Good morning, Watermark.
My name is Alfie, and I direct the university ministry here at Watermark Community Church.
I've been here for about two years, just over two years.
And there are a lot of things I love about Watermark.
I love that we are a traveling church, that we move around.
Some people don't like that, but I really do enjoy being in new spaces.
I love that people are changing, that we get to hear the lives of people's stories
and how they're coming to know Christ.
I love that sometimes we have little kids dancing in the front.
And I love that, you know, earlier today I was told off not wearing a blue shirt.
I love baptisms. I love the stories of people being saved.
It reminds me of how I was saved, and it reminds me of the cross and how beautiful it is.
But the cross brings two things to mind.
The sin that plagues our lives and the price that is paid for it.
I'm going to be honest with you guys, this is not going to be an easy message.
Not for me, and not for you either.
In it, we're going to talk a lot about sin, about sex, and about idols in our hearts.
I'm going to see what it looks like in the world, in the church, in our hearts.
And my hope is that at the end of this, that you wouldn't be left in a pit of despair,
but that together we would turn to the cross, and we would see how beautiful it is.
Just as a matter of a note, on your bulletin it says a letter to Pergamum.
That is a typo. It should say Thyatira.
Another thing to note is that I've had a bit of a sore throat,
so if I take breaks to cough, please bear with me.
Okay, let's start with sin.
Sin is our actions, our thoughts, our words that show our hearts,
hearts that are in rebellion against the God of the universe.
There are things we do or say that demonstrate that our heart is saying,
God, no, I don't want to obey your law.
I'm going to do this my way,
and that my desires and this world are worth more glory than you.
I think there are few things that turn our minds and our hearts away from God
and towards sin more than sex.
About sex and money, the writer Paul Tripp says,
neither sex nor money can deliver the promises that we think they are making,
and each area is more dangerous than we tend to think.
Both function today and in the surrounding culture like spiritual solvements
eating away at the very fabric of human community.
He goes on to say that both have the perverse power to master your hearts,
and in doing so, determine the direction of your lives.
Sex in and of itself is not a bad thing,
but a desire for sex, when God and his law and his will isn't at the center of it,
can easily grow into addiction, into insanity,
into a spiraling pit of sin,
and it doesn't get much better when we think about other things.
When we talk about money, when we talk about our work,
I think that our hearts are very easy.
They very easily make idols of anything or anyone,
whether it's good or bad.
I think more than anything else, sex and money has gripped the lives of our world,
has gripped the hearts of our culture.
I think it's sucking away at our souls, at the church.
I think that the church can't escape.
It is true for the church today.
It's true for Watermark.
It's true for the church in Thyatira.
So, this is what we're going to do.
I'm going to talk about the city briefly.
We'll look at what God says is good.
We'll look at things that God says is bad about the church.
We'll try and figure out how they got there.
I'm going to then ask, what about us?
Do we do the same things?
We're going to see what kind of judgment they have in store.
But in the end, when the dust settles,
I hope to show you where we find our hope.
I hope to see that,
I hope that you will see the cross at the end of this.
I think it's very important that you listen to that part,
because if you don't,
it will just be half an hour of me beating you guys up
and showing you where all the sin is in your heart.
I think, you know, if you're not listening to the end,
if you're not looking for the cross,
then all that is pointless.
Thyatira's letter is the longest one
that Jesus writes to the seven churches.
But incidentally, Thyatira was one of the smallest cities.
You'll find it right now in modern Turkey,
and Thyatira is in the middle of this long valley
on the road to Pergamum.
It was in the middle of a valley,
and it wasn't very easy to defend.
So invading armies that were trying to capture
the bigger, wealthier Pergamum
would always come and run over Thyatira
on their way through.
The city was burnt down and rebuilt
and burnt down and rebuilt.
And when Alexander the Great came through,
and he had his little seat of power in Pergamum,
he used Thyatira as a military barracks.
It wasn't until about 190 B.C.
when the Roman Empire expanded
and peace came to the region.
