[SPEAKER_01]: You are listening to audio from Citizens Church, located in Plano, Texas, for more information about this ministry or to give to this ministry, please visit CitizensChurch.com.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to Citizens Church.
[SPEAKER_01]: My name is Jayman.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm one of the pastors here, and I'm up here right now to introduce our guest preacher this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ajay Thomas is a pastor in Philadelphia.
[SPEAKER_01]: He planted a church there in Philadelphia.
[SPEAKER_01]: He also leads a ministry called Advanced Initiative.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's here at our church because he's leading a training with his team this afternoon at 2 o'clock helping us know how to
[SPEAKER_01]: love our South Asian neighbors around us, but I asked him to come and preach in our morning services this morning and what he has to share from God's word is really, really, really powerful.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is much room, much room for conviction.
[SPEAKER_01]: and much room to turn to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I am hopeful.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna invite him up, but I told Ajay this, one of my hopes when we have guest preachers in, is that they would be so warmly welcome by our church that they would remember it when they go and preach other places.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one way to do that is I invite you to clap and cheer when they come up.
[SPEAKER_01]: And to do so, so loudly that it actually moves them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I told a J, it's not necessarily sincere, it's kind of gimmicky, but we do it anyway.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so would you please welcome Pastor Ajay Thomas to the stage?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even care that you don't mean it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And next week at my church, we'll stink in comparison to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I really am grateful to God to be with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I count it such an honor and a gift to be with your church.
[SPEAKER_00]: So thankful for your leaders.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for this privilege and opportunity to preach God's Word to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have visited here before.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've sat in the fuse.
[SPEAKER_00]: I still remember being here on a Sunday.
[SPEAKER_00]: When Pastor Jamie was preaching through James and at the end he had a time of prayer and invited people to come to the front.
[SPEAKER_00]: I felt like I needed to be born again again and so I came down to the front and I am so thankful truly for this chance to be with you and in this church service together with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: For this morning, I wanted us to consider this passage that we just heard read from Revelation chapter 3.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's a passage that has been
[SPEAKER_00]: working on me and challenging me for the last two years.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's because two years ago I got in a summer to go overseas to visit brothers and sisters on the other side of the world and be in a church service there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was invited to visit and preach on a Sunday there and a few days before I headed out midweek I received a text from the pastor of that church.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wanted to inform me of what was happening there that the church was facing.
[SPEAKER_00]: He told me that on the Sunday prior, that seven days before I was supposed to be there, that after the gathering, the church was just fellowshiping together when a crowd of opponents came and began to verbally and then physically harassed the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: The tension escalated to the point that the opponents called the authorities and made false accusations against the church and the authorities threatened the church about what would happen to them if they dared show up the following week.
[SPEAKER_00]: the following week being when I was scheduled to be there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now you don't know me and I don't know you so I'll just let you in on.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is not a brave bone in my body.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing heroic about me, nothing larger than life.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when I heard that, all I kept thinking is am I really about to go there?
[SPEAKER_00]: And what happens if something happens while I'm there?
[SPEAKER_00]: And as I'm thinking about this, I go home and I tell my wife and you don't know my wife either.
[SPEAKER_00]: But she is the total opposite.
[SPEAKER_00]: She is fearless.
[SPEAKER_00]: We call her William Wallace at home.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so my wife heard this and she immediately said, of course you're going.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I said, of course I'm going, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the only thing I'm more afraid of than persecution is my wife.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I didn't want to look like a punk in front of her, so I got in on that plane.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the whole plane ride, I kid you not.
[SPEAKER_00]: I kept thinking to myself, how much of this do I actually believe?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I have talked about this for decades.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe this stuff up here.
[SPEAKER_00]: But how much do I believe?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like if something were to happen, do I actually believe these things to be true?
