Church at Thyatira - Revelation 2:18-29

This is Thyatira. What's real interesting is we're kind of in the middle of the seven churches. So here's number four. Thyatira was the smallest of the seven cities, and yet we have the longest letter or message here out of the seven messages to the churches. So we have almost a paradox there. We've got the smallest of the cities, the longest of messages.

And something else I'd like to point out, this was a city that was small compared to the other seven cities, but a key characteristic, and this shows up, page one, last paragraph there, what was very important in this city is the trade guilds. The trade guilds were very important in the city and they're also very important in the understanding of this passage. What do I mean by the trade guilds? The trade guilds, because they had various crafts like cloth dyeing, they had bronze works that they had in some of these guilds, pottery, garment making, so they had some of these trade guilds.

But the difficulty is this, the trade guilds would meet about once a month in the pagan temple buildings and their invocation would be a sacrifice to one of the pagan gods. And then once having made that sacrifice, that's lunch, right? And then at the end they'd sacrifice again and follow that with orgies.

Now, the thing was, it wasn't a requirement that you be a part of the trade guild. It's just that if you weren't a part of one of the trade guilds, you kind of got pushed out of a lot of the opportunities to buy and sell products. To get things supplied to you and to sell it. The marketplace was First priority given to the trade guilds.

So there were a great number of obstacles in the way of Christians here and some real issues. It's kind of like, you know, do you want to eat? Well, if so, then you've got to go to these monthly trade guilds. And if you go to the monthly trade guild, you know what's going to happen. So Christians had issues there, and a great number of the Christians had this right in front of them in order to be able to have some kind of a decent livelihood. It was a real challenge.

Okay, let's look at page 2 here. What we have here is, we look at verse 18, which you see in bold there on page 2. to the angel of the church of Thyatira write the son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet are like burnished bronze says this. Now there are a couple of really important things about this verse. It's the only preface to the message to any of these churches that makes a claim to a title from outside of Revelation chapter 1. Mostly what you see in the introductions to the messages is there's something taken from Revelation chapter 1 in order to build this introduction to each of the messages. This is the one exception. And what you see there is the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire.

That's what's different, but it's unique because the They had a primary deity there in the city of Scyatira. It was known as a son of the chief of the gods. The chief of the gods was who? Zeus, right? So being the son of Zeus, that was kind of the city's claim. That's our chief deity. So who was Christ? The son of God. The son of God. What's interesting, the way the Greek here reads is the son of the God. Not the son of a God, as was their primary deity. The son of the one singular God.

And that's something you find not only here, but even in a lot of Paul's letters. Our English translations will just say God, when actually the Greek behind it says the God. the one singular God, the real God, as opposed to all the multiple phony gods that they had.

And the rest of the preface here refers to flames and feet like burnished bronze. Remember one of the crafts that was common in Thyatira was this bronze making. And so people, you know, even if you weren't in that business, you would walk by places where they were doing this bronze work. And so when this was set out in front of you, you'd say, oh, I know what that's like. People understood what the words meant here because they saw it commonly. Everybody saw it. Even if you didn't work in the industry, you saw it. It's pretty hard to walk by someplace where they're heating up this bronze and it is glowing and to avoid seeing that. You're going to notice. And so Christ pictures himself like this flame of fire and burnished bronze.

Let's take a look at a few slides here. Let's see. Hopefully get back there. Here is the big picture scene where we're finishing up. Chapter 2, step into Chapter 3, it'll still keep us in that section, the things which are, that part of the outline. And then here's Thyatira as we step through the cities. It's the second inland city of the seven, the smallest. Here's part of a residential building in what was Thyatira. Most of the city has now been covered up by the modern city that's there. So there's just a small part of it that's now visible.

Here is Apollo Timneus, the principal deity, shaking hands here with the Emperor. Now, the Emperor was also recognized as God, right? So here is the son of the gods. Here he is, the son of the chief deity, Zeus, there in their city emblem. And here's Augustus Caesar. He was the one who was reigning same time Joseph and Mary were told to go to Bethlehem. Here's Augustus Caesar.

