Stop Compromising

Amen. Can we just give a hand clap of praise to God? I don't know about you, but I had a week off from preaching and now I'm all like I'm nervous, I don't know how to do it anymore. I'm so stressed out.

I can see your eyeballs.

If you don't know me, my name is Matt. I'm the lead pastor here at Orbit Church. I'm really excited. Job, a good Fourth of July.

Y'all didn't, did y'all at all?

Like, did I have a good Fourth of July? Was it good? Just, you can shake your head. You don't have to shout if you don't want to.

I just didn't hear nothing over there.

Okay, good, I got a thumbs up from somebody in our Orbit hat, Speaking of I kind of like our merch. I didn't design it, So I mean it's out there for sale. If if you want to represent Orbit Church out in the community, This one right here I. It feels good on me.

You know I've gained more weight than I should have, So if I don't look like I should, I apologize, But it feels tight fitting.

I looked in the mirror earlier. I was like: "Okay, just kidding, I'm just kidding. I don't judge myself that way. The Lord has redeemed me from that type of superficiality" 75% of the way at least.

I don't know what I'm talking about today, guys.

No, I'm. I'm excited about our series. Did y'all like Hudson last week? Yes, Yeah, Just, Hudson did a good job.

I listened to it.

I was in Ketchacan, Alaska, listening to it, while walking down the street in the rain. It was enjoyable to enjoy church, in that way. I hadn't done it before. I will say this: online is not the same as in person.

Amen, Amen.

So we have online for anyone. Remember why I said what I say: We have it for outreach, not convenience. We don't want to accommodate or compromise just cuz we got stuff to do on the weekend and we want to make sure we're putting Jesus first in every aspect, including gathering together with God's people. So I'm grateful that you guys are here.

On Fourth of July weekend, We're going to be in Revelation, chapter 2.

Yet again. We're going to be talking about the church at Pergamum, Pergamum. Y'all say it with me, Pergamum. No one said it with me.

We're have to work on this.

Last week did y'all? He just talk at y'all, or something like that. We're going to work on the talk back again. Y'all say Pergamum, Pergamum.

Yeah, Yeah, you can remember about, like purge, today I'm going to talk about compromising, So I just thought of this on the fly.

I'm a dad so I can say stuff like this and y'all giggle lightly: Purge, All right. We want to get rid of the things in our life that are keeping us from God Pergamum. The idea we're going to talk about today is how not to compromise our faith. How many of you- just be honest with yourselves and me right now.

I want to hear you How many of you have compromised in some aspect of your faith before ever?

Yes, Yeah, We've all done it in some form or fashion, Even after- if you say you've trusted in Jesus, even after you trust in Jesus, many of us have compromised. I was convicted so deeply this week because I think I, as a pastor, as a person, I have compromised in different areas in my faith And it's not like I'm going to go to hell now because I've made a couple like compromises. It's that I'm not living at the level of faithfulness that God would want for me, because I would rather accommodate, for whatever reason. Most of the time, we don't compromise or accommodate to the world's desires, because it's just something we woke up in the morning and thought I'm going to ignore God, be unfaithful to him spiritually and go compromise.

We didn't wake up thinking that way, But I think the church in general, the church not not just orbit, but like the church, we, we have compromised.

I, I mean at at some fundamental levels. I mean I could take you throughout history a and show you where we have compromised. I'm not going to waste our time with too much of that today, but I, I, I think we can maybe agree that there has been some compromise in the church And I, as a leader of an autonomous local church here in the Buckeye community, I feel compelled to move in the proper direction, one where we're not compromising anymore. Now there's always grace, but I don't want to forsake truth any longer.

Now I'm going to be gracious and accepting of those who are struggling.

Goodness, I struggle and I need forgiveness daily because I, I mess up. I'm not saying we're going to be a church of perfect people. If you find one of those, let me know, I'll go to it and I'll close the doors of this church. We're not going to be perfect, but we're not going to be a group of people who says okay to compromise any longer.

The calling God has us on this upward, this higher calling, It's too good.

