To The Angel of the Church of Pergamum

If you have a Bible, let's look at our next letter to the next church, the church called Pergamum and Revelation Chapter-2, and we'll look at verses 12 to 17. By the way, in your bulletin today, are two different handouts. One of them is an outline of the message and the other one is a brief teaching on evangelism that I'm going to do in the middle of this passage, and so you're welcome to look at both of those as we work together today. So let's start by reading Revelation Chapter-2, going to start at verse 12.

“‘I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith[a] even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.  So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it “Father, we need your Spirit to help us as we think about this letter you wrote to a church in ancient Asia Minor, but you already also wrote it to us, and so may we submit ourselves to it, our individual hearts. Father, help us in a remarkable, unique way today to say, Father, what's in it for me, not what's in this for so and so, who I think is not doing well, what's in this for me? I say that same thing to you, Father. Please guide and teach me. We need your help in Christ's name, amen.

A number of years ago, I was interviewing a man to be possibly become an elder at a church where I was pastoring. and I knew the man a little bit, not real well, and we had a long interview and it went well. And at the end he said “There's one more thing you should know about me, Dave.”

And I said “OK.”

He said, “There's a man in our church whom I hate, and whom I will never forgive because he disrespected my wife.”

And I spoke to him and said “The Bible says forgive. The Bible says don't hate your brother. How can you say you love God whom you haven't seen, when you hate your brother whom you have seen?”

And he said, “I don't really care, I'm not going to change.” Well, Needless to say, we didn't put him on the elder board. And I told you that story to say this, the man's desperate need was to repent. To confess, to get on his face before God. The issue is no longer what that man did to his wife. The issue is now what he is doing to that man, and especially that he has his first in the face of God. “I will not repent.”

And I told you that story to say this passage is about the issue of repentance. It's about the issue of what's going on in my life. It's about me and you looking at our own lives and saying, “Yeah, but what about the log in my eye? What about the speck in my eye? What about the splinter? What about the toothpick? What about something in my life that I've not been willing to look at? I've been very willing to say, yeah, I can see how my my brother, my sister has done X, Y or Z, and they really need to repent.”

But the passages said the major concern is me. What am I doing? Now here's a problem, friends. Repentance is very simple and clear, but very difficult to do, because it requires us to jettison our pride. It requires us to be humble people, and because the lion's share of American Christians, I am convinced, don't even know what repentance means. If you ask the average person what does repentance mean, they will tell you, well, it means to turn back to God or turn away from sin or clean up your act. That's not what it's about. The New Testament concept of repentance is far more deep and intense than that, is far more focused than that. And so the biggest issue for us personally is clearly our own pride, our own unwillingness to look at the log in our eye and say. “What have I done? What do I need to abandon? What do I need to confess? What do I need to repent of?” We're going to look at that in this passage today.

Verse 12, to the Angel of the church in Pergamum. So there's a body of believers here. The Holy Spirit writes a letter, gives it to their pastor, and their pastor reads it to their church. And then they probably read it to all 7 churches. And now we read it here 2,000 years later to say what's in this for us. It comes from the one, verse 12, who has the sharp two-edged sword coming from his mouth, that is. Jesus himself. So he came at the first Advent. With the identity of the Suffering Servant. That's found in Isaiah 53. The man who was beaten, smitten, he looked terrible. There was nothing in him to attract us to him, and he came for the purpose of paying for our sins.

He was rejected by the Jewish people because they weren't looking for a suffering servant, they were looking for a conquering king. They were looking for the guy that was going to throw the Romans out. And Jesus wasn't living into that model. And therefore they rejected him. But the second time he comes back is when he comes as the conquering king. Revelation 1. Verses 7 and 8. Revelation 19. White Horse 2 edged sword. Defeat his enemies, crush everyone who rebels against him. He's coming back again as the conquering king. And at that time is when he's bringing the sword with him. At that time is when he's going to deal with all rebellion against him. And this passage has a huge amount to say about the sword. First of all, Jesus has one the two edged sword that is very sharp.

In addition to that, we're going to talk in a minute about the identity of the City of Pergamum, which is called the city of the sword, but for a moment. Hebrews 12. Hebrews 4:12 and 13. The word of God is living and active and sharper than any 2 edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. When I open this book and I open my heart, everything is laid bare to God. He's not confused about my actions, my words, my desires, my motives. He's not confused about anything that's going on in me. The ancient preacher whose name I can't think of at the moment, who said on my best day, my motives were 35% pure.

