OPEN: I once heard of the skipper of boat that was sinking in the ocean who frantically radioed for help. Finally, the Coast Guard answered his plea.
The Coast Guard replied: "We’re on our way. What is your position? Repeat, what is your position?"
The yachtsman responded: "I’m executive vice president of the 1st National Bank. Now, will you please hurry."
Apply: The yachtsman had misunderstood the question and was annoyed because, as far as he was concerned, who he was wasn’t important right then. Sometimes, who you are, and what you possess aren’t very important.
Once in a while I’ll read a story about a person who’s adrift at sea, or lost in a forest, or trapped on a mountain side somewhere. And after they’ve been rescued they often reflect on how unimportant all their possessions and responsibilities had seemed while they were in danger. It was only when they were in danger of losing EVERYTHING that they realized what was really important. They often explain that their possessions and their daily responsibilities had blinded and dulled their appreciation of what was most important.
I. That’s what Jesus is telling the church at Laodicea
He’s telling them that something has blinded them, something has dulled their senses, something has caused them to become spiritually poverty stricken.
Notice what Jesus tells them in verses 15-17: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm— neither hot nor cold— I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”
This was a church that seemed to have everything it needed. A confident congregation, a church with a security that would be envied by other believers. But, as far as Jesus is concerned – this church was wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, naked, and so lukewarm they turn Jesus’ stomach.
Ask any Bible scholar what the Bible says about Laodicea and they’ll tell you, and almost to a man they’ll tell you this church was known as a lukewarm church. It sickened Jesus. It nauseated God.
AND YET Jesus tells them (verse 19-20) “Those whom I LOVE I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
As I studied for today’s sermon, I’ll have to admit I was confused! Here was a church that greatly disappointed Jesus and yet here He is telling them how much He loves them and how much He desires to spend time with them.
II. I really struggled with what Jesus says to Laodicea:
¨ He didn’t warn them He would come like thief in night (like He did with Sardis)
¨ He didn’t threaten to remove their “lampstand” (as He did Ephesus)
¨ He didn’t berate them for tolerating false doctrine or immorality (as He did
Pergamum and Thyatira)
He’s telling Laodicea they have a serious problem. But He still loves them and wants to come in and eat with them. He wants to regain an intimacy with them that has been lost or misplaced.
(pause…)
What happened? What has caused this congregation to fall apart in Jesus’ eyes. What has caused them to be wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, naked, so nauseating to God?
It doesn’t seem to be false doctrine – Jesus would have told them if it was.
It doesn’t seem to be immorality – Jesus has berated other churches for that in Revelation.
And it’s doesn’t to be spiritual laziness – they do have deeds, just not very impressive ones.
The closer I looked, the more obvious Laodicea’s problem appeared. It was a sin far more subtle than anything mentioned so far in Revelation, but just as dangerous as the weaknesses that plagued the other churches. READ verse17: “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing….’”
III. You know what Laodicea’s problem was? They had too much money.
Now most churches never have that problem. So it’s rare that any church would even give any thought to being TOO rich. But apparently it can happen. It happens to Christians and it can happen to churches.
ILLUS: A man by the name of Spike Milligan once said: "All I ask is the chance to prove that money can’t make me happy." We might smile at that… But we’d like to have that chance too.
A little extra money would come in handy for all of us. How many of you would like to have just a little bit more money? There’s repairs to the house, the car. There’s Bills that we’d like to pay. That dream vacation we’d like to take.
ILLUS: My brother-in-law is a investment consultant and I once commented that it would be nice to win a million dollars through Reader’s Digest or some similar contest. He guffawed and said “Oh, a million dollars isn’t so much.” I replied: “Well, maybe not, but I’d like a chance to find out how little it is!”
Likewise, almost any church could use a few extra dollars. There’s office equipment to buy. Buildings to maintain. More staff they’d like to have. AND it would be so great to have a never ending flow of cash. THAT WAY, a church could do whatever they wanted whenever they wanted to.
How many of you would like to have this church so rich we could afford build our new sanctuary tomorrow and not have to worry about having a special offering every month? (Many raised their hands.)
