Sunday 23 November 2025

Nollamara Church Of Christ Sermons.Raw transcript of meeting:

Date Of Sermon: 23 November 2025

Speaker: Morris Velasquez

Sermon Title: Seven Churches, one command: are you an overcomer?

Scripture Reading: Revelation 1:12-20

  📍 Yes. Yes. That's good. Okay. Today we were reading about lampstands, but in reality that is called menorah. The original name Menorah, it got, uh, seven arms, so branch means seven. The number of perfection in the Bible then is also they were used to put oil. Put, uh, lighting one of each, you know, in today's readings was talking about that is a symbol of the churches, but also today will be the symbols of our life because, uh, we are like that.

We need the oil of the Holy Spirit in our life. Because today when, uh, what I going to, to preach normally chooks many Sundays to preach about that. But, uh, we are going to do something special because, uh, during the week I was praying for this moment and the Lord was showing me, show me that. This sermon is necessary in our time to remember about, about this today.

My message is not about entertainment, is not about that. You're going to learn new information and really is, uh, divine evaluation. Think for a moment, just sings, just, uh. If today for Tado come Jesus Christ. Not like the humble lamo cat, but the one that we were reading today. The one with the eyes like fire.

He come today to this church with a letter for you. Evaluation or your spiritual life, something very personal for you. And then when you took that, what will say inside something like, uh, well done. My servant or will be. I have something against you

think for a moment because that is uh, what we are going to talk about. We are going to take two chapters of the Bible or Revelation two and three. We are going to explore very quick and then you will see exactly that is happening in these seven letters. There were seven churches were more than seven churches in that time.

The place was where today is Toia, but all the churches that the Lord choose to send this letter on. Also, the whole books of Revelation. We're in a role that you can visit one by one without any problem, but today's sermons is for you, is for me, is for all the Christians, is for all the churches. The Lord is saying Wake up church.

Yes, the Lord is. The Lord is saying, look at yourself. Examine your heart. The Lord is saying, come back to me. That is what I going to talk about. Seven churches. Seven diagnosis. Seven warnings. Seven Promise. But it's only just one question. Very important question. Are you a overcomer? That is the, this sermon is about that.

When you reading, when you read chapter two, chapter three, revelation, you will see seven churches. In here, in each church, the Lord rebel himself with power to each church. Then he praises each church, then he rebukes, then he calls to repentance. Then there is some promises. There is only us two churches that the Lord doesn't rebuke.

On the Church of Philadelphia Church Christ, know your works, your DIDs Christ. See your heart. We see from outside, but Jesus know what is inside your heart. Christ ex Exam. Exam examines your heart, your motives while you're doing. What are you doing at the moment? Christ confront your sins, but Christ also invite us to come back to kings once more.

My ceremony is not about something sentimental today. It's about to cut, to heal our heart, to confront, to restore our life. Let's go and see what happened in his church. But remember, no, it is not about the church. When you are seeing that, trying to see that is a representation of your life. Beautiful.

Perfection. The Lord wants to put the oil, the Holy Spirit in your life. See, the first church, Ephesus. Ephe was a church that lost her first love Jesus say to them, chapter two verse 1, 2 7. Jesus say to them, I know you works, but you have left your first love the church. Many time. We have many activities, many things that we want to do.

We want to be all the time doing something for God. But something that I saw in many churches, that many Christians, they have no intimacy with. God. The other church, they serve with the hands, but we not serving with our heart. We do the things because we need to do it, but it's more than that. The Lord wants our heart.

Lord wants our love. How was our first love? You remember the first time when you meet Jesus. I remember that time I was seven years old, but one day the pastor preached a message. That message touched my heart. I start to crying. I crying a lot. Then I pass to the front that receive Jesus in my heart.

After that, you know, I want to go and preach everywhere I want to be in the church. Every day. I want to study the Bible. I want to pray. I want to feel, listen to that. I want to feel the touch of God and the personal God in my life, but the time is passing on. Then, you know, even in small things like, uh, coming to the church many times for us become so difficult because we have, uh, many other things that we can do on a Sunday morning, but, uh, when we are in love is something different.

