[MUSIC PLAYING] Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for listening to the message today.

I hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with.

God bless you.

[MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Thank you.

Thank you.

Praise the Lord.

Come on, one more time, one more.

[APPLAUSE] Amen.

I want you to go with me to the Book of Revelation-- drama-- Book of Revelation chapter 2.

Chapter 2, we're going to begin with verse 9.

I want to talk about a church that we never talk about.

We always talk about the bad ones.

I want to talk about the one of which nothing bad can be said.

I long to be that church.

Amen.

It's the Church of Smyrna.

If you're there, can you say amen?

Revelation is the last book of the Bible.

And this is Jesus imparting vision to John, who's on the island of Patmos, who's a prisoner.

And so this is what Jesus says to the seven churches.

And this is what he says to the Church of Smyrna.

It says, "I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich.

And the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

Do not fear what you are about to suffer.

Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you in a prison that you may be tested.

And for 10 days, you will have tribulations.

Be faithful unto death.

And I will give you the crown of life.

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

The one who conquers-- somebody say conquer-- will not be hurt by the second death.

Let's pray, Heavenly Father, we thank You, my God, for this word, my God, that You have given Your servant, Lord.

I pray, Father God, that as I deliver it, Father God, Your Spirit would do the work, my God.

I pray that You would penetrate lives and hearts this morning in minds, my God, in mindsets, Father God.

I pray that we would receive this word, my God, the way that You desire for us to receive it.

Holy Spirit, have Your way these next few moments.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen, You can be seated.

Amen.

I entitled the message this morning, I choose the crown.

I choose the crown.

Not my best title.

I think I could have done better.

But I really just-- I hope to encourage You with this word.

And at the same time, having the Holy Spirit just convict what needs to be convicted, amen.

So can I have the next few moments of Your time?

Amen.

This past Friday, we had the opportunity to visit a prison in Livingston.

Brother Mikey went with me, Brother Angel as well.

And we just had that opportunity.

A few years ago, I shared with the church, for some reason, prisoners-- God was putting prisoners on my heart.

And it was-- I still remember the conversation having with God and that pressing for prisoners on my heart.

And I said, God, that's so-- that's random.

I'm not-- I don't relate to prisoners.

I don't even know where to begin.

But He put that burden on my heart.

And I said, OK, well, God, if that's truly Your will, then you're going to have to make a way.

And last week, I was having a conversation at Brother Ernesto.

Some of you know him.

I had him on my podcast, which is relaunching tomorrow, Shameless Plug.

And thank you.

But we were talking about prison ministry and how he does prison ministry.

And after the conversation, I told him that the Lord had put prisoners on my heart a couple years ago.

And he said, well, we're going next week if you want to come along.

And so this past Friday was the very first time I ever stepped into a prison.

I mean, I had not even-- I'd never even been in prison to visit anybody.

I'd never been to prison.

And so I believe that the Lord always-- He orchestrates His will into those who are willing to do His will, amen.

And so I shared this at the services that we had on Friday.

I said-- I told the guys.

I said, look, I am a fourth generation pastor.

I'm a straight-up church boy.

I've never smoked as much as a cigarette in my life, never in a gang.

The only fights I've ever been in were with my sisters growing up.

I don't have a tattoo.

I got nothing like that.

And I mean, I won't-- I told them what I told God.

I said, my biggest fear is that I won't know what to say to you.

I won't preach the message that I preach to them.

But, man, I'll tell you, man, God moved in that prison, despite my inexperience, despite who I am.

God moved in that prison.

Man, we saw some of the hungriest men in prison.

I told them, man, some of you are living more freely locked up than people are outside.

I saw some hunger in that place.

The spirit of the living God was moving in those services, man.

We had an incredible time.

An angel, he shared a word.

They have a Spanish service.

Brother Ernesto asked if I would preach like the night before we were leaving.

I was like, bro, in Spanish, I'm going to need a little bit more time to prepare.

But I said, but I got a brother coming with me who's anointed and appointed.

And he's got-- I know he's got a word.

