The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 5: Sardis

Episode Date: March 29, 2020

Wake UP! Jesus did not come and die to make bad people good, but to bring the dead to life. To access the kids online experience, visit coe22.com/kids.

Amen and amen. It's kind of scary. When we designed those videos like six months ago, we did not realize that it would feel so apocalyptic. So if you've been watching Fox News all week and then you saw that, then hang on, okay? If you got your Bibles, we're going to be in the Book of Revelation chapter 3. We're studying Jesus' letter to the seven churches in Asia Minor,

and we're on Sardis this week. So Revelation Chapter 3. And then I am wearing a shirt from Epiphany Fellowship, Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It's pastored by Pastor Brandon Watts. He is a friend of ours. He has been here at 1122. He planted Epiphany Fellowship in Brooklyn under the umbrella of Dr. Eric Mason.

And so we also partnered with Dr. Mason. And we thought we would open our service today by praying for them. They are in Brooklyn, which is, you've been keeping up with the news, man. We need to be praying for our brothers and sisters in New York. as strange as it is here in Jacksonville, they are on like total lockdown there. And his church and his folks are trying to be the salt and light in that place. And so if you would online and all over the world, really, if you'd bow your heads and let's pray for Epiphany Fellowship Brooklyn. Good and gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you.

Lord, I thank you for our dear brothers and sisters there in New York. God, I pray for Epiphany Fellowship, Brooklyn, Lord, that they would be salt, that they would be light. God, I pray that the men and women that make up that local body there, God, that they would be able to love their neighbors in new and unique ways. God, I pray that you would strengthen them. God, I pray that you would give them a spirit, not a fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind. And, God, I pray for the staff of that church. God, I pray that you would help them make wise decisions. Lord, we pray for the leaders in New York.

And, God, we pray. We pray, Jesus, the great physician that you would bring. healing in our land. And you would use your church, your church, God, to make a way where there seems to sometimes be no way. God, I pray, Holy Spirit, that through your church, God, that the peace that transcends all understanding would guard hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. We pray it in His name. Amen. All right, Revelation chapter 3. Before we dive in, I want to give you a warning. If you look down at verse 7, this is next week. church of Philadelphia. Next week's sermon is PG-13 at best, okay? It is not safe for your kids to watch

next week's sermon. So I'm warning you now, so go ahead and make preparations on our website. There are things for kids. There are things for students. And so next week we're going to talk about like the spirit of Jezebel and sexual immorality. And if you've ever heard me teach on this, you know, I don't like shy away from it whatsoever. And so if you're not ready to have those conversations with your kids, you probably should already be having that, but I'm just warning you, okay? So if they hear stuff, that's on you, that ain't on me. So that's your warning for next week. This week, we're in the chapter 3, verse 1. This one's relatively safe. Jesus says, to the church at Sardis, these words, and to the angel of the church in Sardis write the words of him who has the seven

spirits of God and the seven stars. Now, if you've been keeping up with us through this series, you know that every time Jesus writes a letter to one of the churches, he starts by introducing themselves, and he borrows one of the phrases from chapter one to introduce himself. And so here he says that Jesus has the seven spirits of God, and I'm going to tell you the first time I read that, I thought, hold on, what do you mean seven spirits of God? I thought there was one, the Holy Spirit.

What does that mean? And he's holding seven stars in his hand. Well, there's a couple of things about the seven spirits of God. First and foremost, particularly in the book of Revelation, is the number of completion or the number of perfection. Like God created the world in six days and on the seventh he rested. And so all throughout the scriptures, that number seven means like completion or perfection. So a part of it is referencing the perfect spirit of God, which would be the Holy Spirit of God.

But also, also, the Holy Spirit as described in the book of Isaiah is one Holy Spirit as a part of the Trinity. but there is a sevenfold aspect to the Spirit of God. Isaiah describes it this way. In Isaiah chapter 11, verses 1 and 2, Isaiah is giving this messianic prophecy. He's describing Jesus thousand years before he ever shows up, and he says this. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. Jesse's son was David.

Jesus is from the line of David. that's what that means. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, shall rest upon this Messiah. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear or the worship of the Lord. This is like the sevenfold understanding of who the Spirit of God is. And Jesus is standing there in the heaven.

and says, I have the Holy Spirit and I want to give him to you as a gift. This is what Jesus told his disciples. He says, don't let your hearts be troubled, okay? In this world, you will face trouble, but I have overcome the world, and I am sending you one. I am sending you a comforter, and Isaiah lets us know what the Spirit of God does. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Jesus, and by the way, it is in the Spirit of God that we find rest. In this crazy world, the Spirit of God ain't crazy.