[SPEAKER_00]: We landed, and we found out that the church had come to hear that an even larger crowd was organizing itself, and so they switched the locations, went to a secret place, and I preached to 250 people that gathered again, though they had been harassed seven days earlier because they wanted to hear God's word and be God's people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, as I sat through that, you can't go through something like that without something in you shifting, and I couldn't help but feel like how are we both the same?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like your Christian, I'm Christian, but it really does feel like we're in a different tribe.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what it looks like for you to love and follow Jesus and what it costs you to do that feels radically different in your context than what it looks like for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: To love Jesus, follow Jesus in mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: That morning, I got to preach from the chapter right before the one we read, in Revelation chapter 2.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I got to preach just to orient you to what's happening in Revelation 2 and 3.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus writes seven letters to seven churches in Asia.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's more than seven churches, but he writes to seven as sort of the number of completeness.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's writing to seven churches to indicate this is for all churches everywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is to the complete church, the total church.
[SPEAKER_00]: But through them, it's letters for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so in Revelation 2, the church that I got to preach to them that morning was a church called Smerna.
[SPEAKER_00]: Smerna, if you read Revelation 2, is a poor, persecuted church.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, Jesus literally says, I know your tribulation and your poverty.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then he goes on to say, but you are rich.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's really striking.
[SPEAKER_00]: To a dirt portrait, he says, in all the ways that really matter, you are rich.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you can't help but be struck by what you see juxtaposed in the next chapter in the church at Leodicea.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's because I couldn't help but consider where I had been and where I lived.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what it looks like for the people of God there and what it looks like for the people of God here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you put these two churches together, the contrast between the two is striking.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for example, if Smyrna is a poor, persecuted church, the church at Leia to see of the one we just read in chapter three is a rich, comfortable church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as you read chapters two and three, you'll find that Jesus gives sort of an assessment to all the churches, sort of a report card.
[SPEAKER_00]: And every church gets amazed and gets some bees.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some things they're doing really well, some things they're not.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what's striking is the church in Smyrna gets straight A's.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has nothing bad to say about them.
[SPEAKER_00]: No correction, no critique, no threat of condemnation at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's nothing but commendation and encouragement.
[SPEAKER_00]: In contrast, the church at Lea to see of the one in chapter three, he has nothing good to say about it at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's one of the only of the seven where he has not one word of commendation.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it's a report card, it's straight-offs.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything he says to that church is words of critique and correction and the threat of condemnation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you put these two churches together and you can't help but feel the difference between where I was and where I live.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now citizen church, I really am just a guest preacher for one week.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have no idea what it looks like for you to love and follow Jesus in your city.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have no idea what the ins and outs of life in your church is, but what I do know really well is what it is to be a Christian in America.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is where I was born.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is where I've lived my whole life.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the air I breathe in the culture in which I'm trying to follow Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in this culture, I do know what it's like to say out of all the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, the context and culture we live in looks a lot like Leodicea.
[SPEAKER_00]: And therefore, we would do well to hear what Jesus has to say to them and through them to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, because if you read the letter to the lay of the Seans, if you read Revelation chapter 3, you will find that the church in Lyodysia is the unhealthiest of them all.
[SPEAKER_00]: They receive Jesus's harshest words and strongest rebuk.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, if you've even briefly read this before, this is the church that is famous for being the lukewarm church.
[SPEAKER_00]: The church that nauseates Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: and turns his stomach and makes the Lord Jesus want to puke.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what that's like.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what it's like to have tasted something that has gone bad, just a sip of milk that has turned sour, and you know the reflex you have, the desire you have to gag and spit it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus is saying, that's what the lay of the sea and Christians have become.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what this church is like to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a church that nauseates Christ and a group of Christians that makes him want to vomit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's because to be Luke warm is to be useless.
[SPEAKER_00]: To be Luke warm is to be good for nothing except to be thrown out.
[SPEAKER_00]: You think of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: On a cold day, there's nothing you want more than a hot cup of coffee.
[SPEAKER_00]: On a hot day, there's nothing you want more than a cold glass of lemonade or a cold glass of water.
[SPEAKER_00]: But no one ever reaches for a warm soda that's been left in your car.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's why when you go to Starbucks today, you'll find on the menu there's hot coffee, there's ice coffee, but no menu in the world has now serving room temperature coffee.
[SPEAKER_00]: Today's special is lukewarm coffee.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know that because to be lukewarm is to be useless.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's an ineffective, it's to be good for nothing except to be spit out, and that's what the church at Leia de Cia had become.
