Pastor Tim Brown, Calvary Chapel Fremont, Sunday September 5, 2010

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A Dying Church

Revelation 3:1-6

A DYING CHURCH   1

If you sat down in a restaurant w/ a gorgeous color menu full of tantalizing food items only 2b told time and again that this/that item wasn't available, you'd get real frustrated real fast.  And if it happened a 2nd time, you'd probably not return. They don’t possess what they profess.  This is probably the greatest criticism of the church – we don’t possess what we profess.

You have a reputation – but the reality is otherwise.  He has gained a reputation for straight shooting/living right/loving people – his ministry has impacted many.  But now he's coasting/not really serving as he was b4.  People know him by his reputation, God knows him by his character.  Sooner or later your reputation will catch up w/ your character.  You can coast for only so long.

The pastor of the church of Sardis was a walking dead man – no vision/hope/expectation/passion…  For all intents/purposes he is dead, he's given up - but God hasn't given up on him.  God wants 2c him restored to healthy ministry.  He isn’t what he used 2b, but God isn’t going to give up on him.  There are some things that remain and the Lord will take what has life left in it and coax it back to health/ fullness - smoking flax.

Some of you used 2b radical for Christ.  Some of you aren't what you used 2b – you're coasting.  There was once a time when many of you said to God, “Anywhere You send me I will go.  God, I'll do whatever You call me to do.  I am Your servant.”  God wants to nurse that spark n2 a flame.

Seven Spirits – fullness of life.  Paramedics on scene/victim is flat lining - paddles.

Seven stars – ur1 of My stars.  I’m still holding you.  Christ is speaking 2u.  Even though pronounced dead on the scene (you are dead), not digging a grave or transporting to morgue.   

Progression of problems in the church

    * Ephesus: not in love w/ husband/Pergamum: flirting w/ world/Thyatira: in bed w/ the world/Sardis: almost dead
    * Samson: not loving the Lord/flirting w/ Philistine women/in bed w/ Phil. women/slave of Philistines
    * This describes some of you.  What happened 2u?

5 symptoms OF A DYING CHURCH   1-4   

No spiritual vital signs – breath/pulse/brain wave

      No heart for God – passionate desires

      No moving of Spirit – prayer and worship

      No note of persecution of this church – attack a corpse?

Unaware of their true spiritual condition

      A name you are alive but dead.  They/others thought they were alive – but blind/bound/broken

      Man from New Mexico was consulting a map in San Diego, looking for Arizona.  Asleep at wheel as nearly 300 miles of highway sped by?  Where was his mind?  Because he was not fully aware of where he was/trip not yet complete.  Long enough, but incomplete - on the right road, but ended up in the wrong place.

      Like the man in San Diego, you can be on the right road/end up in the wrong place.  This morning may find you hunched over your Bible, desperately looking for new life in Christ.  You’ve been on this road a long time and figure you should have arrived somewhere by now.     

You can be doing all the right things, but ending up in the wrong place.  Right things: Word/worship/prayer/fellowship.  Right result: life - but they were experiencing death.   

Husband makes a living wage/home on time/no hanky panky/no weirdness – his goal is to bless his wife, but she feels unloved.  Like this husband, you can do all the right things and get the wrong result.  Like the man in San Diego, the church had been on the right road and wound up in the wrong place. Many are unaware of your true spiritual condition.     

Incomplete works

Tell kids to clean room/in an hour  hardly anything done.  Long enough, but not full enough.  Didn’t use time wisely.  Heb. 5 – many of you should be teachers by now.  After church/Bible study they had no more heart for God/mind of Christ than they did before they went in.   

Incomplete works: motion w/o emotion - labor w/o love, - movement w/o direction - prayer w/o connecting - singing w/o worshiping - Bible reading w/o revelation - giving w/o sacrifice.  Even as the man in san Diego learned that a wandering mind leads to an incomplete journey, so a wandering heart leads to incomplete works.  

Soiled garments

      Soiled garments not related to embracing sin, but neglecting the fullness of obedience.  The shine of Christ in your life is as much compromised by incomplete obedience as it is by disobedience.  

      Rev. 19:8  Fine, white linen is righteous acts of the saints. Soil garments by incomplete works.  They were unaware that incomplete works dulled the light of Jesus in their lives – unaware of true spiritual condition.

Overcome by sleep  Why go to sleep?

      Tired – given strength elsewhere.  Bored – no longer interested.  

      Husband – it is not your wife’s job to keep you interested in her – vice-versa.  If ur tired/bored it is because of your incomplete works.  As a pastor, it is not my job to keep you from being tired of God and bored at the Christian life.  I have a responsibility to do all I can/should – and so do you.  And my failure doesn’t justify yours.  Cf. v4 – there were those in Sardis on fire for God when the pastor was a coal.

          o ADVICE FOR A DYING CHURCH   2-3  

      Wake up

            Sleeping man is vulnerable.  Egyptian shepherd Mokhtar Adam Fadl was sleeping soundly beside his flock when he was shot dead – by one of his sheep.  The animal killed Fadl by kicking his gun and accidentally firing it, police said.  The shot hit Fadl in his chest as the 20 year old Bedouin slept in the desert in northwest Egypt.  

            Be alert… the devil, prowls about…Watch/pray to not enter n2 temptation.   

      Strengthen the things that remain

      Recover the mind of Christ - remember

            Word of God/grace of Jesus/Spirit of Christ.  Won't recapture emotions of the Spirit until recover the mind of Christ

      Recover a heart for God - keep them

            Don’t allow anyone to rob you of what remains - fruit is gone/root remains - nurture this.  Delilah cut Samson’s hair – didn’t rip out roots.  His hair began to grow.  The things you’ve allowed 2b removed from you can be recovered!

      Recover the Spirit of God - repent

            Repent of what?  Keeping up appearances/pretending/incomplete works
                + WARNING TO A DYING CHURCH - Erase:

                  Made a mistake - calling role in classroom & someone consistently absent.  ‘I guess he’s not interested…” Erase

                  I don’t exactly what this means, but it sounds serious.  Chuck Smith

            Does it feel like you’ve been on the right road, but you’re ending up in the wrong place?  Get head/heart in game.

            Is your name in the book of life?