Letter to the Church in Laodicea

[0:00] The correction of the time on the sheet, it's not 7.30, it's actually 8pm, and the pyramid on Wednesday here as usual. Services next Lord's Day as usual also, and I hope to take both these services.

[0:16] This week from tomorrow morning onwards we have a summer holiday club, and so there's various things to note just in relation to the holiday club.

[0:27] But donations of tray bake and baking for the holiday club would be very welcome, and they can be received at the community centre between 9 and 10am Monday to Thursday of this week.

[0:41] So if you're able to help in that way and bake, then that would be much appreciated. If you are able to pray, and all of us are able to pray, then please pray for the holiday club during the week.

[0:52] This is the first time we've done this here, as you know, and we step out into the dark really, but we do so knowing that God is with us because he's called us to share the gospel message, and that's what we seek to do with the young ones.

[1:10] But we need his strength, we need his help, we need your prayers. And so please pray for protection, and pray that the children would come, and that their hearts would be ready.

[1:22] Even their parents and grandparents would be affected by the gospel through this work. Also, one thing that we noted last night when we met, to talk about the holiday club, is that it would be good to have one person at the door every day during the holiday club.

[1:43] And so if people could volunteer for that, if you had three or four, you'd just have to do it one day. But if we could have people on the door, just essentially to intercept any escapees.

[1:57] We don't want to lose any of the children, and it would be good to have somebody serving in that way over the week. If you're able to do that, please speak to Mary.

[2:09] And I think these are all the informations in relation to the holiday club. And I think these are all the informations.

[2:24] So let's begin our service with a short word of prayer. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that this is your day.

[2:35] We thank you that this is the day that we remember that Jesus, your Son, died for us and rose from the grave. We thank you that he lives. We thank you that as we pray, he hears our prayers and he makes intercession for us, taking the clumsy words of our mouths and presenting them perfectly before the throne of grace.

[2:58] So we ask, Lord, that this morning you would receive us in Christ. We pray that you would cleanse us from sin, purify us from all unrighteousness, fill us with the Holy Spirit.

[3:11] And we pray that our worship would be sincere and truthful. It would be wholehearted. And Lord, that it would bring much glory to your name. So be amongst us in the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray.

[3:24] We come at this hour and ourselves too. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to sing to God's praise from Mission Praise number 31.

[3:35] And the words also on the screen. Mission Praise number 31. A familiar hymn and a wonderful gospel truth.

[3:46] Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see. We stand to sing and we sing to God's praise.

[3:59] There was an information that I forgot. There always is. And it's just to say that at the end of the week, the end of the holiday club week, on Friday, there will be a barbecue at half past six here at the community centre.

[4:16] If it's a nice day, it will be outside. If it's not a nice day, we'll be inside. But a barbecue here at half past six on Friday night. The children will probably sing some of their songs.

[4:27] And a little bit of the holiday club week's message will be shared. So please, if you're able to come along on Friday evening. It's not just for those who attend the holiday club.

[4:37] It's for anyone. And please come along if you're able to. Half past six on Friday evening. So, again, let's pray.

[4:51] Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the joy and the wonder of being able to sing the words of that last hymn. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

[5:06] I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. We thank you, Lord, that we are here this morning. And we thank you that you are the God who is gracious.

[5:19] We thank you that you are the God who calls us not just to stand in awe of that grace, but to receive that grace. We thank you for Jesus, your Son, our Saviour.

[5:31] We thank you for all that he has done to make it possible for wretches and sinners and hopeless cases like us to come. And to draw near to you.

[5:43] And to find that we are received in Jesus. And we are able to come as we are instructed to you and call you, our Father. Father, we thank you that Jesus' blood is enough to wash away every sin.

[6:00] We thank you that the sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God, takes away all our unrighteousness as we come in faith to him.

[6:12] And so we ask, Father, this morning that we would be found not trusting ourselves, not holding up our own filthy rags of our own good works and religious activities.

[6:24] But, Lord, that we would be looking in faith again to the cross of Calvary. And we pray that we would be able to say with the hymn writer, I once was lost, but now am found.

[6:38] Was blind, but now I see. So we pray that for ourselves this morning as we gather. We pray that for any who are absent from us this morning.

[6:49] We ask that you would bless them where they are, some who are struggling to come out in weather like this. Some who are infirm and who are battling with their health.

[7:00] Some who are cast down in their minds and who are in places of respite. Some hospitalized, perhaps. Lord, we think of the needs of many who are absent from us.

[7:15] And we bring them to you in prayer. And ask, Lord, that you would bless them. And that you would draw near to them where they are. We pray, Lord, for those who would normally be with us, but who are far from us this morning.

