If you were here the last Sunday of May, the last time I was in the pulpit here, you remember that we talked about Jesus' epistle to the Ephesians. That was the first of a series of seven letters to seven churches in the Roman province of Asia. So that was kind of like the bookend at the beginning of that section of Scripture. And this morning, since I don't have seven Sundays to preach to you, I'm skipping to the last bookend, to the bookend at the other end, to the last letter, the letter to the church at Laodicea. Laodicea was a wealthy city. It was the wealthiest city in its little area called Phrygia, modern-day Turkey. It was then the Roman province of Asia. It was a city built where three important roads met. In fact, that's why it was built there, to be right on the trade routes. And it made good use of that. It became a center of banking. In fact, some very important people, we have records of some very important Romans traveling through the area doing banking there. Think of it, I don't know if it was at the level of Geneva today, but it was an important baking center. In fact, it had so much wealth that when it suffered a devastating earthquake around 1860 that basically destroyed the town, it was able to rebuild on its own without imperial assistance. Other towns around it needed aid, think of it as federal aid, aid from the capital in Rome. Laodicea said, nope, don't need it. They had so much wealth. They were pretty self-sufficient. They were famous for some black woolen cloth that was used in clothing and in carpets because they had the secret, they thought, of some good grazing land there where they bred some particular kind of sheep with this really nice black wool. It's kind of silky. And that's what they made the cloth from, and they were known for this for centuries. They were also home to a renowned medical school that was known for two things, especially, for ear ointment and for a phrygian powder, as it was called, that was used to make eye salve. The one problem, amidst all these wonderful resources they had, the one problem was their water supply. Six miles to the north, you have the town of Hierapolis, which had these beautiful hot springs that bubbled up from the ground, and then there was a cliffside where some of the water would pour over, and the minerals from the water would calcify on the cliffs. It's still there today. This was within sight, a distance away from the city of Laodicea. So Hierapolis, six miles north, had these hot springs that were known to be healthful and healing. Ten miles to the east of Laodicea, there was Colossae. You remember that from the letters to the Colossians. Colossae had cold, refreshing waters sourced right there in town. They were known for that. But Laodicea had no good water source. It was in the Lycus River Valley, but the town itself wasn't built for its natural resources. It was built for its location for commerce. and on the roads and for all that sort of thing. So Laodicea was forced to pipe in mineral water from six miles away. And by the time the water reached there, it was going through three foot in diameter pipes. But by the time it reached the city of Laodicea, it was lukewarm. It was not very appealing, shall we say. And it was mineral water, and then there would be calcium deposits that collected in the pipes. And it was just, it was not a good water source. That was the one thing they were lacking in, compared to the towns around. You know, we're quite comparable to the Laodiceans, I think, in our situation where we live, where we work, in a lot of ways. We live in an important metropolitan area. They lived in the River Valley, so do we, the Detroit River Valley, in case you weren't aware. We have access to wealth, banking, clothing, medicine, and such things consume large amounts of our time. We live in the United States of America, one of the most prosperous nations in history. And our churches experience the effects of that prosperity, so our church buildings are luxurious compared to lots of other meeting houses around the world. We're able to fund multiple staff, multiple missionaries, multiple programs. We can keep things running and make a good show of things because of sheer money, often, because of where we live, who we are. We have sound systems and multimedia presentations and padded pews. You don't understand that until you don't have it. We could probably think of some unmet desires we have, like, oh, this would be nice or that would be nice, but we don't have many apparent needs outwardly. We're comfortable. And if someone questions the health and the usefulness of our church, we'll probably react in two ways. First of all, with complacency. I think we're doing okay. I think we're good. Things seem to be running fine. And then probably with not a little pride, are you kidding? We have a great church. Who are you to criticize us? We could always make little improvements, but we're doing just fine, thank you. But how's our water supply? And of course, I don't mean that literally. But Jesus said that those who believe in him would have within themselves springs of living water, of the water of life. If Jesus were to test the water as it exists here, would he find it cool and refreshing? Would he find it hot and soothing? Or would he find stagnant, lukewarm water? That's really the whole point of the Jesus letter to the Odysseans that we're going to look at this morning. Let's read that letter. Revelation 3, starting in verse 14, going through verse 22. You recall that this is Christ appearing in a vision to the apostle John, who is exiled on the island of Patmos, but this is Jesus talking. and John writing it down. So he says in verse 14, To the angel of the church in Laodicea write, The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God, says this, I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. Because you say, I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing, and you do not know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may become rich, and white garments, so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed. And I salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love I reprove and discipline. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and will dine with him and he with me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also 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. As we said, this is Jesus appearing in a vision to John in ways reminiscent of the Old Testament prophets, of the imagery found there. He appears as the Son of Man who is Lord of the churches, who is tending them, who is intimately acquainted with them. You remember all this from last time, hopefully, from the time we talked about the church at Ephesus. But Christ has something to say to each of these seven local churches, and he gets to the end of the route this letter would have taken. He gets to Laodicea. And you remember when he talked to Ephesus, the first church? He had something good to say at the beginning, and then something not so good. He said, you really need to correct this. You've forgotten the love you had for me at first. As you go through the various churches, he sometimes has only good to say to a few churches. Sometimes he really has, you know, he has some good things to say, but he mostly has bad to say. Laodicea is one of the churches that he has nothing particularly good to say to. And that's striking. And the big idea here is that this unwholesome church must listen to Christ. If you have the note sheet, that's on there. The big idea is that this unwholesome church must listen to Christ. And if we listen to Christ, if we're in that position, we have to do four things. So first of all, verse 14. We must give priority to Christ's words. We must give priority to Christ's words. As we start to listen, we have to listen a certain way, understanding who is speaking and what authority he has in the matter. We have to give priority to Christ's words. In verse 14, Jesus emphasizes who He is, as He does actually at the beginning of each letter to each of the seven churches. But He says something different each time that's relative to what He has to say to them. And what He says here about Himself is that He is the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. So first of all, He bears witness to the truth. He bears witness to the truth. He says, I am the Amen. What does that mean? Well, what does it mean every time you say Amen, or what should it mean? The word Amen has a wide range of ways you could translate it. It means truly, or it means, yes, let it be so. But it always has the idea of verity, or truth, or assuredly it is so. So it seems that he's taking this particular title from Isaiah 65, verse 16, where in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which most of them would have been reading, it calls God the God of Amen. We read it in our translations as the God of Truth. So it's an Old Testament title for God that he is ascribing to himself as the God of Truth. And then he, again, says some similar things when he calls himself Faithful and True. You remember from the first chapter of Revelation, verse five, it says that this letter is from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. And Revelation 19, when it pictures Christ's second coming, it calls him the one who is called faithful and true. The point is, Jesus by his very nature, by his very character, by his very person, will always tell us the way things really are. and He won't smooth it over for us. He won't tell us, He won't be overly negative either. He won't tell us that things are worse than they really are. He will tell us exactly how it is because He is the God of truth. So He bears witness to the truth. And if we are interested in truth, we will listen to Him. And secondly, in giving priority to Christ's words, we have to realize that He takes precedence over this world. We'll find, as we work our way through here this morning, that the Laodiceans were very much enamored with this world. But Christ takes precedence over this world. He's more important than anything else in the world. It says he's the beginning of the creation of God. Beginning translates, a Greek word that we would say arche, which means beginning. It can also mean, by extension, the origin of something. So this is probably saying, in one sense, that all creation originated or began with Christ the Creator. There may also, though, be ties to Proverbs 8, which we read this morning. Christ may be alluding to that and identifying himself as the incarnation of God's wisdom, which, according to Proverbs 8, was God's agent at creation's beginning. It was there at the beginning of God's creation. It was the beginning of his creation. As Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 1.24, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. I'm making that connection to Proverbs 8 because the same words for beginning and creation are used together in Proverbs 8, verses 22 and 23 in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. When it says, the Lord, the way the New English translation has it, it's pretty close to the Septuagint. It would say, Now, some people throughout history have used this verse in the wrong way to say that Christ was part of creation. And if you know the rest of the scriptures, you know that simply is not so. Christ is Himself the