The 7 Love Letters of Jesus to His Church: Filled with the Spirit

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Sign up at harvest.org. As Christians, we're going along, we're starting to sputter, and we're starting to stall, and we don't know what's wrong. You need a refill. You need to be filled with the Spirit. The bad news is sometimes believers notice their spiritual batteries begin to drain. But today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie has good news. He points out we're rechargeable. What many believers need is to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.

So God wants to fill you with the Spirit over and over again. Ever have guest speakers at your church? What if one Sunday morning the surprise speaker was Jesus himself? He steps to the pulpit. His words are loving, inspirational, insightful. But then he says, I'm going to speak frankly for just a moment.

There's something on my mind. Every ear would be listening. Well, today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out that's essentially what the Lord did with seven churches of the first century.

He spoke frankly, and we should listen intently. We're looking together at the book of Revelation. Remember, Revelation reveals, it unveils a lot of things. It unveils the afterlife. It unveils the future. It shows us a God who is in control of everything that is happening and is in control of everything that is coming. Revelation reveals the future to us. But Revelation also reveals us to us. It shows us what Jesus thinks of us in the church today and what we must be avoiding. In the first chapter of Revelation, Jesus identifies himself as walking in the midst of the church. So he's with each one of us. As you're gathering together, watching this wherever you are, Jesus is there with you. And he has something he wants to say to you. Now, seven churches are addressed by Jesus.

He sends these love letters, if you will. We already looked at two of them. We looked at the church of Ephesus and the church of Smyrna. Remember, in Revelation 2, the church of Ephesus was a church leaving its first love, not losing it because they knew where it was so they could return to it again.

And maybe that describes you right now. You've had a passion that has been replaced by passivity. Your worship has been replaced by works.

Your inspiration has been replaced by perspiration. Remember what Jesus said to the church of Ephesus. Remember from where you will fall and repent and do the first works quickly.

I've summed it up this way. The three R's of getting right with God. Remember. Repent.

Repeat. But then we come to the church of Smyrna, which is a suffering church. This time of church history when millions of believers gave their lives for the Lord because they would not say, Caesar is Lord, but instead said, Jesus is Lord. But rather than weakening them, persecution actually strengthened them. So now we come to a different kind of problem in the church. Satan realizes that he can't destroy the church through persecution. Instead of weakening them, they've turned into this lean, mean preaching machine. So he changes his tactics and he decides to infiltrate the church.

You've heard of the old expression. If you can't beat him, join him. As we come now to our next church called the church of Pergamos, the devil effectively joins the church. Revelation chapter 2 verse 12.

Read with me if you would. And to the angel of the church of Pergamos write, These things says he that has a sharp two-edged sword. I know your works where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. And you hold fast to my name, and you did not deny my faith, even in the days in which Antipas, my faithful martyr, was killed among you, where Satan dwells. You know it's interesting that's mentioned twice where Satan dwells.

Listen. The devil is not the equal of God. God is omniscient, which means he knows everything. The devil is limited in his knowledge. God is omnipotent, which means all powerful. The devil has limitations to his power. And God is omnipresent, which means present everywhere. But the devil can only be in one place at one time. So if the devil is in San Francisco, he can't be in Moscow.

And if he's in Moscow, he can't be in wherever. So the point is he seemed to have set his seat up in this city where the church was. And what's happening here with this church is they're starting to compromise. It starts with little things and it ends up in big things. That's the way sin works. Little sins turn into big sins.

Little compromises turn into big problems. So we need to follow the advice Jesus gives here to Pergamos. Verse 16, Repent, or I'll come to you quickly and fight against those with a sword of my mouth. He that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying. It says God's wake up call.

Let me just say this. Am I talking to somebody right now that says they're a Christian but you're sleeping with your boyfriend or your girlfriend? You say you're a Christian but you're having an affair on your spouse? You say you're a Christian but you're lying on your tax returns? You say you're a Christian and you regularly tear others down and denigrate them and slander them.

Hold on now. You're like the people in the church of Pergamos. You're compromising and that is not what God wants. Bringing us to our fourth church identified as Thyatira.

So they go from compromise with Pergamos to full-blown acceptance of sin in the church of Thyatira. Revelation 2 verse 19, Jesus says, I know your works, your love, your servants, your faith, and your patience. And as to your works, your last are more than your first. So hey commence them.

