Well, this morning we are finally ready to embark on a brand new series, a series that has been much on my heart for these past several weeks and months as I've been preparing to deliver this message. And this morning, basically, I want to give an overview of what we're going to see over the next several weeks and months. So I invite you to open your Bible with me to the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. This is the revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John, and ultimately to all believers in all churches who follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Now because this is an introductory message and because we don't always take the time to do so, I want to take a few minutes here at the introduction before I give the overview to just explain a word about the value of expository preaching in general. Because that's really why we're doing this series. That's really the motivation behind all of the series and studies that we do. It's not that we're just randomly picking parts of the Bible to land on, but we are trying to go successively through the whole counsel of God. And this is the strength of expository preaching. I think there is confusion about what that is and how it differs from other types of preaching. And I didn't grow up hearing expository preaching, and neither, perhaps, did many of you grow up hearing expository preaching. But there is a great difference between what is called verse-by-verse exposition and just preaching a sermon. Many times what passes for a sermon is really just the opinions of the pastor, often buttressed with dozens of proof texts in the Bible. However, I'm convinced that the way a church handles the Word of God is the most important thing about that church, bar none. Now, how can I say that? I can say that because that determines which Jesus you worship. That determines which gospel you preach. That determines which spirit drives your ministry and how the whole church is ordered. If the Word of God is not preached, whatever else is right about that church cannot be in its right place. You might have many other things in a church that are great, but if the preaching of God's Word is missing at the top, nothing else can be ultimately correct. It will eventually be misguided and will fall into great error. Now, the way a church handles scripture also has a lot to do with how the services are ordered and conducted, both in what is present as well as what is absent in a service. Of course, we don't do everything that other churches do. There are practices that you might see here that you don't see in other churches, and sometimes practices that you might think are missing that you find in other churches. But basically, all of the differences between one church or another, or one denomination or another, is determined by how closely or how loosely one follows the Word of God. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we have it all together, that we are the ones who are right. We still have much to learn. We still have a lot of growth to do in our conformity to the Word of God. But what I'm saying is that's our goal. Our goal is to be more and more aligned by Scripture than by what the church down the street might be doing, or by what our tradition might have taught us. We want to correct those things by the Word of God. And not in a pat-ourselves-on-the-back-we're-doing-it-right, self-congratulatory sort of a message. Really, this is about just humbly saying, Lord Jesus, what do you want your church to look like? How do you want us to live and govern this church? And He's told us, right? We don't have to guess. He's given it to us in His Word. And so the Word of God directs the life of a healthy church. It guides how we observe the two ordinances for believers, for example, believers' baptism and the Lord's table. It guides our commitment to the Bible. It determines whether we base our practices on denominational traditions or on a clear analysis of what Scripture actually teaches. It determines whether our message is driven by personal stories and emotions or whether we're going to determine our practice based on Scripture and the actual focus of the points of the text. The purpose of expository preaching through successive genres of scripture is to hear and understand God's message to his people. That's it. Exposition literally means to explain. Some people say it means to expose, and there's some truth in that, but really, even though exposition sounds like expose, it literally means to explain. When you exposit, you're explaining something. And the preacher's fundamental task is to open the Word of God and explain the Bible. That's it. Because when we do that well, everything else flows from that. Healthy growth flows from that. Healthy leadership. What the body looks like. The engagement of our gifts for the edification of the body. Giving. Love. Everything that you can think of that you would want in a healthy church flows from the fountain of God's Word. And we can't do what God's Word says if we don't understand it. And so the purpose of the preacher in exposition is to help God's people understand the Bible. And that's what brings us to the book of Revelation. As Paul wrote to Timothy, all scripture is God-breathed. It is therefore completely authoritative and completely without error. It is sufficient for all of life and for all of ministry. Every part of it is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness that the man of God may be adequate and thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. Marvelous verses to go along with