eternal God, having no beginning or end, but He is the beginning point of creation. All creation started with Him. He is the firstborn from the dead, and the one who gives eternal life, and the one who will create new heavens and new earth, so He's also the beginning of the new creation. In every sense, He is where creation starts. And this should remind us, really, of Paul's words in Colossians 1. You remember that? Something similar is said there, and Colossians, according to Colossians 4.16, was a letter that was supposed to be shared with the church at Laodicea as well. So Christ seems to have this in mind, perhaps, that they had received this letter of the Colossians earlier on, and there it said, Colossians 1.15, that Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible. But then we get down to verse 17, it says, So the long and short of it is, Christ has preeminence over all things because he created all things. So we ought to listen to him before we listen to things he's created. Now, number two in our main points here, the second thing we must do if we're going to listen to Christ is that we have to hear his warning in verses 15 through 16. Hear Christ's warning. Before Jesus really explains in more detail what's wrong with this church, he just kind of bluntly gets their attention. He tries to shock them into alertness. Hear Christ's warning. Notice that an unwholesome church here disgusts him. An unwholesome, a lukewarm church disgusts Jesus. He abruptly tells the church that he knows their deeds, and that's the problem. Elsewhere, in other letters to other churches, Jesus said he might start out with encouragement, saying, I know your deeds and your perseverance and your love and your faith, all the things you're doing right. Here he says, I know what you're doing, and that's the problem. You're not really doing anything that's worth anything. Notice he says in verse 15, I know your deeds that you were neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. Now, I'm not going to die on this hill, but though a lot of people take this and say he wishes they were just spiritually dead or spiritually hot, I don't think that's what he's saying here, because he says, I wish you were either hot or cold, not lukewarm. The point here seems to be not that they're a little warm but not on fire for the Lord, although they're not totally cold toward God either. The point seems to be rather that he's drawing on this background and their city, this well-known fact of the water source. And he's saying other churches, kind of like other cities around you, other churches are good for something. They're wholesome in some way, but you really aren't. You're being rather useless in your deeds. In fact, you disgust me." Now, he's saying this in love, as we'll mention again later, but he says it. He wishes they were either cold or hot, hot or cold, one or the other, take your pick, but instead they're lukewarm, they're unwholesome, and they're useless. Remember that water supply. Colossae was known for its cold, refreshing water. Hierapolis for its warm, it's hot, actually, medicinal water. But Laodicea was known for its disgustingly tepid water. It wasn't helpful to anyone who wanted a drink. It was unwholesome. That was spiritually true of the church at Laodicea. Have you ever come into an air-conditioned building on a hot day, looking for a water fountain, I mean, on a mission to find a water fountain? and you find one. And you take a drink, you take a swig. And instead of cold and refreshing water, it tastes funny and it's just lukewarm. That thing isn't working. What do you want to do? Well, sometimes that actually spit out the water if no one's watching. It's like, oh. That's Christ's reaction here. What a blow to a church to be told that you disgust Jesus Christ. You are a church, but you're not pleasing to Him. Not only are you not pleasing to Him, He experiences revulsion when He thinks of your deeds. And that leads us to the point here that not only does this kind of a church disgust Christ, but He will utterly reject such a church. He will utterly reject such a church. The wording here could go beyond the image I've created of spitting out some water. It could mean, in the Greek, that Jesus would vomit the lukewarm water. Either way, spit or vomit, it's not a pretty picture. And if you're like the Laodiceans, you make the Lord want to wretch. Wow. And what he says here is actually, I will spit you out of my mouth. The idea is I'm about to do this. I'm about to react this way. The idea is if you don't repent. I'm about to utterly reject you and get as far away from you as I can, distance myself from you. When Christ pronounces us an unwholesome church, we have to do something about it. So third, we must obtain Christ's riches and then change our current condition. Let's go on to verses 17 through 18. Here's where the meat of what Christ says is, here's where he elaborates on their problem. Verses 17 through 18. We must obtain Christ's riches. If we are to give priority to Christ's words and hear his warning, then we've got to do something about it. This is not the time for complacency to say, oh, okay, whatever. It's not the time to be complacent, but that's exactly what Christ encountered in Laodicea. That's what disgusts him. They have an appalling lack of interest in what he has to offer them. They have to recognize, first of all, verse 17, that mere temporal success, success in this world, is poverty, it's not wealth. Mere temporal success is poverty, not wealth. The Laodiceans are starting to sound like the idolatrous Israelites who trusted in their riches. They're complacent and they're proud. See what the Laodiceans said here in