(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, so we're going to be continuing the series I started a week or two, a couple weeks ago, going through the seven churches that we see in Revelation chapter 2 and 3, and of course now we're in Revelation chapter 3, we've already done the first four churches mentioned in Revelation chapter 2, three to go, we're on Sardis this morning, and Sardis, this section of scripture is probably like the shortest letter written to any of the churches that we've gone through so far, and so there's not a whole lot, there's a couple points I'm going to be covering, so this may end up being a shorter sermon, which is fine because I was kind of doing some mini-sermons during announcements anyways, but let's dig right in here to the church at Sardis, and just as a recap, the reason why we're doing this if you've missed the other sermons is because there's a lot of warnings given to churches here, and the warning is that basically if you don't repent, if you don't change, if you don't get these things in order within the church, then you're going to lose your candlestick, so it started off with John seeing this vision of these seven golden candlesticks, and basically these candlesticks where the church is, and they're sending letters off to these churches, letters that says to the angel of the church, which I mentioned before, I believe it's the pastor, the leader, the person who's in charge of that church, who's in charge of making the changes, in charge of kind of operating and running the church, so they are getting these letters and need to fix things, and what we're seeing is in many cases there's a lot of positive things, and God starts off saying, hey, you know, you're doing this good, this good, I know your works, and you're doing this and this and this, and that's great, so we've been looking at all the good attributes because those are all attributes that we want to have. If God is commending churches and saying, hey, you've got patience, and you've got charity, you know, great, we want to have that too, so we're digging into that, but then especially, I would say probably just as importantly, I don't want to say anymore, but we definitely don't want to be doing things that's going to make God angry to the point where he's going to say, you know what, this is wicked and wrong, and this is what's happening in your church, and if you don't fix this, then you're going to cease to be a legitimate church in my eyes. I mean, what's the difference between a church that is legitimate in God's eyes and one that is not? The difference is that the Holy Spirit is going to be working in that church that God sees as being in a candlestick before him and is viewed as a legitimate church, whereas these other churches that are not viewed as like by God as being a legitimate church, the candlesticks were removed, there's going to be no power of the Holy Ghost moving throughout those churches. So basically, you're going to end up doing nothing for the Lord. You may be spinning your wheels and doing a lot of things and having a lot of activity, but ultimately at the end of the day, if God's not recognizing the work you're doing, it's no good. I mean, it's like the people who think they could work their way to heaven, you know, they may be doing a lot of work, they may be doing a lot of good deeds, they may be spending a lot of time, you know, investing and trying to help people and do this and do that, and you know what, all of it is just going to amount to nothing in God's eyes when they die without Christ. In a similar fashion, you know, churches that may be doing all kinds of things have thousands of people coming up and you've got kids programs and adult programs and teen programs and everything under the sun and you're busy and you're doing a lot of stuff, if you're not viewed as a legitimate church in God's eyes, it's all for naught. So we want to make sure that when we look at these warnings, we say, hey, let's treat this seriously. Let's not be like the church at Sardis. Let's not be like these other churches that had these problems. Let's make sure that we don't get into those and if we do have them, we can fix them and repent so we can continue to do the work and service of the Lord and that the Holy Ghost can move with power in our church to help the people around us, to help the community and to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ effectively. That's a point. Now with Sardis, look at verse number one in chapter three, the Bible says, and unto the angel of the church in Sardis write, these things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, I know thy works. And with most of the other churches that we've seen, the other four churches like, and you've done this and you've done this, but you do this, you know, and there's good and bad. He says, I know your works, that thou hast a name that thou liveth and art dead. There is nothing good brought up about the church in Sardis here. And this is also interesting to point out because you have mentioned this last week, we had, we had some other really bad things going on in churches. God is really long suffering and really wants churches to succeed and to grow and to do right. And he gives space to repent and change. And here we have a church. He's not even giving anything that they're doing right, but just that you used to do things right in the past, but now there's nothing. And imagine a church, like, like I would just think, man, if there's nothing that you could even really say as a positive thing about a church, how could that possibly even be viewed as a legitimate church in God's eyes? But they still can. But I mean, these are, these are all churches getting warnings for a reason though. These aren't being addressed to every church, but almost, almost all of these, because I take that back because there was the one church, they were getting a warning, but it was a warning about the persecution to come. They were doing things right, but they were being warned that, hey, stay with it, stay faithful unto death and I'll give thee a crown of life. So they, you know, there's obviously a message that was written to them that was important as well. But, um, let's see what, you know, when the Bible says here, thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead. So what I take this to mean, and what I think this is saying is that, you know, there's churches that can start off great, doing a lot of work for the Lord. They can build a great church, doing, doing real, legitimate, good work. And your name is known. You've got this name, you've got this reputation, man, this is a thriving church. This church is great. They're alive. They're doing all those great works. He says, you've got this name that you live, but you're dead. Now, I don't think this is like a phony church that has this name, or it's all just fake that they live and dead because they wouldn't have even had the candlestick to begin with in God's eyes. So this is a church that was a legitimate church. They were on fire for the Lord. They were doing a lot of great works, but then they start to, you know, kind of peter out and fizzle out. And I think that you see this happen. This is, this is kind of church life cycles. Unfortunately, we see a lot of, of even, you know, IFB churches, I visited a lot of churches before I became a pastor. And even