our memory verse in Hebrews 4, 12 and 13, also about the power of God's Word. So my goal, if I could just put it before you in a sentence, is to continually preach through the whole Council of God, and over the course of my pastorate and life, I imagine that I will ultimately give the lion's share of my preaching ministry to the New Testament, because it's been said that the very best unveiling of the Old Testament is covered in a thorough exposition of the New. Now that's not to say that we won't go through other parts of the Old Testament as we do often on Sunday nights where we're going through Genesis and other texts. I have great Old Testament plans for the church in the future. They're going to take us into sections of the scriptures that we need to understand. But what I'm saying is that the very best understanding of the Old Testament is covered in a thorough exposition of the New. And so that's where we want to spend the majority of our focus. Now, it's this commitment to comprehensive expository preaching that brings us to Revelation this morning, a text that I was advised early in ministry to avoid, if I could, throughout my pastoral ministry. They said, if you open Revelation, you're just going to divide people up. Well, the truth does divide. But it divides from error. It doesn't divide God's people when we're united on the Word of God. What we want to do is to get it right. We just want to understand it. And where understanding is minimal, dogmatism needs to also be lessened. So there are areas, if there are areas that we don't understand, that are beyond our grasp, that God has not revealed, in those areas we need to be open to other interpretations. But where Scripture has spoken decisively, and where we can see a pattern that coheres to the rest of the Word of God, we can be authoritative in that while being humble at the same time. So over the next several weeks, I want to examine with you chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation about the seven letters from Jesus to the seven churches in Asia Minor. And incidentally, our own Stan Smith here has some great pictures that he's made available to the church. A few weeks ago, I asked Stan if he would share his pictures, and he has this beautiful photo album that he and Evelyn took back in, I think, 2002 Asia Minor where they toured the seven churches, and that's in Turkey. And so before or after each sermon you might want to peruse that photo album because you can see the actual ruins of these churches that you're going to hear me explaining from Sunday to Sunday. So he has pictures of the historic ruins of these churches in Revelation 2 and 3, and I'm very thankful to Stan for that opportunity. Now these chapters that we're going to cover are considered the narrative portion, as distinguished from the prophetic portion. Although there is a great unity through there, the prophetic portions were covered a lot in the disciples class over the last several months. John Soderstrom did an excellent series on the prophecy of Scripture. And so I think he's adequately covered that, at least for now. So I want to give more of our focus just to these narrative passages in chapters two and three, and I think that's a good focus at this time, because it has a lot to do with what we think of the church. And I'm viewing this as sort of a primer for how to operate the church. We're going to find in these chapters, in these letters from Jesus, opportunities for correction in the church, and opportunities for encouragement, to say, we're doing these things well, let's keep doing these things, but what would Jesus have us to change? What is Jesus trying to make us understand and see that is His mission for us where He has planted us here? And how has He decided and ordained for us to use the gifts of the people He has brought into this church? Because this church is not exactly like any other church in this area. Just because the people are different. And where you have different people, sometimes you have a different opportunity for service using the gifts of the people of Christ in that body. We want to learn that. We want to appreciate that and advance that for the glory of God in this area. Now for us, this is going to be a rather in-depth study. I mean, I'm not going to just spend one Sunday per church. Some of these churches will require two or three Sundays just to get into it. I mean, we're going into the corners of these churches, we're digging up the foundations in a way, and I want to expose what was right about the church and what was wrong about the church. so that you can see it. And I believe that it wouldn't be far-fetched to say you're going to hear some things that you might have never heard before just because it's background information that has enlightened me, that my understanding of the church has just grown in beautiful technicolor ways. Because when you find out what these symbols mean, it just makes the Bible so much more powerful when you see how those symbols apply to us. and how they relate to what we're going through today. And for that reason, I'm convinced we're going to gain a lot from this series. My hope is that the series will improve the way we think of our church, and the church in general, and of our relationship with the head of the church, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. So we need to take these messages of Jesus to heart and in the original spirit in which He said it. Let's begin with a reading of the introductory text. Appropriately, it's in chapter 1. The introduction to chapters 2 and 3 is found in chapter 1, and I