I know he's ready.

I didn't even ask him.

But I called him afterwards.

I was like, hey, bro, you want to preach?

And he was like, yeah, I'll preach.

And God ministered through him.

I got the opportunity to share the gospel.

We had over 30 prisoners commit their lives to Jesus, man.

I mean, it was amazing, amazing what God started.

And we're definitely going to be going back.

And so we made connections.

We made some pimp owls.

Many of them asked about our church.

Some of them are up for parole.

Some of them are going to be getting out in a few months.

And they all asked me, what's the name of your church?

Write it down.

I gave them the address.

I hope that don't scare you.

But that's what we're talking about, right?

We've been talking about we were called to be a house of restoration and transformation.

And so those days are coming.

And what I was really encouraged by was that these men have nothing.

And yet they know they have everything.

They got everything.

I spoke to this man.

He was serving three life sentences.

And he was the most joyful man in that prison.

You couldn't even wipe a smile off his face if you tried.

These men were truly, truly filled with the joy of God.

And I thought, man, well, this is what the church is called to be.

We are called to be faithful in the midst of adversity.

Amen.

And I want you to turn to your neighbor real quick and in the most loving way, but with the most seriousness in your voice, I want you to tell them it's time to grow up.

Tell them.

Tell them it's time to grow up.

Some of y'all really like dug your teeth into that one.

Talking to your husband.

It's time to, it is, look, it's time for all of us to grow up church.

All of us.

I believe that it's time for the generation of this church to grow up.

And I don't say that to call out anybody's immaturity.

I say that because from the moment you say yes to Jesus, you have to begin walking towards spiritual growth and development, right?

Right.

Salvation is a one-time occurrence in the life of a believer, but sanctification is a daily process.

Holiness is a daily process.

Having to die to yourself, that is something that you have to commit to every single day.

You don't just set it and forget it.

You have to continue to feed yourself.

Word.

Feed yourself the spirit of God.

Continually worship even when you don't want to worship.

Say, "Holy, holy are you God," even when you don't want to.

That is what it means to constantly be sanctified.

And even those of us who have been saved for a long time, I think sometimes we get comfortable.

We forget that even we have a lot to learn and a lot to grow into.

And sometimes we just stay content, but we're all in this process of spiritual growth.

Some of you are maybe just starting your walk of faith.

Others are maybe more seasoned, but every single day we're all on the same journey together to be sanctified.

And spiritual maturity, I think it can mean a lot of things.

I've been asked before, what does that mean to be spiritually mature?

I think it's a little bit harder to answer because you can tell when somebody's mature or immature, just by the way that they behave, the way that they react to things.

I think spiritual maturity takes a little bit more discernment because you can be a mature person, but spiritually immature, right?

And so the way that I would define spiritual maturity is your ability to exercise the fruits of the spirit in the midst of adversity.

If you're a note taker, I would encourage you to write that down.

Spiritual maturity is your ability to exercise the fruits of the spirit, not the gifts of the spirit, the fruits of the spirit in the midst of adversity.

The fruits of the spirit are found in Galatians chapter five.

There's nine of them, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

And so to be spiritually mature means loving when you don't want to love.

Being joyful when there's not a lot to be joyful about.

Being at peace in the midst of chaos and storms, being patient as you wait on the Lord, and as you wait on other people, sometimes people be slow and you need patience.

It means being kind in the midst of rudeness and attitude.

Come on, somebody.

It means showing goodness in the cloud of evil, staying faithful when the circumstance is beating you down.

Being gentle in the way that you speak to people, in the way that you treat people, in the way that you correct people.

Some of y'all got all the truth in your heart, but you don't got a gentle bone in you.

Gentleness, showing self-control in the midst of temptation.

If you can do all those things and you can do them perfectly, hats off to you, man.

Congratulations, you've arrived.

But the Bible says that we all sin, we all fall short of the glory of God.

And so the best that we can do is with the Holy Spirit, come as close as possible to all of these things.

Now I want you to hear me on this because there's one common denominator to all of these nine fruits, right?

