BFC Annual Conference

Sermon:

GMC! I was Glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

Well what a priveldge and honor it is to be here with you all this morning. As I prepared to come and bring this message there were two sepeartae and distinct thoughts that occured to me. The first was a comitment I have. The letter that I recieved said I should try and prepare a 20 minute sermon for you all, and I have a firm personal conviction that whenever someone asks you to prech for only 20 minutes you should endevor to the best of your abiblity to keep your semon to less than 30 minutes. So I will let you know in about 45 how well I did holding to that conviction.

But the second is a little more serious, and that is, as I began to try and put pen to paper I went through a bit of a rollercoaster in terms of feelings and emotions. So first we start up pretty high: Man, they asked me to bring God's word to annual conference, what a privelege and honor. Then immediatly a low: man, they asked me to bring God's word to annual conference, I am in no way qualified or ready for that. BUt then a high: the comfort of God as I had a realization: It is God who calls, It is God who eqiups, it is the epirt who impowers, it is the Son who saves, even this, even in me bringing these words before you it is not really up to me. For it up to him to use and bless his words. And so my hope and prayer today is that God would bless his words that we would all be found as God Siol. That as his word Goes out it would take deep tood and that he would bless his words.

Because ultamatly here is the realization that I had: God is good, God is sovereign, and ultiamtly, though there was a watermark from the executaive commitee on the letter head, God is the one calling me bofore you this morning. And so the real question and what I really had to wrestle with was this: so why did God have me come bring this message before you: and so before we even dive in let me share my heart on this one, For most of us we are familiar with the passage we will be looking at, the church in Laodacia. As a past and sometimes still member (for lack of a better way to put it) of this church i feel a burden on my heart to proclaim the desperate truth of what I feel more of us face than we would care to admit; many of us on a daily basis. But deeper than that I feel the need to share a hope deep in my soul of for the sanctifying, the redeeming and the saving power of Jesus Christ to not just use us, but to do so in a powerful way. Therea are good works, prepared beforehand that we shuld walk in them before us, so lets get to work. and begin by reading this Passage.

Revelation 3:14–22 ESV

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. “ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 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. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ ”

PRAY

Before I dive into this text I would like to start with a few assumptions that make this sermon a little different than ones I would normally preach. One as I look around I see a group of men who are at a minimum intamatly familar with, but for many of us trained in Scripture. So There are many context issues that I may not dweel on, the occasion of John, the historical and geographical oddities and uniquenesses of Laodiacia, I feel that if you all are interested in those things you can and will look those things up for yourself. And I ancourage you to do that it is a wonderful study worthy of your time and attention. I am not going to get into the normal outline of the Letters to the churches more than to say at in the generic outline there is something the church is doing good, and that is missing here.

Second assumtion: we are all in some sense in the same boat in that we are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and we are all working through the ups and downs of progressive sanctification and as we walk the road of life that is set before us, as we all endevor to serve the Lord with Gladness in all the things we do. and though we stumble we al serve the same saviorr we are all sealed by the same Holy Spirit and thereofe the same power is at work within us and therefore I believe you actually care to hear from God’s word. My job is therefore not to convice you, or even in some sense to reason with you, but I see my Job today to exhort, rebuke and comfort, and that is what I will try and do today.

So today as we look then at this passage I would like to share with you some thoughts. some things that struck my soul as I wrestled with the letter to the church in Laodiacia, and some things that also ministered to me as I worked through this Letter to the church of Laodaicia.

But in honestly As A pastor I could not help myself, so even though this is a fairly raw and personal sermon we still do have three Points, and because I was feeling extra good about myself they all start with the same letter. and so we start first by looking at THE SIN

The SIN

As we look at the sin of the Laodicain church we could sum it up in one word, and it is a word that we are all familar with, LUKEWARMNESS. Laodiacia as I noted is the church that is the worse, they are not doing anything right, there is no praise here. Ther eis no thught of :I see your good works BUT… no immedaitly we dive into the issues that this church is having.

But even to say it that way, to say that this church has “issues” like we all know that all churched have isses, and thisis the particular one they struggled with is to grossly understatne the state of this church. to just call this an issue is to in some sense minimize or put a cap or justify what they are doing. and so let me just be clear and staer here:

Lukewarmeness is not an “issue” it is a sin.

I don’t want to get into the debate over what does it mean to be hot or Cold, is it better to be a wretched sinner than an lukewarm Christian because I don’t fined it useful or helpful. Because ultimatly for this church it doesnet matter if they are hot or cold because they are neither!

THe issue is that they are lukewarm, they have in some sense set aside their passion and fervor for things that are of the Lordand that has been replaced by a sesne of ho-hum lukwarmenss and my brothers I submit to you today that for many of us we face this same trial and this very sin is not just lurking at your doorstep but it has set up residence in your heart.

Look at your heart, look at your life and ask yourself where is that passion? wher is that fire that howeverlong ago movicted you, drove you to dive into the work of ministry that God set before you. When I first hear that Call, why do you not have the same fire and passion? why for so many of us has it began to die?

