The 7 Churches of Revelation: Thyatira

Sunday Morning | June 14, 2026 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY

In this message to the church in Thyatira, Jesus teaches believers how to face the enemy within by remaining faithful to truth while surrounded by confusion and compromise. Although He commends the church for their love, faith, service, and perseverance, He confronts their tolerance of false teaching that was leading people away from God's standards. Pastor John emphasized the importance of seeking clarity through God's Word, facing sin with both patience and wisdom, and trusting faithful leaders who demonstrate conviction and courage. Drawing from the examples of the Jerusalem Council and Old Testament prophecies, the sermon reminded believers to stand firmly on the foundation of Jesus Christ and hold tightly to biblical truth, recognizing that compromise today can have lasting consequences for future generations.

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Transcript

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Thank you. Thank you, worship team and for our worship team helpers this morning. Thank you all. It was great to see the overflow of our week of Vacation Bible School. In fact, we should welcome many of our kids have joined us in the service today. This summer we're taking a break from. Normally they have a kids church, we call it Kids Zone, and over the course of the summer, we like to shake things up a little bit, give the workers a break, but also give the kids an opportunity to worship with us during that time. I love that we have Kids Zone, and I love that they're joining us this summer, so welcome them in. It might be maybe you might hear some different noises than normal on a given week. That's okay. That's part of it. We'll get through it together. In fact, I have a question that I think the kids can relate to, and maybe some adults as well. Who in here likes a good cookie? We know anybody like some cookies? Okay, there we go. Somebody really loves cookies. VBS was last week. I'm not handing any out this week. Don't get too excited. I personally am not that tempted by cookies. Not that big of a temptation. However, when my daughter makes chocolate chocolate chip cookies, there is one command I have is that she bake them all. Their better not be any cookie dough left around because the cookie dough is a big problem. I could end up with a basketball lump size cookie dough in my stomach if that's left sitting out. Cookies? No big deal. The cookie dough is a big temptation. I didn't hear any amens there, but that's okay. The key thing is to know what is your temptation? What is your struggle? How are you wired? We all have the thing out there. And of course it could be desserts. It could be some other issue in life. There's a whole realm of things that maybe others don't struggle with. But you might you might have a temptation in a certain area. In fact, sometimes I think we might even call it the enemy within. We face plenty of temptations out in the world that come from without. But what about within? We've got our own challenges to face. Last week we looked at the church in Pergamum. We've been walking through the churches in revelation chapter two and three. There are seven churches there. In fact, if you want to put up the map just as a reminder of how these churches are related, they follow us. Circuit. We started in Ephesus, went around to Smyrna, Pergamum. Today we'll be at Thira, Tara. And the letters are written in a order that follows the circuit. Many believe there was a road that was traveled. And this the letters were delivered by a circuit and they followed one on another. Last week, though with Pergamum it was all about the challenges they were facing in their community, the social pressures around them, the cultural pressures around them, the political pressures around them, and how that influenced the church and how to deal with that. This week we're going to look at the challenges within the church, the enemy within, and you got to know how to handle both because there are challenges from without, challenges from within. How does the church in Thyatira are going to handle that? Let's look together in revelation chapter two. We're going to read verses 18 through 29. So if you have a Bible, turn to revelation chapter two, revelations at the end of the Bible. If you don't have a Bible, we have those out in the lobby. We'd love to put one in your hands. That's for you to keep. Any page numbers on the screen will tie in to that specific Bible to help make it easier for you to find yourself. Find your way into navigate your way through the Bible. And I'm going to read verses 18 through 29. So if you would just stand with me while I read these, just as a sign of respect for the Word of God while we read it, I'll read it out loud and you can follow along in your Bible, revelation chapter two, verse 18. And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write the words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your works, your love and faith, and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sick bed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart. And I will give to each of you according to your works. But to the rest of you in Thyra Tara, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan to you, I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come, the one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end. To him I will give over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. You can be seated. Thyatira is a city, probably the least known, well known of the cities. We're going to look at. And of the churches we have the least amount of information about them. But yet it's the longest letter. We do have some background information. We know. For instance, bioterror was a city situated in a plain, and it didn't have a lot of natural defenses. As a result, it was often conquered and exchanged hands through different kingdoms, whatever