Maybe you say, "Oh, I'm natural at showing love.

I'm natural at showing kindness.

I'm natural at having all the joy.

" And I've always got a smile on my face.

But the key word here is, you can do all of those things in the midst of adversity, in the midst of opposition.

It's doing these things when the flesh calls you to do the opposite.

I saw joy in that prison.

Man, it's going.

Someone, can you turn that off for me, bro?

Amen.

Fuente de agua viva.

(congregation laughing) The Lord open up the floodgates.

Hurry up, David.

It's getting awkward up here.

I feel like we gotta wait.

Like I just can't get spiritual until this thing comes off.

It's all right.

You're still with me, right?

I saw, you know, I saw, when we went into that prison, I saw joy, man.

I saw joy in this place where the last place these men wanted to be was prison.

I saw joy there.

And that's what it means to be a spiritually mature Christian, to be able to do these things in the midst of adversity.

No, God never said show love only when they love you back.

Be kind to only those who are kind to you.

It's easy to make a joyful noise when everybody else is making a joyful noise.

It's easy to be faithful as long as they're faithful to you.

It's so much easier to reciprocate what you're receiving, but that's not the message.

God never called you to what's easy.

Tell the person next to you, God didn't say it was gonna be easy.

It's not gonna be easy.

I need you to hear me because God has called every single one of us by name, but he never said it would be easy.

Instead, he called you to endure through the difficult.

God has called his church to go against the current.

Some of y'all can't even swim.

That's hard.

Against the culture, against the natural, even when you suffer.

Look, suffering is not a choice.

Suffering is not a choice.

You don't choose to suffer.

You can make some decisions that result in suffering.

That's fine, but whether you like it or not, you are going to suffer.

You could be the most mature, most responsible person in the world, but you are going to suffer as a Christian, as a non-Christian.

Now, as a Christian, I think it's even a little bit harder because we don't just battle physical sufferings.

We battle spiritual ones.

We have to break through temptation.

We have to break through generational curses.

We got to break through demonic oppression.

We have to endure the callings and the assignments that God has purposed for us, even when those callings require seasons of discomfort.

So in life, we don't really get a say in whether or not we suffer.

And as Christians who want to do the will of the Father, we don't really have a say in the sufferings that come along with doing the will of the Father.

I'm reminded of Paul, when Jesus revealed himself to Paul, he told Ananias, "I'ma show him how much he must suffer.

" He's going to suffer for my namesake.

Jesus, when he sent out the disciples to evangelize into the Jewish communities, he told them, "I am sending you out as sheep among wolves.

" He said, "They're going to sue you.

They're going to flog you.

They're going to throw you in a prison.

They're going to drag you into the courts before governors and kings.

" Suffering is not a choice, but endurance is a choice.

Endurance is a choice.

And there's people in here who are suffering with something.

We're all going through something.

We're all struggling with something.

If you had it your way, you choose not to be dealing with anything, but you don't have a choice.

What does Pastor B.

say?

He says, "It is what it is.

" But you do get to choose how you deal with it.

A Holy Spirit is going to slap some people today, man, because you've created this victim mindset out of the things that you're going through.

And God is saying, you don't get to choose the suffering, but you get to choose how you deal with it.

You get to choose whether you're going to quit or kind of, or going to keep going.

You get to choose to have peace in the chaos.

You get to choose to sing praises in the storm or cross your arms during worship.

You get to choose to show up to church.

Show up to church, even when you don't want to go to church.

You get to choose every morning to invite the Holy Spirit into your day, even when you don't even want to start your day.

That's why I said it.

It's time to grow up.

What do you tell your kids who are throwing fits?

Grow up, stop crying.

Because you can't endure when you're not mature.

People quit when they're not mature, man.

And I'm not talking just to newer Christians in the room.

I'm talking to the season ones too.

Quitting doesn't just mean quitting on faith.

It means quitting on the assignment.

I've known Christians who have said, they've been saved for a long time and they quit ministry because it gets a little bit hard.

