A church rises or falls on its view of Jesus.

It reminds us that our life is not in a reputation like Sardis. It's it's not in our strength like Philadelphia wished it had, and it's not in our resources like Laodicea trusted it. Our life is in Christ. His body broken for us and his blood shed for us. That's why we celebrate the table, to remind us of these things. So musicians, why don't you come on up and get in place? And and they're gonna lead us in a final song this morning. And I'm gonna invite people that you come up the the table, the middle aisle, and as they lead us in a final song, once they begin singing, then people can come up to the table [01:14:38] (39 seconds)  #LifeInChrist

You are so dependent upon yourself that you have become useless to me, And it's so nauseating to me that you're so self sufficient dependent upon yourself that I want to just it's nauseating. I wanna spit you out. It's really what Jesus is saying there because he's saying, your your total self sufficiency is nauseating in my sight. That is a lesson for us today, is it not? We want to be self sufficient, and we wanna raise our kids to be self sufficient. And there's nothing wrong with that to a degree. However, however, we have to always remember that everything we do is dependent upon Christ. Bible study, dependent upon Christ. Right? Anything we do is gotta be dependent upon Christ. [00:53:48] (47 seconds)  #DependOnChrist

Leading in your family is dependent upon Christ. Being a good parent, dependent upon Christ. Being a good student, being a good child, dependent upon Christ. All this has to be is that we're going back to Christ. Going back to Christ, not depending on ourselves because the moment we depend on ourselves is the moment we begin to fail. And this is their problem. Jesus says, you become useless to me when you become so dependent upon yourself. Yes. He's God's given them the resources. God's given them these things. Use them. Use the talents. Use the abilities. Use the resources. You know what? Use it for the glory of God and understand where they actually come from. It's easy when we have some success in something to think that it was only because of us and not because of all the other things God did to get us to that point. [00:54:47] (47 seconds)  #GiftsForGodsGlory

You know, I worked hard. I've had these conversations with people, by the way. Say, yeah. I've worked hard. Yes. You have. Yes. You have. If you don't understand the hours I put in, you don't understand the education I've put into this to get me to the point where I'm at, you're right. You're right. You're right. Then my question is, how did you get those opportunities? How did you get accepted at that school? How did well, my grades. Okay. How did you have the cognitive ability to apply yourself in that way? How did you have the skill set to do that? Ultimately, it comes from God, and he gets the glory. Now he's given us resources to use for his glory. So use them. That's our responsibility, but not in the dependence on ourselves and for our own glory, but only for the glory of Jesus Christ. So these are the three dangers. Right? So we have Sardis, artificial life. [00:55:41] (46 seconds)  #GraceBehindSuccess

Are we leaning on a reputation of former things? Are we trusting in a decision from years ago for our hope, but there's been no fruit or gross sins? You see, that's that reputation of life. It's like, oh, yeah. They they went to church and, oh, yeah, they had a history of going to church or they had a history of this or that or they're really nice people. They have a good reputation for being a a kind person, a a generous person, someone who will help people, warm, [00:38:27] (31 seconds)  #BeyondReputation

He assures this weak but faithful church that Christ has ultimate authority over salvation and opportunity. He says, no one's gonna shut this door. He says, I hold the keys to it. He says, you you're a small church and you think that maybe the the the the local, you know, government has the keys to this, but no. I have the keys to this. You think that local ordinances may say that you can't do this. No. No. I'm the one who has the keys to tell you when this opportunity is done or not. I am the ultimate authority. And then Laodicea, the description of Jesus, he's the amen, the faithful, the true witness, the beginning [01:03:54] (41 seconds)  #GospelTruth

ruler of God's creation, the beginning of God's creation. So he confronts the self deceived church with the reality that Jesus alone speaks the true evaluation of their condition. He says, I am the faithful, the true witness. I know truth, and I know the truth about you here. I am the beginning of this. So don't you see? You see how the a cure for the church is to see Jesus clearly. He says, these are the words you need to and he he tells a little bit about himself, and then it's it's tied directly to what they were dealing with. [01:04:36] (34 seconds)  #TrustThePerfectSavior

What that means is that he is the one that's in charge. He is the one that gets all the glory. He's the one that gets all the honor, and he tells us what to do. And so we we study his word, and we follow it. And the reason why is because he provided for us what we cannot provide for ourselves. Our sin separated us from God. But yet he, Jesus, became man, lived a sinless life, and then died because the wages of sin is death. And he died in our place. And if we believe in him and we trust in him, we have eternal life. That's the gospel. [01:24:50] (42 seconds)  #WatchfulnessWarning