Dedicated Churches: Lessons from Smyrna and Philadephia

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Well, I invite you to take out your Bible and turn with me to the book of Revelation chapter two.
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We're going to be looking at verse eight.
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You know, pardon me as I take a sip of water.
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Apparently, this is very out of vogue now.
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I'm suffering along with my baby daughter, who is home today with a cold.
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I think I'm suffering something similar.
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So, so far in this series and revelation, we have looked at two different types of churches which are described.
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The first week we looked at the churches which we described as dying churches, Ephesus and Sardis.
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And then in the second week, last week, we looked at the defiled churches, Pergamum and Thyatira.
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And here is the interesting thing, they're almost polar opposites regarding their problems.
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The dying churches had doctrine, but lacked love.
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The defiled churches had love, but they lacked true teaching.
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This should tell us something important about the responsibility of the true church, a true church to be a place where true love for Christ and true teaching of the word are both essential.
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If you have just one, you're out of balance.
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You can't have one at the expense of the other.
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As a church, we must always be seeking a balance between true love for Christ and true teaching of the word.
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We must never give up on holding to sound doctrine.
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But we must also never let doctrine destroy our passion for Christ, our love for each other and for him.
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Well, today we're going to examine two churches that seem to have both of these qualities.
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They seem to have a true love for Christ and a true love for his word.
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These we are identifying as the dedicated churches of the seven churches, the one which received the greatest of commendations.
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So let's stand and we're going to read from chapter two and chapter three, chapter two, verses eight through eleven and chapter three, verses seven through thirteen.
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Chapter two, verse eight says, and to the angel of the church of Smyrna, write the words of the first and the last who died and came to life.
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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.
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Do not fear what you're about to suffer.
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Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested.
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And for 10 days you will have tribulation.
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But be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life.
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He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.
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The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.
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Turning now to chapter three, verse seven, read about the church at Philadelphia, it says in verse seven and to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write the words of the holy one, the true one who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.
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I know your works.
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Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut.
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I know that you have but little power and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
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Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie.
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Behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I have loved you because you have kept my word about patient endurance.
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I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth.
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I am coming soon.
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Hold fast what you have so that no one may seize your crown.
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The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.
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Never shall he go out of it.
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And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God and the new Jerusalem, which comes down from God out of heaven and my own new name.
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He who has an ear to hear what the Spirit says, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
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Our Father and our God, we come to you in Jesus name.
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We thank you and praise you for your word.
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And I pray, O Lord, that as we seek to learn how these churches might give application to our own and how your commendations to them might encourage us towards a closer walk with you.
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Both individually and as a church.
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I pray first and foremost, as always, Lord, that you would keep me from error in my teaching.
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And that you would open the hearts of the people to the truth and that, Lord God, we would not just hear the word, but that we would be doers of the word.
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We pray this in Jesus name and for his sake.
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Amen.
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Now, it is safe to say that both of the churches that have been mentioned here today, Smyrna and Philadelphia, are quite different.
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As we've seen in this series.
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My connection of different churches together is not necessarily because they have the same issues or the same problems, but because they are of the same type and the same here.
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They have different issues, these churches, that they're facing and they receive different commendations from Christ.
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But what I want us to see are the things from both of these that demonstrate their dedication, things that we can emulate as a church.
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So let's first look at the church called Smyrna or the church in Smyrna.
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You go back to chapter two and verse eight, you'll notice that Smyrna was a church plagued by two things.
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It was plagued first by persecution and then second, it was plagued by poverty.
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Now, many in the modern church, particularly those of the health and wealth movement, would say that this church was only going through these times of difficulties.
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It was only facing poverty because for some reason it lacked faith.
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If you think about it, what the health and wealth preachers say is that these people are lacking faith.
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That's why they're not getting the things that they need.
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But again, looking to the text, it says, I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich.
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It's an interesting phrase there, because we know when he says, but you are rich, he's not referring to physical riches.
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He's not referring to financial riches.
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He's referring specifically to spiritual riches, even though they were poor and battered materialistically, they were poor and battered financially.
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They were a rich church because they were rich spiritually.
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I think sometimes that's a good lesson for us all to learn.
