The Amen Speaks to a Comfortable Church

i mean i i hate this and i know you're not supposed to be hating today we live in a day and age where we're not supposed to hate but i believe you're gonna hate this too i hate the stomach bug i mean i hate throwing up i've got three kids so we've had our fair share of the stomach bug and i i hate it i i mean i will talk myself out of throwing up any day i'll just say you're strong enough don't do this don't do this and i'll i'll talk myself out of it until it just comes up i know this isn't a great way to start a sermon but that's the topic of today and it's jesus that brings it up he says there's something that that makes him so sick he just has to spit up and he's he's actually talking about a a lukewarm comfortable christianity

a complacent church makes jesus sick so much so it just makes him spit up and today we're on a journey through the book of revelation if you're just joining us we're so glad you're here we find ourselves in the book of revelation chapter three we're looking at the last of seven letters to the church from jesus he loves the church he wants to talk to the church and as we read the book of revelation it's written in apocalyptic literature so we see a heavy use of signs and symbols the number seven means complete and the wonder of god is that he writes to the first century church in a way that he speaks to the church in these specific cities but he also speaks to the church in every generation and every age and he still speaks to the church today the church is his plan he loves the church and we come to

revelation chapter 3 verse 14. it's the last of the seven letters and we dive right in and to the angel of the church and laodicea write the words of the amen the faithful and the true witness the beginning of god's creation this last letter is to the church in laodicea laodicea is a large city about 45 miles southeast of philadelphia that's the church we looked at last week if you missed a message go listen to it watch it online it's the church we want to be like philadelphia laodicea is about 100 miles east of ephesus i like philadelphia it's on a major thoroughfare that rome created so it was a great place for trade and a great place for communication a lot of people would have to go through this to get from this region known as asia at that time to the east laodicea was

it was a wealthy booming city uh it had a lot going for it laodicea was known for its banking community it had the biggest banks in the entire region more than any other city in fact they would meant gold coins in laodicea laodicea was known for its rich textile industry it had this shiny black wool that was unlike anything else in the world this black wool actually came from black sheep any other black sheeps in the in the house today me too come on but these are actually black sheep these are literal black sheep that if you go visit turkey today you'll find these black sheep up on the hills and they they'd take the wool of this black sheep and they'd make this incredible material that they would turn into clothes and other textiles laodicea was so wealthy uh of course with that came academics and they had a great school of medicine

and people came from all over the world to laodicea uh to to meet with doctors they had a phrygian powder that was taken from this tablet and they would crush it up into a powder and they would mix it with water and use it as an eye salve and it would it would heal all kinds of ailments and they were cutting edge when it came to technology and a traditional medicine at this time it was known for its worship of many different greek greco-roman gods and goddesses the most supreme of the deity of the greeks was zeus and there was a great temple there this this was a thriving booming city you can go visit the rooms of the ruins of leia to see it today and and you'll see these giant theaters uh that people would by tens of thousands would uh come together these

giant pillars for for these temples i mean this place was happening now the church in laodicea was a lot like the city it was it was a church of wealth it was a church that really jesus in this letter has does not have a anything good to say to this church and to each of these seven churches jesus has revealed himself he makes himself known what a great god that he makes himself known to his church seven times he tells us who he is which is the number of completion jesus is completely perfect and here to the church in laodicea he says he is the amen the faithful and true witness he is the beginning of god's creation i want to just break this down so we understand what jesus is saying about himself the amen the word literally means so

be it let it be let it be fulfilled in the hebrew the word amen is truth jesus has said he is the truth the amen the so be it we we often think of amen as the end of a prayer you talk to god and you you say amen and it's over that's actually not what amen means it's an affirmation of what you just prayed you believe what you just prayed or what you just heard when you say amen you're believing that's the truth it's going to happen so the better the preacher prays or the better the preacher preaches the louder your amends ought to be i love it when you shout amen i'll tell you this we we ought to be the loudest shouting amen church on the planet uh but if but if i don't hear any amens i'm just wondering how i'm doing sometimes so

but jesus refers to himself as the amen paul when he writes to the church in corinth he says this about jesus he writes and he says in in first corinthians chapter 1 verse 20 he he says well let me just find out what he says for all the promises of god find their yes in him all the promises of god are found in jesus that is why it is through him that we utter our amen to god for his glory this is jesus all the promises of god are fulfilled in him he is the amen he also calls himself the faithful and true witness this is so important today last week if you recall jesus revealed himself as the holy one the true one he's completely holy

perfect he's completely true which is why he's trustworthy he is true and now he calls himself the faithful and true witness in chapter one of this book the author john introduces jesus and says jesus christ the faithful witness in the last chapter of this book the author john says he said to me these words are trustworthy and true there are not many things that you can trust in today there are not many things that are true and we have many different voices vying for our attention all over the place you even have your own voice but you you have social media you have news you have family you have friends you have all sorts of things crying out to get your attention and i just want to warn you that when we

hear those voices it's not the whole truth when you watch the news you're just getting a sound bite it's not the whole story they can't give you the whole story in 60 seconds and so you're hearing some truth but it's not the whole truth and if you hear something long enough you might actually believe it so that's why the enemy is described in the scriptures as the father of lies he's a liar so he'll just keep lying to you until you start believing what he says about you but jesus steps forth and proclaims not only is he the amen he's the faithful and true witness what he says is true you can believe everything he says every word that comes out of his mouth he's the faithful witness he's been there before and he wants you to know who he is that what he says you could hold fast to for he is the a

men as jesus tells us he's the amen he finishes the description of who he is by saying he's the beginning of god's creation now we remind ourselves of cultural context here jesus does not mean that he has a beginning the word could also be described as the origin he's the origin of god's creation another way to put it as easy he's the source of god's creation paul when he writes to the church in colossae he says in chapter 1 verse 15 he jesus is the image of the invisible god the firstborn of all creation this is awesome the almighty eternal invisible god has made himself known through jesus this is who jesus is he is god

he's the firstborn of all creation the word firstborn is a title and the hebrew culture for firstborn is significant it means supreme the firstborn would get the greater inheritance the firstborn would carry on the legacy of the family and have the responsibility of taking care of the family and here we see jesus is the firstborn he is supreme over all creation it came through him and by him and for him this is who jesus is so as we read the description of who jesus jesus is we're reminded in the book of revelation it's all about jesus this book is about you we read the book of revelation through the lens of jesus christ everyone shout revelation revelation it is singular has a singular focus jesus so many people call this book

revelations uh thinking that it's the revelations of these events that will later read throughout this book that these are the revelations of the apocalypse or or what will happen in armageddon but this is the revelation of jesus the greater you look through this lens you're going to grow in the knowledge of jesus you're going to grow in the understanding that when it comes to the things to come if you have jesus you have everything you need you have the amen you have the faithful and true witness and you have the firstborn you have the beginning of all creation which is why it's important to hold fast to just those first five books five words of this book the revelation of jesus christ that will change everything it will change how you live it will change how you see yourself it will change how you see

the world jesus knows everything about you seven times he tells this church i know your works he knows what we think he knows what we do and he tells this church of laodicea i know your works you're 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 sadly jesus says of this church i know your works and there's not much to say see to each of the churches he typically commends the church even to the church in sardis he said you look alive but you're dead

but he still says there are at least a few of you there are at least a few of you that hold fast and walk with me there are a few of you that clothe yourself in my garments but but to this church of laodicea there's no correction there are no few the entire church he says are neither hot nor cold jesus says this is a compromising community look at verse 15 more carefully you are neither cold nor hot wood that you were either cold or hot the city of laodicea they had so much there was so much money so much wealth they had so many good things but they did not have good water they had to bring their water in from other sources and other regions and so they they brought water and because they had

