Good morning South Fellowship Church. It’s so good to see you all this morning. If you’re tuning in online, we’re glad you’re here and joining us as well. And one of the challenges of teaching through the book of Revelation is My Bible does this. I don’t know. I can’t. Would you pray for me? I don’t know if I can handle that.

I don’t know. Alright. That’s one of the challenges. There’s other challenges to come. It’s so good to see you all. Hey, if you’re new or newish, my name is Aaron Bjorklund. I’m one of the pastors here at South. And if that is you, we have a place just for you out in the lobby. It’s called the New Here Table.

That’s a place where you can come and see A little bit more about what South is and then it’s an opportunity for us to get to know you and see if this might be a community. where you could find connection, community, and might be a community that would help you learn to live in the way of Jesus, with the heart of Jesus more and more.

And so I would encourage you to check that out. If you’re new here, and you don’t call yourself a follower of Jesus, we’re glad you’re here. Good news for you today. You’re off the hook today because most of what I’m going to be talking about today is for those of us who do call ourselves followers of Jesus.

So you get to sit back and relax, maybe get a sneak preview of what it might look like for you if you decided to follow Jesus. And then you can also see maybe you can quietly judge us because we don’t do so good at some of these things. And Christians aren’t supposed to judge, but if you don’t call yourself a follower of Jesus, you can judge away.

Enjoy. So this we’re continuing in our series through the book of revelation. Now the book of revelation is a genre of scripture that doesn’t even really exist anymore. It’s apocalyptic literature. As we learned in the beginning part of the series, that doesn’t mean end times. That actually just means to reveal.

And this book is revealing a lot about Jesus. And but there’s a lot of strange imagery, a lot of strange things going on. It’s a hard genre of scripture to understand and interpret. So maybe more like more than ever, this is a great opportunity for you to send your questions to redcouchtheology.

com. Alex and I run a midweek podcast, and if you go to redcouchtheology. com, you can fill out just this tiny little form that allows you to submit a question. If there’s anything strange in the passage that we cover today, or anything in Revelation, you can feel free to ask those questions there, and we’ll do our best to address them.

At the beginning of this series, Alex challenged us with something, if you remember. He challenged us this, Don’t miss Jesus. in his own revelation. Revelation chapter 1 verse 1 says this, the revelation from Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. So Alex pointed out that this entire book, this entire genre of scripture is designed to reveal or expose who he really was.

and is, and he, to give us greater insight into the heart of Jesus, the character of Jesus, and what God’s up to. So we’re, our intention today is gonna be to make sure that we don’t miss Jesus in his own revelation. So today I have a unique challenge, a challenge that I’m gonna give myself, and you can hold me accountable to this challenge.

I have two goals today. My, my first goal is to talk about sin. and to tell you and convince you that sin is far more dangerous and far more threatening to your soul than you could possibly imagine, and that it’s far more something that happens to us and we fall into far easier than we could possibly imagine.

But then I have a seemingly conflicting goal with that goal. So one, goal one is to talk about sin and convince us that it’s far worse than we imagined. And then my second goal is to convince you that talking about sin can actually be one of the most life giving. things that we can talk about. So you see the tension there, right?

So we’re going to talk about sin today. And we’re going to, and my hope is that by the end of this, you’re going to be like, I’m so glad we talked about sin because talking about sin can actually be life giving. Are we ready? I’m scared, so let’s pray. Father God, thank you so much for this morning, for this opportunity that we have to sit before your word, this powerful word that you spoke to us to guide us into pathways of life.

Lord, I pray that you would shake up the ground. You would help us to be ready for whatever you have for us. Like we just say, we ask this in your name. Amen. So if you have your Bible, I’d encourage you to turn to Revelation 2, starting in verse 12. We’ve been going through this book section by section.

We’re currently in the section of the Revelation where God writes these letters to the various churches in the ancient world there. And so we’re going to be diving into the letter to the church in Pergamum. It’s a short enough passage, so I’m just going to read the whole thing, just so we get a bird’s eye view of what’s going on in this passage.

Revelation 2, starting in verse 12. So listen to this. To the angel of the church in Pergamum, or maybe if you’ve wondered as we’ve gone throughout this series, what’s going on with this angel, Does the church have a dedicated angel? There’s some different debates about that, but it’s really the messenger.

