The Fearless Chruch

Hi, this is Pastor Daniel Bracken. You're listening to Kings Alaska Podcast. I hope the Word encourages you and you get a touch from God that brings transformation and equips you to experience life with people, power, and purpose. Thank you for joining us. Enjoy.

The word found in Revelation, chapter two and three. If you would go to chapter two. Two. We're going to look at the second church. They are deliberate, they are strategic, and they are profound.

And even though these words, these verses seem like they're few, they carry great, great weight. How many of you enjoying this series? I. I am. I. I think I was talking to myself in the front row. Serious sort of scares me.

Why is that? I. I don't know. I'm finding myself growing in the fear of the Lord. And I'm deeply moved by studying these verses and passages of scripture. We started by really giving an overview of why we would study the seven churches out of the Book of Revelation.

Well, why would we study them? That's a great question. Why. Why would we give ourselves to doing that? And this is right in introduction.

We'll read the text here in just a moment. Why study the seven church, seven churches of Revelation? There's seven literal, historic churches. But the messages that Jesus gives to them points to the kind of church he's trying to build. It points to the kind of church he wants to create, he wants to grow.

He said, I'll build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail. And I think what I see around the world, by my estimation of things, is, is the church has really been watered down and seduced. It's missing a lot of components. And I thought, Lord, he's like, I want you to change some things at Kings, Alaska. I'm going to put my finger on some things.

I want you to. I want you to deal with these things as you preach, as you teach, as you praise, you prophesy. I want my hand to come upon the church in a way that you've never experienced before. I want to develop something there. And I'm going to show you.

Out of the seven churches of the Book of Revelation, this is so profound. I. I don't even know where to tell you how profound it is. It's amazing. May God just, just blow your heart up tonight in the best of ways.

Seven letters. It gives instruction and they prepare really for the second Coming. He's preparing the church for his soon return.

And they also in these letters, now we call them letters, probably all together. It's hard to say. There's argument about that. Letters, messages, oracles, they also give instruction on how to overcome. Now, I don't know about you, but I've been through some stuff in my life and I have no doubt that the best is yet to come.

I have learned how to overcome more so than when I was 20 years younger in the Lord. There's some things you can learn to overcome. You can learn to overcome. Come on, somebody say I'm a winner. Come on, say I'm a champion.

Come on, say I can overcome. Come on, say I'm more than a conqueror. Yeah, you need to think of yourself that way and see that God wants to make you like that. He wants to empower you like that. The church should overcome every obstacle that comes its way.

Are there obstacles? Oh, yeah. His name is Satan. Satan's real. The Apostle Paul said, I wanted to come to you time and time again, but Satan hindered me.

If Satan could hinder the Apostle Paul from doing what God called him to do, delay some of the things, do you think he'd try to hinder us? Well, absolutely, yes. Yes. But he's a defeated foe. Can someone say amen?

There's some commonality in the letters. This is really a review. Some of the things I said last week. And then we're going to read the text and get into this message. There's some commonality.

Revelation of Jesus. It is actually amazing. As many times as I've read through the book of Revelation, when I was younger, it was just a weird book. I just never caught this. I don't know, I just never did.

I think there's 30 different titles and names for Jesus. You look at chapter one, it gives all these titles of who he is. And then when he's speaking to the churches, these seven churches, he uses one of those character qualities, who he is, which is the answer for what they're going through. It's amazing how many of you know the Word solves all your problems. Yeah, you just need to obey it, need to preach it, teach it, stand on it.

But when Jesus releases his Word, things change. So this is a revelation of Jesus, which we'll look at in a moment. There's usually in. In the, in these letters, these messages, these oracles and affirmation, like, good job, I commend you. How you, in the last, the last message I preached on the church of Ephesus, commend you for your hatred of the Nicolaitans and their teaching false prophets.

He. And he says, good job, because I hate all that too. So he's commending them. He's. He's affirming them.

He's giving them a commendation or an affirmation. Then there's a rebuke. Usually there's five rebukes from five of the churches, but there's two that have no rebuke and the Church of Smyrna has no rebuke, which is interesting. They're just doing it right. But they get a great word of encouragement, and I have no doubt it's going to encourage and speak to us.

Then they're encouraged to respond. There's these promises, and you'll see this in just a moment. Take your Bibles. Turn with me to Revelation, chapter two. There's an encouragement to respond and a promise to those who overcome.

There's these rewards. And I want to say this. I've thought about rewards this week.