He helped Thyatira rebuild after a big earthquake. That was one of the things that Rome did is they would take major cities that had gotten hit by an earthquake or some other natural disaster and help rebuild. One of the reasons for rebuilding was because then Rome gets more taxes, right? Get things going. Get some production so you can tax it. So they had some reason to kind of owe it to Rome because of that rebuilding period.

Okay, let's step on here, verse 19, which is the middle of page 2 there. I know your deeds. There's this pattern of I know, right? I know your deeds and your love and faith and service and perseverance and that your deeds of late are greater than at first.

In the Greek, it doesn't show up. We've got this thing hopping around. Guys in the back, we've got an issue with the slide set jumping around like we had a couple weeks ago. Just to let you know. Hopefully that gets your attention. Let's see, what we don't see in the English, but what shows up in the Greek, there's a definite article in front of most of the nouns in this verse. So let me read what that would look like. I know the deeds of you, and the love of you, and the faith, and the service, and the perseverance, and that the deeds of late are, and it's actually the greater, the greater than at first. Definite articles.

So it's really emphatic. All these things are very emphatic. Deeds abounding more and more. So it sounds like things are going pretty good there, doesn't it? Is that the end of the message? No. So this is what's interesting. There's a lot to acknowledge that's going well, isn't there? And yet, why doesn't the message end about there? Why not? It's because there are some issues, aren't there?

There's as much or even more than was acknowledged as, you know, you've got this in your favor as any other church. But then let's take a look at the third page there, verse 20. I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess and she teaches and leads my bondservants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. Isn't tolerance a good thing? I mean, heavens, you know, that's supposed to be a virtue, isn't it?

What's the problem here? Well, let's get this settled. Is tolerance a good thing or not? What's that? Depends. Oh, no! Now it's complicated. What does it depend on? What does it depend on? On what's being tolerated. As we look at things, tolerance can be a virtue, but just letting things slide that shouldn't be sliding, that's not a virtue. Not a virtue. Now, as we look at this here, you have an appendix item. We won't go through it. This is on the last page there. The appendix item talks about when it's time for Christians to separate themselves from sin.

One of the instances, you may recall, in 1 Corinthians, Paul was writing to the church at Corinth. And what were some of the problems that they had at Corinth? The church at Corinth. I'm thinking particularly of 1 Corinthians. Can you think of some of the problems that they had there? Yeah, that's right. Some of the similar problems. Paul also dealt with the thing sacrificed to idols. He dealt with immorality. Yeah, similar kinds of issues.

But one of the things he told them to do, he says, you guys have somebody there. Here's a man who is sleeping with his stepmother. Boot him out. Boot him out of the church. Get him out of there. Don't be tolerating that. That's in 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 5. Get that guy out of there. You should not be tolerating it. You should not be proud of it. He needs to be out of there.

This is kind of an instance there in the New Testament letters. What he's addressing here is a similar kind of thing. There are things that believers need to deal with in the church. Issues that come up and have to be addressed. Now, so Christ holds against this church here. that they tolerate the woman Jezebel and she calls herself a prophetess. That was a valid position in the New Testament times. There were valid New Testament era prophetesses. However, by this time the purpose of a prophet is rapidly fading. Let me quickly address that.

The prophets in the New Testament church were there during the time when the New Testament was being written for the purpose of giving revelation to the church because the New Testament had not been completed. So that was because, here's the last book, that was the purpose that was being fulfilled there.

What you see also here, she likewise leads Christ's bondservants astray, which was definitely unbiblical. The Greek word translated astray means to cause others to wander about. Why is that a problem? Causing others to wander about. What does that mean? Does that mean instead of going directly to the red carpet room, you stopped off in the coffee room? What's the problem here? What's the problem with causing others to wander about?

Converts them from the path of truth. Okay, yeah. There's a path of truth. There's a defined path of truth and of fellowship with the Lord and of fellowship with other believers. And she's taking them off the path. You're wandering off the path that God intends. It is not wandering about in a physical sense, it's wandering about spiritually. It's wandering morally. That's what he's addressing here. The result was that they commit acts of immorality. That kind of tolerance is not a virtue.

That's the dependence that Bruce brought up. and to eat things sacrificed to idols. Paul had addressed the eating things sacrificed to idols where it was a matter of this meat had been sacrificed to idols and then put in the marketplace. The problem here is the Christians sitting down at the table in the middle of a pagan temple eating the meat that was sacrificed to idols.

