Traces of one of these churches we're about
to speak of tonight, the Church of Smyrna.
And I believe with all my heart that
some for sure will find traces of that
church within your life.
Father, I thank you tonight, O God, for
the anointing of your Holy Spirit.
I thank you, Lord, that you are continuously
taking us step by step.
You're building us, O God, image to image,
glory to glory, strength to strength.
Lord, there is no turning back in you,
but a continual going forward.
And I thank you tonight that even when
we don't think that we're going forward, we
are, as long as our hearts are towards
you, O God.
I thank you for your sovereign protection.
I thank you for the anointing that breaks
down every misconception of Christ and destroys the
works of darkness.
Lord God, I'm asking tonight that you would
crush every weapon of evil that has been
formed against any child of God in this
house tonight.
Lord, that you would send it forth your
word like cannon fire into the ranks of
the enemy and release all in their mind
and heart who are being cast down and
tormented by the powers of darkness.
And Father, I thank you for your liberating
word tonight.
I thank you for the healing oil of
Jesus.
In your precious name, Amen.
Hallelujah.
Revelation chapter 2, beginning at verse 8.
And unto the angel of the church in
Smyrna write these things, saith the first and
the last, which was dead and is alive.
I know thy works and tribulation and poverty,
but thou art rich.
And I know the blasphemy of them which
say they are Jews and are not, but
are the synagogue of Satan.
Fear none of those things which thou shalt
suffer.
Behold, the devil shall cast some of you
into prison that you may be tried.
And you shall have tribulation ten days.
Be thou faithful unto death, and I will
give thee a crown of life.
He that hath an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit saith.
Unto the churches, he that overcometh shall not
be hurt of the second death.
An interesting thing about this particular church is
that it's one of only two in the
book of Revelation that the manifestation or the
manifested presence of Jesus didn't rebuke.
It was a church that had been birthed
in difficulty, a church that was going through
difficulty.
Jesus said in verse 9, I know your
works.
I know your trial, your tribulation, your difficulty,
your poverty, but you are rich.
And you see, when Jesus comes into the
midst of his church, we studied a week
ago there was a church called Laodicea that
thought they were rich.
But when the presence of Christ came into
that church and exposed the roots and intents
of the heart, a church that thought they
were rich found out that they were indeed
poor in the sight of God.
Nevertheless, a church that was poor in the
sight of man and seemed to be down
-fraud and perhaps even being plowed over in
many respects by the works of the evil
rulers of that day, that church, when Jesus
came into the midst of that church, his
presence exposed a deep and rich spiritual heritage.
Now, I know if you have an open
heart tonight, we're going to examine the scripture
and find that there are many even sitting
here tonight that you have that heritage.
And Christ is about to speak some words
to you and he's about to lift you
out of a place of difficulty and give
you an understanding of why you are where
you are and where it is that you're
going.
Verse 10, he tells this church, he said,
don't fear those things that you're going to
suffer.
The devil will cast some of you into
prison.
In other words, he's going to take you
and put you into a place of captivity
that you may be tried.
You shall have tribulation ten days.
In other words, it's going to be a
short season.
It may seem long, but remember the words
of the Apostle James.
Our life is just a vapor.
It appears for a season and then it
vanishes away.
It was in another scripture.
There's a warning to the rich man who
appears and seems to have all kinds of
glory.
But just as the flower of the grass
in a moment, in a season, he just
fades away and he's gone and he's no
more.
Even though life seems long on this earth
sometimes, brothers and sisters, in the realm of
eternity, it's just a vapor of smoke.
A billion years from now, we're going to
be fellowshiping together in heaven and looking back
and marveling at how short this life really
was.
We thought it was so long.
That's simply because we're in the confines of
this carnal body.
Every day sometimes seems like a long time,
especially if you're knowing what it is to
suffer and to go through some kind of
tribulation.
Jesus said, I know your works.
I know your tribulation and your poverty, but
you're rich.
There was a richness found in this church.
The remnants of this church are found throughout
all ages and indeed I'm sure are here
in this building tonight.
Don't fear those things that you're going to
suffer.
Now, we're not in this society in the
Western world literally cast into prison for the
gospel in this hour, at least that we're
living in.
I'm not sure that that's not going to
come at some point in the future.
Now, throughout history, we have known churches have
suffered.
There have been difficulties and trials and times
of imprisonment.
History and tradition tells us that the church
of Smyrna was about 40 miles northeast of
Ephesus.
The Ephesian church we studied just a little
while ago, that it was the apostle John
that ordained Polycarp, the first century Christian historian
who was the first bishop of this church.
And Polycarp tradition says at least died a
martyr in that area.
