Wake Up Series

The Church on Trial Pt. 5

Wake Up

Revelation 3:1-6 (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! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. 3) Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, 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) He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. 6) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

I want to continue this thought with the help of the Holy Spirit entitled “The Church on Trial”. But I want to use as a sub-thought on today, “Wake up.” So come on and look at your neighbor and say neighbor; wake up.

People of God, there have been four churches who have been brought to trial by God and judged by a righteous God. God is pointing the spotlight on his people who are supposed to be the light of the world, and saying right about now that you are not living up to your calling. God is saying in essence, it’s time to wake up. God is saying in essence it’s time to get your act together. God is saying it’s time for you to stop being a poser and a perpetrator and be the real McCoy. God is saying it’s time for you to stop living in a life of hypocrisy and begin to do the right thing.

God is saying it’s time to wake up, it’ time to get up, it’s time to speak up, it time to stand up, it’s time to point up, it’s time to look up, it’s time to clean up, and it’s time to straighten up.

The bible says that God, first of all, judged Ephesus if you will in chapter 2 and he convicted them because they had left their first love. And the question then that he asked was, “What does love have to do with it?” And the honest answer is love has everything to do with it. The bible says that God so LOVED the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Love has everything to do with it.

Love made Jesus go hang himself on the cross. Love allowed Jesus to give his back to the whip. Love allowed Jesus to die for your sins and my sins. Love has everything to do with it. They were convicted of leaving their first love.

And then Jesus brought the church at Smyrna to trial. And after judging them and weighing the evidence, he determined that they were a storm survivor. A storm survivor, meaning if you will; that they have gone through some things. They’ve gone through some heartaches and pains, but yet they still holding up the blood stain banner. People left them, they were ostracized, people talked about them, but they still hold the blood stain banner up. And through all they’ve gone through, he declared and decreed that they were a storm survivor.

Are there any storm survivors in here on today? I think we got some people who’ve been through some stuff, but can still say in the words of Maya Angelo: And still I rise. Is there somebody in here that have been through some bitterness and some heartache and pain, that can say Reverend I’m right there with you. I’m still surviving. They thought they were going to get me, they thought they were going to kill me. They thought because if they withdrew something from me that I wouldn’t make it. But I beg to differ because I realize that my hope is built on nothing less but on Jesus’ blood and his righteousness. They thought I wouldn’t make it. But on Christ the Solid Rock I stand, and all other ground is sinking sand. I’m still making it because I am a storm survivor. I ought to have a witness right about there. Tell your neighbor, he talking about me.

But then, people of God, he brought the church at Pergamum. And what God told the church at Pergamum was that they need to clean their house. The problem was; it wasn’t that Pergamum was doing something wrong, but rather they were tolerating sin that was in the house. Yeah, what God is saying is yeah you are alright but everybody else in your house is going to hell in a hand basket and you’re not saying anything about it. God says it’s time to clean the house.