Going Back to Better Than Normal (Week 1)

Welcome

Happy Sunday! It is so good to be back with you again. This will be our last week of coming to you from our house. Next week, we will still be ONLINE but from a different location. We will be ONLINE ONLY for our congregation, but our worship team and staff will be at the church joining you for worship from home. Then on Sunday, June 7th, we will all be back together for our in-person services. Make sure you register for one of those, so that we can ensure that everyone will have a seat at their registered time.

Let’s move now into our time of worship this morning. Prepare your hearts with me to exalt the one and only King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Let’s worship Him today because He is worthy!

Worship

Song #1

Song #2

Sermon

Today, I want us to talk about something that I think is so important for us to explore and reflect on in light of the craziness we have all had going on during the impacts of COVID-19. Start in mid-March, each week has felt like a year. There were so many rapid changes happening, information to process, and the uncertainty and loss of control over outcomes was high. f

It was interesting to see what things were first stripped from us. Sporting events and mass gatherings for concerts were the initial things I saw on the chopping block. It was as if God was removing from our society and the world the things we had come to worship with undue praise. Our education system as well as our modes of worship were all changes within a matter of days. Some of us didn’t think it would last that long, others think it will last a lot longer. Truth is no one knows what the future holds regarding this virus and our countries response to it.

For me personally, I sensed different things happening within my heart each week. A few of the common themes the Lord began speaking to me early on that have remained the same throughout these days can be overarched with the idea of not just returning back to ‘normal’.

That is why this morning I have titled this message, Going Back to Better Than Normal. I am not interested in returning the schedule I had before. I am not interested in returning to insecurities I had before. I am not interested in returning to the need to prove my worth or value by what I do or accomplish. I am not interested in returning to a system that esteems long hours, sacrificing family, and doesn’t have healthy boundaries in relationships. I am not interested in going back to sins and habits and vices that were crutching our society along through what we had become accustomed to…normal. I hope for you and for me that when we return our lives there is a new rhythm. I hope that there is sweeter rest both at night but especially in the Lord at all times. I hope that we see not only transformation occuring in our heart but also in our habits so that the return to a new normal isn’t short lived. I hope that we don’t lose our need to fully trust the Lord with our future finances, job security, healthy, and in every area of our life that we thought we had control over. I hope the dross that the stresses of this season have brought to the top can be removed because we allow the Lord to finish the work that He started in us during this time. I want to return to better than normal. Are you with me?

Jesus says this in the Book of Revelation to the Church in Laodicea:

Revelation 3:14–22 NIV

14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. 21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Allow to me to stage a little context for us so that these verses can be better understood. Jesus speaks to the Church with knowledge that only the faithful and true witness would have. Christ surmises their situation, and the verdict is the exact opposite of the church’s own evaluation and expectations of themselves. Their deeds were “neither cold nor hot”. It is very unlikely that we could understand this passage and these words to reflect a spiritual nature of those within this church. Jesus is not saying that I wish you were either spiritually cold or spiritually hot. That would have been a foreign concept to the first-century Christians.

The two adjectives in “neither hot nor cold” should be understood together in relationship to “lukewarmness” (v. 16)—i.e., they were useless to Christ because they were complacent, self satisfied, and indifferent to the real issues of faith in him and of discipleship. They had lost their way, their purpose, and their value.

Here is a little geographical context:

The city of Hierapolis, seven miles north of Laodicea, had famous “hot springs,” it may be that similar springs were located south of Laodicea and affected the temperature of the water supply. “I am about to spit you out of my mouth” seems to allude to the lukewarm water. “Cold” could refer to the useful cool water located at Colossae, fewer than ten miles away. “Hot” would remind the Laodiceans of the beneficial “hot springs” to the north of Hierapolis. Yet Laodicea, for all its wealth, had an insipid water supply—one that induced vomiting! Christ detests a Laodicean attitude of compromise, one that seeks easy accommodation and peace at any cost. With such a condition, he must deal harshly. To be a Christian means to be useful to Christ and His Kingdom.

A return to normal for this church wasn’t going to be a good thing. God wanted to take them back to something better than normal. He wanted them to have purpose and be useful in their community, to add value to those around them. They were to make a difference, and not in a stale, stagnant kind of way. Reflect with me for a few minutes on your life before this crisis. If you have reflected till you are blue in the face, then don’t beat yourself up but revisit some of those thoughts you have had.

