©1998 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
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3/22/98
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Doing the Best With What You Have
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...
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Rev. 3:7 "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this:
Rev. 3:8 'I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.
Rev. 3:9 'Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them know that I have loved you.
Rev. 3:10 'Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
Rev. 3:11 'I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown.
Rev. 3:12 'He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.
Rev. 3:13 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'
During the past few weeks
we have agonized our way
through difficult messages
from Christ to several local
first century churches.
They were churches,
one of which was involved in what Christ called "the deep things of Satan",
and another in which IMAGE,
outward appearance,
had become their goal.
This morning, however,
we come to a very different congregation - the church at Philadelphia.
If I had to select one church
from the seven addressed
here in Revelation 2 and 3
that I would like to believe
most closely resembles
our own congregation
it would be this church in Philadelphia.
I know we are often our own worst evaluators
when it comes to looking at ourselves honestly,
but I must admit
I feel a stronger comradeship with the church at Philadelphia
than with any of the other six.
I have been offering you
one line descriptions
to help you better hang onto the Lord’s comments to each of these churches.
The church at Ephesus we called Doctrine Is King.
The church at Smyrna we summed up in the one word, Faithfulness.
The church at Pergamum we called Playing It Loose.
The church at Thyatira we called The Deep Things of Satan.
And then, last week,
the church at Sardis we called, Image Is Everything.
The title we’re going to give
to the church at Philadelphia
is, Doing The Best With What You Have.
To be honest,
I think maybe I am drawn to this church at Philadelphia most of all
because it seems to most closely parallel
my own personal Christian life.
The King begins His comments to this church
with a strong affirmation
of His own supreme authority
over the events that touch our lives.
Rev. 3:7 ... He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this:...
In that opening statement to Philadelphia
He is once again affirming His sovereignty in our lives.
I need statements like that.
I need to hear them over and over again.
I need to remind myself
and have others remind me
that there is nothing casual
about my Lord’s involvement
and careful orchestration of my life.
There is a strength,
a decisiveness,
a clear, indisputable ring of authority
in Christ’s opening comment to this church.
I think very possibly the Christians at this church
were prone to fear
and self-doubt.
They had heard of the great works
and might deeds that other churches had accomplished.
They had received the reports
of mighty things God had done
in and through other congregations.
They had rejoiced at those reports,
but their own timidness
and insecurity made it hard for them to believe
that their Lord had a place
and a special role for them as well.
Everything God says to this group of people
is designed to affirm them
and to strengthen their confidence
both in Himself
and in their ability to fulfill the role
He has for them.
For me the next phrase Christ speaks to this church
is perhaps the most significant
in this whole message.
I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, ...
In order for you to appreciate
what I see happening in that phrase
I need to share with you
a pattern that God often follows
in our lives.
If we had the time
I could illustrate this pattern
through the a number of Biblical personalities
or through events I have seen
in my own life.
But I can most quickly illustrate it
through David in the Old Testament.
The pattern I want to share with you
has three distinct phases to it.
1. The first phase is the Promise.
The promise is a point,
or an event,
or a brief experience early in our Christian life
in which our Lord plants within us
a vision and a hope of something
He wants to accomplish in our lives in the future.
In the life of David
the promise came to him in I Samuel chapter 16 where it says,
1 Sam. 16:1 Now the Lord said to Samuel, "How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have selected a king for Myself among his sons."
1 Sam. 16:13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed David in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.
If you are not familiar
with the events of the life of King David in the Old Testament,
that event took place when David
was still in this teens.
It was years before Saul died
and David took over as King of Israel.
It was a promise God gave to David,
a promise of what God would one day accomplish in David’s life.
God has done the same thing
with many of us here this morning.
I can remember a few months in 1971
when God gave me a promise
of the kind of church I would one day be involved in.
I was 24 years old at the time,
filling in for a missionary family on the Island of Trinidad.
During the few months I was there
I watched as God created a church.
We met in a large living room
of one of the homes in the valley.
The people in the valley
use to stand around outside that house
just to listen to us sing.
We had no one to do the Bible teaching
so I was forced to fill in
until the Lord saw fit to supply
the teacher we needed...
That church during those months
was God’s promise to me
of the kind of church I would once again one day be a part of.
Some of you have received promises from your Lord as well,
a time or a place or an experience
where you saw a little glimpse
of the future He has for you.