The word angel there means messenger. So maybe this is the pastor, the preacher, the primary communicator to the angel of the church in Pergamum, or maybe there’s some other things going on there, but let’s I digress. To the angel of the church in Pergamum, write, These are the words of him who has a sharp, double edged sword.

I know where you live, where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city, where Satan lives. Nevertheless, I have a few things against you. There are some of you who hold to the teachings of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin, so that they would eat food, sacrifice to idols, and commit sexual immorality.

Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teachings of the Nicolaitans. Repent, therefore. Otherwise, I will soon come to you and I will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna.

I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, just like we sang, a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it. This is God’s word to us today. So when I first read this passage and Alex assigned this text to me, I read it through. The first thing I thought is maybe the big idea for this is it’s the city where Satan has his throne and the city where Satan dwells.

Maybe the first tip I could give you is maybe you should move out of the city where Satan lives. I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s the big idea of it. It probably isn’t the big idea, but that was the first thing that popped in my head. And I think it’s good advice. I don’t think that’s actually what’s going on here.

Don’t move out of the city where Satan lives. That’s not what’s going on here. What he’s saying is that the city is saturated with the things of Satan. It’s saturated with a ton of stuff that’s going on in this city where Satan’s way, his desires are happening quite a bit in the city. So let’s talk about.

Pergamum a little bit. This is a picture of the ruins in Pergamum. It’s high up on this hill. It’s a beautiful city. It was a beautiful city. We know a ton about Pergamum because it’s one of the most excavated ancient ruins of all of these churches that we’re gonna be studying in Revelation. And it was a sort of melting pot of religious beliefs.

Pergamum had temples to everything. So for example, Pergamum. Pergamum had a temple to Zeus or the king of kings. If you know your ancient Greek mythology, you know that Zeus was the big powerful king and God. And so they had a temple to Zeus. You can go and worship at the temple of Zeus.

And maybe if that was your philosophy and you’d worship there, you’re if I get this one I get all the other ones, right? But they also had a temple to Dionysus which was the god of revelry or pleasure. If you just liked to party a lot or if you just really wanted to commit sexual immorality or whatever, that, and you just go there and that’s how you worshipped there.

Dionysus, they also had a temple to Demetor, who was the god of food or of of crops. And so maybe if you’re a a farmer and you’re growing things, you want a good crop, you would go and you would offer some sacrifices to the, at the temple of Demetor. They also had a temple to Asclepius, or the god of healing.

And actually Pergamum was really well known for healing. It’s as a healing center, like the central medical advancement city in this ancient part of, in this part of the world, ancient world, and people will come from all around to get treated by these doctors. But this was a hybrid medical advancement mixed with which doctors thing.

And so you, they would treat you and with their new advancements. And if they couldn’t heal you there, then they would send you into a trance and you would ask asclepius. What’s wrong with me so the doctors can treat me better and then that you come out of the trance You tell your doctor how to treat you and then so on and so forth And if that didn’t work They may send you in a trance and put you in a cave and then put snakes all over your body And then they would shout Encouraging words down to you inside of your cave.

And then they believed that there was power in these serpents. And actually this image that you see here that represents medical things, it still comes straight from this city. Asclepius was the, so they believed that this was a powerful healing city, but it was all wrapped up in the worship of this particular god.

Or there was a temple to Athena, the god of wisdom for war, or just wisdom in general, and you could worship there. Or there was a, the temple to Trajan. Now Trajan was an emperor, and they would worship the empire there. And so Trajan wasn’t necessarily in power at this time, but it was still where they would go, and they would worship the emperor as god.

And so this is the city that this church is in. In many ways, Pergamum was the cheesecake factory menu of the religious Rome. So you had so many options. You could just keep on turning the pages and anything goes. This was the city of, you do you. You believe your thing and I’ll believe my thing and that’s fine.

They just mixed and matched any given religious worldview you could possibly imagine. This was the city.

But I love how he opens his letter to this church. And something you’re gonna notice as we study these letters is at the very beginning of his letter to each church, he offers them a little bit of insight into the fact that he sees their situation, he sees their circumstance. Look at what he says in verse 12.

