Laodicea, The Church of Compromise - Brother Christian Torres

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Brother Christian Torres takes a dive into Revelation chapter 3, to discuss the church of Laodicea

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Now I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel, it wasn't their military styles, it wasn't the type of people presented there.
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Good morning church. We're going to be in the book of Revelation this morning.
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Revelation chapter 3 verses 14 through 22. Now before I begin,
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I'd like to thank the pastoral ministry of this church. Today, I value today a lot because today the shepherds are sitting down and they're allowing me to teach their flock.
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And so I take that to heart. I'm privileged to be here this morning to bring you the word of God.
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And I've studied for countless hours to make sure that I bring forth good words.
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Truthful words. And so I will begin by praying to make sure that everything
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I say is in accordance to the word of God. Let us pray. Lord, you are sovereign over all.
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Lord, your word is absolute and final in everything that it touches. I am what it says that I am, and I was what it says that I was.
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Lord, I ask that when the word of God is spoken, we may take it to heart.
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That we may apply it. And that we may leave here never the same. Let us walk out changed, different.
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Not because I was preaching, but because the word of God was actually spoken. In Jesus' name, amen.
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So one thing that I'd like to do, church, is I'd like to publicly read Revelation chapter 3 verses 14 through 22.
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I'd like for us to stand as we read it together. I have the ESV version, but the handout,
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I actually put the ESV version on there. And what I would like for us to do is everybody in the room read it as I read it.
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So that everybody reads the word of God, not just me. I believe there's power in the public reading of scripture.
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Revelation chapter 3, starting at verse 14, says this. And to the angel of the church in Laodicea, write the words of the amen.
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The faithful and true witness. The beginning of God's creation. I know your works.
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You are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold,
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I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered,
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I need nothing. Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.
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I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich.
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And white garments, so that you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen.
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And salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love,
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I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and I knock.
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If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me.
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The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne.
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Also as I have conquered and sat down with my Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the
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Spirit says to the churches. You may have a seat. This morning we're going to be talking about the
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Church of Laodicea. Now, it's pretty interesting that I only get like one or two shots to teach in front of everybody, and I choose one of the hardest books of the
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Bible. But chapter 2 and chapter 3 of the book of Revelation are letters written by Christ to seven churches who lived in modern day
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Turkey in Asia Minor. The rest is prophetic and, you know, future events.
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But before Christ got to those events, He wanted to address seven churches. And the goal for me today is for you guys to look and see what
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Christ said to those churches. Because we stand at a place of great privilege.
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Because we get to see where they failed. And we get to learn from their mistakes.
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A couple of weeks ago I taught in the book of Ecclesiastes, and I made a comment about it. The Bible is canned knowledge.
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It's canned experience. You don't have to experience life yourself. Read the Word of God. Learn from their mistakes so that you don't fall in the same way they fell.
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Revelation was written around 90 AD by the Apostle John. And when
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He addressed, when Jesus addressed the churches, He gave them good things. He commended them.
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But oftentimes, He judged them for things they were doing wrong. For the church in Ephesus, they had good doctrine.
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But they had lost their first love. In the church in Smyrna, they were enduring suffering.
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And Christ had nothing wrong to say to them. They were perfect in the way they were.
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They were enduring suffering. The church in Pergamum was loyal to Christ.
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But they tolerated heresy and false teaching. The church in Thyatira, they had constant improvement.
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And they were always doing something better. Better BBS, better sermons, better attendance.
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But they had this wrong with them. They tolerated sexual immorality. The church in Sardis, they only had a few faithful Christians.
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Their only compliment was that they had just a few people in their midst that were faithful. The rest were spiritually dead, as Jesus puts it.
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The church in Philadelphia was spiritually alive. And guess what? Christ had nothing wrong to say about them.
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They were spiritually alive. Now we get to the last church. And I do mean the last church.
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Because when Christ addressed the church in Laodicea, He had no compliments.
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They were doing nothing right. Absolutely nothing. Could you imagine?