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When we look at our bank account and it doesn't seem that there's there enough or we look at what's going on in our budget and we say, oh, it looks there like there might not be enough.
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We forget that there is that was a push.
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And the value in any church must first be in its spiritual bank account.
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That must be the foundation, and Smyrna is a church whose spiritual bank account was overflowing.
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Jesus goes on to say that this church was receiving slander and the slander was coming from the false religions.
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He said, Jews who are not.
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I like that phrase.
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He actually used that in Philadelphia as well.
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The Jews who are not.
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What does that mean? Well, it's the same thing Jesus talked about.
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I don't know if you remember when Jesus was talking to the Pharisees and they said, our father is Abraham, indicating their pedigree and indicating, hey, we're sons of Abraham.
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We are the true Jewish people.
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And Jesus said, you're not.
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If you truly were the sons of Abraham, you would believe in me for Abraham long to see my day.
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And that was when they said, well, how can you're crazy? How can Abraham long to see you today? You're not even 50 years old.
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And he said before Abraham was, I am indicating his own deity, talking about his preexisting nature, that he was, in fact, God in the flesh.
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But it's important because Jesus made the point that somebody can be a Jew by birth.
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But they cannot be not a true Jew by faith, because according to Scripture, those who are really the Jewish people are the people who have followed after Christ.
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That's interesting thought.
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If you look back into Romans and you'll see there how it talks about the ones who are true sons of Abraham are the ones who share the faith of Abraham.
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And you might not say they're true Jews, but what they are, they're true Christians, because in that essence, we are the sons and daughters of Abraham.
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How many of you sang that song when you were a child? Father Abraham had what? Many sons and many sons have I am one of them.
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And so are you.
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These people here may be Jews by birth, but they are not.
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God's people by faith, that's the point.
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He warns the church that tribulation is coming.
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He warns Smyrna, tribulation is coming.
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The 10 days spoken of here has been interpreted in different ways.
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He says 10 days of persecution is coming.
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Some people have seen this as the 10 persecutions under various Roman emperors.
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There were 10 different persecutions that the people endured.
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Others see it as 10 years, the time that the church suffered under Diocletian.
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And then, of course, there could have been a literal test which came for this church would last a literal 10 days.
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In any event, Jesus warns them that there is a coming persecution and he promises them that it will not be a perpetual persecution.
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There is an end in sight.
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Yes, you are going to suffer.
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Yes, you are going to suffer for a time.
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You are going to suffer for my name, but it's not going to last perpetually.
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Persecution for the faithful will always come to an end, even if that end is death.
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We know that which is in the hereafter for us is great indeed.
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This is why Christ exhorts them to be faithful in their persecution and they will receive a great reward.
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Now, it's important to note when you read about Smyrna from verses 8 through 11, you will notice there is no rebuke.
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So far, we have read about four churches, all of which received a commendation and then a stern rebuke, some deathly stern.
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But Smyrna receives no rebuke, not one.
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This is why I place it alongside Philadelphia and I call these, I reference these as the dedicated churches.
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These churches received from Christ a warning about a coming persecution, but not a condemnation.
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It gives them a commendation and an encouragement, you'll be with them during the persecution.
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And then we move to Philadelphia and we see in chapter seven of I'm sorry, chapter three and verse seven.
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Philadelphia.
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The other church, the dedicated church, the faithful church, the name Philadelphia.
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Philadelphia means what brothers, sisters? Brotherly love.
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And how do we know that? Philadelphia, the city, the city in America, right? That's the city of brotherly love.
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The name, however, was not given to the church because of the love within the church.
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It was actually the name of the place that the church was founded.
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And that place received its name from Atlas, not Atlas, but Atlas, whose love for his brother was legendary.
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Thus, they called the city the city of brotherly love.
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But the name did go well within the church as the church was an example of faithful love among the brethren.
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The little power that is spoken of here, as you'll notice, it says there that they have little power.
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That's not a reference to their spiritual abilities.
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The little power that they had was a reference to their political influence.
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It's not a rebuke.
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It's just that they had little social and political power in the area that they were in.
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The church was not filled with people of influence, yet it was still strong for the Lord.
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They were dealing with a similar persecution problem at Smyrna in both this and in the church of Smyrna.