He says this, to the angel of the church in Pergamon write, these are the words of him who has a sharp, double edged sword. Now see, what’s going on with this sword? For this church, they would have understood exactly what he meant because they would have pictured this sword. This was a battle sword in the Roman Empire.

The military would carry a sword like this in, in, into battle, but also a lot of the high officials would wear a sword like this because there was a rule in Rome called Eus Gladii, which means the right of the sword. that if you’re a Roman official, you had the right to capital punishment at any moment.

And so you would carry this sword to remind people and walk around the city that you could take their life at any moment. And the reason that was powerful for this particular church is because we knew, we know that this church actually had that happen to them because of this passage. Look what it says later on.

I know where you live, where Satan has his throat. Throne, yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city, probably by one of those swords where Satan lives. I think the first thing that Jesus speaks to this particular city is, I see you.

I see how difficult it is in your city. I see that there’s swords walking around the city and they’re a threat to life. And you’ve experienced the loss of life from within your own church family because of one of these swords. I see that. And then he also says that I see that this is a city of Satan.

You’re surrounded by all this pagan worship. I see And I think Jesus sees and acknowledges our circumstances as well. This is one of the first things we learn about the character of Jesus from this particular letter. He sees and he knows. And you’re going to find this pattern. We saw it in Ephesus. We saw it in Smyrna.

We see it now in Pergamum. And he’s going to continue this pattern of seeing and identifying the unique challenges of each church. But the other reason that would be comforting for this church is because maybe they have this sense of relief because, Jesus has a sword too, right? There’s this sense of my God has the same, this sword.

And maybe they have this curiosity. Sword represented in Rome, it represented judgment and justice. This is why Euskadi represented justice of Rome, but it also represents justice in this case, because they’re thinking maybe we will get justice too from the sword that Jesus carries. But I’m going to have to ask the question, what is that sword and who is it for?

I’m not going to answer that question yet, but I just want to, I want to point out there’s a tension here because the kind of sword that Jesus carries is a different kind of sword than what we just looked at a moment ago. So we’ll get back to that question in just a moment. But he pivots in verse 14.

And what’s going on is he acknowledges that they live in this intense place And that there’s this danger, a threat of death in the city, but then he pivots because he believes that there’s a greater threat than that. I might say it this way. The greatest threat to this church wasn’t a sword and it wasn’t that they would renounce their faith.

So what is the greatest threat to this particular church? We’ll find that out starting in verse 14. It says this, nevertheless, I have a few things against you. Amen. There are some among you who hold to the teachings of Balaam, who taught Balaam to entice the Israelites to sin, so that they ate food, sacrificed idols, and committed sexual immorality.

Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teachings of the Nicolaitans. Repent, therefore, otherwise I will soon come to you, and I will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. So what’s going on with this character, Balaam? We need to look back into the Old Testament. a little bit to get some context.

So Balaam was this character. For those who’ve been around the Bible for a long time, you might know the story really well. It’s actually a fascinating story. I highly encourage you to go back and read in Numbers chapter 22 through 24. Interesting story. The Israelites are In the countryside and they’re headed towards entering the promised land and they are camped out in this valley and they’re headed towards the empire where Baelic, who’s mentioned in our passage today, is the king or he’s the regional lord of that area and he’s very nervous.

Because he has heard stories about the Israelites taking land from other lords and other sort of officials and that sort of thing. And so he’s very nervous and so he reaches out to Balaam. Balaam is this pagan prophet who they saw as having tremendous power and therefore Balak reaches out to him and says, Hey, Balaam, I will pay you a ton of money if you will come and you will curse the Israelites.

And then maybe I’ll have a chance to have victory. So he reaches out to Balaam and Balaam says no. And then he reaches out and offers him even more money. And he says no again. And then this kind of goes on for a little bit. Eventually Balaam agrees to come. And so he mounts his donkey and he’s on his way to meet with Balak.

And then the donkey stops and he’s whipping the donkey. He’s trying to figure out why the donkey won’t move. And then this is, The famous story where the donkey opens his mouth and starts talking to Balaam and says, can’t you see the crazy angel in my walkway? I’m being prevented from walking. I’m saving your life.

