Laodicea

Tom Shrader examines the final letter to the seven churches, addressing Laodicea's spiritual complacency. Despite their material wealth and self-sufficiency, Jesus reveals they are spiritually wretched, poor, blind, and naked. He calls them to recognize their true condition, repent of their lukewarm faith, and open the door to genuine relationship with Him.

“The problem with the church at Laodicea and this is really important as we close our timeout and it could be the problem with some of you is that you've been doing the church thing for so long that you think you are saved and you aren't.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: The 7 Churches (2010)

Recorded: 2010 at Cannon Beach Conference Center

Duration: 52 min

Themes: repentance, complacency, lukewarm, wealth, blindness, relationship, surrender, awakening, spiritually complacent, materially blessed, self-sufficient, church member, struggling believer, comfortable christian, spiritually lukewarm, needing revival

Scripture: Revelation 3:14-22, Revelation 3:20, Isaiah 65:16, John 1:1, John 3:16, Colossians 1:15, Proverbs 13:24, Proverbs 23:13, Proverbs 29:15, Hebrews 12:6, Psalm 23

Theological Themes: ecclesiology, spiritual poverty, sanctification, divine discipline, christology, spiritual blindness, biblical warning, church health

Full Transcript

Milo, thanks again. When you clap like that, I hope you realize we're acknowledging Milo, but more important than that, we're acknowledging the gift that God's given him and that he uses for God's glory. Thanks so much.

I sound a bit like a broken record, but the music this week has been spectacular. For me, it's simple, it's concise. You're not overpowering me, and I just love it. I think it's a credit to your talentedness. I don't know if that's a word - talentedness. How could it be? Yeah, it is a word. It is now.

The Heart of Worship Leadership

Last night for the concert, or really the extended time of worship, I set up front which is where I like to sit. I think the key to how you are a worship leader - leading us to worship rather than leading us kind of in it - the key you gave us last night is that style's not an issue for you. It's the message. If it needs to be a blues message, it'll be blues. If it needs to be a rock message, it'll be rock. If it needs to be a simple message in terms of old, it'll be old. You're just the vehicle God uses, and it just comes screaming through. It's just fabulous, and I really appreciate you being here and taking the time.

Joanna, you rescued him. You got here just in time - he had the two-year-old hanging out the upstairs window. He was ready to let go, so your timing was perfect. He was just about done.

My program shows that we're not closing with music, so let's just go ahead and call an audible. Let everybody watch us make sausage here, and let's come back and do "Once Again I Look Up on the Cross" - could we do that? That's Matt Redman, isn't it? Yeah, let's do that so that we kind of have our closing anthem as we come marching out of here and you come marching over to get more food.

Getting to the Seventh Church

We're going to close our time with the seventh church. If you have Bibles, you can open them to the book of Revelation chapter 3 and verse 14. Jesus is dealing with the church that's in the most trouble. Interestingly enough, it doesn't necessarily on the first reading read that way.

We've looked at the loveless church and the suffering church and the compromised church, the corrupt church, the dead church. We saw that church last night at Philadelphia - that's the church that's been tested and tried and endured. There's that pattern we've looked at: the recipients of the letter, then the strength and the weakness, then the action, then the promise.

Reading the Letter to Laodicea

Let's just go ahead and read it, and we'll come back and make some comments on it. Our goal is to hit 11:25ish, so about 40-45 minutes.

"To the angel of the church at Laodicea" - again, Jesus identifying Himself each time. We get a little bit of a tip by what He says, and then maybe the problem or what the issue is. "The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of creation says this: I know your deeds. You're neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you're lukewarm, neither hot or cold" - and He goes "cold or hot, cold or hot, hot or cold." He reverses them there. I have no clue if there's a significance to that. Every time I read it I think I make a note to myself, "You ought to study that and look at it," and then I lose it. I forget it. But I don't know if that matters.

"I will spit you out of my mouth because you say, 'I'm rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing.' In fact, you don't know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed, and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love I reprove and discipline. Therefore be zealous and repent."

