roman Empire because around empires, and this happens all the time throughout history is you you associate the success of your empire to the deity you ascribe to, right. So anytime there's a victory and and historians write their their conquest, it's always told as the chosen, you know, chosen people for the time by the gods they worship. So they worship the goddess Dea Rome which was the goddess of Rome. They built lots of temples to the Roman gods, specifically to the Rome god and to the Caesars, Caesars Augustus, Caesar Tiberias. So their loyalty was primarily found in Rome, but it was a very wealthy city, probably the wealthiest of the 7.
Darren:So scholars will will basically argue there's no reason for there to be poverty in such an extraordinary elaborate extravagant city as wealthy as Smyrna back in the day. One thing in the psychology of the city, that we need to look at is Smyrna was destroyed in 5/80 BCE. And, later a few 100 years, it was rebuilt. So in their their kinda pride as they said Rome first in all things, they also had this vision as a city that they were once dead and they were brought back to life. Okay.
Darren:So with that backdrop, we read the letter to the church of Smyrna. And remember, Jesus is dictating this to John. We saw the revelation of Jesus in the beginning chapter 1, and now he's he's writing to the various churches a message and there's a formula. I know your deeds, but I have this against you. Remember the formula?
Darren:So these are the works of him who is the first and the last, who died and came to life again. This encouragement to a city, begins with an image of Jesus. I I wanna say I think this is appropriate for our time. And we'll talk about this in a moment of the pressure we face as a society, but the way it always begins is with a revelation of the glorified Jesus. That the the problems that you face, the solutions are not found in the program you come up with.
Darren:They're not found found in maybe the practices you've adopted and habits or the disciplines that might have given you some life and transformation. They're not found in the podcast you subscribe to. They're found in the person of Jesus. And and each letter has a variation that's already been used in Revelation 1 about this image of Jesus that John sees. And in this particular revelation, Jesus is the first and the last.
Darren:We have already heard he is the alpha and the omega. He is the beginning and he is the end. But in the Greek, we miss this first and the last. The first, he's the archetype. He's the origin story of creation.
Darren:How do we know? John wrote it in his, his letter, called the gospel of John. In the beginning was the word, the logos. And the word was with God and was God, and through him all things came to exist, all things hold their existence. Jesus is the archetype, the foundation for all of creation.
Darren:And he is the last, he is the telos, he is the destination, the goal where everything is going. So your life with all of its problems, with all the suffering you face, with all the pressures are bracketed in Jesus Christ. So when you face opposition, when you face trials and situations, know he is the 1st and the last. He holds all things together. He is where we find our life and identity.
Darren:2nd to that, it says, that Jesus, our our lives are bound in him. Next, it says, he says to the local church, I know your afflictions and your poverty. He affirms their suffering. He acknowledges the crisis they're walking through, and he doesn't say I'm gonna take them away. He doesn't say prayer pray the prayer of Jabez, and he'll expand your territory with financial blessing because God wants to give you a cyber truck.
Darren:That's not what he says. I know your affliction. This word is tribulation and the Greek word is the pressure, extreme pressure. The word in the Greek for affliction is a torture device. And imagine a giant stone being placed on a human body to kill them.
Darren:That is the word for affliction. I know the level of pressure that you are facing as followers. And they face pressure. They face an extraordinary amount of pressure and they're experiencing poverty. Poverty was the result of their faithfulness.
Darren:And what we know, the scholars believe that there's no reason for poverty in Smyrna unless you weren't playing by Rome's rules. And so apparently, the Christians in Smyrna were being boycotted by the, by the city, were being boycotted by the Jews, were being slandered and they lost their businesses. People wouldn't trade with them. They were being harassed and put into prison and persecuted because of their faith. And the poverty they experience is because they're choosing not to participate in the idolatry of the economy of Smyrna.
Darren:And as a result, they faced poverty. And Jesus says, I know your suffering and your poverty, but you are rich. And I just need to pull back the curtain. How many of you know that you could have lots of money in the world and be poor? And you could have no money at all and be rich.
Darren:It's an awareness of reality. And this whole book is about getting you to see reality. That's it. It's about getting you to see what's real and learn to discern, to see through the through a lens of scripture, through the lens of the revelation of Christ Jesus, and look at the world in a way that is formed by Jesus. Giving you power and capacity to understand that the things that you can touch and name in the physical realm are just pawns in the spiritual realm.
