Intro / Review:
Progress Report: Sardis (Rev 3:1-6):
- The CRITICISM. Wake up! Because you're Dying, not thriving. (Rev 3:1-2)
- Live in the past
- Come to get not give
- Compromise on doctrine
- Ignore doctrine completely
- Have no accountability or challenge to grow
- The COMMAND. Stay woke! Because the Lord is Coming. (Rev 3:3)
- The CALL. Walke in white! Because you Belong to Christ! (Rev 3:4-6)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:40-00:51
Several years ago, before our family moved out to Chicago to plant this church, we have a very good friend. He is Nathaniel Geiser. He is a veterinarian.
00:52-00:54
We've known him forever, grew up together.
00:55-00:59
And before he moved to Chicago, he said, "I would like to spend some time with you guys before you go.
00:59-01:06
Let's do something that we can all do, you know, you two and the kids, obviously." So, being a veterinarian, it sort of made sense.
01:06-01:10
we went to Living Treasures Animal Park.
01:10-01:11
How many people know what Living Treasures is?
01:11-01:12
Right?
01:12-01:16
It's a little zoo up between Butler and Zaleno-- I think that-- or Butler and Newcastle, rather.
01:16-01:17
I think they have another one somewhere.
01:18-01:19
But anyways, we went to Living Treasures.
01:20-01:23
Well, we got to the part where there's the bird enclosure.
01:23-01:33
You know the bird enclosure, where you go in and you get the little thing of seed, and you go in and the birds just so trustingly land on your hand and eat from your hand?
01:33-01:36
well, Erin is not a big fan of birds.
01:37-01:37
She's just not.
01:38-01:41
And so Nathaniel was like, hey, you know what?
01:41-01:42
I'll take a kid.
01:42-01:43
You take a kid.
01:43-01:44
We can still do man-on-man coverage.
01:44-01:45
Erin doesn't have to go.
01:45-01:46
And we'll take the kids in.
01:46-01:47
I'm like, that's a great idea.
01:48-01:52
So Nathaniel was watching Owen, and I was supposed to be watching Cade.
01:53-01:55
And Cade, he was little at the time.
01:55-01:56
We've talked about this.
01:56-01:58
He was little at the time it happens.
01:59-02:00
Unfortunately, it happened to us.
02:01-02:11
But he was walking along the path, and there were these big decorative rocks, and he kind of stood up on top of one of the decorative rocks, and he jumped and spun around right on top of a cockatiel.
02:12-02:13
He didn't even know.
02:13-02:14
He just kept going about his business.
02:15-02:25
And I'm standing there, and the cockatiel was like-- it was just like feathers, and it was this big cloud of feathers, and then it stopped.
02:26-02:28
And I'm like, glad that's over.
02:29-02:34
Well, then I noticed this red scarf forming around its neck.
02:35-02:36
Yes, it is what you think it is.
02:38-02:40
Well, I'm gonna rewind here a second.
02:40-02:46
When I came in to the zoo, the girl working there knew us.
02:46-02:58
I didn't know who she was, but as soon as I walked in, she's like, "Hey, Pastor Jeff." I don't know who she was, but I'm like, "Hey, how's it going?" And, you know, so now I'm thinking, I gotta go talk to that girl.
02:58-03:01
and tell her what happens, and she knows me.
03:02-03:06
And she knows I'm a pastor, and for some reason that just felt like it made it a lot worse, I don't know.
03:07-03:45
So I went back to the front where you buy your ticket and get in, I said, "I'm so sorry, but I've got to tell you something." She's like, "What's the matter?" I said, "My son killed one of your cockatiel." And she was like, "Well, why do you feel so bad about it?" And I'm like, "Because usually when my family goes to the zoo, we don't kill the animals." And she said, and here's the point of this story, she said, "Are you sure it's dead?" And I said, "Let me put it this way. I'm no expert.
03:46-03:52
But my friend that brought us is an expert veterinarian, and he said the bird is dead.
03:53-03:59
I'm just going by what he said." I want you to think about that question and that scenario.
03:59-04:06
She said, "Are you sure it's dead?" And look at this church here in Revelation 3, we're in Sardis.
04:07-04:09
Look at verse one, partway down.