You quit your assignment because there's a little bit of adversity, you step down from your leadership role because everybody's looking at you and everybody doesn't like the way that you're doing things.

You quit on your marriage when it's a little rocky, you quit praying like you used to.

When God is quiet, the church was not meant to quit.

The church was meant to endure.

Jesus told Peter, the gates of hell shall not prevail.

But sometimes as the church, the gates of hell don't even have to prevail.

We open it up right in, right up for him.

Endurance, listen, endurance is the expectation that Jesus had for his church.

Jesus expects you to endure.

Suffering, everybody suffers, everybody suffers.

But his people are expected to endure because he knows who you have walking with you.

This is why we have the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said, I am sending you a helper because you're gonna need it.

But he's gonna help you through it.

He's gonna help you endure the pain and the suffering and the hunger and the have nots.

He's gonna help you.

The church wasn't meant to be weak, man.

It was meant to be resilient.

You, man, woman of God, you are meant to be resilient.

Do you realize, man, that the church was born out of persecution?

It wasn't born out of easy.

It was born at a time where emperors were burning Christians alive.

They were burning entire cities to get rid of the Christians.

The disciples were all killed because of the profession that Jesus was and is the son of the living God.

They were thrown into prison.

Tradition says that Peter was crucified upside down.

They were hated.

They were ridiculed.

If the church was meant to be resilient, that means that you are meant to be resilient.

You are meant to endure.

We got so many Christians, man, who are deterred by their sufferings, offended by their sufferings.

You're mad at God because he called you to do something and you didn't want to do it.

You're mad at God because he hasn't given you a church, Shay.

He said you were going to be a pastor.

You're mad at God because he hasn't given you everything you want.

He hasn't blessed your business.

You're mad because you keep failing.

My encouragement to you, church, is to stop being a victim of your suffering.

And I'm not telling you not to feel pain or to pretend like everything is good or ignore reality.

I'm just saying keep moving.

Keep moving in the midst of it, man.

Keep moving in the midst.

Keep declaring the goodness of God in your life.

I don't want to see Christians start and then fall.

I don't want to see men who are appointed by God, women who are appointed by God, start that ministry because they are anointed.

And when things get a little bit hard, they quit.

You are meant to endure.

You are made to be resilient.

(congregation clapping) We are looking more and more like the world.

The world has gone soft, man.

You gotta walk in eggshells all the time.

You gotta read the room all the time.

Who's in there?

Who's gonna be offended by what I say?

Everybody gets offended by everything.

You gotta be politically correct all the time.

The world has gone soft.

And as a result of that, the church has become softer.

We follow the trend.

And so we've heard about churches who no longer preach against sin.

And they refuse to talk about the offensive parts of the gospel and the Bible.

And I wonder like, what do you talk about then?

Like the whole gospel is offensive.

Jesus said, "Blessed are those who are not offended by me.

" Like Jesus says some offensive things.

Although it is a message of love and hope and redemption, it is also a message that requires submission to Jesus.

That means you gotta submit to Jesus.

That means that you don't just bow down to him, you bow down your ways to him.

You bow down your ways of thinking.

You bow down the ways that you were taught, the ways that you grew up.

It's submission that's offensive sometimes because we love our lives.

Jesus says, "He who loves his life will lose it.

" And so whenever the suffering comes into our lives, those who love their lives will not endure.

Church, you are going to suffer, man.

You're going to suffer.

But if you commit to hold on to the faith, you commit to hold on to Jesus, you walk with the Holy Spirit through every season of pain, every season of chaos, financial toil, sick, whatever it is, as long as you are committed to endure the Holy Spirit, it's gonna be with you.

(congregation murmuring) The church of Smyrna was the only one not to get a rebuke.

I mean, we had the church of Ephesus talking about, you don't know how to love anymore and you're just always mad at everybody.

We had a church who just tolerates sin in their midst.

The church of Smyrna, Jesus doesn't have a bad thing to say about him.

He gives them encouragement.

Whenever you reach a level of spiritual maturity, your rebukes come less and less and you start to get more encouragement.

