Faithful In Trial

Well, good morning. It is great to be with you all, Do I still have it? So that's me and my family. That's my wife, Brooklyn, Our two kids, Judah- he's two and a half- and Knox just turned a month old.

So tons of fun in our home And like they, so, like they said in the welcome, appreciate them so much, Appreciate this church.

We are launching Vintage Church up in North Phoenix on August 3rd. We're up in the I17 and Happy Valley area. If that means anything to you at all, And if you were part of Orbit from the very beginning, you definitely understand how we're feeling right now heading into this time, But really just so excited to see this church get birthed, get launched and see what God's going to do in North Phoenix. It's cool for me to be here at Orbit cuz early on in my church journey I started looking up all the other churches in the valley And I came across this church on Instagram called Orbit Church, And I saw this guy, this real fiery preacher, getting after it And I just thought, man, if I could ever be as cool as that guy, like I would make it, And then actually had the privilege of meeting Pastor Matt.

We've become friends over the last year or so And we had the privilege of traveling together earlier this year And one of the things that stood out to me hanging out with Matt was that he loves you guys.

He loves Orbit Church, but not just the church and kind of the organization, but the actual people that come here. And as we were taking bus rides back and forth from our hotel to the church and as we had even a delay at the airport, just all the time that we had hanging out and talking, he was talking about you guys Now, not spilling all your tea and telling me all of your sins, none of that- but just bragging on all of you. And so it's an honor for me to be here this morning and get to meet the very people that he was telling me about. Last week you guys kicked off a brand new series.

You got some merch talking about it, So you all know the title: Faith.

That Sticks. And you're going through Revelation, chapter 2 and three, and there's seven letters written to seven churches in Asia Minor. Maybe you've wondered about the book Revelation If you've been in church for any amount of time. It's kind of that book at the very end of your Bible that you just kind of avoid because there's some weird stories going on in it.

But the name Revelation means apocalypse, which is pretty cool.

So your friend who left you hanging and didn't come to church today afterwards, when they ask you what you talked about, say "We talked about the apocalypse". They're going to get FOMO. It's going to be awesome. But in the book of Revelation we have a guy writing it.

His name is John, And John had a vision from Jesus, which is really what Revelation apocalypse means.

A vision. And Jesus tells him: "I'm going to show you the things that are to come at the end of time". And in there Jesus is speaking through John, to these churches in Asia Minor And through the letters that he writes to these churches, he's speaking to us. In fact, it says that those who hear and by hearing obey these words, will be blessed, And so it was written to an old church, but it's very relevant for this church here today.

As we jump into it.

Before we get into Revelation, chapter 2, but you can start kind of turning there- I want to tell you something about myself, because I have a toxic trait that I need to let you all in on. Every year around March and April, living here in Arizona. It starts getting hot and then it dawns on you that the nice little month of spring that we had is over and we're headed towards the hell that is summer in Phoenix, And I realize that it's going to be really hot pretty soon, which means we're going to be spending more time at the pool and on the lake, on a boat, maybe going to California, going to the ocean, all these places where there's a temptation, if you were a man, to be able to take your shirt off and enjoy the outdoors. And then I started to realize that I got really comfortable with my dad bot over the winter, hiding in that extra-L large hoodie, and things got a little bit out of control.

And so then around May, I'm like "All right, we got to do something about this".

So I decide every year around May I'm going to be a runner, And the thing is, I hate running. In fact, I think if you like running, you need a psych evaluation. No one should like running. It's not something that you should do for fun.

But so I decide that there's this little mile and a half lap in my neighborhood, kind of in the desert, And so I'm going to do this mile and a half lap as many times as possible throughout the week, But every once in a while I'll be on this mile and a half lap and I hit the mile and I feel really good about myself.

I'm like, you know, I'm just going to walk a little bit and then, you know, finish the end of the run, real strong running and finishing, And I feel really good about myself doing that. Until this one day we are planting a church, So we have a launch team and people are joining this launch team And this one day, this girl, Nicole, joins our launch team And I'm going to call her out by name right now because I want to put her to public shame this morning because Nicole is a ultra ultramarathon runner. Here's the thing. There are people that run half marathons.

