Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of faithfulness in the church of Philadelphia, highlighting Jesus' promises to those who overcome. He explains that Jesus, who holds the keys of David, offers eternal rewards that may seem too good to be true, yet are genuine and attainable through obedience. Bickle elaborates on the eight promises made to the faithful, including being made a pillar in God's temple and receiving the names of God and the new Jerusalem written on them. The sermon encourages believers to pursue a deeper relationship with God, understanding that their faithfulness now leads to indescribable glory in eternity. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a commitment to obedience and a vision for eternal significance in God's kingdom.

Father, I ask you in the name of Jesus for the release of your presence. I ask you for strength in our inner man, even as we open our heart before you. God, we long for reality. We long for encounter with your heart. And we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we're on a series and we're going through the seven churches that Jesus gave the of the Lord to in the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter two and chapter three. It's a 12 part series. We're on the sixth church, although this is the second week that we're paying attention to the church of Philadelphia because there's so much, well, of course, in each one of these letters, but just so much at Philadelphia. Let's read it. Revelation chapter three, verse seven, and to the angel or to the messenger, to the church in Philadelphia, write this. These things says he that is holy, that's Jesus, says he that is true. These things says he who has the keys of David, the key of David, who opens doors and no one shuts. And the Lord is describing himself as the one who shuts doors that no one could open. I want to just point out one thing that we looked at last week. He gives five titles for himself in each one of these titles are significant and applicable to the challenges and the promises that he's going to give in the letter. So he's going to give challenges and promises in each of the seven letters. And in each of the letters, he describes himself differently and the truths that he reveals about his heart and his ministry towards them will help them walk through the challenges and lay hold of the promises. One of the five that I want to comment on, he says, he, that is true. And there's several dimensions to this attribute of the Lord that he wants us to get ahold of. But one of them is he is going to give them particularly in verse 12 promises that are so grand, that are so great. They will seem too good to be true. And he's saying on the front end, I am the reliable one. I am not exaggerating. I'm not over committing. I'm not over promising above my abilities. Matter of fact, you won't really grasp the fullness of what I'm promising you. Even now, he that has ears, let him hear what the spirit saying. That's what he tells me. He says, what I'm going to give you is so great. It will, it will be a challenge to lay hold of it. And it will take the power of God to see it and lay hold of these truths. They're too good to be true is what he's saying. So I love that, that, uh, part of the Lord's heart. He goes, I am true. I'm not exaggerating. I'm not over committing. I'm not being enthusiastic. What I'm telling you is true. This is who you are to me. That's what it comes to. And of course, we'll look at the details of the implications of that in just a moment. Verse eight, I see your works. See, I have set before you an open door. It's a door that no one can shut for. You have a little strength. You've kept my word. You've not denied my name. Verse nine. Indeed. I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews, but in reality, they are not. They're liars. They were physically Jewish, but they were not true, truly Jewish because they were not obeying the God of Israel. It's not enough to be physically Jewish, to be a Jew in God's point of view. You have to obey the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And of course, to do that, they have to lay hold of Jesus. Verse nine, for indeed, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews, but are not. I will make them come. This is interesting. They will worship before your feet. Your persecutors will actually bow down and worship Jesus kneeling before you. What an unusual promise. And he says, I will make them to know that I have loved you. Verse 10, because you have kept my commandment to persevere in obedience, I will keep you from the hour of trial, which will come upon the whole world to test those who dwell upon the earth. Verse 11, behold, I'm coming quickly. Hold fast what you have and see to it that no one takes your crown from you, is what he's saying. Verse 12, now he gives four promises here. He's already given four promises already. We'll point them out later, but he gives four more. There's eight promises in this word of the Lord to the church at Philadelphia. That's why it's so extravagant what he's promising them. To the natural mind, it seems like he's over-committing. He's over-promising, but he's not. He's true. Verse 12, he that overcomes, I will make this person, this individual, a pillar in the temple of God, and he shall go out no more. He that overcomes, I will write on him the name of my God, or the name of the Father. I will write on him the name of the city of my God, which is the new Jerusalem. And he almost says this parenthetically. He says, oh, by the way, the new Jerusalem is coming down to the earth. This is the first time this revelation has ever been given in the scriptures. That was a massive statement. He goes, by the way, you're not going to go away to heaven, but ultimately, heaven's coming down to the earth. Huge implications to that statement. He goes, and I will write on that person my new name. Then verse 13, he that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Okay, let's go ahead and look at the notes now. This is session seven in our 12-part series. It's the second part here that we're doing on Philadelphia. The