Well, I probably agree with him. I mean, I think I'm really getting it done today, but the word of God looks at my hearts and says, no, there's, there's some things going on here. The reason that God doesn't work more powerfully in US and through us, is we don't open ourselves to this book. We don't open ourselves to the Holy Spirit. We don't open ourselves to the sword that moves in and judge between the thoughts and intentions of my heart because I just refuse to humble myself. I don't want to say I did something wrong. I want it to be you who did something wrong. I want it to be someone else. I just don't want to say it was me. I don't want to humble myself, King David said. Psalm 31, Psalm, Psalm 32, Psalm 51, Psalm 139, Search me, oh God, and know my heart, try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.

God just shined the spotlight in and what is it? Someone said The Christian faith is the only group of people where you have to admit you're a complete and abject Sinner to get in. And from then on say I've never done anything wrong. I humble myself before God. I say, yes, I need your help. But now when I'm in, it's kind of like, yeah, I'm getting it done. It's other people who have a problem. Repentance, friends, is painfully simple, but painfully hard. Painfully simple, Simple to understand, painfully hard to do. I need to submit myself 1 Peter 5:5, “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.  For God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you”

If I'm an arrogant person, I'm saying to God, you and me in the parking lot, God, I'm inviting God to oppose my life. I mean, I've had some opponents in my life, but I've never had one like that. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. The problem is, we are all far too arrogant for our own good. There's a book written in 2007 entitled Mistakes were Made (but Not by Me). Here's his subtitle Why We Justify Foolish beliefs, Bad Decisions and Hurtful Acts. The back cover says when we make mistakes, cling to outdated attitudes, or mistreat other people, we must. Calm the cognitive dissonance that jars our feelings of self worth. And so unconsciously, and I would add sometimes consciously, we create fictions that absolve us of responsibility, restore our belief that we are smart, moral and right. A belief that often keeps us on a course that is dumb, immoral and wrong. Mistakes were made at FCBC but not by me. Well, yeah, by me too. Mistakes were made and there were sometimes by us. The solution is very clear, to simply humble yourself. We'll talk about it more in a second Verse-13. Here's what I, Jesus know about you. I know where you live.

In Pergamum, 55 miles north of Smyrna from last week, 15 miles inland from the Aegean Sea. 150,000 people in their town at that time, about 105,000 there today. It's in modern day Turkey. The city is now called Bergamo. Still exists today. It was Pergamum back then. Very prominent Cultural Center, then very prominent political center, very well known for idol worship, for emperor worship. It was a very, very powerful city, and they had a group of temples there called the Healing Center, and I'm going to attempt to pronounce it as scoopalarium. It's a whole group of temples to gods that were supposed to heal you. And they worship them and there was just a huge number of people who would come there for healing and when they came there to be healed, they would go to these temples and worship these idols, these gods, “Small-g” that that don't exist. So from this location in Pergamum and also from when Moses raised the snake up on the staff in the desert. There is a modern medical symbol which is a staff or a sword with a snake wrapped around it. We still use it today, and it's called the rod of a Scapulas. The rod of a scapulas still confined in modern medicine today. It's the God of rebirth, healing or renewal. It was, it was. It's partly comes from this city where they were big on healing and worshipping gods who healed. But it was also a Roman city that had the rare power to execute someone.

Most cities didn't have that if someone was found guilty of a capital punishment, they could go to Rome and be retried before they could be killed, but right here in Pergamum you could be killed, and it was for that reason it was called the City of the Sword. Jesus has the two edged sword. This is the city of the sword. It was a representation of either liberty or death depending on which end of the sword you were on. The city had a library of 200,000 scrolls, second only to Alexandria in Africa. Extremely impressive library. 200,000 of them. Paganism, Pagan temples, emperor worship. If you lived in Pergamum, it was like having an apartment in the shadow of the Mormon temple in downtown Salt Lake. You're just habitually reminded of where you live. It was like having an apartment in the shadow of the Vatican in Rome. You're habitually reminded that this is Roman Catholic area, having an apartment in the shadow of the biggest Hindu temple in India. You're constantly reminded that you're living in the shadow of this local, this local religion that is so dominant.

