-Transcript-
00:27 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:30 Welcome to the Cafe. Pastor Clark Covington, here with another episode of KJV Cafe. Let me be the first to wish you a happy new year.
00:39 You may be listening to this at a different date, but if you’re listening to it as it broadcasts over the air, then hey, it’s the new year, amen.
00:50 What a great year. It’s a new year, and if you’ve been in the ministry, then I’m wishing you more of the same.
01:01 And if you haven’t been actively involved in the ministry, because we’re all in the ministry, then I’m praying that this year is the year that you respond to God’s calling, amen,
01:06 that you surrender to the Lord and what he’d have you to do, that he’d give you the courage to do what he would have you to do, that you make time to hear his still small voice, amen.
01:16 Anyways, we’re here in the Cafe. I’ve got myself a big cup of Brazilian coffee, some kind of Brazilian blend, and I don’t even know exactly what it is.
01:26 It was in the clearance aisle at Walmart for Christmas, but it looked like it was some high-end coffee. I said, let me try this, and my wife picked it up and said, what’d you get this for?
01:38 I said, well, I just want to try it. So look, here we are.
01:42 I’ve got the coffee. I’ve got the Bible. We’re ready to dive into this thing and dig in deep, and I hope you are too.
01:46 Hopefully, again, you got yourself a coffee or a tea, you got yourself a Bible, maybe some table room, a notepad, wouldn’t that be great, amen.
01:49 I mean, again, if you just start envisioning looking into God’s word in this type of light like you would if you go to study, amen, it’s a beautiful thing. I couldn’t help but smile.
02:03 I was in the Raleigh area maybe a month ago or so, and I was there for a ministry trip to go and meet with a church pastor and a group of individuals, and before I went there,
02:18 I made a point of stopping at a coffee shop and got myself a delicious latte, oat milk latte, and walking out, and there I saw a young man with a Bible, and he had a notepad, looked like he was studying the word.
02:32 It being a college town, I wondered if it might have been for some kind of school program or if it was just his free time, devotional time, but I had to just smile just to see that, and if we could just envision that.
02:46 I mean, again, I like to touch on these things now and again just to help people understand why the program’s called KJV Cafe, why we go with this kind of coffee shop theme.
02:53 It’s deeper than just some kind of cute imagery.
02:58 It’s about loving, spending time with the Lord, and studying His word because that’s how faith grows, amen, faith cometh by hearing and hearing the word of God, amen.
03:08 So we’re going to go into a multi-part series here today. We’re going to start looking at what is important for us to do in this new year.
03:19 What would the Lord have us do in the new year? That would be the title of the message, and in the context of, as I believe, Jesus coming quickly, and God wants us to have that Maranatha attitude.
03:30 He wants us to have that attitude of Him coming quickly. The Bible tells us to watch.
03:35 Jesus Himself tells us He’s coming quickly, and God wants us to have that attitude that we are waiting and willing for Him to come, that we are desiring for Him to come.
03:43 And you know, there’s someone living in sin today that’s hoping and maybe even praying the Lord won’t come right now because they’re terrified of what that would mean.
03:52 And if they read the Bible, that would then certainly increase their terror if they were not on the right side of God, amen.
04:00 But those that have been saved, those that have been bought by the blood of Jesus, the precious blood of Jesus, they have nothing to fear because they’ve been reconciled to God.
04:08 The Bible tells us that we’re not under condemnation, amen, and that Jesus didn’t come to condemn, but He came to save. And so when we accept Christ as Savior, we understand our sin debt, our need for a Savior, amen.
04:24 We get right with Him. We get close to Him. We have nothing to fear.
04:29 But what do people do this time of year? Do they not set resolutions? And I asked our congregation, what kind of resolutions would you set?
04:33 You know, see, we’re a small enough church, we just go around the room and ask people what they would do, amen, and that’s the beauty of our church. And I know a preacher has to preach the Word. It’s not a discussion, it’s a sermon, I get that.
04:43 But at the same time, you know, it keeps people engaged. I say, well, what would you do? You know, what resolutions have you made or have thought about making?
04:51 And people said, eat right, exercise, those would be the two that I would have. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
04:57 But what does the Bible say about things like exercise? You know, the Bible has something to say about this.
04:59 1 Timothy 4: 8, for bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.
05:29 And so Paul is writing to his protege Timothy, his understudy Timothy, his beloved Timothy, the apostle Paul in the latter years of his life, is telling Timothy, look, bodily exercise.
05:40 Again, what is Paul seeing? He’s seeing these Olympic-type games, the Ithamon games, he’s seen them there, he’s referenced them, he understands exercise, he probably understands vigorous exercise.
05:50 He’s not saying it doesn’t profit, it says it profits a little.
05:55 As a business person, I’ve come to understand what profit means very closely. You can have a company that has a lot of gross revenue and no profit. You can have someone that is living very healthy
06:08 and they look like they are just the healthiest person to ever live, but inside they’re rotten to the core because they have sin in their life and it’s unconfessed sin and they’re not close to God, they don’t know God,
06:17 they don’t want to know God, and they’re headed for devil’s hell.
06:21 And what Paul is saying is bodily exercise profit a little, but godliness is profitable unto all things. See the contrast?
06:28 Bodily exercise versus godliness, this idea of exercising that quality, not just having godliness, but exercising godliness, living godly, right?
06:45 And Paul goes on here in 1 Timothy 4:8 to say, having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. So we have fit spiritually is profitable for the life now and being fit spiritually is profitable for that which is to come, the next life.
06:57 And so Paul’s saying, think now you’re going to benefit from being close to God and think about eternity, you’re going to benefit from being close to God. It is profitable for both now and eternity.
07:05 And many people never really spend time thinking about eternity.
