Don't Loose the Light | John Challinor

Good morning church.

Good morning.

Good morning to those of you who are online.

Welcome to our online fam.

There's somebody online,

I just need you guys to give some love to if that's okay.

There's a lady named Dory, those of you that know Dory,

she is part of our guest services crew.

She had knee surgery, but she is online and she's like,

if I could click love for this church, I would click love.

So could we do this?

Just say good morning Dory and give it back to her.

Good morning Dory.

Yeah.

Dory, we love you and we love you.

And we miss you.

And so get better quickly.

And there's other people out there, some in California,

I saw some in Tucson and Phoenix and other places.

So welcome to you.

Baghdad, welcome to you.

We hope that you are enjoying fall weather too.

Hopefully that's hit you.

And then also, Paulden, we're glad you're there.

Mike sent me pictures.

I wasn't even here last week

and he's still sending me pictures of their breakfast.

I'm like, so I appreciate it, Mike.

Hopefully you have breakfast this morning.

And to you guys in the room, welcome, glad you are here.

I just wanna slow down for a moment if you'll let me,

because I personally,

I just wanna say thank you to our veterans.

And what I mean by that is I've had the privilege

of getting to know people through what I get to do.

And when I get to spend time with people who have served,

people like Kyle and in Prescott Valley this morning,

Nate is one of our worship leaders out there.

And just getting to slow down and hear more of their story

and what the sacrifice actually looked like for them.

And then not only for them, but their family.

It just, every time I'm just humbled by how much it takes

for us to be able to do this.

And for us to be able to,

how much somebody's given and lived out the gospel

on our behalf so that we have the freedom that we do.

And so personally, I just wanna say,

if you're a veteran in the room,

if you're across screens today, wherever you happen to be,

I just wanna say thank you.

Thank you for who you are and what you've done.

Greetings to you, we are Thy Sports Checkers.

Class of 2020 is your DOC.

And if you haven't seen her,

One of the things you'll hear if you're new,

one of the things you'll hear is we're family.

We use family language over and over and over.

And so with that, like we don't choose that,

God chooses that.

He puts us in family, which means that this is

a relational thing, not an institutional thing.

If you ever hear somebody that says,

I was hurt by the church,

they were not hurt by an institution.

You can't be hurt by an institution.

What you can be hurt by is people, right?

And so whether people made decisions,

whether people treated you a certain way,

and that's the dynamic of the church, right?

That we are relational in essence,

like that's what God has created.

And so when it comes to this, it's about relationships.

It's about growing together.

It's about walking together.

It's about doing life together.

And part of that is that we just catch each other

up on stuff, right?

And so you may be wondering what's up with your hand.

I had surgery, nothing serious,

just some stuff that was causing some pain,

and now I have a different kind of pain.

But the good thing is there's drugs for that.

So I don't know how today's gonna go for you guys,

but it's great.

And so that's what's going on with the hand.

Along with that, I get to introduce you to somebody, okay?

And so his name is Beckham Jude,

and here he is, my grandson.

Let's go.

I don't even wanna be here today.

I'm on drugs, and I wanna go be with him.

So we're done, amen?

No, I'm just kidding.

Okay, don't say amen, that's rude.

I got stuff to say.

So here's the beauty of this, that everybody is healthy.

Praise God for that.

You guys, I don't know if you know this,

but I got to experience another part of our community

and another part of our church family

using the gifts that God's given them

through the birthing process for my daughter.

They were amazing.

Watching them pour out and love my family

and go above and beyond in a time where I'm,

literally I'm helpless, right?

And yeah, it was this beautiful experience.

And so, yeah, everybody's healthy, they're home.

For those of you that don't know,

it's also a celebration for our Prescott Valley family

as well, because Noah is the youth pastor over there.

So Beckham's dad is Noah, my daughter's husband.

And so it's like a family celebration across the church.

But I gotta pause for a second.

