Hey everybody, welcome.

So good to see you.

You're good?

Alright, welcome those watching online.

We're going to be in Revelation chapter 3.

Please open your Bibles.

Verse 14.

We're going to be right there.

Revelation chapter 3.

Please open your Bible.

It's going to be a lot.

I'm going to kind of have a lot of information for us today.

I'm going to underline.

Pastor Rory always says, you know...

Taking notes is a good thing for you because you're going to remember when you take notes.

So here we go.

My second job after moving to the U.S.

was working at a hazardous waste treatment plant.

And this time my wife was already way ahead in making sure that our family was eating healthy, trying to remove chemicals, bad chemicals from our diet.

And when I started working at this facility, I saw waste that was coming from food facilities.

or food manufacturers and I was kind of shocked that some of these food waste had toxic label on it.

I'm like, why is there a toxic label on this food that's coming from this company?

And so I'd go home and just tell my wife, hey, let's avoid this food, let's avoid food from this company.

And the shocking thing is that some of us will give our kids food that have red dyes, you know, red 40.

Yellow five, and then we sit at the table and pray, Lord Jesus, we thank you for our healthy food.

Pray that you bless this yellow dye and blue that will nourish our bodies, you know.

You give your kid bad food.

Is that a weird prayer to pray?

That's shocking, isn't it, right?

You can't eat bad food and ask God to bless it.

I don't know, that's what I think anyway.

But today, This weekend and the next four weeks, next weekend is Mother's Day, but after that we're going to look at four truths in this series, four shocking truths that will help us be in awe of what God is doing today as we get ready.

You know the Bible tells us that Jesus is coming soon.

We don't know when.

You know the apostles thought Jesus was coming back at that time.

So it's been almost 2,000 years, but we want to be ready.

So here we go.

Revelation chapter 3, verse 14.

Are you ready?

Are you ready?

All right, here we go.

To the angel of the church at Laodicea, right?

The amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of creation of God says this, I know your deeds that you're neither hot, cold, nor hot.

I wish that you are cold or hot.

So because you're lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

Because you say, I am rich.

and have become wealthy and have no need for anything, and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked, I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may become rich, and white garments, so that you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed, and eye salve to apply to your eyes, so that you may see.

Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline.

Therefore, be zealous and repent.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

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

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

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

Amen?

All right, so what is Revelation?

The book of Revelation.

There's so many new people who come to church and in order to understand the book of Revelation that you're going to be listening to for the next four weeks is you've got to understand what the book is.

It is apocalyptic literature genre due to the extensive use of symbolism to communicate God's vision.

It is apocalyptic literature, okay?

The author, The author is John.

The Apostle John, that tradition says it is the Apostle John.

Lots of people like Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, all these early church fathers attribute this book to the Apostle John.

The date is about 90s AD, and this was a time of intense persecution for the church.

Even though it was confined in Rome around in the 60s AD under Emperor Domitian, Things got really, really intense.

In fact, during this time, John is exiled to the island of Patmos.

And in chapter 2 of Revelation, there is one antipas there, a believer who is put to death for refusing to deny his faith.

And the letter warns the churches of the incoming persecution that some, some of the Christians at the time, are going to be called upon to sacrifice their lives for Jesus.

Who is the audience of this letter?

The letter is written to seven churches as in Asia.

How do we know this?

Because in Revelation chapter 1 verse 4 says this, John, as in I John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia.

This book is not written to us.

It's written to who?

To the seven churches.

You've got to get that, okay?

It is not written to us.

It's written to them, but it's written for us.

Two different things.

Are you with me?

Are you with me?

All right, it's written to the seven churches.

All right, so many believed, many Christians, even Paul, when he writes the book of Thessalonians, many of them believed that they were in the last days because of the persecution.

All right, and so this has gone on for 2,000 years.

So today we look at the message to the seventh church, the church of Laodicea, and this message...

I've shown you some ruins.

That is some of the ruins that we have today for that church.

It existed.

It's not some weird church in the sky, okay?

That church, the town actually existed.

That's the town of Laodicea, okay?

The church was probably founded by a guy named Epaphras, whom Paul mentions in Colossians chapter 4.

If you want to know who started that church, his name is Epaphras, okay?