I don't think people want to admit that they want a reward from God. And you certainly don't do it. So you can strut around and show your awesome reward. Oh, hey, everybody. The Lord loves me.

I did a lot of overcoming and this is what I've got right here. It's just fantastic. Can I see yours? Which you're so. Oh, that's kind of small.

Oh, that's not happening in heaven. That's not going to happen. It's. It's. The Lord wants to communicate to you and show you how proud and how much he loves you by your loving him and going the extra mile, turning the extra, Turning the extra cheek.

Sometimes you run out of cheeks. You need an extra one. Amen.

Stand up on your feet. Stand up on your feet. Let's read the word of the lord. Revelation, chapter 2. Just a few verses, verse 8 through 11 in the New King James.

Let's go and to the angel of the church of Smyrna. Write these things, says the first and the last who was dead and came to life. I know your works, tribulation and poverty. But you are rich. And I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews.

Come on. Wow. Come on, somebody say, wow. Those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Verse 10.

Do not fear any of those things which are about what you're about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you in prison. That. That should mess up some of your theology right there. The devil's.

This is Jesus talking to the church. The devil's about to throw some of you in prison that you may be tested. Oh, fantastic. Do you have another word for me? Pastor Jesus, is there another?

Can I have another one? Is this the word for me? Okay. You'll be tested and you'll have tribulation. 10 days.

Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. My God. Lord, move in power tonight.

God, mess us up with truth. Put your finger on things in the church, in our lives, in our homes, in our families. Put your finger on things in the church at large, even around the valley, Lord, here and beyond, King's Cathedral and chapels and beyond. And Lord, minister to us, sending forth your word that does not return void. We thank and praise you for it.

In the matchless name of Jesus and all of God's people said amen. Turn to your neighbor and say, do you have an ear to hear? You may be seated. You may be seated. You know, of all the seven churches in.

In the book of Revelation, here, these seven churches, there's only one that still exists. It is this one. Smyrna is the only church that still exists. It's in Turkey. All of the churches are in Turkey, but it's the only one.

It's Izmir, Turkey. Izmir. From Ephesus, Izmir or Smyrna, it's the Same place is 35 to 40 miles. It's like going from here to Anchorage. That's how far away they are.

So just get an idea of how close they are. They're close. 35, 40 miles. And the city is known for its beauty. The city climbed the slopes of Mount Pagos.

It is a beautiful city. It was a port city. Ancient writers described it as most impressive buildings and porticos. Interesting fun fact. I'm not going to read too much into it, but prior to that, the city was destroyed and totally decimated.

And then it was rebuilt as a Roman. A gem of Roman architecture and Roman government. And it was a very special. It's a city that died and rose again. It's just interesting that Jesus talks about that in his prophetic word.

To them, it is also the home of. Home of Homer. Anybody ever heard of Homer? He was a poet, Greek poet. There's a number of places that declare that it was his birthplace.

The Iliad, Odyssey. Not the one that's a cartoon, the actual one. Homer was said to be born there. Polycarp. Anybody know who Polycarp is?

Polycarp's an interesting character. Just giving you some historical context. And we're going to get into this thing verse by verse. Polycarp is a bishop. The interesting thing about Polycarp is he was alive and knew the apostles.

He, he wasn't an apostle that was with Jesus, but he knew them. So he knew John. He knew these different ones. He was friends with him, Polycarp. And he was martyred.

A horrible, horrible death. Smyrna was a port city of the Aegean Sea. About a hundred thousand, one hundred fifty thousand.

It's hard to say. There's millions of people there now. It's known for its emperor worship. Now a unifying, a unifying factor in the Roman Empire. Come on, can I just teach you for a second?

You'll learn some stuff. Gave you notes. Fill in the notes as we move along. A unifying factor in the row in the Roman Empire was one. You had to have a great army to keep everybody under control.

And the other way to control everybody was through religion. And so they have this religion. Really many people believe it was an attempt to usurp the prophetic word or just undermine the prophetic word that was coming, that God would raise up a king and he would, he would rise and he would come out of Bethlehem. And so they called the Emperor savior and it was Emperor worship. And everybody had to worship.

I mean, they called him God, basically. Now, I'm not sure everybody believed that he was God or not, but you had to worship him. And you, you couldn't buy and trade. All depends on which emperor was leading. But you couldn't buy or sell without, without the seal, without having worshiped the emperor.

Does that sound familiar? Because there's coming a time when finances will be deeply affected and people will take the mark of the beast.

So there's some parallels there. So this city, Smyrna was a, a big deal in emperor worship. It really was. And so as a result of that, the church of Smyrna was persecuted. They suffered persecution, great persecution.