We're the normal people in the world that want a little bit of a challenge.

You know, do something, accomplish something. So we run half marathons and that's awesome. Then there's marathon runners, and they're so annoying. They're the ones that are always posting their times on their Instagram, make us all feel bad, but we're at home eating ice cream saying that they went on another run.

That's awesome.

But then there's ultramarathon runners. They run 50 mile races. I didn't even know that was possible. And then she comes in, Nicole, and she's an ultra ultramarathon runner.

So the last race that she ran- 100 miles.

If you're doing the math, that is over 24 hours straight of running. I can't stay awake for 24 hours. And she had the audacity to go and run for 24 hours straight. And so I'm back on my little mile and a half trail and I get to that first mile and that little girl inside of me starts saying "Oh, just take it easy and walk a little bit".

And I said "No, if Nicole can run a hundred of these things, I can certainly finish this last half mile by running".

See, sometimes in life we need someone stronger than us, better than us, who has gone before us, to actually give us the confidence or empower us to finish the race. And as we look at the second church that John is writing to in Revelation 2, this church in Samra, we're going to see that that is the message he is trying to get to them. The title for this morning is going to be faithful in trial. And here's the big idea: I remain faithful in trials when I trust in the faithfulness of Jesus.

I remain faithful in trials, when I trust in the faithfulness of Jesus.

I just want to point this out, because some of you walked in this morning and we're doing the worship thing and now I'm getting up to talk from the Bible and you feel like a fraud. You feel like you walked in here this morning and if everyone else knew what you've been into, what's been going on in your mind, in your heart, in your life, they would tell you how to leave. You feel like you don't belong to be in here this morning singing to God and hearing from his word. But here's what I want you to hear: It's not that Jesus is faithful to you because you were first faithful to him, but rather Jesus is faithful to you already, before you do anything, and that empowers you to be able to live faithfully for him.

We're going to look at a few words today, Words like trials and tribulation and suffering, And I'm kind of saying the same thing with all three of those words.

But there's two reasons why we face this in life And specifically the church in Samra. They were facing trials and tribulation and suffering because they were following Jesus. This brought opposition against them And for some of us that's certainly the case in our lives. But there's also this other reason that we face suffering and trials and tribulation, And that's simply because we are living in a broken and messed up world.

See, when I was younger, I thought life was like a roller coaster.

You had these awesome highs and things were great and you'd have these lows, but eventually the high would come again and then eventually the lows would come and it would be joy and it would be suffering and they would kind of just fluctuate in and out. But as I've gotten older- and those of you that are older here today, you understand this The more that you live life, life is really more like two train tracks that are running parallel to one another And as they're running next to each other, real close to each other, one is joy and one is suffering. And there are moments in life when you're facing the most amount of joy you could ever imagine, right alongside facing some of the hardest things you've ever had to face. And because that's true about life, I know that today's message to this place, this church in Simrna, is going to be relevant and applicable for all of us here today.

So, without further ado, let's go ahead and jump into this great passage, this letter written to the church in Samra- And here's what it has to say, Starting in verse 8, : and to the angel of.

To the angel of the church of Samra. So pause real quick. Matt so helpfully set this up last week. The angel in Samra.

The word for angel could also be understood as messenger.

So most likely this is a letter written to the pastor or the leadership in this church in Asia, the church of Samrna. This is what they write to him: The words of the first and the last who died and came to life. I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer.

Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested and for 10 days you will have tribulation.

Be faithful unto death. What a statement. Go ahead and underline that one. Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life.

Underline, crown of life.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death. Our big idea one more time is: I remain faithful in trials when I trust in the faithfulness of Jesus. So the question we should ask then is: what about Jesus's faithfulness empowers us to be faithful, And we're going to see four ways that it does it.

The first way is this: I am faithful when my comfort is in his power.