So, we're going to set this up.

And I want you all to put this picture in your head, okay?

Verse 20, okay?

Revelations 3.

Behold, Jesus says, I stand at the door and knock.

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

Okay, so when someone comes to your house and they knock at the door, where are they?

Outside.

Thank you.

You guys are doing good.

So, what do you think, where do you think Jesus is right now?

Nope.

It says, I stand at the door and knock.

That means, listen carefully, this church had kicked Jesus out of their church.

He was standing at the door and knocking.

This is his church.

This is the picture.

that I want you to have as we go through this passage.

Jesus says, I am outside and I am knocking.

So as we go through the passage, I want you to have that picture in your mind.

Are you with me?

All right, here we go.

So number one, what are the judgments that Jesus gives this church?

Number one, the church of Laodicea is a useless church.

Talk about shocking, right?

Here we go, okay?

He says, I know your deeds that you neither cold nor hot, and I wish that you are cold or hot.

So because you're lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

Strong words, right?

This verse has been misinterpreted by so many people, thinking that Jesus wants you to either be a Christian or not.

That's not what this verse is about.

He's talking to the church.

It makes God look like he's happy if you're opposing to him or loving him.

That's not what this is about.

John uses a topography of that area to show the Laodiceans what God thinks of their deeds.

Listen to this.

Robert H.

Mauss says this.

The contrast is between the hot medicinal waters of Hierapolis, a city six miles north, famous for its hot springs, and the cold, pure waters of Colossae.

So the church of Laodicea was providing neither the nourishment...

for the spiritually weary, nor healing for the spiritually weak.

Are you with me?

What the hot springs for the hot springs, okay, they were medicinal.

And then the cold springs were for refreshment.

And when they piped the water down to Laodicea, it was very lukewarm and full of minerals.

And so the Laodiceans knew exactly what Jesus would have been talking about.

God is saying, I know your deeds, they are ineffective, they're useless.

I cannot use you to effect change in a broken world.

God says, I will vomit you.

Vomiting is very violent behavior, isn't it?

Right?

You watch the cat vomit?

Not so good.

Okay?

Prefer dog.

Cat, no.

Anyway, so, two.

Okay, so number one is Laodicea was a useless church.

Two, Laodicea is a delusional church.

It says this, verse 17, the smackdown continues.

Because you say I am rich.

and have become wealthy and have no need for anything, and you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

Now, pay attention to the economic condition and see if you can see the symbolism Jesus uses.

Laodicea was a very wealthy commercial city located on trade routes.

They prided itself in three things, financial wealth, extensive textile industry, special black raven wool that was very, very beautiful, and a popular eye salve that was exported around the world.

They developed an ophthalmological center that used the eye salve to help cure people's eye infections because there was a lot of desert storms, and that would cause a problem for their eyes.

And so these guys right here in Laodicea had a special eye salve they used to put on people's to cure their infections as well.

There were banks.

There was a medical school.

I mean, it was amazing.

The wealth definitely impacted the church.

How do we know?

Because Jesus used the symbolism to show their spiritual state.

Did you catch it?

The three things, financial wealth, textiles, and eye salve.

And Jesus says, you think you're rich, but you're poor.

Okay, I need you guys.

You know how I do this, all right?

You think you're rich, but you're...

You think you're well-dressed, but you're naked.

You think you can see, but you're blind.

The church was delusional, and God was looking at their heart.

So what's the verdict?

Verse 16, so because you're lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

Shocking.

The church was in such bad shape that Don Carson, who's a theologian, writes that God sees this church as nauseating and revolting and therefore will be rejected.

This must have been shocking for the church at Laodicea.

Was God rejecting them?

It was his church.

It was his church.

I thought I'd use a modern imagery.

You know, I got this from a PhD therapist.

For those of you who've played sports, you know what happens when you injure yourself, right?

You're running, you pull a sprain, you get a sprain.

What do they do?

You put what?

You put ice, right?

When you get a sprain.

Why?

Cold treatment is the best application because ice application during immediate treatment reduces the cell's metabolism, therefore decreasing the need for oxygen to the air.

injured area.

This treatment reduces secondary injuries that may follow.

The result is reduced swelling and pain.