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Christ writes us a letter. And He has nothing good to say? Tragic. He said that they were lukewarm.
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And we are going to study this letter and hope that we never fall into this category. Starting at verse 14.
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And to the angel of the church in Laodicea writes, The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.
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Start off that word angel, in the Greek it's angelos. And it means messenger. So this letter is most likely written to the pastor.
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Hey pastor, this is for you. You read this in front of your flock. So for anybody wanting to be a pastor, just remember,
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Christ will go to the pastor before he goes to the church. Because they're responsible. Now look at this title that the
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Lord gives Himself. The words of the Amen. Now, I heard some of you guys say
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Amen in here today. What does it mean when the Lord says, I am the Amen? Well, in order to know, we can't just say
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Amen without knowing what it means. Amen can simply be truly. Truly.
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Verily. Jesus used it a lot. Whenever He wanted to emphasize something like, hey, this is very true.
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Amen. Amen is a statement of agreement. It is saying that whatever that person is saying, is 100 % true and I agree with it completely.
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So when Christ is saying, I am the Amen, He's saying that I validate truth.
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All truth comes from me and only from me. That apart from me, there is no truth.
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The church had forgotten who He was truly. He is the Amen. Christ is the validation of all truth since He is the source of all truth.
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And this church had forgotten that. He is the faithful and true witness. In a court setting, we understand how important a witness is to a case.
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A witness can change the course of the case. Christ comes as a witness against the church.
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As we read, the church said, we're good. We're rich. We've prospered. We don't need anything. But here comes the true witness to the stand.
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No, they're guilty. Completely guilty. And this is the church we're talking about right here.
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We're not talking about unbelievers. We're talking about the church of Laodicea. Christ's words are absolute, supreme in power and final.
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When Christ steps forward and He says, hey, this is true. Everyone says Amen because it is.
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No doubt about it. The church of Laodicea needed a true witness because they were not witnessing themselves properly.
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They thought they were good when they were not. One of the worst things, one of the worst qualities a person can have is to not have the ability of self -awareness.
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To not be self -aware of where you at today. That's the worst thing that can happen because you can't fix a problem that you don't know exists.
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The first step in solving a problem is admitting that there is one. And the Lord Jesus Christ is stepping forward and saying, there's a problem.
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Here's the Amen. The faithful and true witness. The beginning of God's creation.
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I like the way that King James puts it. The origin of God's creation. Christ isn't saying
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He's the beginning as in like He was the first thing created. It means that in Genesis chapter 1 verse 1,
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Jesus is saying, that was me. Light? Yeah, that was me. I did that.
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I am the beginning. I started everything. That's a verse for the deity of Christ.
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No man can say that. And Christ comes to His church and says, I was in the beginning.
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I know everything. Not only is He the true witness, but He has all knowledge in His hand.
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And so whatever He has to say is true. So Jesus is slowly but surely setting up the argument.
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He's putting His credentials down. He's going, I don't care what y 'all think y 'all are, Laodiceans.
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Because what I'm about to say to you is 100 % truthful. Verse 15.
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I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. I would rather you be hot or cold.
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So let's stop right there. If you're like me, I kind of cringe a little bit when
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Jesus said, I know your works. If Christ were to walk up to you and say,
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I know what you've done, how would you react? Look, I'd be nervous. I'd be thinking, oh my gosh, what did
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I do this morning that offended Christ? Christ understands and knows fully what we do in here.
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There is no shadow that He cannot see. Scripture says that even the darkness is light before Him. The deep things in your heart, everything you've ever done, you've thought, are wide open before Christ.
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In your thoughts, Christ is there. In your sin, Christ is there. And you know what? And in your successes,
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Christ is there. That's the beautiful part, is that this doesn't only have to apply to the evil. The charitable act that you did that no one else saw, guess who else was there?
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Christ was there. The good works that we do in His name are not done in vain.
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Because He rewards those who do good. So when you read this, don't shy away and go, don't do what
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Adam and Eve did and hide. Oh, I know your works. We have done good, church. We have done good.