primary message is that Jesus is making eight promises, eight different promises. Most of them have eternal implications. The primary message, he wants them to see how their faithfulness now for a few years, 70 years on the earth, will result in indescribable glory for a thousand years and then for the eternal age after the thousand years. That's what he's saying. That's the point of this word of the Lord. That's the core. He wants them to see how a short season of costly obedience will receive an indescribable release of eternal glory that far surpasses anything they would pay in terms of the costliness of their obedience in this age. Paragraph A, he's offering the church at Philadelphia, the individuals, and of course, by virtue of offering it to them and being in the word of God, we know he's offering it to us. He's offering them a position in his eternal government. Not a short-term position like we have on the earth. You may have a role for 50 years on the earth, be over a government. You may, somebody may become a king or a prince when they're 20 and do it for 50 years. It's not a short-term role like that. It's eternal. It's a position in God's eternal government forever and ever. And it's related to our obedience to God, to Jesus in this age. He says, I'm going to open a door to you. And that door we looked at last week, I won't repeat it, has many different dimensions, this door. And if you're interested, we have the notes on the internet. You can get them. And we have about seven or eight different dimensions of what's involved in Jesus opening a door to his people. But in this particular letter, he, this door he's going to open includes, he's going to vindicate them before their enemies. Number one, then he's going to give them grace to walk in victory in the most difficult time in human history, which is the great tribulation. And then he's going to give them the power to have authority in his government. And then above everything, this letter crescendos at the highest, he's going to write his name on them, which means he's going to bring them into intimacy with his mind and with his heart. That's the ultimate reality. The angels are involved in tasks of great glory, but the angels don't have the name of the father written on their mind and their heart. Because for God to write his name on our mind and our heart means we will have supernatural ability to understand him. That's writing on the mind. And we will have a supernatural ability to feel the truth of what God feels. That's God writing his word upon our heart. The ability to understand it and the ability to feel it forever. To know his mind and to feel his heart in sync with him, with nothing to defile us, nothing to get in the way, nothing to cause it to be diminished or to end. The only thing that will limit us is our limited capacity. And as our capacity increases, our understanding the writing on the mind and the feeling of the heart will get stronger and larger as the ages unfold forever and forever. Now, beloved, by the way, these truths, these promises, all of them, in part, they have a small but significant expression in this age, in our life with God right now. He's not waiting to the resurrection to write his word upon our mind and our heart. He'll do it now. He's willing, he's desirous to do it now. Now, in these realms of blessing, he's going to first, I'm going to go through this paragraph A again. We're not going to cover all the notes, those of you that are new with us tonight. I throw out a few more notes than we'll ever have time to cover in one session. But what Jesus is saying here, he goes, I'm going to vindicate you before your enemies. This is the zeal he feels for us. You know, one of the deep expressions of true love is that the one who loves another, they want them to be vindicated. And the Lord really wants us vindicated before those who persecute us. He wants to do it. He will do it just in his timing. If he does it premature, instead of enhancing love in our spirit, it diminishes love and enhances pride. If he does it at the right time in the right way, then love and honor grow together because often wherever honor increases, love diminishes in this age. But he says, it's in my heart. It's in my heart to set the record straight because you're that dear to me. And when somebody's really dear to you, whether it's the husband, the wife, the best friend, the child, the father, the mother, when someone's really dear to you and you have power, you want to set the record straight when they're wronged and their hearts have been hurt. They've been mistreated. And Jesus has such zeal for this. He cares more than you care about the deal you're getting. He actually does. This is such a tender promise. And not only that, he's not only does he want to vindicate us, he says in the greatest hour of trouble that's coming, the great tribulation, he goes, I so desire that you stay true to me in love. I will help you. I don't want your heart going opposite of me in that hour. I will be there to hold your hand and I will give you grace in that hour because I want you to love me with all of your heart. We see his zeal again. And then he says, when I run my earthly kingdom, my empire forever on the earth, I want you to rule with me. But then he goes beyond it. He goes, but I want you to know what I know and feel what I feel. I'm going to write my name upon your heart and upon your mind. Of course, the picture we get is in the book of Exodus. It was by the finger of God that he wrote on the stones by the very finger of God's fire on the 10 commandments. It's that same fiery finger he's going to write upon your mind and upon your heart. And that will connect us forever with nothing to diminish it except for our, our small capacity, which will increase through the ages. What Jesus is doing is he's inviting his people to the highest expressions of human greatness possible, the highest expressions of pleasure that a human spirit can ever walk in. This is what he's calling them to paragraph C. Now, John remembers this. I commented on this last week, this passage, because now John, Jesus is telling John, go tell