so much money they built aqueducts up to hieropolis and they they tapped into the hot springs there even to this day you can go visit these massive hot springs in this region and the city of hieropolis had this hot spring water and so they brought this water from hieropolis to laodicea but by the time it got to laodicea it was no longer hot it was lukewarm and they also built aqueducts up to colossae which were in the hills they were called the mountains and then in these hills it would snow and the snow would melt and it created these wonderful cold springs with with the snow melt water and so they built these aqueducts from colossae up in the hills down to laodicea but by the time the cold water got to laodicea it was

lukewarm and no one likes anything luke warm i know what lukewarm is in our house when i take a shower because i have two teenagers and a preteen and i let them shower first just to get them moving in the morning right and by the time i get in i get no hot water jesus is speaking to a community that would have identified what this was like because hot water heals i love hot water i love sitting in a hot tub and getting my back to relax i just love what hot water does to your muscles it just makes you want to fall asleep it it relaxes you it has healing purposes this hot water i mean hot coffee is wonderful but nobody likes lukewarm coffee

that's why a good waiter or waitress they're going to get an extra tip if they keep filling it up right what do they say would you like a warm up because no one likes it when your coffee just goes lukewarm you want it hot but the only way to get hot coffee is to continually have some source of energy filling it up and jesus identifies that you certainly don't have the healing elements of hot water and he refers to cold water cold also has healing elements you see athletes today sit in bathtubs of ice cubes no thanks for me but but but it has some additional purposes is it works the with the blood flow and it works with your muscles and cold water does so much it's refreshing on a hot day no one says can i get a a

lukewarm glass of water on a hot day you want cold water to refresh you and and jesus speaks to this church in a way that they would have understood in their community he looks at their their actual water and he says i want you to consider this you you have no use you're not healing you're not helpful you're not refreshing you're you're useless and he's speaking to the church to the ones whom he loves he he's speaking to the people that ought to know him and grow in him and and he looks at them and he says this is not who you're meant to be in our culture we often think of ha as like passionate on

fire that you love someone and we think of cold as someone that's that's grown out of love we say things like that like oh their love has grown cold meaning uh that it's no longer there if we go back to the first century church they would not have thought in the same terms as we think so some would read this and understand it as jesus either wants you to be on fire for him and believe in him or not believe in him at all i do not believe that's the context of what jesus is saying to the church what he's saying to the church is i want you to be useful i want you to see you have purpose i want you to see that you're made for more i want you to see that you're not intended just to live life casually and comfortably and to to be like everyone else he says i want you to be filled up and become who god has made you to be i want you to see

the potential of who you are jesus is not saying i don't want you to believe in me that peter writes in in ii peter he says god is so kind and patient with us that he wants none to perish that's our god paul writes in romans chapter two he says it's his kindness that leads to repentance that god loves us he he's actually just waiting for us to come before him and as we read this imagery that jesus says to the church he says in verse 16 so because you are lukewarm you're neither hot nor cold i will spit you out of my mouth i'm reading from the english standard version the esv which makes this sound pretty clean he's going to spit us out of his mouth but the actual language is more like

projectile vomit the king james version which is in old english says i will spew thee out of my mouth the new american standard bible says i will vomit you out of my mouth hawaiian pigeon which brings everything to life in the scriptures says i will barf there's nothing pretty about this it absolutely disgusts god when he looks at his kids and they look nothing like the father it makes god sick when when he died for our sins and then we just sit casually as if we can just live our

life normal or keep coming back to the same sin in the wisdom of proverbs it says it's like a dog returning to his vomit we don't realize that we're just coming back to the mess of our lives jesus saved us for for for more than just being saved from our sins he saved us to experience who he is that you would have hope that you would have peace that you would live the life of vitality that you're made in god's image so that you would know who you are that he has an eternal purpose for your life that this life right now is just a journey and jesus said it just makes me sick that my sacrifice would stop at your comfort we have three pillars at journey church that we've had since day one we adopted them from first corinthians 13 13 that says these three things abide faith hope and love and the greatest of these is love faith hope and love are essential to