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I've been privileged to be a minister here. And I can tell you, we have done good. And some good that hasn't been seen in the public.
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I've been privileged to see good works done in private. We're doing good, church.
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So I don't believe that we fall completely into this category as a whole. But individually, for sure, we can.
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I know your works. You are neither hot nor cold. You are lukewarm.
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I wish you were one or the other. How useful is a soldier that can't pick a side?
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How useful is a soldier that has no side? They're just useless. They have no loyalty.
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Let's flip that. How good is a soldier that fights for both sides? Nothing. You're lukewarm.
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You're not useful to the kingdom. You are just a burden. And that is what
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Christ said to this church. You are a burden to me right now. Now what's interesting is, the prophet
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Elijah in 1 Kings 18 verse 21 kind of said the same thing. Check this out.
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Then Elijah approached all the people and said, How long will you waver between two opinions?
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If the Lord is God, follow Him. If Baal is
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God, follow Him. But the people didn't answer him a word. Since day one, church, since day one, we've been struggling with this.
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This isn't something new. It didn't start with Laodicea. It was all the way back in Israel. They couldn't pick a side.
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They were serving Yahweh in the morning and Baal at night. Lukewarm. It has been a problem since day one for the church, for the people of God.
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But for this church, Christ had had enough. Verse 16. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold,
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I will spit you out of my mouth. Now some of our translations have softened the blow a little bit, but the original says,
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I will vomit you out of my mouth. I can spit right now. I can voluntarily do it.
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That's a vomit. Your body does it against your will. You can't say,
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I want to vomit now, so let's vomit now. It is forced on you. It is painful.
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It is awkward. It is embarrassing. The lukewarmness of the church, lukewarm
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Christianity is so disgusting to the Lord that He can't help but expel it.
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He can't help but expel it. It goes against His nature. Lukewarmness is the worst thing that can happen.
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I would rather you be an atheist and be an atheist and claim to be an atheist. I would rather you be a
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Christian and claim to be a Christian and be a Christian, but to live in the middle, to come to church
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Sunday morning and then leave and do what the world does, that's the worst thing you can do.
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Christ said, I would rather you be one or the other. Distinction, separation. In the Gospels, Jesus said,
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I will separate the good fish and the bad. I will separate the wheat from the wheats.
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Separation. Christ said, I came to bring the vision. I want clarity. The world is too used to this gray
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Christianity. There needs to be black and white. Things that we approve and things that we disapprove.
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The more I read this, the more I think most of the churches land in this spot. They're lukewarm.
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They have the image of godliness, but deny its power. They love
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Christ, they love charity, but they support abortion. They love each other, but like the other churches, they tolerate sexual morality and teach it as right.
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It's okay to be gay. It's okay. God made you that way. God wants you to be happy. Okay. You want to pick sides?
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God will pick it for you. Lukewarm water breeds bacteria.
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Lukewarm water nauseates. Lukewarm water does not satisfy.
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Imagine getting into a pool that is lukewarm. You can't enjoy yourself, you have to get out. In the same way, it doesn't satisfy.
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After a long day at work, you come home and the shower spills out lukewarm water.
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It's uncomfortable. You either want it to be cold to refresh you or hot to relax you, but lukewarm water doesn't satisfy.
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They actually taught us in med school that we should not give lukewarm water to a soldier that's becoming a heat casualty because lukewarm water doesn't do anything.
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They need fresh, cold water. For all intents and purposes, lukewarm water is useless. In the same way that lukewarm water breeds bacteria, lukewarm
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Christianity breeds sin. Lukewarm water nauseates in the same way lukewarm
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Christianity nauseates God. And you know what's the most tragic part about lukewarm
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Christianity? In the same way that lukewarm water doesn't satisfy, lukewarm
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Christianity doesn't satisfy. You know the main reason why people refuse to step foot in here isn't because they don't understand.
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The majority of the people that I talk to that have a problem with Christianity isn't an intellectual problem. It's a heart problem.