You train up your kids in the way they should go,

and they don't depart from it.

Beckham Jude is one of the strongest soccer names

on the planet, I'm just gonna say.

Named after two amazing soccer players

that are both English.

That's all I gotta say.

It's a strong name, strong name.

But here's where we're going today.

What's amazing is, I'm a communicator, right?

Like this is what God has made me to do.

I don't have words to explain to you.

What it was like to hold him for the first time.

The love that exuded in my body for this little human

that has done nothing to deserve it.

But there was so much love, I was like,

I don't want this to end ever, right here, now.

And what's amazing about it is this,

that the love I have for him is an extension love.

Because I love my daughter so much,

and my son-in-law so much, like it's an instant,

I love this little human being, and I can't even,

it's the most surreal and amazing experience

all at the same time.

That there are just not words yet to describe it.

But what hit me was how much I love him,

and it's all because of who my daughter is to me.

And where we're going today,

like sometimes we can get lost in church world

around all thinking the right things, right?

Like we strive that we gotta have,

and please don't mishear me today.

We have to think the right things.

I'm giving my life to help teach this book

so we understand right things, right?

Like please don't mishear how important it is to understand.

But if all you have is understanding,

you are missing the point of what this is all about.

Because what you have been given,

and what we should be living, we the church, right?

The church is made up of people.

What we should be living is an extension of love

to everyone outside of these walls, in these walls,

and everybody we meet.

There should be an extension of love

like I have for my grandson.

Why? Because you know Jesus, right?

And loving relationship with Jesus

exudes to everything else.

This is about heart.

Sometimes we think if we just think the right things,

therefore we'll do the right things.

That's not true.

You were made with a heart.

And your heart, when it falls in love

with the person of Jesus,

you won't have to question what's the right thing.

Because the right actions will come

from the heart that you have.

You don't have to tell me how to love my grandson.

I know how to love my grandson.

Why? Because you know Jesus, right?

Why? Because I knew how to love my daughter.

This relationship is so important.

So we finally made it, you guys.

We're in the book of Revelation.

It's at the back, unless you're like Kyle

and flip it upside down, I guess.

But here's the thing.

With Revelation, just a little free thing up top,

sometimes we say revelations.

It's not revelations.

It is one revelation of the resurrected Jesus Christ.

That's what it is.

It's not all these, excuse me.

It's not all these things that are multiple,

like, oh, there's this one and this one.

No, it's one revelation that he gives.

Why is that important?

Because it's a gift to us.

Life's uncertain, right?

Like we don't know what life holds.

This is given to us as a church to go,

no matter how bad it gets, it's going to be all right.

Spoiler alert, you get to the end of the book, God wins.

Right?

Like that's the way this works.

Revelation was given to go,

hey, I know that everything is shaking in your world today,

but you know what's not shaking?

Heaven.

You know what's not shaking?

The throne of God.

You know what's not shaking?

That Jesus is still resurrected and he's the same

that he was there, that he is here,

and he will be to come.

Right?

That's the guarantee that this book is giving.

It's giving us confidence as a church.

And so as you step into it then,

in chapter one, verse nine, it says,

I, John, your brother, and companion in the suffering

and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus,

was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God

and the testimony of Jesus.

So context is this, the John that is speaking is the disciple,

John, right?

So it's the one that was with Jesus.

And so now he is there, we guess at this,

he's late 80s, early 90s.

Like he's in the latter stages of his life

and he has been put on an island called Patmos.

They tried to kill him and martyr him

and they could not kill him.

He wouldn't die.

And so they're like, we don't know what to do with you.

We're gonna put you in this work camp

on the island of Patmos, right?

So he's out there exiled.

And in the midst of exile,

he's now given this testimony from Jesus.

In verse 10, it says,

on the Lord's day, I was in the Spirit.

And I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,

which said, write on a scroll what you see

and send it to the seven churches,

to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis,

Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me.