All these letters that John is writing to these seven different churches, they all begin with a title for Jesus, And we actually get a list of these titles all in chapter 1 talking about the nature and the attributes of who Jesus is, And then they pick a specific one for each one of these churches that is relevant for what that church is going through. And so the title or the attributes or the nature of Jesus that Jesus wants the church in Samrna to fixate on, to zone in on, is this: that he is the first and the last and that he is the one who rose from the dead. What Jesus is saying with those two statements is: he has power, And this would have been encouraging to this church, because this church was getting beat up on. The ancient city of Samrna is in modern-day Ishmir, Turkey, And Samrna was a prosperous, beautiful, wellplanned out city, but super pagan.

In fact, they were one of the first ancient Roman cities to erect a statue of the emperor so that they could worship the emperor.

It's interesting, actually, because they were rather okay with you worshiping whatever you wanted to. You could believe in whatever you wanted to. You could worship whatever you wanted to, so long as you fulfilled your cultural obligations to worship the emperor and to worship Rome. We can relate to this because this is a lot like our culture today.

Our culture is pretty okay with you worshiping and believing and trusting in and talking about whatever it is that you want to do, as long as you also affirm all the things that culture tells you need to affirm.

And it's actually you start getting in trouble when what you believe in starts to push back against the things that the culture tells you ought to believe in. And because the Samarans were being faithful to Jesus, which meant they worshiped him alone and didn't worship the emperor, they faced all sorts of heartache. There was intense pressure coming down on them- We're going to see, not only from the Romans, but also from the Jews as well- No one like them, and they were being persecuted and they were suffering because of this faith. But it was good news for them that the one writing them this letter, the one that they were choosing to be faithful to, was the most powerful one.

This idea of first and last is orienting us within time.

So I want you to do this. I want you to think back as far as you possibly can in your life, but it's as far back in the history of the world that you can think back to. Jesus was there beforehand. Think as far into the future as you possibly can.

Eternity to come.

Jesus is all the way there. Really, what he's saying he's actually quoting God. In the Old Testament, God said this about himself. Jesus is saying: "I am God as well".

He is saying that I am the unccreated creator.

Nothing comes before me and nothing is there after me. I am the most powerful one. And then he throws in this little tidbit- and we skip over this, cuz it's kind of what you're used to hearing in the Bible- says: "Oh, and, by the way, I died and came back to life". You want to talk about who the strongest person is.

I was thinking a lot about fighting this week.

I don't know what your Instagram algorithm is, but mine was Liver King vers Joe Rogan And Liver King calling out Joe Rogan to see who could be stronger. Well, Jesus is the strongest person, strongest force of nature that we could ever deal with or comprehend, because death, which will come for each and every single one of us, was conquered by him. He is more powerful than the most powerful thing on this earth Having two young boys at the house. We do a lot of wrestling in my house And I wrestle a lot with my 2 and 1/ halfyear-old, And the thing about wrestling with my 2 and 1/ halfyear-old is I never let him win.

Now, some of you might think it's cute to let your kids beat you at things.

I don't. We have a little mini basketball hoop. He'll go to shoot a basket and I just stuff him. I want him to know where he stands in this world And I want him to know where he stands in my household.

This is dad's house.

But I started to think about why little kids say: my dad can beat up your dad. Because to my son, if I wanted to, I could just lay on him and I am the inmovable object in the universe to him, Like he can't move me, even if he tried with all of his might. I am the strongest thing that he knows about in his little world right now. And the problem is, someday he's going to get a little bit older and he's going to go to school and some kid's going to be picking on him and he's going to say, "Well, my dad can beat up your dad and I have to correct him and let him know.

Your dad chose to be a pastor.

I can't beat up anybody's dad". But I want you to know- that's the hope we have in our heavenly father- That you and I have a heavenly father that is stronger than anything in this universe And that, ultimately, is where our comfort lies. Over the last few years, our culture has become more and more divisive, And I remember talking with many people over the last few years about their jobs and how, because they've chosen to stand on certain Christian ethics, they're fearful for their job or, in order to keep their job, they're being told that they need to begin to compromise on the things that they believe in. Some of you, maybe you're here today and you're in a situation where you feel powerless, You feel hopeless.

Maybe it's a relationship where someone has power over you and you feel stuck because of it, And I just want to give you this great piece of hope that if you are on team Jesus, if Jesus is in your corner, you have the power of the almighty God, the first and the last, the one who rose from the dead, on your side, and your comfort is in his power.

