In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of not allowing anyone to rob believers of their love, faith, service, and perseverance. The speaker highlights that love and faith are interconnected, with love motivating believers to serve others. The sermon emphasizes the need to continually grow and not become complacent in one's faith, as this can lead to a loss of fervency and involvement in God's work. The speaker challenges believers to examine their lives and ensure they are continually growing and doing more for God, rather than allowing distractions and worldly desires to hinder their spiritual progress.

So I want to leave a challenge with you. One thought that's good for all of us. And it comes from the letter to the fourth church in the book of Revelation that Jesus writes to. The church at Thyatira. Thyatira. Everyone say Thyatira. Thyatira. T-H-Y-A-T-I-R-A Thyatira has the longest letter to it from Jesus, but it's the smallest town of the seven. Which goes to show that God doesn't go by what's big and small in people's eyes. His ways are not our ways. And Thyatira there, we don't know the size of the church. And that's an interesting thing. That the size of any of these churches is not known, except possibly the last church, Laodicea, who said we're rich and increased with goods and we don't have need of anything. Whether that meant numerically or financially, it wasn't true because that's the church that was lukewarm. The church at Thyatira had good things going for it and then some very bad things going for it. There's more of a rebuke for that church than some of the others. Notice though it had good and bad. See, that's what can exist in our lives and in our churches. We can have areas where we're strong and then areas where we're not doing well at all. The problem in this church, which I won't be reading about, was despite the good things that God was doing, they tolerated a woman named Jezebel who was teaching false teaching that corrupted people in the church. This was not a problem outside the church, like the false teaching of the Nicolaitans that we read about in the first letter to Ephesus. This was a problem in the church. This was not so much persecution from outside like in Smyrna. I know what you're going through. Be faithful even to death. No, this was not so much persecution. Maybe the town was so small the Roman Empire didn't bother with them. Whatever the case may be, the enemy uses different avenues to get at us as churches and as people. So this was a church that I want to talk about their strong points, but the Lord said, I have this against you. You tolerate this woman Jezebel who teaches these terrible teachings that then lead my servants into fornication and into idol worship. And what the background of that might be, I don't have time to go into tonight, maybe for another message. But that's the negative side of the message to the church. They tolerated things. See, one of the things that Jesus was watching is not just the good things that they were doing for his namesake, but the fact that they had false toleration. You know, people make toleration a virtue. Just, you know, I'll let anything go because who's to judge? That's a deadly, deadly way to live. There are certain things we should never tolerate. How many say amen to that? You have children and somebody comes in who wants to befriend them, who's dealing with drugs. You don't tolerate it. You can't go with that person, right? You see some man who tries to approach one of your children, you don't tolerate anything like that. So to serve the Lord means not just everything is loosey-goosey and just, well, who's to judge? What's to say? No, the problem with this church was they let in things in the church. She claimed to be a prophetess or prophet, and that's how she probably got over it. She said, the Lord told me. The Lord said, thus saith God, but it didn't line up with the word of God, and this church bought into it and let this woman corrupt the church through this teaching. Now to sit her down probably would have caused a big commotion, but that's what leadership has to do. It's not easy being a leader in the house of God because you can't be everybody's friend. Sometimes you have to take a stand and say, no, that doesn't line up with the word of God. You can't teach that. You can't do that. End of story. But here's what the Lord said on the good side. Let's look at it. To the angel of the church in Thyatira, write, these are the words of the Son of God. That's the only time that title is used in the seven letters, Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire, means He sees through everything, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your deeds. That first word, first phrase means just, I know what you're doing. It's in almost all the letters. It's not, I know your deeds, whether they're good or bad. I just, I know what's going on. I know what kind of church you have. I know how you spend your money and your time. I know your goals. I know your strong points. I know your weak points. I know what you do every week. I know what kind of services you have on Sunday. I know how you live. I know your deeds. And now, more specific, your love and your faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. I know your deeds, your love