And then afterwards, of course, there's an orgy that takes place. That was everything that went along with it. So there's the immorality and the eating meat sacrificed to idols went right along with being right there in the pagan temple and participating in the worship and sacrifice to the pagan gods. Okay, this is very much like the same problems that the teachings of Balaam had produced in Pergamum, the prior church there, the one we looked at last week.

We should take the book literally, I think here, unless the character and context indicates otherwise. As we've said here, if the plain sense makes sense, seek no other sense, Jezebel on the basis of context and character appears to be a nickname for a literal woman of Thyatira who was doing what Jezebel had done centuries before. There are good reasons to see Jezebel's name as picturing a perpetrator of evil based on the real evil Queen of Israel more than eight centuries earlier. So let's take a look at the next page to see what Jezebel was like according to the Old Testament record.

1 Kings 16.31-33 is the passage you've got there. It came about as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. that he married Jezebel, the daughter of Ephbaal, king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worship him. So he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. Ahab also made the Asherah. Thus Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him." Hey, that's quite an honor, isn't it? I mean, he was right at the top. or at the bottom, I guess, you could say, right?

Then 2 Kings 9.22, quoting Jerus saying to Jezebel's son Joram, what peace so long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?

And when you speak of harlotries, oftentimes it's picturing spiritual harlotries. Jezebel wasn't a Greek name, And the Jewish presence in Thyatira wasn't strong, but the Greek culture was. So the behaviors described here in Revelation are typical of the craft guild meetings held in the Greek temples. That's what he's going after here, is the behavior of these craft guild meetings. It appears that Christ is using the name Jezebel as a true to form Old Testament characterization of the seduction of false gods and infestation of immorality in the church of Thyatira.

Let's think about it. Let's bring this into the context of our own culture. To what degree and in what sense are Christians, here and now, tempted to or drawn to just conform to the world's habits and practices. Can you think of some examples in which Christians are frequently called to just fall into the world's habits and practices? Have we got any problems with that?

Yes. It seems like we're, you know, the media and TV is Okay, yeah. Yeah, sure. Yeah, perfectly normal, acceptable behavior and tolerance, right, would say just accommodate this and keep it as an open option. Yeah, that would be one example. And there's actually an immense amount of pressure being placed on Christians increasingly to accept that. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, if you don't, you know, toe the line on this, yeah, you're hateful. You're somehow horribly narrow in your thinking. You just don't understand. Right? Yeah. So yeah, that would be one. Can you think of some others? What are some other ways in which Christians in our culture are prone to get drawn away into the world's thinking and patterns and habits and practices.

The bigger house, the better car, anything that's less to the eyes or less to the butt. Yeah, yeah, just get sold out on, you know, if I, if, well, you know how the TV ads go. You know, if I, if I just buy this car, you know, then I'll get the girl that goes with it. If I just buy this car, you know, then everybody will like me. I'll finally be satisfied.

Yeah. That whole materialistic thing. Of course, that's getting a real squashing these days, but still it's there, isn't it? Yeah. Christians can get pulled into that. And in fact, that's what advertising is. Advertising is intended to make you dissatisfied with where you are. That's the whole idea. That's the goal of advertising. And therefore to influence your behavior. All right, anything else? Along the same lines, what is success? Yeah, what is success? Failure, because you don't have all these expected things. Yeah, that's right. That's right. What's success? What is failure? How do you define that? Go ahead and take a handout if you care to. Yeah, the world carries out these messages and keeps pounding them home. And yeah, that's what you've got to do.

One of the things that is really pressed by the world really hard these days is marriage as the exclusive expression of sexual intimacy has been shoved aside by the world. And you've probably noticed that, you know, loud and long. TV shows in prime time convey, you know, sex only within marriage? No way. That's just passé.

A survey of people of younger marriable age showed that over 60% of them felt that it was wise to live together before marriage. for a couple to live together before marriage. Even though studies and statistics, aside from scripture, studies and statistics show that that is not a good idea, that it actually reduces the risk of the marriage being successful, should it take place. It increases the rate by triple of the, especially the woman, ultimately having clinical depression. And it is especially worse, the statistics are especially worse, if there is more than one instance of living together before finally settling on a marriage.