Great tribulation, great persecution.
The Christians of that church were fed to
wild beasts.
And the wild beast didn't intimidate them.
Then they were burned.
They were tortured.
There was incredible hardship came upon this church.
I was with my wife several years ago.
We were in Rome and we went to
the Colosseum in Rome where Christians were tortured
and ripped to pieces.
They were burnt.
They were displayed and fought against and ripped
apart and made a mockery of by the
people.
And I remember standing in the middle of
this gigantic Colosseum in Rome, feeling so unworthy
to be called even by the name of
Christ, that I had not walked in the
footsteps.
I was walking on cement that I know
is drenched in the blood of the saints.
And I was feeling so unworthy that day
to even walk in that same place where
they walked.
A church that had gone through such struggle
and trial.
And I had read stories of how they
tied people to stakes and set them aflame.
And they would go out singing the Psalms.
They would be worshiping God as the flames
consumed their flesh.
An absolute glory that was so upon these
early Christians that people who were unsaved, who
were in the stands, who had come to
see their death, would stand up and say
their God is God.
If their God can take them through into
eternity that way, I want this Savior.
People stood and confessed Christ, even knowing that
they were the next to go to the
stake or to be torn apart.
There was such a glory in that church.
And there's a glory that can come upon,
that does come upon a life.
If our heart is right, if we have
the right perspective in the heart and life
of those who are going through struggles and
trials, if we can understand that in the
midst of all of the difficulties we face,
that Christ is with us.
He has never left us.
He has never forsaken us.
He's walking every step of the way.
And there's a cup of glory.
There's a cup of his presence available to
those who go through suffering and difficulty.
There were people who would say that there's
no suffering really.
There are no prisons in this present system,
especially in the Western world.
But that's not true.
Imprisonment is basically, the concept of imprisonment is
when a society takes a certain segment of
its population and shuns them, puts them away
into a corner, puts them away into another
place.
That's really the concept of imprisonment.
Imprisonment is isolation.
Putting somebody away into a place where they're
sort of out of sight and out of
mind.
And I know that, and I've seen over
the years as a pastor, people put into
very real prisons.
Although there are no bars on these prisons,
they're very real.
And if you are here tonight and you're
in one of these, you know what I'm
talking about.
You can't see the bars, but it's a
very real place.
It's a place of being isolated.
It's a place of being rejected.
It's a place sometimes of being written off
by those that are closest to you, close
to your heart.
It's a place where you can feel all
alone.
You feel forsaken.
Sometimes even erroneously feel forsaken by God.
There are prisons of rejection.
Rejection by friends.
Jesus said in Matthew 10, 25, it's enough
for the disciple that he be as his
master and the servant as his Lord.
If they called the house, the master of
the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they
call them of his household?
There are people who have come to Christ
in this room tonight, in this sanctuary that
you had lots of friends and you were
perhaps somewhat at least popular in the places
you traveled, the people you walked among.
Then all of a sudden you've received Christ
and it's the best news you've ever heard
in your whole life.
The darkness in your mind is dissipating.
The light has come into your soul.
You're beginning to walk and you know who
you are.
You know where you came from.
You know where you're going.
And for a season you are so excited
and you want to tell all your friends.
And then all of a sudden you find
that these same friends that once you were
able to associate with and relate to, all
of a sudden are rejecting you and wanting
to put you off in a corner, wanting
to shove you out of their company.
You see a world that's sown in darkness
will never accept or rejoice in the light.
Light has no fellowship with darkness.
And sometimes, especially if you're a young Christian,
it's so hard to understand how it is
that you found such good news and those
that you love, because it's not wrong to
love your friends, you know, but those that
you love are pushing you out of their
company.
And you find yourself isolated and you find
yourself alone.
And it's sort of like they've imprisoned you.
They've shut you out of their presence and
you feel so alone and so rejected.
It's even more difficult when that rejection comes
from members of your own family.
Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10, He said,
don't think that I've come to send peace
on the earth.
I come not to send peace, but a
sword.
For I've come to set a man at
variance against his father, and the daughter against
her mother, and the daughter-in-law against
her mother-in-law.
And a man's foes shall be they of
his own household.
I suppose that's the imprisonment that this society
offers that is, for a Christian, can hurt
worse than any other prison.
And some of you here tonight, you know
what that's all about.
You came to Christ.
You heard the gospel on a radio show
or somebody came to you and told you
or you picked up a tract or you
came to church.
You found Jesus.
It was the best news that you'd ever
heard in your whole life.
And you went home to your husband.
You went home to your wife or you
went home to your children or you went
home, young people, to your mom and dad.
