Faithful Under Fire [LIVE] - 08/16/2026

Let's go to the next one, amen. Happy Sunday, grace wed, 930, how we feeling? Come on, did y'all come to praise and worship King Jesus? Amen. God says my people shall be called a house. My house shall be called a house of prayer. For all people, so come, all who seek the Lord. For the door is open wide. Let all the people praise you, oh God. Let all the people praise you. For you are good, merciful, and loving. Come, let us worship the God who gathers the scattered. Come, let us worship the God who welcomes the stranger. Loving God, you welcome all people without question. We are thankful because that means we are welcome too. So let us worship King Jesus. Lord, we are grateful for your worship service today through the songs, the silence, the praise, and sermon. May you open our hearts to be as wide as yours. In Jesus mighty name we pray, amen. Come on, church, amen. Come on, 930, how y'all feeling? Write them on the tablet of your heart. Say, we really, really, really ought to write it down. Write them on the tablet of your heart. The word of the Lord says, I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in me will forever be fruitful indeed. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one gets too far except that he comes through me.

So let not mercy and truth forsake you. Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Say, we really ought to write them on the tablet of your heart. Say, we really, really, really ought to write them on the tablet of your heart. Say, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one gets too far except that he comes through me. Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Say, we really ought to write them on the tablet of your heart. The word of the Lord. Come on. Say, we really, really, really ought to write them on the tablet of your heart. Come on, let's write this on the tablet of our hearts right here. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Trust in the Lord with all your mind. Trust in the Lord with all your strength. Lean on to your own understanding. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Trust in the Lord with all your mind. Trust in the Lord with all your strength. Lean on to your own understanding. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Trust in the Lord with all your mind. Trust in the Lord with all your strength. Lean on to your own understanding. I will hide your word in my heart. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Trust in the Lord with all your mind. Trust in the Lord with all your strength. And lead not the artyr in my way.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Trust in the Lord with all your mind. Trust in the Lord with all your strength. And lead not the artyr in my way. I will hide your word in my heart. I will hide your word in my heart. I will hide your word in my heart. I will hide your word in my heart. Everybody clap. Everybody clap your hands. Come on, 930. Did you come to praise and worship King Jesus? Yeah. And lead not the artyr in my way. Come on. Everybody move this way. Come on. You're just getting warmed up. Come on, Christ way. Upstairs. And lead not to your own understanding. Come on, proper. Sit. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. And lean not to your own understanding. Hallelujah. Grace way, sometimes the Lord, he does things, and we can't see what he's doing. We can't feel what he's doing. But I want you to know that he's more than able to do exceedingly,

abundantly, or far more, above, far more than we could ever ask or think. Okay, so this is a new song here. We're singing it's more than able. And so I want you to get in your mind. I want you to take some time and try to just imagine what you think the Lord cannot do. That prayer request that you put on the board or that thing that you said, I don't think I can write that on a sticky note. It might be just too big. I want you to get that in your mind. When we sing this song, I want you to release it unto the Lord and say, God, I'm giving this to you because you are more than able. Amen. How did I throw away faith for the impossible? How did I start to believe you weren't sufficient for me? And why do I talk myself out of seeing miracles? You are more than able. You are more than able. You are, you are. You are more than able. I've seen you do it over and over. You are more than able. Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? It's easy for you, Lord. And now I see all that I have. I've got my confidence back. I put my trust in the one who still does miracles. Through two miracles You are more than able Do you believe that 930? I've seen you do it, Jesus You are more than able

You made the lame man walk You are more than able You made the blind man see He's more than able You are more than able Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? Can you imagine? With all of the faith in the room What the Lord can do? What the Lord can do? It's gonna happen Just let the Word make it through He's gonna move It's a promise He's gonna move Can you imagine? With all of the faith in the room What the Lord can do? What the Lord can do? It's gonna happen Just let the Word make it through He's gonna move He's gonna move Can you imagine? With all of the faith in the room What the Lord can do? What the Lord can do? It's gonna happen Just let the Word make it through He's gonna move