And we see that it took on an identity of its own.
It began to develop industries,
bronze, clothing,
and the precious purple dyes
that made royal robes.
The industries grew to such an extent
that historians actually marvel
at the number of trade guilds
that were found in the city.
Really, a city with that number of trade guilds
should have been much, much bigger.
Because of that,
Thyatira was a wealthy city.
In Acts 16,
we see the story of a lady from Thyatira,
Lydia.
We see that Paul goes and meets her in Philippi
and by the river,
and we see in Acts 16
the story of her conversion.
And we think that she might have been instrumental
in planting the church in Thyatira.
So this church.
Let's look at the good things
that God has to say.
In verse 19, he says,
I know your works,
your love and faith and service
and patient endurance,
and that your latter works exceed the first.
So far, so good.
They're doing all the things
that a church should do.
They have love.
They have faith.
They're serving.
And it's the kind of church
that I would like to be in
because they're growing.
It's not that we're just going to have
a little bit of love now
and then we'll keep that forever.
They've been growing.
Their love has been increasing.
Their faith is increasing.
They're more willing to serve.
The church is almost the opposite
of the first church we looked at, Ephesus.
You know, Ephesus, God berates them
and tells them that
you guys are so obsessed
with right doctrine and orthodoxy
that you've forgotten your first love.
You've forgotten love and faith.
But Thyatira hadn't.
On love and faith,
they were good.
In verse 20, however,
Jesus says,
but this I have against you.
And this is where the trouble begins
because Jesus tells them,
I've had it with you guys
and your rampant sexual immorality.
I'm tired of you guys
repeatedly going to these idol feasts
and eating food that's been sacrificed
to idols.
In Acts 15,
a council of church leaders
gathered in Jerusalem
and they were there
to settle a dispute.
Now there was confusion
about what was expected
of Gentile believers
when they came to faith.
Some said that they had
to be circumcised.
Some said that they didn't.
Some people,
after they were converted,
continued to live lives
that they always had.
Others went on
and adopted, you know,
the Jewish moral standards.
And the council gathered
to clear up this confusion.
And so they said
that circumcision
was no longer required
for believers,
but they gave four things
that believers were
to stay away from
as a mark of their salvation.
The first three had to do
with ceremonial purity.
They were not supposed to
eat animals
that had been strangled.
They weren't supposed
to be in contact with blood.
They weren't supposed
to eat food sacrificed to idols.
And they would stay away
from sexual immorality.
Of these four things,
Thyatira had failed
on two counts.
I said earlier that Thyatira
had a huge number
of trade guilds.
These were workers groups,
kind of like a workers' union,
except instead of
membership fees and strikes,
they had feasts
where they would eat food
that had been offered
to various gods and idols.
And after they were done
with these feasts,
they would feast
on each other's bodies sexually.
Being any kind of craftsman
or tradesman in this city
meant that either
you were in these guilds
and you took part
in these activities,
or you stood outside
where you lost
the benefits of membership.
Members in the church
in Thyatira
were involved in these
and the pagan worship
they took part in.
They traded their religious
integrity for job security.
John records Jesus' words.
He says that
you tolerate that woman,
Jezebel.
Their membership
in the trade guilds
wasn't their biggest crime.
Jesus says that
there's the woman,
Jezebel,
that was seducing
God's people,
that was tearing them away.
He says that,
yes,
there's pressure
to join these guilds
from outside,
but the problem
is inside your church.
There's this woman,
Jezebel,
and she is a false teacher
in their midst.
And to make it worse,
she says that
she's a prophetess.
She's saying that
the message that she has
for the people
is from God,
that God is telling
this church in Thyatira
that they should
be sexually immoral,
that they should
be eating
this food,
the food that's been
sacrificed to idols.
The sin of Thyatira
was that
while these lies
were being spread
that they did nothing
about it,
that they tolerated Jezebel,
and they let her
move into a position
of leadership.
