Be seated, everyone. I just want to say that it is always a special joy to be with this wonderful congregation. And I want to say thank you to you. This wonderful church family was one of the first churches that partnered with our work in the country of Turkey, some almost 20 years ago that you began that. Back when maybe we were somewhere in the vicinity of helping six to eight churches, evangelical churches that time, and by God's grace, by your faithful giving, we are so grateful to be somewhere in the 60s in terms of churches established in the country of Turkey. Thank you. We are so grateful for you. and all that you do and your partnership and your love. And I need to remind you, I don't think anybody is aware of this and I'm saying this sort of tongue in cheek, but we are on probably a 10-year course to go through the chapters, Revelation chapter two and chapter three. looking at the letters to the seven churches. We began this, I'm gonna say, about five or six years ago when I came. Each time I come, I do another church. This'll be our fifth one. We only have two left, so I figure in another five years, we'll have it all finished. So keep your notes, remember all of this, because it will continue in the course of our time together. But this morning, we will be looking at Revelation chapter three, verses one through six. Revelation chapter 3 verses 1 through 6, as we see the letter from the Lord himself to the Christians in this city of Sardis, which along with the other six churches mentioned in Revelations chapter 2 and 3, are found in what we know as Turkey today. As we look at this letter, In just a moment, we'll pray. But as we look at this letter, I just pray that we will have open hearts, that we will hear what I think is a very strong message to us as well in the warnings, in the encouragement, in the message to the Christians in the first century, but a message that we need to hear very clearly, I think, in the 21st century. Will you pause with me for just a moment of prayer this morning? Loving Father, as we come together today to praise your name, to sing our praises to you, to hear your word, to respond to your word, to give thanks as we remember what our Savior did on that cross for us as we gather at this table today, Lord, we pray that our hearts would be open to the message that you have to us today, found in Revelation chapter three. Lord, help us to become more aware of the ways in which maybe we take our faith a little loosely, where maybe we can find ourselves a little complacent, where maybe at times we are a bit indifferent, when it comes to the passion that we have towards you. Speak to us, help us, touch us, for we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. If you were to go to the archeological site of the ancient city of Sardis today, you would be amazed. There is a huge Roman gymnasium that is still there. There is a Jewish synagogue that is still somewhat intact. But as you come into the center part of the city of Sardis, there is a contrast that is almost impossible to miss. On the one hand, in the center of the city, you find these huge pillars, columns. You can't even put your arms around them. They are so thick and they are so tall. All of these columns were a part of the temple to the Greek goddess Artemis. It was the center of this city. It was the important aspect of this city. It was what was expected of every member of that city to be in compliance with all of the practices that took place in that temple. But, off to the side, you find something quite interesting. Now this would date back to probably more like the fourth or fifth century. You find two Christian churches, the remains of two Christian churches, very small. Now, obviously, these Christian churches living in the shadow, ministering in the shadow of the huge temple to Artemis would have felt that pressure, would have felt the pressure to conform, would have felt the culture of this city, which is we don't want to offend the goddess Artemis. And there would have been those in the city that said, you Christians are being offensive. You're not following the way that the goddess would want you to follow. Well, how did that turn out? How did that clash of cultures turn out? Well, as best we can tell from writings and the archaeological site itself, these two churches died out. in light of the pressures that they experienced from those that followed the teachings of the goddess Artemis. And there seems to be no more evidence of any other churches that were built in this city. In fact, today there is a pastor, a Turkish pastor, who is trying to establish a new church in the city of Sardis. The best we can tell from records, there's been no churches there for hundreds upon hundreds of years. What happened? You know, we look at the issues in our country today, and the culture within our nation is changing so quickly, and part of that culture is saying, is in a warfare with Christians, evangelical Christians, and the teaching of the Christian church saying, you cannot teach that. In fact, if you try to teach that, we'll silence you. Will we stand up? Or will we, our country, be like the city of Sardis, where in the final analysis it's the church who begins to fade into the woodwork, rather than the powerful and dangerous teachings of the culture? A study was done and found that in 1990, here in America, about 85% of Americans went to church on a regular basis. 