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They can't stand to see the church play for both sides. They see our hypocrisy. I promise you,
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I can explain to them in great detail why the universe says there's a
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God, the evidence of Scripture. At the end of the day, they point out my hypocrisy. Because surely it can't be that good of a news if you're still living in your sin.
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Lukewarm Christianity is a cancer to the world. And Jesus is ready to get rid of it.
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Verse 17. Here's the accusation. For you say, I am rich.
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I have prospered. I need nothing. Not realizing you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.
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Let's go through each of those accusations and expand on them a little bit.
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Let's go wretched. I know for a fact that this side of the church hasn't used wretched in a sentence in the last forever.
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I've never used wretched in a sentence without referencing this verse and other biblical verses. What does wretched really mean?
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Wretched in the Greek is talaiparos. And it means beaten down, deeply miserable, and full of calluses.
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Wretched could mean full of calluses. Let me tell you, when
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Christ was addressing His church, He wasn't talking about their past. Because everybody has calluses from their past.
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He's talking about their present. He's talking about who they are right now. That they are still getting calluses.
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Because they keep going back to the world to find some sort of fulfillment. And they keep getting beaten by the world.
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Y 'all, that particular sin hasn't satisfied you. Why do you think it will do it now? You'll still go back for more, and for more, and for more.
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And Christ goes, loud as eons, y 'all just keep going back and getting beat up and falling, and falling, and falling.
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I'll continue picking you up, but you continue falling. There are some people in this room who continue to gather scar tissue, post -conversion.
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And I say this to the youth so many times. Why not learn from our mistake? Between me and Jeremiah, we've made all the mistakes.
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Learn from us. Why do you have to continue getting beaten, and beaten, and beaten? But that's what this church was experiencing.
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They were wretched, full of calluses. They were also pitiful. The Greek word is ilionos.
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And it means, in desperate need of mercy. Could you imagine a pitiful church?
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A church that claims, Jesus is God. He is the solution to everyone's problems.
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But then, somehow he's not the solution to our problems, because we still have our problems. I can only imagine, you know, a
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Roman walking by, and looking at the church, and going, I feel so bad for them.
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I really do. Because they claim knowledge, but they're very foolish. The good news that they preach, they don't even apply it, yet they're willing to die over it?
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Okay. Weak church. Little church. A church that has no influence or authority.
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I dare to question if that's even a church. Inadequate church. You almost feel bad for them.
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It's almost like walking by a homeless man, who cannot see, and saying,
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I have the cure to blindness, and have all the money in the world. You'd feel bad for them.
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You go, they don't know any better. And yet, that is what this church was doing. You feel bad for them.
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It's pathetic. Hmm. Poor church.
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That's the next one. Poor. That's the next thing that Jesus said. They were poor.
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Now, it's interesting to know, and I think, archaeology is important to understanding why that word, poor, was so important.
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In the year 60 AD, there was an earthquake that struck that area of the world. It was a huge earthquake that struck modern day
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Turkey. And every single city in that area requested help from Rome.
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Every city. I mean, the earthquake was so bad that every city needed federal help. But there was one city that did not request help from Rome because they had so much money that they were able to build themselves up from the ground up.
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Would you happen to guess what city that is? Laodicea. A Roman historian, secular man,
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Cornelius Tacitus, in his writings said, one of the famous cities of Asia, Laodicea, was that same year overthrown by an earthquake and without any relief from Rome, recovered itself by its own resources.
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That's a pretty good thing. That's like Memphis having an earthquake, which we're scheduled for, and saying,
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Tennessee, America, we don't need your help. We have what we need to build back stronger.
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That's not a bad thing. That's a good thing. Only when it goes to the heart of the saints and that same attitude that's found in the culture finds its way inside of the church.
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That's when the problem arises. Because this church, as Jesus stated, said in verse 16,
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I'm sorry, in verse 17, for you say, quote, and this is an actual quotation from the church, in unison,
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I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing. God has said, I am rich,
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I have prospered, I don't need anything. I don't need anything. I'm good the way I am. Because, you know, obviously we don't believe that material success means spiritual success.