Balaam’s donkey talks to him and Balaam’s okay, I get the message. God, I need to be paying attention to you. So then eventually he remounts his donkey, he goes and he meets Balak and he climbs up on this mountain. He’s looking down on Israel and he says, by the way Balak, I’m here. I told you no multiple times, but just so you know, I can only say what God tells me to say.

And so Balak’s yeah, sure. Curse them. And he goes, So he raises his hands and he blesses Israel. And actually, throughout the course of this blessing, he speaks some of the coolest little prophecies about the coming of a messiah from this people later on. And then, Balaam gets furious and says, No, try again!

And he reaches out his hands and he blesses Israel. And what we see in this character, at least initially, is you start to think, Okay, Balaam was a little bit off his rocker at first, but eventually God got ahold of him and he started to speak the words of God, right? And but we find out later that’s not entirely what’s going on.

At first in the Balaam story, the greatest threat to Israel appears to be Balaam’s curse, but we don’t learn it from that particular section of scripture. But if you fast forward several chapters later in Numbers 31, we find out something else that took place behind the scenes. This is a different context, so I won’t go into who they are, but they were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord.

in the Peor incident. So that a plague struck down the Lord’s people. So here’s what’s going on. Balaam is asked by Balak to come and curse Israel. And that looks like the greatest threat, but God prevents it. In fact, he uses this pagan prophet to bless his people. And so it’s yay, we win. But then Balak is so angry.

He’s come on, is there anything you can do for me? And so he says, all right, here’s what we can do. I can’t curse them. But here’s what you should do. You should send some beautiful women into their camp and entice the men into sexual immorality. They’ll marry your daughters and they will begin to worship the gods that your daughters worship.

And gradually over a long time, you will undo this nation from the inside out.

That’s what’s going on in our text. So if you fast forward back to our passage. And you look at verse 14, there are some among you who hold to the teachings of Balaam, who basically taught that you could subvert the whole system by just trickling in a little bit of sin here and there, trickling in just a little bit of idolatry here and there, and you can undo them from the inside out.

And that’s exactly what happened to Israel. So the greatest threat appeared to be Balaam’s curse, but proves to be the slow drift. into idolatry. So what’s idolatry? I’m glad you asked. Idolatry is ascribing ultimate value or allegiance to something other than God. And what’s sin? Sin is any thought, action, or attitude that goes against God’s will and standard, whether done intentionally, that’s called rebellion, or unintentionally, ignorance and weakness.

disrupting the relationship between God and humanity. And God takes this deadly seriously. God takes sin deadly seriously. Why? Because He is the author of life. And when we sin, we disrupt our relationship with the author of life. He’s the giver of life. Our passage goes on. And it talks about these Nicolations.

It’s the exact same thing. It’s the two illustrations of the exact same idea. We learned a little bit about the Nicolations a couple of weeks ago when Alex preached. There’s theories about who this particular character was that started this movement. But essentially this was a movement in the early church that said, the grace is so big and so majestic and so glorious that you can do whatever you want.

You can sacrifice to idols. You can mix in Jesus plus. Jesus plus a little bit of this and a little bit of that. It helps you get through society, right? You can, it’s unreasonable for God to expect us to just do it. completely be different than society around us, especially in some of these areas. And so the Nicolaitans taught you could just take the religions of the day and mix them in with Jesus and you were good to go.

So it’s the same idea as this teachings of Balaam. And so the greatest threat to this church is a slow drift away from the author of life. It’s not the sword. It’s not that they would renounce their faith. They weren’t saying Jesus isn’t Lord. That wasn’t the risk. They’d already stood up for their faith.

The greatest risk was they were gonna let themselves drift a little bit at a time away from the heart of God and the giver of life into the giver of death. So I’ve noticed this trend over the past three weeks as we’ve been studying these churches. I feel like there’s this pendulum that takes place in these passages.

The first week where we started addressing churches, we learned about the church at Ephesus, right? Remember the context in the, in Rome that’s taking place right now when this is, this letter is written. The pressure is being turned up on these churches. Rome is laying down the law. There’s Christians beginning to lose their lives because they’re standing up for their faith.

Even Jews are starting to throw the Christians under the bus and try and protect themselves. So the pressure is turning up on the Christians, right? And we learned from the church in Ephesus, the way they dealt with this pressure is they became insular. They started to get their ducks in a row, their theology right.