There's some of you doing pretty well. Nevertheless I have a few things against you because you allow that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality. And he thinks sacrifice to idols. I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality and she did not repent. So who's Jezebel? Jezebel was the wife of King Ahab. She was a wicked woman who was the queen of Israel. And she believed in the worship of the false god of Baal. Jezebel was the one to put the contract out on the prophet Elijah and said, I'm going to put that man to death.

And she actually influenced the whole nation. So the church of Thyatira had grown tolerant of sin. Jesus tells them to repent. Now we come to the church of Sardis in Revelation chapter 3 verse 1. To the angel of the church in Sardis write, These things says he that has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works.

You have a name that you are alive but you are dead. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die for I have not found your works perfect before God. Here with these churches we've looked on we see the natural regression of sin. Sin always pulls you down. So you begin to lose your passion like the believers in the church of Ephesus. Instead of moving forward you are starting to move backwards. Then you start compromising like the churches of Pergamos and Thyatira. And you end up dead like Sardis.

As I have said before no one generally plans on backsliding. But one day you wake up and you say, what happened? What happened to my life? What happened to my marriage?

What happened to my health? I made all these bad decisions. How did I get here? I never wanted to go to this place but here I am.

It started through little compromises that led to this slippery slope of sin. Sardis is a church that looks good on the outside but they are dead on the inside. Have you ever been to a Hollywood set? You realize that when you watch these movies and TV shows that a lot of times they are not real buildings. They are just a facade of a building and behind it are pieces of wood holding it up. And so in many ways this is a church that looked good on the outside but they were dead on the inside.

Is that a description of someone I am talking to right now? Everyone thinks you are just the greatest Christian of all time but there is a deadness inside of you. That is what was happening with this church. So what can a dead church do?

Or let me personalize it. What can a believer do if they feel that they are in a deadened state? Well the great physician. The Lord Himself gives us prescription for recovery. You know if you are not feeling well and you go to the doctor if you don't do what the doctor says that is not on him.

It is on you. I heard about a patient who went to his doctor and said, you know doc it has been one month since I saw you and I feel worse than I felt on the day I came to your office. The doctor said, well did you follow the instructions on the medicine I gave you? And the person said, yes I did. The bottle said, keep tightly closed.

Yeah well you close it after you are done but open it and take the medicine. And so Jesus is giving his medicine. Here is what he is saying.

Here is what you need to do. If you find yourself feeling spiritually dead it is all found in his description of himself. In verse 1 of chapter 3 he says he is the one who holds the seven spirits of God and seven stars. The seven spirits are a symbol of the Holy Spirit in his fullness.

When many believers need is to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. Let's say you bought a brand new car. You drove it off the lot. You were loving it. Ran perfectly for a week.

Maybe a week and a half. And then one day it just stopped. So you have it towed back to the dealer. You say, what is wrong with this car you sold me?

You ripped me off. And they look inside of your car and they turn on the ignition and you are on empty. Your fuel is gone. They said, did you fill it up with gas? What? You have to fill this up with gas?

Yes you do. Sometimes in our life as Christians we are going along. We are starting to sputter and we are starting to stall.

And we don't know what is wrong. You need a refill. You need to be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians chapter 5 says, be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to yourself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

Singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. And that phrase be filled means be filled over and over again. So God wants to fill you with the Spirit and He wants to refill you.

That is what they needed. They needed a refill of the Holy Spirit. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. We hear from so many people who find Christ through Pastor Greg's teachings. Pastor Greg I was saved at your Harvest Crusade at Anaheim Stadium about 20 years ago. Before that I could hardly stand to look in the mirror because I was lost in a world of drugs and violence.

In fact I had many friends and family who died when I was young and I always figured I wouldn't be far behind. The day I went to your Harvest Crusade I was kind of embarrassed to be there and didn't understand what this was all about. Then you came on stage and began to grab my attention. God was speaking through your mouth to my heart.

I started crying and didn't know why but I knew I wanted everything you were talking about. The love, the forgiveness, eternal life. You did an altar call for anyone who wanted to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. I popped up and jumped through the rose to get to the field so that I could commit my life to Jesus Christ.