Verse-13, “I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is.” There was all the Pagan temples. There was even a temple to Zeus, the great God of the Greeks, here was emperor worship. You live right there shadow of that, but despite that, he said to them, Verse-13, “you hold fast to my name.” Even living in the shadow of darkness, you hold fast to the name of Jesus. That means I'm a person, these were people who believed in the name of Jesus, who ordered their life according to the will, the purpose that the character and the mission of Jesus, who are committed to Jesus, his truth, his values, his lifestyle, even in the midst of everything that that's going on. And so as believers, we're called to do everything in the name of Jesus. We end a prayer, we say in Jesus name. We mean I'm praying for stuff that Jesus would approve of.

I'm not praying God make me healthy and wise and young and happy and famous. I mean, that's not part of His mission for me. So if I'm praying in His name or living in his name or holding fast to His name, I'm saying Lord, I'm praying about stuff you would approve of. I'm talking in ways you'd approve. I'm relating to other believers in the ways that you would, you would approve. I'm being the neighbor that you would approve of. I'm being the parishioner you would approve of. I'm being the friend, the husband, the wife, the child, the parent that you would approve of. So these people were living in the shadow of this great paganism. Still held the name of Jesus Fast. We live in the shadow of great paganism. We still need to hold the name of Jesus fast. Our nation, friends, has largely, not completely, but largely abandoned God, abandoned the Word of God. Abandoned objective truth. Largely has just turned to sin and nonsense. Not exclusively. But we live in that shadow. And we can, like these people in Pergamum, hold fast the name of Jesus in an ugly, dark, and difficult place. We can honor God in the midst of all of this stuff.

Am I living a life that reflects the character mission will purposes of Jesus Christ? Verse-13 you hold fast to your faith in me even while an Antipas was being martyred. So there's a writer named Frederick Albert Tatford, who wrote a book called the Patmos Letters. This man died in 1986 and he was a historian of theologian and researcher. He says this about Antipas. Antipas is said to have been a dentist and a physician. But the people in the medical community, that is, those who are worshiping the gods of healing, suspected that he was propagating Christianity secretly, and they accused him of disloyalty to Caesar. He was condemned to death, shut up in a locked copper kettle, which was then heated until it was red hot. He died being heated in a red hot copper kettle.

Now friends, I don't know about you, but there's a lot of better ways to go out in my judgment. But he went out as a martyr for the name of Christ, got his book in the Bible, his name in the Bible, forever treated as a person who held fast and he was living in this medical community and promoting Christ and they killed him for it. He was a person who said “I'll be faithful to Jesus. It's more important than physical survival.” Faithfulness to Jesus is more important than physical survival. I've got to hold to his name. Our nation obviously could get that ugly.

Verse-14 “But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam.“ So if you remember the Old Testament stories in numbers 22, 23, 24, 25, the people of Israel were coming out of Egypt. There was about 600,000 men. There were two to three million people. And so you can imagine two to three million people walking from Egypt up to the promised land. And every time they came into a new country, the king and the people there would panic. Because there were far more of them than in their own country. And so they were, they were just extremely terrorized when this horde of people walked in. And so they walked into the country of Moab. The king was a man named Bullock. And he said, what am I going to do about this? He decided to hire a prophet named Balaam. And he hired Balaam. And he said, Balaam, I want you to go out on a mountain and curse these people. Balaam said, “I don't think I can do that. I don't think God will let me do that. But I'll go on the mountain and I'll say what God tells me to say.” And he goes on the mountain, and two times he just blesses them. And he comes back. And you know, the King's not real happy because he sent you. He sent him out there to curse them. So Balaam finally says to block. Here's how you could defeat them. You could entice them to worship your gods, to get involved with the temple prostitutes, to intermarry with the Moabites. You could entice them to dishonor God. Then God himself would oppose them.