And when I turned around, I saw seven golden lampstands.

And among the lampstands was someone like the son of man.

And so you have John, right?

And context of this, as John is one,

remember as a disciple,

he is reclined on the chest of Jesus,

which sounds weird to us, but when you would sit at a meal,

you kind of lean on the person next to you.

And so he's leaned on the very chest of Jesus,

if you like, on the shoulder of Jesus.

And what he defined in that is this love relationship

between him and Jesus.

And he says, in this moment, what happens is

this voice like a trumpet comes

and he turns around kind of shocked at what this voice is.

And he's told, hey, write this down on a scroll,

be my scribe.

And you're gonna scribe for seven churches.

Now the seven churches that he mentions

are all real churches in a real place at a real time.

So they existed when this was written.

Why those seven and not others?

We don't know Jesus is who he is

and he can do what he wants, right?

And so what he gives us is seven to them.

And so the idea of completion is captured in the number seven.

So the seven churches, and when John turns around,

he sees these like lampstands, which to us is a little weird.

We'll explain that in a minute.

But also what he sees is he sees the resurrected Jesus.

And the resurrected Jesus, remember,

this is somebody that has walked with Jesus,

that has laid on his chest, that has been alongside him,

that feels like he knows him.

And he turns around and the image of Jesus that he sees,

that he's got this hair that is white like wool,

that his eyes are like blazing fire, right?

That there's a sword coming out of his mouth,

a double-edged sword.

That he's dressed with this golden sack.

Like everything about this Jesus is he is king

and he is to be respected and he is reverent

and I should have offered him, which John's response,

remember, this is his friend.

We're going, hey, this is a reunion, right?

His response is he falls on his face

and he is speechless at seeing the risen Jesus.

I think it's really important

that if we're gonna talk about revelation,

we understand Jesus in the concept

and who he is as the resurrected king.

This is not Jesus who, if you went to camp,

and I've spoke these messages,

so I'm not picking on anybody in particular,

but we used to do stuff like Jesus is your homeboy.

That's true in a relational sense.

But when you have the image of who Jesus is,

Jesus right now, the resurrected Jesus,

does not look like your homeboy.

He looks like a king, right?

This resurrected Jesus looks like

he's the one in power and authority.

This resurrected Jesus is one to be revered

and so in that context then,

he now, what's set up for us is he,

the resurrected Jesus is the one who has the right

to talk to the church, to talk to his people.

And so in verse 19, it says,

right therefore, what you have seen,

what is now and what will take place later.

The mystery of the seven stars

that you saw in my right hand

and the seven golden lampstands is this.

The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.

So what we were told in this description of Jesus

is that he has seven stars held in his hand.

Now, what we're told here is it's the angels, right?

But that word angels is actually messengers

and so there's a debate on interpretation with this.

That doesn't mean that there's literally an angel

that's given to every church like a protective angel,

maybe, right?

Or does it mean that it's the messengers of the church,

those that are carrying the message of God

to God's people that God holds.

But either way, what you have to capture

is the resurrected Jesus is holding what?

The messenger of the church.

Who's in control?

Jesus is.

Why?

Because this is his church.

It says in scripture that he has supremacy

and in Colossians it says that he is the head of the church.

It's not the elders that they're ahead of the church.

It's not me, it's not another pastor.

Jesus is the head of the church.

And as the one who is the head of the church,

he holds, he has firmly in his grasp

because he has authority, the very messengers

that are a part of the church.

And then it says that he's a part of these like,

these golden lampstands, right?

That there's these golden lampstands around.

Now, it says specifically that the golden lampstands

represent the seven churches.

So each of these churches that he's writing a letter to,

the way it's kind of physically represented,

if you like, is through a golden lampstand.

Now, if I'm gonna, if it's dark and I go to light a lampstand,

what is the lampstand doing?

Right, what is it, what is the lamp doing?

It's giving light to that situation, right?