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You know, turn on any TV and go to any Christian channel, and I can guarantee you there's a pastor or a preacher there that'll teach that if you're financially well off, that God has blessed you and you're in God's favor.
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That money equals favor from God. That if you are broke, if you don't have resources, if you are not healed at this moment, that there's something wrong with you.
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But let it be known that two out of the seven churches that did good were poor.
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Both of the churches that had nothing wrong with them were poor. And they said, we are rich, we don't need anything, we are good the way we are.
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A lack of dependency of God is tragic for the church. You know, for teachers out there, especially for me, you can go and teach and not pray and not meditate on the word of God and you do good.
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I'm sure I can put together a sermon or a lesson and it'd sound pretty good. But after a while, if you don't depend on God's grace and His power, you will burn down.
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You will burn out. You know why? Because Christ never wanted us to use our power. He wanted
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Him to use His. We are to use His power for our ministry. When God said, love your enemies, was
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God asking you to love them with your own power? No. Christ said,
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I will give you love because one of the fruits of the Spirit is love. So the energy to keep going, to love, to depend on God comes from Him and only
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Him. And the moment you disconnect yourself from Him like this church was doing, you are fruitless.
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Because Christ said in John, apart from me, you can do nothing.
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The only thing that you can produce on your own is death. Congratulations. You can produce death on your own. And that in bucket loads.
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So the city was rich. The Christians were rich. High class. I'm sure they had a nice amphitheater they could meet in.
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Got to their heads. Got to their hearts. The next accusation is that they were blind.
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Now, I'll tell you what. For Christ to call the saints of Laodicea blind is a two part insult.
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It's an insult to their citizenship in Laodicea and it is an insult to their citizenship in heaven. There was a medical school.
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There was a medical school in Laodicea. Because they had so much money they could afford it. Humor me.
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What did that school specialize in? Eye care. They specialized in eye care.
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And in the back of the sermon notes at the very bottom you will see a paste that was found in a shipwreck a couple years ago.
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And that is what was most likely being produced in Laodicea. Because the scientists looked at it and they saw that the properties that were involved in that paste were mainly used for eye care in the ancient world.
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That's pretty cool. Because even the world says yeah, yeah, scripture's true.
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It is. I thought that was pretty cool. And there's a link on there to read the full report. It was super cool. They had a school that specialized in eye care.
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And yet, even with all their glory and doctorates and PhDs, Christ said, you're blind.
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I don't care how many doctorates you have. I don't care how much you know. You really are blind.
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That's almost like Christ coming to Memphis and saying, your children's hospitals suck.
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I mean, it is a citywide insult. And Christ doesn't care. He goes because, guess what?
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Without looking at the problem and trying to fix it, it ain't gonna get fixed. Because let me tell you something.
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If the power to change ourselves was in us, we would never change.
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Christ is the initiator of all change. He's going, hey church, you must have forgotten where you got your source of energy from.
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It's me. Christ multiple times in the Gospels told the
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Pharisees, you guys can see, but you are blind. You can hear, but you're deaf.
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You can't hear what I'm saying and you can't see what I'm doing because you refuse to. Out of the hardness of your heart, you refuse to see me.
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You ever wonder why Christ, whenever he was healing people, said, hey, what can I do for you? You ever think that was kind of weird?
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That Christ walked up to a blind man and said, what can I do for you? Well, Christ, he's blind.
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Why are you asking him? Because for Christ to heal you means that there has to be a response afterwards.
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For Christ to touch you, you can't remain like that forever.
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Because that means something. If Christ heals you, that means one or two things. It means you just imagine what happened.
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What happened actually happened and I have to do something with this. This church was blind.
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They couldn't see where God was taking them. They were bent inward in themselves. And let me tell you, church, like the
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Apostle Paul said, nothing good lives in me. He said the things that I want to do,
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I can't do. And the things that I don't want to do, I do. Sin dwells within me.