It's so much better than what we've been compromising for. So we as a church are no longer going to compromise, And it sounds good when I'm preaching it from the stage, doesn't it? It's like "No more compromise". I feel like that guy out at that church, in Atlanta- that's all over your TikTok and Instagram feed.

He's like: "We compromise too much as a church".

I It sounds good. But when you go into the like, the specific, nuanced areas of your life and you actually try to no longer compromise, that's where it gets difficult. That's where you run into this moment between you and God, or you and your spouse, or you and your kids, or you and your extended family, and you're like: "Yo, do I really do? I really want to stop compromising in this area".

If you look at your life and think about the things that would have to stop if you were to stop compromising, that's where it gets hard.

Hannah, I think about the things we'd have to. We'd have to stop, Like I'd have to. Like probably pull the TVs off the walls. Kids wouldn't like that.

I probably have to get rid of these demonic devices.

I put mine away. See, look at me today. Not compromise- I think about what you to- to truly no longer compromise. It would be a lot.

But when I look at this church, at Pergamum, I see that John, the author, the apostle, he's writing to them and they are in a location where it would be easy to compromise.

In fact, it would be prudent, like worldly wise, for them to compromise, But he is telling them to no longer compromise. We're going to be again chapter 2, starting in verse 12. And I'm going to read through the entirety of the passage and I'm going to walk us through it over the next 20 minutes. He says this: And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: the one who has the sharp two-edged sword says this: I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, And you hold fast to my name and did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipus, my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold to the teaching of Balum, who kept teaching Bailac, or I always struggle with the name Balac, to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality.

So you also have some who, in the same way, hold the teaching of the nickelans. Therefore, repent, Say repent, Repent, Or else Don't say that I am coming to you quickly and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes to him, I will give some of the hidden mana and I will give him a white stone and a new name written on the stone, which no one knows but he who receives it.

And, Father God, it's my prayer today, as we read through your word, that I wouldn't be overly complicated in discussing context and history and Old Testament imagery.

I pray that you would give me something very specific to give to the minds of the people in this room that they can then apply as they leave this room today. And, God, I pray that this truth would be in their lives as they leave. That compromise would no longer be an option. God, I pray that as we go through this, your spirit would stir in our hearts and enable us, maybe supernaturally, to move away from the things that we have been putting before you, because, God, anything we put before you is idolatry, And I pray that as we move away from compromise, we would move deeper and deeper into calling.

We pray these things in Jesus's name, Amen, And my prayer will be that you receive some level of what I'm trying to teach to you today, And this is a very difficult passage.

I actually had someone pray for me beforehand that I wouldn't get so involved in the context that I've been studying, and give it all to you, because it's just so much context. But if you want to boil this down to a simple concept, it's that the people in the church at Pergamum have been faithful, But it is so easy to turn themselves over to compromise in their community that many are doing so. In fact, there are some in their church. The teaching of the nickelutans, those who were being similar to Balum and Bailac- this is an Old Testament reference where this person was trying to get Israel off their game, trying to derail them from the calling God had them on.

And in the same way, in Pergamum, there are people trying to derail them, And I started this message off talking about the church and its compromises, because I think I, I think we in the church have done you a disservice in your faith.

And again, when I say we in the church, I'm not just talking about here, I'm talking about the big C church. We have compromised and we've gotten so used to compromising that that we allow it to seep into our teachings, our practices and the things that we permit and the things that we promote. This compromise is so evident. Now, what I don't want you thinking is that Matt's all of a sudden going to go cold turkey on every single thing that we do here at the church.

But I want you to know that from this point on, we have, we've always done this, but I, I want you to know even more so.

I feel so much firm, more firmly convicted about this: Everything that we do or don't do, we're going to allow the Holy Spirit of God to convict us and compel us in that direction or not. I've been too easily listening to what other churches have done and what culture has done and trying to promote certain things that maybe, maybe we're missing some key components. And I'm hesitant to say all that because I don't want you to think that we just screwed up. We're only a year and a half old.

We got a lot to figure out what to do.

