The Revelation 2:22-29 | Episode # 1020

September 5, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

The Revelation 2:22-29

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life.

Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years.

I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life.

I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up his word to you and allow you to see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day,

especially today in Jesus name.

He said, indeed I will cast her into a sick bed and those who commit adultery with her into, into great tribulation unless they repent of their deeds. And that's what's going to happen.

The Catholic Church is going to begin a thousand year decline.

Okay?

Now they're still powerful, they're still strong, but they're not what they used to be. And the, and the Protestant church has become far more powerful, far more wealthy, far more influential in the world than the Catholic Church.

Why?

Well, because they wouldn't repent. They didn't turn from that.

Now, you know.

Did I say all Catholics are going to hell? No, I didn't remember what, what's required? What's the evidence of somebody being born again?

They believe on a redeemer and we know that redeemer to be Jesus Christ.

Are there lots of Catholics going to heaven? Yeah.

I'm just saying that the institutional church, which is the Catholic Church,

went down a wrong path. Now I want you to hear me because it's important you go, well,

ain't that real bad that they did that? No, I can tell you pretty sure that any institution, any Christian institution, once you institutionalize it, if you give it long enough, they'll end up like them, doing something stupid.

Okay,

now you need to get that. They just been doing it longer. They've been doing it longer. They've got better at it. They just better at it. Okay? But we do know that that denominations have headed down the wrong path to this day.

And they ain't been around but 2, 3, 400 years,

some of them have gone way past what the Catholic Church would ever done.

So if you're going to get mad at the Catholics, and I know, and listen, I come from a background where we were mad at the Catholics growing up, okay, if you're going to get mad at the Catholics, you better get mad at the denominations Who've only had three years to mess it up real bad.

And they messed it up real bad.

It's important.

There's a lot of Catholics believe on the name of Jesus Christ.

We got a lot of them that come to our church.

Some of y' all came from them other denominations that messed it up real bad, real fast. We ain't kicking you out. We're not kicking them out.

Am I right?

And you gotta understand it. It's important to have wisdom, to know, okay, this is what happened. This is why it happened. We don't want to do it ourselves, but we're not going to be condemning of them.

We're just going to know how it works.

Makes sense, doesn't it?

Well, you ought to hear that. You, you need to know that I will kill her children with death. And all the churches shall know that I am he who searches the minds and the hearts.

And he did.

He did.

And let me tell you something. The, the, the, the history of, of the attack on the Church by heathen nations, by real life pagans is replete. And let me tell you something.

I love that history. I mean, I love it. I love it. I love the Germanic tribes attacking Rome. I mean, I took Roman Republic and Roman and the Roman Empire at Princeton.

I mean, I had two professors. I just sit there to him all day, talk about it. It's just good stuff.

It's good stuff.

It's God's stuff, you know, because God causes kings to rise and fall.

He knows what he's doing. He's know he's working this all out to an end.

And I get to. I get to watch him paint on the stage of history. And he does.

I praise God that I live today, that I get to see his hand being at work over 2000 years since his son died. On a cross.

I can point to Jesus at work in the world, in history, all, all the time.

And Kathleen sometimes gets so bored she wants to kill me.

He says,

I will give to each one of you according to your works.

Notice what he says?

Verse 23. Let me say I'll kill her children with death. And all the churches shall know that I am he who searches the minds and the hearts. Now remember, he's saying, I search people's minds and hearts.

I'm in charge of this thing.

He says, and I will give to each one of you according to your works. Which means I'm gonna give you give to each one according to the product of your faith.

He's not talking about. He's not taking the Works of the law. He's talking about works of faith.

He says, I'm gonna give you the product of that work, the f. Your faith. I'm gonna. I'm gonna reward you based off your faith. Not what somebody else says, not what some institution says, not what some priest says.

I'm going to give you according to that now to say to you, I say,

and to the rest in Thyatira,

as many as do not have this doctrine,

who have not known the depths of Satan,

as they say, I will put on you no other burden.

Now notice he treats them the same way. He says, if you'll keep this character in this nature,

you'll hold to my. My word, you'll walk by faith. I'm not putting anything more on you.

Not all. And, and notice, that is what. That's what began the Reformation,

right?

When. When it was nailed on the door, right?

Martin Luther, what was nailed on the door.

Yeah. Faith alone.

Faith alone.

Just faith. He says, just trust me.

Can't do it yourself.

He says, now, now, he says, behold,

but hold fast what you have till I come.

Now.

Now he's beginning to move toward an actual. Pointing toward his coming.

And this is the. This is the switch.

This is the church where it changes from,

you know, this is how it is to this is how it's going to be.

And this turn is important because it's really one of the longest writings to a church.

He says, and he who overcomes and keeps my word until the end, to him I will give the power over the nations.

Huh?

He shall rule them a rod iron, and they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessel. What he's saying is, you think that this behemoth,

this world empire, is going to rule over you. It's not.

I'm going to make you rulers of the nations.

You're going to be in charge,

as I also have received from my father, and I will give him the morning star. Remember, I'm giving you the power of my resurrection. That's the morning anytime you see Morning resurrection.

Morning resurrection. Morning resurrection. Star is the word, his word. I'm going to give you the resurrection word.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Now, these two churches are important churches because they are a major transition in Christian history, in church history,

in world history,

and they carry us into what, what I would call the modern church age and what I would also call our understanding. Because not long after this,

as we move through time and space, you're going to move to some inventions that change everything,

okay?

And that proliferate God's Word all around the world. First one is a printing press,

okay? And so we have to. We. We get to go from having somebody, a scribe spend years writing one word to producing a Bible in a few hours,

okay? And we go from.

Not only that, but we go from the ability to transport those things around the world. We go to a world system,

and eventually we get to a place where people can hear God's Word all over the world,

no matter who they are, no matter where they are.

And that's technology and the rise of different types of technology. Remember, technology is a human invention that progresses society in some way, okay? So the wheels are technology,

chairs are technology,

okay? Money's a technology,

all right?

Economic systems are technologies.

Philosophy is a technology.

It's an understanding that is used to better human society. Some of them are from God.

Some of them are. Most everything is from God.

Just humans are real good at messing it up.

They just real good at it.

All right? And so knowing that and kind of getting that, you get to the place where he's going to quickly move toward what we should be as the church, and then he's going to present himself next week.

We'll finish the last three churches, and then we will.

Well,

we'll be on to the part y' all like the most,

the dragons and, you know, the.

The angels and eyes on every side and all that kind of stuff.

Y' all been looking forward to that, right?

Well, you do need to understand this, because what gets played out in the book of the Revelation and is actually being lived out by the church each and every day.

And you got to get that. You got to understand it. Anybody.

As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.