MAPS Global Sermons

Jesus wants to have a conversation with the Church in your city. In the Letter to the Church in Philadelphia, Jesus encourages and exhorts the people to persevere, hold fast, and fix their attention upon eternity. Jesus emphasizes His care for His people as He intervenes to open and shut doors, helping those who are persecuted and in difficulty to fulfill His will. He then lays out the rewards to those who overcome, promising that those who keep His Word are able to because they are being kept by Jesus.

Jesus wants to have a conversation with the Church in your city. In Jesus's letter to the Church in Sardis, He is asking the leaders and believers "Where is the most important place for your name to be known?" The Church in Sardis had fallen asleep spiritually, coasting on their reputation as a revival church. In reality, they had lost a deep desire for God's presence, a hunger for the Word, and had a dullness on their spirit in the midst of the busyness of ministry. Jesus calls the church to "wake up," take a hard look at the condition of their hearts, respond to His words, and align with reality.

The generation of the Lord's return will witness the greatest crisis that the earth has ever experienced as man's sin matures in unprecedented wickedness coinciding with the judgments of God in the nations. But that's not the end of the story! The most glorious days of the Church are coming when she is beatified in holiness, victorious in love, moving in power, and giving witness to the Gospel throughout the nations of the earth. We must be a people who declares and prepares for both the coming crisis and the coming glory, responding rightly to Jesus now as He prepares us to walk in the days ahead.

Fiery trials are part of Jesus' leadership over our lives to expose hidden areas of pride, self-exertion, selfish ambition, and by the grace of God produce greater measures of love and humility that will ultimately allow us to carry greater measures of authority and anointing. Walking through Song of Songs chapter 5, R.A. Martinez shares how worship in the midst of trials and accusation wins battles and provokes the nations to say "Who is your beloved that we may seek Him?" If we choose to worship instead of become bitter and offended, it will result in praise, glory, and honor as we see Jesus.

In this short break from The Seven Letters, Chris Carter speaks about the value we place on grieving losses in a healthy and holy way as a spiritual family. Allow your heart to soften as he shares a biblical basis for grief, the fruit that proper grieving produces, and tips for how to experience loss practically. We won't experience beauty without ashes, comfort without mourning, or joy without heaviness. Grief is a unique opportunity, even an invitation from heaven, to receive an anointing that comes when we enter into our own sorrow with God that allows us to enter into the sorrow of others so that they can find healing in our presence.

Jesus wants to have a conversation with the church in your city. R.A. Martinez looks at the letter to the church in Thyatira, the smallest church of Revelation 2-3. Yet, it was the longest letter penned by John from the mouth of Jesus. Jesus rebuked the church leaders for tolerating instead of confronting the teaching and influence of a woman He called Jezebel who was renowned not only in Thyatira but across the region for her teaching and gifting. Jesus is not moved by gifting and influence; He wants purity and holiness. The New Testament writers call us to test prophecy and hold fast to what is good. Here in Thyatira, the leadership must have the courage to confront the prophetic when it leads people away from devotion to Jesus and Sermon on the Mount lifestyles.

Jesus wants to have a conversation with the church in your city. Sherrie Moore explains how to the Church of Pergamum, Jesus speaks strongly to His people regarding the doctrine of compromise which was being tolerated. Why was He more concerned with this than Satan's throne in the midst of the city?

Jesus wants to have a conversation with the church in your city. R.A.Martinez looks at the letter to the church in Pergamum which is known as the city where Satan's seat was. Yet, Jesus's primary concern was not with Satanic influence in the city but compromise in His church. Many believers are unaware or unconcerned with the condition of their hearts while very concerned with the state of the world around them. The primary war that the saints are called to wage in this generation is the war to keep our hearts alive in love, purity, and obedience to Jesus.

"Jesus looked ahead at the glory of His Church, walking in the power of the Holy Spirit and in love for one another. He was looking at what all we would gain from His sacrifice. He began to gaze upon her as she shines in brilliant beauty in the midst of the darkness. Jesus was overwhelmed as He erupted in holy emotion crying, as an explosion happened in the heart of Jesus as it became a groan of intercession. The same desire that brought creation into existence was about to bring a new creation out of His own body."

In Christ, God has reconciled our history and is using it to launch us into our destiny. Satan is sowing seeds to try to steal, stall it out and supplant it with regret, bitterness and jealousy. It's time to renounce regret, uproot bitterness and refuse jealousy!