I just felt the need to share this with you. I pray that God continues to use you to help save the lost. Thank you Jesus and thank you Pastor Greg for sharing God's love with so many. What a great story of how God used the Harvest Crusade to bring this man to Christ. And tell a friend about Pastor Greg's next event SoCal Harvest, October 3rd at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California. Get information and get involved by going to harvest.org.

That's harvest.org. Well Pastor Greg is leading our study of Jesus messages to the seven churches of Revelation. Messages that are very relevant to the times in which we live. And later we'll explain how you can take this teaching even further through Pastor Greg's new book on Revelation.

Or get details now at harvest.org. Now we come to the church of the last days. As we will discover in the book of Revelation. I believe personally we're in the last days. I'll make a case for that. And by that I mean I believe Jesus could come for us in our lifetime.

So we want to be ready. You don't want to be a part of the church of Thyatira. You don't want to be a part of the church of Pergamos. You definitely don't want to be in the church of Sardis. But you do want to be in this church. Because really you choose what church you're going to go to. You decide what church you're going to be.

It's really up to you. This is the church now of Philadelphia that's alive. Look at Revelation 3 verse 7. To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write these things says he that is holy and is true he who has the key of David he who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens I know your works I have set before you an open door and no man can shut it for you have a little strength and you've kept my word and you have not denied my name here's some takeaway truths from the church of the last days the church we should all be a part of number one Jesus has given to us an unprecedented open door let me say that again Jesus has given to us as the church today an unprecedented open door do you know that we have do you know that we have the ability for the first time ever to literally fulfill the great commission in our lifetime I mean think of all the technology we have at our disposal I mean even what we're doing here at Harvest at Home and then this is on our YouTube channel and these messages are heard on our radio broadcasts and on our website and there's so many ways we can communicate now through films and other ways that getting the gospel to people in unexpected ways the door here is a symbol of opportunity and the key is a symbol of his authority Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2 12 when it came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel a door was opened unto me by the Lord we should pray for these open doors Colossians 4 Paul says pray for us too that God will open a door and give us many opportunities to speak about Christ so God opens doors up there might be an open door in your life right now with a neighbor they were closed closed to the gospel closed to anything spiritual and suddenly they're open or you just met somebody or an opportunity came up look for open doors they're out there pay attention number two God has given us enough strength to do what he has called us to do God has given us enough strength to do what he has called us to do we read that this church was making a comeback in verse 8 Jesus says you have a little strength by the way that's not a negative criticism it's a commendation that he is giving to this church the picture here is of a sick person coming back to life as you may know I got covered a number of months ago and and I started with you know congestion and a little bit of a fever I had a mild case thankfully but one thing that stayed with me for a while was fatigue it took me a while to get my energy back I would get up and do something I'd be tired and just go sit for like an hour that's not me I'm I'm a very busy active person but thankfully my strength has come back again but that's the picture here of the church of Philadelphia it's like a sick person coming back to life they're not at full health yet but but they're getting there they're out of the bed now they're standing up again they're starting to move around again this would appear to say that the church of the end times is going to experience revival what is revival it's returning to original condition what is original condition it's the church of the first century the church that changed the world the church that turned the world upside down so this last day's church of Philadelphia is coming back they're making a comeback their strength is returning a church that is going through open doors of opportunity he gives them a promise and this shows this is a church of the last days in verse 10 he promises to keep them he promises to keep us from the great tribulation period verse 10 says Jesus speaking I'll keep you from the hour of trial that will come upon the whole world to test those that dwell on the earth now we're all going to go through trials and tribulation in life as followers of Jesus Jesus even said in this world you will have tribulation but be of good cheer I have overcome the world but there's a difference between personal tribulation and what we call the great tribulation period the great tribulation period is a global event look at verse 10 he says I'll keep you from the hour of trial that will come upon the whole world to test those that dwell on the earth this is a global event that will affect everybody secondly it's a specific period of time Jesus calls it an hour of trial it's not 60 minutes it's seven years in total so he says I'll keep you from that it is my firm belief that the Lord will call us home to heaven before the tribulation period begins I believe the church will not go through the tribulation period I don't even think the tribulation period can begin until the church is removed pastor Greg Laurie will come back in a moment with a final comment from his message before today's edition of a new beginning concludes but