Darren:Does this make sense? So it go he goes on to say, I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not. That is a crazy line for Jesus to say as a Jew himself. Remember, the Jewish people are the people of God. They're the descendants of Abraham, the people of promise, chosen race by God.
Darren:And he's saying in Revelation 96 AD, Jesus is saying, you are not the people of God because you're opposing Christians. So what's going on here? Okay. There's 3 types of pressure that the Smyrna church faces. 1st is the Roman pressure.
Darren:To conform to the political pressure of worshiping Caesar as lord. Caesar as savior. Caesar as god, and participating in the economic exchange of goods that required you to worship Caesar as a God. So there's that pressure. And then there's the pressure from the Jews which we get in, we knew happened.
Darren:We know this happened in in history, but now we're getting it in the biblical text. The local Jewish community feared association with Christians, and so they began to slander the Christians to the Romans because the Jewish people wanted to maintain their privilege status at the time the Romans ruled the empire. You see the Jewish people worked out a deal, they were exempt from worshiping Caesar as God and exempt from serving in the military like all the other people out there that were part of the Roman empire. And then this this new Christian movement comes onto the scene and the Jewish people kept to themselves. But the Christians did 2 things, they evangelized and they had this phrase that got them in trouble.
Darren:The Jews didn't have this phrase because they worshiped Yahweh, the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Joseph. The Christians began to say this phrase, Jesus is lord. Now you think of it, you're like, yeah, that that's who he is, most of us. Some of you don't know that yet. You're gonna get there soon.
Darren:Okay? He's lord. He's king. He's he's king. That phrase was not first used by the Christians.
Darren:That phrase was first used by the Romans for Caesar. Their catchphrase, their Nike swoosh label was Caesar is lord. And then the Christians steal their branding and begun to use Jesus is lord. And when you say Jesus is lord, you are at the same time saying Caesar is not. And so now, the Romans are mad because they're saying they're using their catchphrase, and they think the Jews are saying this.
Darren:So the Jews are like, no, we're not with the Christians because they saw Christians as a little sect of the Jewish faith. And so the Jews begin to slander the Christians. They're not with us. They're not like us. And the ultimate diss track, There's no coming back from death after that diss track.
Darren:Anyways, he's not resurrecting Drake. Anyways, unless you get saved. I'm just saying, repent and be baptized. There's a lot of opposition they're facing as Christians, and Jesus says to them, I know about your afflictions. I know about your slander.
Darren:I know that those of of slander you who say they are Jews, but they're not. They are a synagogue of Satan. The phrase for the synagogue was a synagogue of the Lord. And Jesus like, nope. You want different branding?
Darren:Synagogue of Satan. But hold on, just lean in for a moment. Because now we're getting the unveiling, right? He's pulling back the curtain. You think it's Rome, you think it's just the religious opposition.
Darren:No, no, no, no. Satan is at work and then Jesus says, do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. He's not taking away suffering. I tell you, which is a rhetorical device to slow down your reading as he speaks it. The phrase in Greek, I tell you is translated to behold.
Darren:Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the of the world. Behold. Slow down. Let's pull back this curtain. Drum roll, please.
Darren:The devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for 10 days. So the 3rd opposition is spiritual warfare from forces of darkness. So the equation of pressure is there's a threatened political, group politics, Rome. They're threatening the Christians. There's a hostile religious approach coming at them.
Darren:And behind all of that are spiritual forces of evil manipulating both the religious and the political which I'll talk about in a second. Can we come back to our modern context for a moment? It's easy to look at scripture and say that's back then. One of the reasons I wanted to preach on revelation is just to name what's happening now. Right?
Darren:The skill as a faithful follower of Jesus is to have eyes to see and ears to hear beyond the senses, looking into what I'll say is the unseen realm. But one of the things we have to identify is what actually is happening. And what I see is most Christians have no idea about the the climate and culture and society we're living in. So can I name some things? I'm gonna name some things.
Darren:I'm asking permission. I'm just want some verbal head nods and affirmation. Good job. You're doing great. I love you.
Darren:I get it. I feel so good. I wanna name some things real quick. Do you mind? I'm gonna name some of the things that we face in the strange time.
Darren:We talk about the social political, and religious climate. Let's just talk about where we find ourselves. Remembering this question, how will you remain faithful? So the pressures we face. We're in an identity crisis more than ever before.
