Revelation: The Downfall of a Self-Reliant Church | Revelation 3:14–22

I want to welcome you to the First Baptist Church of El Doredo Sermon Podcast.

My name is Taylor Guerin, the senior pastor here.

All throughout this fall, we're in a series through the Book of Revelation.

Certainly a book that can feel intimidating, certainly a book that at times can be misunderstood.

What we believe is that it is a book that is meant to be read by Christians and meant to provide great encouragement, both for the future but also for today.

I hope you are encouraged by the series this fall.

If there's anything we can do for you, specifically any way we can pray for you, don't hesitate to reach out.

Go to our website and click the Connect with Us page.

We'd love to hear from you.

Thank you so much for listening.

We'll see you soon.

Thank you.

And as you are see, if you'll open up with me to uh Revelation chapter 3, Revelation chapter 3, verses 14 through 22.

Revelation 3 · chapter mention Revelation 3:14–22

Revelation 3, 14 through 22.

Throughout the fall, we are walking through Revelation.

And so here we are at the end of the third chapter, and really the end of the seven churches.

We have uh, as of today, covered four of the seven, and then we'll uh move on into the the text.

Uh but let me read verses 14 through 22.

And to the angel of the church at Laodicea write, the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.

I know your works, and you are neither cold nor hot.

Would that you were either cold or hot.

So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

For you say I am rich, and I have prospered, and I need nothing.

Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments, so that you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.

Those whom I love I reprove in discipline, so be zealous and repent.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to him and eat with him, and he with me.

The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, thank you so much for your word.

Thank you for these letters to these seven churches, Lord.

They are so beneficial to our spiritual lives.

That doesn't mean they're not greatly convicting.

In fact, they are beneficial because they are greatly convicting.

So, Lord, teach us today from your word, we ask.

In Christ's name.

Amen.

Well, as I've said, we've been walking through these letters, and these seven letters were sent to seven churches throughout Asia Minor.

You can really follow the locations and see the postal route of these churches.

And I want to put on the screen, which I know we won't cover every one of them, but uh you can see the churches, and you can see really uh Robert Mounts uh gave me this list.

Uh I say gave me, it was in a book as if he did it for me personally.

Um Ephesus, losing our first love.

We remember the church at Ephesus, Smyrna, the the fear of suffering, Pergamum, doctrinal compromise.

Last week we saw Thyatira, moral compromise, Sardis, a spiritual deadness, Philadelphia, a failure to hold on, and today Laodicea, lukewarm faith.

Now, you look at this list and you see what is going on in these churches, and we're tempted to say, and accurately so, this sounds like uh really the same issues of today.

I mean, certainly in the church today, there's this fear of suffering and persecution, temptation to doctrinal or moral compromise, certainly lukewarm faith.

This seems so true of the church today, and it is.

What was written 2,000 years ago, what was written to churches in Asia Minor applies, I would argue, equally to the church today, both the Capital C Church and if we're not careful, First Baptist Church of El Dorado.

Now, here's what is convicting this morning is I would argue that really none of these seven letters fit as well or as perfectly as Laodicea.

They all fit in some kind of way, but it just feels like Laodicea was perfectly written for the American church.

And it's convicting.

Why do I say it feels like it was perfectly written for us?

Well, Laodicea was a consumer society, a consumer society.

Really, Laodicea was perfectly placed at these two major intersections.

One highway, interstate, running north and south through Asia Minor, and another running east and west, really from Ephesus to the uh kind of inland of Asia Minor.

And so it was perfectly placed for lots of business.

It was a center of banking, a center of uh medical field, a center of trade.

Uh again, there was so much traffic through this region.

It was also a very safe city.

It was built upon this plateau.

And so it would have been very difficult to attack Laodicea.

So they lived in relative comfort.

This is one letter out of the seven, the only one where the Lord does not mention persecution.

Now, I don't want to make an argument from silence and say they were not persecuted at all.

We don't we don't know that that's the case.

I mean, they are Christians in Asia Minor.

Surely there was some type of persecution, but this is the one one of the seven letters where actually no mention of persecution exists.

They seem to be a very comfortable people in an affluent town.

They seem to just have everything they need.