Were there areas in your life that God has brought to the surface during this time that if you will pause, reflect, and allow Him to…He is wanting to bring freedom and transformation in these areas? I can almost guarantee for all us there are. I can almost guarantee you that He is wanting to redeem the pressure, panic, and uncertainty, and places we have found our value and identity during this season.

I don’t know if you can relate to this, but the deeper problem in the Laodicean church wasn’t simply their indifference but there ignorance of their real condition. Christ says, “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’” Rather they were rich spiritually or in material possessions is unsure, but what we do know is that they have interpreted their wealth/riches in a way to approve of their heart condition that isn’t true. Jesus shatters their illusions and calls them to repentance by saying, “But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”

There is a leadership podcast I listen to and one of the opening soundbites in their intro is this quote: If you don’t know what you need to work on as a leader you know who does…everybody else.

This is true for us on a personal level as well. They wouldn’t be called blind spots if we could see them in ourselves. They are blind spots because we have a weakness and the propensity to not see what needs to be changed within ourselves. The pause for my normal routines and lack of control over my schedule and what I can manufacture to happen next has all been stripped away from us during this crisis. So, what I am left with…I may have found my identity in my work, in my accomplishments, in my income, in my ability ‘to provide’, in my networking and connections, in my social outlets, in the way I felt popular, wanted, and loved. I may have found value in how much I can juggle, multitask, and be efficient. I may have found my identity in relationships even if I had created good boundaries. And so much of this was stripped away during this season. And God is allowing this to happen because He wants us to find our identity, our value, and affirmation in nothing else other than Him. He wants us to return to Him in honesty and truth, allowing the things we have propped ourselves up with to be rooted and grounded in Him.

vs. 18 Come and buy from me gold refined in the fire. Then you will be rich. Gold was a source of wealth for this city, and Jesus is saying come and find in me and from me your real value, your riches, and provision. It is refined to prove itself true and valid in your life, sustaining beyond your self-deceiving paradigms.

Come and buy from me white clothes to wear so that you can cover your shameful nakedness. Laodicea was known for its sleek, black wool, but Christ is calling them to cover themselves with the purity and Christ brings to our shame. He knows and yet still welcome, still invites, still offers, still forgives, still heals, still loves. He asks us to not return to what has been familiar, to not return to what we have always known, what our culture and society has always fed to us. Instead, return to something better than all of that, return to something better than normal.

Come and buy from me salve to put on your eyes, so that you can see. Allow the blinders to be removed from your eyes. What you have used in the past hasn’t worked. The Phrygian powder for the Laodiceans was useless for the blindness they were experiencing. They didn’t know what they didn’t know. They couldn’t see what they were blind to, and Jesus is given them opportunity to find their worth, their value, their covering, their forgiveness, their wholeness, their ability to see life as it really is in the scope of eternity and a Sovereign God. Come and buy from me.

Will you pay the price during this season to receive from the Lord what He is desiring to do in you during this time? Will you pay the price in removing all the other voices, the Social feeds, the news media, the thoughts you had before, to hear what Christ is saying now to your heart. He is wanting to use this as a wake up call. He is wanting everything that can be shaken to be shaken in our lives.

vs. 19 Jesus remind us that this rebuke and discipline comes out of love. A few weeks ago, on Mother’s Day, we talked about how the Lord disciplines those whom He loves. These words from Jesus are much like the Proverb.

Proverbs 3:12 NIV

12 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.

Solomon explains how wisdom is gained, and discipline is a vital part of that process. We learn that discipline is done out of a place of love, care, and concern. Punishment is quite the opposite. Punishment has more to do with behavior modification for a sense of order and control, while discipline has more to do with the one being disciplined and less to do with the one administering it. Discipline is not reactive, but instead takes the time to use the moment as a means to teach. The root of discipline being disciple, to teach or to train.

Jesus is saying to the church in Laodicea that I spit out those whom I do not love and rebukes and disciplines those whom I do. So, all those who have ears to hear, hear my voice and respond to my call to earnestly repent.

The difference between the expelled and the disciplined lies in their response.

What you get out of this crisis will be determined on what you put into it. If you want to come out on the other side as a better follower of Christ, more in love with God, more dependent upon Him, then you will get that out of this time. If you want to become a better spouse, a better parents, a better sibling, a better boss, a better employee, a better person…then that will all be determined on how you allow the Lord to use this season as a the process to transform you.