There's also, of course, all the instances of sexually transmitted diseases and all those kinds of things. Lots of good reasons to see it as not wise, and yet that message is what's conveyed, that it is somehow, oh yeah, it's a good idea. No, it's not a good idea, okay? No, it's not a good idea, and yet that's the message that's conveyed. There are a number of different ways in which the world applies varying degrees of pressure to Christians, to compromise and to adopt the world's viewpoints and, as you point out, the world's values. What's valuable? What's success? What's important? What should I be aiming for? What's really going to satisfy me?

Those kinds of questions. The world has an answer and the world definitely wants you to adopt its answer. So as Christians, we're being drawn by that. Let's take a look down here. Verse 21, I gave her time to repent and she does not want to repent of her immorality. It's very specific here. There is a specific woman in this church congregation who's leading people astray, spiritually and morally.

And so the Lord's response, you know, I'm going to give her time. By the way, why should the Lord give her time? Why doesn't the Lord just come in and say, you know, alright, that lady is no good. Bug zapper, okay? She's done. Why doesn't the Lord just take care of it right then and there and it's all over? Why not? He's a loving God. Okay, He's a loving God.

Alright, so that's one reason. It would be, here's Jonah, goes to Nineveh and he doesn't say, you know, hey, you've got 30 minutes, you know, 40 days, you've got to get this thing turned around. Yeah, I'll tell you what, we've got a similar kind of problem that we had before. So yeah, that's one thing. You look at why the time? Why the time? Notice something else here.

She does not want to repent of her immorality. Did the Lord know that that was the outcome? Yeah, he knew ahead. But he does not wish that one would perish. It is interesting that even though the Lord knows the outcome, he still provides the time. The Lord does not, based on his foreknowledge, the Lord does not shorten the grace, shorten the mercy. His purpose is restoration. His purpose is restoration. He wants that. The Lord provides the opportunity even knowing that that opportunity won't be used for good. The Lord is gracious even when His grace and mercy is spurned. The Lord is gracious even when people don't take advantage of Him. Christ died for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2.

Is everybody going to believe? No. No, not everyone will. But did He die for the sins of everyone? Yeah. The Lord was gracious beyond the minimum necessary. The Lord was totally and completely gracious and merciful, even though He knew not everyone would say, yes, I believe. Isn't that amazing?

Here, time to repent, even though He knew that they wouldn't. Let's look at verse 22 there. Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. So it sounds like he's still giving them a little bit more time. Isn't that interesting?

And I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts, and I will give to each one according to your deeds. The Lord is saying here that the consequences of sin will be definite and severe. Definite and severe. There are going to be direct and personal, as you see how that is, personal consequences for this woman, who is nicknamed here Jezebel, because of her spiritual and moral character. With the fact that there's going to be consequences, why don't people recognize that and change behavior? even though behavior has consequences. Why don't people just, you know, hey, I better clean up my act here. Why don't people do that?

Okay, yeah. First of all, sin does have an attraction. Sin does have an attraction. And I think that's important to recognize. Otherwise, why would people want to do it? Sin does have an attraction. So that's a part of it. There may be, at some level, an enjoyment of it. Why else? They don't want to admit that what they're doing is wrong. Yeah.

Especially when it looks like she is involving other people in this. to turn around and say, hey, you know, boy, I blew it. You guys need to clean up your act right along with me. Yeah, in open admission, hey, this is wrong. Boy, that would really change things. I've shared with some folks here before, you know, Jim Jones, the cult leader, was my sister's seventh grade teacher. I remember sitting across from the guy at PTA meetings. He's eating the same food I am across the table.

This guy was obviously, when the whole thing blew up, profoundly evil. What would have happened? Because some of the kids I went to high school died with him down there. What would have happened? If somewhere along the way he said, oh man, I have blown it. You guys need to straighten up your act right along with me. I'm off the mark here. Would have made a real different outcome, right? And probably none of the rest of you would have heard his name, right? Would have made for a real different outcome altogether. But still, as ghastly and awful as it was, No response. No turning back. No turning around. The deception just continued headlong. And all the evils and pains and agonies that went with it.