You know, we got some stuff to figure out, but man, the amount of conviction I've been feeling the past two weeks- I've had two weeks to prep for this message- and it's gosh. I just want to just call stuff out. I, I, I, I want to call out our, our, me, mentality. As a church, Do you do you realize what?

What we do?

We say: you know what? People need more and more communication. So let's text them, email them, post every single day on Instagram and, let's communicate to them any way that we can. We'll make sure we communicate it from stage, We'll do it during our rally, We'll do it here, We'll do it here, We'll do it here.

And, and what we have done is we're saying, we want to reach people, So let's do everything that we can to reach people.

And sometimes, when you're trying to reach people, the way that they can be reached, you start adjusting. Now, I'm not saying we have compromised the Gospel of truth. I'm not saying that we compromise God's word. What I'm saying is that, in order to reach more people, as a big C church, sometimes we'll just do stuff with a focus on reaching people rather than giving glory and honor to God in this place.

And I want to reach people.

Don't you want to reach people? I hate going to churches where they don't want to reach people. I want to reach people. I want to reach people who don't know their left hand from their right.

I want to reach people that are like Ninevites.

I want to reach people that are completely stable and normal, but they're missing the recipe that gets them into eternal life. I want to reach people, but I don't want to compromise. And many of us, we- we fall off the cliff and trying to reach people. But if you understood what the author here, John, is trying to tell the church at Pergamum is, he's saying: "You don't have to compromise in order to reach people.

In fact, all you need to do is uplift the glory of God, Worship him in spirit and in truth, Communicate the unadulterated word, And when you talk about who God is, people will realize he's better.

I mean, how many of you have realized it? It didn't take a special show. It didn't take enhanced promotions. It didn't take a crazy amount of stuff.

It didn't take.

And some of y'all get offended by fall. Get over yourself. It's just smoke, It's It's just haze. It's just something we do in order to remove cabling, so you don't see it as much to remove distraction from people.

But some of y'all didn't need the lights.

You didn't need the drums. You didn't need all that stuff because when the spirit of God spoke to you it was powerful. We didn't need all that stuff. Now, I'm not saying you don't need any stuff.

I mean- I'm sorry, Let me rephrase it- I'm not saying you shouldn't use stuff.

You should use every instrument God's given you in order to glorify and honor God and proclaim his name to other people. But I, I don't know, man, I just I feel like I spend a lot of time stressing about that stuff. I feel like the church at Pergamum was stressing out, like how are we going to reach people or how are we going to not get killed? You know, it depends on who you're talking to, But the church at Pergamum they were in what he would call the, the throne of Satan.

I, I don't know, I don't think he talks about Buckeye this way, but he talks about Pergamum this way.

He says he says: "I know where you dwell". This is in verse 13. Where Satan's throne is. Now, that's an interesting phrase.

He doesn't use it with the other ones.

Let me break it down a little bit, because scholars will tell us a bunch of different things and I can't give you like 100% accuracy on the context, because scholars can't give it either. But I'll give you a couple things that I think are accurate. First off, we know that Pergamum is the capital city of the province of Asia. So he writes to Ephesus first, which is that port city, Then he goes to Smyrna, which Pastor Hudson talked to you guys about last week, And then we get on the mailing route to Pergamum.

Pergamum, the capital city of the province of Asia, is filled with cultural, religious and political iconography.

What that means is that capital city is full of the culture in ways that Smyrna and Ephesus even weren't full of the culture. Scholars break it down into four fundamental areas And when you look at it you'll see that, man, we think we struggle over here in the west valley of Phoenix, We're out in the Wild West. There's still stuff. You know, people are just people are just chilling out here.

But it's not like.

This is more like Washington DC In the city of Pergamum. I don't know, I can't even get into my notes. Whatever, In the city of Pergamum you got a couple different items You've got you got a statue for Zeus. You've got a library that rivals the library in Alexandria and which you guys aren't Bible geeks, so you don't know this, but Alexandria was like the largest library, full of hundreds of thousands of volumes.

It's the largest one in the ancient, in the ancient world.