Because if, if they come and they tell you to bow down and burn incense to Caesar, what are you going to say? Some of you might say, well, it's not a big deal. I mean, you know, the Lord can forgive me after.

And it's kind of crazy, you know, the, the Romans are like, give me a break. I mean, can you imagine? Before the apostle Paul comes, they were happy to burn incense. But now after some Jewish guy comes and talks about another Jewish guy that died and rose again. His name is what?

Jesus. What's his name? Jesus. Right. What's his name?

Okay, and now you don't. What's to burn the incense. For God's sake, take a knee, burn the incense. But you can't. If you're a real believer, you can't because you cannot deny the Lord.

So Polycarp, the bishop, he's in his 80s, would not burn incense. And they killed him. They killed him.

Jesus called them to walk in this. In fact, I've entitled it Fearless Faithful Church. He called them to walk in this grace, to be fearless in the face of losing their lives. I mean, that's pretty intense.

Wow. All right, we're going to look at the text here.

How many of you got notes good? No blanks tonight. I thought I'd take a break on. On the blanks. So we're at Roman numeral 3.

Look at the text and to the angel of church of Smyrna. I want to stop because there's so many arguments about these letters are started that way. To the angel of church of. To the angel of the church of. To the angel of church of.

So there's a lot of discussion like who's the angel? Is that the pastor? Is the pastor the angel? Is there an actual angel mean? Why would God talk to an angel like that?

Through. You're gonna. How does that work? There's a lot of arguments about that. I think what I'm going to land on for me at this time in my life as I've studied this, that to the angel of the church is to the.

Because angel means minister. It means a lot of different things. But John the Baptist was. Was a. Was a messenger minister.

But really the word messenger for John the Baptist, he was a messenger. And so I, I see that the angel of church, I see that as being given to the pastor over that church. But it's also also as a duality because I know that we also have angels. So it's kind of like tell the angel the church. So that.

That would be like the pastor and. And. And his angel. Maybe the power of God flows through people. So it's.

It's an interesting phrase and there's a lot of discussion about it. But that's. That's how I see that the angel, the church is smearing a. Right. That next verse.

And I'm just taking this verse by verse. These things says the first and the last. So that comes right out of chapter one. Chapter one. Talking about who God is.

He's the first and the last. Why would that be encouraging to a church that's experiencing persecution? And not only. I mean, we're going to go further on. They get this amazing prophetic word that Satan is going to put some of them in prison.

This is from the Lord. I thought Satan was bound. Right, right.

That you'll be tested. I mean, this is heavy duty. And when I would read it earlier on, I'm like, I don't understand that. Let me go back to John. I just kind of.

I'm the first and the last. I want you to know, the Lord wants you to know that God was here before anybody else and he's going to have the last word. It does not matter what your employer says. It doesn't matter what the government might say to you. It doesn't matter.

He's the one that is going to bring the final word on the whole thing. So even though you might be going through a whole time, a hard time, there's going to be a correction that comes in the end. He's the first and the last. It's a play on words meaning really the same thing. The Alpha and the omega.

So he created the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land and you and me. He created all the birds and the fish. He placed us in creation that he might have a family to call on him to co labor with him. Adam blew it and so did every other king all the way up until the king of kings came, who died and rose again. And to as many as believed in him, he gave them the right to become children of God.

Understand this, that no matter what has happened in your life, the Lord has the final say. That's encouraging to me because I've had some situations and years gone by where it's like I wanted to have the final say and I didn't get to. And then there's this opinion that floats around. I'm so glad. Come on, lift your hand and say he's the first and the last.

And he says, jesus was dead and came alive. Look at the right in your right in the verse. And the verse is really the point on the notes. Jesus is dead and came alive. Well, that's pretty encouraging.

You say what's encouraging about that? He died. He was at all points tested, yet was without sin. So he's talking to the persecuted church of Smyrna, the only church that still exists from the seven churches of the book of Revelation today. It's the only one that still exists.

And he says to them, I was dead, but I'm alive. In other words, you might die, you might be persecuted, but it's gonna be all right because I've been there. I know what it is to have the crown of thorns. I know what it is to have a nail pierced. Hands.

I know what it is to have a sword pierced. My side. I know what it is. I just see the Lord saying to them, I did this. I died.

Death is not the final say. Death is not the final say. The more I meditate on the script scriptural truth of death and life and resurrection and power and that which really matters. I mean, you guys were singing those worship songs. Shoot, I was so messed up.