[SPEAKER_00]: So living where we do, and seeking to follow Christ where we are, we would do well to hear what He says.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's how the body of His letter begins.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is chapter 3, verse 15.
[SPEAKER_00]: Revelation chapter 3, beginning at verse 15, He says, I know your works.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are neither cold nor hot.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would that you were either cold or hot?
[SPEAKER_00]: So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, there's been no shortage of ink spilled to try and explain what is Jesus saying here.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's almost saying to them, I wish you were hot or wish you were cold, but because you're neither I'm gonna spit you out of my mouth.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what's perhaps confusing to us, I think would have been clear to those who first received his words.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meaning, the people in Leia de Cia, I think they would have understood because of where they lived.
[SPEAKER_00]: As you look at any ancient map and you'll find, Leia de Cia was in a valley between two sister cities on either side.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was Hieropolis on one side, Colosseum on the other.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even in that ancient world, Hieropolis was known for its hot springs.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was known for its heat and hot water.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know how medicinal that can be.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for example, if your body is stiff and sore, what feels better than a hot shower or a hot tub or a sauna?
[SPEAKER_00]: There's something healing to the property of that heat.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or, on the other hand, you had Colossi on the other side.
[SPEAKER_00]: Colossi was known for the opposite, which is, there was nothing better on a hot summer day than cold water that came from the mountains of Colossi.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know how refreshing and life-giving that can be to have a cold glass of water on a hot day, but Leodicea was neither.
[SPEAKER_00]: Neither hot nor cold.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, there's literally ancient writings that tell us, by the time they piped in water to Leodicea,
[SPEAKER_00]: and lukewarm so that you literally have ancient writings that talk about how the people would take a sip and want to vomit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus uses something they would have readily understood to convince them you have become just like the place where you live.
[SPEAKER_00]: You look just like your city, not hot as in here's a group of Christians that are not the source of healing to a dying world giving them the medicine
[SPEAKER_00]: nor a group of Christians, nor a church that is giving to a thirsty world, the living water who is Jesus Christ, but neither hot nor cold.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, in the original language, it's not even just hot or cold.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's in the extremes.
[SPEAKER_00]: All that you would be piping hot or freezing cold, but you are this tepid middle.
[SPEAKER_00]: This middling mediocre middle, and it makes Jesus want to vomit.
[SPEAKER_00]: a lukewarm church in the middle.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the way that Jesus introduces himself to this church in verse 14, I think clues us into how this church and where this church had become useless and ineffective.
[SPEAKER_00]: What I mean is, if you read through the seven churches, you'll find that Jesus doesn't just give a blanket greeting or sign signature to each of the churches.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not two Smyrna love Jesus, or two Philadelphia love Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Each church gets a custom greeting and a custom signature.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, each church gets a signature that is particularly what that church needs to hear.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for example, if you're Smyrna
[SPEAKER_00]: danger of persecution and prison and death, you would do well to hear from the words of the one who died and came to life.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see that?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not generic.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a custom greeting from Jesus to a people that are facing death and saying, here are the words of the one who died and came to life.
[SPEAKER_00]: So then it's not an accident that to lay a decision, Jesus says, here are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here are the words of the one who is the truth, and who always bears witness to the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that was to show particularly in contrast the place where they had become ineffective and useless.
[SPEAKER_00]: In that most basic function of a church, which is to bear witness to the truth, which is to bear witness to Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Think of this, friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: What good is a church that doesn't bear witness?
[SPEAKER_00]: You think of it with me?
[SPEAKER_00]: What good is a car that doesn't drive?
[SPEAKER_00]: A plane that doesn't fly?
[SPEAKER_00]: Does anyone keep in their pocket a cell phone that doesn't make calls or syntax?
[SPEAKER_00]: A bum cell phone is good for nothing except to be thrown out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, what good is a church that doesn't make disciples?
[SPEAKER_00]: A group of Christians that doesn't offer a dying world, the medicine of the gospel, or a thirsty world, the living water, who is Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: What good is that inward, insular face and church that knows all the right doctrines and confesses all the right creeds and yet isn't moved by any of them?
[SPEAKER_00]: isn't stirred by any of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, you know what the church at Leia de Cia is?