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We see that they are referenced as having to deal with people who call themselves Jews, but they are not.
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And I don't believe that that is coincidental.
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I consider this to be a strong point that all of us should recognize.
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True and faithful churches are always coming under fire from those that are controlled by Satan.
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It just is the fact.
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True and faithful churches are always dealing with a negative spiritual influence.
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But in the midst of this, Philadelphia receives a concommendation.
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The church has kept the word they had not denied the name of Christ.
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And as a result, Philadelphia, Philadelphia rather, receives a great promise from Christ.
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Remember, this is Christ speaking to the churches.
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Sometimes I think we forget that he tells the church that they will that he will keep it from their hour of trial.
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The reference likely has a twofold fulfillment.
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It may speak of this church's protection under Roman persecution.
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But the deeper meaning may be that the faithful will be protected during times of tribulation, that the faithful will be protected during the times of difficulty.
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One of the things that we must realize, beloved, we may suffer persecution, but we will never suffer, suffer separation.
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You understand that we will suffer persecution, but we will never suffer separation.
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That's again, going back to the text, Romans chapter eight, neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor powers or anything in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
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So, yes, we will suffer persecution, but we will never suffer separation.
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If we are in Christ, we are in Christ forever.
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Jesus said they're in my hand, no one can snatch them out.
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I am in my father's hand.
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I and my father are one.
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No one can snatch them out of my hand.
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Jesus promises the great reward of the New Jerusalem, which if we were in a study of eschatology, I would go deeper into that.
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Suffice it to say that the New Jerusalem, which is referenced here, is given a great exposition later in the 21st chapter of Revelation, where Jesus, or John rather, says, I looked and behold, a new Jerusalem coming out of heaven, like a bride adorned for her husband.
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And I tell you, every time I preach a sermon for, I'm sorry, every time I preach a funeral for a believer, I reference that text.
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I reference the fact that there's coming a day when that heaven, that New Jerusalem will be inhabited by all believers and we will share that together.
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You see, that's what this church was encouraged by.
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Christ says, know this.
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Yes, you're going to suffer persecution.
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Yes, you're going to suffer by these people who call themselves Jews, but are not.
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But know this, there's coming a day when all will be made right and the New Jerusalem will come.
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So both of these churches are examples, are examples to us of dedication, they're examples to us of faithfulness.
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Neither receive a rebuke from Christ, which I find that incredibly significant because all of the other churches receive very stern rebukes and only two of the seven don't.
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And these are the two.
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Both of them instead receive praises from Christ and promises from Christ, that's what the dedicated church receives.
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So this leads me to the question of the day and where I'm going to go with my outline now, as we look at the application of this.
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When I ask the question and answer it, what are the marks of a dedicated church? What are the marks of a dedicated church? And here's our outline.
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Number one, a dedicated church is always at war with Satan.
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A dedicated church is always at war with Satan.
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You ever notice that both of these churches, it says they were in a place where the synagogue of Satan was.
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You know, there was another church mentioned where the synagogue of Satan was, but they weren't commended.
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So these churches are where the synagogue of Satan is, but yet they receive commendation.
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Jesus accounts all of the evil activity to the work of Satan in the world.
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The problem for many today, though, is that they don't believe that Satan actually exists.
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The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Genoa, Italy, was touted as a leading conservative among Roman Catholics and was once in line to replace John Paul II.
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He published 10 rules on how to resist Satan's temptations.
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Rule number one, he says, do not forget that the devil exists.
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Rule number two, do not forget that the devil is a tempter.
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Number three, do not forget that the devil is very intelligent and astute.
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Now, his pastoral letter did not go down too well with the Milan based Theological Study Center, which condemned it as encouraging irresponsibility.
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I'm not supporting Roman Catholic theology here, but I like what he wrote.
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But it is very poignant to me that the Theological Study Center said, we can't have that.
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We can't have this type of teaching.
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The study center claimed that what the cardinal was teaching was reaching back, and I'll quote it, it says, reaching back to the Middle Ages and ignoring scientific advances in psychology.
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That by acknowledging that Satan exists, that acknowledging that he's a tempter, acknowledging that he's intelligent and astute, well, that's going back to the Middle Ages, Archbishop, you can't do that.