In this chaotic world, the Spirit of God brings comfort. In this ever-changing world, the Spirit of God never changes. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, you can find rest. And the Spirit of the Lord rest on Him. And the Spirit gives us wisdom. You think our world needs some wisdom right now? and understanding and counsel and might and knowledge. And then the last thing and the fear of the Lord.

That word fear means like reverence of the Lord. Worship. You see, some people worry through their circumstances. Believers in Jesus should worship through their circumstances. And that only happens when the Spirit of God is in us. And Jesus says, I have the gift of the Spirit for every single person. that would confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And the one with the seven stars in his hands.

That should be very comforting to us that the almighty King of Kings and Lord of Lords is standing in the heavenlies and he's just got seven stars in his hand, rolling him around like marbles. I don't know, you've seen a star, go look at the sun for a minute. Imagine holding six more in your hand. What Jesus wants Sardis to know, and what Jesus wants 1122 to know is this,

Jesus still has the whole world in his hands. This should be very comforting to us. In fact, one of the primary roles of the Holy Spirit is to comfort his people, and God wants us to know that Jesus is still on his throne and he still got the whole world in his hands. That's how he introduces himself. And then he says, I know your works.

Now he just jumps right into it. Sardis is one of the churches that gets no props. Jesus has nothing good to say about this church. He just jumps right into it. I know you works. You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Now, the church at Sardis has been around for probably 30 or so years. And it's a relatively large church.

In fact, archaeologists have found that the building that they would meet in was enormous, especially for first century. And they had worked things out with the Roman government. While most of these other churches were being persecuted severely, there's no mention of persecution here. They would just leave them alone. And so it seems like when Sardis started off, it started off with a bang. I mean, they did all the right things.

The parking lot was full. The seats were full. They were doing building campaigns. Everything was going great. In fact, for decades, things, they were doing all the right things to the point where their reputation in town was great. I know the name that you have for yourself, Sardis. I know the reputation that you have. Your reputation is, that's a good church.

Your reputation is that church is alive. The only problem is, Sardis, your church is dead. Your church is dead. It looks alive on the outside, but on the inside, it's dead. I've been spending a lot of time in the woods lately, okay? Just social distancing at its best, okay, just me and the turkeys. And so one of the things that I've been doing is taking down tree stands from deer season and put them away and I'll put them back up next deer season.

And one of the things that you have to watch out for when you hang a tree stand in a tree, By the way, I don't see you writing this down. This could save your life one day. Okay, you need to write this stuff down. There is a thing called heart rot in a tree. And what happens is when a tree is growing up when it's a little guy and it gets nicked by like a deer antler or whatever, okay? It gets nicked. Then somehow on the inside of the tree, there's a wound there that never heals and it's basically empty on the inside.

But the outside of the tree gets bigger and bigger and bigger and grows. and from the outside it looks great, but if you hang a tree stand in there and get in it, it will not hold you up and it'll fall over because the inside of it is rotten. Jesus looks at Sardis and says, hey, man, you got heart rot. The outside of the church is fine.

You have this great reputation of good works. The only problem is there's no life here on the inside. You see, works and reputation are good. The problem is good works just won't bring you to life. good works won't save you and it's one of the biggest dangers of being in church for a long time is we begin to associate our good works as if those good works or somehow equate to a relationship with Jesus Christ and the Bible goes on and on and on about that is not what makes somebody alive you see your church activity will not save you

and I'm telling you it's one of my greatest fears, especially pastoring a church in the South, especially all of you that grew up in church, and then for whatever reason you decided to come to this church, and you begin to think that being a Christian is simply sin management. That it's just grabbing onto your sin, and by all of your might and all of your power, doing your best to quit doing all the bad stuff

and start adding some good stuff to your life. And then we'll even use terminology, like this, like, well, I'm not a very good Christian. There is no such thing as a good or a bad Christian. I hope you know that. There's either dead or there's alive. And in this church, they look like they were alive because they had all the right religious activity.

But on the inside, they were dead. The Bible over and over and over. Romans chapter 3 says it this way. This is Paul speaking. He says, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped. and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

Listen, for by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin. In other words, no matter how good you are, no matter how many Bible verses you memorize, no matter how many church services you watch, no matter how many compassion kids you sponsor, no matter how many sins you don't do, there is no amount of work on our part that justifies us in front of a holy and sovereign God. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law,

although the law and prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. And here's your problem, Sardis. Sardis, you looked at your sin and you looked at an almighty, holy, sovereign, righteous God, and in your religious activity said, I don't need you. I got this. It's the equivalent of Adam and Eve sinning, and they are naked and ashamed. And instead of running to God in repentance, they ran from God because they were afraid and they sowed fig leaves together. And by their own works, they tried to cover their sin and shame. It was the very first religion.

This is the heart of the church at Sardis. They're actually rejecting God via their religion. Churches are full of them. Paul also, Ephesians chapter 2. He says it this way. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. Our condition apart from Christ is not bad needing to be better. Our condition apart from Christ is dead.

And you, he's talking to the church, by the way, the church at Ephesus and you, us, we were dead in our trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, and the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. This means that when we were born into this world, and I were sons and daughters of disobedient and children of wrath. If you got a little kid, go home and just call them that. Hey, you know, I never, I never have to explain the doctrine of total

depravity to parents of toddlers. Because it's just in us, man, by nature and nurture. Every single one of us want to reject God, either by religion or rebellion. But we are sons and daughters of disobedience and children of wrath. And Paul says to the church at Ephesus, all of us, that was our initial condition. And then some of the greatest words in the scripture, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, us alive together in Christ. You didn't make you alive. Have you ever seen a dead man perform CPR on himself?

Can the dead man reach out, grab the paddles? Clear? No. All a dead man can do is be dead, stay dead. Keep being dead. That's all they can do. That the dead brought alive we are the passive agent in this encounter. He says even when we were dead in our trespasses,

he made us alive together with Christ. by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God. If you write in your Bible, you should underline that verse, you should highlight that verse, you should bite your finger on it and bleed on it, whatever it takes to remember it. And then you should memorize this verse. especially if you're going to be a part of a church. Because the weird thing in our mind, the longer you're in a church, man, Sardis has been around, I don't know, four times as long as 1122.

And they have this great reputation, but now they're dead. It's because somebody walked away from this. Somebody forgot it was by grace that you had been saved through faith than not of your own doing. And they began to think, no, no, no, no, no, my works have something to do with it. and that will kill you on the inside. For by grace you have been saved through faith, this is not of your own doing. It is a gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast.

For we are His workmanship created in Christ, Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Sardis has the reputation of being alive and it is dead. You've ever been to a dead church? Don't raise your hand. I've been in some dead churches, man. Big old buildings, empty parking lots, empty sanctuaries. And you look at them and you go,

what was happening at some point in the life of this church that produced all of this and what happened that now it's not happening anymore? We do mission trips to Scotland. We partner with the church there. And there was one point. in the history of Scotland during the Reformation under the leadership of John Knox, where over 2,000 Jesus-loving gospel-centered Bible-teaching churches were planted in Scotland, in what is called the Church of Scotland.

And if you go there today, the Church of Scotland still has incredible buildings, and it's dead. And it's dead. Most of their churches have turned into museums and pubs. And when you walk in there, the Spirit of God ain't. Why? Because they moved away from the will of God, the work of God. They moved away from the Word of God and the person, Jesus Christ, themselves.

And they said, we got this. Ever been to a dead church? You see, a dead church is when tradition is more important than transformation. And listen, man, there are some traditional churches that are alive, the spirit of God. We are not talking about styles of music and modes of dress, man. There are all kind of different churches

for all kind of different people to worship the one true God. But when traditions become more important than life transformation than you've taken your eye off the prize, when programs are more important than people. The Great Commission is not, therefore go and make activities for church people.

The Great Commission is make disciples. Churches die when the structure is more important than the Spirit of God. I'm going to tell you, the Church of 1122, during this time of Corona crazy, I am so proud of you. I mean, I really am. I honestly, I miss you.

It's a weird thing to get ready to come and preach and walk in here, and there's only like 10 people all like 25 feet apart from one another. I mean, I miss seeing your faces, and I miss us gathering, and I miss praying for you right down here. But I'm going to tell you, I am proud of you because this church is alive.

Last week, as we're doing this online style, we had 81 people surrender their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Amen. And I'm telling you, only the Spirit of God can save. Only the Spirit of God can save. And there is life in this place, life in this place. And in fact, we don't even know how to keep up

with how many people watch this sermon because we had more devices tuned in than we normally have people on a weekend. So those of you watching live online right now, in the chat room, can you tell me how many people are with you so we can get some kind of idea? Because we really don't know. Like it's somewhere, I don't know how many. It's 25 to 40,000 people are dialing in.

And so 1122, praise God, this church is alive. So Jesus looks at this church and says, all right, there's some of you, most of you in this church, it's artists, and you look alive, but you're dead. Then he says, verse two. By the way, this might take a minute. I've been through one verse. I have too much sermon prep time on my hand currently, but whatever. Verse two, wake up.

Wake up. There's some folks in the church in Sardis, and you're asleep. And Jesus says to the church, wake up, church. Wake up. Sometimes I feel like yelling at on a Sunday morning. Look out there and be somebody asleep. but I'm like, wake up. And this is what Jesus is saying.

Wake up. And here's what I think he means, though. You know, all throughout church history, the church has had some really significant blind spots. And as 21st century Christians, as we look back over the history books, there are some people, some pastors, some theologians that loved Jesus and loved their Bible.

And they had such significant blind spots in their lives that it's almost like, I want to go back and take like a Puritan theologian who owns slaves and just grab him by the shoulders and go, wake up. But what are you doing? How in the world could you possibly read the first three chapters of Genesis and then think this thing that you're doing is okay, what are you doing? Wake up.

And over time the church would wake up. And it was the gospel of Jesus Christ that fought hard so that all men would be treated as image bearers of God. And you can do this over and over and over. I mean, the Crusades, who thought a sword was a good idea for evangelism? I mean, Jesus makes that clear when Peter chops a guy's ear off. He's like, that ain't how we roll, man, okay? You want to grab them, be like, wake up, what are you doing?

But the question I ask is 200 years from now, when the generations that follow us look back at us, what will our blind spots be? I mean, what do you think that our great, great, great grandchildren, if they could step back in time and grab us by the shoulders and shake us and say, wake up! What are you doing, church? You mean to tell me that there are three billion unreached people around the world?

Three billion, seven thousand, three hundred and sixty-seven people groups that have zero access to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the American church has more money than it knows what to do with, and there are three billion people that don't know Jesus, and we're literally falling asleep on our comfortable couches full, flipping through Netflix,

trying to find something to watch while billions of people are going to hell and they've got no chance of the gospel. Wake up, church! Or what if they're grabbing us and say, there are six million children that die every year from preventable disease?

that's 16,000 children under 15 years old die every day on this planet from things like diarrhea what happens when you get it? You go to the store, you get some medicine it's uncomfortable at best. You miss the day work. Look, I know the coronavirus is scary

but in two days, in two days children will die of preventable diseases around our world in two days more children will die than have died so far in the entire world of corona so far. And the church, what are we doing? What are we doing? I think we're lazy. We take our eyes off of it.

Maybe people will look at us one day and be like, during our time right now, did you know that there are 40 million slaves on this planet right now? 81% of them are caught up in human sex trafficking. and we just often, we hear a statistic, we don't really do anything, we turn a blind eye to it because we got things to do and we're busy. And maybe, maybe the God of the universe right now is grabbing us by the shoulder and going, church wake up, what about our one mores?

Remember when you first got saved? And you were so excited to tell everybody about Jesus. And then, and then as you just kind of, I don't know, man, church gets on you, and you just kind of forget. Look, I was reminded this week, I went over to my neighbor's house, lives across the streets, elderly man, I was just going to check on him. Comes here sometimes, just go and check on him. And he invited me into his house, and then I thought, oh no, this is my first time I've ever walked through his door. Wake up, dude, what's wrong with me? That one more that you were inviting and inviting and inviting, and then you got lazy, and we just fell asleep.

Jesus is saying, church, wake up. You know, think about it. Maybe God is using these crazy days to wake us up. I mean, think about the things that have been taken. I did not expect to give up this much for Lent. No sports, no restaurants. And you know what I have been realizing through this ordeal? It's how comfortable and numbed I am by my routine that I'm just into over and over and over.

Man, after a hard day work here at church, I like to go to my house. Right now I'd be turning on March Madness and then telling myself why I deserve to sit here and do nothing. Meanwhile, I've got neighbors that are dying and going to hell, and I'm just watching March Madness? Yeah, maybe I need to wake up. So let me ask you. What about you personally? Where have you fallen asleep in your walk with Jesus? You ever fall asleep on the wheel?

If you're driving along, you get the head on, you try to eat seeds, you try to make it real cold, but you just can't fight it, and you get a little, whew. You ever notice how the car does not stay where it's supposed to go, and I think there's a lot of Christians, and you started out great, but then you got comfortable, and then you fall asleep at the wheel, and you're just drifting into the ditch. Jesus says, wake up. Here's the crazy thing about the church at Sardis. because of their wealth and location, they thought they were undefeatable.

You see, Sardis is on top of this mountain. It's almost like a, it's like this mountain juts out over this land, and they built the city there. And so it's like 1,500 feet above sea level. And they built these huge walls, and they were super wide, super tall, and they were rich, had tons of money. and they had worked out this deal with the Romans where the Jews and Christians kind of lived at peace with the Romans. They just didn't mess with them.

