Lukewarm Church 2

This is the day that the Lord has made, and I will rejoice and be glad in it?

Can we rejoice today?

Giving Honor to God

To our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

To our Moderator Rev Doris B Smith

To our 1st Vice Moderator Rev Franklin Washington

To our 2nd Vice Moderator Rev Eugene Campbell

To Our Executive Board

To our Steering Committee

To our Officers

To every Pastor, Minister, and Member of this association.

To my spiritual Father and Mother. My Pastor Rev Robert Powe and First Lady Minister Linda Powe.

To my Ebenezer Church Family.

To my family

To my son Aidan

To my wife

Good morning

It is an honor and privilege to stand before you this evening at this sacred desk.

I am completely humbled this morning, and I do not take this for granted.

I give all glory, honor, and praise to God for allowing me to be a vessel for a time such as this.

Can we take a moment to give our Moderator Rev Doris B Smith and Deacon Spencer Smith a great thank you and round of applause for the magnificent work they do here at the Berea Baptist Association on behalf of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Thank you!

This year has been a wonderful year for the Berea Association.

I have had the opportunity to lead this great auxiliary this year.

I would like to recognize our 1stVice President Reverend Wilie McClean and our 2nd Vice President Dr Damien Johnson.

I would also like to recognize our BTU Staff.

I have continued to learn and grow this year.

During our BTU session this year, our focus was on discipleship.

The meaning of discipleship is how you mature in Christ.

Discipleship is how Christ is formed in you.

Discipleship is formed in our thoughts, our actions, and our life.

Discipleship is not church attendance or bible study.

Some people have attended church their entire life and have never been discipled.

Learning to become Jesus’ disciple means walking alongside someone further in the Christian faith for a significant period of time.

We incorporated our second session into our Holy Week Service.

Holy week was five nights.

Our Holy Week service saw an increase in attendance.

Twenty-seven of the churches reported during Holy Week.

Our speakers for Holy week were Rev Morris White, Rev Dr Harold Livingston, Rev Sterling Mosby, Rev Peggy Miles, and Our 1stVice Moderator Rev Franklin Washington.

We worked with the Executive Board, The Deacons Institute, and The Missionaries to experience a powerful move from God during our Holy Communion Service.

We have collaborated with the Steering Committee under the leadership of our 1st Vice Moderator Rev Franklin Washington.

We worked to assist our Missionaries with the great Youth conference they held this year that reached so many youths in a wonderful way.

We collaborated with the steering committee to have a great Back to School rally.

Every auxiliary contributed and supported the back to school rally this year.

We distributed over one hundred age-appropriate packages on that day.

We have also distributed items to individual churches since the back-to-school rally.

E. J. Sawyer Consistory #391 PHA under the leadership of Our Commander in Chief Deacon Greg Scott purchased and prepared the food for the Back-to-school rally.

The Baptist Training has made a financial report for all activities we were asked or required to.

We also made a $250 donation to the Berea Association to assist ten college students this year.

We are a work in progress, and we still have a lot of work to do.

I look forward to continuing to serve and learn.

2 Timothy 3: 16-17 says “All scripture is given by the inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

We encourage you to follow along in your bible this morning.

Is there a word from the lord?

The answer would be yes.

Read Revelation 3: 14-22

Write to Laodicea, to the Angel of the church. God’s Yes, the Faithful and Accurate Witness, the First of God’s creation, says:

15–17 “I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You’re not cold, you’re not hot—far better to be either cold or hot! You’re stale. You’re stagnant. You make me want to vomit. You brag, ‘I’m rich, I’ve got it made, I need nothing from anyone,’ oblivious that in fact you’re a pitiful, blind beggar, threadbare and homeless.

18 “Here’s what I want you to do: Buy your gold from me, gold that’s been through the refiner’s fire. Then you’ll be rich. Buy your clothes from me, clothes designed in Heaven. You’ve gone around half-naked long enough. And buy medicine for your eyes from me so you can see, really see.

19 “The people I love, I call to account—prod and correct and guide so that they’ll live at their best. Up on your feet, then! About face! Run after God!

20–21 “Look at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I’ll come right in and sit down to supper with you. Conquerors will sit alongside me at the head table, just as I, having conquered, took the place of honor at the side of my Father. That’s my gift to the conquerors!

22 “Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches.”[1]

(Prayer)

Have you ever been on your way to work in the morning and stopped at your favorite coffee shop to buy a fresh cup of coffee?

You place your coffee order and wait patiently for it.

You receive your cup of morning coffee and pull away from the drive through window.

You get on the highway, and you are off to work.

About five minutes later you take a sip only to find out that your coffee is lukewarm.

Have you ever been out working on a hot summer day and you really wanted a cold bottle water to quinch your thirst?

You reach inside the cooler pull out an ice-cold bottle or water only to find out there is no ice in the cooler and water has been sitting the cooler so long that it is now lukewarm.

Have you ever been to a football game on a chilly night? You go to the concession stand and order a cup of hot chocolate to warm you up on the inside.

You place your order and wait patiently for it to be made.

Once you receive your order, you walk back to your

Seat and can not wait to take sip.

You take a sip from the cup only to find that it is lukewarm.

John is instructed to write to the pastor of the Laodicean church.

The trustworthy and steadfast Christ, who is the God of truth, can be contrasted to the untrust worthy, faithless Laodiceans.

Christ established all things as the creator from the beginning.

He calls out to the believers and challenges them, with complete authority, to change their behavior.

Three things are necessary for this:

1. To have seen with his own eyes what he attests.

2. To be competent to relate it to others.

3. To willing truthfully to do so.

3:14

Laodicea, forty-five miles southeast of Philadelphia and ninety miles east of Ephesus, was an important trade center.

Like Philadelphia, it lay in a region prone to earthquakes.