journey church we believe they're found in jesus faith in jesus hope in jesus love and jesus and it starts with faith faith is in christ it's what we do at church you come to journey church it's all about jesus we want to sing to jesus we want to preach jesus we want to experience jesus we believe faith happens when we put our faith in jesus it's not about what we can do you can't be good enough to get into heaven it's not about being religious enough is is it's not about what we can do but what jesus has done for us that's faith the second is hope and community we recognize that god never intended us to live in isolation and if there's one thing i learned in this pandemic is that isolation is the enemy of the soul as we look around and i'm sure the government had good intentions for us to live in isolation with quarantine to keep us safe in the ways that we did but what the government doesn't realize is that

we're made for more than physical health you have emotions you have a soul and so what begins to happen when we're isolated that we don't take care of the very thing that god created in us and that is that you ought to be in community you're you're made for more than just yourself you're made to love other people you're made to pray for other people you're made to encourage other people you're actually made to make this world better because god did not make you to live life alone hope is found in community which by the way if you're watching online and you live in central oregon we want to invite you that we're meeting in person and so if you're if you're amen so if you're able we we want to say we're better together but if you're vulnerable you're you're elderly or you you're with people with compromised meaning

i'm not saying that we want to be foolish but what i am saying is we cannot stay away from each other we have to have hope and community that happens in small groups and you don't wait for the church to do a small group you invite people into your home invite people to study the bible invite people to talk about god that it's something every single one of us can do in our third pillar and if we take away any of these pillars we can't function as a church our third pillar is love we say is love and compassion so faith in christ is hoping communities love and compassion now the word compassion is awesome it comes from the greek word splogna it's an awesome word you kind of have to huckaloogie when you say it's wagner the greek word here here's what the word splogna means it literally means moved in the bowels you know that regretting that lunch you had with that friend now that restaurants are open

that's what splagna means i know it's a crazy visual but here's what here's what it means and it's actually awesome it means this move to action you cannot stay in the same place you need to go do something now now think about this love and compassion means this i cannot stay the same if i'm loved by god i have to love so so something has to change in me there's no way to be lukewarm and christian at the same time john says this in first john he says if you do not love you do not know god because god is love it moves you to action so if you see someone on the side of the road you don't walk on the other side you're moved to go do something and that movement the motivation is love and jesus looks at the church and says you're lukewarm and you're

loving that life and that's no life at all and so he gets to the heart of where they are and this sickening reality the deeper problem is not their indifference behind every problem is a root of the problem i see this as a pastor because i'm in the people business behind every marriage that's falling apart there's actually a deeper problem it's not a financial problem it's not a communication problem there's a deeper problem and it's a sin problem behind every addiction it's not the addiction so many times we just want to solve the addiction here's the problem is stop drinking alcohol quit smoking that quit doing that that's not the problem there's a deeper root to the problem and we have to get to the root of the

problem or else we're just at the surface and it's going to continue to replicate it'll it'll come back even quicker if we don't get to the root of the problem and jesus gets to the root of the problem here's what he tells them here's the real condition for you say i am rich i have prospered and i need nothing not realizing that you are wretched pitiable poor blind and naked so here's why you're lukewarm you have no need for god you think you have it figured out if you don't know how great your sin is you won't see how great your need is for a savior if you don't realize where every everything that you have in your life is actually from jehovah jiver the lord provider that it's actually all his and you're just a steward of what you have

then you won't honor god with what you have and this church they knew they were rich because they were they had everything they they needed they they were rich they thought they were just fine in fact they had this attitude where i have prospered i i did this i got here on my own they were independent they were smart they were strong they were hard workers does that sound like any nation you know and jesus tells them you say this i need nothing jesus is actually referencing a letter that those in laodicea wrote to rome in 1817 there was a massive earthquake in this region that that took out many of the cities including laodicea laodicea and philadelphia and the roman