But if you have chronic pain and muscle tightness, what do you do?

You use what?

Heat, because it improves blood flow and loosens tissue up.

In either one of these scenarios, if your physical therapist came with a lukewarm treatment, what would you do?

Yeah, I wouldn't be there.

That's, you would fire them, right?

Because that's not treatment for anything that's hurting, whether you've got a sprain or you've got chronic problems.

What's the conclusion here?

The church of Laodicea was useless in effectively bringing the gospel of Jesus to its community.

There was no fervor or compulsion to live out the Christian faith.

Are you with me?

All right?

So why does Jesus label this church as useless?

Remember, this is a time of persecution, right?

He writes other letters to other churches, but listen, it doesn't look like there was a lot of persecution going on for this church, okay?

They were living the high life.

We're moving on up to the east side, to a deluxe apartment in the sky.

They were living the high life, right?

If you know that song, you know, right?

The other churches got a compliment.

For example, the church of...

Pokemon.

Jesus says, I know that you live in the city where Satan has his throne, yet you've remained loyal to me.

You refuse to deny me even when Antipas, my faithful witness, was martyred among there in Satan's city.

So they get a compliment, all of them, the six of them.

But for Laodicea, God skips any nice things and he goes for the jugular.

Why?

Why does he do that?

Number one, if you're taking notes, the church you pursued affluence.

The church pursued affluence.

The Laodicean church claimed spiritual wealth because of the physical or claimed spiritual health because of the physical wealth they had attained.

Because you say, Jesus says, I am rich and I have and have become wealthy and have no need for anything.

Do you see that?

Are you with me?

How did these Christians become wealthy?

Well, it is known in the New Testament history that to be able to trade in those places, that's where all these 6-6 things happen when people think, oh, you know, 6-6-6, this is where it comes from, right?

You had to, in order to trade and to become financially well during this time where there was persecution, you had to participate in idol worship or one would not be able to trade.

This was part of the persecution.

So to be able to trade at such high levels, you must have belonged to a trade union, regularly had a meal at the temple to honor the deity of your trade.

One also had to pay their trade union dues so that they could be allowed to trade.

So members of this church were probably going to the temple and getting involved in idol worship to get wealthy.

It seemed that their mission was to get rich, and we are not like that, right?

So, one, the church pursued affluence.

Two, the church lived in delusion.

Because they had become wealthy, they had become self-sufficient.

The people belonging to this church were in need of nothing and did not realize that they had become spiritually lukewarm.

They had become like the culture around them.

They thought because, well, we're not being persecuted enough, that they were spiritually alive.

They were living.

in a delusion.

Affluence had led to self-sufficiency.

And Jackie Bell says this, self-sufficiency causes spiritual insensitivity towards God.

I want to say that again.

Self-sufficiency causes spiritual insensitivity towards God.

It will make you out of touch with your spiritual condition.

See, in the Old Testament, the Israelites had done the exact something and God calls him out.

He tells Abed Hosea, Israel boasts, I am rich.

I have made a fortune all by myself.

No one has caught me cheating.

My record is spotless.

So just like the Israelites, the Laodicean church thought they were spiritually rich.

Affluence had become their security, and they had become lukewarm in the process.

They had become like the pagan culture around them.

And Jesus tells them, guys, you're poor, you're naked, you're blind, and you're not aware of your condition.

Do you see the delusion here?

Do you see the delusion?

Isn't it awesome we're not like this?

Right?

Does physical prosperity mean a healthy spiritual condition?

So the result of all this was their witness was compromised.

The church of Laodicea was not able to be a true witness and representative of Jesus in their culture.

Now watch this.

This is amazing what John does here.

To the angel of the church of Laodicea write, the amen, the faithful and true witness.

Guys, this is amazing.

Bible notes out there.

Listen.

This applies.

play on words.

It's a play on words.

The comparison is Jesus is telling them, I am the true witness and you're not.

Your behavior is compromised.

You do not represent me.

Your deeds are disgusting.

You are ineffective and you're useless to me.

I am going to vomit you out.

And vomiting is what?

It's a metaphor for what?

Rejection.

Shocking.

Right?

This is serious stuff, isn't it?

In fact, the reprimand is you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

Poor, spiritually bankrupt, even though physically rich.

