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Good morning. It’s good to have everybody here this morning. Um, so we are officially on the last sermon of this series titled Church The Right and the Wrong Way. Um, Nathaniel will be back with us next week, and we’re going to be starting a new advent series. Um, being that it is Christmas time, but just kind of a quick recap for those of you, if you haven’t been here, if you’re just joining us for the first time, um, and those of us that have been here that have forgotten, I know that never happens. When you hear a sermon, you remember it forever. So but just in case you did forget, just kind of a recap of where we’ve been. We’ve been looking at the seven churches in revelation. We’ve been through six of them. Today we’re going to look at the final one. But just to kind of help get you a visual of where we’re talking about what we’re talking about here, this is a map, and it’s kind of hard to read from there. I’ll blow it up here in a second. So it’ll be a little bit easier. But it’s basically what’s modern day Turkey is where we’re talking about where these seven churches are, each of those purple dots on the screen there are going to represent one of the churches. And here I don’t know if you can still read it. It’s still kind of a little blurry, but the first one we looked at was Ephesus, which is the one right here on the coast.
And we looked at Ephesus and the fact that it was a prominent church. It was powerful, very influential in the city. But they had left their first love, and they had made church just kind of a routine, something they did. Mom and dad did it, so we’ll do it. And they just kind of went on with how things were supposed to go, and they forgot the reason it was that they did those things. And the the new relationship with Christ kind of lost its flavor, and it just kind of mellowed out. That same week, we also looked at Sardis, which is in the middle. It’s the one in the exact middle. And it says that they were known for being alive, but were really dead. They were doing these good things for Christ. But again, they forgot their motives for doing those things. And while they appeared to be an active church, they were really just a bunch of people that were Um, following the motions, going through a bunch of traditions and rituals, but not really knowing the reason why they were doing those things. The next week we looked at the two compromising churches, which are the ones in the farthest north. There you have Pergamum is the highest one, and Thyatira and they were they allowed false teachers to come into their presence and teach false doctrine.
They were teachers that would take a little bit of Christianity and mix it in with some other stuff, and as a result they got way off track. I mean, it says of Thyatira that they allowed the woman, the prophetess Jezebel, and she’s led the the people of the church into immorality as a result of sacrificing their doctrine. They had definitely never heard Galatians one eight where Paul says, but if we or even an angel from heaven should preach to you the gospel, a gospel that is contrary to what we preach to you, he is to be accursed. They definitely didn’t take heed to that. They definitely didn’t listen. And when they heard a false doctrine that sounded pretty good. They followed it and as a result had a lot of problems because of it. Last week we looked at the only two churches of the seven that didn’t receive any condemnation. They are Smyrna, which is on the coast just above Ephesus there, and Philadelphia, which is on the right there, kind of in the middle of those three. And they received no condemnation. They’re actually the only churches that received only praise in these letters. And they were. Smyrna was challenged to remain faithful because trying times were coming, and Philadelphia was allowed a pass or a pardon from those trying times because they had remained faithful. And we saw that in our lives today as a church, trying times may come and they may not.
But the key is that whether times are good or times are bad, we remain faithful to God and not forget who he is and what he’s done for us, and that our faith would continue to grow. And this week we are going to look at the last church. It’s the farthest south. There it is, Laodicea. And its problem was that it is lukewarm. Last week we looked at the only two churches that didn’t receive any rebuke. And this week we look at the only church that receives nothing but rebuke. We’ll go ahead and jump into the text. It says in revelation 314 through 22, the angel of the church in Laodicea write the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God says this I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. Because you say I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing. And you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I advise to you, 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 that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed.
And eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see those whom I love. I reprove and discipline. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door. Knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. Let’s pray real quick. God, I just pray for the rest of the service today, Lord, that you would make your word come alive to us, that we would see what areas of our life we need to improvement in, and what areas of life we need to change to be more like you and to be more glorifying to you. God. Just be with us now. Bless our time. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Um, so I didn’t start this week I had previously. So I’m just going to kind of backtrack a little bit. One of the things I love about our church, um, is the fact that even though we aren’t that big and we’re incredibly young, we are still missions minded and we helped support a team that went over to India. Usually it takes churches quite a few years before they can support missionaries or think about supporting missionaries, because they’re so focused on building up themselves as a church.