Now,
I don't think that
this woman was
actually called Jezebel.
I don't know anybody
who names their child that.
Jezebel was a woman
who we know of
in the Old Testament
in 1 and 2 Kings.
She was the wife
of King Ahab.
She wasn't an Israelite.
She came from Phoenicia.
Her father,
King Ethbaal,
was named after
the pagan gods.
And so she came
and married King Ahab,
and her time
in the royal court
of Israel
consisted of rounding up
God's prophets
and his priests
and killing them,
replacing them
with her own prophets,
with her own priests.
She drew the nation
of Israel
out of its worship
to God
to the worship
of these other,
these idols,
to worshiping idols
and taking part
in cult prostitution.
In the end,
she was punished
by God.
The story says
that she fell out
of a window,
and when she hit
the ground,
she died instantly,
and that her body
was eaten up
by dogs.
All that was left
were her feet.
This is the kind
of woman
that was leading
the church in Thyatira
away from God.
For Thyatira,
Jezebel wasn't
an outside force
coming in.
Jezebel was
within the congregation.
She was a leader
there.
You know,
if they were like Smyrna,
if the trouble
was coming from outside,
then their judgment
probably wouldn't
be so harsh.
But they had allowed
Jezebel to come
into this position
of leadership
in their church
and draw them
away from the worship
of God
and turn them
towards idols.
The church in Thyatira
brings a strong warning
and a reminder to us
that the enemy,
that Satan,
isn't just attacking us
on the outside,
but he's warring
against us
in our innermost beings,
in our hearts.
It's true for Thyatira.
It's true for us.
It's true for every person.
Here.
If Satan isn't
attacking you
on the outside,
then he's probably
attacking you
on the inside.
And if you don't
sense him
attacking you
on either side,
then maybe he sees
that you're not
worth attacking,
that he's already
had you completely.
Jezebel is a deceiver,
and she carries
these characteristics
into Thyatira
because it's only
by lies
and untruths,
by twisting
what God
had said,
by twisting
the truth
about who God
is and what
the gospel
is,
that she could
convince God's
people to depart
from what God
had commanded them.
You know,
I think the things
that she said
wouldn't be too
different from
some things
that we hear
in the world
today.
You know,
it could be that,
you know what,
your bodies
and your souls
are separate,
that neither one
has an effect
on another.
You know,
do the things
that you must
in your flesh
because it's only
in your flesh.
Your spirit
won't be harmed.
Or this lie,
that the laws
of the church
are old,
they're old-fashioned,
they're traditional
and intolerant,
and they don't
apply to us anymore.
Or this lie,
that you know what,
God put these
desires in you,
and it's a sin
not to go
and satisfy them.
God is out of touch
to the world.
If he'd been in the world
and experienced
these things,
then maybe the laws
would be a little bit
different.
Or we are more
enlightened than
Moses was,
so we can allow
for more things.
Or,
this one,
Paul writes about it,
that God's grace
is big,
and by sinning more,
we make God's grace
bigger,
so we should sin
to make God
more beautiful.
That's a lie.
She would have
told them that
if you're in Christ,
these pagan things
have no effect on you.
That actually,
maybe,
to know that your
faith is real,
you should get involved
with the deep things
of Satan,
because then you'll know
that you're truly
separate,
and you can truly resist,
you've truly mastered
your desires.
Lies.
And it's not an attack
from the outside,
it was from inside,
it's like the poison
apple in Snow White.
In the outside,
it's red,
and beautiful,
and perfect,
but when you open it up,
there's only death.
Who was there
to say no?
Who was there
in Thyatira
to say
that this is not right,
that this woman
is telling lies,
that you guys
need to repent
and turn back
to God?
What you must understand
is that in Thyatira,
these things
were totally normal.
These were things
that happened
in the culture
around them.
If you went home today
and you stood
in your lift
and you're going up
and your neighbor
was talking about
how the meat
at the idol feast
was a little bit stringy,
you might wonder
what they're up to.