now, you know, if I'm ever, if I'm ever away for some reason, and I'm not preaching somewhere, which is very rare, you know, if it's a Sunday or Wednesday, I'm still going to find my way into church. And this is, you know, this is part of the reason why I even ever wanted to become a pastor. It's not because I had an ambition to be a pastor and wanted to be in front of everyone and just have so much to say. And I just wanted, you know, that wasn't it at all. My desire came from what I perceived to be a great need because prior to even endeavoring to become a pastor, you know, traveling, family vacations, things like that, going and visiting churches and honestly trying to find the best churches I can attend in different areas, looking at their websites, making phone calls, doing whatever I need to do to see, okay, what churches seem to be like that have the best reputation, have the best name that seemed to be doing the most for the Lord. That's where I want to go when I'm on vacation, when I'm traveling, when I'm going here, I want to go to the best church that I can go to. And when I would go to different areas and I'd visit different churches, time after time, you know what I would see? I would see churches that apparently they had a name that they lived, but they were dead. They were dead. The stuff that they had listed, they were doing, they're not doing anymore. You know, there's the churches, you know, even churches that I've loved, you come in and when you continue to see the same faces over and over again, hey, I love seeing the same faces. Don't get me wrong. I love people staying faithful to church and coming to church week after week, year after year, decade after decade. But when you got zero growth, there's no new faces in that people are just getting older and there's less being done. You know, the church may have been great at one point, you know, it's dying off. And I started to see just witnesses in my own anecdotal experiences of just traveling, going to church to church. And I was like, this is sad. Someone, something needs to change here. People need to, you know, I'm not, I'm the type of person that says, I don't like, I don't like complaining. And I don't like complaining about situations. And you know what, instead of complaining about something, why don't you do something about it? If you see there's a problem, if you see there's a need, don't just complain about it. Do something about it. I try to teach my kids at home, you know, when you're walking by the house and you see just some, you know, some mess or something. It's don't, don't just walk by it or say, Oh, someone did it. You know, just clean it, take care of it, do it. Right. Don't do anyone any good to just complain. Oh, well, this is out. Just take care of it and do it. Right. And that's just kind of the attitude. I think it's the right attitude to have in general, but that's attitude I had with the churches. It's, you know, I could sit here and complain all day. Oh man, there's no good churches. Oh man, what's going on here? Well, how about, how about you step up and do something about it? Right. How about you decide? Well, you know what, if there's a problem here, why don't, why don't you do, if you think you can do a better job, then why don't you get up and do it? And it wasn't even so, it's not even so much of a, you know, loftiness thinking that, Oh man, I'm so much better than this person or that person. But let's face it. When you go into churches and there's almost no scripture being taught and there's nothing going on and there's no soul winning and it's just a little social club, you know what you, you can easily spot that pretty quickly. It has nothing to do with you lifting yourself up when you're not being fed. When you go into church, week after week after week, and there's just nothing going on. It's a dying church. You can spot that and it's easy to see. What I'm saying is that instead of complaining about it, you need to step up and look at what the Bible says the qualifications are for a Bishop and say, can I do this? Maybe you're not qualified right now, but are you disqualified? If you're not disqualified, maybe it's something to work for and work towards. And I know it's a lot of people that listen to sermons online and stuff like that. And they live in areas where I say, you know what, there's no good churches. Well, what are you going to do about it? Are you willing to make a sacrifice? How about you, you know, here's the Christian thing. The Christian thing is to be a minister to other people. You know, they call it the ministry. Instead of complaining, going, no one's ministering to me, you know, Jesus Christ came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. Instead of saying, well, where is, where is the person that's going to, I need somebody here. Why don't you pick up, move, go get trained somewhere, go get taught, and then go back. And then you be a minister to other people. Why don't you do that instead of complaining? Well, there's no good churches in my area. Do something about it. Yeah. You know what? It requires sacrifice. It requires a lot of sacrifice, but do you read your Bible? Do you read all the admonitions of Jesus Christ himself saying, you know what, you count the cost. You're going to build a great tower. You got to sit down. You got to count the cost. This is what's going to happen. When people came to Jesus and said, Hey Lord, we'll follow you whithersoever thou go. So he goes, you know what? The birds of the air have nests. The foxes have dens, but the son of man has not where to lay his head. He always telling them, it's not going to be easy. It's not going to be comfortable. It's going to require sacrifice. But if you want to follow me, this is what you need to expect. There's work involved. And one of the problems with churches is getting too comfortable, getting too comfortable. The flesh can start to take over. Where at one point, man, you're on fire, man, we've got a lot of things going on. We've got soul winning on Monday. We've got soul winning on Thursday. We got soul winning on Saturday. We got soul winning on Sunday. We're doing all this work. We're getting people baptized. We're getting people saved. We're discipling people, teaching people. But after a while, you know what? Different things come up, different things that happen. You kind of fall out. You're still coming to church. You're still reading your Bible, but you start slowing down on the works. And when that starts to infect a church, you know, the death is a real slow death. It doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen, you know, I mean, there's different ways churches guide, but in this sense, this isn't from a church split. This isn't from the, you know, this is just the starting to lose anything of value in God's eyes to where you get to the point to where God's looking at your church and going like, you know, these other churches, I can at least say, hey, at least you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans. But this church, I don't even know where you stand on anything. You're not really teaching anything. You're not really doing anything. You're spinning your wheels. And you know what? You'd lived at one point, but you know what? Now you are dead. Now you're dead. We got to learn not to live in the past. Not to think of, well, I did do this. Man, you should have seen all this whole thing I used to do. I want to see all the soul when you're doing, you know, Batman back, I did this work for, what are you doing right now? We got to live in the present and live for the future, not the immediate future on this earth. We're talking about the new Jerusalem and in the heavenly things. And that's where the focus is, which keeps us occupied in doing things in the present. Past is done. Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth into those things which are before, we press for the mark or the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus. That's what we need to be focused on. And as a church, that's what we need to be focused on. We don't want to have a name like Sardis. Oh man, the strong old Baptist church. And how do you get a name? You start doing the work and you start going around and preaching good doctrine and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ just as the apostles when they're going into new areas. These that have turned the world upside down have come hither also. Why? Because they're doing a lot of work. They're men of activity. They're doing a great work for the Lord and it garners attention. And you know what? These people start to get a reputation. Apostle Paul got a reputation. Even the devils knew there's Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are ye? Or he had a good reputation of someone who's doing the work for the Lord. And that's how hopefully our church, you know, our church is still in its infancy. We're only two years old, but that's the name. That's the reputation we're trying to garner is a strong old Baptist church, man. That's a solid church. That's a good church. That's a church that's doing a lot of work for the Lord. But God forbid we get to the point where we become this church that we have a name that we live in where people still revere a strong old Baptist church, but we're actually dead. This is the case of Sardis. And this is the case, unfortunately, with many Baptist churches across the United States. They were great churches, they had lots of programs, lots of activity. And now what are they doing? And I'm not plugged in to all the different circles and know what's going on. So I don't have any churches to call out specifically. Because I don't I don't have all that knowledge. I'm not going to do that. But you know what I'm talking about. And you know, when you go and visit places, and you can walk in and tell, man, at one point, they had a lot of things going on. And now there's nothing. Verse number two, Revelation chapter three says, Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. For I have not found thy works perfect before God. So there's a it's basically a church on life support. He said, you've got a little bit going on here. But they're ready to die. I mean, it's it's you've got the the heart monitor, but he's like, it's ready to go. Because those those few people maybe that are remaining in the church that still want to serve the Lord, you know, they're going to flatline. And you're going to be left with nobody doing the works. Again, that's the situation that you have in some churches here. And again, the church is being judged as a whole, right? All of these churches have to have some people in it that are, you know, righteous and doing right. And that's going to be the only way God's still considering them to be a church. So let's look at verse number three here. Because they're they're they're being told to strengthen those things. You know what, you've got a little bit the things that remain don't lose those things. reinforce those things, do those and do those more, right, the things that remain, strengthen them. Focus on those things and expand those things. The good things need to be strengthened because they're about to die verse number three, remember, therefore, how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on me as a thief. And thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon me. Now, two points in this verse, and it's going to kind of take up the rest of the sermon almost. The first one, though, turn if you want to Luke chapter eight, Luke chapter eight. In Revelation 33, one of the things I find interesting, and I've seen this in the scripture before, which is in this passage in Luke eight, he says, Remember, therefore, how thou hast received and heard. It's he doesn't say what you've received and heard, but how, how you've received and heard. Look at Luke eight, verse 16, we're going to see a very similar wording here, same wording, no man when he had lighted a candle, cover it with a vessel or put it under a bed, but set it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light. For nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest, neither anything hid that shall not be known and come abroad. Take heed, therefore, how ye hear, for whosoever hath to him shall be given and whosoever hath not from him shall be taken, even that which he seemeth to have. And just this, these few verses actually fit in perfectly with this church at Sardis. And he says to take heed how you hear. How do you hear? Because, and he clarifies for whosoever hath to him shall be given, whosoever hath not from him shall be taken, even that which he seemeth to have. And preceding that he's talking about your light not being hid. The way that God wants things to work and has designed things to work in the way that churches ought to operate is through preaching of God's Word and not hiding the truth or hiding the light and making that light to shine. And when you hear and you're a forgetful hearer, like the Bible talks about, and not a doer of the work, see, you're going to go off and you're not going and you're just going to keep doing the same old things. So how you hear, he's saying, when you've been given a lot, a lot's going to be expected of you, a lot's going to be required of you. And you know what, a lot's going to be given. So when you hear a lot and you're doing something with what you're hearing, you'll receive a lot. But when you hear and you're not doing anything, whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away, even that which he seemeth to have. The Bible says here, back to Revelation chapter 3, actually you could stay in Luke, flip over to Matthew 24. Because he's warning the church, remember how thou hast received and heard. Remember what made your name great. Remember how you heard in the past. Remember what you did with what you heard and you let your light to shine. Because now obviously they're not letting their light shine. Their light's being hidden under a bushel. And he says in Revelation 3, I'll reread this, remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. And he ties in this not receiving and not hearing and with watching. Now we're going to look at multiple passages that talk about these admonitions for believers and non-believers alike to watch. And depending on the context of the passage, it's going to determine whether or not he's talking to a believer or an unbeliever in regards to watching. I think that we see both throughout scripture. So as we look at these, keep that in mind. I may not specifically mention in each specific case which one he's referring to or if it applies to both. In some cases, it could apply to both just a little bit differently. So for the believer, we need to watch and be ready and prepare ourselves