a sermon about the dangers of self-sufficiency (Revelation 3:14-22) by Moses Lee, originally preached December 07, 2008

2. Are you lukewarm ? Is the way you’re living your Christian life distasteful to God ?

3. Revelation 3:14-16 (NASB) “ 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: 15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. “ Lukewarm”: Useless & Ineffective in God’s Kingdom

4. Revelation 3:17 (NASB) 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,

5. Poor Naked Blind

6. Comfort & wealth can give us a false sense of security.

7. 1. Admit your wretchedness without God (vv.17-18).

8. Revelation 3:14-22 (NASB), cont. 17 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, 18 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 eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

11. 2. Repent wholeheartedly (v.19).

12. Revelation 3:19 (NASB) Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.

13. “ Repentance means that you realize that you are a guilty, vile sinner in the presence of God, that you deserve the wrath and punishment of God, that you are hell-bound. It means that you begin to realize that this thing called sin is in you, that you long to get rid of it, and that you turn your back on it in every shape and form. You renounce the world whatever the cost, the world in its mind and outlook as well as its practice, and you deny yourself, and take up the cross and go after Christ .” - D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 2:248.

14. 3. Cling tightly to Christ every day (v.20).

15. Revelation 3:20 (NASB) Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.

16. Revelation 3:21-22 (NASB) “ 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. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

17. In what ways are you living self-sufficiently, depending on your own resources instead of Christ? In what areas of your life are you most tempted to seek satisfaction in something other than Christ?

18. 1. Admit your wretchedness without God (vv.17-18). 2. Repent wholeheartedly (v.19). 3. Cling tightly to Christ every day (v.20).