And if there were ever a temptation to say, I have what I need, and surely I can just kind of add my Christian faith on top of that, and that'll be enough.

Surely these were the types of people that could say just that.

I want to see two things this morning.

The first is this the fruit of the self-reliant church, the fruit of the self-reliant church.

Look with me at verse 14, and to the angel of the church in Laodicea right, the words of the Amen.

The Amen.

Again, this is Jesus announcing himself as he's done in each one of these letters.

Here he says the words of the Amen, the true one, amen, meaning truly, truth, uh, the faithful and true witness, and then he says this, the beginning of God's creation.

Now, as Jesus is describing himself, I want to make one thing clear.

He says that he is the beginning of God's creation.

I just want us to be careful with that, because the temptation might be to wonder does that is that Jesus saying he is a created being?

That he was the first of God the Father's creation?

That is not what it's saying.

We know that Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, is co-eternal with the Father.

Always has been, the Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit, always present there.

Uh John chapter 1, in the beginning was the Word, being Jesus, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1 · chapter mention

Uh, we see that Jesus was with the Father in the beginning, creating.

So what he's saying here is that Jesus was in the beginning with God, was creating God Himself, the second person of the Trinity, with the Father in creation.

Translation to make it even simpler for us, that Jesus has always been.

He's always been, he is, he always will be.

This is the one writing this letter.

And verse 15, I know your works.

Now, let's stop there for a second.

Because really, this is how a lot of these verses have begun.

A lot of these letters of these seven letters have begun.

I know your works.

And usually in these letters, that leads to some relatively good news.

What I mean by that is that uh Jesus will often say, I know your works, and then provide some level of commendation, some level of compliment for what you've been doing.

I know your works, I know that you are enduring through persecution, and I know that, you know, we saw in Thyatira, even Thyatira that was about to get really a very harsh word, even Jesus told them, I know that your latter works are even greater than the first.

So you're growing in works.

So throughout these letters, a lot of times we get some level of commendation, and yet there is one church that receives no commendation, no compliment from the Lord, and it's the church at Laodicea.

I know your works, and what are they?

You are neither cold nor hot.

Would that you were either cold or hot.

So because you are, and here's the big word of the day, because you are lukewarm, because you're just somewhere in the middle, here's what I'll do, neither hot nor cold.

I will spit you out of my mouth.

So Laodicea, here's the word from the Lord.

You're not hot, you're not cold, you're lukewarm.

Therefore, I will spit you out of my mouth.

Now, uh oftentimes, sometimes this gets interpreted in a in a certain way that says, you know, you can either be hot, meaning you are on fire for Christ, you are all in spiritually, or you can be cold.

You can just be a non-Christian on the outside looking in, having nothing to do with him.

You can go one of the two directions.

What you what you shouldn't be is just somewhere in the middle, not really knowing where you are.

Now, now that is one way it can be interpreted, and there are smart individuals smarter than I that interpret it that way.

But I do think there's also many who who look at this a little in a little bit different way, and I think they're accurate in doing it with the idea that both hot and cold are actually really, really good things.

So think about this for a second.

Uh the the church at Laodicea, uh, it existed in the Lycus Valley, and there were three cities in this valley.

There was Colossae, if you think about the letter to the Colossians, there was Colossae.

There was also Hieropolis, these great cities, and some talk about that uh Hieropolis had these hot springs.

Maybe you've been to Hot Springs, Arkansas, and you've you've taken your empty gallon jugs and taken them downtown and you know, turned the faucet and gotten the hot water from the hot springs.

But Hieropolis had these hot springs that was very useful, very useful for cooking, very useful for the medical field and sterilization, very useful for bathing.

And then there was Colossae that had these these streams, these very cold springs that would flow up into these uh perfect refreshing streams that were so useful for refreshment.

And then somewhere in the middle, you had Laodicea.

Who commentators talk about the fact that their water on this plateau had to be brought in through these aqueducts, and by the time it arrived, uh it wasn't hot, it wasn't cold, it was lukewarm.

I think the picture here that Jesus wants us to see is not that you you're either hot or you're cold, meaning you're you're either all in or you're just a non-Christian.

I think what he's saying is, I want you to be hot or I want you to be cold, meaning this.