He's gonna move Anything is possible Anything is possible With Jesus Anything is possible Who am I? Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? Anything Anything is possible With Jesus Anything is possible Anything Anything is possible Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? Anything Anything is possible With Jesus Anything is possible With Jesus Anything Anything is possible Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? Come on, hands lifted all over the room You're more than able Jesus Whatever that thing was that you got on your mind at the beginning of this song This is where we release it here We'll sing

You are more than able It's easy for Him You are more than able You are, You are Come on, sing it to the Father You are more than able I've seen Him do it over and over You are more than able Who are we to deny what the Lord can do? Welcome to Graceway, my name is John Stephens and I'm so glad you're joining us today Whether this is your first time with us or you've been watching for a while We're really glad you're here You are a valued part of the Graceway family And it's a privilege to worship with you each week No matter where you've been or what your story looks like God isn't finished with you Throughout the Bible, we see Him using ordinary people with imperfect pasts Doing incredible things Your past doesn't define your future In Christ, there's always hope There's always purpose And there's always a next step If you have a family or friends who use the Pando app Encourage them to watch Graceway too This is a great way to experience the same message together Even when you're in different places One of the best things we can do is grow in our faith together Encourage one another and keep the conversation going long after the service ends If you're currently in a correctional facility in Kansas or Missouri And would like to see Graceway offered where you are

Let your chaplain know They can learn more about bringing Graceway to your facility by visiting visitgraceway.org backslash prison. As we get started, don't just watch the service, jump in. Worship, pray, and listen, and ask God to speak to you. I believe he has something he wants to say to you today. All right, Graceway, in 2 Kings 3 it says, But now bring me a musician. And when the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon him. playing in slow tempo trombone solo playing in slow tempo trombone solo playing in slow tempo trombone solo playing in slow tempo trombone solo playing in slow tempo trombone solo playing in slow tempo trombone solo playing in slow tempo trombone solo playing in slow tempo trombone solo playing in slow tempo trombone solo Blessing my soul My Saviour God, to Thee How great Thou art How great Thou art

Blessing my soul My Saviour God, to Thee How great Thou art How great Thou art Awesome. That's awesome, that's awesome. All right, well, I feel a little cooler already, just having been in the room for that. That was awesome. Hey, if you are a guest, man, thank you for being here. We appreciate you so much. Church, show some love to our first-time guests, would you? Thanks for being here. If I haven't met you, my name's Tim. I'm the lead pastor here. Man, I'd love to meet you after the service, but, man, we appreciate you being here. If you're watching this online, God bless you. I hope things are well. And then men at Crossroads and at Ozarks, we love you. We love you. Excited for what God's doing. Hey, if you have a Bible, get over to Revelation chapter two, Revelation chapter two. We're gonna continue in our series, Dear Church, The Seven Letters of Jesus to Seven Churches in First Century Asia Minor. Today is going to be, we're gonna talk about some heavy things, all right?

So I wanna give you a fair warning and I also just wanna ask God's Holy Spirit one more time to speak to us some important things today, but let's ask God to prepare our hearts. God, give us soft hearts, give us eyes to see, give us ears to hear, give us sensitivity, Lord, to your spirit. And before we know what it is, we surrender, we obey, and we thank you that we can, in Jesus' name, amen. I don't know if you're like me, but I have a bit of an instinct to assume that if enough things go wrong, I must have screwed something up. Is this a thing for y'all? Probably if you weren't raised in church, maybe you don't have as much of this. If you were raised in church, you know exactly what I'm talking about, right? Like one or two things, you're like, oh yeah, it's Monday, it's all good. But then for me, the number is three. If I get above three, I go, oh, I must have messed something up somewhere along the way. Marriage gets a little bit hard. Oh, something must be broken. Ministry gets hard. Oh, our strategy must be off. Finances get tight. Oh, I must miss. How many of you, when finances get tight,

you go back to your ties and go, I must have missed. Did I miss? Do I owe God money? And he's like a gangster with a baseball bat showing up to get it back. Yeah, people criticize this. Maybe we failed. Somewhere along the way, I don't know who said it first or said it out loud, but I think Christians, especially in America, we have this assumption that if I'm trying hard and obeying as best as I can, my life should generally work better. And then you come to Revelation chapter two. And to the second church that Jesus writes this letter to, this church that he loves, and he walks among the lampstands, he knows and he sees, and the church is the church in Smyrna. And Jesus walks among them. Remember, seeing the truth with eyes like fire and sees nothing to correct. Now think about this for a second. Sees nothing to correct, sees no more, no immorality to confront, no cooling of love, no compromise, no call to repentance at all. Imagine Jesus being here week after week, service after service,