That's exactly what Bullock did. He enticed them. He pulled them in to their local idols so that God himself would oppose them. You know, Balaam didn't have any luck in cursing them. God wouldn't let him. But then he said, well, why don't you just let them destroy themselves? And that's exactly what happened to them. It's called the teaching of Balaam, and it means, us relying on the grace of God southern much that we think. I can live any old way I want because Jesus will forgive it. Eat, drink and be merry because there is grace. Just live like you want to live and that's what they were doing. I want to read a passage out of Romans 6:15 Paul says “16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,[c] you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. “

Paul talked about the very question, do we just say, OK, sin as much as you want because grace is amazing? No, he said, don't, because if you sin, you become a slave, to sin and you have sold yourself out to it. In the same way, same verse some of you hold to the teaching of the Nicolasians. These were people who at that time were teaching the very same thing. License licentiousness. You have freedom in Christ. You can be forgiven. They they thought you could be involved in the Pagan temples. You can be involved with the temple prostitutes. God Forgives it all. You live in such grace. Don't worry about it, and God is saying no like, like Balaam and like the Nicolasians, they're they're completely wrong. The word Balaam means swallow the people and the Nicolasians comes from conquer the people. And in both cases it's saying we will, we will defeat these people by by getting them involved in ugly and evil things. We are people of grace. But we are not people who live in license. God gives us grace, but he doesn't want us to live in license. Every sin has consequence. I've said it from this platform before, we don't break the law of God, we break ourselves on the law of God. We're always broken by it. Verse-16, what I Jesus command you who are following these false teachings, He says, he says to them, first of all, I want you to repent. Repent of the way you're living, what you're doing.

So the word repentance is a Greek word. It's a compound word, metanoia. It's a preposition that means after an announcement means mind. It means have an after-mind, an afterthought, a second thought, or in this context, change your mind. Change your mind at a heart level. Here's what we do to repent. The New Testament says I want to change your mind at a heart level about sin. I used to say it's no big deal, it doesn't matter, I'm fine, I don't do the filthy five, the nasty nine. I've never killed anyone. I'm good. But I need to change my mind and say no. Every little thing is an offense against the God of the universe. Every little thing is an offense against the God of the universe. I need to change my mind about that, change my mind about dead works. I used to think I can work this off. I'm a pretty good guy. I was in the work system as a teenager. Went to church, got baptized, got catechized. Only teenager in the nation who was tithing president of the youth group. I mean, I'm getting it done, you know, and then I changed my mind about it because I found out it didn't work. It was just getting worse for me. I repented, I changed my mind about dead works.

Number three, change your mind about God the Father. We used to think God the Father was, you know, some benign old grandfather who lived in heaven. He in a rocking chair, He's confused by radar. He doesn't know what's going on. He can't remember his password. He just, he just doesn't know what's going on. That's not true of him. I changed my mind about that and say he is the eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, omni-loving, powerful God of the universe. I changed my mind about him and finally changed your mind about Jesus. Maybe used to believe he's a good teacher. He really did exist, but he wasn't God. Used to believe he's a crazy man who thought he was God. He was a charlatan who said he was God and knew he wasn't God. I don't know what you used to believe, but now you come to believe he's the God of the universe. He's the second person of the Trinity. He's eternally existent. He created by speaking. He sustains us by speaking. If he stops thinking about us, we cease existing. Our existence depends on Jesus willing us to exist.

So I changed my mind about him and then I changed my mind as well in this context about being right 100% of the time, I repent. I change my mind at the heart level and say “how could anyone person me or anybody be right 100% of the time?” I'm not always right. I change my mind about that. Now friends, this is no extra charge. I threw in a couple of things here on evangelism diagnostic question. Why should I forgive your sin and let you live in my heaven?

 I've said this to I don't know how many people sit down with them and say. If if you stood before God right now and asking and he said to you, why should I forgive your sin and let you live in my heaven, then listen to their answer. Because what their answer will do is they will lay their cards face up on the table and they will give one of three categories of answers. Either they will give the works answer, which is try to be a good person. I'm better than the people in jail. I gave money to an orphan. I got baptized. I go to church sometimes. You know, I'm kind to my neighbor. I fixed the neighbor widow, ladies fence, all all these things. This is why you should forgive me God? And what you're really saying to God is the cross was unnecessary. We could have done this. Why did you kill your boy God? That was foolish. We could have done this.

Here's the second category of answers. It's called God plus works. Oh, I believe in God and I fixed the neighbor ladies fence and I gave money to an orphan and I'm better than my neighbor and I go to church sometimes. That's the God plus works answer. That means the cross was inadequate. Nice try, Jesus. I appreciate your effort. You didn't quite get it done. We pushed it across for a touchdown, but appreciate your effort.

