Intro / Review:
Progress Report: Laodicea. (Rev 3:14-22):
- The CRITICISM. Your lukewarmness makes Jesus Spew. (Rev 3:15-17)
- The COMMAND. Go after what Jesus Offers! (Rev 3:18-20)
- The CALL. Be Seated with Jesus. (Rev 3:21-22)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:40-00:45
Open up your Bibles with me please to Revelation chapter 3.
00:47-00:51
If you're visiting with us, we're going through the book of Revelation verse by verse.
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And we started in chapter 1, naturally, and we saw John the apostle was exiled on Patmos.
00:59-01:02
It was a prison island, and he was exiled there for preaching the gospel.
01:03-01:30
And while he was there, Jesus Christ showed up in all His majestic, radiant glory and said, "John, I want you to write some things down." And this section that we're looking at now, Revelation chapters 2 and 3, we're calling it "progress reports." These are reports that Jesus had for seven existing churches in what in that day was called Asia Minor, today it's the region called Turkey.
01:30-01:37
And in these letters, just like the other letters in the New Testament, these are messages for all churches of all time.
01:38-01:41
So today, we are going to be in Laodicea.
01:41-01:43
Look at verse 14.
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"And the angel of the church in Laodicea writes, 'The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.'" Now back then, just like in our day, Cities were known for having a great characteristic about them.
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Right?
02:05-02:08
There was something great about the city that everybody knew.
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You know what I'm talking about?
02:11-02:12
Let's just take Pittsburgh, for example.
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Pittsburgh is known for being great for what?
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Shout it out.
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I heard somebody say steel.
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Right?
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The steel city, right, were known for being great because of the steel city.
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Did I hear somebody say robotics?
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Sounds like somebody in the field.
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Actually, that's very true. What else is Pittsburgh known to be great for? Bridges!
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What's that? Potholes? No, great! Great! We're going for great! You know what, let's just stick with the stuff I have in my notes. How about that? I had sports, right?
02:46-03:28
City of Champions! And the Pirates. City of Champions! Then I thought of other cities that are known for something. I thought of Las Vegas. I mean, a lot of people think of Las Vegas as Sin City and it certainly has plenty of that but there's a lot of entertainment even family entertainment in Vegas and Vegas sort of has this reputation for being great for its entertainment and what about what about Cleveland okay not all cities are known for something great but Laodicea it was known for really three things one it was a it was a banking Number two, it was known for its black wool industry.
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And thirdly, it was known for producing a special medicine that goes on your eyes.
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The reason I'm telling you that is all of these things come into play when we get into this letter.
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Spoiler alert.
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Let's talk about the church, though. That's the city.
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The church, outwardly, this church would have been the most impressive of all the churches.
03:49-04:03
outwardly. But inwardly, you're going to see it's the most distressing of all the churches. Of all the seven churches, and this is seven of seven that we've looked at, this is the only church with zero praise.
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Jesus had nothing good to say about this church.
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So Jesus introduces Himself. If you look at these terms, first of all, Jesus says that He is the "Amen." It's used only here in the Bible to describe Jesus Christ.
04:20-04:37
It's a transliteration of the Hebrew word for "truth" or "certainty." In modern vernacular, we would say, "Jesus is the 'take it to the bank.'" When Jesus makes a promise, take it to the bank that He is going to fulfill His promise.
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And actually, the Bible says every promise of God is found in Jesus.
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Did you know that? 2 Corinthians 1.20?
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All of these things that God promises, every single thing is dependent upon Jesus Christ being who He is and accomplishing what He accomplished.
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Every promise in Jesus Christ, every promise in God's Word rather, is found in the person of Jesus Christ.
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When Jesus says, "I'm the Amen," we cannot possibly overstate the magnitude of such a statement.
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He says He's the faithful and true witness.
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Jesus is true because everything He speaks is truth, and vice versa.
05:17-05:20
Everything He speaks is truth because He is true.
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And Jesus says He's the beginning of the creation of God.
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Now this word for "beginning" in the Greek literally translates, "He is the source of creation." That's what that means.
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Literally, the Greek word is "source," or you could say "origin." Jesus is saying that He is the source of all things created.
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Church, I'd like to remind you that the truth of creation is foundation to everything we believe about God's Word.
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Everything finds its foundation on the truth of creation.
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Every false philosophy is grounded in evolution.
