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The Code Blue Church

Words of Faith Final

The Code Blue Church

Words of Faith 12-1-2020

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2020

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL

www.faithfellowshipweb.com

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Revelation 3

        [1]  "To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

 

     Each message to the churches of Asia Minor was different. Ephesus is often called the loveless church because Jesus said, you have great doctrine and works, but you have lost your first love. He called them to remember, return, and rekindle the love you had for me at first.

     Smyrna is referred to as the suffering church. Jesus knew they were suffering under terrible persecution. Remember Who I am, the beginning and the end with the power of life after death. I have not forgotten you. Be faithful to the end.

      Pergamum is called the compromising church. You have been faithful, but you have compromised with the world in idolatry and immorality. Repent from your worldly compromise. Thyatira was the tolerant church but in a good way. You have great works, faith, service, and endurance, but you tolerated false teaching that has led people astray. Repent and hold fast to the Truth.

       But when we come to Sardis, we could call this the “Code Blue church.” Jesus made that declaration. Despite a reputation of being alive, He knew their deeds, and they were dead. Code blue. Flatline. How did this happen?

       Sardis was a very blessed place. There is no mention of persecution there. There was no conflict with the Jewish community. No suffering or struggle to survive in the economy and no mention of compromise to idolatry or immorality.

      It was a safe and secure place for Jews and Christians. The Jewish community was exempt from the demand to worship the Emperor or local deities, and the Christian community shared in this benefit.

      This was a comfortable place to live, work, and worship in freedom. There was no great price to be paid for following Jesus. It should have been the perfect place for the church of Jesus to thrive.

        So, what went wrong? “I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. You are all talk. You are getting by on reputation. You did not finish what you started. You are all about image and have no substance. But I know the truth: Inside, you are dead.”

        It can happen to any church, even if it had a dynamic beginning. The church at Sardis was planted 45 years earlier during the great Ephesus Outpouring. But now, it had settled back on a comfortable reputation.

         What does a dead church look like? From the evidence at Sardis, a dead church is content to rest on its past laurels. It is more concerned about form than reality. It is focused on image rather than changing hearts. A dead church may look good, but it is more concerned with material things than spiritual things. It tends to be focused on what the world thinks rather than what God said.

        A dead church will often be very proud of its history but lacking Christ’s vision for the future. It will tend to be enamored with doctrinal creeds and theology more than with the Word of God. It will be more concerned with size, numbers, attendance, buildings, and status in the community than whether people find life in its midst.

        Is there hope for the Code Blue? Actually, the Lord will issue a call for resuscitation. But before we go there, we should consider the truth that the church is always made up of… us.  WE are the church.

        So, we might do well to ask: What does a “dead” Christian look like? Much the same. We are dead in our faith when we grow content to rest in past experiences rather than seek the heart of God for today. We grow cold when we are more concerned with how we look as a Christian than the reality of a relationship with Jesus.

       Life drains out of the believer when we focus on going through the motions of church, but we are not really open to walk with Jesus daily. When we are captivated with being right theologically rather than walking with the Spirit, we lose the Spirit's life. If we become enamored with material possessions rather than spiritual things, we lose the life-giving message of Jesus. If we become more concerned with what the world thinks than what God said, we miss the life He has for us. If we are content with belonging to the “right church” or an impressive tradition rather than obedience to the Word of God, life leaves us.

 

         Father God, I want a relationship with You that is alive. I want to be part of Your Body that brings life into this world. Breathe life into me by the presence of Your Spirit and the working of the Word within me.  In Jesus’ Name.

 

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2020

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)       

2820 Business Center Blvd.

Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.