WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.640 How's everybody doing? It's good to be back at Cyberport. So hopefully everybody, no one went to 00:00:06.640 --> 00:00:12.099 West Island today. Everybody is here. If you're not here, then you wouldn't hear what I'm saying, 00:00:12.220 --> 00:00:18.839 so it doesn't really matter, does it? Yeah, so we are finishing up this series in the book of 00:00:18.839 --> 00:00:24.699 Revelations. We've been talking about seven churches. Last week, if this is your first time 00:00:24.699 --> 00:00:28.100 here, you're going to go, whoa, because last week you wanted to be here for that one. That was the 00:00:28.100 --> 00:00:32.219 church that everybody wants to be like. That's the church of Philadelphia. That's the church of 00:00:32.219 --> 00:00:37.740 brotherly love. That's the church that even amidst incredible persecution, they kept God's word, 00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:41.960 and they kept their testimony. They didn't compromise what it meant to be a Christian. 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:46.659 Everybody wants to be like this church. When you talk to anybody and they do this series, they say, 00:00:46.780 --> 00:00:50.359 this is like our church, or this is like our denomination. We're just like that, 00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:58.000 but it's probably not true. And then today we come to this church that no one wants to be like. I mean, 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:03.060 it's just hard. And when you read these things, you're going, whoa, this is not good. Because 00:01:03.060 --> 00:01:07.120 remember, he's talking to Christians. He's talking to the church. He's talking to who we are. Remember, 00:01:07.299 --> 00:01:13.980 we are the church. We are left behind because we have been lights. We're lights that are put on a 00:01:13.980 --> 00:01:19.260 lampstand. God doesn't blow us out when we become a Christian and take us home to be with him in heaven, 00:01:19.260 --> 00:01:24.840 but he places us on his lampstand because he wants us to be light in the middle of the darkness in the 00:01:24.840 --> 00:01:29.659 world around us. He wants us to be salt. He wants us to be things that actually he wants us to be a 00:01:29.659 --> 00:01:34.780 mirror. He wants us to be a mirror that reflects God's image and glory to the world around him. 00:01:35.060 --> 00:01:40.920 And so that's why he leaves us behind. That's why the church is here. It's not for our glory. It's for 00:01:40.920 --> 00:01:46.580 God's glory. And we get to this church today, which seems like they've got that kind of confused. 00:01:46.580 --> 00:01:51.460 It's most historians would say this church probably best represents what the church is like 00:01:51.459 --> 00:01:57.839 today in the world. It's the lukewarm church. And remember, we've been talking about as we come 00:01:57.839 --> 00:02:01.939 to these passages, even though there are thousands of years old, that we're called to look at them, 00:02:01.979 --> 00:02:05.979 and we're called to ask ourselves some questions. We're called to ask ourselves, like when we look 00:02:05.979 --> 00:02:12.699 at verse 14, what do we see about Jesus? What do we learn about Christ? What do we learn about God? 00:02:12.699 --> 00:02:17.280 What do we learn about what God has done for us? What do we learn about what God is going to do when he 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:23.000 comes back? And the second question we're asked whenever we come to passages like this is, 00:02:23.439 --> 00:02:28.280 well, what does this passage say to me? I mean, how does it relate to me? Is it relevant to Tobin 00:02:28.280 --> 00:02:33.879 2,000 years later? What does this passage have to say to me personally? What is this passage telling 00:02:33.879 --> 00:02:39.139 me I need to do? Is this passage showing me something that I'm blinded to? Is there something 00:02:39.139 --> 00:02:45.120 that I can't see that's in my heart and in my eyes? And is this passage telling me that I'm walking 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:50.800 in darkness or a kind of darkness? Do I need to examine my heart? Do I need to examine my 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:56.039 relationship with God? Do I need to repent? We use the word repent a lot here, and sometimes we get 00:02:56.039 --> 00:03:00.159 confused what that means. And it basically means realizing where we're going, and that's not where 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:06.060 God wants us. And we ask for forgiveness, and we turn around and go the way that God wants us. 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:11.480 And as we look at what the Bible says, it almost says every day we're called to repent. 00:03:11.479 --> 00:03:15.759 Repent. We're called to look at our lives and examine our lives in light of who God is and what 00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:20.179 He wants us to do. And if our hearts are sensitive, we realize that we're not like that. 00:03:20.679 --> 00:03:25.299 And we make mistakes, and that's okay, because God already knows that. And so He calls us to repent, 00:03:25.419 --> 00:03:29.739 to ask for forgiveness, and to turn. And so we need to look at these passages, and we need to say, 00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:37.339 do I need to repent? Do I need to change? And He's really specific here, because He says, 00:03:37.340 --> 00:03:42.479 I know your deeds. He's not saying, I know what you're thinking. He's not saying, I know what your 00:03:42.479 --> 00:03:47.439 intentions are. He's not saying, I know your desires. But He says, I know your deeds. I know 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:53.460 what you do with your hands. If you want to know what's going on in a person's heart, you always 00:03:53.460 --> 00:04:00.180 look at what their hands are doing, because the hands don't lie. But sometimes our words lie, and 00:04:00.180 --> 00:04:06.319 sometimes our emotions lie, but the hands point to the condition of our heart. And we get to this 00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:12.819 passage today, and this passage is intense. Have you been reading the news lately? There's a lot 00:04:12.819 --> 00:04:19.180 of talk in the world today about diseases, and viruses, and things going on. And in fact, the 00:04:19.180 --> 00:04:23.879 Center for Disease Control out of Atlanta said this, and this is a significant time in the history of 00:04:23.879 --> 00:04:28.300 mankind, that probably no other time would be able to connect, and fly, and do all these things. 00:04:28.659 --> 00:04:33.959 Is there a propensity for a virus, or an infection, to hit the human race, and just wipe out 00:04:33.959 --> 00:04:40.039 all of mankind? There's all these warnings going on that, be careful, because this could happen. 00:04:40.139 --> 00:04:43.879 Wash your hands, take your tests, do all these things. And there's a list of questions you're 00:04:43.879 --> 00:04:51.139 asking. Do I have Ebola? Do I have these viruses? And how can I keep myself safe? But what this 00:04:51.139 --> 00:04:57.299 passage is talking about is it's talking about a virus that's been in the church for 2,000 years. 