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Rev. Paul Jeyachandran leads the Intentional Disciple Making Church (IDMC) Movement, which is all about calling churches back to its disciplemaking roots. Visit us at idmcmovement.com
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Overcoming Nominal Christianity 0:00 Shall we give the Lord a clap offering church? Hallelujah. It is always a joy and a privilege to bring God's word into your homes. Again, this morning we're gonna be studying from the book0:12 of Revelation and we're gonna look at the church of Saddis, Jesus' letter to the church at Saddis. I'm titling this sermon0:23 overcoming nominal Christianity and we're gonna study from Revelation chapter 3 verses 1 to verse 6. Shall we look to the Lord in prayer? Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this0:35 day. We ask that you give us listening ears and a heart that is willing to obey your word. Open our eyes, Lord, to see, to see you in all your beauty and your glory and the0:47 way you are moving us back, calling us back to yourself, That lord that we will leave our nominal ways and truly rise up to be a church that0:59 is consecrated unto the lord Jesus. This morning speak to us from your word. Holy spirit be our teacher. We give you all the glory, the praise, and the honor in Jesus name and people of God said,1:11 amen and amen. Overcoming nominal Christianity, Revelation chapter 3 verses 1 to verse 6. I want us to read the text, it's only 61:23 verses, and I want us to get a big picture of what Jesus is communicating here. And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, the1:34 words of him who has 7 spirits of God and the 7 stars. I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.1:47 Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember then what you have1:59 received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour I will come against2:11 you. Yet you have still a few names in Saddis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white for they are worthy. The2:23 1 who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will blot I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my2:34 father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. Overcoming nominal Christianity, Revelation2:46 chapter 3 verses 1 to 6. Now, story was told of a guy who went to the library to borrow a book. A week later, he returned and said to the2:58 librarian at the counter, this book was very boring. It had too many characters and too many numbers and I would like to return it. The librarian took the3:09 book and looked at another librarian and said, hey, good news. We found the guy who took our phone directory. Now listen to this. Many times we3:21 don't know what to look for. We are looking at something. We are either impressed by it or intimidated by it or we are bored by it, but we are not sure what we are looking at.3:33 There is a Japanese proverb that says this, we can never see the sunrise by looking to the west. See, you and I, we need to understand what are we looking at. See, sometimes when we look at3:45 a church, we look at the church just like we look at a business, just like you look at an organization. You look at its features, you look at its externalities and you get impressed by it.3:58 In fact, in the last, 5 to 10 years, there have been a lot of, talk around church circles all over the world about branding, being conscious4:09 of how you appear in the community, how relevant you are, so being contemporary, be relevant. So as a result, they had branding exercises and to be more modern4:21 and contemporary and appeal to the masses. Now you and I, we do we understand these things because that's what the world does. But we we4:33 pay attention so much to the cosmetic facade, the externalities, how our building looks, how our programs are run, how efficient, how effective, how our systems are, how the4:44 organization is, run like a smooth machine. Now listen to me carefully. There is something fundamental and more vital that we need to understand. Is there4:56 life in this? See, a church is an organism. Organism has life. Without that life, it is just an organization. The5:08 church is a movement. Without that life, it just becomes a monument. No matter how impressive it is on the outside, it just becomes a monument.5:20 Most important question that we are exploring in this series in the book of revelation is what does the church look like to Jesus? How does Jesus view your church, my5:31 church? And the reason why this is important is because we're not here to win the applause of men, we are here to win the approval of God. And here Jesus5:43 gives a very damning statement about the church in Sardis. 1 of the things that I want you to pay attention to is look at this verse 1, the second part of it. I5:55 know your works, he says. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. The word there for reputation is the word for name.6:07 You have the name. You have the popularity. You are the famous church. You are the flagship church in your country, in your city, in your neighborhood. People know you. People know the6:19 leadership of the church. They are well known around the world because Saddis was a large city, most populated city. Maybe the church was also large. It was a6:31 place where the bishop stayed. And so as an affluent city, as a as a city that is well known, this church was well known. And here he says, you have the reputation of being alive. In6:43 other words, people were impressed by the programs. People were impressed by the way the systems were organized. I want you to listen to me carefully. But Jesus looking at this6:54 church through his piercing evaluation, he comes to a conclusion that they are spiritually dead. Look at verse 2. Wake up and strengthen what7:06 remains and is about to die. His diagnosis is that this church is in the last stage and it's about to die. Many parts of it is already dead and some parts of it is7:18 just about to die. And he says, I want you to wake up for I have not for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God, he says. And then he gives them7:30 a stern warning that if you do not wake up, I will come in judgment against you. Now listen to me carefully. What does Jesus think of our church?7:42 We can be revered by people and still we could be rebuked by Jesus. We could win the applause of men and7:53 still not receive the approval of Christ. You and I, we need to realize do we want the reputation or do you want the reality? And that's what something that you and I, we need to8:05 consider. There was a famous quote by William Booth, the founder of Salvation Army. This is what he said, I consider that the chief dangers8:17 which confront the coming century will be religion without the holy ghost, Christianity without Christ, Forgiveness without repentance.8:28 Salvation without regeneration. Politics without God and heaven without hell. In many places around the world, today you hear a8:40 gospel without Christ. You hear a good news without sin being proclaimed. You come and get get your dreams restored back. Your broken lives8:52 put back together. But no mention of sin that needs to be forgiven, people that need to give their life back to Christ so that he can become the lord of their life. But this is9:04 what he foresaw. He say there will be a salvation without regeneration. People are not saved. They are still dead in their sins and in their trespasses,9:15 but they have the false presumptuous assumption that they are saved. So this is why you and I, we need to take note of this. In a disciple making church, we call9:27 this nominal Christianity where we want Christian ideals, we want to have Christian values, we want to embrace Christian lifestyle, but we don't want to acknowledge9:39 Christ as our lord. That's the nominal Christianity. In fact, in my teachings, would have heard more more than once there are 4 types of people in a church, we say.9:51 1, they are cultural Christian. Who are these cultural Christian? Cultural Christians are people who have who maybe attend a church, who may have a Christian upbringing,10:03 may even come from a godly Christian household, but yet their heart has not been regenerated. Their life has not been transformed by the spirit of God. They are still living in the10:14 deadness of their sin. Listen, that's a cultural Christian. The second type of Christian is someone who is a carnal Christian. The bible calls them people who are worldly. In other words,10:26 there's no difference between them and the world. Their value system has not changed. The worldview through which they function has not changed. They still live like the heathen. And they, the bible10:38 says, are carnal Christians. They are saved, but there is no life, the life of God. There is no acknowledgment. There's no fruit10:50 of the spirit. There is no service in their life. Listen. Thirdly, it's the compromised Christian. Who is a compromised Christian? Compromised Christian is someone who stays committed to the things of God, but11:02 at the same time is in love with the world, is what you would call a double love in a single heart. Is someone who is has 1 foot in the kingdom and 1 foot in the world. In other words, they don't want to lose11:14 out from the world. They still want to accumulate. They still want to do things in the world, but at the same time, they want to pursue the things of God. Compromised Christians give token commitments. They are what you11:25 would call a roller coaster Christian. They're always yo yo. There are seasons of their life where they are on fire for Jesus, but there are seasons of their life where they are fully backslided, and they live like11:36 they're heathen. They're the compromised Christian, but there are There is a remnant in the church world. It's the consecrated Christian. Like apostle Paul would say, it's no longer I who live but11:48 Christ who lives in me. The life I now live, I live by faith in the son of God who loves me and gave himself for me. In other words, I give myself completely to him. I'm crucified to the world and the world is crucified11:59 to me. I daily take up my cross and follow him. I crucify my flesh on that cross every single day. I want to identify myself with the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. I wanna acknowledge that not12:11 only my sins are forgiven, but Jesus Christ is the Lord and he dictates the terms on which I live my life. They consecrated Christians. They want to do the will of12:23 God. They wanna walk in his ways. They desire and love the word of God. They delight in studying the word together and applying the word together. That's the consecrated12:34 Christians. The reason why I want to take this time to talk about these things is because I want you to pay attention to what I'm saying next because the church is losing ground.12:47 Very soon we will be having our next IDMC conference. And in this IDMC conference, we're going to be dealing with how do we multiply authentic disciples. I've titled this12:59 exponential. Where we're going to talk about strategies and and and systems that needs to be in place to create an empowering discipleship culture, an environment of training and development and13:11 