Darren:The self is no longer rooted in external anchors like family, faith or community. They have moved to an ever shifting construct of personal feelings and desires. So culture has been elevated. It's elevated the individual autonomy and self expression above everything else. Turning your pursuit of personal happiness and pleasure as the primary relentless goal and unbound quest for life.
Darren:So what culture says is identity is fluid and fragmented. And so culture has a radical power to shape your inner world and it demands you to be authentic to the truest thing inside of you while rejecting shared values and leaving you and society disoriented and divided, struggling to find meaning and purpose in this age of self obsession. So what we do in our society in the west is we turn to politics as one mechanism. Politics has become in America a modern religion where the polarization of our political parties has moved, to a level of religious devotion, where acting and engaging in politics and activism resemble church devotion, where defending one's political tribe becomes a moral imperative, and this dynamic fuels a culture of us versus them. And reduces complex issues making it black or white, vilifying those who disagree with us, leading to the breakdown of civil discourse and our inability to find common ground on anything.
Darren:And so what we do as T. S. Eliot says, is they constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within by dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good. We move in this chaos of empire of trying to find our identity, meaning, and purpose to the religious movement of politics today. And then from there, it's fed by a modern escapist movement called media.
Darren:And media, social media, entertainment platforms, mainstream media has negatively impacted all individuals in the United States especially this section right here. The increase of health, mental health issues, anxiety, depression, the feelings of inadequacy through unrealistic, comparison comparisons and addictive behavior are used by all forms of media to move around propaganda. These platforms, all platforms are used for misinformation, disinformation, and then there's this newly invented word that just came out called malinformation, which is true information that doesn't fit the mainstream narrative. So we censor the things that don't fit our echo chamber, deepening the social and political polarization and identity crisis, And on top of that, these platforms perpetuate unrealistic beauty standards and materialism, leading to body image issues and a facilitated online bowling, cyber bowling, power which caused severe and emotional stress. What's happening is there's a constant need for validation online, leading to a fear of missing out, reducing our ability to interact in person to person relationships, so our social skills have decreased, all while the commercialization of our personal lives erodes authenticity, making people feel more disconnected, more polarized in the digital world than ever before.
Darren:On top of that, we have a cultural Christianity that is alive and well. Where at this moment, people are not hostile to Christianity, they're hostile to a biblical worldview. Because for some reason, we think we can pull out the bible or Jesus himself and have a form of Christianity that makes sense, and it doesn't. So there's a public confession without a private devotion. We align ourselves to a moral alignment which is why the next generation distrust all institutions because every institution selling them, buying them, convincing them of lies, and the church is doing the same saying just follow Jesus 1, 2, 3.
Darren:Everything's gonna be easy. When he says it himself, you will suffer. So gen z and gen alpha, the ones in the front row, you face an unbelievable amount of pressure like no other generation you that's ever come before you. When I was in high school, I could leave the hall of high school and not be bullied, not concern myself with what people thought of me or did, you take the hall the hallway home in your pocket. You take when I was in high school, I had to watch the news.
Darren:I wasn't aware of the global crisis that is ever in front of me or the global influencers that wanna shape how I dress. I saw people at school, and I watched movies and and shows that you couldn't stream on demand, and I had a limited capacity for the world. You have infinity at your disposal which gives you an incredible amount of anxiety and pressure. How will you remain faithful when you're living with a world in your pocket that's shaping your worldview? You're gonna think I'm against devices.
Darren:I am. Especially for this generation. This and and I'm not speaking to you, I'm thinking of my kids, Ezra and Amos. As I write this sermon, I felt this burden because I I known some of you in this front row since you were 1. And my heart is is overwhelmed with a burden to say what are we doing?
Darren:As we face this new climate, this landscape no one's walked before, how will you remain faithful to Jesus? I say all of those pressures to get to the main point of the sermon which is what Jesus says, I tell you the devil. He will build a case for a spiritual warfare worldview. You see, what Jesus wants the church to know is there are I There's an identity crisis, there's political pressure, there's social pressure, there's technological pressure, there's mainstream media, there's social media, there's entertainment streaming platforms with all their propaganda, there's right, there's left politics, there's geopolitical concept, there's all this stuff going on. Behind all of those pressures is a kingdom of darkness working against the kingdom of God.