But then you've got the library at Pergamum, which had 200,000 volumes, which means people were- at least they thought they were- intellectual. Then you've also, got a statue and temple to Eslepius, which, if you don't know, Eslepius this is, you know, you know the, the medical symbol with, like, the pole and the snake wrapped around it. Yeah, So they're big into science and medicine in this area. Also, they had the first ever temple.

It was built in 28 BC for the emperor Augustus.

It was a temple that exonerated him or, sorry, made him, like it deified him. And so in this city of Pergamum you've got political, you've got cultural, you've got religious and you've got intellectual issues at hand for the people who are going to be following God, But you've also got normal culture stuff where you would have people who had to make a living by working their jobs. And when you worked a job back in the day, often you were put into a trade guild. This is like a, a union.

They're different, don't get me wrong, Don't hold me to that- all you biblical scholars out there, .

But they're like a union in that you kind of have to be in it, And when these trade guilds would have meetings, they would go to them and, depending on what type of trade it was- whether you were building, you were woodworker, you built idols, you built buildings and temples- you had to then maybe offer sacrifices to the God that that trade guild represented, or you would at least have to do some stuff to fit in with that group In order to live at all. In Pergamum, you were running into something intellectual, cultural, political or spiritual that wanted you to do the opposite of what Jesus wanted. And I'm going to tell you straight up, they had it way worse than we do. But you can make some comparisons right now where intellectually, spiritually, scientifically and religiously it's it's very difficult to perform your faith here in the United States of America.

I know we're a free country, I know people let us worship the way that we want to.

But sometimes you go out in public and you're a little hesitant to practice your faith because of the. You know people are going to talk mess about you if you do it. So when John is writing to the church at Pergamum, he calls it where Satan's throne is, because it's the capital city filled with mentalities, ideologies and philosophies that are against God, And this group of people, who he says has been faithful, are constantly encountering, if not persecution, at least like some push back from the people in that city, And many of us interact in that similar way. It's gotten so bad in Pergamum, and we don't know anything other than what's here in Revelation about it.

It's gotten so bad in Pergamum that a guy named Antipus- he calls him his faithful witness- he's died, And now we- most scholars- believe that he died at the hands of the authorities in some form of persecution.

I'd already talked to you guys about how the emperor had a regional level of persecution that was localized to the e region around Asia Minor, And so there is persecution happening and a person in their church has died at the hands of the authorities. So bad things are happening in the place where Satan dwells, But he tells them. I have a few things against you, because you have some there who hold to the teaching of Balum. And then he jumps forward in verse 15.

So also some of you, in the same way, hold to the teachings of the nickelans.

And he says: therefore, repent. Summarizing that, because we don't have the time for me to tell you the whole story in the book of numbers about balam and bailac, long story short, there are people in the church holding to a teaching that says: rather than the hard route, why don't we just accommodate to some of these things? It's not a big deal if you go perform sacrifices at that trade guild. It's Not a big deal if you go to this party, submit your token or tessera, go in there.

Who cares if they're performing sexual acts and all this other stuff?

Who cares if they put that meat that was sacrificed to idols on the market the next day and you purchase it? It's really not that big of a deal. God doesn't want us to fight with these people. He wants us to reach these people.

But John is telling them pretty clearly.

He said: "You better repent of a teaching that says you're going to compromise the Gospel of Jesus in order to live a little bit easier". You know, there's a piece of literature I was reading. It was from a church father. Any of y'all heard of the man named Tertullian?

Raise your hand.

If you heard of Tertullian, Couple people, All right. Tertullan was a church father in the 3rd century. That means like 200s AD, right, So about 150 years after Jesus, at minimum. Tertullian was coming in while there was still empirewide persecution against Christians, but the church was also building.

And Tertullian was a church father who not only combed heretics, people who believe false teachings, - but he would also talk about things that we believe to this day, like the trinity.

We believe that God is father, son, Holy Spirit bound together. In essence, I don't, I'm not as smart as Tertullian, And he wrote a book called on idolatry. There's a book, I don't know, It was a group of chapters that I've read and yeah, I don't know, I, I didn't have a book bound together with leather, but it's something, some sort of monograph or whatever, And it was called on idolatry And in chapter 12 of it he, he starts really hitting hard what it looks like to live a life following Jesus without compromise. I, I got to pull it up, man, I got to.