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He said the only thing good in me is the Holy Spirit of God. This is the Apostle Paul talking here.
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A person that wrote Scripture said, there is nothing good in me apart from the
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Holy Spirit of God. If the Apostle Paul couldn't do it on his own, what makes this church think that they can?
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The last thing that Jesus said was, you are naked. Laodicea had a rich import or export of wool.
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Black wool. So in modern translations, they were wearing
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Gucci. They had the Nike shoes on. I mean, they were dripped out. They had the best of the best clothing.
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I mean, they walked around basically as royalty. We are rich. We can dress rich.
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And we are spiritually rich because we're wealthy. God blesses us by wealth, right? Jesus said, no, no, no.
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You are naked. Not the physical naked, but the spiritual naked. Because guess what? Everybody can see your shame.
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You really think you're all that? Little do you know, because you are so not self -aware, that everyone sees your shame, your nakedness.
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Let me tell you right now. In the military, if you don't cuss or curse, there's something wrong with you.
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That's the way that the army people communicate. You curse. Now, everybody can curse in the military.
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But when I do it, all eyes on me. Everybody and their mothers looks at me and goes, Christian.
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Whoa. It's insane. It's not fair. It really isn't fair. Everyone can do it, but when
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I do it, it's a thing. It's like I'm naked before them and they can see my shame. Church, we don't get that luxury.
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In here, with family, you can afford to make mistakes. You can afford to sin here, because we'll forgive you if you repent.
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You cannot afford to sin out there. They will eat you up. They will take your one little sin and say clearly your gospel is worthless.
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I don't want to believe it. I don't want to go to your church because clearly it's full of hypocrites. Man, we really need to get our act together out there, because out there, the world will take an inch and they'll make a mile out of it.
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Man, for you say I'm rich, I've prospered and not eaten nothing, not realizing that you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.
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Let's go to verse 18. 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 yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
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Christ is saying, give me everything you have and I'll give you everything I have. Give me your black wool,
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I'll give you white clothing. Give me that eye ointment, I'll give you mine. Give me your money, and I'll give you my gold that is imperishable and in heaven.
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Give me your world, and I'll give you mine. That's what Christ did to Calvary. He said, give me your sin and I will give you my righteousness.
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He's still trying to do that with this church. They can't get past step one of the gospel. Give me your life so I can give you mine.
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But they keep trying to go back into the world. This church keeps going back. The prophet
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Isaiah wrote something similar to this in Isaiah 55, verses 1 -3.
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It says this, this is Yahweh speaking. Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.
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He who has no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
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Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and you labor for that which is not satisfied?
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Listen diligently to me and eat what is good and delight yourself in rich food.
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Incline your ear and come to me. Hear that your soul may live, and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
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Hundreds of years before, the Lord was still experiencing this with His people.
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The same message that He had for the church today, He had for the church back then. Nothing has changed.
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Some things in this family just never change. In the prophet Isaiah, he says, come buy, even if you have no money.
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Come, buy and eat, even if you don't have money, because everything is free. It's almost as if somebody paid for it already.
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I don't know. It's like there was some sacrifice that was given on our behalf.
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Some open door to heaven so we can walk boldly into the throne room of grace. I don't know. Does that sound familiar, church?
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And this church right here, again, does not understand that the way to please
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God isn't to amount wealth here on earth, but to amount wealth in heaven by your good works, by your love.
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Your money, your resources, will die here. Actually, Ecclesiastes says someone else will take it.
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But the charitable acts that you guys do to one another, the love that is shown in this place, will follow us into eternity.
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It will get creation -wide recognition. When Christ returns, we will have
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His glory. And everything we've worked so hard for will be shown. But Christ is not going to glorify sin.
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Continuing on in verse 19. This is so beautiful. Those whom
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I love, I reprove and I discipline. So be zealous and repent.
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I taught a sermon a couple of months ago titled, Let the lukewarm come to me.
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Do you know Christ cares about the lukewarm Christian? Christ doesn't like their lukewarmness.