or write and have the church at Philadelphia. I want them to know that if they obey me, they will rule with me. Now John's in his nineties and he can remember back when he was in his twenties. When the Lord first spoke this to him, Matthew chapter 19, you'll have, you have the passage there when the, when Peter said, Lord, we left everything. What do we get? He says, you'll rule with me forever is what you're going to do. I could just imagine John reminiscing with fondness, the, the emotions he had when he first connected with his destiny to rule forever on the earth. You know, as a former fisherman, he's going to be a King in the age to come. He thought, wow, this is a real upgrade from what I was thinking forever. I will rule beloved when it connects with us, that we have a destiny in the age to come. It changes our emotional chemistry. And I tell you, John, I could just, I just know it when he was receiving this, he was thinking of the 20 year olds in the church at Philadelphia going, oh, this is going to move you. I was your age. Once I know what this is, how this is going to mark you. Nothing will mark you more than understanding the love of God, the majesty of God, and the destiny that you have in his, in, in partnership with him in the age to come that marks us like nothing else does paragraph D passage. Again, we looked at last week, still in the review mode here, but this is one of my favorite passages and I want it to be one of your favorite passages. How's that John 14 verse 21 to 23. You really want this to be one of your favorite passages. Jesus said, he that has my commandments and keeps them. This is the one who really loves me. My, here he goes. And the one who loves me will be loved by my father. My father will openly display his pleasure about the relationship, but look at what he's saying. And I will manifest myself to this person. Verse 23, he repeats it. We will come to this person. We will make our abode. We will make our home with this person forever. What Jesus is saying is if you will love me, he says, you don't know where this is going. You don't know what it will do in our hearts. If you were, if you return the love that we have for you, we will openly display our zeal for you openly for all to see. And of course he does that. He re he displays his zeal for us in this age. We feel it in our heart and we can see it some in circumstances, but this is a promise with eternal implications. Jesus is saying, you love me and the father with all of your heart shown by obedience. You will position yourself before us where we can openly display our enthusiasm for you without contradicting ourselves because the Lord can't honor and magnify that which is in disagreement with him. He says, you come into unity with me. I will openly show not only your own heart, but the nation's how it is. I truly feel about you. I will manifest myself to you. Don't limit that promise to your 70 years on the earth. That's a promise. You will be drinking from that promise a million years from now. That promise will still mean a lot to you. We'll be talking to Jesus and he's going to say, do you like how I'm manifesting my zeal for you? Yes. Resurrected body, glorious garments ruling with him. The, the name of God stepped on our heart, glorious reality. Lord, how much better can it get? He says, wait till the next billion years. It will go beyond what you've known so far. I love that phrase in verse 23, we will come to you. Now we know he comes to us now by the Holy spirit and certainly means that, but don't limit it to that because Jesus knew that a revelation three 12, he says the new Jerusalem is going to come down to the earth. We are going to come to you city and throne and everything. We're coming to you. He meant much more than an anointed quiet time. When I first read that verse, when I was just about 20 years old, this became one of my favorite verses like 30 years ago. I've loved this verse for many, many years. And I would think, come to me, Lord. We mean, I want to fill your presence when I'm reading the Bible, help me in my struggle against sin. I can imagine the Lord smiling. I will come to you that way, but that's not anywhere close to the fullness of what I've committed to you. I will come to you throne and city and the host of angels. We're all coming to you in the perfect fullness of time. And we will make our home with you on the earth forever. Paragraph E the basis of this prophecy is found in Isaiah chapter 22 mentioned that last week. And it's important to know that because Jesus is quoting Isaiah 22. John knew it. The leaders at the church of Philadelphia knew it because it's a very important passage. And in this passage, what happens is that King Hezekiah, he has one of his top leaders, one of his top cabinet leaders, like secretary of state type person. Shebna was proud and in his pride, the spirit of the Lord spoke to Isaiah the prophet and said, because of Shebna's pride, replace him with Eliakim, replace him. And instead of Shebna having the key of David, which means the ability to spend and use and draw on the Royal treasury of the kingdom of David, the kingdom of Israel, he had the key to release the army. He could release the finance. He could set people into positions of authority. Shebna had all this ability, but because of his pride, it was given to Eliakim. Eliakim had the key of David. Now, Jesus is saying that all of God's resources have been given to me. I have that role and I'm going to share this key with you. You're going to be in the Eliakim position with me. I'm going to give you authority to operate in my kingdom forever. However, there's one important, small, but important detail is that the key of David, which is the ability to use the resources of the government and the army, that's what the key of David meant to Eliakim. Look at verse 25. It says, it indicates clearly that this was a temporary promotion upon Eliakim. In other words, it wouldn't last permanent. It was only a temporary place of honor. And the reason I'm saying that is that in a few moments, as Jesus is quoting this passage to the John to give to the church of Philadelphia, he