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They claim that we should look into the human psyche rather than diabolical beings to explain evil, and that to attribute guilt to the devil could encourage people to be irresponsible.
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That's a quote, by the way.
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This Italian debate reflects a much wider argument within the church.
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Is the devil a real being, or is he simply symbolic of evil? Well, the Bible is unambiguous.
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The Bible is absolutely clear to the answer to that question.
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The devil, according to Scripture, is a real being whose goal is to thwart the plans of God.
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That is what the Bible teaches us.
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1 John 3, verse 8, Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.
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The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
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Very clear in that text.
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That, number one, the devil is a real being, that he's been here since the beginning sinning, and that Christ's work was for the purpose of eliminating the work of the devil.
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So, if the devil doesn't exist, why did Christ come? This text tells us one of the things that Christ did in coming was destroy the works of the devil.
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1 Thessalonians, chapter 2, the Apostle Paul says, I wanted to come to you again and again, but Satan hindered us.
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If Satan is not real, then the Apostle Paul, what is he even referring to here? Jesus is seen, right after his baptism, going into the wilderness, spending 40 days in the wilderness, and after this time of being without food, what is he, who is he tempted by? The text says he is tempted by the devil himself, with three temptations.
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And in the opening chapters of Genesis, Satan is seen as the tempter of Eve, encouraging her to be as like God.
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And then in our opening text this morning, when we read for the opening of the service, we read 1 Peter 5.8, what does 1 Peter 5.8 say? Be sober minded, be vigilant, for your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeing who he may devour.
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Peter describes Satan as our adversary, and the adversary of the church.
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But I must admit to you, I sometimes sit and wonder.
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I do that, meditate if you will, I sit and pray, I sit and wonder, I sit and think.
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One of the things that I've often had a hard time wrapping my mind around is a being that is absolutely opposed to God.
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A being that is himself the embodiment of all that which is evil.
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And it's quite a mindful thing to contemplate, how could he be? But then, I turn on the news, and I see buildings falling.
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I turn on the news and I see 3,300 abortions every day.
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I turn on the news and I see people killing other people for absolutely no reason.
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We talked about it yesterday in our men's meeting.
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Adam, police officer, gets to see this stuff every day.
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Wonders about how much he must believe in the devil to see his work.
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The 20th century, with all of its cultural relevance and enlightened thinking, has been the bloodiest century in the history of mankind.
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From the torturous Nazi camps, to the mass murders, to nuclear war, and to the modern holocaust of abortion.
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Satan has had his way.
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To deny his existence is foolish.
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It doesn't take long in our minds, if we really sit and think about it, to know that there's a shadowy figure behind it all.
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Somebody says one time, do you believe in all these conspiracies? I tell people, I very much believe in conspiracies, because I know there's one main conspirator out there.
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And it ain't the Bilderbergers and the whatevers.
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I don't even know who that is, I heard that name recently.
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The Bilderbergers do everything, I don't even know who that is.
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But I know one who is the conspirator.
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And it is he who is at war with God.
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He's not winning, he will not win, but he is still, in his heart, desirous of nothing more than to thwart the plan of God.
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And we are in this church, in every church, which is dedicated to the word, dedicated to the love of Christ, we are in a battle with him, all the time.
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A dedicated church is not friends with Satan.
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A dedicated church is his enemy.
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So believe that, that's important.
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Number two.
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They said a dedicated church is always at war with Satan.
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Number two.
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A dedicated church stands firm in the face of persecution.
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We see this in Smyrna and Philadelphia.
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All around the world, persecution is facing the church.
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In some areas, it is much more intense than others.
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But persecution happens everywhere, at some level.
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Recently, I saw a film that was based on a true story of a young Muslim college student, who came to America.
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When he came to America, he was converted to Christianity, and he returned home to his family overseas.
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But he was concerned about their acceptance of him, rightly so.
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He hid his new faith for a time, waiting to speak to his parents privately about the matter.
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And in the meantime, his Bible, which he had brought with him, was found hidden in his sheets.
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The father beat him and tried to force him into renouncing his faith, but he would not recant.
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And finally, he ran away, and his father and his uncle sought to kill him for blasphemy against Allah.
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His only recourse was that he found an underground church and was able to be kept safe from his own family.