I want you to serve a purpose for the kingdom.

Hot water is great for bathing, for medical, for sterilization, cold water is great for refreshment.

I just want you to serve a purpose.

But what you're doing in this moment is you're just hanging out right in the middle.

You're just right in the middle, not willing to go all in, not willing to be used greatly by God.

I would argue in this moment that Jesus is talking to Christians that are lukewarm.

I'm not proclaiming that these are non-Christians, but I will say this.

They are Christians that seemingly, all Christians show some level of fruit, but uh I wouldn't argue it's a super high level of fruit.

I would argue they're they're looking a lot more like spectators than participants.

So I want you to serve a purpose for the kingdom.

I want you to be hot or cold.

What I don't want is lukewarm living.

Let me just ask this question.

And we probably don't have to think long and hard about what this looks like.

What does it mean to be lukewarm spiritually?

What does it mean to live lukewarm spiritual lives?

I think there's dozens, hundreds, thousands of ways we could answer that question.

I think we live lukewarm lives when we think of our Christian life as being a kind of a Sunday operation.

That my Christian faith is that's what I do on Sundays, and that's what I do on uh Wednesday evenings.

If I'm a little extra spiritual, I'll come on Wednesdays as well.

But in between, that that's just kind of my time.

Uh or lukewarm living may look like this.

If if we had an illustration, if I maybe I should have brought a backpack.

Imagine if I'm holding a backpack and I have it on my back and it's just the backpack of my life.

I'm gonna pack up the things I need for my life.

I'm gonna uh I'm gonna uh my family life, it's part of that backpack.

My career, I'm putting it in the backpack, my hobbies, I'm putting it in the backpack.

And here's another thing: my faith, my spiritual life, I'm putting it in the backpack.

And so what I've done is I've loaded up the things I need for my life and I've proclaimed my Christian faith, my spiritual life, as one thing among the other things.

When instead my faith in Christ is really the umbrella over all of my life.

It is, it is the part of my life, my relationship with Christ, it is the overarching reality that everything else about my life is seen in the context of that spiritual life.

And so now my faith in Christ has allowed me to see the world differently.

But lukewarm living says, you know, I uh Christianity, my faith, it's part of what I do.

It's just part.

Maybe we can think about this lukewarm living, that discipleship is what happens, you know, in the 30 minutes on Sunday morning when the pastor is preaching, or the 45 minutes hour on Sunday morning when my life group leader is teaching.

That's when I kind of am fed spiritually.

Let me be very clear about something.

Praise God.

If if if in some way in during this 30 minutes, if I can feed you spiritually, I pray that would be the case.

Humbly, I say that.

I pray that would be the case.

I know for a fact with our life group leaders here at this church, you are being fed spiritually in that hour.

But let me tell you, the the sermon, the life group, that needs to be uh very helpful supplements for your spiritual life throughout the week.

If that's if that's the whole diet, uh you're an unhealthy believer.

I know that's blunt.

I'm telling myself that too.

If that's the whole diet, we're not living a healthy life spiritually.

That Sundays and Wednesdays, those are supplements in what you're already doing spiritually.

How else might we live lukewarm lives?

Think about discipling our children.

If we're ever tempted to have the idea that, you know, how are my children discipled?

And we'd say something like this I got great news.

That's exactly what we pay Gabby for.

That's exactly what we pay Colby for.

They do the discipleship of my children.

No, no, no.

Praise God.

We've got the best staff in America, and they do it better than anyone else in America.

I believe that for a fact, but they come alongside the family.

Discipleship primarily happens in the home, and we've got Gabby and Colby and Dustin and Brian and others that come alongside you to resource you and aid you in that.

But lukewarm living says, I I I'll just let you know the the church completely handle discipleship in the home.

Lukewarm Living says, I I can live a Christian life where I can just be a spectator.

I don't really have to be a participant.

I could just show up.

I could even show up and and you know give my tithe and and you know shake some hands and and I can go home knowing I've done this Christian thing right.

No, no, no.

I want you to be hot or cold.

I want you to serve kingdom purpose.

I I want this faith to mean something to you.

And look at the end of verse 16.

These are difficult words from Jesus.

You are neither hot nor cold.

And what does he say?