IV. But it’s possible for a church to be TOO rich. To have too much money.
ILLUS: I remember hearing the true story of a church that was willed several oil wells by a wealthy member. The annual income from these wells was significant and the church board met to discuss what to do with the money. And they got into arguments over how to spend the money. Some argued they should donate it all to missions. Some vigorously opted for building improvements. Still others thought it should go for additional staff and staff salaries. The Board meeting became so heated that the congregation literally split apart… and they eventually went to court and spent a number of years arguing over who had the right to decide what was done with the money.
ILLUS: But even when a church agrees on what to do with riches – too much money can destroy something inside of them. When I was starting out in ministry, I heard about a sister church that had a building fund of $40,000. It wasn’t that they needed - or even intended - to build. The building fund was their for any improvements they had to do to the building. AND whenever they had to use that money – they scurried around until they had built the fund back up to its $40,000 level.
Why would that church do that? Why were they so concerned about topping that fund off when it was used for improvements? Because they had their eyes too much on the money and not enough on God. They had learned to trust their bank account rather than God.
As far as I know that church taught sound doctrine. People became Christians every year there. As far as I know there was no sexual immorality. BUT they had gotten their eyes so fixed on what they could do that they took their eyes off of what God could do.
That kind of an attitude has always concerned God.
ILLUS: In the book of Judges there is a story of about a man named Gideon. For a number of years, the Israelites had been oppressed by the Midianites (because of Israel’s disobedient attitudes), but now God was calling for man to rise up and throw off the yoke of this nation. God called Gideon to raise an army to fight the oppressing nation.
However, once the Midianites heard that Gideon was raising an army: "The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore." Judges 7:12
Gideon managed to gather an army of 32,000 men to fight this vast army. They were probably still outnumbered, but 32,000 men is a sizable army…
BUT then “The LORD said to Gideon, ‘You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her announce now to the people, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’" So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.’” Judges 7:2-3
But even 10,000 was still too many, so God devised another test and reduced Gideon’s army to
a force of no more than 300 men.
Why was God concerned over the number of men Gideon led to into battle against the Midianites? BECAUSE, if Gideon had defeated the Midianites with 32,000 men, or even with 10,000 the Israelites would have thought they’d done it all by themselves. And IF they could defeat their enemy without God - why would they need Him?
So also, a church that has all kinds of money – or which makes decisions based ONLY on amount of money they have on hand… That Church doesn’t sense the need for God. That Church would tend to believe that whatever needs to be done THEY needed to do it. God need not be bothered.
· I believe Laodicea was a Biblically sound church
· I believe sexual immorality wasn’t a problem there
· I believe they did many good things
· BUT I also believe money had become their master
That’s why Jesus had to say “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20
It’s almost like He’s saying: “Hello!!! Here I am!!! Remember Me????”
ILLUS: When a church begins to think like that – money is the master – it can even become obvious to pagans. A missionary in Africa had been witnessing faithfully to a certain individual. Following their conversation one day, the unconverted man placed a small statue and a silver coin on the table before him. Then he took two slips of paper and wrote something on each. Putting one beside the image and the other with the money.
On the note by the idol were written the words, "Heathen god." The sheet next to the coin bore the inscription, "Christian god."
That was how he perceived the actions of the Christians he’d met up till then.
V. How do we avoid falling into that trap?
We need to keep reminding ourselves that our ministry cannot be run based on our bank account. We do need to be good stewards of the money we have on hand, BUT there will be times when we have to examine our priorities and ask:
1. Are we trusting in God – or in our bank account?
2. Are we walking by faith or by sight?
When we hired Brad (our youth minister), the Elders and I had to ask that question. This congregation had never spent that much additional money before and there was some doubt as to whether it was possible for us to do so. We had to ask ourselves: is this what God would want us to do. We agreed that it was. Then we needed to ask: if this is what God would want us to do, did we believe that is able to supply the extra money we’d need to hire him? After much prayer and consideration, we decided that: yes God could and would…. And He did.
ILLUS: Perhaps one of the best illustrations I can give is to illustrate the faithfulness of God in this matter was something I watched happen at the last church I served.