If they then went on
to complain
or to rave
about the sexual feast
they had afterwards,
I wouldn't blame you
if you rushed
to cover your kids' ears,
because those are things
that we don't see
or expect today.
But in Ephesus
and Thyatira
and Corinth
in cities
in that day and age,
those things
were very normal.
They were as normal
as paying taxes.
Tolerance for sin
is a very sneaky way
of getting into our church.
And often
with sexual immorality
it's very easy
to go and shift the blame
to the culture outside.
It may be true,
but we only succumb
to sexual immorality
because of the desires
in our flesh
and in our hearts.
The culture
and our flesh
fight together
against our spirit
to turn us away
from God
towards sin.
They tell us
that what is the truth
is a lie
and that what God
has said is forbidden
is permissible.
And I don't think
things have changed
too much
in 2,000 years.
When the church
in Thyatira
slipped on its sexual conduct,
we do the same.
And don't think
that because we're here
inside the church
and God's fellowship
of believers
that we're exempt,
that we're immune to this.
Here's some numbers.
Statistically,
about 88%
of singles
in developed countries
engage in premarital sex.
In that church,
in the church,
that number drops
to 80%.
80.
70% of men
18 to 35
watch pornography
regularly.
That's the kind of statistic
that seeps into the church.
Studies have shown
that 50% of pastors
struggle
with pornography.
Something is wrong
with our church,
with the way
we view God,
when 40%
of women
going for abortions
in the United States
say that they're Christians,
that they have a faith
in God.
Studies show
that one in four marriages
within the church
experience domestic
and sexual violence.
And increasingly,
more and more people
in the church
begin to teach
that homosexuality
is a part of God's will
for marriage,
family,
and sex.
In the church then,
in the church now,
sexual conduct
is an issue.
In 1 Corinthians 5,
we see Paul berating
the church
for celebrating
incest in its midst.
They brought into the lie
that freedom from sin
meant they could do
whatever they want.
Now,
don't look at Corinth
and think that we're
any better.
Because pornography
is as much a sin
as incest is.
Homosexual relations
are sin
as much as adultery
is sin.
And in God's eyes,
emotional and sexual abuse
are as much a sin
as pedophilia.
As I grow
and I'm walking
on this journey,
I'm made more aware
of how sinful
and how broken I am.
I don't have to look
back very far
to see a time
when I was in a pit.
On one side,
pornography,
on the other side,
casual sex.
It's not
too many years ago
that I emotionally
abused my girlfriends
to satisfy
my sexual desires.
I see every day
how much my thoughts
and my actions
are torn apart
by slavery
to the flesh.
I see it's only
by grace
that I'm able
to pursue holiness
and purity.
The truth is
that our sinful nature
uses sex
to make slaves of us.
It wraps us in guilt
and shame
and it blinds us
to a multitude
of other things.
It makes us,
as Peter wrote,
ineffective
and unfruitful
in the knowledge
of Jesus Christ.
The problem,
however,
is not with sex.
Without a tire
in much of the ancient world,
the blame was shifted
to livelihood.
Sex is only a problem
because we need to live.
We need to eat
and feed our families.
If we're not
in these guilds
and taking part
in these things,
how are we going to tithe
and support the church?
Do we do the same
in Hong Kong?
Do we compromise
our faith
for our livelihood?
I get to spend
a lot of time
around HKU.
Students at Hong Kong
University
are incredibly pragmatic.
They know that
to get good grades,
they need to study
and they will study
all day
and all night.
And they'll do that
all the way
through the semester
and then they'll get
to where exams
are coming,
which is going to be
in a couple of weeks.
And then they have
Super Pass season.
Super Pass is a phenomenon
at Hong Kong University
where there are
different celebrations
and different things
that they do
to, you know,
get better exam grades.
It usually involves
sticking banners
on your door.