getting to the end of a year and going, yeah, nothing to correct, y'all. You're doing good. Can I tell you, that's not what would happen here. Let's just be honest. That's not what would happen. You say, well, why would you say that? Well, because I'm the pastor. Because let's just start there, right? But because there are things that are wonderful that God is doing in this church, and there are things that God continues to need to be at work, that we need to continue to surrender and continue to need to be sanctified and understand. Come on, can we say amen to that? But this is a church that gets no correction. It's one of two churches of the seven that gets no correction. Jesus is walking among them, sees it as it is. They are faithful, thumbs up, and they are suffering. And this creates a category that we need. Sometimes the valley that you are walking through is not evidence that you are outside of the will of God. Sometimes the valley that you are walking through is evidence that you are inside. Of the will of God. Sometimes, and if you've been walking with Jesus for any amount of time, you know that sometimes faithfulness

does not move you away from difficulty. Sometimes it moves you into oncoming traffic of difficulty. But we don't have a great paradigm for this because no matter how many times I say, or you intellectually say, Jesus did not save you to make you happy, wealthy, and comfortable. We still have something in our head that says, if I'm not happy, wealthy, and comfortable, something must be off. Yet you come to the book of Revelation or introduced to this church in Smyrna. And let me tell you a little bit about it because it's gonna help you as we get into the text. Smyrna was roughly 40 miles north of Ephesus, which we looked at last week. It was on the Gulf of the Aegean coast of Asia Minor. It is modern day Western Turkey, and it is the birthplace of Homer. If you went to the movies and you watched the Odyssey, that was a book before it was a movie. I know, hang in there, all right? And the book was written by a guy named Homer who wrote two pretty famous books, The Iliad and The Odyssey. And Homer, we think, was born in Smyrna. Smyrna was built on the slopes of Mount Pagos. And it was built to have this golden street that they wanted to wind like a necklace around the neck of the mountain.

And at the top of the mountain, this is gonna be important, hang in there. At the top of the mountain, they built these temples and these civic buildings, and they referenced them as crowns for the region. So Smyrna does not appear in the book of Acts. It's never mentioned in any of the Pauline epistles. It is not like Ephesus, which we saw last week, which gets three chapters in Acts, gets a Pauline epistle and gets references to its pastor, Timothy, 1 and 2 Timothy, and its second pastor, John, 1, 2, and 3 John. Smyrna's not like that. Smyrna is not even like Laodicea, which gets references on the edges of correspondence from Paul, Smyrna is absent from the entire New Testament, except here. We don't actually know how the gospel got to the city. We don't know who preached there first. We don't know how the congregation came into existence. And this I love, because if I'm Jesus, I am picking the seven biggest, richest, most influential churches in existence to write letters to, and Jesus picks a church that nobody has heard of and hasn't done anything especially spectacular. I just need you to understand that whatever you give to do for Jesus, even if nobody else sees it, he does. He does. Smyrna's biblical era history gets documented,

not in the New Testament, it gets documented in the earliest post-apostolic sources. So around AD 110, the Bishop Ignatius of Antioch, hang with me, Antioch is the church in Acts 13 that sends the apostle Paul on his first missionary journey. Next generation, Bishop Ignatius of Antioch is being transported to Rome where he's going to be executed. He travels through Asia Minor and comes to Smyrna as they're greeted and gets hospitality from its Bishop, a guy by the name of Polycarp. Now history introduces us to Polycarp through a guy by the name of Irenaeus, who was in his youth, a disciple of John, the apostle John, the author of the Gospels, first, second, and third John in this book of Revelation. And he lets us know that Polycarp was a contemporary of and a disciple of the apostle John who eventually becomes the Bishop of Smyrna. Now, why is that important? Because I want you to again get into your head that the book of Revelation is not a code book with symbols that we can't understand. I want you to get into your head that these are real people in real places. And when John receives the revelation that says to the angel of the church in Smyrna, right? He is not going, I wonder what Smyrna means. He's going, oh, I have friends there.