for the Lord. We need to be doing the work of the Lord. And when it comes to the Christian life, the Bible teaches that if you're not gathering, you're scattering. There's no neutrality in the Christian life. And the church at Sardis is a perfect example of that. If you're just doing nothing, right? If we just had nothing going on, we just met here for church, we could all just gather together, talk to each other, leave, come back next week. God's like, I'm going to take away your candlestick. You're just not even going to be seen as a church anymore. You need to be zealous. You need to repent. You need to do the works. All the churches are being judged on the works. If you just think, well, I'm just going to be neutral. It's not really going to do anything. Doing anything, doing nothing is bad for you. It's not good. It's going to bring chastisement and punishment from the Lord because He has called us. He has saved us and created us unto good works. That's what we're supposed to do. It's great that you're saved. It's great that you've received the free gift that God paid for, that He's purchased your soul and you belong to Him and you received that freely by His grace. Amen and amen. You're saved. Nothing could ever change that, but you know what? He didn't just save you for you to do nothing, for you to sit on your rear for these churches just to be social clubs and to do nothing and to not really follow the pattern that Jesus set forth. That's not why He saved you. Now, whatever you do with your gift, that's up to you, but don't expect to be receiving anything. In fact, the things that you think that you have, the Bible says they're going to be taken away from you. And the person who has, because they're doing, because they're working, he's going to be given even more. And that's the way things are going to work at the judgment seat of Christ. And there's a difference, by the way, between the judgment seat of Christ and the great white throne judgment. There's two different events that happen. The great white throne judgment is what you see in Revelation 21, or excuse me, chapter 20, where you've got the dead standing before God and they're judged for their works. And since they didn't have Jesus Christ, they're all fall short and they all get cast into the lake of fire. That's the great white throne judgment. But the judgment seat of Christ is different. The judgment seat of Christ is what happens after the first resurrection when Jesus Christ comes back and the believers are raptured up. It's not the just and the unjust. It's just the resurrection of the just that stand before Jesus Christ and he gives rewards based on the works that you've done. So I just want to bring that up so that there's clarity there so you understand that not, you know, be careful to look at the words and the events and put it all in order because the judgment seat of Christ is not the same as the great white throne judgment. And those are just words that are used because that's what it says in scripture to give, to add that description. But when it comes to the judgment seat of Christ where we're going to, all of us here, we're saved, born again, when Jesus comes back, whenever that may be, and we end up standing before the throne of Jesus Christ, he's going to start giving out rewards and the works that you've done in this world, they're going to be tried. And he's going to look and see, well, what did you do? Here are your works. And, you know, and it gives us description of fire, you know, consuming up your works and whatever you did that was valuable, that was eternal value, it's going to abide the fire, it's going to be there. It's like, all right, here we go. Here's all the works you did in your life. He's going to burn up the chaff, you're going to burn up the useless works that you did that just, who cares, right? He's going to burn up how much money you earned because that doesn't matter at all to God. He didn't care how much money you've made, that stuff. And, you know, you worked for it, right? And it's no one saying that work is bad. You work an honest job, you do honest work, okay, great. But that's not going to earn your rewards in heaven. So the service that you did for the Lord, though, the time that you spend and the energy you put forth, that's going to be where your reward comes in. But when you hide your light, when you hide it under a bushel and you stop preaching and you stop preaching and you stop doing the work of the Lord, you're not earning yourself any rewards. And you want to be careful because of what the warning that the Bible gives over and over and over again. And we're going to see a little bit of this and I need to hurry up actually a little bit now. I've gotten a little long winded at the beginning here. But when we look at the kingdom of God, especially in the parables that Jesus Christ gives in the Gospels, He talks about, you know, giving, you're going to be, you know, you've been faithful in a few things, you'll be rule over many things. And people who have put forth their work, God rewards you for what you've done. But then He gives the example of people who, you know what, you weren't doing anything. And the things that you think you have that little, oh, man, there's one thing, you know what, that's given to someone else because you just didn't do anything. And the things that you think you've accumulated, you haven't. So you got to be looking out for that. So that's what we see on the believer side. I think the unbelievers, you know, they need to watch for Christ's return. There's so many people that think, oh, you know, because one is it's mostly because they have a false idea of what the gospel is. They don't even know how to be saved. So they think that like, well, I'm going to live my life now because I want to party and I want to live this way and I want to fornicate. I just want to do all these fun things. And then later on, when I get older, you know, I'll turn to God, I'll turn to religion and I'll straighten things up and everything will be great. You know what? They need to watch because you don't know when Jesus Christ is coming back. First of all, you can't just put off getting right with God. And the reason why they say is because they don't even understand how salvation works. They think that they're going to have to live right in order to be saved. Like, okay, I'll just turn to religion then after I've done all this stuff. It's a Catholic mentality of, I'm going to go off and live like hell during the week and then I'm just going to go and save my penance and eat a cracker and then everything's all good. And then I could go back and just repeat this cycle, thinking that somehow they're getting saved every week or whatever. And it's just total nonsense. But let's read this. And here's the thing, and I'm going to try to go through these passages a little bit quicker when we actually start reading them. But I think one of the things that throws people off is when the Bible uses the word servants. You can't always assume that when the Bible says, you know, when I came to my servants and my servants were doing this or not doing this or whatever, it doesn't always mean that a servant is someone who's saved. It may or may not mean that. It depends on the context. You've got to read the whole thing and see what are the ramifications, what's going on. If it's talking about people going