says, I'm going to make you a pillar in the temple and you'll never lose your position. You won't be like Eliakim. It won't be a temporary promotion. I'm quoting Isaiah 22, but if you know the passage, he's saying there's one difference. When I share the key of David with you, it will be an eternal exaltation, not a temporary one like Eliakim had. We'll look at that in a moment. Roman numeral two, the promises for the overcomer. There's eight different promises. Let's look at them. Verse eight, I will set before you an open door. Verse nine, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan worship before your feet and I will make them to know that I've loved you. That's he's going to vindicate you openly in the age to come. Verse 10, because you've kept my command to persevere in obedience, I will keep you from the hour of trial. In other words, I will help you and I will keep you from stumbling and being disqualified in the greatest time of testing ever to come to the human race. I will keep you. I will hold your hand. You will not stumble and be disqualified if you'll cry out to me. Verse 12, I'll make you a pillar in the temple. You shall go out no more. And that doesn't mean that they're confined to the premises for billions of years. It means they will never lose their position in God's government is what he's talking about. It won't be like Eliakim. There will never be a loss. You will never have somebody take your position from you. It won't be like Shabna losing it to Eliakim, then Eliakim losing that position to another as as indicated in Isaiah 22. Jesus is saying the Isaiah 22 promise, I will give you the authority of my kingdom, but you won't have the downside of it. I won't ever take it from you. Then he goes on says, I will write the name of my God on you. I will write the name of the new Jerusalem on you. And I will write my own new name upon you. Three names, the name of God, the name of the new city, I mean the new Jerusalem and the name of Jesus's new name. Now, beloved, again, I look at Revelation 3.12 not as something I'm waiting on. Of course, I'm waiting on it for for fuller dimensions. We know that if it's on his heart to give us that forever, it's on his heart to give it to us now. He didn't reveal it to John so that we would just wait patiently. He revealed this to John to let us know that it's in his heart to be this close to us if we want him to be. See, I don't want to just understand him. I want to feel what he feels. And first of all, I want to feel what he feels about me. There's nothing more glorious than to feel enjoyed and loved by God. Many believers technically believe that God loves them, but they don't feel the strength of it in their spirit. And so they struggle with condemnation. They struggle with spiritual boredom, very common in the body of Christ, spiritual boredom. They can't feel the truth of what they know in their mind to be true. And when the Lord writes his name upon us, we begin to feel the truths that we know. Let's go to the top of page two. Let's look at these promises now. Promise number one. Again, we'll just look at a snapshot at these. We won't go to any of them in any great depth, but at least it'll be a beginner's roadmap so you can go plum a little bit deeper in these different truths. Promise number one. I've set before you an open door no one can shut. The Lord is telling them to those that will obey him, he says, I'm going to open a door. And as we looked at last week, there's seven or eight dimensions to this open door. But just to summarize it, they have implications in this age, but the ultimate thing he's saying, I'm going to open a door to my government for you forever. If you will obey me, your life will have a significance. Your life will have an honor and an importance beyond anything you can ever touch in this age. I'm going to open a door to my government. I'm going to bring you in to the family business, so to speak. I'm going to have you be part of the leadership of the empire forever if you want it. You know, the guy says, well, I didn't come from this kind of family or that kind of family. I don't have the best education. I don't have the best advantages to get ahead in life. The Lord says, I myself will open a door for you that will last forever then. Well, I'm waiting for some guy to open a door to give me the break so I can get in the right university or now that I'm through the university, I need the door to open so I can meet the right guy to get the connection. And then it will all start to happen in ministry or it'll happen in business. The Lord says, I will open a door personally, and I have all the key of David in my hand. I have the power to follow through on this, but it's not just, he's going to open a door of opportunity for our function and honor. He's going to open the door of his own heart. He's going to open a door that the angels don't get to have opened. The angels are involved in the empire, but they cannot connect with his heart before the father, before God is a father and before Jesus is a bridegroom. They stand at a distance, at a distance as servants. We come near to the open heart. And of course we have the open door to the kingdom and the open door of his heart. That's the ultimate of what Jesus is promising them in this first promise. Promise number two, I will make them, these people that are hostile to you because you're taking a stand for righteousness, I will make them come and worship before your feet. Now this is an odd promise, but it's only odd if it's new to you. I mean, it's, it's a promise. When I first read it, you know, some years ago, I thought, what, what can this mean? I'll tell you what it means. It means I will make them come and worship before your feet. It means exactly what it says. We think that can't be. The Lord says, do you have any idea how much I feel for you? Do you have any idea how much I understand the mistreatment that you're receiving? That's not okay with me at all. That's not okay with me. You're going, you're kidding. Is this really, really, this is not okay with me. See, there were these very zealous religious Jews in Philadelphia