Strengthening What Remains
I. OPENING ILLUSTRATION:
Resilience is the ability and the process of overcoming life-challenging and threatening experiences and events. Bouncing back does not happen overnight. The ability to live with what is left after trauma is something that not everyone possesses and so many people stop living and let life pass them by. Jesus says to the church at Sardis:
II. TEXT:
Revelation 3:1-4 (NIV)
1 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! [better: Be watchful] Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
II. INTRODUCTION:
The church at Sardis was considered to be alive and well, but actually it was on the point of death. Christ admonishes the congregation to wake up to their perilous conditions and take steps to restore their former vitality. Otherwise they will be visited with unexpected judgment. As with all of the short letters to the churches in Asia Minor there is a promise to those who overcome (Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation NICONT, pg. 91).
The acropolis of Sardis was on a rocky spur of Mount Tmolus. Two times in the city's history it was captured because it's guards failed to detect enemy soldiers who snuck in by climbing up a crevice in teh cliffs and opened the gates. Rev 3:2-3 is a warning to the congregation in Sardis that they could easily fall in the same way the city had twice fallen. It was important to be watchful and awake (Apostolic Study Bible, pg. 255).
They were slumbering spiritually and Jesus's answer to them overcoming was first of all to, "Be watchful." It is important that we live our lives with our eyes opened spiritually.
Jesus speaks often in His parables about being watchful. On the night when He was betrayed as He prayed in the garden, He pled with His disciples to be watchful and pray. The apostle Paul speaks of being watchful. The writer of Proverbs warns,
Proverbs 24:30-34 (NKJV)
30 I went by the field of the lazy man, And by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding; 31 And there it was, all overgrown with thorns; Its surface was covered with nettles; Its stone wall was broken down. 32 When I saw it, I considered it well; I looked on it and received instruction:33 A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest; 34 So shall your poverty come like a prowler, And your need like an armed man.
In the last section of Rev 3:2 Jesus says that there are things in the lives of the congregation that their deeds were unfinished. Far too often in our weariness we can slumber and it can keep us from finishing what we begin.
While it is God who begins a good work in us and creates in us the desire to finish, we must use the means of grace at our access (Phil 1:6; 2:13).
How often do we begin a project, a spiritual discipline, a ministry effort only to become weary in well-doing and fail to finish what we have begun?
Right in the middle of Jesus's words to the church at Sardis that they should be watchful and that they their works were unfinished He speaks a word that I believe is a present word for us today: "Strengthen what remains and is about to die..."
The Lord desires that we truly live. He professed that He came to give Life and Life more abundantly (john 10:10). Too often what we begin, and as we live life fighting the world, the flesh, and the devil, our energy wanes and we do not finish. Here Jesus tells us to strengthen what is left, the remnant. This can be our physical resources, our time, our talent, and so forth...
What we presently have is a gift from God. Far too often we spend our time lamenting what is past, what we have lost... Lost time, lost youth, lost money, lost love... Jesus points us away from what is lost to what remains. Sometimes we are waiting for what is coming next. We want that next check to come in, that next degree, that next... Jesus points us away from what is next to what is present... When we constantly live mentally, emotionally and spiritually somewhere other than the present moment our life is fading away right before our slumbering eyes and we are missing what God is doing now. Jesus admonishes them that what is let will die if they do not strengthen it.
If we are to be among the overcomes we must ask God and ourselves what we can do to strengthen what remains, rather than lamenting what is gone or reaching for what is ahead. What can I do with what God has given me now? What is God doing presently and how can I participate? I want to share three principles that we can use to strengthen what remains:
III. PREACHING POINTS:
1. Put God First
There is never a time when you cannot do more with what you have than when you give it to the Lord first.
This is the meaning of the principle of the tithe.
Proverbs 3:9-10 (NIV):
9 Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops;10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.
In the sermon on the mount, Jesus said that if we would seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness then everything that we need would be added to our lives (Matt 6:33).
It may seem counterintuitive but the first way to strengthen what remains is to give to God first.
In the story of feeding the 5,000, the lad gave his small lunch to Jesus. What started out as five loaves and two fishes fed everyone and there were twelve baskets full left.
The widow who fed Elijah during the famine only had a small amount of oil and a handful of flour. When she chose to feed the prophet first, she opened the door to a miracle that sustained her and her household for the duration of the famine. After things returned to normal, she had built a relationship with the one who represented the Presence of God at the time, and when her child died, she had the power of relationship to ask and receive the bread of the kingdom! If you give to God first, he will multiply (strengthen) what remains.
When Gideon had too many soldiers to conquer the Midianite army. The LORD told him to go out and fight with what he had left over once the fearful and those who did not do the right thing at the water were gone. God asked Gideon to give him what he saw as strength and when he did, God strengthened him!
Elijah thought he was the only one left in Israel who had not bowed down to baal, but the LORD let him know that there was a remnant who were just like him. And the LORD was going to use what was left over!