This guy’s bad, that person’s a bad person and morally impure and this person’s good and they’re inside of our circle and they started to close the doors and protect themselves from the world outside. And we learned from Alex’s message a couple weeks ago that his, the challenge to that church is you’ve lost your first love, which was actually your love for the lost.

It was your first love, was that you had doors that were wide open at the risk of your own lives, and you loved people around you, and you invited them into the way of Jesus. So that was the risk that they made. They got insular, and they got them focused, and they tried to protect what was theirs, right?

And then we have Smyrna, which we learned about last week, was the balancing act between these two churches. And in Smyrna, there’s no critique of this particular church that’s direct. Instead, what Dan reminded us last week is That God reaches into this church and says, hang in there. I know you’re poor, I know the pressure’s high, but hang in there guys, hang in there, I got you.

I see you. That’s Smyrna. And then Pergamum is the pendulum swung the other way. Pergamum is the place where they’re like, the pressure’s turning up, let’s just fudge the rules here and there. Let’s do a little bit of idol worship. Maybe that the guys after work are going and they’re gonna participate in some temple worship and sleep with prostitutes at the temple there, whatever it may be.

And I, I’m going to go and we can cross my fingers behind my back. I might worship the emperor a little bit so that I could get into some economic systems that I couldn’t otherwise. This was the risk that this church ran.

And my challenge for us today is that I think we run the same risk here at South Fellowship Church. One of the, one of the threats to us is that we begin to mix our allegiances to Christ with other allegiances. This is the risk we run church, because we too live in a world and in a country where there’s a plethora of options.

We don’t have temples on every corner, but every single thing that the world tells you is the key to happy life could represent an idol. Health. I’m just going to become really fit and then people will see me as fit and my identity will be wrapped up in my fitness, whatever that can become an idol.

Your bank account. If you’re saying, I trust Jesus, but I got to work my tail off and make sure I grow this massive bank account and that’s what’s really my safety and my security is that thing. That’s idolatry. Or perhaps it’s your perspective of politics. And you say, I, if I could just get my person in office, then everything will be happy and safe and secure.

Idolatry, the only place, the only one who can protect us and keep us safe and who can provide for his people is God. And any other option in the world is idolatry. I promise we’re gonna get to the part where sin is life giving in just a moment.

So this is the risk that we run, church. We’re going to talk about that sword again for just a moment. Look what he says in verse 16. This is his challenge to this church. And I think it’s a challenge for us to repent, therefore, otherwise I will soon come to you and we’ll fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

Earlier on in this message, I just, I asked the question, what is this sword and who is it for? What is this sword and who is it for? Likely, again, the sword represents justice and judgment, but it’s also a judgment against those who would allow this teaching into the community. It’s a judgment against those who misuse, use gladii and kill Christians.

But it’s the nature of this sword is it is the word of God. Notice what he says in verse 16. He says, it’s the sword of my mouth. The kind of sword Jesus wields is a different kind of sword. It’s not a sword made of metal and wood. It is a sword of his word. We know that from Hebrews chapter four. Verse 12 says this, for the Word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double edged sword.

It penetrates even to the dividing of souls and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart. What he’s saying is my Word is coming against you. My By the way, his word is no light thing because he created the universe by the word of his power. And his word is more powerful than any physical sword can ever be.

So he says, be careful. If you allow this to creep in, if you allow sin and idolatry to creep into the church, my powerful word will come against you. And it’s interesting. He says it will come against them. Actually, I will soon come. to you and I will fight against them. So it’s those who would teach that this is completely okay.

And the them is also those who would misuse the physical sword to kill Christians. And so this is what God’s word is, or the sword is. It’s God’s word. The sword is a judge against those who destroy life. Again, I mentioned this in passing before, the reason God cares a lot about sin is because sin leads to death and righteousness leads to life.

Idolatry and sin destroys life. And God wants life for his people. God wants life for you. That’s why he cares. He cares because he wants life for you and for you and for me. And every time I choose to sin, I choose to take a step towards death.

But remember, God also sees the challenge that this church faced, right? And so there’s a really encouraging word that he gives us in verse 17. Look what he says. Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna.