to hell, a servant going to hell, that's not talking about a saved person because saved people are saved from hell. They're saved from the penalty of sin, which is hell. And I'm not even going to get off onto that nonsense that people believe in this millennial exclusion garbage, that Baptist purgatory, that somehow if you're not living good enough, you're going to go to hell for a thousand years or in a millennial reign of Christ. It's just total nonsense from unsaved heretics that are trying to blaspheme salvation and say that it's faith and works to keep you out of hell. Don't have time to get into that. But let's go back to Matthew 24. So servants, while I was explaining, you could look, and this is also one of the ways that's used in the Bible, the whole nation of Israel as a whole, as a group, were God's servants. They were God's chosen people to be the lighthouse to a dark world. That was the people that God chose to deliver his word to. That was the nation that God chose where he was going to have his name placed, and they had the tabernacle and the temple, and that was the people he was using to do his work. God loves all people, and for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, right? But he was using, and he still does today, he uses specific nations and groups of people to do his work. So when you have this group of people, the nation of Israel, they were his servants, but you know what? Many of them were unsaved, and many of his servants, because that's one way of using that word, they were his servants, but they completely were derelict in their duty. They were removed. They were outcasts. They were denied. They were rejected, and many of them ended up going to hell, but they're still his servants because they were called to do a specific work, and they weren't even saved, but God wanted them to be saved. So keep that in mind as we go through this. So just don't let, you know, just make sure you don't limit yourself in understanding of thinking, well, it just said servants, so they must be saved. There were wicked people that were called God's servants because they were used of God to bring forth judgment on people. There were wicked kings that were used, and they were being called God's servant because they carried out the action that God wanted to have done. They were serving him even if they didn't realize it. Matthew 24, look at verse number 42. Of course, we know Matthew 24 is the whole chapter about end time starts off where the disciples ask Jesus, you know, hey, when shall these things come and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the world and things like that. So he goes through all this stuff and explains all the things that are happening, and then in verses 40 and 41, he's talking about basically the rapture is going to be two in one field, one shall be taken, the other left, and then verse 42, he says, watch therefore, for you know not what hour your Lord doth come. So you say watch. Watch. Watch for the rapture. Watch for Jesus Christ's return. Watch because you don't know when he's coming back. And it's watch. It's be ready, right? You're watching. You're gonna be ready. You're looking out for this to come. He says in verse 43, but know this, that if the Goodman of the house had known and what watch the thief would come, he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. It makes perfect sense. If you knew, but let's say someone's plotting and planning to come and burglarize your house and steal a bunch of stuff and they know you're going on vacation in three weeks and, oh man, this is the perfect time. I'm going to go in there. And you knew that someone was planning to do that. Wouldn't you then prepare and be like, you know what? We're going to postpone our vacation. We're going to stay home. We're going to, you know, so that way he doesn't come in and steal all your stuff. You would do, you would make preparation against that, right? That's what it's all the saying here that, you know what? If he would have known that and he would make sure therefore, so in the same manner, be ye also ready for in such an hour as you think not the son of man coming. You know what? Jesus Christ is coming back and people need to be ready and people need to be aware. He's coming back and you don't know when he's coming back. So just as, you know, a bird who's going to come in, if you want to make sure your house is ready, you're going to, you're going to arm the house. You're going to make sure you got locks. You might have some dogs or what, you know, all these preventative measures to make sure that you're ready if someone were to come. Well, we need to be ready because we don't know exactly when Jesus Christ is coming back. So we need to just make sure that we're ready. Unsafe people need to make sure that they're ready by getting saved, by knowing the Lord, by putting their faith in Jesus Christ. Hey, that's one way to make sure that you're ready when Jesus comes back is putting your faith in him and say, I'm a child of God. And that way you're going to, you're going to like his returning. You're going to, you're going to welcome that return. And you're not going to be one of the people who are fearful when he comes back. And we're trying to hide because the wrath of the lamb has come and trying to hide in the caves and the dens and going, Oh man, what did we do? What have we gotten ourselves into? Because now there's judgment coming. Watch, be ready. And even us as believers, as Christian, we need to be ready too, because as in earlier in Matthew 24, there's a lot of persecution coming. There's going to be a lot of tribulation. There's going to be a lot of things going on. There's going to be false Christs that arise. There's going to be wars and rumors. There's going to be all kinds of troubles and tribulations that are going to happen. We need to be ready for that too. You're not going to be very effective as a servant or as a workman for the Lord. If you let all of this stuff happen and come on you unawares. Or you're so caught up in the world that Jesus Christ comes back and it's like, what have you done? What have you been doing with your time? Verse 45, who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household to give them meat and dew season? Blessed is that servant whom is Lord when he cometh shall find so doing. You're going to receive a blessing. You're doing what you're supposed to be doing. You're the servant. God gave me a job. He's coming back. I need to make sure I'm doing my work. When he comes back, everything needs to be right. Verily I say unto you, verse 47, that he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, my Lord, delayeth his coming and shall begin to smite his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunken, the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites there should be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Flip over just one page or you know Matthew 25. You might not even have to turn a page or look at verse number five. We see another parable here. The Bible reads, while the bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept and at midnight there was a cry made behold the bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps and this is of course there's 10 virgins five are wise and five are foolish right and again just because you see the word virgin doesn't mean that they're