government did what big governments do they came in to help these cities rebuild but laodicea was so wealthy they were so strong that they did not want the help of the roman government so they actually the leaders of laodicea write a letter to caesar and in the letter they say they they made this statement we need nothing we got this we do not need help and jesus uses those same words and this was written now in 95 a.d he uses those same words and say you say you need nothing you say you don't need my help but here's the real state of where you are he calls them wretched and pitiable wretched it would be a word described after an earthquake of what's happened is you're actually demolished you you have nothing

this this this is pitiable and i want you to know this that when you acknowledge who you are god works with you he doesn't run from you the late john newton who writes was now one of the most famous hymns he was a slave trader and he knew the horrific things that he had done he he writes in this song amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me see god's grace is even greater when you understand who you are and who he is that he loves you not because of anything you've done this is amazing grace he says and you you think that you're one thing but you're

actually another but when you acknowledge your need for god you receive that grace second corinthians 8 9 paul writes of this reality in jesus for you know the grace of our lord jesus christ that though he was rich he was god yet for your sake he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich that by believing in jesus you become a child of god and if you're a child of god you get a great inheritance that's something to look forward to that all that god has is yours in jesus it's a free gift of god and then he tells this church he says you're actually blind in a city that was known for their

medicine and their eye self he says here's the reality you have a blindness that's not physical it's spiritual and a spiritual blindness is way worse than a physical blindness in john chapter nine one of my favorite stories is uh one of the most unorthodox miracles of jesus there's a blind man and the question is asked in our hearts when someone is disabled why are they disabled why would god allow someone to be disabled and jesus answers the question and is powerful he says this it's for the glory of god it's to display the glory of god so we think one thing and jesus actually flips it upside down so we see disability as a bad thing but jesus actually says it can be used for his glory and so then jesus uses this as an example and he he takes this this man and he uses him

for his glory to teach us about what is most important and jesus spits in the ground not the same spit that we read about in ephesians excuse me in revelation 3 here but he he spits in the ground and he he makes a mud so he takes his saliva his dna and he mixes it with the earth with with dirt the very thing that we read about in genesis that we're made of he takes this mud pie and he puts it on the man's eyes the man washes it off and he goes from being blind to being able to see the problem in this story is it happened on the sabbath and the religious folk aren't happy with it so they bring him in and they harass him they accost him they condemn him and they they want to understand why did this happen why would you allow this to happen and here's a man that just experienced jesus

sometimes when you experience jesus other people won't understand it and at this point they try to ask him what happened who did this and he says this all i know is i was blind and now i could see he didn't have seminary degrees he didn't have all the right theological answers he didn't have it all figured out all he knew is that it was a man named jesus now they didn't like that answer they wanted more so he just threw up his hand said you want to follow him too and that really made them mad and they they kicked him out of the presence and i pick up in the story john 9 35 tells us this jesus heard that they had cast him out oh this is so sweet you're never overlooked by jesus you may be overlooked by everyone but never by jesus and having found him

he was lost but now he's found jesus said do you believe in the son of man he answered and who is he sir that i may believe in him jesus said to him you have seen him and it is he who is speaking to you he said lord i believe and he worshipped him jesus said for judgment i came into this world that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind some of the pharisees near him heard these things and said to him are we also blind i believe that comment was on facebook jesus said to them if you were blind you would have no guilt but now you say we see and your guilt remains jesus used this as an example to say some people say they can see

and they can't see so just because you say it doesn't mean that's the reality you may not have a clear vision of who god is now do you see why the book of revelation is important is to unveils to reveal jesus clearly jesus does not want to just give you good eyesight because your body physically will waste away but you're made with an eternal heart you're made to know god and be known by god that's why paul prayed to the ephesians church he says having the eyes of your hearts enlightened would you open up the eyes of your heart that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints because if you see clearly who god is that's what you want to live for this life is not your forever home this is just a journey to something

greater and christ's revelation to the laodicean was was you you've been deceived you you think that the things you can see are the most important things but things are not the most important thing and so he gives them counsel this is what i love about god you can come as you are before jesus you just can't stay the same he tells them in verse 18 i counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich and 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 god's greatest joy is when we find our identity in him

