Dead Deeds and Alertness

Date
October 13, 2019
Speaker
Pastor Ryan Flunker
Topic
Repentance, Spiritual Growth, The Church
Series
The 7even Churches of the Apocalypse
Book
Revelation

Download the Small Group Study Notes HERE

One of the easiest things to do in our walk with the Lord is get into a rut: a pattern of living and worshipping that feels routine and too familiar and too comfortable. The danger is, like any rut, we get stuck.

We will see Jesus’ warning to the church in Sardis that their “deeds” were left incomplete, they were half-hearted, and therefore they were dead. The solution to the “rut” of their false religion is a stern call to WAKE UP and reclaim God’s purpose in their church of making Christ known.

Mark 12:30

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”

Observations & Conclusions:
1. A church’s reputation is no guarantee of life
2. Half-hearted devotion is equal to dead devotion
3. The church is called to make God known
4. The church must be alert and walk in the light

Application:
Wake up – stay vigilant
– Where are you too comfortable?
– Where have you just been going through the motions?
– Where have you just tuned out?
How?
1. Strengthen
2. Remember
3. Keep
4. Repent

Luke 13:6-9

“He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’”

Matthew 23:27-28

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

Ephesians 5:8-14

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”

1 Thessalonians 5:4-10

“But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.”