kingdom came through. In fact, it was a province of Pergamum at one point, the city near it, until the Romans came in, took over, established control. And it was at that point they really started to develop their identity. Every city kind of has their identity. We talked about some of the nicknames of various cities last week. Pergamum developed this identity as kind of a garrison or an outpost for a Roman army, and they really became like a supply depot and as a result, a number of different. In fact, the phrase you'll want to write down it, they were known for their guilds or trades, right? A number of different ones developed there, largely in part to help be a supply to the needs of the military and everything that surrounded it. And if you've been in the military, you understand the need for all the support and supply around it. It's not just whoever is on the front lines, just as important as all the supplies, all the equipment. And at that stuff is developed well. And so number trades developed in fire tower. They became known for that. In fact, they really became caring deeply about their craftsmanship. It's not just yeah that we get this thing done, but we want to do it well. We want to excel. We want to make sure we're passing it on with apprenticeship and education, and they even kind of develop their own culture around that. Became known for this took good, great pride in their their guilds and their trades. In fact, the only other reference we have in Scripture to Thyatira, we've already looked at as a church. Do you remember when we studied the book of Philippians? We spent a lot of time. We spent many months in the book of Philippians and the first convert in the city of Philippi. Do you remember what her name was? Does anybody remember? You can shout it out if you remember Lydia. Right. And how was Lydia nicknamed, or what was she known for? What was her occupation or the reason she had traveled to Philippi from Terra? What was she called? Go ahead, shout it out. It's okay. Seller of purple. Right? Meaning she dealt in purple fabric. Purple fabric wasn't just any old normal, average fabric. They'd had to be dyed. It took intentionality, and it cost a lot of money to do that. You had to know how to do that well. And of course, she apparently was doing it well enough that she could travel around and sell it in other cities, not just in her hometown. And so you get a glimpse of that, that mindset. The city became known. And so it's really interesting to see how that plays out in how Jesus addresses Thyatira here. One of the things I haven't really drawn out yet, as we've studied these churches, is how the description of Jesus at the beginning of each letter mirrors some of what was said about him within the Book of Revelation. In fact, just look here back at verse 18. Look at how Jesus is described, because the way he is described here somehow relates not every time, but here especially relates to the situation of this city, to the situation of this church in this city. It describes him here as the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, whose feet are like burnished bronze. Now this first of all, connects back to chapter one. Jesus is described in chapter one. If you look back at verse 13, but notice some of the differences. I know where you dwell. I'm sorry. Chapter one, verse 13. In the midst of the lance, stand one like a son of man. He's called Son of man in chapter one here. Chapter two Son of God, a son of man, clothed with a long robe, with a golden sash around his chest, hairs of his head white like wool, like snow. And here we are. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace. A lot of descriptors here of Jesus. And he picked out of those these particular ones to address Terra. Now, why is that? We're going to talk more about some of this later. But let me just mention here right away, the people of fire attire would have known this message is for us, because that metal, that burnished bronze, which we would really probably call brass in our day and age, what we refer to was a metal that was known for being developed in Tara. It was very specific to that area. In fact, Thyatira was situated in between the copper mines. So brass is mostly copper, but copper is a very soft metal. I mean, it works great if you want to bend it for electricians, for the wires in the walls, of course, it conducts heat very well, but it's a soft metal. And so what they would do is they combine it. Copper mines were on one side of them, and then zinc was developed and refined down the road the other direction. They were landed in the middle. When you combine copper and zinc, it makes it a more durable metal, heavier metal, harder metal, which for them at the time even made it almost as valuable. Some say even maybe more valuable than gold because of how expensive it was to refine the zinc to get them combined, which made it great for money. We can we can make coins gold soft. It's going to degrade over time, not as durable, but we can make it from this metal. And so it became known for this metal in particular. They know when we hear this feet like burnished bronze, this message is talking to us. This is from us. If we're talking about the Derby, you know, we're talking to Louisville. This is specific to this city, this burnished bronze. This message is for us. Now, why would he say Jesus feet were like burnished bronze? Well, we'll get to why that is in a minute. But here's the point. They know their ears are perked up. This is for us. This relates to us. He understands our city, our culture, our needs, who we are. Now. Anytime you need to get to the enemy within, how do you approach that? We're going to see a number of different approaches here. What do you need to do? How do you need to go about it? The first way here that we see in this message in particular is to start with the positive. And he's going to do that here in this in this passage, Jesus needs to address some things. He needs to get to addressing