Sometimes it involves
a pig
and they have this ceremony
where they get
this roast pig
and you get a big knife
and you cut it
and each person
has a go cutting it
and the idea is that
if you cut all the way
through the pig
that you'll Super Pass
your exams,
that you'll be blessed
and you'll get at least
a 3.0 on your GPA.
Now, I haven't met anyone
who calls this
a religious ceremony
but to me
it smells a lot
like idolatry.
Like saying that
this pig
and my ability
to cut through it
has an effect
on how I'm going
to do my exams.
It has more effect
on my exams
than God.
I think that we misplace
our trust all the time
and it's not just
the students.
I think we're all
guilty of that.
We do it in our feng shui
to get the flow
of money
to our desks.
You know,
we do it when we
throw Joss papers
at wishing trees.
We do it when we
go under the bridge
so that, you know,
our wives can be blessed
so they can have
healthy children.
You know,
we do it when we
put hope
in what the horoscope
says.
When we buy
a little money cat
to stick in our doorway.
When we think about
the dates that we're
getting married on
or the colors
that we're going to wear.
I think without thinking
we make idols
of just about anything.
We trust these things,
these people,
these rituals
more than we trust God.
And we don't have
to say it out loud
because our actions
do that for us.
They say that
God isn't enough,
that I need these things
to trust in
because they're just
going to be that
little extra
that God can't do.
What I'm saying
is that the problem
isn't with our livelihoods.
It isn't with these rituals.
It's not with sex.
It's not with slipping morals.
It's not our carnal desires
with us.
The problem's in our hearts.
In our hearts,
we don't trust
and honor God.
It was a case in Thyatira.
The issue wasn't sex.
It wasn't tolerating sin
or false teachers.
It was that their hearts
were not on God.
I know that's true.
My problem wasn't sex.
My problem was that
my heart would rather
serve my flesh
than it would serve God.
And Paul captures this.
I love it in Romans 1
because he says,
although they knew God,
they did not honor Him
as God or give thanks to Him.
They became futile
in their thinking.
Their foolish hearts
were darkened.
Claiming to be wise,
they became fools.
They exchanged the glory
of an immortal God
for images
resembling mortal man,
birds, animals,
and creeping things.
And so here we stand
with the Thyatira in church.
Their sexual immorality,
their idol worship.
And God comes before them.
At the beginning it says
that He has eyes
like a flame of fire
and feet like burnished bronze.
It's not a nice image.
It's not Jesus
with white hair
and white robes.
Jesus is here
and He means business.
His burning eyes
say that He sees
and He searches their minds
and their hearts
and He knows
the deepest part
of their souls.
And His feet
like burnished bronze
are not gentle.
They're not feet
for massaging.
These are crushing feet
and they're shining
and reflecting.
It's not enough
that God sees our sin.
He wants to show it
to us.
Of the letters
that we see so far,
the language of judgment
isn't as strong
as we see here
in Thyatira.
Unlike others,
there's no ifs.
Or, you know,
maybes or warnings
or if you repent.
He says that
I gave Jezebel time
to repent
but she refuses
and behold,
watch what I'm going to do.
I will throw her
onto a sickbed.
What was once
her den of pleasure
is going to become
a morgue.
I'm going to kill
her children.
I'm going to punish
those who follow her.
Jezebel's judgment
is not optional.
She had a chance
to repent.
That judgment
is coming.
And Jesus is coming
with His fiery eyes
and His bronze boots.
But it's not all trouble.
He tells others that,
you know,
if you do not repent,
I'll throw you in tribulation.
So if you do repent,
that won't happen to you.
There's still a chance
to return
to Jesus.
It says at the end
of the letter that
a holy and righteous one,
Jesus,
is going to be given
a bronze rod
and He will rule
with that rod.
The word rule here
is a lot like shepherding,
but instead of
a wooden staff,
it's an iron rod
and what's left
in its wake
is broken pots.
What about those
who stay away?
What about those
who have kept
themselves pure?
Jesus says
that I don't lay on you
any other burden.
