Welcome to Gateway Church's podcast. Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

So we're in a series called the Seven Churches of Revelation, and this week is the fourth church,

and the title of the message is, resist the enemy, resist the enemy.

This is the church at Thyatara, and Thyatara was the smallest city of the seven cities.

But they got the longest letter, and most of it wasn't good.

So they had a lot of good things going on, but this is kind of a famous letter because he's going to address the Jezebel spirit in this letter to this smallest one.

It's been interesting me to note the salutation of each letter in that, like, you know, Smyrna boasted that they were a city that was dead and came back to life,

and Jesus starts with, you know, I was dead and came back to life, you know. I'm the real one that came back to life.

And then Pergamon boasted that they carried the sword, and Jesus starts with my sword's bigger than yours, by the way.

I really carry the sword. So the reason I'm saying that is what did Thyatara boast about.

Now, before I tell you that, I forgot to tell you one thing. Well, this is something they boasted about, too.

Even though they were the smallest city, they boasted that they had the most trade guilds.

And a trade guild would be leather workers, potters, brass workers.

Today, we might say electricians, you know, whatever, and they would come together, but again, they would celebrate a false deity, and they would have sexual orgies of these.

So that's one thing they boasted about. But they boasted about something else. They had a statue of Apollo.

Apollo was the son of Zeus. So they boasted that they were the city of the son of God. That was their boasts.

We're the city where the son of God lives. So let me just show you here how Jesus starts out. Revelation 2 verse 18.

And to the angel, the church in Thyatara right, these things says the real son of God, the son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, his feet like fine brass.

I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience. And as far as your works, this is kind of cool.

The last are more than the first. In other words, you're getting better at good works.

Nevertheless, I have a few things against you because you allow that woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess.

You always need to be a little cautious when people call themselves something. You know, if they really are, you can figure it out.

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