[7:28] We think especially of the group out in Nepal. We thank you for an update that we'll hear just in a moment about them. And we commit them afresh to you. And ask that on this, your day, Lord, that you would bless them.

[7:42] And that you would continue to use them for your glory. We pray for the work of the Holiday Club in this week. We thank you that you've given us the opportunity to share the gospel that has been entrusted to us.

[7:54] And we pray for all who will do that. Those who will lead, Lord, give them clarity and simplicity in the way that they speak to the children about Jesus.

[8:05] And we pray that you would indeed prepare hearts. And, Lord, that this would be a week. And you would do a work by your spirit, Lord, which will change the eternal destiny of some of these young ones.

[8:19] That you would put their faith in you. And trust you, coming to you as children to a father. So hear our prayers.

[8:30] Take away our sins. And lead us as we seek to worship you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Boys and girls, would you like to come out, please? Well, this morning, we'll pray about the Nepal Adrude in just a second.

[8:49] But before we do that, I've got a couple of things, as usual, I want to show you this morning. Are you feeling brave? Yes. Yes, yes.

[9:00] And then a few less brave voices towards the back there. Volunteer number one, please. Alistair was actually first on his feet. Do you like tea, Alistair?

[9:13] Yes. You like tea? Yes. Okay. Here's a cup of tea. Do you take sugar in your tea? No. No sugar. Do you take milk in your tea? Come around here a wee bit more.

[9:26] Do you take milk in your tea? Yes. A fair bit of milk or a lot of milk? Lots of milk. A lot of milk. That's good. No sugar.

[9:36] No sugar. Well, this tea must have been made perfectly for you. Do you want to tell us if it's a good cup of tea? Or do you want to tell us if it's a bad cup of tea? And the person who made it is Amma.

[9:50] There you go. Don't take too big a dog maybe. No salt or anything in it? No. No? Good or bad?

[10:00] Bad. Bad. Bad. Why is it a bad cup of tea? Because it isn't really so sweet to something. It's not so sweet.

[10:11] Anything else about this tea you don't like very much? Um. The. No. It isn't so good because it has like air.

[10:23] It's a wee bit cold. It's a wee bit cold. Okay. Thank you. Sit down. Now I won't ask anyone else to take it but um.

[10:35] Cammie you can take it because you're all in the same family. Do you want to just give a second testimony about this cup of tea? What do you think of it? Pretty bad yet. Sorry I'm not.

[10:45] Pretty bad. Why is it bad? It's cold. It's. It's not quite cold. Lukewarm. It's. Thank you. It's lukewarm. So if you drank that cup of tea and you didn't know anything about it.

[10:59] And it was sitting in the sports centre. And you just picked that up and went. Would you say yum? Or would you say yuck? Yuck.

[11:09] Yuck. Yuck. Second volunteer please. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Okay Jon. I'm okay. This is a glass of apple juice.

[11:26] You'll be relieved to know. Tell me what do you think of the apple juice? It's too warm.

[11:43] It's warm? It's too warm. Apple juice. This apple juice on a warm summer's day in Harris. What does it need to be? Needs to be cold. Isn't it?

[11:53] And the problem with that apple juice. Is it's just been sitting there for long enough. It's warm. So if you came in running in from football. Boiling hot day.

[12:05] Sweating. You're rosy cheeks like you get. And you saw that on the table. And you went running over. And you went. Uh-oh. It was Eric. With suc win. Yurn.

[12:16] Would you say yum? Or would you say yuck. Yuck. Ye. uuck. Mm-hmm. Okay thanks. You can sit down now. Tea. Yuck. Because it's lukewarm.

[12:27] Mark. Apple juice. Yuck. Because it's lukewarm. it's not cold, it's not hot, some people like hot apple juice like my wife I like ice cold apple juice but lukewarm, it's just sitting there, yuck a day like today, wind's howling and the temperature's not very warm and you see a cup of tea on the table and you go over to it and you take a big gup, you expect it to warm you up but when it's cool, oh man it's just yuck today, when we read the bible with the older ones, you can ask them about this at lunchtime we're going to read about a church and it was a church in a place called Laodicea and do you know what Jesus said to them?

[13:18] He said to them, when I taste you you make me want to say yuck I taste you and you're not cold you don't refresh me and you're not hot you're just in the middle and Jesus says to them he actually says to them I want to spit you out of my mouth why do you think Jesus said that to the church?

[13:58] do you think something absolutely awful was going on in that church and all the newspapers were writing about how bad this church was? what do you think? do you think it must have been something really bad that everyone knew about?