verse 17? I am rich, I have become wealthy, I have need of nothing. Sounds very much like Hosea 12, verse 8, talking about the idolatrous Israelites. Ephraim said, Surely I have become rich, I have found wealth for myself. In all my labors they will find in me no iniquity, which would be sin. It's a very self-sufficient and spiritually self-sufficient attitude. I don't need a lot, I'm good, I'm good. What does Christ say about their supposed riches? Well, he goes down the list of their proud boasts, kind of taking hints from the high points of the town's commerce and so on, and he reverses everything on the list. They aren't rich. Yeah, their city has a lot of banking, a lot of riches, but really, spiritually speaking, this church isn't rich. They're destitute. Spiritually, you could compare them to a beggar in the streets. Their ISAV and their medical resources haven't given them healthy eyes. They're blind. They can't see the hand in front of their face. And they aren't well-dressed. They don't even have enough clothes for decency. The idea of nakedness here is either partial or complete, but the idea is you're not decent. So let's stop here, pause here, and ask the question of ourselves. What ruins our appetite for Christ's riches? What makes us say, when Christ comes with what he has to offer, what makes us say, I'm not that interested. I'm okay. Yeah, I'm a Christian, but I'm okay. What hardens you in your self-sufficiency and your spiritual complacency? Might visitors to our church find themselves noticing that the bride of Christ has no clothes? Wow, they're spiritually indecent and they don't even know it. We'll pick up on some of those thoughts in a minute here. But verse 18 tells us that only Christ can give true health and wealth. The Laodiceans were convinced that they had health and wealth, that they had everything they needed. And Christ says, I am the only one who can give you true health and wealth, and you don't have it right now. Maybe it's fitting that the things Christ offers actually reflect his appearance in the vision that's in Revelation chapter 1. John, the apostle, saw Jesus standing in the middle of the lampstands as one like a son of man, clothed in a robe, reaching to the feet, girded across his chest with a golden sash. His head and his hair were white like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, piercing gaze. Christ has riches, royal riches. He has a golden sash on. He's clothed in a long robe. He has clothing. His head and his hair are like white wool, like snow, and his eyes are like a flame of fire. He has perfect vision. Only Christ can give us gold refined by fire, literally fired by fire. What's the point here of saying that this gold Christ can give is refined by fire? Well, the point is, when gold is refined, all the impurities are out, and so it's worth something now. He can give us riches that are actually worth something. Again, Proverbs 8, which we already read this morning, God's wisdom personified says, riches and honor are with me. Enduring wealth and righteousness, my fruit is better than gold, even pure gold, and my yield better than choicest silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of justice, to endow those who love me with wealth, that I may fill their treasuries." So, paychecks, bank accounts, investments, those are all good tools. But they don't give you the true riches. Parents, when you think that you're providing well for your family, with what are you providing them? The currency accepted in heaven or only the currency that will only last a little while? They need faith, hope, and love more than they need earthly prosperity. They need to be on the path of righteousness more than they need a bigger and better vacation. Young people, what are the things that you value the most as you're just starting out life? Do you value the right friends, the right schooling, the right job the most? Enough money to enjoy some luxuries, some things you just want? Or do you value the unseen riches of Christ? You need to imitate Moses, who valued the reproach of Christ more than all the treasures of Egypt, Hebrews says. So Christ can give us this gold refined by fire, true riches. He can give us white garments to cover nakedness. And this is a big theme in the book of the Revelation. Over and over it talks about those who either do or don't have white garments on. Another church in Revelation chapter 3, the church at Sardis, was almost totally dead spiritually. There were a few, though, who were alive. Christ says about them, He says, You have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments, and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. Then you work your way down through the book of the Revelation, chapter 4. The 24 elders are sitting clothed in white garments. Revelation 6, the souls of the martyrs are clothed with white garments when they get to heaven, and they're told to wait for God to take vengeance on their persecutors. Revelation 7, one of the elders asks John, do you know who these people are that you're seeing in this vision, who are dressed in white robes? John says, no, but you know. And he said to John, these are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Then in Revelation 19, it says of the church in verse eight, it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And then the armies which are in heaven which follow Christ, when he comes again, they are clothed in fine linen, white and clean. So this is a big deal. What is the white clothing? Well, basically, in one form or another throughout the book, it's righteousness. It's holiness. It's not having to be ashamed in God's presence. because you're draped in His