release of disciples who go and reproduce disciples. In my previous conference, which is our first online conference, we talked about why do we need13:22 an intentional disciple making church? Why do we need to become intentional in our disciple making? The reason is because we are losing ground, and I covered this there. I wanna remind you there are 3 areas where we are13:34 losing ground as a church. When you look around, we are losing our moral ground. Just in this past pandemic season, just in this last year alone,13:46 notable statesmen, Christian statesmen have fallen from grace. You and I know that this That there is a They are losing on the moral ground. In other words, there's sexual13:58 immorality that's plaguing not only the church but the clergymen. You and I, we need to recognize that we are living in the last leg of the last days, but you and I,14:10 we know that there are things that is surfacing, fault lines that are appearing, marriages, Christian marriages going through divorce, Christian Christian believers coming out14:22 of sexual, having the having the sexual immorality, living a life of duplicity of loves, unethical living. We're losing our moral ground. Secondly,14:34 we're losing our spiritual ground. In other words, the spiritual consumerism is plaguing the church. In fact, in this online world, it's a flick of a button you can switch from church to church. So14:45 you and I, we need to understand that we are living in the last leg of the last days and the bible says that people will not tolerate good teaching. Teaching that corrects them, corrects their thinking, rebukes them, and14:57 retrains them in righteousness. And people will look for They will have itching ears to look for teachers that will just want to tell them what they want to hear. That's why the bible says in the last days there15:09 will be famine. In other words, we are losing that spiritual grounding. Thirdly, we're losing our biblical ground. What do I mean by losing our biblical ground?15:21 As a church, global church, there are 2 things that are distinctly clear. We are raising a generation of people who are biblically illiterate and spiritually15:32 immature. Biblically illiterate, in other words, they don't know the bible. They don't know some They know some things here, some things there because there has been no systematic15:44 theology. They have not been tutored in doctrine. They have not been trained to think theologically. They don't live biblically. As a result, what happens? There's a biblical illiteracy that plagues the church15:56 as well as there is a biblical There's a spiritual immaturity. We are experiencing chronic extended spiritual infancy. This is what is16:08 plaguing the church. And this is the reason why you and I, we need to pay attention to this. Why? Because people do not know the word and people have not grown up. So they get impressed by16:20 lights, camera, action. They get impressed by programming. They get impressed by facilities. They get impressed by the external things as markers of a thriving church.16:33 But the reality is Jesus doesn't look at these things. He doesn't see how your kids facilities are, how your youth and young adults programs are. He doesn't look at all these things and say, I'm so impressed. He looks at16:45 whether there is life. Because apart from him, you can not have church. You can have You can live but you won't have life. And how can you live16:56 without life? And this is what he is calling them. You have the reputation, you have the name, but you do not have life he says. You are dead17:08 or if something's about to die. So I wanna explore this passage of scripture. I'm still in my introduction. We're gonna explore this passage of scripture and ask only 1 question. How do17:20 we move from death to vitality? How do we move from that spiritual decay, that decline to vitality? And we're gonna17:32 explore this passage because this passage gives us fourfold call of Jesus to us. The fourfold call to move from decay to17:43 vitality. What is that fourfold call? Number 1, wake up. Number 2, look up. Number 3, clean up. And number 4, shape up.17:56 Now these 4 things, I hope I kept it simple so that you will remember this. Look at this in verse 1 and verse 2, wake up. And to the angel of the church in Sardis write the18:08 words of him who has the 7 spirits of God and the 7 stars. We already established that whenever Jesus writes the letter to the church, he writes by firstly18:20 giving them a description of himself. And here he says, he who has the 7 spirits of God. In other words, it's 1 spirit but it's the 7 fold manifestation of the holy spirit.18:32 Christ has the fullness of the spirit. We already established this from Isaiah chapter 11 and verse 2. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon18:43 him. That's the first 1. Look at the 7 manifold ways in which the spirit of God is described here. He is the spirit of wisdom, spirit of understanding, he's the spirit of counsel, he's18:55 the spirit of might, he's the spirit of knowledge, he's the spirit of the fear of the Lord, and he is the spirit of the Lord. In other words, there is that 7 fold. In other words, what he is saying is Jesus, when he19:07 evaluates the church, he has total understanding of what is going on. He's most powerful than any MRI, CT scan, x-ray machine out there.19:19 Why? Because he can see, he can cut through things, he can see what is going on deep within the life of the church. And the bible says he's he19:30 comprehends your situation. Not only that, the bible goes on to say he holds the 7 stars. In Revelation chapter 1, we