Nothing else matters. Nothing in this world will do.

Jesus, be the center. Maybe I can sing in the choir. Surround you, Jesus, you.

Most churches maybe, including ours, I don't know. I'm just examining my heart. I'm preaching to you, so you examine yours. Do you see things like that? Do you see him as the first and the last?

Do you see him as the one who was dead and has come to life? In other words, in application to a persecuted church? In other words, he's saying, what you're going through, I see it, I know what it's like. But it really doesn't matter in the end because I'm going to give you life. And it's not anything this world can compare to.

And there's these rewards. Listen, when you get this down in your spirit, it changes the way you walk, it changes the way you pray. It adjusts. It adjusts. It brings a plumb line, an adjustment to your emotions and your desires that.

I just want that bass boat, really. I mean, there's nothing wrong with a bass boat. Except there's no bass in Alaska, I don't think. Is there bass in Alaska? Bass is one of those smaller fish in the lower 48.

So oftentimes in my youth, I've, I've, I've, I've attached to things. I think I'm going to call it covetousness. It's not preached too often. Not going to find a great message in America generally on being of coveting. Why not?

Because it's not popular, man. Because most of America is like when you read these things. And I believe what the Lord is doing in me, what he's doing in us, he's having us take a real look at what's important, what is really important. And what it is, is the end. As the Lord spoke to me in that dream, the end is really the beginning.

There's a millennial reign. This is a 70, 80, 90 year internship. How are you doing? Because if you're clinging to all the things or coveting over things, constantly trying to get money or constantly trying to get the accolade or constantly trying to grasp for four things in your life, you're missing it. No matter what difficulty you're going through, he's going to set the record straight.

And then Jesus in your notes commends him. He commends him, he affirms him for being faithful. Since you're faithful, good job, you're a faithful church. Come on, somebody say, lord, help me to be the next level of faithful. Lord, help me to be the church in Smyrna.

This the second, second church found in the book of Revelation, chapter two out of the seven. This is number two church in Ephesus. Number one. The church in Smyrna was poor.

Now think about that. Think back about what I told you. Think back about being a port city, the most beautiful city, a set city in Rome. I mean an important city. It wasn't like Ephesus, but it was very important and a lot of people lived there.

It was not a poor city. Then why was the church in Smyrna poor? Because the Romans took all their stuff. It's called persecution. They took their land, they took their businesses, they.

You know, in China people have experienced this. We're in America now. If you think that there's not going to come persecution here, I. You might be wrong. I'm not sure.

I don't know.

I believe in a pre tribulation rapture. I do believe that. A pre trib catching away. I want to believe in that. I hope it's right.

I kind of like. I like the victorious church model where you don't get to go right away. I just don't know that I can believe it theologically that prayers of the church change things and release judgments. And I know that's also true, but I don't know. I don't have that all straight.

If you have it all straight, good for you.

They were, they were faithful, but they were poor. They were poor because they were persecuted. Church in China. This testimony from China.

This lady had a factory and was a believer. She literally woke up one day to it gone. It was gone. It got mowed over by the government, took the whole factory out, mowed it down to rubble. And they said, you cannot do this in our country.

Plus persecution. You know, over the next few years, God greatly elevated her and she came and to America and to some amazing leaders that are rising out of. Out of China. You know, persecution can be good. And apparently he's allowing it.

How'd you like to get that prophetic word? Prophet Comes and says, yay. Some of you Satan's putting in jail, you'd be like, I bind you right now. That's a false prophet. Okay, this is Jesus.

Jesus talking to church. Lift your hands to heaven. I'm not feeling the love. Amen. Whoa.

You gotta. We've gotta. We gotta change the lens here. So he says the church in Smyrna was poor, but then he tells them, no, you're not poor. You're rich.

What you've given up. Watch what I do when I come all the way through. It doesn't matter if they took your factory. It doesn't matter what you've been through. The loss, the loss of opportunity, loss of money, loss of fortune, maybe loss of loved ones.

I'm going to make you rich. In other words, I'm going to pour out so much on you. Oh. When you get to heaven, it'll look like all the things you were working for are a bunch of turds.

When you get to heaven, everything you've been striving for is nothing but a turd. Do you know what a turd is?

It's not good by comparison. Everything in this world compared to heaven is. You know that's right. Whoa. And that's what he's saying.

You think you're poor, but oh, no. Oh, no, you're rich. Come on, lift a hand to heaven. Anyone that's born again is rich, wealthy, blessed, blessed. Come on, say I'm blessed.

