Thank you, worship team. Thank you all for joining us today. It’s great to worship with you. We are wrapping up our series on the Seven Churches of Revelation. We’ve been working around the what is now Western modern Turkey, working through a series of churches, and today we’re landing on the last one. We’ve traveled through that area, and if you’ve traveled overseas, you know this experience. You go to another country, you can’t use your money there. You’ve got to exchange it for their money. Probably ten years ago or so now, I went to Rwanda. In fact, we have our kids with us here this month. Who which kids know where Rwanda is? What continent is that on? Anybody? Okay, I heard Africa. Thank you. Somebody rescued me there. Africa. It’s a small country. To be fair, it’s pretty small in Central Africa. But they had a partnership with a church we were connected to in Little Rock at the time. And so they invited me there to teach in their Bible college. But they do almost everything in cash, like a lot of smaller countries do. And so I came with all the cash I was going to need for the whole week, right on the front to exchange it, which didn’t feel like much. I was carrying in maybe $1,000, ten, $100 bill bills, you know, for a week in a foreign country that doesn’t feel like that much money. But we go into exchange, and the exchange rate at the time was 600 of their dollars to one of ours. So I laid down my tiny little stack and slide it under the window. And then they start counting our bills and more and more. And by the time they’re done, there’s these 3 or 4 huge piles, because they only have smaller denominations, these huge piles of money. And and I stood there and looked at those and I thought, how am I going to get all those in my pockets? I’m shoving them in my pockets like a drug dealer or something. And as I’m doing it, I’m thinking, I’ve got to be the richest person on earth right now. It just felt like I was incredibly rich, even though nothing had changed. For a moment I thought, I’m so rich, I’m the richest person to ever live. Possibly just because of feeling all that cash on me. But the reality is, nothing had changed about my financial state. In fact, it was about to go down. I was about to be rid of all that cash. Very soon I was walking around for just a moment with a sense of false pride that was better off than I really was. For a moment I thought, I’m so much more rich than ever been. I might be the richest person on earth. I’m probably better than everybody else. I’ll see you today for just a glimpse. Walking in false, empty pride. I think that’s a challenge that our country faces. Our church is face, and we’re going to see it today as we look at the church in Laodicea. So if you have a Bible, turn to Revelation chapter three, Revelations at the end of the Bible. If you don’t have a Bible, we have them out in the lobby. We’d love to put one in your hands. If you just turn towards the back of the Bible, you should find the Book of Revelation. Turn to chapter three and let’s all stand as I read verses 14 through 22, just as a sign of reverence and respect for God’s Word. Revelation chapter three, verse 14. And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. I know your works. You’re neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me, gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and buy white garments, so that you may clothe yourself so the shame of your nakedness may not be seen. And buy salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me, the one who conquers. I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and set down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. You can be seated. As I said, we’ve been journeying through Western Turkey, and each week I’ve shown you a map of the series of churches that are in this area, and they operate in a circle. If you want to put that on the screen. You can see we started in Ephesus and worked our way around Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, ending up today in Laodicea. And there is so much, as I’ve pointed out each week, there’s so much in each of these letters to the church that relates directly to that city, the identity of that city. Every city has an identity of who they are, the things that are important to them, the the things they do culturally, the things they value culturally. And we’ve seen that we’ve drawn that out. And it really stands out today in Laodicea. In fact, Laodicea was situated when it was built, when it was established, it was established in a place that didn’t have any natural source of water. You think that would be important in setting up a city? For whatever reason, they had an oversight. They didn’t do that. And so what they had to do, in fact, if you look at the next map, you will see there are two cities nearby. The main two cities near them are the cities of Hierapolis and Colossi. Of course we know colossi from Colossians, so you can see this up here. Here’s how. And here’s Colossi. Book of Colossians is named after that was written to that. These were the two closest cities to them, and also they both had their own natural water