righteousness. And that's true in a number of ways, as we know from our doctrine. It's true that when we are united to Christ by faith, we are justified in Him, we're declared righteous before God's bar of justice, and He treats us as being as righteous as Jesus, His Son. But then we practically work on, practice righteousness in our Christian life. That's why in Revelation 19 it said that the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints, things they do in righteousness. Now, Jesus is a little vague at certain points here when he's talking to Laodicea as to whether he's talking to real Christians or fake Christians. Maybe that's on purpose. He does indicate that at least some of them are real believers because he's disciplining them as a father would. But still, they were walking around, at least to an alarming extent, they were walking around without practical righteousness. They didn't really care. They just lived like their neighbors, apparently. Now, they were a church. They came to church. They were probably proud of their status as a church. But they didn't care that much about living differently than the world around them. We need a spiritual wardrobe of holiness more than the prestigious trappings of our society. And it's not just clothes, literally. But remember the story of the emperor's new clothes, maybe from your childhood. Remember that story where there's charlatans who convince this great emperor that they're making clothes even though he can't see them? They're making great and grand and glorious clothes for him, and eventually he parades through the street in these clothes, and everyone thinks that they can't see it because they're just too dumb. Then one little child just says, he doesn't have anything on. Remember that story? Well, the world has charlatans, like that, who will sell you garments that leave you spiritually naked. Everyone around you thinks you're clothed, but you're not. As I said, it's not just literal clothes. It may be the right wardrobe that you're concerned with. It may be the right buildings, the right technology, the right cultural savvy, personally or as a church. You know, do I have the right stuff? The right trappings that make me successful and dignified in this world. But if we don't have God's righteousness, if we aren't seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness, we should be blushing right now. We're displaying our own shame. We're letting everyone see it. Everyone with spiritual discernment. And then, Christ said He can give us gold that's refined, He can give us clothing to cover our nakedness, and He can give us eye salve that brings sight. We often focus on what we can physically see and experience, especially physical health. I think in this context, with Laodicea's School of Medicine being connected to its eye salve, it's all probably there in some fashion. But like the Laodiceans, we have plenty of emphasis on health in our surrounding culture. Okay. But these things can become ends in themselves, which then makes us blind to spiritual reality. The point is, that's as far as we go. That's our ultimate concern, and nothing beyond it. What catches your eye more, a health insurance plan or heavenly treasure? Physical fitness or spiritual disciplines? Again, it's not either or necessarily, but one should be much greater in your eyes than the other. When you look on the calendar, do you look more at gym schedules or church schedules and discipleship opportunities? Do you care as much about the quality of your Bible intake, the quality of your doctrinal understanding and your practice as you do about your diet and your medications? Well, we've gone into a lot of detail there, but that's because Christ did. He wants us to see how we've got everything backwards if we're like the Laodiceans. We don't see things as they are. We're not decent in reality. We're not rich. We have nothing. If when Christ comes around offering us spiritual riches, we say, no thanks. Or, yeah, someone over there probably needs that, but I'm good. I don't have to work at that. Now, fourthly and lastly, verses 19 to 22. If we are listening to Christ like we need to, we need to respond to Christ's intentions. Not just hear His hard words. There is some harshness here, but rightly so. We have to respond to His intentions, understanding what His intentions really are. One of the biggest lies that our hearts tell us, our sinful hearts, and then Satan helps our hearts tell us these lies, one of the biggest lies that we tell ourselves is that God is a great killjoy in the sky. And He just doesn't like us to have fun. He doesn't have our best interests in mind. He's only concerned about Himself. And so He keeps coming around to whap us over the head with harsh words. So why would I want to respond to that? Well, that's not God at all. That's not Christ at all. When he disciplines us, his is the loving discipline of a father, according to verse 19. The loving discipline of a father. He says in verse 19, those whom I love I've approved and disciplined, which is what I'm doing with you people here at Laodicea. Therefore be zealous and repent. Be zealous, be earnest, take this seriously, and repent, turn around, change things as individuals and as a church, because I'm doing this as your loving Father. Those whom I love I reprove in discipline. If we listen to Christ, we're listening to the one who is called the wonderful Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And he's speaking on behalf of his father, who is ours as well. If we listen to him and zealously repent, then his reproof will produce in us the peaceable, wholesome fruit of righteousness. That's what he's after. He says what he says