I'm blessed in the city, I'm blessed in the field. I'm blessed when I come and when I go.

Come on, someone say I'm blessed.

We cast down every idol.

I don't know what the rest of it is.

Sickness, poverty. You gotta go. Come on. Somebody say amen. Jesus in, devil out.

I got the power. Jesus in, devil out. I got the power. Jesus in, devil out. I got the power Jesus, life inside of me.

Jesus in, devil out. I got the power. Jesus in, devil out. I got the power. Jesus in, devil out.

I got the power, Jesus. The life inside of me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on, somebody say I'm rich. Quit your belly aching.

I'm about the different things you're going through and how you didn't get the promotion or this didn't thing happen. It's not about that. It's about the kingdom. Be faithful, keep your heart and know what true riches are. Know what the true riches of heaven are.

Everything you're going through is a test. Put it up on the screen. Say you're rich. Come on, lift your hands to heaven. Say you're rich.

He goes on to say, I know the blasphemy now. Understand the blasphemy. There are Jews now that most of the church here is Jews. There might be some gentiles, but it's a. They're Jewish believers.

And there was a lot of Jews in Smyrna, a lot. And they had a synagogue there. And they basically blasphemed the church and all of the believers, I mean, they just, they just tell them, we know the word, we know the word of God. You say you have the word of God and you're lying and you're interrupting what God wants to do with our people. There's no messiah named Jesus.

You're wrong. And everything you're doing, all the miracles are from Satan. No, that's what it says. And what does Jesus calls him? The synagogue of Satan.

Which is like intense. I remember years ago, I was, I should probably protect the guilty.

I was in another church, which is true, it wasn't our church. And I was talking to the pastor and the pastor was up against this board that I think might have been demon possessed, like all the board members. Oh, there's demon possessor, there's, there's deacon possessed churches. I thank God that I don't have to deal with any of that. We have a board, but it's all spirit filled.

And thank God for the covering of Dr. James and Pastor Josh and all of that. I don't have somebody telling me I can't preach on abortion. I, I don't have anybody telling me. I don't say this. You might drive people out.

I intentionally want to see you healed, touched. I want to see whatever sin is on the inside of you offended. So I will preach, pray, prophesy, and it can be offensive. I mean, this is that I, I believe God's raising up a tough church. I believe that God's raising up a church is like Smyrna because persecution might come.

These were the synagogue of Satan. They were saying, look, we know the word more than you, and we're Jews. And you have abandoned and you are, you're all from, you're all from Satan. That's what the, that's what the Jews of the synagogue of Satan were saying. And it's the same thing that they said to Jesus.

It's the same thing they said, oh, you cast out devils by Basil Bubb. Right. Why is that? We're not against Jews. We love Jews.

But there's blind, there's blind gentiles, there's blind Jews. There's people that are just blind. And Jesus, through this prophetic word to John on the island of Patmos, says, speak to them and tell them, I know, I know you're suffering. I know you're poor, but you're really rich. I'm the one that.

I'm the one that started this thing. I'm the one that's going to finish it. I'm going to straighten it out. And you don't need to be. Just remain faithful.

Good job. You're faithful. And the synagogue of Satan and the blasphemers, I know literally it was Satan that was driving them all the way. You know, you know who's given me the most headache in Alaska as I've been here as a pastor? You know that one of the biggest things we've fought against.

You know what it is? It's not the Satanists. It's not, it's not. It's not people who, who hate God, it's the church. We have gotten more grief from other people that say they love God.

Do you remember that? It was. I mean, right. Should we tell the story? I'm gonna tell the story.

Okay. So we did this outreach and it was called Hell House. And we did live scenes showing who's behind abortion, showing who's behind domestic violence, showing who's behind drug addiction, showing who's behind all of that. Do you know who's behind all of it? And occultic worship and all that.

We did it right in October, right at the end of October. And we basically retrofitted the whole one side of Lucille street and, and we gave demon guided tours of real life reality, showing that the devil was basically behind things. Now, they weren't real demons. And in the end when they came all the way through, in other words, we tried to peel the veneer back off of drunk driving and abuse. Tried to pull the veneer back.

And we did. Then they would come into this beautiful sanctuary and have somebody tell them about the way to salvation. And we saw hundreds of people, saved hundreds. Well, we had some. I'm sure he's well meaning.

We're all going to stand before the Lord. We had somebody come. I remember meeting him at the door. He just was. He was a pastor.

He looked like a pastor. I won't define that.

