Uh Amen, amen. And you guys can go ahead and have a seat here this evening. And it is so good to see you guys tonight. And I know there's a lot of needs and a lot of needs on everybody's heart tonight. And so I hope that you will take everything you heard tonight as much as you can retain and as much as you were able to write down.
And pray for these things and pray for these needs as you go home here this evening.
Well, we're continuing. I appreciate last week, I was away at camp, and so Pastor Bailey spoke a good message on just the unified church and from Ephesians, and it was really encouraging. And so I appreciate him filling in and taking care of last week. And I'm excited about jumping back into Revelation tonight and such a great crowd on a Wednesday night. And we're grateful that you're here.
Before we dive in, I do this every week, but if you didn't grab an outline, we have.
Some if you want to slip up your hand, if maybe you kind of came in without one, we got a couple people, Scott, as well as Pastor Bailey, can get you one. Just keep those hands up, and hopefully, we have enough for everybody, and this will help you stay engaged as best you can. I just want to remind you that we are, this is week number seven. Uh, we got one right down here on the left if you guys missed that one. But we, um, this is week number seven of our series through the book of Revelation, and I'm learning each and every week that there is so much uh there.
I mean, I could. I could extend each one of these messages beyond what we're trying to do. I could do two, at least two to three weeks on every church if we wanted to that we've been looking at so far. And what I want to encourage you is if you miss a week through this, hey, tune in online, try to catch it in your own time, and it will help you kind of stay up to date so you don't miss certain aspects because each week there's just too much to try to rehash and review each and every week. And so if you could help me with that, that would be awesome.
And a lot of this ties together and it kind of piggybacks off certain things as we go throughout the book. And so it's important that you kind of stay up to speed best you. Best you can. But we're going to dive right in. If you have your Bible, go to Revelation chapter number three.
It's where we're going to be tonight. Revelation chapter number three. And I've done this on every church, which will have the first few blanks.
So hopefully, you guys can know these first few blanks by now so that you can understand. But we're continuing and kind of going through these seven churches that Christ has a specific letter, a specific message to. And so just a few reminders: an introduction to the letters of the seven churches. It's on your notes. Number one, don't forget, these were literal churches.
These are, I mean, they were literal churches, actual churches that existed in the first century, right there around Asia Minor. And so they all existed right off the coast of the Aegean Sea there in the first century. Not only that, these letters are applicable. To churches today. These letters are applicable to us today, to Union Grove.
And so it's important as we look at these things, we can glean some things. We can learn from some of the warnings that are given as well. And then these letters represent time periods in church history.
So you can kind of follow throughout church history. And tonight, we really get into very practical ones that kind of are really representing some of where we're living in today, and as well as the letter that we will look at next week.
So it's important for you to take heed and to learn, especially tonight and next week as we look at these. But the letter, where we're going to be tonight, the letter to the church at Philadelphia. The letter to the church at Philadelphia. Revelation chapter 3, verse 7 through 13. Let's go ahead and read through this together.
It says this, And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write, These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, He that openeth and no man shutteth. And shutteth, and no man openeth. I know thy works, thy Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. For thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Verse 9, Behold, I will make them Of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not.
But do lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee. It's important to note: the word worship is not, don't think, reverent bowing down. This word is actually a word that could be translated respect. And so they were being treated terrible by these people who claimed to be Jews and they weren't following God.
And they were experiencing all this persecution from these religious people. And God is saying about these people who endured through this intense persecution, He's saying that one day they will respect and recognize that God took care of them during this time. Verse 10: Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell. upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly.
If you're ready for that, can you say amen tonight? Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out. And I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God. And I will write upon him my new name.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Can we pray together, Father? Lord, I pray that you would speak to our hearts tonight. God, as much as I want you to speak through me, I'm reminded that the power is in your word. And God, I pray, Lord, that you would just use the word of God to speak to every heart that is in this room tonight and motivate us, Father, to want to live for you and want to see you do great and mighty things in our midst.