sources. In fact, Hierapolis was known for its famous hot springs. In fact, bring up the next picture. You’ll see. You can even go there today and see they had these hot springs that were full of minerals, and over time they built up cascading pools and it’s amazing. It’s so beautiful. That’s a picture from modern day era. You can see these incredible cascading hot springs pools, and people go there today to experience them, to enjoy them, to get refreshed, much like in the US, probably back maybe at the turn of the 1900s, people would go out of their way to go to Hot Springs, Arkansas, to go there, experience the hot springs, taking the hot bath, the healing mineral waters of the area. So Hierapolis could see basically from that pictures down. Now that’s okay. Leave it down. But you could see off a mountain across across from them was Laodicea. They could basically see Laodicea off in the distance and they had their own hot water spring source, famous for that, famous for the hot refreshing water. The other city inside of them with their own water source Colossae. They were famous, well known for their cold water springs. So we’ve spent time in Florida in the summers, and one of our favorite things to do as a family was to go down to the cold water springs. It’s 90 a million degrees outside, but there’s 70 degree water coming up out of the ground constantly, and you could swim in that. And it’s so refreshing Colossae had this cold water source, but they were right on a river, but also they had their own cold water springs. And so both here’s the point. Both had a desirable source of water, either hot or cold were desirable. Laodicea had no source of water their own. In fact, we had they had to bring in water from outer sources. We even have. I should have brought up a photo to show you. But they had. Archeology has found stone pipes. They hollowed out stone to make pipes, to bring water to their city. And of course, whichever direction it came from, by the time it got there, it wasn’t hot or cold. At that point, it would have been lukewarm. And anybody who drinks coffee knows it’s great to get it when it’s hot, but by the time it cools down, I’m dumping it out. I don’t want it anymore. It’s lost its taste. It’s lost its appeal. It’s a lot. It’s lost its flavor. And I don’t understand any of you who drink iced coffee. That’s weird. I don’t get it. But apparently that’s desirable to give it hot or nothing. I don’t want that lukewarm. Here’s the main issue they were facing as a church. Okay, this is the first point in your outline what had happened over time. They had been deadened by this calcified complacency, right? They come to a place of just complacency, just ho hum, just so. So we’re not hot or cold. And I think at first reading of that, you think it’s better to be hot, passionate, full of zeal and cold means dead and distant from God. But in this context, hotter, cold both were refreshing and good. Either one, pick one. But you are neither. You’ve become. Coasting, deadened as a church. The things that made you passionate. And I think anyone here could relate. When you first came to Christ, there was this excitement, there was this passion, there was this zeal. You wanted everybody to know about him. You were so excited about what he was doing in your life. And then for many, over time, you kind of forget about that change, about that excitement, about what he’s done. And we slip into the routine of life, and he just becomes one other thing tacked on to our life. Now, why did that happen in Laodicea? Why did they become calcified, complacent? Why did it become this scenario where Jesus says, I will spit you out of my mouth? In fact, that word, that words way stronger than that. Why is it that we feel like we got to tone down the Bible? I wonder, because the word there is actually a lot more like vomit. Maybe that’s why that didn’t go over well. I could hear a few of you go, oh gosh, why do we have to tone it down? We don’t like that. That’s a little too strong. Let’s not go there. Let’s just say spit. Well, in Laodicea, the water was such that for whatever reason, by the time it got there, or just whatever wells they were able to dig, oftentimes the water actually did cause vomiting and so they would have understood this. We don’t want that in us either either. We know that’s not how it should post to be. It’s not supposed to be that way. It’s almost like Jesus is saying, you are so complacent. You make me sick. I don’t know about you, but I don’t. I don’t want to be called that. I don’t want our church to be called that. That’s a tough place to be. And by the way, I don’t think it’s any coincidence that on the anniversary 250th anniversary of our country, that we’re looking at this church today, I think there are some ways the American church can relate. How did this happen? Look at verse 17. So 15 and 16. We’re all about the hot and cold and I’ll spit you out. How did they become so complacent? Look at verse 17 for you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing. This was the condition of their heart. We would say they were full of number two in your outline. Self-sufficient