Revelation chapter 3, verse 20: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I'll come in to him and dine with him and he with me. He who overcomes, I will grant him to sit down with me on my throne, so that I also overcame and sat down on my Father on His throne. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit of God says to the churches."

A Church Without Strengths

When you read this, there might be kind of a casual - I don't know, almost look at it and say, "Boy, these guys have just kind of lost their zing." It's interesting in these seven churches, this is the only one where Jesus does not point out that there's a strength in this church.

There's kind of a decline. Remember in that circle we saw that when we got to Pergamon, we saw the church that was a bit apathetic. We saw the church that was then compromised, and Thyatira corrupt, and then dead, and a little respite there at Philadelphia. Now we see a church - and I think the general message, you've got to understand these are all general themes - I think He's saying here's the church and here's what this church is missing.

How many don't have any believers in it? Let me talk to you about Laodicea. Janet really did - she did a cool job yesterday with some pictures of kind of saying this is really the rich...

The Historical Context of Laodicea

Laodicea was founded in 250 BC in a strategically important location. It served as a military stronghold and gateway, positioned just inland as you entered from the east. However, the city faced a significant water problem. There were hot springs about six miles away, but by the time the hot water reached the city, it had become tepid. Similarly, cold water sources also became tepid by the time they reached Laodicea. This creates a rich picture that Jesus would capitalize on in His message.

The city had a large Jewish population of approximately 7,500 males. We know this because when Laodicea prohibited the exporting of gold for commerce, the Jews continued paying their annual temple tax. One year they paid in gold, and when officials confiscated and weighed the temple tax, they calculated about 7,500 Jewish males lived in the city.

Three Driving Forces of Laodicean Society

Understanding three key aspects of Laodicea helps us grasp Jesus's message. First, it was the wealthiest of the seven churches and served as a center for commerce and banking. The city was actually destroyed in 61 AD, but the people refused a government bailout from Rome. They declared they would rebuild themselves without any strings attached to the Roman government.

Second, Laodicea was a manufacturing center that produced a particular black sheep wool. They raised sheep with beautiful, glossy black wool used for special clothing. They also mass-produced clothing like a ancient Walmart, making garments available to average people at reasonable rates.

Third, Laodicea operated as a world-renowned medical center where physicians came to study and train. It functioned like a teaching hospital, similar to the Mayo Clinic, serving patients from many parts of the world. They were especially famous for two medical treatments: an ointment for ears that helped with hearing and a salve for eyes that helped with sight. This background becomes crucial as we unpack Jesus's message.

Jesus's Teaching Method

Jesus demonstrates masterful teaching technique by knowing His audience and speaking in terms they could understand. As teachers and pastors, we face the challenge of communicating God's truth effectively. While the Holy Spirit applies the message, He also gifts us to see how to communicate it. We must feel burdened to reach our people without compromising Scripture.

Jesus takes this banking community, manufacturing center, and medical hub—essentially combining Wells Fargo, Nordstrom's, and the Mayo Clinic—and uses their context to drive home His point. He crawls into their skin and speaks their language while maintaining the integrity of His message.

Christ's Self-Identification

In Revelation 3:14, Jesus identifies Himself to the angel or messenger of the church. We don't know whether this messenger was an angel or simply a human leader who received the letter and read it to the congregation. The procedure would involve this person standing before the church and proclaiming the message.

Jesus calls Himself "the Amen," likely referencing Isaiah 65:16 where God is called "the God of the Amen." The Amen signifies the end of a solemn statement, an affirmation that guarantees truth. It represents having the last word. As Hebrews explains, "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son." Jesus declares, "I am the Amen—what I say is the truth."

He also identifies as "the faithful and true witness." His testimony represents the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It's plain and simple as God reveals these mysteries to us, giving us a complete picture of Him.

The Beginning of God's Creation

Finally, Jesus calls Himself "the beginning of the creation of God." This doesn't mean He was created by God. John's Gospel clarifies: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning." Jesus created all things and holds all things together. He is the beginning and the end, similar to being the Alpha and the Omega. Through Him, we receive a complete picture of God.