But we as a church are not only focused on building up Alpine Bible Church, but we’re focused on building up God’s Church in general. And we had people volunteer, um, ten days out of their life to fly across the country, to go somewhere where it wasn’t safe. And we here were dedicated in prayer. We raised money and funds and supplies for them to take over there. And that’s one thing that’s really awesome about our church that I think a lot of churches today are lacking. We tend to kind of build up walls and look at church as a fortress and don’t let anything in, but we never really go out. But here at Alpine Bible Church, we’re very good at reaching out to not just the world, but our community immediately and then onto the world. But so anyway, that was just a little freebie thrown in there. Back to the text here. Typically in all the other letters it starts with I know your deeds, and then goes on to say that they’ve been doing some good things and gives them a couple of pats on the back before it condemns them. But here at Laodicea, he does not do that. It just goes straight into you got problems. This is what would happen if Ephesus and Sardis wouldn’t have corrected their problems if they didn’t correct their problems.
This is the path that they were heading to. Laodicea is the last church in the list of the seven, and we haven’t necessarily been going in order of the seven, but this one is the last one, and it is the worst of the seven. But it says, I know your deeds, that you are neither hot nor cold. And the analogy here that he’s using is referring to the natural springs that were found all around the city of Laodicea. They they had hot springs and they had cold springs. Both served a specific purpose and both were used and both were. That’s what the area was known for. People would go to visit the hot springs for medicinal purposes. The cold springs were refreshing, and they were. They would also be used in medicine. So when he says that you’re neither hot nor cold, they’re saying, okay, well, we know hot springs are good and we know cold springs are good, but we’re neither of those things, he says, but you are lukewarm. So instantly the people in Laodicea say, okay, we have a problem because he says, we’re not hot, which is good, and we’re not cold, which is good too. So that means we’re in the middle, which is bad, because they knew that stagnant water typically carried bacteria. It wasn’t safe to drink, it wasn’t the best idea to use to bathe or anything like that.
It really served no purpose. And so they knew instantly when he says that you’re neither hot nor cold, but you’re lukewarm, they instantly were taken and knew of their surroundings and knew what he was talking about. Some of my favorite TV shows that are on today are the survival shows, um, like the Dual survival, where they have the the ex-military. I think he was like a marine or something. And then you have the, the naturalist who walks around in shorts and bare feet everywhere, like they’re in four feet of snow in Siberia, and he’s just trekking along in barefoot. And the other guy is like, goes crazy. And they’re always arguing, and he wants to do things one way. And the naturalist thinks they should do it another way. And it’s funny to watch and it’s entertaining. And then man versus wild with Bear Grylls and there’s the one that they have out that has the, the former military special forces and his wife, who’s like never been out of the city and they just dump them in the wilderness. And he teaches her how to survive. And I love watching the interaction and like how they have to survive. But one of the things that they’ll always tell you is never, ever drink the stagnant water. Any water that you find, boil it, bring it up to temperature to kill that bacteria. Um, because it’s dangerous for you. And it’s the same in our spiritual lives that we don’t want to become stagnant.
Because not only is it dangerous for us, but it’s dangerous for those around us because it’s contagious. If you become stagnant as a Christian in your walk, um, and somebody else around you kind of gets around you and starts to feel that same kind of way, and then they start to become stagnant and it kind of spreads. And just like the survival guides will tell you not to drink stagnant water, but to make sure that it’s clear of bacteria, we need to make sure that our spiritual lives don’t become stagnant, that we’re constantly moving. Um, if you have ever been in business or taken any business classes or anything you often hear, if you’re not growing, you’re dying. If your business isn’t growing, your business is dying. And that’s often the case with our spiritual lives. If we’re not continually pushing towards Christ, that’s really our only option is to continue to push towards him. And if we’re not doing that, then the only option is to become stagnant and to to become complacent. So what is it that caused Laodicea to become complacent? And what is it that can cause us to become complacent? Because if you know, okay, I need to make sure that I’m not becoming stagnant and complacent so that my faith and my Christian life is effective. But how do I prevent against that? And if you read in verse 17 it says that you say, I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing, and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, and our kids are having a really good time back there.