already established that the 7 stars19:42 that he holds in his right hand are the 7 leaders of the church, the 7 angels of the church. In fact, in Revelation chapter 1 and verse19:54 16 and in verse 20, it speaks about how these 7 lampstands are the 7 churches and the 7 stars are the 7 angels of the church. In other words, Jesus is holding the leadership of the20:05 church in his hands And this is what he is declaring. Excuse me. This is what he is declaring. He's declaring this, that I see everything and I20:17 care for you. In other words, he is now saying, I hold you in my hand, at the same time I have the spirit that has everything to give you power, to give you life. You cannot20:29 build church without Christ and his spirit. It is the spirit that does the work. The transformation work in the heart of the people is done by the Lord Jesus through his spirit, through his word.20:42 So we need his spirit. That's why 1 of the things that he's saying here is you don't need reputation. The need of the hour is not more reputation, the need of the hour is resuscitation.20:54 What does that mean? He says you need life and the life can only come in if you depend upon the holy spirit. That's why we need the power of the holy spirit in these last days.21:06 The church began when the day of Pentecost when the holy spirit was poured upon the people in the upper room. From that day till today, it is the spirit of God quickening the hearts of people,21:18 reviving dead men, bringing them to life and he's the 1 who builds the church, hallelujah. That's why don't get impressed by anything that you see on21:30 the outside because we need the holy spirit. Holy spirit is the 1 who does that work. You and I, we need to come back to that realization. You know the bible says we are21:42 living in the last leg of the last days and in the last days the promise of the Lord is this, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, both upon the old and the young. They will see visions, they will see21:54 dreams. Why? Because we need the spirit of God in these last days. So that's what here he says, when the holy spirit comes, he will be the 1 that will22:06 spiritually intervene and resurrection, bring resurrection and bring life into that deadness. You know in my travels I have walked with pastors who have going22:18 through church in a very difficult season or painful season to the point of division and discouragement, depletion of resources, where they've really come to a place where they're22:29 divided. But bottom line was, how do you turn these things around? It's not strategies. It is not borrowing a vision. It is not borrowing a22:41 program or running a retraining or repositioning or repositioning your staff team. It's nothing to do with externalities. Listen to me carefully, church. It is not management issues. It is the22:53 issue of ministry. The minister has to be the holy spirit. See, when he comes in, the holy spirit is enough to refresh a stale church. He's enough to awaken23:05 a sleepy church. He's enough to strengthen a weak church. He's enough to bring alive a dead church. That's why we need23:16 him and that's why we need to wait upon the holy spirit. We need to tarry in his presence. We need to bring the power of the holy spirit back into our pulpit, back into our meetings, back where we depend not on23:28 our clever thinking but on the power of the holy spirit. Hallelujah. We need to move away from the flesh into the things of the spirit. I'm reminded of a story that23:40 D. A. Carson mentioned in 1 of his, teachings. DA Carson was sharing this story to a group of pastors about a little church23:52 in a small country town. And in this church, the pastor was a young man. And he went before the Lord 1 day and he cried out and he said, Lord, I don't I'm not sure24:04 why you brought me here. Because this small church in this small town is full of division, politics, gossip, immorality.24:16 People are not Christians here. They claim to be Christ followers but there's no life. And this young pastor cried out to the Lord 1 day and he fell prostrate before God in his24:28 presence and weeped and wept and said this, Lord, either you change the hearts of these people and change the climate in this in this church and bring about a freshness24:40 or take me out of here. After he prayed that prayer not long ago, there was a series of funerals, d a Carson says. About 34 funerals24:52 happened in that church. The very next year, they baptized 200 new people into the life of the church. 200 new people were born again and25:04 brought into the church. I'll tell you why. Jesus is lord of the church. He will deal with it. He knows how to bring life. Sometimes he will get certain people out of25:16 the way to bring life. Sometimes he will he would have to skill certain sacred cows to bring life. Sometimes he brings certain25:27 persecution or crisis and through that process he changes and brings life. Whatever method or whatever way he chooses to do, it's up to him in his sovereignty, but he brings25:39 life. When God intervenes, he says, I will deal with it. That's why he says here, wake up. Look at the second part of that first verse. I know your works, you have the25:50 reputation of being alive, but you're dead. Wake up. Verse 2, wake up and strengthen what remains and what is about to die for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.26:02 In other words, wake up. Don't just go through the motion. Reflect. Look at what is happening. Don't get distracted. Don't just say, we are okay. No, you're26:14 not. See, I wanna give you some measures to think about church. I wanna give