LaodiceaJeff Laodiceia

Bom, bom dia.

leader leader leader leader leader leader leader Você pode ir com quem está fazendo a igreja de children. E vocês vão ter uma boa noite.

Bem, esse dia, eu tenho um dia. Meu irmão, Jeff, ele é meu irmão, ele é aqui no Brasil. Eles têm estado em Brasil por, eu acho, 25 mais anos, fazendo coisas diferentes, servem o Senhor. E ele é em Estados Unidos. Ele é aqui, por um, o que? É um dia, um dia? Um dia? Ok, um dia. Um dia. E ele foi um dia para um dia. E ele foi um dia. Nós tivemos um dia muito tempo. E ele foi um dia. E ele foi um dia. E ele foi um dia. E ele foi um dia. E ele foi um dia. Ele foi um dia. Então, come on up.

É isso aí. É isso aí. All right. Fancy. O que é isso aí? É isso aí. O modern joys of the states.

Anyhow, eu sou Jeff Fromholz. Eu sou o brother-in-law, o illustrious Ted Mort. I married his daughter.

Wife. Sister. Right. Hold on. All right. Get my thoughts here. I married his sister. That get confusing. I have to say he married his brother-in-law. Nowadays, you have to specify that he married his sister because you don't know nowadays. Weird as that is. Yeah, right. Whoops. But yeah, so, yeah. I'm back on this really long trip. Probably the last time I'm going to do a trip this long. I was talking to my wife. Texting with her last night, like at midnight. It's like, this has gotten really long. It's been like five and a half weeks so far, so I got a week and a half to go. And that's a long time to be away from your wife.

But it's all good. It's been a great trip. We've been able to reconnect with a lot of people, friends, family, churches, supporters. And so, we're here now celebrating 25 years in Brazil, which is really amazing. I know I don't look much older than 25, but so, yeah, I went when I was seven, so I'm 32. But probably the biggest thing in this last year, for me, achievement-wise, is I finished the translation of the Bible after 17 years. And so, it's like, man, I think when I started out, I don't think I had any idea what I agreed to do, or I thought I was smarter than I was. And it took us eight years to do the New Testament, nine to do the old, and just finish in June.

And I will say that I probably have, and I've had, for the past 17 years, the best job that exists in the world. I was able to, every single day, read the Bible. And that was my job. And you listen to people nowadays, and they're like, yeah, I'd like to read the Bible, but I don't have time. But it was like my job, like 12, 15 hours a day, just to spend time in God's Word. It was absolutely amazing. I don't plan on stopping reading the Bible now, but it was amazing. And I'm a bit of a word geek. I really like words, and I really like the backdrop behind words and the nuances. And so, every single day, I'd be coming down from my office, and my wife would have to put

up with about a 20-minute spiel about some word. And about 10 minutes into it, she's like, okay, honey, that's good. My mind hurts now. It's like, but no, but listen, you know what this word means? And there's so many things that, studying God's Word's amazing. There's things that stick out to me today, certain words, and you're like, holy cow, who knew that, you know? Like, for instance, prodigal, the prodigal son. Super well-known text. And everyone talks about the prodigal son, says, yeah, it was a prodigal son. Songs about the prodigal son. Books about the prodigal son. And then you stop and you go, but wait a minute.

What's the word prodigal mean?

The word prodigal means somebody that, like, blows their whole inheritance, spends all that they have, their whole patrimony, has absolutely nothing to do with going and coming back. If he'd have gone and never came back, he still would have been a prodigal son. And you go, well, that sure changes the whole thing on that. And it just ruined about four of my favorite songs. And so just things like that stick out. Where'd you go, wow? It just changed the whole context of what I always thought it was. And so one of the texts I wanted to, like, just go on to is one of my favorite ones. Because of just understanding the backdrop and the nuances and just an advisory,

this message is going to contain vomit. So my wife has this thing like, why does everything that you say or do seem to always go back to poop and vomit? And I don't know, I'm a 10-year-old boy at heart. And that may or not be true. I don't want to throw under the bus and say she's a liar, but no. But anyways, it's in Revelation 3. And it's one of those, it's one of the letters, the letter to Laodicea. And it's one of those letters that we all know really well. We've heard it. We've heard about it. We've heard, you know, Jesus is going to vomit you and stand at the door and knock. And the whole thing. We're like, yeah, I get it.

And it's like, okay, so what are you going to teach on that? We already know that. But the letter to Laodicea, the letter's well known. The church isn't. And if we don't get the church part, we might not get the letter part. How many of you guys remember like a song when you're growing up that you sang? It was like your favorite song. You sang it with all your heart and you just like belt it out in the car and got the radio cranked up in a cassette player or whatever it was in your day. Maybe you didn't even have anything. I don't know. Sang along with the horse and the buggy. But not that anyone's that old. Maybe.

And then later on in life, you're reading the lyrics and you go, oh, those are the lyrics? And you'd been singing it all these years wrong. And you're like, oh, well, who know? Well, the letter of Laodicea is a lot like that. There's things that we've heard and said forever because we've heard it from pulpits and other people just saying it. And then you might go, oh, that's what it meant. And that's what familiarity does with us a lot of times, especially in the Bible. We're familiar with it. But if we don't understand the context, if we don't understand the backdrop, sometimes the very thing that we think we're familiar with, we really don't know.

And we go, oh. And that's why I love this letter. It's crazy. The letter of Laodicea, if you don't understand the geographical and the historical significance behind it, it's really hard to understand what Jesus is saying, why he's saying it, and then how do we apply that to our lives? What do we do with that? And so historical and geographical details are things I love. Those little things you throw out in the middle of a message, they're like really interesting. They might not really have anything to do with the message, but they're like, whoa, I didn't even know about that. It's just like cool, kind of like a, you know, get your attention.

Sometimes it might clear it up a little bit, but there's some that if you don't get the backdrop, you just, you don't get it. And so that's why we're going to go into the letter to Laodicea, and hopefully I can bring out some stuff that maybe you hadn't seen, and then also we'll go, wow, that's what Jesus is saying. Hmm. That might be applicable to my life. So here we go. I'm just going to read the letter just in case you're not familiar with it, and then we'll jump into it. It's Revelations 3, verse 14. I had to borrow my father-in-law's Bible today, because mine's in Portuguese, and I didn't think that was going to fly too well.

But, uh, uh, Grigio in Laodicea escrevi. That would be the Portuguese, which it's not, so here we go. To the angel of the church in Laodicea write, these are the words of the amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold, or one or the other. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth. It really vomits the word, but, um. You say I am rich, I have acquired wealth, and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so that you can become rich, and

white clothes to wear, so that you can cover your shameful nakedness, and salve to put in your eyes so you can see.

Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am, or here I am, and I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Part of most of us, there's nothing new there. Like, yeah, yeah, we've heard that, read it. But one of the things that Jesus repeats in the letter, he says that, I know the things you do, or I know your works. And that's one of those things that, sometimes we just blaze over that part in these letters, because it's like, he keeps telling me, I know your works, and I know what you do. And you're like, yeah, okay, what's the letter say? But if you stop and think about that phrase, that's one of those phrases that kind of like bugs me, in maybe a good way, bothers me. Because like, he knows what I do. And it's like one of those, the end of the one in Matthew, where he's like, depart from me.

And you're like, well, that's not going to be me. But then you look at the list, and it's like all these who's who of ministry people. And he's like, depart from me. I mean, it's one of those things that you go, whoa, hold on here. I need to maybe check myself. And so when I see this, I know what you do. And one sense, you're like, oh, cool, he saw what I did. And the other sense, you're going, well, yeah. Because he's not just saying, I know what you do. He's saying, I know what you do and why you do it. And so man looks at the outside, and they see our good works. God looks at the heart, and sometimes he catches us in this thing of doing something with maybe

not his glory as our goal. I don't know if you guys have ever, like, done something that maybe in the back of your head thought, I hope somebody saw that.

You know, or, and if no one saw it, then we'll just give a testimony later on about what we did, how great we are. And I mean, it's like, some of those things you go, whoa, yeah, that's me. Yikes. And so when I read that, it's like, I know what you do. I know why you do it. Like, oh, man. And so that, it just starts out already for me, like, getting my attention. Like, okay, so here we go. And then he jumps into it, and I'll just read it, because it's, my outline is in Portuguese, so it's not going to be interesting to you. But I know your deeds. And he goes, that you're neither hot nor cold. I wish you were the one or the other, because you're lukewarm and not hot nor cold.

I'm about to spit or vomit you out of my mouth. And there's two ways that we usually look at this passage. It's usually, like, hot, good. Cold, bad. I mean, how many of us have, like, talked about, you know, you want to be an on-fire Christian. You've got to be on fire for Jesus. You want to be, like, those cold people, and I don't want to be a cold or a casual Christian or songs about stuff like that. And what they take is Jesus saying, I would rather that you were for me or against me. But because you're lukewarm, I'm going to vomit you. But it's not what he's saying. There's no place in the Bible where Jesus ever, like, praises somebody who's 100% against him

just because they're being honest. And that's a lot of the junk we hear in the pulpits nowadays is, like, just be honest with God. He knows your heart. Tell him off. He doesn't mind. Really? Really? The holy, holy, holy, and he doesn't mind you, like, cursing him out because that's your heart? But that's kind of what we've taken it to, and we've, like, saying, well, no, it's okay if you're mad. It is okay if you're mad at God, but realize that he's still God. And so this whole idea of being either, you know, all for him or all against him, just don't be on the fence. It's not what he's saying. Or they take it and reduce it to an emotional state where hot for God means you're, like,

passionate and you're intense and you just live it all for him. And if you're going to not do it that way, just don't do it at all. And you hear people say that, too. You do it all for Jesus, just don't do it. Well, okay. But he's not saying that either. It doesn't have anything to do with being passionate or intense or totally indifferent to him, which would be the cold, you know, you're cold, you're indifferent, you're hot, you're like, I'm on fire. It's not that. And it's not being either for him or against him. It's not what Jesus is saying. To understand the passage, you've got to understand the context. Laodicea, have you ever studied the church of Laodicea or even the geography around it?

Because that's where the whole thing comes into view and it shines this great light and you go, oh, okay. Laodicea was a city rich in natural resources. They had everything except for one thing, water. They didn't have water. So their water had to be piped in. In this, they have the two options. They've got Aeropolis, which is up and over this side, and they've got Colossus, which is over here. Colossus was the source for cold water. Their drinking water came from Colossus. The only thing is, Colossus is 10 kilometers away. So by the time the water travels through, I don't know, the clay pipes or whatever they had at the time,

in the desert, passes through all the way to Laodicea, the water got there warm. It wasn't cold like when it left this source. And so this is a way that we can go, okay, I get it. Cold isn't bad, especially when we're talking about water. I don't know if anybody's been out on a hot summer day in California. We don't have many of them here. But imagine like today you woke up, and of course it's not really that hot today, but let's say it was in July, and you woke up one day and you go, you know what? These gas prices are killing me. I'm walking to church today. And so you walk three miles to church. You get here, you're sweating, you're hot, and like, oh, I just want something cold to drink.

And so you go to the water fountain, and you go and you turn it on, and your mouth is already just starting to sell it, just imagine that cold water hitting your mouth, and it's lukewarm. You ever had that happen, like in Walmart or something, and the thing, their stupid water fountain doesn't work? And what do you do? You spit it out. It's like, what is this? Warm water? And if you're here, you're going, where's Ted? You need to talk to Ted. The water fountain doesn't work, you know? But that's where you go, okay, I get it. Cold water, when we're talking about drinking, is a good thing. It's not a bad thing. I remember when I was young, we'd grab the hose.

You know, you're out playing. This is back when you could grab the hose and no one said it was bad for you. But you'd let it run for a bit. Because whatever's in that hose at first, you can burn your mouth. You've got to wait for the cold stuff to get. So cold water is good on a hot day. Then you've got the Edopolis. Edopolis, or I don't even know how you say it in English, Hierapolis? I don't know. Edopolis is the way that it kind of just comes out in Portuguese, so it sounds cool. Actually, you want a really good tip when you're reading stuff in the Bible and it's got these crazy names and words and you don't know what it is?

You know what you do? Sound like you know what it is and just go with it. And everyone else is going, oh, that's what it is? Don't stop. Don't ask. Don't stutter on it. Just bang. And then people are like, wow, he really knows his Bible. It's great if you want to dupe people. Don't say too much, though, because you might give it away later. But hey, so Edopolis is where the hot water is coming from. It's a famous resort city back then where they have medicinal waters. And so people would go there to sit in their waters. It's full of calcium for medicinal purposes. So for meadopolies, they're piping in this medicinal water that they want to use for medical purposes in Laodicea.

And it gets there and it's, well, warm. And once it's warm, it doesn't serve for the medicinal purposes anymore. And I don't know if you've ever drank water that's like full of minerals or smelled it, like full of calcium. My dad, when we were growing up, he had a well at his house and it was like seriously full of minerals. Like it left orange marks in the sink, in the bathtub. You didn't drink it. Water that's full of minerals, you don't drink. First of all, it smells like rotten eggs. So if everyone's done that, you grab someone's house and you turn in the water, it's like, dude, there's something wrong with your water because it smells like something died in there, but it never goes away.

And my dad's like, so I get the Edopolis thing. You're not drinking this water. It's not for drinking. It's hot. It's for medicinal. So it gets there. It's no good. It's warm. Just like the cold water coming from Colossus gets there and it's not any good. So the healing purposes of the water from Edopolis are now null and void. The refreshing purposes from the cold water in Colossus are now null and void. And that's the whole point. The point was there was a point to the water, but as soon as it was warm, it was useless. And so what you have is you've got Jesus saying, he's not saying, I want you to be hot for me or be passionate for me or don't be passionate before me.

or be against me. What he's saying to the churches, your problem is really not the temperature. Your problem is the distance from the source. And because of the distance from the source, you're not really fulfilling any of the purposes for which you're there. And that's the whole crux of the letter. There's times when the church is like a cup of cold water on a hot day. It's refreshing. There's times you get here and some days you just need an encouraging word. And someone meets you at the door and shows you where the donuts are. And that was just everything you needed to start your day right. A cup of coffee. And they encourage you.

It's like, wow, I'm really glad I went to church today. And there's other times when you're just like beaten down and the church is a place of healing. There's someone who'll sit with you. They'll pray with you. And that's the whole, Jesus going, this is the purpose of the church. It's to refresh and it's to heal. But you guys are lukewarm. You're not doing either. You guys are just making me want to throw up, to be quite frank, quoting Jesus. And so he continues on. He says, you say you're rich. I have everything I want. I don't need anything. And why is this significant in Laodicea? Well, it goes back to the thing.

It's a rich town. It's a banking city. How rich was Laodicea? In 60 AD, there's an earthquake. It destroyed the city. So the imperial, the Roman Empire sends money to Laodicea. Here, let us help you rebuild. And you know what they did? They sent the money back. We don't need your money. We're rich. And so they were very rich. We're rich. We got all we want. We don't need anything. And that was the attitude of the church of Laodicea.

I don't need anything. Self-confident, self-sufficient. And when we talk about Christianity, two things that kill your faith, self-confidence and self-sufficiency, I can do it. I can do it, God. I got it.

And then we don't cry out to him because we can do it. Why call God? I've already got everything I need. I can handle it. I don't know about you guys, but I'm maybe a little thick.

When a problem comes into my life, I like to say the first thing I do is I run to Jesus like, God, help me. It's not. The truth is, is I have probably about three or four different options that I think can resolve this situation without bothering God. And then I try one, and it doesn't work. And then I try another, and it doesn't work. And on and on. And so I finally go, I can't fix this. And then I go, God, I need your help. That's just, maybe I'm like way out in left field and I don't know. But I pretty much am like the little kid. Remember when kids are literally like, no, Daddy, I do it. I do it. I feel like I'm like that with God.

God's going like, let me help you. I'm like, no, Jesus. Jeffy do. Jeffy do. And that's my life. And sometime, I think I'm going to get smarter one day, maybe, where I just like stop when the situation comes and go, you know what, God? I'm not even going to try until I talk to you. But unfortunately, I'm not there yet. I'll get there. Not only takes two tries, used to be five, so I'm getting better. But that's the problem in this church here. We're able to say, we can do it. God, we don't need you. We've got money. And that's why the Bible says it's hard for a rich man to enter heaven. Not because God doesn't like rich people.

It's because they think, I have everything I need. I have everything I want. I don't need God. And so they go on their life and find out later how much they really did need God. Another thing that's interesting that's going on during this time period is they had like unions, like associations for skilled workers and merchants in all of Asia Minor. And they were kind of taken over. And they were corrupt. They flat out were corrupt. And so you've got them during this time period. And actually, the letter to the church of Chia Thea in Revelation 2.19 says, I know the things that you do. I've seen your love, your faith, your service, and your perseverance.

The service that they were doing was caring for the people that couldn't sustain their households because of these associations of skilled workers and merchants. What's happened in all of Asia Minor was that the churches and the Christians were losing money because they refused to compromise and work with these unions or these associations. So if you didn't join one of the associations or unions, you couldn't work. If you couldn't work, you couldn't feed your family. And so in all this persecution that's going on at this time of the church in Asia Minor, in the middle of Christians who were going hungry and willing to die of hunger rather than compromise,

We've got Laodicea who says, we have all the money we need. And if you stop and question, you go, well, how? How are all the other churches in this area suffering? All the Christians suffering, but Laodicea has all they need. Compromise. They'd compromised. That's why they had money. So the church is sick. And so then Jesus comes along and he's got the cure in verse 18. Let me find it here. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire so you can become rich and white clothes to wear so you can cover your shameful nakedness and salve to put on your eyes so you can see. It's really a weird statement when you look at the whole of it.

You go, why is he even saying that? But what's amazing is when you understand the irony that Jesus is using. I mean, he's being completely truthful with them. This is the cure. But in the same time, there's a lot of irony involved because gold purified by the fire so that you can be rich. Well, they're already rich. So why is that significant? Well, it goes back to Laodicea was a banking city. They were rich. You know what they had in abundance? Gold. They had a lot of gold. And so you say you're rich, have everything you want, you don't need anything, but you don't understand that you're wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

He's saying you don't have anything.

And that's why I'm telling you, you need to buy gold refined in the fire. And they're like, well, Jesus, we have gold. We have a lot of gold. And he said, that's your problem. You really don't have anything. You don't understand that everything that you have belongs to me. You don't understand that everything that you have can be taken away from you in an instant. So you really don't have everything. You don't understand that I'm the vine and you're the branches. You can't do anything without me. You don't have anything without me. I'm the source. And so then he goes on. He says, buy from me white clothes to cover your shameful nakedness.

And the interesting thing, there's another thing that Laodicea has. They've got a huge textile industry famous for their black wool. This is where the irony kicks in. They've got a lot of gold. They've got to buy gold. They've got a textile industry. It's famous, huge. They sell black wool. He says, buy white wool. You go, well, why white? Well, it refers to our purity before God and our ability to approach him and worship. And then he finally says, buy from me too, solve to put in your eyes so you can see. Laodicea was also famous for its school of medicine.

Guess what their school of medicine was famous for? Doctors that treated problems with vision, eyesight problems, with a solve that they made in Laodicea from the Phrygia rock. So it's like, wow. I mean, he's hitting them right where they're at. They knew exactly what he's talking about. We read and we go, well, okay. But he's basically saying these are all the things that you trust in. But they're wrong things. You're trusting in yourself. You're trusting in what you have and what you can do. And so he goes on to say that you think you're rich. You don't need anything because you've got a lot of gold. gold, you've got wool, you've got salve.

You send your doctors around the region to treat people's eyes. But he lets them know what he really thinks. And what they really are is that you're wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

The problem that he's confronting is that they're self-sufficient, that they were self-confident. But then he continues on. You know, I buke and discipline all that I love. So be zealous for me. Or I'm not sure if the other word in English is there. But, and repent.

Repent. And basically, in other words, he's saying, if you don't repent, I'm going to discipline you. But sometimes we read, like in the Bible, these disciplined things. It's like God's going to drop the hammer. We forget that there is love behind it. And because he starts out, all those that I love, they're the ones I rebuke and I discipline. So we have to understand that he's accusing them of being prideful. He's accusing them of being deceived in respect to what they had and could do. He's accusing them basically of being useless. That's the bottom line of the chapter. Understand that. He's saying, you guys are useless.

You have a purpose. Refresh, heal, you're doing nothing of the sort. And so as far as my kingdom is concerned, you are useless. But at the same time, we've got to go, don't forget, he loves them. He still loves them. Like, people say, we're living in the times of the church of Laodicea. I don't know. Maybe. Maybe. But even in the midst of when the church is at its worst, they're still his people. And he still loves them. And that's why he rebukes and disciplines them. And you go, how much does he love and discipline them? Well, you go to verse 20. And he says, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice, opens the door, I'll come in and I'll share a meal with him and he with me.

And this is one of those verses that kind of puts a bee in my bonnet because I don't care how many pamphlets you read that has this verse on it as an evangelical tool. There's nothing evangelistic about this verse. Behold, I stand at the door. Have you ever seen those pamphlets and tracks and stuff? Okay.

The words serve a purpose. The person reading it probably doesn't care about the context. But the context is, who is he talking to? He's talking to a church. Jesus is talking to a sick church full of people that he loves. He's speaking about reconciliation. It's not about salvation. It's like you guys are messed up. But I'm right here. Stand at the door. I'm knocking. If you repent, then, you know, we're good. So the problem, or their problem, was that they were useless in respect to the kingdom. They were living for their own kingdoms. They were living for their own lives. And basically just kind of forgotten about their purpose here on the earth, which happens a lot nowadays as Christians.

We get caught up in our own lives. We get caught up in what we can buy, what we can do, what we can accomplish. And we've got all these goals for our lives. And if we stop and go, okay, now which one of these has anything to do with the purpose for why Jesus sent his son to die on a cross? We kind of have to stop sometimes and go, well, not many. Not many. We really live our lives for the benefit of us. And then God sometimes has to remind us, like, dude, I sent my son to die for you. You're saved. But it wasn't so you could get saved and just become content with that, happy. I'm saved. Don't have to worry about that now.

Now I can just do what I want. And a lot of us, no one will say that, but a lot of us live that way. We just, we forget that he saved us for a purpose. That purpose is that we would be lights in the darkness, a city on a hill. There's a world full of people going to hell around us. And we're here to expand his kingdom. We're here to witness to what he's done. And sometimes this world just sucks us in and we forget about that. All the people around us who are going to hell and we're just so focused on, these are my goals for life. These are the things I want to do. These are the things I want to buy. And so Jesus is kind of like just banging it, Laodicea, with this, the whole thing.

You're living for you. You have all these things and you're proud of these things. But when it comes to my kingdom, when it comes to my purposes, when it comes to the reason that I sent my son dying across, you guys are quite frankly useless. And I'm kind of like feeling like I want to vomit. And so it's like, whoa. Because until Jesus comes and the whole fullness of his kingdom comes with him, we do have one purpose here on the earth. And sometimes we only realize it when we get really old and we go, you know what? I wish I would have lived more for Jesus when I was younger. I wasted so many years chasing after the wind.

And right around me, every single day, there was an opportunity where I could have spoke with somebody. I could have shared with somebody. I could have been a cup of cold water or I could have been a healing touch. And I think that's why I love this chapter because it just gets me where I'm at. Because I work with Bible translation. But I still can get just so lost in my own world that I forget the world around me that still is needing a Savior. So Jesus is saying, look, you have a purpose. Refresh. Heal. But don't ever say lukewarm. Don't ever be lukewarm. What we've got to remember about the whole letter of the church, even our own lives,

the problem isn't the temperature of the water. The problem goes back to the distance from the source. And a lot of times that's our problem. You know, we're in church on Sundays. We read our Bibles. But sometimes we still find ourselves a long way from him. I don't know if you ever felt distant from God. But it happens. It's like, man, what happened? I felt so close to what one. And not that we go on our feelings. But there are times where we are far away from him. We're disconnected. We almost forget about him. We live like we're independent of him. Usually we do things, make decisions. And then in the midst of what we're doing, we say, God, will you bless what I'm doing?

This very thing that I determined to do for my life, for my little kingdom. Can you come and bless it? Instead of, I mean, the real ways we should go, God, what do you want me to do? Because we know he'll bless that. But we just automatically have this thing in us that says, I can do it. I got this, God. I'll let you know. If the whole thing goes pear-shaped, you'll be the first to know. But in the meantime, I got it. And so we live disconnected. We live distant. We live like as if we were independent. We're never independent. But as if we were independent from him. And so we live lives in general pretty much useless as far as his kingdom is concerned.

And that's the whole letters. It's kind of like bringing us that point saying, look, I want to use you. I have a purpose for you. I want to use you. There's a world that needs you to touch them for me. But you got to repent. You got to stop and you got to go, you know what? Yeah, I'm off track here. And this is what I love about, well, one of the many things I love about God. But it's like in this chapter, when you recognize that, you know what? I kind of am living independent of God. I kind of am pretty much useless as far as his kingdom is concerned. And then there's this thing that rises up. I got to run to God.

I got to repent. And then you get to the door and you're about to run outside and go after him. And you discover something. He's already at the door. So it's amazing. He already came to the door. He's at the door, knocking at the door. We don't have to go look for him. As much as we mess up sometimes, it's like as soon as we turn around and like, oh, I've got to go find God. You don't have to find him. He's still right there. He's right there at the door. I was like, holy cow. It's like we're distant from the source. And then the source comes to us. Like, what kind of God are you? If I was God, I'd be just like, yeah, good luck, buddy.

Why don't you go off in a ditch? And then like, wait for you to come back all bruised and say, you should have learned, son. But God doesn't do that. He's right there. He says, here I am at the door. And I knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I'll come in, share a meal with him and he with me. It's just amazing. It's amazing. We're disconnected and he comes and he reconnects us. And then he reminds us, you do need me. You do need me for anything you want to do in this life that has any eternal value. You need me. And the majority of us, we're honest, we all suffer from this sickness of lukewarmness time

and again. We're like, you know what? I'm just, I don't know, distant from God. And we all do. And it's such, unfortunately, it's part of the human experience because we all want to do it ourselves. We all want to be independent. But in reality, we can't live independent of God. We think that we've got it all together. You know, I don't need anything. I don't need any help. I don't need anybody. And then Jesus comes and just gently reminds us that we're wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked, and in fact, useless without him. And so Jesus is going to come back, no doubt about it. Whether it's soon, whether we're in the last days, I don't know.

I don't know. I haven't gotten that notice from heaven yet. But I do know that he is going to come back. And as long as we're here and he doesn't come back, he's like just opened up huge opportunities for us to live our lives for him. And I know one thing, no one's ever going to get to heaven after having lived on the earth and going, you know what? I should have bought more stuff.

Or I should have traveled more. Or I should have gotten more degrees. But I think, I don't think it's really going to happen. But if it could, I think we would maybe get to heaven and go, you know what? I should have lived more for him.

Like, Jesus, I wish I had done more.

I really don't want to get to heaven with that feeling in the back of my head. Like, I wish I would have done more. This life is so fast. Fast. James says it's a vapor. And it is. And so I think this letter for me personally is just like, it's a reminder. Dude, this thing's going by really quick. And no one's really going to get to heaven and go, yeah, Jesus, I did everything possible. I'd just be stupid to think that. But at least if we live our lives thinking, I'm really, really trying to do what I can. Thinking in terms of eternity. And wanting to live for his glory. And wanting to live for his name being known.

That's possible. And this letter's just like, you know what? It's kind of like a wake-up call. It's like, you know, maybe you're not doing everything you can. But he's at the door. He says, repent. And let's go. Let's go. Be that cup of cold water on a hot day. Be that healing touch for somebody who's beaten down.

Be useful. Be useful for his kingdom. He gave his life for us. And that's really why. It was to save us, sure. To adopt us, sure. But there's a purpose beyond it. We can't rest on that. He's just saying, you know what? And maybe someone's going to be a missionary. Maybe someone's going to be a pastor. Maybe someone's going to be a school teacher. Maybe someone's going to be a homeschool mom. Everywhere we're at. There's no better. There's no bigger. He puts us each in our own little arena to live our lives. And in that place, he's going to ask us later what we did with that thing that he gave us. And nobody gets more riches for one thing or another.

Because we're all just trying to live for him. So then he ends the chapter with, Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you for slight reminders. in your word that just call us back to center. Just call us back from the distractions, the shiny things of this world that take our eyes off of you. And that you remind us, sometimes pretty much in our face, God, but at the same time gently. Just saying, you know what? I've got more for you. Come back. And Lord, I thank you that you're there at the door. That when we do turn around, we say, you know what? I want to live just for you. You're there. And not there to condemn, but there to reconcile with us.

And I thank you for that. Thank you for being that God. Help us, Lord, to realize just how short this life is. That we could live 100% for you. And realizing that you've saved us for a purpose here on this earth as well as your lights in the darkness and your voice. Help us, Lord, to be useful for your kingdom, to be useful, to expand your kingdom, to reach the lost. And that someday we can just stand before you and say, you know, God, I tried to do the best that I could. I fell short, but I really tried to live for you. Help us, Lord, to die with that on our lips versus saying, I wish I'd done more. I just thank you for this church,

for everyone involved, Ted and Carrie. And I just thank you, Lord, that you have your hand on this group of people. You, son, Lord, here in the Tascadero to be a light in the darkness, to be a place where people can find hope, healing, and salvation. They can find you. And just thank you, Lord, for loving us, for sending your son to die for us, and just for being patient with us, God. I thank you for your patience. I love you. Amen. Amen.