So, um, but he says that you think that you’re rich and you think that you have these things, but in reality it’s the opposite. And what had happened was the church in Laodicea began to equate their physical prosperity with spiritual prosperity. They thought, well, Physically we’re doing well. We have money. Our health is pretty good. So therefore God must love us, so we’re okay. And since that physical prosperity didn’t change, they started to take a step back. And well, God loves us because he’s blessing us. So I’m not going to worry about going to church. And they were still blessed. So okay, well, if I don’t have to go to church, then I definitely don’t have to be giving money to the church. Well, if I don’t have to be giving money then and they just kind of stopped doing everything. The church is in Ephesus and Sardis that had left their first love and, um, were dead. Were at least doing something. They might have been doing it out of the wrong motives, but they were at least doing something here in Laodicea. They weren’t even doing anything. They were just kind of laying on the couch.
Yeah. Church. Okay. Jesus. Yeah, whatever. Um, because they had this, this backwards mentality, um, the thought process is kind of if I’m physically blessed, then God loves me. If I’m able to earn physical blessing on my own, then I can earn God’s love. Therefore, if I can earn God’s love, I don’t need God for anything. I can do it all on my own. And if you think about that, that’s kind of scary and dangerous. When you when you follow that thought process out to the end, to think that you have no need for God is a very scary place to be. And that’s what had happened to the church here. They had just kind of walked to the wayside, just kind of let things go because they thought that they could earn God’s love, and that was good enough. But that’s not the way it works. Physical blessing doesn’t always equate to God’s loving you. God loves you regardless. He blesses some physically with financial and health prosperity. But some of us he chooses to bless with other circumstances. And you know, I know people that love Christ, that live paycheck to paycheck and sometimes don’t even make it that far. And I know people that love God, that are millionaires, that have yachts and planes and everything like that, and they still love God. It’s not God loves one of those people more. He loves us all equally.
And when we begin to think that because God’s doing this, he doesn’t love us, or because God’s doing this, he does love us, it begins to affect our spiritual lives. And that’s not the way that God works. God loves us all equally at all times, and it’s our response to him in those good times and those bad times, like we looked at last week, to remain faithful to him. Um, that’s important. So they became stagnant because they were relying on their own abilities, their own, um, strength, their own, uh, attributes, and realize that they could do this without God. And I’m here to tell you today, this month has been a rough month for me. And if it wasn’t for God’s strength, if I was relying on my own strength and ability, I wouldn’t be able to be here today. Because between work, the church, build out, preaching, youth group music, all those things. It has been a waring month and I have definitely gained more appreciation for Nathaniel this month than I have in a long time. But the reason that I’m able to be here today isn’t because of my own strength. It’s because of God’s and relying on his strength. And the church at Laodicea forgot to do that. In verse 18 we see, okay, the problem in 17 is that you think you’re rich because you have physical blessings, but spiritually you’re poor. So the solution then is in verse 18, I advised 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 that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed, and eyesalve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
Now, Laodicea, not only were they known for their hot springs, but these were the three major economies in Laodicea. They were. They had coin minting. Gold and silver coins were minted there. They were also known for their textiles and fabrics, that industry, and then also for medicine. As a result of the hot springs, they would use the water from those hot springs that had minerals in them and other things. And one of the things that they would do is they made a salve for your skin and your eyes that was supposed to help, help keep your skin healthy and stuff. And so Christ uses all those analogies and says, look, you think you’re rich because you have gold mints here and you’re minting coins, that’s fine, but don’t rely on those mints. Rely on gold from me. Seek gold from me so that you may become truly rich. I know that you have your your clothing industry and your fashion industry going on here, but rely on garments from me so that you may be clothed. And I know that you have your medical industry and it’s very popular, and you have your your ointments and your salves and all these things, but seek those things from me so that you can see how you really are.
You can see truly how you really are, that in reality you’re poor and you’re naked and you’re sick spiritually. And I want to help you in those things. And that’s what Christ says to this church. He says, you have issues. Seek those issues from me. Don’t try and do it on your own. Because whenever, whenever you try and do things on your own, at least speaking from personal experience, when I try and do life on my own and rely on myself, I usually end up making Greg and mad and hurting myself somehow in the process because I was doing something my way and ran into a wall or whatever, stubbed my toe or something, and it just doesn’t work. But when I do things in God’s strength, life seems to make a little more sense and it goes a little bit smoother. And that’s what he’s calling this church to do. Here he says, look, you can’t do it on your own. Okay? This is these are the amount of resources you have. You have this little finite group of resources here, your gold and your medicine and your clothing. And I have infinite resources. I’m the sovereign God, creator of the universe. Instead of relying on your little minuscule bank account that you might think is really full, why don’t you rely on mine? And the solution to that problem is a reliance on God, that problem of stagnant and complacency.
And a lot in this series, we’ve been looking at back on the writings of Paul in his letters to the various churches. And so we know who Paul was. We know what he had done with his life. He was in Philippians. He read he was a Hebrew of Hebrews. He trained under the high priest. He was a scholar. He had the family line. He had the training. He had the knowledge he had. He had obeyed the laws of Moses. He had done all these things. And he says that it’s all worth nothing. And in first Timothy one five, this 115, I’m sorry, this man that says that I’ve done all these things and I do all this stuff and and this is who I am, looks like a really good man. But then in first Timothy 115, he says it is a trustworthy statement deserving of full acceptance that Christ came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. So this Paul, who on his own looked really good, he had the credentials, he had the resume, says that, look, I’m the most. I’m the foremost of sinners. I’m the chief. So if Paul, who had this resume that looks really good, needed Christ, how much more do we need to rely on Christ to? Right around the same time that Paul wrote first Timothy, he also wrote Ephesians two, which the book of Ephesians is an awesome book.
Chapter two is one of my favorites, but it starts in verse one. It says, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience among them, we too, all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. With three verses like that, it might be kind of confusing why this is my favorite chapter, but when Paul writes something like this, it’s kind of easy to see why he thought he was the he was a sinner even though he had a good life. You see, we’re all dead in our sins and our trespasses. We are all born spiritually stillborns. We are dead. There’s no heartbeat. There’s no breath. There’s nothing. We are stuck where we are in our sins and our trespasses. It says that we we live life according to disobedience to God, and as a result, that makes us all children of wrath. What that means is sons of disobedience isn’t that we’re literally born of disobedience, but that we have the characteristics of disobedience.
That’s how we live our life. And Children of Wrath doesn’t mean that we again are born of wrath, but it means that because we’re living that life of disobedience, we’re deserving of God’s wrath on us. And this is not a fun situation. Um, this is kind of scary, actually, if you think about it. Uh, having the wrath of a holy, um, all powerful God on you because you were born dead in sin. But the next two words in verse five are or four, I’m sorry, are two of my favorite words in all of Scripture, because Paul gives us this picture and says, look, all of us, including myself, Paul, who’s this great man are dead in our sins, and there’s nothing that we can do about it. And then he goes into verse four and he says, But God. So we have this hopeless situation. All is lost. But God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. It’s like the movies. If you’ve seen 2012, I think that’s the one. It is with the where the end of the world is coming and whatever. And it’s like at the end they have these big ships that they made. They’re like arks and they’re floating and they’re like, oh, good, we’re all saved. And then all of a sudden, oh no, we’re headed toward Mount Everest.
And it hasn’t flooded above Mount Everest. We’re going to hit it. Oh, no. It’s a terrible situation. All is doomed. But then the hero comes in and he fixes the machine that powers the engine, that now they can put the boat in reverse and not run into Mount Everest. And everybody’s everybody say it’s just like the Hollywood movies. Hollywood just stole all those movies from from the Bible. Jesus. Jesus came up with that. Thousands of years ago. They’re copycats. Okay. Hopeless situation. Knight in shining armor comes in, saves the day. That’s the way it is for us, man. That’s. That’s our life. Okay. Every single one of us. Hopeless situation. In no way able to help ourselves. And God reaches out and saves us. I’ve heard of a lot of analogies, um, that try and equate this salvation. You know, it’s impossible for us to earn it, but God gives it as a gift. And I’ve heard countless arguments against a lot of those analogies saying that, well, we still have to to earn part of it. There’s the analogy that, you know, heaven is on one side and we are on another side, and there’s a great divide and we can’t jump the we can’t fly to it, we can’t do anything. But Christ builds a bridge and we’re able to get to heaven. And then the counterargument is, yeah, but you still have to choose to walk across the bridge, so you’re still doing something.
I’ve heard the analogy of quicksand, where we’re sinking in quicksand and and Christ reaches out and saves us. And the response of, yeah, but you still have to reach back and grab his hand for him to pull you out. And we’re in the ocean and we’re drowning. But Christ is our life raft. And, well, yeah, but you still have to choose to get in the life raft. But what Paul is saying here is not only are you stuck in quicksand, but you’ve sunk in that quicksand all the way below the surface. You’re dead in that quicksand. You’ve already sunk below. Your heart stopped beating. You can’t breathe. Even if you were able to reach your hand up as high as you could reach, your fingertips wouldn’t even break the surface. You are stuck. You are sunk. You are dead. Okay. They didn’t even bother sending in a rescue team because they knew you were already gone. And what Christ does is he reaches down into that quicksand where you can’t respond to him and grabs you and pulls you out and resuscitates you. At no point in the rescue mission did you help him. Did you help give yourself CPR? Did you help pull yourself out of the quicksand? You were completely dead and he pulls you out of that quicksand. That is sin and death and revives you and gives you life.