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If I don't believe God created me, then He has no authority in my life, and His Word has no place in my life.
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But Jesus says He is the beginning of the creation of God, the source, the origin of God's creation.
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So let's look at the progress reports.
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Number one, get right to the criticism.
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Like I said, there's nothing praiseworthy, no commendation.
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There's criticism.
06:17-06:24
Jot this down, "Your lukewarmness makes Jesus spew." You're like, "Really, Pastor Jeff? Spew?" That's what you're going with in your outline?
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That was the nicest way we could put this.
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"Your lukewarmness makes Jesus spew." Look at verse 15.
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Jesus said, "I know your works.
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You're neither cold nor hot.
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Would that you were either cold or hot!
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Stop there. This temperature language is a reference to Laodicea's water supply.
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You see, water was actually piped into the city through several miles of aqueducts.
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So when it finally arrived into the city, it wasn't like cool and refreshing, or it wasn't like a hot spring like some other cities had.
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It was kind of lukewarm and nasty and kind of useless as is.
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The obvious temperature figures of speech here Jesus is using, "hot," refers to being on fire for God.
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Fired up, walking in the Spirit, serving Him with joy.
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Jesus said, "That's not you." "Cold" refers to rejecting Christ, right?
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Completely disinterested in His Word, completely disinterested in His work, completely disinterested in His kingdom, want nothing to do with Bible, Jesus, church, anything that's cold.
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Jesus said, "Here's the problem. You're neither.
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And I wish that you were one or the other." They didn't reject the Gospel outwardly.
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They weren't standing outside the church with signs saying, "I hate the Bible" or something like that.
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They didn't reject the Gospel, but they weren't saved either.
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Like, "Wait a minute, how do you know they weren't saved?" Well, like I said before, there's no commendation.
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Some of you that were with us when we studied the church at Sardis, Jesus said, "You're a dead church," but do you remember Jesus said, "There's a few of you. There's a few of you that are still walking in the Spirit." There's a few of you.
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Leodicea didn't even get that.
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Jesus didn't even say, "There's a few of you." And another reason I think there's nobody saved in this church at all, jump down to the end of verse 17.
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Look at this list where Jesus describes it.
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We're going to get to this in a couple minutes.
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But Jesus said, "You are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked." Does that sound remotely what the Bible calls a Christian at all?
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No, it doesn't.
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So I think there was nobody in this church that was truly saved.
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You had a church full of pretenders.
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Well, they thought they were saved.
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That's the problem. That's the deception of lukewarmness.
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The deception of lukewarmness is this, "Hey, I'm good enough.
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I go to church, right? That's good.
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I'm not opposed to the gospel. That's good.
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Lukewarmness is good enough." And you see, that's why Jesus said, "I wish that you were hot or cold, but you're lukewarm." Maybe you have the question that I have, like, "Wait a minute.
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Why would Jesus rather they be cold, completely rejecting Him, than lukewarm?
09:20-09:22
Why would Jesus rather they be cold?
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as lukewarm is at least closer to hot, right?
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Like, why would Jesus rather they be cold than lukewarm?
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I'm going to tell you why.
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Because the cold church, as bad as it is, will just wither and die and not affect anyone.
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Right?
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They're not going to reach out and affect anyone.
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But the lukewarm church does more harm for the kingdom of Jesus Christ than just about anything else.
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Why? Because it's attractive.
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It's attractive to people who want to believe that lukewarm is okay.
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So you see this big church full of lukewarm people, like, "Hey, this is fantastic.
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You know, I've been looking for a little religion to make me feel better about myself.
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I've been looking for a church to attend, but not to serve.
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I'm looking for a place that isn't going to step on my toes, it's not going to hold me accountable, it's not going to challenge me.
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Welcome to the first church of Laodicea.
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You can attend here, and you can have a little religion, but let's not get too radical about it.
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"Dang, how do I sign up for that?" That's the problem.
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Look at verse 16, Jesus said, So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth." Their condition made Jesus sick.
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And I don't mean He is physically able to get sick.
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He's God. He's Almighty.
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But we don't have to explain what this means, do we?
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It's like coffee.
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Hot coffee is great.
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Who's with me on that?
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Hot coffee is great.
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I love this church so much.
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Hot coffee is great, right Mike?
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How many people here like cold coffee?