the enemy within. But he starts with a positive. By the way, he doesn't do that with every church we saw at least one church we're going to see. He doesn't give any positive, but most of them, he's going to start with a positive. Here's what's going well. And by the way, let me just say this is a really good model to follow in your life when you need to correct someone or deal with something difficult. Parents listen. It is so easy to just get overwhelmed and focused on only what your kids are doing wrong, and focused on just pointing that out over and over again. Or spouses. Sometimes we can become too focused on the imperfections in our spouse and just forget about all the ways God has given you a wonderful spouse. Start with the positive. I mean, I remember having a boss like this. It seemed like all he ever did was point out the negative and I just got I didn't, I just wanted to avoid him. Just stay away from him. Can I do anything right? Yes I can. Please point out some of that. You see, he was just discouraging Downing. And so he starts with the positive. Look back at verse 19. Here's what he says. I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. And if you remember Ephesus when we studied Ephesus, this is the opposite of what he addressed with them, with them. Listen, I know your doctrine. It's so strong. But what did they lack? Love. They were lacking love. Yeah, you're spot on with your doctrine, but you're not very loving. That's a big problem here. He's starting out with the opposite. You guys are very loving, full of service. You're all about meeting the needs of the community. You're the church with the food pantry and the clothes closet and ministering to widows. You're there. And of course, we have those things as well. This is the church that's doing that, exceeding it. And it's the main emphasis of the church. We're going to be all about meeting all the needs and community. We're going to be heavily focused on that. Whatever the community needs, we're going to be there loving on them, serving on them, caring for them. And it gets better year after year after year. Your latter works exceed the first. You're growing stronger and stronger in that. That's a great way to start by praising a church. In fact, you hear that and you go, what's the negative here? That's pretty strong. What's the follow up? How could you then have a negative to point out about the church? Well, listen, we all have our strengths that also are probably going to have a challenge behind those out of balance. It could be a problem. So first he starts with the negative. But second here's what he's going to do. He's going to seek clarity in the midst of confusion. He's going to bring clarity to the area of confusion. All right. So he pointed out that the positive things are going well. But look here what the confusing part is. Where are things not going? Right. Where is the enemy? Come within. Look at verse 20, but I have this against you that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality, to eat food, sacrifice to idols. So the positive is, yes, you're loving, you're serving. But here's here's the issue. In the midst of their love, in the midst of their service, in the midst of meeting physical needs, they're lacking some discernment, some intentional discernment. And you've seen this. I'm sure you've seen this happen with churches that become all about the serving and the love. But forget that that's got to be rooted in something like God's Word. And so maybe that church will tolerate things that Scripture speaks clearly against and longer than they should. And by the way, by the way, it takes great wisdom to know when to address a problem in the church. There's a big difference between someone who's just young or immature in the faith versus someone who is clearly outwardly trying to deceive and manipulate and miss God in it. Look, there's a big difference between how you treat those, and it takes wisdom to know the difference. So at one measure, we all need to tolerate the sin of others because we all sin at some time or another. So we've got to know how to engage with each other with that. Okay, but what about when it is threatening to erode the church, threatening to undermine the church, threatening to divide the church from within? This is a serious problem we have here the woman Jezebel. And if you remember your Old Testament history, Jezebel married King Ahab, and she began to be a part of leading the people astray into the worship of idolatry. In fact, worship of Bale and you, probably you may remember that whole situation where the prophet Elijah comes and he gathers all the prophets of Baal, 450 of them. And he says, you try to sacrifice, you create fire. Have God your God's call down fire. I'll have my God do it. Let's see who wins. And of course, Elijah wins. And then they kill all the prophets. But then Jezebel had such a hole over the country, even though he just had utter domination. He runs and hides in fear of her. Even though he saw God rained down fire, still was afraid of her and her spirit. Of course, she wasn't physically in Thyatira, but what they're pointing out here is the person you've allowed to have influence here is carrying that same spirit, is leading the people astray, is intentionally leading them into idolatry and worship worship of false gods? In fact, the two things that are highlighted here, it's really interesting. The two things that are highlighted, the two things she are doing practice sexual immorality, eat food sacrificed to idols. If you remember back in acts when the church was just getting established and there was a lot of confusion, okay, what does it mean to be a Christian if you're a Gentile and not Jew? Because we thought all Christians came from Jews and there were certain things Jews did, but now we got Gentiles coming in and they don't understand our customs. And what do they need to do to be Christians? They need to follow all these things. They need to be circumcised, follow all the