I will spit you out of my mouth.

And I'm sorry to be so blunt with this, but the the the original language there, this is the phrase, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

It's not a very appealing verse, but that's the words, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

I was convicted this week by a quote from John MacArthur.

I didn't like it one bit.

He said this there are some churches that the Lord is angry with, there are some churches that make the Lord weep.

I would insert there are some churches that make the Lord smile, there are some churches that make the Lord jump for joy, but then John MacArthur said this there are also some churches that make the Lord sick.

I will vomit you out of my mouth.

Why?

Because you're lukewarm.

What does that mean?

You're just going through the motions.

You're just showing up and playing the church.

You're going through the motions.

Verse 17, let's look more about this church.

For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, I need nothing.

Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

Laodicea was a comfortable society.

And you wonder this morning why I do compare it to the American church so much, because you and I live in a comfortable society.

I'm not proclaiming there's not poverty in our nation.

There is, and we need to do something about it.

And I'm thankful for a church that helps do something about it.

I'm not proclaiming that there are not economic hardships.

There are, and every one of us face them at times.

But what I am saying is we have, I've talked about it before, we we have a level of wealth in this nation that people across the globe couldn't imagine.

And there is a temptation in that to get very comfortable, to say that I have everything I need.

Laodicea loved to say just that I have everything I need.

Historians talk about an earthquake that happened and really decimated much of Laodicea in AD 60.

And Rome, uh, kindly so tried to step in and help provide aid so that they could help rebuild Laodicea.

And Laodicea turned Rome down.

They turned down free money.

Why?

Because we don't need it.

Because we can do it ourselves.

We don't need it.

We can do it ourselves.

We are affluent, we are wealthy, we have everything we need.

When I look at this church, I see really the anti-Smyrna.

Do you remember Smyrna just a few weeks ago?

The Lord had nothing of rebuke to say to this church, only commendation.

And what did he say to Smyrna in verse 9?

I know your tribulation and your poverty.

I know your poverty.

I know because you have stood firm in faith in Christ, you now live in poverty because of it.

You've had to make sacrifices for your faith.

And then in parentheses he says this, but you are rich.

You actually have great wealth in Christ.

Just the opposite in Laodicea, verse 17.

For you say, I am rich.

But what are you really?

Wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

I was thankful this week to read from Eugene Peterson this great book, uh, this hallelujah banquet, the great book, uh, really about the seven churches.

And he said this about Laodicea.

As the years went by, a terrible thing happened to the Christians in Laodicea.

They became more influenced by their affluent culture than by the cross.

They became consumers.

They began to treat Christ as a consumer item.

They invested in religion the way they invested in the financial market.

They shopped for religion the way they shopped for clothes.

They use religion the way they use medicine.

They treated Christ with the cool calculation of consumers.

That Christ is just something that can be bought.

Christ is just something that I can load up in the backpack of my life as I walked these roads of life.

That Christ is just something that I can add to the rest of what I've already got going on.

What it is is this.

You're neither hot nor cold.

You're just lukewarm.

You're just lukewarm.

So what is the fruit of a self-reliant church?

What is the fruit of any church?

Certainly, First Baptist El Doredo, if we ever got to the point where we said, Lord, we can handle it on our own, the fruit of that is simply this.

I want to spit you out.

Those are the words of the Lord.

They're harsh words.

They're his words.

So what is the fruit of a Christ-reliant church?

A Christ-reliant church.

Verse 18.

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, white garments, so that you may clothe yourselves, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

I I love how the Lord comes to Laodicea in this moment.

He meets them right where they're at.

How does he meet them?

He he basically says this, listen, church at Laodicea, I know you love buying things.

I know you love to shop.

I want you to come to my store.

I want you to shop at my store.

If you love to buy something, I'm gonna let you buy something.

And here it is.

Uh come by the real thing.

Come shop for the real thing.

Stop shopping for the temporary things of this world to find acceptance or worth or satisfaction.

I counsel you to come buy gold refined by fire.

I love the words that are very similar in Isaiah 55, written 800 years before John is writing here, and it says this 55, 1, come, everyone who thirst, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come by and eat.

Come by wine and milk without money and without price.

Why do you spend your money on that which is not bread, your labor on that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligent to me and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.