So this was a church that was planted in the city of Smyrna, obviously.

And history tells us that Smyrna was very patriotic.

They were very much in line with the Roman culture and the religion.

And so to be a Christian, it's funny.

Christians were, I don't know if you know this, but Christians were at one point called atheists because in ancient Rome and the Romans and the Greeks, they had a pantheon of God that they worship.

They worship all kinds of gods.

Christians only worship one God.

And so they considered Christians to be atheists.

And so in this city of extreme patriotism, it was really hard for a Christian to worship freely.

And so they were persecuted and they were imprisoned and they were killed for their faith.

And the word that Jesus has for this suffering church is do not fear what you are about to suffer.

You are about to be imprisoned.

Be faithful even until death.

Does that encourage you?

I mean, you could say yes if you wanna be spiritual, but like when I read that, I was like, that's it?

I really did.

I was like, that's all you got for them?

Jesus.

That is pretty short.

I mean, this is, isn't this like, I mean like when Paul is writing to the churches, you got chapters and chapters and chapters of rebuke after rebuke after rebuke after rebuke.

You would think that if you did well, you'd get some nice, nice words.

But this is what my dad say, etchela delante, right?

Keep going, got it.

Seagalay.

When I read this, I realized, I realized something, at no point in scripture does God ever apologize for the suffering that we experience.

You realize that?

That's the whole other offensive part of the gospel.

Imagine crying out to Jesus, Lord, I don't wanna go to prison.

Lord, I don't wanna die.

Lord, I have been faithful to you.

I have been following you every single day faithfully.

Help me.

And he just says, don't be scared.

In the Bible, there's never, and I'm sorry you're going through this.

Or I understand if you don't wanna be Christian anymore.

It's just, do not fear, be faithful.

Do not fear, be faithful.

There's no apology.

God never apologizes for the suffering people go through as a result of what he has called them to.

God didn't apologize to Elijah when Elijah was having a depressed moment as a result of Jezebel trying to take his life.

He didn't apologize to Jonah for calling Jonah to a people that he didn't like.

Jesus didn't apologize to the apostles when they were gonna go, for what they were gonna go through for his sake.

God is not sorry for calling you.

He's not sorry for putting you through the test.

He's not sorry for what your faith has done to certain relationships.

He's not sorry that the people who are in your life at one point want nothing to do with you anymore.

He's not sorry that ministry is hard.

He's not sorry that you're being criticized as a leader.

He's not sorry that you don't have all the money that you wish you had.

Not sorry about it.

And I know that hurts because like, dang God, can you at least sympathize a little bit?

And then God reminded me of Jesus in Gethsemane, in the garden, saying, "Father, take this cup from me in this hour.

"Take it from me.

"If I don't have to do this, please find another way.

" And the Bible says that he was troubled in spirit, but God didn't respond saying, "I'm really sorry, son, "but you gotta do it.

" And the reason that he's not sorry is not because God is just a jerk.

He's not sorry because he knows that your suffering moment is not gonna last forever.

He's not sorry because he knows that through your suffering moment, you are gonna be strengthened.

He knows that through your suffering moment, there will be glory.

He knows that through your suffering moment, you will receive the crown of life.

Why would God be sorry for giving you life?

Even though he knows what you're going through, even though he knows what you're gonna pass through, he sends his Holy Spirit to be with you.

Why would God be sorry for using you, for your honor and glory?

Look, to be used by God hurts.

I know it hurts to be used by God.

It hurts to be used by anybody.

Why wouldn't it hurt to be used by God?

Because God will use you to magnify his glory.

And sometimes we are used at our expense.

That's what you do when you're building something.

That's what you do when you're hammering something.

The hammer takes the hit, but it's for a greater purpose.

It hurts to be used by God.

But God ain't sorry about it.

'Cause God has given us everything we need to endure life.

I don't apologize to the hammer every time I beat it.

I'm like, I'm so sorry, hammer.

Because that's what it's made for.

You were made for the suffering to endure so that he would get the glory, so that when you pass through all of this, you will come out on the other side.