and they were kicking out of the synagogue. The other Jews that were calling on the name of Jesus, they were excommunicating them out of the synagogue and making life very miserable for them in the city, in business and in social network type things, as well as their membership in the synagogue. And so they were kicked out of the community, the religious and the, and no doubt the economic community that these religious Jews were, uh, uh, greatly influencing and they were evil. They hated God, but they claimed to love him. Now it's not so significant. They were Jewish or not Jewish because it's, it's, it's significant to this group here because it was other fellow Jews. They were excommunicating out of the synagogue, but let's take it up a notch at a more historical kind of global dimension. It's anyone that are standing against the righteous. Those, I mean the righteous mean those who love God is what I mean. The Lord is saying, I'm making a note, I'm making a record and I care, I care about it. You don't have to care about it because I care about it. When David knew that God cared about what Saul was doing, then David didn't have to take matters into his own hands. To the degree that I understand that God cares when I get a bad deal, I don't have to care about it. I don't have to carry it if I know he is. It's when I don't know this truth that I get energized and I have to set the record straight and make everything work right according to what I perceive to be right. Now there's a number of passages, we're not going to go through them, but literally the people that persecuted them, literally, I mean the actual people who persecuted them, they will see each other again, actual people. And they'll be before the throne of God one day because every knee will bow. I have the passage there in Philippians 2 and several other places as well. Every tongue will confess, but God's going to make these people that persecuted him bow before Jesus right in front of the ones they persecuted for loving Jesus. The Lord says, I want you not only to bow before me as Lord, I want you to understand that my favor was on that one who offered you grace. I want you to know how I feel about that one that you resisted. He says, well maybe our hearts will get all puffed up in I don't think so. I think when all the information is out on the table on that day, we will be so grateful. We will just say, Lord, we won't be thinking so there to the person that persecuted them. I think that the believer will be saying, Lord, why do you care so much? Why do you have such zeal for me? I think that's what the Lord's saying to them. I care, I know what's going on and I'm going to set the record straight, not because you need to have it straight, but because it's the one who loves you. I want the record to be straight because I care and it's a very common, again, it's a very common expression of love that you really want the one you love vindicated and the Lord feels that way about you. You can read the different verses on your own. Promise number three, it's more than the fact that these unbelievers will bow before Jesus in front of the ones they persecuted. I mean, they're going to bow before Jesus somewhere. The Lord says, I want you to do it in front of the ones that offered you grace. The Lord takes it up a notch. First promise number three, he says, I'm going to actually let these unbelievers know. We're talking about on the last day. We're talking about before the throne of God. We're talking about on the judgment in the scenario of God's judgment of them. There are several different stages to God's judgment. I don't want to go into that now, but he's saying, I'm going to cause the people who resisted you to know how dear you were to me in that day. I'm going to let them know that when they were against you, I was for you and that you were moving my heart, even though the multitudes might've been angry at you, you were moving my heart all along. There's something about the lovesick God who just wants the others to know how he feels. It's a very common thing when somebody's in love, they just want the world to know the truth of how they feel. God is like that. And so when you understand it from that point of view, it's not such an odd promise. It's a very reasonable promise. If your image of God is a lovesick God, if your image of God is a God who just declares what's right and that's wrong and kind of a cold formal kind of religious tone, then this, this will throw you off. But when you see a tender father, when you see a passionate bridegroom who cares about you and your name is on his heart, this promise makes sense. Not only that he feels that way, but the fact that he cares this much about the very movements of your heart and what you're going through in this age to where in the age to come, there will be discussion and there will be honor related to what we went through in this age. Promise number four, he says, I will make this person the one who overcomes. And by the way, the overcomer is the person who matures in their obedience in a sustained way. That's what an overcomer is. I have that back on page one, the one who sustains mature obedience. You say, well, I'm not there yet. I can't sustain it. I haven't attained it to sustain it. You press in and you get a hold of obedience and every area of your life and you stay with it. And that's what let, let the days and the months and the years unfolded. You stay with it. So how will I know if I'm doing it? I don't know if I am or you are. All I know is that I'm going as hard and as focused as I know to go after the heart of God. I don't know where I'm at on the scale. What I'm not, I'm not concerned with measuring where I'm at. I'm concerned with giving all of my heart and loving him with all of my strength. I focus on giving all, not measuring how far my maturity is, has grown. He says in promise four, he goes, that overcomer, I will make him a pillar in my temple. Now a pillar and the temple is an honor, is a position of honor and it's a position of authority. A pillar speaks of stability, speaks of firmness. A pillar speaks of beauty, permanency. A pillar