Darren:There is a power and authority and rulers. There are systems of evil manipulating the things that we can see. I need you to see this. I'm gonna give you practical steps in just a moment. Just stay with me as we we talk about the seriousness of this text.
Darren:I was carrying this all week in prayer. More than ever before because I'm like I need to I need to show you what Jesus is saying so you can see differently. He says for those that have ears to hear and to remain faithful in the pressure that you face which is crushing. And some of you will be crushed, and there's a reward if you remain faithful. Most of you are following blindly the cultural forms of worship.
Darren:And you take on the liturgy of culture, and you're being influenced not by Netflix and Disney, but by Satan. And I'm not saying they are satanic. Hear me. I'm saying there are forces behind every system out there. Right and left.
Darren:Alright. So a biblical worldview assumes the presence of invisible spiritual beings like humans clearly have a mind and a will of their own. They can choose to work with God or against him. This is all throughout the old testament. I've talked about this a lot.
Darren:I don't have time to go through a whole theology of this. I'm gonna give you a brief overview. Specifically through revelation. What Jesus is showing the believers in Smyrna is what John will develop later in the book of revelation in chapters 12 through 14. John is let in on the cosmic battle.
Darren:Here's what it looks like from one of our illustrators, Seth Hack. Pictured as a battle between team dragon and the team lamb. The dragon tries to destroy the lamb but fails. We read this in John chapter 12, 13, and 14. Everyone's waiting for the baby to be born and the dragon's trying to kill the baby.
Darren:Everyone thinks this is about some future event. This is the nativity story of Christmas. The dragon's attempt to destroy the lamb on the cross results in his own defeat. So in his death, the dragon lashes out at the disciples of the lamb, but he doesn't come at them directly. The dragon comes through 2 beasts.
Darren:1 from the sea, 1 from the earth. And as you will discover in Revelation 13, the beast represent in turn political systems and religious systems, which the dragon, unknown to the systems, manipulates in order to hurt the lamb by hurting his disciples. How's that for revelation? I want you to see it. I need you to see it.
Darren:This is not a battle of screen time. The devil and the kingdom of darkness is working through human systems to bring his will against the will of God and the kingdom of God. This is how evil works. Paul will use this language. He says in Ephesians 6, he says, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Darren:He uses this language as categories for spiritual warfare. That our battle is not against the flesh and blood. The things that we can see. We're not gonna battle like the world battles because our battle is in the unseen realm. Say unseen realm.
Darren:The heavenly realms. Now when you think heaven, I don't want you to think somewhere far out in the cosmos. It's right here, right? So the physical and the supernatural, the spiritual, the unseen are interwoven together. We know this, right?
Darren:So angels are with us and demons are with us. So there are individual beings like demons, fallen angels, and there are these other things, powers, principalities, supernatural forces. There are systemic evils in this world, systems, super personal beings working against the will of God. We know that that there are places on earth right now where God's will and God's kingdom is not yet realized. So we pray your kingdom here as it is in heaven.
Darren:Right? And we pray against the kingdom of darkness when we pray that prayer. So when we pray here as in heaven, we're praying for healing in the midst of sickness and brokenness and death. We're praying for peace when there's anxiety and chaos. We're praying for hope when there's despair and depression.
Darren:We're praying for, enough when there's poverty. We're praying for justice when there's slavery like never before in human history like there is today. Are you with me? When technological advances come and bring, life giving procedures and life giving access to move things and information At the same inch of the kingdom of God moving there, the kingdom of darkness flows with the dark web and trap trafficking and using that that platform to do evil things. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Darren:Yes. Okay. Are you with me? Yes. So there are evil forces at work.
Darren:So what is revelation trying to get you to understand? That spiritual warfare is discipleship. Most of us aren't living a life worthy of opposition. Your life is cozy and safe. You wanted it to be.
Darren:Jesus never called you to safety and comfort. That you can have boundaries, of course. You need to day off and rest and you need to have space yet not everyone has to invade and you need to say no all the time, but maybe your life is perfectly curated to the image of the American dream. In the name of blessing by God. There's these moments when I'm preaching and I'm like, oh, Lord.
Darren:Thank you for the Holy Spirit. We're living in a time where there's systems of power that are flesh and blood, carrying out demonic ideological belief systems. I'm just gonna say it because I already said it in the 8 AM. I'm gonna say it to the 10 AM. Like, I have tried so hard to stay like this kingdom centered theology growing, you know, bring building bridges but we have gotten so far off course.