I got to find that quote for you.

But he essentially says: "Guys, give me one second. I don't know why it logged out, but it did. Here we go, Boom, Let's go. Tertullian says this Talking to a group of people who were idol workers, meaning their job was to build idols like wood, right Wood, silver carvings, all that stuff.

Their main job was to build idols that they would then put into the temples.

That was how they made their money. That was how they put food on the table for their families. Most of you guys aren't building idols today. You're doing something else.

There's a very small subset of the population of people who would trust in Jesus who then have to, quit their jobs because it's against Jesus.

There's a small subset of those people. You know who. Those are right, Some of you. You might have to do that, But for the most part, we work jobs that we can continue to work when we trust in Jesus.

So this is a different situation for them.

But I want you to compare it to your life, because we've been making way lesser excuses than these people would make. They're coming to Tatulian and they're coming to their church leaders and they're saying: "What do you want us to do. We're building these idols that then people go and worship. But that's been my job since I was young.

This is the trade guild that I'm a part of.

This is the friendships that I have. This is my community. If I don't do this, I don't make any money. In fact, if I go against it, not only will I lose my job, but, because of the imperial cult that we have here in Pergamum, they're going to attack me and maybe even kill me for my faith in Jesus.

This is a hard thing, And here's what Tertullian says.

You say: "Then how am I to live". As if it were the leading concern of faith that it should be safe in this world, As if it were not better to die than to live by offending God. Faith does not fear famine. It knows that famine will not be without God's will and that God's will, whatever it shall be, must be good.

The reason I love that quote is because it pulls out all the excuses for compromise and it says: "Even if the worst thing could happen to us, it's still worth it to follow God and do what he wants than it is to compromise".

A and I want to bring it to your world for a second, because I'm talking about these people who are going to get killed and Tatulian's giving them advice to say, well, okay, then get killed, like that's. I mean, that's a rephrase of what he said. He obviously said it way more philosophically nice and more pastorally caring than I just said it, but essentially he's like so. So what you want to you, you would rather choose to live.

So you're going to, you're going to be derailed from what God called you to do.

I mean, I could probably ask everyone in this room to raise their hand if their situation is less crazy than that, and everyone in the room would raise their hand, because none of us are are having to sacrifice our lives physically for this. What we're having to do is sacrifice our comforts in order to step into our calling. Yes, I think this is a good place to pull from where they're at, at Pergamum, where Satan's throne is, where all of these different ideologies are coming together, and literally one of their guys, Antipus, has been killed because of his faith in the Gospel. And John is still telling them: "Repent of your compromising, because the sword, the two-edged sword, the sword that pronounces judgment and truth and implements or executes God's will on earth, is coming And it's going to rightly divide what was right and what was wrong".

Here's what he says in verse 16.

Therefore, repent, or else I am coming to you quickly and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth Before I read verse 17, . I just want to tell you this: Your life, when you follow Jesus, you know the way we sell. It is interesting, right. Don't we always sell.

It is like like it's it's frilly, right.

You're going to spend eternity with God in heaven. Like he's going to make your life better. Joel Olstein had a book. He called it your best life.

Now some of y'all listen to Joel Olste.

You know I was a good impression of Joel Olste. I'm not talking mess about him at all. He's got his own church, He's doing his own thing. But we present the good news of Jesus as if it's always just fun, hunky dory good news.

But the reality is, when you come into your relationship with Jesus, you're called to bear a cross, Take it up daily, Come after him, And so the Gospel that we enter into requires daily sacrifice, And that daily sacrifice, when we're having a bad day, is really difficult to do, And that's why we compromise.

We compromise, because we heard the word of truth, We felt it in our bones, We wanted to follow Jesus. And then we got home and our wife or our husband was like "Yo, I don't feel like doing that right now". Or you go to them and you say, "Hey, God's really calling us to do something" and I'm like: "God hadn't called me to do that yet". Or you go to your kids and they're like: "I don't, we haven't done that before.