Blind, in spiritual darkness, even though they had eyesalve and a medical school.

Naked, a symbol of shame and judgment, even though they had the best textile industry.

Do you see?

Why Jesus was outside the door knocking?

Do you see why Jesus was outside the door knocking?

So, church in California.

I want to bring it home, okay?

Let's see.

So, California is a major center of wealth.

America is the richest country in the world.

California state is a...

fifth or fourth largest economy in the world.

If you want a sign, look at the hundreds of billions of dollars being investigated for fraud, okay?

Just saying, okay?

We are very rich.

California has the highest number of billionaires and millionaires in the country.

The economy is driven by tech industry.

One and all is in Southern California in fairly, fairly bougie areas, okay?

Beverly Hills around the corner, Silicon Valley.

And while I know things are tight right now, I know young adults, you're trying to find jobs and things might be difficult, but people come to 1&All, you have a car, you have a place to sleep, you have good water, you can eat food, you're not dying, right?

Right?

You're not dying, okay?

Average medium income at 1&All on all our campuses is about $100,000, okay?

Okay, so...

Number one, California is a major center of wealth.

Number two, California is an entertainment and leisure center.

There are amazing beaches and mountains and desert around us.

You have Hollywood, you have sports stadiums, Disneyland resorts, mountain resorts, movie and TV stations, bougie, all lovely.

But how is the church doing?

Colin Hansen writes about a conversation he had with a retired pastor.

And this is a long question.

quote, but I want you to really listen.

This is important.

American Christians earn and spend more money now than they did in the mid-20th century.

Affluence creates more opportunities for activities outside the church.

Sunday has become a day for travel, leisure, and sport rather than a day for rest and regular worship.

Regular attendance has been revised down from...

four times a month to three, and now to between once or twice a month, which Berner actually agrees with.

Thanks to affluence, too many other engaging activities be for our attention.

Youth travel sports, tick, tick, tick, okay?

Youth travel sports wouldn't be possible apart from affluence.

Pursuing college athletic scholarships keeps increasing numbers of American families away from church.

They have drifted from one kind of worship to another, from the worship of God to the vainglory of children's games.

Rarely do the decisions to participate start with that awareness.

But the cultural currents take over, and families drift away from church and apart from one another as they are pulled in competing directions down the interstate highways into chain hotels.

How did you feel when I read that?

Very sad, right?

This is true of one and all.

We can tell by attendance.

When there are big games, attendance dips.

It just dips, we know.

And some of you, I get to know some of your kids, your kids, and I won't see them for a month, and I'll ask, where did you go?

Where have you been here?

Oh, I was playing soccer on Sundays.

Your kids missed church for a month because of soccer.

Think about that for a moment.

See, affluence can create distraction from God's things, God's voice, and God's mission.

I'm going to read that again.

Affluence can create a distraction from God's things, God's voice, and God's mission.

Now, this one is touchy.

I love you.

If you struggle with this, at One World Church, we love you.

And there are many people here who've gone through this, who've shown that we love them.

Okay?

So do not judge.

Listen.

This is something that you need to learn about.

California is a leader in progressive war culture which has affected the church.

The western world has been bombarded by the fight for what it means to be human and what identity and sexuality ought to be.

So this fight has gone to schools, it has been fought in courts, in colleges, in universities, but now it's being fought in the church.

Recently there's been an increasing number of churches supporting homosexuality, critical race theory, and progressive Christianity.

Denominations have split up because of this issue.

They're creating creeds that have inclusive pronouns.

A few months ago, I got a call from a teacher close by who was going to lose her job because she didn't want to take gender-affirming training.

Here, right here, in our backyard.

According to Pew Research, 60% of Americans have no qualms about homosexuality, including Christians.

This is a big deal.

It is our idol of the day and has made its way into the church.

Recently, the Church of England elected an archbishop, a woman archbishop who supports homosexuality.

Okay, let me tell you this.

England, the nation of England, they are less than...

50% of people who call themselves Christians.

So has the Church of England lost its witness?

Has the Church of England lost its witness?

Yes, it has.

Can one be a Christian and queer?

Can one be a Christian and practice homosexuality and transgenderism?

Where does this theology come from?