[SPEAKER_00]: The church in Leia de Cia is that church in America that is not antagonistic to the gospel, but just over time has grown apathetic to the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: The by no means is opposed to Jesus, but just isn't obsessed with Jesus either.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the Christian who certainly doesn't hate Christ, but just doesn't zealously love Him either.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so can you imagine a group of Christians who knows the gospel and is bored by it, who gets sing of salvation and do so with a yarn, who could teach the doctrines of hell and yet not care that anyone's actually going there.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what the church at Leia de Cia had become, a moderate, middling, managed, mediocre Christianity and that kind of Christianity makes Jesus want to her.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, what striking is, this is the worst church of the seven.
[SPEAKER_00]: And why that's especially striking is, when you read the other churches, you find that there are serious problems in the other churches.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're talking about doctrinal error and heresy.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're talking about compromise, sexual sin and scandal, hypocrisy in its leaders.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet with all of that in the other churches, the harshest words Jesus has is for Leia to see it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's really crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Inlayer to see it, there's not a mention of heresy.
[SPEAKER_00]: No doctrinal errors, no compromise, no sexual sin, no scandals, no problems with its leadership.
[SPEAKER_00]: All its doctrine is pristine and perfect and yet the harshest words Jesus has is for the middle of the way, mediocre, managed, middling Christianity.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the one that gets the harshest words from Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: because this church had become useless and ineffective.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good for nothing except to be thrown out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now it gets worse because Jesus will not just say that, but he will try to get them to see how they became that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: How we become that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in order to help us see that, he'll show this church and us another way that they have become just like the place where they live.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I want to spit you out because or for verse 17, for verse 17, for you say, I am rich.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have prospered, and I mean nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
[SPEAKER_00]: For, I want to spit you out for, because you say, I am rich, I have prospered, I have need of nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
[SPEAKER_00]: My friends, you just Google Leadysia, and you'll find that that ancient city was known for three things.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was known for its wealth, it was known for its clothes, and it was known for its medicines.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was known for its wealth, as in literally, that ancient city had an earthquake, the whole thing got torn down, where every other city would have reached out to the empire for aid, Leadysia basically said, we're good.
[SPEAKER_00]: They reached into their own pockets, and through their own wealth, they built back their city, so that if Laird to see a Hadamado, it would have been, we have no need of anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're self-sufficient.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were known for their wealth.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were known for their clothes.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was this black wool that grew in Leia, Decia, and so it made it this hot commodity, this fashion, this clothing that everybody wanted.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was also known for its medicine.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's literally writings about an ancient either hospital or university that specialized in medicines and out of all the medicines, one particularly that had to do with ailments of the eyes.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not by accident then.
[SPEAKER_00]: that Jesus chooses these exact three things, to say to this church, you say, I am rich, I have prospered, I have no need of anything, and yet, despite your wealth, you are poor, and despite your clothes, you are naked, and despite your medicines, you are blind.
[SPEAKER_00]: He tells this church exactly what they would relate to, to see their condition.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the condition is that their earthly riches,
[SPEAKER_00]: had lulled them into lukewarmness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Their abundance of everything on this earth had made them spiritually poor.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a church where all its members built bigger barns and got storage units to store all the stuff they had accumulated on earth and yet they were broke towards the things of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had planned perfectly for their 80 years here and poorly for the billions thereafter.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, the stuff had seduced and lulled them into lukewarmness.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think what's especially sobering, and maybe scariest of all, is that they had no idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the scariest part of the whole thing is,
[SPEAKER_00]: You hear what he said, not realizing that you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: You say this and this about yourself, not realizing that you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the most sobering thing is they had no idea, so that if you went to a lair to see in Christian on a Sunday and asked, how is church in this season of life, I think they would have described themselves as incredibly blessed.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think they would have looked around and said, we've got no scandals.
[SPEAKER_00]: No doctrinal errors, no compromise in our leaders, no sexual sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got bank accounts and people that are flush and full.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think they would describe themselves as morally and materially blessed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the scariest thing is that Jesus says to them, you don't even see.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not realizing that you are pitiful, poor, wretched, blind, and naked.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's striking when you put these churches together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because it's the polar opposite to Smurna.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I know you're poor, but in all the ways that matter you're rich.