I remember when we started dating with my, with my wife, 14 years old, around that time, 14, 15 years old. We live far away. We have, uh, no WhatsApp, no Facebook, nothing. The only place we can sit together was at the church. Sometime I had to go to, to her place was, was far away. Sometimes I had to walk, but doesn't matter because I want to see her.

Even sometime my, my mother-in-law, ah, it's coming, coming again. But for me it was, doesn't matter because I want to be with this girl. You know what happened in our life when the, we forgot about that. We love Jesus. It's only just coming to the church. We have repla, we have replaced devotion with duty.

We are doing a lot of things, but with a Cold Spirit, we are singing just with our mouth. We read in the Bible with our mind what happened with our heart. I think it's time Church to remember what is the, the solution for them is remember. Where were you before? How was when you have the first love for Jesus?

Remember then say, repent, change. The original word for repent is if you going that way, you change the way the Lord say, repent the Lord, say, return to me. Come back to me once I once more again. Enjoy my present. Feel my presence once more time. Amen. Church number two, Smirna was a church Under pressure was a church that receive persecutions.

Jesus doesn't give to them rebuke, but say to them, don't fear, you are about to suffer. Sometime we believe that when we are Christian, we are not going to suffer that everything will be okay. The blessing of God will be in our life. The whole time will be no sickness, will be no pain. Everything will be happy in the family.

We have love, love, love around us, but Christian life is not like that. We have a lot of suffering, sickness, many things. For a smear not to be overcome means. Remain, remain faithful under the pressure. Something that is very difficult because when you pray for healing and nothing happen, it's so difficult to remain faithful.

But the sin is if, uh, listen, if you have a, a good job and suddenly you lost everything, it's difficult to remain faithful. But the the Lord is saying to this church, remain faithful under the pressure. It'll cost you a lot, tears, pain, suffering, but remain faithful. It's easy to sing when we have money, when we have health that's so difficult when we have problems.

It difficult to say, Lord, I love you when everything is going wrong. It difficult to pray when you are so sick. A difficult goal to come to a church, but something, maybe somebody say something to you that offended so much, but remain faithful even under the pressure. My question for you is, do you serve Christ when it's co.

Can you remain faithful when the life crash and put under pressure? You know, the suffering is very important. Even you say suffer, but it's very important because when suffering come to our life, reveals truly who are us inside when we have everything in our life. A beautiful life. No problems. You never know what is inside you, but come the pressure, what is inside you come out.

It's important that when the sin in your life come and days that the problem in your life, you can remain trusting in God. Many things you don't understand why is happening in your life. Remember this being we don't know we, our purpose in this life is not to understand everything that is happening in our life.

If you going trying to understand why you are sick, why that problem, why the situation, what happened that never, you will have an answer until you get there. But during the time. Be faithful to the Lord. Say, Lord, that's a matter what is happening in my life, but I going to serve you. I going to love you. I going to give my life today and forever.

Can you say amen? Number three, per what happened with Pergamum Chapter two, 12 to 70. The Lord say to Perga, you live where Satan throne is. What is the meaning of that? That church living in a place that ings a many situation, what's happening around there will be easy for them. Say, okay, everyone is doing the same.

I going to do the same. But the problem with them, this are rebuked from Jesus, from them, is because they were tolerating false teaching. False teaching. They, they didn't deny the faith. They didn't deny the faith, but they dilu it like, uh, they put coffee and then a load. The water was coffee or was water.

They like to do that sometimes in our life because we, something that I find out a lot. Most of the Christians have a three or four or five Bibles at home, but not everyone is reading the Bible. Not everyone we read once a week, once a month only. Just when we come to the church, how we, how we going, how we going to identify a false teaching.

How you need to know what is the truth to identify a false teaching that something was happening there. Sometimes, sometimes we see the scene as something normal because it say, okay, everyone doing the same. Why I not doing the same? Oh, that is something in the news I saw that is happening in the news that is happening everywhere.