pride. The reason complacency comes about because of self-sufficiency. Pride. I’m good. I don’t need anything. I’ve got it all figured out myself. And by the way, I think part of us as Americans can appreciate that. I think a core American value is this idea of the self-made person. The self-made individual pulls them up selves up by their own bootstraps. We value a lot more. A person who made their own money versus someone who inherited. Personally, I’ll take either. I’m fine with both, but we put great, much more value on the person who slaved and worked hard and made themselves, and they were self-sufficient. They don’t need anything else from anyone. We put huge value on that part of that’s good, by the way. But it becomes when it becomes prideful. That’s a big problem when it comes to the point of, I’ve got this, I don’t even need God. That leads to complacency, that leads to a place of spiritual death. And this is what they were saying. We’re we’re good. We’re self-sufficient. In fact, this would have related to the Laodicean. They would have connected with this. They would have understood that the lay of the sins. You remember, I’ve talked about earthquakes that have hit some of these other cities a few times, and how they devastated, like Sardis, basically just slid off the hillside. It was on last week. We looked at Philadelphia and how they had to rebuild and how it took time. And maybe it wasn’t as amazing as it used to be. Part of the reason they were able to rebuild was because the Roman emperor said, look, take five years off of taxes. You put your money towards rebuilding, don’t give us taxes. We’re going to give you a break. We could say it this way. They took the bailout money at that time. Help us out. They offered it. But when they came to Laodicea after the earthquake, it hit Laodicea as well. They had to see us. Said, no thanks. We don’t want any help. We’re going to do this ourselves. We’re self-sufficient, you know, they were known for being a wealthy city. And so what happened was a number of the rich people in the city said, we will take care of rebuilding often so that they could put their name on whatever it was they rebuild and said, look how rich I am. Look how great I am at rebuilding this city a lot of times for self pride to build themselves up. And so when Jesus says to them, you think you’re rich, you think you’re self-sufficient, they could relate to that. Their whole city identified with that, the self-sufficient pride that said, I got this. I don’t need anyone else that has been at the root of their complacency. But there’s also something else here, because the reality is, look at the second half of verse 17. You say, I’m rich, I have prospered, I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. That’s a tough place to be. I think I am self-sufficient, rich. I got this all figured out myself, and I’m actually, according to Jesus, the opposite. This reminds me of if you’ve ever watched American Idol. You always get these episodes where somebody gets up and they they get up and say, you know, all my friends think I’m an amazing singer. My mom says I’m the best ever. And they start singing and they don’t even get through the song and the judges stop them. You are actually literally the worst singer I’ve ever heard in my life. So let’s say something like that. And of course, the person on stage is like, what are you talking about? I’m great at karaoke on Thursday nights at work. How can you dare say that you’re wrong. They’re completely blind to reality. They’re self deceived. They can’t even see the truth. In fact, the challenge I think here that we’re highlighting for the church is that they suffered from spiritual blindness. Number three, in your outline, we’re looking at three problems this church faced in their pride. And then we’re going to look at three solutions. That is spiritual blindness. They were completely blind to their condition. That’s a tough place to be. I think I’m rich. I think I’m successful. I think I’ve got it all figured out. And in reality, I’ve been looking at the wrong source for that. I’ll tell you what’s really hard about the church in Laodicea. Every other church we’ve looked at, Jesus had some hard things to say to a number of them. A couple of them he didn’t, but to a lot of them he had some hard things to say. But he he also balanced that with some good things. I know your works, but also, look, I know these other things are going well. Not in Laodicea, not here. He’s got nothing good to say to them. It is all difficult things. And again, I think we’ve got to take that to heart. Let this be a warning to the modern American church. I think as we read through these, we can see some ways we might relate the pride of wealth, the self-sufficiency, the sense of complacency. It’s great that we have freedom of worship, by the way. I wouldn’t want it any other way. But you want to know the countries where the church is flourishing the most, where it’s growing the most. It’s in places like China where it’s outlawed. That’s a hard truth. That’s a hard truth for me to hear. There’s something about it being illegal or that makes it