I don't want to go.

I don't know anybody there. I don't think I'm ready for something like that". And I'm just talking about church right here. You wake your family up in the morning to go to church.

That's easier than waking them up in the morning and say, "Hey, we're all sitting here and we're reading five chapters out of the good word".

You tried that before. It's easier to get my kids to come to church, cuz they learn how to make friends, But to get them to listen to five chapters of the Scripture- maybe five is too much to start. My point is: making those daily sacrifices is difficult, And so we compromise And John's calling this group of people: don't compromise. I don't.

I don't care about the temple of Eslepius.

I don't care about. I don't care about Zeus, I. I don't care about the imperial cult, I don't care about that library with all these learned people. What I care about is you honoring what God has placed in your life And, though you might be tempted, you need to follow Jesus and push aside everything else.

But we, as a church, we sell it as if it's so positive.

But, man, it is positive, but it's hard. And Al's thinking about how, when I was presenting this, like I, I prepped to preach. Right, you know, thankfully, I, I, I prep to preach. And so when I'm prepping to preach, I try to think: how is the audience going to receive what I'm saying?

Stop compromising.

All right, That means for some people, you need to stop with some of the Netflix shows you've been watching. You know Apple TV, You need to. You need to shift some of the activities you've been doing. You need to stop compromising here, because you're flirting with the world.

You don't want to be unfaithful to God in your spiritual walk.

You, you want to get rid of the things that are going to derail you. And you might be thinking, "Yeah, but some of that stuff is kind of fun" And I'm like, "Yeah, it was kind of fun now that I think about it". And I'm sitting here prepping to preach and I'm thinking, "The room is going to be frustrated with what I'm saying because I am promoting a life that pulls away all the fun stuff and implements some boring stuff". And I know the Christians in the room are like: "Matt, I don't think that".

But let's be real.

Sometimes it looks like the Christian life is boring, At least to people on the outside. And as I prayed on it, the Lord was. I mean, I was like "Lord, I know it's not boring, but how do I communicate it in such a way". And he said: "Just read through the text".

And so then I got to verse 17.

And here's what it says. It says: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to Kim, I will give some of the hidden mana and I will give him a white stone and a new name written on the stone, which no one knows but he who receives it". And he's writing this to a group of people who are legitimately, in every category of life, being cast out.

If they're Jewish, cast out of the synagogue.

If they're Roman or Greek, they're cast out of, the trade guilds. They're cast out of the temple. They're cast out of whatever they're doing, because literally every aspect of their life touches something idolatrous. And now they're alone And they can't.

They can't get into the parties.

They shouldn't get into the parties. They, they. They can't buy certain things on the marketplace. They want to be able to buy things on the marketplace, but now they're alone.

They feel undernourished.

Their community is dwindling. And John writes that He says: "I'll give you some of the hidden mana". And the first thing that God revealed to me is that when you stop compromising and move into the presence of God, regardless of what you have to lose, he's always going to give you- it's the first word- provision, the hidden mana. The hidden mana- was the mana that was placed.

There was extra mana placed in the ark of the covenant way back in the old testament.

And there's kind of a Jewish theory, when you look at midrashim and things like that in the ancient world, that says that the hidden mana is going to be held until the messianic age, when, not for them with Jesus, but when the messiah would come and he would bring in provision for those who had stayed faithful to the end. That's the hidden mana. So what's he telling these people? Well, he's saying: just be faithful.

If you can have a faith that sticks around and enables you to no longer compromise, you're going to get hidden mana, And right now you're losing out on some of this worldly provision, but long term, you're going to have the hidden mana, the provision that only comes from God, The provision that that man that is so much more valuable than that which you're trying to cling to right now.

And then he says: I'm going to give you a white stone. So I'll give you a white stone. Now I had to do some research on this white stone thing. There, there's several different variations of what the white stone could mean.

Some said that the white stone would be what you received when you were guilty, or you were, under trial, and then you were acquitted of all guilt from a crime.