30 years later, in 2020, it was down to 65% of Americans who are going to church. The suggestion is, by looking at the trends, that 30 years from now, it will only be about 40% of Americans who go to church regularly. How do we deal with that? What do we do with that? How do we stay strong in the pressures, the ongoing pressures to walk away and to not get in this conflict anymore with those who disagree with us? I think a look at These verses today and verses one through six of Revelation chapter three helps us bring into focus the same challenges that we face today. First of all, it's in verse one that we see the problem. We see the main issue that the Lord is bringing to the attention of the Christians in Sardis as it says this, and to the angel of the church in Sardis write, He who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says this, I know your deeds that you have a name that you are alive and that you are dead. The problem with the Christian community in the city of Sardis was they were active. They had a kind of a reputation, if you will, of doing stuff that was pretty good. But the Lord said, wait a minute, spiritually, you're dead. Spiritually, you're not focused on the things that matter to me. You have a reputation, but it's that you are kind of going along with what the culture wants you to do, rather than what I want you to do. And so, in the rest of this letter, he speaks to them about complacency, indifference, how we deal with that in our lives and not let it grow and not let it lead us to a place of death, spiritually, in our lives. You know, there, I think, is so well put by A. W. Tozer, great pastor of the past century. And he said this, one of the big milk companies makes capital of the fact that their cows are all satisfied with their lot in life. Now, if you're under the age of 50, you won't even understand this commercial. You got to be a little older to remember the contented cows. He says, their clever ads have made the term contented cows familiar to everyone. But what is virtue when a cow may be vice in a person? And contentment, when it touches spiritual things, is surely a vice. He goes on to say, contentment with earthly goods is the mark of a saint. That's a wonderful thing, to be contented with what God has given us and to trust him to provide for us. But contentment with our spiritual state is a mark of inward blindness. One of the greatest foes of the Christian is religious complacency, where we think, oh, I'm doing okay, I'm fine, I'm basically good enough with God, you know, he can't want any more from me, I'm in the middle somewhere, or maybe in the lower quadrant of being a Christian, but it's close enough to what God wants. And it's in this that we are reminded that we are far from what God calls us to be. Now notice the one theme or the one ray of hope that he puts in verse one. He says, he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says this. In each of these seven letters that are mentioned in Revelation two and three, at the beginning, there are a couple characteristics of Jesus that are mentioned, the characteristics that that particular church needs to hear. And in this case, what he says is, he who has the seven spirits of God, God himself, who can give the perfect expression, seven is the number of perfection, God who can give the perfect gift of the Holy Spirit, who can give his people everything they need to be true to him through the gift of his Holy Spirit, and the one who gives the seven stars. The stars are a reference that Jesus Christ is actively involved in his churches. He is the one who has great care and concern for his churches, the one who gives us everything we need in the spirit, and the one who is actively in our presence, giving, helping, concerned for us, the one who gives us everything we need. is the one who can empower us to be alive to him rather than dead to him. Four things, four pieces of advice that he gives in verses two through six would be this. First, in verse two he says, if you're going to not become a dead church, if you're going to be the living church I want you to be, he says wake up. Look at verse two, wake up. and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die, for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of my God. The implication of this is that as Christians, we do need to wake up periodically, take a good look at our lives, because as he says there, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die. The implication is that in the life of a Christian, we can become so complacent and so apathetic that it's almost as if our spiritual life loses its passion in us, and we are not as focused on the Lord as we should be. Instead, we need to wake up. Now, in the city of Sardis, that was especially true because twice in history, As they were under attack by other cities' militaries, the guards guarding the gate of the city fell asleep twice in these battles, and they ultimately lost the battle as the enemy forces were able to make their way in without anybody calling the clarion call to battle. We need to be sure that we stay awake. that we remember what the Lord is asking of us in our lives. For I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of God. In other words, Sometimes Christians can do stuff. We can be kind of active. We can go through the motions. We can kind of do what we think is enough. But are we really alive in Christ? Are we really engaged with Jesus Christ? The Lord is not looking for half-hearted efforts. He's looking for those of us who really are passionate about doing what he calls us to do. Jesus put it this way, he said, let your light so shine before people that they may see your good works. And as a result of that, glorify your God who is in heaven. God wants his people to reflect not just apathetic complacency in our lives, but to do things that are passionate, serving others, helping others, helping others see in us that there is a living God. That we do have a light to show to others by the way that we live our lives. That we are not satisfied with deeds that are incomplete before God. We want deeds that are very much completed before God. Now what does that mean in our communities of faith here and around the world