So the context that we're given of the churches,

the imagery we're given of the churches,

is that the church is to be light into darkness.

That the church is supposed to be this representation.

And then the next part is in chapter two,

he starts to write a letter to the church in Ephesus.

It says, to the angel or the messenger of the church

in Ephesus, write, these are the words of him

who holds the seven stars in his right hand.

So again, this picture of authority and power.

And walks among the seven golden lampstands.

And walks among the seven golden lampstands.

This made me shudder the other day.

When I realized the imagery that's given,

that the resurrected Jesus, the one who is king,

this image, right, that we go, I don't even know

how to fully grasp that in its magnitude.

That that Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, is in his church

walking the aisles today.

That he is with his people, walking amongst them.

We often think of Jesus as being this distant, far away.

The image we're given is he's here.

That the resurrected Jesus is wandering amongst us right now.

And then I got to thinking, the church isn't just this,

the church is people.

And so when you leave here and you go to all your spaces,

and you get to your average Tuesday,

that the resurrected Jesus, the king,

is walking amongst his church then.

Then on your Tuesday, and I'll pick on you guys,

because you go, this is the easiest context.

When you go to halls where people are mean and not kind,

or you go to halls where you don't want to be,

that the resurrected Jesus is walking the very halls

of your school with you.

That's the imagery that this king of all kings is with you.

And then listen to what he's doing.

I know, the next verse two, I know your deeds.

And again, I shuddered.

The resurrected Jesus knows my deeds.

The resurrected Jesus knows your deeds.

The resurrected Jesus knows our deeds.

We can fool some of the people some of the time.

Or you may be even sitting next to somebody

that you're fooling.

Did they think you're somebody that you're not right now?

Because you put on a good front.

You know who you're not fooling?

The resurrected Jesus that's walking.

You know what he said?

The resurrected Jesus that's walking, you know what he's saying?

I know, I know.

And we can take this often in church world.

We take this as like, oh man, I feel condemned right now, right?

It's actually a release.

Because you can be honest and open for the very first time maybe.

Going, Jesus, you already know.

You already know.

And he's writing to a church, right?

He's writing to a group of people.

And listen to what he says.

I know your deeds, your hard work, your perseverance.

I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people.

That you have tested those who claim to be apostles, but are not.

And have found them false.

You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name.

And have not grown weary.

Like that sounds great, right?

Like if Jesus came and he's critiquing Heights and he goes,

hey Heights, I've seen your hard work, your perseverance.

I know that you can't tolerate when things are opposite to who I am.

When people are opposite.

You can't even tolerate them.

Like those that come in and they got this false teaching.

And you stood up for the right teaching.

He's going, check, check, check, check.

And all of us go, man, that's what I want.

That's what I hope my life comes out at, right?

And yet he's writing to a group of people.

And he's saying, hey, I see this good you're doing.

Verse four, yet I hold this against you.

You have forsaken the love you had at first.

If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place.

He goes, hey, I see all this good.

Man, you're fighting for all the right thoughts and the right things.

But this is what I hold against you.

Here's what's interesting.

If you've been around church for a while, you may have heard this spoke by other people.

You may have heard this interpreted.

You may have have a whole thing about this, right?

And it may have been very individualistic.

Here's what I mean.

We live in a culture that's individualistic, right?

That where it's all about you, all about me.

I got my life. You do you. I'll do me. We'll be fine.

Right?

That's the culture we're inside of, where it's all about you.

But what's being written here is to a collective whole.

And what often happens with this is we just quickly pull it down to the individual.

And so somebody like me preaches a message to you going, you've lost your first love.

But that's not the context of what's happening here.

What's happening here is in the church in Ephesus,

it's really important that we understand what that church was.

It was one of the first churches that we know of that was established by Paul

in the Gentile community, which means it went from where it had been inside this Jewish

setting only, and now it's carried to the Gentiles.

And it exploded. And this church exploded and began to plant churches all over.