00:04:57.300 --> 00:05:03.000 That as Christians, we've been struggling with this virus that we're going to talk about today, 00:05:03.079 --> 00:05:07.600 this sickness. And the problem is that sometimes when we get to this sickness and this virus, 00:05:07.699 --> 00:05:13.300 that we don't even realize that we have it. That we're walking in darkness, and this thing is 00:05:13.300 --> 00:05:20.240 infecting us, and it's changing us, and it's changing how we talk and speak and use our hands. 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:26.680 And so John sends this letter through Jesus, and he talks to the church about this sickness that's 00:05:26.680 --> 00:05:31.740 in all of us, and he wants us to triage it. He wants us to ask some questions to see, 00:05:31.900 --> 00:05:35.800 am I dealing with that? And if I am dealing with that, then how do I get rid of it? 00:05:37.500 --> 00:05:42.160 So you know me. I study medicine. I worked in a trauma unit. So throughout these last couple weeks, 00:05:42.180 --> 00:05:45.980 I've been thinking of some triage questions that we could ask ourselves. And so I want to just 00:05:45.980 --> 00:05:50.120 ask you some questions at the very beginning. I'm going to come back to some of these 00:05:50.120 --> 00:05:54.040 questions, but I want to ask them to you at the very beginning, because I want you to be thinking 00:05:54.040 --> 00:06:00.360 about these questions, because these questions determine whether you're infected. These questions 00:06:00.360 --> 00:06:03.500 determine whether you have the virus, whether you have the sickness that we're going to talk about 00:06:03.500 --> 00:06:08.920 in this church of Laodicea. First question, is there anything in Hong Kong, is there anything in 00:06:08.920 --> 00:06:15.280 the culture in Hong Kong that has a chance to control you? Is there anything here that is controlling 00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:24.819 you? Is there anything in here that is making your hearts lukewarm to God? What is it in this culture? 00:06:25.719 --> 00:06:28.979 Because we're going to study about the Laodiceans, and there were several things in their culture 00:06:28.979 --> 00:06:36.299 that basically made them lukewarm. Number two, what shapes your thinking? What shapes how you think 00:06:36.300 --> 00:06:48.120 most? The Wall Street Journal? Squawk Box? Buffett? Diamond? Kramer? Or the Bible? What shapes your 00:06:48.120 --> 00:06:57.519 thinking? What shapes how you are informed? Number three, who do you trust more? Money or Jesus? 00:06:59.780 --> 00:07:04.780 I know that's a really weird question, but if you had a choice between a billion dollars in your bank 00:07:04.779 --> 00:07:10.979 account and you never had to worry about money ever again, or you had a bank account that zeroed out 00:07:10.979 --> 00:07:16.339 at the end of each month, but you always had just enough to survive and you knew that Jesus was 00:07:16.339 --> 00:07:21.739 providing everything you needed that month, which choice would you choose? 00:07:24.419 --> 00:07:29.779 It's a good indicator if we're sick or not. Number four, do you realize that every moment is a miracle 00:07:29.779 --> 00:07:33.939 of God's grace? Do you realize that every moment of your life is a miracle of God's grace? 00:07:34.779 --> 00:07:40.099 Who you are, where you were born, your parents, your birth age, what country, what age, what period, 00:07:40.439 --> 00:07:45.599 your DNA, your 46 chromosomes, all of these things, all of these things are a miracle of God's grace? 00:07:46.339 --> 00:07:51.099 Every moment we're breathing, we're thinking, we're able to think and cognitively go through things 00:07:51.099 --> 00:07:57.500 and work, all of these things God has just basically given to you? Do you realize that? 00:07:58.259 --> 00:08:02.939 We talk sometimes like God is this venture capitalist, and he is. God's a venture capitalist, 00:08:02.939 --> 00:08:10.120 and he's given you all of these resources to do what he wants you to do. Do you realize that? 00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:18.040 Or do you think to yourself, you know, I'm pretty good. I've actually earned my way. I've got into 00:08:18.040 --> 00:08:22.319 Harvard. I've got into wherever I went to school, Auburn, which is the Harvard of the South. 00:08:22.319 --> 00:08:27.899 Don't laugh. Don't laugh. Anyway, but you know, you think I did it pretty well. I got into my own 00:08:27.899 --> 00:08:34.620 life. What do you realize? Grace or yourself? Number five, when was the last time you told 00:08:34.620 --> 00:08:40.439 somebody at your work about your Christian faith? When was the last time you told somebody in your 00:08:40.439 --> 00:08:47.860 family about your Christian faith? This is a good indicator of whether you're infected, whether you 00:08:47.860 --> 00:08:51.800 have this disease, and he's going to talk about it at the church. When was the last time you prayed? 00:08:54.139 --> 00:08:58.039 And the last question is this. If you were to ask a friend, any friend, your wife, your spouse, 00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:03.139 your best friend, if you were to ask them what you're zealous about, what you're on fire about, 00:09:03.759 --> 00:09:07.580 what is the thing that makes you on fire? What is the thing that drives you that you just can't get 00:09:07.580 --> 00:09:11.100 enough of? If you were to ask them what that thing is that you love intensely, 00:09:11.100 --> 00:09:21.300 how would they answer? What would be the intense thing that you love? I mean, all of these things 00:09:21.300 --> 00:09:27.560 could be indicators of how we live our life, and if we're suffering with the same disease that the 00:09:27.560 --> 00:09:31.259 people at Laodicea were suffering with, and I got to be honest with you, because when I read this 00:09:31.259 --> 00:09:35.779 chapter, it scares the crap out of me. I don't know if I could say crap in church, but I say it 00:09:35.779 --> 00:09:40.320 sometimes, but it scares the crap out of me, because from what I understand, it's the 00:09:40.320 --> 00:09:47.520 disease that will infect us all. It's the disease that if we're alive long enough, we're going to 00:09:47.520 --> 00:09:52.220 be impacted by this disease, and the question is whether we survive it and get rid of it, or do we 00:09:52.220 --> 00:09:58.980 just stay in it? I mean, the word Laodicea actually means, Laodicea, the name of the city, actually 00:09:58.980 --> 00:10:07.320 means the people's choice. The people choose. So they were living in a city that was named from the idea 00:10:07.320 --> 00:10:13.200 of how things were happening. The people choose. The people choose what is right, and when the passage, 00:10:13.320 --> 00:10:20.400 we look at it, and Jesus says he looks at them, and he has nothing good to say about them. 00:10:21.780 --> 00:10:25.480 Nothing. I mean, all the other six churches, he had something good to say about them, 00:10:26.180 --> 00:10:34.360 but in this church, he has nothing good to say about them. They're sick, and actually, when he looks at 00:10:34.360 --> 00:10:41.879 them, he wants to throw up. In Greek, it sounds almost just like that. He wants to get sick. 00:10:43.759 --> 00:10:50.960 Are you ready? So let me give you some history. Laodicea was founded in about 335 BC. It was in 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:55.379 this area of Greek that we've been talking about, Turkey. In Turkey, we've been talking about it's 00:10:55.379 --> 00:11:02.100 about 30 miles southeast of Philadelphia. It was in a very fertile valley region. It sat on three trade 00:11:02.100 --> 00:11:06.879 routes and communication routes that were very important to the Roman Empire. It had two sister 00:11:06.879 --> 00:11:12.200 cities. One was Heropolis. It was to the north, and then the other one was Colossae. It was to the east. 00:11:12.680 --> 00:11:17.899 Now, in the letter to Colossians, they actually say to the readers, send this letter to the church 00:11:17.899 --> 00:11:23.220 of Laodicea. They need to hear this. And so these were these three sister cities that worked together, 00:11:23.659 --> 00:11:30.500 and without a doubt, Laodicea was the wealthiest city in the region. I mean, it was so wealthy. It is 00:11:30.500 --> 00:11:36.419 incredible. Right now, they're still excavating the ruins, and it is amazing. If you go to Nazareth 00:11:36.419 --> 00:11:43.220 with us when we go back to Israel, the average house was like 10 chairs, two rows deep, or maybe 00:11:43.220 --> 00:11:49.460 three rows cheap, deep, one floor, and then you maybe had a second floor, and you lived in there, 00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:54.299 but you also kept the animals in the front part. So the houses were really, really small. But when you 00:11:54.299 --> 00:12:00.240 go to Laodicea, they're excavating them. They're like 2,000, 3,000 square feet. I mean, 00:12:00.240 --> 00:12:05.259 they're massive houses. I mean, the people were very, very wealthy, and it was very affluent. 00:12:05.379 --> 00:12:10.879 Even the churches were very wealthy, and they were very affluent. Laodicea was famous for three 00:12:10.879 --> 00:12:16.680 things. The first thing is its banking system. Now, don't ask me how they know, but historians tell 00:12:16.680 --> 00:12:21.740 us that there were more millionaires in this city than any other city in the world. They had their own 00:12:21.740 --> 00:12:26.379 coins minted. I mean, everybody else in the world used the Roman coins or the Greek coins, 00:12:26.379 --> 00:12:31.519 but the Laodiceans, they used their own coins. They had Greek coins that had stamps of their cities 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:36.539 on it and symbols of prosperity and wealth and things that they felt like they had earned, 00:12:36.580 --> 00:12:42.980 all these amazing things. They were stamped all over the corns. The city was so wealthy that when 00:12:42.980 --> 00:12:47.360 an earthquake came in, it wiped out all the other cities around it. All the other cities said, hey, 00:12:47.439 --> 00:12:52.600 we cannot rebuild. And they sent to Rome, and Rome basically was the bank, and Rome sent them all the 00:12:52.600 --> 00:12:56.580 money. And Rome, actually, there's documents that Rome didn't even tax them for 10 years 00:12:56.580 --> 00:13:01.860 because it took so long to rebuild the city. But Laodicea didn't even ask for any help from Rome. 00:13:02.740 --> 00:13:08.480 Within one year, they had rebuilt their city all on their own. I mean, they were incredibly 00:13:08.480 --> 00:13:12.980 self-sufficient. They were incredibly wealthy. We even know some of the names of the wealthy families 00:13:12.980 --> 00:13:17.980 in the city. I mean, we know some of the wealthiest families in the cities. And then when you walk into 00:13:17.980 --> 00:13:22.740 their house, there were mottos actually on the floor and on the walls of some of these houses. 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:27.980 And the motto for the Laodicean church was this. And you can go and you can read it. It was, 00:13:28.379 --> 00:13:36.399 I have my wealth. I need nothing else. Can you imagine that? I mean, you walk into their house, 00:13:36.440 --> 00:13:42.120 and on the floor was the motto. There is the motto. I have my wealth. I need nothing else. 00:13:43.399 --> 00:13:47.960 Laodicea was also this amazing fashion center. I mean, it's where all the people went. 00:13:47.960 --> 00:13:52.220 It was kind of like the Paris of the ancient world. There were these sheep there that were black. 00:13:52.320 --> 00:13:56.879 Don't ask me how they became black sheep. I don't know. But they kept them. They guarded them. 00:13:56.879 --> 00:14:04.220 They bred them. And these sheep produced this really fine, black, coarse hair. And they 00:14:04.220 --> 00:14:09.440 wove it into all these fabrics. And everybody, it was the latest rage. Everybody in Rome wanted a 00:14:09.440 --> 00:14:15.300 Laodicean coat or pants. And it was amazing. It made the city millions and millions and millions of 00:14:15.299 --> 00:14:19.839 dollars because they had this monopoly on this black wool. Also, so you had the banking and you 00:14:19.839 --> 00:14:24.339 had the fashion industry. Also, Laodicea was really important in the ancient world because of medical 00:14:24.339 --> 00:14:30.639 schools. I mean, it had some of the top medical schools in the world in Laodicea. There's actually 00:14:30.639 --> 00:14:35.659 some hospitals there. And you can actually go there and see some of the ruins of these things. 00:14:35.899 --> 00:14:41.639 And they specialized in fixing people with eye problems. And so they made these, it was one of the 00:14:41.639 --> 00:14:45.519 first places in the world. They took medicine and they had compounds. And they mixed compounds 00:14:45.519 --> 00:14:49.039 together and put them together and put them into a packet and you took it. This happened 00:14:49.039 --> 00:14:52.720 in Laodicea. It was one of the first places in the world. And there's this compound there 00:14:52.720 --> 00:14:56.759 that was so good that everybody came and you could actually turn it into a salve and you would 00:14:56.759 --> 00:15:03.139 robe it on your eyes and it actually helped blind people see. I mean, it was amazing. 00:15:03.799 --> 00:15:07.539 And so people came from all over the known world because they wanted to see. 00:15:07.539 --> 00:15:16.639 The Laodiceans were wealthy and they were comfortable and they were intelligent. And we'll 00:15:16.639 --> 00:15:21.879 also read that they were arrogant. A lot of the historians talk about how arrogant they are and 00:15:21.879 --> 00:15:26.779 how apathetic they are and how self-centered they are. And the problem is, is by the time the church 00:15:26.779 --> 00:15:34.459 gets here, the church becomes like it. Have you ever been in an arrogant church? Or an apathetic church? 00:15:34.460 --> 00:15:41.320 Or a self-centered church? I mean, this is what the church was like there and it was not good. 00:15:41.820 --> 00:15:46.460 Laodicea had one bad thing about it. One bad thing. And the thing was its water supply. 00:15:47.660 --> 00:15:52.420 I mean, it had no water supply. Now, for some reason, whenever you do cities, you always look 00:15:52.420 --> 00:15:55.440 for where there's water, right? Because you want to, everybody, you need water, especially in the desert. 00:15:55.840 --> 00:16:00.840 And they didn't found the city for that reason. They founded it for other reasons. And so it had 00:16:00.840 --> 00:16:07.360 no water supply. So the waters to Hierapolis in the north, they were hot. They were calming. They were 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:11.980 like a spa. There's actually spas there today. So you could go to the sister city and get in a spa and get 00:16:11.980 --> 00:16:16.600 comforted with the hot water. And then the wet waters to the east in Colossus, they were some of the 00:16:16.600 --> 00:16:25.160 coldest, refreshing waters in all of the region. But Laodicea had no water. And so they piped their water in. 00:16:25.159 --> 00:16:29.819 And you can go there and there's like these three feet long pipes. They're hewn out of stone. 