all representative of saved people. The reason why it's using virgins is because you're supposed to be a virgin when you get married and they're waiting for a bridegroom. I mean that's why the story has them as virgins because that's just the way things are supposed to be. People are supposed to be pure on their wedding day. So what we see here though is that five of them half of them have oil and half of them don't and oil all throughout scripture is represented as symbolic of having the Holy Spirit. So if you're saved you got the Spirit. Half of them were saved half of them were unsaved. But let's keep reading here he says then all those virgins arose verse seven and trimmed their lamps and the foolish said and the wise give us of your oil for our lamps are gone out but the wise answered saying not so lest there be not enough for us and you but go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves and while they went to buy the bridegroom came and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage and the door was shut afterward came also the other virgin saying Lord Lord open to us but he answered and said verily I say unto you I know you not watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh now obviously you know most of these are going to be talking about Jesus Christ's return the Son of Man coming but how about your own meeting with the Son of Man you know the day of your own death you don't know when that's going to be either and these these foolish virgins they weren't ready they didn't have the Holy Spirit and then you know what they missed their opportunity and the door was shut and they they cried Lord Lord open to us I don't know who you are I know you not depart from me you workers of iniquity I'm going to read for you from turn if you would to luke 12 I'm going to read from mark 13 for you mark 13 verse 33 says take ye heed watch and pray for you know not when the time is for the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey you left his house and gave authority to his servants and every man his work and commanded the porter to watch watch ye therefore for ye know not when the master of the house cometh at even or at midnight or the cock crowing or in the morning less coming suddenly find you sleeping and what I say unto you I say unto all watch luke 12 we're start reading in verse number 31 but why are we going over all these verses because Jesus warned Sardis to watch he said if you don't watch I'm going to come on you as a thief and he's talking to the church and he's not the the watching this isn't talking about the rapture with them that church came and when at this point when Jesus is given these letters and given his instruction he knew you know when he was on this earth he may not have known the day and the hour the father only knew but Jesus has all wisdom and knowledge now he's not he hasn't constrained himself like he did when he was made flesh and came to this earth and grew in wisdom and in stature and learned things and you know when he became a human being and put some type of a limitation on on his knowledge which is a miraculous thing in and of itself don't know how that worked don't need to know how that worked but he was able to do it but at this point he knows he knows when he's coming back okay and at this point even in revelation he knew so when he's warning him to watch how about he's warning him to watch so that their candlestick doesn't get removed luke 12 verse number 31 the bible reads but rather seek ye the kingdom of god and all these things shall be added unto you fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom sell that you have and give alms provide yourselves bags which wax not old a treasure in the heavens which faileth not where no thief approaches neither moth corrupted for where your treasure is there where your heart be also and this is you know i started reading back here in the context before we continue because this is the attitude that we need to have as a church we need to be minded of heavenly things and if that's what where your heart is and that's where your mind is that's going to motivate your actions to be doing the right things and as a church we're going to be collectively doing the things that that are that are heaven bound that are heavenly value and that's where your treasure is going to be it's not going to be caught up in the distractions on this earth that's going to eat up all of your time so that you're not doing the works that we're supposed to be doing well let's keep reading here verse number 35 let your loins be girded about and your lights burning and ye yourselves like on the men that wait for their lord so we're being instructed you need to be like people who are waiting for the lord to come back i mean think about it if you're out you're on you're at work you're on the job and your boss says hey i need you to get this done i'm running to the store i'm running here i'm going to do some errands and i'm coming back right i need you to get this done you know he's coming back right and you know there's some employees if the boss said that to them they're going to be like cool man he's not here and they're going to kick back and they're going to take a nap and they're going to kind of wander around and be lazy and slothful and do nothing and they're going to think it's great because the boss isn't there looking over their shoulders you know man he's not here i could do whatever i want boss man isn't here and he comes back and they're picking up the tools or whatever and they're trying to to to do some work real quick but you know what he's going to see the job isn't done right you're going to be angry with those servants you need to be the faithful servant that you know what you've been given the job boss left and you're going to do it and you're going to be faithful and you're going to keep doing that work so when he comes back and be like here you go sir job's done i also did this that's how we need to be blood and you know he says it'd be blessed so look at um verse 36 again and ye yourselves liken the men that wait for their lord when he will return from the wedding that when he come in the nocket they may open unto him immediately blessed are those servants whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching verily i say unto you that he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meet and will come forth and serve them and that's a great promise right there you know you being served you're going to be a servant and you're going to be a blessed servant who's going to do and work and and and you know you've been told to do a job and you do it for the lord you will be blessed when he comes back and he'll actually this blows my mind every time i read it just because i mean who who are we the lord of lord and lords and king of kings is who we work for and we are servants to him rightfully so but to even read this where he says that he's going to gird himself and make them to sit down and meet and come forth and serve them i mean that's that's a blessing beyond words to be in in jesus's presence and have him do that it's kind of like when what he did with the disciples when he washed their feet i mean that's like i'm kind of like peter he's like look what do you you can't wash my feet you know like what are you thinking what are you doing because we we are we are the servants but but this is