Lord, we love you, for it's in your name we pray. And all God's people said, Amen and amen. The church at Philadelphia, each and every week, I talk a little bit about the city that's represented here. I had the chance to go to Philadelphia recently and watch a Sixers game. Philadelphia's the home.
Okay, you're not getting my joke yet. It's not the same place. It's not the home of the Super Bowl champions, okay? That's not what we're talking about here. A much different Philadelphia here tonight.
But I want you to know little is known about the city of Philadelphia that's represented here. The city is mentioned two times in the Bible. One time, briefly, in Revelation chapter number one, and then the second time is this letter that we just read here in Revelation chapter number three. It was located about 25 miles southeast of Sardis. It was lived kind of in a valley.
Area. And it was said: if you look throughout church history, it was plagued by earthquakes and things like that. You know this, but in Greek, the name means brotherly love. And then the modern city today, where Philadelphia existed, the modern city is a city called Alasher, and literally spelled Allah A-L-L-A-H-S-H-E-I-R. Alasher, and the city now today is occupied predominantly by Islam.
But we don't know a whole lot about the city of Philadelphia other than what Jesus is speaking directly to here in Revelation chapter number three. And like we've done with every one of these churches, I want to kind of dissect this with the same outline. In the same format that we've looked at each and every week.
So, first, I want to look at Jesus' title to the church at Philadelphia. Jesus, in his letters, when he was revealing himself and giving these letters to the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos, he always introduces himself in a different way. And here, this is a very long introduction of who Jesus is. You can just take this straight from verse number seven and fill in the blanks on your notes here tonight. But Jesus introduces himself this way.
He that is holy. He that is true. He that hath the key of David He that openeth and no man shutteth. and shutteth, and no man openeth. What an introduction of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
There's a lot there. I'll kind of point out a few things to help you. First, he introduces himself with the phrase, He is He that is holy. The word holy is a word that we use oftentimes in church, and so you probably already know what the meaning of the word is. The Greek word is a Greek word, hagios, and the word literally means separated.
It means that he is separate. And when Christ is introducing himself to the church, it is a reminder that he stands alone. There is no one like him. There is no one above him. There is no one on the level as our Lord and Savior.
He is completely separate. And so when he says that he is holy, he is introducing himself to the church as full deity. And don't miss that. And so it's important for you to note this. The name, really, here, he mentions that he's holy and that he is true.
That is a name that is given to Jesus. In fact, you see that exact phrase in Revelation chapter number 6: holy and true. And in Revelation chapter number 6, which we'll get there, that's when the seals are being opened and pronouncing judgment on the world and things like that and tribulation. And there, Jesus is referred to as holy and true in Revelation chapter 6, verse number 10. And so it's a reminder that not only that, because of who he is, because of his deity in being God, he then has to judge the whole world.
And it's a reminder when you put holy and true together that his holiness, because he's so holy, it's a reminder that sin has to be punished. And that's what Revelation chapter number six is talking about. The word true. He mentions that he's true. The Greek language is such a, it's a hard language to learn.
Some of you go to seminary, you've been to seminary, you might have had to take in some Greek. But what's interesting about Greek is a lot of the Greek words, they have multiple words that make up one word. And in English, we have, I referenced this on Sunday. Like, for example, we have, you know, in English, one word, love, right?
Well, in Greek, there were four words that were the same word of love, and they were just used differently based on what you were talking about. But for us in English, we say in the same sentence, I love ice cream and I love my spouse. You know, and you kind of are like, you have to interpret, like, okay, which one do you love more, right? You hope you love the spouse more, right? And so it's kind of one of those things.
Well, here, the word true is also one of those words.
So, in the Greek language, some of you are really like, I don't know which one I love more. But in the word true, there's two Greek words that make up the word true. The first one is Alethis, I think is how you say that. And that word, when it's used, it's meaning true, not false, which is what we think of with the word. That's not the word that's used here when it describes our Lord and Savior.
The word true here in the Greek is the word alethenos, and it literally means in Greek, true and not fake. In other words, he is genuine, he is real, and he is authentic. And you have to remember in the first century, one of the major heresies that was plaguing in churches and just kind of making its way through churches was this idea that Jesus did not come from heaven to earth as the God-man. A lot of people didn't believe that. And so, for Jesus to introduce himself to John, he is saying, I am God, but I'm also true.