The Composite View of God

Jesus is pulling from the whole message as He identifies Himself to the Laodicean church. He says, "I'm the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end," and we need to see the composite view of God. You will have friends who say, "Wait a minute, I don't get how a loving God can send someone to hell." The answer is that He is a loving God to be sure, but He's also a just God, and His justice demands payment.

Once Adam sinned and all of us were plunged into sin, it was not an option for God to simply say "you're forgiven" because His justice demanded payment. Every sin that's ever been committed by every person in the history of this world—we estimate there's about 14 billion people that have lived, including the 7 billion on the planet now—will be paid for in one of two ways. It's very simple: it was either paid for by Jesus on the cross when He said "It is finished," or it'll be paid by that person who commits that sin for all eternity in a place called hell. Those are the only two options.

He said, "I'm the beginning, I created this." Colossians 1:15 says He's the image of the invisible God. When we wonder how God would live or what God is like, we simply look to Jesus. He creates all of this, He holds this together. These things say "the Amen, the faithful, the true witness, the beginning of creation."

The Church with No Strengths

There are no strengths mentioned here. It's the only one of the seven churches—even in the dead church at least Jesus found something there. We've seen loveless churches, compromised false teaching, tolerant churches. They'd lost any sort of uniqueness that would come with an understanding of the gospel. But He gets to this lukewarm church, and I wrote this down: lukewarm is the worst form of blasphemy.

"I know your works." By now we're pretty familiar with that, aren't we? Again, it may be scary to some, but it's not designed to be. He's simply saying, "I know you. I know who you are. I know everything there is to know about you, so don't waste time trying to hide it from me." "I know your works, and here's what I know: you're not hot, you're not cold. You're not hot to the point of boiling, you're not cold to the point of freezing. You're tepid, you're in between."

The Problem with Lukewarm

Have you ever had something come to you like that? Something that's supposed to be—you get that cold drink, maybe you've had a milkshake that's so good when it's cold, but it's sat for a while and now it's just melted. Or you have a meal that's supposed to be hot and it's sat for a while—the phone rang, you came back to it—and it's not hot, it's not cold. It just makes you sick.

I like the contrast. I alluded to it last night: somebody that's antagonistic that'll argue, that'll debate, or somebody that says "whatever, I don't care." The worst person for me—here's the personality trait that's the hardest for me to deal with—is passive-aggressive. I hate passive-aggressive. They smile and they say, "Yeah brother, I see what you're saying. Yeah, I understand." They don't give anything to push back on. They don't give me anything to push against. They're not hostile.

I was watching an interview one night with a biographer, and they asked the question, "Have you ever started a biography of somebody, writing it, and stopped?" The guy said yes. He said, "Here's what I've discovered: to write a good biography, you either have to fall in love with the person you're writing about or hate him." I read a wonderful biography—the one I'm reading right now on John Newton is written by a guy named Jonathan Aitken, who years ago wrote a biography on Richard Nixon. I thought, "Man, I don't know if I want to read this," but I cherry-picked certain sections and it was really good. What Aitken said is, "I sat down to write this biography because I really couldn't stand the guy, and by the end of it I had found some redeeming qualities in him and had grown fond of him in a certain way," and the biography really reflected that.

The Danger of Spiritual Neutrality

The problem with the church at Laodicea—and this is really important—could be the problem with some of you: you've been doing the church thing for so long that you think you are saved and you aren't. These people are lukewarm. They're in the middle. They're trying to stake out a spiritual Switzerland, and Jesus said there isn't one of those. "You're either for me or against me."

Their favorite color is beige. My guess is it's a very comfortable church. The chairs are good, music's great, they're politically correct. They try to make everybody happy, everyone feels welcomed, and everyone has been—to use the old phrase—inoculated with just enough, a small dose of the truth, enough to never really catch the real thing. It's the toughest crowd for me.

He said, "Here's the problem: you're not hot, you're not cold, you're lukewarm." Verse 16: "So then, because you're lukewarm, you're not hot, you're not cold, you make me puke. You make me sick."

Should We Be Fanatical?