Victorious.

So it's time to grow up.

Some of you have been too fickle with your relationship with God.

Come on, hear me.

I'm almost done, but I'm just, I'm not mad this morning, but this message sounds a little mad, but I'm just, because I want you to know, man, you were made to conquer.

You weren't made to quit.

You weren't made to quit.

And I see too many Christians quitting left and right.

And you have been too fickle with your relationship with God always because of this, it's because of that, so I'm going through this and I'm going through that.

And I really had a hard year.

Look, I'm not trying to not be sensitive to what you're going through.

If you were to come to me to count for counseling, I'm not gonna tell you, suck it up, buttercup.

Send you on your way.

I'm gonna pray with you.

I'm gonna cry with you.

I'm gonna feel that pain with you.

But at the end of the day, the message is the same.

You have to keep going.

You have to keep going.

You have to keep going.

You have to keep going.

You have to keep going.

You have to keep going.

You have to keep going.

You ain't going through it for no reason.

So, anytime you suffer, listen, anytime you suffer, that is a test of your spiritual maturity.

I'm going to say that again because you didn't get it.

Every time you suffer, that is a test of your spiritual maturity.

God is trying to call out the mature version of you.

Every time you suffer, every time you go through something.

And then he says this.

He says, "If you lack wisdom, ask God and He's going to give it to you.

I want to focus here on this real quick.

I'm almost done.

" But when we think about wisdom, the way that we think about it, we think of people who have gone through things, experienced things.

That's wisdom.

You don't go to a couple who's been married for three months for marital counseling.

You go to the couple who's been married for 30 years, who's been through things, who almost lost the marriage.

That's who you go to.

That's where wisdom is.

As a pastor, I can learn from my dad who had passed it for 20 years way more than I can learn from a book on pastoring.

Because while education and knowledge is good, wisdom only comes through experience.

Are you following me?

Wisdom only comes with the things that you go through.

And so you've heard me say this before.

Anytime you ask God for anything, He's not just going to give it to you.

He's going to give you a lesson so that you can learn how to get it.

That's how he does it.

That's how God does it.

So anytime you ask God for faith, He doesn't just have a faith basket and give you a bunch of faith.

What does He give you?

He gives you a test that is going to stretch your faith.

He's going to give you a test that's going to make you even doubt a little bit at times.

But if you go through it, your faith will be stronger.

I went through a test of faith last year.

I know that Pastor Danny Mardisa went through a test of faith last year.

I know that Pastor Brandon DeMaris went through a test of faith last year.

I will never again ask for increased faith.

I know when you ask for kindness, Lord, I'm such a bitter person.

Make me kind, God.

Make me compassionate.

He ain't going to surround you with a whole bunch of kind people.

He's going to surround you with the ones that you want to.

.

.

You know what I'm saying?

He's going to surround you with the people that you're going to be like, "God, these are the wrong people.

" And he's like, "No, these are the right people.

" Because if you can handle them, then you will be producing kindness in your life.

[Applause] A teacher.

.

.

That's what God does.

God gives you lessons.

He gives you lessons.

It doesn't just give you the things.

A teacher who just gives you the answers to all the questions.

That ain't no teacher.

Lessons are important.

So James says, "If you like wisdom, ask for wisdom.

Snap.

" What do you think is going to happen when you ask for wisdom?

Let's put that into context.

James is talking about suffering.

He's talking about facing trials.

And so when you ask God for wisdom, He's going to give you an experience that if you endure, will produce wisdom.

Friday at two in the morning, how the worship didn't come out.

Friday at two o'clock in the morning, I woke up.

This was the morning before we were going to go to the prison.

It's funny, all week long, Laila was telling her friends, "My daddy's going to prison.

" She went online, it was.

So two o'clock in the morning, I woke up.

And of course, you know, like, we had to get up super early, like at four or 4.

30.

And so I couldn't sleep.

And I was troubled and I was saying, "Lord, what do I say to prisoners?

What do I say?

" "Ryan, church boy, what do I say to prisoners?