rules to follow all the laws. And the Jerusalem Council said, no, they don't have to do all that Gentiles. You don't have to become a Jew to be a Christian. You just got to do two things. And those two things refrain from sexual immorality, refrain from eating meat sacrificed to idols. Just two things. They just narrow it all down. Keep it really simple. And these are the very two things that are being attacked head on in this church. How do we respond to that? Right? Jesus sees this as very serious. How does he say to respond to that? Look at verse 23. Start with 22 behold, I will throw her onto a sick bed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into a great tribulation. Unless they repent of her works. I will strike her children dead. All the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart. I will give to each of you according to your works. And I realize as I was preparing this message, realizing this is the first Sunday where our kids are joining us, that maybe a whole passage about striking children dead isn't the best one for us to lead with. I think the emphasis here primarily is on spiritual children. What are you passing on to the next generation? What are we passing on? Are you passing on of faith that will live? Are you passing on of faith that will steer them the right direction? Are you passing on of faith that's going to point them away from Christ. That's going to lead them down or on wrong path? What are you passing on? When you know there's an enemy within the church, there comes a point. And here's number three in the outline. And this is what Jesus is calling them to do, where you've got to face the issue. When it becomes clear that this person is clearly trying to undermine the church, they're not just immature, they're not just doing their faith. They're not just excited about some new teaching and running on with it, but easily correctable, open to direction? No. Instead they are seeking to undermine, divide, misguide. I mean, it points out here, when it describes how she acts, she calls herself a prophetess. That's usually a red flag when someone studs up and says, hey, I'm a prophet. Listen to me, okay? Self-appointed prophet. What you want is the church affirming. You want the elders coming alongside and say, hey, we believe God is at work and what this person is teaching. Listen to them. Know the self-appointed prophet. I know better than anyone else. Listen to me. Not only self-appointed prophet, but it says she's teaching and seducing very intentionally, very clearly saying, I'm trying to take you off course. When that's clear, it's time to face the issue, by the way, within yourself as well face the issue. I'm going to give you four ways to do that here. And the lettering in your notes is off. It should be A, B, C, d, but it's right on screen and it's here in the text. This shows up right here. And what he says to them the first is practice patience. Look back at verse 21. Even Jesus says about Jezebel, I gave her time to repent. I gave her time. One of my favorite verses in scriptures in Psalm 103. The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in love. As far as the East is from the West. That's how far he removes our transgressions from us. He slow to anger. I think a lot of times we react to quick, we overreact, we we jump into something. When it can wait, it can simmer a little bit. It again, it takes time. Sometimes it takes wisdom to know. I remember Bob Russell saying that whenever they face, you know, he came and preached. He was the pastor at southeast for many years. He came and preached here month or two ago, he said, whenever they were trying to discern as a church how to deal with the problem, they would often ask this question is it the flu or is it cancer? Because you treat the two very differently, right? One you you're going to do all you can to get rid of it, to cut it out, make sure it's gone. The other you kind of got to maybe depending on what it is, just kind of wait it out, manage it, care for it. Treat it gently, carefully rest. Sometimes it's not obvious by the way which it is at first. Might take some time to determine practice patience when it comes to dealing with the enemy within. If you see someone doing something wrong, you don't immediately have to label them as Satan, right? You can wait. Let's see what God's doing here. Secondly, look at the second one here. Letter B seek wisdom. Look at verse 23. I will strike her children dead. All the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart. I love that phrase. He searches mind and heart. Actually, it's funny. The word mind there is actually the I don't know why they translate it this way, but it's usually translated as kidneys. I guess that doesn't work real well for us though. I don't say, hey, search your kidney real in depth to make sure your motives are right, that don't. We don't use that. But that combination at that time really pointed to the depth of who you are, the depths of your motivation. Search it deeply and that is an active verb search. And to do that, many times I can't understand my own motivations. I've got to find wisdom from others. I gotta bounce it off others. I got to seek insight for those who I consider to be wise. Yeah. Practice patience. And in the midst of needing patience, seek counsel. Seek out those you respect. Hey, listen, we have this situation. We're not quite sure. Is it the flu or is it cancer? We. Will you help us? I've got this thing I'm struggling with. Will you help me wrestle with it? Help me see how can I combat the enemy within? Practice patience, use wisdom, and then let her see. Trust those who have shown conviction and courage. Conviction and courage has already been displayed in Thyatira. This is really important to point out. I love that this is highlighted in this passage. Look over with verse 24 with me to the rest of you in Terra, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan to you, I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come. What this highlights is the reality that there was a group of people in this church that is combating the enemy within, allowing indiscriminately the enemy within, allowing someone to continue to teach heresy and undermine the church. But yet in the midst of that, there was a group of people who didn't give in, who were standing firm. There was a group of people who were saying, this isn't right. We can't just go along with what's being taught. And so when it comes time to address an issue like that, when it comes time to address the person who's intentionally trying to lead the church off course, or a ministry you're involved with, or maybe someone that you're related to in a friend group when it comes time to address them, here's what you want to do. You want to go to those who have you seen that they've stayed faithful through the storms? They didn't. They went this up and down reaction to everything. I'm going to immediately chase this new teaching and then I'm back. Here's another new one. I'm chasing it and then I'm back. No, they stayed faithful. They showed conviction and courage, even when every one else around them was saying, look, here's the best new thing out there that you need to follow the best new teacher. Lean on those who show courage and conviction, because what they're going to be able to do is to give you a foundation. In fact, I want to take you back to how Jesus was described. Do you remember this, how he was described at the beginning? Eyes like flaming fire. That's a picture of refinement. He's described that way later in the book of revelation, refinement and judgment. And they understood refining fire in a in a city of trades and guilds. They understood that in order to create metal, you needed something blazing hot and nothing could withstand it. They understood. This is a picture of judgment. We know what that's about. But they also understood what it meant to have feet like burnished bronze. Okay, this means and the reason he is saying this to them. Make sure your feet are a solid, firm foundation. You may remember in Daniel, do you remember the dream that the King had? Daniel was meant to interpret and his statue? What were his feet like? What were his feet made of? Does anybody remember what that was like? Iron. And what else? Clay. And what happened when those feet were struck? They crumbled. But when burnished bronze medal is hard as brass is put as the feet of Jesus. That is firm foundation. They understood both the value and the strength of that metal. They understood that they are being called to stand firm. In fact, that's what he said to them, to those who have not given in, to those who have not followed the deep things of Satan, hold fast to what you have until I come. Hold fast to the truth. In fact, the last thing will point out here when you are in the midst of facing the issue, when you are in the midst of dealing with the enemy within, look at letter D. Remember your foundation. Your foundation is Jesus. Come back to him. Heretics. Someone teaching heresy loves to come in and teach in a way. First of all, that's confusing. Have you noticed that? I've noticed it takes actually takes someone. Who's quite brilliant to make the complex simple. But it's the heretic that makes the simple complex, then make it seem like it's something only they have thought of and make it seem like it's a brand new idea. And for all the decades you've read the Bible, you've never seen it before. This thing that I'm presenting to you now as a brand new thing, and they stir up confusion. The First Corinthians 14 makes it clear God is not a God of confusion. He's a God of peace. He brings clarity. So make sure in the midst of the confusion to get back to the foundation in Christ. I just want to point out what he quotes here in verse 25. The one who conquers, who keeps my works until the end, to him I give authority over the nations. He will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces. Even as myself have received authority from the father, I will give him the morning star. This here is pointing us to Christ. This is a quote from Psalm chapter two. And if we had time, I'd take us there, and we'd read through Psalm two and unpack it at great length. We'll do that someday, for sure. I want to see us dig into the Psalms together. Here's the power of Psalm two. Here's where all this is coming together. Psalm two is a psalm all about pointing forward to a day when a messiah comes and set you free. Jesus is our firm foundation that we depend on, and this is what he's pointing out here. And here's the point. I'm going to leave you with this quote. It's a long, complex quote, and that's why I put it in your notes. But I want you to hear one thing in this. This is a quote from Francis Schaeffer. He's a Bible teacher who is very influential in my life, in Julie's life. And he makes the point. And here's why all this is important. Look at this quote. It should be on screen. It's in your notes. The generation of those who first give up biblical inerrancy may have a warm evangelical background and a real personal relationship with Jesus. If you give up on, you know, the Bible is true. It's trustworthy. I can depend on it. If you give up on that, you might still say, but I love Jesus, I follow him, and you might still be able to live as a Christian with that mindset. But look at the last sentence in this quote. Look at what he says after that. But what happens when the next generation tries to build on that? This is why we're memorizing Deuteronomy chapter six as a church, what are you passing on to the next generation? It's not just about me. What are you passing on? Are you given the next generation a firm foundation that can stand on? Are you passing on feet of clay and iron that will crumble? What are we passing on? This is why we have to fight for truth. When the enemy within shows up, we don't just hope maybe it'll go away or it'll take care of itself. You got to stand firm and fight for faithfulness. I want to end the message today by bringing someone up who is a powerful example of faithfulness, who have endured through the generations, who have stayed firm in the midst of ups and downs. In fact, I'm going to bring up now Larry and Charlotte Pierce. Would you guys mind coming down front? Welcome. Larry and Charlotte up, if you would. Larry and Charlotte both have been up front before. You know who they are. The thing I want to highlight about them today, and the reason we're having them up front today, is that today is or yesterday was their 70th wedding anniversary. I mean, how many of you aren't even 70 years old and they've been married that long? I saw a lot of hands shoot up for that one. Right. 70 years married. Larry, I want to ask you, what have been some of the keys to staying faithful that long? How have you guys been able to last 70 years and share with us some of your wisdom, please. Oh, can I just use your own words? You know. Sure. Please. The foundation has to be Jesus. And that's what he just ended his sermon with. We started our marriage really wrong. She wasn't a Christian, and I knew what the scripture said about marrying a Christian. She was saved in a revival service three months after we were married and we started. Then a nightly time together in in devotion and prayer. And what I learned from that is that the more we got closer to God, we were getting closer to each other. And so this is what we fell back on each time when, when issues come and and believe me, issues came. We had issues. We've always. But but we still know each other and we still like each other. So that's worked for us. I can't give you no simple formula for marriage, but God did watch over our relationship and God kept us together and he kept us alive this long. So it's all him. It's not anything we do. It's not what I'm eating. It's not what we're doing in our spare time. It's. It's God, and he has done it. Now, you said that you had some daily practices that really helped you submit your relationship in Christ. Together we we do have. Right after she got saved, we started. We do a devotional at night. We do our Bible studies and our our prayer time separately of a morning. But at night we started reading a devotional scripture and praying. And what we started was on the even days of the month, I would read Scripture and she would pray, and on the odd days of the month she would read the Scripture and I would pray. And and we always went to get to bed together. And so, you know, even if we'd had a bad day and, and we started toward bed with some issues, the Bible study and prayer sort of took them away. And it's amazing what praying for each other out loud does to a spirit that is troubled or upset or mad about something, it just sort of wipes it out. And you know, when you hear your your spouse praying for you, when you've just had words or you've had disagreements, you can't live together for 70 years without having some disagreements and some problems. But God is bigger than that. But you just have to allow him to be God. And you have to remember, you know, that it's all about him. It's I don't know why he's left us here this long, but I'm thankful he has. We're we're still enjoying being husband and wife, just like us, started Charlotte. Anything to correct their. No. Okay. Lastly, just one last question. Tell us about your wedding day. Oh, yeah. The wedding. Wedding was special. If you remember, I was living in Lebanon, Kentucky at the time. I had just taken a job as a manager trainee for Southern States Cooperative. After I got out of college. And we met in college, I had gone back an extra semester because I had some. I still had a semester eligibility in cross country and I didn't want to give that up. So I sort of scaled back my senior year and and ran my extra year of cross country. And that happened to be the year that she came as a freshman and we met. And so after her freshman year, after I just started in March in Lebanon, she got on a bus in West Virginia and, and rode the bus to Berea. And I went over and picked her up, and I put her in a furnished apartment in Lebanon on Monday night. And I was living in a sleeping room across town. Wednesday morning we got up and drove to Jeffersonville, Indiana. I stopped at the first marriage parlor on the right and got married and and went back to Lebanon. I just had one day off from work because I just had started three months ago, and I had one day off, went back to Lebanon, I went to drive in, had chili dogs and and that was it. And then the 70 years started right then. That's how it worked. Thank you all. Yeah. We got one more thing. Phil's their son. He's bringing them up some flowers from the church. Just as a way to say thank you for your 70 years. It's a very small gesture, but thank you, guys. Just stay up here with them. You stay right here. Phil, let's all stand and I'll have us a closing prayer of blessing. Thank you. Let's come up and say hi to them. Encourage them, and if they need, they may take a seat, but say thank you to them. How often do you see this? I know we've all had different journeys. Some maybe a dream of staying together was broken. I, I know that's out there. And yet we also want to celebrate when God works in someone's life. Even with an interesting start. 70 years of faithfulness. God, I pray that our church that we would be a church that is faithful to you, that is faithful to one another, and we're going to have ups and downs, and we can't control what other people might do and our lives face challenges. I thank you for Larry and Charlotte and their amazing testimony of 70 years. May this be an employment and encouragement to our church today, and help us to walk in faithfulness to you. And so my prayer for you today is that the Lord would bless you and keep you, that his face would shine upon you and be gracious to you. You feel the fullness of his presence in your life and you'd walk in peace. We love you, Jesus. We pray in your name. Amen. Have a great day. Go in peace.