Crippled Church

They forgot where their power came from, which is from prayer and purity. You show me a church that is on fire for God, and I’ll show you a church paying the price thru prayer and purity every time!

Protestant churches today are far removed from where they once were.

In Acts 1-2, the disciples prayed for 10 long days, and Peter preached for 10 minutes, and 3,000 people got saved. Today we try to pray for 10 minutes, preach for 10 days, and we wonder why no one gets saved! What’s missing? I’ll tell you what’s missing, the power of the Holy Spirit of God!

If we want a church that is alive, and not dead, it will be because we get serious about paying the price in prayer and purity. When does the prayer take place…all the time! Not the least of which is when my prayer partners meet in the back room at 5:30 PM. That’s a good starting point for you, come join the 4 or 5 who are doing that which is least…and then let it grow to every day of the week, and every waking moment…a passion for prayer, for power, and for purity.

The purity happens as we listen to God, as we allow Him to change us on a daily basis. It happens at invitation time, if we’ll listen and focus on His still small voice. It happens thru His word, as it’s preached and proclaimed, and as we read it on our own in private devotions.

I remind you church, of our need for power, which comes thru prayer and purity! If we’ll get serious about that, there’s no limit to what our Great God can and will do, by the power of His Spirit!

That was their first problem, they were powerless!

Their second problem was that they were apathetic. The only thing that’s worse than being powerless is to be powerless and not know it, or, Lord help us, powerless and not care!

What’s the difference between ignorance and indifference? “I don’t know and I don’t care!”

v. 2 “Be watchful”

Could literally be translated, “wake up!”

Background on Sardis:

Sardis was located at the junction of 5 major roads, which made it a center of trade. The city of Sardis was built upon a plateau that was 1,500 feet above those roads. Three sides of that plateau were completely unapproachable. The cliffs were smooth and virtually unscalable. The only way you could get into Sardis was from the south side, and even that was a steep climb! And they considered their city to be impregnable. The leaders felt so secure, for all they had to do was post guards on the south side of the city.

Wouldn’t you know that as secular history records, Sardis was taken by the enemy on 2 different occasions. Once by Cyrus of Persia, and once by Alexander the Great.

Do you know how the city was taken? In both instances, the guards were asleep!

And in Godly irony Jesus proclaims: “Wake up!” What happened to the city of Sardis was about to happen to the church at Sardis. And I believe that God’s message to us at GBC is “don’t go to sleep!” Don’t let the blessings of God lull you into a restful sleep / false sense of security.

The guards of this city became apathetic and confident, and fell asleep, and the enemy entered in!