The third category of answers is Christ's death alone. God, you should forgive my sin, because Jesus already paid for it and all my trust is in that. Well, what else do you have, Dave? I don't have anything. Jesus is my plan-A, I don't have a Plan-B. It's all right there. If I give that answer to God, which I will give to God, I am saying the cross was necessary, it had to happen, there was no other way and it was adequate. Jesus blood really paid for it. He did get it done. It's a very, very helpful way to think about this question of what am I really trusting

Three elements of saving faith? Number one, I have to know certain facts. I have to know that Jesus is God, that he died for my sin, that he's alive again, yhat the only way for me to be saved is through trust in Christ. I have to not only know those facts, I must also give mental assent to them. I must say, and they are true. There's millions of people in the world who've heard those four facts and rejected them. Second step, mental ascent. These are true. Third step, personal trust. Hearing the facts, agreeing that they're true, then I make a decision that says I'm putting all of my hope in Jesus Christ. I'm resting on Him, He's the only bridge that will get me to the Father, and I'm walking out on that bridge. I'm walking out on that bridge and if He doesn't save me, I am crashing down to the rocks.

That's the whole issue of “Am I a person who has responded to Christ. Do I understand what it really means to trust Christ?” So with that said, we're commanded to repent, humble myself, admit that I'm not right. Agree that I can't be right 100% of the time. Mistakes were made and sometimes it was me who made them and so I repent. I changed my mind at a heart level about what I have done. Verse-16 If you don't do that, Jesus says I'm coming to you quickly and I will make war against you with a sword in my mouth. Repent or I'm coming with a sword. If there's anything ever terrified a person, that would be that Jesus is coming with a sword. So the New Testament has at least four passages, that talk about a Christian losing their physical life, not their salvation, their physical life for repeated sin, for habitual sin. One of one of those is in 1 Timothy 1:20, one in 1 Corinthians 5:5, 1 Corinthians 11:30, and the most famous one, Acts 5:1-11, Ananias and Sapphira. So 1 Timothy 1:20, 1 Corinthians 5:5, 1 Corinthians 11:30 and Acts 5.

I actually knew a man at at my work years ago when I was in seminary who I worked at a freight doc. And there was a guy there who had been a Baptist pastor and he was a Christian, and he talked to me about, you know, he said, yeah, I'm a Christian. And he was just living in an ugly, godless way, filthy language. All, all men are godlessness. And then one day he got sick and he went to the doctor and they couldn't figure it out And went to the doctor, they couldn't figure it out. Six months later, he has died. Never diagnosed and I wondered to myself. “Is this a believer who just lived in such habitual sin that his physical life was taken away? The Holy Spirit was so grieved, he said ‘That's enough.’” That can happen. We can't lose our salvation because that's a gift from God. We have eternal life. It can't go away or else it wasn't eternal and God lied to us, but he did, you know we did. We could lose our physical life.

Verse-17 What I Jesus promised to you in return, if you will repent, change your mind at a heart level about these evil things you're doing, I will give you some of the secret manna. Now the meaning of secret manna is, is a difficult one. Scholars have about 8 different choices, but I think part of what he's talking about here is you will be able to get the bread of life. You'll have a relationship with Christ who nourishes and sustains you. And it's completely hidden to people who don't know Christ. They can't see it. How does a guy in a POW camp in Vietnam for seven years thrive? He's singing, he's memorizing verses, he's tapping on the wall to teach verses to other people. He's just thriving. How does that happen? He should be dying, but he's got this secret manna. He's got the bread of life. He's sustained by by God himself. He's sustained by the word of God. Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. He says he's nourished by obeying God. Jesus said in John 4:34, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me.”

Jesus got nourished by obeying his Father. This was this was not visible to the people around him. It was a secret food. I will give him a stone with a name written on it that no one knows but himself. Here's the six different interpretations of that. Number One, it might refer to a ticket that a victor gets so they can go to a banquet to celebrate. It might refer to being acquitted in a trial. It could refer to receiving a favorable vote in a civil judgment. It could be the winner of an athletic contest or battle. It may be referring to the name of Jesus as the victor. It may be the person's own personal name and having a special relationship with Christ. Whichever those it is, it simply means you get a white stone, which means you win, you are acquitted, you are forgiven, you are invited to the banquet feast of Christ. Getting the white stone is a wonderful thing.