Are we supposed to be fanatical about our faith? Well, it depends on what you define as fanatical. If by that you mean irrational, I don't think it's that unreasoning. But if you believe what you've been singing, if you believe what we say to be true—that you were lost and responsible for your own sin and now you're redeemed—that should make a difference in how you see the world, right?

I will almost inevitably, because it's so much a part of our life, in the course of a conference allude to Susan and the sickness she has, the cancer. It's funny—I'll get, we'll get from people that we don't even know, they'll send us juicers. They'll say, "Here's my faith." This is my favorite question: they'll say, "Do you guys have a good doctor?" And I'll say, "No."

We got a quack from Mexico that works out of his van. I mean what a stupid question. Don't ever say that we have a good doctor. No, this guy's awful. That's why we picked him. People say the stupidest things to us, but we have people we don't even know who will get it all the time because during the week I teach out in the marketplace, so people know kind of everybody like in the town knows what's going on. They'll come up and they'll say, "Would we have Susan try these berries? Have Susan try this? Has Susan gone to that doctor?"

And it goes everything from berries and minerals to "we'll pay for her to go to MD Anderson." Susan made what I think was a brilliant choice early on. She put together her team. She picked her surgeon, she picked her oncologist, she picked her radiologist. She picked her team, the people she was comfortable with, knowing that we would get all of this kind of information. That's just her team, and I'll tell you what, she's an absolute rock. She's never questioned any of that, and I really appreciate it.

Now here's my point. You're kind of hoping there's one in there, right? Here's my point. I can see Susan's looking at me. I can feel it. Here's my point: people we don't even know will say, "Oh boy, you have this cancer, eat this berry, go to this doctor." Well, if that's true of this cancer and you think you have a remedy, how much more true should it be if people have a sin problem and you have the guaranteed answer?

I try to point this out all the time. Let's say we find the cure for what she has. Something else is going to kill her, maybe 10 years from now or 20 years from now or 30 years. My, I don't, when doesn't matter. It's going to happen. We're going to run out of cures for me, for you, for all of us.

The Irony of Our Reluctance

Imagine that you'll talk to a total stranger and say, "Take this, it will help you," but here's this guaranteed cure for your biggest problem, your sin problem, but you don't want to offend anybody. You're such good friends with this person, think about this now, that you don't want to risk the relationship by offending them with the gospel. So they're such good friends that you want to spend this finite amount of time here, but you don't want to risk the relationship with the potential opportunity of spending all eternity with them. So that's what's really interesting to me.

The phrase, "Have you heard it, maybe you've said it, I used to be," when I was first on fire for the Lord. That always interests me, that phrase, because what it says is there was this. And I get it. Susan tells the story. I don't, and just, she's here, we could have her come up and say it, but I'm going to spare her that. But when God saved me, it was a radical salvation. I mean I was pretty well out there and pretty well gone, and God brings me back in.

I remember sharing Christ with Susan because she wasn't saved yet, and I remember it as lovely, gently sharing it. She says I would come home every night and say, "Do you believe this? Because if you don't, you're going to hell." Now that's her account of this. And finally, like after two months, I came to her one night. I said, "You don't believe this yet. You're going to hell. You better not die. You're going to hell." And she said, "Are you going to be in hell?" And I said no. And she said, "But it won't be that bad." Okay, so that's what I put up with. That's the stuff I put up with all the time.

Well, if you feel that's right, and again I may have, obviously I may have presented this inappropriately, I might have. I just did a funeral for a friend of mine who won three gold medals and a silver medal in the 68 Olympics. And he would tell the story. He came in, he was our legal counsel, and he came in one day in July wearing a stocking cap. And I went into his office and I hadn't been saved but like four months, and I said, "What's the deal with a cap?" And he said, "Well, I got cancer and it's really radical and now it's gone." And he tells us, again I don't remember this, he tells the story of me saying, "Well, your problems, you got big problems, man. You don't know Christ. You're going to hell."

I don't remember that, but somewhere between that approach and now, I should be even more, maybe more skilled in presenting the gospel, but I should be just as adamant or more adamant now about the importance of the gospel than I was then, right? Because I've now had 30 years of seeing God's faithfulness and the reality of it in the transformation in my life and Susan's life and our family's life. We've seen Him do amazing things all around us. We know the truth and the reality of the resurrection redemption.

