Sermon Cloud

Thyatira is a simple, blue-collar town. The people there listened to the blue-collar comedy tour, wore hard hats and flannel and had union stickers on their camels. The majority of the population made their money as guild workers. Working with bronze, a pretty metal that provided their livelihood, Thyatiran metal workers would be very familiar with the power of fire and the value of bronze they worked with day in and day out. This would remind them of not only the strength and beauty of the feet of Jesus but also the power to crush and destroy. They would well know the usefulness and comfort a flame of fire could bring. Fire can bring us warmth when we are cold, cook meals, and even shape the metal they sold for their livelihood. But fire can also burn. Fire can devour when there is nothing in its path that can stop it from consuming whatever is in its way. Once again we see a picture of Jesus that brings comfort to his people and would strike fear into those who are compromising. Does this image of Jesus bring you comfort or fear? If it brings you fear, what sin are you hiding or holding that keeps you from running to Jesus?

1 Corinthians 7:1-5

The bible is pro sex. Love Jesus, get married and have lots of sex. This will bring you closer to your spouse and to Jesus and increase intimacy. Song of Songs is a book about sexual freedom in marriage. God created sex for us to enjoy. Again, the problem is that we take a good thing and turn it into a god thing. We distort what God created for our joy and use it for our destruction.

Mathew 5:27-30, 1 Corinthians 6:13-20

Sex is preserved for marriage and any sexual activity, lust, desire, or fantasy outside of marriage or for anyone besides your husband or wife is sexual immorality. It is any sexual lust, fantasies, action, or other distortion of what God intended sex for. We are to flee sexual immorality not flirt with it. We don’t get to make our own choices about what is or isn’t sexual immorality and how we can endure it. We are not our own, we were bought with a price.

Revelation 2:20-23a

Verse 20: We tolerate Jezebel. Jezebel is the heart of sexual sin. She is the deep thing of Satan that steers our hearts toward an unquenchable lust and desire for sex. Jesus Christ does not tolerate any sexual immorality.

Jesus Christ does not tolerate Jezebel. We tolerate Jezebel. We whore with Jezebel. Lusting after women? You tolerate Jezebel. Watching porn? You tolerate Jezebel. Getting your identity from your looks and sexuality? You tolerate Jezebel. Fantasizing over actors and actresses, musicians, celebrities, coworkers, classmates or anyone or anything? You tolerate Jezebel. Not only do we tolerate her, we sleep with her. We cheat on our Lord Jesus Christ with sexual sin. We practice the deep things of Satan and become children of Jezebel instead of children of God the Father.

Christ searches our minds and hearts. He sees all of our sexual sin. He sees all of our idolatry. He knows when you even go to church just to feed your lust. You may be fooling everyone around you but you have never and will never fool Christ.

2 Kings 9:1-37

Revelation is not the first time we see Jezebel. Jezebel was an evil daughter of the King from Old Testament times. She was a beautiful seductress who ruthlessly set out to destroy God’s people, including promising to kill Elijah. Many feared Jezebel. Some of you may be so enslaved to sexual immorality, so trapped in idolatry that you fear even the thought of confronting this idol. It has been a crutch rooted so deep for so long. While Jesus Christ is our lone hope for defeating Jezebel, I believe we can learn some valuable lessons from Jehu.

Verses 3-13: Jehu models first time obedience. He is given a threatening and dangerous mission to be king over Israel and destroy the one who is destroying God’s people. Many would have lingered over this decision. Parents, teach your children first time obedience. Jehu does not wait until God counts to three, he obeys his call and rallies his people and they rally around him. They do not question or argue or wonder why Jehu, but they immediately respect him as king. If you are to put Jezebel to death, there will be many steps of obedience required. Will you model first time obedience or will you linger and allow compromise and moral failure to gain ground?

Verses 14-19: Is it peace? Jehu does not make peace with the enemy. Join the war against Jezebel or be put to death. Some of you are trying to make peace with the enemy. You’re not watching porn but lusting after movies. You’re not having sex with your boyfriend but everything else is ok. Purity and immorality don’t have peace.

Verse 20: Does the enemy know you are coming? Are you driven by the Holy Spirit with such a fury of prayer, a fury of army, a fury of scripture that the enemy gates recognize the passion at which you are charging? Allow the Holy Spirit to drive furiously toward your idols. This goes back to first time obedience. First time obedience is a working with the Holy Spirit towards crushing idolatry.