truer for each person that follows it. You know, the cost. It could genuinely, really, truly cost you your life. You know that they’re not just Sunday Christians. They didn’t mean something real to them. That’s something. Look, it’s not wrong to have freedom of worship, by the way. I am deeply grateful for that. But also, we need to be aware of the tendency for that to lead towards complacency. We’ve got to be mindful of that. We’ve got to be on guard with that. All this world just wants to lull you to spiritual sleep. The whole everything about this world wants you to care about everything else except Jesus. And it’s always facing that. You’re always facing that pressure. The church does. We do individually. What does he say about how do we deal with that? How do we approach that? We’re going to look at three responses to that. And the first is in verse 14. How do we deal with our blindness, our pride, our self-sufficiency, our complacency? Look at verse 14 to the angel of the church in Laodicea. Write the words of the A men, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. This is Jesus’s self-description here, and most find that this verse in particular connects to the book of Colossians. I mentioned that Colossians or Colossae was near Laodicea. We saw that on the map. But Paul even mentions Laodicea in the book of Colossians. He says to the Colossians, I wrote you a letter. Be sure to let the Laodiceans read it. I wrote the Laodiceans a letter which we don’t have. I wrote them a letter. You be sure to read it so we know they probably were facing some similar spiritual challenges. There was some overlap there, and many find this verse in the way that Jesus is described the faithful, the true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. Many see a connection to Colossians. So flip over to Colossians. It’s probably about 50 pages back towards the front in your Bible. We’re going to look at Colossians chapter one and just read a couple of verses there. If you find Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians comes right after those couple of letters he wrote to cities in this area. We already looked at Ephesus. Colossians chapter one. Look at how Jesus is described here. Verse 15. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Here we get a bit of this description. We saw in Revelation the beginning of God’s creation, the firstborn of God’s creation, similar language. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible, invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers, authorities. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent or have first place. And so what we see here in Colossians, this description of Jesus, and this is the first solution to the problem, is realize that control is an illusion. The financial wealth, maybe the access to health care, maybe whatever gives us this sense of self independence, self-sufficiency, and pride. Ultimately, it’s a sense that we are the ones in control, but realize and recognize that control is an illusion. When you look at Colossians 1:15, 16, 17, 18, 19, you see that there is someone else in control. It’s easy to forget that Jesus is ultimately the one in control. He created all things. He sustains all things in heaven and on earth. He is the one that is ultimately in control. And if we lose sight of that, and that’s part of the challenge of wealth, by the way. And I know you’re thinking, John, I don’t know who you’re talking about. You keep talking about money and wealth. You’re not talking about me. And I’m like, well, yes, I am. All of us. Even the poorest person in here are in the 1% of the world. And I get the fact that, look, you know, cost of living here is higher and all that. That’s true. That’s a reality. But you can be poor here and still have air conditioning, car, cell phone, plenty of food. This isn’t to minimize whatever situation you’re in, whatever challenges you’re facing. I know those are real okay, but the reality is we all face a level of ease unprecedented in human history. All of us. And we’ve got to recognize and remind ourselves. Ultimately, though, I’m not the one in control. He is the one in control, and he’s the one I have to look to. So that’s the first point. Control is an illusion. Recognize that. Remember. Remind yourself Jesus is the one in control, not me. The second thing to be aware of the second response to the problem is in verse 17 for you say, I am rich, I’ve prospered, I need nothing, not realizing you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, naked. Part of the reason Jesus says in Matthew 19, it’s hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. It’s because it’s easy to think, I don’t need anything else. I’m good when I’ve got riches. But number two, here’s the second response. Here’s how we should respond and said, instead, we have to deal in the currency of the kingdom. You’ve got to deal in the currency of the kingdom, not in what you think the currency is, not in what I think the currency is. We got to deal in the currency of the kingdom. Just like when I went overseas to whatever country I went to. I can’t pay with my US