The Problem with Laodicea

He's saying the problem with this church here is you're not hot and you're not cold. Look at verse 17 and 18. He said, "Here, here's the deal." Because you say, so we're at a core here, here's the real problem: "You say I'm rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing."

Okay, so this is what you're saying. Here's what you're really saying: "I'm pretty self-sufficient here. I'm pretty happy. I've kind of got everything I need, thank you. I'm rich, I'm wealthy, I don't have any needs."

A friend of mine, he's a wonderful man and he's got a lot of dough, and his father's super, super wealthy. I met him years ago. Again, this is another one of those weird things. I was in Vegas for a show, an industrial show, and he was working a booth. And I had heard about him before but never met him, and I had heard he was a believer. And I said, "I heard you're a Christian." And he said, "I am." And we developed really a pretty great relationship since then.

And I remember asking him one day, I said, "How's your father feel about this?" And he said, "You know, I share the gospel with my dad all the time, but my dad feels no need. And there'd be no reason for," he and his dad doesn't have a need. His dad has, not figuratively, literally hundreds of millions of dollars. He's got the, he owns one of the fastest non-military jets in the world. He can say or do anything. Belongs one of the great country clubs in Southern

California and hasn't been there in five years—it's all that kind of stuff. If I think I'm okay not just materially but spiritually, if I think I'm okay or I'll do it on my own, see how this is almost an anti-American message? Because the whole idea of America is pull yourself up by your bootstraps, you can do it.

John Kennedy in 1960, commenting on the situation in the world, used this phrase—I remember it specifically. He said, "We got ourselves into this, we can get ourselves out of this. Just try harder, just work harder, outwork them." I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. We start with the little kids—be like this little engine: I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. There's a lot of singular personal pronoun in there, and so we can easily cultivate this.

The Christian Life vs. The American Dream

In a sense, and here's a contention I've had for a long time, the real Christian life butts up against what we call the American dream. I'm still unclear what the American dream is. I've googled it and researched it—there doesn't seem to be a singular definition. But it seems to have in it a house, a car, a college education, a carefree life.

Well, He said here's the problem with the church at Laodicea: you're fat, dumb, and happy. You say you're rich, I don't need anything. And let me say it again—these people are probably pretty good citizens and probably said grace before meals and prayed publicly and maybe read some Bibles and had their quiet time periodically and gave a little dough. By the world standards, even by the churchly world standards, they were doing okay.

But along comes the Amen, the Faithful, the True, the Creator of the world and everything in it, and He says, "Here you go." You see the contrast now? You say I'm rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing. Here's the problem: you don't realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

The Reality of Spiritual Poverty

You're rich maybe in the things of the world, but spiritually you're really poor—but you don't see it. That's the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount: blessed are the poor in spirit, those that are literally spiritually bankrupt. You think you're doing well and you're rich, but you're really wretched and miserable and poor and blind. You think you're clothed, but you're really naked. You think you can see, but you can't.

The contrast: "I'm okay." That was a big book popular what, 20, 25 years ago—"I'm Okay, You're Okay." We're all okay, all dogs go to heaven, everybody's fine. And He says, "No, you think that, but you aren't. You're wretched."

Susan and I were up here to do a men's conference, so Susan doesn't go to men's conferences but she has to hang with Janet, so she's happy. Whenever you travel, you see just interesting things. There was a guy at the conference and he had on a shirt, and here's what the shirt said: "I'm the wretch the song's about." That's a pretty cool shirt. I get it.

See, until you have that in your mind, until you see that clearly, you'll never respond to the gospel. And the problem with the church at Laodicea is that they haven't responded—they're playing church.

Examining Our Own Hearts

So again, rather than us going—I love what Mila said first time—we always go, "Boy, I wish Bob was here to hear this, I wish Betty was here to hear this." Well, by now we're at the point where you're going, "I need to hear this." And this is really important for you and for me to deal with, to examine our hearts in an honest way and see if we're truly a follower of the King.