want to begin with verse 9. It's a good starting place. This is the Apostle John's first-person description of the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ. This is one of the last statements of Jesus before the closing of the canon. And so this is very important for us. And this was spoken to churches that had never seen Jesus personally, just like us. And so there is that same distance, that same gap, but we're getting the Word through someone who knew Jesus in the flesh, the Apostle John. And so let's listen to the revelation that Jesus gave to John. Revelation chapter 1, verses 9 through 20. And in honor of God and His Word, let's stand now for the reading. of these verses. I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. And on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars. And from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword. And his face was like the sun, shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades. Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are, and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Father, take these words, I pray, and apply them to our hearts. Expand our understanding of what you conceived the church to be. the bride of Christ, redeemed by the blood of Christ, and I pray that we would also grow in our understanding of how to live as a body here in our own community. For the glory of your name, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. In our time this morning, I want to set the stage for the rest of this series on the seven churches. And this is going to be very superficial. I'm not going to go into great detail. I'm just going to give you a little thumbnail sketch of each of these churches and move quickly through this survey. Now, any study of God's Word is meant to change us. It's meant to change our thoughts about God, about His church, and about His truth in observable ways. The truth doesn't just change us internally, and then there's no change on the outside. But when we're truly changed on the inside, it bears external fruit. It changes the way we think, and therefore it changes the way we live, right? That's why we do this. And so I think it's appropriate now to say that Jesus wants each of us to fully understand every message to these churches. This is not just a history lesson. This is for us. This is God's word for this church, and we ought to take it personally. even though it was written to them, it ultimately has us in mind. And so I pray that you're going to hear these words and with me ask God to show you in this study what He wants you to recognize and change for your own joy and for His glory. We're doing this to learn how to live faithfully for Jesus Christ, and our guide on this tour is the Lord Jesus Himself. He's going to point out the observations He wants us to see, and He is going to conduct this tour with His own omniscient sovereignty into the hearts of His people. And our hearts are revealed even by this Word. Now, the first church on our preview tour is Ephesus. Ephesus. Oh, if there is one prominent church on the list, Ephesus is it. More than 40 years earlier, Paul had visited this church. Many people don't realize that the church at Ephesus was the mother church of Asia Minor. It was the church at Ephesus that actually planted the other six churches in Asia Minor. That was the first church, that was the first stronghold for Christianity in Asia Minor. According to Acts 18, In verses 18 and 19, we read that a husband and wife team named Priscilla and Aquila first brought the gospel to Ephesus. And they were later joined by the eloquent debater, Apollos, as the apostle Paul established this church in the faith, and he appointed leaders for the church at Ephesus. Now, the church at Ephesus went through some early struggles with false teachers. There were some of their leaders that had gotten into heresy, and Paul, after his first imprisonment, had to come back to Ephesus, and he had to throw out those leaders who were false teachers. Hymenaeus and Alexander were their names given in 1 Timothy. And then he counseled young Timothy on how to set the church in order. And he said, Timothy, you're the new pastor. I want you to lead the church at Ephesus. Paul went to Macedonia after that, and he wrote 1 Timothy to tell Timothy how to set the church in order. That's why the letter of 1 Timothy was written. It was written after that debacle, after he had to kick the leaders out and say, you need to put in new elders and new deacons with character of Jesus Christ. It's not about experience, it's about character, ultimately. And so 1 Timothy was written in that event. And so anytime you read 1st or 2nd Timothy, keep in mind that it was written with the church at Ephesus in mind. That's the church that Timothy was pastoring. You know, even the Apostle John once pastored this wealthy church at Ephesus in his later years, prior to being exiled to Patmos. And so I'd say this is a very prominent church when you have such great leadership, such great doctrinal foundations. We have even an apostle of Christ who filled their pulpit and served as a pastor. You talk about a prominent church. This is it. Now, some 35 years earlier, Paul wrote the letter of Ephesians. It was written to this church in its infancy. At the beginning, the Ephesian church had great love. They had great love for each other. They had great zeal to see Jesus glorified in their lives. But that was then. You see, just because a church gets off to a great start, doesn't mean it can't go off course. And, on that same token, just because a church gets off to a bad