I have family there. I have leaders who I know and people who I love there. This is a web of relationships that is represented in the book of Revelation. And at the center of that is this dude by the name of John who is getting a revelation from his best friend in the world, a guy by the name of Jesus. What I'm trying to say to you is you never know who you're mentoring in D1. You never know. You could be mentoring the next Polycarp or Irenaeus. But so many of these relationships find their origin story back at the feet of a guy by the name of John who is receiving this letter. Now, I want you to remember that this letter would have been read aloud in the church. And so you come to church and you sing some songs and Matt makes us all feel sexier by playing the saxophone, right? And then the preacher stands up and would have read what we know as Revelation 2, 8 through 11 to the church. And let's read it together, all right? To the angel of the church in Smyrna, right? The words of the first and the last who died and came to life. Jesus begins the letter with the resurrection. I'll explain to you why in a minute. And Jesus says, I know your tribulation and your poverty. Parenthetically, y'all are poor.

a rich, and the slander of those that say they are Jews, but 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 into prison that you might be tested and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life. He who 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. I want to take my time going through this text because I want you to understand what is going on and why it's relevant to them and in turn relevant to us. So Jesus begins the words of the first and the last. Allow me to introduce myself. I was here at the beginning and I'll be here at the end. It's true, I died, but I've come back to life. Now what's interesting is that Smyrna had its own resurrection story. In 600 B.C. it was a thriving polis, metropolis, and a Lydian king by the name of Eleides came and laid waste to it, destroyed it, turned it into a scattered series of villages, completely irrelevant, stole from it its polis status. It wasn't a city anymore and it stayed this way for three centuries until a guy by the name of Alexander, you know him as Alexander the Great, had a vision. He had a vision that he was supposed to resurrect the city of Smyrna at the feet of Mount Pagos and even though Alexander died before he was able to accomplish it, his successors took the vision and moved the city two miles from its original location, resurrected it, and it became one of the most beautiful, one of the most admired, one of the most celebrated, one of the most loyal to Rome cities in all of Asia Minor. And so Jesus begins the introduction as a bit of an Easter egg. I know y'all are known for resurrection, but I know a thing or two about resurrections myself. Jesus is a gangster, y'all. Can I tell you, Jesus is so incredible because Jesus knows everything there is to know about

Smyrna and he could have introduced himself any way that he wanted and he said, oh, y'all did resurrection, me too. The other reason this is important is because Jesus wants the church, and you'll see why in a minute, to get their eyes not on theology, not on church history, not on anything other than the resurrection. And so he introduces himself as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the one who was dead but has defeated death and is alive, and you'll see why in a minute. And he goes on and he says, I know your tribulation. If you're going through something right now, Jesus says, I know. I know. I know what's going on. And your poverty, parenthetically, y'all are rich. We'll talk about that in a second. And the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not but are of the synagogue of Satan, two words that I want you to note here, tribulation, the word is a crushing or a squeezing. It's the same root word from grapes being put into a wine press. It's pressure from every direction and every way. It's comprehensive. It is reshaping what and who you are, that kind of pressure. And Jesus says, I know. I know the pressure that you're under. I know the difficulty that you're going through. And it's not economic pressure, it's physical pressure. Tribulation is poverty. Two words in the Greek for poverty. One is of the working poor who have a little but are not destitute. And that is not the word that Jesus uses. Jesus uses the word that is absolute destitution. The word is actually the condition of a beggar who has nothing and has to depend on the charity

of others to survive. That is the word that Jesus uses. This congregation had been reduced to the lowest rung of society. Why? Because they were Christians. Why else? No, that is why. This church had been ostracized, excluded, and boycotted by Raytown to the point that they were dependent on the kindness of others. They were the ones standing. on the corner of Blue Ridge Cut-Off and 70 Highway. Because they're Christians, and Jesus says, I know, I know. Parenthetically, y'all are rich. What? We'll talk about this in a minute, but apparently Jesus has a different definition of wealth than you and I. We find out that the source of tribulation and poverty is connected to slander, and that slander comes from two places. One is Rome itself and the culture that surrounds the church and the other are a group of people who Jesus says say they're Jews, but they're not. So this is Old Testament Jews who are saying, we're the only covenant people of God and are justifying their persecution of the followers of the way, Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life. And they are boycotting, and Rome is pressuring