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But the individual Christ loves. Because what Christ could have done was kept quiet and allowed that church to go into self -destruction.
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But He said, No. I'm going to step in and I'm going to say, Guys, I'm this close to vomiting.
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This close. I'm giving you one last chance. Be zealous and repent.
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Today. Right now. Don't wait till tomorrow. The book of Lamentations said,
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Don't wait till the morning. Cry tonight. Because your children are dying in the street. Pour out your heart before the
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Lord like water. Why wait till the morning? Do it tonight. Because the more you wait, the more the world will suffer.
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Lukewarm Christian. Repent. There was another sermon that I taught.
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This one was about three or four weeks ago. We did a word study in a Tuesday night Bible study on the word zeal.
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Did you know that the word zeal and jealousy is the same word in the Greek? Zelos. Jealous.
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Zel. Or zealous. They're the same word. So biblical translators have to differentiate because we have a couple of nuances in English, little small details, that separate zeal and jealousy.
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But in the Greek there was no distinction. When Christ was telling His church be zealous and repent,
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He's looking at them and He's going, be jealous for me. You're my bride.
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Where's your jealousy? If you saw your significant other cheating on you, you would be jealous and rightfully so.
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In the same way Christ is going, what's up? What have
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I done to offend you? What has Christ done to offend us that we treat Him in such disregard and disrespect?
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Be jealous for me and repent. Where's your love that you had for me?
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It's gone. Those whom I love, I reprove and I discipline.
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So please be zealous and repent. Let's go to verse 20. Behold, I stand at the door and I knock.
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If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to him and eat with him and he with me.
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Now modern Christianity has taken this verse and it has become an evangelical verse.
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We have to go to the world. Christ is knocking on the hearts of unbelievers. That was addressed to a church.
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Christ is asking the church to open up their doors to Him. So instead of it being an external ministry, it's more of an internal of Christ is not telling, open the door for me to the person on the street.
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He's looking at the people in this room and He's going, open the door.
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What are we doing here? Now Jesus is not a homeless man asking for charity.
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Jesus is the master of the house asking His servants to open the door for Him. Let's get this straightened out.
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Christ isn't going, hey guys, do you have time for me? No, He's going, y 'all better open up the door.
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I'm going to leave. Y 'all better open up the door. You forgot who I am. I'm the master. I bought you.
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Because rest assured, He'll knock. But it actually says in the
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Gospels that there will be people who claim Lord, Lord, knocking at the door of heaven.
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At the very gates, God will say, who are you? Oh, you're
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Pastor So -and -so? Never heard of her. Sorry, I don't know who you are.
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You might have claimed to preach my word, but you never let me in. There will be many pastors in hell.
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Many. Many people. I believe more people will go to hell thinking they're Christian. I do believe that.
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I really do. Jesus is not begging on His knees, please open the door.
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No, He's the master. And He's coming to get His bride. And He goes, if you don't open the door, I'm going to leave. And then you will turn around and knock on my door and I'll say, bye.
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Verse 21. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my
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Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the
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Spirit says to the churches. Now understand this, church, that while you still have breath, you still have hope.
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Right. There's still a second chance. That promise is for everybody here, no matter where you're at in your life.
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Jesus looks at you. Jesus is looking at these lukewarm Christians and He's going, I will give you access to the throne room of God right now.
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Right now. You don't need money. You can leave that stuff behind. I'll give it to you for free.
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He wants to give us life and life abundantly. But if we refuse to acknowledge the lukewarmness in our hearts, like that church did, we're not going to get anywhere.
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And as I mentioned before, I don't believe that we as a church are in this state. I don't think so. But individually, we can be.
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I've been lukewarm. Oh, for sure. I have certainly been lukewarm. I have found myself here.
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That's why it resonates so much with me. But like He said, those whom I love,
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I reprove and I discipline. So be zealous and repent. And the one who conquers,
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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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And the Lord finishes this striking letter by saying,
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He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. This is made for everybody, not just the church of Laodicea.
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This church had a problem and they were this close, this close to God going, all right, enjoy.