He’s given you that promise
to help you to recognize
both what He has for you
and what He does not.
That promise
will make it easier for you
to let go of the counterfeits
and the substitutes
and the good things along the way
that stand in the way of the best He has for you.
#2. Then after the promise comes the time of training.
With David, as with many of us,
that time of training went on for a number of years.
It put him into situations
that looked nothing like the promise
God had made to him.
He spent much of that time
running and hiding for his life.
He was declared an outlaw,
an enemy to the nation of Israel,
someone to be killed on sight.
The only "royal subjects" he had
were the discontents and rejects of society,
people who were also running away from something
or someone.
But it was during those years
that God built into David
the leadership skills
he would one day need
when the promise
finally became a living reality.
If you find yourself in "Phase 2" of your life right now,
a time when you look back to the promise your God has given you
and wonder what happened,
and why it can’t be that way again,
I have a special gift for you.
Well, actually, PETER has a special gift for you.
Its found in I Peter 5:6-11
1 Pet. 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,
1 Pet. 5:7 casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you.
1 Pet. 5:8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
1 Pet. 5:9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.
1 Pet. 5:10 And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.
1 Pet. 5:11 To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Peter begins and ends that passage
with the strong assurance
that God knows just exactly
what He’s doing with your life
and why.
He can
and He will exalt you at the proper time,
fulfilling the promise He has given you,
once your training has been completed.
He Himself will perfect,
confirm,
strengthen,
and establish you.
But the great danger during those times of training in our lives
is the danger of thinking
God doesn’t care
or He’s forgotten about us
or for some reason we no longer matter to Him.
Its lies,
all satanic lies.
And that’s why Peter includes that warning between the promises.
When you find yourself thinking
you’ll never find the place that fits you,
resist his lies, firm in your faith.
Your Lord loves you far too much
to fulfill His promise to you
before you’re ready for it.
When the nation of Israel finally crowned David as their King,
more than a decade after he had received
the promise from God,
both he and the nation were ready
for him to assume that position.
And when He fulfills the promise
He has placed within you
the same will be true.
You can try to rush it if you want.
But if you are determined to do so
that promise will become
a heavy burden in your life,
a burden you will grow to resent
because you were not yet ready to carry it.
#3. The third phase, of course,
is the time of the Promise Fulfilled.
It is that time
when God takes the hunger He has created within you
and training He has accomplished in your life
and moves you into the role
He has designed you to fulfill.
I have brought all of this up today
because I see that same 3 phase process in the Lord’s opening words
to this church at Philadelphia.
Rev. 3:8 'I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.
You see, this was a church
that had grown through its time of training.
They had grown in power,
they had kept His Word,
and they had not denied His Name.
Their time had come.
But I think they had been intimidated
by all those other churches around them,
churches with great reputations
and impressive histories.
Like Moses after 40 years herding sheep
they had almost learned their lesson too well.
In this special message
to the Church at Philadelphia
the Lord writes to open their eyes
to the opportunity that’s right before them.
Its His way of saying,
"Don’t be afraid of the role I’ve given you. You can and you will handle it well."
He then goes on to promise them
great victory over those who were fighting against them,
and deliverance from a time of testing
that was coming over the world.
There’s one other phrase in this message to the church at Philadelphia
that I want to comment on before we close.
It’s that phrase where Christ describes them as having, "a little power...".
Did you notice that there isn’t even the slightest hint of criticism
in the way Christ uses that phrase?
In fact, it is worded in such a way
as to clearly be understood as
a word of praise from their God.
We might tend to read it
and find ourselves thinking,
"Well! Seems to me like they should have had a LOT of power. Must have been something wrong with them.
Lack of faith, probably.
If they would only have trusted God more,
they would have had more power."
But, you see,
unlike us,
God doesn’t grade on the curve.
And just as in that parable of the talents
in which the Master gave to one 5 talents
and to another 2 talents
and to another 1 talent,
he in no way criticized the 2 and 1 talent servants
because they didn’t have 5 talents like the guy next to them,
so He does not criticize this church
for having "a little power".
The power,
like the talents,
was given to them by God.
The question was not "how much power to you have?",
the question was simply,
"How will you choose to use
the power I have entrusted to you?"
Most of us are two and one talent folks,
we are "little power" people.
That’s was His choice for us,
and it’s a great place to be.
Our calling is simply
to be faithful with whatever position
and power He has chosen to entrust to us.