and certainly even in Turkey, though in Turkey it's different. They are so persecuted. There aren't many apathetic Christians in Turkey because they won't stick around for the persecution. They leave the church when it gets hot. So you have pretty much those that are passionate about their faith who stay in the church. But sometimes here in America and other Western countries, we do struggle with things. Sometimes we become so focused on the past. Oh, wasn't our church wonderful 100 years ago or 200 years ago? Or didn't we have such great attendances 100 years ago, 200 years ago? And we forget to say, wait a minute, Lord, how about today? We don't want to worship the past. We want to look to God in the present and say, God, what do you want us to do today? Or sometimes we become more concerned with how our churches look rather than how our Christian lives look. Now, there's nothing wrong with, you know, walking and chewing gum. We can work on having a good appearance with our physical plant. But we don't want to leave behind our character. our passion to serve Christ, being the person God wants us to be. And so he says that to them, first of all, in this message in verse two, wake up. Secondly, he says, remember, this is verse three, remember. Look at verse three with me. Remember therefore what you have received and heard and keep it and repent. If therefore you will not wake up, I will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you. What he says to them, first of all, wake up to the real condition of your life. And then secondly, remember, think back. Remember when you became a Christian and how wonderful it was and how grateful you were to God for what he had done for you and how much you wanted to serve him and how much your heart just leapt in joy when you thought about what he had done for you on that cross and how much he loves you. Back in, the letter in chapter two to the Ephesians. The Lord said to the church at Ephesus, you have done so much right, but I have this one thing against you. You've lost your first love. And he said virtually the same thing in chapter two, verse five. Remember therefore from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds that you did at first or else I'm coming to you and I will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent. Almost exactly the same words. I think what he is saying to the church at Sardis as well as Ephesus is, remember, go back to your passion for the Lord. Repent if you've grown cold. Come back to him. I don't think what he's talking about here in verse three is about the second return of Jesus, where Jesus says, I'm gonna come when you least expect it. I think it's the same ideas in chapter two, verse five. Jesus is saying, I'm gonna come in judgment, as he said to the Ephesians, and I'm gonna take your lampstand away. In other words, if you have grown so cold to me, I'm gonna come and I'm gonna take your light from you. that you will not have a ministry for me anymore if you've grown that passionless for me. And so he goes on to say in verse three, the third of the things that he asked him to do. And by the way, when it comes to remember, I sometimes wonder in the country of Turkey and other places, if maybe that judgment when Christ said he was going to come, I will come like a thief and you will not know what hour I come upon you. I wonder if in some way part of the judgment that the Lord brought to churches that were apathetic in that part of the world was Islam. that Islam came in areas where the church had grown cold, where it had become so connected to the state that so-called Christians were more interested in what benefits they were going to get from the state than passionate service of Jesus Christ. And maybe part of what God did in that time frame here in Sardis somewhere after the sixth century was that Islam came through and that was part of God's judgment to a church that no longer cared or was passionate about him. I don't know, but I sometimes wonder about that. How do we deal with our complacency? Number one, wake up. Number two, remember all that the Lord has done for us. Number three, as we find this in verse four, Take note of the examples of faith that God has brought into your life. The Apostle Paul said many times, remember these people. Remember Timothy, remember Epaphroditus, remember those whose example is just overwhelming and overcoming. Do not forget them. Hold those examples ever before you. As he says here in verse four in Revelation chapter three, But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy." As you see and hear, the white refers to being victorious, being pure, being welcomed by God. And in this, the clothing has to do with character. How do you clothe yourselves in terms of your Christian character? Is it something that is impactful of others? Or has it been soiled? Is it no longer white? Is it no longer pure? He says, look at the examples of others around you. Learn from them. grow in the victory that they have experienced. Learn from their lives and seek to follow their example. And finally then in verses five and six, he says, remember, or excuse me, consider the future. Take a look at what's ahead and how that should motivate us to follow the Lord passionately and lovingly. Notice what he says here. He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments, and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. In each of these seven letters, it refers to that phrase, the one who overcomes, I will do this for you. The one who overcomes, I will do this for you. And I truly believe that a Christian, a true Christian is marked by being an overcomer. I think that some of these that were Incomplete, some of these that grew cold, even to the point where they lost all passion for Christ. I think there's serious question whether they ever