There’s nothing that we’ve done to earn that. And that’s what the church in Laodicea had thought they had done. They had thought, well, we’re doing pretty good. You know, the church building looks great. We just we just expanded and painted it. It all looks pretty good. We’re doing all right. So, you know, we must be doing this on our own. And they stopped relying on God. At no point in your Christian life have you ever done anything on your own. Salvation is all of Christ. It is all by God’s grace. There is no works that we can do. If you read, read on in Ephesians two eight and nine says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Titus three five tells us that. Isaiah tells us that all of our righteousness is filthy rags. We can’t earn God’s favor because all the good stuff that we do is like a dirty tissue to him. It’s no good. Christ is the only person that has any act in your salvation. And if Laodicea would have just realized that, they would have just taken a second and stepped back and said, whoa, that’s what Jesus did for us. We didn’t do it. He did it. Let’s keep working for him. Let’s keep moving towards him. Instead of just becoming complacent and relying on ourselves to do things.
And if we in our lives today, just take a second and step back and say, whoa, God, you did that for me. Man, you know, I’m going to I’m going to start taking this a lot more seriously. I’m not just going to start. I’m not going to let church become a routine until it’s not even important to me anymore. I’m going to continue to come to church. I’m going to continue to study on my own. I’m going to continue to talk to people at work or at school or wherever, and interact with them with my family and share them, share you with them. I’m going to continue to to serve. I’m going to continue. I’m going to start. If I haven’t started, I’m going to start serving. I’m going to do these things because of what you’ve done for me. And when we do that, we’re not just a stagnant puddle, we become a flowing river. And if you’ve ever seen if you’ve ever been to Niagara Falls, it’s amazing. I’ve been there once and I’d love to go back, but the power of that water falling over that that cliff is incredible. They have a deck that you can walk out, and you can get pretty close to one of the smaller falls, but you can’t get right under it. But it’s called Hurricane Deck because the force of the water hitting the rocks causes so much pressure and so much spray, that it’s like you’re standing in a hurricane and you have to rent a poncho and everything just to go do it.
That’s what our lives can become spiritually. When we remain focused on Christ, we become flowing, powerful rivers that can change the world. If we remain focused on Christ, but when we remain focused on ourselves and rely on what what we can do, it doesn’t work out that well. It doesn’t work. Um, Isaiah six shows us the Christian life in a nutshell. Basically, uh, here you have the prophet Isaiah, and he says in chapter six and verse one, we’re going to read all the way through eight says, in the King of in the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted with the train of his robe filled the temple. Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, woe is me, for I am undone. Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it, and said, behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven. Given. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, here am I, send me. You see, this is the picture of the Christian life in a nutshell. Because in order for us to really, truly understand salvation, we have to first realize who God is and who that makes us. And Isaiah sees God and His greatness and his glory and his throne room. And as a result, he looks at himself and says, I’m undone because I’m a man of unclean lips, and I live in the people of unclean lips. Okay, seeing God didn’t make Isaiah a sinner, he was always a sinner. It’s just like when you open the blinds on a sunny day and the sun shines through and you see all the dust particles floating in the air, and it’s like, oh, that’s kind of gross. Okay, those dust particles were always there. You just didn’t know it till the light hit it. Okay. You’re a sinner, whether you know it or not. You’re a sinner.
If I’m the first one to break that news to you, I apologize if it’s tragic, but it’s the truth. And when you see God for who he is, he pulls the blinds away and his light shines on your life. And you say, whoa, I’m undone. Because me, even if I’ve been a good person, I can’t stand before this holy God and pretend to be righteous. And Isaiah sees that, and he cries out, and he says, woe is me, for I am undone. And then buy nothing of his own. All he did was cry out and say, I’m ruined. And a seraphim comes and touches his lips with a coal and forgives him. And just like we do nothing in the act of salvation, we just cry out to God for forgiveness because we’ve wronged him and can do nothing on our own. Isaiah was forgiven and cleansed of his sins just because he cried out and recognized who he was in light of who God is. And so Isaiah sees God and his greatness sees that he’s a sinner. Cries out for forgiveness is granted forgiveness not of anything that he had done. And then God cries out and says, who will I send and who will go for us? And Isaiah’s response is, here am I? I’ll do it. Send me. I’ll go because of what just happened in my life, seeing that I am dead before you, and then you’ve forgiven me and made me able to stand right before you.