[SPEAKER_00]: And to this church, he says, I know you think you're rich, but in all the ways that matter, you are pitiably poor.
[SPEAKER_00]: My friends, can I tell you?
[SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't help because of what I had seen and where I live to consider, you know, if you put these together, you know,
[SPEAKER_00]: And all its persecution, it's the church in Smurna that is safe.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's the safe comfortable church that's in danger.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you couldn't help but wonder, you know, what side of the world is in danger of being spit out?
[SPEAKER_00]: What kind of Christianity is the one that makes Jesus nauseous?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I couldn't help but think, you know, when we think of our Christianity compared to the rest of the world, again, this is where I was born and raised.
[SPEAKER_00]: I grew up my whole life here.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't help but think of Christianity in America, and there's a part of us we would never say it out loud, but we're the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: and the rest of the world is the have-notes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the rest of the world wants what we have.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you wouldn't say it out loud, but we see ourselves as like the epicenter of whatever Jesus is doing in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have what the rest of the world needs, both theologically and materially in every way, where the resources, where the center.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, when you put that against, isn't the pattern of Jesus, and the life of Jesus, and the words of Jesus, always surprising us with these reversals.
[SPEAKER_00]: that the first are last, and the last are first.
[SPEAKER_00]: You show up at a party, and the guy who's sitting in the back is escorted to the front, and the guy who took the seat of the front is escorted to the back.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in this, the one church that is dirt poor is rich in all the ways that matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the church that is safe and comfortable and healthy and wealthy is the one in danger of being spit out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you wonder, whereas we would see ourselves as the envy of the world,
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus looks at the lay of the Seians and says, you are pityable.
[SPEAKER_00]: What side of the world should be pitted in the things that ultimately matter?
[SPEAKER_00]: What side of the world is the one that is engraved danger?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it says to Christians who live in places like lay of the Seah.
[SPEAKER_00]: What persecution and prisons can do to the bodies of our brothers and sisters there is what wealth and comfort can do to the souls of us who live here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, if any of this registers on your heart, if any of this stirs even the slightest thought, what if this is me?
[SPEAKER_00]: What if this is us?
[SPEAKER_00]: Then what should a lukewarm Christian do?
[SPEAKER_00]: What should a church that grows lukewarm do?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I am so thankful that this passage is not just diagnosis but cure.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so thankful that Jesus doesn't just point out the problem, but He offers a solution.
[SPEAKER_00]: And can I tell you, there's a glorious antidote in this passage.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I especially love that the antidote is not, so you layer the scenes move to Smerna.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I tell you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the natural heart would go, what I need to do is feel guilty about being in layer the sea.
[SPEAKER_00]: But guilt doesn't cure gospel can.
[SPEAKER_00]: A condemning guilt can't do what a saving grace can.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so what you need right now is not condemning guilt.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need a saving grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need a glorious gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love that to each of the churches, what Jesus says is, there is a way to overcome exactly where you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't overcome life in Leodicea by moving to Smerna.
[SPEAKER_00]: You'd bring your heart with you there.
[SPEAKER_00]: You overcome life in Leodicea by seeing the gospel in Leodicea.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's a way to overcome exactly where you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what's presented here.
[SPEAKER_00]: The late great Tim Keller made famous to sentence what.
[SPEAKER_00]: He used to say, all the time, and I've heard that you say it here, all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: The truth of the gospel is we are more sinful than we dare to believe, but also more love than we could possibly imagine.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's exactly what you see in this passage.
[SPEAKER_00]: That this church and lay or to see in Christians, perhaps even like us, we are more sinful than we could possibly believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, you saw it in the text, you don't even realize that you are pityable, poor, blind, naked, wretched.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't even see how sinful you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: But thanks be to God in this passage also is you are more love than you could possibly dream.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want you to hear that.
[SPEAKER_00]: safe, comfortable, wealthy Christian.