Okay. I want to copy that. You know, the church, before we take Christians, we, we take a soul from the world into the kingdom of God. From the world, from the darkness into the kingdom of God. But the problem that we have as a church in the last day is the world. The darkness is coming into the church and the churches allowing many bad sins inside the church.

Until that we cannot see the difference if, uh, is the church anymore or what is happening inside the churches. That was the problem of pergamon. Sometime we compromise with the wall,

we compromise.

We didn't see the difference in the the darkness. And the light. We are like, uh, one feet in the darkness and one feet in the light during the week. We are in the wall

Sunday morning. We are the church. During the week, we forgot that we are sanctify. You know, the world. Holy in the original word is kado. Kado. You know the meaning of kadosh, meaning? The meaning is to be set apart. Set apart. If you are holy. Oh, I enjoyed the first songs. Thank you for the first songs. It was so beautiful to be holy.

He's saying, no. Now I belong to Jesus. I belong to Jesus. Jesus is my honor to be un holies, to belong to the world. So the church need to come back to the reality that we are a holy people and what the Lord say to Pergamum, repent. Repent, come back to me. If it's that your situation today is a time to repent in your life and come back to the goal to God, number four, th Revelation two 18 to 29.

That church. They have love. See, they have love. They have service, but they have a lady there called Jebel. Jebel was seducing, seducing all the people in the church. She was encouraged sexual sin, impurity, atory. Many bad sin was happening inside the church. You know why it's so important that the church we prayed, we pray as a church, not only as a private church, private prayer together as a church become, become more, more strong.

My question is why, what voices were listening sometime people is shaping our spiritual life, but people outside of the church. Because sometime we look for advice not inside, outside the church. And then we take that advice inside the church in everything, like a marriage. You know, the Bible is full of constantly about marriage, about sin in our life.

But sometime we go outside looking for another, another council. Then when come, we come back, we come, we come back with another way to see the things. What the Lord say to this lady, to jebel, I will throw her and thus who fall her into great tribulation on unless they repent. Listen, church, there is no overcoming but sings is tolerate right.

The church is not perfect. As a pastor, we try to do the best. To have a, a holy church, but all the time the sin is coming everywhere. But my question is why? What is our position where when we see sin inside our church, we tolerate, we say, okay, it's okay. This a problem. Leave the person like that. Or we see our church a place, but every life, every life have been changed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

You know what I saying here? We cannot close our door. The churches for people who are living in sin, that they need to repent. If somebody that is different to us come to a church, we we got, we have to say welcome. Welcome to a church, but then there is a process to change that life. I'm here because my life was changed by Jesus Christ.

If somebody no wasn't no changed, what would happen with that life? We are living in a life with living in sin. Number five, Sardis. The church that look alive was dead. Saudi has a very good reputation. It's a church, but was really not a church. The Lord say to them, you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.

So there are churches that are alive, churches that are dead. Oh, a church that is alive is a church that have a, a Lois and, uh, good loud music. And when everyone say hallelu, amen. That is a church that is alive. No, exactly, because we can make a lot of noise. But you are dead.

What, what he saying here? You know, it's about nice services. It is about nice songs. No is about to have a good preacher at the church, but the inside of the church is a power in the church. Is God moving with power among the church? The church have a, a prayer life in our church. Every Wednesday night we have a, our prayer service.

I always say Sunday, everyone comes, but for prayer service is another story. And prayer service show us how popular is Jesus at the church. Every, everyone wants to sing, but not everyone wants to pray. It's a huge difference. It is fire at the church, but it really means there is fire at the church. Do you feel the present at the church?

Do you feel that God is alive when you come to this place? You feel sad when you left display. You feel they show you the Lord in your life. When the people pray for you, when you hearing the praying something is happening in your life. You feel that the Lord is touching your, your life, something is changing in your life.

You believe in the power of prayer. You believe in the power. The Holy Spirit can change the things in the life. That is when the church is alive, but the church is. But Jesus is saying to the church, wake up strength. What remains sometime, you know, sometime. We like to live a church life and the dangers that the church become a club, a place when you see your friends.