The city had to bring in its water supply through an aqueduct. This made it vulnerable to drought and disruption by enemies.

Christ says He has full knowledge of all of the works of the church of Laodicea, a church the apostle John says is supposed to be energized by their faith.

3:15–16

Because the water in Laodicea was piped in, it was neither cold and refreshing nor hot and therapeutic.

The lukewarm water was thus not useful.

The spiritual worthlessness of the church in Laodicea was nauseating to Christ.

Using the analogy of hot or lukewarm water, which is which is a major irritant in the city, Christ says like lukewarm water, He wants to spit them out.

Just like doctors who used lukewarm water to cause people to vomit, they to cause Christ to want to vomit.

The church should understand since the whole city struggled with the whole city struggled with the lukewarm water.

It was a constant irritant for the people. Just like they rejected the water and wanted it to be either hot or cold, He rejects them.

3:17–19

Because many believers in the Laodicean church were rich and arrogant, they were completely blind to the fact that they were spiritually wretched and naked.

The only way Christ would give them spiritual sight and make them spiritually rich and properly dressed was for them to repent and be zealous to him, no longer going through the motions spiritually (i.e., being lukewarm).

The church says, in an affirming manner, that they are in a state of being very wealthy and believed they were doing very well.

They were very wealthy because they had a medical center.

They had a rich wool business and eye salve business.

This wealth caused them to not fully recognize the spiritual poverty they were in.

Do we ever find ourselves so caught up on achieving career and life goals, while our spiritual life is suffering?

The Laodicean church felt spiritual proud and self-sufficient, but in God’s eyes they were so poor they needed extreme pity.

Berea have we ever felt spiritually proud?

How is God viewing us?

Even if they applied the eye salve that made them wealthy to heal their eyes, they were still blind.

Christ gives them advice to buy gold from Him, which is in the pure state, because then they would be truly rich.

This would cause their purity to radiate in a white garment.

This radiance would be proof that while they lived in a city that did not know God, they were not polluted by it.

This would cover the humiliation that spiritual nakedness could bring upon them.

Christ explains to them that, despite their spiritual depravity, He has a continual tender affection for them that causes him to be concerned for them.

He desired them to leave their present state and grow them to spiritual maturity.

Berea, he has the same tender affection and desire for us!

We need to become eager to develop our Christian Character by turning from our present ways because of a change in our heart.

Instead of speaking Christionese and giving appearance of being followers of Jesus, we need to demonstrate being His true followers by what is on the inside of us in our heart.

Christ is the one who is knocking!

He is persistently standing and knocking at our heart’s door!

This means that he is no longer inside the door.

He is doing his best to get the attention of those on the inside of door.

If anyone has the heart to obey His voice without question, Christ will go in the door immediately!

He does not just come in!

He comes to fellowship in the manner of communion!

Any church member who prevails under these circumstances is an overcomer.

The person who conquers the pressure of this environment, Christ will render the privilege of sitting on His throne.

3:20

The Lord had been pushed to the outside of the church at Laodicea, and he was now seeking to reenter through their repentance (opens the door).

3:21

The right to sit with Christ on his throne goes beyond his promise to the apostles in Mt 19:28 and looks to his reign on earth in Revelation 20:4–6.

The phrase sat down with my Father on his throne looks ahead to the heavenly throne room in chapters 4 and 5.

The Baptist Training Union should be the component of the Baptist church that provides discipleship training to each of our members so that no one lukewarm.

Berea, we have a responsibility.

There were hot springs outside the city.

They had a pipe that channeled water from the hot springs to the people’s homes.

The problem was that by the time it got to the house, it had cooled to lukewarm.

This became the complaint of many residents of the city.

We don’t want to engage our members in emotionalism and just make them feel good.

We want to equip them with the spiritual tools they need so that their names stay written in the Lambs book of life.

The church must make a decision to be hot or cold, because to be lukewarm is to become vomit-inducing in the presence of God.

We must remove the nakedness by buying pure gold from Christ.

This will bring us back to the word and cause us to open our eyes to the things of God.

We must invite Christ Back in.

He gives us free will.

He has not gone far away.

He is close by standing, knocking at our door.

If we invite him in, he will prepare a meal.

He will develop a genuine fellowship with us.

He will provide us what God provided to him: a throne.

If we are sincere about hearing and obeying by following his direction, we will sit on the throne with Him.

The purpose of Jesus first coming was to rescue sinners.

The purpose of his second coming will be to save believers.

There is no work any of us can do that will grant us eternal life.

Our new life will be totally dependent on God.

Berea, I came to encourage you today.

This message is for every believer who are seated under the sound of my voice today.

God wants a personal relationship with each of us.

Jesus Went to the Cross.

He said it is finished.

He died.

John 19:33-34 Says, “But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, Instead one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.”

The nails didn’t hold him to the cross.

It was his love.

He freely gave up his Spirit.

The blood and water that flowed out signified two great benefits that we all partake of through Christ.

We are justified by his blood for atonement.

We are sanctified by the water for purification.

But on the third day, he got up.

At the foot of the cross!

There’s Love!

At the foot of the Cross!

There’s Piece!

How Do I know?

Because He is not there!

The doors of the church are open.

Let us stand.

What must I do to be saved?

Romans 10:9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

If today was the last day of your life, do you know how you would spend eternity.

Will there be one?

You may come as a candidate for baptism.

You may Come by letter.

You may come on Christian experience.

Maybe you are in search of a Church home and Ebenezer is where you desire to be.

Maybe you are in a backslidden condition.

Maybe you are in need of prayer.

You may be seated.

Now unto him that is able to keep us from failing, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and Majesty, dominion, and power, both now and ever. Let us all say Amen.

Amen

Amen

[1]Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), Re 3:14–22.