and jesus lets us know that you can live for something greater than the things of this world at a time when wealth was considered a blessing from god and poverty was considered a curse jesus just flips that upside down and says there's something so invaluable that it does not matter who you are you can have it he refers to it as god's gold it's precious it's worth pursuing oh the stock market's going to go up and down you can go trade gold coins all day long but jesus says go after something that will last it's yours jesus paid the price and it's free just today i saw a little girl with this great big huge stuffed animal she got from journey kids and i had to explain to someone else how this happened and let me just explain it

to you because it has a spiritual illustration now and i don't have time but it's so good i have to you see in our journey kids church here's what happens is the kids are rewarded with what's called journey bucks you try to use journey bucks anywhere else but journey it doesn't work but you just show up to journey church for the first time you're going to get a bunch of journey bucks because you're valuable journey we're just glad you're here now you bring your bible you memorize bible verses you're going to get journey bucks you bring a friend with you you're going to get journey bucks and you start collecting these then on the last sunday of the month you get to go through a journey kids store and it's like it's amazing i mean i imagine it's like how i used to feel as a kid going through toys or rest before christmas i want this and i want that and i want this and kids get to go through it and they don't buy it because they earned it

it was given to them it was it was it was a free gift to them from the church we want to let kids know that church can be fun we will let them know that god is good this is not like a trap bait and switch because they're getting the gospel the good news that they need the same savior we have and when they believe in jesus they get the big holy spirit that we get so kids are not the future church they are the church and i love this as we look at this picture jesus is going to let us know that there's a gold that's worth really living for that we've been trapped by somehow thinking the things of this world will satisfy us thanks for letting me just go on a tangent here let me come back to the scriptures isaiah the prophet proclaims come everyone who thirsts come to the waters and he who has no money come by and eat come buy wine and milk without money

without price why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy listen diligently to me and eat what is good and delight yourselves and rich food oh so many people today work for stuff that just doesn't satisfy and there's something that you can live for which is so great jesus also mentions that he'll clothe them with these white garments he he refers to them as naked nakedness is a theme throughout the book of revelation we're going to see this over and over again because nakedness is a reflection of shame and guilt it goes back to the garden in genesis chapter 3 we see that adam and eve were naked and they were without shame there was no guilt because nakedness is beauty god created man and woman but unfortunately sin enters the story and now nakedness is representation of of shame

and guilt and and mankind tries to cover that up in so many different ways and jesus says nothing can cover you up the way i can he's going to give us what we see here is an imagery of purity and righteousness which is not something that we can create but i'm going to clothe you i'm going to clothe you with something that you could never get on your own with white garments this is a picture of his righteousness that we receive as a free gift found in jesus which is so important because the enemy is a liar he's an accuser and he he wants you to come back to your sin he wants to come back to what was done to you he wants to come back to what you've done and as the enemy accuses us jesus steps in and says no actually i see you as pure beautiful and righteous i want to robe

you with this reality later we read about god's wrath and judgment and in jesus there's no fear found in that we are saved from it and in the midst of this judgment jesus says in revelation 16 verse 15 behold i am coming like a thief blessed is the one who stays awake keeping his garments on that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed be ready don't wait for another day to get clothed in this righteousness which is yours found in jesus today you can have it in jesus now jesus tells us in verse 19 the reason he shares these harsh words is not to condemn but to correct all of this is found in love jesus says those whom i love i reprove and

discipline so be zealous and repent at the end of the day all that jesus does is in love you might be loving your lukewarm life but jesus just loves you too much to leave you there he wants to move you forward into this relationship to call you into to to a right relationship with him which is found in repentance the word repent means to turn to god it means you you were doing things your way but you can no longer do it you turn completely to god's ways and jesus gives a great invitation here that it's in love that he says i don't want to leave you here this is why i rebuke you this is why i discipline you proverbs 3 12 and wisdom tells us for the lord reproves him whom he loves as a father the son in whom he delights