Oh, hello. For a long time my friends are here. It's only us. The only scene that you come to a church, you see the friends, but the church is not love. The church I play with where you worship together. Here in the word of God and the place where the unsafe people is safe. When the the Lord heals, the Lord comfort and the Lord is alive, that is the church.

Oh, hallelujah. If your spiritual life is dying, Jesus Christ is calling you to a resurrection in your life. No performance just to be alive again. Number six, Philadelphia, the Faithful Church, chapter three, verse seven to 13 is one of the church that that Jesus doesn't rebukes. Why? They have a little strength, a lead to strength, but were great in faithfulness.

There was some faithfulness sometime. We want to have a big faith piece of faithfulness that never realize that we have a, a lead to beat and the Lord is looking for somebody that have a, a lead to beat, something that we can use for his glory. Don't, don't wait to have everything in your life. But if you have a little bit of strength, a little bit of faithfulness, that is the beginning.

That is something good in, in, in your life. Jesus say to them, I have place before you. I open door that no one can shoot. The Lord is not asking for much strength. The Lord is asking to the church, be faithful, church, be faithful. Doesn't matter what's happening in your life. Be faithful. Be overt if, uh, today you feel weak, maybe today, the day that you, you say, that would be my last Sunday, the church, the Lord saying, come on, walk again.

Be faithful. If we even you say, all my door have been shut, the Lord say will be more doors that will be open. If the door shut, there will be another door will be open. When the Lord opened the doors, no one can close the door. I remember this man, he was on a visa, a student visa in Australia. He was doing everything.

He was studying, studying, uh, in the uni, a master in business, and then was at the end of the business, say, pastor, can you pray for me? And then I pray for him and say, Lord, open a door for this man. Every door has been closed. And then after the prayer, after three months before the, the limit of the, the visa, a door open for him.

And that door was, he received a sponsor. Now it's after 10 years. Now he's a citizen of Australia. Something that was impossible, suddenly become possible. And then the last one, Laia, cia, the lake, the Luke Born church, chapter three, uh, verse 14 to 22. That is the most severe letter. LA was rich, comfortable, cons, confident, but the pro, the problem was they were blind, poor, and naked.

They believed that have everything, but the problem was they were not hot knuckle. They know in fire for God. And also, well, they were in the middle saying in the middle. Sometime being in the middle is not good. Luke born Christianity is a danger for our generation. We have a a Christianity that it is good to feel secure.

It's good to feel that way is enough to be safe. It's enough only as singing it's enough. Only say I believe. No way to match enough, enough Jesus to feel religious, no enough to surrender to much. We become a churches that, uh, we don't like to suffer. We don't like to go to tribulation. You know what, the state of the church before COVID.

And then you see what happened after COVID. What happened in many churches, I don't know it happened in the church, but in my church, many people doesn't come back. They leave the church and then they say, pastor, I prefer to see Stream Life, the service. I have many pastors in you too. It's better to come to the church.

I say, why is better to see you two instead to coming to the church? Okay, because, um, when I'm watching the service, I'm drinking coffee, eating, then somebody call me, I put mute and then can talk. Say, it's so easy if, uh, you know, someone say if, uh, sometime become asleep. You don't sleep. Nobody is saying Wake up, don't sleep at the church.

You know, it's more easy, more confident type way that way. The problem is that in that church, Jesus Christ was outside of the church, not inside of the church. Their brother, their sister, is so dangerous that Jesus is outside of the church. We need Jesus be inside of this church. We need Jesus walking around us.

We need to feel the presence of Jesus when the we're watching him. When listen to the word of God, Jesus is saying to the church, I am knocking. I know. Let me in. Let me in. Let me in. Sometimes happens to us. Wednesday night, especially the doors already, they are locked. Eight o'clock, we locked the door.

Also, if somebody come late, you need to let me in. I'm here. Let me in.

Jesus need to be inside the church, you know outside the church, but about your life is inside your heart. Or long ago you say, chia, leave me alone. And many months chia is saying, Hey, let me in in your life. Let me in in your life. You leave me alone outside many things that is happening in your life.

Because of that, you shout the door to Jesus Christ. It's time to repent. It's time to come back. I going to finish with that. What did the meaning to be? Overcomer. Because to the same church, it the same message. The one to the one who overcomes. It is not, it's talking about the, the people to come to the church every Sunday.