And he said, are you the pastor? I said, yeah. He said, good, I'm here to see this thing. I said, great. He went through the whole thing, wrote a newspaper article and that leftist newspaper.

Yeah, the Frontiersman.

I'm not a fan. I'm not. They just. They bug me. They just.

Let's pray for me right now. Father, how statesman, Gracious, kind. Mercy. Blessed are the merciful. They'll be shown mercy.

Join. Lift your hands to Jesus. Say, blessed are the merciful. I don't want to be merciful. Yeah.

I don't want to receive that. So, Lord, thank you for mercy. Amen. Lord, bless everybody.

So he wrote this article, and they called us the Brackenites, and they lit us up one side and down the other about how we have defiled all of the valley. King's Chapel has defiled the valley by bringing this filth into the church, into our community. And in a church, no doubt gracious, Totally oblivious to the suicides that I helped families get over to the drug addiction and bondage that we were helping families get over. Totally oblivious to all the wickedness that was taking place all over. Almost like with a blind eye, thinking that mat news goes to sit in the Valley.

It's just the garden of the Lord.

There's always going to be people that have an opinion. Opinions are like, everyone has one. Amen.

Everyone has an opinion. What? Everyone has an opinion. How about, what does the Lord think about what you're doing? How about that?

And so you move forward to do what God called you to do as a church, as a business. You move forward, you contend, you believe, look for God's commendation, you stay faithful. And if you have somebody that says, you can't do it, listen, let that encourage you. We have people say, you can't build that. That's too big.

Welcome to Too big, Can't build it. Here it is. There's always gonna be people that say, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. Well, this next point, don't fear any of the things which you're about to suffer. Oh, wait a minute.

Wait, wait, wait. Lord, Lord, can we talk? Lord, let's talk. We've already lost our money. We're poor.

We've been. Of course, I know you said, we're rich. Amen. We're rich. We have persecution going on.

We remain faithful. Thank you. You've helped us. Grace. To be faithful.

And then he says. What does he say? Don't fear. Don't fear any of the things which you're about to suffer. We're not talking about what you just suffered.

We're talking about what's coming. This Smyrna is the persecuted church. They get no rebuke from the Lord. But he's saying, hey, you know, everything you've been through, it's kind of rough. It's tough.

It's tough. Yeah. There's a whole nother happy helping coming upon your plane. Don't fear what you're about to suffer. Say that.

Don't fear what you're about to suffer. I want to tell you one of the things that has really encouraged me. I think it's First Peter, chapter two, verse four. He's given us these precious promises. And I might not have the right text, but I'm close.

He's given us these precious promises that we might be partakers in the divine nature. If God tells you, don't fear, you might feel like a yellow belly sapsucker.

You might feel scared. But if you will focus on the word of the Lord, don't fear, and you move forward. There's a power that comes upon you. Some of you are gripped by fear. Don't be gripped by fear.

Don't do it. And he was telling him, don't be afraid. How do you not be afraid? You're going to lose your life. Some of you are going to.

Satan's gonna come and he's gonna put some of you in jail. He's gonna kill some of you. You'll have tribulation for 10 days. Man, there is such theological arguments over this. 10 days.

Is it 10 literal days? Is it figurative? What is it symbolic? I have no idea. Let's move on to the next point.

The devil's about to throw some of you. How was that for a treatment of. Yeah, I might have just. Oh, no. When I tried to look for something in history where it was 10 days, I couldn't find anything.

I just. I don't know. Commentators argued back and forth and. So anyway, 10 days. Each day is a day like a thousand years.

I don't know. I just. I'm just telling you, I don't know. The devil is about to throw some of you into prison.

You know what I've found about difficulty?

What I found about difficulty is that it has a profound effect on me. I like it now. I don't want to be having. I don't want to have difficulty. I want to just.

I want to have easy. I just want to have. And then just the Lord comes and there's birds everywhere, and it's fantastic. Just. Oh, Lord.

And we just waltz on into the new. The new age, the new. The new millennial reign and just. Oh, it's just going to be fantastic. Devil's about to throw some of you into prison.

Listen to the next one. That you may be tested. Something the Lord's telling John to tell the angel of the church, hey, Satan's going to put some of you in prison. In other words, I have a little tool. His name is Satan.

Satan can't do things unless he's allowed. There's a, there's an allowance, you say. Well, I don't understand that. I don't either. But that you may be tested is interesting.

What happens when, I mean, let's just, let's, let's use a positive thing. Well, it actually is positive, but we don't view it that way so much. So I'm about to have another grand child in just a couple weeks. My father knows, my mother knows, my brothers know, family know, you all now know, some of you knew already. I've got people that are, you know, paying attention online and cousins in different places and they're like, wow, you're having your second grandchild.

