Revelation 3:1-6
And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
John 11:11 (HCSB)
After he had said this, he went on to tell them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up."
The other day I purchased a book by Thom Rainer that I began reading this afternoon. The title of the book is Autopsy of A Dead Church: 12 Ways to Keep Yours Alive. In the book, he looks at 14 different churches that were at one time thriving and vibrant, but who gradually ceased to exist. He tells about the reasons for these churches decline and offers advice on how to prevent the death of churches. He begins by telling a story about a church where he was hired as a consultant. Those on the pews thought he was unneeded and refused to hear anything he had to say. The members felt everything was okay. He stayed on for a while because one member decided to pay for his services. He laments that on his last day at the church as that member walked him to his car and asked the question, “What do you think? Will our church be okay?” He answered that his diagnosis was that the church wouldn’t last another 5 years. He was wrong, it struggled on for 10 but eventually met its demise. It had at one time been a booming church of over 700 members but dwindled down gradually until it died.
Jesus warned the church at Sardis to strengthen the things that remained. He warned them that if they continued on down the road upon which they were heading that eventually, they would cease to be a church. I want to talk to you about some of the things I have gleaned from Mr. Rainer’s book tonight—I believe it is the will of God that the church thrives—not just the church worldwide, or the hidden church within the visible church, but the entire church—the local church. The church at Springs of Life in Deer Park Texas at 1111 Center Street! It is His will that we live! But we must do things that tend toward life! He told Israel in Deuteronomy that He set before them life and death, a blessing and a curse and obedience to His commands and precepts meant life—Wisdom said in the book of Proverbs that she offered to all who would heed her soft words life! The Lord Jesus said that He came to give life and life more abundantly! I want to live! I don’t want us to just exist, I want us to thrive! Jesus said that the gates of hades would not prevail against His church, so why do some churches go under? Why do some seem to find their demise in so many cold graveyards?
1. In Order to Live Let Go of the Past and Cling to New Life
Mr. Rainer writes:
The most pervasive and common thread of our autopsies was that the deceased churches lived for a long time with the past as heroes. They held on more tightly with each progressive year. They often clung to things of the past with desperation and fear. And when any internal or external force tried to change the past, they responded with anger and resolution: “We will die before we change.” And they did. Hear me clearly: these churches were not hanging on to biblical truths. They were not clinging to clear Christian morality. They were not fighting for primary doctrines, or secondary doctrines, or even tertiary doctrines. As a matter of fact, they were not fighting for doctrines at all. They were fighting for the past. The good old days. The way it used to be. The way we want it today. For sure, there were some prophets and dissenters in these churches. They warned others that, if the church did not change, it would die. But the stalwarts did not listen. They fiercely resisted. The dissenters left. And death came closer and closer.
Rainer, Thom S.. Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 12 Ways to Keep Yours Alive (pp. 18-19). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
In Hebrews chapter 11 we read what some have called the “Roll Call of Faith.” The list includes men like Able, the first righteous man who refused to offer that which was mediocre or second best to God. Men like Noah who built a boat when everyone else laughed when he told them it was going to rain. Abraham who went where God told him to go even when he didn’t know where he was going. Women like Sarah had a child when her past and her present said it was impossible. Or Deborah who was strong and willing to do what God wanted in spite of the negative voices that surrounded her. Or Joseph who commanded them to take his bones out of Egypt when they went—he knew the Exodus was coming. Moses led Israel out of Egypt as God commanded, “Speak to the children of Israel that they go forward!” All of these heroes of faith were obedient in spite of their lack of knowledge about the consequences of their obedience! Hebrews 11:13-16 reads,
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. 15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. 16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.
The “good old days” did not exist in their minds. The future held the best days. They understood that this life is not a time to get comfortable (p. 20). The reason Sardis was dying. The reason churches die is that they wreck as they speed toward the future while staring intently in their rearview mirror! The heroes of faith were not bound by the past or the present! They were pulled into the future by a promise of an eternal reward!
I love history. I can read think volumes of history and enjoy it. I love to watch documentaries of times past. Time and again the Bible calls us to remember the things God has done for us in the past. We have a goodly heritage. The lines have fallen to us in pleasant places. The things that have brought us to this point are amazing! I am a fifth-generation Pentecostal. I am here today because a lady evangelist went down into a holler in Crystal Springs, Mississippi, and preached to a bunch of bootleggers who repented of their sins and were baptized in the name of Jesus and filled with the Holy Ghost! I can remember my uncle speaking at my wife and I’s wedding. He told a story about visiting with my great-grandfather who had just come from a prayer meeting behind his chicken coop. He said that he could see a visible glow shining from his face like that of Moses when he came down Mt. Sanai! I love the stories of early pioneer Pentecostals—I have the works of G. T. Haywood, Frank Ewart, and Andrew Urshan. Some of the dearest friends my wife and I have had were in their late 80s when we met them. And I loved to hear their stories—stories of the past! Hey, we ought to have memorials of remembrance like the children of Israel had as they passed over Jordan! We need to remember our past and tell those stories to our children!
But we must remember that those memorial stones were not grave markers. Where progress died. Joshua 4:5-7 says,
And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? Then ye shall answer them, That the waters were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.”
The point of the memorial was to cause future generations to remember that the previous generation had to face a crossing point where they headed into territory that they hadn’t gone into before and God led the way and went with them! The elder generation was to point out to the next generation that there was a time when they came to a place where “they had not passed that way before…” (Joshua 3:4). And when they faced life and the prospect of possessing the promises of God they went for it and God helped them. It wasn’t just about reminiscing about the “good ole days.” It was about telling another generation that God can do it for you just like he did it for us! I read history and talk to my elders to help me in the here and now, not to lament that the former days were better than the present! What God did for them He will do for us!
The life of a Christian is one that Paul calls in Romans 6:4 “a newness of life.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 He says in 2 Corinthians 4:16 that though our outward man is perishing, yet our inward man is “renewed day by day.” Every day is a new adventure. Every day is new! We need a fresh encounter with Jesus every day! God doesn’t have any grandchildren! Every generation has to get it for themselves! We are pulled by the future! We are going places we have never gone before!
While we honor the past and we will never forget our heritage there is a danger when we make the past our idol and are unable to let go. Do you remember the name
Do you know the name, Harry Truman? Let me be clearer. Do you know the name, Harry Randall Truman? No, he was not a former president. He was a homeowner at the foot of Mount St. Helens in Washington state. In 1980, the volcanic mountain was showing signs of a major eruption. Indeed, one expert declared that the chance of a major eruption was virtually 100 percent. Truman’s home was located at the south end of Spirit Lake at the foot of the mountain. He was living in the most likely path of the volcanic flow. He was facing an almost certain death. Governmental officials implored him to leave. Friends told him that his failure to move was tantamount to suicide. Family members begged him to leave lest he die. On May 18, 1980, the massive eruption took place. The lava flowed right in the projected path of Truman’s home. On May 18, 1980, Harry Randall Truman died. He just could not let go of his home, even if it meant certain death. So what did the deceased churches cling to? What did they refuse to let go of facing certain death? Worship styles were certainly on the list. As were fixed orders of worship services. And times of worship services. Some stubbornly held on to buildings and rooms… (pp. 21-22).
I am thankful for this building! I like the way our pews are set up. I love the carpet. I am comfortable with so many things just the way they are, but if we have to knock out a wall or build a balcony to contain what God is doing. Let’s do it! I am glad we now have two vans, they are nice and have low miles on them, but if we need a bus to facilitate what God is doing I am not tethered to the past! We are going somewhere we have not been to before! Hey! I like Sunday School as it is, but if what we have always done will not work for what God is doing now! Jesus said that New Wine has to be put in New Wine Skins! The Pentecostal Movement from its very beginning has been a future pulled movement! It was born prayer meetings where people had a strong realization that Jesus was coming! I’m not married to any method! We haven’t passed this way before! The church at Sardis had received new life, but that new life was slipping form them and Jesus admonition was that they hold fast to it and repent! Repent of their stagnation, repent of their lack of freshness of hearing from God! Stop looking at in the rearview mirror and look in the windshield!