This Greek word here translated throw is the same word that was used for Smyrna. The devil will throw some of you into prison. This is a rather violent action. There will be severe consequences for those who join with her, and it will be very direct. Those who are her spiritual and philosophical offspring will suffer consequences as well. 2 Kings 9 tells us Jezebel's son was killed. Not only was Jezebel herself killed, but so was her son.

There's an offer to withhold these consequences if they will repent. Notice that's the way it's written. It's written as if there is still an opportunity to repent. I've given you an opportunity to repent. I've given you time. You haven't responded, but I'm still going to give a little bit more. Isn't that amazing? A little bit more. A little bit longer.

This Great Tribulation doesn't refer to the Great Tribulation, but we're going to be studying that here in just a few chapters. but the times of great trouble for those in the church who willfully remain in the mindset, philosophy and practices of Jezebel.

Look at this line there, all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. All the churches. Let me ask you, does that include us? Yeah, it includes us. It's all the churches. So that includes us here. Nineteen hundred years later, we will know that He is the One who searches minds and hearts. Now, let's take a look. There are some bullets here.

The statement, I am, in this verse is identical in its Greek structure to those places in the Gospel of John where Christ says, I am. We actually had kind of a summary table Of those in our second lesson, Christ said things like, I am the bread of life.

I am the good shepherd. I am the door. The way, the truth, and the life. Even before Abraham was born, I am. That expression is used here. So when he says, I am here, it's not just I am in any normal sense, it means I am as being God. I am as being God himself. It's Christ's claimed deity. It's precisely the same as the Greek version of the Old Testament where the Lord says to Moses from the burning bush, tell them I am has sent you. So Christ is very clearly claiming deity here.

The next one, the word translated searches is used in Greek legal documents of the time with the meaning to conduct a legal investigation, to look into things thoroughly, to investigate. What's interesting, the minds and hearts, if taken literally from the Greek, means the kidneys and hearts. The kidneys was a sense of something deep in the culture of the time. Because of time, let's take a look at verse 24 at the bottom of that page there.

But I say to you, the rest who are on Thyatira, who are the rest? Those who don't hold to this teaching. Yeah. So it's real clear, isn't it? The rest are those who don't hold to this teaching. Or you've got those who do, and you just heard the message delivered to you. The rest of you, now, who don't hold to the teaching, but frankly have a problem with tolerance, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them, I place no other burden on you.

Nevertheless, what you have, hold fast until I come." When you see that, hold fast until I come, what does that mean to you? How does that grab you? Keep the faith, baby. Hold on to it. Any other impressions of how that impacts you? Any other thoughts?

One of the things to look at, let's take a look at page six. kind of an inset there, the triple threes of the seven churches of Revelation. You have three satanic strategies, and that's the throne of Satan, the deep things of Satan, shows up in this passage, and then the synagogue of Satan, which we've seen once and we'll see again. There are three named groups, and we've seen now the third of them. The Nicolaitans, we've seen twice. Balaam, which we looked at last week, and now this week, Jezebel. And then the three areas of concern. One area is doctrine and teachings. The next one, morals and character. And then the third one, spiritual life and passion. So there's the triple threes of revelation. We see some of those popping up right here.

And so what they have, the deep things. See, in the culture of the time, the deep things, that referred to the mystery religions. They had mystery religions in which you went through these initiation procedures, and once you went through the initiation, then they could tell you the special secrets, these mysteries, the things that the others didn't get to know. You who were really deep insiders, And so the authors of the New Testament, Paul in particular, would say, we declare a mystery.

What all these people want to do in secret and call really deep, we just tell everybody. We declare the mystery. We let everybody know. A mystery isn't something you keep secret. It isn't something you keep private. It's something you declare to everyone. Let everybody know. We preach it. That's what we do with mysteries, the deep things. What does it mean when it says the deep things of Satan? What are the deep things of Satan? Let me ask it another way. Do you want to be real intimately familiar with and quite expert about the deep things of Satan?

Probably not. Yeah, likely not. Basically, that's not somewhere you want to go. Not somewhere you want to go. What's the problem with Christians getting involved with the deep things of Satan? Confusion would set in. Pardon? Confusion would set in. Yeah, you're right. And why would confusion set in?