in a building bears the weight of the building. A pillar in a building beautifies the building, but a pillar in a building more times than not is not just functional. It bears weight. It's not just beautiful. It adorns the building. Often pillars in stately buildings have symbolic meaning. They have the name of a great person or they commemorate a great event. They have a significant role as well in terms of the history of a person or a group of people. That's what a pillar does. It's like a trophy. So it's beautiful, it's functional, and it's meaningful in terms of its significance, what it speaks to. He says, I'm going to make you a pillar. You will bear weight in my kingdom. You will have real authority in my eternal kingdom. You will beautify my kingdom, and the very fact I make you a pillar, there will be a remembrance of your costly devotion to me through the years. Galatians chapter 2 verse 9, James and Peter and John were called pillars in the church of Jerusalem. That's what they were known as because it's this truth. They were load-bearing, responsible leaders in the church of Jerusalem, and God's going to have multitudes. I don't think, I think it will be millions, but millions is a very small percent of billions. So the number is large, millions, but I believe the percentage will be small. Everybody's a part of God's eternal temple, but only a few, a small percent. I think it will be millions. I'm guessing, of course, I don't know the number. I think that millions will have crowns, and millions will be pillars. They will be in positions of authority, and I would assume that being a pillar in God's eternal kingdom and having a crown will run parallel in meaning with one another, and I expect that it would be millions, but I still expect the percentage to be a very small percent. I have no way of knowing what the percentage of the number, of course, but I know it's for those that overcome, and the Lord is offering this to them. He's offering this promise to those that are already believers who do not yet have this promise. He's offering a real promise to born-again believers who do not yet have it. So these are promises that are not guaranteed to every believer. Now when you read commentaries on this, many of them will reduce the promises in the seven letters of the book of Revelation. They will reduce them to the common experience that everybody has the day they're saved. They reduce these promises to just general entrance into eternal life, and they're just different symbolic pictures. Jesus was not giving us symbolic pictures of what everybody has already. He was giving offers of real rewards if they really fulfill the condition of overcoming. These are real, and I feel sorry for the theologians that reduce these to that which they already have, and they're not in their view to pursue because they're already theirs. They're automatically theirs. That's not what Jesus is offering. These are not empty promises that don't really matter if you do anything or not because they're guaranteed. No, these are real promises with real conditions, and I am really focused on experiencing them in my life when I step across that line in the age to come. I'm going for these promises. I want to encourage you to lock into them, make sense of them, understand them. In the ancient world, number two under E here, in the ancient world, very common whether we do it in the modern world, a city that if a man or a woman or an army served a city or a nation in a special way, they would build a pillar to honor them, a monument, a statue. Same thing that we see in the modern world. That's what the Lord's saying. These are not only load-bearing functional positions. They are also commemorating. They are also remembering. They are also honoring the devotion from the past, and most of your devotion from the past is done in secret. In Matthew 6, he says, if you do it in secret, I will make it known publicly, and we might think that if you give in secret, you pray in secret, you fast in secret, you bless all these things, we might think that the Lord will give it all to us in this age, and we say, Lord, I've been praying in secret and fasting in secret. I don't see the open display, and the Lord says, just wait. The display will be beyond anything you can imagine. Now, of course, the Lord does reward us in this day, in this age, for what we do in secret, but the fullness doesn't happen till the age to come. Top of page three, paragraph I, the pillars in the Old Testament temple and tabernacle, I got a little study here. We won't go through it, but I have a, where I give different times in the Old Testament or different functions of pillars in the Moses's tabernacle and Solomon's temple. These pillars are not insignificant or inconsequential. They are in place to give us insight into the pillars in the eternal temple, which is the whole New Jerusalem. That's why there's no temple in the New Jerusalem, because the New Jerusalem is the temple. It doesn't have a special section that's the temple. The entire city is the temple. That's why it looks like a contradiction. Jesus is promising a place in the temple, then later he says there is no temple anymore. You think, huh, now, what? And there, because right now there's a temple in heaven, but when the New Jerusalem comes to the earth, it comes to the earth. The whole city is the temple of God now. There is not a special section of the city that has a temple in it. This is talking about the whole government of the city. So you can read this on your own, and here's the point of it. These next couple paragraphs, there's much diversity in the type of pillars in the temple or in the tabernacle. They're different in size. They're different in function. They're different in glory. They're different in beauty. They're different in the placement. There were pillars before the Holy of Holies, and there were pillars out for just the common person to walk by and see. And what the Lord is saying in all of this is that the pillars in my earthly temple and tabernacle are reflecting the diversity of the... I will have many kind of pillars in my eternal temple, just like