The Church That Makes God Sick Series

INTRO: Imagine yourself going to a doctor’s office for a check-up and you ask the doctor, "What can I do about my hair falling?" and he says to get out of the way. Another occasion you ask doctor what would you give me for this cold and he replies, "I don’t know. What would you take?" or "Doctor, something’s wrong with my stomach." And he replies, "Well, keep your coat buttoned and no one will notice." Or you ask, "Doctor, am I getting better?" and be replies, "I don’t know."

If you went to a doctor like that, how many would want to get a second opinion.

-Today we’re going to have a spiritual check-up just like Christ did at the church at Laodicea.

-Out of all the churches we’ve covered this is the church you would not want to belong to. This is the only church Christ has nothing good to say.

TITLE: The Church That Makes God Sick

TEXT: Rev. 3:14-21

I. Doctor Jesus credentials - three things in v. 14.

A. Christ is the Amen - Amen is the word put at the end, guarantee its truth. The final word sometimes you will see it translated truly, truly, I say to you.

-This would mean that Jesus Christ is the one whose promises are true beyond all doubt.

B. Described as faithful and true witness.

1. Faithful and true - He is always accurate, never wrong.

-Would you like to go to a doctor, mechanic, or someone whom you rely on (depend on). They are never wrong.

2. Witness - three things in order to be a witness.

a. Must see with his own eyes - God sees everything even things we don’t want Him to see.

b. Honest - God is holy.

c. Ability to tell what He has to say.

Christ meets all these prerequisites. He can tell of God because He came from Him. We can rely on His words for He is the Amen. He is able to tell His message because never has anyone spoke like Him.

C. 3rd Credential ruler of God’s creation - scripture tells us in Him all things are held together.

-God knows you better than you know yourself. Jesus is the master creator.

John 1:3 "Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made."

IL Examination v. 15-16 (Read)

-Doctor Jesus took their temperature neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm.

A. Condemnation of Laodicea church gives us a crude picture of how it makes Jesus sick.

ex Jr. high - got to go swimming with older brother and his friend, Ken. Ken was a strange sort. One thing I remember about Ken is he could spit a long distance. Nobody could match this skill.

Swimming and being with older brother and friend they liked to drown me, so I got what I thought was a safe distance away. Just as I said, Ken clearing his throat and about ready to spit. I was swimming away, as I came out of water I opened my mouth to take a deep breath and something landed in my mouth (you guessed it). Of course, instantly I felt terribly sick and spit it out of my mouth.

-You see, that’s how Christ feels about this church. It makes him sick.

-Or imagine taking a drink from a hose that’s been lying in summer sun all day long (warm tasting hose water).

B. These Christians - They had just enough religion to keep them from getting the disease.

1. They had a religion but not a relationship with the living God.

-They were professing Christians, but not possessing Christians.

2. Many today feel - I’m OK, if I just go to church every week and I can do what I want the remainder of the week.

-German theologian, Dietrich Bon Hoeffer, talks about this and he calls it cheap grace. Idea of going to church as a duty, task without getting to know the master personally.

ex.....Go out and ask ten strangers if they are a Christian and you will probably get 90-100 percent to say they were. But you could only get 1 or 2 to tell you what it means to be a Christian or what their responsibilities as a Christian are.

-The people at Laodicea had this problem of being lukewarm.

3. William Barclay writes - "Hard as it may sound, it is better not even to start on the Christian way than to start and then to drift into a conventional and meaningless Christianity." Why: Because you will be judged worse on judgement day because you knew the truth and you disobeyed.

ex Folks, it’s meaningless to do things out of duty, task. But you do them out of love for Christ.