Right? They began to become this, remember back to the lampstand?

They were the light to their community, to all these other Gentiles.

And so what happened was, is from this church that was in a population of about 250,000,

it quickly became a mega church.

And in this mega church then Paul goes, hey, we got to send some leadership.

So Timothy ends up in Ephesus and Timothy, coached by Paul, mentored by Paul,

phenomenal leader, Timothy's now there.

So they've had two great leaders.

It's also thought that John ended up in Ephesus for a while at the church.

So now you've got the disciple John, who's writing this to us.

He's there. And if you remember from the cross, right, when he was,

when Jesus was on the cross, he looks down at John and he goes, hey,

behold your mother, behold your son. Right?

He was saying, hey, take care of my mama.

And now she's your mom.

And so John would have taken Mary, the mother of Jesus, to the church.

Can you imagine? The church in Ephesus?

You're sitting in life group with Timothy and potentially like Mary,

the mother of Jesus and the, the apostle John.

And you go, hey, I got a question.

Is the resurrection real?

And all of a sudden they're like, oh, let me tell you about it.

It's not even a question for them.

Or you're sitting there and you go, I don't know if I believe in miracles.

And Mary, the mother of Jesus goes, I got one for you.

There's this thing called the virgin birth.

Right? Like it's not even a question.

That's the heritage of the church in Ephesus.

It's so rich.

And yet, you know how many years are potentially between Jesus on earth

and the writing of this? 50 years.

And what is Jesus saying he holds against them?

You lost what you were doing at first.

What were they doing at first?

They were so enamored by Jesus.

What were they doing?

And they're out in the community and they are the witness to everybody.

What does he say you're doing?

Well, everything had become internal.

Got to believe the right things, keep the right people out and become inward focused.

And Jesus is calling them back to go, wait a minute.

The purpose of the church has always been outward witness of the person of Jesus Christ.

Here's how this works, you guys.

What he's calling into question is that you are not loving the people

outside of the church that you once did.

You are not loving those that Jesus would have used language like,

they're your enemies.

They think different than you.

They don't like the way you think.

They hold a different opinion.

And he's going, hey, the way you love them from the start,

that's what you've lost.

But here's the truth.

You will never love other people you don't like if you don't love Jesus first.

You see, there's a trail to this, right?

That if you've lost your love out there, you're no longer the light that you once should be.

Well, now you've lost your love here.

And so what he's calling them back to is their love for Jesus.

Now, here's what's interesting, right?

As if I went, you know what, you guys?

I want you to fall in love with my wife.

Okay?

I want you to love her as much as I do.

And so here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to get 66 people and they're going to write about her.

Their experiences with her, where they've been, what they've done.

They're going to tell stories, tell you how God showed up.

But this whole thing is going to be about her.

And so here's what we're going to do.

There may even be quotes in there, right?

Because you hung out with her and you're like, oh, it's one of the authors.

You're like, hey, she said this and this is worth listening to.

And then we're going to get somebody like Sarah,

and she's going to take sweet keys and put it underneath some tune.

And we're going to sing.

We're going to put words to how great Cindy is, right?

And we're going to sing about things that we like about her, things that are true about her.

We're going to do this.

And then here's what's going to happen.

Once a week, we're going to gather in a room,

and I'm going to open the book about Cindy, and I'm going to tell you about her.

Right? I'm going to tell you all this stuff about her.

And then we're even going to sing the songs that we wrote about her.

OK, and then maybe if you're really committed to getting to know Cindy,

you'll go to this group of people and sit with them and you'll talk about her.

And you'll learn more facts about her.

But here's the thing.

If I told you that's what we were going to do,

I'd tell you you're never going to love Cindy the way I love Cindy.

It's not going to happen.

Oh, you'll know a lot about her.

You may even be able to recall experiences about her that you weren't even there for.

You may have even been moved because something in a song connected with who you were,

and you're that same thing, and you're like, oh, we're the same person.