And so, Sardis, they thought they were impenetrable. They thought their walls were impregnable. And so one day, well, actually it happened twice. Two times in Sardis's history, they were taken over. And you know why they were taken over? Because the guards on top of the walls that they didn't think anybody could climb. over, got too comfortable, and they went to sleep.

And Jesus is saying, just like your city can be taken over. Church, it's time for you to wake up. When you get too comfortable, you will fall asleep. I'm just telling you, Christians, right now in America, we experience relative comfort and ease. And it is easy for us to fall asleep. And Jesus says, wake up. John Piper says, we have come to take all the relatively minor benefits of following Jesus,

and we've elevated them above the massive real pleasure of knowing him and loving him and dying and being with him forever. Everything's out of proportion in typical American Christianity. And he said, I don't want to be a comfort-seeking, entertainment, addicted, security-craving, approval-desiring Christian. You know when you fall asleep? Look, man, I haven't seen the end of a movie. since before the Obama administration, okay?

It's just, we got these great couches, these big leather, brown, comfy couches. And when we sit down, we've been watching a lot of movies lately. I don't know what we watched something the other day, some kind of superhero thing, okay? And we sit down and Reagan Capri is just sitting right here like she does, leg over this leg, rubbing my head, and I'm watching it, and then sure enough, after a minute, I'm out, man.

Can't stay awake. I've never fallen asleep preaching. Not up here doing this, okay? Do you know why you fall asleep? You fall asleep when you get comfortable. There is nothing about following Jesus that leads to comfort. Contentment in all situations? Yes and amen.

Comfortable? Absolutely not. Never, ever, ever. And yet, comfort seems to be the thing that we pursue above all other things. And Jesus says, wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. And you say, okay, we're awake. How do we strengthen?

And he answers that. Verse three, remember then what you received and heard. Here's how you strengthen it. Here's how you wake up. You've got to remember. I think what he's referencing here is remember what you've seen and heard. The resurrected Jesus died for your sins. You remember the gospel.

Here's how Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Paul writing to a church says, now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel. You see, the gospel is not just to get you into heaven. As a believer, we never, ever, ever leave the gospel. And when we began to move away from the gospel, we will begin to move into places of comfort, and we will fall asleep.

This is why in every epistle that Paul writes to the churches, he reminds them of the gospel. He says, now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received in which you stand and by which you are being saved. If you hold fast to the word that I preach to you, unless you believe in vain, for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scripture, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scripture.

How do you wake up? You continuously preach and repreats the gospel to yourself. You remind yourself every single day, the gospel. And as you grow closer and closer to Christ, and as you move deeper and deeper into the gospel, two things become clearer and clearer and grow in your life. Your understanding of your own crookedness and depravity, and your understanding of the majesty and the glory and the holiness of God. And there is this overwhelming sense that this gap is bigger and bigger and bigger,

and the only thing that can bridge that ever-growing gap is the gospel of Jesus Christ in your life. Tim Keller says it this way. The gospel is this, that we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dare believe. Yet at the very same time, we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope. And the more we remind ourselves of that over and over and over, then it reminds us that playing church is a really dumb hobby. and resting your hopes on your good work is essentially looking at what Christ did at the cross and said, you know what? You didn't quite do enough, and I need to add a little to that for you.

And so he says, all right, so wake up, church, wake up and strengthen what remains and remember what you received and heard. And then he says, keep it and repent. Keep it and repent. If you feel like you've been nodding off at the wheel as a believer, then wake up, remind yourself of the gospel, and then repent, turn back to the cross once again. So, God, here I am again. That when you died on the cross, you did not just save me of my sins of the past,

but you are currently saving me of the power of sin over my life right now, and I need you now as much as I've ever needed you ever. That the life of the believer is that of daily repentance. So church, let me ask you, where have you fallen asleep? I don't mean it's some general way. I mean specifically in your walk with Christ, where have you fallen asleep? Are you choosing comfort over generosity?

Like there was a time in your life that it was so clear to you that God is first, that he's the one thing that drives everything, that Jesus Christ is before all things, that you didn't just want him to be first on your list, you wanted him to be the list on which all, the paper on which all of your list is written. And then you, you were excited about making sacrifices and making changes in your life. You were excited to show up and say, all right, Jesus, here is my first and best,

because you first loved me by giving me your best at the cross. And then you get comfortable. And then you begin to choose comfort over kingdom. Have you fallen asleep? Maybe you're choosing immorality over holiness. My friend of mine and I did a bunch of us did a conference a few, like two months ago. J.R. Vassar, he's preached here. He said, we often treat our own sin with hospitality instead of hostility.