And you tried to share this news.
And in the beginning, perhaps there was a
semi-tolerance to your newfound faith.
But the more you walk with God, the
more you love God, you find an intolerance
beginning to develop in those around you.
And in some cases, it turned to a
rage.
And there are women here tonight that it
cost you your husband to walk with God.
There are men that it cost you your
wife.
There are children that cost you your relationship
with your mom and dad.
Deep, deep wounds and bruises in your lives.
And it feels like you're in a prison.
You go home.
The home is supposed to be a place
of refuge.
And then you walk in the door, but
it feels like a prison with jailers all
around, casting you out of their presence and
treating you in a difficult manner.
There are prisons also of persecution.
Paul says in 2 Timothy 3, verse 12,
Yea, and all that will live godly in
Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
All, A-L-L, that will live godly
in Christ Jesus.
You can be at your workplace, all of
a sudden, evil spoken of for no apparent
reason.
You used to work with everybody.
You knew them.
You loved them.
They seemed to have a respect for you.
And all of a sudden now, because you're
doing things right, because you're not falsifying documents,
because all of a sudden you come in,
God's Spirit got a hold of you, you're
working hard.
That means every sluggard is now going to
have an envy towards you.
You're doing things right.
That means everybody that's doing it wrong is
going to stand against you.
And you may have been well spoken of
when you were one of the boys or
girls, quote unquote.
But all of a sudden now, there's an
evil speaking.
And some of you here know what I'm
talking about tonight.
You go to work and you're evil spoken
of.
It doesn't matter, it seems, how hard you
work.
You can't ever work hard enough.
It doesn't matter how much you put in.
It seems when monthly assessment time comes out,
there's always something wrong with the things that
you're doing at work.
And all it is, is that because you
confess Christ, and you profess to love Him,
and know Him, and walk with Him.
You are passed by consistently when times for
promotion and betterment come up in the workplace.
I want to warn you, don't let bitterness
ever get in your heart over these things.
God will defend you.
He's the defender of His own children.
You'll find that there's a buddy system in
the workplace, and you don't play the game,
and you don't get promoted.
That's just the bottom line of the whole
way that the world operates.
But I tell you that they may pass
you by here, but there's an ultimate pass
by that's coming to them if they don't
repent of their sin and turn to God.
They may pass you by, but I'll tell
you, there's somebody a lot more important than
those over here that is not going to
pass you by.
Hallelujah.
Very soon, the trumpet is going to sound.
And you might be sitting at your desk.
Maybe they're speaking evil of you.
Maybe you've been passed by for all kinds
of promotions.
But I want to tell you that trumpet's
going to sound, and all that's going to
be left is your pencil on that desk.
Hallelujah.
Glory to God.
There's prisons of loneliness.
I've met so many lonely people.
Isolated from work and isolated at family.
Loneliness.
Over the years as a pastor, I've met
situations that have broken my heart.
Wives, lonely in their marriage.
Having had a husband that they felt close
to, and all of a sudden they come
home, they found Jesus.
And they find a separation now coming in
their marriage.
Not that they want it.
They desire their husband.
They want to be close, but there's a
separation because Christ is now on the throne
of the heart.
Those are difficult situations, and it can seem
like you're in a prison.
It really can.
You know, everybody around you is free, but
all of a sudden it just seems like,
oh God, I want to love you.
I want to serve you.
But it just seems that ever-increasing disaster
is coming upon my life.
I heard a story of a woman recently
that accepted the Lord in a suburban middle
-class family.
She received Christ as her Savior.
Went home all excited.
And for a season, her husband endured this.
And then one day he came home, and
he said to her, we're just growing apart.
The things don't seem to be going good
at home anymore.
If you'll just tone down this religion of
yours, if you'll tone it down, everything's going
to be all right.
But if you can't tone it down, I'm
afraid I'm going to have to leave you.
And she had a very real and difficult
choice to make, but she chose the Lord.
And I'm so, I'm happy for her, although
it's hard, and my heart hurts for her.
And so her husband left her for another
woman and her two sons, not understanding the
situation.
They also decided they wanted to go and
live with their father.
And so here she is, less than a
short time after receiving Christ, and she's lost
everything.
She's lost her husband.
She's lost her sons.
Everything that was precious to her on this
earth is gone.
And folks, don't you ever underestimate the pain
that is in somebody's heart when they have
to make that kind of a choice.
If you've never had to make that choice,
you better thank God that you've never had
to make that choice.
But there are people all over the church
who've had to make that choice, and they
feel that, God, I've chosen to live for
You, and now it seems like I'm in
a prison.
It seems like I'm shut in on all
sides.