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Some of you like the frozen iced mocha frappuccino thing, whatever you call it.
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I don't know what you call it.
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I don't drink that kind.
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But my wife likes iced coffee.
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How many people just have a real passion for lukewarm coffee?
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Anybody?
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No.
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Of course not.
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Because you're intelligent.
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Lukewarm coffee is gross.
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And Jesus said to this church, "You're like lukewarm coffee to me, church. Gross!
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I wish you would either..." Here's what Jesus is saying. I'm trying to wrap your brain around this.
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He said, "I wish you'd either get fired up and follow me, or I wish you'd just stop pretending." Okay? Lukewarm.
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These are the hardest people to reach with the gospel, by the way.
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the hardest people by far to reach with the Gospel.
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Lukewarm people are even harder to reach than people who reject Jesus outrightly.
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Because rejecters, you see, at least they're not deceived about their condition.
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They're not pretending. They know they're lost.
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And they can at least see that they have a sin problem.
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That's why my brother Mark Horton and I, how many years did we go to the prison ministry?
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We've had this conversation.
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That's one of the things we liked about prison ministry, Sin was not a hard sell in there.
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You go in there, like, "Listen, you've got a problem with sin." And they're like, "What is this sin thing you speak of? I have no idea what you mean." Right, Mark? It was an easy sell, wasn't it?
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Like, they were like, "Yeah! Yeah! I've got a real sin problem!" Lukewarm people don't see that.
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They're like, "What are you talking about? I go to church every week." And there are people sitting here, week after week, who are lukewarm.
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And the question this morning is, are you one of them?
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Is there somebody here this morning that says, "You know, I like to come to this church, as long as there's nothing else going on." I'm really not going to get involved here.
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I don't really carry the worship or the truth from the Word with me when I leave.
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It just kind of stays there.
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And there's really nothing about my life that looks like a Jesus follower throughout the week.
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None of my co-workers would guess I go to church.
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I spend next to no time in prayer.
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Small group? No, no, no.
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I'm not getting into small group.
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I'm not into the whole prayer and accountability thing.
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No, no, no.
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Getting into the Bible myself, like spending time in God's Word myself?
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No, I'll just wait for church when they read it to me there.
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You're not opposed to coming here.
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You might even like coming here, but that's really the beginning and end of what you consider to be your walk with the Lord.
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Are you lukewarm?
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Who would confess that today?
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Who would confess that quietly in their own heart right now and say, "You know what?
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I'm not against the Gospel, but I am so far from being fired up for Jesus Christ." Who would confess that today?
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You can admit to yourself right in this moment, right now, like, "Yeah, you know what?
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I'm lukewarm. You're right. I'm lukewarm." And the real tragedy is you'll leave all about it. What's for lunch? Where do you want to go to lunch? And go on and live a life being self-deceived and ultimately be somebody who stands before Jesus and fulfills the hardest words in the entire Bible. Matthew chapter 7, Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy and cast all demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?
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Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. Depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.'" Those words were not addressed to gospel rejecters.
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Those words are being addressed to lukewarm people who thought they had a thing going on, but had nothing going on.
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Jesus said, "I never knew you." Yeah, you looked busy, and you thought you were, but you never had the relationship with Jesus Christ.
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How about you? Are you lukewarm?
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Why is there so much lukewarmness in the church?
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Look at verse 17. Look at the first part.
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Jesus said, "For you say, 'I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.'" We'd be completely honest, of these seven churches that we've studied, Some of you have been with us for all seven.
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Some of you have caught up online.
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Of these seven churches, which one do you think sounds like the most like the church in America?
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Which one?
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Right here, right?
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I am rich.
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I prospered. I need nothing.
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How many of us have said that going into Christmas?
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"What do you need for Christmas?" "I don't need anything." "I've said that." Let's be honest.
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We live in the Wexford, Cranberry area.
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Most of us here are not far out.
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Let's be honest, when was the last time you really needed something?
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I mean, really needed something.
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When was the last time you were desperate?
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When was the last time you were completely broken before God over your own heart's condition?
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When was the last time you cried out to God for provision?
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When was the last time you were on your face, tears soaking your floor, saying, "I need you, God!
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God, I need you now, and nothing else can save me, God.
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Nothing else can help me, God, it has to be you, God.
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I so desperately need you.
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When was the last time anybody in this room has been in that state?