God. Here am I. Send me. I’ll go where you want me to go. I’ll do what you want me to do. That’s the Christian life. We have that that moment where we realize that we are sinners before a holy God, and that nothing that we can do on our own can earn anything that’s worth anything to give to that God as a sacrifice for us. But he sacrificed for us and makes us holy. And as a response, out of gratitude, We live a life that says, here am I, Lord, send me. If it’s India, if it’s talking to your neighbor, here am I. Send me. God, I want to live a life that’s not complacent, relying on me. I want to live a life that’s reliant solely on you because you are the God of the universe. And I want to be a moving river that changes the world. I want to be flowing water that’s not stagnant. I want my faith, my relationship with you, to have an effect. I want it to be healthy. But if you change your perspective just a little bit and forget who God is and what he’s done, then it changes the whole flow of that river and it dams it up and eventually it just becomes a stagnant pond. The reason Paul and the reason Isaiah were able to do great things For God wasn’t because of great men that they were.
If you read any history, Paul, they found some sketches in a in a tunnel in Jerusalem that they think were probably portraits of the Apostle Paul. He was a short guy, bald. We know that he had bad eyes from his writings. Paul physically wasn’t an impressive person, but he changed the world for Christ because he kept in perspective who he was and who God was. And he remembered what God had done for him and that motivated him. If you think about the people that God used, that God used in the Bible to do great things for him, all of them couldn’t have done it on their own strength. Moses was a stutterer who couldn’t talk. God says, Moses, I want you to lead my people out of Egypt. And he says, but I can’t. I can’t even talk. God says, don’t worry about it. It’s going to happen. You’re doing it. David was a little shepherd boy who played the harp, and he killed the giant and led a nation. The disciples were fishermen, for the most part uneducated. God says, no, you’re starting a revolution. Yeah, but I don’t even know anything about anything but fishing. I’m fixing my net. And you’re telling me I’m going to go start a revolution? I don’t know about that. God says it’s happening. When you realize who Christ is and what he’s done, it will affect your life.
And if it doesn’t, then you got issues. And we need to talk because it’s really important. If you think that you can earn salvation on your own and earn any kind of righteousness that makes you worthy, and you think that you can rely on yourself for anything and you don’t need Christ, that’s a scary place to be, because that means you’re the first part of Ephesians chapter two, and God’s wrath is against you. But once you accept that salvation, that free gift, God’s love for you, when you accept that that changes your life and church doesn’t become a routine. And and reading your Bible doesn’t become something that you have to do because it’s expected of you. And serving and helping out and talking to your neighbor and your brother, or your sister or your coworkers about Christ doesn’t become something you do because people expect you to do it, or because something you do because you know how important it is for everyone to know who Christ is. And that’s a faith that doesn’t become stagnant, that doesn’t become diseased, and just a breeding ground for mosquitoes that carry more disease. That’s a faith that flows and changes everything around it. So as we close this series, just think about where we are as a church. It would be easy at this point to look at our church and say, man, we as a group of people at Alpine Bible Church did a really good job.
You know, we’ve expanded, we got more seats in here. We got a lot of people coming. We’re doing good. But it’s not because we did anything. It’s because God did it. It’s easy for us to to just fall into the routine. You know, there’s a lot more people around here. I don’t have to do as much now. I can kind of just slip back and let church become church and I’ll be fine. But that’s not what God wants us to do. When we keep him in perspective, we can’t do that. We’ll remain faithful through the good times, through the bad times. We’ll follow him and we’ll keep from becoming lukewarm and stagnant. And as a group at Alpine Bible Church, we need to continue to remember who we are in light of who God is. A lot of people think that the topic of the total depravity of man, which is basically what theologians put the title on about what I just talked about, the state of man, that we can’t do anything people say, don’t talk about that. It’s kind of depressing. And people people don’t like to hear that. Man, I love to hear it. I love to hear that I’m wretched and miserable and dead in my sins, because that always reminds me that God came in at the last moment and saved the day, and that there is hope. And it encourages me and challenges me and motivates me to continue to press on and to live a life for him.