00:16:30.179 --> 00:16:35.519 They're massive. And for six miles, they pumped their water through these pipes. 00:16:36.819 --> 00:16:41.079 And the problem was that after the period of time that from when it started to when it got there, 00:16:41.319 --> 00:16:47.339 the temperature changed. I mean, it became no longer hot and it became no longer cold. It just became 00:16:47.339 --> 00:16:51.459 yuck. And actually a greater problem was that there's a mineral deposit in the water. 00:16:51.460 --> 00:16:55.400 And so if you go and you look at the pipes, the pipes are all closed up because the minerals have 00:16:55.400 --> 00:17:00.379 closed it up because of just the sedimentation and deposit. And so when you got there, you go to 00:17:00.379 --> 00:17:05.319 the middle of the city and there's this big, a beautiful area where the water came in, the fountains, 00:17:05.400 --> 00:17:09.120 and you could come and drink and everything looked perfect. But when you got there and you drank the 00:17:09.120 --> 00:17:18.039 water, the water was terrible. The water made people sick. I mean, they tried different ways to 00:17:18.039 --> 00:17:21.340 prevent people from getting sick, but they just couldn't do it. They had these filter systems, 00:17:21.339 --> 00:17:26.039 and all of these things. But the water was so bad there, and the late Oceans were known for just 00:17:26.039 --> 00:17:30.919 having terrible, terrible water, and it just tasted bad. And another problem was, and you know what's 00:17:30.919 --> 00:17:35.279 going to come here, is that whenever you don't have a water system in the city, the city is always 00:17:35.279 --> 00:17:42.019 vulnerable. When you go to Israel, you're going to see that all the pools within Israel, they're inside 00:17:42.019 --> 00:17:46.279 the city walls so that when you're under a siege, you can just go down and grab water out, and you can 00:17:46.279 --> 00:17:50.759 survive because it's hot, and they don't have any water. And sometimes the siege people just leave because 00:17:50.759 --> 00:17:55.779 they don't have any water because it's so hot. But Laodicea didn't have that. They had these 00:17:55.779 --> 00:17:59.839 exposed pipes. And so when you're invading the city, you knew how to take over the city. All you 00:17:59.839 --> 00:18:03.400 have to do is take over the pipes. Because if you cut off the water supply, then the city 00:18:03.400 --> 00:18:05.119 can't survive. 00:18:07.299 --> 00:18:12.839 And so because of that, the politicians of Laodicea became experts in negotiation. 00:18:12.839 --> 00:18:19.059 The politicians of Laodicea became experts in compromise. I mean, if you read the stories 00:18:19.059 --> 00:18:23.539 throughout history, what you see that they could compromise, they could talk to anybody 00:18:23.539 --> 00:18:28.359 invaded, they prevented their cities from invading, and they were really good. And actually, one 00:18:28.359 --> 00:18:34.000 historian said in his writings, he said, Laodicea is a city that stood for nothing. 00:18:36.459 --> 00:18:40.480 It was a city that stood for nothing because it compromised, because new people came in all the 00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:43.819 time trying to take control. It was the people's choice, and the people did whatever they wanted 00:18:43.819 --> 00:18:52.720 to. And the problem is that's what happened to the church. The church became the church 00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:59.319 that stood for nothing. The church allowed the culture to sway it. The church allowed the 00:18:59.319 --> 00:19:03.200 culture to take it over. When there was a passion and there was a fervor for something that Christ 00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:06.880 said to do, the church backed off and didn't do anything about it because they didn't want 00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:10.860 to cause ripples. They didn't want to get in trouble. They didn't want to lose all the great 00:19:10.860 --> 00:19:22.180 things they had in their city. Sometimes that happens to us, doesn't it? In churches, and as 00:19:22.180 --> 00:19:29.000 Christians. And so we get to this passage, and Jesus is speaking to this church that's become 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:33.600 just like the culture, and he shares some things about them. So I just want to look at three things, 00:19:33.599 --> 00:19:36.839 and I've already talked about some of these. I want to look at the condition of the Laodiceans, 00:19:36.899 --> 00:19:41.759 and we've said they're lukewarm. We want to look at their cause. What caused them to become 00:19:41.759 --> 00:19:49.500 lukewarm? And we want to look at the cure. How can they get not lukewarm? Because you and I, we need 00:19:49.500 --> 00:19:57.980 to know this. Because if statistics are right, there are many, many of us in here who are lukewarm. 00:19:57.980 --> 00:20:08.079 And I would say that if you are a Christian, you are struggling with lukewarmness all your life. 00:20:10.259 --> 00:20:19.759 And the question is, do you actually see that? Or are you blinded to it? So Jesus speaks in verse 14. 00:20:19.900 --> 00:20:26.099 He says, I am Jesus. I am the amen. The word there is powerful. It means I'm firm. I'm stable. I'm sure. 00:20:26.099 --> 00:20:30.559 I'm trustworthy. Unlike the words of the politicians, unlike the words of the people in the church who 00:20:30.559 --> 00:20:38.159 compromise, my words are true. My words are final. My words are unchanging. Verse 14, he's faithful. 00:20:38.359 --> 00:20:43.579 He's the true witness. He can see through the smoke. He can see through the mirrors. He can see through 00:20:43.579 --> 00:20:50.199 our clothing. He can see through the things that we try to hide ourselves in. None of those things 00:20:50.200 --> 00:20:57.940 fake Jesus out. None of the negotiations. None of the pleading. He sees all those things. 00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:02.920 And in verse 14, it says, he's the creator. And what it means there is that he's the giver. 00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:08.700 He gives everything. There's nothing that you have that he hasn't given. And that's what he's 00:21:08.700 --> 00:21:14.299 wanting the Laodiceans to see at the very beginning. He's saying, I am the amen. I'm firm. I'm solid. 00:21:14.299 --> 00:21:20.019 I'm faithful. I'm true. And I'm the giver of all these things. And then he looks at them. And you read 00:21:20.019 --> 00:21:26.720 in verses 15 and 16, he looks at them. And he says these words. And they really bother me. 00:21:28.099 --> 00:21:33.180 Because sometimes I wonder if I need to hear them also. You're lukewarm. 00:21:33.180 --> 00:21:45.480 You're indifferent. You're apathetic. You trust yourself. You think that you did it all. 00:21:47.720 --> 00:21:49.220 But in reality, you did nothing. 00:21:53.120 --> 00:21:55.840 You know, the Bible is full of stories like that to God's people. 