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And I think we're more like the lukewarm church than any church.
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And we think, well, yeah, we do have an advantage being so financially secure.
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We have this advantage.
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And Jesus said, that's a disadvantage.
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It's a disadvantage.
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For you say, "I am rich, I prosper, and I need nothing." Jesus said, "That's your problem." Look at the next phrase.
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Jesus said, "Not realizing that you are wretched, "pitiable, poor, blind, and naked." Jesus said, "That's your true condition, "and that's really, again, the tragedy of lukewarmness.
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"You don't recognize how bad off you really are." That's the tragedy.
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You're just numb to it.
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Right now, and it's frustrating as a preacher, because right now, there's some people sitting here, and they're like, "What's he talking about? I have no idea.
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How much longer is he going to go? How long does he normally go?" Just like, not even there.
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Or if you do have some sense, "You know what, he's right, I'm not really that serious about my Christianity or whatever." If you do have some sense about that, the danger of lukewarmness is you don't care enough to do anything about it.
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You just get in the car and you're like, "Shucks, he was right.
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I should be more fired up for Jesus." And then go time to the Stiller's play.
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Right?
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So that's the condemnation.
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Let's look at the command.
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Go after what Jesus offers.
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Alright?
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Who's ready for some good news at this point?
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I am.
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The command.
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Go after what Jesus offers.
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Look at verse 18.
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"I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments, so that you may clothe yourselves, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and sad to anoint your eyes, so that you may see." What incredible graciousness on the part of our Lord.
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Even a church in this condition, Jesus still calls them to Himself.
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And here's the three things the city was known for that Jesus was offering them.
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Do you see that? Gold, clothes, that's the black wool, and sight, that's the eye medicine.
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Now you're like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
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You're talking about Jesus and I can't wait for you to buy from me?
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Like Jesus is selling these things?" Well, He's not teaching you can purchase these things with money.
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This is actually an invitation, much like the one in Isaiah 55, verse 1.
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Same invitation in the Old Testament.
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"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.
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And he who has no money, come, buy and eat.
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Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." It's the same kind of invitation.
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You see, the purchase price is to recognize your condition.
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The purchase price is to recognize how desperate you really are.
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These three things quickly, first of all, gold.
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What's the gold referred to?
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Gold refers to the priceless riches of salvation.
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1 Peter 1.7 talks about our salvation in Christ being more precious than gold.
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That's what he's calling them to.
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He goes, "Hey, you wealthy people that don't think you need anything, I think you need Me. Come to Me.
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Come to Me for salvation.
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The white garments.
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God clothes His people with white garments.
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We talked about that back in chapter 3.
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Verses 4 and 5.
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The significance there.
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God not only forgives you of your sin, He makes you holy.
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Isn't that awesome?
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God's not just like, "Ok, you're forgiven." He says, "I'm going to make you perfect." And we talked about that.
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You can listen to that whole sermon online.
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That's what the garments refer to.
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He makes us holy and righteous.
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He makes us perfect.
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Then the eyes have...
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See, they thought they could see, but Jesus said you're blind.
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And the Bible uses that terminology so often talking about spiritual truth, right?
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Like John 9, verses 40 and 41.
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Spiritual blindness.
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There were people literally that had Jesus right in front of them and they couldn't recognize Him for who He was, for who He is.
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People today have God's Word right in front of them.
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and recognize it for what it truly is.
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And Jesus said, "Hey, if you come to Me, I have a medicine that can fix that.
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I have salve that I can put on the eyes of your heart that can make you see who I am.
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Come and get these things from Me." These were very, very hard words from Christ.
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I'm sure it was hard for the church to hear.
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I'm sure this church that thought everything was rocking, I'm sure this was a bucket of cold water in the face to them.
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And I'm sure that there are people here today I'm like, wow, I was looking for more of a "be a nice co-worker" type of sermon.
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I wasn't expecting this. This is hard.
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Why is Jesus being so hard?
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Why is Jesus hitting us between the eyes so hard?
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Why is He doing that?
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Look at verse 19. Here's why He does this.
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"Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent." The reason these words are hard is because Jesus loves you.
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If Jesus didn't love you, and He saw your lukewarmness, He'd be like, "Those people make me sick.
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I want nothing to do with them." But it's because He loves you, that right now if you're feeling this sting, He's pursuing you.