I want to take you on a journey.

and I need you to pay attention right here because this is important.

In the 1960s, there was a sexual revolution.

In his book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, Carl Truman writes that what marks the modern sexual revolution is the normalization of homosexuality, pornography, and sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman.

It came out to be what Philip Riff calls the psychological man whose identity was an inward quest for personal psychological happiness.

Now, Jean-Jacques, I've butchered that name, Rousseau is a French philosopher who was involved in the French Revolution.

And he regarded, I love French history, it's amazing.

He regarded the community as a hindrance to the full expression of the authentic self.

Like Karl Marx, He saw the community not only oppressive, not only repressive, but oppressive, and in absolute need of a revolution.

Carl Truman writes, The oppressive nature of the bourgeois society is built on the repressive sexual codes that maintain the patriarchal nuclear family as a norm.

In other words, if you're in a normal nuclear family, that is oppressive.

That is the view, okay?

And so this worldview has been infused in progressive theology that supports homosexuality and transgenderism.

Brandon Robertson is a very prominent queer pastor who is very brilliant.

Do not read his stuff because you will get confused, okay?

He is, I'm not kidding, okay?

He is the most outspoken of the queer pastors.

He writes, in defining queer, he writes, The second usage of Queer means to disrupt arbitrary norms, making spaces for diverse and often marginalized expressions and perspectives to flourish.

To be queer means to resist and rupture the repression of our true selves and forces that demand that we conform to others' ideas of who we should be.

It is a radical declaration of our commitment to being who God created us instead of who.

Society, community, or religion tells us to be.

In other words, I am going to be myself, and the church cannot tell me what I need to be.

Are you with me?

That's why, because it comes from that worldview that anything that is traditional is bad.

Okay, listen to this hijack.

He says to be queer is holy.

It is an affirmation that God does not make mistakes and that queer is a reformation.

Reflection of God's creativity.

Elsewhere, he says, whenever Jesus calls for repentance, he says, Well, repentance means to expand your mind.

And then he writes, to follow Jesus is to refuse to be conformed to this world.

And he quotes Romans 12 too.

Shocking.

So for him, he writes, he says this, in this way, to be queer is to be aligned with the way of Jesus.

Do you see?

Do you see the progression here?

Did you see the progression?

Right?

It starts out with society is bad.

We've got to fight against it.

Now Christianity is bad.

We've got to fight against it.

And they hijack Christianity.

Do you see how this does not arise from the Bible?

This, my friends, is what affluence can do.

It leads you to delusion.

It leads you to delusion.

My friends, if I was in India or in Africa or in China where Christians are being persecuted, they wouldn't have a problem with the way the Bible defines sexuality.

They wouldn't have a problem with that.

So, is their view narrow?

Because if it is, if you say it is, then you're going down a path you shouldn't be going down.

You're saying they don't understand the Bible.

They don't have time for this.

A growing number of Christians in the West think this way.

I love you guys.

I love you.

I love you.

I love you.

But Jesus has strong words for you.

You do not know that you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

This is not the gospel of Jesus.

The gospel is not about you.

The gospel is about how to make you feel good.

If the gospel doesn't contradict you, You have a problem.

So Jesus is standing outside the door and he's knocking.

2 Timothy says this, but mark this, there will be terrible times in the last days.

People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive.

disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, having a form of godliness but denying its power, have nothing to do with his people.

Verse 7, always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

These guys have PhDs.

They are men of deprived minds who, as far as the truth is concerned, are rejected.

God rejects them.

So, what is the first shocking truth that we learn?

A lukewarm church is one that has lost its witness because it looks like the world.

God will reject you.

Or, we can make it personal.

A lukewarm Christian.

is one who's lost his or her witness because they look like the world.

God will reject you.

God will reject you.

So, guys, I'm going to jump.

What does Jesus offer the church of Laodicea?

Here we go.

He says in verse 18, I advise you to buy from me.

Gold refined by fire, so that you may become rich, and white garments, so that you may have clothed, so that you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed.

An eye salve to apply to your eyes, so that you may see.

So Jesus says, buy from me, one, gold refined by fire, which signifies true wealth, which She's the patient, endurance.

refined by suffering for Christ.