Have you fallen asleep in regards to just morality? You see, sometimes we treat. sin in our life like a guest in our home instead of an intruder. Look, I have guests in my home. I'd love for you to come to my house. We arrange the seat six feet apart, you know, or whenever we can start getting back together again, I have drink for you, I have snacks for you, I've got Zach Brown playing on the radio.

An intruder comes in my home, I have something for you too. It's a 12-gauge and nickel back, okay? So that's what I have for you. And yet sometimes we belittle what Christ did on the cross for us by just treating our sin with hospitality instead of hostility. Have we fallen asleep

and what it means to walk in a manner worthy in the gospel of Jesus Christ? JP changed his favorite movie. It used to be World War Z, and now it's changed to saving Private Ryan. We've been watched a lot of movies. I have seen the end of that one, but it was years ago.

Do you remember the end of saving Private Ryan? Private Ryan is now a granddad. He's got his kids and his granddad. kids and they go visit the gravesite of the man that saved him. Tom Hanks, I don't know what his name is in the mood. And do you remember, he looks at his wife and he goes, was I a good man? Tell me I was a good man. And what he was referencing is that when Private Ryan was saved, you see, he did nothing to deserve being saved except the president or whoever just decided we got to save Private Ryan. All his brothers have died and he ain't going to die on our watch. So they sent a really,

rescue team to go and rescue Private Ryan. Not because of anything that he'd done. And they finally towed him over the bridge. And they're having that big shootout at the bridge. Tom Hanks' character is all shot up. And he's got the bomb. He's going to blow up the bridge. And he looks at Private Ryan and he says this.

He says, earn it. Earn it. And then when you get to the end of the movie, here's what Private Ryan is asking. Was my life worth? Because I was saved by the grace of this man that I have never met, did I live in such a way to honor what he did for me? He's not saying, honor me in the way that you live and then I may save you. He's saying, I'm so overwhelmed by what you did laying your life down to save mine. It changed everything about my life.

Have we fallen asleep when it comes to the way that we live our lives? Have we fallen asleep in choosing hours and hours and hours and hours. of wasting time on social media and the latest news over serious time with God and His Word. Wake up, church. Or maybe it's your marriage. Maybe your marriage has a reputation of being alive. They've been married for 25 years. But husband, when is the last time that you pursued your wife like Christ pursues his church?

Wake up. See, I don't know what it is, but you know what it is. Maybe you used to serve. You used to do kingdom work and then you just got busy. Listen, I would tell you this. Please, please, please, please, church, please wake up easy. There's an easy way to wake up and there's a hard way to wake up. You know the difference?

God will wake you up. There's an easy way. Like if you have ears to hear a thing, you can wake up. I don't know about you. I'm a hard sleeper. I'm a very hard sleeper. It's amazing. It's like a gift.

It's like a spiritual gift. I can go to sleep now. I can sleep all night. It takes a lot to wait me up. But for years, when JP was really young, he's 14 now. He was, I don't know, he was like three to five or somewhere in there. Every night, man, every night. I would, well, for a long time, you ever get that sense, parents?

And you're just like, something feels really weird. And you open your eyes and your kid is just looking at it. And you're like, you creeper, stop, man. Just talk to somebody. Well, I would tell him, quit creeping on me. Just, bro, wake me up if you need me up. And he would come in there every night. He'd rub me on the arm.

And he'd say, hey, Daddy. And I'd wake up real easy. Sweet. Hey, buddy. And he'd go, can I lay down with you for a little while? Of course I can't. And then I would just scoot over, and he would go right there, and we would just go right back to sleep. In fact, the first night, he didn't do it.

I woke up, and I'm like, where's the little man? I was like, oh. And so I went to his room, rubbed him on the arm. Hey, buddy, you're going to come in? He was like, I'm good. And I was like, ah, tears. All right, it was the thing. So I had ears to hear that every night,

and I'd wake up so easy to be sweet and go right back to sleep. Now, on the other hand, it has been rumored in my house that I can be a bit of a snorer. I've never heard it. Well, actually, yeah, sometimes I wake up. I'm like, who's in here? Oh, I think it was just me. Okay, so I get it.

All right, she's not lying. But in the middle of the night, out of nowhere, I just get this, like, shove and a pillow and like, Jovey, roll over, and I'm like, good gracious, could you not be kind about it? She says, I've been trying to wake you up six or seven times. You see, when you have ears to hear it, I'm telling you, you can wake up so easy and gentle and nice. In Church of 1122, this is Jesus's gentle invitation saying, hey, wake up. Come on, wake up, wake up.