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See, stuff is never going to satisfy you, but we live in this backwards mindset, don't we?
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and we have enough of Jesus, but we need more stuff.
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When the truth is we have enough stuff, we need more of Jesus.
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And the reason Jesus is so passionately going after this church, and every church that this message is preached to, is because He wants you to know, and you're going to discover this at some point, that your money can't give you what Jesus can.
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The money can't give you what Jesus can.
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Oh, I'm rich, I've prospered, I need nothing.
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How helpful is that when a family member dies?
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Suddenly it doesn't matter how much money you have in the bank because that money doesn't do anything for your inner peace, does it?
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But I know someone who does.
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Jesus Christ.
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You see, when your marriage is falling apart, it doesn't matter how big your paycheck is.
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Jesus can fix that.
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You know, when you lose your job, this job that you've tied so much of your time so much of your life, and this job has sort of become your identity, and then you lose the job?
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And you're like, "I'm so lost right now, because this job was like my everything.
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This job was my identity." And it doesn't matter how much money you stashed away from that job.
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Who or what is going to be able to truly establish your identity?
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The answer is Jesus Christ.
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When you're facing addiction, whether it's to a substance or pornography, or whatever your addiction is, and you find that your money and stuff can't break that addiction, you know, Jesus can.
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His Holy Spirit can.
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And we see that Jesus is fired up for these things.
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And Jesus is saying these harsh words purely because He loves you.
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And He wants what is best for you.
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And He is what is best for you.
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So open your eyes and wake up and mourn over your sin for real.
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and not just repent.
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Did you see what the text says?
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Jesus said, "Be zealous and repent." Don't repent like somebody is saying, "Okay, you're right, I guess maybe I'll think about trying harder, doing things different, making some changes." Zealously!
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Like, "I am going to go after this.
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Number one priority. Nothing else matters." Be zealous and repent.
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And allow Jesus Christ His rightful place as the Lord of your life.
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Look at verse 20.
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Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
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If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with Me." A lot of times this verse is used in an evangelical invitation sense, but it's bigger than that.
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Jesus was knocking on the door of the church.
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And that says a lot about His character, doesn't it?
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This is the God of the universe.
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Do you think He couldn't find a way in if He wanted in?
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Do you think He'd have a problem kicking the door down?
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I don't.
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But this speaks a lot about His character.
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Jesus doesn't force Himself in.
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He's not standing outside angrily screaming.
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He's just like, "Hey, I'd like in." Is there anybody in the church that will let me in?
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Because I would love to come in and hang out with you guys, and eat with you guys, and fellowship with you guys, and be a part of what you guys are doing.
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I would love to be a part of that.
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Is there anybody that would let me in?
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Today, if you hear the knock, open the door.
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Repent of your pride and your self-sufficiency and your gross, sick, nasty lukewarmness.
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Open the door and let Christ reign in you.
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And you see, that's not just going to have an impact on you, which is awesome.
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It's not just going to have an impact on you, it's going to have an impact on the entire church.
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If you'll open the door, if you hear Him knock.
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That's the command, go after what Jesus offers.
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And then number three, finally, the call.
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The call, be seated with Jesus.
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Look at verses 21 and 22.
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Jesus said, "The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with Me on My throne, as I also conquered and sat down with My Father on His throne.
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He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." That last verse, we've seen every letter, right?
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Jesus said, "If you're tuned in, turn the volume up." But look at the previous phrase where Jesus said, "He will grant you to sit with Him on His throne in the same way that He conquered and sat down with His Father on His throne." Is your heart able to fully embrace what a statement that is?
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In the same way Jesus sits down with His Father on His throne?
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Jesus said, "You can sit with Me like that." What? Reigning alongside Jesus Christ for eternity.
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You know, all of these promises that Jesus has given to the churches, these are all promises for you, if you accept them.
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Just a quick review, remember in Ephesus Jesus promised the Tree of Life, to live for eternity.
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The Spirit of Jesus promised you would not ever face the second death.
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In Pergamum, Jesus promised that God would give you a new name.
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And God always renames His people with great significance and purpose.
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To Thyatira, Jesus promised the Morning Star, that's Himself, but He also promised authority to lead, to reign with Him.
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To Sardis, Jesus promised white garments, that's the holiness that only God can give you, the perfection that we all so desperately long for that God freely provides.
