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Cascade Hills Church exists to help people from all walks of life experience a genuine relationship with God through Christ and become fully devoted followers
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In this video 0:00 The Compromising Church18:00 Compromising Christ's Word37:00 Compromising Character and Companionship46:00 Repent and Remain in God's Will49:07 The Call to Salvation
The Compromising Church 0:00 We are in this, new series. It's all about the the end times and the book of Revelation. And I wanna go ahead and give you a warning. There's 2 books in the Bible that Satan hates. It's the 1st and the last. It's0:12 Genesis because he shows up on the scene, but then he hates the revelation because it's the last time he's on the scene. And so it is all about Jesus overcoming Satan and evil once and for0:24 all. So if you've got your Bible, you're gonna love this. If you're new and you got your Bible, you're gonna be able to hang with us today, all right? Turn all the way to the right, and it's the last book in your bible.0:34 It's called Revelation. You probably heard us in the south say revelations. It's not revelations. It's not many revelations. It's 1 revelation.0:46 To reveal. Now, what? Does it mean to unveil all the signs and horns and all the fire? No. It means to reveal the person of Jesus Christ. Look at this. The 1st0:58 verse, last verse, it's basically the same thing. So the book of Revelation is all about what the1:10 person of Jesus Christ is going to do in the future to an end. And he gives us a preview. Now, I want to test you today because last week we had fun. We had dialogue. I just1:21 loved it. Who wrote the book of1:36 There you go. By the end of this thing, you're gonna have a seminary degree. It was this, where the slaves were and the criminals were. There was only about 3000 people1:48 there. And he was sent over there, and that was the salt mines. Okay? So it was an isolation. And he was sent there because the Bible said he was preaching the word of God and the teachings of Jesus Christ. And2:00 what you gotta understand is they were trying to stuff Christianity at this time. They were trying to silence Christianity this time. I believe they're trying to silence Christianity at this time now in America as well.2:09 They're getting us out of schools. They're getting us out of there that you can't pray here. You can't bring your Bible here. I agree with the 1 person who's over here clapping. I'm with you on that 1. Listen. I believe2:18 that they're trying to do the same thing here today that they were doing to John. John was preaching and so they were killing off apostles like crazy. Thousands of Christians were dying daily. You gotta2:30 understand the context in which he writes this thing. Okay? And so now they send John off because they said, we gotta stop this preacher. We gotta stop him from preaching. So we send him off to the soft body. Well, while2:41 he's there, Jesus comes to him on a Sunday, which I love. I think that's beautiful. On a Sunday. And he comes to him through the Holy Spirit, kind of lifts him up and gives him a vision of what the future will be like.2:52 And he says, boy, get your number 2 pencil out. And I want you to write down what you see in here. Okay? You you ever get word you remember those number 2 pencils? Remember those? Anybody remember those? These old new3:03 people, they don't know nothing about that. Remember when you say test? I'm getting off here.3:06 They say, get your number 2 pencils.3:06 What if you had a number 4 They say get your number 2 pencils. What if you had a number 2 I mean, were you out? Or you couldn't was that not good enough for the little circle? I always3:18 wondered. So anyways, he says get your stuff out and let's start writing. I'm going to show you some things about what's going to happen. Of thousands of Christians were being persecuted and here was the deal. The3:29 last time they had thought of Jesus, the whole city had saw him on a cross and he was crucified, died for our sins. Then he went to a grave and he rose again and over3:41 500 eyewitnesses saw him and he hung out for over a month for 40 days. And so this started the movement of Christianity. This is what distinguished Christianity from every other God out there.4:08 Perfect life, dies on our behalf, goes to a great, and then raises from the grave, and shows us. He doesn't just say it. He shows us, I defeated death, and I'm the only 1 that can offer you an after life. He4:20 proved it. That's why I'm a Jesus follower. And they were trying to stuff and stop this movement. But you remember the last thing that Jesus said? He said, I will return and get you. So these churches that were that4:31 people were dying daily. Thousands of them. Many of them couldn't even buy food. They were going through extreme pressure and persecution. And they remember the words of Jesus, I4:43 will return and come and get you a And so Jesus looks upon his church and he feels compassion. And he says, John, get your pen and get your paper and let's write them something to encourage them.4:55 Many people look at the book of Revelation and say it's scary. No. No. No. No. No. He was encouraging this group. Now, he was correcting some of them, and he was giving us a preview of the future. So he goes and he5:05 writes the 7 churches. That's where we've been found in our job. And he's over here in Patmos on this aisle. And he wrote this church, which we talked about. We wrote the Church of Smyrna, which we talked about. This was5:14 the loveless church. This 1 last week was a suffering church. And now we come to this church here. And he's writing them. And what many theologians do sometimes is they take this and5:26 they leave out a concept. Okay? Means