In other words, I am genuine, and I am true and not fake. The title here in verse number eight, or verse number seven: He that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth. It is significant, and like I said, I could spend so much time on all this kind of stuff. But in Isaiah chapter number 22, I think we have it up on the screen. Isaiah 22, verse 22 is where this is from.
So there's a prophecy in the Old Testament. It says, In the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder.
So he shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and none shall open.
Now, we don't have all the time in the world to look at Isaiah chapter number 22.
So I'll give you a little bit of the cliff note version of what's happening there.
So basically, what's happening in Isaiah chapter number 22 is there's a man by the name of Elichim. And LA Cam foreshadows Christ. He foreshadows Christ, and you see a lot of resemblances between the two because he's a picture of Christ. And in Isaiah 22, what we find there in context is that Eleakim had the keys of who were able to enter into David's house, into the palace, if you would. Eliakim would be the one that would kind of make the decision of if you can enter into David's house.
And so the reference here coming from Isaiah is that, yes, in the Old Testament, Eliakim had the keys to who could enter into David's home, the palace. But here, Jesus is pronouncing himself as the one who has the keys and who has the control over who enters God's house. And it's important that we understand that correlation there. But that's Christ's title. The second thing I want you to see is the affirmation to the church at Philadelphia.
Here in verse number eight. Uh we see first that And you can write these things down. The first affirmation that he gives them is that they have little strength.
Now when you look at that, you think that's a negative thing. If you study what that phrase means, it's actually not signifying weakness. It's referring to the fact that this church relied on God's strength and not their own. And that's what we need to do. In fact, you're going to see this here in a second.
Philadelphia is the model church. Philadelphia is what we would call the evangelistic church. We would call it the revivalistic church. And we're going to see some of that tonight. But this church is really what I would say is the model church.
Now, we know this: there's no perfect church out there. And if you find one, please don't join it because it would be imperfect the day you showed up, okay? And so there's no perfect church out there. And so, but if you were to look at these churches and say, which church should we consider modeling ourselves after, it would be the church of Philadelphia. And so, what you see here is a couple of things: little strength.
The word strength is a Greek word, dunamis. It's where we would get the word dynamite. It literally means power. And so, in other words, they're relying totally on God's power. But not only that, when they relied on God's power, it enabled them to do two things that he references here when he affirms them and commends them: that it helped them to keep his word.
Mm-hmm. And not deny the name of God in the midst of persecution.
Now, it's important that you got to remember: this is a literal church. And because of that, this was a literal church that existed in the first century, which was one of the darkest days when it came to Christian persecution that the world has ever seen. And so for them, God is commending this church that they stayed faithful and kept his word and did not deny the name of God in the midst of serious persecution. And that needs to be true of us, right? That's what we need.
If persecution, and we've never experienced persecution the way the church in Philadelphia would have experienced persecution, but if persecution was to come to us, help us learn from them to stay faithful and to stay grounded and never, no matter what, is looking in our face or looking into our church or trying to destroy our church, help us to never deny the name of God. And that's what we need to learn from this church. The third thing I want you to see is the criticism to the church in Philadelphia. You can write very quickly next to that. There is none.
There is none. There is no complaint by Christ here. This, along with one other church, is the only two churches that there's no complaint, there's no criticism. This church remained faithful, and it is important for us to understand that.
Now, we'll go to the last point. The reward. to those that overcome. There's a lot here. There's three specific things I want to look at here.
The first one's found in verse number 10. And it says in verse 10: Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon. The earth.
So, the first thing we see here for overcomers is this: it's on your notes. Overcomers will be kept from the hour of temptation. Overcomers will be kept from the hour of temptation. So we have to look at what that means. What is the hour of temptation?
Well, the word temptation can actually be translated two different words: trial. Or it can be translated tribulation. And here it's mentioned the hour of temptation. This is referring to the tribulation period.