00:21:57.080 --> 00:22:00.460 One of my favorite books is the book of Deuteronomy. I hope to teach it next year as we go 00:22:00.460 --> 00:22:04.759 through it verse by verse. You're going to go crazy. But in it, he says there 25 times, 00:22:04.819 --> 00:22:08.740 he says, you, God's people, you're going to go into the land. And this land is going to be 00:22:08.740 --> 00:22:11.860 flowing with milk and honey. And it's going to be amazing. There's going to be food. There's going 00:22:11.860 --> 00:22:15.640 to be fields. There's going to be grapes that are huge. There's going to be all these wells dug for 00:22:15.640 --> 00:22:19.960 you. And all this prosperity, all these things, I'm going to give these things to you. And he warns 00:22:19.960 --> 00:22:25.740 them 25 times, he says, but be careful. Because you're going to get to a point where you're going to think 00:22:25.740 --> 00:22:27.480 you did it all by yourself. 00:22:27.480 --> 00:22:31.779 You're going to get to a place where you're going to say, I did this. 00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:36.279 And I provided these things. And I made these things happen. And I did all these things. 00:22:37.039 --> 00:22:38.980 And your heart, your heart is going to become 00:22:38.980 --> 00:22:41.860 hard to God. 00:22:46.799 --> 00:22:47.559 How's your heart? 00:22:47.559 --> 00:22:57.079 So John is talking. Jesus is saying to him, and he's saying, be careful, because the city 00:22:57.079 --> 00:23:02.460 has become just like, the church has just become just like the city. It's learned the 00:23:02.460 --> 00:23:08.019 art of compromise. It's learned the art of complacency. It's learned the art of apathetic. 00:23:08.480 --> 00:23:14.440 In the passage, Jesus says, I wish that you were this hot. I wish that you were cold, refreshing. 00:23:14.440 --> 00:23:17.240 But because you're nothing, I want to... 00:23:17.240 --> 00:23:23.420 I want to throw up. 00:23:25.140 --> 00:23:27.000 Can you imagine standing before Christ? 00:23:28.779 --> 00:23:30.420 And he's looking at everything you've done? 00:23:32.420 --> 00:23:35.680 Because there's going to be a time when we come that we all will do that. 00:23:35.680 --> 00:23:40.700 The venture capitalist is going to ask us, right in front of us, what we did with everything 00:23:40.700 --> 00:23:41.779 that he gave us. 00:23:43.240 --> 00:23:44.560 Did we use it for his kingdom? 00:23:44.720 --> 00:23:45.940 Did we promote the gospel? 00:23:46.080 --> 00:23:47.779 Did we bring people from darkness to light? 00:23:48.019 --> 00:23:49.200 Did we live lives that were different? 00:23:50.019 --> 00:23:53.400 Can you imagine if you were like this church, and you sit there, and you bring it all before 00:23:53.400 --> 00:23:55.680 him, and he looks at it, and he goes... 00:23:55.680 --> 00:24:01.980 But that's what the church of Laodicea was struggling with. 00:24:01.980 --> 00:24:06.759 I mean, they had everything, but they had nothing. 00:24:09.740 --> 00:24:14.099 Verse 17 says, they were lukewarm, and one of the symptoms of being lukewarm is being 00:24:14.099 --> 00:24:14.640 apathetic. 00:24:14.720 --> 00:24:15.559 They were apathetic. 00:24:15.860 --> 00:24:18.180 They just looked at things and just went with the saddest quote. 00:24:18.240 --> 00:24:19.059 They didn't want to disturb it. 00:24:19.339 --> 00:24:20.880 I mean, why would they disturb it? 00:24:20.900 --> 00:24:21.799 They had everything they needed. 00:24:21.880 --> 00:24:22.319 They were rich. 00:24:22.400 --> 00:24:23.079 They were clothed. 00:24:23.339 --> 00:24:24.120 They were healthy. 00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:29.400 And Jesus looks at them, and he says, what your actions are, your hands, they're just like 00:24:29.400 --> 00:24:32.700 your water, and when I taste it, I want to throw up. 00:24:36.720 --> 00:24:38.540 Apathy creeps into everything. 00:24:40.820 --> 00:24:42.519 What's an apathetic person look like? 00:24:44.840 --> 00:24:45.800 I mean, think about it. 00:24:45.800 --> 00:24:50.320 You're doing a job evaluation for somebody in your department, and on the job evaluation, 00:24:50.780 --> 00:24:53.820 the main word that comes up as you've evaluated them is apathetic. 00:24:53.819 --> 00:24:57.599 What do you do with an apathetic employee? 00:24:59.839 --> 00:25:01.079 Do you say, oh, that's so good. 00:25:01.119 --> 00:25:03.019 I want to put you in charge of the best things. 00:25:03.299 --> 00:25:04.359 Here's all these resources. 00:25:04.539 --> 00:25:05.839 I want to give all these things to you. 00:25:06.019 --> 00:25:09.419 I want to put a team of 20 people around you so you can just make them apathetic too, 00:25:09.740 --> 00:25:12.539 and everything's going to be great, and our business is going to become really good. 00:25:14.240 --> 00:25:17.439 Now, maybe if you're at Samsung, you do that, but at Apple, we don't do that. 00:25:18.039 --> 00:25:20.460 So I just had to say that, okay? 00:25:20.460 --> 00:25:24.480 Anyway, but they were apathetic. 00:25:26.120 --> 00:25:27.480 Their heart was cold. 00:25:29.039 --> 00:25:30.279 Actually, their heart was hot. 00:25:30.360 --> 00:25:33.460 It was hot for the things they wanted to do, and they felt like they could do. 00:25:34.579 --> 00:25:36.180 So what do you do with an apathetic person? 00:25:38.759 --> 00:25:41.920 Verse 17, it says that another one of their symptoms were they were self-sufficient. 00:25:42.720 --> 00:25:45.539 I mean, you go into the houses, and you see there, I have my wealth. 00:25:45.640 --> 00:25:46.539 What else do I need? 00:25:46.740 --> 00:25:47.460 They had their wealth. 00:25:47.519 --> 00:25:48.059 They had their health. 00:25:48.100 --> 00:25:48.660 They had their family. 00:25:48.660 --> 00:25:49.860 They didn't need anything. 00:25:51.460 --> 00:25:56.059 And the scary thing to me about this is that this was the church he's talking to. 00:25:59.880 --> 00:26:01.019 Let me ask you a question. 00:26:02.500 --> 00:26:03.759 I ask a lot of questions. 00:26:03.940 --> 00:26:08.019 I promise you that I've asked all these questions to myself at least 25 times in the last two weeks. 00:26:08.019 --> 00:26:23.759 In your quiet, unguarded moments when you're all alone, and you're thinking about your life, and you're thinking about everything that you've accomplished, and you're thinking about what you've done, and maybe even the things you're thinking that you don't want to share to your spouse or your best friend or your community group. 00:26:23.759 --> 00:26:29.359 When you think about all these things you've done personally, how do you value yourself? 00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:34.640 I mean, what do you think about yourself? 00:26:34.640 --> 00:26:39.660 I mean, maybe I should ask this other question. 00:26:39.660 --> 00:26:48.720 When you think about everything you've done, and you've accomplished up to this point, and what you want to do, and all these things that you've done with your hands, what kind of standard are you using to judge success? 00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:54.680 Where does your standard come from? 00:26:56.700 --> 00:27:00.200 What are you judging, whether you're successful or not? 00:27:01.480 --> 00:27:05.220 I mean, when you think about yourself, do you see yourself as in constant need of grace? 00:27:07.279 --> 00:27:09.740 Do you see yourself in constant need of forgiveness of God? 00:27:10.900 --> 00:27:12.460 Do you see your brokenness? 