and your faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. So notice the couplet, love and faith, goes with the next two couplet, service and perseverance. Love makes you serve. Faith helps you to persevere. Why do we serve? Why do we try to help others? Because God's filled our hearts with love. So I know your love that expresses itself in service. If you're not serving anyone, you don't care about the people of God, it's very hard to convince anyone you're filled with the love of God. Love always serves. You love your children, you want to take care of them. You love your wife, you're thinking about her needs. You love the brothers and sisters in the church, you're looking how you can help them. The worst thing to do is say, I love you, I love you, and then just block off your heart from what they're going through. This church was not like that. They had a love that served, and they had a faith that was strong enough to persevere through whatever they were going through. So I know your love and your faith. I know your service and your perseverance, and now the key. And now I know you are now doing more than you did at first. And then at the very end of the letter, I just took this little phrase because it goes together, now Jesus says, I will not impose any other burden on you except to hold on to what you have until I come. The what is singular there. It's not, I want you to hold on to those things, plural, until I come, that you have until I come, but it's singular. I want you to hold on to the deposit of God, your faith, your belief, your praying, your love, your salvation, your joy, your peace. I want you to hold on to everything. Hold on to it until I come. So what do we learn here? It's a simple little lesson. No matter where you are in your Christian life, there is the need and the potential that you can grow. This church was so good because I know your love and your faith. I know your love produces service. That's something that should challenge all of us. Is it just go to church on Sunday? Or is it I love the Lord and I love His people, so I try to find ways to serve them, pray for them, clean the building, work with the children. I want to serve people. Join the prayer band. Come on Tuesday and pray for other believers. But I can't be an island because when you love someone, you can't be remote from them. You can't. Anybody who's remote and doesn't want to help someone does not love them. That's why the Bible warns us, don't love in tongue and in word but in deed and in truth. Show your love. Love always shows itself. You can always tell when a man loves a woman, he's going to bless her, give her things, try to wait on her, try to make her happy. Am I right? If it's all about him, I don't know how he loves her. How could he love her? He's only thinking about himself. But they not only had love, they had faith which persevered. Faith is always tested. And this church had faith that persevered. They weren't up and down. They didn't quit when things got tough. They persevered. The Christian life is not easy sometimes. And faith is the great attribute that causes perseverance. Notice the two great things that are mentioned here, faith, love, and faith. Jesus puts love first. Usually faith is first. But this is love and then faith. Love that serves, faith that perseveres. But here's the key. And I know that you're doing more now than you did at first. In other words, this church is phenomenal because it had been going like this. You know, that's why executives look at the sales charts and they're looking for the thing to go up. What does that mean? More, mas, mas y mas. Cada dia, mas y mas. Every day, more, more, go up. Jesus said, I've been looking at what you do. I'm watching how you serve. And you know what? You're doing more now than you did at the very beginning. Remember the first church at Ephesus? They had lost their first love. They had gone backwards. Not this church. This church was doing more, loving more, serving more, trusting more, persevering more than they did at the beginning. That's awesome. That's growth. That's healthy. That's what God wants for all of us. And the danger is this, and I close because this is not a sermon. It's an exhortation. Many of us think that you can get to a place in God and stop growing and stop increasing and just hold it there for a while and plateau. That is impossibly. That is impossible. And that's why at the end of the letter, the Lord says, and remember this, I'm not gonna put anything else on you. I've skipped the corrective parts about Jezebel and all that stuff and the Lord's judgment on her and those who were in that teaching. But the Lord says this, I wanna say, don't let anybody rob what you have. Don't lose what you have. Now, he couldn't have said that unless it's possible to lose what you have. The reason Jesus said don't lose what you have is because you gotta fight off the devil who comes like a thief to steal, kill and destroy. But the first thing he wants to do is steal. What? Steal your love. Steal your faith. Steal your service. Get you tired. Get us distracted. Get us caught up in politics rather than in preaching the gospel. Getting caught up in making money rather than blessing people. Getting caught up in whatever than doing what God wants us to do. So, whatever we have from