As I look back over the last year and a half that we have endured this pandemicthat wehave all gone through. In some sense I see that this is the bifggest issue for the church coming out of it. Because can we be honest, this time has been hard. things have been differnt. WE have had to wrestle with HOW we are going to do each and every thing at our churches. how do we do ministry? how can we stay united when this family thinks it is unloving to ask them to wera a mask and that family thinks its unloving to not wear one? when we have it feels like 2 churches the ones who come and the ones who livestream? on top of that what aoubt the ones we loved who took the excuse of a pandemic to break all ties with fellowship this last year has been hard. but has it robbed your passion?

and as we look about and we go through our lives has it just become that, going through our lives. So we sit down on Monday and that is our day we dive into the greek and tuesday and ednesday are commentary days and thursday is the day we manuscript and we forget about the church on Friday and painic on Saturday to actually finish to go through the motions on Sunday to wake up on Monday just to do it all again and again and we have lost the passion and the fire my brothers we have become lukewarm.

What does that ultamaly look like herese the next point moving from the sin lets look at the SYMPTOM

The SYMPTOM

in what is for me one of the most heartbreaking turns in scripture this is what Jesus says to the church in verse 17

Revelation 3:17 ESV

For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

the thing that makes lukewarmess so incredibly dangerous is that the syptom is that you DONT SEE THE SYMPTOMS! there is instead a slow insidious slide to lukewarmness. and this means that we look around and we think Ive got it made

And you may think you are not just OK, but doing great. Maybe for your church it looks like this: we have a thriving childrensministry, our youth group is the biggest in town we are meeting budget! you look at all these things that we have convinced ourselves are the best measure of a church and we see these things and we thnk we can say we have it made. but do you really? because i spent 7 years as a youth pastor and witnessed youthgrops explode in popularity and kids came and went and NEVER HEARD THE GOSPEL. I have seen the best childrens ministrys be reduced to nothing more than a babysitting service I have seen churches meet budget and still be dead. My brothers these things are not bad, in fact, many of them are good, but that is not the ultiamte measure. do your people have a fire for the gospel of Jesus Christ, that is the measure.

there is a dying lost world that is in despreate need not of more programs, but of the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord and to be as frank and honest as i can I will ask a question for us what is the symptom of lukewarmess, it looks like we have traded the hope and weight of the Gospel for pizza cupcake and some progam that we think will draw a crowd. Herese the question: what happed to making disciples? tht is our command:

Matthew 28:19 ESV

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

but liukewarmness is marked by a thought that I somehow have it togeterh but in reality you are wrethced pitiable poor bilind and naked.

so that is the sin and those are the symptom but now we ask for the final point is what is the SOLUTION

The SOLUTION

and this brothers is our hope. One of the most beautiful points that occurs in this letter to the church in Laodaicia is that after our savior in bold painful words laysour thier condition as being poor pitiable blind and naked BUT if they come to the savior, that is our solution, they find the perfect remedy to these problems.

are you poor, come buy from me gold and be rich! are you naked come to me and get your white gramets to cpover not just your nakednss but also your shame. are you blind? then come to me and get a healing salve so that you may now see! when we come to our savior and see anew and afresh the hope of the Gospel our hearts are resotred our eyes are opened our nakedness is clothed our shame is removed and we are made rich.

FOr myelf, and really for our church I recenlty sat down and did some soul searching, we are starting a new series, we just started it a couple of weeks ago going through the book of Matthew. And a question that I ask myself every time we start a new series with the church is what do the people need? and there are layers to that. what does my church need, what does my community need, what do the people around me need? and As I began to ponder that question I was struck I had a realization.

WThroughtout the pandemic we have had people come saying that they have some need, they need benevolance, they NEED us to help them. and by the grace of God there is more money in our benevolance account now hten there has ever been but from the bottom of my heart and with every fiber of my being I believe that what these people NEED rom us in NOT benevolnce, is NOT even paying thier rent or some bill, but hwat they NEED from us is the Gospel.

What every meber needs from me what every guest what ever person in my community needs is not some program, what they need is not belevolance what they need is the gospel of Jesus christ our Lord and when they come to him they will find him to be a perfect savior. rich in mercy and abounding in steadfast love towards us.

What is incredible about the letter to the church in laodacia is in on sesen how bad they are yes, it is an oddity that there was nothing good to say about them, but what is more beautiful is that hey are PERFECTLY fixd by thier savior, but what is more is that the low-ness (thats not a word, solets invent it) the low-ness the fallenness of where they are the brokenness, the frailness the broken estate that they find themselves in still has this promise:

Revelation 3:19–20 ESV

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

this is a picture of the intimate fellowship taht we will have with our savior. An to me as I evaluated MY life as I lookedat MY heart this was the most heartbreaking portion of this passage. As I looked at what it ultiamatley mens to say that I am often lukewark it means this: I have satisfied myself wtih programs, routene, and just doing it, when set before me is passion, is joy and above all elese is dining with my savior. Deep intimate fellowship.

Revelation 3:21 ESV

The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.

this is being lifted up and exhalted by our savior. and that is our hope. As we look at our lives and I plead with you brothers look at your life and see where this thought of lukewarmness has crept in? ask where your passion has been replaced with some thought of “were doing fine”. In what places are you doijg fine, we are ok, we dont strive for service to the sovering rightous Lord of heaven and earth, where have you settled for just getting by?

As you prepare your sermons and are in the middle of another hard and difficult week will you fight the temptation to think: you know what this is an easy passge, I got this one I don’t need to strudy as hard, I don’t need to pray as much I dont need to wrestle with this passage as much this week, because im tired already.

when the hopstal visits are dragging you down and there is another fire to put out with the elders or in your congregation as you weigh the dicisions that your missions board will make do let let lukewarmess creep in. I beg of you

Instead look to your savior. DIne with him. feel the hope and joy the privledge and honor of being his. Serve the Lord With Gladness!