I'm isolated.
I'm lonely.
I'm hurt.
And you can identify with how the church
of Smyrna felt.
Receiving Christ, being betrayed by family members, brother
betraying brother unto the death, being arrested by
soldiers, being thrust into a place of isolation,
and all it seemed is that there's just
wild beasts and fire out there.
And there can come a moment of absolute
despair upon the heart of a person who
has given all for God, and all of
a sudden you find yourself in a place
of trial, in a place of testing, in
a place of loneliness, a place of persecution,
and a place of imprisonment.
But in the midst of it all, the
writer of Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5 pens
these words, and they're words that you need
to write down on the table of your
heart and never put it away.
I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
You're not alone.
No matter what your situation is, no matter
how hard it is, no matter how much
of a sacrifice you've had to make, there
is coming a day, my brother and sister,
we sing about it, it will be worth
it all when we see Jesus.
Life's trial will seem so small when we
see Christ.
One glimpse of His dear face, all sorrow
will erase.
So bravely run the race until we see
Christ.
One of the tactics of the powers of
darkness when you're in this place is to
say that God has forgotten you.
God has abandoned you.
You're all alone.
Everybody at church is getting blessed.
Everybody is experiencing the glory of God.
Everybody around you is knowing victory.
But here you are, lonely, abandoned, imprisoned, and
forsaken.
There's some of you here tonight, you've come
to this service and you're on your last
legs.
I've sensed that in my spirit the whole
time sitting on the platform tonight.
You're on your last legs.
You say, God, if I don't hear from
You soon, I don't know what I'm going
to do.
I can't go on.
I know there are people like that tonight,
because God's Holy Spirit is speaking that to
my heart.
And the Word of the Lord to you
tonight is, I will never leave you.
I will never forsake you.
I'll never.
Turn to the book of Isaiah, please.
Chapter 49.
Isaiah chapter 49.
Now this Word is for you.
Everyone in this house that have feel that
you're in that place of imprisonment, a place
of difficulty.
God doesn't promise you at any time that
He's going to take you out of it.
But He promises you that He's going to
give you the victory in the midst of
it.
He's going to take you through the fire.
It's not going to burn you.
And He's going to take you through the
water.
And it's not going to drown you.
That's the promise of God.
You can have victory in the midst of
your trial.
The church of Smyrna went out a glorious
church.
One of the only two churches that Jesus
had nothing negative to say about.
In the midst of your trial, there's a
purification process that's going on in your life
that is precious in the sight of God.
You're not looking to riches.
You're not walking in false peace and false
comfort.
Your situation has forced you into a place
where what you have with God is real,
or you don't have it at all.
It has to be real because it can't
get you through otherwise.
It has to be real.
In chapter 49 of Isaiah, verse 13, the
Lord says, Sing, O heavens, and be joyful,
O earth, and break forth into singing, O
mountains.
For the Lord has comforted His people and
will have mercy upon His afflicted.
But Zion said, Now that's some of the
children of God.
The Lord has forsaken me and the Lord
has forgotten me.
There are some here tonight that you feel
that of God.
That God, because of your situation, you say,
God, how is it you said that you
came to give me an abundant life?
And Lord God, it feels like you've forsaken
me.
But you see, God's going to reveal something
to you tonight.
The abundance you seek is not in your
situation.
The abundance you seek is in Him.
It's in Him and Him alone.
Your situation may never change, but your life
will change.
And your outlook can change when you begin
to understand that you have, in the midst
of your poverty, in the midst of your
trial, in the midst of your difficulty, if
you have Him, that's what He says to
the church of Smyrna, you are rich in
the midst of your difficulty, in the midst
of your poverty.
I knew a lady one time, her husband
treated her like absolute dirt.
It was excruciating just to watch him.
It was all I could do sometimes, not
to literally take matters into my own hands.
He would just berate her in public and
treat her cruelly.
And she'd have no money.
And it was a terrible situation.
But that lady, in the midst of that
difficult situation that she was in, had a
treasure that I yearned for.
She would be at prayer meetings, and she'd
be weeping before a holy God.
She'd be praying for sons and daughters.
She'd be praying for people out on the
streets.
She'd pray for her husband day in and
day out.
The more cruelly he treated her, the more
she lifted him up, the more she would
speak well of him in front of other
people.
That woman had a treasure in her life.
She had a treasure in her heart.
Even though her situation was difficult, God in
His grace, that man developed a very, very
severe illness that made him an invalid.
And it went when she could have said,
now, you're getting your just reward for what
you've done to me and how you've treated
me all these years.
No.
She became a nursemaid to that man and
kept him at home, and bathed him, and
helped him to walk and look after him,
and still does so today, and won his
soul to God.