[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps even Lukewarm Christian, you are more loved by Jesus right now, exactly where you are than you could possibly imagine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not five minutes from now when you fix yourself up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, in your Lukewarmness, you are more loved than you could possibly imagine.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, it's love that is underneath this whole rebuk.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says that in verse 19, He says, those whom I love,
[SPEAKER_00]: I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meaning I'm saying all this to you because I love you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's out of love that the harshest rebuk is met by the tenderness love.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's because of love.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I tell you, when the kids were growing up, I remember telling them all the time, when I was a kid, the worst thing my dad could do to me was not yell at me or scream me or lovingly discipline me.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's code for something else that immigrant parents do, but he wouldn't, it's not that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the worst thing he could do is he would, in my language, he would essentially say, go do whatever you want.
[SPEAKER_00]: Man, if he said, go do whatever you want, I knew I had crossed the line.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because there was something to his screaming that still pulled me in.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's something to his warnings that pulled me in.
[SPEAKER_00]: But to essentially hand me over and say, go do whatever you want.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, man, that's to let me go.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus is pleading in this passage because He doesn't want to let you go.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's screaming, I'm going to spit you out of my mouth because He doesn't want to spit you out of his mouth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know what the cure is?
[SPEAKER_00]: Be zealous and repent.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be zealous, as in no more lukewarmness, zeal, as in piping hot, freezing cold, no more this middle-managed, mediocre, mid-linked Christianity, no more that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But repent, and what's repent, you know repent, repent, I heard one preacher says, you're soul pulls over right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're heading in one direction, pull over.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't tary, don't delay, don't wait till next week, pull over in your soul right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your soul is headed towards Luke warmness, or in there right now, driving down that lane will you need to pull over?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you need to say, Jesus, I don't know how it happened, I'd need to see it, but my heart has become Luke warm.
[SPEAKER_00]: The flushness of all this stuff has seduced me into a Luke warmness, and I can't go on this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm pulling my soul over and you've got to you turn this thing around.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't even leave this service until you do that in my soul.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pull over, friend, repent and be zealous.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you'll do that, oh, then Jesus says this, 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 solved to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what's he saying?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's saying, I'm telling you, right now you need to come and buy from me gold and buy from me clothes and get from me medicine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now if you're tracking you, go wait a minute.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just told us we were pitiable poor blind-making.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do poor people go by gold?
[SPEAKER_00]: How do poor people buy clothes?
[SPEAKER_00]: How do the poor get medicine?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think what Jesus is doing is to a bunch of
[SPEAKER_00]: He's taking us right back to where it all began, because the cure of our lukewarmness is gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you first came to Jesus, how did you come?
[SPEAKER_00]: You came like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: You had nothing to barter, you had nothing to offer.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, all you brought was need.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the hour it first began, you brought need, and he gave you everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, now all these weeks, months, years later, as you find your heart, lukewarm, you know what you do?
[SPEAKER_00]: You go back with need.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you go, I have nothing to exchange for gold.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have nothing to exchange for clothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have nothing to barter or trade for sight.
[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only currency that works in the economy of Jesus is need.
[SPEAKER_00]: and we have pockets full of need, and while it's full of need, and so we bring our treasure trove chests of need, and we come to a Jesus in our 20th year, like we did in our first hour, and we say, I am as bankrupt as I was the hour we first began.
[SPEAKER_00]: And my heart is as lost as it could be, the hour I first began and less you, you turned this thing, and doing me what you did in that first hour.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus is inviting us a people who are used to making transactions to say, I have no need of anything and now we come and say, I have great need.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am totally dependent on you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the beauty is Jesus is saying, what you need is from me.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the emphasis.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come by from me.
[SPEAKER_00]: A people who are always self-sufficient and making transactions all over the place, he's saying what you need can't be shot bought in the shops at legacy, what you need comes from me.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, all that security you're trying to build through your bank accounts and wealth, the security you really need can only be found in me.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, your closets that are overflowing with clothes of the trendiest kinds, they are fig leaves on a naked Adam and Eve.
[SPEAKER_00]: Trying to cover your shame or hide you or trying to win your approval or acceptance, the covering you need can only come for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you could be in the perfect shape with the fittest medicines, and yet be blind to what's actually going on, the site you need can only come for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so if we went to Jesus and we said, okay, Jesus, how much does it cost to get your gold?
[SPEAKER_00]: How much does it cost to get your clothes?
[SPEAKER_00]: How much does it cost to get your medicine?