for our good. If, on the other hand, we scorn his words, we do so to our own destruction. But then we also see verse 20, that his is the warm call of a friend. Many people have a very inaccurate picture of Christ as only their friend, and they have no idea that He is far above them in transcendence and holiness. But we also have a wrong idea of Him if we don't get this part of it, that Christ, for the believer, wants to be their bosom friend. He says in verse 20, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and will dine with him. and He with me. In that culture, dining with someone, having a banquet with them, was one of the closest relationships you could have. One of the closest, most intimate things you could participate with them in. Christ wants to get close to us. He wants to enjoy His riches with us, and us with Him. He wants to spread a banquet for us. But if we're like the Laodiceans, we have shut him out of our church, out of our lives. He's left outside knocking. This also may remind us of the Song of Solomon, and fittingly so, where it's a bride and a bridegroom. We're both Christ's friends and his bride. Song of Solomon chapter five, verse two, it pictures the beloved left outside knocking, and the bride is slow to answer. Her beloved is outside knocking, saying, open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my perfect one. But she's slow to answer, because she's distracted at the moment. How tragic if Christ, our bridegroom, is practically shut out of our church. But if we listen and respond to Christ, if we welcome Him back into our lives and our church, He'll come in and treat us as His close companions. We'll be His bosom friends, His bride, feasting at His table. And if we understand His friendship, His intimacy, it should make us forget all the things that compete to entangle us. It should make us run to the door, throw it open, fall into His embrace, and start eating. Christ has a spiritual feast for you that you have no idea about until you open that door. And remember, this is spoken mainly to believers, those whom God loves and disciplines. You can, in a certain way, have Christ shut out, maybe without knowing it, because you're too busy for Him. You need to open the door. Verse 21, His is the royal reward of a victor. He disciplines us for our good. He loves us as His friends, as His bride, in fact. And He has a reward for us if we persevere, if we fight through to obey Him. The truth is that our struggles with the things of this earth are part of a larger war that Christ has already won. Christ has overcome this godless world. He loved not His life, even unto death. Now He invites us to share that victory. But to reach the victory banquet, you have to fight through. You have to fight. Ironically, we fight the world by surrendering to the call of our Lord, the call to holiness, the call to forsake our earthly ambitions, our earthly comforts, the call to sell out for the prize of heavenly riches. Now this doesn't mean, just like with the Laodiceans, this doesn't mean necessarily that Christ means everyone to be poor and in rags physically. That is his path for some. But the point is, you forget about that. Whether you're poor or rich, that's not the most important thing to you anymore. Whether you have what the world values or not, that no longer is your highest ambition. Your highest ambition is Christ and receiving what He offers you. Christ the Conqueror shares in the reign of His Father. That's what it means to sit down in His throne. Share His throne, share His reign. Christ is conquered. Now he reigns with his father. He invites us to join him. That's worth any discomfort, any struggle, any fight. Remember verse 22. This letter's for every church. Every church has to be vigilant lest it become an unwholesome source of disgust to the Lord. Just because you're a church doesn't mean anything as far as your effectiveness, as far as your wholesomeness. So while I'm not saying I think our Lord would talk to us exactly as He talked to the Odyssey as a church. We do know that each of these letters to each of these churches has something in it for every church. If we're not here, we have to guard against getting there. So this letter is for us. We must listen to Christ. I close with some verses we read early in the service, Proverbs 8, verses 32 through 35. We know that Christ is to us wisdom from God, and the power of God. And here's what wisdom says. Verse 32 of Proverbs 8. Now therefore, O sons, listen to me, for blessed are they who keep my ways. Heed instruction and be wise and do not neglect it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts. For he who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord. Let's pray. Father, I do not know the hearts of the people here. I don't always know my own heart, but you know the hearts of all men because you made us and you are the Almighty God. And you're our Father, we're your children. Please reveal our hearts to us this morning. No matter what our spiritual condition is now, help us not to get so complacent in this world that Spiritual things really aren't important to us anymore. Lord, your spirit can apply this much more powerfully and effectively and directly to each person here than I can. So I ask that he would. Please point out the exact things that maybe even we're trying not to see. Maybe we're willfully blind spiritually. Show us where we are destitute spiritually, where we're indecent, where we are blind. And we ask that you would change that. We know you say these things for our good, not because you despise us, but because you love us. Help us to take it as such and to be zealous and repent. We pray this in Christ's name, amen.