Now, if you look at our timeline, I don't have a picture of it with me tonight, but if you have it with you, you can understand that we're living today in the church age, and the next event on God's timetable and God's calendar would be the calling up, or we would call it the rapture, where the dead in Christ shall rise, and we will go to meet him in the air together. And so that's the next event.
Well, when that happens, that starts this tribulation period. The first three and a half years are going to be bad. The last three and a half years of the tribulation is referred to as the great tribulation. It's going to be terrible. It's going to be the worst thing the world has ever seen.
Okay. And that's what this is referring to. And so it's referring to the tribulation. In fact, this time, the hour of temptation is referenced in the Old Testament a couple different times. With some things that we'll look at as we get deeper into this when we start in Revelation chapter number 4.
But in Jeremiah 30, verse number 7, this is the same time period referred to in Jeremiah as the time of Jacob's trouble. And you'll be hearing about that as we get there. Daniel prophesied as well about the hour of temptation, and it was referred to in Daniel 9:27 as Daniel's 70th.
So, we're going to be able to do that So they're all referring to the same thing. In fact, Matthew chapter number 24, verse number 21, Jesus is talking about this tribulation period, the hour of temptation that we see in Matthew or in Revelation chapter number three. And Jesus is talking about this. And here's what Jesus says about this tribulation period. He says that during that time, there's going to be a great tribulation, or the words used there really could mean distress.
And Jesus references that the world has never seen something as severe as what that time period is going to be like. And it will be unequaled. In other words, the world has never seen anything like that. It's a time that none of us would ever want to live in. But here's what I want you to know: here's the good news.
If you know Jesus, you don't have to. You don't have to go through this time of wrath. And I want you to see another thing about this verse that's so important because I'm trying to make a case, and I'll explain this here in a moment. But at the end of the verse, it says, to try them. that dwell upon The Earth.
That phrase, dwell upon the earth, is a really good study if you want just some homework or something fun to do in your own time. The phrase, dwell upon the world, is such a good phrase. And here's why: is because it's mentioned seven different times. From Revelation chapter 6 to Revelation chapter 13. And in that, six through thirteen on our timeline is all referring to one event.
The tribulation period. And the phrase is mentioned seven different times. It's mentioned in Revelation 6, verse 10. It's mentioned in 8, chapter 8, verse 13, chapter 11, verse 10, chapter 12, verse 12, chapter 13, verse 8, and then also verses 12 and 14 of chapter 13 as well. Seven different times.
And here's what's interesting. Every time it mentions that phrase, those that dwell upon the earth, it's talking about unbelievers. The reason why I want you to understand that is this, is because here it really. This verse. is a what I would call a proof Text Us that the church will be taken from the earth prior to the tribulation period.
Now, here's what I want you to understand. When you go out of here and do some of your own reading and stuff like that, I understand there are people with different theories and very smart, intelligent, godly people that view this a little bit differently. There are three different ways that people view when the rapture or the calling up of the church is going to take place. For us, we believe in what we would call a pre-tribulation rapture. Here's what that means, is that, and that's what I think Revelation chapter 3 is talking about, and Revelation chapter 6 and chapter 11 and chapter 12 and chapter 13 and 1 Thessalonians 4, and it goes on and on.
I think that the case is so clear to me that we as the church, the true church, when Christ chooses to come back and rapture the church, those that have accepted Jesus as Savior will be called up and will not have to endure what Revelation chapter 6 through 13 are talking about. And it's a proof text. And I'm not discounting. I get it. There's a lot of people that view that it could happen in the pre-tribulation.
In other words, after the first three and a half years, people think that's when the rapture is going to happen.
Some people believe in a post-tribulation that it's going to happen after the seven-year tribulation. There's great people on all these different sides. But for me, I just don't understand how this is not as clear for everybody as we want to make it out to be. But I get it, there's people on all different sides. But to just kind of double down on this view and why we believe this is in 1 Thessalonians chapter number 4.