he spoke of open doors of opportunity we have an open door to preach the gospel in just a few weeks at SoCal Harvest because of the pandemic it's been more than two years since we've been able to host one of our live evangelistic events but we're coming back to Angel Stadium in Southern California for a one-night event on Sunday October 3rd be in prayer would you and let a friend know of this important opportunity to find hope in Jesus Christ now the title of today's message is the seven love-led letters of Jesus to his church for an instant replay of today's presentation look for that title when you go to harvest.org well pastor Greg I'm sure our listeners are enjoying this new series in the book of Revelation and they'll enjoy your new book on Revelation that takes this insight even further as well yeah but I've got to think that the first time a pastor decides to teach from the book of Revelation is a little sobering a little intimidating yes do you remember the first time you dove in yes it is all the above it's an overwhelming book it's a book that's filled with imagery it's a book that's filled with statements that are not always easily understood but I think as you begin to piece it together and understand that studying the book of Daniel is a great help in understanding the book of Revelation understanding the format of it understanding the purpose of it it suddenly comes into focus for you you know just take the word revelation by the way it's revelation singular not revelations plural I bring this up because people often say I've been reading revelations well look it's revelation but revelation means to unveil so God's not trying to hide things from us he's trying to unveil reveal things to us you know it's interesting Jesus in Matthew 24 and what we call the Olivet Discourse says when you see the abomination of desolation happen then we read let the reader understand so Jesus is talking about end times events and there's that little detail let the reader understand so why Jesus say that if he didn't want us to understand Bible prophecy and how it applies to us today I believe we're living in the last days I believe Jesus can come back at any moment and I believe we need to be ready and the book of Revelation will help us to live a life that is prepared for the return of Christ and we are not only teaching on it here on A New Beginning but we have a brand new book that we have just completed and I'm so excited about this because this is going to help you understand this great book of Revelation and how Bible prophecy applies to you the title of the book is simply Revelation subtitled A Book of Promises so I hope you'll order this book that we will send to you for your gift of any size and whatever you send we will use to enable us to continue to teach the word of God here on our radio broadcast A New Beginning and also to proclaim the gospel and call people to Jesus Christ so order your copy of this brand new book Revelation A Book of Promises and we'll send it to you for your gift of any size yeah that's right it's such a rich book in fact it even promises a special blessing no other book of the Bible does that and we'll send you this new resource to thank you for your donation right now hey Dave let me jump in really quick and not only are we offering this new book Revelation A Book of Promises but we have this really cool graphic bookmark that we have put together that gives you a timeline of end times event so you probably wondered okay I know I've heard about the rapture and the tribulation period and the anti-christ and the second coming what happens when well this very beautiful little visual bookmark sort of lays it out for you that's included in the book you're talking about right now yeah that's right it comes automatically so get in touch with your donation today and we'll thank you with a copy of Revelation A Book of Promises you can write us at A New Beginning box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or call 1-800-821-3300 that's a 24 7 phone number 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org well next time on A New Beginning the conclusion of Pastor Greg's study called the seven love letters of Jesus to his church but Pastor Greg helps us wrap up today's program one final thought actually two two things I want to say in closing picking up on what I already touched on in our message Jesus says I've set before you an open door no man can shut it I'm going to challenge you to look for opportunities to start an evangelistic conversation in this coming week look for people to talk to about Jesus that they will happen at unexpected times with unexpected people in unexpected places you never know when those little doors will open up and I would also like to pray for you as we close because we talked about being filled with the spirit every one of us needs to be filled with the spirit and to be refilled over and over again so I would like to close with prayer where we would all ask Jesus to fill us with the spirit because we're told in the book of Acts you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you to be a witness to me and so I need this power of the spirit of my life to have the boldness and the courage to look for those open doors and start evangelistic conversation so let me pray for you right now let's pray father we need the power of your Holy Spirit we fall short so often but you've told us in scripture it's not by might nor by power but by your spirit says the Lord so Lord fill us with your Holy Spirit even now fill every one of us with all the power we need give us all the gifts of the spirit that we need and use us to be your representatives in this dark world so we can go out and share the gospel and go through those open doors of opportunity we commit ourselves to you again in Jesus name we pray amen hey everybody thanks for listening to a new beginning this is a podcast made possible by harvest partners so for more content that can help you know God and equip you to make him known to others or to learn more about how you can become a harvest partner just go to harvest.org