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In Philadelphia, Jesus promised you could be a pillar in God's temple, and He was going to give you some sweet tattoos.
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Then we get to Laodicea.
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Jesus said, "You can sit on the throne alongside Me." So you've sort of put all of these things sort of into one basket, if such a thing were possible, if they make a basket that big.
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Can anything compare to these promises of Jesus Christ? Anything.
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Can you think of something greater?
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They'd be like, "You know what, Jeff? That sounds good.
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But do you know what would really sound cool?
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Is if Jesus offered... let's hear it." Can you think of anything greater than these promises? No!
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So the question today is, are you willing to forfeit all of these things He so freely and lovingly and graciously wants to give you because you're willing to be lukewarm?
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I'd like you to bow your heads, please.
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I'd like you to bow your heads and I want you to close your eyes.
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And I want you to do this because I don't want us looking around or distracted.
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I just want you to bow your head and close your eyes.
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And I want to ask, who today is willing to take an honest and serious look at themselves?
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Who here today is going to have the guts to admit, "You know what? I'm lukewarm.
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I'm certainly not opposed to church, but I'm certainly not fired up for Jesus Christ." Is there somebody here that would be willing to admit that?
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Is there somebody here that says, "That's me.
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And I'm feeling it right now, and I'm feeling the sting of God's Word, and I'm feeling the invitation that Jesus Christ gave Laodicea, that He's giving to me, that He's calling me to something better, because He loves me.
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My lukewarmness and my stuff and my complacency won't save me, it won't change me, it won't help me, but Jesus will.
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If that's you today, if that describes you, this is not a repeat-after-me kind of thing, but I want to lead you in a prayer.
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And I want to just sort of give you the concepts.
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Right now, if you're just in a place, you're like, I'm going to pray these words, and I'm going to mean them from my heart.
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I invite you to do that.
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But today has to be the day.
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First of all, pray to the Lord.
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Say, "God, I confess I am lukewarm." Pray that.
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From your heart, in your words, "God, I confess I'm lukewarm." And now, if this is you, if this is describing you, would you please confess before the Lord this truth?
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God, change does not happen without you.
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Can you confess that?
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"But God, I can't change myself.
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Only You can change me." Can you confess that before the Lord?
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And now, if this is you, I want you to pray the most dangerous prayer you'll ever pray, but it's also the greatest prayer you'll ever pray.
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At the same time, can you pray, "God, whatever it takes, set me on fire for You." Whatever it takes, set Me on fire for you.
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God, if you have to take something away from Me, God, if I have to face a trial that brings Me to the place that I have nothing else to do but fall on My face and cry out to You, God, if You grant Me to not sleep because the Holy Spirit is taking Me down to the mats, Whatever it takes. Whatever it takes.
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We pray that. Set me on fire for You.
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Heads bowed, eyes closed, between you and the Lord.
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If you prayed this prayer today, would you just raise your hand as a way of acknowledging that before the Lord?
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Would you raise your hand? Thank you. Thank you.
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Many here, thank you.
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Many here are taking that honest assessment and look.
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And Jesus pointed out so clearly that it is the man who cried out to God for mercy, that went home justified before God.
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The Father in heaven, you saw what was going on before any hands were raised to acknowledge.
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You know God.
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And I pray today that there are people here that can hear the sound of Jesus Christ knocking.
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There are people here that would see Jesus as the priceless treasure that He is, and have their eyes open to the completely irrational foolishness that it is to reject Him, to walk away from His promises and everything that He offers.
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How foolish, how sinful.
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And God, I pray that today is a new day.
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This is the first day of a different life for people who maybe are starting to get as sick of their lukewarmness as Jesus Christ is.
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Father, for all of us, set us on fire for You.
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Be our pearl of great price.
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In You we live and we move and we have our being.
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Be our Lord, our King, our Savior.
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All to Your glory and honor.
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We pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Revelation 3:14-22
GROUP
Do you think Jesus was addressing SAVED or UNSAVED people in Laodicea? Defend your answer!
How does Rev 3:17 describe the American church? Explain.
Why is Jesus so “hard” with the way He speaks to this church? How is He being loving and gracious (Rev 3:18-19)?
BREAKOUT
Are you, or have you been acting, lukewarm? This is your wake-up call. What’s your plan to repent (Rev 3:19)? Pray for one another!