Darren:And it's now clearer than ever in my opinion that there are ideological beliefs that are deforming humanity. And they're being carried out by media and government, business and tech and food and pharmaceutical industries, education systems and economy, and it's all done by human agents in the power of Satan. Look, I'm not saying look behind every rock and see a demon. That's not what I'm saying. But I am saying that there is a force that needs to be challenged, not absorbed.
Darren:Our struggle is not against flesh and blood. It is against spiritual powers. Warfare will always feel flesh and blood. The enemy's gonna come at you in so many ways, but he's gonna come at you in things that you can feel, lies, fear, temptation. He's gonna come at you through, relational strife and conflict, miscommunication that's resulted in him playing around with your false identities.
Darren:He's gonna come after the foundation of your entity where you're gonna try to prove your value and worth on what you look like, on who you know, on how you dress, on the access you have, on what you've seen, what you listen to, what you share to the world, and that is not the truest thing about you. The truest thing about you is your identity comes from Jesus, from God. Your intrinsic worth is that you are made in his image, which makes you powerful, and no one can take it away or make it more valuable. He's already spoken it into value and worth. Sorry.
Darren:Splash zone. I'll come over here. You'll get some. So you have to recognize that the flesh and blood battle will be things that you can see and feel. It will be choosing to opt out of things that are flesh and blood because it is the battle.
Darren:That's right. And it might cause you to be social outcast or financial you might hit your finances because you can't participate in the idolatry anymore. It might cause you to not know what's happening in the world because you're not gonna be on the platforms anymore. Amen. Because it's forming you in an ideology that is not biblical.
Darren:You know what, parents? Ezekiel 16 20 is a condemnation to the people of God as they messed up being faithful followers of Yahweh. And it said, and you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and you sacrificed them as food to the idols. Put that verse back up for me. I think some of us parents have tried to play the best we can by taking an easy route.
Darren:Because everyone else is doing it, and we don't want them to miss out, but we don't parent the way of Jesus by not missing out. We don't parent by what our kids will not experience. We parent because god entrusted these children to us. And it is not what it was 50 years ago, 20 years ago. The world we live in is so different and if you can't see it, then you're bought into the culture.
Darren:Right. And it's too late. And the goal is to wake up and see and we'll talk about this later. What's happening? So our struggle is not against the flesh and blood, but spiritual warfare will doesn't necessarily feel spiritual.
Darren:Because the enemy will come at us through lies, through deceit, through insecurity, through fear. He'll come at us through, temptation. He'll come at us through relational strife, mental, physical, emotional attacks from Satan himself and demonic forces. So when you watch shows that desensitize your biblical worldview and culturally deform your mindset, you should be concerned. Man, I feel like I'm that 6 year old angry pastor that I used to view.
Darren:But this is this is I really feel this is important for this moment. That there is a world that's contradicting the scriptures. I'll just say that. And we need to take seriously the consumption of culture in order to remain faithful? What are you consuming?
Darren:What does your diet of the worldly goods look like as a follower of the lamb? Will you remain faithful or will you give in? Remember, there's a there's a process to this. He will say, I have this against you, and we will see lots of churches fall into accommodating the culture, but not Smyrna. So how are you gonna live a life worthy of opposition?
Darren:As pressures mounting, how will you remain faithful? Jesus gives us some instruction. Ready? Here it is. Do not be afraid.
Darren:Alright. That's easy. Let's keep going. Here's what I'm saying. Be fearless.
Darren:Be fearless in opting out. Be fearless in just not knowing what the show's like. Be fearless in not wasting your time in the debate on flesh and blood issues when you're interceding for the spiritual realities of things. Be fearless to be the kid in school that doesn't have it, that doesn't need it, that be fearless to be inconvenienced. I'll have to ask a friend to tell my dad that I need to be picked up.
Darren:Be the parents that are radically fighting for the alternative when we know the statistics are crushing. And as long as the the Titanic's sinking, if we wanna just play music as it goes into the deep end, I'm not gonna do that with my kids or as a pastor on my watch. And so as I dive into revelation with maybe some better theology than dispensational theology, there's still a reality that we have to live now in a way that reflects the lamb of God. That's right. So be fearless in social being a social and not knowing.