I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it. So what’s going on with this hidden manna? Bye bye. Remember last week, if you were here last week, Dan talked about the church in Smyrna had decided to stand up and say, no, we are not going to bow the knee to the empire.

And as a result, they were probably removed from the economic systems of the city and they were impoverished. God’s challenging this church to essentially do the same thing, and to remove themselves from the systems of the world that the social systems, the economic systems the friendship structures that they might have had before, and to stand up and stay true to Jesus and Jesus alone.

And he says, but you don’t understand. I can feed you with a food you don’t even know what it is. That’s actually what manna means. It means a food. We don’t even know what it is. And in the Old Testament, God fed his people in that same wilderness. When Balaam was there, that same wilderness that God fed them with manna, he would literally give them physical food from heaven down to the earth, and he would feed his people.

Hang tight, just like in Smyrna. It’s only gonna be a season, but I can feed you with a food you don’t even understand. And even if you were to starve, there is a feast in the new kingdom, on the new heavens, in the new earth, that you can’t possibly imagine. Hang in there. I will also give them a white stone.

Scholars debate what this meant, but most likely it’s a combination of all of these things. So the white stone in Pergamum was most likely an invitation to a guild or like a recognition. It’s like a name plate. They would carve your name into a white stone and you were part of this workman’s guild or whatever it may be.

Or it could also mean it was an invitation to a social circle or a big political event. or a big social event or a sporting event, you’d have your name written on a white piece of stone. And he’s I know if you stand up for me and you decide I’m going to worship Jesus and Jesus alone, even though I’m in this pressure cooker of a city, I will give you an invitation to the kingdom of heaven.

And there’s no one who could ever take that from you. He sees how hard this ask is. And he tells them, I can feed you with food you don’t even understand. And I can give you an invitation To a better kingdom, even if you were to die like Antipas died, no one could ever take that from you. But whatever you don’t let sin creep in.

And so he challenged them to repent, repent and cling to Jesus only. He will sustain you. All right. So how is this life giving? Intense yet?

How is this life giving? The greatest threat. to your soul is that you would step away from the giver of life. Everything in all of the scriptures shouts to you that he is the only source of true life. And I’m not even just talking about eternal life. Okay. Let’s set that aside. Like we always immediately go in the modern evangelical minds to get to think, Oh, he’s talking about eternal life and eternal death.

Okay, that’s a component of this. Fair enough. But every time I’m a follower of Jesus, every time if you are a follower of Jesus, you sin, you take a step away from life and into death. You decide, you know what? Life ain’t that great. I don’t want life. I would prefer to die a little bit inside. So I choose sin.

And so he doesn’t want that for you. This is why it’s a big deal. Talking about sin can be life giving because talking about sin exposes it to the light and it’s the first step to taking a step that’s different. Taking a step that is different is what repentance is all about. Repentance just means I don’t want to go towards death, I decide to make a decision to walk towards life.

So the greatest threat to you is that is a slow drift away from the author of life. Just like it was the greatest threat to this church, God doesn’t want us to drift slowly away from life and into death. Romans says it like this, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Now, again, there’s eternal implications to this, but I think we sometimes get lost in the internal implications of this. If you’re a follower of Jesus, there is no eternal death for you. The cross is the main, the primary sword that God wielded against evil and sin and death. He wielded the sword at the cross and he defeated sin and death once and for all.

Okay, so that’s off the plate. This text still applies to you. You are safe eternally. Let’s just leave that there. But if you choose to sin, you’re choosing death. And so I’ve said this in counseling sessions with people at times when the grace of God is huge. But if you choose to live in sin, it’s killing you and you know it and I know it.

When I choose to sin, I recognize that more and more as I get older, I recognize it’s killing me. When I choose anger, it is one tiny death at a time. So see, it’s much more dangerous than you could possibly imagine. But to talk about it, to reveal it, to expose and repent of our sin is an invitation to life and life abundant.

This is what he longs for us, church. So lately this is my daughter, Clara. We’ve been taking walks. Out in the neighborhood. And lately we would, we’ve been even taking shorter walks where she’s not even in the stroller and man alive. It is an adventure following this little kid around because she is like the most distracted little kid ever.