Yeah. Now when the baby's born, beautiful child's going to be born like man. I'm just going to weep and cry and pray and declare the goodness of the Lord. And they'll probably be some post on Instagram. And, you know, we love each other, you know, most of us, most of us love each other.

So when somebody goes through a great victory. I was at a wedding today, for instance, when that, when that boy Matthew read through those vows. I've known him since he was knee high to a grasshopper, literally this big. When I got here, here he is getting married, beautiful Christian wedding. And I hear this young man share his vows to his bride.

And it was like filled with scripture. It was impressive. And I sat there and I thought, come on, son, way to go. And then she shared her vows. And I sat there like a spiritual father.

So bubbled over my cup just spilled over. I'm like, oh, God, you're amazing. Well, that's the way it is. Watch this. That's the way it is with persecution because you pray for those who are persecuted, you pray for those who are in difficulty.

And what does it do? It begins to cause you perhaps to examine your heart or somebody goes through a trial, that's a, a negative thing where they're left on a mountain. You know, you pray very differently when they're your family. Very different. The church in Smyrna was going to be tested.

They had been tested. But Satan's going to put some people who are they? Can you tell us who it are? I hope it's that gossiping woman that, that one. Can you put her in prison?

Can have Satan put that, put him in, you know, that guy that always put him to test them.

When joyful things happen, we all rejoice. When sorrow comes, we grieve. When persecution comes, what is the response to that? You know, what the response ought to be is an examining of our heart to see if that came my way. Would I burn incense to Caesar?

Would I worship the emperor? Would I really worship God? God? He said, well, it doesn't matter. We're in America.

Wrong. There is coming days, and I pray that we're raptured on out of here. But you see some of the things that were happening. Thank God for a. A new, a new government, new administration that pushed back some of the stuff that was happening because it was extremely ugly.

But we had a great turnaround. How many of you know that? And if you don't know that, maybe you've got your head in your sand, but may you pull your head, head out.

And this whole next election cycle is very, very, very, very important because if we had some other people in office, my gosh, we, they might have tried to take our guns. Good luck Trying to take guns from Alaskans. Alaskans. And then second in line would be Texas. It would be pretty hard.

The smaller state of Texas would be hard to take guns from them also.

And there's this movement that clearly, and we read from scripture that there are coming days of persecution for the church. He said, well, we're not in that now. No, we're not. Unless you're in China, then you're in it. Indonesia, there's other places where they're persecuting people.

The Heavenly man is a book written by Brother Yun y u and talks about being persecuted. He was in prison for years. They broke his bones. And this is what Jesus is saying to the church, by the way. He's saying, yeah, there's persecution.

Is it really 8:47, Lord, you held the son for Joshua.

Oh, I gotta hurry up.

What was I saying? Oh, yeah, Brother Young, he testified in his book. And I've heard other people talk about this in Russia. I, I met some pastors in Russia. They were persecuted and sent out to somewhere where it's really cold, I forget what it's called Siberia.

And left to die. And while they're there praying, persecuted, they are sent there because they're Christians while they're being persecuted, gathering in a circle and praying those who were still alive. And they literally said, as a very matter of fact, the reason we're alive is that when we began to pray and we were dying cold, angels came and fed Us hot manna, you said. Well, I don't believe that. Well, here's someone who actually went through it, and that's what they're saying.

Angels released a hot. Come on. The Iron Chef. Angel released hot manna to the those that are being persecuted. Brother Young, when he's there, broken bones, tremendous pain.

But he also said there are moments of God's glory coming that can be compared to nothing. Now, I don't want to go through pain, persecution. I don't like going through difficulty. But as a microcosm of I don't think I've been persecuted, maybe, maybe some demoted devil and some minor thing. Nobody's tried to burn me at the stake.

I don't know about you. And so many belly ache and don't see really that, that he's, that he's the alpha and omega, the, the beginning and the end. He don't see that he's alive, that he overcame. Death is not your problem. Death is not.

Don't let anybody manipulate you, especially in the end, should persecution come. Don't let anybody manipulate you to be make debt. Listen, the, the object of the kingdom of God is not so you can be more comfortable right now. It's so that you would live the life of God through you, that you would be a divine partaker, that you'd be not afraid of. You move forward and release his courage.

Anybody ever had that experience?

