Lead Worship

John became instantly fearful the instant he arose to the thrown room of God. Just like Isaiah, he must have had this “Uh oh” moment when you realize you probably could have done a lot of things differently. In an instant, all life-priorities became clear.

But John was waiting for the redemption of man. The voice told him that he was going to see what was going to happen to the end of the church age. He saw undescribable sights. He barely has the descriptive ability to write what he saw and what he wrote will never do justice to the actual presence.

After a moment in awe and wonder, a legal document was confronted to John. It was a will of execution. It had to be opened for the redemption of man to be complete. This was it. Finally the full redemption of man! John had been waiting for this moment but never imagined that it would unfold right before his eyes. Finally, the faith of the saints would be made complete! Finally, the believers will be with their creator! Finally, the bride will be with her groom! “O death where is thy sting? O grave where is your victory?”…

“Who will open this will?” asks a strong, stout angel. “Who will begin the ending of human history?” What about Abraham? Jacob? Moses? Noah? Isaiah?

No one could open that will…

“What!?!” says John. “Someone has to open that scroll!” John knew that if this will was not executed that mankind will not be redeemed. Was that it? John was to see the ending of the human history to find out that human history is nothing more than some enigma? This can’t be! “Please someone must start that execution!”

At that moment, a baby lamb, still bleeding at its neck, walks forward. God hands this lamb, our Savior, the will. He will redeem us!

At first John began to hear the 24 elders singing, “You are worthy to take the scroll.” Then John hears “The Lamb is worthy-The Lamb who was killed.”

“Where were these voices coming from?” asks John. He began to look around and thousands of millions of angels began to sing out, “The Lamb is worthy-The Lamb who was Killed!”

This was followed by the entire creation joining in. Every woman, child, man, animal, bird of the air, lion of the field, fish of the sea cried out “Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the One sititing on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever!”

Brief History of Laodicea:

The city of Laodicea was very very wealthy. In 17ad they had an earthquake that leveled the city. They refused financial assistance from other cities to help rebuild it because of their great wealth. They made their wealth from two different avenues. The first is from expensive eye ointment. Apparently, they made homeopathic ointment to treat different problems with eyes. The second form of wealth building came from glossy black wool. This was a very fine and expensive fabric.

Laodicea was rich with material wealth but God asks them to buy gold from Him. Because where their treasure was, there was their heart.

Laodicea was made wealthy due to glossy black wool. They had clothing but God called them necked because they were not pure on the inside.

Laodicea was wealthy because of their eye ointments yet God called them blind.

[Enter your church name here] is wealthy because of our knowledge and education. But are we ignorant because we have little wisdom or knowledge of God (Prov. 1:7)?

[Enter your church name here] is wealthy because of our hard work in the work place. But are we lazy because we contribute little to God’s agenda?

[Enter your church name here] is entertained with all the social networking we do (facebook, myspace, twitter, texting, emailing, blogging)? But are we accomplishing nothing because we have done little social networking with God (ie. prayer)?

It is easier to lost faith during times of success than during times of persecution. It is easier to reach a prostitute or murderer, than to reach a moral, religious person.

The Church of Sardis

A brief history of Sardis
Sardis was once a vital and thriving town for the entire nation. It had 5 different roads (or interstates) that ran through the town so it was very important politically, militarily, and finacially. Because of the roads, most of the goods in the nation came through Sardis. Sardis was a great place to open your own business. Also, when nations would attack this west Asia nation, they would follow these roads. This meant that the nation had to keep Sardis well fortified.

But as time went on, the less important Sardis  became. Wealth remained but this once-important little town became very unimportant during the Roman empire. And this town and the church remained on their past glory. They were so proud of the past that they wanted to live in it. They never wanted to change.

“The problem with the Christians at Sardis was not one of false doctrine like the believers at Thyatira, or opposition and persecution like the believers at Smyrna. Instead, the Sardis church was living on its past reputation. There loyalty and service to Christ was all in the past. They were nothing more than a corpse that looked alive from the outside but within was filled with hypocracy and iniquity”

Vrs. 1 says “You have a reputation for being alive but you are dead.”

