Spiritual Health Check

And if you wanna turn in your bibles, if you have 1 to Revelation chapter 3, The words of the reading will be on the screen behind us.

Revelation 3 verses 1 to 6. To the angel of the church in Sardis write, these are the words of Him who holds the 7 spirits of God and the 7 stars. I know your deeds, You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, strengthen what remains and is about to die. For I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my god.

Remember therefore what you have received and heard, hold it fast and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. Yet, you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me dressed in white for they are worthy. The 1 who is victorious will like them be dressed in white.

I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my father and his angels. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the spirit says to the churches. Well, good morning. My name is Pete Woodcock. I'm 1 of the elders of the church if you're visiting.

It's lovely to have you with us. Make sure you do let us know there's the visitors table there as Dean says. We're doing this series through the letters of Jesus through the apostle John to churches in Asia. And they're not they're not just for those churches, those historic churches. They're for all of us.

They're meant to be read to all the churches. And for us to get a sort of picture of things that go right and wrong in church, and that's we're at Sardis now. It's a very good job that we're not sending, hope church off with Sartis. That's a big 1. Thankfully, it's work that Philadelphia is the 1 that, Hope Church may be like, but let's have a look.

Let's pray. Follow help us now as we look at this punchy little letter from the lord Jesus Christ through the apostle to originally this church in Sardis and then to us. As it's been written down. Help us to listen and examine ourselves. We pray in Jesus' name.

Our men. Now if if you were back in the first century and you wanted to visit just 1 of the 7 churches in a Shaminer that are in are in the book of Revelation. It would definitely be the church of Sardis that you would you would want to go to visit. They would have more website visits than all the other churches put together the download of their sermons would be probably in the millions. It it would be that you've got to go to the church at Sardis just to catch the fire.

That's what people would say. You need to go there to catch the fire of this church. And not only the church, but the city of Sardis is a is an amazing place to visit. It was it was beautiful. It had lots of history.

It's built on a on a hill with absolutely beautiful surroundings. So I was looking at some pictures of it. And then it has a citadel built on a sort of rocky, acropolis that has 1 road in and then there's cliffs all around it. So they saw themselves as very safe as impregnable. Now they they were taken over as we'll see in a minute, but, you know, it was a pretty safe city, but not only that.

It was it was a very rich, very rich town. At 1 time, it was said that the river that run around the outcrop on on where it was built. You could see glitter of gold. There's a lot of gold in this area. The first coins ever, although China, you know, there's an argument between China and sided.

Slightly different sizes, but who who first minted coins, but certainly in Europe, the first minted coins were in Sardis. And then the whole myth of King Midas. Do you know the story of King Midas? You know, King Midas, he had the midas touch, whatever he touched turn to gold. Yeah.

That story comes originates from from this town, Sardis. And that's why the river is supposed to have gold in it because you know, King Midas touched it and then it had all this glittering gold going around it. Tripovisor would say you gotta go to Sardis. It's a 5 star event to go to Sardis. If you're going to Asia Minor, be sure to visit sardis.

Now I don't know if you remember but or if you even knew that quite a few years ago now. There used to be a group of people called Mystery worshipers. And they would send people out to churches like they come here Sunday morning. They wouldn't identify themselves, but the whole point is that they were the mystery worshipper, and then they wrote up whether the church was good or bad. It's pretty negative.

It's a pretty weird thing to be doing, but that's what they did. Well, if they did this Desardis, it would have got a terrific write up. You know, great car park. Lovely coffee. Really nice welcome.

Nice building. Toilets. Well, you know, can eat your dinner out of them? They were so nice. 20 minute life affirming sermons.

Just right. It was absolutely perfect. Worship band. My goodness. They were the latest songs, but they also did the old ones really well.

They were phenomenal. And, if your elders or if your church feels a bit rubbish, then you need to get your elders and your leaders and your youth leaders to actually visit Sardis and they come back with some life. I'm sure the mystery worshiper wrote something like this. Or if you can't go buy the book By the book about this church, it's called The Church with The Midas Touch. That's worth having.

It's on, it's on day 1. You can buy it. Not day 1. Good book. That's it.

Good book. Good book. Publish it. The church with the midas touch. Now that's how it would go, but this letter is written not by a mystery worshipper This letter is written by the lord Jesus Christ.

And look at verse 1, it tell it tells you how he calls himself to the angel of the church in Sardis writes these are the words of him who holds the 7 spirits of God and the 7 stars. So it's not a mystery worshiper. He's not pretending that he hasn't come. He knows about this church and here's my first point of this church. Reputation, but no reality.

