Dead or Alive - The Dead Church
Dead or Alive • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 20 viewsNotes
Transcript
The Church Should Listen
The Church Should Listen
“Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.
The Church Should Listen
The Church Should Listen
We have been talking through these churches:
The Busy and Persecuted Church
The Compromising and Tolerant Church
All of these are evident today
Today we will look at a dead church - Sardis
Last week - told you %20 of churches will close next 18 months
Many of these are already dead
Vance Havener - church has 4 stages - man - movement - machine - monument
Sardis was a monument - once a great city - destroyed and conquered time and again
Turn to Rev 3 as we see what Christ has to say to this church
“Write to the angel of the church in Sardis: Thus says the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your works; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. Be alert and strengthen what remains, which is about to die, for I have not found your works complete before my God. Remember, then, what you have received and heard; keep it, and repent. If you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you have no idea at what hour I will come upon you. But you have a few people in Sardis who have not defiled their clothes, and they will walk with me in white, because they are worthy. “In the same way, the one who conquers will be dressed in white clothes, and I will never erase his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name before my Father and before his angels. “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.
Lets pray
The Dead Church
“One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. The first requisite is life, always.“- A. W. Tozer
The Dead Church
A church can look alive - but not be
3 things that indicate the church is dead - or just about to be
The Dead Church is:
Locked in the past
“Write to the angel of the church in Sardis: Thus says the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your works; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead.
The Dead Church is:
Locked in the past
The church is locked in the good old days - may be had success and high attendance
It is locked on tradition and preference
The church looks the same even though their community has transformed
The Dead Church is:
2. Unaware of their present state
Be alert and strengthen what remains, which is about to die, for I have not found your works complete before my God. Remember, then, what you have received and heard; keep it, and repent. If you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you have no idea at what hour I will come upon you.
The Dead Church is:
2. Unaware of their present state
They might not even know but...
The bible is no longer the authority - no desire to learn and grow
For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear.
The Dead Church is:
2. Unaware of their present state
They no longer pray together as a church or for the church - Monday nights at 7, National day of prayer Thursday the 6th
The Dead Church:
3. Has no vision for their future
But you have a few people in Sardis who have not defiled their clothes, and they will walk with me in white, because they are worthy. “In the same way, the one who conquers will be dressed in white clothes, and I will never erase his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name before my Father and before his angels.
The Dead Church:
3. Has no vision for their future
The great commission has be become the great omission
The Christian that is bound by his own horizon, the church that lives simply for itself, is bound to die a spiritual death and sink into stagnancy and corruption. We never can thank God enough for giving us not only a whole Gospel to believe, but a whole world to give it to. - A. B. Simpson
The Church Should Listen
The Church Should Listen
Where are we today
We are here for them and for Him
Sardis - neither dangerous or desirable - they were just there
Are we causing waves or we a place that people see as hope?
Where are you - more about your past preferences
Let’s Pray