I do not lay on you
any other burden,
which makes me wonder
what is the burden
they already have?
The burden of living
in a church
that is being rotten
from the inside
by sexual immorality,
the burden of watching
those that they love
punished
for their sinfulness.
The challenge seems clear
that God is calling them
to call their friends,
to call their members,
their family in the church
to repentance.
Is that you?
I mean,
I wonder if,
and I struggle with this,
but asking
and calling people
to repentance.
It's not easy
to go to your friends
and say,
dude,
that's messed up.
You know,
you need to get right
with God.
That is going to destroy
your life.
But I wonder if,
as a church,
are we doing that
in our community groups,
with our friends?
He who has an ear,
let him hear
what the Spirit says
to the churches.
That's verse 29.
It's not long
after this letter,
actually,
less than 100 years
after this letter
was written,
that there was no sign
of a church
ever having existed
in Thyatira.
We don't know
what happened
to the church.
I have nothing to say
how they met their end,
but if Jezebel's story
is anything to go by,
that wasn't a pretty ending.
And I imagine
a conversation happening
in a nearby town.
Hey,
do you remember
Lydia's church?
Lydia?
Yeah, yeah,
you know,
the rich lady
from Thyatira.
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I remember her.
Whatever happened
to that church?
Whatever happened
to those people?
Because, you know,
those guys,
they knew how to love.
They knew what
faithfulness was about.
Yeah, but, you know,
I always felt something off
whenever I hung out
with them.
I wonder if God
saw that too.
In verse 23,
it says,
all the churches
will know
that I am He
who searches minds
and hearts.
It's not enough
that they had
these good things,
that they had love
and faithfulness,
that they persevered,
because God is looking
at their hearts.
He's looking at your hearts,
because out of the heart,
because the heart
is a seat for the soul.
It's where worship
comes from.
It's where sin
comes from.
And what God wants
to see out of our hearts
is repentance.
I think for us today,
we can fall into
one of four categories.
Either we're outside
the church.
We're not part of this
fellowship of believers.
Or we could be
the Jezebel
in the church,
tearing people away
from God's law,
lying to them
and saying that
God has no authority
to speak into
these areas of our lives.
Third,
we could be the people
who are deceived,
who forget what
they've been taught
and follow this new teaching,
mixing our faith
with faith in something else,
worshiping God,
but mostly trusting
in something else.
Or,
we could be the innocent ones.
We don't have idolatry
in our hearts,
but we tolerate
the intolerable
in others.
and we avoid sin,
but by tolerating
the sin in others,
are also guilty.
The truth is about
these people
and about us
is that no one
is righteous,
that we are all guilty,
that we can't keep
his works,
that we all deserve
judgment,
that we deserve
the sickbed,
the iron rod.
We deserve to be smashed
like that broken pottery.
Who can stand
before God?
Who can save us?
The passage says
that we are judged
according to our actions.
Well, clearly,
love and faith
and perseverance
aren't the actions
that will judge us.
I think what God
is looking for
is repentance.
The only way
that we can be saved
is through Jesus
and the only way
that we see Jesus
is by repenting,
by turning away
from our sin,
from our faith
in other things,
from our sexual immorality
and turning
to Jesus.
I think repentance
is key
because it says
that Jezebel
was given time
to repent,
but she didn't.
I think that
every moment
that we are alive
is a moment
of grace.
It's a moment
that God has given us
to repent.
And every moment
we have
is a moment
of grace
that God gives us
to repent.
In Isaiah chapter 30,
we see a picture
of this repentance,
of God's desire
for our repentance.
That's where the imagery
of these broken pots
comes from.
We see people
who have turned away
from God
and God is saying
that they're preaching
illusions
as prophecy
and he says
that because
of their perverseness
that God's judgment
is coming.
It says in the passage
that these pots,
these clay pots
will be smashed
and broken.
They'll be smashed
and broken
to the point
where not a single piece
can carry a drop
of water.
And he calls him
to repent
and he says,
I long
to be gracious
to you.
