YOUR FUTURE AND YOUR PAST Part 5 of 7
Revelation 3:1-6
Tonight I am going to continue with my series of messages from the book of Revelation chapters 2 & 3 on the topic, “Getting Ready For Your Future.”
Some of you might be thinking, “Why should we study about the future? There’s nothing you can do about it?”
One of the reasons why you should be interested in the future is because that is where you are going to spend the rest of your life.
Our text is found in Revelation 3:1-6 and the title of my message is, “Your Future And Your Past.”
As unpleasant as it may seem, the opening of this passage reads more like last rites than a letter. The body of believers in Sardis was dead, at least almost. Only a faint pulse of a faithful remnant remained. For many however, it was too late. Their faith had already flat-lined!
A pastor died and asked that the following be inscribed on his tombstone:
Go tell the church that I'm gone,
But that they need not shed any tears;
For though I've died I'm no more dead
Than they have been for years.
Revelation 3:1, “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, but you are dead.”
CIRCLE THE WORD “NAME”
Reputation is what other people say about you; character is what God says about you. What lies behind us and what lies before us are very tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Sardis had over a course of many years acquired a reputation. She was not what the world would call a dead church. Economically they were rich, but spiritually they were bankrupt.
On the outside they had the appearance of being alive, but inside they were dead. They had a reputation without reality, and a form without any force.
On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. there are at least 14 living persons listed among the 58,175 dead and missing names inscribed on the wall. If the government says you are dead when you are really alive, that’s just a minor inconvenience, but when you think you are alive and Jesus pronounces you spiritually dead, that’s a major problem.
In addressing this spiritually dead church, Jesus presents Himself as the one who has the seven Spirits of God. What this dead and lifeless church needed was the life giving Spirit of God.
While Sardis’ reputation impressed other people, Jesus knew their deeds and was able to see deep within their heart, which had stopped beating for Him.
How is your spiritual life doing? Where are you spiritually? What signs of aging do you see? Are there signs of growing maturity or signs of deterioration and death? I’d like to share with you five signs of a dying faith.
Worship of the past. This is where you focus on what God did for you years ago rather than claiming what He is doing for you today.
Love for tradition more than for Jesus. This is where people focus more on a ritualistic form of worship rather than on Jesus.
Inflexibility and resistance to change. The seven last words of a dying church are, “We’ve never done it that way before.”
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.” John F. Kennedy.
Greater concern with form than with life. This is like the difference between religion and relationship. Some people are more concerned about the way things look than the changes being made in people’s lives.
Loss of evangelistic fervor. This is where you begin making excuses for reaching the lost based upon your personal comfort. (Illustrate this by the cards that are still on the Lord’s Supper table)
Like a doctor in a hospital emergency room shouting orders to save the life of a patient in a race against death, Jesus gives us five specific commands that can help resuscitate your spiritual life.
Revelation 3:2-3, “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. 3'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.”