start, doesn't mean it can't be reformed. Doesn't mean it can't be re-established and rooted and grounded in the Word of God and nourished in submission to Scripture. But the key is obedience to Scripture. The key to church health and church growth is obedience to the Word of God rooted in love for Jesus Christ. That's it. That's the prescription for any church sickness in this whole world of ours. Whether it's our church, or any church in our city, or any church in the world, the prescription for everything that ails the church is obedience to the Word of God done out of love for Jesus. Now, you can act like you're being obedient to the Word of God, and it can fester pride. That's why I'm distinguishing that type of obedience from the type that's born of love. Love for Jesus Christ. Not to say, see, we're better than other people now, because we're obeying. Well, that pride done in obedience, so-called, to Scripture, is actually dishonoring Christ. And it's actually an offense to Jesus when we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think as a church. So we need to be humbly obedient and loving, rather than ostracizing, pushing people away from the circle, pulling people in, saying, I want you to hear the truth. I want you to be a part of the truth with us. Let's do church. Let's celebrate truth together. Let's enjoy applying doctrine to our lives, to our families, to our hearts. Now, they started that way in Ephesus. Oh, they started strong. They had a great, firm foundation in the gospel. But now what has happened, as John writes this revelation of Christ, is that we have the second and third generation of believers who are now running the church. See, the first generation has gotten old, they've passed off the scene, they've handed the baton now to the second and third generation of believers after those initial forebears passed off the scene. And even though they're still going through the motions, we find there's a sort of a coldness, an iciness at the center of the church. What's happened? they left their first love. We're told they left their first love for Christ. Now they loved themselves, they loved their orthodoxy, they loved their prominence, no doubt, in Asia Minor, but they had forgotten the most important love of all. They had drifted away from their love for Christ. And when we get into the church at Ephesus, we're going to see what that really means, and how this is really spoken to people who are already believers, And this has spoken to people who have already professed to believe the gospel. And this is a wake-up call to believers who have grown cold in their devotional life, cold in their thoughts about the church. We're going to see that this is serious. This has everything to do with the heart and life and growth of a church. And so these people had forgotten the most important love. Even though they had the greatest preachers in all of the early church, and they had the deepest theological roots, that's all become a daily grind, just a routine for them. Now Jesus warns the Ephesian church to repent and to reform their hearts by returning to a consuming love for the Lord Jesus Christ. And they have to have apostolic instruction to do that. And Jesus gives that through the apostle John. This is the Lord Jesus Christ saying, here's exactly what's wrong and here's exactly what needs to happen to make it right. That's the church at Ephesus. Now the second church on our tour is the church at Smyrna. Smyrna was a financially poor church, but it was in a wealthy city. But Jesus says they had a rich heritage of faith in Jesus Christ. He's saying even though you all are poor as a church and you're surrounded by wealthy people, you guys have a rich faith. You have a rich theology. Many of the believers in Smyrna had been slaves and bondservants. Many of them still were, in fact, and that's why most of the residents were destitute of material resources. But the infinite and sovereign Lord of Glory tells them in verse 9, He knows their tribulation and their poverty. It was hard for them, but Jesus knew all about it. Jesus always knows when the people in His body are suffering. And take heart this morning. You have suffering right now. Our church has areas of suffering. Jesus knows all about it. Nothing escapes His notice. Now this is about suffering for righteousness sake. He knows when those who love His Word are mocked. He knows when they're ridiculed. He knows when they're slandered by religious unbelievers. That was going on in Smyrna. Jesus refers to such religious unbelievers as the synagogue of Satan. They were those who somehow professed to be Jews when they were not truly Jews. I'll explain what that means and we'll get into that. But whenever unbelievers are allowed to infiltrate and govern a church, That church becomes a misdirected affront to God and to his revealed will. And that so often happens. That's happening so much in our own culture, especially here in America, where we have unbelievers who had great success, perhaps in business, who are thought to be great leaders because they can hold sway over people. And they might be charismatic communicators and great speakers and eloquent men who have no life in Christ, who are somehow given charge of a church. as if all you have to be is eloquent to lead a church, or all you have to have is business savvy to lead a church. Now those things can be wonderful enhancements to a life that is set on fire with love for Christ, but Jesus doesn't need our eloquence. Jesus doesn't need our MBAs. He doesn't need our business savvy. He doesn't need our shrewdness. Jesus