04:10-04:26
Jesus said, "You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead." Now, if the community in Sardis at this time would have heard Jesus' words, They would have asked Jesus the same question that that woman asked me.
04:27-04:40
"Are you sure it's dead?" And I would suggest to you, just as I was with an expert in the field, I would say that Jesus Christ is the expert on the health and vitality of the church. Amen?
04:40-04:44
And if Jesus says a church is dead, the church is what?
04:45-04:49
It's dead. It doesn't matter how the church looks to the world.
04:49-04:54
Jesus says, "I know your reputation. I know what everybody thinks about you.
04:55-05:09
But here's the reality. You're dead." It doesn't matter how a church, it doesn't matter, listen, it doesn't matter how this church looks to the world, the only thing that matters is how a church looks to Jesus Christ.
05:10-05:11
That's all that matters.
05:13-05:15
We're going through Revelation verse by verse.
05:15-05:16
Just to get us all caught up here.
05:17-05:19
Revelation was written by John.
05:19-05:22
He was exiled on the island of Patmos for preaching the gospel.
05:23-05:30
In chapter 1, Jesus shows up in all His majesty and all His glory and just completely overwhelms John.
05:31-05:40
And Jesus says, "John, I want you to write some things down." And the things that John wrote down we have in chapters 2 and 3, we're calling them progress reports for the churches.
05:41-05:46
These were written to seven churches in what was called Asia Minor at the time.
05:46-05:48
Today we call it Turkey.
05:48-05:52
But these messages are for all churches for all time.
05:53-05:55
Look at verse 1 again. Let's pick up chapter 3, verse 1.
05:56-06:08
"And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, 'The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.'" Pause there for a second.
06:08-06:10
Sardis was one of the greatest cities of the ancient world.
06:11-06:15
And in John's day, it was very prosperous, but it was decaying.
06:15-06:20
And the church was sort of like the city in which it resided.
06:21-06:26
And speaking of the church, interestingly, in this letter you're going to see here, there's no mention at all of persecution.
06:26-06:28
We've seen that throughout, haven't we?
06:28-06:31
Persecution, persecution, persecution, you're standing strong.
06:31-06:34
There is no mention of persecution in this church. Why?
06:35-06:41
Because Satan pays no attention to a church that is paying no attention to Jesus Christ.
06:42-06:49
Satan's like, "Not even going to waste my time on that one." That's how bad you're going to see this church was.
06:50-06:52
Jesus identifies Himself as the One.
06:52-06:55
You see that He has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
06:56-07:00
The seven spirits, that refers to the Holy Spirit in His fullness.
07:01-07:06
I brought this down, Isaiah 11.2 talks about the Holy Spirit.
07:06-07:18
One Spirit, who talks about the Holy Spirit in a sevenfold manifestation, His attributes, His character, and the seven stars are the seven messengers.
07:18-07:23
We talked about that. Are those messengers pastors? Are they actual angels?
07:24-07:27
And the answer is, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.
07:28-07:34
We're not so caught up on who's delivering the message as much as we are caught up on what does the message say, right?
07:34-07:36
You with me on that? Okay.
07:37-07:42
So this intro really serves to remind the church what it lacked, and that's the Holy Spirit.
07:42-07:49
Jesus said, "Here's what you need, the Holy Spirit." So progress report, Sardis.
07:49-07:58
The outline's a little shorter this week, unfortunately, because Sardis has the dubious distinction of having no commendation whatsoever.
07:59-08:05
Jesus really didn't have anything praiseworthy to note about this church as he did the other churches.
08:06-08:09
All right? So we're going to get straight to the criticism.
08:09-08:11
Drop this down in your outline. The criticism.
08:11-08:18
"Wake up, because you're dying, not thriving." Look at verse 1 again, where we left off.
08:18-08:26
Jesus said, "I know your works." You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
08:27-08:29
Again, this church would have been well attended.
08:30-08:32
It would have been well spoken of.
08:32-08:42
And as we look through this letter, you might get this picture in your head of this little church that only has, you know, like eight members and like, that's a dead church.
08:42-08:43
That's not the picture at all here.
08:44-08:51
Jesus said, "Your reputation is alive and popular." And that's where all the cool people go to church.
08:52-08:54
You have this awesome reputation in the community.
08:55-08:59
Everybody's going, "Things are really happening at that church." That's the church to go.
08:59-09:00
That's the church to take your kids.
09:00-09:02
That's the church you want your kids to go to youth group.
09:02-09:03
Things are really happening at that church.
09:03-09:05
And Jesus is like, yeah, you know what?
09:06-09:06
You're dead.
09:07-09:07
You're dead.
09:08-09:10
Let's talk about dead for a second.
09:11-09:12
Think of the human body.
09:13-09:15
When is a human body dead?
09:16-09:19
Someone say, well, a human body is dead when the heart stops.
09:19-09:19
Is that true?
09:20-09:26
No, because there are people whose heart have stopped and they use those electric things, what are those called?
09:27-09:27
Yeah, thank you.
09:27-09:29
The defibrillator pads, you hear, clear.
09:29-09:31
and they shocked their heart back into beating.
09:32-09:34
So a stopped heart doesn't mean you're dead.
09:35-09:39
Some people say, "Well, you're dead when you stop breathing." No, that's not true either, is it?
09:40-09:47
Because there have been people who have stopped breathing, who have been resuscitated, and so that's not true either.
09:48-09:49
When is a body dead?
09:50-09:56
Here's a very exact, clear, no bones about it, telltale sign.
09:57-09:59
A body is dead when the spirit leaves it.
10:00-10:02
When the spirit leaves the body, it's dead.
10:02-10:08
And the church, the Bible says the church is a body and Jesus is the head of the body.
10:09-10:11
And the spirit is what?
10:11-10:13
The spirit, the Holy Spirit.
10:14-10:19
The problem with Sardis was the Holy Spirit was not alive and active in the church.
10:20-10:22
And that wasn't the Holy Spirit's fault.
10:23-10:27
But you see, if a dead body is going to have the appearance of life.
10:28-10:38
Like Sardis, like this church, if a dead body is going to have the appearance of life, it isn't from within, it has to come from some external force to make it look alive.
10:39-10:40
Here's what I mean by that.
10:40-10:43
When I was a kid, I saw this really stupid movie.
10:43-10:47
It was called "Weekend at Bernie's." Now, I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand if you've seen that.
10:47-10:52
I will take the heat for admitting in front of all of you that as a kid, I saw that movie.
10:52-10:55
I can tell by the looks on some of your faces, Some of you have seen it too.
10:56-11:01
But if you haven't seen it, Weekend at Bernie's is about this guy named Bernie.
11:01-11:05
And I can't remember why, but he died.
11:05-11:10
And for some reason, it was very important that everybody thinks that Bernie is still alive.
11:12-11:13
Okay, I don't remember what that reason is.
11:13-11:21
So there were these two guys that were taking Bernie around with them and they were making him look like he was alive to everyone.
11:21-11:29
So everybody's like, "Oh, there's Bernie." And they were like grabbing his hand and they're like, "Hey, how are you doing?" And that was, like I said, it was a dumb movie.
11:29-11:31
But where was I going with this?
11:31-11:32
Oh, here's where I was going with this.
11:32-11:35
Some churches, some churches are like Bernie.
11:36-11:36
They're dead.
11:37-11:41
They look alive because they're being manipulated from the outside, not the inside.
11:42-11:43
Like manipulated how?
11:44-11:49
Talent, you get some really five-star, A-plus talented people that make it look like things are happening.
11:50-11:51
You're putting on quite a show.
11:52-11:53
Creativity, same way.
11:54-12:02
money, all these external things that we can pour into the church from the outside that makes it look to the whole community, wow, that's the place you want to go.
12:03-12:11
And Jesus is up in heaven going, "You're dead. You're dead." It's like watching Weekend at Bernie's again. Not that Jesus would watch it.
12:11-12:14
So, when is a body dead? It's when the spirit leaves.
12:14-12:16
But here's a bigger question. What kills a church?
12:17-12:19
Well, it's never swift like a heart attack.
12:20-12:23
It's always slow, like a type of cancer.
12:24-12:26
I had a whole giant list.
12:27-12:28
I'm just going to give you five here.
12:28-12:30
Jot these down. Five things that will kill a church.
12:30-12:32
Five things that will kill a church. I'm going to go through these quickly.
12:32-12:34
I could do a whole sermon on each of these.
12:36-12:37
Five things that will kill a church.
12:37-12:40
Number one, I'm sorry, little letter "a" on my outline.
12:40-12:42
Living in the past. Living in the past.
12:44-12:45
Tradition trumps everything.
12:46-12:59
"Oh, we can't do that. We've never done it that way." "Hey, let's think of some new methods of outreach and evangelism." "Let's think of some new ways we can reach our neighborhood for Christ." "Oh, we've never really done it that way." And tradition trumps everything.
13:00-13:01
That will kill a church.
13:02-13:04
Letter B, coming to get, not give.
13:05-13:08
Some people view church as the place where you go get services.
13:09-13:10
They'll watch my kids.
13:10-13:15
They'll disciple my teens, taking that responsibility off of me or whatever.
13:15-13:20
but they look at church as this place where you get services, where you get entertained.
13:20-13:23
It's as if the church is a football game.
13:23-13:25
Now, how many people have been to a football game?
13:25-13:28
If you've ever gone to watch a football game, let's talk about the Steelers.
13:28-13:30
Sorry, let's talk about the Steelers.
13:31-13:40
If you've ever gone to the Steeler game, I know I've been to like a couple in my life, but the couple times that I've gone, I've never walked in the front gate and they came and asked me to play.
13:40-13:43
Nor did I show up expecting to play, right?
13:43-13:45
You don't show up to this dealer game expecting to play.
13:46-13:48
And some people look at church that way.
13:49-13:54
"Look, I just show up as a spectator." That's not the way the church was designed.
13:54-14:00
Church is a body and individually we are parts of the body, all working together as a body.
14:01-14:05
This "get" not "give" focus makes us lose sight of the mission of the church.
14:06-14:13
If our mindset is we go to the church to get, we go to the church to get, we go to the church to get, We're not thinking about, "How do I reach out in the community?
14:13-14:26
How do I get involved in missions?" That's just not even on the radar, when the mindset is, "Church is the place I go to receive, not give." Letter C, what kills the church? Compromising on doctrine.
14:26-14:32
I really don't need to explain this one, because Jesus has explained this one repeatedly throughout these letters, hasn't He?
14:32-14:42
All these churches - not all - all this teaching we've seen in these churches of tolerating false teachers and compromising on doctrine, That will kill a church.
14:42-14:45
Start saying, "Well, I don't really believe that creation is literally true.
14:45-14:49
I don't really believe that revelation is literally true the way it's...
14:49-14:57
I don't really believe that Jesus literally died and resurrected." And you start compromising on those things, that will kill a church.
14:57-15:03
Letter D, in the same vein, not just compromising on doctrine, but ignoring doctrine completely.
15:03-15:04
Like, how does a church do that?
15:05-15:20
A church does that when the preacher gets up and doesn't say, "Open your Bible." A preacher gets up and says, "I'm going to tell you how to be a better employee at work in three easy steps.
15:20-15:34
You work with people that are negative, and you, by having a positive attitude, can change them, and you can make the workplace a positive attitude." Hey, I'm all for a positive attitude in the workplace, but that's not a sermon, okay?
15:35-15:41
Because that left out the most important thing the Holy Spirit uses, That's the Word of God.
15:42-15:48
Pep talks, motivational speeches, nothing offensive, nothing challenging, nothing calling to repentance.
15:49-15:52
The Holy Spirit of God works with the Word of God.
15:52-15:53
That's how He chooses to work.
15:54-16:06
That's why at Harvest Bible Chapel, whether it's me or somebody else gets up in this place for sermon time, it's going to be, "Open your Bibles too!" And we're going to look at a passage and see what God said.
16:06-16:08
Why? Because that's how the Holy Spirit works.
16:09-16:12
kill a church if you just have sermon time without the Bible.
16:13-16:17
And then letter E, have no accountability, no challenge to grow.
16:18-16:19
Have no accountability, no challenge to grow.
16:20-16:28
Small group is just fluff. We play games, we do crafts together, we watch TV, we watch Monday Night Football together, that's our small group.
16:28-16:32
Look, there's nothing wrong with playing games or doing crafts or watching TV, there's nothing wrong with that.
16:32-16:36
But when that is the focus of your small group, there's something majorly wrong with that.
16:37-16:40
Your small group wants to get together and do those things, great, do it.
16:41-16:44
But if that's the only thing your small group ever does together, that's a huge problem.
16:45-16:47
So all of these things, and like I said, I had a whole list.
16:47-16:51
I had about six or seven more that for the sake of time, I cut out.
16:51-16:53
All of them can really go under one heading, and that's this.
16:54-16:57
That's when a church does whatever can be done that doesn't require the Holy Spirit.
16:58-16:59
That's when a church is dead.
17:00-17:02
We'll just do whatever we can do that we don't need the Holy Spirit.
17:02-17:03
I'll call you if we need you.
17:04-17:05
That will kill a church.
17:06-17:09
"Well, Pastor Jeff, these are hard words." Well, Jesus is not done yet.
17:09-17:09
Look at verse two.
17:10-17:20
"Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God." Jesus is saying to this church, "You got to wake up.
17:21-17:38
You got to wake up." About a month or two ago, I was taking my Sunday afternoon, I go into like this little coma for a couple hours on Sunday afternoon and the smoke alarm went off and Erin runs in, she goes, "Wake up." And I was still like three quarters asleep.
17:38-17:42
I went out and was fidgeting with the smoke alarm thinking it was a false alarm.
17:43-17:52
And Aaron goes, "Wake up, there's actually a fire." We found out that one of my sons, I'm not gonna say who, but it's the older one, set fire to a garbage can.
17:52-17:57
And I go in the office and the whole garbage can's, whoo, how awake do you think I was then?
17:57-18:03
But the point is, urgency, "Wake up!" And that's Jesus in this passage.
18:03-18:05
He's like, "Listen, there's a real danger.
18:05-18:08
Don't just take the batteries out of the smoke alarm and go back to bed.
18:08-18:09
You got a problem here.
18:10-18:12
Wake up." Same urgency.
18:13-18:15
He says, "Wake up and strengthen." Do you see that?
18:15-18:22
"Strengthen what remains." It's like the campfire is out, it's smoking, and there's a few little embers.
18:23-18:27
Jesus said, "Those need gas on them." Like, well, how does that happen?
18:27-18:28
We're gonna see that in the next verse.
18:28-18:30
Jesus is gonna tell us in the next verse.
18:31-18:36
But each previous church was commended in some way, shape, or form for their works.
18:37-18:37
Not stardust.
18:38-18:57
What did Jesus say about their works? He says, "For I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God." "I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God." Jesus here is highlighting a truth that we all can resonate with, and that is this, "Incomplete things are lame, aren't they?" Incomplete things are lame.
18:58-19:00
Most of you are convinced by that, but some of you are not.
19:01-19:02
Incomplete things are lame.
19:03-19:07
If you're not sure about that, I'll give you some exercises you can try this week.
19:08-19:09
Pay half of a bill.
19:09-19:11
You get the electric bill, just pay half of it.
19:11-19:15
They're like, "You didn't send complete payment." They know that incomplete things are lame.
19:16-19:29
If you come to my house for dinner, like, "What are we having?" Like, "Here, chicken." "Oh, good, I love chicken." I'm like, "I'm glad you like chicken because it's half cooked." "So hungry?" "Students, do half of a school assignment." Turn that in.
19:29-19:39
Is your teacher gonna be like, "Well, you did half really well." Or is your teacher going to be like, "The trombone on the price is right." Ya boom, boom, boom, boom.
19:39-19:41
Like lame, lame.
19:43-19:54
Or imagine if Aaron's at work and I'm taking care of the kids and she comes home and she goes, "Jeff, did you feed the kids?" And I said, "I fed half of them." Lame, lame.
19:55-19:57
Or what if I just stopped the sermon now?
19:58-20:24
Like, "You're loved." And then later this week, somebody says to you, "Hey, how was church?" You would say, "Lame! It was lame! He preached half a sermon!" So, do you understand why when Jesus looks at these incomplete works, He's like, "Lame! Your works are lame because you're not finishing them!" What are incomplete works? Half-hearted? Wrong motives?
20:25-20:29
Maybe Sardis had great intentions, but no follow-through.