really believed in Christ in the first place. Now, that's an issue God will sort out. That's above my pay grade. But I think the mark of a Christian is that we do overcome. We slide, we slip, we have challenges, we have difficulties. But at the end of the day, our prayer is, Lord, I want to be an overcomer. I want to hang in there for you. I want to be true to you. And he says to the one, to the Christian who overcomes, they shall be clothed in white garments. They shall stand before God pure and forgiven and victorious because of their faith in Jesus Christ. In fact, he goes on to say, and I will not erase their name from the book of life. Now, there's some people who look at that and say, oh, that must mean that God does erase some people's names from the book of life and others he doesn't. I don't think that that's what's being said here. He doesn't say I erase some, but yours I won't. He just says to those who overcome, I will not erase your name. I truly believe that the overall message in the Bible is one that the Christian can be assured, not complacent, but assured that if they put their faith in Jesus Christ, that their name will never be blotted out of the book of life. As Jesus said to his disciples, that those that the Father has given to them, given to him, are in his hand and no one will ever take them out of the Father's hand. Or John in his first epistle said, he who has the Son has life, he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. But he goes on to say, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you might know that you have everlasting life, that you might know it. I think the message is, as we read here, that the one who puts their faith in Christ, the one who may struggle a little bit with their passion, may struggle a bit with complacency, but at the end of the day, their heart is to overcome. and to serve, and to give their best to the Lord, they will never be blotted out from the book of life. Their name is written there eternally. And the point is to encourage these Christians in Sardis, the true Christians there, hang in there. Don't give up. Be willing to fight the culture. Be willing to stand up for Christ, whatever may be blasted your way, or whatever hateful things may be said about you. Respond in love, respond in grace, respond in kindness, but stand strong for everything that you believe in. Do not let the culture water you down, and cause you to give up hope in your relationship with the Lord. A pastor and his wife were taking a flight home from Portland to Los Angeles. And just as the flight took off, and they were not far out on the flight, and the the stewardesses at that time, stewards, stewardesses, were beginning to get some food together, they all of a sudden started putting the food away. And the airline pilot got on the speaker system and began to say, okay, everybody, stay in your seats. have your seatbelt on. We are returning to Portland. There's been some kind of problem on our flight. They didn't say what it was. And this pastor noticed the fear on the faces of all of the staff on that flight. And they went Got back, they landed safely, and as soon as they landed, the pilot came on again and said, as soon as we've stopped, all the doors will be open, the emergency exits will be open, the slides will be put in place. We want you to get off this plane as quickly as possible. There's a bomb threat, a credible bomb threat on this flight. You need to get off immediately. Do not touch the luggage in the bins, leave it, just get off for your safety. This pastor shared to his absolute shock and horror. As soon as they said, get up and exit as quickly as you can from the plane, 80% of the people opened up the bins. They began to take their stuff out and say, hey, can I get yours for you? Can I get your luggage for you? They just didn't take it seriously. And you know, I think sometimes that's a good illustration. Sometimes we are so caught up in our stuff. We're so caught up in the things that we have that the dangers around us are forgotten. The dangers of compromising our faith in Christ, the dangers of giving Christ just the last part of our love and affection, because most of it goes to getting more stuff, can be very dangerous. The message to the church here at Sardis, and I believe the message to us today, is take our relationship with him seriously. Put him first. Don't allow our hearts to grow cold. Wake up to him. Remember what he's done for us, as we'll do in just a moment. Think about the examples of the faith of those around us, and seek to be more like them. And finally, remember the wonderful future God has in store for us, bought by Jesus on the cross, that we should give him our best and give him our focus and give him our total, unapathetic attention. Let's pray together. Gracious Father, as we pause to reflect upon these words today, we ask that you might touch our hearts wherever we may be today. Maybe our hearts are on fire for you today. Thank you, Lord, for that. Maybe our hearts are burdened or heavy, and it's kind of cut into our love for you. Lord, renew us, revive us, remind us of all that you've done for us, how much you love us. Give us a new hope and a new revitalization in our walk with you. Lord, maybe for matters that only you know, we've not really been passionate for you for a while. And today, precious Lord, we realize in light of your love for us, your care for us, all that you've done for us, Lord, we wanna renew that passion. We ask that you, by the perfect expression and gift of your spirit, would renew us, revive us, and that, Lord, your care and concern that is actively involved in our lives every day would motivate us again to be the overcomers that you've called us to be. And for all of these things, we thank you as we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.