Verses 21-29: Jehu is on the offensive. Pray offensive prayers. Know when you are in enemy territory and be on the offense against it. Some of you only pray after you have been so ridden with guilt and shame and some of you indulge in everything that feeds this idol and wonder why the idol is still alive. Jehu is putting to death anything that is protecting Jezebel. Are you going on the offense against the music, television, parties or situations that are feeding your idolatry? Some of you listen to music that is all about objectifying women and then you wonder why you are longing to objectify women. You may be in a sinful relationship and need to get out of it because it is feeding your immoral heart. Again these are not root issues but may be feeding roots. Put to death anything that is protecting Jezebel.

Verses 30,31: “you Zimri.” Jezebel makes herself look so attractive, like something we have to have, something we need. She calls out for peace by taunting and throwing out insults. She calls out for peace by throwing doubt in your mind that this can ever be defeated. Zimri was a king who only reigned for seven days. Many of you have tried to defeat sexual immorality on your own hundreds of times and failed. You have tried porn block, bets with friends, contracts, isolation, books, xxxchurch or anything and have crawled back to Jezebel. She taunts you and lies and says you are just like Zimri. Some of you are enslaved by sexual immorality, and you know that at the root of it is a deep hurt. Some of you have been victims of the evil that is sexual assault, molestation and rape. According to RAINN, one out of every six women has been sexually assaulted in their lifetime. And one out of every thirty-three men has been assaulted. Every two minutes someone is sexually assaulted. Right here on Montezuma, there have been two heartbreaking sexual assault cases reported on the news within the last month. These numbers go up when you are near towns with colleges and universities. The problem with these numbers is that experts also believe that because of the shame associated with being a victim of this type of abuse, many of the victims never tell anyone. So, while these numbers may seem high they are more likely to be lower than the actual number. In my own experience counseling college guys, I have found the number to be closer to one in ten guys were sexual assault victims of some sort. These were mostly college guys from Christian homes, raised in the church and in Christian families and not one of them had ever told anyone about what had happened to them. Each one of them was now enslaved to gross sexual sin.

For some of you, Satan is lying to you and accusing you. He is shaming you that your victimization was your fault, that you are dirty, alone, unforgiveable and unloved. You have been told you are a child of Jezebel and always will be, or that you are un-adoptable and God the Father doesn’t want you. These are lies. The Father’s desire to adopt you is so strong that he sent his son to die for you to cleanse you, forgive you, make you loveable, and his own. Nothing that you have done or that has been done to you is impossible for him to forgive, cleanse and redeem. He is that good.

Verse 32: Jehu is confronted with lies and accusations, but he does not take them on his own. He looks for community. He does not go up and take Jezebel on his own. She is beautiful, cunning and powerful. He does not even flirt with the idea of being in the same room with her. You need not battle Jezebel on your own. Do not try to tackle this on your own or even discern the truth from the lies on your own. Please look around you and ask “who is with you?” God’s people, his church, are with you to put this gross idol to death! You do not have to be alone with your deep sin or shame locked up in the dark any longer, but can be free of it.

Verses 33-37: Jesus Christ does not tolerate Jezebel. The lies, the evil, the sin and the junk are utterly destroyed. Jezebel is not even buried; her blood is licked up by dogs. Jesus Christ has fought for us. He fights for us and will not tolerate Jezebel. Do not tolerate her in your life any longer.

Revelation 2:25

Hold fast to the gospel. Cling to the gospel. Do not cling to anything or anyone else besides the good news of Jesus Christ and what he has done to rescue and redeem you. Don’t you see we have the gospel?

Verse 26: Don’t rely on your own works to save you; keep Jesus Christ’s works. Rely on his works. This is the great exchange. We get to exchange our unrighteousness for Christ’s righteousness.

Verse 28: God gives God. Jesus Christ is the morning star (Revelation 22:16). This is the lone gift we need. We need Jesus and Jesus comes to us. We get to have God, to be in a relationship with God and to be in community with God. Run to Jesus. Run to the greatest gift ever given, Jesus Christ, the bright morning star. No longer fear his feet or his fiery eyes but run to him who comforts and heals. Run to him to be healed of your heart’s deepest wounds. Run to him to be forgiven of your gross sins. Run to him to have unconditional love and acceptance. Run to him for all your hope and joy. Run to him for eternal life and salvation. Run to him for meaning. God gives God so open your arms and accept the gift of Jesus Christ as your Savior, Rescuer and Ruler! Amen.