You'll see it up on the screen. I got to hurry. But it says this: Paul is writing to the church, and he says this: But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep. That you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. You've heard this, probably mentioned at a lot of memorial services and stuff like that, because he's talking about those who have passed away.
He goes on in verse 14 to say this, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, that's salvation, that's the gospel, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. Verse 15. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself, don't miss this, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain.
In other words, if Christ came back right now, you haven't died yet, right? If you're alive, would you raise your hand?
Okay, making sure. If the person next to you did not raise their hand, you're fine to go sit somewhere else for the remainder of this service. But he says, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. And so what's interesting is in 1 Thessalonians 4, he's talking about this, what we would call the rapture, the calling up.
But then in 1 Thessalonians chapter number 5, one chapter later, Paul is talking about the different seasons, and he references the day of the Lord, which is often referred to as Christ's second coming. And he talks about judgment in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and the wrath and the tribulation and all these kind of things. And he says this in verse number 9 of 1 Thessalonians chapter number 5. He says, for God, don't miss this. He's talking about the tribulation, everything we're talking about in Revelation.
He says, for God hath not appointed us to wrath. But to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, we. If you're left here and Christ decides to come back, let me tell you this: when he comes back to rapture us up, if you're still alive and you're a Christian, you're going to be caught up together with him. You don't have to worry about dealing with the tribulation.
Period. And I hope you understand that and can see that. The second thing, so overcomers will not have to deal with the hour of temptation. That's the tribulation. Second, overcomers will be made a pillar in the temple of God.
Now, I'm going to run through this quick because I got several things. Don't you love that? And so, got a few things left. All right. Here, this city, I mentioned it earlier, was shaken by earthquakes.
Um To be called that overcomers will be made a pillar in the temple of God had to provide such comfort. Because the city was known to have some earthquakes there in the first century. And so it had to provide comfort for them that even though things are quaking, God is going to make us a pillar. In fact, Alan Johnson, in his commentary on Revelation, he says this about this verse. I love this.
He said, Often the only parts of a city left standing after a severe quake. were the huge stone pillars. And for a city that struggled with quakes to know that no matter what happens. They're going to be made pillars. They're going to still be standing.
It's a reminder of the security and stability that we have in Jesus Christ. And you can have that in Christ as well. The third thing is this: overcomers will receive the name of God written upon them.
Now, we referenced this a couple of weeks before when we talked about the name of God. God's name, once again, will be written upon us forever, identifying us with the family of God. He says in verse 12: Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out. And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name.
Now, there is a phrase here that I thought was really interesting. He says, and the name of the city. of my God.
Now I don't know, but I was talking to Lomax earlier. He was studying Ezekiel. And so I'm going to reference Ezekiel real quick. Ezekiel chapter forty eight, verse thirty five says that the city of God Is going to be named this phrase, the Lord is there.
So here's what I'll tell you. Don't get wrapped up in what's that name going to be. Here's what I'll tell you: is that one day you will have a new name written upon your forehead.
So if you don't like your current name, hey, there's good news coming. If you know Jesus, you'll get a new name, and it will be a name identifying you with the body of Christ. And it's a reminder that once we get that new name, we will forever be in the presence of the Lord forever. And so that's what we get to look forward to.
Now, just in closing. And this is a long closing, okay? But the Philadelphia, I'm just being honest, the Philadelphia church. Is I mentioned, and we don't talk all about the time periods and stuff, but I thought this was really interesting. The Philadelphia church is considered to be what we would call the evangelistic church or the true church.
I mean this when I say I study this and read tons of books and listen to sermons on this. This Church. is what I really would call the model church. There's so much here. And what's interesting to me Is that this church age?
Remember, all these different churches, the seven churches, they kind of represent different time periods and stuff like that, and we've seen that throughout church history. But this church represents really around the time of 1750. Up until really the time that we're living in. In fact, you'll see this week and next week the Laodicean church, which is the apostate church or the lukewarm church. We're going to study that together.
And what you can kind of see is that we're really years ago in a little bit of a, we kind of went two different directions. That there became a liberal church, which we're going to look at next week. And then there became what we would call an evangelistic church, which I think is this church, the church in Philadelphia. And so it's so interesting to me if you look at it, and here's why. I'm going to show you a couple of things.