dollars. They won’t take them. You change them out, you come back to me and bring me my money. Deal in our currency if you want to transact here. What is the currency of the kingdom? What’s interesting here– three words I want to look at in verse 18. You are poor, blind and naked. He directly responds to each of those words when he talks about the currency of the kingdom. First, let’s look at that word naked. And all three of these relate to things that were culturally relevant in Laodicea. If you look at the middle of 18, he says, and I’m adding the word buy its improved. I counsel you to buy white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness nakedness may not be seen. Laodicea was known. He says, you need white garments. You need white garments from me. You need garments that I provide. Laodicea became rich where their wealth came from initially was their sought after flock of raven black sheep. Their wool was black and silky and sought after deeply. And because it was naturally, deeply black, they didn’t have to diet. They didn’t have the expense and time of that. And so because of that small margin, they were able to build on the wealth of the cost savings of that process and the desirability of that wool. And Jesus is saying, hinting to them, you think your garments are the best and most desired, but they they don’t get you into the kingdom. Your own efforts won’t work to get you there. You’re naked. You come to the kingdom naked. Even with your finest clothing that you developed, you still come naked. Second, he talks about their eyes. First he said buy white garments. Now he says buy salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Laodicea was actually known for having a what we would call a modern in modern language, an ophthalmologist medical school. They had discovered or found, whatever the combination of minerals or elements. Partly, I think, because of the way the water was delivered to them and the mining in the area, they had discovered. The right combination of that, when put into cream form, actually helped heal people’s eyes. So they were known for this. People would come there specifically to get their eyes healed. And you think your salve, your special formulas are the things that will get you into the kingdom. But it’s not that. You’re still blind, It’s not your own efforts. But then lastly, look at how he started this section in verse 19, verse 18. He says, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire. The key part of that there is buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich. I would add the word that’s not in the original language, but it certainly draws it out that you may be truly rich. This is where we have to come in the currency of the kingdom. If I come to the kingdom thinking gold, will my own gold that I earned or found or dug up, if I think that’s what will get me into the kingdom. That’s not the currency of the kingdom. Gold. In fact, gold is worthless there. I’ve pointed this out so many times. They pave the streets with it. It’s got no value. You can’t come to the door or go and look how great I am. Look how much I’ve collected. Let me in. Colossae was known for being a financial center. In fact, famous writers at the time, people like Cicero, wrote that they had exchanged money there. At one point, the Jews who lived there had collected so much gold they were going to send it to Jerusalem. And the emperor confiscated something like 20 pounds of gold. They were known for their gold, their richness. That won’t work in the kingdom. What is the currency of the kingdom? One word. It’s in verse 19. Look at verse 19. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent. Repentance is the currency of the kingdom, one of the things they needed to repent of. If you look back in your notes, I skipped over this phrase Propriis Opibus. That is a phrase when they rejected the bailout money that they really took to heart. They can. They found it on etchings all over the community. It become. It became a phrase for their independence. And it’s translated something like, we did it ourselves, or maybe more accurately, by one’s own means. Frank Sinatra said it. I did it my way. I did it myself. He still died God’s way. But by my own means. We got this. That’s not going to get you into the kingdom of heaven. Repentance is the currency of the kingdom of heaven. And what this means for the church today is that we don’t walk in pride of how great we are, and every church has had their seasons of pride. I’ve heard from people who’ve been here a long time that there have been seasons where Valley View has really struggled with pride, and any individual, any one of us, will have seasons of pride. Repentance, says Jesus. I’m sorry. I want to come to you in humility. I thought I could figure out life myself. I thought I could do it on my own. I thought I didn’t need you and I’m sorry. Will you forgive me for that? I’m coming to you in repentance. I’m bowing down before you and saying, I want you to be my Lord. I want you to be the one in control. I recognize that the control I thought I had is an illusion. Humility is what opens the door to the kingdom. Repentance is what opens the door to the kingdom. Not my complacency. Self-sufficiency, pride. Gold. Expensive fabric. Ability to heal. None of that. All this leads to the third solution, the third response to the big problem of pride and Laodicea. And we see it in verse 20. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me, the one who conquers. I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and set down with my father on his throne. The picture here is of Jesus knocking on the door of the church. And it is, I think, for many of us, in fact, this is a verse that meant a lot to me when I first came to know Christ. It’s a picture of him calling, calling you to him. But keep in context here. What door he’s knocking on. He’s knocking on the door of a church that has said, we don’t need you. We’ve got this. We’re going to appear, maybe to be a church, but ultimately we’ve pushed Jesus out the side door. And that’s a huge temptation of the modern church, by the way. It’s so easy. If you’ve been in any kind of business meeting, you hear him use the phrase mission creep. It’s so easy because you’re good at one thing to start to want to do everything. And before long you think, man, we got 100 different things going, and what are we really about? What’s at the center of who we are? And the church is facing that. So many churches are caught up in everything other than the gospel, and it’s something Valley View has got to fight for as well. In fact, the third thing to take heart, and it’s the most important we’ve got to keep Christ at the center of everything we do. We gotta keep him at the very center. That’s why we can celebrate our country today without turning it into country worship, because we’re going to keep Christ at the center. We didn’t cover up the cross with the flag. We kept it. The most prominent thing up here. I love our country. We want to celebrate it. But we got to keep Christ at the center of everything we do. And you’ve got to in your life as well. And I know it’s a battle every day. It’s got to be a battle every single day. In fact, Julie and I used to serve with a missions organization. You’ve you’ve probably heard of it, Campus Crusade for Christ or it’s called Cru in the US now. Part of the reason we stepped away from serving with them is we felt we could see the mission creep happening. Well, this is ten years ago now. We could see them getting excited about the gospel was still there, but other things became the main topic of our annual meeting. It was all about whatever was going on in the culture at that time. And how do we battle that, and how do we align ourselves to best reach the culture? And part of that’s important and necessary. But it was too much. They were losing the center, and it was a big concern to us. I pointed out last weekend that we had two friends here, Tim and Mandy Castiel, and he served still with Campus Crusade in Arkansas at the University of Arkansas. Every day, his job is to talk to college students about Jesus, to walk around talking to them, growing them up in their faith. And it was so fun to listen to their stories. I mean, imagine if Christ got radically ahold of you at that age. Imagine the path of your life. So many of those kids become on fire for Jesus and walk with him faithfully for a lifetime. And I said, man, how are things going? Because part of the reason we stopped serving with Campus Crusade is because the mission creep we were seeing. And he said, John, I got to tell you, things are turning back. Christ is at the center again. Leadership has stepped up and said, we are going to be all about sharing Christ with the world. That’s at the core of everything we do. And they say it over and over and over again. And I almost wept in front of him as he told me that, because I was so grateful to hear that. We don’t want to hear that missions, agencies and churches are straying away from the Lord. We don’t want to hear that they’re going after other things. We want to know that Christ is at the center of all they’re doing. And I just I gave deep thanks for the gratitude of what that campus crusade had meant to me. How to change my life. Keep fighting to keep Christ at the center of your life. And by the way, keep fighting for that to be true of Valley View. When it seems off center, press into it. All of us have to work together to make sure we keep Christ at the center of our life. Let’s pray. God, I thank you for Valley View. I thank you for what this church has meant to me in my life. How you’ve used the gospel here to transform hundreds, thousands, probably tens of thousands across the south end of Louisville. And we want to see that happen in a renewed way. We want to see people turn to you like never before. We don’t want to be stuck in the past complacent. Look at the great things you did do here. We are grateful for that. But God, would you move. Help us to put you at the center of everything. You. You are creator. You are a king. Help us to realize that and act in accordance with that every day. Help us to walk in repentance for the ways we’ve walked in prideful self-sufficiency. We love you, Jesus. Amen.