Sermon Central
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An Invitation For Fellowship Series
Contributed by A. David Hart on Oct 9, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: To remind the readers that the Lord is patiently waiting at our door, seeking to keep our fellowship.
AN INVITATION FOR FELLOWSHIP
Dr. Harry Ironside used to tell about a group of believers who thought only of "internal fellowship." They had little concern for reaching the lost or for defending the faith against its enemies. In front of their meeting place they hung a sign: JESUS ONLY. But the wind blew away some of the letters, and the sign read: US ONLY. It was a perfect illustration of unbalanced Christians. SermonCentral .com
Not only is this group of people found unbalanced, but also it gives a sad commentary about their Christian walk. It is basically our duty as a church to go out and as Jesus charged us to do “To make disciples of men.”
As we look into this 3rd chapter of Revelation, we see a continuation of the messages to the churches of the Asian manor. Chapter 2 opened up with the Church of Ephesus and closed with the Church of Thyatira, then chapter 3 continued the messages, taking it to Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. It should be noted that in the messages that had been written to the angels or pastors of the church, you would find, the Lord’s complaint, the Lord’s warning, the Lord’s counsel and His promise. You would find these things consistently in the messages of five of the churches and in only two of the churches, the Lord had no complaint, and they were Smyrna and Philadelphia. But the true message of the Lord was of His ever present effort to once again have fellowship with each of the churches in it original fashion.
My brothers and my sisters regardless of what you think you went through, regardless of what has happened in the past. God still wants to have fellowship with you this morning.
So let us take a look at this chosen text for Homecoming 2007 to hear what the Lord is saying
to us this morning.
First of all...
1. WE NEED TO PAY CLOSE ATTENTION FOR HIS EVER PRESENT INVITATION FOR DIVINE FELLOWSHIP (v. 20)
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock”;
As we grow in fellowship, we the church if we are not careful, will lose the effects of fellowship. This is why we must work hard not only at listening to the gospel message, but we must work hard at telling ourselves the truth. The church of Laodicea was ever truthful to the things they had, they spoke of their riches, and commodities and their need for nothing, but turned a death ear to their spiritual life. That is why in verse 15 Jesus said I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot”; They had gotten so full of what they had, that they thought physical wealth was more important than their spiritual lives. But yet Jesus did not give up on the divine invitation extended to them. Even today there are some in the church that simply ignore the Lord’s invitation to discipleship. We make one excuse after another, we blame one situation after another, but if the truth be told we are just ignoring Christ and His word. But if we will pay close attention to His calling, then we would not be able to ignore the invitation for divine fellowship.
Secondly . . .
2. WE MUST LEARN TO RECOGNIZE THE VOICE OF THE ONE WHO TRULY LOVES US (v.20)
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him,”
The second thing I see in this text to fit our homecoming theme is that we must learn to recognize the voice of the one who truly loves us. Maybe while Christ was standing at their door and knocking, it possibly went unnoticed. But if they knew His voice, they would’ve answered because they could not help themselves. I’m reminded of a situation that occurred when I was young, Daddy stood on the porch looking for me, and when he didn’t see me, he whistled for me to come. Now many times I heard my Dad whistle for me, but I was looking at him when he whistled and along with the whistle he would gesture for me to come to him. But this particular time I heard the whistle but I didn’t see him, so I figured that it was someone else’s Dad whistling for them. And when I didn’t come to see what he needed, he came to me, and you don’t want your father, who had just come in from work coming after you. When I looked up, I saw Daddy coming down the street calling my name. Now although I didn’t recognize the whistle, the voice I recognized. That was when I realized that it was Daddy whistling for me and when I got close enough to him, he further convinced me to not only know his voice, but to remember the distinct sound of his whistle.