It was a good church, but a church split over whether or not to build a new foyer and sanctuary (a vision planted by my predecessor in the pulpit). Two thirds of the congregation were fixed upon building, but a third were violently opposed - almost to the point of splitting the church over the issue. Their opposition was based upon the fact that the congregation would need to go several hundred dollars into debt for a project they weren’t sure a country church could afford.
They did however, have $100,000 in their building fund - an accumulation of offerings over the past several years for this project. Looking the situation over, I spoke to the Elder most convinced of their need to build, a man named Cy and pointed out that - to avoid any more tension over the issue - perhaps we should build the foyer (which we really needed, and which would cost approximately $100,000) and leave the new sanctuary (which we didn’t need at that point, and might never need if the church split) for another day. After much thought, he agreed. We presented the idea to the Board and they felt it was important to pledge to spend no more on the project than they had at hand. That seemed to be the solution to the tension they’d had for some time and so they voted to proceed with the project. So on in the Spring when America went to war with Iraq in Desert Storm… we broke ground.
Everything went well to start with. The ground was prepared, the foundation laid and the structure began to take shape… then the government paid us a visit. They tested our ground and found that it didn’t "perk." I didn’t know what that meant initially, but later found out that ground that "perks" has dirt that readily absorbs ground water. But ours didn’t perk. What that meant was: the $5000 dollar septic system we had intended to install was no longer an option. Now we had to put in a $20,000 contraption that would deal with waste water. That little change put the our budget $10,000 in the hole.
Our board was not happy. They had vowed not to spend any more than they had on hand. Now, with the project well under way, they had a serious shortfall. These were men of their word and they were upset about having to break their word and borrow money.
Then it occurred to me that I might have a solution to their quandary. I told them I had heard of another church who had held a "Miracle Sunday." They announced several weeks ahead of time what the church needed and urged the congregation to pray and set aside a special gift for that Sunday with the anticipation that God would supply their needs. Everyone thought that would be a great idea, and would I see to advertising it and making it happen? So I did.
However, I have a spiritual problem. I often set things in motion and then get distracted by other things. That’s what happened this time. I faithfully set the advertising for "Miracle Sunday" in motion, but then I attended a prayer conference in Indianapolis. It was a wonderful conference, and I learned more about prayer than I had ever thought possible. It changed how I prayed, and the intensity and urgency of my prayer life. In fact, I liked the man’s sermons so much… I stole them and began preaching them at our congregation.
I had become so distracted by the sermons, that I failed to properly develop a worship service for "Miracle Sunday" - principally because I’d forgotten all about it. The Saturday night before Miracle Sunday, I was still working on my sermon at 10 pm over at the pulpit in the church building. The sermon I had "stolen" had a great outline and powerful illustrations… but I needed a better illustration to close it out. So, I prayed asking "God I could really use a good closing illustration. I’d like to go home some time tonight."
I’ve only had it happen a couple of times in my ministry, but it was if I got nudged, and a question came into my mind: "What is tomorrow?" It was almost eerie. But I thought about it and said aloud "Well, it’s miracle Sunday." Again a question came into my mind: "How much do you need?"
I got chills. I thought, "you know, if this is God, this could be one of the greatest sermons I’ve ever preached… but if it’s not, I may as well pack my bags" because there were people in the congregation who didn’t much like me and this would be all the excuse they’d need to get rid of me. Remember it was 10 at night, but I called 4 or 5 people in the church who weren’t particularly rich and told them what I intended to do tomorrow and that I wanted them to pray for me. Then I called our treasurer, Mark, and told him I wanted him to count the money during the worship service rather than afterward, as he usually did. I explained that he was going to be my sermon’s third point. He was to come out and announce how much we had collected for Miracle Sunday - but I was already going to have told the church it WAS GOING TO BE $10,000. Then I told him to pray that that is exactly what God would do.
The next morning, I sat up on the stage as I always did and looked out over the audience. It occurred to me that there weren’t as many people in the audience that Sunday as their had been the week before. And I began thinking "maybe I ought to go count heads. Maybe it’s not too late to back out and find a different closing illustration."
Then I got nudged again and the thought came into my mind: "David counted heads…" So, I decided maybe I’d better not. I resolved to go for broke and preach the sermon just as I’d prepared it.