And again in Revelation 4 3.18.

Come by gold, refined by fire.

Here is the only issue for those who would seek to buy these things.

They might be tempted in Laodicea to ask, Well, how much is it going to cost?

What do I owe?

Because Jesus, you know I'm good for it.

Money's not the issue.

Just tell me what the cost is and I'll pay it.

And it's as if Jesus is saying, Well, here's the cost.

It's simply your humility.

There's the cost of coming.

Laying down your pride and your ego and your ideas that you can have it all figured out on your own.

Here's what you have to do.

You just have to come to me with absolutely nothing, realizing that's all you have to offer me, and in return, I will give you everything.

And I just want to tell you what we see in uh Revelation 4 uh 3.18, what we see in Isaiah 55, it's just a picture of the gospel.

I hope you see this and can understand the gospel in this kind of way because that's the transaction that is happening.

That we come to him with nothing and we leave with everything.

All we come with is our sin and guilt and shame.

He became sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

That's the sweet exchange of the gospel.

We bring nothing, he gives us everything.

All we have to do is acknowledge the fact that we are sinful in need of a savior.

And all Laodicea would love to do is say, Jesus, I'll purchase it, I'll buy it, I've got enough, take what I have from my hands.

And Jesus looks to say, Hey, put your money away.

Just come.

Buy the gold, buy the real thing.

Let me give you clothes to cover your nakedness.

Reminds me so much of Genesis chapter 3, man and woman sin.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

And what do they do?

They realize they're naked, they try to cover themselves with their own little clothes they put together out of leaves.

And then God says, Let me give you the real thing.

Sheds the blood of this animal to uh provide these clothes for them.

Salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

You think you see, you think you know what's going on.

You're blind to the spiritual realities of life, but you don't have to be.

But you don't have to be.

Verse 19.

Those whom I love I reprove and discipline.

So be zealous and repent.

If you're in Laodicea, you may be asking, Jesus, why the harsh words?

I mean, yeah, surely, uh I mean, I get it.

We live like consumers sometimes, but we're not everything's not bad.

I mean, our church has a great budget.

We're we're giving good.

I mean, certainly, surely we're meeting needs by what we're able to do with our wealth.

Why so harsh?

And Jesus' answer to why so harsh is this: because I love you.

Why do I discipline you?

Because I love you.

Any parent or grandparent or anybody that's ever worked with children, you know that uh often discipline is just a form of love.

I talked about this Wednesday night uh with our group, but you know, if if the kids are playing in the front yard, the grass is where we play, the street is not where we play.

And so if ever uh your children or my children start running towards the street, you know, we we we might have to tell them, okay, here's, you know, warning number one, come on back to the grass.

If they do it again, okay, here's number two.

Let's, you know, let's spend five minutes just on our own in timeout for just a minute, so you realize that this is where we play and this is not.

That form of discipline there, just a quick time out.

Guess what?

That's loving.

You know what's not loving?

Let them play in the street.

God disciplines those he loves.

If you ever feel the conviction of the Spirit, let me tell you, it's not fun.

I don't, I'm not, you know, excited every time I realize I'm in great sin and the Holy Spirit gets a hold of my heart.

Like I don't wish for those times back.

They're not fun seasons, but guess what?

That's one way I know God loves me.

He doesn't just leave me to my sin, he draws me back to him through his discipline, through his conviction.

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

Verse 20.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to him and eat with him, and he with me.

What a beautiful verse that is.

Often this verse is used to talk about uh evangelism and talking to the non-Christian.

Behold, Jesus stands at the door and knock.

If you open your heart, he will come in.

By the way, uh I support that.

That's a great way to use that verse, but but remember in this moment now, Jesus is actually talking to Christians.

And so in this moment, this verse is stated in a way to talk to Christians, saying this, that if you will let Jesus come into the life of the church, he'll do it.

Uh what's happening here is this.

Imagine if we all gather in this room just like this, and it's 10:15, and we're about to get rolling with the service, and as we're all sitting here, uh we hear uh a knock on the door, these doors back here, and we hear a knock, and we go out to the back door and we realize it's Jesus, quite literally, it's Jesus.