you some symptoms of nominal Christianity that plagues the church. What are some of the symptoms? There26:26 is service without joy. You may be saying that people are serving, but they're serving with griping and complaining and murmuring. There's service without joy because they are nominal Christian.26:39 Secondly, there's a life without missional purpose. People may say, I have a dream, and the dream is to have a portfolio of properties or invest this much or retire by this age26:50 or have all these exotic holidays or have all these things that I've done before I die, bucket list. But that's not life on purpose. Listen to me carefully. The27:02 1 that you'll be graded on is a missional purpose. Did you do the redemptive call that God has placed upon your life? Every believer under the sound of my voice has a missional purpose.27:15 Is your marriage on missional purpose? Is your family raised on missional purpose? Are you living that kind of life that displays to the world that you're living on missional purpose? If not, you're a27:27 nominal Christian. Symptoms of a nominal Christian, number 3, zeal without knowledge. People have passion. You know, we get impressed when you go to certain auditoriums or27:39 certain conferences or concerts and you see young people jumping, jumping, jumping and you say, wow, what a zeal here for Jesus. They all are rah rah rah and they can really rally up the27:51 crowd and they all are saying, yes, we are for Jesus. But you know what? That passion, that zeal is without knowledge. In other words, what they need is not just wings to28:02 fly. What they need is deep roots that will ground them, that will keep them, that will establish them. Hallelujah. So you and I, we need to understand that you and I, we need this.28:16 A zeal without knowledge. Number 4, accomplishments without authenticity. Accomplishments without authenticity. That means you talk about the achievements but yet28:27 there is no real authentic life. Next 1, we're talking about duty without devotion. There's a lot of drudgery, a lot of duty. People are going28:39 back and forth and doing things, but there is no real devotion. Next 1, relationship without love. There are people who are relating to 128:51 another, but there's no love. And finally, faith without foundation. People say they believe, but they don't know what they actually believe. There is no real deep roots.29:03 There's no depth of understanding. This is what, John Stott said in his book, The Radical Disciple. He writes this in the book, Radical Disciple. When29:15 I was traveling in the 19 nineties, I would often ask an audience how they would summarize the Christian scene in the world today. I would receive a variety of answers. But when invited29:26 to give my own answer to the question, I would sum it up in just 3 words, names, growth without depth. What is that? That is29:38 nominal Christianity. That's why you and I, we need to understand what Jesus is saying here is you and I could be impressive on the external but there is no life. So what Jesus29:50 is saying is, understand what being a Christian is all about. The bible says in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1 that you were dead in your30:01 trespasses and in your sins. In other words, when you come to Christ, you were dead. See, gospel is not about making bad people becoming good people. Gospel30:13 is about making dead people become alive. The bible says in verse 4, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, what did he do?30:25 He, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. Hallelujah. In other words, you and I, we need to30:37 recognize when you are saved, when you are being when you are when you when you receive the gospel, it transforms you. You move from being dead to becoming alive. And that30:48 if that has not truly taken place, then you're still living as a cultural Christian or you're still in the place where the bible says you're about to die or you're31:00 dead. Listen to me carefully. You can't You you would know very clearly within your heart. If God has moved you from deadness and sins to alive and righteousness, there is31:12 something that is happening in your heart. It's transformative. It changes everything. But can I humbly say this, don't just have the form and no substance? Because the bible says in the last days,31:24 there were many that will stand before him. In Matthew chapter 7 and verse 22 and 23, he says, Lord, Lord, in your name did we not cast out demons in your name? Did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not do mighty31:36 works in your name? And the bible says, I declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from you, you workers of lawlessness. In other words, these are people who had smashing success with31:47 men, but they were horrible failure with God. God did not approve their life because they are still in the deadness of their sin. Listen to me carefully.31:59 That is why what we need is not a reputation, what we need is the reality. What we need is not the outward reputation to impress people. What we need is an inward32:11 reality that wins the approval of God. Hallelujah. So how do we get there, pastor? He says wake up. And then he goes on to say, look up.32:23 Look at verse 3. Remember then what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. And look at, if you will not wake up, I will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour I will32:35 come against you. He already said in verse 2, wake up, strengthen what remains, and then he said in verse 3, remember, keep32:47 it and repent. I wanna give you 5 imperatives that Jesus had just spoken to us. There's a sense of urgency in these commands. These 5 commands summarize his entire32:59 teaching. He wants you to, how do I how do I come back? How do I move out of this nominal Christianity? How do I wake up from decay to vitality? This is what it is. He says wake up,33:10 strengthen, remember what you have received and heard, keep it and repent. Listen, you and I, we need to recognize that33:22 we need to remind ourselves. Remember means not forget, but at the same time, there is an action that is involved. If you remember that33:34 Mother's Day is coming, and then you did nothing, you didn't buy a card, you didn't buy a gift, you didn't say, love you, I I Happy Mother's Day. You didn't do any of that.33:46 And then Mother's Day passed on, and then the next day next day, your wife or your mother asks you, did you remember it was Mother's Day? You say, yeah, yeah, I remembered it was Mother's Day.33:58 No, it's not about just whether you mentally remembered it was Mother's Day, did you act on it? See, remember means there is an action expected of you. That's why he says keep it. Keep what you34:10 have received and heard. You heard the gospel. The gospel is good news. I want you to understand this. The gospel is a bad news, worst34:21 news, good news, and the greatest news. Let me explain. Bad news, you were born in this world in sin. That's the bad news. The worst news is you can't do34:33 anything about it. You can't get out of that place of sin. You are bound to die in your sin because you cannot escape that sin. You can't do good works and come out of34:44 it. You are in a state of sin. The only way you can come out is the good news. Jesus came into the world. God sent his son who died on your behalf. His life for your34:56 life. He paid his life as a ransom. His blood washes you clean and by his wounds you are healed. You can be delivered because he died for you and therefore you can come alive.35:08 Hallelujah. That's the good news. What is the greatest news? The greatest news is this, that today if you believe in him, that salvation is yours and he puts the seal of the holy spirit35:20 in your life and he promises you eternal life with him. So the bad news, the good the worst news, good news, but the greatest news, you can return to him35:31 anytime. That's why he says, repent. Repent means come back. He's calling people who are about to die and he says, don't let this fire burn35:43 out. Revive it. How? By repenting and coming back to him because in him, there is forgiveness. In him, there is restoration. In him, there is35:55 a rebuilding process. In him, he transforms you. Hallelujah. And I want you to listen to me carefully. These are the things that you and I, we need to pay attention to.36:07 I wanna give you 4 marks of a dying church from this passage. When you read this passage, I want you to grasp this. This is what it says. They were living on past glory.36:19 See, the the city the church was in the city called Sardis. Sardis was known for 1 thing. Sardis was a city, that was built on a cliff.36:31 It was high up. So it was it was not penetrable easily. You can't invade it easily. So because it's high up, it was steep climb that is required to get36:43 up. So they they were careful in in in fortifying the city and they had 3 sets of gates that you have to go through. So they were very comfortable36:54 thinking that no 1 will be able to come and attack us. But you know what? History records for us that twice, 1 by the king of Persia,37:07 Cyrus the king of Persia, and secondly by Alexander the Great, they attacked the city and took over the city. You know why they were able to do that? It's because the37:18 city thought we are impregnable. We are impenetrable. So no 1 will ever be able to, attack us. So they didn't put certain guards on37:29 duty in certain sections of the wall. And the bible says they were taken down. Same thing here. Jesus is saying, this is the mark of a dying church. Do37:41 not live on past glory. Don't just be comfortable. Secondly, loss of spiritual hunger. They don't have the hunger for the deep things of God. Thirdly, loss of gospel37:53 amazement. They have forgotten what they have received and heard. It has become a common news, not the best and the greatest news. It has become common news. In other words, they have not remembered. They38:05 have not held onto it. They have not applied it. Listen. Fourthly, they lack missional engagement. In other words, they were not working on it or dealing with it.38:17 They are not living it every single day. So if this is the 4 marks of a dying church, wanna give you 4 marks of a living church. What's a living church? Posture of brokenness. There is a humility about our lives where we38:28 say, don't know. I need Christ. I can't do this. I need the holy spirit. I depend upon him to work in me and through me. That's a posture of brokenness. Don't be38:40 too comfortable. Don't be too reliant on past successes. Come back to him and recognize that Lord, I need you even today. Secondly, hungry for38:52 the things of the spirit. Thirdly, amazed by the gospel. Every single day I I go before the presence of God and I weep. People who know me know39:04 that I'm a man of tears. And I weep every single day because I recognize this 1 thing, how good he has been in my life. That without him, I wouldn't be39:16 saved. Don't take that salvation for granted church. Number 4, failure, faithful to the mission of reproducing disciples. We wanna stayShow more In this video 0:00 Overcoming Nominal Christianity
Paul Jeyachandran
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