When I got into the pulpit and began to preach, I knew it was going to be a good sermon. Almost every preacher will tell you they can FEEL a good sermon when they’re preaching it. It seems to take on a life of its own - and this sermon had that feel. The text had to do with the 10th chapter of Daniel where the prophet had been given a vision by God but didn’t understand its meaning. Daniel fasted for 21 days, and on the 21st day an angel appeared to him telling him that the very 1st day he had prayed, God had sent him forth from the throne to bring Daniel His answer. However, the angel had been waylaid by "the prince of Persia" (whom many scholars believe was a demonic force). The sermon dwelt on the power of prayer and the spiritual warfare we engage in when we devote ourselves to prayer in earnestness.
Then I got to the part in my sermon I had been preparing for. "What is today?" I asked.
"Miracle Sunday" they responded.
"How much money are we expecting to receive today?"
"$10,000" some shouted.
"Ten thousand dollars? That’s an awful lot of money." I said. "I don’t know if we can get that much this morning."
I pulled out a calculator. "According to my calculations… if you take into account the fact that we have about 120 people every Sunday, and the fact that so many of you farmers with a variable income… and a good portion of you are retired and on a fixed income… and then there are the children and school kids that make up a sizable portion of the congregation… (here I tapped a few numbers on the calculator for show) I calculate that we would do well to come off with an offering of about $56,000 today (a number one of the older leaders had shared with someone else in the congregation)."
"How many of you think $56,000 would be a pretty good offering today?"
There was a noticeable lack of enthusiasm in the congregation.
"Well now, that would be true if God used my kind of calculator. But God has a different kind of calculator that He uses. Turn to Leviticus 26:3-8 (I stressed verses 3 & 8) ’If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them… five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.’"
(pause…) "Well that can’t be right! We just went through desert storm, and our leaders told us - that to be assured of victory - we needed to outnumber our enemy 2 to 1, or at least have an equal number of soldiers on the field in order to be assured of victory. But here, God is telling His people that, if they obey Him they could be outnumbered 100 to 1 - and they’d still win, because God would win the victory for them. How could God say that? Because He uses a different calculator than we do."
"Today is Miracle Sunday. How many of you have prayed that God would supply $10,000 dollars today?" (About 2/3’s of the church raised their hands).
"Because you have obeyed God and trusted Him in your prayers, I am convinced that He is going to supply $10,000 today. In fact, I’m so convinced that I’ve asked Mark (our treasurer) to come out right now and tell you how much has been contributed today. BUT I’m going to tell you right now - it is going to be $10,000."
At this point Mark came out. Mark is a very humble and quiet man. But just now he’s looking very pale and nervous - kind of like somebody has just beat his dog. Mentally I’m thinking about how quick I can pack my bags.
"Well, Mark," I said, "how much have we collected today?"
Mark began very quietly and deliberately as he said: "We have… ten thousand… nine hundred and ninety nine dollars and ninety six cents"
The audience went wild. I later shared with Cy (who was a fairly wealthy man and whose dream it was to build this building) how impressed I was in what God had done. God had supplied the $10,000 dollars and plenty to spare. But it wasn’t 11,000 or more. And it wasn’t just barely $10,000 so that someone could accuse Mark of kicking in just enough to make up the difference.
Cy replied that he had been impressed as well. He had never opened his wallet. Cy had put nothing into the offering plate. He had made up his mind that whatever was lacking, he’d make up the difference himself.
What did this "miracle" prove? It proved that our congregation had been faithful in its stewardship. They had collected the initial $100,000. But in their stewardship God hadn’t really been necessary. It was almost as if God had created the financial crisis so that He could prove to this congregation what He could actually do.
What it proved was that our God is equal to any financial need and that churches need to be careful to look less at their financial status than in their spiritual one.
SERMONS IN THE “JESUS DIARY” SERIES
Remember... - Revelation 2:1-2:7
Where Was God? - Revelation 2:8-2:11
The Comatose Congregation - Revelation 3:1-3:6
Making An Open Door- Revelation 3:7-3:13
The Poor Little Rich Church - Revelation 3:14-3:22
