The Church That Made God Sick | Revelation 3:14-22 | 10-11-26 | Sunday PM

Andrew Montoro (0:00)

All right, grab our Bibles. Let's turn to the Book Of Revelation Chapter 3

Tonight, we're going to be dealing with the final Church, of the seven churches, that Jesus, the Ancient of Days, the Son of God, the One Who Holds the Keys, the Keys of David, the Keys of Hell and Death, that He is speaking and confronting His churches. And some of the churches receive great blessings, receive, hey, praise the Lord, this is going good. Almost all of the churches receive a warning, all except for the church at Philadelphia, and then the church at Pergamos, that was going through suffering.

They did not, or excuse me, I said that wrong. It wasn't the church at Pergamos, but there was two churches that Jesus did not speak against, that Jesus did not have issues with, but there is one church that Jesus didn't have anything good to say about, and that's the church we're going to deal with tonight. And so let's pick up our reading. As Jesus is speaking, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit sayeth unto the churches. Verse number 14 of Revelation chapter 3, the Bible says, and unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, write, okay? So he's writing to the pastor there at the church, says, these things sayeth the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would that thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased in goods and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich in white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesab, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me. To him that overcomeeth, will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit sayeth unto the churches. And so our title tonight is The Church That Made God Sick. The Church That Made God Sick, we could entitle it this, The Church Where Jesus Was On The Outside.

When I preach through this previously, a couple years back, I entitle it this, everyone was impressed but God. They had riches, they had a lot going on, but God wasn't happy with what was going on. The Church That Made God Sick, let's pray and ask God to help us heed the warnings and to examine our own hearts to hear from God. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I ask for tonight, Lord, that you would just clear our hearts and minds from the burdens of life and from the different things that just went away on our mind. I pray, Lord, that we would hear from you tonight, that you would speak through your word. I pray that you would challenge each and every one of us from your word. I pray for your ability, your power. Lord, I pray that we would not just go through the motions, but that we would, Lord, seek to serve you from our heart. And Lord, that you would be pleased with us, Lord. We pray for your help now tonight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

I remember growing up as a kid, one of the things I struggled with a lot was motion sickness. And in our family, we took a lot of road trips. And being the younger kid, I ended up in the back of the 15 passenger van. And it did not seem that there was a road trip we went on that at least myself, if not the multiple of my siblings, were rather sick and nauseous by the time we reached our destination. Or maybe we had to stop on the way because we weren't gonna make it because we were not feeling well. My dad described sea sicknesses, you gotta get feeling better to die. That's the way he describes it.

No one likes to be sick. Especially, I mean, there's few things worse than a stomach bug. It is just very difficult. But this wasn't a stomach bug. This was something that when Jesus looked at this church, Bible says he would spew them. I will spew the out of my mouth. I'm going to vomit you. I can't stand the taste of it. It's going to come out. And Jesus is writing to his church. There were seven candlesticks. So this was one of Jesus' churches, and yet Jesus is looking at them saying, some things had better change, because this is not what I designed my church to be. And I am not speaking in an accusatory way towards Community Baptist Church at all, but we are trying to take the warning that God gives us and say, we better listen and hear what the Spirit say to the churches, because if we want to see God work, we need to have a heart that God can bless. God longs to bless, but we need to have the right spirit and have the right attitude and have the right works and heart if we're going to see God work. Jesus Christ, as the head of this church, had a message for this church, and he wanted them to know that this was a message they needed to hear. The town of Laodicea was only about 10 miles away from the town of Colossae. The town of Colossae was, there was a church at Colossae. We know what Paul would write to that church with the book or the epistle of Colossians to that church. It was a church that was vibrant. It was a church that was serving the Lord. About 10 miles down the road was the Church of Laodicea. Many believe that it was started out of the Church of Colossae. We don't know that for sure. Why was the letter addressed to the church at Laodicea instead of the Church of Colossae? We don't know. It's possible this late in the century. It's been some 30 to 40 years since Paul wrote the letter to the Church of Colossae. It could be that the Church had been destroyed or was no longer serving the Lord, or it could be they were still going strong, and Jesus needed to write to the Church at Laodicea because of what was going on. We don't know exactly, but Jesus addressed the Church. The city of Laodicea was the city of enormous wealth, they tell us, even more so than the other six cities that were mentioned before, even the port cities and all of that that were very vibrant that had a large trade. Laodicea was a city of enormous wealth. It was known for three things, finance, fashion, and its pharmaceuticals, the medicine that was produced at the city of Laodicea.