I don't know what they go through.

I can't relate to them.

I can't speak their language.

" I'm like, "Thank you for sending Brother Mike.

" Because I mean, he's got it.

He's got it in the bag.

He's got it in the bag.

He's got it in the bag.

And so I started talking about the bondage of sin.

I started talking about the chains that need to be broken.

I started talking about the generational curses and the addictions that need to be broken.

I started talking about freedom because I know what sin looks like.

I've suffered at the hands of sin.

I've suffered at the hands of my chains and my anxiety and my pride and my doubt and all the kinds of weaknesses that I face.

I told these brothers about the grace that God has shown me and the people that I pastor.

And I can only say that because I've endured through the suffering.

I have experienced sin.

I have experienced strongholds.

I've seen it in other people's lives.

God said, "You don't need to be a prisoner because you've gone through some things.

I've taught you some lessons in the 34 years of your life.

" Yeah, I know you're a church boy.

But I know that you've battled some things.

I've know that you've battled bondage.

I've know that you've battled demons.

I've know that you've battled oppression.

I know that you've had to break through some generational curses.

I know what you've been through because I've taken you through it.

I know what you suffered because I saw you out on the other side with the strength and faith, with the strength and joy, with the strength and peace and wisdom.

And so when I think about the church of Smyrna, if you're going to be baptized, I'm going to go ahead and dismiss you.

When I think about the church of Smyrna, you know, we didn't dissect the revelation word.

Usually, I do that.

I like to exposit the word.

We didn't really get into the theology behind it because I think for me, it sends a broader message.

I don't just think about the church of Smyrna.

I think about the whole church.

I think about our church.

I think about our people.

I think about PNEUMA because I know that many of you are struggling with something.

I know that many of you are suffering with something.

When I think about the words of Jesus, "Don't fear.

Stay faithful.

Conquer," Smyrna says.

"Don't fear.

Stay faithful.

Conquer.

Conquer.

" You got to hear that this morning.

Church, those of you who are suffering, those of you who are always in and out, those of you who are on the fence, those of you who throw in the towel way more than you should, do not fear.

Stay faithful.

Conquer.

Who better to give that word to the church than he who suffered pain and hunger and temptation and loneliness and betrayal and the abandonment of his father on the cross who experienced sorrow, who experienced death.

There is not a thing that you're going through that Jesus doesn't understand.

He became man to understand you.

He became man to relate to you and to be our most highest priest.

So when he leaves the world, when he ascends on high into heaven, I imagine he tells the father, "I know what it's like to be man.

Send the Holy Spirit.

Send the Helper.

Send it because they will endure.

They will go through some things.

They're going to suffer, but send the Holy Spirit who will make them conquer as long as he is living in them.

Greater is he.

Greater is he.

Greater is he who is living in you than he who is in you.

He is in the world.

You are made to conquer.

Don't fear.

Stay faithful.

Conquer.

Don't fear.

Stay faithful.

Conquer.

Don't fear.

Stay faithful.

Conquer.

You are made to endure.

You are made resilient.

You are a child of the living God.

Stay standing with me.

All I can do this morning is encourage you to keep going.

The text says, "He who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.

" Church through the suffering.

Choose the crown.

Choose the crown.

And I want to close with Romans 8.

31 through 37.

And I'm going to ask the prayer team to come forward.

Right after I read this, I'm going to invite you to these altars.

The apostle Paul says this, "What then shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all.

How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies.

Who is to condemn Christ Jesus as the one who died?

And more than that, who was raised.

Who is at the right hand of God who indeed is interceding for us?

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

As it is written, "For your sake, we are being killed all the day long.

We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

" Paul says, "No, in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

" Do not fear, stay faithful and conquer man or woman of God.

You are made to be resilient.

You are made in the image of God.

I want the church to sing that and I want you to come forward as we sing, as we worship our God.

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church, visit us on our website at mynuma-church.

org.

If you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe or share it with your friends on social media and tag us at mynuma-church.

Thanks again and God bless.

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