The second way that Jesus's faithfulness empowers ours is that I am faithful when I trust in his perspective. Verse 9 says this"I know"- this is Jesus talking. I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich And I know the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not. Then this awesome call out: "But are a synagogue of Satan".

Next time you run out of things to diss somebody with, say: you're a synagogue of Satan.

But Jesus is getting at a couple realities of their life. Here He says: "I see your tribulation. It was very real that Christians in the first century were heavily persecuted by the Romans". Just one example of the persecution they faced is they were often impaled by poles, wrapped in tar and lit on fire and used as human tiki torches at the emperor's parties, at the Caesar's parties, often times being thrown into the arena and eaten by lions so everyone else could be entertained.

That's what Christians were facing in the first century Roman Empire, and in Samrna especially.

That's the type of persecution they were facing. And Jesus is saying: "I see it, I see your suffering, I see your persecution. The other thing he says that he sees is their poverty. See, because there was this cultural expectation that you worshiped the emperor.

The Christians who refused to do that.

Being faithful to Jesus, they weren't allowed into the marketplace, So they couldn't buy goods, they couldn't sell, sell goods, they couldn't provide for their family. So there was a very real sense that their poverty wasn't just kind of being poor, It was actually they lacked the very necessities you need to stay alive. But Jesus saw them in their poverty. And the last thing is this slander, but slander from the Jews.

And then he calls them not real Jews And then he calls him a synagogue of Satan.

So what's going on here? Well, initially people just saw Christianity as a sect of Judaism And the Jews were actually able to worship their God without the cultural expectation of worshiping the emperor. So they kind of had a pass. But as Christians began to rise up, the Jews started to hate the Christians And in fact they would go to the Romans and they would start to tattletail on the Christians.

So the Christians actually endured more persecution.

And Jesus saying those Jews, they're not real Jews. Now, he's not talking about ethnicity here, or even religion here. What he's talking about is the Jews were the promised and blessed people of God. God made this promise to this guy, Abraham.

He said"Abraham, you're going to be the father of a great nation and I'm going to bless you and bless your family, and you're going to be my people".

Well, Jesus comes, he fulfills the Old Testament And Jesus begins to say things like: "The real children of Abraham are those who believe in me". Paul, the writer in the old, in the New Testament- he writes a lot of the letters- He begins to say things like: "The real Jews aren't those circumcised by flesh, but whose heart is circumcised by faith in Jesus alone". Jesus is saying here: "My true people are you, because you're the ones who believe in me and you're the ones who are standing firm and not worshiping the emperor, but staying faithful to me". And here's the good news that Jesus sees them, but that Jesus is powerful enough to do something about it.

See, it's not just that.

It's important to be seen, though. That's helpful, because imagine how lonely these people in Simrna felt How much of an outcast that they felt like everyone hated them. But Jesus saw them And the good news is Jesus could do something about it. This reminds me of the greatest trilogy of all time.

I don't know if you guys are movie people- I'm not really a movie person, to be honest- but when I talk about the best trilogy of all time, something probably pops into your mind And the right answer is The Mighty Ducks Hands down the best trilogy of all time.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, go binge it, It's good for your soul. And the third movie: all these kids that we've watched in movies one, two and now three. They have this scholarship to play hockey at this prep school, But the problem is there's some hazing that goes on and they end up getting in trouble And now all of their scholarships are at risk of being provoked or revoked. Their coach in the first movie is this ex lawyer turned hockey coach named Gordon Bombay, And Gordon Bombay is just this awesome character all throughout the movies.

But in the third movie you don't see him at all in the beginning of the movie, cuz he's off being a lawyer now and they're off at school now playing hockey under a new coach.

But right at this moment, when it all feels hopeless, when it feels like they're going to lose their scholarships and their whole world is going to fall apart, Gordon Bombay throws open the doors into the boardroom and he begins to threaten the board members who are making this decision with all this legal ease about wrapping them up in court and all these lawsuits. And the board decides to let the kids keep their scholarship. But there's this moment when Gordon Bombay walks through the door, when you feel like the savior's here. Why?