Tim Keller wrote a little book but a great book that some of you've read called "The Prodigal God." It's the parable of the prodigal son with a focus not so much on the younger brother who left, but the older brother who stayed—who's very religious, who had gone through all those hoops. But the older brother was as lost as the younger brother. That's what He's saying: you've never responded to your need.

Divine Discipline

Now verse 19 is a great insight: "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. So be zealous, get hot, repent, turn around." Also in the scripture we see this principle. Proverbs chapter 13: "He who spares the rod hates the son, but he who loves him disciplines him." Proverbs 23: "Withhold not correction from the child." Proverbs 29: "Discipline your son." Hebrews 12 even speaks to us about "I didn't leave you without discipline."

Now for the sake of this illustration, let's make an assumption that I like kids. Let's say I like kids. Really, more—let's say I love kids. I'm alright with kids, I'm fairly neutral on them. I like them more now than I used to. But in my whole world and time growing up, in all the kids that we were around, I had two kids that I loved more than any other: Sarah and Haley.

Here's what's interesting—they are also the only two kids in the entire planet that I disciplined. I saw all sorts of kids that needed to be disciplined, but I didn't discipline them. Why? They weren't my kids.

If you are God's kid, He will discipline you. He'll put you in the fire—not to break you down and destroy you, but to break you down so He can put you back together again. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a big fall, and all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again. You had this big fall, and nothing can put you back together again. You can try, you can piecemeal it and patch it and plaster it and tape it and paint it, but your heart is still wretched. And only God can do that.

As you are His kid, He will still come into your life and say, "Listen, I'm not going to let you do that. Stop it. Stop it." He'll discipline you.

The Most Familiar Invitation

We have 12 minutes. Verse 20: Now, John 3:16 is probably the most familiar Bible verse in the world, but Revelation 3:20 is probably the second most—maybe—familiar verse. Somebody's calling right now with it. Probably the second most familiar verse to Christians: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me."

Now in most instances, you hear that in the context of evangelism. Behold, I—

A Gift from India

The only trip I'm not — I have zero interest in traveling outside the United States of America. I'm not even intellectually curious. I have no need to go to Rome to see the Colosseum. The only Colosseum I want to see has USC and UCLA playing in it. I don't need ruins. If the attraction to you is ruins, that's not my deal.

Now, go on the trip — that's not to say don't do it. I'm just saying that's unique to me. Most of my friends think I'm deficient for this. I'm not interested. The only reason I'd have a passport is to get to Vancouver and Whistler and the Chateau at Lake Louise. That's the only reason I'd have a passport.

I don't want to go to Mexico. There's nothing in South America I want to see. I don't want to go to Asia. I don't want to go to Africa. I don't want to go to Europe. I don't want to go to Paris. I just don't want to do it. I know many of you love that, and I'm not putting that down. I'm just saying I don't want to do it.

I made one trip outside the continent of the United States in 1983, and I went to a whole bunch of places but primarily India. I was teaching in a school or something — church, I don't even know what it was — and they give you a present. That's their big thing. They give me a present, and I didn't open it until I got home. It was a plaque with a picture of — I assume Jesus, though I'm unclear exactly how He looked — but Jesus standing at a door and knocking. You've seen the classic picture, right?

The Door Without a Handle

Noticeably absent on that door is the handle. The idea is that you're on the inside, and the only way that Jesus is going to come in is if you open the door. It's used oftentimes in the context of evangelism. I say this not at all to be controversial, but that's not a picture of evangelism. Evangelism is not you opening the door and saying "come on in." Evangelism and salvation is about Him kicking down the door, ripping out your heart of stone, and replacing it with a heart of flesh.

So now we're into a little bit of doctrine there. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock," and I'm all right with that. I mean, I can see how you can get evangelism there, but this isn't the context necessarily.

What Jesus Is Really Saying

Here's what Jesus is saying: "You got a really cool church. I love the building, and the video's awesome, and the music's unbelievable, and the lights, and the time where you hang together — it's really incredible. You got a really cool church. You know what would make it a great church? If you let Me in it."

