“What Makes a Church Bad? Rev 3:1-6
FROG IN A KETTLE SARDIS
This method is SLOW
“Often, good works is the bridge over which good news runs.”
Here are five commitments that make not just a good church, but moves it to being great for God: before I do, why don’t you share?
1. To live a holy life (understanding that no one does it perfectly, but to come clean when you fail).
2. To be an active participant in ministry.
3. To be a generous giver reflected in tithing
4. To live an evangelistic lifestyle.—that is you want to share Jesus with others in words and in deeds.
5. To be a transformed follower into a leader
WHY PEOPLE LEAVE GOOD CHURCHES. Here are four points you might have heard before. Before I share, what do you think?
1. They spend too much time doing and not being. They get burnt out.
2. They judge others—some people get so wrapped up in making sure others are 100% right with God! You and I need to get ourselves 100% right with God!
3. Un-reconciled differences—some people never learn to follow the pattern of being in right relationships Jesus established
4. They don’t pray about it.—why is it when we know God’s answer to us isn’t going to be what we want to hear we don’t ask Him?
When we pray, we get answers, but those answers may not always be what we want to hear.
FOUR WAYS TO HAVE A WORLD INFLUENCED CHURCH AND STAIN OUR GARMENTS
1. COMPROMISE—When you have no clear lines drawn of where you stop and the sinfulness begins. When we adopt the world’s definitions of what is right and wrong—we compromise.
2. CULTURAL BUY-IN—When you blindly follow the masses just because “everybody else is doing it”. When we follow the lead of the GOATS of the world and not the SHEPHERD we have bought into what the world is selling.
3. OUTSIDE IMPORTANCE—when what we see is more important than what we don’t see. When what is on the outside has more meaning than what is on the inside! When you judge by appearances and not value the person just because they are created in God’s image!
4. CONSUMERISM—When your happiness is connected to what you have or the power you have to purchase. And when THINGS matter more than people we are drunk by material intoxication and have become blind leaders of the blind.
FOUR WAYS THE CHURCH CAN WALK WITH CHRIST AND INFLUENCE THE WORLD!
1. WITNESS—Speak the name of Jesus and what He has done! Satan wants you to be silent!
2. WORD—Read it, study it, memorize it, quote it, sing it, love it, live it.
3. WALK & WEAR—Be a follower of Jesus Christ and not just a fan. And don’t be ashamed to wear the white clothes he has given us in knowing right from wrong and testifying for right
4. WATCH ONE ANOTHER’S WEAKNESSES—When we keep each other’s backs on the four influential powers of the world!
The frog in the kettle serves as an example of what we do not wish to become. If that frog just had someone on the outside to help him know to GET OUT! He wouldn’t have been boiled to death.
Would it be enough for the frog to pray for answers if he was just going to stay in the kettle?
That is why Jesus wanted John to write this letter to Sardis! He IS on the outside and is wanting them to know what they need to do before they are boiled to death by the world’s influence.
I don’t want my name blotted out of God’s book, do you?