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But what does the Bible tell us? Jesus said, I didn't come to bring peace, but a sore.
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A father will rise up against a child, and we know all these things will happen.
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And it's a reality.
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We don't think about that.
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We live in America.
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And we don't deal with this on a daily basis.
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But this is the reality for the underground church.
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This is a reality for churches in places like Iran and Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Muslim-run nations.
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This is their life.
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And it takes a true dedication to stand in the face of persecution.
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And we do have persecution here.
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There's persecution that happens in America.
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It may not be something like that.
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We see teachers lose their jobs as a result of speaking out about God's creation in the Bible.
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Ben Stein made a whole movie called Expelled about that very subject.
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People who were exited out of the academy.
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Expelled from the academy for teaching that evolution is not the truth and that God actually created the world.
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These teachers losing their jobs because they refuse to believe the lies of Darwinian thought.
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And that's just the beginning.
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The laws are becoming more and more anti-God in the name of tolerance.
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And the persecution is going to intensify.
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I believe that if America stays in the course that it is on, my generation will see a battle between the faithful and the wicked.
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Not necessarily will it be a war with weapons, but it will be a war with words.
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Where a preacher who stands to tell the truth will be imprisoned for the language that he uses because he will be called a person who says, hates speech.
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And my question is, will the church be willing to stand? Will we stand? Are we dedicated? A dedicated church is one that stands firm on the gospel.
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They stand firm on Christ.
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They stand firm on the truth.
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Even in the face of persecution, as the church of Smyrna in Philadelphia did.
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Finally, and thirdly, a dedicated church is driven by the word of God.
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A dedicated church is driven by the word of God.
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Twice, the church of Philadelphia is commended for their dedication to the word.
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Most of you know that one of the passions that I have carried with me throughout my ministry is that I believe in the absolute necessity of preaching God's word.
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My reason for this is simple.
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If we're going to be a dedicated church, if we're going to be a church that is pleasing to God, we have to stand on the word.
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We must stand on the whole word.
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I love Martin Luther's quote, and I want you to hear this quote.
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If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God, except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ.
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What's Luther saying? Luther's saying I can profess all about the word I want to, but if I am not talking about that which the devil is attacking, if I ignore that, then I'm not really professing Christ.
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I'm a preacher of convenience.
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That's why some people say, Pastor, I don't think you should preach on abortion.
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Abortion is the greatest act of violence that any nation has ever brought upon its people.
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And yet we say nothing.
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I don't think you should talk about it, Pastor.
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I can't not talk about it.
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We can't not preach about the changing of language in marriage.
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We can't not talk about calling sinful lifestyles holy.
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We can't not talk about it.
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If we refuse to stand on the whole word and only stand on a part of it, we're not standing on it at all.
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One thing that Jesus says to the church of Philadelphia, you have kept my word.
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Wouldn't we want Christ to say the same thing to us? Now, it is certain that in these churches, Smyrna and Philadelphia, it is certain that there were faults.
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No church is perfect.
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But not one of those faults is mentioned by Christ.
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Why is that? Well, the text doesn't tell us for certain, but I think about 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 8.
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1 Peter 4 verse 8 says that love covers a multitude of sins.
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These churches loved Jesus.
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These churches loved His word.
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They lived for Him and they loved for Him.
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And I believe that's why no condemnation is mentioned.
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And I hope that that would be the desire for our church.
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But we must always remember that the church is not made up of one person.
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The church is made up of individuals.
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Individuals who should be working together if we hope to achieve the goal of being a dedicated church.
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Let's pray.
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Our Father and our God, we thank You for Your word.
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We thank You for seeing in these churches things that we can emulate.
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We pray, O Lord, that we will stand firm on the word of truth.
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That we will stand firm even when things become difficult.
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Even if persecution comes.
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Even if we have to look the devil right in the face.
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Help us to always stand firmly on the bedrock of Christ.
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Lord, we praise You for Your strength.
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What You give to us for times such as those.
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And we pray that we will seek to be a dedicated church and seek to remain a dedicated church.
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To love each other, to love You, and to love Your word.
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In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen.
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I invite you to remain seated as Byron plays for us a song.
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And I invite you to meditate during the song.