to the place that the church keeps getting pushed further and further and further down the economic ladder. And the word slander is the same word for blasphemia. It's not just rude speech, it's serious accusation resulting in social and legal consequences. And Jesus says to the church, I know about your tribulation, I know about your poverty, I know about the slander from Rome and the Jews, but let's just be clear, they're not actually Jews and that's not actually the source. The source of all of this is Satan himself. That's why he calls it the synagogue of Satan. It's a play on words. Jews go to a synagogue. And he says it's not a synagogue of Jews, it's a synagogue of Satan because Satan is the accuser. If you find yourself being accused and condemned, you don't need to question where it's coming from. It's coming from the accuser. And so Jesus teaches what Paul has said to the Ephesians. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and against powers. Jesus goes on and he says, do not fear what you are about to suffer. To which you go, why, it wasn't fearing until you said that, right? Do not fear what you're about to suffer. And behold, look at it. The devil is about to throw some of you into prison. That you might be tested and for 10 days

you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. So a couple of things here, tested for 10 days. It's possible that this 10 day reference has some contemporary cultural application that we don't know, but biblically, this draws us back to Daniel 1, verses 12 and 14, where Daniel was tested by not eating of the king's food or drinking of the king's wine for 10 days. And at the end of the testing period was vindicated of the test. Now in both contexts, 10 days, and you hear people go, well, in the Bible, the word 10, no, no. 10 days functions as a non-literal, non-chronological prediction. In other words, this is biblical shorthand for God saying, I know when your tribulation, your poverty, and your slander started, and I know when it's going to come to an end. It's not nine days, it's not 11 days, it's 10 days. And I picked and I allowed you to go through it. I know that it's happening, I'm with you, and it will continue as long as I let it. If you're going through a season right now, this would be the equivalent to Jesus saying, I know that you think that I don't know, but I absolutely know. And in fact, not only do I absolutely know,

but I'm walking with you through it, and I know when it started, and I know why it started, and I know every second in between, and I know everything that it's producing in you, and I know when it's going to come to an end. You don't know, but I do know. You can be certain that I am going to work all of this together for your good, and that this will not last a second longer than it absolutely needs to. If you are in a valley, God does not keep you there punitively for no good reason. He is with you in it, and the second you don't need to be in the valley, you won't be. Amen. Jesus says, be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. And this is another historical reference, because Jesus, remember, he's a literary gangster, is talking to Smyrna, the city that is known as the city of the crown, the city who's. most famous rhetorical self-image was a ring of crowning around Mount Pagos. And so Jesus says to the city of the crown, I know everything that is going on, I am in everything that is going on, it will not last a second longer than it has to, and if you will be faithful unto death, I will give you, inhabitants of the city of the crown, an eternal crown that cannot be taken away. One day, these buildings are not going to be there, they are going to lose their crown, but if you will be faithful, I will give you an eternal crown. Two words for crown, the first is diadema, which is where we get a royal diadem, this is a crown that only goes to a king, that's not the word that Jesus uses, he uses the

word Stephanos, and this is a wreath that is given to an athlete who is victorious. And this is a wreath that is worn in a funeral context. And so Jesus says, don't worry about what's about to happen. Some of you are going to be thrown into prison for ten days, and be faithful unto death, and if you, inhabitants of the city of the crown, will be faithful unto death, I will give you a Stephanos that is given to victors in the context of their death. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church, the one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death, to which you go, the what? The second death? So other letters promise things like hidden manna, authority over nations, a place in the temple of God, Smyrna is promised simply safety from the one thing that a martyr's church could not secure for itself, ultimate death. I'll protect you from ultimate death, and he says the second death, why? Because everybody in this room will die once. Jesus says some of you will die physically, and then will enter into eternal life. And some of you will die physically, and then will enter into an eternal death. And the second death is the one that you need to be worried about. Can I tell you part of the reason that our culture is afraid of dying? Because they don't understand that the actual thing to be afraid of is the second death, not the first death. And so the enemy is slick enough to go, you should be afraid of dying, just don't look at that second one. But if you are in Jesus, we say that death, although I'm not looking forward to it, does not have any sting, why? Because when I open my eyes, walk through the door of, having walked through the door of death, I will open my eyes for all eternity, and they will never be closed again. I will have eternal life in Jesus. And so Jesus says to anybody who hears this, let them hear what I'm trying to say. The one who conquers, who is faithful unto death, will not be hurt by the second death. This is a heavy letter.