appoints people who love Him, who are submitted to His will, and He calls and chooses the least of these to reach the greatest numbers of people. So we need to remember that and remind ourselves that this is a call to those who are not many noble, not many great, These are the people who are poor, who are the down and out, people who love Jesus and are faithful to His Word. And when an unbeliever governs the church, we have God-centered doctrine going down out the window, man-centered pragmatism goes up, and it literally chokes the life out of that church. It ceases to be a true church. I've said before, there are TV preachers who can fill stadiums with people. And just because you can fill a stadium with people and someone pretends to be teaching something that's remotely Christian, that does not make that a church. Just because you have 70,000 people in a stadium does not constitute a church. A church is where the believers of Jesus Christ are gathered together in His Spirit to receive instruction from His Word, to celebrate the ordinances of the church, and to obey Jesus Christ. That's what a true church is. And when we don't have that, it becomes, in the words of Jesus, a synagogue of Satan. Now Jesus tells the faithful in Smyrna not to fear. Verse 10. He says the devil is going to be allowed to test them for a short period of time, but they should never lose hope. They should never compromise. Jesus told them, you be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life. That's Smyrna. I can't wait to get into that church with you. The third church on our tour is Pergamum. Pergamum, like Ephesus, was a wealthy city. The city was wealthy, but it was a very wicked city. The city was filled with idolatry. The citizens were very polytheistic. They had many false gods. This is where Satan's throne is, according to verse 13. Satan's throne may be a reference to the great temple of a pagan god for healing diseases. Many people throughout Asia Minor would flock to Pergamum because they believed that if they worshipped this satanic image, which was a serpent on a pole, that they would be healed of their diseases. Now that's an ancient symbol associated with the healing arts of paganism. Now those of you from a medical background or if you've ever seen a medic alert bracelet, you know that the symbol of the American Medical Association is a serpent coiled around a pole. Now, I'm not saying that the AMA had the paganism in mind, or that that's what the symbol still means today. It doesn't have all of those nuances. But that's the root, and that's the ancient origin of that symbol. It had to do with the healing arts. And that's the sign that they used in Pergamum. And so this is the origin. We're going to find a lot of the origins that we see of things in our culture today having their roots back in the Bible, where these things are explained for us. We're going to learn about this and other unique features when we study the church at Pergamum. Now the fourth church is Thyatira. Thyatira is a much smaller city. It's about 40 miles southeast of Pergamum. It's here that a woman dubbed Jezebel was claiming to have authority over the church as a prophetess. And she was indeed a prophet, but of Satan, not of God. She was doing the will of Satan, not of God. She would not submit to the elders of the church or to the Word of God. She was doing to the church really the same thing the ancient Jezebel did to Israel in the Old Testament, that is, corrupting it with her paganism and her sexual immorality. This is a very stern warning. One of the most severe warnings came to the church in Thyatira. This is one of the most graphic descriptions of judgment of any of the seven churches. Jesus promised to judge this Jezebel as well as those who submitted to her. That is, if you're going along with her just to keep peace, just so that you won't receive persecution and you're submitting to her authority, He says you're going to be part of the judgment too. And so it's a word of warning to repent and the godly were to hold fast until He comes. That's Thyatira. The fifth church is Sardis. Sardis was the spiritually dead church. Chuck Swindoll calls it the morgue with a steeple on top. That's a description of a dead church. It's run by people who are not alive in Christ. We'll talk about how that happens when we get into that church. But here's the thing, that church had a reputation for being alive. Now think of what that implies. I wonder what their worship service was like. I wonder what their speakers were like. I wonder how they did things as a church that made people say, wow, have you been to Sardis? They are alive over there. And Jesus says, you know what? You're dead. You're actually dead in the things that matter the most. You're dead to Me. You're dead to My Word. You're dead to the things of God. There were some people in Sardis who had remained pure, they had remained faithful to Christ, and Jesus knew exactly who they were. Aren't you glad that Jesus knows how to distinguish between the godly and the ungodly? He doesn't see everyone as just a monographic blur. We're not all just a grayscale mass of humanity. He knows us. He knows our hearts individually. And he loves his people. He can distinguish between you and your other co-workers. He can distinguish between you and the other people in your neighborhood. He knows our hearts. That's a great truth to celebrate, that He knows His people. And those who overcome evil, He says, will be clothed in white garments and not be struck dead. There's a lot of symbolism in that. And I'll unpack that when we get into the