Seven Words for the Church Today (Week 3) - Feb. 20, 2022 - Andy Turner

Andy continues in the “Seven Words” series by sharing about the church of Pergamum – a church that struggled with compromise in the center of pagan worship at the time. How do we, as followers of Jesus today, live in the world and not be of the world? How do we live as Jesus did – full of truth AND full of grace… and why does it matter? As Christians, we are called to be the light of the world – and we must speak the truth in love. “I know where you live. I know how difficult your life is. He says this so we can see, and know, that he knows us and sees us. He recognizes us.” “Allegiance to anything other than Jesus is idolatry.” “Jesus’ word to his church here was this – repent. Stop it. Knock it off. Quit flirting with all the ways of this world… and if you don’t stop it, I’m coming to fight you. Nobody wants to hear those words from Jesus.” “Jesus is saying to this church: I know you have it tough. And some of you are doing well, and to those of you who are doing it well, I want to encourage you to keep it up. But to those of you who have bought into the lies, who have given up on truth, who have moved your allegiance from Jesus to Rome, you need to repent… and if you do not repent, then I will come, and I will fight against you.” “Satan’s strategy has always been the exact same, from the very beginning of creation. Whatever he cannot crush or curse, he will corrupt through compromise. It’s just a little slide here… a little give-in here.” “This is the reason why we must stay on our guard – because these little compromises that we make in life… they pave the way for the big compromises that we never thought ourselves capable of.” “It is so difficult to walk this line in this world… to be in the world but not of the world… to be earthy but not worldly.” “Every single day – multiple times a day – we are faced with multiple opportunities to compromise what we claim to believe. And it can seem so small. It can seem so innocent. Besides, it’s so much easier just to keep up with culture. It’s so much easier just to blend in. So what do we do? Do we go underground? Do we hide out, do we hunker down? No. No – and here’s why. Because you have been called to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth. The Christian life isn’t about running away from the evil of this life. The Christian life is about standing in the midst of the darkness and becoming a shining light.” “How do we do this? We have to be full of truth… and full of grace. We have to hold on to the truth. There are things in this world, regardless of what our society wants to tell us, that are right and wrong. As believers in Jesus, we must hold onto that. And we must learn to speak in love… because a kind word is always better than an ugly word. We must be full of truth, but we also must be full of grace. As we live in this world, we cannot expect non-believers to act like believers. We cannot expect non-believers to hold to the standard of believers. Can we be honest for just a second? Believers really struggle holding to the standard of believers. So we must be full of grace, with one another and with the world around us.” “The one thing we must understand is that ‘or’ is not an option. It is not be full of truth OR be full of grace. It is a ‘both/and’… and it’s not a 50/50 balance. It’s a 100/100 at all times.” “We can stand for truth and be full of grace… just like Jesus. Because the bottom line is this – we must look like the one we follow.” “As followers of Jesus today, we must remember this… what you believer and what you know to be true – it matters. So be full of truth, and be full of grace.”