And there's some things that I think are important for us to look at here. Remember, the book of Revelation is a apocalyptic book. I've been practicing apocalyptic, enunciating, apocalyptic, yeah. And the word apocalyptic doesn't mean a horror movie, it means an unveiling. And so Jesus is walking to the end of the stage, so to speak, and getting the edge of the curtain, and pulling the curtain back so that we can see things as they actually are. And I want to give you three unveilings that are in this text that are perfectly relevant for this church, and perfectly relevant for that church, and the first is the unveiling of suffering. Can I tell you, Jesus never answers the question that we want Him to answer. When you're suffering, what do you want to know from God? Why? Why? And Jesus, talking to a church that is suffering with no correction, this is not discipline, this is a result of their obedience, Jesus does not say, let me tell you why you're poor. Let me tell you why they're talking trash about you. Let me tell you why I'm letting Satan test you. Let me tell you why 10 days instead. of no days. Let me tell you why some of you are going to go to prison. Let me tell you why some of you are going to die. Jesus gives no casual explanation, not to them and typically not to us. He gives us something that he thinks we actually need himself. You see, the introduction that Jesus gives to the church is the answer to the question that they're dying to ask. And yet, we come to Jesus many times and we say, why Jesus? And he says, let me introduce myself. And we say, yes, but why? Jesus says, I'm the first and the last. I died. I live. I know. I give you life. And this is the Bible's most comprehensive answer to suffering. Jesus does not give us an explanation that is adequate to our pain. If you're going through a season, I need you to jot this down. Jesus, God, does not give sufferers an explanation adequate to their pain. And so, I'm not telling you to not ask. I'm just telling you that God is probably not going to answer. When you come to God and you say, God, why? God,

how could you? God, why? All of those things, you're asking the wrong question. I know it feels like the right question. It does. But we're asking the wrong question. God does not give sufferers an explanation adequate to their pain. He gives them revelation adequate to their endurance. Jesus doesn't turn to us and say, let me explain to you the reason that we're in the valley. Jesus turns to us and says, let me explain to you that I'm with you in the valley. And the aim is not for you to get an intellectual explanation here. The aim is for you to keep walking. And so, Jesus says to a church that is suffering, think about this, a church that is going to be martyred, what does Jesus introduce himself as? The resurrected king. That matters if you're going to lose your life, doesn't it? And so, Jesus doesn't say, let me tell you why you're going to suffer. He says, I'm the answer. I'm what you need. Look to me. Listen to me. Follow me. He pulls the curtain back on our suffering and not only shows us that we want the answer to the wrong question, but he shows us that our desire for the answer to the wrong question causes us to miss the answer to the right question. Jesus is the answer to your suffering. Jesus knows what it is to suffer. Jesus is here, walking monk. Jesus is the good shepherd who is in the valley with you. Jesus is the strong tower that you run to and you are safe. And Jesus is the one who is the first and the last, who was the death and is alive. Who knows? Who knows? Who sees? Number two, thank you. Number two, someone's got to say something, bro, and I appreciate it. The rest of them are just looking at me, you know what I'm saying? It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. I was trying to not say the percentage thing, so my guy did it for me. I appreciate you. The second unveiling is the unveiling of wealth. And let me just say this, when Jesus pulls the apocalyptic event on suffering, the truth is that what's behind the curtain is not what you think is behind the curtain. And now Jesus is going to pull another curtain, and this is the unveiling of wealth. If you didn't think what was behind the curtain on suffering is behind the curtain, can I promise you that here in these United States of America, when the apocalyptic event occurs around wealth, what is behind the curtain, we got no idea? We worship the God of green paper with dead guys on it, and we are very good at a theology that explains gain. We're good at saying why it's growing, why we got the promotion, why expansion, why provision, why victory, why breakthrough. We're just really bad at explaining faithful loss. I'm good at telling you why it's going good. I'm