But you would never love her. Why?

Because you've never spent time with her.

Isn't it interesting that with Jesus, we think we can learn a bunch of facts,

that we can think all the right things.

And then we question, why don't I love them like Jesus loves them?

Well, you don't actually love Jesus. You just know a whole lot about him.

But you see what you're called to, what this whole thing is.

It's a relationship. It's a love relationship.

And for you, the only way to build a love relationship is I'm going to what?

Put myself in a position to experience you, to experience moments with you.

We'll talk about this in the new year.

But you guys, if life never got hard, we would never know Jesus better.

But what are the hard moments?

They're pushing you deeper into intimacy with Jesus. Why?

Because you need to love him at your core.

Here's the thing, church.

If we don't love Jesus, we will never love our community around us.

You can't. They're connected.

And what's happening in this moment is Jesus is going, hey, I'm going to remove your lampstand.

I'm going to remove the light from you because you're not doing what I created you for.

What are you created for?

To be a witness to everybody else.

And so there are seven churches, right?

The last church, Laodicea.

Chapter three, verse 14.

To the angel of the church of Laodicea, write,

these are the words of the amen, the faithful, the true witness and the ruler of God's creation.

Which that's a pretty strong out the gate.

This is who Jesus is, right?

He is faithful.

He is the end.

He will not let you down.

So when I'm not faithful, he's still faithful, right?

When I'm wishy washy, he's not wishy washy.

That's what this is getting at.

He is the true witness.

And this idea of this faithfulness is being brought to light.

Verse 15, I know your deeds.

There's that phrase again that Jesus knows, right?

You are neither hot, you're neither cold nor hot.

I wish you were either one or the other.

So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold,

I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

You say I am rich and I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing,

but you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire so that you can become rich

and white clothes to wear so that you can cover your shameful nakedness

and salve to put on your eyes so that you can see.

Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline.

So be earnest and repent.

Here I am. I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,

I will come in and eat with that person and they with me.

Again, if you've been around church and maybe to a camp at some point in your life,

there's a speaker like me that got up.

You need to not be cold or you need not be lukewarm, right?

You need to be hot or cold.

And now's your moment because Jesus is going to spit you out.

Okay, can we just, can we pause for a second?

When have we ever seen Jesus talk to the church about spitting them out,

vomiting the church out?

So this passage cannot be talking about, first of all, people that don't know Jesus

because that's where it's preached, right?

So you need to come to Jesus.

What is this talking about? It's talking to the church.

But remember the writing, the real people and the real people were in Laodicea.

What was Laodicea known for?

Well, on one side of Laodicea, there was a town and that town had really hot springs.

And the hot springs were life-giving.

And what that meant was this, that people went there to be healed.

So you would go to the water that was hot because it had healing properties for you.

And so that's on one side.

Another town, Colosse, had cold springs.

And so the cold springs were refreshing and life-giving.

So what happened was people were drawn to this town for the hot springs because it was healing.

They were drawn to this town for the cold water because it was life-giving and refreshing.

Now remember, we're in the context of the church being a witness to the world.

That's the context of all seven churches.

It's back to the purpose of the church that we are the witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And we are to tell everybody and we are to take it to everybody.

So now in Laodicea, you've got this hot water here, cold water here.

Laodicea had the pipe in their water.

And as the water came into Laodicea, it ended up dirty and this nasty, warm temperament to it.

And when you drank it, you would get nauseous and you would spit it out of your mouth.

What is Jesus calling them to in this metaphor?

He's calling them to, I wish you were healing for the nations or I wish you were life-giving

because that's the purpose of the church.

But you're neither.

You're this lukewarm water that makes everybody nauseous.

And then he goes on and he says, in Laodicea, they were known for that they had an economy was booming

because they were connected to these guilds, right?

These trading guilds that were corrupt.