hebrews 12 6 supports this when it says for the lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives i do not like disciplining my children but i do it out of love i do it because i want them to have character i want them to become who god created them to be and sometimes i have to do something difficult so that they become the person that i want them to be someday and god says i want you to be who i made you to be and that motivation is in love and so here's the invitation when you receive this instead of reject god there's a great reward revelation 3 20 behold i stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door i will come

into him and eat with him and he with me to those who receive this rebuke and see this invitation there's the most wonderful invitation of all that god wants to come into our lives and communion commune with us i love this invitation because there's an imagery of a door and jesus is knocking and you like me have every excuse in the world not to open the door you didn't know he was going to knock on this day i mean you're not ready you need to clean the house first you need to like stuff it all in that one closet right or we all have that junk drawer that everything on the counter just goes right in that one drawer right we do all have the junk drawer right am i alone on that there's three of us jesus says listen listen when i come to you

and i knock it's your opportunity to open and here's what here's what's awesome about jesus he doesn't care how messy it is you may have not cleaned up for years you might have junk all over the floor you might have all kinds of stuff all over the place and jesus comes in and you know what his sole purpose of knocking on the door is you there's no judgment you could you could look around and tell jesus oh jesus this is why this is messy this is why this is a wreck and i'm telling you jesus can say guess what i'm preparing a greater mansion than this for you someday so you just focus on me and i'll get you to that place someday but right now you focus on what's important that your identity would be in me so many times this verse has been taken as an invitation to accept jesus for the first time but jesus is actually saying

this to the church somehow jesus got outside the church and this is an individual invitation that if you the church is made up of people as a person would accept jesus into your life you will be the one that influences other people you'll let them know that i i've allowed jesus into my heart and he's changed everything this is actually taken from a context in the old testament scriptures in the song of solomon it's a wonderful relationship between a husband and a wife and it's extremely real and in chapter five the wife is in bed and we read this in song of solomon chapter five verse two i slept but my heart was awake a sound my beloved is knocking open to me my sister my love my dove my perfect one for my head is wet with do my locks with the drops of the night what woman wouldn't open the door to

that that's poetic right there but if you keep reading she thinks to herself you know i'm already in bed you know when your covers are all warmed up and you don't want to get out of that because then they'll go cold again right she actually says this she has this self-dialogue she says if i get out of bed my feet will get dirty so as she's thinking about this she she waits and then she thinks you know what he's a good guy and she goes to the door and she opens it up and he's not there he moved on and as the story goes in song of solomon 5 she goes out to try to find him in the city in the middle of the night and she gets beat up don't wait jesus knocks on the door

this is it get up who cares if your feet get dirty who cares if it's inconvenient it is worth it when you open the door and you see right in front of you is jesus and he comes into your life in john 14 23 reminds us he says if anyone loves me he will keep my word and my father will love him and he will come to him and make our home with him this is so awesome god loves you so much he loves you there's no asterisk right there that just says would you please get your life right first and then i'll love you more he says if you would just love me you're going to do what i say because you know that my words are better than your words because i have a better plan for your life than you have for your own life and listen it's going to be good when we do it together that's what these letters

are all about to the church that it will be all about jesus behold i stand at the door and knock so that we would accept this invitation here's the great reward there's a reward in obedience 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 promise is that we will conquer concerning the future reign of jesus now he always reigns he's sovereign which means he's always in control but you as you read the book of revelation it's really fascinating it stimulates our imagination in fact you should continue reading past revelation chapter three into chapter four john says i get this

vision and he gets a glimpse of heaven and he begins to write it down come back next week and we'll look at it more carefully but he says the first thing he sees is a throne and on the throne he begins to describe it with jewels because we just love jewelry he describes all these different colors he says oh there was rubies and there was emeralds and there's there's clear it's awesome all these colors just sitting on the throne and he says around the throne are 24 little thrones they're nothing compared to the great throne oh and then my eyes got a glimpse of four living creatures they each had different faces with eyeballs all over them and these creatures had wings i think they had these giant wings and they're going around the the one major throne and they're declaring holy holy holy these creatures can you