In the abundance of her poverty, she was
rich, for she had the very presence of
God in her life.
When I would meet with her, she wouldn't
want to talk about the weather.
She didn't want to talk about the cows
out in the pasture.
She wanted to talk about Jesus.
She would always talk about the goodness of
God and how God was blessing her.
Oh, I tell you, brothers and sisters, it
was all I could do to look in
that home and find an ounce of blessing
in that place.
But God was blessing her.
Her blessing was not in her circumstance.
There was an interior blessing because of her
poverty and deep trial that she was in.
She had turned to Him and found Him.
Hallelujah!
Glory to God!
And now in this hour, she is one
of the mothers of Zion.
She's one of the pillars in the church.
Hallelujah!
Never ever having any place of prominence or
preeminence in the church.
All she ever did for years was just
serve and bring a cup of water if
she noticed that the preacher was struggling with
his throat.
Just little things in the church.
God had done something rich in her heart.
In the midst of her trial, she had
found a treasure that many who have never
known difficulty ever find.
Oh, I just praise the Lord for His
faithfulness in what He did in her life.
But Zion said, verse 14, Isaiah 49, The
Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has
forgotten me.
Can a woman forget her sucking child that
she should not have compassion on the son
of her womb?
Yea, they may forget, but yet I will
not forget thee.
Behold, I have graven thee on the palms
of my hands.
And now listen to the other part.
Thy walls are continually before me.
Thy walls.
What walls, you say?
Lord God, You said, You've engraved me on
the palms of Your hands.
I understand that.
I understand that You went to Calvary.
I understand that nails went through Your wrist.
And my name was on the very tip
of one of those nails.
And my name is engraved on Your hand.
God, You won't forget me.
I acknowledge that tonight.
You'll never forget me.
But what are these walls?
And what the Lord is saying, I have
encircled You.
Haven't You seen Me there?
I am protecting You.
I have built walls around You.
The enemy will not exact against You.
Nothing can come against You, but that You're
able to bear.
The Lord will not allow you to be
tempted above that you can bear, but with
the trial, a temptation will make a way
to escape that you may be able to
bear it.
You're not alone.
God is with you in the midst of
your struggle.
God has built a wall.
He has encircled you.
Look at Psalm 91.
Go back to Psalm 91.
I want to show you this, how He's
encircled you.
Psalm 91, He that dwelleth in the secret
place of the Most High shall abide, or
lodge, under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, He is
my refuge and my fortress, my God, in
Him will I trust.
Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare
of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence.
Now here's the walls.
He shall cover thee with His feathers and
under His wings shalt thou trust.
His truth shall be thy shield and thy
buckler.
In other words, thy protection.
He will cover you with His feathers.
Sir, madam, brother, sister, young person that's here,
you've been in difficulty and trial, but you've
never been alone.
God has been with you and God will
stay with you.
He has built walls around you.
Those walls are His own arms, His own
hands.
He's not going to allow the enemy to
exact against you.
He's not going to allow the powers of
hell to destroy you.
But in the midst of that difficulty, He's
going to reveal to you Himself.
That's what He was saying to Smyrna.
You're going to have a revelation of Jesus
in the midst of that trial.
And that revelation is going to produce the
sweetness that others who've never known trial are
never going to have.
If you can understand it tonight, if you're
in a place of difficulty, you're blessed of
Almighty God.
In that place of difficulty, if you will
turn to Him, you will find Him in
a way that so few find Him on
this side of eternity.
Hallelujah.
Thou shalt not be afraid, verse 5, for
the terror by night nor for the arrow
that flies by day.
Some of you, you've known what it is
to be terrified in the night time.
And you've known what it is to get
out of your bed.
And the moment you're out, out come the
arrows and they're flying at you from every
corner direction of your own house, even sometimes.
But He says, You'll not be afraid of
the terror by night nor for the arrow
that flyeth by day, nor for the pestilence
that walks in darkness, nor for the destruction
that wastes at noonday.
A thousand shall fall at thy side and
ten thousand at thy right hand, but it
shall not come nigh thee.
Only with thine eyes thou shalt behold and
see the reward of the wicked, because thou
hast made the Lord, which is my refuge,
even the most high, thy habitation.
There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall
any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
For He will give His angels charge over
thee to keep thee in all thy ways.
They shall bear thee up in their hands,
lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder.
The young lion and the dragon shalt thou
trample under feet, because He has set His
love upon me, therefore will I deliver Him.
I will set Him on high, because He
has known my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will
answer Him.
I will be with Him in trouble.
I will deliver Him and honor Him.
