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Sardis. Simple Truth. Simple truth: Comfort will often lead to Complacency. Sardis. Sardis. "To the angel of the church in Sardis write: Beware of Being Asleep in the Light. Sardis. These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
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Simple Truth • Simple truth: Comfort will often lead to Complacency
Sardis • "To the angel of the church in Sardis write: • Beware of Being Asleep in the Light
Sardis • These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. • I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
Sardis • 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. 4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who
Sardis • have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Sardis • Commendation: • NONE!
Sardis • Condemnation • 3:1 I know your deeds; • Alive yet dead. • 2 Tim. 3:5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. “ • You’ve become complacent. • Your deeds are incomplete. • erga -- energy, activity
Sardis • 1 Samuel 15:22 • "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, • Hosea 6:6 • 6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. • Mark 12:33 • 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
Going to a Cubs game doesn’t make this guy a Baseball Player
Going to church doesn’t make these people followers of Jesus.
Sardis • Challenge • Remember – Take heed • Obey – Apply • Repent – Decide to Change James 1:22-25 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does.
Sardis • The Warning • Like a Thief • The Promise • Those who remain faithful -- unbreakable guarantee will break the relationship. • Those with unsoiled clothes -- will walk with him.
Sardis • Our Challenge: • Beware of Being Asleep in the Light