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You know what that looks like? For God to do this to you? It means to allow you to experience the consequences of your own actions.
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When we think of God's punishment, we probably think of Noah's Ark, when God floods the earth or any other dramatic visual imagery of God striking people down.
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In reality, the way that God punishes the church is allowing them to experience the consequences of their own actions.
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That's what He does. You want to hate yourself? Sure. You want to touch the stove? Sure. Go on ahead.
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I told you not to touch it. You saw me burn it. I mean, you saw me burn my hand on it. You saw it.
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But if you want to burn yourself, if you so desperately want to go back to the world,
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I'll be right here. I will be right here. We have ears to hear.
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So how do we respond to this message? The first thing we need to do, regardless of where you're at, is repent.
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It does not matter if you've been a Christian for 80 years or a Christian for a month. If you're not repenting daily, you've got a problem.
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In the Lord's model prayer, He said, Forgive us of our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
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Christ intended for that to be a daily thing. Daily. For me, hourly.
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Daily. It needs to be a ritual with you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Because we're dealing with a holy and righteous
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God and we're doing something He hates. Common sense indicates that we need to be repentful every day.
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So whether you are lukewarm or whether you are doing excellent in your Christianity, I ask that you still repent.
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The next thing I ask is that you love God and His church more than anything else. Christ said,
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The greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second is much like it.
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To love each other like you love yourself. Now, what's beautiful is that the Apostle John in his letter actually puts them both together.
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He takes it a step further. He says, I think it's impossible to love God and hate His church or to love
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His church and hate God. Those two can't exist. You can't walk up to Christ and go, Man, I love you, but I can't stand your wife.
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You can't do that. There's no way. You need to love
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God and His people more than anything else. Because like Pastor Jeff says multiple times, this is all we got.
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I find it so beautiful that in the midst of a formula shortage, the women of this church can look inward and find resources.
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They can look to us and we can provide. In essence, we should be self -sufficient. At a moment's notice, we should be self -sufficient.
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Because if you continue to read the book of Revelation, it does not get prettier. It gets uglier. Love God.
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Love His church. And the last thing I would ask for you guys in the music ministers to come up, please. Stay zealous.
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Stay urgent. There should never be a moment where we're lax, laying down.
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I heard a preacher once say, you should never ever say, aha, I got it. No. Even Pastor Jeff and all of his experienced teaching will never dare say,
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I got it for sure. No. Because we don't have it. It takes an eternity to learn about an eternal
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God. You're not going to be a Christian expert today. You will never be. You will die a disciple.
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And you will be resurrected a disciple. We are disciples for life. So where do you find yourself today, church?
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Where do you find yourself? Are you a Christian in rebellion? Are you someone who thinks they're
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Christian but they're not? Are you a Christian who's doing good and you actually repented and you came into work?
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Or are you an unbeliever here just sitting down and enjoying my awesome words? Whatever situation you find yourself in, what was spoken demands a response.
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A unanimous, Lord, I'm sorry. I need
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Your grace. We can do nothing without Your grace. And so as the band sings songs for us, the goal is not for them to ignite emotion within you.
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The Word of God was spoken. There should already be emotion. Come forward today and stop resisting the
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Holy Spirit if you are. And if you're not, please serve your brother and sister. Because in by doing so, you actually serve
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Christ. Let us not mimic the church of Laodicea. Please feel free to go back and read the other churches and take some good and bad from them.
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What not to do and what to do. Let us never find ourselves in this position.
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It'll only take us a couple months. We might be doing great now. We could be in that same position in a few months.
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I dare say a few weeks. So that's how I want to finish. Be zealous. Be urgent.
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Always find ways to increase your sanctification. Always find ways to improve, to repent.
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King David said, Father, show me my hidden sin that I don't know about. But please, before you do that, pray to God for strength.
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Because God will reveal to you hidden sins that you didn't know. And you're going to be bothered. But that's why he has the church.
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we can help each other to be more like Christ every day. Thank you. Amen.