That's what He's saying. You got this whole church going on, but I'm standing at the door. You're having church without Me. You can have that — powerful message, powerful speaker, relevant today — but you look at it and go, "What was the difference between what I just heard there and a Tony Robbins seminar?"

I was at a conference last year, and it was all right. We were in a planning session the other day, and I said it would be really interesting — it just seemed like to me last year we talked about a whole bunch of stuff that McDonald's franchisees would talk about. I get it. I'm pretty savvy on this. I get there's a business component to church, and we got to figure all this stuff out — figure out the finances and the budgets and blah blah blah. I got all that. But is there something that we bring that's unique to the conversation? What would separate our conference talking about church from a conference talking about Microsoft?

The Unique Fact of Christianity

That's what He's saying: "You got this whole church thing going on." William Barclay writes this: "The unique fact of Christianity — the unique fact that Christianity brought into the whole world — is that God is a seeker of men. No other religion has this vision of a seeking God."

That's what we said before. Here's biblical Christianity, and here's everything else. I don't care even what you call it. You got biblical Christianity. I don't use the term Christianity anymore — I mean, all these terms are just kind of lost really what they mean, so I'll add "biblical" in there. So here's how the Bible defines Christianity. You have this, whatever it is, and then over here is everything else — all shapes, sizes, variations. They're all over here.

The difference is: religion is always somehow me trying to appease an angry, holy God. Biblical Christianity is about a holy God reaching down to a sinful man. That's the distinction and the difference.

Harsh Words for a Serious Problem

These are really harsh words. This is more harsh than He spoke to the compromised church, the corrupt church, even the dead church. You got a real serious problem here, and part of the problem is you don't know you got a problem.

It's one thing if I'm all screwed up and know it — at least then I'm searching for some sort of solution. You think you're okay because you say, "I'm rich and have need of nothing." You think you're all right. Church is going great. Attendance is up. Had a couple of rabble-rousers — got rid of them. Music's not bad. Offerings okay. Hitting budget. We're doing good.

He said, "You know what? Those are fine, and those are important." Boy, as somebody who's engaged in a church, do I care about those things? Yes. But I can have all those things and not have an effective church.

When Church Becomes a Consumer Experience

The number one thing they say people look for when they're looking for a church is easy ingress and egress — good parking. "I can get in and I can get out." What about "the church is friendly" and "they met my needs"? Hey, if you want good parking and you want your needs met, let me tell you where to go: Nordstrom. They'll do that. They'll give you a personal shopper. They'll have a guy or gal take you right through the store and go, "I think you're an autumn," and they'll get all the clothes that will look just like you and get you autumn clothes.

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock."

The Divine Dinner Invitation

The door knock—now He says listen, if you hear My voice and you open the door, I'll come in. I'll dine with you. In this culture they ate three meals like we did. They ate breakfast, which was a piece of dried bread dipped in wine, so just a cut below that crack wheat. I'm just kidding—I've never tasted it. We took some home though and resurfaced our driveway.

I got into the line today. Like I said, I never get there for breakfast, but I got to the line today as a gal was coming through and saying, "I love the crack wheat." I said, "That's really cool. I've never had it," so it may be great. They have lunch—it was they didn't go home. It was like just something they would eat real quick. It's like a snack that they had on the road.

But dinner was the meal they would sit and they would linger over it. They weren't trying to get to see what O'Reilly was saying or see what the game was doing—they had nothing to do. Their workday, by the way, kind of went from sun up to sun down, and then once the sun went down they were done. Then they would hang, and it was a special time. They would interact and they'd have these wonderful discussions about life and death, and they'd tell stories and they'd pass on that heritage.

Here's what He's saying: "I want to come in, and I want to not have breakfast or lunch. I'm going to dine with you. I want to sit down with you."

The 23rd Psalm: A Picture of Life, Not Death

I taught a few years ago the 23rd Psalm and taught it from a perspective—every time you go to a funeral they wheel out the 23rd Psalm. The 23rd Psalm is not about dying; the 23rd Psalm is about living. I'm getting through the valley of the shadow of death—it's not about dying. The 23rd Psalm, the first verse—here's what we hung on. Let me say it to you the way that I taught it: "The Lord is my shepherd."