We're going to go into church history for just a minute. And there's a reason for it because I want to kind of land the plane with this. But during this time period, if you look at it, it was really around 1750.
Well, that's when. The first Great Awakening happened. And you would be familiar with that. And the first great awakening, it's when you have names such as John Wesley. Jonathan Edwards.
Uh George Whitfield. And it was some of the Most significant revivals that swept across the whole world during that day. In fact, John Wesley, if you read anything by John Wesley or about John Wesley, John Wesley, it's been said that he logged over 250,000 miles on the horse that he rode preaching the gospel around the world. On a horse. And no wonder God used that time to bring so many different people to Christ.
And so, when this church is representing this kind of evangelistic time in church history, it's like representing this. But then you see, it leads you right into the Second Great Awakening, which was about 40 years after the first one. And the Second Great Awakening started around 1790 and went kind of into the late 1840s. And there were some significant things that happened that, I mean, some of this I didn't even know before this. And.
And I learned some this week.
So I just want to share a couple things with you. But during this day, in the second great awakening, it started up north, in fact, in America, up in New York City. You think nothing good can come from there?
Well, this story says, there can be. And so here, this awakening, this second great awakening happened up in the kind of New York City, New England area. In fact, J. Edwin Orr wrote a book about this great awakening, and it is called, I came across it this week and read through it. It's a book called The Rebirth of America.
And the book is all about this time period and the second great awakening. And I wanted to tell you something that was so interesting about this is because it led into a very significant moment on the church history timeline that really connected the second and third great awakenings. And it said in the second great awakening that Baptist churches. We're seeing so many converted that churches could not even baptize the amount of people that were getting converted.
So, what they did was in these New England states, it was often cold. And so, what they would do is they would literally go out to a sea or a pond or whatever, and they would chop some of the ice open in order to get enough space, and they would baptize people in the freezing cold. Because they didn't want to wait any longer to trust the Jesus. Another thing happened. A guy got saved in his 40s during this time period.
His name was Jeremiah Lamphir. Jeremiah Lanphear. He was converted in 1842, right at the end of the Second Great Awakening. And he was converted at age 49. He had his own business, and he left his business at age 49 to be hired as a local church missionary in Manhattan for $1,000.
A year. God, this is so good, and this is going to convict every single one of you. I'm just going to go ahead and tell you because I'll just tell you: if you're not convicted by his story, you probably do not know Jesus Christ as your Savior. I'm going to be that direct with you. God began to break his heart for the lost up in Manhattan.
And he birthed in him an idea to reach people with the gospel. The idea is going to really surprise you because if you think, hey, what ideas do we have? We talk about this in the church office all the time. How can we reach more people? What's the best strategy?
What's all this? The idea that God birthed in his heart is so different than what you would think. God birthed in him the idea, because of his background, to start a prayer meeting. from twelve o'clock to one o'clock on Fulton Street, which is in the financial district of Manhattan, for businessmen that could come in the middle of the day on their lunch break and pray. You'll see a picture that here is kind of what he said.
He basically sent out all these flyers and he said, go back to that last picture real quick. He said to people that you could pray for five minutes. For 10 minutes or as long as you can be here.
Well, the very first day came on September 23rd, 1857, and only six guys showed up. You'll see a picture of the six guys. And these six guys showed up. In fact, nobody showed up from 12 to 12:30. He's by himself.
And at 12:30, the first person trickled in. And believe it or not, out of these six guys that came to this first prayer meeting, one of them was a young guy in his 20s. And through this story, he actually got so motivated by what I'm about to tell you of what happened out of this prayer meeting is that this young guy, about 23 years old, he said, I'm so burdened for the city that he was from, which is actually Philadelphia, not this one, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And he was so burdened by it that he took this same prayer meeting idea back to his hometown of Philadelphia, and he saw thousands of people come to his prayer meeting. But here, Jeremiah Lynn Phir, he started with six people and he said, These six people, that's enough for me to know that God is in this and we are going to keep pressing on.