No, it's about the people who knows about the Bible. No, it's about the people who is agree with, uh, the preaching. Know about the people. How you feel in your heart to be overcome is the people who fights because one, to be in the race. To be overcome. The people who knows how to repent. You know, many people come to me, pastor, it's so difficult, the Christian life, so difficult because sometimes you want to do it and then you fall down in the, in the, in the scene as, and I say always to them the same.

That is a different, there are people who fall in the sink and they say, and the people say, all right. What I can do, how to live here. I am weak. Yes, I am weak. I will remain here. But there is another kind of people who fall and when they fall, say, oh, I fall to the Lord, but I don't belong here. I don't belong here.

I need to get out from here. I get up and they fight to get out from there and then continue to leave for God and they fall again and they say, no, I don't believe here. I don't belong here. I belong to Jesus Christ. They are in the fighting for God. I hope you are that kind of person. Overcoming means returning to your first love.

Overcoming means reminding faithful under pressure. Overcoming means reacting. The compromise. Overcoming mean, breaking the ties with sinful influences. Overcoming mean, walking with the spiritually, overcoming mean, walking to open doors, overcoming mean kin. The spiritual passion for God you believe. You can say amen.

Overcoming his perfection. The Lord is not asking for perfection, but asking for persistence. It's not a seamless life. But our life full of repentance. It's no, but it's evidence the Lord is asking to us. I got something else here. Yeah,

I don't find it something more big, so I found that one hourglass full of grains. See, our life is like that. When we want in this place,

our life is going, going, going, going until finish.

I don't know. In what stage of your life are in this moment? But something, the Lord say, I am knocking at the door. I am standing at the door. I am knocking. And your life, Jesus Christ is knocking because the time is running out. When you die, you say, can you pray for my, can you pray for my soul? No, no, no, no.

I We cannot pray for your soul. When you are alive, you have the change. When you die, you have no more change. The Lord is saying, now is the time. Will you overcome? Will you take the decision to overcome or will you drift? Will you repent or will you remain the same? Will you open the door? We have the picture there.

See, it's about that. Can you open the door?

I think the spirit is, it's Holy Spirit is speaking today, saying, wake up church, wake up, return to the Lord. Return, repent, overcome. And the promise to the overcomer say You overcome. You going to eat the tree of life. You going to receive a new name. You'll be close in white. You will sit in on his throne.

The river is eternal River. The ch the time is short. Are you coming?

Oh, I want to say more, many thing, more, but I think, I don't know. I, I lost with the time. I don't know

how you seen the, the picture the last s have you seen once in your life? Yeah, there are many Illustration was taken from that picture. One of them say that Leonardo Davin finished the picture or the painting, and I invite a friend for a private private show to the friend about the pic picture before to put in the, to display to the public.

When the, the front side saw the picture, they saw that in the hand of chia was a beautiful cup. When the, they saw the picture say, wow. The first thing he say, wow, what a beautiful cup you're painting there. And Leonardo become so angry. I say, okay, okay, okay. No, no. I don't want to show you anymore. What happened, Leonardo?

I didn't say any, anything wrong. No, no, no, no, no. And then past many months, and then invite again this time. The, the cap was gone. Instead of that, they make something different with the hands of Jesus and they say, what happened with the cap? It's gone. Why was so beautiful? Okay. You know what happened that day?

What you did is something that. I expecting what the people will say when they see me. A picture for first time, the first thing that you pointed was the cap, but that picture was not about, the cap is about Jesus. The first thing that I want the people to see, how beautiful is Jesus in this picture. Their church is not about the cup.

It is about how beautiful Jesus in your heart. Can we pray together? The Lord Jesus, thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for this morning. Lord, help us to come back to you. I don't know how is every life in this morning? But this in this morning, somebody that need to repent. You can pray right now saying, Lord, I need to change.

I need to repent. I need to take my life in a different way. Lord, help us to be different in many ways. In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, amen and amen. Be blessed in the name of Jesus Christ.