Darren:Be fearless in opting out. Be fearless in the consequences that culture will give you for saying the things that you believe in. Be fearless in raising up the next generation to be resilient followers of Jesus because no one's raised up kids in this time other than parents that are raising kids in this time. There's never been a parent like you. There's never been a kid like you.
Darren:So go follow him all the way. 2nd, he says so you're gonna be you're gonna not be afraid during suffering. How many of you know suffering produces the greatest fruit? He doesn't say I'm taking away the pressure. He's saying, no.
Darren:Just don't be afraid. It's coming. You will suffer. Suffering produces the greatest fruit. Right?
Darren:Like, one man took on the greatest suffering a human could experience on the cross. The fruit is our salvation. The healing of the world. The inauguration of new creation. The tyrant, the devil, stripped of his power, all because one man chose to suffer willingly and remain faithful to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Darren:Be faithful. He says, be, be do not be afraid, but second, he says, be faithful even to the point of death. Stick in it. Remain, abide, believe, relax in the reality of what is true. Not that circumstances will be better.
Darren:Not that you'll belong one day. You'll be liked. You'll have promises and blessings in this age. No. No.
Darren:No. Stay faithful even in death. Faithful unto death Knowing that he is. Where is your reality? And with that knowing knowing that you will receive a reward.
Darren:Revelation chapter 2 verse 11, whoever has ears, let them hear what the spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious, who's remained faithful will not be hurt at all by the second death. Jesus does not rebuke the church of Smyrna. Unlike the church in Ephesus, they have not forsaken their first love. Unlike the Laodiceans, they are not lukewarm.
Darren:Unlike Pergamum and Thyatira, they are not indifferent and compromising to falsehood and immorality. They are passionate sold out for Jesus. And as a result, they're just said well done. They've remained faithful and he promises them a reward. He says they will not get hurt by a second death.
Darren:What is that? Theologically, every person will be judged by Jesus when they die, when he comes back. There's a there's a judge how you guys okay. Let me make this clear. There is a judgment seat.
Darren:Jesus sits on the judgment seat. We will be judged. He will shepherd separate the sheep and the goats. He will separate the faithful followers and those who have been aligned with the ways of the dragon. And there will it will not be in a moment you now confess.
Darren:It will be revealed by your life. And those who have been faithful won't touch or be hurt by the second death. What's the second death? Being released from the presence of God for eternity. You were made to live with God.
Darren:Your design as a being is physical and spiritual. You exist because he is. And God is so kind and gracious, he gave us free will. Our ability to say no to his way, and live our own way. Or the ability to say yes and learn the way of Jesus.
Darren:And in our ability, in our free will, god loves us and gives us free will, and in the end, it will be our choice which way we choose. And I believe when Jesus comes back and he sits on judgment, some of us will continue on living. Others of us will choose no. We will say no to the presence of God and walk out of his presence experiencing eternal separation, and we will live as some type of false being without God's presence. That is hell.
Darren:And so those who remain faithful only die once. There's a author who wrote, those who are born once, die twice. Those who are born twice, die once. So he says, be fearless, be faithful, and look to the reward. The eternal prize is the where ultimate reality comes in.
Darren:I wanna end with some practical things. How or what does fearless faithfulness look like today? Alright. This is where you get some practicals. Ready?
Darren:Number 1, this is obvious but maybe not so obvious. You need to devote your life to Jesus. This is not Jesus accessory, occasional come on Sunday. Your life needs to be utterly committed to him and his way. Following Jesus requires a level of devotion.
Darren:I don't know what cultural Christianity has produced saying just say this prayer and you're with me forever. That is theologically true, but the invitation is to for life now. To live now in a way that will last for the rest of eternity. That's the invitation of Jesus and his kingdom. That God's rule is here.
Darren:You can live the way of eternity right now through relationship to Jesus. So live your life with him. Number 2, this is the real practical one. What we need for parents, for singles, for married couples, for, for everyone in our in our church, whether you're 6 or a 106, in this moment of culture, we need to practice cultural discernment. And here's what I mean by that.
Darren:We need the ability to thoughtfully and wisely engage with culture, recognizing and understanding the underlying messages, values and world views that shape it. So so cultural discernment involves being able to critically assess the content and influence of various cultural forces. Media, technology, entertainment and social norms, while maintaining a firm grasp on one's own beliefs and values. So cultural discernment requires not just an awareness, but the ability to navigate and respond to cultural influences in the way that aligns with your biblical faith. It's about filtering the culture through a biblical lens.