But if you want to become bitter, if you want to give into fear, if you want to allow your emotions to feed off of uncertainty, if you want to have sleepless nights, forfeit peace, and wallow in circumstances you have no control over…then you will abort the work that God desired to do IN YOU during this critical hour. I am not saying you have to or will get it right ever minute of ever day. I am saying don’t give up on what He desires to do in both your heart and your habits.

I have been leaning into this season. I have been leaning into some difficulty. There were some tough calls I had to make that I had been putting off but the quarantine became a gift when I accepted that He was still at work. There were some pattern in my life that had become normal that I don’t want to return back to. It won’t be healthy, it won’t be beneficial, it won’t be God for me to just go back to the way things were in my heart before COVID-19. I have been listening to better podcasts, better teaching, reading better books, hearing from God in His Word, worshipping Him with new found freedom. I want to embrace the fullness of the redeeming work He is wanting to do in my life right now. How about you? Are you with me?

If there is a fear in my heart right now, it is that we short-circuit the redeeming work Christ is wanting to do in our lives right now by rushing back to what was. I don’t want to just go back to normal. I want to go back to something so much better. The better I want to return to isn’t based on my paycheck, the unemployment numbers, or the certainty I have about my future. The better I want to go back to is based upon the one who is calling us to find all our source in Him and Him alone.

I was listening to a message recently by a pastor a small church in North Carolina. The pastor’s name is Stephen, and his small church is called Elevation. He was talking about this idea little bit, and something he said jumped out at me. He said (and this is my paraphrase) that the transformation that God is doing in many of our hearts right now (by what is saying to us, revealing to us, changing within us) will only be sustained after this season if we also have some habit transformation. Heart transformation isn’t enough for the sustainability we want to see beyond this season. We are going to have to make some decisions differently on the other side. I am going to have to make some decision about my schedule, and how I spend my time, and what priorities I have with my family time. I am going to not only need my heart to be changed but for some of my habits to reflect this same transformation happening in my heart.

“So be earnest and repent,” Jesus says.

vs. 21 He goes on, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”

Jesus isn’t interested in DoorDash(ing) your life. He isn’t interested in ringing the bell to your heart, drop off the delivery and splitting. He wants to stay a while. He want to come in to your life. He wants to eat and sup and be with you and you with Him. He isn’t interested in a drop off; He is intersted in discipleship. He isn’t interested in you being a fan; He wants you to be a follower. And when we give Him a place to sit on the throne of our heart as both Savior and Lord, King Jesus will give us a seat in heavenly places with Him.

vs. 21 “To the one who is VICTORIOUS, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was VICTORIOUS and sat down with my Father on his throne.” Our zeal in not only heart transformation but also habit transformation, true repentance, will take place in His presence. And as we encounter and entertain (not in a negative sense)…but we entertain Him as our guest of honor, fellowshipping with Him, having communion with Him, hearing His Word speak directly to our hearts, then we begin to see the victories of Christ manifest in our lives. The One who is VICTORIOUS will spread His victories in our life. Like Christ, we will be seated as children of God in our Heavenly Father’s presence. Our kingdom usefulness places us in kingdom royalty because He has overcome.

We don’t have to go back to normal. We can go back to something better than normal. We can go back to a better version because Christ is making all things new, our great Redeemer.

Let’s pray together.

Father, thank you that you are making us new. You have saved us, you are saving us, you will continue to save and transform and one day ultimately bring us into your kingdom forever. We anticipate that glorious day, but until that day we say let your glory fill this earth even as it fills the heavens. Let your glory fill our lives, as we give you space and permission to work and to move and to have your way. Jesus, right now…allow each and everyone of us to see this moment in our lives as a moment to lean into and allow you to transform both our hearts and our habits. Help us to move forward, not returning to just what was, but believing you are doing a new things. You allowed this to occur in our lives and your redeem all things. You work all things out for the good of those who love you. And we love you Lord. We thank you for your love for us. Amen and amen!

Would you stay on and chat with us for a few minutes. We will also be headed straight over to Zoom if you want to join us in some ‘face to face’ time to share and pray together. You can find that link in emails previous sent out about today’s service or in the chat during today’s service. We love you and look forward to seeing you soon!