I've got something more for you. Because if not, then there's a different kind of wake up. C.S. Lewis says this. God whispers to us in our pleasures. He speaks to us in our conscience, but he shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse the deaf world. Please, please, please, tune your ears into the Spirit of God right now in the area that he wants you to wake up.

And he says, if you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come against you. Look, Jesus is coming back. And for some of us, that's the greatest news you've ever heard. And for some of you, it's the most terrifying news you'll ever hear. That Jesus is coming. He's coming for some of us and he's coming against some of us. He says, yet you still have a few names in Sardis.

People who have not soiled their garments and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. One of the things I notice here about these seven churches is God's not so concerned about how big the crowd at church is. He seems more concerned with the disciples being made. He's more concerned about the sanctification than the seating capacity in the sanctuary. Then he says this, the one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments. To which you may ask, okay, well, how do I get into the white garment crowd here? Well, Romans chapter 8 lets us know that in Christ we are more than conquerors.

All throughout the scripture, God uses this. this illustration of washed clean or change clothes all throughout. And what he's describing here, it is a picture of what salvation is. I got a bunch of verses. Isaiah 1, 18, says this. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Isaiah 61.10 says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exult in my God, for he has close. He clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with his beautiful headdress and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. In the book of Revelation, chapter 7, verses 13 to 15, God's word says, Then one of the elders addressed me saying,

Who are these clothed in white robes? And from where have they come? And I said to him, sir, you know. And he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the land. In other words, every single one of us, man, we got filthy rags on as we come before the Lord. In fact, Isaiah says even on our best day, even our best works, our righteous deeds are like filthy rags before the Lord. So how come some people are in white?

It's because Jesus has dressed them in white. One of my favorite illustrations of this is in Luke 15. We call it the story of the prodigal son. The two kids, one kid comes to his dad and says, Dad, you're dead to me, give me what's coming to me. And the father gives him his inheritance. And then the Bible says that he goes off and squanders it on reckless living. He rejects the love of the father because he thinks,

I don't need you, I got this. And he goes and squanders at all. And then one day he finds himself at the bottom of the barrel feeding pigs, which would have been the worst for an orthodox. Jewish boy and he's looking at the pig food longing for the pig food and the Bible says that no one gave him anything and then he came to his senses and he understands maybe I can go back and maybe I can earn my way back into my dad's family and maybe I'll just be a servant for my dad by the way if the dad would let him do that deal he would be like sardis by the way

not a son but a servant you get it and so on his way back he's practicing his apology Father, I have sin against you and sin against heaven. He's worked this whole thing out. He's going to try to make a deal and say, let me just cut your grass, Dad. And you won't even be my dad anymore, but I'll be your grass cutter or whatever. And maybe I could at least eat and stay indoors. And then the Bible says that the father seeing the son from a long ways off. He runs to him, and you remember the first thing that he did.

He says, bring me my robe. The boy is covered in filth. And the dad wraps the robe of the robe. righteousness around his son so that when anybody sees the boy, they don't see the dirt, they don't see the sin, they don't see the past, they don't see the filth, they see the cleanliness, the righteousness, the perfect robe of the father. This is what salvation is. That moment when we come to our senses and we come back to God and we repent, and we repent,

that God runs to us through the person of Jesus Christ. and at the cross he spills his blood and through his blood Isaiah says that our sins are washed white as snow and God made him who was without sin to be sin for us that we would be made the righteousness of God and he rites the robe of righteousness around us for anybody that puts their faith in Jesus you move from dead to alive

you move from soiled garments to white clothes and before you put on new clothes you take off your old clothes in John chapter 11 Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead I don't have time to go through the whole thing but he goes to a dead man and says come on out of the grave Lazarus rise up and walk

and Lazarus comes out of the grave and the first thing that he tells Lazarus to do is take off the grave clothes why? Because you're alive and living people don't wear dead man's clothes he's telling he's giving us this invitation any of us that would come to Christ

on his terms and his terms of grace any of us that would come to Christ on his terms he would wash us as white as snow dress us in garments of white that's garments of victory that's garments of purity and he says and I will never blot out his name out of the book of life

you cannot lose your salvation in Sardis most cities in the first century they had a census book with everybody's name in it and if you were a citizen of that city, they wrote your name in the book. And if you died, they blotted it out. And if you

committed a crime against the state, they blotted it out. And Jesus says, when you come to me in repentance, when you believe that when I died on the cross, that counted for you, then your name goes into the book of life and death, nor sin,

nor crime would ever, ever, ever blot it out. You cannot lose your salvation. Honestly, it's not yours. You didn't purchase it. You don't own it. It's not like car keys where you can misplace it. It is a gift from God. And then Jesus says, I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. The Bible tells us that this very moment right now,

for any of us that are in Christ, then Christ is at the right hand of God the Father interceding on our behalf. The Bible says that for anyone who is bold enough to proclaim Jesus to people, then Jesus is gracious enough to proclaim our God. name to God. Then he says, he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. Church of 1122, here's the point. If you're dead, I need you to understand this.