Darren:Discerning what's true and good and beautiful and making intentional choices to interact in a way that doesn't allow culture to influence you. Cultural discernment requires the courage to opt out of norms and to choose not to participate in order to be faithful to Jesus no matter what it looks like. So this will this will influence the technology use, the platforms you engage in, what shows you watch, what you listen to, how you dress, how you date if you date. All sorts of things need to filter through a lens of scripture. Will you allow the biblical world view to shape how you live even when your heart tells you this saying no, I will submit my heart and emotions to Jesus.
Darren:This make sense? The third thing is to embrace spiritual warfare as discipleship. Listen. The enemy is coming after you. What I wanna tell you is, our church has been Our our our elders and our staff and our leadership community gathered over the last 2 weeks and we've just been discerning that there's so much spiritual warfare going on.
Darren:There's just this awareness that many of us have flesh and blood issues. Right? You've been sick for a long time, maybe too long. You've had issues that have come back, habits that have come back that you had breakthrough from. But now you're like being tempted again and you're stumbling in those habits.
Darren:Your your mindset is living in despair and you feel like things are always gonna be this way. You're stuck in a mindset and a belief system that isn't Jesus' mindset for you. There's relational strife that you've done all the things. You're going through the affirmation, 5 affirmations a day. You're doing active listening and you're doing healthy conflict resolution, but there's something else.
Darren:Can I suggest that there's spiritual warfare happening in our church? That the relational issue is also a demonic issue perhaps. And not to say don't do the conflict resolution thing, but to also cover the basis and let's bind the work of the enemy in your life. Amen. Hallelujah.
Darren:You've been getting prayer for healing, but no one's ever prayed against a spiritual attack. Like maybe there's a demonic force that's keeping you sick and we should bind him. Does this make sense? So as a follower of Jesus with the series of revelation, you need to see that you are called to engage in warfare. Don't pray powerless prayers.
Darren:Don't be anemic in your requests. Yeah. You're fused with the spirit of God, and you are now aware that there's warfare out there and the enemy here I I listed these tactics already, but here are the tactics he's gonna use. So can you put those those things he's gonna come at you with those things? One of the things that I do, and this is just a practical thing, is when I begin to sense there's a spirit, an unholy spirit working against me.
Darren:I I think how do I operate in the opposite of that spirit? Right? So if he's making me cynical and critical, I start affirming, encouraging, going to truth and goodness of God, right? If he's getting me to be judgmental, I start asking for forgiveness and releasing the judgments, right? If he if he starts bringing conflict in with my wife which is regular because it's mostly her fault, That that is a lie I confess in the name of Jesus covered by the blood.
Darren:I don't wanna lie on this platform. I forgive me. She she left. She's not here right now. It's almost always my fault.
Darren:It truly is. It's unreal how bad I am at relational communication off the stage at times. But I begin to pray in the opposite. So I'm bringing tons of accusations to my wife of all the things she's doing wrong. What do I do?
Darren:I start making a list of all the things she's doing, all the affirmations. Right? So I try when I start feeling insecure, right, what do I do? I get on Instagram and start comparing myself? No.
Darren:This just feeds the insecurity. Oh, this guy got another book coming out. Awesome. So good. His church is way bigger.
Darren:Cool. He looks way healthier than me. Whatever it is. Whatever. However, she's got those shoes.
Darren:She's on another trip. They have the bigger house. She just remodeled her her kitchen or whatever it is. I go and I say, Lord, where who who am I to you? I begin to And then what's really hard is writing down the affirmations of the father.
Darren:What is that warfare? I was made for a battle. The fruits of the spirit aren't made singing Kumbaya in a monastery. They're made in the context of real life. Where do you need patience?
Darren:Not when you can do everything by yourself on in a desert by yourself. You need it when you have a family and kids who don't listen to you. Right. When do you need self control? When you're driving on the 405, right.
Darren:Not when you're walking through the desert or the mountains, you're singing songs kumbaya. You need it when things are not going your way. That's where the formation of Christ is formed in the battle of everyday ordinary life which by the way, is not all that you can see. So be aware of the things behind. Amen?
Darren:Amen. Alright, let's stand.
Intro/Outro:Thank you so much for listening. For more information, please visit us at garden.church.