“You know how to impress others but not God.”

“You have a great Sunday Show, but what about My commission?”

“Your reputation is based on what you were in the past. But what are you right now?”

Its human nature to look back at the success that we have in the past. I have learned that if you repeat what was successful in the past, very rarely will it be successful again. Why? Because if we knew what to do that would make God bless what we are doing, then we wouldn’t need Him to tell us what to do. The past ended yesterday. What are we doing individually to make sure we have a great reputation in the future?

Usually it seems that depression hits us around the beginning of winter. The nights are longer and you stay cooped up inside substituting a social life with a television. Here recently I have had more people come to me and descuss a season of depression that they are in. So how does depression start, and how can I make it end? I am not going to cover any major areas of issues that might be causing depression. You might have a serious case. But for the rest of us who are just going through a season, here’s what you should know.

Imagine your body working like a car. A car has an engine, fuel system, heating and cooling system, hydrolic system, and an electrical system (and a few others that I am missing). Hydrolics do not go into the fuel system or the engine, and the cooling system does not go into the electrical system. Each system remains totally seperate but affects all other systems of the car.

All people have 5 basic needs:

1. Physical - You must take care of your body. Exercise (I know that makes me a hypocrite), eating right, staying STRESS FREE is very very important to your overall health.
2. Emotional - This side is usually what is looked at in depression. The emotions also includes long-term and short-term planning, having intelligent conversations (seldom happens with stay-at-home-mothers), learning, and your imagination. Have you ever given your imagination over to God?
3. Spiritual - We need God to help us with all 5 of our needs and not just this one. This one would include encouragement, respect, and being loved, and a hope for the future.
4. Financial - Try living without this one and you will soon see the huge necessity of it.
5. Social - You need friends.

What happens when depression begins is one of these needs begins to become weak. This happens to all of us. Something happens and you have to spend a ton of cash which weakens your financial needs. This can begin the depression. Next that follows is that all the other needs begins to concentrate and collide on the one need that needs help. This is when depression begins to spiral.

Financial burdens cause stress, which hurts the physical body and can make it hard to retain your focus (emotions). It can make you feel like a weak Christian and is very discouraging (spiritual). Plus it limits your social activities. All these things start this depression roller-coaster. And the next thing you know is you are “not talking” to someone because they didn’t shake your hand at church.

To break this cycle, always remember be proactive in your life. Find out which area is weak and plan to get out of it. Don’t let the rest of your needs take the toll just because one needs help. Continue to eat right, use some godly imagination, encourage others, hang out with some friends, or help out somewhere for a couple hours to increase your income for a few weeks. But with all this, depend on God and He will guide you through this.

Background History of Ephesus:

Ephesus was a very rich and affluent town. It is the closest town to Patmon where John was writing Revelation. In Ephesus, they worshipped Artemis who was the goddess of fertility and financial blessing. Thousands of people who lived hundreds of miles away came to worship Artemis every year. And the people of Ephesus built a huge temple for her. In fact, this temple took over 120 years to build and became one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Ephesis’ whole financial structure was based around this goddess. So when Paul comes to town converting people away from Artemis, the rest of the town begins to riot (Acts 19).

The Christians of Ephesus definitely suffered for what they believed.

But Christ had one complaint. They left their first love. The church was doing all the right things. They were undergoing persecution for the things they were doing. But they got so wrapped up in doing the right thing that they forgot about to whom they were doing them for.

Ephesus, like many churches today, got their eyes off of the Provider and onto the possessions. You need music ministries, children’s ministries, and education ministries in today’s churches. But we must keep first things first. It becomes easy for today’s church leaders to worry more about the growth of these ministries more than the growth of the people in them.

Yes we need a pastor, but more than that, we need a Savior. Keep your eyes on the Provider.