I was standing face to face with a bear at maybe 25 yards, 30 yards. Okay, maybe it was 50, which feels like three inches. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? And I'm with another. I'm with a guide who grew up in the woods and could make a meal out of bark.

You know what I'm talking about? Like one of those guys. I don't know hardly anything. There I am without telling the old story. I've got my gun and I, I have a, I've got a scope on it.

This thing's so close. I don't want to bring my gun up because I mean, like, how am I gonna find this? You know what I'm talking about? It's like, is it too close? So here's this bear.

It rears up. I'm like, I want to grab my handgun. I don't know what to do. But the worst of it all is I'm about to pee myself. No, no, no.

I, I, I, I'm serious. I'm like, mom, you know, like, I felt like that, and I'm just thinking, it's coming, it's coming. It's coming. And the guide with me says, go on, bear. And I'm like, yeah, go on.

But I'm still sitting there. And then all of a sudden, courage melted away. And I thought, you come. I'm freaking killing you. You will.

Let's go. Well, I'm gonna kill you with my bare hands. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? I was so glad that I wasn't a. All of a sudden all that melted and I got my man card, I think, for the first time.

And you know what that bear did? It said and just took. Faded off and it disappeared in a second.

Lift your hands to Jesus. I'm out of time. But I am not. I am not done.

Can I just take a couple more minutes? I'll try to wrap this because I want to keep it in these consents sections. There's testings that come, and when they come for somebody else, let it be for you. And you examine your heart. What would you do if they came and tried to take your Bible?

What would you do if you faced some kind of persecution? How would you respond? You know, it causes you to examine your heart, to say, I'm in, or no, thanks. Didn't sign up for this. Where's the incense?

Caesar, who? No problem.

Oh, because even the elect will be deceived. And, and. And even those who love God will give up their faith in the end. I don't want to be one of those. So you say.

How do you make sure it doesn't happen? Live like the Church of Smyrna every day. Die to yourself. Die. Die.

Put your flesh down. Make a habit of it. There's testings. I mean, it's crazy. Satan's going to come and test them.

Be faithful unto death, he says to them. Be faithful unto death. Again, death is not.

Death is not. You know, the final say, don't be afraid of death. It might be because I'm getting a little bit older, but I still feel like I'm young and I am. Amen. Not.

Don't ever let the old man in. Come on. Somebody say amen. But as I'm studying this, I'm beginning to think, man, that is going to be quite a thing. Your power, the Arabon, a deposit for us here, the Holy Spirit, what we feel here in worship right now, it's just a.

It's just a deposit. It's not the whole thing. It's just a. It's an Arabon. It's, it's.

It's a ring, if you will. It's just A I love you, poof. You get to heaven, you get the whole thing. So I've begun to think, oh, and we've got people that are passing and graduating onto heaven and been by the side. So I visited this precious lady last night, and she's still here, thank God.

But you know, thank God she's going to heaven. But I can't help but think, wow, that's gonna be amazing. That is going to be amazing. Glory. Full glory.

Flesh is gone. No more weeping, no more tears, no more sickness. Yes, as it is on earth. On earth, as it is in heaven. Yes.

But heaven, Heaven is real.

Be faithful unto death. I said that already. Be. Everybody say, be faithful. Next slide, please, Mr. Media Man.

And then lastly, these two promises, Verse 10. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

This crown of life is not the crown that you get from. From being saved. It's a crown, a special crown that God gives those who overcome persecution. It really is astounding. Lift your hands to Jesus all across this place, Father.

Thank you, Lord. Let us be found faithful. Let us be found faithful, O God.

James 1 and 12 blesses man who endures temptation or when he's been approved, you'll receive the crown of life.

It's this crown of triumphs. And never different ways to say it, but it's a place of honor. And it. And it actually equates what many believe is a place of function in the millennial reign.

Let's all stand up on our feet. And I'm concluded, Father. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for the church, Samira. And thank you that we can glean from the revelation that you are the first and.

And the last. You were dead, but you. You rose again. You. You don't miss anything.

And I thank you for testings. I don't want anymore, frankly. But I mean, Lord, you know, you know, have your way. I bind even power. I take authority over the enemy.

And yet there is things that happen that seemingly are in the will of being tested. According to this passage and some others, we want to be found faithful. Lift a hand and tell them. Come on, tell him. Or do you want to.

Or do you want to roll up and give up? You want to give up your faith? You want to be found faithful? Be found faithful now.

Well, I hope you were encouraged by God's word. Word. Thank you again for listening to Kings Alaska podcast. God bless you. For more great content, go to kcalaska.com and may God's face shine upon you and give you peace.