God, Jesus is saying, don't let anybody rob what you have. And there's only one sure way not to have anybody rob what you have and that's to keep growing every day more and more. The minute you think you can stop, someone's gonna rob what you have. The only way to go is to keep going. Stronger and stronger. Most of us don't think that way. Most of us think, no, look, I came to a certain place in God and praise God. I'm not what I used to be. But isn't the truth that there was once a time in your life where there was more fervency, more love. You were more involved. Oh, I know you have a reason. I know you have a reason. We all have excuses. We all have reasons. No, I'm busy now, I'm tired. Satan's gonna come to him because he's a fervent Christian and she seems very sane, very sweet. But now you get married, you gotta pay bills, you gotta do all of that. Well, now we gotta do this, we gotta get a sofa. Maybe we can't go on that missionary trip because I want that fancy sofa. And the next thing you know, you're going backwards. You're doing not more, you're doing less. And Jesus said, no, I commend you. You're doing more. How few Christians do you know that are doing more at the end of 20, 30 years? How many churches are doing more at the end of 30, 40 years than they were when they started? The tendency is to go up for a little while and then level off. But the minute you level, you start going down because Satan starts robbing what you have. So I want to leave a challenge with you here because I highly esteem you as an audience. I highly esteem you. Only the pastors know and guest ministers know how I speak about you behind your back. I highly esteem you. Highly esteem you. The most intelligent audience, all due respect to other places that I go, you're the most intelligent audience that I speak in front of. And we got some very, very dedicated Christians here. I know that. But some of you, don't let the enemy rob what you have. Don't go backwards. Get more. But pastor, I do love God. Then love him more. Ask him to have you grow in love. But I do love the Christians. He can help you grow and love them even more. There's no place where God says, that's it. That's all I can give you. How many are happy he has more for us in every area of our life? More revelation of the word. More understanding of the Bible. More fluency and more boldness when we speak to others about Christ. Wherever you are, do you pray? Do you have faith? You've seen God answer prayers? There's greater faith. There's greater faith. Have you been anointed with the Holy Spirit and experienced him? There's more of the Holy Spirit you can have. Because this church was a church that the Lord said, I commend you. I see your love and your faith, your service, your perseverance. And here's the kicker. You're doing now more than you did at the beginning. And some of you from the Caribbean, some of you from Brooklyn, Puerto Rico, wherever you're from, Trinidad, Jamaica, wherever you're from, you don't want to be caught where you're doing less than what you used to do. If we walk with the Lord and get to love him more, shouldn't we be doing more for him every day of our lives? She's not here tonight so I can talk about her. My mother is an example of that. My mother is... Look, she'll be 101 in November, next month. But listen. She is now closer to God and she has more from the Lord than at any time in her life. Now, she can't physically do what she used to. She used to make pot holders for the women's meeting. You know how many pot holders she made? Over 2,000. This was just 30 years ago. But now she has a list of people she prays for. That's all. She never watches TV. Tells me, Jim, no, I just read the word, pray, think of people. She writes notes to people to encourage them. At 101 soon, she's doing more now than ever before. How many want to be like that? Let's put our hands together. I want to be that way. I want to be like my mom that way and I want to be like the church at Thyatira. I want to grow. How many, even though God's been good to you and you love the Lord, how many know there's more to have? Come on. Lift your hand. There's more to have. I don't care what area. Just say anything. Bible knowledge. There's more. Understanding of the Bible. More revelation. More love. More hope. More perseverance. More pain. You have joy? He's got more joy. Don't you want more joy? Do you have peace? How many have the peace of God? He's got deeper peace. Whatever you name, there's more. And what you have to do is we got to keep pursuing more and not settle for praise God, we made it. Boy, we made it. Praise God. We're the church at Thyatira and we have made it. No, no. Never can stop. You're always rejoicing but you're always reaching. Christianity is a strange juxtaposition. You're always thanking and everything gives thanks but at the same time you're saying more, Lord. More. More. Everybody stand up. I want every man find a partner. Every woman find a partner and just pray over each other out loud for three minutes. More, Lord. More. Give me more. Give her more. Give us more. More, Lord. More faith. More love. More, Lord. We're not content with what we have. We want more. We're not going to let the enemy rob from what we have already. We're not going to go backwards. We're going to go ahead. Pray.