And he he looks to me, he looks to you, and he says, Uh, if you're interested, uh, I'd be more than happy to come be a part of your church service.

If you want me to.

I don't have to, but I'd be more than happy to come in.

And then we look at him and say, you know, by the way, we had a staff meeting earlier this week and we've really lined up this service pretty good.

Um, we've got some of our best songs prepared for today.

The pastor spent, you know, X number of hours in study for this message.

The collection, the deacons are ready for that.

Uh, we've got announcements ready at the end.

Um, Jesus, if you would come back just a different week, maybe when we're not so prepared, uh, we'll let you in that week.

Uh this is what's happening here.

Jesus is saying, I'm knocking on the door of the church.

If you want me to come in, I will.

But if you want to live as if you've got it all under control and you don't need me in your midst, I don't have to.

I don't have to.

I know we are.

I hope we always will be a church that when Jesus knocks on the door, we say, Jesus, you are welcome in this place.

I mean, I I that's the most obvious thing I've ever said from this pulpit.

To tell Jesus, you are welcome in this place.

Uh how do we welcome Jesus into the life of this church?

I I think too in two ways, well, in a million ways, but let me give two ways.

First is just inviting the Spirit, the Spirit of Christ who now indwells within us and now works in our midst, inviting the Spirit of Christ to be a part of everything we do.

Inviting Him to be a part of every facet of our church.

Looking to the Spirit and saying, Lord, as an individual and as a church, I don't want to get ahead of you.

I don't want to get behind you, I want to stay in step with you.

As a church, we invite the Spirit to have His way.

I also believe this, that we uh invite Jesus in our midst by how we love others who are made in the image of God.

Uh, do you remember in Matthew 25, Jesus is looking at a group and says, When I was thirsty, you gave me water, when I was food, you when I was hungry, you gave me food.

And he's saying these things, and the people say, Well, Jesus, when did I see you thirsty?

When did I see you hungry?

And he says this, when you did it to the least of these, you did it unto me.

Another way we let Jesus be a part of the life of this church is just by loving others, including the least of these, including those who come to this church broken and tired and confused and sinful.

And we say, You are welcome in this place.

This church is for you, this family is for you, and that we are the kind of church that does exactly that.

Verse 21 The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne.

As I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

Not just Laodicea, but as he closes out all of the seven churches, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

I I love the picture, and really we've seen it throughout that the one who honors the Lord, the one who takes Jesus' warning and his advice throughout these letters, the one who does that, there is great reward, eternal reward.

I will let you sit on my throne.

Not as if we are equal on the throne to Jesus.

Let's not say that.

But we are, Roman talks about co-heirs with Christ.

So as individuals and as a church, we've got some choices here.

We can be hot or cold, both greatly useful for the kingdom, or we can be lukewarm.

We can serve kingdom purposes and do great things for the kingdom of God, or we can play church and we can go through the motions.

I know for a fact that to a person, everybody in this room knows the choice they want to make.

That God, we we want to serve you.

We want to be a church on mission for you.

How do we do it?

Jesus says this I stand at the door and knock.

If you'll just open the door and let me in, I'll be with you.

And so to Jesus, to the Spirit of Christ, we say, You are welcome here.

Our doors are open to you.

Our agenda is yours, our plans are yours, our budget is yours, our time is yours, our talents, our treasures, everything we have is yours to do what you want with it.

That is our hope.

That is our prayer as a church and as individuals.

Would you pray with me now?

Lord Jesus, I thank you for your word.

I just pray that we would be a church that would serve you well, that would serve kingdom purpose.

That as individuals we would not be spectators, just standing on the sidelines, but we would get in the game of the Christian life.

That we would we would uh be on the field as participants, serving alongside you in step with your spirit.

Let that be true for us as individuals.

I pray it would be true for us as a church.

Lord, if there's someone in this room who, for the first time, wants to step into the kingdom of God.

There's only one way to do that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Would they come this morning and experience that for the first time?

Maybe they want to join this church, talk about baptism.

Maybe they just want a pastor to pray with them, whatever it looks like this morning, however they need to respond.

Would they do it even in these moments?

In Christ's name.

Amen.

Would you stand now?

We'll worship together.

I'll be down front if you'd like to respond in any way.