With long life will I satisfy Him and
show Him my salvation.
That's what the Lord is saying to you
tonight.
I will show you my salvation.
I will give you a revelation.
I will give you an understanding heart.
That one day, something is coming your way,
and you will be comforted.
You will be encouraged with this revelation.
That's what the presence of Jesus was to
this church called Smyrna.
Hallelujah.
One day, your warfare will be accomplished.
He said to Smyrna, be faithful unto death,
and I will give you a crown of
life.
Be faithful unto death.
Let me just read to you from Isaiah
40, please.
Hallelujah.
Isaiah 40, verse 1.
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your
God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto
her that her warfare is accomplished, that her
iniquity is pardoned, for she has received of
the Lord's hand double for all her sins.
Now, verse 28, please go ahead.
Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard,
that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator
of the ends of the earth, fainteth not,
neither is weary.
There is no searching of His understanding.
He gives power to the faint.
And to them that have no might, He
increases their strength.
Even the youth shall faint and be weary,
and the young men shall utterly fall.
But they that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings as eagles.
They shall run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not faint.
Look at Romans, please.
I want to show you the revelation now.
The revelation that Jesus gave to this church.
The revelation.
Verse 8.
Verse 15, For you have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but you
have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we
cry, Abba, Father.
In other words, you're not alone.
You're not alone in your house.
You're not alone at your job.
You're not alone on the street.
Wherever you are, you're not alone.
We have not received the spirit of fear,
but we have been adopted by Almighty God,
whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
I'm never alone.
I'm not alone.
Even in the darkest night.
Even when things are the most difficult.
I'm never alone.
He has said, I will never leave you.
And I will never forsake you.
The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit
that we are the children of God.
And if we're children, then heirs.
Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
If so be that we suffer with Him,
that we may be also glorified together.
Listen to what Paul says in verse 18.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy, are not worthy,
are not worthy to be compared with the
glory that shall be revealed in us.
Hallelujah.
The sufferings are not worthy.
Jesus, in the book of Hebrews chapter 2,
the Scripture says, Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the
joy that was set before Him, endured the
cross, despising the shame, and is set down
at the right hand of the throne of
God.
In the next couple of verses it says,
Consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against Himself, lest you become weary and faint
in your minds.
Consider Him who for the joy.
Paul says, I reckon the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy.
Are not worthy.
No matter how hard it gets, brothers and
sisters.
No matter what happens to our society.
No matter where we end up on this
earth as a church body.
The sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to even compare with the glory that's
going to be revealed in you and I
as the body of Jesus Christ.
Hallelujah.
The Bible exhorts us to have the eyes
of Christ.
His eyes were not on His situation, but
He was looking ahead to the joy that
was before Him.
That's where you and I need to be
looking this night.
If you're in a situation of difficulty, ask
God for the grace to get your eyes
off of your situation in so much as
is possible in the Holy Ghost.
And begin to look unto Him, the author
and finisher of your salvation.
Look unto Him who said, I will never
fail you.
A thousand will fall at your one hand
ten thousand at the other hand, but it
will not come nigh you.
Hallelujah.
Now listen to what glory lies ahead.
2 Corinthians, please.
2 Corinthians.
Hallelujah.
2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 15.
What glory.
What glory lies ahead.
For all things are for your sakes that
the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of
many redound to the glory of God.
For which cause we faint not.
But though our outward man perish, yet the
inward man is renewed day by day.
Listen to verse 17.
Just the first four words.
For our light affliction.
Now if you go back over the life
of the Apostle Paul and you read his
testimony, I was shipwrecked.
I was a day and night in the
deep or three days and three nights.
I was, I was stoned.
I was left for dead.
I was in perils among false brethren.
I was slandered, blasphemed, you name it.
Whatever could happen to Paul, it happened to
Paul.
Imagine going to preach a sermon and being
left for dead under a pile of rocks.
And the church comes around and prays for
you.
You get up, you go back into the
city and preach again.
And Paul says, our light affliction, light affliction,
which is but for a moment.
His eyes were not looking on his circumstances.
I'm sure of that.
Works for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory.
Now here's the key.
Verse 18.
While we look not at the things which
are seen, but at the things which are
not seen.
For the things which are seen are temporal,
but the things which are not seen are
eternal.
Hallelujah.
Now, we would ask, what did Paul see
ahead?
Paul saw in Romans 6, 5.
Let me just read it to you.
He said, if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall
also be in the likeness of his resurrection.
The Apostle John, the beloved Apostle, in 1
John chapter 3 and verse 2, he said,
Now, beloved, we are now the sons of
God, and it does not yet appear what
we shall be.