And so she sees a little bug on the ground and she’s constantly bopping around and this and that and this and that and stuff. And so it’s a ton of fun. And the way I picture , the way I picture her is she’s just exploring everything that life’s HA life has to offer. She’s ex discovering bugs for the first time and this flower, and she’s smelling different flowers.

It’s so great, right? But every time she starts to approach the street, what a Allison and I do, oh, Clara, that represents death. That repre represents danger. Or when she starts to climb up into someone’s yard and tries to walk on the rocks. Oh. You’re not sure enough on your feet yet for that.

Let’s go back to the path. See, I would not be a good father if I just let her have complete reign at her age of everything. I want her to explore life. I want her to see the bugs, but I don’t want her running around in the road. So a good God doesn’t let us run into death. I’m sorry. A good God doesn’t let us run into death.

Repentance is only when you turn from death to life. I think repentance gets such a bad rap because doesn’t that sound amazing? Let’s turn from death towards life. I think we should repent a lot more. I think I should repent a lot more because I don’t want to continue to take steps towards death. And so I’ll say it again.

Today, the invitation to the Church of Pergamum and the invitation for you is to repent and cling to Jesus only. He will sustain you. He can sustain you. In his famous book, Everything Sad is Untrue, Daniel Mary, I don’t know if I’m pronouncing it right. You’d probably help me out if you guys could. It’s an incredible book.

He tells his life story, but he uses it through all these little short stories. I highly recommend the book. But he tells the story of his mom. It’s a true story. One time, she was living in a country where Christianity was outlawed. And he starts the story like this. One time, she hung a little cross necklace from the rear view mirror.

of her car, which was probably a reckless thing to do. My mom was like that. One day after work, she went to the car and there was a note stuck to the windshield. It said, Madam Doctor, she was a doctor, if we see this cross again, we will kill you. To my dad, who was not a Christian at the time, this is the kind of story that proves his point, that my mom was picking a fight.

That she couldn’t live quietly and saved everyone to the heartache that would come if she had just kept her head down. If she just stopped telling people, if she pretended just a few holidays a year that nothing had changed, she could still have everything. My mom took the cross down that day. Then she got a cross so big it blocked half the windshield and she put it up.

Why would anybody live with their head down? Besides, the only way to stop believing something is to deny it yourself, to hide it, to act as if it hasn’t changed your life. Another way to say it is that everybody is dying and going to die of something. And if you’re not spending your life on stuff you believe, then what are you doing?

What is the point of the whole thing? It’s a tough question because most people haven’t picked anything worthwhile. And I recognize that standing up for your faith does not put you at threat of death very often. But again, that’s not the greatest risk. The greatest risk is that the teachings of Balaam would just creep in and you just slide and you drift and you drift and before you know it, you can’t hear his voice anymore.

And before you know it, you can’t access life. Before you know it, you can’t interact with the giver of everything good and everything beautiful. I’m going to invite Hannah up to close our service time today. Church I long for us to have an opportunity to do what we talked about today. An opportunity to repent, to turn from death to life. And I don’t know what that is for you. And it can be small things, it can be huge things. The point is, anything is a decision, any sin, any idolatry in your soul is a decision for death rather than life.

And I just encourage you to take this time as we’re singing this song, and to do some repentance in your soul. I don’t know what that is for you. There’s going to be a prayer team around the room if you want to be prayed for. And if I get it, that might be hard. You’re like, they’re going to think if I walk up to the prayer team that I’m a sinner.

Guess what? If you don’t think you’re a sinner, that’s the first thing you should probably repent of. And it’s going to be fine. It’s going to be fine. If you don’t want to share with them what’s going on in your soul, every single one of us could go up, myself included, and share something with the prayer team.

But it’s just an opportunity for you to say, Lord, before you, no one’s going to kill me, no one’s threatening me, but I’m going to hang out my cross and I’m going to choose to stand for Jesus and Him alone. And I want all other idols, every other safety net that I have, I want to lay it aside because I want access to manna that I don’t understand.

And I want access to a stone with my name written on it where I have access to the throne room of the giver of life. So if that’s you and you want let’s go ahead and stand and we’re going to sing this song and the prayer team is going to be dotted around. There’s a prayer space in the back if you want to go there and we’re just going to take a moment to sing the song and make commitments.

Do some repentance. Let’s sing.