I had a friend who started his own printing publishing company. He called it Whitestone Press. Because I've got the white stone, I've been acquitted, I've been forgiven, and whatever it is, there's a wonderful outcome for me when I repent, confess my sin, I receive this huge, huge blessing. Part of it is when I'm living in personal purity, I move closer to God, I move closer to God. Matthew 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Lot of verses in the New Testament that deal with that issue. Personal purity brings me close to God. When I repent of my sin, when I say yes, it was me, I changed my mind at a heart level. I say I can't be right 100% of the time. Sometimes I'm in the wrong and so I repent and I come to God in that way.

Verse-17. This the Lord says in the letter here. If you have ears to hear, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. Please let me have your attention. Listen! When I was in high school my senior year, our school split between my junior and senior year, so we'd had one school in our town for 80 years, one high school, and then when I was a senior we had two high schools. It was an immediate rivalry. Rapid City Central, 80 years old, Rapid City Stevens, where I went, brand new school. First day it opened and we were going to play football against them in September, our first athletic contest between the two. Instant and severe rivalry. We go to our pep rally, we're all having fun messing around. One of our athletes dressed up as a girl and he was in a skit and, you know, big fun time. But as the pep rally’s breaking up, there's this message coming through the stands that said all the football players in the locker room right now. And so we go to the locker room. It's a long, skinny locker room and just one bench down the middle. There was a bunch of lockers down this side. You couldn't stand up on this side because the bleachers were like that. And we all go in and sit down, and as we're going in, the assistant coaches are there and they are very sober, not happy at all. And so we go and sit down. It's very quiet. We sit there for 5 minutes. Nobody says a word. The head coach comes in, He walks down these settle lockers. I'm sitting about halfway down when he gets in front of me. He takes his first and he caves in a locker. I mean, literally caved the metal in and he began to scream at us. We'll leave out a whole bunch of what he said. He began to scream at us. His message was if you lose that this game tonight, you'll be at the practice field at 6:00 in the morning. You will all run until you puke and then we'll start over again. You'll be at the practice field running from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM if you lose this game tonight. And he stormed out.

We were listening. We were listening, he had our attention, so you won’t be worrying about it, we won 28 to 20 and saved ourselves a bad Saturday. But he had our attention. Listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. God wants our attention. He wants to say to us. Listen, FCBC. Listen individual believers at FCBC. He makes it clear that sometimes I'm wrong about my beliefs, my actions, my words, my relationship. Sometimes I do the wrong thing. And when I do the wrong thing, he's saying to me, I want you to repent right now. Change your mind right now, at a heart level about the things you've done, the things you've said, the things you've written, the people you've harmed, the ways you've talked about people. Change your mind at a heart level about these things and justice. Be a person who says I am going to honor Christ by repenting. Changing my mind at a heart level.

Friends in a previous church, I was pastoring my study, looked out on a street and I'm I'm in there writing a sermon and it's going great. It's one of those times when it's really going and I look up and there's a man walking by on the street. I didn't know the person. And I go, I look back down and the Holy Spirit puts this thought in my mind. “Dave, go out and engage this man in conversation.” Let me read you the conversation I had with God. So I said very simply, “Lord, I'm pretty busy writing a sermon for your people.”

And the Holy Spirit says, “Take a little break Dave, and go talk to him.”

And I said, “I'm really cranking here, Lord.”

The Holy Spirit says, “You can get back to this in a few minutes.”

I said, “Lord, this would be really awkward.”

The Holy Spirit says, “What's your point?”

And then Dave says “He's way down the street by now.”

The Holy Spirit says, “Dave, he's an old man. He's not going very fast. You can catch him. You need a little jogging. Go after him, Dave.”

“I would really rather not.”

Holy Spirit, “Dave!” I went down and talked to the man it took me four blocks to catch. He was very open. He was very depressed, he was very sick. He trusted Christ and started coming to the church. His life was turned around, because the Holy Spirit was after him and He had to use a real reluctant guy to go help him. I had to repent, change my mind at a heart level and say this is what the Lord's leading me to do. What's the Lord leading you to do? What's the Lord leading you to do?

Father, help us by your Holy Spirit. To change our mind at a heart level. About whatever you're showing to us. All of us individually, each one of us personally, help us to change our mind at a heart level. We're deeply grateful for your compassion to us. We don't want to be people who take advantage of your grace. We pray in Christ's name, amen.