how the bible says you're going to be blessed if you do your job faithfully then then you will be very blessed like verse number 38 and if you shall come in the second watch or come in the third watch and find them so blessed are those servants you know boss shows up unexpectedly hey man you're going to be blessed he sees you you're faithful you keep still doing the same job you're still doing the work great didn't even expect it oh i didn't know you're coming back now you came back a little bit earlier than i thought doesn't matter because you're doing the work that you said to be doing you get blessed for that um verse number 39 and this know that if the good men of the house had known what hour the thief would come he would have watched and not have suffered his house to be broken through be therefore ready also for the son of man cometh in an hour when you think not then peter said unto him lord speak us of this parable unto us or even to all and the lord said who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his lord shall make rule over his household to give them their portion of meat in due season blessed is that servant whom is lord when he cometh shall find so doing of a truth i say unto you that he will make him rule over all that he hath but and if that servant say in his heart my lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to beat the men servants and maidens and to eat and drink to be drunken the lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour when he is not aware and will cut him in sunder and will point him his portion with the unbelievers and that servant which knew his lord's will and prepared not himself neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes but he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes for whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required and whom men have committed much of him will they ask the more you basically have two choices as a believer as a christian you can be blessed and do the work that god has for you to do be faithful do it serve him you'll receive rewards you'll receive blessings it's going to be great or you can do nothing you could live like the world you open this in and you know what then you're going to be chastised you're going to be beaten with stripes the bible says and the more that you know and the more it's been given to you and the more opportunity that you have the worse the beating is going to be from god i don't know about you i'd rather be blessed than be beat and you know this isn't that hard of a concept it's it's the way that things work and should work in the home right when the kids are doing as they're told they're doing as they're instructed they're doing the chores they're doing the school whatever you have for them to do you bless them right things go well you do i mean everything's great everyone's happy they're going to be blessed but when they're not doing what they're told to do they're going to be punished and it's not going to be happy and it's not going to be fun and it's you know there's chastisement and the more opportunity that they have and the more you give them and then you know the easier maybe their job is because hey you've got this extra tool like your job is to wash the dishes and we actually have a dishwasher that makes it even worse when you don't do the job because it's already so stinking easy you've been given so much the work is so much less and that's all i'm asking you to do and you don't do that it's going to be even worse god has given us a lot of opportunity everybody here i don't know anyone's particular situation necessarily fully you are all blessed financially because you live in this country and god has blessed this country and there's opportunity for everybody to work everybody to to be able to have their needs met easily easily don't confuse having your needs met easily with having the newest iphone and having all these other gadgets and and toys and whatever that stuff doesn't matter and that's just a sign of the prosperity that that god has blessed this nation with anyways of just being able to have this stuff that can just that's just meaningless and useless you have been given a lot you have the ability to get all of the word of god all of it for a dollar or for free you come here i mean we've got we've got bookshelf full we distribute freely i mean that's that's great you know people in history it's not like the new testament churches back in jesus day we're just like we've got all these bibles that we're giving up it physically just just wasn't it wasn't capable of doing that now maybe they were able to do it with some some some pieces or frag you know just but the cost of of the the paper and you know just everything to be produced was way higher than it is now i mean we've got mass production we've got these paper mills and and you know just just everything is so much the cost is just brought down so low so low you have tons of resources at your fingertips to to receive knowledge to receive wisdom to go out and not even really be persecuted we it's it's legal to go out and practice your religion and preach the gospel of jesus christ you have so much opportunity what are you doing with it you can receive the blessings which are great there's so many blessings to receive of the lord and and all that he's promised us but if you're not doing anything with it and god says you've got all this is wrong you've got all this i've given you so much and you're doing nothing with it be prepared to be beaten with many stripes i'm not coming up with this stuff i'm warning just like we read in revelation three the warning coming unto sardis look you guys are about to die what he's saying and your candlestick's going to be removed you need to get things right you used to do work what are you doing now and let's apply that personally right i think i mean our church is doing great we're doing a lot of works it's not like we're in the same condition at stardis but we don't want to we don't want to be there ever i don't ever want this church to be in that condition i can't control what future generations might end up doing but you know what we control we do how we raise our children how the works that we do and are we allowing ourselves to backslide and to not do the work when you've been given so much anyways you know the the warning isn't just to a church as a whole warning is also the individual you know you've been given so much i don't want to be beaten with many stripes and you're like what have you done just like remember when jesus came to the fig tree he's hungry and he's like you know what i want a fig and like there's a fig tree right there i could see it he comes up to it it's like what good are you representative of the believer who's supposed to be bringing forth fruit right we're supposed to be god's trees god's plant you know we're supposed to be here to reproduce and to bring forth fruit and if god's coming to you looking for something going hey where's the fruit what are you doing why cumber is it the ground let's pluck it out let's pluck it out let's get another tree it's going to actually do something you know jesus cursed that that fig tree and it withered and died and i and and i i you know i wholeheartedly believe this because we and that's kind of a whole another sermon but god is able to extinguish your life he holds the breath your breath