[14:17] speak to me some of you are saying it must have been something really bad for Jesus to say that but you know this church that we know about in Laodicea they weren't doing anything really really bad that the newspapers were writing about as far as we know do you think there was something really bad being taught in the church and when the minister stood up on a morning as everybody was gathered he was telling lies do you think that's what was happening?

[14:46] some of you are nodding actually no that wasn't happening either do you know why Jesus was so upset with them? it's because they were trusting themselves more than they were trusting him they weren't trusting Jesus they were trusting in their own strength they were looking at themselves and thinking I'm quite good actually I think I'm doing okay I think I'm quite strong and I think I'm a very good person and I think this is actually one of the very good churches and they were forgetting that the only one who makes us good is who?

[15:33] Jesus and so Jesus looked at them and he saw that they weren't really trusting him so boys and girls and men and ladies if we want to be a church and if we want to be people that Jesus thinks tastes nice if we want to be people who don't make Jesus say yuck what do we need to be doing?

[16:08] tell me Anna trusting in him not trusting in ourselves not trusting in anyone else but just simply trusting in him trusting in him to wash our sins away trusting in him to lead us and help us to know how to live in this world and then trusting in him that when we go from this world that he will take us to be with him forever in heaven so this morning every morning remember let's trust in Jesus and let's pray heavenly father we thank you for the bible and we thank you that you tell us the truth in the bible we thank you even for this church and we are this year we have this picture of a church that Jesus says

[17:09] I want to spit you out of my mouth and yet we thank you that Jesus is teaching us what kind of church and what kind of people we should be as we look at them and what Jesus said to them so help us we pray not to be trusting in ourselves and how good we think we are we're not good and Lord we thank you that you show us in the bible that we're not good for help us we pray to trust the only one who was perfectly good and the one who died to take away our sin and to guide us in life and to take us safely to heaven when we go from this world so help us to trust in Jesus we thank you again for the pictures that we saw on the screen we thank you for the places that the YF have been at and for all that they will have learned we pray that you would bless them Lord and that you would use them to speak to lots of people over these next few days about your love and your grace help them we pray to trust Jesus each day and to point other people to Jesus so that they will trust him too and keep them safe and give them joy and Lord help them to know you better by the end of the trip hear our prayers and take away our sin we pray all this in Jesus name

[18:34] Amen thank you boys and girls for listening we're going to sing now about how we must trust Jesus and him alone mission phase 1008 and the words are on the screen the Lord is my shepherd I'll not want he makes me lie and pastures green he leads me by the still still waters his goodness restores my soul and I will trust in you alone we'll stand to sing turn in our Bibles please to Revelation and chapter 3 Revelation and chapter 3 and we come to the letter of Jesus to the church in Laodicea probably the most well known of the letters to the churches and we find it from verse 14 through to the end of the chapter chapter 3

[19:36] Revelation chapter 3 and from verse 14 to the angel of the church in Laodicea write these are the words of the Amen the faithful and true witness the ruler of God's creation I know your days that you are neither cold nor hot I wish you were either one or the other so because you are lukewarm neither hot nor cold I am about to spit you out of my mouth you see I am rich I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing but you do not realise that you are wretched pitiful poor blind and naked I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire so that you can become rich and white clothes to wear so that you can cover your shameful nakedness and salve to put in your eyes so you can see those who my love I rebuke and discipline so be earnest and repent here I am

[20:42] I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in and eat with him and he with me to him who overcomes I will give the right to sit with me on my throne just as I overcame and sat down with my father on his throne he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches amen this is God's word and we pray that he will add his blessing to it I am going to ask Callum and McKinnon and he will callum abb and bring some teenager I don underots what is amazing court

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[25:50] we sing again to God's praise from Psalms this time from Psalm 62 and the first two stanzas of that Psalm Psalm 62 and we sing the first two verses the first two stanzas in Galatian remain seated to sin my soul with expectation depends on God indeed my strength and my salvation doth from him alone proceed he only my salvation is and my strong rock is he he only is my sure defense much moved I shall not be a Psalm that points us forward to Christ so we sing to God's praise God's praise

[26:50] Sun SONG DINNER Music inów,

[28:08] Thank you.