Reputation, but no reality. Look what he says. I know your deeds. You have a reputation of being alive, but you're dead. Now, that's a devastating review, isn't it?

I mean, that would be a devastating review from a mystery worship, but this is the son of god. This is the lord Jesus Christ. This is the maker of the church. This is the 1 who died for the church. You have a reputation of being a life of church.

It's devastating. Jesus is saying, in my opinion, this church is opposite to to everybody else's opinion. You have a name, Sardis, of being alive, but you're dead. The church is joy in enjoying all this confidence of the other churches but Jesus says you lack spiritual life. You have the form of godliness, but you have no power.

They they worship without spirit and truth. They honor god with their lips but not with their lives. They profess to be Christian, but they don't possess Christ. They had a reputation of being alive. But when Jesus opened the door to the church, the physical door to the church, a stink of death came out, And then look at first 4.

He says, yet you have a few people inside us who have not soiled their clothes. Well, if there's a few, that means most of them have soiled their clothes. So now as you go into the door, you see the welcoming people and the door opens and there's not only a stink of death. There's a stink of soil closed. The nostrils of the great Messiah, the son of god, are irritated by the waft that's coming out of this church.

Have you ever seen someone who's just died, I guess quite a few of us have? You've seen someone who's just died that they're physically there, aren't they? They're they're they're the sort of same, same hair, same hair, same legs, same even wearing the same clothes if they just died. But something's gone. The spirit has separated from the body.

They actually look quite plastic now. Have you noticed that if you see someone? When my dad was, it was like it's a plastic version of him. It's not really him. Something's gone.

The spirit's gone. And that's what Jesus is saying here. The spirit's gone out of you. Some things gone out of you. Some things happened to the Saudi church.

You're there physically doing all the same things, but the spirits left you. You may think you have the midas touch, but that's a problem because everything you touch turns to cold metal. Even though it might glitter. You're cold. You're dead.

You're just glittery. Now notice how Jesus describes himself here in verse 1. These are the words of him who holds the 7 spirits of God. Now I'm not going to go into detail in that. We did that in the introduction sermon on this.

It's the holy spirit he's talking about here It's not there's not 7 holy spirits. There's 1 holy spirit, but the word 7 is complete. It means completeness. It means fullness. So here's a church that's turned to gold.

It's not breathing. It's not full of the spirit. And Jesus is saying what you need is me to come with the words of the spirit. I hold the spirit. The holy spirit.

Who will complete you, who will bring the spirit back into the dead body. There was an old preacher. I I I love his terms. He he had these phrases. He always had these phrases.

You know, you don't need rum. You need redemption. Yeah. Beautiful, isn't it? I wish I could preach like that.

You don't need jags. You need Jesus. And he used to say, you don't need gold. You need the holy ghost. Yeah.

You have to say ghost because it's a g. But the holy ghost, you need the holy spirit. You don't need gold. You don't need a good reputation. You need the holy spirit.

To be alive. We need to be very, very careful of a reputation. Very careful. It's so easily we could rest on a reputation. All the outward glittering that makes us feel sort of beautiful and powerful because we have gold.

Be careful. The church here in Sadesh, you notice there's nothing about persecution going on There's no fiery furnace they're going through. Is there? There's no refining. There's nothing actually even about heresy within the church.

There's no jezebel here as we saw last week inside Tyria. And there's no, you know, balaam as we saw the week before. There's no arguing going on. There's peace, but it's the peace of a cemetery. Says Jesus.

When uh-uh we lived in in Australia, we were always told about termites. I mean, Australia has everything nasty, not every nasty insect you could ever think about. And, termites And they're just like sort of ants. They're li little white ant type things, termites. And what they do is, most of the houses built in Australia right right the way through Australia have a a wooden structure in it.

And uh-uh and then the facade on the outside. And so it's held up by wood, but termites eat wood and it's a problem because they get into the house. You don't even know they're there. And they could eat the whole frame, the whole structure of the house. And you don't even know it.

So you look at a beautiful house that termites have eaten and you think it's beautiful, but there's no structure. And it's about to fall down. It's not whether it will fall down. It's when it will fall down. And that's the sort of thing you've got here.

You've got a beautiful church, but the termites have come. And what we need is the words of the 1 who holds the spirit in his hands, the 7 spirits of god. In his hands, the holy spirit. We need the word of god to come into the facade and restructure us and remake us and give us backbone and give us a renewed spirit inside. So we're not just a facade.

Look at verse 4 again of chapter 3 of Revelation. Yet you have a few people inside us who have not soiled their clothes. There are a few there, and we'll come back to them in a minute, but there are a few there that haven't soiled their clothes. And perhaps and this is this is what I was thinking through this week. Perhaps it's those few that have given the church its reputation.

Perhaps the larger church is awful but the few have lived it. So for instance, you might come to a church like Sardis and you know this. You go to a church and you meet 2 or 3 people in the church and they're really friendly So you go away and say that's a friendly church, but it may not be a friendly church. It may just that you happen to knock into the 3 that were friendly. And everybody else is largely horrible.

And that's how reputations come sometimes. There's a few in the church. I'm really on fire. They're really good and you meet them. And so therefore, you say the whole church must be like this, but it may not be like this.

Largely, there may be some good people in it. Well, again, come back to them in a minute as I say, but largely the church is dead. So that's my first point. Reputation without reality Here's my second point. Wake up.

Wake up. The 1 who holds the 7 spirits of god speaks. Wake up. Look at verse 2. Wake up.

Strength of what remains and is about to die. For I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of god. Jesus commands them. Wake up. And it's not a gentle nudge, you know, some of you go to sleep in Tom Sermons.

And, you know, you need a gentle nudge as wake up, you know, it's not just a, you know, gentle nudge. This is this is a revival. This is, you know, this is, hey, look, take seriously where you are. You lethargic people. Don't you realize you're asleep?

Your soul condition is not in a healthy state. Wake up. Wake up. Come out of slum slumber. Open the eyes.

Stretch, move. Get out of bed. When I was in hospital having my leg off, you know, they sort of take your leg off and then stick it back on when you have a hip operation. I think I don't know. I was not awake at the moment that they did that.

Actually, I was, but now that's another story. But when I was in hospital, a couple of days, I think it was after I'd had the operation for my hip. And lovely lady was bringing me breakfast. I had ordered ordered it an hour before sausage. It was lovely.

There was double sausage coming. As she walked in the door, I saw the double sausage and then something happened to me. I don't know what it was. I was sinking into unconsciousness. The lady immediately put the sausages down and called the nurses and before I knew it there were 3 or 4 nurses around me with a a couple of doctors had come in and it was like a massive drama that you would normally wanna watch but everything in me wanted to go to sleep.

And then I found nurses coming up to me right in the face saying wake up, Pete. Stay with us. Keep awake. What's your name? What's your name?

Pete. That's it. Who am I? And apparently I was talking to, Abby, Abby Kimberley is a nurse. And she says, yeah, yeah, the nurses have sort of 10 questions to go through to see how, you know, conscious you are and see how your sync sinking.

They even ask you what's the name of the king? He said, well, which king? You know? Well, if you said that, then they know that you're sort of there. But what's your name?

Who am I? Do you know who I am? Jesus is coming here. And this church is sinking into unconsciousness. He says wake up.

Stay with me. Don't go to sleep. Do you know who I am? It's very serious. If you go to sleep, we may not be able to wake you up.

Wake up. Wake stay with me. Sardis. Stay with me, Peter. Stay with me.

Who are you? What's your name? Are you a Christian? Is your name Christian? Who am I?

Jesus, the doctor? That's it. Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die. It's it's a lazarus coming out of the grave moment. I I don't know whether if you're at the prayer meeting on on Wednesday.

It was absolutely really lovely to hear Rosey, rose, rose, crookshanks, testimony. And as she put it in such a really good way. And when Anna herself interviewed them for membership, she she put it in the same way. And I I was, I found it really, really powerful. Where she talked about how she knew she was a Christian when when she started to repent of a particular sin in her life.

And then she realized that she couldn't repent or wouldn't want to repent without god working in her life to help her repent. And that's exactly what's going on. That's exactly it. That's the Christian life. We're commanded to repent, but we can't repent.

We need the holy spirit. To help us repent, remain strengthen, strengthen what remains and is about to die. So here I was sinking with all this drama going around me just wanting to go to sleep. What's your name? What's your name?

What's your name? What's your name? And I'm dying. And then suddenly oxygen is put on my face. A pill is put in my mouth.

I think they injected me in the stomach with something. All quite unpleasant things, but it was bringing me around and as I was trying to stay awake, they were giving me everything to keep me awake. That's exactly what Rose says. Strength and what remains. Jesus is calling us as he gives us the spirit word to wake up, fan into flame.

What was what was sinking? What was dying? Perhaps it was their prayer life. Perhaps their prayer life was dying, and Jesus is saying the spirit will give you oxygen. Strength of what remains.

Perhaps it was their love for reaching the lost and they'd lost their passion to to reach out, strengthen what remains. Perhaps it's their listening to the word of god. This There's a flame there, strengthen. And the spirit will give you the oxygen and the peel and the injection. And Jesus is coming to us.

Wake up. Stay in. Stay with us. Keep going on this issue. You see?

See how lazy they were. Wake up strengthen what remains and is about to die for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of god. You know, they started well, but they are unfinished. Yeah. Perhaps it's their hearing of the word of God.

You know, we start well, don't we? And, we hear it. We know it's the word of god, we basically hear it as if we're asleep, and we need to spirit a holy spirit to strengthen what remains. Are you other areas in your spiritual life when you're actually hanging on a thread, aren't you? Do you need Jesus to come to you and say, stay with us.

Stay with us. What's my name? Remember who you are? You're a Christian. Stay with us.

You've got a cold golden heart, and it's all gold, but it's dead, strengthen what remains. That's what's going on here. Now that might start very small. And I think 1 of the re 1 of the things about coming out of sleep and, lethargy is that we we wake up and we think, oh, I'll go and do a run a marathon then and you haven't even had a cup of coffee. We make promises that are just stupid.

Sometimes we have to start with small steps. Just woken up. Right. I better wash the other eye and get that open. And then I might just be able to move myself downstairs and have a bit of toast, you know.

Then I might be able to go for a walk. Again, I'm sorry to give you these illustrations, but back to my hip. I just I just had it off and then had it stuck back on. And, and the very same day I'd had this massive operation that was obviously so serious and 1 of the most serious things anyone could ever have, certainly in my mind, and I've never had anything like it. And then along comes this physiotherapist who I actually knew from from chessington evangelical church, came in and said, right, Pete.

Get out of bed. And I said, what are you talking about? Just have my leg off. If you don't start now, you'll always have difficulties. Come on.

Up you yet. Wake up. Strengthen what remains. I could only stand and move to the door and then move back, and that was enough. Then the next day a bit more, then the next day a bit more.

And that's how the spirit of god will work in us as we grow in strengthening what will remain. I just wanted to show you again because I wanted to spend a little time on this. I just wanna sort of dwell in it. Notice that they have a sort of spiritual amnesia as well. Well, because if they're asleep, they're gonna have that.

Look at verse 3. He says remember that word remember. It's a very big important word, with the apostles. So you'll you'll get that all over the place, Peter, particularly remember therefore. What you have received and heard, hold it fast and repent.

Remember what you've received and heard. Let me just slow down a bit. Let's just go to another passage in the Bible. And have a look at 1 Corinthians 15. I think it's gonna come up.

And these are the things that we should, we should remember. I don't know what version this is. That's a that's a strange version, but I'll read my version out as well. But it says, now brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel. So remember, remind you, listen, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received on which you have taken your stand.

Remember that gospel. So we need to be saying, holy spirit, please. Give us the pill, give us the injection, give us the oxygen. That I might remember the good news, that I it was preached to me. I'm not gonna grow from that, but I'm gonna grow in that.

Holy spirit, please. You know, the 7 spirits of God in the hand of Jesus, breathing me that breath that I remember this. By this gospel, you were saved. I was saved by this. Saved from what, from self, and the love of this world, and the gold of this world.

And from death, if you hold firmly to the word I preach to you, Otherwise, you believed in vain. For what I received, I passed on to your first important that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Remember that the living Christ died for your sins, holy spirit, rub that in. Let me breathe that oxygen. Let me understand I'm not my own that he bought me with the price of the lord Jesus Christ.

According to the scriptures, it was all laid out there. Don't let me ignore the scriptures that have the life of the gospel in it that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures and they appeared to see first. That's Peter. And then to the 12. And after that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time.

Most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Remindly of the utter importance of the resurrection of the lord Jesus Christ He died. He rose again. He's opened up a new road into heaven. Remind myself.

Holy Spirit. Please. There's a start. That's a start of getting out of bed and leaning on the leg. That's the start of taking the oxygen.

Let me hold fast to these things. Let me repent if those things haven't been big in my life for a little while. Let me turn away. I've drifted from them. Help me step by step now and it may only be step by step every day to remind myself of who I am and who Jesus is.

And that when Jesus comes and says, stay awake. Do you know who I am? Do you know who you are? You're a blood bought child of god. Come on, this step.

Come on, breathe. A holy spirit. And they had soiled their garments as well. Look at verse 4. Yet you have a few people inside us who have not soiled their garments.

Well, that does mean as I was saying that there's a lot that have soiled their garments. And when you read the sort of garments in in the in in the book of Revelation, it really often has to do with our witness to the world. So somehow they've soiled their witness to the world. They they look good. Their white washed shepherds as Jesus called the religious leaders.

Their coffins dressed up nicely with flowers on them. But they're dead. And he's saying, Hey, hey, come on. Remember wake up. Wake up to those old truths.

Don't fall asleep. Wake up. Be filled with the spirit, speak to 1 another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Wake up to fellowship where we encourage each other to grow. Wake up golden church, That leads me to my third point.

You can take that off my third point. A walk with the worthy because this is tough stuff, isn't it? I mean, This is, I mean, this is tough stuff. But here, there's a tenderness. He's tender to the faithful.

Look at verse 4. Yet you have a few people inside us who've not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me dressed in white for they are worthy. The 1 who is victorious will like them be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but we'll acknowledge that name before my father and the angels whoever as is, let him hear what the spirit says to the church is.

So although the overall church may be dying and asleep, there's a few people in this church that are alive haven't sold their clothes. They don't stink. Yeah. And they're the remnant. And I actually think that nearly every church you go to you know, almost whatever it is that there's there's usually a remnant there, isn't there?

You know, you can go to the deadest church in the deadest denomination. And you go and they said there's always someone there that seems to have a life. I love going around, I love going around old buildings because I love history, and I love going around old Anglo church buildings, and I love having a snoop around. And I'm always looking to see if there's life and nearly always in the highest deadest smelling church, you know, you can smell death in it. And you'll see a little gospel tract or someone's put a booklet Little gospel thing.

Maybe very old fashioned and very out of date, but you think, I know that. That's Vira, isn't it? She's just put that there to save the vicar from hell. And, you know, that's why she said that there's someone here that loves Christ. Yeah.

It's always exciting. Always exciting. There's a remnant. There's a remnant. There's a very famous story now I'm gonna have to tell about a man trying to think of his name.

William Hasland, who was a vicar who was not not a Christian. And he preached every week, but there were a couple of old ladies that had got converted. By a tin miner. And he they were converted and they sat at the back. And 1 day the vicar started reading the Bible as if he believed it because he didn't ever believe it.

And the old lady shouts out behold, the vicar is converted. And he said, yes, I am. And, that caused a revival. Anyway, that's all off the point. But, yeah, there's always a spark.

There's always, and Jesus talks tenderly to those people. Look look at what he says. They will walk with Jesus dressed in white verse 4. That white is victory victory over sin. Now the way you have victory over sin is it is by constantly coming back to the sacrifice the lord Jesus Christ who washes us clean by his blood.

Our robes are washed in the blood of Christ. That makes them white. That makes them clean. So it's not it's not just them doing good works here although it is that because they're constantly bringing themselves to be washed in the blood of Christ. And we know that Jesus because if you read ephesians 5 and what a husband should be doing, and Jesus is the great husband.

He'll always be washing us through the word and presenting us as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or blemish holy and blameless. Jesus will present us. And this is them in victory and he's saying, Hey, you serious about me that are waking up that haven't, just gone after the world. Don't worry. I will present you with the righteous robes.

The washed robes, the victory. There's gonna be victory. No more battling. No more overcoming. You've overcome.

There's a time where you won't battle with sin anymore. You will walk in the white robes with the lord Jesus priced himself. And then he says, look, their names won't be brought from the book of life. They're in the book of life. You know, when you go to a cemetery, you you get those books and it's got all the names of the dead people in it, hasn't it?

And you go to plot number 3, row 14 and there's Fred there. He's dead. Yeah? And there's a book of death. Well, Jesus has got a book of life.

And he's saying, Hey, listen, even though the church around you may be dead, you are in the book of life. You you've got such hope. And then this amazing Just look at verse 5. This is almost unbelievable. Look, they will be acknowledged before the father and the angels.

What does that mean? Jesus is presenting his bride that he's died for that are wearing the white robe. Yeah? That are in the book of life. Jesus is saying, this is my pride.

Hey, father. Here's my bride. This is my bride, the church. The ones who are wearing the white robes. This is my bride.

He's presenting. And then the angels are there. Whoa. They were the sinners that have been forgiven by the blood of Christ. That's the hope.