church at Sardis, what the white garments mean and how that related to the society in Sardis and what they viewed as great social prominence. Now the sixth church is Philadelphia. Philadelphia is a church about 28 miles southeast of Sardis, and it's one of the only cities on this list that still has a Christian remnant to this day. There's still a Christian remnant meeting in this area around Philadelphia. Although they're surrounded by Muslims, Islam is powerful in this part of the world. But Jesus loved this church in Philadelphia. Oh, he loved it so much that he wanted the whole compromising world, especially the synagogue of Satan, to know how much he loved them. He said that in verse 9, chapter 3. In fact, there's not a single word of rebuke for the church at Philadelphia. One of the few churches where there's no instruction or correction that they need to get right. Only the promise that Jesus would keep them from the hour of trial which is coming upon the world. He says that in verse 10. Philadelphia is a great church that we should model for faithfulness in the Word of God. That's Philadelphia. And the last church on the list in our tour is Laodicea. This was actually the wealthiest church of all the bunches. You know, some cities were wealthy, some churches had prominence. This was a wealthy church in a wealthy city. They had a lot of very prominent, wealthy people. And here's why. In Laodicea, they were known for three major industries. Banking, wool, and medicine. Banking, wool, and medicine. Those were three major industries in Laodicea. And wouldn't you know that all three of those industries figure prominently in what Jesus says to this church. He uses their industries as metaphors for where they need to be corrected. And he talks to them and he alludes to each of those industries as we will see when we study the church. Now the most famous thing about Laodicea is their water. That's the thing that most people remember when you've studied the church at Laodicea. It is the lukewarm church. We'll get into the water situation in Laodicea, but we'll find out what lukewarmness really means. What does it mean to be lukewarm in this context? Well, to cut to the chase, lukewarmness is really a metaphor for uselessness to Jesus. You can use hot water. You can use cold water. Both of those can be beneficial when they're applied to the right circumstance. But for drinking, for use, for washing, lukewarm water is the most useless form of water in terms of refreshment especially. This is the church that made Jesus sick. And the most visceral language is used to describe how sick it made Jesus. And you know what made Him sick? What made the Lord Jesus Christ sick about Laodicea was their self-sufficiency. They were so full of self-sufficiency. They thought they had all of their needs apart from Christ. They thought, oh, they're wealthy, they're beautiful people. They have all of these trendy outfits and they have all the right clothes. Their pantries are stocked with food. We don't need anything, they thought. And Jesus said, that makes me sick because you need me. and you don't know how much you need me." And he speaks this word to them as a wake-up call. He says they are, quote, wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. That's Laodicea. And that's a wake-up call to us. I'm convinced that we need to take every one of these letters from Jesus straight to our heart. We need to hear this personally and we need to hear this as a church. These are our marching orders, Providence. These are our marching orders. This is where we're headed. This is how we need to be conformed to the orders of our Lord Jesus Christ, who loves us, who bought us with His blood, who paid a price for us. Remember that obedience to God's truth is the key. It's not a key, it's the key to our health and growth as a church. And that's true of any church. Because it determines whether we will look more and more like Jesus Christ, or more and more like the world and the culture around us. And by the way, when one year has passed, one of those two things will be true. I don't know the future, but I can tell you that infallibly. This church will either look more like Jesus Christ at the end of this year, or it will look more like the world and culture around us. we must be deliberate about getting into the Word and about applying it with joyful obedience for our life and for the glory of God in our culture. Jesus has critical things for us to hear. And I want to invite you and ask you to make every effort to hear these words. This is not my word. These are not my messages, really. These are not my thoughts. These are the thoughts and words of our living King, our Lord Jesus, who takes His church and He takes the hearts of His people very seriously. As His people, again, I say, we've been bought with a price. That's 1 Corinthians 7.23. And you know that we no longer belong to ourselves, but we belong to Him who bought us with His own precious blood. That's what this study is all about. Would you bow your heads with me? Let's close in prayer. Lord, we confess, along with all true believers around the world, that You have bought us with Your own infinite blood. We are Yours by virtue of creation, and even more so by virtue of redemption. We are doubly yours. Use these seven letters to teach us how to conduct ourselves as a church, especially here at Providence, so that you can bless us. Continue to pour out your blessings so that you can grow us in a Christ-honoring way and so that you can be glorified in us eternally. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.