I did in my earthly one. Of course, my favorite pillar is there, number three under I. It's the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. It was a moving pillar. It was like a... it was a pillar of fire that moved through the wilderness. The age to come, the Lord undoubtedly, that means something about the type of pillars. I don't know what, but I like the idea. That's my favorite pillar, is that one that moves with the fire of God. I go, oh, I like that pillar. I say, Lord, I want to be a pillar in your temple. I want to ask you if any of you have ever... how many of you? Don't raise your hands. How many of you have actually said the sentence once in your life? I'm guessing it's probably less than one percent. The body of Christ has actually said the sentence, give me grace to be a pillar in your temple in the eternal city. It's one of the greatest promises, and probably almost nobody thinks about it. I would like you to officially, as of today, put this on your prayer list. I want to be a pillar in your temple, and I want your name written on me. Yes, I know what I'm after. Well, hi, Billy, how are you? What do you want to be when you grow up? A pillar in the temple with God's name. That's what I want to be. I might be a lawyer and a doctor between now and then, but I know what I'm after. I want to be a pillar. That's what I want to be when I grow up. I want to be a pillar in the temple with God's name written by the fire of his own finger on me forever. That's what I want. I don't mind doing a whole lot or a whole little down here. Whatever the Lord wants, as long as I end up there as a pillar, I made it. I want to encourage you to have a vision. This is Jesus who's offering this. This is an open door to be a pillar with the very name of God written on it because the pillars in the ancient world, just like today, they have names written on them. They're memorial pillars. They're not just functional pillars. They're pillars of honor. I want you to consider saying, Lord, I just have never gone there. I just kind of want to love you. The Lord says, you got anything else you want? Just kind of love you. It's a little cabin on the edge of glory. That'd be good enough. The Lord says, you sure? I got a big city and I've got, I'm looking for leaders in my government that will be near me. Oh, just whatever. The Lord says, really, that's all you want? Just whatever. Just whatever. Beloved, get some holy ambition and some holy vision for your life. No, I'm serious. When I grow up, I want to be a pillar in the temple of God with his name on me. And I hope that's what you want. But if you don't, I'm still going for it unashamedly because it's the voice of Jesus that offered that to his church. And if it's good enough for him, it is good enough for me to go after it. Throw away all your religious pride and all your false humility and go after what God says is important. There you go. Promise number five, promise number five. I will write on him the name of my God. And again, when God writes the name of God on you, you know, it takes God to know the heart of God. When God writes the name of God on you, he writes it. It says here in Hebrews 10 verse 16 on the mind and the heart. He writes it on the mind and we have living understanding. And beloved, when God talks to us about God in this age, our mind expands in our understanding. Did you know a billion years from now, you will still be learning new things that fascinate you about God. A billion years later, you will still have a greater capacity and a continual fascination of your understanding. I love my mind to be fascinated with truth. I love it. There's nothing more pleasurable than when God reveals God to the human spirit. The greatest pleasure the human makeup can experience when God reveals God to the human spirit, it exhilarates us with a cleanness and a power that penetrates our being and the fruit of it lasts forever. It is, there is nothing in the human makeup that exhilarates us like when God reveals God to the human spirit and beloved, you'll be exhilarated a billion years from now and continue. And not only will your mind be expanded where you go, oh my, I mean millions of years from now, you'll be doing that. God, amazing. And you'll be sharing, we'll be buzzing around the eternal city, talking and sharing. I learned this. How is it possible that billions of us are fascinated day by day and we don't exhaust God. The gold mind, the treasure of his being, we don't exhaust the treasure of his heart, we won't. But it's not enough for him to write his name on my mind, I want his name on my heart. I want to feel the power of that which excites my spirit. What a glorious reality. Top of page four, promise number six, the name of the city, the name of the city. We're going to come to an end in just a moment here. The name of the city. What does this mean? God's going to write the name of the new Jerusalem on us if we overcome. He's not talking about entrance into the city. Every born-again believer has entrance into the city. The thief on the cross ends up in the city. And the overcomer in the seven letters of the church of revelation is not the general one who just overcame doubt and unbelief and said yes to Jesus. There's that overcomer in 1 John 5 verse 4. If you overcome even with your faith, you're in the city, that there's a general overcoming that you receive the day you are born again. Then there's a very specific, a particular overcoming, and that is in context of the mandates the Holy Spirit gives you in a personal way. See, we overcome sin and unbelief in the general sense when we receive Jesus, 1 John 5 verse 4. But then we have a 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80 year journey. And then we overcome by obeying the specific and particular mandates and challenges of the Holy Spirit over our life. And what the Lord tells you and he tells someone else is different. And you only get evaluated by what he tells you. Though that's the, there's a specific in particular overcoming related to our personal mandate. And there's a general overcoming related to just accepting the faith in a general