Because it's counter to what God says. Okay. It's counter to what God says. And it's a lot more pleasureful at times than what God says. So there's an attraction to it, like we mentioned before. There is an attraction to sin, to the deep things of Satan. And there is this sense of, oh, I can go deeper. See, I get it. I'm special. This makes me special. But one of the things we talked about earlier, these things have consequences. And they have a sting.

Okay? Alright? Here's the other thing. What are some of Satan's alternate names? Beelzebub, right, which is basically the Lord of the Flies, right? And you mentioned something, Mark? The devil, okay. The prince of this world, okay. Prince of darkness. Okay, that darkness thing, that tells you something's not quite right. How about father of lies? How many of you enjoy being lied to? Any of you really just get a kick out of that, being lied to? Especially when it's really big? I think we're going to have to get used to it. I won't touch that, but I have an idea what you're indicating.

This holding fast here, This is the same word used to talk about how He held the seven stars, the messengers, held them tightly in His right hand. Holding fast to the truth, it means this isn't the wandering. This isn't the wandering. Here's the truth. We're sticking with it. We're standing by what's true. Something else, in order to hold fast, you've got to know it. That's one of the reasons we gather here, isn't it? We're gathering here so that we recognize what's true and what isn't. We recognize what's true and what isn't.

I've heard some of the high school kids say that they're Satan worshipers. And I wonder how they feel about their pride. I'm special and I've got blue hair and whatever. But the power of casting spells Oh yeah, yeah. The thing is there is an appeal to it and it feels like I'm special, I have power, I have unique insight, all those things. Yeah, that's really useful. Snapping birds out of the air. I tell you, that's an essential thing. You just can't live without snapping birds out of the air.

The thing is, when you look at a lot of these things, what Satan is able to do, and he is able to do some things, what he is able to do and what he is able to make appear as true, There will be a day, and I hope it's soon, when that will all go away. That will all go away. All of what Satan attempts to do by deception and foolish tricks will all disappear, including the messages that he sends to believers through the world that we talked about earlier here.

Let's look at verse 26 through 29. He who overcomes and he who keeps my deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from my Father, and I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." So what it says here, to everyone who is an overcomer, who stands on what Christ has done, and notice it refers to his deeds. His deeds, there's a promise. He will rule with and under Christ in the new millennium. There's one promise to overcomers. To rule in verse 27 is a Greek word that means to shepherd or to pastor. Isn't that interesting? The ruling is not like royalty. The ruling is a shepherding or pastoring, a caring for. Here, that kind of rule.

And this is quoted from Isaiah 30.14 with similarities to Psalm chapter 2. Remember we said 70% of the book of Revelation is out of the Old Testament. So you've got some background there.

It's all about Christ overcoming in those passages at the end of the tribulation and ruling into the new millennium, as we'll see in Revelation chapter 20. Now, I want to move on to page 7, and in the middle of that page we give you the rest of the story. In ancient writings outside of scripture, it is recorded that the Church of Thyatira went charismatic about a half century later, following the unbiblical teachings of a self-proclaimed prophet named Montanus and his two prophetesses, Prusa and Maximilla. Apparently, the folks at Thyatira hadn't learned enough about self-proclaimed prophets and prophetesses, but within a century of the writing of the Book of Revelation, the Church at Thyatira died out altogether. The church went burn out.

The Lord desires for us to behold Him, to walk with Him, to grow in the grace and knowledge of Him, to hold tightly the truth, which is exactly why the Lord says, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. This is another one of these messages where you can kind of ponder it. and ask the question, and you can ponder this a while, what is this message saying to us? If the Lord were to write a letter to Holly Hills today, I can imagine coming through the slop there at the front door, right? If the Lord were to write a letter to Holly Hills, what would it say? Would there be aspects of this very letter that would be in that letter to the church at Holly Hills? Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you as we look at this passage. laid out what's true, you've laid out truths in contrast to the messages that the world is sending us. You've made things quite clear and you've told us what's important. You've told us what you take note of and notice. And you've laid out principles consistent with the rest of scripture.

And Lord, help us to see clearly. As we're in the midst of the culture, sometimes that seeing clearly becomes difficult. We just would ask that you would give us vision and insight to see clearly what the spiritual distinctions are in the world in which we live and what they ought to be. I just would ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.