Talk

The Perfect Church Is on the Way

Louie Giglio

April, 28, 2024

This week, Louie wrapped up Revelation 2-3 by diving into the final five letters that Christ wrote to the Church, unpacking specific themes that help us understand how Christ is challenging the Church and what gets consumed when we return, discern, and endure.

At the center of heaven is Christ, loving and longing for His Church.

Revelation 22:12-17

He is commending and challenging the Church because He loves her.

Observations

There is a blaring focus in these letters on the person and the work of Satan. There is an intense spiritual battle raging on earth. It's costing people their lives, and it always has. The problem is many things, but the cause is Satan. There are human instruments, but there is a spiritual enemy. Are we focused on the people or aware of the anti-Christ spirit? The enemy of the Church isn't somebody, but it's people controlled by the enemy with a spirit that is anti-God and anti-Christ. We are more focused on people, and we need to be more focused on Satan. Let's elevate our thinking and understand we're in a spiritual battle, calling on Jesus instead of poking at people. Our battle is not against flesh and blood.

The Church is far from perfect, but she’s going to be (Ephesians 6:25-27). We're still here because Jesus is perfect. Jesus is purifying and calling us up. He is making her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and presenting her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

The Name is paramount to God. Taking God's name in vain means calling on Him like a vending machine or saying that we belong with Him even though we're infatuated with one hundred other names or not believing in Him.

The name Jesus is mentioned only six times, and Jesus only refers to Himself as Jesus once. He has dozens of other names to describe Himself. He calls Himself Jesus once to let you know that the Revelation is about Jesus.

He has a name that is higher, that is above any other name. Sin makes our lives about names, but Revelation makes our lives about THE name. Don't live for the name of someone else, for culture, or for a job. All of those things are less than the name of Jesus.

Make it all about the name of Jesus.

Return. Discern. Endure.

Something is getting consumed. What gets consumed? A drifting, waning, compromised, lukewarm, sleeping Church.

“

"You want to make your life count? Return, discern, endure, and make it all about one name."

”

Louie Giglio

Discussion Questions

In what ways have your eyes been opened to the spiritual battle happening around you?
Have you been relying on a spiritual experience from a long time ago to be what your faith lies in?
What doors has God opened/closed in your life?
Read Ephesians 6:12. How has reading this verse changed your perspective about the people and situations around you?
How has God been refining you in this season of life?
Do you sometimes treat God as a vending machine? Only calling on Him when you need something? How can you shift this thinking?
What has the enemy been trying to use to distract you from God?
Have you been living for the name of someone or something else?

Scripture References

“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.

Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you

this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”

17The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

“To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.

I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.

“To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.

I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.

So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.

I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you,

except to hold on to what you have until I come.’

To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—

that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’

—just as I have received authority from my Father.

I will also give that one the morning star.

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

“To the angel

of the church in Sardis write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits

of God and the seven stars.

I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.

Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.

Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.

The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

“To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:

These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.

I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.

Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.

I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.

The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name.

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

26to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,

27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

11I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war.

12His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself.

13He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.

27If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience.

28But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience.

29I am referring to the other person’s conscience, not yours. For why is my freedom being judged by another’s conscience?

30If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?

31So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

32Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—

33even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.

Louie Giglio

Louie Giglio is the Visionary Architect and Director of the Passion Movement, comprised of Passion Conferences, Passion City Church, Passion Publishing and sixstepsrecords, and the founder of Passion Institute.