I'm going to start off by asking a rhetorical question. Have you ever played with someone whose pre-shot routine looked completely ridiculous? Not because they were doing something wrong, but but because they were doing something necessary. They stand on the T box, pull out the driver, and then aim 30 yards left of the fairway. Not a little left, like the neighbor's fairway left. And at first you think, man, they've lost their mind. What are they aiming for? And then they swing, and the ball starts out exactly where they're aimed, and sure enough, it slices right back into the middle of the fairway. And suddenly it all makes sense. They aren't aiming at the fairway, they're aiming around the problem. And after a few holes, you realize something. This golfer knows exactly what's wrong, but instead of fixing his flaw, he's learned to just manage it. And that's where we are at the Church of Thyratyra. Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of Shantification in the middle of a series that we are looking at the churches of Revelation and what Jesus has to say to them. And today we're looking at the church in Thyatira. And honestly, this one hits close to home to me. Maybe it'll hit close to home to you too, because Thyatira isn't about people openly objecting God. It's not about people walking away from their faith. It's about people becoming comfortable with something they should have addressed. It's about tolerating what is quietly hurting them. And if we're honest, we've all done that on the golf course and in life. The interesting thing about Thyatira is that Jesus begins giving them praise. We pick up in Revelation 2, verse 18, he says, I know your deeds, your love and faith and service and perseverance, and all that you were doing more than you did at first. And that's impressive. These people weren't lazy, they weren't apathetic, they were serving, they were growing, loving, persevering. If you visited the church at Thyatira, you'd probably felt welcome and loved. Then Jesus says something surprising. In Revelation 2.20, he says, Nevertheless, I have this against you. You tolerate. And boom, there's the issue. Tolerance. Not ignorance, not weakness, tolerance. They knew something unhealthy was present, but they'd simply learned to live with it. And isn't that how most problems work? Very few things become destructive overnight. Usually they arrive quietly. At first, they bother us, then we excuse them, then we adapt to them. Eventually we just stop noticing them altogether. And what felt dangerous begins feeling normal. What once concerned us becomes a part of our everyday life. And before long, we're no longer fighting the problem. We're organizing our lives around it. And we as golfers do this all the time. A golfer develops a nasty slice, they try to fix it at first. They buy training aids, watch YouTube videos, take lessons, they try drills, they break it down with their buddies, and after a few weeks, the reality just sets in. Fixing the swing takes work. So instead, they just start aiming further left. They keep an extra handful of balls in their bag, and eventually they come remarkably skilled at managing the problem they never solved. If you've golfed long enough, you've met this person. You may be this person. And no judgment, we've all got something. I witnessed a firsthand example of this a few years ago at a bicycle shop of all places. My wife is a big cyclist, and I was there just kind of killing time while she was doing something with her bike. And there was a guy there who was clearly a very avid cyclist. He had a very expensive looking bike. He said all the right things. He wore all the right clothes. He looked like he had a lot of money. And he was just walking the walk of somebody you looked at after you heard them and said, Yeah, that guy's probably into cycling. He was talking about taking some weight off of his bicycle by replacing his seat post. Now the seat post is not very big, um, and it was going to save him, I think, maybe like 12 grams of weight. And this was not a cheap seat post. This was some, I don't know, rare metal from Uranus or something crazy. So he was going to spend hundreds of dollars on this seat post that was going to save him 12 grams of weight so he could go faster. Now, the funny thing that's missing in this visual that you're picturing is that no lie, the guy weighed about 350 pounds. And I was just thinking to myself, man, you could probably save a few hundred dollars by just skipping a meal tonight and saving the 12 grams of weight that way. Now, as funny as that story was to me and how ridiculously ironic it was, a depression kind of set in because if I'm being honest, that's kind of a thumbnail sketch of my life and probably most of our lives, there's something there that we just don't quite want to address. And I'll be honest, mine has always been anxiety. And there's places, there's things, there's people, there's moments that I avoid, and I'll make up something to justify why I can't put myself in that position. So instead of addressing the anxiety, which I have and it's gotten better, but what I like to do is slice around that fairway to avoid the anxiety, or one of the words I like to use to manage it. And I think that's one of the most dangerous words. It's manageable. Because manageable isn't the same thing as healthy. A golfer can manage a slice, a golfer can manage poor alignment, a golfer can manage bad tempo, that doesn't mean those things aren't costing them strokes. And likewise, we can manage bitterness, we can manage pride, we can manage resentment, we can manage unhealthy habits, we can manage anxiety. But just because we've learned to function with something doesn't mean God wants us to carry it. In Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1, the writer says, Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us. Notice the scripture mentions two categories, sin and hindrance. Some things are obviously wrong, others simply hold us back. Either way, they keep us from becoming who God created us to be. Imagine showing up to every round of golf carrying a 30-pound backpack, or really any activity you want to put in this place. Eventually, you're gonna get used to it. You'll adjust, you'll compensate, you'll figure out how to play around it, but you'll never play your best golf until you take it off. And many of us, I think, are doing the same thing spiritually. We're carrying attitudes, carrying habits, carrying wounds, carrying patterns of thinking. And after enough years, we stop asking whether they belong there. And that's why Jesus speaks so directly to Thyatira. They had good intentions, just very bad execution. Because Jesus loved them. A good golf instructor points out flaws because he wants improvement. A loving Savior points out flaws because he wants transformation. Ignoring the problem never produces growth, but addressing it does. Another great verse is found in Proverbs chapter 28, verse 13. It says, Whoever conceals their sin does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. And I love that verse because the promise isn't punishment, it's mercy. God doesn't reveal our flaws to shame us, he reveals them to heal us. And maybe that's the challenge Thyatira leaves us with today. What have we learned to aim around? What have we become comfortable managing? What have we tolerated for so long that it just feels normal? Maybe it's a relationship or a pattern of thinking, a previous sin, of shame and guilt and disappointment and rejection. Whatever the brokenness is, if it's quietly damaging our walk with Christ, it deserves our attention. Because the flaw we refuse to address today will still be costing us tomorrow. The good news is that Jesus doesn't simply point out the flaw. The same God who reveals the issue is the God who helps us overcome it. And sometimes the greatest breakthrough in life isn't learning something new, it's finally addressing something we've been compensating for for years. Because growth doesn't begin when we learn to manage the flaw. Growth begins when we decide to fix it. And if you know anything about how things grow in the social media world, it's all about shares and likes and post, reposting. So if you can do that, a review, a thumbs up, man, that would be awesome. That would mean the world to me. And thank you for all the texts and all the nice words that I hear on a regular basis. Uh, I enjoy doing these and I hope you like it. So until next time, this is Mark, and keep chasing better.