The next Wednesday that he offered this prayer meeting for businessmen there in Manhattan, he had 20 guys show up. The third week, he had 40 people show up. He had to get a different room on Fulton Street in order to host everybody there. And then after that, shortly after, because this was September, in October, The stock mar the stock market crashed. And you can read all about this in J.
Edwin Orr's book. And he talks about this in detail. The stock market crashed.
So, the financial district there in New York City and Manhattan, everybody becomes all of a sudden desperate for God. Isn't that what happens sometimes? God sends just some terrible thing in our lives, and sometimes He sends these things so it will turn our hearts back to Him. And what happened is, people got so desperate for God that by the end of November, There were 3,000 men showing up to this prayer meeting. Here's the thing.
It got so big that the next picture, here's what he had to put up, is this. He said that no one can stay here for longer than five minutes.
So that we can get everybody in that needs prayer. Today. 3,000 men from 12 to 1 were showing up there on Fulton Street to this prayer meeting. And here's the significance. It all started with God birthing this idea in his heart.
so that he could see more lost people saved. Within a year after that September start date, records show that, seriously, you can read all about this in the Second Great Awakening. that over a million people Around the world, that comes back and stems back to the people that showed up here, trusted in Jesus as their Savior. Here's the point. That was the second great awakening.
It led way to a third great awakening. There's four total, so I'm almost done. The third great awakening started around 1855, about 40 years later. This is where names such as Moody, Dwight Moody, Charles Spurgeon, Hudson Taylor, people like that were in this third. Great Awakening.
And so it led way to this. And what's interesting is in the Third Great Awakening, you would recognize some of this, like the Great Welsh Revival, was in this time period and stuff like this in the third one. And John Shiver writes a book all about this one. It's called The Glory of His Presence. And in this, he talks that the move of God in this great awakening was so strong that communities there in Wales and other communities there in Europe were being so transformed that it was changing commerce, it was changing everything about their cities.
And by the way, when the gospel gets a hold of people's hearts, Cities can be transformed. You want to know what the difference is in our world? We need the gospel to get a hold of people's hearts. Listen, the person you elect might help us, but at the end of the day, here's what I want you to know: our hope is not in them, our hope is in the gospel. And what was happening in this third great awakening there in Europe, John Shiver, he says that entire communities were being transformed.
During that revival, bars. And gambling houses were being shut down due to lack of business. Prostitution almost ceased entirely during this day. Literally, you can read about this. Courthouses struggled even to stay open.
because there were so little criminal cases to try. Shiver even says something that was interesting to me when I read through this this week. This is kind of mind-blowing. And so I did a little bit of just making sure this is true. And so, but he writes about this: that one of the industries that was big during that day was coal mining.
And that coal mining, that industry went down during the Third Great Awakening, which kind of interested me.
So I did some digging on this. Here's why this is so interesting. It's because during that day they would use these donkeys, you know, with the little Like cart kind of off them, and they'd kind of haul the coal out of the mines and stuff like this. And all these miners or whatever would just kind of get their donkeys, and the donkeys would do exactly what they were saying. And in Shiver's book, he referenced that coal, that coal industry went down.
And a lot of people attributed it in the third great awakening to the fact: true story, is that all of these coal miners started getting saved. And what was happening was everything about their tone of voice and everything about the words that they used completely changed.
So that the donkeys who constantly heard profanity and yelling and all these things for them to respond to, Shiver says that the industry went down because God had changed these coal miners so much to where the donkeys weren't even responding to them because it was so different than what I don't know what that means. If they were saying, hey, glorious, lovely donkey, would you please come out of here? But the point is, is that the gospel was at work and it was changing communities, which led about 40 years later to the fourth grade awakening, one that you would be very familiar with because many of you have lived through this back in the 1960s, 70s, and some of the 80s with guys like Billy Graham and the Jesus movement and some of that and stuff. And so all I'm trying to say is this: that time period is what. They say that Philadelphia was kind of representing.
If you would. This revivalistic. Time period. This evangelistic. Time period period.