Because he sees them and because he was a lawyer and lawyers like run the world, he was able to do something about their situation.

That's the good news that you and I have in Jesus is not only that he sees us, but that he has the power to do something. So I just want to remind you this morning that Jesus does see you. He sees your circumstances, He sees the suffering that you're going through. He sees the trials that you're facing.

He sees the gossip that's being spread about you.

He sees your poverty and your financial situation and the good news, He can do something about it. We can trust in his perspective. The third way that we can be faithful- because he is faithful is this: I am faithful when my courage is in his purpose. In verse 10, it says"Do not fear what you are about to suffer.

Behold, the devil is about to throw you into prison, that you may be tested for 10 days".

Now, something you need to know about the New Testament: It was written mostly by Jewish people for a mostly Jewish audience. Now, a lot of these Jews were now Christians, but they still grew up being Jewish people, being raised as a Hebrew And being raised as a Hebrew. You would have studied the Old Testament from a very young age And so, as they're studying the Old Testament, they'd have been very familiar with all the stories, all the themes And in the New Testament, often times, if you run across something that feels confusing, it's probably because it's alluding back to something in the Old Testament And this would have been really obvious for the original readers. But you and I live in Arizona in 2025, so it's less obvious.

But that's what's happening here: This idea of being thrown in prison for 10 days.

This wasn't a literal prison, though it may have been, and it wasn't a literal 10 days, though it could have been, but 10 days was actually an echo back to this guy named Daniel in the Old Testament. See, in the Old Testament, this nation called Babylon- you've heard the name: Nebuchadnezzar. He was the ruler- and they came in and they were destroying all the surrounding territories, And part of their military strategy was they would come in and they would ransack a city and they would take the best and the brightest of the youth, take them back to Babylon, enroll them in the Babylon University where they would assimilate them and indoctrinate them into all the ways of the Babylonians. And so when they go in to take over Israel, they go into Jerusalem and exactly what they do: they take the best and the brightest of the youth out and take them back to Babylon.

So here is this young teenage kid named Daniel, And Daniel is brought into the king's court and all the luxuries of Babylon put in front of him if he would submit to the Babylonians.

And one of the ways that he was told to be like the Babylonians was to eat the king's food. Now, this was the king's food. This would have been really tasty food. We know that it was mostly meat, And so think of the best barbecue you've ever had brought before Daniel- Probably bacon for the first time ever since he was a Hebrew, He's now smelling bacon for the first time.

It would have been enticing And he says: "I can't eat that food" Because for him it would have gone against his faith in God to eat food that was sacrificed to pagan idols.

But the guy who's in charge of him says: "Well, Daniel, here's the problem: If all the other teenagers are eating this meat and getting all this protein and you sit over here eating lettuce, they're going to look better than you. The king's going to figure out what I did and he's going to kill me. So I really need you to do what you're told". Daniel says: "How about this?

For 10 days, Give them the meat, give us vegetables and see who looks better after the 10 days.

And, sure enough, when the king's court comes, sees Daniel and his friends. They look better than all the other youth. And it was the story of Daniel being faithful as an exile in an other nation under pagan gods and pagan rules that gave the Hebrew people hope for generations. They saw how Daniel could withstand the trials, and so it gave them hope to be able to do so.

And God is telling them: I'm doing the same thing with you and Samrna Christians for a couple thousand years after, you are going to hear your story of how you suffered and suffered well in the face of persecution, And that's going to be a testimony to them so they can stand firm as well.

Here's something I hate about Christianity, and I don't think this is hyperbolic: God's greatest missional tactic is our suffering. Now, now hear me out His missional tactics. So I just mean his way of getting his message into the world. Because here's what separates Christians from everybody else: When we suffer, we suffer with hope, Because when people in the world suffer with no hope of an eternity with God, there's no purpose to the suffering, There's no end to the suffering.

When life ends, it's just, it's over.