07:10 God calls us to have an eternal mindset. Amen. In the Old Testament, the Hebrews, the Jewish people, God’s chosen people, their blessing was often earthly riches.
07:21 Amen. Abraham was given land. Amen.
07:25 Joseph was made king. Amen. There was all of these earthly riches, the King David and all of Solomon’s temple and so forth, earthly riches.
07:31 Gentiles, us here today, are treasures in heaven. Amen. We are promised heavenly rewards.
07:39 We were promised eternal rewards. And so here we’re reminded by Paul to think of the eternal, to not focus. Now God may bless you materially in this life and he has a reason for doing it.
07:50 I’d like to encourage you if you’ve been blessed materially to think about what God would have you to do with that material blessing. He has a plan for it. And there’s nothing wrong.
07:58 I don’t think God has a bias towards rich people if in fact they would seek him. But for the most part, those that are really poor tend to seek God more than those that have a lot of wealth. That’s for a different topic.
08:11 You say, Brother Clark, how can you make that statement? I grew up in my grandma’s house, okay?
08:18 We didn’t have a lot. We were one of the richest zip codes in the country. And I saw how, let me put it this way, there was not exactly a revival going on in our town.
08:24 Okay. Let’s look at Revelation. And let’s get to the idea here that we are to live spiritually fit lives in the new year.
08:34 That should be our priority. And that we should hold fast to what God’s given us so we don’t lose our reward.
08:40 Revelation 3:11Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown, So what I want to do now is look at the context of this verse.
08:52 Because this verse is very powerful, but it’s powerful in the sense of the context that it is in. This is part of Revelation chapter three.
09:01 This is dealing with Jesus writing letters to the seven churches, amen? And this was to the church of Philadelphia.
09:11 And so Jesus himself is speaking through John on the Isle of Patmos, right? So John is secluded there and Jesus is saying, I am doing this, okay?
09:22 Verse seven of Revelation 3, and to the angel of the church of Philadelphia, right? These things sayeth he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth no man openeth.
09:39 Who is this individual? This is Jesus Christ. And so the letter to the church of Philadelphia here is starting with a very clear picture of who is writing this.
09:52 You know, modern times it’s easy for us to know this is from Jesus. You can read a commentary about it. You can open your Bible and see the red letter text.
10:00 I’m a visual learner. So for me, that’s the first indication for me as I go into the chapter. So go into Revelation three, oh, I see all this red letter text.
10:09 Oh, that’s the words of Jesus. And that’s a very powerful thing to me. It triggers a special kind of focus in my mind.
10:14 This is God himself speaking, amen? And so we understand the whole Bible, God’s holy word is all Holy Spirit inspired and is all, you know, written by as many authors as it is and so forth by the working of the Holy Spirit.
10:32 And we believe that it’s all infallible and true. We believe that the word of God, the King James Bible is true from cover to cover and is God’s holy word.
10:43 And that yes, God literally created everything in six days and rested on the seventh. And yes, the flood really did happen, you know, and yes, Noah was on the ark and yes, David really slew Goliath and on and on.
10:52 We believe all of that is completely true.
10:59 And in that context of believing the Bible is truly the word of God, we see in the last book of the Bible, Jesus Christ himself addressing the church of Philadelphia.
11:11 And in a later episode, in part two here, we’re going to get to the characteristics of the church of Philadelphia. We don’t have too much time to do that today, but just understand that the church of Philadelphia was especially beloved by Jesus.
11:24 It was the only church that was not reprimanded, that was not rebuked in any sense of the seven churches. The church of Philadelphia was in Asia Minor, as I understand that, that’s modern day Turkey.
11:38 And so if you’ve ever seen modern day Turkey, you realize it’s a very modern society, amen.
11:45 I’ve known a few Turks in my life, a few people from that area, and they have been very friendly, very fluent in English, very sophisticated and on and on. And so it’s very fascinating to think that that’s where this church was based. And yet this church faced persecution.
12:01 And again, on the next episode, for time’s sake, we can’t really get too much into it now, but we’re going to look at that parallel of how we face persecution, because look what Jesus says here in verse 8 of Revelation 3, I know thy works, behold, I have set before thee an open door and no man can shut it for thou hast a little strength and has kept my word and has not denied my name.
12:30 Now let’s look at verse 9 here. We’ll circle back, behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie, behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet and know that I have loved thee.
12:45 Wow. So Jesus is mentioning here a really interesting confrontation that has been taking place, that this church of Philadelphia is weak, amen, that they’re weak.
12:56 And what they have is a door that is open and no one can shut it, even though on the outside looking in, it would look really easy to shut.
13:05 Have you ever seen Israel on a map? It is a tiny little place and you just say, how is that? You know, little tiny nation state country, sovereign nation of Israel still there with all the mighty powers wanting to wipe it out. And it’s still there. And the church of Philadelphia was still there.
13:25 And in the next episode, we’re going to talk about how the church of Philadelphia will be memorialized for an eternity and it will never go away.
13:33 And all this has parallels to how we are to live our lives in these last days and in this new year, how we are to live our lives for Christ. Isn’t that an interesting contrast? It’s a new year in the last days.
13:44 It’s a new year in the last days. How will you choose to live friend? This letter is so beautiful. I encourage you to read it.
13:52 I encourage you to read all the letters, the revelation three, look at the letter to the church of Philadelphia and see the promises.
14:00 And we’re going to discuss them on the next episode of how Jesus Christ is faithful to this church because this church has been faithful to him against popular culture, against so much criticism, against so many problems.
14:12 They have been steadfast in their faith and they’re going to be rewarded.
14:17 And we need to take the same approach in our lives. And so I encourage you tune in next time to KJV Cafe and we’ll get deeper into this message.
14:26 I thank you so much for listening. Take care, God bless and amen.