There were crowds and crowds of people who followed Jesus during his earthly ministry. The crowds dwindled the closer He got to the cross. It was just a handful of people who were in the upper room on the Day of Pentecost, and it was them, filled with the SPIRIT of God, that He used to begin a movement that continues to this day and has turned the world upside down.
We can spend our time lamenting what we have lost. We can spend our time reaching for what is next. But we cannot grasp any of those things. Moses stood at the burning bush encountering God, and the I AM's words to him were, "What is that in your hand?" He was asking, "What do you have left?"
People live in sorrow for wasted years. Moses may have lamented that he had at one time been a mighty person in Pharoah's court, a warrior. He may have lamented that he thought he would bring deliverance to Israel at one time, but they rejected him. Oh, he might have beaten up on himself. But God did not talk to him about any of that. He just asked him what he would do with what was left. Strengthen what remains.
We can spend our time lamenting the money we have lost, the love we have lost, and the children that have gone astray. Or we can get to work making more money, find new love, and focus on the child that did not go astray even while we leave the door open for the one who has. In any church transition, people always choose to leave for various reasons. We are what remains, and God desires to strengthen us today.
What will you do with what you have left?!
2. Waste Not, Want Not
Proverbs 21:20 (NIV)
The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down.
During the Great Depression, there were some rules that those who survived practiced:
Use it up
Wear it out
Make do
Do without
We live in a world that is so full of waste. There is more than enough, but we squander it. We toss it away, and it finds itself in landfills. If we sold what we did not use anymore, we would have so much if we learned to compost our food waste and recycle.
Our time is often wasted on watching funny cat videos. Sometimes the reason we veg out on social media or before Netflix watching things that are not spiritually beneficial is that we regret the past or are anxious about the future. Still, the LORD is calling to each of us, saying, "Strengthen what remains!"
What can you do in the here and now? What does your spouse need? What do your children need? What does your church need? What does the kingdom of God in your community need? Jesus is saying to us, "Don't let it die! Strengthen what remains!"
We could feed all the hungry people in the world with what remains that is thrown out every day!
God is calling us to spend more of our time in prayer, more of our time dedicated to His work! Strengthen what remains, but not waste the precious life and time he gives us each and every day.
Each morning when we wake up, His Mercies are new! Each day there are brand new neurons in our brain's gray matter waiting for us to train them by how we live our lives! We can be renewed in the spirit of our minds each and every day! New habits.
Sometimes it is a matter of stewardship. We give our 10% tithe to the LORD and then spend what is left frivolously. Sometimes God may be saying, use what you have left more wisely. We give God a few hours on Sunday and He is saying, strengthen your relationship with me each day!
Don't waste your life!
Strengthen what remains.
3. Work Together
The following excerpt from EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey is a great example of the power of relationships on teams:
“One of the largest, strongest horses in the world is the Belgian draft horse. Competitions are held to see which horse can pull the most, and one Belgian can pull 8,000 pounds. The weird thing is if you put two Belgian horses in the harness who are strangers to each other, together they can pull 20,000 – 24,000 pounds. Two can pull not twice as much as one but three times as much as one. This example represents the power of synergy. However, if the two horses are raised and trained together, they learn to pull and think as one. The trained, and therefore unified, pair can pull 30,000 – 32,000 pounds, almost four times as much as a single horse.”
To strengthen what remains, it takes robust relationships.
One can cause a thousand to flee, but two can cause ten thousand (Duet 32:30).
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (KJV)
9 Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
10 For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
11 Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?
12 And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
There is strength when we pray together, learn together, read together, plan together, play together, and eat together. We are not meant to live this life alone!
John Donne wrote "For Whom the Bell Tolls"
No man is an island, Entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were.As well as if a manor of thine own Or of thine friend's were. Each man's death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee.
Acts 2:42 (KJV) "And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers."
If we want to strengthen our church, we need to do these things together.
IV. CONCLUSION:
What will we do with what we have left?
Anna Mary Robertson Moses grew up on a farm in upstate New York, where she worked as a hired girl, helping neighbors and relatives with cleaning, cooking, and sewing. Her father encouraged her to draw on old newsprint, and she used berry and grape juices to brighten her images. She married when she was twenty-seven and moved to a farm in Virginia, where she raised five children. Grandma Moses did not start painting until she was seventy-seven years old and looking for something to do ?“to keep busy and out of mischief” after her husband died. She painted nostalgic scenes of American life and sold them at country fairs alongside her prize-winning pickles. In 1939 a collector saw her paintings in the window of the local pharmacy and bought them all. Soon after, Hallmark purchased the rights to reproduce her paintings on greeting cards and the name Grandma Moses became known across the country. She died at 101, after painting more than fifteen hundred images.
(https://americanart.si.edu/artist/grandma-moses-5826#:~:text=Grandma%20Moses%20did%20not%20start,alongside%20her%20prize%2Dwinning%20pickles.)