But we know that when he shall appear,
we shall be like him.
For we shall see him as he is.
When he shall appear, we shall be like
him.
Hallelujah.
The sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory that
shall be revealed in us as the Church
of Jesus Christ.
Revelation.
Let's look at what he really looks like.
Revelation chapter 1.
John says, When he shall appear, we shall
be like him.
We shall be like him.
Hallelujah.
Revelation 1, 13.
John says, And in the midst of the
seven candlesticks was one like unto the Son
of Man, clothed with a garment down to
the foot, and girt above the paps with
a golden girdle.
His head and hairs were white like wool,
as white as snow, and his eyes were
as a flame of fire, and his feet
like undefined brass, as if they burned in
a furnace, and his voice as the sound
of many waters.
And he had in his right hand seven
stars, and out of his mouth went a
sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance, or
appearance, was as the sun shining in his
strength.
Hallelujah.
We know that John says, When I saw
him, I fell at his feet like a
dead man.
Paul says, The sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with the
glory that shall be revealed in us.
Hallelujah.
Revelation 1 talks about what Jesus looks like.
John says, We are now the sons of
God, and we know that when he shall
appear, we shall be like him.
Paul says, In Philippians 3.21, He shall
change our vile body, that it may be
fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to
the working whereby he is able to subdue
all things unto himself.
The book of 1 Corinthians.
Turn there, please, quickly.
Chapter 15.
Hallelujah.
Are you starting to get the picture?
Verse 49.
As we have borne the image of the
earthy, we shall also bear the image of
the heavenly.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither
does corruption inherit incorruption.
Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall
all be changed.
In a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, this
mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put on
incorruption, this mortal shall have put on immortality,
then shall be brought to pass the saying
that is written, Death is swallowed up in
victory.
O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the
strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God who gives us
the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding.
We sang that tonight.
Jesus is my Savior.
I shall not be moved.
Hallelujah.
Always abounding in the work of the Lord,
for as much as you know that your
labor is not in vain in the Lord.
I show you a mystery.
The revelation of Jesus Christ Let me just
read some verses of scripture to you now.
John says, I saw a new heaven and
a new earth, for the first heaven and
the first earth were passed away, and there
was no more sea.
And I, John, saw the holy city, New
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband,
even those who are suffering, even those who
are in difficulty tonight.
And I heard a great voice out of
heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is
with men, and he will dwell with them,
and they shall be his people, and God
himself shall be with them and be their
God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes.
There shall be no more death, no more
sorrow, no more crying.
There shall be no more pain for the
former things, hallelujah, thanks to God, are passed
away.
Hallelujah.
And he said to me, Write, for these
words are true and faithful.
These words are true and faithful.
And I saw no temple therein for the
Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the
temple of it.
The city had no need of the sun
nor of the moon to shine in it,
for the glory of God did lighten it,
and the Lamb is the light thereof.
The nations of them which are saved shall
walk in the light of it, and kings
of the earth to bring their glory and
honor into it.
And the gates of it shall not be
shut at all by day.
There shall be no night there.
They shall bring the glory and honor of
the nations into it.
And there shall in no wise enter into
it anything that defiles, neither works abomination or
makes a lie, but they that are written
in the Lamb's book of life.
Hallelujah.
And he showed me a pure river of
water of light, clear as crystal, proceeding out
of the throne of God and out of
the Lamb.
In the midst of the street of it
and on either side of the river there
was the tree of life, which bared twelve
manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every
month.
And the leaves of the tree were for
the healing of the nations.
There shall be no more curse, but the
throne of God and of the Lamb shall
be in it, and His servant shall serve
Him.
They shall see His face and His name
shall be in their foreheads.
There shall be no night there.
They need no candle, neither light of the
sun, for the Lord God will give them
light.
And they shall reign forever and ever.
And he said unto me, These things are
faithful and true.
And the Lord God of the holy prophets
sent His angels to show unto His servants
the things which must shortly be done.
Behold, I come quickly.
Blessed is he that keeps the sayings of
the prophecy of this book.
Hallelujah.
The Apostle Paul calls this life a momentary
and a light affliction.
The devil would have us to believe that
it's all over.
You're rejected and God's forsaken you and you're
never going to get through.
But you know that the devil is a
liar.
And we're not ignorant of his schemes.
We're not ignorant of his lies.
He wants to drive you into a dungeon
of despair.
He's a master at doing that.
He wants to crush you and he wants
to convince you that God doesn't love you
and God hasn't forsaken you.
God has forsaken you.
God has nothing in the future for you.
But he's just a liar.
An absolute liar.
And the father of all lies.
God has not forsaken you.