not so good at telling you why it's going bad. And Smyrna teaches us that you can lose money. and be rich. Smyrna teaches us that you can lose reputation and be known by the king. Smyrna teaches us that you can lose freedom and remain spiritually free. Shout out Crossroads. Smyrna teaches us that you can lose your life and miss that second death. Christian theology requires us to have a category for holy losing and in America we do not because all we do is win, win, win no matter what. But what happens when all I'm doing is lose, lose, lose? For God's glory? Luke 12, so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. Can I tell you in America you're not gonna like this. Many of us are more interested in stacking bills even if we are destitute when it comes to Jesus. You know how I know? Because I know where our giving is. Because I know where our time is. Because I know how hard we have to work to market and to beg and to coerce. Because I know that Jesus's question to the church at Ephesus, do you still love me, is as relevant to us and by us let me be clear I don't mean the American church I mean Graceway. Because I know what it looks like to see somebody who is madly in love with someone and so do you. And so if you walk among these aisles in these hallways do you see a bride madly in love with the church? Madly in love with the Savior? Madly in love with the King? Do you see that? Some of us are rich. Jesus says you can be rich and you can be broke. He says to the church of Smyrna, you are destitute. There is not a more visceral word for poverty than the word that Jesus uses and then he goes, but you know y'all are rich. You see this takes such a on-the-head flip of so many of our actual beliefs and systems. Christians should be willing to lose something rather than surrender faithfulness. The question is whether Jesus is valuable enough that losing lesser things means you can still be wealthy. We need to reclaim a biblical definition of wealth. It has nothing to do with your 401k. It has nothing to do with Bitcoin. It has nothing to do with salary and car and house and closet full of and overflowing full of. It has nothing to do with that. Jesus says to a begging church, you know y'all are rich. And then lastly

is the unveiling of death and Jesus teaches us that there are two deaths not one. One physical and the other eternal. And if there is one death, hear me on this just hang with me. Are y'all still with me? If there is one death and then there is nothing. Let's pick up this idea philosophically. If there is one death and it is the ultimate loss, then self-preservation is the highest virtue. Are you with me? And you see this in our culture, don't you? You see longevity docs and you see supplements and you see peptides and you see macros and you see carnivore diet and Mediterranean diet and you can see red light therapy and sleeping this amount and getting into freezing water and wearing clothes that make me look athletic. You can see all these like I need to live as long as I can. Why? Why? Why? Why? Because the world says at the end there is nothing. And so you better optimize this sucker while you got it. But if the resurrection is true, then faithfulness can outrank survival. This is the reason that the resurrection is so revolutionary. Because the resurrection means that if Jesus does not return, I am going to die. This is what the resurrection means. If Jesus does not come back, which I hope that he does, there's going to come a point at which y'all are going to walk into this room and my big old head is gonna be in a box. And I'm gonna be dead. I hope not tomorrow, but at some point. And bad news, same with you. We all are going to experience the first death. But if the resurrection is true, it means that when I walk through the door of death, which is how the Bible talks about it, not as some cliff you fall off, just a door that you step into the eternal.

That when I draw my last breath and I step through the door of that first death, I step into a life that is eternal. Amen. And that means that somebody who believes in the resurrection has some really crazy ideas. It means that there's a different hierarchy of goods. It means that there are things worse than dying. It means that there are things more important than surviving. It means that there are loyalties worth suffering for. It means there are truths worth losing for. It means that there is a king worth dying for. And so Jesus pulls the curtain back and says, the truth is, some of y'all are going to prison and some of y'all are going to the grave. But be faithful and to him who conquers, I will give you a crown and the second death will not touch you. You will step through that door into glory and eternal life forevermore. You don't need to be afraid. So here's where I want to end. I want to go back to my guy, Polycarp. So Polycarp is not only the Bishop of Smyrna, he's also its most famous martyr. And history tells us in a document called the Martyrdom of Polycarp, widely regarded as one of the earliest substantially reliable accounts of Christian martyrdom