that this church is this church, and that church is that church, and this church is that's not how it5:38 works. What he does here is he's writing these churches, and they're all local churches that he's writing, about that,5:50 I'm going to break it down, not just the body, not just cascade. You are the church, if you're a believer. Let me prove it to you. 1st Corinthians not know that your6:02 body is the temple of the holy spirit who is in you, who might have given you from God and you are not of your own. So he's saying when we go through these 7 churches, you've got to examine yourself. He's He's saying6:13 that when you go through these 7 churches, you can't point a finger at this church and say that's what's going to happen to them and this church that's supposed to happen, but that's a cascade word of good choice. You6:21 say that. What he's saying is you got to put down the finger and you got to pick up the mirror. You got to pick up the mirror and you got to put it in your face and say which church am6:35 and then your6:50 Only you can answer the question, the big question, which church am And it's only until you are man enough or woman enough to ask that question.7:02 Which church am I? And search your heart of heart that God can begin to change you. Okay? And so that's the big question as we go through the 7 churches, which is church in my Today, we reached the church in Pergamos,7:13 which is called the compromising church. The compromise we would call them the compromising Christian. At some point, all of us have compromised, haven't we? Hey, if we've been if you've been married, have you7:25 compromised? Oh, yes. All the men in here said, ah, amen. If you wanna stay married, you learn the word compromise, don't you? I compromised a while back. I I like things the same7:37 way. I like my food. I'll go eat at the same restaurant every week, order the same thing so much that the waiter knows what I'm gonna order before I even order. I I because I know I'm a like it. I'm certain I'm a like7:47 it. I go to the same, place of vacation over and over and over and over and over and over. You know why? Because I'm certain that when I go, I'm not gonna risk not having a bad time. I know I'm gonna like it. Now, my7:58 wife, on the other hand, likes variety. She wants to try new things. So I compromised the other day. She said, my dream8:03 of my life is I wanna8:05 stay in a tree house. So I went to a tree house. I didn't want to go. And this got awkward because I'm in someone's backyard. And we're in a tree house. Now, this is not like a little rassals tree house.8:17 I give it to the guy. He puts them on this tree. It's like number 1 in Georgia, number 2 in Georgia. It was a nice, but it was a treehouse. And it was in his backyard. And he had these curtains8:29 that you could see him walking back and forth. And I'm not gonna lie. I'm a 2nd amendment believer. I'm always packing, Even when you think I ain't packed. And I got 2 of my glocks, and I'm watching him all back and8:40 forth. And I'm thinking, now why is he able to see me? You know what I mean? And my wife was like, this is great. Look at this. A creep behind us. The bed comes out open. This is just wonder. And I didn't sleep with8:52 it. Because I'm watching the whole night. She says, you sleep good. I was sleeping by that creek. It was wonderful. Just had the windows open. I said, I ain't sleep a lot. I was like a guard dog on watch. I'm9:04 a hard person to sneak up on. Hard. I compromise. Now all of us compromise, don't we? Every single 1 of us. I prove it to you. There's the too cheap compromise. You You ever stay in a place and it's9:16 so cheap, you're checking in and the roaches are checking out? And you missed out on the experience. There's the, too lazy compromise. That's the people that you know your neighbor. He's got 10000 dollars 0 turn radius9:28 like 1 of these lawnmowers, but he don't even own a weed eater. Like, it is against his house. It's like this. There's this safe compromise where they they they they they they're financially good and they're able, but9:39 they ain't gonna spend that money to get that new car, new house. No. No. No. No. No. No.10:00 Distinguished city in Asia. It was an elitist culture. It was something that I wouldn't fit into. Okay? I'm I've got a little bit of redneck in me. Alright? I'm Yeah. I'm dressed I have my glasses forgotten this morning,10:12 so I can't see some of you. Ask my wife on the way out last night. I'd love to look. She said like a nerd. I said, that's what I'm going for. So since we're talking about the the the culture. 1 of the reasons10:24 that it was an elitist culture is they boasted of having the largest library in all of Asia. Okay? Egypt found out about this. Egypt got jelly, and Egypt owned all the paper. Okay? See, they would get10:36 the paper in those days from the reeds of the Nile River. It was called papyrus. That's how they wrote. So Egypt cut them off. They said, no, no, no. We're going to be more distinguished in you. These people were so10:45 intellectual, they they actually made their own paper. They designed their own paper. It was called Parch. And it was made out of animal skin. And they continued to add to their library until they had, guess what, 20000010:53 volumes of literature. And they continued to add to their library until they had, guess what, 200200 thousand volumes of That's in So this was an elite, very smart culture. Also medically speaking,11:05 they were very ahead of their time. Medically speaking, they were arguably 1 of the most, greatest physicians. If you're a physician or if you're, you know, pharmacist, you know this. A guy named Galen who was,11:17 probably the most influential guy when it comes to medicine and the his study on the human body, that we've