And here's the reason I just wanted to share that. It's because if you look at all of those different time periods. Is there something so significant for me as I was just looking at this this week? They're all about 40 years apart. They're all about 40 years apart.
And sometimes these awakenings kind of dwindle down, and then God, about 40 years later, Birds something in somebody and then leads him. But here's my point: the last one that we have recorded was the fourth grade awakening, and it ended in the 80s. You know what that told me when I was studying this this week? Is that word do? Is that we are seriously due, that the time is ripe.
For another great awakening, for God to get a hold of our hearts. And when you look at our world, our world every single day gets just a little bit crazier. And when you look around at some of the things that are happening, I'm just looking at this and I'm studying for tonight, and I'm just thinking, I'm like, man, the time is now. But perhaps the reason why we're not seeing it the way that we hope to see it and the way that these other Awakenings It's because, you know. We have two or three people gather on Sunday morning and pray.
And all I'm trying to say is this, and I don't want to guilt you because I'm right there with you. I'm preaching to the choir. Trust me, when I studied this, I was like, oh my goodness, these guys were so much more committed to the gospel than this pastor is. But here's what I'm trying to say. If you really want to see this.
And you really say you want to see people saved? And you really mean like you want to see God change the world. then that room should be full on Sunday. That prayer room, we shouldn't beg. That prayer room should be full this Sunday at 8.05.
But you know what I think a lot of us want in the modern day church? is I think that a lot of us just want different people in Washington. I don't think we hardly really deep down want an awakening. We just want different people leading. I've been around church my entire life.
And I hear the same things. And when I look at this, what was so different about these awakenings in the church at Philadelphia? Was that they were incredibly burdened to see God work and for God to save a bunch of rotten sinners, and they knew they had no power or strength. And themselves. They needed to rely on the power of God to do anything in this world that they need to see.
And that's what we need to see. Let us be a praying Church, and I think the time is ripe. And I don't want to guilt you. I don't want to make you feel bad for anything. I just want you to understand that if we really want it, it's going to start with us being on our knees before God every day.
Day. It's going to take us becoming a prayerful church. I mean, there are some great things, two things that happened this weekend that I'm excited about that I think can lead us to revival. I mean, and I'll tell you the story. You heard a little bit about it tonight.
Grady James. At his house, somebody comes, young guy with his own business, to just treat his house for pest control. Grady feels this is a great opportunity to share his story of how he came to faith in Jesus. He invites the guy to church. His name's Jonathan.
Jonathan comes here. Grady introduces me to him. We meet for just a little bit. He sits in our church service on Sunday, young guy, 22 years old. He sits in our church on Sunday.
We follow up with him, and he gets saved today. On Sunday, we had a guy in our church who you would know, Bobby, who couldn't be here tonight, but Bobby got saved a few months ago. You would know his story because we've been praying for Bobby. He comes down on a Sunday morning, gets saved. He's so excited.
He gets baptized shortly after. He's with a disciple partner who's meeting with him every single week and discipling him. He texted me today, and he's doing two different studies in his own time, growing in his relationship with Jesus Christ. And he told me he just couldn't be here tonight. But you know what?
He brought his neighbor on Sunday. Two months ago, he didn't even know Jesus is the Savior. And when God gets a hold of your heart, here's what it does: you look at your neighbors differently. You look at the people at the grocery store differently. You look at your coworkers differently.
But here's what's happened in our church. I'm afraid that a lot of us today are more a part of the Laodicean church than we are the church at Philadelphia. And that's the problem. And let our church, Union Grove Baptist Church. Let us be.
Like the church at Philadelphia. On our knees before God, relying on His strength and His strength alone to see Him do marvelous things in our community. and ultimately around the world. Father, we love you. We're out of time.
God, you have spoken to me so deeply in this series and in this week. God, I pray, Lord, we'd be a church on our knees before you praying for lost souls. God, I pray, Lord, that our church would be a praying church. We love you. great and mighty things and You get all the glory.
It's in your name we pray. Amen. Thank you for being here. You're dismissed.
