Dear Church: The Church in Philadelphia

Church is Messy

So far in this series, we’ve looked at the unexpected messages to four churches in modern-day Turkey.

UNEXPECTED MESSAGE:

• It’s better to have no church than an unloving church.

• It’s better to let a church suffer than to prevent it.

• It’s possible for a church to stand up for Jesus while standing against Jesus.

• It’s possible for a church to wrongly value staying together over staying faithful.

• It’s possible for everyone but Jesus to be convinced that a church is alive and well.

• A church may be strongest when it's weak.

Message Scripture Passage:
Revelation 3:7-13

Series Thesis:
KNOWING the truth doesn’t change anything. SUBMITTING to the truth changes everything.

Topics Discussed Today:

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:53 Additional discussion from last episode on Sardis: how do we know if our church is alive?
• 04:31 God is committed to making us more like Jesus. What are the signs of the Spirit in us?
• 09:36 Is it good for churches to have non-believers among them?
• 12:50 Responding to these letters individually and collectively.
• 14:14 Engaging in serving others individually and collectively.
• 18:11 Pastoral moment on not just knowing the truth but also submitting to it.
• 20:14 Rick's experience of gaining social standing in the community and the challenges it brought in his own life.
• 23:38 What do we do when our own perspectives get in the way of success in following Jesus?
• 28:22 Looking at love, purpose, and unity as key themes in Jesus's seven letters.
• 30:22 Testing of character and gaining clarity on our spiritual health is a gift of Jesus.
• 34:51 Jesus' description of himself in letter to Philadelphia, he claims to be God but then also talks about "his God". How do we understand these ideas?
• 39:31 Our goal is for people to say, "Look at what God did in and through this church."