had in the last 1400 years. He came from this area. They actually had a temple that they would11:29 dedicate to this God, this God of healing. And this drove a lot of traffic. Okay? Anybody that wanted to come heal, you come get this cold bath and it was supposed to heal you and everybody went to Pergamos because of11:39 that. Now, when we talk about even medical stuff, you know, they had a snake around a pole and it was their medical symbol. How many of y'all know that there still exists today? You follow you see the hospital, what11:51 you look for? You look for that symbol. You get behind an ambulance, you see that symbol. That came from here. Okay? Pretty neat history. Now, let's look at their religious beliefs. Now, I'm a hold back for a minute12:01 because these people worked too many gods. We could spend all day just talking about different gods. 1 is they were the 1st people to make themselves the capital of the worship of Caesar. Okay? Caesar was looked at12:13 as a god. Okay? A deity. They had Athena, his daughter. Then they had they even worship a god, of drunkenness. Okay? And so they12:25 had all kind of different gods. They actually made a temple to a guy that was an official named Trajan. It was a role in the church history. When you study church history, there's great persecutions. There's like 1012:37 great church great persecutions. Trajan was 1 of those who was known for killing 1000 Christians a day. That's a lot. This city in which this church had, they12:48 had a temple to trade you. So can you imagine the hostility? Can you imagine being a believer in a city where not only do they worship everyone else, but they13:00 have a towards the guy that kills 1000 Christians a day. Now, you want to talk about a church and a hard spot. That's a church and a hard spot. On top of that,13:12 they're currency. About, I don't know, about 38 BC, the currency was these silver coins and they had 2 faces on them. They had Julius Caesar on 1 side, then they had Caesar Octavian on the13:24 other side, Caesar's son, or really it was his nephew. He just adopted him as his son. And did you know that these 2 are facing each other? And 1 of them says, Julius divine, which13:36 means God. The other said Octavian design, which means son of God. So even your currency is saying Caesar's God and his son is is the son of God.13:48 And now you're a church, and you've got the Trajan temple over here, and your currency is this. And now you're a church saying he's not God, somnostrom of13:59 God. Can you imagine what this church went through? So here's a lot. Now, right, this church. And here's14:08 what he says.14:08 He says, write the poster. Of the church in Pergamum. This is the message from the 1 with the sharp 2 edged sword. Now who would that be?14:20 The 1 with the sharp 2 edged sword. Let's just take a guess.14:39 To a sword refers to as the word of God. And so this is the 1 there. And then he goes on and he says this. He says, I know that you live in the city where Satan has his throne. If Jesus is saying this,14:51 this is the city where Satan has his throne. This is a bad it. You've refused to deny me even though Antipas, my faithful witness, was martyred among you in Satan City. He says it twice.15:04 It's a bad city now when Jesus is saying a satan city, but he commands them. He says some of you in this church, not all of you, but some of you have remained what did he say? Loyal15:16 to me, even with all that going around you. You know, this shows us that the church didn't compromise to culture. The culture around them. How many of you know that today,15:28 this is the test for the church? The church now is in a test to compromise to culture. It is. We're under attack and if the church compromises15:40 to culture, we are no longer a church. And so we must stand firm. He says, you've remained loyal. He said, even Antipas, he uses this guy who was actually put into a pot of15:52 oil just like John was, and they boiled him to death. He was not as fortunate as John. They I mean, they boiled They I mean, they boiled this guy like a Thanksgiving turkey and he never denied Jesus. He said, you've been16:03 faithful. He said, I know how difficult it is. Now, here's what it tells us. God sometimes will put us in a bad culture to reach a culture for God.16:26 Anybody got to do somebody you work with just getting on your nerves. I'm the only 1, and I work for a church. My staff is like, oh no, I hope I'm not the 1 getting on his nerves. So you do.16:39 Sometimes you get on my nerves. But I love you with the love of the Lord. Okay? And you've got good skills, so you're gonna stay. Listen. God will put you in those16:50 cultures sometimes in order to reach them. Why did God put a church in Pergamos, Satan's city, near Satan's throne? Why you think?17:03 Come on now. Talk to me today. To reach him. Him. Someone said it over here. To to reach him. To to to reach these people. Okay? There would be a light in17:15 a dark world. And he now commends them, but now he goes words. And where you dwell17:27 where Satan's thrown in. But you live in the city where Satan's thrown in. It's a different translation that I use. I use this 1. It's the King James. I know your worst and where you dwell17:39 where Satan's thrown is. Now, here's the deal. God's saying some of you are passing the test, but some of you are dwelling. You know what dwell means? It means to remain. It means to stay. The Bible talks about dwelling17:51 a lot. He's saying you're staying more at Satan's throne, the matron. Now, the throne of Satan was an altar to Zeus. We talked about the temple of Zeus last week. This place had the altar. The altar looked like a you.Show more
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Episode 15 | A Great Host in Heaven Pastor Brent Purvis Oct 9