20:29-20:44
Some people were unsaved, some people lost their passion, but almost all of them, almost all of them in Sardis were just phoning it in and to them, Jesus said, "Wake up." That's the criticism, "Wake up." Number two, the command.
20:45-20:50
The command, "Stay woke because the Lord is coming." Stay woke because the Lord is coming.
20:51-20:54
Justin, Katie, is that, "Stay woke," is that still a cool thing that the kids are saying?
20:54-20:55
Fresh?
20:56-20:58
When I was putting this outline again, Justin, I know you'll appreciate this.
20:59-21:10
When I was putting this outline together, I thought to myself, "This might be the only chance in my ministry to have'stay woke' as a sermon point." And do you think I could pass that up? I could not.
21:11-21:11
It's in the text.
21:12-21:16
"Stay woke because the Lord is coming." Look at verse 3.
21:16-21:21
Jesus says, "Remember then what you received and heard.
21:21-21:23
Keep it." That's the "stay woke" part.
21:23-21:25
"Keep it and repent.
21:26-21:33
If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.
21:34-21:39
The question from the previous verse, how does a woken church strengthen what remains?
21:40-21:42
First of all, Jesus says, remember what you received and heard.
21:43-21:44
Well, what did you receive and hear?
21:45-21:46
The answer is the gospel.
21:47-21:49
Get back to the gospel, right?
21:50-21:53
Ryan Stroop, when he preached last summer, that was like the whole sermon, right?
21:54-21:55
Get back to the gospel.
21:55-22:00
Get back to when Jesus called you out of darkness into light.
22:00-22:01
Get back to that.
22:02-22:03
Get back to the gospel.
22:03-22:07
Turning from my sin and by faith, receiving Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
22:08-22:09
I am born again.
22:09-22:11
God's spirit lives within me.
22:11-22:12
I'm an ambassador for Christ.
22:12-22:18
I have the gift of eternal life and all of the promises of God's word are mine.
22:19-22:21
Jesus said, "Remember that?" He says, "Keep it.
22:22-22:29
"Keep that." Not what so many churches are guilty of, that we need to be on our guard.
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Not go after something new.
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You know, not just churches, but I think a lot of people do that.
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It's the idea that, well, things aren't right.
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I got to find something new.
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I got to grab onto the new thing or...
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No, get back to the foundation of God's word.
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Let God's truth be alive in you.
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And then he says to repent.
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We talked about that last week in Thyatira.
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Quick review, remember we said repentance You can have regret, that's like, "Oh, I was wrong, my bad." You can have remorse, that's, "Oh, I was wrong, my bad, and I feel really bad about that." Neither of those are repentance. Repentance goes to the third level, where you say, "Oh, I was wrong about that. I feel really bad about that, so I'm going to do something different about that." Jesus calls this church to repent because right beliefs are no good unless you live them.
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Jesus warns them, He says, "If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief.
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You will not know at what hour I will come against you." Matthew 24.42, Jesus said the same thing earlier in His ministry.
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"Therefore stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming." Do you see that? Stay awake. Stay awake.
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Because when it comes to the return of Jesus Christ, we all fall into one of two camps.
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The Bible says there are those who love His appearing.
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There are people, followers of Christ, who are looking forward to His return.
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Is today the day? Is today the day Jesus is going to come and make all things right?
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Is today the day He's going to start what He promised He was going to start?
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Is today the day? There are people who are looking for that.
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Who, like I said, the Bible says they love His appearing. That's one camp.
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The other camp, however, Jesus showing up was going to be like a thief in the night.
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Unexpected. I wasn't ready for that.
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I mean, the promise is sure, but the time is unknown.
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Like a thief. Like a thief in the night.
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That's a phrase used repeatedly in Scripture.
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If somebody's going to break into your house, it's not going to be when you're expecting it, when you're ready, when you're up cleaning your rifle.
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That's not when the thief shows up.
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A thief shows up when your guard is down, when you don't think he's coming.
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For many people, that's how Jesus is going to seem.
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His return? I wasn't ready.
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Look, in about 15 minutes, your life on earth, as you know it, is going to be over.
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Could you imagine, Jesus Christ returns, and you are living in sin.
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Could you imagine Jesus Christ returns, and you are living an unrepentant lifestyle?
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That's the worst thing a Christian can imagine.