But we, as Christians, we stand before our neighbors, We stand before our co-workers and our family members going through some of the hardest times of our lives. And it doesn't mean we don't mourn, It doesn't mean we don't lament, Doesn't mean we don't cry, But at the end of the day, we have a hope that cuts through all of that. And the rest of the world is looking around us saying "What the heck is going on with these people? Why are they so happy even though these awful things are going on These martyrs in the first century.

There's story after story after story of them being burnt alive or eaten by animals, And they're singing hymns and praises to God while it's happening, And the people killing them are standing back and going.

I've never seen that response of someone being eaten by a lion before". But their hope was in something greater. Their courage was in his purpose for you and I, Our suffering. God is often using that for his purpose, So you and I can stand firm and have courage, even though it's coming, because we know that God is doing something with these trials.

The beginning of the summer found out that my uncle had been diagnosed with blood cancer.

And my uncle, he's been a pastor his whole life. His dad was a pastor, He was a pastor And even since retiring from leading the church he started a mission organization where he helps fund church plants all over the world, in some of the darkest, poorest places around the world. And what's crazy is- I was thinking about this the other day as I saw one of his photos. He's gone through three rounds of chemo.

Now He's lost all of his hair, And there is a joy about my uncle that I've never seen on his face before.

It was kind of like eerie seeing these photos and then having some conversations with him and reading his email updates that he sent out. His faith in Jesus is stronger today than it ever has been, And I just want to tell you, when everything was going good and he would preach at me and he would tell me about God and tell me about faith and tell me about being a pastor, it was all good. But when he was diagnosed with cancer it was like man, he really believes this and he knows that even if he were to die, what he's going through is far better, And to watch him live that out has been so encouraging to my own faith. And that is the opportunity that we have as Christians: to suffer well, because our courage has a purpose and is in his purposes.

The fourth way that we can be empowered to be faithful is that our hope is in his protection.

This part I had you underlined: Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. There is a reward waiting for those who will endure in this life: He who has an ear, let him hear. And this word for hear the Hebrews. They actually only had one word for hear, and obey, because they assumed if you heard it, you were going to obey it.

So if we obey these words, the one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.

Christianity is unique from so many other religions and worldviews because it doesn't say: look within and find happiness. It doesn't say: follow all the other pleasures and you'll get something great here on earth. It uses words like pick up your cross. It uses words like die to your flesh.

It says things like be faithful unto death.

Again, I don't like some of these words that it talks about, with what it means to be a Christian. And maybe you are here today and you're exploring this Christianity thing, You're exploring this church thing, You're exploring this person named Jesus, who claimed to be the son of God and the hope of the world, And you're thinking, "What are you really about". This is it. This is it?

All the cards on the table?

This is what we are about. And so how on earth, then, do Christians live in this way? How on earth do we stand facing the trials of this world, even unto death, and be faithful to Jesus? Well, Christians all throughout history and still today, do this, and they do it faithfully.

The reason why is because they understand the greatest reward that they could have doesn't come in this life, but has in the life to come, this crown of eternal life.

The point of Jesus's protection is not to help us avoid suffering in this life, Which is interesting, because often times we feel like, well, if God really was blessing me, I could avoid suffering in this life. That's not it at all. He loves this church in Samrna and he is telling them: you're going to suffer in this life, But he is saying: because I see you and because I'm powerful and because I have a purpose, when you die someday you will be given the greatest reward you could ever be given: the crown of life. And so Christians stand faithful in front of persecution and trial because our reward is not in this life, it's in the one to come.

And, by the way, consequences in this life are one thing.

The consequences in the life to come are so much worse, And that is why we strive and have hope that we will conquer and we will receive this crown of life. Christians, throughout the history of the church, have stood firm in the face of death because they knew a far greater reward was waiting for them in the life to come, In fact, at the moment in time that this letter was being penned, there was a young man who lived in Simrna. His name was Polycarp, And Polycarp was raised in a Christian home and very quickly became a prominent figure in the church in Simrna. In fact, later in his life was named the bishop, or overseer, of the church in Simrna, And he lived right at the end of the first century and into the second century.

So he actually knew many of the apostles.