I want to show you
my mercy.
I'm pulling you.
I want your heart
to turn away
from your sin,
from your desires
and to face me,
to look at me.
I think
repentance
isn't easy.
I've been reading
the Bible in French
so I grew up
speaking French
in a French school
but I thought
if I read it in French
then I wouldn't skip
over the passages
that I thought I knew.
And as I was reading Mark
where we'd see repentance
it says
changement radical.
It says that
there's going to be
a radical change.
When Jesus is preaching
he says
change radically
because the kingdom
of God is coming.
It's not a course adjustment.
It's not tuning a strain
that's a little bit off.
It's standing up
and turning
away completely.
You know,
for me
it wasn't enough
to put away
the emotional abuse
from our relationships
and think,
okay,
that's just a little bit
of adjustment.
No.
It meant changing
radically the way
I engaged
my relationships
and what I did
with my body
with my heart.
One of the things
I've been convicted of
is that I'm slow
to repent.
That I would rather
wallow in my sin
because I'm too proud
to say that I'm a sinner.
That I'm too proud
to say that I need Jesus.
Because repentance
is costly.
It may cost us
embarrassment.
It may hurt
relationships around us.
Turning away
from our sin
and turning to God
could cost us
our homes,
our jobs,
our families.
But I think
it's worth it.
I think it's worth it
because Jesus died
on the cross.
Because in repentance
and turning to Christ
and turning to his cross,
we win Jesus.
We win his righteousness.
We put our faith
in one that will never fail.
Not in a pig,
not in humans,
not in a book
of the future.
And we place ourselves
in front of someone
who will satisfy
us completely.
That will satisfy us
more than money
or sex,
more than family
or work
or good grades.
repentance.
Repentance
turns us
and puts us
before one
who has the power
to forgive sins.
One has the power
to secure our eternity
with God
by defeating death
and defeating Satan.
I think repentance
is good news
because repentance
is not baseless
but it's in a gospel
that's already complete.
The gospel says
that like the church
in Thyatira,
that we are broken
and rotten.
In fact,
we're more sinful
than we probably
think we are.
The gospel says
that there's judgment
coming,
that we can't escape.
The gospel says
that when we repent
that Jesus forgives us.
Or the gospel also says
that forgiveness
isn't free.
It isn't cheap.
It's not a pat on the back
and away you go.
There's still an iron rod.
There's still pots
to be smashed.
And that's what we see
on the cross.
We see the punishment
for our rebellion
against God.
For tolerating sin.
For preaching on truth.
For trusting idols
instead of Him.
Because Jesus takes that
on the cross for us.
Jesus is a shepherd
with the iron staff.
But Jesus,
for those who believe,
is also the broken pottery.
He was apathitira
for us,
for our community groups,
for me.
Jesus,
the shepherd
with the iron staff,
is also
the broken pottery.
Let's pray.
Father God,
I confess
that
we love sin
more than we love you.
That our hearts
are rebellious.
Father,
forgive us.
Protect us
from the lies
that pull us
away from you.
Show us
where we need
to repent.
show us
the people
that we should
call out for
and call them
to repentance
and their brothers
and sisters
in the church.
Show us
the cross.
Show us
how you are
the God
that took
our punishment
for us.
That you are
the broken pot.
Father,
show us
that
help us
to believe
that your
holy love
is big enough.
That your
holiness,
your holy
wrath
against our
sin
is taken
by Christ.
Father,
help us
to be people
who are more
aware of our
sin
and see
how beautiful
you are.
Lord,
help us
to repent
and to turn
away from
the desires
of our
hearts
and the
lies
of the
world
into you.
Father,
I thank you
and I
rejoice
that you
have saved
me,
that you
have saved
us,
that we
have today
people who
have done
that and we
get to see
their baptism,
seeing them
dying to sin
and coming
alive in you.
Jesus,
we love you
and it's
your holy
and precious
name that
we pray.
Amen.