2. In Order to Live, We Must Put Others First
Dr. Rainer goes on and says that in his analysis “more than any one item…dying churches focused on their own needs instead of others. They looked inwardly instead of outwardly. Their highest priorities were the way they’ve always done it, and that which made them the most comfortable. It was not just the past they revered. It was their personal good old days (p. 22).
Unlike those heroes of the faith listed in Hebrews whose gaze was on the future those in dying churches clung to what made them personally comfortable even when God was doing something else! They came to church as consumers, to be ministered to rather than to minister. I am thankful for the mindset in our church that says we want to help those coming behind us as we go forward along the highway of holiness. We want to teach these young men and ladies to pray like we were taught! We want to teach them to teach like we were taught! We want to teach them to love the Word of God and holiness the way we love it! The marks of a living church are when you have to teach! New Life means New Life!!!! We aren’t here simply for ourselves. Sister Talley our dear elder friend used to tell us that in order to have real joy in life they key was that our priorities follow the acronym J-O-Y—Jesus, others, and then you! Paul said that we shouldn’t seek only our own wellbeing, but the wellbeing of others also! One of the first things we receive when we are baptized in the Holy Spirit is a new love for people. I love to watch the transformation of people who come into the church hard-hearted and mean. When God gets ahold of them they are like a happy drunk at closing time—they love everybody. They hug everybody! They want to help everybody! They want to pick everybody up for church! They want to tell everybody about Jesus! There is something about this old-time religion that makes me love everybody! This old-time religion is meant to be new every single day! Jesus said that he came not to be ministered to but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many! If we are going to live! If we are going to thrive! We are going to have to love others as we love ourselves!
3. In Order For Our Church to Live, We Must Be Willing to Reach Out Into Our Community
The book of Acts is a transitional book. It begins in Jerusalem where we might expect, and where Jesus disciples expected that it should. After the initial outpouring of the Holy Ghost, these Jewish Christians continued to isolate themselves from the rest of the world. They continued to have the temple as the center of their worship activities. We do need a place or regular corporate worship to be sure, but God doesn’t stay in boxes to long. God’s Spirit is dynamic—alive! And life means movement and vibrancy—and it might mean that what God wants to do cannot be contained in four walls. Jesus' last command to the disciples was to “go!” It wasn’t to set up camp in the temple. He didn’t say “stay!” He said, “Go!” Dr. Rainer said that the churches he did autopsies on had all grown to the place where they sat stagnant in their communities waiting for the lost to come to them. There would be occasional unsustained efforts to reach out into their communities, but these were all short-lived and it really wasn’t a part of the fabric of the church! They lost touch with their communities. They didn’t know who lived there—they weren’t fulfilling God’s mission. The four walls of their building had become a fortress where they holed in against the onslaught of the community. Their churches were strongholds against the people they feared—those who were unsaved—outside the covenant. God messed all of this up for the first-century church. He used a man named Saul to wreak havoc on the church in order for it to get outside of Jerusalem. If we are going to live we are going to stop being defensive and get on the offense. Others weren’t welcome in the dying churches. Others weren’t welcome in the first-century church—Gentiles weren’t welcome—if you ate pork chops you weren’t welcome—if you weren’t circumcised you weren’t welcome! It was a fortress, a castle… Others centered equals life! Self-centeredness means death! Hey, I am so thankful that our church IS reaching out into the community—we are going to live! Hey, we support foreign missions—we are intentional about reaching out! We are going to live, live, live!!!!! Reaching into the community is a sign of life! Vibrant living churches look after the needs of others! Our church ought to look like our community! It should reflect the demographics in the community in which it exists! We are getting there! A living church is working to fulfill the great commission—to go into all the world—preaching the gospel to every creature!!!!
We are becoming involved in our food pantry. We will be there tomorrow evening at the police department praying around the pole. Sister Melissa and our youth committee are leading these young people to take this Holy Ghost experience and this life of holiness outside these four walls and serve!
Come alive!!!!