There is, there should be a cost.

Church, listen, there should be a cost to following Jesus.

There should be a cost to following Jesus in your life.

Two, buy from me white garments.

Signify, these signify righteousness.

Through the book of Revelation, you're going to, if you read it, you're going to see these saints dressed in white.

This depicts faithful Christians who are wearing God's righteousness, given to them by putting their faith in Jesus.

Number three, buy from me, I solve, which signifies God's wisdom by giving up your own wisdom and reasoning, which is blindness to the things of God.

So buy those things from him.

But how does God expect these guys to buy from him when he says they're poor and miserable and wretched?

It is an exchange.

It is, you call it barter trade, barter trade, barter, barter trade.

Yeah, exchanging.

Okay, how do you say, I'll pronounce that, right?

So self-sufficiency for true spiritual wealth.

Shame and judgment for Christ's righteousness.

Spiritual blindness for God's wisdom and discernment.

In other words, he says, be zealous and repent.

This is what...

they needed.

I love this.

John writes, I know it's a lot, guys.

I know it's a lot.

I'm just throwing it at you, but this is good, okay?

Here we go.

Revelation 1.

John writes, this is awesome.

I love this when I see this.

When I turned to see who was speaking to me, this is John seeing the vision, I saw seven gold lampstands, and standing in the middle of the lampstands was someone like the son of man.

He was wearing a long robe with a what?

Ooh, across his chest.

And his head and his hair were like what?

Like wool, as white as snow.

And his eyes were like flames of fire.

What they need is with Jesus.

Isn't that awesome?

He has the true riches.

He has the clothing.

And he's got the eyes that see that they want to see with.

And why is Jesus stern with this church?

Verse 19 of chapter 3, those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline.

Oh, he loves them.

God disciplines us because he loves us.

He pursues us even when we shut him out.

He still pursues us.

He stands at the door and he knocks.

pursuing you.

So, we bring this all together, okay?

So, the first shocking truth is a lukewarm church is one that has lost its witness because it looks like the world.

God will reject you, or we made it personal.

A lukewarm Christian is one that has lost his or her witness because they look like the world.

God will reject you.

I was listening to this amazing apologist.

His name is Glenn Shriverner, and he said this, and I want to read it.

One of the huge issues for evangelism in the West is that my life looks indistinguishable from my non-Christian friends.

It's almost identical because we are desperate to blend in, because blending in is the goal.

We will not talk about Jesus.

See, if I talk about Jesus, I'm going to inject in this awkward kind of difference.

But in, he says, he continues, but in the New Testament, my life was meant to look so weird that my friend is like, okay, you are really, really weird.

Say something.

Say something.

Relive this for me.

Why are you like this?

My Christian witness relieves the tension rather than introduces the tension.

So two questions that I have for my church family.

If Jesus was to write a letter to you today, what would it say?

Be honest.

Be honest with yourself.

Are you refreshing water?

Are you bring refreshment to the weary.

to the lost people?

Are you like a hot spring that brings healing to the broken, the hurting, the rejected people?

Is that you?

Is that you?

Is that you?

Number two, is Jesus standing outside the door or is he inside your life?

Do you live with Jesus?

outside the door or is he inside communing and dining with you every day?

When you came in, I think you should have received one of these.

And I thought I'll just make something for you guys to help you through this week.

It says, I choose to open the door of my heart to fellowship with Jesus.

Carry this in your wallet, in your purse, wherever it is to remind you.

I choose to relinquish control of my life to the Holy Spirit.

I am nothing without Him.

I choose to die to myself and my desires so Christ can be made alive with me.

I choose to be a witness for God, bring the light and healing of God to anyone who is in darkness and is broken through my actions.

God has called us to bring healing to our communities.

We can't do that if we are chasing after the things of this world.

You, if you're lukewarm, God, shocking, will spit you out.

And that is a shocking truth.

Amen?

But you can ask Jesus to come into your life.

sit and dine with you so that you can be the witness of Jesus in this broken world.

Amen?

Lord Jesus, we are grateful for your word.

It's hard, but I thank you for everything that you've done today to help us see and how we can learn to live in these last days that we have.

Help us to follow you with all our heart.

soul, mind, and strength.

In Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen.