Grace Thoughts

Guest (Male): Hello friends, welcome to Grace Thoughts, the radio ministry of Grace Connection Church with Pastor Tim Kelley. Grace Thoughts has been dedicated to preaching a clear gospel of grace for over 20 years. Here is Pastor Kelley.

Tim Kelley: Yes, get on your knees and you repent. Just like he said to the Ephesian church. Say, "God, I've got used to it. I've grown familiar with it. I've become religious, I've become opinionated, I've become a professional Christian. I'm self-based, not mission-based. I don't even think about the world, the church around the world, and I repent. Create in me a clean heart and do a new work in me." It's that easy and it's that quick.

We have this church called Smyrna. It's where you get the herb myrrh from. To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: "The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life. I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you in prison, that you may be tested, for 10 days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death."

This is one of two churches that actually pleased God. There was nothing wrong here. God didn't bring out one fault. Today there's still a city called Smyrna with about a quarter of a million people, 35 miles north of Ephesus. It has a great harbor, great wealth, and commerce. It had a golden street with different temples in there, a huge theater, library, and stadium. Homer was born there.

Like Ephesus, this was an assize city, which was free from the Roman government. But they had two big challenges facing this church. Number one was Caesar worship. It was promoted to keep peace. Everyone worships Caesar. If we just worship Caesar, then we don't have any religious problems. That was the Roman mentality. The Jews won't worship their God, the Christians won't worship their God, and whatever other religions of the day. If we all worship Caesar, we just don't have to deal with the religions thing.

It was against the law. You know the many persecutions, the 10 major persecutions that faced the church. There was Caesar worship where they were made to bow down to Caesar. This city was one of the spearheads, one of the capitals of people that started it. Because they were Christians and because they would not worship Caesar and bow down to Caesar, that brought tremendous persecution into their church.

Not only did they get it from the Roman government, they had it from the Jews. The Jews came in and said they are the Christian cult and they broke the law. So the Jews would make up trump-up charges against them and attack the church. They were getting it from the government and they were getting it from the Jews. They were undergoing tremendous local persecution.

Persecution has never stopped. We don't hear about it much, but it's really been going on since the cross to the present. People are dying for their faith and people are being put in prison for their faith. People facing political and social persecution has never really ceased in 2,000 years. We've been somewhat inoculated by it in this generation in our country, but if you go back even hundreds of years ago, it was happening all over the world.

I think there's been a dramatic increase in the last 25 or 30 years, but it's never stopped. Just as persecution has never stopped, this is important: persecution has never stopped the church. Just the opposite. It seems like the persecuted church is the most effective church that there is. There's a toughness in them, a spiritual focus in the persecuted church where they know the cost of what it is to name the name of Jesus.

In our culture, we can get born again and we can be saved in a church service like this. There is no real downside to that. But in other cultures in our world—and you see it on the news if you look—you'll find that if people claim the name of Christ, their family rejects them, their father wants to do honor killings and kill them, and they have to leave their country and leave their friends because of other religions. There's a price, a huge price.

In nations where there is not a Christian government, such as Islamic governments, you'll find that Christians have virtually no rights. Go to Egypt, and what churches are they attacking? Christian churches. 2013. These are the churches, my friends, that somehow make their way into the world and make the greatest impact on their environment. This was the Smyrna church. This was where Polycarp was burned.

This church received no promises of deliverance this side of heaven. They had tribulation, as it brought out. That word tribulation is thlipsis. It means pressure. It's used in classical Greek to mean to be crushed under a great rock. It's a cosmic world system internal pressure.

They had poverty. They were destitute, without anything at all. One commentator said many in the Smyrna church were homeless. But what you never saw coming out of their mouth was, "I'm a victim." You never saw a "poor me" or "how come, God, you allowed this?" They took it. God said, "If they're going to throw you in prison for 10 days, hang in there. Don't quit. Because in 10 days they're going to kill you, and then you'll be free." It is a little funny when that's God's perspective. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

The church was not given any temporal good news. All their comfort was promised to them on an eternal level. They were promised a crown of life. I don't know exactly how that manifests, if it's going to be a literal crown, but let's say that it will be. We know the crown of life is the word zoe life. There's different words in the Greek New Testament. There's bios life, which is physical biology life, and zoe life is the life of Christ, a spiritual life and a higher quality of life.

I'm going to give you a crown of life, but not the life of planet Earth. This is a life that was born and nurtured in heaven. That's the life I'm going to give you, a life way above the persecution of planet Earth, way above the pain, the discouragement, and the questioning why. I'm going to give you life way above that.

I'm going to close in just a few moments, but I want to give you some verses that really helped me and ministered to me in my own personal life. My sacrifices and your sacrifices for the sake of the kingdom of God will never be forgotten. If you've given something up for the kingdom of God, if you've gone without for the kingdom of God, those sacrifices will never be forgotten.

There's never been a Christian who served God with all their life who got to heaven and kicked some cans and said, "I wish I didn't spend so much time serving God." That's never happened. There's been no Christian who spent their life and their sweat and their blood serving the King of kings and the Lord of lords who ever regretted the hours put in. In life, we may kick ourselves sometimes, but everything in heaven is never forgotten.

The secret anguish is never forgotten. The banging on heaven's door with no seeming answer is never forgotten. The questions of spiritual confusion that you pound heaven's doors with are never forgotten. The times when you picked yourself up and you went on when you had no strength, those times are never forgotten.

The times when you loved when you didn't feel loved, the times when you believed when you had no faith, and the times when you said positive things when you had nothing but a negative heart, those things are never forgotten. God remembers them. Man may never see them, and hopefully they never will. But God sees it all and God remembers it all.

There'll be a day when we finally die or the rapture of the church comes—hopefully that's going to happen soon, right after the Red Sox win the World Series Sunday night—that we're going to know it was worth it. God, you were aware of that pain? You were aware of that wrestling I had on the inside? God, if you just had answered me, it would have been much easier. No, Tim, I just wanted you to walk. I just wanted you to believe. And I promised you something greater would happen.

Let me read you some verses here. I'm going to go through these quick and I hope they fill up your brain. I hope you just blow up when this is done because these are just great verses. Remember 1 Timothy 5:24-25. "Remember the sins of some people are obvious, leading them to certain judgment. But there are others whose sins will not be revealed till later. In the same way, the good deeds of some people are obvious, and the good deeds done in secret will someday come to light."

2 Timothy 2:12 says, "If we endure hardship, we will reign with him. If we deny him, he'll deny us." He says, "If you endure hardship, arduous toil in life, you will reign with him." How do I guarantee reigning with him? I just endure my hardship. What's that quality in our English? Non-quittability. I made that word up. But it means I hang in there, I don't quit, and I don't throw in the towel, even when I get discouraged and want to see responses but I don't get them.

Hebrews 3:14 says, "If we are faithful to the end, trusting God as firmly as when we first believed, we shall share in all that belongs to Christ." Are you about to blow up? Because I'm liking this stuff.

Hebrews 6:10 says, "For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love for him by caring for other believers as you still do." He says, "I won't forget it."

In Luke 18:29, Jesus replied, "Yes, and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will be repaid many times over in this life and will have eternal life in the world to come."

Matthew 19:29 says, "And anyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property for my sake will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life." Whatever I give up for the sake of the kingdom of God, Jesus says you're going to get at least a hundred times!

Any sacrifice you make for the sake of the kingdom, you'll get a hundred times for all eternity. It won't be temporary; it'll be eternal, a hundred times greater than any sacrifice. Anytime you said no to yourself, anytime you took the higher road, anytime you've forgiven when you've been a legitimate victim, and anytime you sacrificed your own resources for the sake of the kingdom of God, he says you'll receive a hundred times.

When you've been persecuted by other Christians or persecuted by the world, you'll receive a hundred times when we get to eternity. That sounds too good to be true because we've never really seen eternity yet. Boy, won't we be shocked when we get there? We have to believe it by faith.

The message for this church is simple: just don't quit. You hang in there. All these things will wear you out, but don't quit. These things are designed to make you quit, but don't quit because if you quit, there might not be a crown of life. Do not cast away, according to Hebrews 10:35-36, this confident trust that you have in me, knowing the great reward that it will bring you. Patient endurance is what you need now so you'll continue to do my will, then you'll receive all that I promised. That was talking to a persecuted church in the book of Hebrews.

We can't allow life to take us out of the race. We can't allow heartache, pain, grief, and loss to cripple us so badly we can't run anymore. This church was poor and had great pressure. They were lied about but found faithful. Because they were found faithful, they were eternally rewarded.