can you just imagine what this is like and then he says these these little thrones these guys get off their thrones and they worship the one on the throne declaring he is worthy of worship now jesus says when you surrender your life to him he says come hop up on my throne sit on my lap let's do this together this is an awesome description in hebrews it says you can run to the throne of grace and get help in a time of need normally with the king you can't approach whenever you need it you can with jesus and it may look right now like he's not in control but my friends it's time for us to awaken our hearts that's why paul says to timothy if we endure we will reign with him if we deny jesus he will deny

us and the good news today is that jesus has already told us all of this in john chapter 16 verse 33 jesus is speaking and he says i have said these things to you that in me you may have peace the prince of peace says i want you to have peace in the world you will have tribulation but take heart i have overcome the world what we are going through right now is exactly what jesus promised i know we were caught off guard last year with 2020 jesus was not he told us you're going to have tribulation i know some of us are caught off guard right now you're going through some serious tribulations and i'm here to tell you take heart have courage you have a god that's overcome what you're going through he is greater than what you're facing and i know it may be hard right now but

we keep our hope on him and the promises that are found in him jesus did not save you so that you would be barely saved he did not save you just to forgive you of your sins he saved you to be in him that you would have the fullness of the life that's found in jesus christ he saved you for the eternal hope of glory that this would be your life he did not just save you to go to church i don't want to deceive you and make you think that somehow this is all christianity is about on sundays that's not it there's monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday and and beyond it's when you can't sleep in the middle of the night that you would turn your hope to him it's when everybody else has abandoned you he hasn't it's when you're hopeless somehow the resurrection of jesus christ reminds you

that when it looks like it's lost when it looks like it's dead he's the resurrection and the life that is never too late with god and so today i finished with this last verse in revelation 3 22 jesus has said this to every single church and he says it to every single person that can hear me today he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches this is an all this is always an invitation from jesus to experience forgiveness restoration hope in him it's not to the person behind you or next to you this is for you have you heard from god today [Music] that he wants more of you he wants all of you we are at a pivotal time right now in

the world that following jesus may cost something some people may not understand it but it's worth it and i beg you today if you've heard from jesus that you would respond because there's a reward there's really two people in this room there's the person that's never received jesus christ as your lord and savior [Music] and then there's the person that has and i know full well based upon what we read about in these scriptures there are some of you in this room that have received jesus as savior yet you're not living like it there's so much more to this relationship with jesus

so i just want to challenge you as we end the service today that you can respond to this invitation right now don't wait another day if you want to receive jesus today it's a free gift from god from this day forward it will change everything in just a moment i'm going to tell you how to do that but to the lukewarm christian today's the day to rise up and say god awaken my soul i've listened to the lies too long receive all that jesus has for you the gold that no one can take away the garments that no one can take away oh this is good today my friends would you turn your heart to him right now lord we thank you for who you are we thank you that you've given us your word so that we're not left just to be lost

in this world that we can be found by you and today in this moment jesus if there's anyone that's yet to embrace salvation in you i want to just i want to lead them to pray to you prayer is just talking to god and if you want to receive salvation today would you tell the lord yourself that you need him you could pray something like this it just needs to be genuine from your heart lord jesus i need you forgive me of my sins today i follow after you my friend if you prayed a prayer like that your life has changed forever it is by far the greatest decision you can ever make it's greater than who you'll marry or what career you'll have or what college you'll attend this is it because your destiny has changed forever in jesus christ and lord now i pray for the majority of

your church that is lukewarm right now that god we would care more about you jesus than anything on social media that we care more about you jesus than anything we see in the news or the government or politics that lord i know the enemy has sought to divide your church but today i pray in unity that we have one faith and one lord there's one baptism and that's all because of you jesus oh god awaken your church i pray oh would you would you set a fire in us that we would be refreshing to the world that we would be the salt and the light and even if we're misunderstood we would worship you i thank you jesus for your word in jesus name amen amen my friends today i need to ask you if you made that decision

we want to know about it you cannot stay