It's not that the Lord is a shepherd. The amazing thing to the Jew—this would be astounding—"The Lord is my shepherd." That is, there's a personal relationship that I can have with the shepherd. Jesus said, "It's for your own good that I leave, but I won't leave you as an orphan. I will give you another helper, the Holy Spirit." You have the Holy Spirit of God that energizes you.

It's not that God is out there—it's that God is in you. We divide this, and I don't know how to do this. I know that I can't do anything without Him, and yet I know I'm supposed to strive. Where do my efforts end and His power begin? I don't know. I know that if He's not in it, I'm just spinning my wheels. But I know this: I can have this personal relationship. I can have Him engaged in me as a church, and I can have Him engaged with me as an individual.

Putting It All Together: The Seven Churches

Now let's put a bow on this because we have to go. Ephesus was a loveless church, and Smyrna was a suffering church. If you're a loveless church, He says, "Here's what you do"—and now let's get rid of "church," let's make it "you." If you're a loveless person, He says to you, "Go back to that first love." If you're suffering, He says, "Don't be afraid. Stand firm." If you're compromised, He says, "Repent. Turn back." If you're corrupt, He says, "Boy, you need to teach the truth." If you're dead, well obviously you need life. If you're the faithful church, persevere.

My fear is sometimes in conferences, or just in our study, we just beat each other up. Or the preacher just said it that way—I just beat you up and beat you up and beat you up, and beat myself up—that we fail to understand that there are people who are in our midst who are actually doing pretty well and they just need to be encouraged too.

To the church at Laodicea, and maybe you, if you're lukewarm, He says, "Trust Me. Get hot."

God: The Jealous Seeker

Number two: God is a God who seeks His people, who wants to be on the throne, who will not share that position with anybody or anything else. No idols—could be anything, by the way. That's an idol. Could be college football, could be exercise, could be work, could be your kids, could be your spouse. He says, "I'm not going to share this with anybody."

One of the attributes about God that we kind of minimize is God is a jealous God. "I'm the Lord your God, and I'm not messing around here, and I'm not going to share worship with anybody or anything else."

The Remedy for Our Nakedness

The remedy for our need—because we at some point all of us were blind and wretched and naked, and we would try to clothe ourselves. That's what Adam and Eve did, right? The minute they realized they were naked, they grabbed fig leaves to clothe themselves. God came along and said, "No, no, no. We're going to take these animals, and we're going to slaughter them and then cover you with their skin."

You and I are naked, wretched, helpless, hopeless. But the redemption we find is in the cross. That symbol—you'll see it, and I'm sure there's some of you, and some of you will even have on a chain maybe now with a cross on it—that was a sign of torture and condemnation in that day. It was an instrument of death, hated and feared by people. It would be like walking around—I mean this—it would be like walking around with a little electric chair on a gold chain. That's what it was.

How did that instrument of death and terror become a picture of love? Christ changed it with His death.

Our Prayer and Response

The band's going to come. We're going to sing. Again, once again I look upon the cross where You died, I'm humbled by that. I see salvation in that. That's our prayer—that God this week, that God moved you spiritually somewhere. If you were here, He moved you to here. Maybe you don't know Him. Maybe you came—some friends brought you, relatives brought you. You have all sorts of questions. You can get those answers. You can work on it.

Maybe you knew Christ and what you just need is a little tweak, and He just got you back on center, got me back on center. Maybe whatever He did, He moved you down that continuum, getting us ready for that moment in time where we transition out of this world into the next.

Let's pray as the band comes. Father, thank You for this amazing time that we can be together in this place. I pray that as we sing these words, they would be more than words...

**Prayer**

God, thank you for a wonderful place. Thank you for the men and women that are here, the investment that they made to be here of time, energy, effort, and money. God, help us see that we are poor and wretched and blind. We are the wretch the song was about. You redeemed us through the cross.

God, give us a sense of a new understanding, or certainly a revised deep understanding, as we sing these words. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.