in his your life he holds the breath your breath in his hand and we need to remember that we have great opportunity to earn rewards that are going to last you forever a lifetime is short eternity is forever you could you could work to earn rewards here in this lifetime earn all the money you can try to make your life as comfortable as possible my friend that's a really short period of time right now it may be all you know but we need to be eternity minded because eternity is a long long long time the older that you get the more you realize man time goes by fast fast i mean it's when you're younger you feel like you got all the time in the world but the older that you get it's like 10 years ago 20 i was explaining to someone i was talking spanish and i was trying you know i was telling them you're like well where did you learn spanish i was speaking in spanish where do you learn spanish well in high school and i was just started thinking i'm like that was a long time ago where did i learn i learned in high school a long time ago long time ago you don't even realize it's just like yeah i remember i remember being in class i remember learning the things i learned in spanish i remember so much about that it was a long time ago now it really was it's not really that long it happens boom boom boom boom boom you want to work and work and work and work and work just to be like ah i've got this great house i've torn down my silo and i've got a new one built and i've got all my goods and all my food and i've got my prepper bunker you know it's it's buried and i've got ventilation i've got a water supply and i've got livestock and i've got crops and man i am set you give me doomsday here i come and god's gonna be like you fool your soul's gonna be required of you today and then who's thing what what good is all that gonna do and when god comes back to judge you think there's any doomsday prepper that's going to be able to abide god's judgment and god's wrath i mean how foolish is the thought of man thinking that they can survive what god is going to bring on them sorry ain't gonna happen i'm all for being personally responsible and and you know independent in the sense of of being able to care for yourself and you know be prepared against trouble and and you know be able to have something stored away for a rainy day or some hard times don't get me wrong okay but there's plenty of people out there get consumed and making all their plans and all their bug outs and all their bug outs and all their you know look that's not what god wants you busy doing there's way more important work for you to do than to worry about where you're gonna bug out when jesus comes back i don't want to bug out when jesus comes back i want to be right here working going here i am lord yes i made it to the end i'm here first thessalonians chapter five verse number one the bible reads but of the times and the seasons brethren you have no need that i write unto you for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the lord so cometh as a thief in the night for when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape but ye brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief year all the children of light and the children of the day we are not of the night nor of darkness therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober for they that sleep sleep in the night and they that be drunken are drunken in the night but let us who are of the day be sober putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for an helmet the hope is salvation for god has not appointed us to wrath but obtain salvation by our lord jesus christ who died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him watching here so you know what you're a child of light don't be like the children of darkness you know those that do the evil thing they do it at night children of night the people are drunken they're drunken at night you're a children of a day walk as a children of light walk in a day walk word you know with your light shining so that way you will be ready see what does it mean to watch i mean what like just do what you're supposed to be doing that's good enough for you to be watching because the watching is when you know what you're supposed to be doing you're doing what you're supposed to be doing you'll be ready when the lord returns that's it and if you're unsaved get saved that's how you need to get ready after you started to get ready and then revelation three of the last verse is verse number four he says thou hast a few names even in sardus which have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy and honestly i think there is a lot of people who weren't even saved in this church i mean there's enough people to call the church there's still a congregation of believers but um this statement saying that they're going to walk with me in white you know all believers are going to be clothed in white because it's jesus christ blood that sanctifies you and cleanses you from all sin it's not your own righteous our own righteousness we're not worthy we're not worthy of being with the lord and walking with the lord just because of our works the only way that we could be worthy is through what he did for us and receiving that and having those clean garments could only be cleaned through the righteousness of jesus christ so unfortunately i mean when churches start to die and they're not doing anything you're going to end up just having churches where you're going to end up a lot of unsaved people because there's nothing being taught there's no lights being shined and things are getting ready to die you still got those few in there that are they're saved they're trying to do the works great but this is this is a wake-up call for that church in sardus and i know i said i might be a little bit shorter but that's okay because the food's not here just yet it should be here real soon the food is is coming it was supposed to be ready at noon so it's noon right now stick around after the service we're going to sing one more song before dismiss but stick around for lunch like i said you don't have to be sticking around for the baby shower or anything like that you don't even have to be going out so when everybody's invited everybody's welcome to have some food it'll be here shortly men as soon as we close and our service out i'm going to ask you please to start we're going to have the chairs as much as possible the tables on that side of the main pillar here and we'll set up the chairs around the tables on both sides and let's not have them all joined in one but we're going to have all individual tables and then we after lunch we can move them together if the ladies want to have one big table but let's borrow that word of prayer dear heavenly father lord we thank you so much for this church and for everyone here dear god i pray you please help us to continue to learn all the different admonitions and warnings as well as the the good things that we need to be doing as a church lord help us to be able to be pleasing in your sight and to be able to just do the work that you have for us to do as your servants lord help us all to learn and understand what that work is and to be able to not just know what it is but but to go forth and do it lord we we want to serve you that's what we're here for we love you and it's in jesus christ name we pray these things amen