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Being engaged in some Christ-dishonoring activity, and then Jesus shows up, and you're like, "Wait, wait, wait! I need more time!
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Honestly, Jesus, I was going to repent of that. I really was.
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I was going to repent of that, and it's too late." So the point here for staying woke, the remedy for faithfulness in the present...
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To kind of sum this all up, the remedy for faithfulness in the present is the past and the future. That's the remedy.
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The past and the future.
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Jesus is saying, "Look back at the glorious promises that I so lovingly and graciously gave you when you received me, and look ahead to the reality that I'm coming back." That's how you stay faithful in the present.
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Look back and look ahead.
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And finally, talk about the call. "Walk in white, because you belong to Christ." "Walk in white, because you belong to Christ." Look at verse 4.
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Jesus said, "Yet you still have a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments.
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And they will..." Here it is. "...walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
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The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments." Stop there for a second. What's all this garment stuff?
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Well, first of all, Jesus acknowledges there's a few faithful people in this dead church.
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Okay, that's about as close as we get to commendation for Sardis here.
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Jesus is like, "Well, you're not all off the rails.
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You have a few people..." I love how he says, "You have a few names." He knows who they are. He knows their names.
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He goes, "You have a few people that are faithful, and that's a great thing." Because this concept of garments, it symbolizes character.
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Isaiah 64.6, Jude 23, garments in the Bible symbolize character.
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And what Jesus was saying to these faithful, He said, "You sought to keep yourselves clean, truly clean, in a church whose members mostly have not." And if you legit seek to follow Jesus Christ, The Bible says you will someday be clothed with white garments.
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And these white garments symbolize purity and holiness.
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This is a whole other sermon.
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But these white garments, they're the same brand of clothes that Jesus Himself wears.
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It's a transfiguration, right? Matthew 17.2.
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Those were the garments Jesus was wearing.
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The angels, Matthew 28.3, were described as wearing these radiantly white garments.
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One of the words we throw around a lot in church is the word "grace".
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There's a lot of ways people define it, but here's my favorite definition of grace.
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Grace is God giving to us what He requires from us.
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Grace is God giving to us what He requires from us.
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And top of that list is holiness.
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God requires you to be perfectly holy.
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Show of hands, how many people here are perfectly holy?
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Not in and of yourself, none of us are.
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But God requires it.
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So like what, nobody's going to heaven? No, no.
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Here's where grace comes in.
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God gives to us what He requires from us.
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God requires us to be dressed in holiness to enter heaven.
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And He bought us these white garments, perfect holiness with the blood of His Son.
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Look at the rest of verse 5. He says, "And I will never blot his name out of the book of life." Now, "I will never blot his name out of the book of life." Some people look at this verse and say, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
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Does this mean you can lose your salvation?" People have launched into all kinds of weird stuff from this, which I think is so fascinating, because this verse is not a threat.
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This verse is a promise.
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Jesus is making a promise, "I will never blot your name out." Think about it this way.
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I've had this conversation with Cade many times in the past, where I said, "Cade, you are my son, and nothing will ever make you stop being my son." "Nothing will ever make you stop being my son." Now, when I had that conversation, he didn't walk away from that conversation going, "Stop being my son, stop being my son." Wait a minute, do you mean there's some way that I can stop being his son?
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He never thought that because he knew exactly what I meant.
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Nothing will ever stop that.
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And Jesus is making a similar promise right here.
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I will never blot your name out of the book of life.
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Some people are like, "Well, it sounds like Jesus is threatening their salvation." What?
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Do you even Bible?
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In the same way, nothing can make you stop being a child of God if you are a child of God.
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There's so many verses about this in the Bible, but John 10.28, it's one of my favorites.
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"I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand." If you're truly saved, nothing can take that from you. Nothing.
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Because Jesus said, "You're in His hand." So answer me, church, what is powerful enough to take something from the hand of Jesus?
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What's strong enough? Nothing!
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Does that sound like security to you?
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Because it sure sounds like it to me.
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And that's what Jesus is saying here.
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Your name is never going to be blotted out of the book of life.
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And finally, Jesus said, "I will confess His name before my Father and before His angels." "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." That last phrase Jesus said, "If you're tuned in, turn the volume up." But that "I will confess His name before my Father and before His angels," you're like, "Well, that sounds familiar." It should. Matthew 10.32.