They would give you a white stone. But I don't think that's at play here in this passage, because these aren't necessarily people who are guilty of a sin or something of a crime in the community. This is a group of people who are going to be exised from the community, And so there's another interpretation of this term white stone, and it comes from the Greek word tessera, which operated as a token that you would give as you were to enter into an event or a party. You see, when you were invited to a party in the ancient world, you had to have an invite.

I don't want y'all showing up at my birthday without an invite.

Actually, everyone can come to my birthday party, But back in the day not everyone was invited to the trade guild or the love feast or whatever event it was, And so when they were invited, they were given something of a token, a tessera, And often in the ancient world that would be a stone, Sometimes a white stone, And this would be what they give when they enter into the love feast and participate in all that the culture is doing. You might even have to give a tester when you go into the library to borrow something from the library. I don't know if they did borrowing- They had the Dewey decimal system back in the day. I don't even know- But you would have to give something to go in.

When you go into the trade guilds, you'd have to let them know you were part of the trade and show them your token.

And what he says here is: I'm going to give you a white stone. What it means is that who cares if you were cast out of your community? Who cares if you have sacrificed for my name's sake? I'm going to give you hidden mana and then I'm going to give you a white stone And that acts as your admission into the great feast, the banquet, eternity with God.

In the Old Testament he invites us to dine with him, And when you look at dining with the Lord Jesus, in contrast to dining in the ancient world, I can tell you which one's better.

He said he'll give you the white stone And on that white stone will be a new name which no one knows, but he who receives it. And I don't want to spend a lot of time preaching on that, But what I'll say is this is there's a way that the people in this world know you, Your, your close family, your extended family, your friends, your co-workers. But then there's something deeper, more fundamental, something only that you and the Lord know, Something to your character and identity, your potential, that he's placed in each one of you. And when it says he gives you this white stone of admission into eternity with God, attending the great banquet- whatever metaphor you want to use.

He says it has a name that only the Lord knows that there's something for you that I don't know.

There's something for you that no one can really tell you about. Only your journey with God can take you into. And I'm excited, because sometimes sacrifices look like for me, sacrifice is still hard when it's new, but over time you get used to some of the sacrifices and over time, when you follow Jesus, what happens is you get used to the blessings of walking with Jesus and hearing from him and reading his word and seeing God move in and around you. And so over time, the sacrifices, they don't seem as stressful because I'm becoming even more and more enamored with what Christ is building in me.

It.

The same is going to happen for you, And I know it might be hard to stop compromising in the areas of your life that you might be compromising in, but I would encourage you strongly, in the name of Jesus, put it aside, because what he's building in you is far greater than what you're currently experiencing. And there's somebody in this room. You've been stuck in the old name, stuck in the old way, stuck in the compromise and the frustrations that those compromises have brought to your life. You might be at the brink of a divorce, You might be at the brink of losing your job, You might be at the brink of something difficult or you might just be fine.

But I want you to know that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believed in your heart that God raised him from the dead.

That's the prescription for salvation that we hold to be true. And when you start following him, he starts to build something different, something better. You recognize he admits you into not just eternity with him, but a life of abundance in the present. And so I want to give you an opportunity right now to step into a faith that sticks.

Y'all pray with me, Every head bowed, every eye closed.

We pray this prayer together, out loud, for the benefit of those who are praying it for the first time. Repeat after me: Say "God, I believe God. I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Jesus Christ is the son of God.

I believe he died on the cross And rose from the grave.

Father, forgive me of my sin, Where I've compromised. Help me stop that" And move closer and closer to you, God. Today is the day where I follow you, Every head bowed, every eye closed. I just want to know, by a show of hands, those of you who made the commitment right now to trust in Jesus for the first time, just letting us know, And then I'm gonna tell you to fill out a form so that you can keep letting us know, keep taking steps toward God, because I want all of us to recognize, one day, that new name, one day, that new identity, and be admitted into the, into the eternity that God has promised.

So if that was you, the count of three, just shoot up your hand real quick.

If you made the decision to follow Jesus, one, 2, 3. Amen, Hey, can we celebrate those who just trusted in Jesus?