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[30:38] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[30:50] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[31:02] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[31:14] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[31:26] Again, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Depends on God indeed Our strength and our salvation Comes only from him And so we look to him and ask Lord That you would meet with us in this time And we pray this in Jesus name, Amen Thinking back some years I remember going back to school days And report cards And I have to tell you that In primary school and to be honest In secondary school also Receiving report cards for me Was never a great and pleasurable experience It was never an event that sparked A family celebration No cakes were baked for me In response to the report cards that I received

[32:29] It never yielded an increase In the amount of pocket money That I was given week on week Although sometimes they brought sanctions Could do better Was the phrase that Often seemed to pop up In my report cards And it never brought any sort of approval From my parents So receiving a report card for me Was never pleasant But what made it unpleasant All the more Was the fact that When I received my report card My sister also received hers And my report card Tended to be all gloom And darkness And her report card Always seemed to be light And brightness And hope And joy And it just seemed to add To the misery Of the The disappointing report Which usually sat On the desk before me And there's something of that Going on In Revelation Chapter 3 Essentially these letters That we've been going through

[33:29] In chapters 2 and 3 They're reports They're reports On the state Of these individual churches Of Jesus Christ And the one who is Undertaking the reports Is Jesus himself The king And the head of the church He is the one who sees Everything He misses nothing He says to the church Repeatedly And to the church in Laodicea Also I know your deeds We can have teachers Who overlook our deeds We can have teachers Who get the wrong idea About our performance I have to say That wasn't the case In mine It was just dying of bad work But Jesus is the one Who looks At our lives And the churches And he sees everything He is the one Verse 14 Who is unbiased He is faithful He is the true witness There's nothing skewed About his assessment He's the one

[34:29] Verse 14 Who is the Amen Which means that He has the final word He's the one Verse 15 Who is the ruler Of God's creation So there's no errors In the judgment In the assessment That Jesus undertakes Of any of these churches And there's no appeal Against the decision That Jesus comes to In relation to these churches His report is accurate His report is final And the report That the church In Laodicea receive Is the poor opposite Of the report That the church In Philadelphia received Last week We looked at this letter To the church In Philadelphia And Jesus As he looks into This church Of little strength He has nothing Whatsoever bad To say about the church He only commends them

[35:30] And encourages them But by contrast Jesus As he looks into The church In Laodicea There's nothing Good to say It's a A very stern Word Of correction And rebuke And so Let's consider The verses That we have before us And let's consider This report That is sent And received By the church In Laodicea The first point To note In relation to this Is that this is A loving report This is a loving Report That's the first point Now we might Scan back down Through these verses That we've read And And And want to object To that statement We might want to say Loving report Where's the love In this report There's nothing Good to say here This is all discipline This is all rebuke This is all correction Where's the love

[36:30] And the fact is That's true This is all discipline This is all correction In the case of Laodicea But what is it That drives Discipline And correction In its pure form Well it's love And concern If you're out And about And I have to be careful What I drink here Don't I And you see Some children And they're Maybe up to no good They're maybe involved In some kind of activity Which you know One is Is probably Against the rules And two May lead them Into danger If you see Children involved In that kind of thing You may see them ahead And you may disapprove From a distance But you probably In this day and age Won't get involved But if you're out and about And you see a group of children

[37:31] And they're up to no good And they're in potential danger And you notice That your child Is one of them Then instantly You'll be involved You won't leave them At a distance You'll go straight to them You won't stand back Silent You will speak Why?

[37:49] Because you love them So as much as They may not like it And as much as It may make you Unpopular For your intervention Because you are A caring mother Or father You don't stand back Silently You step forward Vocally And you discipline Because you love them And that's what's Driving this report To the church Of Laodicea It's a hard To read report It's a harder Still to hear report As we imagine The church in Laodicea Sitting as we do This morning In similar circumstances We can imagine The shockwaves That went through The church As they read this And we'll think More about that Just shortly But what's driving All this Discipline The correction Is love Hebrews chapter 12 And verse 6 Says the Lord Disciplines The one he loves And he chastens Everyone he accepts

[38:49] As a son Or daughter Proverbs chapter 3 And verse 12 Says the Lord Disciplines Those he loves As a father The son Or daughter That he delights on And here Right in the middle Of the section Of the read In verse 19 Jesus says Those whom I love I rebuke And discipline Now when you and I Feel The Lord's hand Heavy upon us In discipline As we do At various seasons Within our lives It's never pleasant And in all likelihood We would want to avoid it We would want to escape From it But why does he do it It's because He loves us And he's not content To see us Wandering away From him He's not content

[39:49] To see us Dabbling in things That will Bring either decay Into the life Of the Christian Or destruction Eternally To the one Who is not In Christ Jesus wants to see us Walking close with him He wants to see us Extracted from the path And the methods That the devil uses To try to destroy us And so there are times When he intervenes And he brings to us Loving interventions Loving reports Loving assessments Upon our lives Which are hard For us to bear Because they are Full of correction And discipline But they are driven By love So if you Or I feel At this moment in time The Lord's hand Heavy upon us Let's not Run from him With a bitterness In our heart But let's run