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Jesus made that promise.
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What a day that's going to be for you.
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follower of Christ, what a day that's going to be for you.
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Jesus said that if you confess that Jesus is yours before man on the earth, he will confess that you are his before God Almighty.
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Can you imagine Jesus Christ before God, you're standing right there and Jesus is like, "She belongs to me.
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I love her. She is so faithful and she is mine." Jesus is going to say that to God. And the angels too. Which is also cool.
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So as I close, it just really hit me this week that Sardis' situation as a church, right here at this point, Jesus wrote this, their situation as a church was exactly like a situation that I was in personally many years ago.
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Many years ago, Aaron and I both, before we had kids, we went to the place where we went to work out, the Cubs Hall up in Butler, the old YMCA.
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And Aaron was in one part of the building, there's like the ladies part, and I was in the men's part of the building and exercising.
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And I felt really, really sick, just like sick to my stomach, felt really like dizzy.
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And I mean, I was working out hard.
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It was like treadmill and weights.
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And I was like really hitting it hard.
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I'm like, well, maybe I just exercise too hard, right?
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maybe I just kind of, I don't know.
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What's the medical term for that?
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I exercised too hard, I had no idea.
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I just felt worse and worse and worse and worse.
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And I found out later, I found out later that I actually had a lethal amount of carbon monoxide in my system.
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You're like, well, it wasn't lethal, you're still alive.
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Look, that's what the doctor said.
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The doctor said you have a lethal level of carbon monoxide in your system.
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But getting back to before I knew what was going on, And I just thought maybe I exercised too hard or whatever.
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At one point, I remember in the locker room, I laid down on the bench.
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And I thought to myself, if I can just rest for a couple minutes, maybe I'll feel better.
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And I put my head down on the bench, and I closed my eyes, and I thought, just a couple minutes, just let me rest for a couple minutes.
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And just then, there was nobody else in the building, and I found out later this definitely was not Aaron.
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But just then when I laid my head down, I heard a door slam.
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And to this day, I believe that was the Lord opening and slamming a door to give me a wake-up call.
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But I want you to just focus for a second me in that moment on the bench, putting my head down, closing my eyes.
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Freeze right there.
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The door slams, and I have two choices here.
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I can go back to sleep, or I can wake up.
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If I chose to remain, I would be dead.
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I would not be here today.
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if I chose to remain.
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But by waking up and moving, and Erin dragging me up the steps and out the door and to the hospital, she drove me to the hospital, she didn't drag me all the way to the hospital, but she did drag me up the steps.
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But getting up and moving, I lived.
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And the ministry that the Lord wanted to accomplish through me goes on.
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And some of you today, right now, spiritually, are lying on the bench.
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Some of you today, right now, are on the bench, and you're thinking, "I'm just going to lay my head back and rest a little." And that could be a death sentence for you.
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And this message is Jesus slamming the door, saying, "Wake up! Get moving!
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Get out these doors today and live your life for Jesus Christ." You bow your heads with me, please.
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Father in heaven, I pray that today is a wake-up call.
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Whether it's somebody listening here in this room, or somebody listening to this podcast later, there are people right now who are just laying on the bench, not wanting to strengthen what remains, not wanting to remember what has been heard and has been received.
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Father, I pray that we would take Jesus' words today as a wake-up call.
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just as this church was in its final breaths.
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There might be some people here in their final breaths.
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Father, I pray this is a wake-up call for our church.
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That as we continue to talk about facilities and expansion and building and ministry and staffing and all these things, Father, we know that they're important, but they can't take the priority of making disciples.
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They can't take the priority over loving You, loving Your Word, allowing your Holy Spirit to change us and challenge us and grow us.
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Father, we pray that you would find this church to be alive in the eyes of Christ, by His grace, by His power, just getting healthier.
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It's all for your glory, Father. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Revelation 3:1-6
GROUP
Have you ever attended / visited a “dead” church? What made you think it was dead? Describe it (no names, please!).
What did Jesus mean by “incomplete works” (Rev 3:2)? How do you evaluate works that are “complete”?
Specifically: how can a few believers in a dead church help wake the rest up (Rev 3:2-3)?
BREAKOUT
Pray for one another!