00:27:12.460 --> 00:27:18.819 Do you see this amazing sense that you're lost unless Jesus comes to you every moment of every time in your life? 00:27:22.440 --> 00:27:25.680 Or do you think like I think sometimes, wow, that went really well. 00:27:27.700 --> 00:27:28.660 I'm doing pretty good. 00:27:30.180 --> 00:27:31.279 Things are looking really good. 00:27:33.180 --> 00:27:40.900 And what I realize is that as I do that, as I start to think about my accomplishments, what I start to do is I start to forget about God. 00:27:42.460 --> 00:27:45.779 And I forget about grace, and I forget about mercy. 00:27:47.539 --> 00:27:58.519 I don't know if you realize it, but this passage is huge in talking to the issues of wealth, in ability, in intellect, in resources. 00:28:00.120 --> 00:28:02.380 And it's not saying that these things are bad. 00:28:02.380 --> 00:28:09.260 But what it is saying is that if you have these things, you better be careful. 00:28:11.760 --> 00:28:13.300 Because you're going to get this disease. 00:28:15.040 --> 00:28:16.360 And it's called lukewarmness. 00:28:17.780 --> 00:28:22.420 Because after a period of time, you're going to forget that it's all by grace, and it's all by God's hand giving it to you. 00:28:22.580 --> 00:28:26.900 And it's all by God's giving you, and all these things he's giving you, he's just bestowed these things on you. 00:28:26.940 --> 00:28:28.360 They're blessings and blessings and blessings. 00:28:28.359 --> 00:28:40.199 And after you've been around money and finance and competence and excellence for a while, even in the church, you forget grace. 00:28:42.659 --> 00:28:44.219 You forget who gave it to you. 00:28:45.519 --> 00:28:46.979 You forget whose it is. 00:28:46.980 --> 00:28:54.880 And you start valuing things by the world's values and by Hong Kong's values and by your family's values and by your office's values. 00:28:55.059 --> 00:28:57.559 And you stop valuing things by Christ's values. 00:28:57.799 --> 00:29:00.000 And when Christ looks at you, he just goes, blah. 00:29:05.640 --> 00:29:06.740 Because you forgot him. 00:29:08.640 --> 00:29:11.900 I don't know how you feel when you read verse 17, but look at it. 00:29:11.900 --> 00:29:15.280 He says to them, you say you're self-sufficient. 00:29:15.840 --> 00:29:16.840 I am rich. 00:29:17.800 --> 00:29:19.080 But the word is opulent. 00:29:19.220 --> 00:29:20.140 And I am wealthy. 00:29:20.360 --> 00:29:22.560 And the word is I have so much I can't even count it. 00:29:22.960 --> 00:29:24.440 And I have need of nothing. 00:29:24.540 --> 00:29:27.400 It was stamped on the floor of their house and on the ceilings of the walls. 00:29:27.980 --> 00:29:32.060 And Jesus looks at us and he says, you are wretched. 00:29:33.660 --> 00:29:34.960 The word is disastrous. 00:29:36.440 --> 00:29:37.240 You're miserable. 00:29:37.519 --> 00:29:38.500 The word is pitiful. 00:29:38.500 --> 00:29:40.579 You're poor. 00:29:40.700 --> 00:29:42.859 It means you have no value whatsoever. 00:29:43.200 --> 00:29:44.460 You are nada, zero. 00:29:44.660 --> 00:29:45.440 You have no value. 00:29:46.079 --> 00:29:46.819 You're blind. 00:29:48.539 --> 00:29:49.839 Not even that you don't see. 00:29:49.980 --> 00:29:51.180 You don't even understand. 00:29:52.319 --> 00:29:53.059 You're naked. 00:29:54.140 --> 00:29:57.079 You're clothed in the best clothes that everybody has to offer. 00:29:57.519 --> 00:30:01.019 And what Jesus says when he looks at us, that all these things we've done by ourselves is self-sufficient. 00:30:01.019 --> 00:30:04.539 He says, as we would say in Texas, you're butt naked. 00:30:06.900 --> 00:30:07.920 And you're butt naked. 00:30:08.500 --> 00:30:12.759 All these assets that the church is bringing to him. 00:30:12.819 --> 00:30:14.539 All these assets that you and I are bringing to them. 00:30:14.619 --> 00:30:16.440 All these things that we've done in our self-sufficiency. 00:30:16.619 --> 00:30:18.759 All these things that we say, look at what I've done. 00:30:18.819 --> 00:30:19.740 I've done these things. 00:30:20.200 --> 00:30:23.880 Jesus looks at these things and he says, crap. 00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:28.119 Or he writes deficit. 00:30:29.880 --> 00:30:31.140 Or he writes loss. 00:30:31.140 --> 00:30:38.220 I wonder what there is in Hong Kong. 00:30:39.759 --> 00:30:43.960 Because all these things he talks about and he talks against are what the city was known for. 00:30:43.960 --> 00:30:44.840 The banking. 00:30:45.900 --> 00:30:46.980 The clothes. 00:30:47.460 --> 00:30:48.560 The medical care. 00:30:48.559 --> 00:30:53.519 What is there in Hong Kong right now that you struggle with? 00:30:56.099 --> 00:31:04.379 What is there in Hong Kong, in the city, in the culture that it's known for, that people treasure, that they want, that it influences us? 00:31:04.539 --> 00:31:05.299 What is that? 00:31:05.299 --> 00:31:08.240 For each one of us, it might be different. 00:31:08.519 --> 00:31:08.680 Right? 00:31:08.779 --> 00:31:09.639 Someone yelled power. 00:31:10.960 --> 00:31:11.759 It might be power. 00:31:12.980 --> 00:31:15.159 But for some of us, that power isn't that really important. 00:31:15.839 --> 00:31:18.659 We'd rather just have money and have the billion dollars and not worry about it. 00:31:19.559 --> 00:31:20.819 For some of us, it's prestige. 00:31:21.039 --> 00:31:22.740 For some of us, we like the crazy lifestyle. 00:31:22.859 --> 00:31:24.079 We just like the crazy lifestyle. 00:31:24.180 --> 00:31:25.279 We like being busy. 00:31:25.339 --> 00:31:26.759 We like being able to tell people, how are you doing? 00:31:26.779 --> 00:31:27.359 And you say, I'm busy. 00:31:27.639 --> 00:31:28.519 We just like that. 00:31:28.559 --> 00:31:30.879 I talk to people all the time and their marriages are falling apart. 00:31:30.880 --> 00:31:32.500 And they look at me and say, what should we do? 00:31:32.540 --> 00:31:34.580 And I say, well, the best thing for your marriage is for you to leave Hong Kong. 00:31:35.480 --> 00:31:36.560 And they go, I can't do that. 00:31:36.600 --> 00:31:37.080 I like it. 00:31:40.200 --> 00:31:41.580 The benefits outweigh. 00:31:42.620 --> 00:31:44.640 And I just say, well, you're going to lose your marriage then. 00:31:48.240 --> 00:31:49.780 What is it that we struggle with? 00:31:51.060 --> 00:31:52.640 And then Jesus writes these cures. 00:31:52.720 --> 00:31:54.940 And these cures are just, he's just speaking to them. 00:31:54.980 --> 00:31:56.120 But what is he speaks to Tobin? 00:31:56.140 --> 00:31:57.160 He says different things. 00:31:57.540 --> 00:31:58.240 He speaks to you. 00:31:58.300 --> 00:31:59.140 He says different things. 00:31:59.140 --> 00:32:02.300 And all of these cures, you notice what he says in this thing, verse 18? 00:32:02.600 --> 00:32:04.680 All of these cures, he advises you. 00:32:04.860 --> 00:32:05.740 He's the consultant. 00:32:05.900 --> 00:32:07.400 He's the venture capitalist. 00:32:07.680 --> 00:32:09.160 He says, buy from me. 00:32:09.440 --> 00:32:12.020 And it's very interesting because we can't buy anything from God, right? 00:32:12.100 --> 00:32:12.960 We have no money. 00:32:13.020 --> 00:32:14.020 Our money's not good for him. 00:32:14.240 --> 00:32:16.060 But he's saying for us to buy from him. 00:32:16.100 --> 00:32:18.780 And it's this idea that we come by faith. 00:32:20.520 --> 00:32:22.120 We buy these things by faith. 00:32:22.140 --> 00:32:25.220 And all of these things he lists here are their symbols of intimacy with him. 00:32:25.300 --> 00:32:26.580 Their symbols of dependence with him. 00:32:26.860 --> 00:32:28.480 Their symbols of having a relationship with him. 00:32:28.480 --> 00:32:32.059 And the gold is God's offering to us to meet our needs and to take care of us. 00:32:32.319 --> 00:32:34.240 And it's our character that's refined by fire. 00:32:34.400 --> 00:32:36.180 That we go through temptations and trials. 00:32:36.559 --> 00:32:37.559 And he changes us. 00:32:37.940 --> 00:32:41.680 And in Laodicea and in Hong Kong, people are dying because they're going after this gold. 00:32:41.920 --> 00:32:43.079 And it's filling their life up. 00:32:43.220 --> 00:32:44.759 But they're losing Christ. 00:32:44.759 --> 00:32:50.500 But Christ offers to give them something that's in heaven, that's spiritual, and that won't disappear. 00:32:50.500 --> 00:32:53.460 They're the white garments as opposed to the black garments. 00:32:53.619 --> 00:32:55.039 They're the promises of God. 00:32:55.160 --> 00:32:56.880 They're promises that God will take care of us. 00:32:57.099 --> 00:32:57.900 That he's going to be there. 00:32:57.960 --> 00:32:58.880 He's going to make us righteous. 00:32:59.000 --> 00:32:59.799 He's going to make us holy. 00:33:00.119 --> 00:33:01.119 He's going to make us pure. 00:33:01.420 --> 00:33:02.619 He's going to take away our sin. 00:33:02.660 --> 00:33:03.559 He's going to take away our guilt. 00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:08.980 If you want a great study in the Bible sometime this week, just go in there and do a study on clothes in the Bible. 00:33:08.980 --> 00:33:13.440 Almost always the idea of clothing has a negative connotation. 00:33:14.440 --> 00:33:16.440 It almost always means that you're covering up something. 00:33:16.559 --> 00:33:17.440 You're covering up your guilt. 00:33:17.559 --> 00:33:18.319 You're covering up your shame. 00:33:18.460 --> 00:33:21.599 Because in the garden, we were all just butt naked, right? 00:33:22.599 --> 00:33:26.519 But when sin came in, the first thing we did was we wanted to put clothes on because we wanted to cover our shame. 00:33:26.579 --> 00:33:27.500 We wanted to cover our guilt. 00:33:28.059 --> 00:33:30.539 And remember, so God comes in here and he kills an animal. 00:33:30.680 --> 00:33:36.440 And he puts the bloody side against them as a symbol of the blood covering their guilt and their shame. 00:33:36.440 --> 00:33:40.539 But almost always in Scripture, the idea of clothes is not a good thing. 00:33:40.799 --> 00:33:43.740 But here Jesus says, I want to give you these great clothes that are pure and holy. 00:33:44.200 --> 00:33:46.460 And they're going to make you know that I love you. 00:33:47.440 --> 00:33:48.539 I care for you. 00:33:50.299 --> 00:33:51.140 Stop worrying. 00:33:52.440 --> 00:33:53.480 Stop being so frustrated. 00:33:54.940 --> 00:33:55.500 Trust me. 00:33:56.660 --> 00:33:59.180 And then he says, I want to give you these I, this spiritual salve. 00:33:59.279 --> 00:34:01.480 This thing that's going to open up your hearts and your eyes. 00:34:01.539 --> 00:34:02.740 It's going to allow you to see God. 00:34:02.820 --> 00:34:04.259 It's going to allow you to see people. 00:34:04.259 --> 00:34:07.299 It's going to allow you to see that you're not as self-sufficient as you are. 00:34:07.640 --> 00:34:10.940 You know, one of the things about being self-sufficient is it makes us nearsighted. 00:34:10.980 --> 00:34:12.199 It makes us just focus on ourself. 00:34:12.340 --> 00:34:14.780 And he wants to give the church this salve. 00:34:14.820 --> 00:34:17.300 And he says, hey, I want to give these things to you because I love you. 00:34:18.079 --> 00:34:22.900 Now, I don't know how you feel when you read these words because the words in Greek are very strict. 00:34:23.239 --> 00:34:24.260 They're very harsh. 00:34:24.420 --> 00:34:28.599 But at the center of them is this idea that God says them to us because he loves us. 00:34:28.599 --> 00:34:34.019 I mean, he didn't even have to write to this church because there was nothing good here. 00:34:34.139 --> 00:34:35.880 But he still is seeking out them. 00:34:35.960 --> 00:34:37.219 He still wants to redeem them. 00:34:37.599 --> 00:34:41.319 Verse 19, he says, he says these things because he loves us. 00:34:41.500 --> 00:34:46.759 And if you look at that word zealous there, if you circle that word and go back up in verse 16 and circle lukewarm, 00:34:47.059 --> 00:34:48.420 those are the two opposite words. 00:34:48.699 --> 00:34:49.940 And so the people are lukewarm. 00:34:50.139 --> 00:34:52.179 But what God wants to do is he wants to make us zealous. 00:34:52.279 --> 00:34:53.619 He wants to make us jealous for him. 00:34:53.619 --> 00:34:56.859 And he wants to make us love him because he loves us. 00:34:58.319 --> 00:35:01.299 And so he says here, I'm saying these things because I love you, church. 00:35:01.359 --> 00:35:02.279 I want you to be different. 00:35:02.559 --> 00:35:03.819 I want you to understand grace. 00:35:03.920 --> 00:35:05.239 I want you to understand that I'm in control. 00:35:05.559 --> 00:35:08.019 I want you to understand that I'm giving you everything that you need. 00:35:08.199 --> 00:35:11.219 And you're grabbing for all these things for meaning and purpose in life. 00:35:11.299 --> 00:35:12.460 And you're going to fail. 00:35:14.299 --> 00:35:17.739 And the question we end up this whole sermon with is the question is this. 00:35:19.179 --> 00:35:20.579 Are we open to his love? 00:35:23.619 --> 00:35:25.679 Do we need it? 00:35:29.759 --> 00:35:31.039 Do we feel like we need it? 00:35:32.900 --> 00:35:34.059 Do we feel like we're doing okay? 00:35:34.119 --> 00:35:35.039 We don't really need it. 00:35:36.159 --> 00:35:41.759 Because he has this very strong imagery that the church is apathetic and self-sufficient and lukewarm. 00:35:42.039 --> 00:35:46.339 And their hearts have this door shut because they don't even want to have fellowship with God. 00:35:46.340 --> 00:35:51.940 And God is knocking on the door of our hearts as his children. 00:35:54.120 --> 00:35:57.740 He's trying to diagnose our condition, which is lukewarmness. 00:35:59.300 --> 00:36:00.760 And he's saying, let me in. 00:36:02.880 --> 00:36:03.680 I love you. 00:36:05.660 --> 00:36:06.559 Let me in. 00:36:07.579 --> 00:36:08.680 You were made for me. 00:36:08.760 --> 00:36:09.680 I was made for you. 00:36:10.680 --> 00:36:11.420 Let me in. 00:36:11.420 --> 00:36:12.460 I want to take care of you. 00:36:14.559 --> 00:36:15.440 Let me in. 00:36:16.920 --> 00:36:22.800 Meals in scripture are always symbols of deep, deep relationships and deep, deep fellowship. 00:36:24.300 --> 00:36:30.880 What God is saying here to this church, what God is saying to us, is that he never gives up on us. 00:36:35.019 --> 00:36:36.019 He's always pursuing. 00:36:38.639 --> 00:36:39.900 He's always knocking on the door. 00:36:42.139 --> 00:36:43.500 He's always wanting to make us better. 00:36:44.880 --> 00:36:47.159 He's always wanting to give us gold that's lasting forever. 00:36:48.079 --> 00:36:52.800 He always wants to clothe us with white clothes that take away our shame and our guilt and our hurt and our anger. 00:36:53.920 --> 00:36:55.639 He always wants to put salve on our eyes. 00:36:55.700 --> 00:37:02.260 It helps us see him as he truly is and see the world as he's made it to be and see our position in it and what we're supposed to do. 00:37:03.860 --> 00:37:05.240 He's always inviting us. 00:37:05.280 --> 00:37:07.440 And the question is, will we accept the invitation? 00:37:07.440 --> 00:37:11.900 Will you accept the invitation? 00:37:11.900 --> 00:37:20.639 The letter to the church of Laodicea is all about Jesus pursuing us. 00:37:20.639 --> 00:37:26.279 It's always about Jesus caring for us. 00:37:27.599 --> 00:37:37.199 It's always about God taking these things that are temporal out of our hands or showing us that they're going to fall apart and opening our hands to eternal things. 00:37:37.199 --> 00:37:42.419 It's always about Jesus asking us. 00:37:42.419 --> 00:37:43.199 Do we love him? 00:37:45.659 --> 00:37:47.339 Or do we love something else? 00:37:47.340 --> 00:37:53.100 He's knocking on the door pursuing us as a church. 00:37:56.500 --> 00:37:58.240 And the question is, will we let him in? 00:38:00.680 --> 00:38:02.180 Will we accept his grace? 00:38:04.120 --> 00:38:05.500 Will we accept his love? 00:38:07.300 --> 00:38:09.039 Will we allow him to clothe us? 00:38:10.720 --> 00:38:12.220 Or will we clothe ourselves? 00:38:16.220 --> 00:38:17.220 Will we clothe ourselves? 00:38:17.340 --> 00:38:18.340 Will we thank you? 00:38:19.480 --> 00:38:20.820 Father, we thank you for this day. 00:38:21.440 --> 00:38:24.120 We thank you for your mercy and your grace. 00:38:25.539 --> 00:38:28.940 We thank you for this last letter to the church of Laodicea. 00:38:30.860 --> 00:38:34.340 It is a butt kicker. 00:38:38.140 --> 00:38:42.380 But in it we see that you write it to them and you write it to us because you love us. 00:38:43.920 --> 00:38:45.220 You care for us. 00:38:45.219 --> 00:38:50.659 You don't want us to walk around with this infection and not realizing what the cure is. 00:38:50.699 --> 00:38:54.879 And the cure is you and your love. 00:38:54.880 --> 00:39:00.440 Father, I pray for some of us in here right now who aren't yet in the family of God. 00:39:00.440 --> 00:39:06.480 I think there are probably quite a few of us here who aren't. 00:39:06.480 --> 00:39:08.980 And we're trying to clothe ourselves with other things. 00:39:08.980 --> 00:39:12.000 We're trying to put different type of gold into our pocket. 00:39:12.199 --> 00:39:13.860 We see the world in a different way. 00:39:13.860 --> 00:39:19.280 And what I pray for them right now that you would open their eyes to the reality of your son Jesus. 00:39:19.280 --> 00:39:29.019 I pray that they would see that the things that they are grasping for and working themselves to death for and priding themselves in and be able to say, 00:39:29.160 --> 00:39:31.160 I have this, what else do I need? 00:39:31.500 --> 00:39:35.200 I pray that they would see that you would show them that these things are not eternal. 00:39:35.199 --> 00:39:47.939 They're not sufficient enough to carry their soul, to heal their brokenness, to make them as they're supposed to be. 00:39:47.940 --> 00:39:52.099 Father, I pray for some of us who are in the family. 00:39:52.220 --> 00:39:53.679 And we're in this church of Laodicea. 00:39:53.760 --> 00:39:59.340 And we're struggling because we've lost focus in this world that has so much to give us and so much to offer. 00:39:59.659 --> 00:40:02.139 And we're grabbing like in the half-off sale. 00:40:02.220 --> 00:40:04.139 And we just can't grab quick enough all these things. 00:40:04.179 --> 00:40:07.179 And we're putting them in our bag because we think these things are going to make us happy. 00:40:07.220 --> 00:40:07.960 And they're going to be great. 00:40:08.159 --> 00:40:09.320 And they're going to give us meaning. 00:40:09.460 --> 00:40:10.179 But we forget. 00:40:10.280 --> 00:40:12.840 We forget where ultimate meaning is found. 00:40:12.900 --> 00:40:14.460 And it's found in your son. 00:40:15.519 --> 00:40:17.800 We forget all the gifts that he's given us already. 00:40:17.800 --> 00:40:21.680 And all the things that he's given us as the ultimate venture capitalist. 00:40:23.640 --> 00:40:25.440 We forget that you love us. 00:40:27.600 --> 00:40:31.940 I mean, if we really knew that, we wouldn't strive for the other things, would we? 00:40:33.900 --> 00:40:36.060 So, Lord, I pray for my heart. 00:40:38.039 --> 00:40:42.240 I ask your forgiveness for being so self-centered. 00:40:44.420 --> 00:40:45.380 Self-sufficient. 00:40:45.380 --> 00:40:46.380 Self-sufficient. 00:40:47.340 --> 00:40:47.860 Prideful. 00:40:50.180 --> 00:40:50.660 Sure. 00:40:52.500 --> 00:40:52.980 Arrogant. 00:40:54.780 --> 00:40:56.480 Loving things that aren't you. 00:40:58.240 --> 00:41:01.019 Things that once I've grasped them, they fall apart. 00:41:02.300 --> 00:41:04.200 And we look for something else to grasp. 00:41:04.199 --> 00:41:07.779 Father, I pray for our hearts. 00:41:09.659 --> 00:41:10.359 Heal us. 00:41:12.279 --> 00:41:14.179 Come into our hearts and change us. 00:41:15.500 --> 00:41:18.879 Even as your people, we need your grace moment by moment, day by day. 00:41:20.639 --> 00:41:22.719 Lord, I pray for our church, your church. 00:41:22.939 --> 00:41:23.939 You put this church here. 00:41:23.940 --> 00:41:29.139 You provide everything we need from the finances to the room, the space. 00:41:29.619 --> 00:41:30.960 We pray, Lord, that we would be different. 00:41:32.659 --> 00:41:36.159 Pray that we would see you as you truly are and we would fall in love with you. 00:41:36.260 --> 00:41:41.280 And that we would be so different in this culture, which is Hong Kong, that people would notice that. 00:41:41.320 --> 00:41:45.059 And they wouldn't notice us, but they would notice your son, Jesus, in our life. 00:41:45.059 --> 00:41:53.000 Lord, we have a lot of outreaches coming up during Christmas, and we know that this is the time you've called us to be really, really aggressive. 00:41:53.179 --> 00:41:54.880 And we should always be zealous and aggressive. 00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:55.719 This is the time. 00:41:55.840 --> 00:42:03.779 And I pray for these outreaches in Bel Air and Baguio and Hong Kong U and other places around that you would be there. 00:42:05.719 --> 00:42:07.960 Pray that you would open people's hearts to your son. 00:42:09.659 --> 00:42:11.699 Help them to see the sickness in their life. 00:42:11.699 --> 00:42:16.679 That the only cure is not another Rolex watch, but the cure is Jesus. 00:42:20.239 --> 00:42:24.159 Help us to be your people and to be used by you in mighty ways during these holidays. 00:42:26.399 --> 00:42:29.099 May Hong Kong be different because you've placed us here. 00:42:30.480 --> 00:42:39.239 Help us not just to take a space up, but help us to be a church that reaches out to a dead and dying culture. 00:42:39.239 --> 00:42:44.500 Lord, we come before you and we just worship you and we thank you. 00:42:45.739 --> 00:42:46.619 We love you. 00:42:48.179 --> 00:42:49.000 We need you. 00:42:50.259 --> 00:42:52.119 We pray these things in your son, Jesus' name. 00:42:52.759 --> 00:42:53.059 Amen. 00:42:53.059 --> 00:42:53.239 Amen. 00:42:53.239 --> 00:42:53.259 Amen. 00:42:53.259 --> 00:42:53.279 Amen. 00:42:53.279 --> 00:42:53.299 Amen. 00:42:53.299 --> 00:42:53.319 Amen. 00:42:53.319 --> 00:42:53.359 Amen. 00:42:53.359 --> 00:42:55.299 Amen. 00:42:55.299 --> 00:42:55.319 Amen. 00:42:55.319 --> 00:42:57.319 Amen. 00:42:57.319 --> 00:42:57.379 Amen. 00:42:57.379 --> 00:42:57.419 Amen.