If you're spiritually dead, then the gospel is not about making bad people good, but he came and gave his life that you may have life. And if you know him, but you've gotten comfortable, church, wake up. I mean, wake up. That God is not finished with us, and it is time that we would wake up. I think with all of the things that John writes down to the church at Sardis, there's so many of these verses that remind me that the Bible has one author, that the Spirit of God is the author of the entire Bible.

And I got to believe that when Jesus is writing this letter, to Sardis, then there's, it reminds me just a lot of Romans chapter 8. So I think Paul sums up all of this. What Jesus is saying to Sardis, Paul sums it up in these words. He says, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Again, he's still got the whole world in his hands. He is not surprised.

He knows what he's doing. And then he just goes on a run. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he called, and those whom he called, he justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, then who could be against us?

He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. know in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us for I am sure than neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord so church if that doesn't wake you up I don't know what does but it is time to wake up maybe you would say I've been spiritually asleep my whole life

And right now, in this very moment, for the very first time, you are ready to go from death to life. And you say, how do I do that? How do I have my garments washed? How do I have my sin washed away? It is as simple as this, is that you admit it, I'm a sinner that needs a Savior. I don't need to just try harder and do better. That's the works that led to Sardis' deaths. But you admit it, okay, I get it when Jesus came to do for me what I couldn't do for myself.

and that you believe that when he died on the cross somehow, that counted for you. That counted for you. And that when you put your faith in Christ, then you go from death to life and you just confess him. Jesus, you are my Lord. I'm not the boss of me anymore. You are. You admit, you believe, and you confess, and the Bible says you will be saved. And to the Christian, if you've been walking with the Lord, but you know you've just kind of gotten too comfortable and you've fallen.

sleep. I pray, I pray that you would wake up easy. I pray that it would just take a simple little sermon for the Spirit of God to grab you by the arm and your slumber and say, hey, buddy, wake up. And that you would open your eyes and that you would walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So if you're watching online and you are ready to surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, then admit your sin. Put your faith in Jesus. Confess Him as Lord. And if you've done that, and there's a button that you can click and somebody will follow up with you. We would love for you to,

there's a little form you can fill out simply so that we can just follow up with you because we're not trying to help you make a decision. We are trying to make disciples. And you do that inside the body of Christ. And maybe there's an area of your life that you need to wake up in. And I pray that you would.

Would you please pray with me? Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this time that seems crazy. to us. And Lord, we pray that you would use these circumstances to wake up your church. God, and we'd be so sensitive to the spirit of God in our lives that we would go where he says go, that we would do what he says do. God, I thank you and I praise you for the men and women, the students in this very moment that are moving from death to life because they're putting

their faith in you, Jesus. And God, I pray, I pray, I pray, I pray. I pray for the church universal, and I pray specifically for our church, the church of 1122, God, that we would not, we would not be like the church at Sardis that started strong and then died on the inside. God, but we would be a movement for all people that we would continuously discover to you and discover what you have for us, and we would continuously deepen our walk with you. And God, may you continuously just wake us up, wake us up in every area of our life where we have gotten, comfortable and fallen asleep. And we pray this.

In the good, strong name of Jesus Christ, amen. Would you please stand as we respond? We respond to the gospel. Whether you're watching this on your phone, in your car, I guess you can't stand up, or if you're at your house with everybody, then we respond. And for me, this is one of the most important parts of our service,

is that the word of God never goes out in vain. it always does something exactly what God wanted to accomplish. And so this gives us a chance to just marinate on what the Spirit of God is saying to us. And so part of the way we respond is we pray, we pray, we pray. And so whatever it is that you're going through, bring it to God, he cares for you. So pray. And we bring our tithes and our offerings. You can do that online right now.

You can click the give button. Also, I want to thank all of the folks that like mail checks in. I know that takes a bunch of extra steps, but thank you for doing that. But this is our opportunity to just say, God, I trust you with my first and my best because you are trustworthy. And you gave us Jesus. And we sing. And the song that our band is going to lead us in, over and over and over,

it tells us to just wake up, wake up, wake up. So let us pray, let us sing, let us bring, let us respond.