outside the New Testament, we find that in AD 155 or 156, we're not 100% sure, Polycarp has Roman soldiers come to his house and he knows that they are going to take him to a sham trial and he knows that he is not going to survive that trial because he's a Christian. And he invites them in and he orders them to be given food and drink and asked if while they drink his drink and eat his food, they would give him time to pray, which they do. And then they arrest him and they bring him before a Roman pre-consul and the pre-consul urges him to swear allegiance to Caesar. You see, Caesar is not like the president that you go, I didn't vote for, I don't care about that. Caesar is the personification of God. There is a governmental element, but there is also a religious element and you can't love Jesus and serve Caesar. And so the Roman pre-consul says, swear allegiance to Caesar and revile Jesus and we'll let you live. Now, remember, Polycarp would have heard Revelation 2, eight through 11. And so he answers, 86 years I have served him and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme? Do you remember what I told you the word slander, where it comes from, blasphemia? He uses that word.

How can I blaspheme my King who has saved me? And they stab and burn him to death. Friends, this is not a metaphor drawn loosely from ancient history. This is a present documented reality. The letter to Smyrna is almost 2000 years old, but the world it describes has never disappeared. The publication Open Door, which teaches us about persecution, not 2000 years ago, but in 2026, estimates that 388 million Christians, roughly one in every seven Christians on earth live under high levels of persecution or discrimination because of their faith. And can I tell you, none of them are in the United States. Their year-to-date numbers are 4,849 Christians have been killed for faith-related reasons. 4,700 have been detained or imprisoned, 3,300 have been abducted, and 224,000 were driven from their homes and forced into hiding. In fact, after the first service, I had a man that I have never met before who was an Indian who came up to me, and this is the story that his country is going through. Last week, Ephesus was asked to return to Jesus as their first and greatest love, and I can't get this out of my head, Graceway, because as much as I love you and as grateful as I am for what God is doing here, I'm not sure that we passed that test. I'm not wanting to be judgmental, critical, or condemning, but do we love Jesus more than anything? Or is Jesus one of the things that we love? And now today, Jesus returns and asks, what could be taken from you that would make you stop trusting Jesus? And again, I'm concerned, because I've sat across from too many of us who, when the doctor

says it's not good, we say, God, why? I've sat across from too many of us who say there's more month than money, and I don't know why God would do this to me. I've sat across from too many of us who are deconstructing our faith because of a church that we attended or an experience that we had, and I'm just here to tell you that for many of us, and myself included, our faith is not sturdy enough to withstand true persecution. Our faith is pretty fragmented and fragile. And Jesus is coming to the church in whom he can find no criticism or correction, and he says, you're going to suffer. Allow me to introduce myself. Can I tell you, if you can look over your shoulder, or if you can imagine something that could happen to you that would make you stop trusting Jesus, hear me, you're not seeing Jesus clearly. I have no criticism for you. I understand that things happen. I just want you to understand that the only reason you would trade that for him is because you can't see him for who he truly is. If you could see Jesus for who he truly is, you would give everything for him. If you could see Jesus as he truly is, you would trust him no matter what the doctor said. You would trust him no matter how much money you were making. You would trust him no matter what your marriage looked like. You would trust him no matter what your kids were doing. You would trust him no matter what your mental health was. You would trust him no matter who was in Washington DC. You would trust him no matter what was happening in the world. You would trust him and you would hang on with all of your might because where else could you go? Some of you need to stop watching the news and get off social media and allow Jesus to reintroduce himself to you.

Some of you need to have an experience with Jesus that is not intellectual, it is emotional. Some of you are asking God questions that he is not going to answer. The answer is and always has been and always will be, look at the King. Follow the King. Love the King more than anything. Hang on to the King no matter whether hell or high water comes and God bless it, it's always coming. Hang on to the King. He is the answer. He is the reason. He is the first. He is the last. He is the life. You can trust him no matter what you're going through. Church, do you receive this today? Why don't you stand to your feet. Prayer team, come on down. Giving boxes in the back. Growth track step three happening in the next service. Men get signed up. Ladies get signed up. How many of y'all would like to see some baptisms? I would too. Let's look at them. Thank you. Thank you. Come on. Give God some glory today. That's a good day. That's a good day. And let me also just say the first of hundreds or thousands of baptisms at the hand of Pastor Clayton York. Amen? Amen. All right. I love you church. Have the best week. I'll see you next Sunday.