[40:50] To him Remembering that He is our loving Heavenly Father Who deals with us As we need First point This is a loving report Second point here Is this Is a lukewarm church The loving report Is addressed To the lukewarm church Now We've kind of rehearsed Just what lukewarmness Looks like And tastes like And feels like With the children We know what It is to experience Something that's lukewarm On a freezing cold day You come in And you gulp down A cup of tea That you think You've just made But it's actually Been sitting there For three hours It takes every fiber Of your being Not to spray it Across the room There's some churches That I've preached In over the years And as you know I drink a fair bit Of water As I go through The service Some churches I've been preaching And I felt the mouth Getting dry I've gone for the glass

[41:51] Of water Taken a gulp There's aquaculture Living in there For weeks and months It's turned a Strange shade of green And it's As lukewarm As it's possible To be It's almost Impossible Not to want to Spray it out Over the pulpit notes We know what it is To be To be lukewarm And when we Experience lukewarm We want to Spew it out And Leah Laodicea As a place They knew Better than us What it was To be Experiencing lukewarm In terms of The geography Of the place There was A cluster Of three Times Three cities You've got Laodicea And then there Was Colossae And then there Was Herapolis Herapolis Was across The valley And Herapolis Was a place Where there Was hot springs And these hot

[42:52] Springs brought Great refreshment And brought Great Medicinal value To the place These hot springs Were full of Minerals And so people Went to Herapolis To taste of the Water To experience Something of This healing Kind of water A wee bit Down the road Was Colossae And Colossae Was famed For this Ice cold Sparkling Springs Of refreshing Water So people Went to Colossae And they Loved to Gulp down This water On a hot Day But Laodicea Was in the Middle And so the Water That was in Laodicea Was absolutely Foul tasting And sulfuric And the Locals In Laodicea Loved nothing Better than To watch Unsuspecting Visitors Come to Their water And gulp It down And then Spray it Out It was Disgusting They knew

[43:53] What it was To experience Lukewarm And Jesus Says to Them In terms That they Will Understand You taste To me Like your Putrid Water If you Were cold Or if you Were hot You would Bring me Some kind Of refreshment But you're Neither So I'm About to Spew you Out of my Mouth Staggering Words In terms of The force Of them I wonder Does Jesus Say that To anyone Here This morning You're Neither Cold Nor hot You've Lost Your Zeal Your Heart's Not in This You're Falling Asleep You're Here But you're Not here When you Stand to Sing

[44:53] There's No Praise In Your Heart When you Open The word You're Not expecting To hear Me Speak When you Come in Prayer Your Prayers Are cruel And Increasingly Infrequent You've Lost your Desire To be With me You've Lost your Desire To serve Me You're Not living For me Anymore You're Living For you And I Can't Bear the Taste of You Anymore Jesus Takes Our Back Slider He Takes Our Apathy He Takes Our Lukewarmness Incredibly Seriously Much More Seriously Than I Believe Than We Do So Are we Lukewarm Well how Will we Know Jesus Gives us Some Indicators The Loving Report Is Addressed To A Lukewarm Church And Jesus As he Addresses

[45:53] This Lukewarm Church He Gives Them Indicators Of what Shows To them And shows To us Their Lukewarm So let's Consider The Indicators Of Lukewarm In this Church In Laodicea And also Let's Ask that God by The Spirit Will Show Us Our Own Hearts As We Come Before him Now Wednesday Of This Week Past I Believe There Was A Problem With The Phones I Learned That In The Prayer Meeting On Wednesday Evening But I Have To Tell You I Didn't Even Notice The Prior To That There Was A Problem For A First Session Of The Day With The Phones But I Didn't Notice As far As I Could See The Hands Set In The House Looked Fine As I Looked Out The Window The Telegraph Closed They All Looked Fine But Unbeknown To Me The Connection Was Lost So I Picked It Up And Tried To Make A Call The Line Was Done Part

[46:59] They Were Bible Believer They Weren't An Apostate Church That Were Saying Well Sleep The Bible Aside They Were Bible Believer They Would Be The First To Tell You That They Were Evangelical They Weren't Liberal They Weren't Those Who Would Be Saying Well You Know I Not Sure About The Resurrection I Don't Believe In The Miracles They Believed All That They Had A Good Reputation They Were A Church That Were Known To Be Sound So All The Hardware For Church Was There But The Live Connection The Vitality The Connection With Jesus Was Gone And Yet The Terrifying Thing Was Like Me On Wednesday Afternoon With The Phone The Hardware Is All There Inside And Outside The Connection Is Gone I Didn't Notice And Laodicea As A Church Despite Their Poverty Spiritually Speaking They Hadn't Even Noticed And