That's the picture. Okay. Let's just knock it in a little bit more. Here's a few points of application. First of all, verse 6, whoever has ears let them hear what the spirit says to the churches.

Are you hearing? What's the spirit saying? What's the spirit saying to us? What's the spirit saying to hope church? The most important thing about Cornerstone Church or Hope Church is not what anybody else thinks but it's what Jesus thinks.

I mean, I've had a lot of descriptions of Cornerstone that I have never recognized some some really negative things. And you have to keep saying, well, it's not what you think, it's what Jesus thinks. The other thing here is that we do need to examine ourselves, don't we? Are we dying? Is the smell of soiled clothes and death sort of wafting up from you?

Yeah? You know, if I open the door to your life, if Jesus opens the door to your life, something's rotting here. I want to tell you this, and this is honestly, I was sitting writing this sermon. I wrote the line Well, as I was writing this line, I wrote the line Jesus opens the door remember to the church physical building and the stink of death comes out. Right?

As I was writing that, I'm note a 71 bus went past my window, and it had written on it in massive letters. You stink I'm not kidding you. It's a new film by with Jack Black in it. I'd never seen it before. I was just writing everybody else stinks.

And suddenly you stink, and I thought my goodness, me, I have to examine myself. What is dying in me? What am I losing? Can't just point at other people? Do I stink?

Have I got the enthusiasm for the lord Jesus Christ, we have to examine ourselves, and we have to repent, and we have to strengthen that which remains. And as I say, it may take a slow walk back to the good things of the lord Jesus Christ. So we need to strengthen what remains. We need to examine ourselves. We need to know these promises of Jesus.

There is victory over sin, it's coming. There is this book of life that we're written in, and there is the father will see me as the bride of Christ. They're wonderful things. But I want to just end with a story of a church that, an evangelist called John Blanchard, who's died, not a few years ago. He was a pretty famous evangelist in this country, John Blanchard.

And John Blanchard and myself went to do a mission in this little village has about 9000 people in Scotland, and it's called Kirk Mule Hill. Do you know where that is, Lennon? Cuck Mule Hill. How'd you say it? I think it means church on the hill and it was a church of Scotland and it was an amazing mission.

It was an amazing week. We were there for a week. And god worked in a very special way in that mission. On 1 occasion, the youth leader who was a strong, youth leader became a Christian. She realized she wasn't a Christian.

And became a Christian. And that buzzed all the way through the youth and 1 after the other became Christians in that we. It was an amazing sort of we. But what was amazing, the the most amazing talk I think I've ever heard in my life The most amazing preach I've ever heard and I was privileged to be at was John Blanchard's talk at the end of the week. This church had 33 elders in it.

And to be an elder, it was passed on and you were elders for life and they, in the end, they had 33 elders in this church. 33. Most of them didn't even come to church. Yeah. There was only about 3 that were really Christian, 33 elders.

He did a lot, a evening meal for the 33 elders and their wives, and nearly all of them came. Now John Blanchard is 1 of the great evangelists and this and he was rude blunt in your face. And it's where I got all my I learned of him. But he was this was a a dynamite meeting. We'd had a lovely meal.

He stood up. He read the whole Westminster, what's it called? Confession of faith. Which is what every 1 of those 33 elders had signed to be an elder. He read the whole thing.

He then went through the whole thing. He spoke for an hour and a half. It was electric People were crying. People were angry. People were writing things, on the tables.

There was the the atmosphere was electric. I've never been to a thing like it. And he was so powerful. And then at the end, He said, now you signed that, you men. You need to repent if you're not following it, or you need to recommit or resign 3 people immediately resigned.

The the the minister of the church was praising God. It's a great, get their signatures here, so get them out. The next day, I think another 3 resigned, and then many repented. It was a very powerful moment in a small village church that had a massive effect on the village in the end. And that's what Jesus is saying.

You know, if you're not really following him and if you're not really alive to him, then you're dead. Repend, recommit, or resign. You know, stop mucking about, stop being pretending. Doesn't do us any good, doesn't do you any good. Repent, recommit, or resign.

And I guess I guess we have to do that all the time. I guess we have to do that all the time. Personally, otherwise, I'll turn into a sardis and get in the tardis. Let's pray. Further, you know our hearts here, you know everything there is about us or lord, we need in every ministry.

Everything we do, we need your Holy Spirit. Please breathe in us, please restore us. Please cause us to be the passionate people that love the lord Jesus Christ. We don't want to be dead. We don't want to be gold.

We don't want to have the best of this and that, but not have you. Please help us in the name of Jesus,