And if you will turn to Him and
look to Him with all of your heart,
there is a richness of Jesus that can
be found in trial that can't be found
anywhere else.
Hallelujah.
I know your tribulation.
I know your poverty.
I know your works.
But you are rich.
Hallelujah.
You are rich in the midst of it
all.
Whenever we have prayer meetings in this house
on Thursday and Friday night, I know, especially
the women who come down to pray, I
know the ones who've had a hard, hard
home life.
There's a richness in your prayer.
Oh, mothers of Zion, don't you ever stop
praying in this house.
There's something in your prayer that touches the
heart of God.
When a person has gone through difficulty in
trial in their life, something happens inside.
And they come up and all they want
is Him.
And all they have is Him.
And their whole focus is Him.
Their whole heart is for Him.
Their whole love is for Him.
And they've begun to look out for themselves.
And they look out unto others.
And they begin to get concerned about the
struggles because they can identify with the struggles.
Jesus Himself was moved with the feeling of
our infirmities.
Hallelujah.
One last scripture, please.
Go to the book of Romans, chapter 8.
Romans, chapter 8.
Some of you tonight have a lot of
people against you.
And it seems the circumstances at times are
against you.
But I have a scripture that blows a
hole right through the middle of all that.
Romans 8, 31.
It says, What shall we then say to
these things?
If God is before us, who can be
against us?
Hallelujah.
I'm not trying to sound callous tonight or
flippant.
But I tell you, you can go back
home to that situation tonight and go in
your room.
And nothing has changed at home.
You can get down on your knees and
have a little chuckle with God.
And I really mean that.
You can worship and laugh and rejoice.
God, if you be for me, who can
be against me?
Who?
He that spared not his own son, but
delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us
all things?
Ma'am, you go home and that husband's
heart may be hard.
But I want to tell you, there's not
a man on the earth big enough to
fight against God.
There's not a man on the earth small
enough to hide from God.
I challenge you to get to your knees
and say, God, who does that man think
he is?
That he can stand against you and stand
against your convicting power and stand against your
love and begin to pray like you've never
prayed before.
If God has to put that man on
a bed of affliction, like my precious sister
that I spoke to you about, then God
will do what God has to do.
You love him with all of your heart.
You praise him.
And you make a decision in your heart
tonight.
Lord, I'm going to love you like Daniel
and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
God is well able to deliver us out
of the flame.
And if he wants to, he can.
But if not, we'll serve him anyway.
It makes no difference.
Hallelujah.
God can take me through the fire.
God can take me through this trial.
And I'm not looking to find satisfaction in
this place.
I'm looking beyond.
I see a joy coming ahead of me.
I don't fully understand it all.
But I'm going to a place where there's
no more sorrow.
I'm going to a place where no more
arrows come flying in my direction.
I'm going to a place where there's no
more backbiting, and no more lying, and no
more backstabbing.
I'm going to a place where dogs don't
come in.
I'm going to a place where righteousness dwells.
I'm going to a place where I can
step out of my mansion, walk down streets
of gold, and come into the parlor of
the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Hallelujah.
I'm going to a place where I can
walk down the street that has trees on
every side of the river, and there's fruit
for the healing of the nations, and I
can take whatever I want for whatever need
I have.
Hallelujah.
Glory to God.
So Lord, we declare tonight that this momentary
and light affliction is not worthy to be
compared.
It's not worthy to be compared with the
glory that shall be revealed in us.
Hallelujah.
Verse 33 says, Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect?
It is God that justifies.
Who shall lay anything to the charge?
If you're walking in a right relationship with
God, I know there are women and men
here tonight that you go home, and an
unsaved partner is picking you apart continuously, and
talking about your hypocrisy.
You're not perfect.
And the only one perfect is Christ.
And you make mistakes.
You lose your temper.
You do things you shouldn't do.
And they're right there to point out every
fault.
And crush you.
And tear you down.
And there are women here and men who
can identify with this tonight.
But the scripture says, Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect?
Who shall bring an accusation against the children
of God?
It is God that justifies.
If you are justified in the sight of
God, don't you dare let any voice condemn
you and cast you down.
If you know you're a child of God.
Hallelujah.
Who is He that condemns?
It is Christ that died again, rather is
risen again, who is even at the right
hand of God, who also makes intercession for
us.
Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ?
Shall tribulation, that means trial, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
sword?
As it is written, For thy sake we
are killed all the day long.
We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
Now, the Apostle Paul says, Nay, but in
all these things we are more than conquerors
through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded, I am persuaded that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to
come, nor any height, nor depth, nor any
other creature, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
Hallelujah.
Nothing.