[47:59] So As Jesus Addresses Them And As They Hear The Words Of This Report And Start Contrast To Philadelphia The Shock Waves Going Through That Fellowship Must Have Been Immense Jesus Says To Number 17 You Say In Your Assessment I Am Rich I Have Acquired Wealth And Do Not Need A Thing But You Do Not Realize That You Are Wretched Pitiful Poor Blind And Naked So What Is It That Indicates To Us A State Of Lukewarmness Well In Summary It's A Dependency Upon Myself And A Drift From Jesus And His Blood

[49:00] And His Righteousness And His Cross Like I Said With The Children In Laodicea You Search Back Through The Archives They Weren't A Church That Were Known For Being Heretical That Wasn't A Problem They Were In A Church Where There Was Some Sin Within The Fellowship That Everybody Was Shocked By Shaken By This Was A Church That On The Outside Looked To Be Fine But Their Temperature Spiritually Speaking Had Dropped And As It Dropped They Were Drifting From Jesus And As They Were Drifting From Jesus They Were More And More Self Satisfied And More And More Dependent And Secure In Themselves That Was The Heart Of The Problem In Laodicea We Tell You Still A Bit About Laodicea As A Place And

[50:00] The Culture That That Church Was Planted In Laodicea Was A Place That Had Great Great Wealth When We Go Back Through The History Books We Can Read About Various Earthquakes That Hit Laodicea And In 80's 60 There Was One Huge Earthquake That Hit The City The Whole Place Was Devastated And In That Kind Of Scenario As Was Not Uncommon In These Areas What The Cities Would Do Is They Would Make An Application To The Government The Government Would Make Available Instantly Huge Grants And These Grants Would Be Used To Rebuild The City Laodicea 80's 60 It Was Leveled Absolutely Devastated But They Didn't Feel The Need As They Tried To Recover They Didn't Feel The Need To Actually Make Any Contact With The Government They Cast In Their Shops And Shares They Went To The Banks They Got Some Gold And They Rebuilt The City

[51:00] In Record Time With No Help From Anyone Everything Within Laodicea One Of The Historians Passed This He Said This Laodicea Arose From The Ruins By The Strength Of Our Own Resources With No Help From Rome So They Had Money In Laodicea They Weren't Short Of Money But Where Did The Money Come From Well They Had Great Businesses That Was Bringing The Money To Laodicea They Were Makers Of Fine Clothes This Should Cause Us That Was Famed For Its Textiles Its Clothes They Had Sheep That Grazed On The Hills In The Surrounding Area They Had Soft Shining Black Wool That Was Hugely Valuable And It Was Used To Make Luxury Clothing And So The Laodicean Tomato Tunic Was The Must Have Tunic Of That Day It Was On The Front Page Of Every Fashion Magazine In That Land At That Time It Was The

[52:00] Harris Tweed Of That Place In That Time And Everybody Wanted A Piece Of It So They Had Money Because They Had Industry They Were Clothes Makers But Not Only That They Had A Medical School That They Built Themselves And Out Of That Medical School Came Ear Ointment That Helped People To Hear And Out Of That Medical School Came An Eye Salve That Was Renowned Throughout The Ancient World It Brought Great Relief To Their Patience But It Also Brought Great Income To The City And Because The City Was On A Busy Trade Route There Was Never A Shortage Of Business And Because There Was Never A Shortage Of Business There Was Never A Shortage Of Cash And So They Were Self Sufficient In The Worldly Sense They Thank Laodiceans Check Their Bank Balance They Smiled They

[53:00] Never Went To The Cash Machine Like I Do With Butterflies In Their Summach Thinking What Awful News Is Going To Be Here They Were Self Sufficient And Something Of That Self Sufficiency In The World They Sense Something Of That Self Security In Their Own Humanity Had Crept Into Their Spiritual Life And Their Felt Need Of Christ Wained And Jesus Saw All And Jesus Looked Into Their Church And Jesus Looked Into The Hearts Of The Laodiceans And He Heard Their Proud Whispers And He Challenged Them To See Them As He Sees Them And As We Look Into The Mirror Of God's Word As James Tells Us It Is And As We Say That The Spirit Of God Will Show