Apostles were the people that actually walked and knew Jesus. They actually say that he was discipled by John himself. So as he rose to prominence in the church, there was a bit of a target that was put on his back. And when Polycarp was 85 years old he found out that the proconsel- this guy named Stacius Quadratus- what a name- that he wanted his head on a platter.

And so they go and they arrest Polycarp and they bring him before the proconsel.

And the proconsel looks at him and he says: "Polycarp, if you will renounce Jesus and worship the emperor, I will spare your life". He said to him again: Polycarp, if you do not renounce Jesus and worship the emperor, you will be consumed by fire. Now Polycarp had a decision to make. Would he remain faithful or would he fold under pressure?

Well, Polycarp responded with this famous quote.

Polycarp, talking to the proconsel, says: "You threaten me with fire that burns for an hour and after a little is extinguished, But you are ignorant of the fire, of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment reserved for the ungodly. Then catch this. This is what he says. 80 and6 years I have served him and he has never done me any wrong.

How then can I blasphe?

My king and my savior, Polycarp, was quickly thrown into a fire, burned to death and just to top it off, they took a sword and stuck it through him, bringing him to his death. Now, I don't know about you, but every time I hear that story I get chills thinking about it. But those chills are quickly followed up with this deep sense of remorse and kind of guilt, because I begin to think about myself and I wonder: could I stand there and be faithful to Jesus, knowing my death was right in front of me, if I did so? And for many of us we hear that story of Polycarp like that's such a great story, but like he's a varsity player Christian, Like I'm over here riding the bench on the freshman team.

But here's what I want you to catch.

In his words, Polycarp tells us how he could stand there, and it wasn't because he was great, but rather he says: 86 years I have served Jesus and Jesus has always been faithful to me. How, then, can I not be faithful to him now? See, Jesus isn't faithful to you because you were first faithful to him, but rather he was faithful to you before you even knew it, and because he's been faithful to you this whole time, he empowers you to be able to live faithfully. So what do we do with this message today?

I just want to ask you this: In what way do you, this week, need to take your next step in being more faithful, living more faithfully to Jesus?

Maybe it's in your marriages- being a husband or wife. Maybe it's in your parenting with your kids. Maybe it's in your other relationships. Maybe it's at work, Or maybe you are the boss at your work.

It's how you treat your employees.

Maybe it's, when you're looking at things on the internet, or how you're spending your time, or how you're organizing and managing your finances. There's some step that you need to take this week to be faithful to Jesus And some of you. You're here today and you're new to church, You're new to Christianity and you're thinking: "I never knew that Jesus had already been faithful to me, I didn't know that he empowered me to actually live a more faithful life". You've been contemplating these claims of Jesus is one who is the first and the last, who has power and who gives comfort and who has a perspective.

I just want to encourage you.

He's been faithful to you And your next step today is to receive the free gift of salvation that he wants to give to you. See, Jesus came and he faced the worst trial in the worst suffering. He was persecuted on your behalf, Killed on a Roman torture device, Hung up shamefully naked in front of everyone, deceived for you to deal with your biggest problem in this world: That you are a sinner separated from God. Here's the thing, friend.

You've tried it your way, You've tried it the world's way And you keep ending up back in the same spot.

I know cuz I did it for 20 years. Today, Jesus is saying: "Receive this gift. I gave it for you cuz I loved you, Cuz I've been faithful to you". And you receive that free gift by surrender, by faith, through grace alone, And if that's you this morning, welcome to the family: Congratulations.

He is faithful to you.

Our big idea for this morning. I remain faithful in trials when I trust in the faithfulness of Jesus. Let's pray, Jesus, we thank you that it's not that we were good enough. We thank you that it's not that we have this track record of being perfect, or even this track record of being mostly good, but rather our track record is sinful people messing up so many times along the way.

Yet when we look to you and how you've always been faithful, we can stand in the face of trials and suffering and persecution, being a testimony to the world.

God, I pray for everyone in this room that, whatever their next step of faithfulness may be, that they would take it empowered, knowing that you love them first and knowing that you were first faithful to them And to our friends who accepted you for the first time. Jesus, we thank you for them. We pray that you would protect them from the enemy and that your love would continue to sustain them. We pray this in Jesus mighty name, Amen.