[SPEAKER_00]: would not the Lord Jesus say to us, Daughter Son, more than you could possibly imagine.
[SPEAKER_00]: What did it cost Jesus to make you rich?
[SPEAKER_00]: Except the Corinthians says, He who was rich yet for your sake became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich.
[SPEAKER_00]: What did it cost Jesus to give you clothes?
[SPEAKER_00]: Except the dazzling one of heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: came and emptied himself so that they literally stripped him of his clothes and the man hung naked on a cross with nothing left to give so that you could be covered in his righteousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: What did it cost Jesus to give you sight?
[SPEAKER_00]: Except the one in Revelation who has pictured as having seven eyes because he can see everything comes to this earth and is blindfolded and they slap him in the face and he say,
[SPEAKER_00]: and he was blinded so that we could see.
[SPEAKER_00]: And listen, don't just know that here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you take a second to ask the Spirit to make you see it in here?
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause I'm telling you, I know this stuff and yet in my heart to believe, ultimate reality.
[SPEAKER_00]: As sure as there's this podium, there is a God who was first before everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that God bound himself to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: such that he threw in his lot with us, and he said, I'm gonna redeem you at the cost of myself, and he literally bound himself to the point that he was gonna empty everything to win me, to win you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what can warm a lukewarm heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what can make us piping hot, to freezing cold for the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's to sense again, this is what it costs God to come and love lukewarm us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you'll do that,
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I want you to hear again, you are more love than you could possibly imagine.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if that weren't enough, he concludes in 2021 by saying, behold, I stand at the door and knock.
[SPEAKER_00]: If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I stand at the door and knock.
[SPEAKER_00]: This verse is often used to invite those who don't know Christ to come and trust Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's wonderful for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't know Christ, this church in all its ministries, laboring to invite you to a God who loves you like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you're invited even today.
[SPEAKER_00]: But not only for those who don't know Christ, this verse is actually perfect for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: If there's an altar call, it's an altar call to the church, because this is a verse written to Christians to say, I, I'm somehow found outside your gathering.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're here, but you didn't even know that somehow I'm outside the building, and so I'm standing at the door and knocking, and asking if the church will let me in.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what's beautiful here is, it's not just to the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of a sudden, he shifts to, if any one hears my voice.
[SPEAKER_00]: He goes from the corporate to the singular to say, this is a word for citizens, but sister, and brother, this is a word for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's standing at the door of your heart, and he's knocking.
[SPEAKER_00]: all that you would let him in.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you think of the humility of this Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the one who, in Revelation 4, the door of Heavens is going to be opened.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Revelation 5, you get to see Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you see Him, He is the focal point of everything in the cosmos.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything in the heavens and the earth and under the earth is about Him and sings to Him and speaks of His glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that glorious zenith and center of Heaven is the one standing outside your pitiful heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: asking if you would but open the door because he would love to die in with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: What kind of humility is that?
[SPEAKER_00]: What kind of love is that?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's why the Puritans used to say, if your heart was on auction, there would be none who would bid higher for it than Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: He would never be outbid by anyone to win your heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the beauty of this passage is lay to see in Christians, we are more sinful than we dare to believe, but also more love than we could possibly imagine.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so to the one who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus promises, if you will conquer, conquer not by moving out of lay to see her.
[SPEAKER_00]: but treasuring Christ above all the treasurers of Leia this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: And loving Christ above all the comforts of Leia this year, if you will find Christ to be supreme right here in Leia this year,
[SPEAKER_00]: Then to the one who conquers, I promise, that I earn my seat with the Father and you'll be sitting right there with me purely by grace because we are both more sinful than we imagine and more love than we dare to mad dream.
[SPEAKER_00]: So therefore, be zealous and repent and open the door and Christ will come in.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me pray that for you now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Father, we thank you that you love us and so you've given us your word.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's in love that these words have been sent to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: May we have ears to hear what you have said to your church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in hearing, let us not deceive ourselves, but do what it says.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so by your spirit, pull our souls over and you turn us around and make us zealous for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Make citizens church useful to the kingdom of God, useful to its city, let it be a light, let it be ambassadors, let many be brought to Christ through the usefulness of this church, do more than I knew to ask or pray, we pray in Jesus' name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.