[54:00] Us In A Measure That We Can Bear The State Of Our Hearts Before Christ We Have To Look For Traces Of Luke Warmness We Have To Look At These Indicators That Were Showing To The Church In Laodicea So What Are We Looking For Where We Are Looking For And We Are Listening For Anything That Says I Am Okay I Am Okay Apart From Christ Anything That Whispers In Our Hearts I Don't Need Jesus I Am Doing Fine On My Own That That Is That Is Here You Know Some People Think If They Live A Good Life They Try Hard To Be Morally Upgrade Some People Think If

[55:00] They Do Unto Others As They Would Have Them Do Unto Them They Don't Hurt Anybody And They Go To Church Twice On A Sunday They Try And Be A Nice Person Then Their Belief Is At The End Of The Day God Will Say To Them Well You're Not Perfect But You're Okay You're Better Than Most Of The People That Come Knocking On Heaven's Door So In You Come But The Truth Is If You And I Haven't Come To Jesus For For For For For For For For For If You And I Have Not Come To Jesus As Those Who Are Wretched And Pitiful And Poor And Blind And Naked Then We Sit As The Lady Seans Do And Jesus Says To Us I Can't Bear The Paste Of You If

[56:01] You And I Even In Our Christian State Are Drifting From Jesus And Thinking Well I Will If I Stand Here This Morning And Think Well I Have My Servant Notes And I Have The Text That I'm Prepared And I Can Do This And I'm Not Depending Upon Christ Then I'm Trouble And So Jesus Looks At The Lady Seans And He Gives Them These Indicators Of Danger These Indicators Of Trouble He Exposes To Them That Because They Are Trusting In Themselves And Not In Him They Are Wretched And They Are Pitiful And They Are Poor And They Are Blind And They Are Naked But To That Same Church Jesus Extends An

[57:01] Invitation And He Says In Verse 18 I Counsel You To Buy From Me Gold Refined In The Fire So You Can Become Rich And White Close To Wear So That You Can Cover Your Shameful Nakedness You See What Jesus Is Doing He Knows All About Their City He Knows About Their Clothes And All The Clothes They Supply He Saying Yet You're Naked He Knows About The The Gold That's In Their Banks And He Says It's Worth Nothing He Knows About The Sal That They Sell And He Says You Can't See So I Counsel You To Buy From Me Gold Refined Rich And White Clothes To Wear So You Can Cover Your Shameful Nakedness And Salve To Put In Your Eyes So You Can See Those Who My Love I Rebuke And Discipline So Be Earnest And Repent Excuse

[58:03] Me So Jesus Says To Them You're Broke But How Can They Buy Gold If They're Broke When They Have Nothing In Their Hands To Trade How Can They Deal With Christ Well It's Because The Riches That Jesus Is Talking Of The Gold That He Offers Not The Riches That's In The Bank Of The Seah The Riches That Jesus Speaks About Are The Riches That He's Paid For On The Cross Of Calum The Gold That Jesus Speaks Of That Is Refined Is That Gold That Has Been Refined In The Fires Of Hell Which Jesus Himself Descended Into On Our behalf Fires That Did Not Consume Him As They Would Consume Us But

[59:05] Which Showed Him To Be The Only Holy One And True One The Only One Who Could Pay The Price For Our Sin And Bring Us Into The Richness Of Heaven The Words Of The Apostles Creed Are Staggering When We Think About The Cost That Christ Went The Gold That He Offers I Believe In God The Father Almighty Maker Of Heaven And Earth And In Jesus Christ His Only Son Our Lord Who Was Conceived By The Holy Ghost Born Of The Virgin Mary Suffered And Our Conscious Pilate Was Crucified Dead And Buried He Descended Into Hell The Third Day He He Rose From The Dead He Rose Triumphant He Rose Having Paid The Price For Our

[60:05] Sin He Rose Offering Us This Gold Which Is Refined Through The Fire Jesus Says You Thought You Were Rich But You Are Utterly Poor But I Can Make Rich He Says You Thought You Could See You Thought You Had 20 20 Vision You Thought You Could Help Other People See But You're Absolutely Blind But Come To Me And I Can You See You Thought You Were Clothed He Says With The Finest Of Stuff Your Bank Balance Is Up Here With All The Garments That You're Giving But He Says Before Me You're Exposed And Absolutely Shamefully Naked But Come To Me Says Jesus And I Can Give You My White Rose Of Righteousness So This Is The Invitation That Is Extended To This Church That