And so the church was amassing wealth and the church was making the point like they were drawing from Old Testament philosophy

that hey, if we're wealthy, then we're healthy.

And Jesus goes, no, you're not because your wealth isn't coming from me.

It's coming from your own corrupt measures to get it.

Essentially, you're becoming tainted by the culture that you're in.

The second thing that they had was linen, right?

They had this fine linen that they were known for in this area.

And so they would dress themselves up and they thought they were something.

They were looking good, right?

They were influential because of their linen.

And Jesus goes, actually, you're naked.

You're shameful because you're covering yourself with what that is.

And then the last thing they were known for is they had a medical school.

And part of the medical school was that they had this salve that you put on your eyes that if you couldn't see that the salve helped you see.

And so they were known for like giving sight to people.

And Jesus goes, you're actually blind yourself.

But I love what Jesus does because he's talking to the church about being this outward witness.

He wants them restored to what he intended them to be.

And so what he does is he goes, hey, you need to come to me and you need to buy gold refined by the refiner's fire.

Why the refiner's fire?

Because that strips away all impurity.

You need to come back and be impure.

Like you need to come back and be pure.

I'll give you garments that are white that will hide your shame.

And I'll give you salve to put on your spiritual eyes that are blind, that you think you are booming as a church.

And I'm telling you, you've lost, you've lost what I created you for.

And then you know what I love about this?

Because the message we're given, right, oh, Jesus is going to spit you out of your mouth.

Can I show you what Jesus does?

Jesus comes to them.

Doesn't run away from them.

He comes to them.

He just knocks.

I'm here.

I'm coming to you.

Oh, I know.

I know where you've been.

I know what you're doing.

But I'm here.

I'm not running away from you.

I got everything you need, everything that you're desiring.

I got gold for you.

This pure, this my provision.

I got clothes to cover your shame.

I'm still knocking because I got salve for your eyes so that you can see.

I'm going to need surgery on this hand when I'm done.

Why is he knocking?

Because he wants the church to open the door.

What does he say he'll do?

He'll come in and eat.

That's a posture of fellowship, relationship, sitting at a table.

I had this image this week holding my grandson.

I don't know if I told you I got a grandson.

Holding that baby boy, I had this image.

Between Beckham and me is almost 50 years.

Almost 50 years.

Between Jesus and the church in Ephesus since lost his first love is 50 years, roughly.

It made me wonder, you guys, for Heights Church, for us as a family, and what we're building,

and the light that we are to the community, and fulfilling what God called us to do.

In 50 years when Beckham Jude sits, hopefully not in these chairs, hopefully we've updated,

but sits in these chairs, in 50 years, will Heights still be known for our love to everyone

outside of these walls?

It is so different from us.

Will we still be known for worshiping the resurrected King that is Jesus?

Or will we have lost our way?

Because the call is what?

I'm here.

I find it fascinating that we sang a song that was written in the 90s.

And what is the song all about?

I'm coming back to the heart of worship where it's all about you.

It's all about you, Jesus.

I don't know where you are, where you came in, but I do know this, that today Jesus is

knocking.

What are you going to do with it?

What are you going to do with it?

It's yours to open.

But don't just throw that to those that don't know Jesus because he wrote this to the church

in Laodicea.

Would you pray with me, God, we come before you.

God, we're just humbled.

Thank you for loving us the way you do.

Thank you for, God, the way that you meet us.

Thank you for the way you walk with us.

Thank you for the way today that you love us.

God, these next moments not just be words on a screen, but they would they be declarations

of heart.

For some, the imagery of I'm coming back to the heart of worship is I'm opening the door

today because I know I've shut it.

I'm rediscovering my love today because I know I've lost it by how I treat people.

God, would you make our Heights family a beacon, a lampstand that burns so brightly for you

and you alone?

So God, we love you and we declare with our voices in one, one family moment that it is

all about you.

The resurrected King Jesus.

We love you and everybody said, Amen.