way. They are very different. And many theologians will merge them together. Because as one guy said, man, when I hear this stuff, it puts pressure on me. I go, that's the point. Destiny always is a pressure upon the one that says yes to it. We don't walk into destiny, destiny accidentally or effortlessly. There is a pressure when our heart connects with destiny. Of course, there's a pressure we're dealing with God. Yeah, but I'm an American. I don't like pressure. I thought, you know, grace meant no pressure. Who told you that? Well, that one book I read, well, throw the book away and start reading the Bible. No, I'm serious. I mean that. What's wrong with feeling pressure? Well, it feels bad. Well, that's, what's going to make it change? So change. We're dealing with God and eternity change. Be miserable for a while. Go after this thing. Forget the American dream and get the kingdom dream forever and ever be a pillar in the temple. Well, anyway, the name of the city, it's not an entrance in the city. Everybody has entrance of the city that's born again. This is something he's telling the obedient church of Philadelphia. He says, I'm offering you something, but there's a condition. It's not yours right now. It's talking about the name of the city, having authority in the city, but there's even more to it. This is a vast subject. It's comprehending the city. You know, you, I'm going to go to Jerusalem a couple of weeks. Some guy is going to show me around. He comprehends it. He's, he's a professional. He's a tour guide. He's going to take a couple hours and he's going to show me things and he understands it and he will have feeling and passion and, and connectedness because that's what he does. The Lord is going to give us the name of the city on our heart. He's going to write it. He's going to give us not just the understanding of the history, the details, but we will feel the truth of what that city is about in a very deep way. He writes the name of the city upon the heart. You know, there's guys that through history, they get the key to the city or they're called a father of the city and they are people that have a special connection to a particular city because they're unusually devoted to that city or they've done some great thing for the city and the city has responded to them in a special way. They have an unusual understanding of the city and affection for the city. Add a thousand levels to that and that's what this is talking about. He's going to put the name of the city on your mind and heart. You will understand that you will move with authority in that city. And then number seven, he says, I will write, I will write up on him my new name. Now, this is Jesus speaking. Now this is interesting. My new name, Jesus has a new role because his name is not just his personality. It's his function. It's his role as well. Jesus, when he comes down to the earth as a human king of kings, son of David on the earth relating to us, we will have a different dynamics in our relationship with him. Those that are in government with him, you'll relate to him in a way you're not relating to him now. There are facets of Jesus and his function that the father has said, not yet. Wait till the two realms come together, the heaven and the earth. Wait till the new Jerusalem descends. Then you will begin to operate in that, but you can't talk about it now. It's the fullness of who he is as fully God and fully man, but that's not it with a fully, uh, a joined partner who involuntary love said, yes, that's not enough yet. And then the fullness of time, the two realms have come together on the earth. Then Jesus has a function in a role and he relates in the reality of all of those things coming together, fully God, fully man. You're fully loving him by voluntary partnership. The fullness of time has come. The two realms have come together, heaven and earth. And now you're talking to him and things are different than they are right now. He says, I'll talk to y'all about that kind of stuff. You'll know me as a governmental person. You will know my heart in a way you cannot know it right now. It's interesting that knowing the father and the city coming down are mentioned first before Jesus's new name, because this new dimension of relationship with Jesus is the outflow of us obeying him and being pillars and knowing the father, seeing the father and the new Jerusalem coming to the earth. It's after all of that, then the new name of Jesus becomes apparent to us. I want to be a part of that. I want to talk to him. I want to worship him. I want to love him in the fullness of these new dimensions of what God releases to him as the fullness of time unfolds. Promise number eight, we're not going to develop this one, but I got two pages of notes for you is I will keep you from the hour of trial, which will come upon the whole earth. And in this, what Jesus is promising paragraph in to keep us spiritually vibrant and protected from sin and to keep us from the judgment of God in the most intense and the most significant hour of human history, the great tribulation. I'm going to go one more minute here. Roman numeral three. I want you to just, I want to catch your imagination that you can read the pages. I want to convince you to read them. This idea that he's going to keep us from the hour of trial paragraph a, this is the most debated verse in the scripture about the timing of the rapture. There's two main interpretations through history on this passage. The two main interpretations were being kept from the hour of trial in the sense of being preserved in the midst of it, kept from stumbling, kept from being disqualified, kept from being defiled in it, or which I believe is the true meaning of it, or we're being kept from it. We're being removed and taken out of the scene of the earth. I am convinced that what the scripture is talking about, what Jesus is talking about is keeping us from disqualification and defilement and from injuring our testimony in the most significant hour of history. He says, I will be there to hold your hand. I will keep you in that hour. Amen. You can read the details of that on your own.