[61:05] Makes Jesus Sick Why Why Offer Them This Why Give This Invitation To Such A Distasteful Bunch Or Simply Because He Loved Them And That Invitation I Went To Lay This Year Is Still Extended To Us This Morning We Are Called To Come To Jesus For Salvation We Are To Come To Jesus For Restoration If We Have Drifted From And He Will Give Us Everything That We Need Freely Isaiah 55 Come All You Who Are Thirsty Come To The Waters And You Who Have No Money Come Buy And Eat Come Buy Wine Milk Without Money

[62:05] And Without Cost Why Spend Money On What's Not Red And Your Labor And What Does Not Satisfy Listen Listen To And Eat What Is Good And Your Soul Will Delight In The Richest Of Fear Give Ear And Come To Me Hear Me Says The Lord That Your Soul May Live And This Is The Gospel This Is Grace Do We Deserve It No We Don't Or It Wouldn't Be Grace Can We Pay For It No We Can't Because Jesus Has Paid For It Grace Is God's Riches At Christ's Expense It's By Grace We're Saved Not Our Works And So Whether We Are In Laodicea Or Leave About We Never Get To Boast

[63:05] On Ourselves We Never Get To Settle In Our Own Self Righteousness Because The Best We Can Produce Is Like Filthy Rags Before God We Must Look And Keep On Looking In Faith To Jesus The Rock Of Our Salvation We Could Have Sung The Hymn To Finish Nothing Nothing Nothing In My Hand I Bring Simply To Thy Cross I Plain Naked Come To Thee For Grace Helpless Look To Thee For Grace Foul I To The Fountain Fly Wash Me Saved Or I Die And So There Is The Indicators Of Lukewarmness And Yet There Is The Invitation That Is Extended And Finally In Just A Word That Is The Promise Of Intimacy To This Church If They Will Respond

[64:05] And That Is What This Church Lacked Intimacy With Christ That's What Left Them Lukewarm Probably The Most Famous Image In All Of This Passage Is This One Jesus Is Knocking Revelation 3 20 He Stands At The Door And He Knocks Where Is He He's Not Knocking From Inside The Church He's Outside The Laodiceans Are All Gathered For Worship And Yet Christ Is Outside The Door There's No Intimacy He's Not Amongst Them And That's What Left Them So Lukewarm And Distasteful So They Needed A Fresh Touch Of Christ They Needed To

[65:05] Be Revived And That's What They Would Receive That Fresh Touch If They Would Turn From Their Lukewarm This If They Verse 19 Would Become Earnest And Repent Why Was Jesus Outside Was It That Jesus Had Said I'm Not Dealing With You Anymore I'm Locking You In This Little Confined Space Because I Can't Bear You The Reason Jesus Was Outside Was Not Like He Had Shut Them Out They Had Shut Him Out As They Ushered The World In And We Do That As You And I Accommodate Sin In Our Lives As We Compromise With What We Know Is Wrong As We Drift From

[66:06] The Truth Of Scripture And All That God Requires Of Us As We Become Intimate And More And More Comfortable In The World And We Become Those Who Are Not Just In The World But Who Are Off The World Then In Doing So We Push Jesus Further And Further And Further Away We Lose Intimacy And We Lose Our Zeal We Become Half Hearted And Laplusted We Lose That Living Real Vital Touch We Become Luke One And Jesus In The One Hand Says I Can't Bear The Taste Of You Anymore And Yet In The Other In

[67:08] Almost The Same Blet He Stands At The Door Of Our Hearts And Our Church And He Knocks And If We Hear The Knock If We Hear His Voice And Respond In Faith And Say Come In Cleanse Me Take Take Away All The Rubbish Fill Me With The Spirit I Hate The Sins That Made The More And Drove The From My Breast Come In Life with him, suck with him and he with me, intimacy in time fellowship in time fellowship in this world, a close walk with God is what he promises and then greater intimacy perfect intimacy verse 21 for all eternity

[68:23] I will give the right to sit with me on my throne so there's a loving report addressed to the lukewarm church there's the indicators that Jesus shows to the church of a lukewarm state there's the invitation that he extends to those who are lukewarm that they will see and they will respond and to those who do respond there is that promise of intimacy that will be given or will be restored and so we pray he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches and we're going to prayerfully close our service with the words of mission praise 396 which is a prayer written response to the word of Christ where we see our poverty and we see our need we see that there is nothing that we can bring that we must simply come to Jesus as he calls us to just as I am without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me and that thou bidst me come to me

[69:47] O Lamb of God I've come 396 we stand to sing may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of God the Holy Spirit be with us all both now and forevermore Amen CORRECT Of course we stand to have God for our thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ and now we see if we meet that as we may be numa coming and now thank you